They have compiled their books in the style of historical stories...

They have compiled their books in the style of historical stories, based on this Qur'anic material. These stories have been studied from another angle also. The Qur'an's style of story-telling and its value from the viewpoint of its originality, freshness and its motivating power have been discussed thoroughly. We now want to discuss this Qur'anic material from still another angle. We want to see if some part of this material can throw any light on the norms of history.

In other words, we want to see if we can reasonably infer, from the Qur'an any laws regulating history and its trends. The field of history like any other field is full of phenomena. Just as phenomena constitute the fields of cosmology, physics and botany, similarly the field of history also is full of phenomena in the sense that we will explain later, just as scientific phenomena are governed by their laws, similarly in the case of history also we can look for its laws.

We can ask: Do there exist any laws and norms which govern the historical events? Has the Qur'an expressed any positive or negative, detailed or brief opinion about such laws? Can the Qur'an carry out any scientific investigations? Some people think that as we should not expect the Qur'an to discuss any physical, cosmological, nuclear and botanical laws, similarly we should not expect it to scientifically discuss the laws of history.

The Qur'an is not a book of scientific discussions and discoveries. It is a Book of Guidance. It is also not a textbook revealed to the Holy Prophet as a teacher, for being taught to any group of specialists and educationists. It has been revealed to bring the people from darkness to light - from the darkness of pre-Islamic period to the light of the guidance of Islam. Hence the Qur'an is a book that guides, instructs and develops man, not a book of scientific discoveries.

That is why we do not expect it to let us know the principles of science. We do not want it to explain to us the problem of physics, chemistry, botany or zoology. It is true that in the Qur'an there are hints of all these sciences and as far as possible the Qur'an has dealt with them with divine deepness, for it is a book which covers the past, the present and the future. It has been able to go hundreds of years ahead of human experiments in the discovery of scientific truths.