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Historical Errors in the Quran: Difference between revisions
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→Humans lived for hundreds of years: Have added 'Judgement day would be close to Muhammad's time' as a historical error (and false prediction), citing academic sources and linking to the same error in the hadith.
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The oldest verified human life was a little over 120 years. Based on fossil records and testing on human remains, anthropologists have concluded that human life spans are increasing rather than decreasing in both the long- and short- run. By contrast, the Qur'an states that Noah lived for almost 1,000 years. The idea of humans living for hundreds of years in the past is accompanied by the many hadiths, including accounts in Sahih Bukhari, which describe Adam as being 90 feet tall. The general doctrine appears to be that ancient humans were both gigantic as well as long-living.{{Quote|{{Quran|29|14}}| | The oldest verified human life was a little over 120 years. Based on fossil records and testing on human remains, anthropologists have concluded that human life spans are increasing rather than decreasing in both the long- and short- run. By contrast, the Qur'an states that Noah lived for almost 1,000 years. The idea of humans living for hundreds of years in the past is accompanied by the many hadiths, including accounts in Sahih Bukhari, which describe Adam as being 90 feet tall. The general doctrine appears to be that ancient humans were both gigantic as well as long-living.{{Quote|{{Quran|29|14}}| | ||
We (once) sent Noah to his people, and he tarried among them '''a thousand years less fifty''': but the Deluge overwhelmed them while they (persisted in) sin. }} | We (once) sent Noah to his people, and he tarried among them '''a thousand years less fifty''': but the Deluge overwhelmed them while they (persisted in) sin. }} | ||
=== Judgement day would be close to Muhammad's time === | |||
The idea of judgment day being imminent was a common belief in late antiquity, with many prominent Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian writings preaching the eschaton (the purposeful end of the world as part of Gods divine plan for judgement day) was about to happen, which continued in early Islam.<ref>For examples of sudden end times being promised due to political movements in Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrianism literature in the centuries preceding Islam, see Shoemaker, Stephen J. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv16t6jmh. ''The Apocalypse of Empire: Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam.''] University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. Chapters 1 - 4 | |||
And for early Islam, see chapters 5 and 6.</ref> Muhammad preached this belief in the Qur'an.<ref>Ibid. pp. 124-132</ref> | |||
{{Quote|{{Quran|54|1}}|<b>The Hour has drawn near</b> and the moon is split.}} | |||
(See also e.g. {{Quran|40|18}} and {{Quran|53|57}} where it's imminence/closeness is implied in the words ''azifati / āzifat''<ref>Lane's Lexicon Quranic Research [https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/data/01_A/067_Azf.html for root ازف] | |||
Lane's Lexicon Classical Arabic Dictionary [https://lexicon.quranic-research.net/pdf/Page_0053.pdf أَزِفَتِ / (ءَازِفَة Book 1. pp 53.]</ref>) | |||
Some take {{Quran|54|1}} as a future prediction of a sign of judgment day, however Neuwirth (2024) notes the issue with interpreting this as a future event is not based on the Qur'an words but later traditions.<ref>Neuwirth, Angelika. ''The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1: Early Middle Meccan Suras: The New Elect (pp. 57-58).'' Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.</ref> Alongside the [[Scientific Errors in the Quran#Moon%20split%20in%20two|moon splitting in this verse]], which given the dubious scientific issues and lack of sighting's from anywhere else in the world, modern academics have noted was most likely referring to a celestial phenomenon like a lunar eclipse,<ref>Ibid. pp. 56 - 57 | |||
(Citing Uri Rubin who suggests a partial lunar eclipse, who also notes Rudi Paret came to the same conclusion in ''“Muhammad’s message in Mecca: warnings, signs, and miracles" [The case of the splitting of the moon (Q 54:1-2)].'' in Jonathan E. Brockopp, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Muhammad (Cambridge, 2010), 39-60. Uri Rubin. Rudi Paret's opinion is noted in footnote 9 pp. 44.</ref> given as a sign of the hour close to happening, which the Meccans rejected due to it seemingly being unrelated to Muhammad.<ref>Ibid. pp. 57</ref> The hours non-arrival seemed to be a repeated source of contention with his audience, with opponents regularly questioning when it would arrive, and questioning why the punishment that was promised to them has not yet come.<ref>Shoemaker, Stephen J.. ''The Death of a Prophet (Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion) (p. 161-163).'' University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.. Kindle Edition. | |||
(For example Q79:42, and he is told to hasten it in Q29:53, cf: Q11:8, and questioned as why the punishment promised to them hasn't come in Q7:70, 77; Q10:48; Q13:6; Q21:38; Q22:47; Q46:22).</ref> Though one might point out there may appear to be tension with the creation of a law-giving prophet and community building in the Medinan Qur'an, Shoemaker and Cook point out those preaching the end of the world often also preached living righteously until the hour arrived.<ref>Ibid. pp. 159</ref> | |||
Alongside the plain meaning of the text, there is ample evidence this belief was held by many early Muslims too, including very early canonical and sahih rated hadith (''see: [[Scientific Errors in the Hadith#Failed%20eschatological%20predictions|failed eschatological predictions in the hadith]]'') with more cited by Shoemaker.<ref>Shoemaker, Stephen J. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv16t6jmh. ''The Apocalypse of Empire: Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam.''] University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018. pp. 131-132 & pp. 142-144</ref> There are also many other non-canonical but early (within the first century of Islam) traditions stating the end of the eschaton would occur within Muhammad's lifetime or shortly after,<ref>Shoemaker, Stephen J.. ''The Death of a Prophet (p. 174-178).'' Kindle Edition.</ref> in other sources such biographical 'seerah' material<ref>Ibid. & Shoemaker, Stephen J. 2018. ''The Apocalypse of Empire: Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam. pp. 142-144.''</ref> Later Islamic scholars like al-Tabari would often use metaphorical interpretations of these to reconcile the continued passage of time by pushing the predicted end date into the future.<ref>Shoemaker, Stephen J. 2018. ''The Death of a Prophet (p. 173-174).'' Kindle Edition. | |||
[Note the following numerical symbolism interpretation of the eschatological hadith are also false predictions as this would move judgment day to no later than ~1,132AD (As 500 years after Muhammad's death being traditionally recorded in 632AD)] | |||
"Perhaps the most famous effort to reconcile the two fingers tradition with the Hour’s delay occurs at the beginning of al-Ṭabarī’s History, where he rather cleverly deploys this tradition in order to place his work within an extended version of Islam’s eschatological calendar.<sup>231</sup> This he achieves by transforming these eschatological warnings of imminent doom into an orderly model of historical periodization that frames his historical narrative. ''Al-Ṭabarī here concludes that since the index finger is one-fourteenth shorter than the middle finger, and the total length of the world’s existence is known to be seven thousand years, Muhammad clearly meant to signal that the Hour would arrive five hundred years after him, thus leaving another two hundred years or so beyond al-Ṭabarī before the world would come to an end.'' In the same context, al-Ṭabarī also identifies a second eschatological tradition that he employs to similar effect. According to this report, Muhammad once addressed his followers at a time “when the sun had almost set and only a small sliver of it remained visible,” and he explained to them that “as compared to what remains of our world, that which has passed is like what remains of this day as compared to what has passed of it, and you will see only a little (more) of the sun.”<sup>232</sup> The eschatological immediacy of this ḥadīth is rather clear, and once again it seems quite unlikely that such a prediction would have been ascribed to Muhammad very long after his death. ''Yet here al-Ṭabarī deploys a similar hermeneutic strategy that enables him again to push the Hour into the future. When Muhammad spoke these words, according to al-Ṭabarī, the day was half past, and since a day with God is as a thousand years, the Hour’s advent could be expected five hundred years after the time when Muhammad spoke. In this way, what was presumably a very early expression of Islamic belief in the Hour’s immediacy could be reconciled with the centuries that had elapsed between Muhammad’s warnings and al-Ṭabarī himself.'' By reinterpreting the tradition’s “small sliver” of the sun as somehow the equivalent of midday, al-Ṭabarī postpones the Hour into a distant future."</ref> | |||
Given we are still here more than a millennium after it was stated, we can say like other contemporary preachers who thought they were at the end of history, this prediction was not historically accurate. | |||
===Ancient Mosque in Jerusalem=== | ===Ancient Mosque in Jerusalem=== | ||