在谷歌上搜索“《古兰经》中的科学奇迹”，你会得到数以百万计的结果，包括网页、视频和图片。作为穆斯林，我们渴望让我们的圣书得到当今主导性认知渠道——即科学——的认可，这并不令人惊讶。对世界上绝大多数人而言，无论其种族、族群或信仰如何，科学都等同于真理；而如果一部宗教典籍确实来自真主，那么它就应当与科学相容。

Do a Google search on “scientific miracles in the Quran” and you will get millions of results, including web pages, videos, and images. It is not surprising that, as Muslims, we would be keen to have our holy book validated by the dominant epistemic channel of the day, i.e., science. For the vast majority of the world’s population, regardless of race, ethnicity, or creed, science is synonymous with truth, and, if a religious book is truly from God, then it ought to be compatible with science.

既然按照这种推理，还有什么比《古兰经》奇迹般地包含了一千四百年前无法知晓的科学预言更能证明其神圣来源的证据呢？这听起来很有说服力，也很合乎情理，但我们应当退一步，把其中的一些混淆之处理清楚。

By this reasoning, what clearer evidence could there be of the divine origin of the Quran than the fact that it miraculously contains foreknowledge of scientific matters that could not have been known 1400 years ago? While this sounds appealing and sensible, we should step back and clear up some confusions.

有些穆斯林声称《古兰经》是百分之百“科学准确”的。这种说法不难理解。科学被视为对现实的完美呈现，而《古兰经》是创造这一现实者的言辞。因此，从逻辑上讲，两者之间应当完全吻合。

Some Muslims claim that the Quran is 100% “scientifically accurate.” Again, it is easy to understand why Muslims would say this. Science is seen as a perfect representation of reality and the Quran is the speech of the One who created that reality. Therefore, logically, there should be perfect accord between the two.

然而问题在于，科学并不是对现实的完美再现。你不必是库恩式的后现代主义者，也能接受这一点。即使是科学界也承认，许多科学结论具有暂定性，这意味着随着新事实的发现，科学总在不断更新和演进。

The problem with this, however, is that science is not a perfect representation of reality. You do not have to be a Kuhnian postmodernist to accept this. Even the scientific community acknowledges that much of science is provisional in nature, meaning that science is always updating and evolving as new facts are discovered.

例如，如今科学上最为稳固的理论是量子场论（QFT）。然而，物理学家们相信，量子场论要么是完全错误的，要么充其量只是某个更完备、更精确的理论的不完美近似（这个更完备的理论能够把引力纳入考虑）。

For example, the most scientifically robust theory we have today is Quantum Field Theory (QFT). Yet, physicists believe that QFT is either completely false or, at best, an imperfect approximation of a more complete, more accurate theory (one that can take into account the force of gravity).

如今很少有科学家会宣称自己掌握了其研究领域的绝对真理。(持波普尔主义倾向的科学家甚至可能会说,科学永远无法100%地认识真理,而只能证伪相互竞争的假说。)简言之,科学是不完备的,而且常常是错误的。科学家今天奉为事实的东西,往往第二天就被推翻了。

Few, if any, scientists today would claim that they know the absolute truth in their field of research. (Scientists with a Popperian bent might even say science can never know the truth 100% but only disconfirm competing hypotheses.) In short, science is incomplete, and often it is wrong. What scientists hold as fact one day is often overturned the next.

作为一个具体的例子，二十世纪初的物理学家相信宇宙处于一种无限大小、无限年龄的稳恒状态。直到1930年代，科学家才开始认真考虑宇宙发展的大爆炸理论。当然，永恒宇宙的观念与《古兰经》相矛盾，因为《古兰经》描述的是一个有限的创造起点。比如，如果二十世纪初的穆斯林决定重新诠释相关的古兰经文，以迎合当时流行的永恒稳恒宇宙模型，那么三四十年后大爆炸理论普及时，他们就不得不收回原来的说法。同理，我们如何能够确定，今天有些人用来重新诠释《古兰经》和伊斯兰教义的当代科学，不会在三四十年后同样被推翻呢？鉴于科学史的动荡，这种情况的可能性远大于不可能。

As a concrete example, physicists in the early twentieth century believed that the universe was in a steady state of infinite size and age. Only in the 1930s did scientists begin to seriously consider a Big Bang theory of the development of the cosmos. Of course, the idea of an eternal universe contradicts the Quran, which describes a finite point of Creation. Had Muslims in the early 1900s, for example, decided to reinterpret the relevant verses of the Quran in order to accommodate the eternal steady-state model of the universe that was in vogue at the time, they would have had to backtrack three or four decades later when the Big Bang theory was popularized. In the same light, how can we be sure that the contemporary science used by some to reinterpret Quran and Islamic theology today will not similarly be overturned in three or four decades’ time? Given the tumultuous history of science, this is much more likely than not.

这当然是事实。《古兰经》绝不是一部科学教科书。但是，当一些穆斯林提出这一主张时，他们言外之意其实是另一回事。

This is true, of course. The Quran is certainly not a science textbook. But, when some Muslims make this claim, they implicitly mean something else.

正如我们已经看到的，有些穆斯林过分强调科学与《古兰经》的相容性，声称科学与《古兰经》从不相互冲突。另一方面，在那些宣称“《古兰经》不是科学教科书”的穆斯林中，有一些人的意思是说，《古兰经》（以及宗教整体而言）对于广阔的世界并无可言。借用生物学家斯蒂芬·杰伊·古尔德所用的术语，这些穆斯林认为科学与宗教占据着“互不重叠的教导领域”，即各自独立、适用范围不同的权威领域。换言之，科学的权威在于回答关于我们周围世界的问题，而宗教的权威在于回答关于道德、灵性以及“万事的意义”的问题，两者都不应插手对方的事务。

As we have seen, there are Muslims who overemphasize the compatibility of science and the Quran, claiming that science and the Quran never conflict. On the other hand, of the Muslims who declare that “the Quran is not a science textbook,” some of them mean to say that the Quran (and religion, in general) have nothing to say about the world at large. To borrow the term used by biologist Stephen Jay Gould, these Muslims believe science and religion to occupy “non-overlapping magisteria,” i.e., distinct and separate domains of authority and applicability. In other words, science’s authority lies in answering questions about the world around us while religion’s authority lies in answering questions about morality, spirituality, and the “meaning of it all,” and neither should meddle in the business of the other.

然而,认为《古兰经》不涉及科学,这种看法对《古兰经》是一种误解。原因很简单:《古兰经》大量论及我们周围的世界。诚然,《古兰经》不使用现代科学的语言。尽管如此,《古兰经》充满了关于世界和历史的陈述,这是不可否认的。以下是几个典型的例子:

This, however, is a mischaracterization as far as the Quran is concerned for the simple reason that the Quran speaks about the world around us at length. It is true that the Quran does not use modern scientific language. Nonetheless, it is undeniable that the Quran is replete with statements about the world and history. Some choice examples:

35. 艾卜·达乌德、提尔米兹。

35. Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi.

1. 宇宙的被造性。

1. The createdness of the universe.

2. 天使的存在及其在世间的活动。

2. The existence of Angels and their activity in the world.

3. 精灵（Jinn）的存在及其在世间的活动。

3. The existence of Jinn and their activity in the world.

4. 意识在没有身体或大脑的情况下存在的可能性（换言之，即非物质灵魂的存在）。

4. The ability for consciousness to exist without a body or brain (in other words, the existence of the immaterial soul).

5. 生物在死亡和身体腐烂之后的复活。