By Dr. Asadullah Asadi
Be very careful while reading this. It involves very delicate matters of logic. Be careful that you understand fully one part before proceeding to the next.
"Say: If the whole of mankind and jinns were to gather together to produce the like of this Qur’an, they could not produce the like thereof, even if they backed up each other with help and support." (Qur’an Al-Isra 17:88)
The part reproduced below is a part of the lecture by Gary Miller, a Canadian Mathematician: "About a hundred years ago, the foundations of mathematics seemed like they were going to collapse. It was because people found out that mathematics was contradicting itself at certain places. What they found out was that they had forgotten a very important detail, a thing called, '‘self reference'’ They had used for centuries, '‘Aristotle's rule of the excluded middle’’ That rule is a proposition which says, '‘every proposition (statement) is either true or false.' So somebody said, ‘What about that very proposition?’ It can be false according to its own principle. The principle states,’ Every proposition is either true or False. ‘It is a proposition so it could be false. They had overlooked that.
This was the fundamental crisis in mathematics a 100 years ago. A basic disturbance that affected all of logic till they repaired it.
When you ‘use a word’, it is the meaning of the word that you consider. When you ‘mention’ a word, you are talking about the word and not its meaning. For example: If I say, ‘Toronto is a big city.’ I’m talking about the word ‘Toronto’. If you are unaware of that, you can be led to a lot of difficulty, because every sentence can talk about things of names or the meaning. For example: If I said, ‘Youth comes before manhood.’ and said nothing else, I would be logically wrong because someone, can say, ‘your sentence is wrong because in the dictionary, ‘manhood’ comes before ‘youth’, ‘ Note: In the dictionary ‘Muslim’ (for manhood) comes before ‘Y’ (for youth).
This is not a trick. It is a serious point of logic. The correct construction of the above sentence should have been, ‘youth comes before manhood, except in the dictionary, ‘manhood’ comes before ‘youth’.’
So it appeared to me (Gary Miller), ‘Is the author of the Qur’an aware of this?’ Because, if the author of the Qur’an is not aware of this, he can trip himself up.
Suppose I said, ‘There is a mistake in the Bible.’ So the person to whom I said responds, ‘No there is no mistake in the Bible.’ So, Now I open the Bible and show him, ‘David made a MISTAKE.’ See there’s a ‘Mistake’ in the Bible. However this doesn’t disqualify the Bible, only because nowhere does the Bible say, ‘There is no mistake in this book.’ If the Bible had said such a thing then the Bible would have been disqualified by the very same example above, because of ‘self reference.’
Accuracy of the Qur’an:
"Do they not consider the Qur’an with care. If it had been from other than Allah (God) it would contain many contradictions (Ikhteelaafun). (Qur’an An-Nisa 4:82)
Note: The meaning of the above verse is clear. If we consider the ‘mention’ of words, where does it lead us?
The verse says, ‘If it came from other than Allah, it would contain many IKHTEELAAFUN (contradictions).’ ‘Many’ means more than one.
Lo & behold, the word Ikhteelaafun is mentioned only once in the Qur’an. Not many times but only once.
Use an index of every word of the Qur’an for checking this section. (like Al-Moojam ul Mafahris by Faud abd ul Baqi, Suhail Academy Lahore).
However someone can say. The verse says, ‘if it came from other than Allah it would contain ‘IKHTEELAFUN KASEEERAN’ (many contradictions)’, and he can point to the words and say, there you see there are the words IKHTEELAAFUN KASEERAN’.
The person who uses that argument to try to prove, that the Qur’an is from other than Allah falls into a logical pitfall, (a fallacy of thinking), the fallacy of the converse. For example ‘rain means wet streets. Wet streets (do not necessarily) mean rain.
The verse doesn’t say, ‘If they find in it IKHTEELAFUN KASEERAN (many contradictions)...’ It says, ‘If it came from other than Allah it would contain IKHTEELAFUN KASEERN (many contradiction).
The verse is simply saying, ‘A book that comes from other than Allah can contain the words IKHTEELAFUN KASEERUN (many contradictions) and so can a book of God. So the Qur’an doesn’t trip itself.
I’ll make it clear with a similar example: The Qur’an says, The true believers are those who are humble in their prayers. It does not say, those who are humble in their prayers are true believers. There are many people who say their prayers but are NOT believers (the Qur’an gives examples of many). But show me a true believer and he would most definitely have this quality. That is what the above verse means. If An Nisa 4: 82 said, ‘If it contains IKHTEELAFUN KASEERAN (many contradictions), it came from other than Allah’, then we would be in trouble.
But the verse, Alhamdulillah, does not say that. Another example, in which we’ll go in detail is:
"The example of Jesus (EESA) with Allah (God) is as the example of Adam, He created him from dust and then said to him, ‘Be’ and he was." (Qur’an Al-Imran 3:59)
Note: The meaning of the verse above is clear. As regards the ‘mention’ of words, it says that (the word) EESA is like Adam. The word EESA is mentioned in the Qur’an 25 times. Adam is also mentioned 25 times in the Qur’an. So the author of the Qur’an doesn’t trip himself.
Whenever the Qur’an says that one thing is as another, the number of times, the words and phrases, or words and words, are mentioned are the same.
"The example of them (of those who reject Our signs) is as the dog." (Al-A'raf 7: 176)
The Arabic word for dog is ‘Kalb’. The word ‘dog’ is mentioned 5 times in the Qur’an and the statement, those people who reject our signs occurs 5 times, in the Qur’an, also.
Whenever the Qur’an says, (such) is NOT LIKE (such. The number of times that the words and words, the words and statements, are present in the Qur’an is not the same.
"The blind and the seeing are not alike. Nor are the depths of darkness and the light. Nor the shade and the heart of the sun. Nor are alike those who are living and the dead." (Qur’an Fatir 35:19-22)
The word used for ‘blind’ above is Aama. It occurs in the Qur’an 11 times. The word used for ‘seeing’ above is Baseer. It occurs, in the Qur’an 9 times therefore, ‘the blind and the seeing are not alike.’
The word used for depths of darkness is Zulumaat. It occurs in the Qur’an 23 times. The word used for ‘light’ is Noor. It occurs in the Qur’an 24 times. Therefore, the depth of darkness is not as the light.
Similarly check for the other references. The results are the same. However when we come to the verse:
"Say: The evil (Khabees) and the good (Tayyab) are NOT alike. (Al-Ma'idah 5:100)
Here when we check, the word, ‘Khabees’ is mentioned in the Qur’an 7 times. And the word ‘Tayyab’ is also mentioned in the Qur’an 7 times. Where lies the problem?
"The evil and the good are not alike, even though the PLENTY of the evil AMAZES thee. So be careful of your duty to Allah, O men of understanding so that you may succeed." (Qur’an Al-Ma'idah 5: 100)
So if we are careful, we notice that Allah says:
"That Allah may separate the evil from the good (Tayyab) and place the Khabees (evil) ONE UPON ANOTHER and so HEAP THEM UP all together, and put them in hell. Such verily are the losers." (Al-Anfal 8: 37)
If we heap up all the Khabees (evil) including plural and the roots (of the word ‘Khabees’ mentioned in the Qur’an) what we find is that the word Khabees (evil) is mentioned in the Qur’an 16 times as against the 7 of the Tayyab (good) that we counted earlier. Therefore the Khabees (evil) and the Tayyab (good) are not alike, even though the PLENTY (16 as against 7) of the Khabees (evil) amaze thee!
This discovery in the Qur’an proves: The Qur’an cannot be the work of any man or mankind together. The Qur’an contains no additions or deletions and is present in full. The number of occurrence of the verse which says, this is like that is the same between both words, and word and phrase. For example: The verse, which says that ‘Jesus is like Adam’ is the number 7th time both Jesus is mentioned and the 7th time Adam is mentioned.
Information from Voice of Islam - April 1999