Sunday, June 28, 2020

Two Contradictions in Allah's Creation Story

The literary perfection of the Qur'an is a widely-held tenet of Muslims.  The Qur'an is written with “clear proofs” or “clear signs”; the Qur’an is meant to be clear.  But it is easy to show the Qur'an often uses imprecise language historical inaccuracies and, in places, flatly contradicts itself.  This makes the Qur’an anything but clear. 

Below I point out two contradictions in the Qur’an on the topic of Allah’s creation.

Was Satan Created from Water or Fire?: The Qur'an claims that Allah created every living creature from water (Qur'an 24:45).  Some versions of Qur'an state this verse with not "every living creature" but "every animal".  Clarifying the language, the Arabic is actually "every daaba" which means that every living creature is created of water.

But notably, this verse forgets about Satan.  Satan was created from fire.   In the following verse, Satan thought he was better than man so he refused to prostrate himself before Adam.  This is Satan’s response:

He said, “I am better than him. You created me from fire, and created him from clay.” Qur'an 38:76, Usmani

In surah 18:50, Satan (Iblis) is described as a jinn.  Jinns are living creatures (Qur’an 51:56).  According to this hadith, Jinn are said to have lived on the earth, and can actually become Muslims.   


The jinn are even known to have sex with women:

In them there will be maidens restraining (their) glances, whom neither a man might have touched before them, nor a Jinn. Qur'an 55:56, Usmani

(Aside: Al Tabari’s commentary on this verse says that, “When a man has intercourse with his wife and does not name [Allah], the jinn coils around his urethra and has intercourse along with him.”  This is a disgusting thought, and shows Muslims can be a very superstitious lot.  Reference is here. )

So the Qur'an has an apparent contradiction here.  Either the language of the Qur'an is imprecise or Mohammed somehow forgot that Satan was created from fire.

More information on the contradiction on Satan’s creation is here.


Do All Living Creatures have Two Legs or Four Legs?: Muhammad seems to exclude insects and spiders as not being part of his creation in surah 24:45.  

Allah has created every moving creature from water. So, some of them move on their bellies; and some of them move on two legs, and some of them move on four. Allah creates what He wills.  Surely, Allah is powerful over everything. Qur'an 24:45, Usmani

The context in this verse at the start is "every living creature".  The verse mentions creatures that "walk on their bellies", creatures with two legs and with four legs, but no mention of creatures with six or eight legs.  There is no mention of the centipede.  These too are Allah's creation.  The context of the verse is all living creatures. This leads to an apparent contradiction.  The omissions impact the literal quality of the verse.

Another point, the English versions of the Qur'an say that "some of them MOVE on their bellies".  However, the language issue is that the Arabic actually uses the word “yamshi” for "walk".  This is a problem because snakes don't walk.

Do you think these examples are consistent with literary perfection of the Qur'an? 

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