The Koran claims that it was written by the perfect, immutable God who created the universe and knows all things. On the contrary, the Koran has a number of historical, theological, and other errors that contradict reality. Some of the more apparent ones will be brought forward. Unless stated otherwise, all Koran quotes are from Pickthall’s translation.
General History Errors
Abraham
and the Ka’bah
According to the Koran, Abraham and his son
Ishmael were the ones who built the Ka’bah in
“…there is no historical evidence for the assertion that Abraham or Ishmael was ever in Mecca, and if there had been such a tradition it would have to be explained how all memory of the Old Semitic name Ishmael (which was not in its true Arabian form in Arabian inscriptions and written correctly with an initial consonant Y) came to be lost. The form in the Quran is taken either from Greek or Syriac sources.”
-Alfred Guillaume, Islam (Baltimore: Penguin Books Inc., 1956), pp.61-62.
Also, common sense screams against it. Abraham used to live in the city of
Alexander the Great – A Monotheist?
In Sura 18:83-97, we learn of the adventures of a man named “Dhu’l-Qarneyn,” a title that means “Two-Horned.” Furthermore, the
story says that this Dhu’l-Qarneyn was a Muslim (i.e. a monotheist before Islam) and lived to a ripe old age. However, we know
that “Two-Horned” was a common title of Alexander the Great in the
Because this is a clear contradiction of history, modern Muslims want to rewrite history and say that Dhu’l-Qarneyn does not refer to Alexander the Great but some other person. However, as was proven in the article on the sources of the Koran, the story about Dhu’l-Qarneyn (in Sura 18:83-97) is the exact same story as the Romance of Alexander, a legendary Christian narrative that turns Alexander the Great into a monotheist. In the Romance of Alexander, Alexander, in one of his prayers, says, “O God…Thou hast made me horns upon my head,” and in the Ethiopic version of the legend, Alexander is always called the “the two-horned.” Second, scholars throughout the centuries (including many Muslims) agree that Dhu’l-Qarneyn is Alexander the Great. The Encyclopedia Britannica states:
“His [Muhammad’s] account of Alexander, introduced as “the two-horned one” (xviii, 82), is derived from the Romance of Alexander, which was current among the Nestorian Christians of the 7th Century in a Syriac version.”
-Encyclopedia Britannica (London: Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 1957), 15:479.
The Encyclopedia of Islam says:
“AL-ISKANDAR. It is generally agreed both by Muslim commentators and modern occidental scholars that Dhu’l-Karnayn, “the two horned”, in Sura XVIII, 83/82-98 is to be identified with Alexander the Great.”
-Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition, (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1978), Vol. 4.
Even the orthodox Muslim commentator and apologist, Yusuf Ali, admitted:
“I have not the least doubt that Zul-qarnain is meant to be Alexander the Great, the historic Alexander, and not some legendary Alexander.”
-Yusuf Ali, The Holy Quran (Brentwood, Maryland: Amana Corp., 1983), p.763.
Gog and Magog and the Giant
In the same Sura mentioned above Dhu’l-Qarneyn travels to a place where a mountain pass separates the lands of an oppressed people from the lands of Gog and Magog. Dhu’l-Qarneyn proceeds to build a giant gate made of iron and copper so that the armies of Gog and Magog cannot pass through. Then, in Sura 21:96-97, it is said that God will let the armies of Gog and Magog through the barrier to ravage the land in the last days. Thus, it is obviously implied that this iron/copper gate still exists somewhere on earth holding back the wicked minions of Gog and Magog.
The problem, however, is that no such gate exists! Satellites have searched every square inch of this planet and have never found some grandiose iron gate that is holding back a giant army just itching to destroy civilization as we know it. We know that the Koran meant this story to be taken literally because the Hadiths and Muslim commentators (such as Yusuf Ali) go at great lengths to prove that such a structure exists or existed but doesn’t any longer. However, the Koran predicts that the gate is supposed to stand until the last days. So, either the gate never existed and the Koran was historically false, or the gate was destroyed and Allah was powerless to keep his promises. Also, where are the people and armies of Gog and Magog whose nation is supposedly enclosed completely except for a single mountain pass? Either way the Koran is completely in error.
No One Named John Before?
In Sura 19:7 we read:
“(It was said unto him): O Zachariah! Lo! We bring thee tidings of a son whose name is John; we have given the same name to none before (him).”
-Sura 19:7
This
translation (by an orthodox Muslim) and other translations quite clearly state that there was no one named John before John the Baptist. In reality, this claim is absolutely silly! There were Johns long before John the Baptist (see 2 Kings 25:23, 1 Chronicles
“…on none by that name have We conferred distinction before.”
-Sura 19:7 (Yusuf Ali’s translation)
However, Ali even admits in his commentary that he rendered the verse that way because the
normal reading would have resulted in an obvious historical error. Most all of the other translations in English read the same
way as Pickthall’s (i.e. the first reading above). This would include Sher Ali’s, Arberry’s, Palmer’s, Rodwell’s, and
www.answering-islam.org/Responses/Saifullah/yahya_av.htm and here:
www.answering-islam.org/Responses/Saifullah/yahya_ss.htm
Historical
Compression Errors
Abraham and Nimrod
In the Koran, Abraham
lived in a land ruled by King Nimrod. In the story (Sura
Haman, Moses, Pharaoh, the
In multiple places in the Koran (Suras 28:35-42, 40:36-37), there is a story where Pharaoh orders his minister, Haman, to build a tower reaching to heaven so that Pharaoh can “look upon Moses’ God” (Sura 40:37). However, there are numerous problems with this story.
First, Haman was the minister of the Persian king, Ahasuerus (i.e. Xerxes I), who lived many centuries after the incident with Moses and Pharoah. Not only does the Koran have Haman in the wrong time period but also in the wrong place!
Second, the tower that Pharaoh had built to “look upon Moses’ God” (Sura 40:37) was undoubtedly the
Last, the story in the Koran has the Egyptians
using burnt clay for bricks to build the
www.answering-islam.org/Index/B/bricks.html and here:
www.answering-islam.org/Responses/Saifullah/bricks2.htm
Pharaoh and Crucifixion
In Suras 7:124 and 26:49, we are told that Pharaoh, king of
Miriam and Mary
In Sura 19:28, Mary, the mother of Jesus, is said to be the sister of Aaron and Moses and the daughter of Amram (Sura 66:12). However, Jesus was not born for another 1400 years after Moses! It is clear that Muhammad confused Miriam, the sister of Moses, with Mary the mother of Jesus and wife of Joseph.
Muslims try to counter this argument by saying that because Mary was the cousin of Elizabeth (the mother of John
the Baptist) and
The second and most obvious problem with this argument is from the Koran itself! In Sura 3:35-36 we read (emphasis mine):
“(Remember) when the wife of ‘Imran said: My Lord! I have vowed unto Thee that which is in my belly as a consecrated (offering). Accept it from me. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Hearer, the Knower! And when she was delivered she said: My Lord! Lo! I am delivered of a female – Allah knew best of what she was delivered – the male is not as the female; and lo! I have named her Mary, and lo! I crave Thy protection for her and for her offspring from Satan the outcast.”
-Sura 3:35-36
Thus, we clearly see that the wife of ‘Imram (the Biblical Amram) gave birth (and not in any extended
sense) to the same Mary who gave birth to Jesus (Sura
Moses and Samaritans
In Sura 20:85-88, 95, we are told that it was a Samaritan that deceived the Israelites into making the golden calf after the exodus
out of
Some translations of the Koran try to get around this by not translating the Arabic word, “as-Samiri”. Yusuf Ali, ever the Islamic apologist, left the word as “Samiri”, and Muhammad Pickthall left his as “As-Samarii.” Both refused to translate the word probably because of the obvious historical anachronism. However, the Arabic text is clear, and the word means “the Samaritan”. As the author on Answering-Islam put it:
“Every once in a while, knowledgeable Arab Muslims who have not been contaminated yet by the apologetics around this issue naturally confirm that “as-Saamiri” indeed means “the Samaritan”. It never crossed their mind that this would mean anything else.”
-Answering-Islam, Moses and the Samaritan
www.answering-islam.org/Quran/Contra/qbhc01.html
Muhammad was probably confused and mixed up the accounts of
the golden calf right after the exodus and the golden calf worshipped by the
www.answering-islam.org/Quran/Contra/qbhc01.html
Moses and the Gospel
While talking to Moses, God supposedly says:
“Those who follow the messenger, the Prophet who can neither read nor write, whom [the Israelites] will find described in the Torah and the Gospel (which are) with them.”
-Sura 7:157
Clearly, the Koran is saying that the Israelites can find predictions of this “Prophet” in the Torah (Old Testament) and the Gospel (New Testament) “(which are) with them”. The obvious error, here, is that the Israelites of Moses’ time did not possess the Gospel! The New Testament would not be written for another fifteen hundred years!
Muslims try to reconcile this hopeless passage by saying that this is referring to the Gospel that would come to later Israelites. However, the passage is clearly referring to the Israelites contemporary with Moses because the verbs are in the present tense (i.e. “(which are) with them”). Second, as I have shown in the article on the Biblical texts used for Muhammad, there are no prophecies that predict the coming of a prophet who can “neither read nor write” in the Bible.
History and
Reality Errors
in the
Koran
(Part 1)