"12 months miracle" in the Qur'an
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.
List
Apologists often (always) don't show the words and their context[1], but there 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 3 cases the word itself seems to be in the singular and that is how apologists get to the number 12, but from the context we can clearly see that it is meant to be plural.
- 9:36 - .. ٱثْنَا عَشَرَ شَهْرًا .. - .. tweleve months ..
- 46:15 - .. ثَلَٰثُونَ شَهْرًا .. - .. thirty 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 in the singular.
- The word شهر in its basic form (consisting only of the trilateral root ش - ه - ر (ra - ha - shin) without any suffix/prefix letters and while ignoring the differences in diacritics) appears 4 times in the Qur'an.
Other
- Apologists used a different method of word counting for the "12 months miracle", than for the "365 days miracle", because otherwise they wouldn't get those "miraculous" numbers.
- They didn't count the word day with ب ("bi-") prefix in the "365 days miracle", but now they do count the word month with the bi- prefix
- They didn't count the word day with و ("waw-") prefix in the "365 days miracle", but now they do count the word month with the waw- prefix.
- In the verse 9:36, apologists count one occurence of the word as singular and the other as plural, although they are clearly both reffering to the same set of months:
- "Surely the number of *months* [counted as plural] with Allah is twelwe *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 enough powerful to make all the numbers miraculous? And thus make it undeniable that this is a miracle and not a coincidence?