The world is dynamic and the continuous scientific development is adding to the challenges faced by the humanity. Several endeavors, such as ‘interference in the weather machine’, ‘manipulation of genetic code’, ‘emergence and combination of new technologies like Nanotechnology and bio-genetics, exist, where complete interactions are not fully understood at present.

Owing to our incomplete understanding of such high impact processes, great future threats may exist due to some of our own actions initiated at present.

It is also logical to assume that some of the problems, if not resolved in time, will have far reaching adverse impact on the future.

In some cases, the danger may arrive sooner before we are even able to guess its threat.

Obviously, the guidance about correct do’s and don’ts regarding such situations, will have to come from outside of our intellects, as our brain, working within the confines of limited information of the time, has its limitations.

Some other possible future threats can also be envisaged that may not be our own making but could be averted by our effort at present, if we can be forewarned about it somehow.

A distinct logical possibility is the arrival or introduction of an organism / virus on earth in the future that can harm the organic life irretrievably, if it manages to find a suitable host species, available at the time in sufficiently large numbers.

The phenomenon of Guidance can effectively check this threat, by making sure that the population of specie that has the potential to play such a host in the future, does not increase beyond a critical limit. It can do so by informing us beforehand, to curb the breeding of particular specie, through an injunction banning it as food article.

It is a well known fact that only those animals increase in numbers that have been domesticated for their food value, however weak and vulnerable they are, and not the powerful predators like lions and tigers.

The clear directive of all major religions forbidding the meat of swine should be seen in this light also. This species has the biggest possibility of playing one such host in the future.

The phenomenon of guidance can also help us with our researches where the scientific investigation is at a cross roads, and there is no rational way to ascertain the crucial evidence. Revealed knowledge can guide the humanity by pointing out the correct model out of several being debated, while not curbing the creativity at the same time. There are numerous such researches in various scientific disciplines, where the humanity needs a little nudge on the right path, with untold benefits.

Researches on births of life and man are such examples. Fully formed complex life cells have been found in the oldest rocks of earth, i.e. prior to the ability of the earth to form evidences. Likewise, the organ that makes humans different from others is our brain, but brains do not fossilize. Thus, the perfect evidence that could have solved the mystery of our birth seems to lie just beyond our grasp.

The world is full of controversial viewpoints related to politics, economics, history, religion, science, biology, health, environment, law and order, languages, philosophy, technology, culture, people and others.

Information emerging out of an extra-terrestrial Source of knowledge, whose credibility can be established scientifically, can help lay at rest several such debates regarding our past and present that have divided us, produced immense misery, and inhibited our progress towards maturity.

Through our own rational efforts, we may also never know the biggest query of all. What happens after we die? Is it a transition or an absolute extinction? If it is a transition to another stage, does our life and actions on this planet affect the next stage? Such information is crucial, as the humanity faces an eternal conflict between the need for co-operative living and the instinct for individual survival. Without conviction in some kind of all encompassing accountability, the instinct for personal survival goads a man to become unjust in his dealings with men and nations, irrespective of the intelligence level. A sure knowledge about the existence of personal accountability, linked with an ultimate reward and punishment can make the earth (and millions of other such planets), a much more hospitable place for peaceful development of the intelligent organism. The counter argument that faith goads a man more to become unjust is invalid as ‘belief in the accountability’ goes against the act of ‘exploitation of this belief’.

For the presence of a source of such information or intelligence elsewhere in Universe, several factors are important:

1. Scientists have isolated an intricate design in this expanding universe, linking the smallest (quantum world) with the biggest (world of stars and galaxies), with laws that almost seem fine tuned to produce life and intelligence.

2. Researches on our origins have pushed back the birth of life to a period almost immediately after earth’s accretion. Such a finding reduces the involvement of ‘chance’ in the process, and reinforces the logical probabilities of life following a universal pattern, not unique to earth.

3. Our sun has also been found to be an average star in terms of size, composition and position in the galaxy, with no  properties to suggest that it is unique in the universe.

4. With the discovery of planets on nearby systems, it stands to reason that numerous other such cradles exist that may also have given birth to life in the universe, making it a common phenomenon.

5. And most important of all, our sun has entered more than eight billion years late in the cosmic history.

Therefore, it is possible to assume that some life and intellect may have emerged long back in the history of Universe, on planets formed twelve to thirteen billion years ago, circling the initial few hundred or thousand stars.

With such favorable design factors and enormous time gaps expected in the birth of life and intelligence, existence of Intellects in universe at infinitely advanced levels (to do the bidding of Creator) is an acceptable possibility.

The only argument against it is the lack of evidence on earth, of such intelligence in the universe. Commonly known as Fermi’s Paradox, revelations themselves seem to resolve this problem and tell us why this particular channel is being used for its resolution.

The velocity of light barrier for transfer of energy in regular space can introduce large gaps of time, rendering such communication unfeasible. Therefore, availability of alternative paths in Universe through which information can be transferred are needed for this phenomenon.

Regarding such alternative paths, we must remember that the existence of other dimensions is being speculated by almost all well known quantum physicists. The Super string theory, which is the current favorite, involves 10 and 11 dimensions. The 6 or 7 extra dimensions have not been confirmed as yet, but the absence of confirmation does not mean ruling out their existence.

Scientists have neither proved nor disproved the existence of Creator as yet. We also do not know how to define the Creator, and if He exists, how does He communicate with His intelligent creation. Whether the communication is direct or through a medium / messenger? Judeo-Christian and Islamic scriptures mention Ruah (Holy Spirit) as an entity who had always brought revelations to humanity via chosen humans. The Vedas mention the Agni in this regard.

A mysterious chain with one link on earth and the other deep in Cosmos:
Through studying the phenomenon of revelations, we may be dealing with the deepest mystery of Cosmos. It may help us take a quantum jump in the new millennium, if the phenomenon is discovered to be of non-human in origin, as it may open up a gateway to information from the very core of the universe, and give us answers to various queries like – who is really behind the phenomenon of revealed knowledge? If the sender of the information is Creator of the Cosmos, then how does He communicate with His intelligent creation? Who and what is the Holy Spirit? Is some infinitely old intelligence acting on its own or is the intelligence itself being used as a ‘messenger’ as part of an established universal program? Is this program a part of the initial laws of nature or is it the product of a creativity built into it? Is the messenger-guiding-entity from within the Cosmos or is it beyond this material energy universe, and what is its relationship with the Creator factor?

To guide an intelligent species in different stages of development, the ‘transmission’ of information will have to be by design, independent of technological status of receptors. Thus, the most obvious channels on our planet aught to be the bio-receptors of information – the brains of ‘selected humans’ themselves.

The most logical places to look for such information are ‘preserved sayings’ of famous individuals or Guides, who have fashioned the greatest impact on humanity’s progress.

Primary need of humanity is to live peacefully with other living beings, requiring ethical guidance. Fortunately, components of such guidance can broadly be identified and isolated from the records of all ancient civilizations, like Sumerians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Aryans and Chinese. The Hebrew records are quite clear regarding the long line of their prophets. Aryans also have preserved their records well. In the sixth century BC, arrival of several ‘guides’ of very high stature – Buddha, Mahavira, Confucius, Tao-Te-Ching, and Zoroaster, is an established historical fact.

The source of information, was beyond the human intellect, could be seen from the assertion that all humans were part of a single family, in the presence of so many diverse races, appearances, and languages.

The phenomenon however seemed to have subsided gradually. We do not notice any such important figure contemporary of Jesus of Nazareth. And after Mohammed, none seem to have brought a new religion of sizable following.

Looking at the actions of high and mighty, whether individuals or nations, we can safely say that human race is still far from the level of maturity expected from an intelligent species hoping to interact with others in the Cosmos. We desperately NEED guidance, not only to save ourselves from unknown dangers, but also from the self-destructive arrogance of ourselves. At the turn of a new millennium, we are standing at a junction where several roads cross. Politically, awesome strength has been concentrated in the puny hands of few who are not very mature. Socially, a massive clash of faiths is taking place at global scale, producing misery at unprecedented scale. Development wise, enormous quantum of information is fast becoming accessible to all, requiring nothing but self-policing. The humanity is also tinkering with processes, regarding which full interactions and repercussions are as yet unknown, at a pace that may leave little margin of error. The deterioration in law and order, moral values and personal accountability has become a world wide problem. The double standards in dealings of the haves, the growing anger of the have-nots, the ineffectiveness of UNO, the sliding back of the lone super power to pre 1946 level with respect to human rights, the transgressions of a race, who believe that they are God’s chosen, and the decaying, pathetic and persecuted state of the followers, who claim to possess the latest guidance with them, all show that the tidal wave of chaos is reaching its zenith. Unfortunately all followers believe in the eschatology of their scriptures, and we also have not witnessed in the last millennia any genuine prophet emerging from obscurity to lead the world towards a new order, establishing peace and prosperity.

From this ‘absence’, what should we infer? Has the source of extra-terrestrial information abandoned us, treating us as a lost incorrigible case or the information will come to us through a different way now?  Is this way already available on earth waiting to be tapped or will we have to wait for an unknown future to receive some kind of signal or pointer for it.

The evidences show that two of the major sources through which misery strikes are ‘false perspective’ and ‘wrong actions’ of men, individually as well as collectively. The basic components of guidance found were mainly related to them.

The presence of ‘guidance’ alone however, is never enough. Its effective applicability depends upon a conviction in ‘reward and punishment’ concept.

The guidance promised ‘reward and punishment’ for all actions, but in a life after this life finally.

Acceptability of this abstract promise was a problem as nobody had seen or experienced this future life. Therefore, the human channels, through whom the guidance had come, were themselves required to generate belief in this abstract accountability, a difficult task for anyone in any time.

In this arduous task, two factors usually helped these human channels to establish their credibility – a gift of charisma (an unusual ability to influence people), and occurrences of miracles (abilities that seemed supernatural at the time or events that occurred as per predictions of the ‘guides’).

The records show that majority of human channels were born at a time when writing was neither known nor customary. The usual mode of transfer of guidance was verbal.
In the absence of any means for recording it and with the passage of time, the caretakers of faith eternally managed to corrupt the original teachings, bit by bit, into myths, rites and rituals, bringing the original religion to a stage, when it stood defaced and life awaited a new redemption.

To recompense this humanity’s backwash, periodic introduction of fresh guidance looked like a logical necessity, albeit with a limitation.

The new guidance had to confront a negative by-product of the efforts involved in the generation of faith in the abstract accountability by previous messengers. It was the allegiance factor in the followers – born mainly out of charisma of past messengers and miracles performed by them.

This allegiance to the persona of messenger, once created, seldom varied, and got transmitted from generation to generation.

With the passage of time and the messenger’s death, when the original guidance suffered distortion, the factor of allegiance prevented the people to realize this fact. Succeeding generation of followers always believed that what their messenger had said was the best, though what he had really said, none had the means to recognize with certainty.

Thus, whenever a new redeemer came on the scene with a fresh guidance, the allegiance to the previous prophets obstructed the new messenger with all the disharmony, bloodshed and the ferocity of hatred at its command, thereby defeating the very purpose of guidance.

Logic dictated that to counter this factor of ‘allegiance’, periodic introduction of ‘guidance’ had to end and be replaced by a final transmission, which could contain all the future guidance humanity would ever need. Such future information could either be coded in layers in the transmission, for humanity to decode at required intervals, or hidden in its ‘composition’ with possibilities of multiple and fractal interpretations.

If the reasoning is assumed to be correct then humanity should expect a single final transmission, at the end of several inspired messages on the planet. This transmission, with well-defined parameters, will have to be preserved for eternity, so that humanity could extract by itself the future guidance, in different times, with its own increasing intelligence levels.

The pattern does not predict the time of arrival of such a transmission. Logically, it may already have arrived on the planet in the past or it could still be part of an unknown future.

Considering the ‘future’ alternative first, it would be logical to assume that with our present technological level, a human receptor will no longer be needed for the final transmission. We are in a much better position now to receive, preserve and communicate such a transmission electronically. It can have all the guidance needed in digitally coded formats. SETI project is ready for such an eventuality. It has the resources to handle such a Message, if and when it arrives, and the world will come to know about it as soon as any signal from stars gets detected. But, such an eventuality belongs to future, and we will have to wait for an uncertain time for any meaningful validation of the pattern. The second alternative on the other hand, presence of a message in our past, seems to have more tangible promise as we can start our investigations now.

Let us suppose that the logically predicted final message is already here on the planet and is part of our past. Then, what do we do? How do we identify it, and most important of all, examine it?

Dr Carl Sagan, a prominent scientist had provided a limited answer to this problem. While discussing the possibility of an extra-terrestrial transmission hidden in scriptures, he had pointed out the presence of three categories of data in scriptures that negated this possibility in them.

First category of data pointed out by him can be termed as contradictory data. Any message from outside the planet was required to have logical consistency. If the data at one place contradicted with data at another place in the same message, then it showed an obvious tampering by human hands. The second category was uninspiring data. A scripture was expected to provide guidance on correct perspective and right actions, through sayings and actions of leaders chosen for this particular job. If clear passages existed, where the leaders themselves were shown committing immoral actions and not getting punished or admonished for their acts, then the chances were that these narratives were not inspired, but were the work of later human scribes, destroying the fidelity of original communication. Dr Sagan also pointed out a third category of information, the false data, which was mostly inconsistent with established scientific facts. The logic in pointing out the three categories namely, contradictory, uninspiring and false data, was the same. If the original message had some non-human information, coded under the primary text, it was likely to have been lost by now because of the human involvement.

He had also suggested that if an Intelligence had really wanted to establish the credibility of a transmission, it could easily have sent advanced information as part of injunctions, for later verification.

Thus, in a limited way, at least three categories of data can be pointed out, whose absence, and one category whose presence, if scientifically and thoroughly investigated can help verify the non-human origin of such a message.

Which writings should we examine first? For a final transmission, we must begin logically with the latest scripture and move backwards towards older scriptures whether eastern or western, when and if our investigation discredits the latest known ‘guidance’.

Following this line, our first object of investigation should be the Quran, the last well-known scripture, which is at present at the center of all the multiple conflicts. Surprisingly, more than a billion Muslims believe it to be a directly transmitted Word of God. They call it Al-Risala – ‘The Message’ and the man who had brought it Rasool-Allah – the ‘Messenger of God’. The word prophet associated with prophecy is not popularly used for him.

The west on the other hand feels that it is a scripture, which preaches violence and obscurantism, and accuse it of retarding scientific progress and development. Present conditions of Muslims and countries ruled by them, support their contentions. The entire Muslim block is indeed lagging behind in almost all aspects of development, in spite of large numbers and abundance of natural resources. BUT, the Muslim world counters this perception by pointing out that when Al-Risala or Quran had arrived, civilization wise Europe and the Arabian Peninsula were at par with each other. After its arrival, area under the Quran progressed in leaps and bounds, while Europe remained stagnant for centuries, till the knowledge shifted from Spain. The gradual reversal of development within this civilization is explained by majority of Muslim religious leaders through veering away of community from the practices of Prophet and his companions, but an intellectual minority put the blame on an unfortunate bar on ‘spirit of inquiry’ three hundred years after the descent of Message. They claim that this bar was primarily meant to protect the Message from distortion but resulted ultimately in knowledge starvation and slowing down of interpretation mechanism of the Quran. Who is correct and which side is in the grip of allegiance factor, can only be found out through a rational scientific investigation of the factors related with this set of writings.

Five major sets of evidences are available in the records related to the claim of descent of Quranic revelations.

First set of several reports describes extreme pain felt by the prophet and a ringing sound in his ears. Islamic scholars till now have treated the pain and the ringing sound separately. From their perspective, pain is not considered an essential part of spiritual development. Therefore, its cause is neither understood nor has been discussed much, but ringing sound has invited several conjectures. Akhtar argues that along with pallor and perspiration, ‘ringing sound’ in the ears was a corroborative symptom for the occurrence of extreme pain during the phenomenon. (Details available in – ‘In Search of Our Origins’)

Second set of reports pertains to a virtual increase in the mass of human channel during occurrence of the phenomenon. Apart from companion’s testimony in this regard, camels have also been reported to forcibly sit down under the increased weight. This evidence of temporary virtual mass is a mystery. An internal evidence in the text suggests the involvement of extremely high energy behind the phenomenon. (Details available in – ‘In Search of Our Origins’)

Third report is about a ‘low volume high frequency hum’ that could be heard very close to the head of the messenger, described in the ancient manuscripts as similar to the noise coming from a nest of bees. This evidence also corroborates some kind of physical energy transfer. (Details available in – ‘In Search of Our Origins’)

Fourth set mentions a mysterious operation of the human channel in the childhood where some shining foreign object was placed in his body by two beings in white. The Book of Acts also mentions involvement of ‘two men in white’ in association with the departure of Jesus from the earth. (Details available in – ‘In Search of Our Origins’)

Fifth is related to a small bulge that became visible in his adult years, at the top of his vertebral column. The Messenger himself had confirmed the association of this small bulge with the phenomenon of revelations, and had refused to get it operated. The researcher suggests that the small bulge probably was the visible portion of a reinforcement that may have grown organically in his body from the childhood, and was meant to protect the rib cage and the spine from the harmful effects of the massive virtual mass reported in traditions.

These two sets of evidences are peculiar as they seem to suggest that the ‘Human Channel’ was probably prepared in advance to withstand the rigors of this high-energy link. (Extract taken from ‘In Search of Our Origins: How the Quran Can Help in Scientific Research’ by Jamshed Akhtar)

Mode of address employed throughout the Quran is unique, unlike other scriptures. The Quran addresses the humanity either directly (e.g. ‘O mankind!’ ‘O Children of Israel!’ ‘O People of the Book!’ and ‘O ye who believe!’ etc.), or through the Messenger himself (e.g. ‘Say to the believer’, or ‘Say to the people of the book’ etc.). The word ‘say’ has been repeated about 300 times in the Quran, and not a single statement can be attributed to the human messenger or of a historian. The entire text can be studied, statement by statement, encompassing connected passages, to corroborate or negate this claim.

Such a claim needs to be investigated and verified as it represents either an internal evidence for transmission aspect or a deliberate attempt at false impersonation. The attempt at false personification should be checked against the consistency of teachings over a period of time against heavy odds, the strict instructions against self-glorification, absolute insistence on monotheism, and numerous other such factors.

In Quran, a non-human messenger, who brought the revelations to Muhammad (PBUH), is clearly mentioned at various places. The verses describe an encounter with this extra-terrestrial messenger. The verses also tell us that the human messenger was ‘taught’ by this powerful and wise entity. [53:5-12] The Quran, at some places, has called this extra terrestrial messenger Gabriel, while at others, by the name of Ruhul Quds meaning ‘Holy Spirit’ or simply Ruh, that is Spirit. A Hebrew word ruah (spirit), referring to the free and unhindered activity of God, either in creating or in revitalizing creation, especially in connection with the prophetic word, has been mentioned in the Old Testament texts, along with Gabriel as one of the four great archangels. However, there has been neither an explicit belief in a separate divine person in biblical Judaism nor a confirmation that Gabriel and ruah were the same. Holy Spirit’s definition as a distinct divine Person equal in substance to the Father and the Son came at the Council of Constantinople in AD 381, following challenges to its divinity. (Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Copyright © 1994-2001)

Has the modern world ever discussed or envisioned such an entity? Apparently, inspired minds have often wrestled to define an Entity that is neither the Creator nor equal to Him, but is important in the scheme of Cosmos. An ideal example of such conceptual effort can be identified in Arthur C Clark’s ‘Collective Conscious Intelligence’. (Childhood’s End by Clarke)

A ‘transmission’ that can transcend cosmic barriers, is expected to contain informational data that we may not be able to verify with our own limited understanding and technological level of the time. Thus, logically, for verification of such a Message, our efforts should proceed along five guidelines.

a. That data should be examined and excluded, which demonstrate the evidence of a human hand, such as, contradictory and uninspiring data as suggested by Dr Sagan.
b. Alleged false data should be segregated into verifiable and non-verifiable categories first and then verifiable data should be investigated.
c. All claims about ‘Knowledge ahead of its time’ in the verses should be investigated unambiguously, whether it is with reference to established theories or theories still under debate. A detailed statistical verification method is provided in the book ‘In Search of our Origins: How Quran can help in scientific research’ for this type of data.
d. Claim of preservation, fidelity and incorruptibility of the Message should be examined with reference to its composition and order. The incorruptibility of ‘composition and order’ both are essential in a transmission for the presence of ‘information’ in it.
e. Fixing of composition parameters or boundary of a message can establish the link between verifiable and non-verifiable data. If we can demonstrate this link then verification of one category would automatically establish the credibility of the other. 

Apart from information inconsistent with established scientific facts, Biblical scholars have pointed out five additional categories of errors in the books of Bible – information irreconcilable with archaeological finds; information incompatible with contemporary records; wrong prophecies; suspected prophecies that seem to have been added after the event; and inclusion of established myths. The Biblical apologists accept the possibility of errors through human involvement, but say that they are irrelevant to the basic teachings.

Such latitude is not available to the Quran. Claimed as direct transmission from God, presence of errors in it cannot be explained through human involvement. Such errors, if found can put a question mark on its credibility. On the other hand, as an alternative source of knowledge from Cosmos, the scripture is supposed to ‘reveal’ information about concepts and processes that we may not be able to comprehend now or events that may have been the result of extra-terrestrial intervention. If we reject this data as false, it will not only be incorrect but would also nullify the very advantage of the phenomenon. Therefore in such a scripture, the data should first be segregated into verifiable and non-verifiable category to the best of our efforts, and then subjected to investigation.

The cardinal point of such investigation should be that a data could only be called false, if one can prove it false clearly and unambiguously. An example from the Books of Bible is the information in Joshua 8.25, which was considered false because it did not match with the archaeological finds. Similarly, checking with contemporary records, proved the fallacy of information in Daniel 5.30-31. Except the data related to ‘prophecies after the event’ which may come under the suspected category, all other five types of errors have been established clearly. But Biblical scholars have not rejected outright, those stories of the prophets whose origin is shrouded in the mist of time. They can neither prove nor disprove their authenticity. We cannot simply say with confidence that reporting of such and such event is false simply because, with our present knowledge we are unable to understand its mechanics.

Muslims on the other hand claim that till now, none of the data of Quran has been proved to be inconsistent with archaeological finds or the contemporary records. Some data may come under the suspected category, but no one has produced a definite proof of error in this regard. In fact at some places, Quran either avoided inadvertent mistakes that could have been committed easily had it come from a human source, or it revealed information, which was different from the sources available at the time. In all cases, the Quranic information was ultimately found to be correct by new investigations. This claim has to be verified through objective investigators. The prophecies in Quran are also general in nature. In one specific case, the prophecy regarding the reversal of war fortunes positively for Byzantine Christians against Persians, not only was fulfilled within a few years, but the verses also revealed a strange information that could only be confirmed in the modern times. All this is verifiable data, and a scientific investigation can easily affirm or reject the claim in its entirety or a part of it.

Another category of data in Quran is ‘futuristic information’ that can be correlated with the development of modern science. The problem here is that adherents of almost all scriptures claim the existence of such information in their scriptures. The western scientists believe that popular myths were the source of such information in the Bible, while Quran is considered to have simply plagiarized the data.

To investigate this information, we must first identify the claimed words in the ancient manuscripts, which should be radio carbon dated to establish its time period. Second, to understand and interpret, the root meanings of these words as understood by Bedouins of the era should be used. Third, to resolve the issue of plagiarism, exact information needs to be analyzed in the Quran and older sources. Myths are usually built around either a truth or a distortion of original truth that must have broken through some time in the past. Such information invariably lies camouflaged with a lot of litter in the older sources. The statements of Quran present the information after carefully stripping away all such extraneous data, in an enigmatic language that has a fractal quality. Seen in the light of researches done by the author-researcher, the statements not only reveal new interpretations but also seem to point towards a particular research model. Fourth, is the complexity of content and number of such verses in the Quran. The complexity factor can rule out the role of chance from this exercise. Each statement however, has to be probed thoroughly, to find out whether it is pseudo-science or genuine information coming through the core of universe. These verses are the best source for establishing the origin of revelations debate. A statistical analytical model has been outlined in the book ‘In Search of our origins – how Quran can help in scientific researches’, to calculate the statistical probability of complex specific Information mentioned in Quran through chance.