Muslim apologists use a number of arguments that they believe prove that the Koran is the Word of God and Islam is the true religion of God. Some of them will be examined here:
Arguments for the Koran
Unity of the Scripture
Muslim apologists argue that because the Koran is so self-consistent that it must be the Word of God. However, as was shown in previous articles, the Koran has many historical, theological, and scientific inconsistencies. Second, the arrangement of its Suras is so disorganized that no one except a scholar or an Islamic theologian knows what is going on when one moves from one chapter to another. Third, it has a few dozen grammatical errors that a perfect God would not make. Lastly, the doctrine of abrogation is exactly what one would expect if the Koran was in fact written by an uneducated Arab of the Quraish tribe of the 7th century (i.e. Muhammad). The Koran has Muhammad’s “fingerprints” all over it!
[Also, see this page on the contradictions in the Koran:
www.answering-islam.org/Quran/Contra/index.html ]
Transmission
Some Muslims argue that because the Koran has been transmitted so well that God has to be the One guiding its transmission. However, as was shown in the article on the transmission of the Koran, there were many variant codices (i.e. manuscripts) very soon after the birth of Islam, and Caliph Uthman had them all burned. The Koran that we have today is merely the result of an ecclesiastical tyrant forcing his ‘Divine’ text down everyone’s throat. Indeed, archaeological discoveries are continually being made that uncover Korans at variance with the official Koran of today. Thus, it is highly unlikely that the Koran we have today is the same Koran that was spoken by Muhammad.
Eloquence
The Koran itself argues that its eloquence necessitates its divine origin (Sura
“Men can produce
its like in eloquence and arrangement. A man, named Nadir ibn Haritha, was bold enough to accept the challenge, and arranged
some stories of the Persian kings in chapters and Suras and recited them.”
-Canon Sell, Studies in Islam (London: Diocesan Press, 1928), p.208.
“Hamzah ben-Ahed wrote a book against the Koran with at
least equal elegance, and Maslema another, which surpassed it, and occasioned a defection of great number of Mussulmans.”
-John McClintock and James Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1981 reprint), V:152.
Science
Some Muslims have argued that the Koran makes scientific statements which a 7th century uneducated Arab (or anyone during that time period) could not have known. In fact, one apologist for Islam, Dr. Bucaille, wrote a book on the subject called The Bible, The Quran and Science.
However, as many exegetes of the Koran, both Muslim and non-Muslim, have noted, the exegetical method used by those who attempt to find modern science in the Koran is absurdly allegorical. In other words, they read the meaning that they want into a text that never intended to teach some modern scientific axiom. Secondly, some of these people, such as Dr. Bucaille, have come up with their own peculiar translations of particular verses to suit their arguments.
Next, many of the examples on medicine were certainly known back before
the time of Muhammad, back in the ancient era. Men like Galen (a pagan) had an enormous knowledge of the human body and how
to do some surgical techniques that rival modern ones. His surgical techniques and teachings spread all over the world and even
into
As was shown in the article on the errors of the Koran, the Koran makes many statements that actually contradict science. The
Koran says that the sun sets in a muddy spring, that there is a place on earth where the sun rises from, that shooting stars are created
to throw at jinn who are spying on heaven, and that God created mountains like tent pegs to keep the earth from shaking (i.e. earthquakes). Others include the belief that sperm originate “from between the backbone and the ribs” (Sura 86:6-7; Yusuf Ali’s translation) and
the belief that human beings are formed in the womb from a clot of blood (Sura
Numerical Miracles
Like the argument from science, some contemporary Muslims have tried to find “numerical features” (i.e. numerology) in the Koran that supposedly prove its Divine origin. These numerical features have to do with the number 19 being found over and over again (i.e. the number of words in a phrase, the number of times a noun is found, etc.).
However, when examined carefully, the method that is used by the people who make this argument is very selective. Gerhard Nehls points out these inconsistencies:
“How impressive in fact are these findings? We realize firstly that the method is based on
manipulation. If we used a critical method of programming, our results would be average because we would reduce the combinations in
our system that show evidence of 19. We note that Dr. Khalifa (and Mr. Deedat p. 67-68) has tried his best to improve his results
by stating for example that in all Suras with the initials ALM at the top, the respective letters in the three Suras combined add
up to a figure that is divisible by 19. In his case the sum of all A’s and L’s and M’s in Suras 2,3,7,13,29-32 add up to 26676, which
is equal to 19 x 1404. In order to make this total divisible by 19, he had to leave the initials out in the case of Sura 7. The reason
is that this Sura has the initials ALMS, which disqualifies it from being included, because it is not a Sura with the initials ALM.
So in order to produce a number divisible by 19, he included Sura 7 but excluded the 98 S’s. The same applies to the use of Sura 13
(ALMR) in this context. The same type of manipulation was used in the set of Suras 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 which begin with the
initials ALR (except 13 which has the initials ALMR). Adding up all the ALR’s of these six Suras, Dr. Khalifa arrives at the sum of
9709 (= 19 x 511) but my computer shows that the sum is 10813 which is not divisible by 19. Dr. Khalifa arrived at this figure by
adding all the letters indicated by the initials ALR of these Suras excepting Sura 13 (which begins with ALMR) and adds from this
Sura only the figure 137, i.e. the number of times the initial R occurs, conveniently leaving out the A’s and L’s for otherwise the
sum (10813) would not be divisible by 19, as we have shown. He does not expect his readers to check on his data, and perhaps we are
the first to do so. It is so much easier simply to be impressed by the “divine” touch and to be strengthened in faith by a manipulation
which is needed as a crutch to support a religion without other evidence. Other manipulations can be seen in Sura 42. Here the sum
of all the letters as represented in the initials HMASQ is 570 or 19 x 30, but it is divided into 361 + 209 to fit the first sum into
the total of all HM’s. In order to increase his successes, Dr Khalifa gives the final figure for Sura 68 as 152, which is already
reflected in the vertical column of the letter N and is therefore a duplication.”
-Gerhard Nehls, Answering-Islam, The Mysterious Nineteen in the Qur’an
www.answering-islam.org/Nehls/Ask/number19.html
The list of manipulations and inconsistencies goes on.
Second, many Christians have tried to find such things in the Bible. Gerhard Nehls, likewise, notes these features:
“The verse consists of 7 Hebrew words and 28 letters (7 x 4). There are three nouns: ‘God, heavens, earth.’ Their total numeric value (Hebrew has no numbers but these are represented by letters: the sum of the number letters being the numeric value) is 777 (7 x 111). The verb ‘created’ has the value 203 (7 x 29). The object is contained in the first three words - with 14 letters (7 x 2). The other four words contain the subject - also with 14 letters (7 x 2). The Hebrew words for the two objects – “the heavens and the earth” - each have seven letters.
The fourth and fifth words have 7 letters. The value of the first, middle and last letters in the verb ‘created’ is 133 (7 x 19) the numeric value of the first and last letters of all the words is 1393 (7 x 199) and the value of the first and last letters of the verse is 497 (7 x 71). The Hebrew particle ‘eth’ with the article ‘the’, used twice, has the value 407 (7 x 58) and the last letters of the first and last words equal 490 (7 x 70).
In all, there are over 30 different numberic features related to 7 in this verse. The odds against the above features occurring by chance are 33 Trillions:1.”
-Gerhard Nehls, Answering-Islam, The Mysterious Nineteen in the Qur’an
www.answering-islam.org/Nehls/Ask/number19.html
Thus, the very book which Muslims believe to be corrupted (because the Koran contradicts it in every way known to man), has the exact same kind of numerical “miracle” that the Koran has!
Of course, this means absolutely nothing. One could pick up any book from a bookstore and find all sorts of codes and numerological patterns in it. I once read a book on Bible codes (i.e. letters from the original manuscripts that were equal-spaced so as to form phrases or messages that tell of events in modern times) that had the same kind of argument in it (i.e. that the Bible must be of Divine origin because of these codes), and the odds that were given in the book were trillions and trillions to one that these codes were in there by chance. Then, I read a critique of the Bible codes, and found that the novel, Moby Dick, had the same sort of code patterns in it as the Bible! This type of thing has also been found in the U.S. Constitution and Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Does that mean that these works are Divine? Obviously not.
[For more information on this topic, go here:
www.answering-islam.org/Religions/Numerics/index.html ]
Arguments for Islam,
Muhammad, and the
Koran Refuted
(Part 1)