We have been hearing for decades that all knowledge (scientific, metaphysical, religious, etc.) can be found in the Quran and that specifically the Quran contains all scientific theories. Interestingly, every time a new scientific theory makes the news, Muslims miraculously find the same theory explained in Quran. In fact, some Muslims claim that all possible knowledge is contained in the Quran, be it astronomy, the special theory of relativity, or the dual (wave-particle) nature of light. Fault lines visible on the moon’s
surface are supposed to be a result of the splitting of the heavenly body. It is hardly a surprise that the theory of relativity (probably both the general and special) were found in the Quran AFTER Einstein formulated it. He could have saved a lot of time had been a devout Muslim who read the Quran carefully. But then we hear that Einstein did convert to Islam, just as Newton did. An overly-enthusiastic Muslim on this forum even managed to declare that Pythagoras was Muslim, forgetting that Pythagoras had died before Jesus.
Particle physicists are not the only ones who can benefit from the Quran. For example, by counting the number of times the words water and earth are mentioned in the Quran, one can calculate the Earth’s land-sea ratio. I’m very curious to see what happens when the ice caps melt and the ratio changes. One can find hundreds websites and books which shed light on such topics.
A couple of years ago a member of this forum sent us a link which reported another miracle of the Quran. If one plots the number of verses in a surah against the surah number, the resulting plot somehow shows the Allah and Mohammad written in Arabic. For those interested in seeing the miracle again please visit:
Miracle of the Qur’an – Be careful | Long Live Pakistan
Ever since I was very young I had been told that the Quran is a perfect book and the verses are poetry. So I was pretty shocked when I started reading the Quran for myself and realized that it was highly repetitive and rather boring. It wasn’t poetry at all (except for certain surah towards the end which are rather interesting to read). It seems that half the text is on describing Allah and how great he is. On the other hand, the emphasis on helping the poor and needy is commendable.
I have been told to read the Quran with an open mind. I have tried, really. I know that one should not atomize a verse so I am including the first third of Surah 4 (Nisa-Woman) at the end of the email. I have read the whole surah a number of times and I cannot justify
another interpretation of 4:34. If someone else can, please enlighten me.
There have been numerous attempts to prove and disprove the existence of God. Ibn-Sina and St. Anselm came up with the following argument:
1. God is, by definition, a being greater than anything that can be imagined.
2. Existence both in reality and in imagination is greater than
existence solely in one’s imagination.
3. Therefore, God must exist in reality; if He did not, God would not
be a being greater than anything that can be imagined.
Interestingly, some people still use this argument even though philosophers and logician know that the argument is not sound. But you can’t stop people from wanting to believe and have meaning for their lives.
Others have convinced themselves of God’s existence by accepting the first-cause argument or variations of the intelligent design argument. Muslims are the most vocal when it comes to claiming that the Quran itself is proof of God’s existence. The argument goes as follows:
- The Quran is perfect (perfection is not define)
- The Quran does not any have any contradictions in it (Any contradiction pointed out is generally explained by a very liberal reading of the Quran)
- No human can write a book which is both perfect (whatever it means) and has no contradictions (Newton’s Principia Mathematica is a close second though)
- God promised that the Quran would not change
- The Quran has not changed (no proof given and the thorny issue of the Satanic verses is avoided by issuing a fatwa).
- Thus, the Quran is not human work
- So it must have been written by God.
- Therefore, God exists.
QED.
It should be noted here that Christians have a similar argument about the bible, but Muslims say the bible has been changed and is now trash. Why would God protect one of his books but not the others is beyond me. Muslims urge Christians to read the Quran with open mind and vice-versa.
I recently read Karen Armstrong’s “Holy War: The crusades and their impact on today’s world.” She does a very good job of explaining anti-Semitism and Islamophobia among Christians. The basic theme is that Christian who hate Jews and/or Muslims have grown up on a diet of stories which depicts Muslims as barbarians, uncivilized, stupid people. She claims that by depicting Muslim as equal humans it is possible to reduce the hatred. In other words, people don’t think what they think because they have thought about it and found it to be reasonable. People have opinions because they have been fed those
opinions.
Ask a bunch of teenagers in Islamabad about the Quran and they will say “Yes, it is perfect. It is poetry.” The ask how many of them know Arabic. Ask how many of them have actually read the translation. Get my point??????
Dr. Soofia tried to explain why God punishes humans and why evil exists. Even though I do not accept the Atheist’s argument, Dr. Soofia’a explanation leaves a lot unexplained. If God is omniscient then he knows the future. He knows exactly how we will react to every
situation. If he knows us and knows what are actions will be then what is the point of punishing us in hell. Muslims claim that God gives us a choice, that we have the option between choosing what is right and what is wrong. But if the future is fixed then it is not possible for us to have free-will. And if we don’t have free-will, why are we being
punished for actions that we are not responsible for. This argument does not prove the absence of God but shows that all attempts by Muslims are in vain.
Ali Karim declared that I am in no position to comment on the Quran. Apparently Albert Einstein was not capable of doing that either (even though he understood the theory of relativity). The hate-spewing mulla, of course, has not understood the Quran either. Ahmadis are kafirs and shias are not far behind. The Taliban are just illiterate
fundos and lets not even start with the sufis. So, please please tell me: Who has understood the Quran?