Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth — Page 654
NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST. This short Quranic Chapter is densely packed with astounding statements which lie far beyond the reach of the people of that age. Strange is it not, to read that the sinful people of a certain description would be cast into the hotamah, which means the tiniest of particles, such as we see floating in a beam of light which passes through a poorly lit room. . Authentic Arabic lexicons describe hoṭamah as possessing two root meanings; first ḥaṭamah, which means 'to pound' or 'pulverize into extremely small particles', and the second hitmah, which means 'the smallest insignificant particle'. Thus ḥiṭmah is the result obtained by breaking something down to its smallest constituents. . The two meanings just mentioned can rightfully be applied to any extremely minute particle which has reached the limits of its divisible potential. As the concept of the atom had not been born fourteen hundred years ago, the nearest substitute to it could only be hoṭamah which also sounds intriguingly close to atom. One hardly recovers from the shock of the claim that a time would come when man would be cast in the hoṭamah when another claim, even more bizarre, comes in its wake. . Explaining the word hoṭamah, the Holy Quran speaks of a blazing fire built within it and confined in extended columns. It goes on to declare that when man will be cast into it, this fire will directly leap upon his heart as though no intervening rib cage existed. This can only mean that this fire would be of a completely different nature which could directly kill the heart before it could scorch the body. . Certainly no fire known to man of that age could be described as such. . These however are not the only elements of surprise about this description; what follows is even more astonishing. This fire is mentioned as having been locked 614