Scientific Errors in the Quran: Difference between revisions

Muslims believe that the Qur'an contains a message from an all-powerful, all-knowing, infallible being. If this is true then it should not contain any errors, mistakes, or information that contradicts known facts about the universe. If even one error exists in the text of Islam's holy book then the claims of divine authorship and infallibility are not true. An objective evaluation of the Qur’an shows that it contains numerous scientific and historical errors and it reflects a pre-scientific, 7^th century view of the natural world.

Some apologists will contest these numerous scientific errors in the Qur'an by appealing to metaphor, alternative meanings, or phenomenological interpretations of the text. Even if we suppose that alternative explanations were possible in every case, the wording and content of the Qur'anic verses often mimic the popular mythology and unscientific misconceptions of the time in which they were recorded. The author of the Qur’an makes no obvious statements that differentiate his understanding of the natural world from the common folklore of the people living in the 7^th century. If the Qur’an was delivered by an all-powerful, all-knowing being then he would have been able to foresee how such ambiguous and misleading statements would be understood by future generations and the doubts and confusions they would cause. This alone should be reason enough to reject any claims to its divine authorship.

Astronomy

Geocentricism

The Qur'an mentions numerous times that the sun and the moon travel in an orbit (falak - a rounded course), but does not mention once that the earth does too. This is consistent with a earth-centered (geocentric) view of the cosmos that places a motionless earth at the center of the universe and all "heavenly bodies" travel around the earth. This was the prevailing understanding of the universe prior to the 16^th century when Copernicus helped explain and popularize a sun-centered (heliocentric) view of the universe. Tellingly, the sun's orbit is almost always mentioned in the context of night and day (13:2 is the only exception) and is always mentioned with that of the moon, which does in fact orbit the Earth each month, and to a naive observer seems to traverse the sky each night when it is visible.

This is in a passage about night and day. Right after describing the change from day to night, it says that the sun runs on to a resting place for it. A few translations use instead, "appointed term", though in nearly all other verses where we find قرر as a participle they translate it as a place of settlement or an abode or resting place. There are also sahih hadith that mention the sun's daily cycle using the same Arabic word as in verse 36:38 to mean a resting place Sahih Muslim 1:297 (for the Arabic of this hadith, see here.

The alternative view was that it refers to the sun's final resting on the last day. There are other verses (35:13, 31:29, 39:5, 13:2) that mention the sun and moon floating/swimming (with the same verb as is translated "run" in 36:38) for a term appointed (لِأَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى which does indeed mean term appointed - the word مُسْتَقَرٍّ in 36:38 is a different word). Another version of the above mentioned hadith (e.g. Sahih Bukhari 9:93:520 - for the Arabic see here) probably supports this view, with a different ending indicating that the مُسْتَقَرٍّ (resting place) in 36:38 refers to the end of the world when the sun is asked to rise from its setting place (مِنْ مَغْرِبِهَا). Whichever interpretation was intended, the sun's movement is nevertheless mentioned right after describing day and night, just as the next verse mentions the different mansions appointed for the moon each night. The whole passage is about day and night and the sun and moon's movement in that context.

Some apologists try to explain away the Qur'anic description of the sun moving in an orbit as a reference to our sun orbiting the black hole at the center of the milky way galaxy every 225 million years. This is an Ad hoc hypothesis, of no relevance to human time scales, and nothing from the text implies that the sun is orbiting anything other than the earth. If the author had knowledge of the sun orbiting a black hole then it is conspicuous that he never mentions it explicitly nor in any way differentiates the sun's orbit from that of the moon. See also the Similar Size and Distance of the Sun and Moon section below.

Notice also that the running / floating of the sun is something that the author expects people to have seen (another problem for the galactic orbit interpretation).

The Arabic word translated "follow" is primarily defined as to follow, go or walk behind, follow in way of immitation, of action etc. and is often used for animals like camels following behind each other. Yet the Moon does not actually follow behind the sun's movement, nor does it provide its own light like the sun. The verse is suggestive of a worldview in which the moon and sun traverse the same or similar paths after one another, which is what a 7th century person might believe from observing the sky. The choice of word is not suggestive merely of appearing one after the other.

Here the Qur'an quotes a few lines from a debate between Abraham and a disbelieving King, where Abraham replies that Allah brings the sun (yatee biashshamsi يَأْتِى بِٱلشَّمْسِ) from the east. The arabic verb and preposition indicates that the sun actually moves. The verb means to come, and when it has an object with the bi preposition it means to bring, as in many other instances in the Qur'an. While the story is quoting a mere human's words, the author clearly believes it to be a good response and sees no problem with it.

Setting and Rising Place of the Sun

The Qur'an assumes a flat earth which has physical places into which the sun sets and rises from. Since the earth is a rotating sphere, the sun does not set in any particular place and you can never travel to "the spot" where the sun sets nor a place where it rises; the sun appears to set or rise on the horizon no matter where you are on the planet. In these verses, the author propagates a popular legend from the 7th century of a man named Dhu'l-Qarnayn who visits the places where the sun sets and rises; here he finds the sun going down into a muddy spring and later rising on a tribe with no coverings.

Some Muslim Apologists have come up with creative interpretations of these verses to say that Dhu'l-Qrnayn only traveled until he reached "the west" or to a spot "at the time" when the sun set and not the "place" where the sun set. Unfortunately, these alternative interpretations are severely undermined by the context and Arabic words used in these verses, which instead point to a physical location. There is plenty of evidence showing that the early Muslims understood the verse in this straightforward way. Again, we must ask why an all-knowing being would use such misleading verses that mimic the misconceptions and legends prevalent at the time if one of these alternative explanations is correct.

Stars are Missiles Shot at Devils

The author of the Qur'an does not seem to know the difference between stars (giant balls of gas thousands of times larger than the earth) and meteorites which are small rocky masses of debris which brighten up after entering the earth's atmosphere. Many ancient people confused the two, as meteorites look like stars that are streaking across the sky; this is why there were often called shooting stars or falling stars. In the following verse, the Qur'an claims that Allah uses stars as missiles to ward away devils. This repeats a common Arab myth at the time the Qur'an was first recited.

In Sahih Muslim we have a hadith confirming that the verse refers to meteors which humans can see shooting across the sky.

Moon Emits Light

The moon does not emit its own light but simply reflects light coming from the Sun. The Arabic word for reflected (in`ikaas) does not appear in this Qur'anic verse that says the Moon is a "light". It instead uses the word "Noor" which is used to denote an entity that emits light.

The word "Noor" is also used in this verse to show that Allah is the "light" of the universe. Clearly the author is not implying that Allah reflects light from another source but is the source of the light.

Moon was Split in Two

The Qur'an and Hadith claim that the moon was miraculously split into two pieces and then, presumably, put back together again. There is absolutely no scientific evidence whatsoever that the moon has ever been split into two. Since the moon is visible to half the planet at any given time, we should expect to see numerous accounts from different parts of the world attesting to this event if it actually happened. The Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, Chinese and Indians had avid astronomers who should have seen this event and recorded it in their histories. The absence of historical record from other civilizations, contemporary to Muhammad, is a strong indication that this event never happened.

Seven Earths

This verse claims there are seven Earths.

A Tafsir (interpretation of the Qur'an) attributed to Ibn Abbas, but by an unknown author and date, says that Allah means that all 7 Earths are flat.

A hadith reveals that these are seven Earths stacked above each other.

The number, like seven heavens, might have come from a misunderstanding of mythology from classical antiquity in which there were seven moving planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the sun and moon). If instead we take it to mean seven actual planets the Qur'an is still wrong. According to astronomers, there are eight ordinary planets and five dwarf planets, which leaves the grand total at thirteen in our solar system. Modern astronomy also has found thousands of other planets in other solar systems and Cosmologists estimate that hundreds of billions of stars and planets exist in the universe. The author of the Qur'an singling out such a small number of celestial objects only reaffirms his ignorance of the makeup of the universe.

Seven Heavens

The universe consists of hundreds of billions of galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars. There is no such thing as seven layers to the universe. This myth of seven heavens was a common idea prevalent in the Middle East during the time when the Qur'an was first recited.

There are only 5 not 7 principal layers to the Earth's atmosphere, and likewise only 5 not 7 major layers to the Earth itself.

Stars are Located in the Nearest Heaven

Stars are spread throughout the Universe and there is no such thing as the "nearest" heaven or layer. Also, this verse is in keeping with the author's claim (Quran 71:15 as described above) that the seven heavens are arranged one above the other.

Earth Created in Six Days

The earth first formed around 9 billion years after the Big Bang. The Qur'an, however, repeats the prevailing middle eastern myth that the earth and universe were formed in six days.

Muslim apologists try and rescue the Qur'an by pointing to an alternative meaning of the Arabic word 'yawm' which typically means 'day' but can sometimes mean 'time period'. However the predominant meaning of the word is day and when a specific number is used, in this case six, the word almost always means a literal 24-hour day. Again, nothing in the context of the verses, nor the Qur'an in general, suggests the universe or earth were formed over long time periods. Secondly, neither the universe nor earth were formed in six long periods of time. It would have been trivial for an all-knowing diety to simply state that the universe was first formed over 13.8 billion years ago. However, this information is conspicuously missing.

Earth Created before Stars

The author of the Qur'an is also unaware that the elements in the Earth's crust and core were first formed in stars. Modern science has proposed that all the elements that make up the earth (Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon, Iron, etc.) was originally formed by nucleosynthesis in stars and then expelled into the universe when those stars supernova. Yet the Qur'an describes the earth being formed before the stars and from "smoke" or material that pre-dates stars. All rocky and gaseous planets in the universe were formed in a similar manner to the earth and the Qur'an singling out the earth only further highlights the authors ignorance of the history of the formation of celestial objects.

Earth and Heavens were Ripped Apart

Some apologists claim that the following verse is compatible with the Big Bang theory. But according to this theory, the Universe was formed about 13.8 billion years ago due to a rapid expansion from singularity. The earth was formed 4.54 billion years ago from accretion of debris that surrounded the precursor of the Sun. There was no "separation" of the "joined" earth and heavens as this verse suggests. It is, in fact, a repetition of cosmic egg myths in which an egg-like structure was split into two halves, the lower half forming the earth and the upper half forming the heaven.

Universe was Made from Smoke by Contraction

Neither was there any stage of formation of the Universe that involved smoke (carbon particles suspended as a result of combustion) nor did the earth and heavens "come" together at any point of time. Earth is a part of this Universe and has developed within it.

The next verse clearly says that stars were created after the seven heavens which took two days to create, and after the earth which was created even earlier.

The Cause of Shadows Changing Length

Shadows are produced when the sun's light is blocked by an obstacle. It is the Earth's rotation that causes these shadows to change size and lengthen. However, verse 25:45 seems to say that the reason that shadows lengthen rather than being stationary is because Allah has made the sun their guide. Yet if the Earth did not rotate (so shadows were stationary) and then the Earth was made to rotate (so that they could lengthen and draw in) the sun would not need to be made to do anything different in either case. Thus the most likely explanation is that the verse represents a geocentric worldview where the sun moves across the sky, guiding the shadows.

Then the next verse, 25:46, says that shadows are drawn towards Allah which has no scientific meaning.

The similar size and distance of the sun and moon

The Qur'an has statements about the end of the world that are much as one would expect if the author believed the sun and moon to be of similar size and a similar distance from Earth.

The word translated "are joined" is Arabic jumi'a, a verb which means to collect together, gather together, bring together. Given that this would actually require the moon to travel 98 million miles away from Earth and into the sun, which dwarfs it by over 600 times in diameter, it seems vastly less fitting as an apocalyptic event than if the ancient conception of the cosmos was correct.

Sky is a Tent/Dome

A common myth at the time of the Quran's composition was that the sky or heavens were held up with pillars. Many Bedouin people living in Arabia imagined the sky as a large tent covering, similar to the tents they used. The author repeats this myth by describing the sky as being "raised" above the earth.

In another verse, the author says that the sky has a covering.

Sky Guards the Earth

Asteroids and meteorites have penetrated the atmosphere and hit the earth throughout the course of history. This includes the massive meteorite that hit near the Yucatán Peninsula 65 million years which killed off numerous species including most dinosaurs. There is no guardian, whatsoever, that prevents these types of events form happening.

Sky can Fall Down on People

The Qur'an author thought that the sky is like a ceiling that can fall on someone while the earth can swallow someone too. This is obviously impossible as the earth's atmosphere is simply made of gas.

Sky can be Rolled Up

This is another verse implying that the sky or heaven is something solid.

The Stars Will Fall

The Qur'an says that the stars will fall (inkadarat ٱنكَدَرَتْ) along with other dramatic events surrounding the last day. The author clearly had no idea of the size and distance of the stars. The word كدر in the form used in this verse (form VII) means to dart down as is said of a bird or hawk, or to fall and scatter.

and a ruler named John Hyrcanus (died 104 BC). These people existed before John the Baptist, who was a contemporary of Jesus. But the Qur'an claims that nobody before John the Baptist (Yahya in Arabic) bore his name.

Supernatural Destruction of Cities

The Qur'an author thought that outside the vicinity of Arabia there were cities and tribes destroyed by Allah. He acquired this information through hearsay from Arabian folklore as well as other legends. Those cities and tribes probably were destroyed by natural disasters, famine, wars, migration or neglect.

Humans can Live for a Thousand Years

The oldest verified human life has been a little over 120 years. Based on fossil records and testing on human remains, anthropologists have concluded that human life spans are increasing, not decreasing. Nevertheless, the Qur'an claims that Noah lived for almost 1,000 years.

Non-Existent Mosque in Jerusalem

Muslims claim that Al-Aqsa mosque is mentioned in the Qur'an as the furthest mosque, even though there was obviously no mosque in Jerusalem during Muhammad's time.

Sociology

Fasting and Prayer Requirements at the Poles

The author of the Qur'an was apparently unfamiliar with the polar regions in which there are six months of sunlight and six months of perpetual night during winter and summer. The Qur'an claims that Muslims should fast from sunrise till sunset, however this is arguably not observable by anyone living in the polar regions.

A similar issue exists for the five daily prayers. Anyone living in the polar region would not be able to make a sunset or sunrise prayer all year round. Even for cities further south like Aberdeen in Scotland, the gap between the night prayer (Isha) and the dawn prayer (Fajr) is around 4 and a half hours in June, so anyone following these rules has to interupt their sleep around 3.20am, then go back to sleep before getting up for the day. Such issues would not have crossed the mind of a 7th century man in Arabia, who believed that everyone experiences sunrise and sunset when he does, and where it would be perfectly natural to arise at dawn any time of the year.

People are Protected in Mecca

The Qur'an claims Allah has made Mecca and the Ka'aba a place of safety. However, historically it has been attacked and seen battles numerous times. Juhayman al-Otaybi, Abd-Allah ibn al-Zubayr, and Abu Tahir al-Janabi killed thousands of Muslim pilgrims in Mecca. Moreover, Yazid Bin Muawiya sent an army battalion to attack Mecca and desecrated the Ka'aba. The universal safety of people in Mecca has no historical evidence supporting it.

Requirement to Learn in Arabic

There are over 5,000 languages and dialects in the world, with less than 4% of the world's population being native Arabic speakers. However, it is incumbent upon Muslims to pray in Arabic, recite the Qur'an in Arabic, and understand commentaries and the traditions of Muhammad in Arabic. We are left wondering why an all-knowing being would not provide a more efficient way to send his message to all people on earth and why he does not account for the immense diversity of languages.

Non-Muslims are Deaf, Dumb, and Blind

The Qur'an calls non-believers "deaf dumb and blind". However all the technology, medicine, and scientific advancements in the Muslim world are almost exclusively purchased from the non-Muslim countries. Computers, television, space travel, helicopters, media players, nuclear bombs, cameras, satellites, birth control pills, vaccinations, telephones, radios, light bulbs, microchips, games consoles, refrigerators, microwaves, plastic, aluminium, x-rays, antibiotics, heart-transplants, the internet etc., were all invented by non-Muslims.

Myths and Legendary Tales

Humans Transformed into Apes

The Qur'an records a miraculous event where Sabbath breakers are transformed into apes. This account seems to be a mere legend and has no basis in scientific fact.

Golden Calf Statue Moos

A statue of a calf was cast out of ornaments but it could moo.

Tribe Trapped Behind a Wall

The story of Dhul-Qarnayn says that a tribe is trapped behind a massive wall of Iron. According to the Qur'an, these two beast tribes concealed themselves behind this metal wall and will only be let free on the day of Judgement. Obviously, no such wall has ever been found nor is there a tribe somewhere on earth trapped behind it.

Supernatural Food

The Qur'an states Mary received food sent down from heaven. There have never been any scientifically verified accounts of fully cooked food falling from the sky.

A Stick Transforms into a Serpent

Solomon's Army of Genies and Birds

Throughout history, kings and emperors had commanded huge and small amount of armies. None was ever recorded to possess armies that entirely consists of birds and genies. This story in the Qur'an draws on Jewish folklore.

He spoke with a Hoopoe bird and wanted to punish it for a small error.

The Hoopoe bird was in fact busy eavesdropping on a beautiful female ruler, Queen Sheba.

Jonah Performs Repentance inside a Fish

A human could not live inside a fish and pray.

Muhammad Flies on a Winged Horse to Heaven

It took one week to travel from Mecca to the Farthest Mosque by camel. But the Qur'an reveals that a magical winged horse, called the Buraq, traveled a similar distance in a matter of minutes. No such creature has ever been shown to be real and it seems to only exist in legend and mythology.

Body Parts Speak

The limbs and organs of a human are controlled by the brain that conveys electrical signal through the nervous system. But the Qur'an believes that the limbs can talk and testify against the person, even though they would have no voice, memory or mind of their own.

The Ocean Split in Half

Moses and the Israelites crossed an ocean that was split into two halves.

Solomon can Control the Wind

King Solomon had the authority to manipulate the wind at his command and could fly anywhere he wanted.

A Dead Man Testified against his Killer

Scientifically, a man who has died for a few days can never be resurrected.

Animals Speak to Humans

The Qur'an states that a beast will come and tell humans the truth.

Mountains and Birds can Sing Songs

Others

Linguistics

The Qu'ran states that the first humans "Adam and Eve" spoke to each other in some kind of advanced language in many suras, and also that God told them the names of everything. Thanks to the modern field of linguistics and the history of language we know that the type of sentences constructed in the Qu'ran would simply not have been able to be spoken by humans until over 100,000 years since the first humans evolved. The language of the first humans would be incomprehensible to us and they would not be able to express the kinds of sentences that Adam and Eve do in the Qu'ran.

Mathematical Error in Hereditary Laws

• Wife: 1/8 = 3/24,
• Daughters: 2/3 = 16/24,
• Father: 1/6 = 4/24,
• Mother: 1/6 = 4/24,
• Total = 27/24=1.125

The total does not equal to 1. This error can never be reconciled in any way. [1]

People use the Forehead to Lie

Brain wave technology has shown that electrical activity happens in the entire brain when a person is being deceitful.

Sailing of Ships is a Miracle

Ships float due to buoyancy and they can be driven by various sources of power.

Space Flight is Impossible

The first space ships and travel beyond the atmosphere of earth occurred over 60 years ago. With current technology, humankind has already explored the end of the solar system. The Qur'an however, implies that going beyond the earth is forbidden.

References

See Also

• Contradictions and Errors - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Contradictions and Errors
• Scientific Errors in the Qur'an (Response)