Question:

I’ve heard Muslims saying that the Qur’an is the word of God since it contains a lot of scientific miracles in the sense that it gives information about the scientific facts that were discovered after the creation of Islam. For instance, in Sura 39:6 it is mentioned that in a mother’s womb there are threefold darknesses.  Muslims interpret this as the embryonic stages of an infant. In Sura 21:33, the orbit of planets in space is mentioned. In 2:29, the fact that God had arranged everything that he created into to “seven heavens” is mentioned, which could be viewed as the seven layers of the atmosphere. There are many more examples if you check out this website- http://www.missionislam.com.
I have a reason to object the to Muslims’ claim that the Qur’an is the word of God despite the scientific facts.  Let me tell you my reason. In 2 Corinthians 11:14, it is mentioned that Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light, and it is mentioned in Ezekiel 28:12 that Satan is full of wisdom. Now Islam is a religion that distorts Jesus’s accomplishments in order to save us from our bondage to sin.  His accomplishment is something that drives Satan crazy! So, perhaps Satan himself was the one who came as the angel Jibrael/Gabriel (an angel of light) and started giving revelations to Muhammed. And if it is so, we can conclude that the Qur’an contains such scientific facts because Satan himself is full of wisdom. Maybe Satan knew that giving out so much knowledge would help him get many people to believe in a false religion.  I would like to know what you think of this.

Answer:

Whether the Qur’an is the result of Satan speaking to Muhammad or whether it is Muhammad’s own imagination, or the invention of a religious genius, or even if it is a schizophrenic illusion I simply cannot say.

What I can say is that there is no legitimate sign of scientific wisdom in the Qu’ran, so there is also no need to propose that Satan gave Muhammad real scientific knowledge.  The examples Muslim apologists use are a HUGE stretch of the imagination.  These are ad hoc biased interpretations of vague statements whose meaning is wholly unclear.

Is the statement that a woman’s womb has a threefold darkness evidence of scientific wisdom?  I simply do not see this at all in this passage.  Here is the passage in translation:  He created you from one soul. Then He made from it its mate, and He produced for you from the grazing livestock eight mates. He creates you in the wombs of your mothers, creation after creation, within three darknesses. That is Allah , your Lord; to Him belongs dominion. There is no deity except Him, so how are you averted?  Is this evidence for inspiration?  Hmmm….  It says here that Allah produced us from the grazing of eight livestock mates.  Interesting.  What are these three darknesses?  Are these a reference to some actual physical reality?  I suppose so in the imagination of Muslim apologists.  Which is darkness #1?  Does this passage help us out?  If this is the best “evidence” for the inspiration of the Qur’an, it is fantastically weak evidence, in my opinion.  It is a highly speculative, biased, convenient ad hoc interpretation of the passage.

As for Sura 21:33, here it is in translation: And it is He who created the night and the day and the sun and the moon; all [heavenly bodies] in an orbit are swimming.   I DEFINITELY do not see scientific wisdom here.  It contains a clear statement that the sun and the moon orbit the earth.  This is false.  In fact, the earth revolves around the sun, not vice versa.  Notice, that the Bible does not contain such obvious scientific errors.  It is odd that Muslims would try to use this as evidence of scientific reliability of the Qur’an!

And what about Sura 2:29.  Here it is in translation:  It is He who created for you all of that which is on the earth. Then He directed Himself to the heaven, [His being above all creation], and made them seven heavens, and He is Knowing of all things.  In what world is this evidence for inspiration of the Qur’an?  This reflects the false cosmology of the time, with its seven levels of heaven, which is clearly NOT true.   Probably some Muslim apologist somewhere finds a book on atmospheric sciences that divide the atmosphere arbitrarily into seven layers.  Of course, another author divides it into five and still another into four or eight.  Is this evidence of inspiration or is it evidence that Muhammad believed in the false cosmology of his day?  Notice, there is nothing like this in the Bible.  This supposed “evidence” for the inspiration of the Qur’an is in fact evidence that it is not inspired.

Therefore, my conclusion is that we do not need to seek an explanation for this supposed evidence for scientific truth in the Qur’an because there is NO EVIDENCE  here of inspired scientific knowledge.  In fact, the verses quoted are strong evidence that the Qur’an is not inspired, but that, unlike the Bible, it reflects the false cosmology Muhammad learned from his culture.

John Oakes