Selective Choice of Words Used
The first one is the selective choice of words to
interpret as miracles. If for a certain word
there exists a nice number of repetitions, then
it is mentioned and included as a miracle. If
no nice number of repetitions exist, it is not
mentioned and discarded. By only mentioning
the instances where there are "nice
repetitions" one gets the impression that there
is something special about it, while
statistically the same probability of finding
similar "miracles" exists in all texts.
Selective Choice of Grammatical Forms
Counted
The second way of manipulating data is the
selective choice of which Arabic grammatical
forms are to be counted. Are just singular
forms counted? Or also plural forms? Duals?
Forms with or without prefix? And so on. By
choosing different ways of counting, you get a
lot of different results. Of course, those who
claim there are "word repetition miracles in
the Qur'an" will not tell you that they have
chosen a specific way of counting words to get
the desired result.
The 365 days Maths Miracle [ edit]
One of the most popular claims is that the
word "yawm" (singular of day) is repeated 365
times in the Qur'an, its plural and dual forms
"days" (ayyam and yawmayn) together are
repeated 30 times, while the number of
repetitions of the word "month" (shahar) is 12.
Analysis
Islamic Miracle Using Christian Calendar
The first flaw with this claim is the fact that
the Islamic calendar consists of 354 or 355
days a year,[1] so these apologists are
effectively favoring Christianity by their use of
the Gregorian calendar, which consists of 365
or 366 days.
Manipulated Data
These counts are manipulated, generally in
unstated ways, to produce the desired totals.
Most individuals will not take the time needed
to count and verify the claim themselves, so
they may assume on good faith that it is true.
When you check with word count software, the
total "yawm" concordance finds 475 mentions,
not 365. However, this includes the dual and
plural forms. Of all the different forms of
"yawm," 3 are in the dual and 27 are in the
plural. [2] If you have a database program with
easy formats you can easily counter this lie
too and find out that all forms with suffixes
are discarded on Islamic websites.
Furthermore, the word yawm in most of its
occurrences in the Qur'an does not mean a 24
hour day. For example, the Day of Judgment
is mentioned a very large number of times in
different ways.
Burden of Proof
We could claim that the word " Allah" has been
mentioned 666 times on WikiIslam and
therefore Islam is false (since in some cultures,
666 represents the number of the devil). If we
cannot list all the occurrences of the word by
showing where it occurs for each of those 666
times, then our claim is unproven. There is not
a single website that lists all the occurrences
of the word "day" in the Qur'an showing it to
be 365 times.
Conclusion
There is no miracle to be found here.
Apologists have manipulated data and used
an un-Islamic method of counting days within
a year to make the (unverified) numbers "fit".
But let's say for a moment the 365
occurrences of the word "yawm" is a
mathematically sound citation. If this was
discovered at a time when people did not
know how many days there were in a year
then it may be considered a miracle, but
calenders have existed since 3000 BC, and the
Julian calendar (which consisted of 365 or
366 days) began in 45 BC. [3]
This is one of the most oft-quoted but there
are more such dubious mathematical claims
but they are equally deceitful. But putting that
aside, even if day or yawm was mentioned 365
times in the Qur'an, would that mean it is
from Allah?
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