THE QURAN AND ITS ERRORS: INTERNAL CONTRADICTIONS, SCIENTIFIC AND HISTORICAL MISTAKES
1). INTRODUCTION
We constantly see Muslims praising the ‘miracle of the Quran’. The most recent I saw was Wilmer Caviliza.
As I said to him, the only miracle about the Quran is how anyone could believe its divinely inspired. Its so full of factual errors, fallacious nonsense and self refuting contradictions it’s derisible.
Just for starters …
Here are samples of how schizophrenic the Quran can be:
2). QURAN CONTRADICTIONS
Here are a sample of internal contradictions to be found in the Quran. There are many more — see memes for a schedule.
□ What does Allah do with apostates?
• Punishes them:
“But if any turn away and reject Allah,- Allah will punish him with a mighty Punishment” (Surah 88:23-24).
• Does not care:
“There was indeed in them an excellent example for you to follow,- for those whose hope is in Allah and in the Last Day. But if any turn away, truly Allah is Free of all Wants, Worthy of all Praise” (Surah 60:6).
□ Is there compulsion in Islam?
• No:
“Unto you your religion and unto me my religion” (Surah109:6).
• Yes:
“I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them” (Surah 8:12).
□ Will Allah reward the good deeds of non-Muslims?
• No:
“It is not for such as join gods with Allah, to visit or maintain the mosques of Allah while they witness against their own souls to infidelity. The works of such bear no fruit: In Fire shall they dwell” (Surah 9:17).
• Yes:
“And whoso doeth good an atom’s weight will see it then” (Surah 99:7).
□ Who sends disbelievers astray?
• Allah:
“Allah leaves stray whom He wills and guides whom He wills” (Surah 35:8).
• Satan:
“Who whispereth in the hearts of mankind” (Surah 114:5)
□ Keeping oaths
• It matters:
“truly righteous is he who … fulfill their promise when they have made one” (Surah 2:177) and ” … whoever breaks his oath, breaks it to his own loss; and whoever fulfills the covenant that HE has made with ALLAH, HE will, surely, give him a great reward” (Surah 48:10).
• It doesn’t matter:
“Allah does not call you to account for what is vain in your oaths” (Surah 2:225) and “(This is a declaration of) immunity by Allah and His Apostle towards those of the idolaters with whom you made an agreement” (Surah 9:1).
□ Having up to four wives
• It’s fair:
“If you deem it best for the orphans, you may marry their mothers – you may marry two, three, or four. If you fear lest you become unfair, then you shall be content with only one, or with what you already have” (Surah 4:3).
• It’s unfair:
“You can never be equitable in dealing with more than one wife, no matter how hard you try” (Surah 4:129)
□ Could Allah have a son?
• Yes:
“If Allah desire to take a son to Himself, He will surely choose those He pleases from what He has created” (Surah 39:4)
• No:
“The Initiator of the heavens and the earth. How can He have a son, when He never had a mate?” (Surah 6:101)
3). QURAN SCIENTIFIC ERRORS
□ Human reproduction errors
Here are four fundamental mistakes:
1. Allah did not mention the role of the women egg in human reproduction and appears to have no knowledge of it. This is not the only verse that fails to mention the important role of the female egg (86:6) makes the same mistake. The Quran says the reproduction is caused simply by the male semen. Women are just ovens! The human ovum is very small, though visible to the human eye, and only discovered 1827. It’s role is very important. It is the ovum that decides which sperm goes in and not the first sperm. But Allah only knows what 7th century Muhammad knows.
2. The lump turns into bones!!! Bones develop within the lump. Some apologists so desperate they reinvented this translation to fix this big problem!! Notice how they out in brackets (from) it is not actually in the text!!
3. Then the bones get covered with flesh. As if to emphasis the mistake in step before, the Quran goes on to show its lack of knowledge by suggesting after the bones…flesh covers it.
4. The Quran states, incorrectly, that sperm originates from a spot between the backbone and the ribs, (Surah 86:6-7). However, science has demonstrated that sperm comes from the testicles whilst semen issues from different glands behind and below our bladder.
4). MORE QURAN SCIENTIFIC INACCURACIES
□ Flat earth
The Quran is laden with verses which hint towards the impression of a “flat” earth. (Surah 13:3, 15:19, 50:7, 51:48, 71:19, 20:53) and many more write that the earth is “spread out”, “Laid out”, or “like a carpet”. Yet due to modern scientific discovery we know that the earth is actually in the shape of a circular sphere.
Just to further elaborate on this point, ever notice how the Islamic Salat indirectly hints at the idea of a flat earth? Muslims all around the world are instructed to pray towards the Kabba 5 times a day. This would only make sense if we lived on a flat earth. If, however, Islam endorsed the belief in a spherical planet, we would get the dilemma of wherever you are facing the Kaaba you also have your back to it.
□ All things were made in pairs
Within the Quran, Surah 51:49, it writes that all things were created in pairs. Yet, today we know of something called Asexual reproduction. Asexual reproduction is a type of reproduction by which offsprings arise from a single organism. It serves as the chief means by which single celled organisms are formed. Such examples include the Archaea, bacteria, various plants and fungi.
□ Shooting stars are missiles to drive out demons
The Quran teaches that stars are fires set up in the sky to guard Heaven against demons. The demons want to hear what God is saying so they try to sneak up to heaven. If they are found, the guardians of heaven will hurl stars at them to chase them off: (Surah 15:16-18, 37:6-10, 67:5 and 72:8-9).
The dilemma, however, is that the Quran is confusing “stars” with “shooting stars”. Stars, as we know, are actually suns. Shooting stars on the other hand, are meteorites, or galactic debris. If we are to take the Quran seriously, then each time we see a “shooting star” we are to assume that it is actually a sun that is blasting across the sky in the pursue of a demon.
□ The sun settles in a muddy spring
In Surah 18:86, the Quran describes the sun as setting into a muddy spring. Yet we know due to modern scientific discovery that the setting of the sun is caused by the circular and rotational properties of our planet. There exists no place where the sun physically “sets”.
5). QURAN HISTORICAL ERRORS
□ Samaria
In Surah 20:85-88, 95 we read about the story of the Prophet Moses and the Israelite rebellion in their worship of the golden calf. The interesting thing within this passage, is that a Samaritan was accused of leading the people of Allah astray.
The story of Moses and the golden calf is dated to have occurred around 1400 BC. Yet the Samaritans did NOT exist until 530 years AFTER Moses. Samaria was founded by King Omri during the year 870 BC. The Samaritans did not exist until after the exile of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the resettlement of the area under King Sargon II in 722 B.C.
So the question arises: How could a Samaritan lead the people of Moses astray when Samaritans did not exist during the time of Moses?
□ The practice of Crucifixion
According to Surah 12:41, the Quran writes that during the time of Joseph (in the Old Testament), death by crucifixion was actually something that existed and was being performed. Not only that, but the Quran writes in Surah 7:124, 26:49 and 20:71 that Pharaoh threatened the magicians who believed in Moses with crucifixion.
The major problem with these statements from the Quran is that there is no archeological or historical evidence that the Egyptians used crucifixion as a form of punishment in the time of Joseph, or in the time of Moses (circa 1400 BC). Crucifixion only becomes a punishment much later in history — first used by the Persians in 6th Century BC.
□ Alexander the Great
In Surah 18:83-98 we read about a man named Dhul-Qarnayn. Now, it is very rare to find an Islamic scholar who will not state that this points to Alexander the Great. Here are just some of those people: Baydawi, p. 399, al-Jalalan, p. 251, al-Tabari, p. 339, al-Zamakhshari, part 2 of al-Kash-shaf, p. 743.
The problem, however, is that the Quran describes Alexander as being a “righteous and God fearing man”. That Allah is the one who guided him and that he led people into the fold of the Islamic faith.
However, when we even do a little research on the true and historical Alexander (born 356 BC), we see that he was an idolater, claiming to be the son of the Egyptian God Amun. Very few would even consider him to be even remotely close to a righteous human being. There is also not a shred of evidence to associate him with anything Islamic which was still at least 1000 years in the future.
□ Mary mother of Jesus
In many places, the Quran mentions Mary as the sister of Moses and Aaron and the daughter of Imran. The Quran has confused Jesus’s mother with Aaron’s sister because both of them carry the same name, though there are several centuries between them.
The Quran indicates that Mary (Christ’s mother) had a brother whose name was Aaron (chapter 19:28) and a father whose name is Imran (chapter 66:12). Their mother was called “the wife of Imran” (chapter 3:35) which eliminates any doubt that it confuses Mary, mother of Jesus, with Mary, sister of Aaron.
□ The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ:
We can unashamedly call out this as an egregious historical error. ¹
In Surah 4:157, the Quran blandly tells us that Christ was never killed nor crucified. But that it was made to appear so. Rather, Allah raised Christ unto himself. While there us no consensus of who was crucified and the Quran fails to clarify the point, one traditional interpretation of this verse is that Allah replaced Jesus with Judas on the cross, hence any historical substantiation of this event would fall short on disproving the Islamic position, for they do not doubt that the crucifixion took place, but that it was Judas who took on Christ’s form.
Yet when we look to the historical record, we see that it too, also successfully dismantles this speculation, because 10 out of the 12 apostles were martyred for believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus. History shows that that they firmly believed that it was Jesus himself who was executed and raised from the dead.
In The Historical Jesus: Lecture Transcript and Course Guidebook, 2000, Ehrman says:
“ONE OF THE MOST CERTAIN FACTS OF HISTORY IS THAT JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED ON ORDERS OF THE ROMAN PREFECT OF JUDEA, PONTIUS PILATE”. (P. 162)
Atheist Professor of Early Christianity and the University of Gottinggen Gerd Ludemann says:
“JESUS’ DEATH AS A CONSEQUENCE OF CRUCIFIXION IS INDISPUTABLE”. IN THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST: A HISTORICAL INQUIRY, 2004, P 50
We have at least 11 sources for the crucifixion of Jesus: Pre-Mark Passion Narrative, Q, John, Paul, Hebrews, 1 Peter 2:24, Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Martyr, Josephus Flavius, & Cornelius Tacitus. Pre-Mark and Q are very early dating to within years of the actual crucifixion. There is not a single reliable source that says no crucifixion took place or that it was anyone other than Jesus.
6). CONCLUSIONS
The above is only a sample of the sort of errors and contradictions which firmly establish that the Quran cannot be a divinely inspired book. These errors are unmistakable human errors which we would expect to find in a man made book consistent with the parochial knowledge of that period.
Contrasts with the Bible show what a truly divinely inspired book looks like. Not a single error of fact whether scientific, historical or geographical can be found in it. Every new archaeological discovery in the region only serves to support it. The same goes for the manuscript record which establishes how remarkably well preserved the Bible is.
For more Quran howlers see:
wikiislam.net/wiki/Scientific_Errors_in_the_Quran
¹ See post: □ ISLAM’S NEMESIS: THE HERESY OF SURAH 4:157 25 June 2023
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1). INTRODUCTION
We constantly see Muslims praising the ‘miracle of the Quran’. The most recent I saw was Wilmer Caviliza.
As I said to him, the only miracle about the Quran is how anyone could believe its divinely inspired. Its so full of factual errors, fallacious nonsense and self refuting contradictions it’s derisible.
Just for starters …
Here are samples of how schizophrenic the Quran can be:
2). QURAN CONTRADICTIONS
Here are a sample of internal contradictions to be found in the Quran. There are many more — see memes for a schedule.
□ What does Allah do with apostates?
• Punishes them:
“But if any turn away and reject Allah,- Allah will punish him with a mighty Punishment” (Surah 88:23-24).
• Does not care:
“There was indeed in them an excellent example for you to follow,- for those whose hope is in Allah and in the Last Day. But if any turn away, truly Allah is Free of all Wants, Worthy of all Praise” (Surah 60:6).
□ Is there compulsion in Islam?
• No:
“Unto you your religion and unto me my religion” (Surah109:6).
• Yes:
“I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them” (Surah 8:12).
□ Will Allah reward the good deeds of non-Muslims?
• No:
“It is not for such as join gods with Allah, to visit or maintain the mosques of Allah while they witness against their own souls to infidelity. The works of such bear no fruit: In Fire shall they dwell” (Surah 9:17).
• Yes:
“And whoso doeth good an atom’s weight will see it then” (Surah 99:7).
□ Who sends disbelievers astray?
• Allah:
“Allah leaves stray whom He wills and guides whom He wills” (Surah 35:8).
• Satan:
“Who whispereth in the hearts of mankind” (Surah 114:5)
□ Keeping oaths
• It matters:
“truly righteous is he who … fulfill their promise when they have made one” (Surah 2:177) and ” … whoever breaks his oath, breaks it to his own loss; and whoever fulfills the covenant that HE has made with ALLAH, HE will, surely, give him a great reward” (Surah 48:10).
• It doesn’t matter:
“Allah does not call you to account for what is vain in your oaths” (Surah 2:225) and “(This is a declaration of) immunity by Allah and His Apostle towards those of the idolaters with whom you made an agreement” (Surah 9:1).
□ Having up to four wives
• It’s fair:
“If you deem it best for the orphans, you may marry their mothers – you may marry two, three, or four. If you fear lest you become unfair, then you shall be content with only one, or with what you already have” (Surah 4:3).
• It’s unfair:
“You can never be equitable in dealing with more than one wife, no matter how hard you try” (Surah 4:129)
□ Could Allah have a son?
• Yes:
“If Allah desire to take a son to Himself, He will surely choose those He pleases from what He has created” (Surah 39:4)
• No:
“The Initiator of the heavens and the earth. How can He have a son, when He never had a mate?” (Surah 6:101)
3). QURAN SCIENTIFIC ERRORS
□ Human reproduction errors
Here are four fundamental mistakes:
1. Allah did not mention the role of the women egg in human reproduction and appears to have no knowledge of it. This is not the only verse that fails to mention the important role of the female egg (86:6) makes the same mistake. The Quran says the reproduction is caused simply by the male semen. Women are just ovens! The human ovum is very small, though visible to the human eye, and only discovered 1827. It’s role is very important. It is the ovum that decides which sperm goes in and not the first sperm. But Allah only knows what 7th century Muhammad knows.
2. The lump turns into bones!!! Bones develop within the lump. Some apologists so desperate they reinvented this translation to fix this big problem!! Notice how they out in brackets (from) it is not actually in the text!!
3. Then the bones get covered with flesh. As if to emphasis the mistake in step before, the Quran goes on to show its lack of knowledge by suggesting after the bones…flesh covers it.
4. The Quran states, incorrectly, that sperm originates from a spot between the backbone and the ribs, (Surah 86:6-7). However, science has demonstrated that sperm comes from the testicles whilst semen issues from different glands behind and below our bladder.
4). MORE QURAN SCIENTIFIC INACCURACIES
□ Flat earth
The Quran is laden with verses which hint towards the impression of a “flat” earth. (Surah 13:3, 15:19, 50:7, 51:48, 71:19, 20:53) and many more write that the earth is “spread out”, “Laid out”, or “like a carpet”. Yet due to modern scientific discovery we know that the earth is actually in the shape of a circular sphere.
Just to further elaborate on this point, ever notice how the Islamic Salat indirectly hints at the idea of a flat earth? Muslims all around the world are instructed to pray towards the Kabba 5 times a day. This would only make sense if we lived on a flat earth. If, however, Islam endorsed the belief in a spherical planet, we would get the dilemma of wherever you are facing the Kaaba you also have your back to it.
□ All things were made in pairs
Within the Quran, Surah 51:49, it writes that all things were created in pairs. Yet, today we know of something called Asexual reproduction. Asexual reproduction is a type of reproduction by which offsprings arise from a single organism. It serves as the chief means by which single celled organisms are formed. Such examples include the Archaea, bacteria, various plants and fungi.
□ Shooting stars are missiles to drive out demons
The Quran teaches that stars are fires set up in the sky to guard Heaven against demons. The demons want to hear what God is saying so they try to sneak up to heaven. If they are found, the guardians of heaven will hurl stars at them to chase them off: (Surah 15:16-18, 37:6-10, 67:5 and 72:8-9).
The dilemma, however, is that the Quran is confusing “stars” with “shooting stars”. Stars, as we know, are actually suns. Shooting stars on the other hand, are meteorites, or galactic debris. If we are to take the Quran seriously, then each time we see a “shooting star” we are to assume that it is actually a sun that is blasting across the sky in the pursue of a demon.
□ The sun settles in a muddy spring
In Surah 18:86, the Quran describes the sun as setting into a muddy spring. Yet we know due to modern scientific discovery that the setting of the sun is caused by the circular and rotational properties of our planet. There exists no place where the sun physically “sets”.
5). QURAN HISTORICAL ERRORS
□ Samaria
In Surah 20:85-88, 95 we read about the story of the Prophet Moses and the Israelite rebellion in their worship of the golden calf. The interesting thing within this passage, is that a Samaritan was accused of leading the people of Allah astray.
The story of Moses and the golden calf is dated to have occurred around 1400 BC. Yet the Samaritans did NOT exist until 530 years AFTER Moses. Samaria was founded by King Omri during the year 870 BC. The Samaritans did not exist until after the exile of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the resettlement of the area under King Sargon II in 722 B.C.
So the question arises: How could a Samaritan lead the people of Moses astray when Samaritans did not exist during the time of Moses?
□ The practice of Crucifixion
According to Surah 12:41, the Quran writes that during the time of Joseph (in the Old Testament), death by crucifixion was actually something that existed and was being performed. Not only that, but the Quran writes in Surah 7:124, 26:49 and 20:71 that Pharaoh threatened the magicians who believed in Moses with crucifixion.
The major problem with these statements from the Quran is that there is no archeological or historical evidence that the Egyptians used crucifixion as a form of punishment in the time of Joseph, or in the time of Moses (circa 1400 BC). Crucifixion only becomes a punishment much later in history — first used by the Persians in 6th Century BC.
□ Alexander the Great
In Surah 18:83-98 we read about a man named Dhul-Qarnayn. Now, it is very rare to find an Islamic scholar who will not state that this points to Alexander the Great. Here are just some of those people: Baydawi, p. 399, al-Jalalan, p. 251, al-Tabari, p. 339, al-Zamakhshari, part 2 of al-Kash-shaf, p. 743.
The problem, however, is that the Quran describes Alexander as being a “righteous and God fearing man”. That Allah is the one who guided him and that he led people into the fold of the Islamic faith.
However, when we even do a little research on the true and historical Alexander (born 356 BC), we see that he was an idolater, claiming to be the son of the Egyptian God Amun. Very few would even consider him to be even remotely close to a righteous human being. There is also not a shred of evidence to associate him with anything Islamic which was still at least 1000 years in the future.
□ Mary mother of Jesus
In many places, the Quran mentions Mary as the sister of Moses and Aaron and the daughter of Imran. The Quran has confused Jesus’s mother with Aaron’s sister because both of them carry the same name, though there are several centuries between them.
The Quran indicates that Mary (Christ’s mother) had a brother whose name was Aaron (chapter 19:28) and a father whose name is Imran (chapter 66:12). Their mother was called “the wife of Imran” (chapter 3:35) which eliminates any doubt that it confuses Mary, mother of Jesus, with Mary, sister of Aaron.
□ The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ:
We can unashamedly call out this as an egregious historical error. ¹
In Surah 4:157, the Quran blandly tells us that Christ was never killed nor crucified. But that it was made to appear so. Rather, Allah raised Christ unto himself. While there us no consensus of who was crucified and the Quran fails to clarify the point, one traditional interpretation of this verse is that Allah replaced Jesus with Judas on the cross, hence any historical substantiation of this event would fall short on disproving the Islamic position, for they do not doubt that the crucifixion took place, but that it was Judas who took on Christ’s form.
Yet when we look to the historical record, we see that it too, also successfully dismantles this speculation, because 10 out of the 12 apostles were martyred for believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus. History shows that that they firmly believed that it was Jesus himself who was executed and raised from the dead.
In The Historical Jesus: Lecture Transcript and Course Guidebook, 2000, Ehrman says:
“ONE OF THE MOST CERTAIN FACTS OF HISTORY IS THAT JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED ON ORDERS OF THE ROMAN PREFECT OF JUDEA, PONTIUS PILATE”. (P. 162)
Atheist Professor of Early Christianity and the University of Gottinggen Gerd Ludemann says:
“JESUS’ DEATH AS A CONSEQUENCE OF CRUCIFIXION IS INDISPUTABLE”. IN THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST: A HISTORICAL INQUIRY, 2004, P 50
We have at least 11 sources for the crucifixion of Jesus: Pre-Mark Passion Narrative, Q, John, Paul, Hebrews, 1 Peter 2:24, Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Martyr, Josephus Flavius, & Cornelius Tacitus. Pre-Mark and Q are very early dating to within years of the actual crucifixion. There is not a single reliable source that says no crucifixion took place or that it was anyone other than Jesus.
6). CONCLUSIONS
The above is only a sample of the sort of errors and contradictions which firmly establish that the Quran cannot be a divinely inspired book. These errors are unmistakable human errors which we would expect to find in a man made book consistent with the parochial knowledge of that period.
Contrasts with the Bible show what a truly divinely inspired book looks like. Not a single error of fact whether scientific, historical or geographical can be found in it. Every new archaeological discovery in the region only serves to support it. The same goes for the manuscript record which establishes how remarkably well preserved the Bible is.
For more Quran howlers see:
wikiislam.net/wiki/Scientific_Errors_in_the_Quran
¹ See post: □ ISLAM’S NEMESIS: THE HERESY OF SURAH 4:157 25 June 2023
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