Word Count Miracles in the Qur'an: Difference between revisions

Modern Islamic apologists and [[Dawah|du'aah]] often seek to bolster the claim that the Qur'an is a divine book by reference to "[[Islam and Miracles|miracles]]" in the [[Qur'an]]. Recently, a novel strategy in this regard is to claim that the number of times certain words show up in the book constitute a "miracle." In point of fact though, there are exactly 0 word count miracles in the Qur'an. This is the conclusion not only of the critics of Islam, but also of many Islamic scholars. Islamic du'aahuse various questionable counting methods to arrive at seemingly interesting number. In order to do this, though, multiple different counting methods are used, and this method if applied to any long text could reasonably be expected to result in similarly interesting numbers. It is probable - not improbable nor miraculous. Some du'aah also rely on deceptive methods such as using translations  to make the word count claims look better. Probably the most valid claim in this regard is that the Qur'an mentions "angel" (+ "angels") and "shaytan" (+"shaytans") both 88 times. But even this word count is inconsistent with regards to its counting method, for it counts plural and singular forms together and includes words with prefixes and suffixes. The way this is marketed is also deceptive, with apologists/du'aah (in the description of the word count) trying to make it seem that only the singular (or only the plural) forms were counted,<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3QHYELlo1s "This book uses the word "angels" 88 times, ملائكاة ."ملائكاة (mala'ika) is the plural form. </ref> when in fact both are counted together. .

*Even if all counts were right and if it proved supernatural origin, it wouldn't mean that the supernatural origin is god specifically. The author could have been any other supernatural being, like Satan or jinn - both have bigger powers than humans.