Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth — Page 669
GENETIC ENGINEERING. I. IN THE FIELD OF GENETIC ENGINEERING, it has today become possible to change certain features of life. But in the age when the following verse was revealed, no one could imagine such a thing in his wildest fancy. Below is the relevant verse and its translation: ° وَقَالَ لَاتَّخِذَنْ مِنْ عِبَادِكَ نَصِيبًا مَّفْرُوضَاً * وَلَا ضِلنَّهُمْ وَلَا مَنِّيَنَّهُمْ وَكَامُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُبَتِّكُنَّ أَذَانَ الْأَنْعَامِ 4:119-120 . . . And he (Satan) said, 'I will assuredly take a fixed portion from Thy servants; ‘And assuredly I will lead them astray and assuredly. I will excite in them vain desires, and assuredly I will incite them and they will cut the ears of cattle. . . ". The idea of mutilation of animals by chopping off their tails or slitting their ears is not what is meant here by the Quran. It simply refers to the common practice among the Arabs in pre-Islamic times to make incisions in the ears of animals marked for sacrifice to various gods. However, what follows in the same verse is of a far more dramatic and revolutionary nature. The verse ends by attributing to. Satan another malevolent intention, to incite mankind to bring about changes in the pattern of God's creation. The verse continues: رَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُغَيِّرُنّ خَلْقَ اللهِ وَمَنْ يَتَّخِذِ الشَّيْطَنَ وَلِيًّا مِّنْ دُوْنِ الله فَقَدْ خَسرَ خُسْرَانًا مُبيِّنًا 4:120 627