The Qur'an was revealed at a time when little was known about nature. Rainfall, for example, was believed to come from a river in heaven which gushed down on to the earth. The earth was thought to be flat and the heavens a kind of vault resting on the hilltops which provided a roof over the earth. Stars were considered to be shining silver nails set in the vault of heavens, or thought of as tiny lamps which were swung to and fro at night by means of a rope. The ancient Indians held that the earth rested upon the horns of a cow and when the cow shifted the earth from one horn to the other, this caused earthquakes. Up till the time of Copernicus (1473 - 1543 A.D.) it was generally believed that the earth was stationary and that the sun revolved around it. (Two thousand years earlier, Aristarchus of Samos had anticipated this theory, but his ideas did not gain ground).

With the advances made in the field of science and technology, the range of human observation and experiment were vastly increased, opening up great vistas of knowledge about the universe. In all spheres of existence and in all disciplines of science, previously established concepts were proved wrong by later research and were discarded. This means that no human work dating back 1500 years can boast of total accuracy, because all 'facts' must now be reevaluated in the light of recent information. No such book has, in fact, been found to be totally free of errors, with the notable exception of the Qur'an, whose authenticity has withstood all challenges over the centuries. This constitutes conclusive evidence of the Qur'an having had its source in an Omnipresent and Eternal Mind - one which knows all facts in their true forms and whose knowledge has not been conditioned by time and circumstances. Had it been a human fabrication, it could not have withstood the test of time, human vision being, by contrast, narrow and limited.

The basic theme of the Qur'an is salvation in the life hereafter. That is why it does not fall into the category of any of the known arts and sciences of the world. But since it addresses itself to man, it touches on almost all the disciplines which concern him. In spite of the breadth of its scope, none of its statements has ever been shown to stem from inadequate knowledge. Bertrand Russell, in his Impact of Science on Society makes the point that, renowned philosopher as he was, Aristotle, while 'proving' the inferiority of women to men, stated that 'women have fewer teeth than men,' thus revealing his ignorance of the fact that men and women have an equal number of teeth. No such ignorance or misconception has ever been detected in the Qur'an. This clearly shows that the origin of this work is a superior Being whose knowledge pre-dates time itself and goes infinitely far beyond present knowledge, no matter how advanced the latter may appear to be.