Is The Quran A Miracle?

All Muslims believe that the Quran is a miracle.

In what way is it a miracle? Muslims say, it is because it was given by Allah to Muhammad. How is that a miracle? Anyone can make stupendous claims of seeing and hearing strange things in dark caves, especially when there is no one else around. I can claim a UFO landed at the back of my house but no one else saw it. What a miracle!

A miracle is something undeniably supernatural. Anyone and everyone who sees it, recognizes it as such. For example, remember when Jesus fed a crowd of thousands with a few loaves of bread? Now THAT was a miracle. People witnessed it with their own eyes and they ate the bread. No one could explain the powerful miracle!

After the Israelites fled from Egypt, God supplied them with bread in the desert. One minute they were hungry. The next they had all the food they could eat! Miracle!

I look at the Quran on my desk and ask how is it a miracle. Muslims say, well, the Quran is a miracle but you need to read and understand it in Arabic. You mean, the Quran is only a miracle to those who can read and understand Arabic? That does not sound like an impressive miracle at all. it is not a miracle if you need to read, understand, explain, interpret, translate. A miracle is recognized even by the uneducated.

When Jesus raised the dead, everyone who saw it KNEW without a doubt it was a miracle. You did not need to know a language, vocabulary, grammar, poetry or wait for an imam to explain a verse to you to recognize a miracle.

Actually, even those during Muhammad’s time, were not impressed by the Quran. Here is what Allah admitted:

” And when Our revelations are recited unto them they say: We have heard. If we wish we can speak the like of this. Lo! this is naught but fables of the men of old. “

Sura 8:31

In other words, the people who heard the Quran in Arabic, directly from Muhammad himself, did not consider it a miracle! In fact, they disparaged it as fables. Think about it. If Muhammad’s own people rejected it and did not recognize it as a miracle then, what would cause anyone else to see it as a miracle?

Don’t forget that those folks spoke the language of the Quran everyday! If anyone can recognize any supposed Quranic miracle in Arabic, it would have been them! (By the way, the Arabic of the Quran is not even the Arabic spoken today. The Quran uses Classical Arabic, which no one uses in daily conversations today.)

Statistics show that even among Muslims, only about 16% read, speak, write and understand modern Arabic (not even Classical Arabic). Out of 1.8 billion Muslims, only about 288 million are Arab speakers. In other words, more than 1.5 billion Muslims do not know Arabic. Can they see any Arabic miracle in the Quran? (By the way, do they blindly recite words they do not understand?)

How can Muslims tell the rest of the 5.9 billion people of the world who are not Muslims and do not know the language of the Quran, that the Quran in Arabic is a miracle from Allah?

When we look closely at the Quran, it doesn’t even come close to being a miracle. I am talking about ABROGATIONS. If the Quran is a miracle and the perfect words of Allah, how can it contain such inconsistencies?

“None of Our revelations do We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, but We substitute something better or similar: Knowest thou not that Allah Hath power over all things?”

Sura 2:106

If the Quran is a miracle from Allah and is “perfect”, how can there be something “better” than perfect? This obviously means it was not perfect in the first place! Then Allah thinks up of something “better” and brings it as substitute. Is this a miracle? Sounds more like an excuse to explain away discrepancies and contradictions.

Not only does Allah claim he would bring something better but he said could also bring something SIMILAR! What??? Why??? Is there any logical reason to replace a verse with another SIMILAR verse? If it is going to be similar, why substitute it at all??? Could Allah not make up his mind the first time?

It gets worse. Not only does Allah substitute verses, he causes his words to be forgotten. Does this make sense? Allah reveals a verse and then he causes it to be forgotten.

Ibn ’Abbas himself said, “Sometimes the revelation used to descend on the prophet during the night and then he forgot it during daytime, thus God sent down this verse: Surah 2:106.”

Jalaluddin Al-Suyuti Asbab al-Nuzul, p. 19:

This is remarkable. Allah revealed a verse to Muhammad in the night and and by morning, Allah made him forget it.

Why reveal a verse at night and then abrogate it in the day time? What logical reason could there be for such action? What happened during the night that made it necessary for Allah to change his mind about the verse?

This is too ridiculous beyond words! Could it be that Muhammad simply forgot the verse and put the blame on Allah for making him forget it? Or could it be that Allah could not decide what verse to send and when. Either way, that would make Muhammad a fraud, Allah a fake and the Quran a fabrication.