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I have been arguing with some secularist non believers and basically
what they try to say is that the Quran could have been formulated
because the Prophet Muhammad may have come into contact with Greek science
and
Greek Philosophy. Now, from what I know, by the 300s A.D. there were
2
schools in Mesopotamia or mordern Iraq, which taught the teachings of
Aristotle, Ptolemy, and a couple others, mostly Aristotle though.
Syria also was supposedly under Greek rule since the time of
Alexander
and there was Greek culture and influence there, people began
speaking
Greek. By the late 200s though there was a schism and rejection of
Greek culture. Now, there are some things that the Greeks spoke of
that can sometimes appear similar to statements in the Quran,
regarding the orbits of stars and planets, the rising of the sun and
how it occurs, sun and moon, embryology. From what I have seen
though, the Quran makes consistent and totally accurate statements
without incorporating a single one of the very many flawed theories
and ideas people had back then.
Plus there are other scientific
statements which people had not yet found out at all. Can you please
tell me though, in general, how much could Muhammad have learned
about Greek science in his time and place? What was the magnitude
of
Greek influence in Northern and Southern Arabia?
There have been waves of Greek influence extending to the various
countries now considered as Arab, but a proper encounter between
Muslim and Greek thought only took place during the Abbasid period,
i.e. one and a half centuries after the Hijrah. There has been a Jewish
and Christian presence in the Hijaz (Arabian peninsula) during the time
of the Prophet Muhammad - peace be upon him, but there is no evidence to suggest any
meaningful Hellenistic influence. Many people have tried to rewrite
history faced with the rapid success of Islam within a generation after
its first proclamation. If the ideas contained in the Qur'an were
merely
reiterations of already existing philosophies, the likelihood of having
had this tremendous impact upon the local populations is slim. The
dynamic effect of the Qur'an is precisely due to the fact that it was
so
very different from what people were already accustomed to and that it
challenged the old order so profoundly.
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