Does the Holy Qur’an speak of nuclear energy and modern technology?

Yes. The Holy Qur’an describes a fire locked within something tiny that strikes the hearts first, and a smoke that envelops people. Today these images can clearly be read as references to nuclear energy and its consequences.

Islam does not set faith and knowledge against each other. God created nature and revealed His word, and the two cannot contradict each other. The Holy Qur’an repeatedly calls on people to use their reason and to reflect.

A short chapter near the end of the Holy Qur’an, Al-Humazah, speaks of something called “Hutamah”. The Arabic word refers to something crushed and broken into tiny particles. The Holy Qur’an then asks what could make one understand what the Hutamah is. The people of that time could not yet understand it. The answer is that it is God’s kindled fire, which rises over the hearts and is closed in, in the form of extended columns.

Earlier commentators found no clear explanation for these verses. Today they read differently. A fire locked inside a tiny, invisible particle aptly describes the energy within the atom. A fire that does not first burn the body but strikes the hearts recalls the effect of a nuclear explosion. And in physics, the splitting of an atomic nucleus is often depicted as the nucleus stretching out before it breaks apart.

The chapter Ad-Dukhan, whose name means “The Smoke”, speaks of a day when the sky will bring forth a visible smoke. It envelops people and brings painful torment to all upon whom its shadow falls. Anyone who has heard of radioactive clouds after nuclear explosions will recognise the image.

So the Holy Qur’an is not a book of the past alone. It speaks of events and inventions that only became understandable centuries later. In this very way it shows itself to be the living word of God, with something to say to every age.