12 months miracle in the Quran: Difference between revisions

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This article contains a list of all the occurrences of the word "month" (شهر - transliterated as "shahr") in all its forms in the Qur'an. It also counts the total number of occurrences, number of occurrences in singular/plural/dual separately and the number of occurrences, where the word consists only of the three arabic letters شهر (regardless of diacritics). The purpose is to refute the apologist argument that this word appears 12 times in the Qur'an, just like there are 12 months in a year, which "cannot be a coincidence" (although it could be a coincidence even if it was true), and therefore the Qur'an must be from god.
A common argument for the miraculous nature of the Quran states that the singular form of the Arabic word for "month" (شهر, ''shahr'') appears exactly 12 times in the book, mirroring the number of months in a year. This argument depends on three instances of the word where the meaning is plural but the singular form of the word is written, due to the way Arabic handles plural nouns greater than ten. When plural and dual forms of the word are included in the count, the number of occurrences rises to 21. This article lists all occurrences of the word in the Qur'an in its singular, dual, and plural forms.


== List ==
== List ==
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* (*) In these 3 cases the word itself is in the singular because in Arabic when you say 'X something' and X is greater than ten, the 'something' following the number is singular even though the meaning is plural. That is how apologists get to the number 12, but from the context we can clearly see that the meaning is plural.  
* *In these verses, the meaning is plural, but Arabic renders plural nouns greater than ten in their singular forms. This is the origin of the claim that the singular word appears exactly 12 times.  
** 9:36 - .. ٱثْنَا عَشَرَ شَهْرًا .. - .. twelve months ..
** 9:36 - .. ٱثْنَا عَشَرَ شَهْرًا .. - .. twelve months ..
** 46:15 - .. ثَلَٰثُونَ شَهْرًا .. - .. thirty months ..
** 46:15 - .. ثَلَٰثُونَ شَهْرًا .. - .. thirty months ..
** 97:3 - .. أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ .. - .. thousand months ..
** 97:3 - .. أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ .. - .. thousand months ..
== Conclusions ==
=== Main ===
* The word شهر does not appear in the Qur'an 12 times, but 21 times.
* The word شهر appears 9 times with a singular meaning.
* The word شهر in its basic form (consisting only of the trilateral root ش - ه - ر (shin - ha - ra) without any suffix/prefix letters and while ignoring the differences in diacritics) appears 4 times in the Qur'an.
=== Other ===
* In the verse 9:36, apologists count one occurrence of the word as singular and the other as plural, although they are clearly both referring to the same set of months:
** "Surely the number of *months* [counted as plural] with Allah is twelve *months* [counted as singular]..."
** "...*إِنَّ عِدَّةَ *ٱلشُّهُورِ* عِندَ ٱللَّهِ ٱثْنَا عَشَرَ *شَهْرًا"
* If we accept that there are 12 singulars, 2 duals and 7 plurals, then what is the miracle about the numbers 2 and 7? Or 9 (2+7)? Are there 7 months of something? Isn't Allah powerful enough to make all the numbers miraculous? And thus make it undeniable that this is a miracle and not a coincidence?
* Apologists are content to use a verse (9:36) that defines the Islamic lunar year as 12 months, or 354 days, while in the 365 days miracle claim they use the solar year on which the Gregorian calendar is based.


==See also==
==See also==

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A common argument for the miraculous nature of the Quran states that the singular form of the Arabic word for "month" (شهر, shahr) appears exactly 12 times in the book, mirroring the number of months in a year. This argument depends on three instances of the word where the meaning is plural but the singular form of the word is written, due to the way Arabic handles plural nouns greater than ten. When plural and dual forms of the word are included in the count, the number of occurrences rises to 21. This article lists all occurrences of the word in the Qur'an in its singular, dual, and plural forms.

List

Apologists often (always) don't show the words and their context,[1] but here it is:

Total count Verse Word in arabic (شهر counted) Translation Number (counted)
1 2:185 شَهْرُ 1 the month [of Ramadan] singular 1
2 2:185 ٱلشَّهْرَ (in) the month singular 2
3 2:194 ٱلشَّهْرُ the month [Sacred] singular 3
4 2:194 بِٱلشَّهْرِ for the month [Sacred] singular 4
5 2:197 أَشْهُرٌ months plural 1
6 2:217 ٱلشَّهْرِ the month [Sacred] singular 5
7 2:226 أَشْهُرٍ [four] months plural 2
8 2:234 أَشْهُرٍ [four] months plural 3
9 4:92 شَهْرَيْنِ two months dual 1
10 5:2 ٱلشَّهْرَ the month [Sacred] singular 6
11 5:97 وَٱلشَّهْرَ and the month [Sacred] singular 7
12 9:2 أَشْهُرٍ [four] months plural 4
13 9:5 ٱلْأَشْهُرُ months [sacred] plural 5
14 9:36 ٱلشُّهُورِ (of) months plural 6
15 9:36 شَهْرًا [twelve] months plural 7 *
16 34:12 شَهْرٌ 2 a month singular 8
17 34:12 شَهْرٌ 3 a month singular 9
18 46:15 شَهْرًا [thirty] months plural 8 *
19 58:4 شَهْرَيْنِ two months dual 2
20 65:4 أَشْهُرٍ [three] months plural 9
21 97:3 شَهْرٍ 4 [thousand] months plural 10 *
  • *In these verses, the meaning is plural, but Arabic renders plural nouns greater than ten in their singular forms. This is the origin of the claim that the singular word appears exactly 12 times.
    • 9:36 - .. ٱثْنَا عَشَرَ شَهْرًا .. - .. twelve months ..
    • 46:15 - .. ثَلَٰثُونَ شَهْرًا .. - .. thirty months ..
    • 97:3 - .. أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ .. - .. thousand months ..

See also


Translations

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References

  1. ↑ Like here [1]
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