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"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 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 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.
    • 9:36 - .. ٱثْنَا عَشَرَ شَهْرًا .. - .. twelve 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 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


Translations

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References

  1. ↑ Like here [1]
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