Contradictions in the Quran: Difference between revisions

{{QualityScore|Lead=4|Structure=4|Content=4|Language=3|References=4}}A recurring [[:Category:Criticism of Islam|criticism]] of the [[Qur'an|Quran]] is that it contains contradictory pronouncements, as is argued of many other religious scriptures. The occurrence of these contradictions, critics argue, is particularly problematic in the case of the Quran because the Islamic tradition holds it to be the direct, unmediated word of [[Allah]], or God. Indeed, {{Quran|4|82}} makes the confident assertion: "Then do they not reflect upon the Qur'an? If it had been from [any] other than Allah, they would have found within it much contradiction."  

Many stories in the Quran are repeated in other surahs. This risks ample opportunity for a human author or editor to unwittingly introduce contradictions between the parallel narratives. Indeed this is the case. Most of the examples in this section are from the [https://quranvariants.wordpress.com/narrative-contradictions-in-the-quran/ Quran Variants] website where they are discussed in more depth, with further insights and examples.<BR />

This section is much more detailed than the others on this page, so some readers may prefer to skip this section and first take a quick run through the contradictions on various other topics.

Regardless of differences that could be simply put down to the vagaries of translation from ancient languages or alternative paraphrases and shortening for brevity, the information content and sequencing is more fundamental and susceptible to contradiction, particularly when the Quran claims that such and such was said by a person on a particular occasion.

In a remarkably careless mistake, 41:13 warns that not only Thamud, but both Aad and Thamud were destroyed by a thunderbolt. The next few verses mention a screaming wind sent to Aad over a number of days as a punishment (though without stating that this wind ultimately destroyed them), and goes on to mention the thunderbolt which seized the people of Thamud.

{{Quote|{{Quran|37|62|66}}|

As well as the above mentioned issue (and the many scenarios for which the Quran provides no answer at all), there are various contradictions concerning the shares of brothers and sisters. Inheritance shares are stipulated for siblings only when the deceased has no surviving parents or children, but contradictory instructions occur in the two verses where this situation is addressed, {{Quran-range|4|11|12}} and {{Quran|4|176}} (incidentally, the latter verse is oddly appended to the very end of surah al-Nisa). Both these verses set rules for the estate of someone who has "neither ascendants nor descendants" (kalālatan, l-kalālati). In a book dedicated to the exegetical history of this word, Pavel Pavlovitch has established that its original meaning was lost by the last quarter of the first century, with early figures admitting their inability to understand the word, as further evidenced by various narrations and interpretations generated during and after that period. Generally, jurists inferred it to mean a person who dies without a child, nor, it was ultimately decided, surviving parents. A later proposal in the mid 2nd century was that the word instead meant the non-parent or child relatives of the deceased, and that it is the direct object of the preceding verb in verse 12.<ref>See Chapter 6 Summary and Conclusion in Pavel Pavlovitch, 2016, "The Formation of the Islamic Understanding of Kalāla in the Second Century AH (718–816 CE)", Leiden: Brill</ref> Either way, the inheritance shares for siblings of a childless deceased person in verse 176 are incompatible with the shares that siblings can receive in verse 12.

Besides the contradictions in the agreed text of the Quran as set out above, we also find another type of Qur'anic contradiction; contradictions between different accepted versions of the Qur'an. The rasm text of the Quran standardised by Uthman around 650 CE lacked almost any dotting to distinguish various consonants, had no short vowels, and had inconsistent use of word-internal alifs. Thus, oral tradition was needed to read it.  

While the oral tradition was mostly strong and agreed upon, there was disagreement on how to recite many words, ultimately resulting in the ten canonical readings (qira'at), each of which have two canonical transmitters. These disagree on how to read around 1400 words. The vast majority of printed Qurans since Ottoman times have used the reading transmitted by Hafs from the reader 'Asim, but all of these readings are accepted and appear in print, supposedly containing the words and variants thereof recited by Muhammad. Yet these variants sometimes contradict each other.