Symmetry in the Quran

Symmetry in the Quran is the belief held by some Muslims, that the word and verse structure of the Quran exhibits such complicated symmetry that it could be neither random placements, nor the intentional work of man, but rather proof of "the will of God".^[1] There are many examples of such symmetry. Using a program called QuranCode ^[2] and other analysis programs, scholars have found many patterns.

An example is that chapter 76, called Al-Insan, has 247 words, and three mentions of the word silver. The middle word of the chapter is word number 124, which is the word "silver". It is in a verse that is the middle verse of the chapter (verse 16 of 31), and it is the third of five words of the verse.^[3]

Some of this symmetry is caused by the significance of the number 19 in Islam. It is claimed that if all the numbers mentioned in the Quran are added up, their sum is 162,146, which is 19 times 6534; That there are 114 (19 times 6) Surahs; that Muhammad's first revelation consists of a verse that has 19 words and 76 (4 times 19) letters.^[4]

Symmetry in Quranic linguistics

Another aspect of the Quran's symmetry, which was discovered using linguistic computer searching algorithms (Quran Corpus, an open-source software), includes the number of times certain words and their forms are used in the whole Quran. Some of these symmetrical patterns include:

• “al hayat” (life), 145 times; “al mawt” (death), 145 times.

145÷ life & death [2]= 72.5 the average global human life.

• “al-dunya” (mundane life), 115 times; “al akhira” (the afterlife), 115 times
• “malaika” (angels), 88 times; “shayatin” (demons), 88 times
• “ar rajul (man), 24 times; “al mar’a (woman), 24 times
• “as salihat (good deeds), 167 times; “as sayya’at” (wrong doings), 167 times
• “qul” (say), 332 times; “qalu” (said), 332 times
• “an nas” (people), 50 times; “an nabiya” (prophets), 50 times
• “al muslimat” (Muslim women), 41 times; “al muslimin” (Muslim men), 41 times
• "yawma-izhin" (That day), 70 times; "qiyama" (Judgment day), 70 times
• "dunya" (near), 115 times; "akhira" (far), 115 times
• "shitaa" (winter), 1 time; "sayf" (summer), 1 time
• "Isa" (Yahushua), 25 times; "Adam", 25 times
• The Quran says there are seven heavens above us, sometimes described as seven layers (23:17). We are in the lowest of these layers (دنيا), so the Quran is basically saying that there are six layers "above" the one we are in. The phrase ‘seven heavens’ is used in the whole Quran exactly seven times: 2:29, 41:12, 65:12, 67:3, 71:15, 17:44, and 23:86.^{[citation needed]}
• "Muslims circumambulate around the Qibla, seven times during pilgrimage. The word ‘Qibla’ is used in the whole Quran exactly seven times: 2:142:8, 2:143:15, 2:144:8, 2:145:10, 2:145:14, 2:145:18, and 10:87:12".
• The words "Sea" and "Land" are used 32 and 13 times respectively in the Quran. 32 plus 13 equals 45, and the two words make up 71.1 and 28.9 percent respectively of those 45. These percentages roughly correspond to what we today know the proportion of the Earth's surface made up of water and land to be.
• "Human being" is used 65 times: the sum of the number of references to the stages of man's creation is the same:

• al-Fatihah in itself has 7 verses, 3.5 dedicated towards our praise of the Omnipotent, and the next 3.5 dedicated towards our prayers to the Omnipotent.
• The words “salawat” (prayers) and "aqimis-salah" (establish prayer) are mentioned 5 times in the Quran, the same as the number of mandatory daily prayers.
• The word "alwan" (colors) is written 7 times, the same as the number of colors of the rainbow.
• The words "samawat" + "sab" (heavens + seven) are written together 7 times, the same as the number of heavens described in the Quran.
• There are 365 days in a year. The word "yawm" (day in singular) is written exactly 365 times.
• There are 12 months in a year. The word "shahr" (month in singular) is written exactly 12 times: [2:185] [2:194] [2:217] [5:2] [5:97] [9:36] [97:3]
• There are 19 years in the metonic cycle. The word "sanah" (year in singular) is written exactly 19 times.

Criticism

Some Islamic scholars have argued against this idea on both factual/methodological and religious grounds. Islamqa.info (supervised by Shaykh Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid) mentions two issues:

Firstly... All of that is toying with the Book of Allaah which is caused by ignorance of the true nature of the miracle of the Book of Allaah. Secondly: By examining the statistics presented by those who have published these numbers, we find that they did not get the numbers of some phrases right, and some of them have been selective in the way they counted the words, and that is so that they might reach the conclusion they want and that they think is in the Book of Allaah...^[5]

This second point is not only a flaw methodology, but leads to theological issues as well. Shaykh Dr. Khaalid al-Sabt quotes from Dr. Ashraf ‘Abd al-Razzaaq Qatanah's “study of the numerical miracles in the Holy Qur’aan” which concludes:

As the result of my study I reached the idea that the “numerical miracle” as presented in these books is not real at all, and these books are based on conditions that are sometimes selective , in order to prove the validity of this view in a way that will make the reader accept these preconceived results referred to above. These selective conditions sometimes lead the author to go against that which is proven according to the consensus of the ummah, such as going against the spelling of the ‘Uthmaani Mus-haf, which is not permissible at all; or adopting the spelling of some words which appears in some Mus-hafs and without paying attention to the spellings in other Mus-hafs. It also goes against basic principles of the Arabic language with regard to synonyms and antonyms.^[5]

Dr. Zahid Aziz goes through a number of examples, and concludes:

I think I have now wasted enough space and time to demonstrate the absurdity of these claims that there is some special significance underlying the number of times these words occur in the Quran. In the first place, there is no rule or principle for determining which word or concept must always occur a special number of times. Secondly, the criteria for selecting which occurrences of a word should be counted are highly subjective, dubious and always open to challenge. Most importantly, we gain no increased knowledge about, or insight into, any teaching of Islam from knowing the number of occurrences.^[6]

See also

• Bible code
• Numerology

References

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