Introduction
Reflecting on why God chose the Arabic language to deliver His message (pt. 2) was challenging, but primary at the same time, as it is the most basic thing to do to understand the Quran. God's choice for the Arabic language, ethics and morals to take a universal presence should be the first thing a Muslim should question, but the impact of the storytelling and manipulative upbringing within the community is so present and influencing that it ends up being one thing that is not questioned. One of the reasons for that is the answers from Muslim scholars to questions, but in this series and in every part, I will shed light on these manipulations by clarifying controversies openly as it is written in the Quran. From a long list of unquestioned matters, in this part, I would like to invite the reader to doubt Earth's creation story in the Quran, if believed in it.
The modern approach of Muslim scholars to understand the Earth's creation in 'six days' is to adapt the meaning into 'six periods of time'. This method only contradicts itself, which will be clear in this post, because the adaptation of 'six periods of time' is as meaningless as 'six days', but less problematic on the surface level.
*For the chronological and scientific error that first the Earth and then the Heavens are created, you can go to part 1 where I refer to the Quran Chapter 2 and Chapter 41.
*For questioning why God's word is in Arabic, you can go to part 2 where I continue from Chapter 41 verses 1-4.
*In this post, we will question Earth's creation in six days by continuing from Chapter 41 verses 9-12.
If you have read the previous parts, you can skip the titles 'A brief difference between science and Islam' and 'Before starting: the essentials' and go to the title 'Important to know: what is a fallacy?'.
A brief difference between science and Islam
Active and progressive versus passive and conservative
Science works in different ways to actively try to get an answer to a question. If after 15 years the given answer needs an update or a complete change because of new findings, as science is a progressive field that is not worried about admitting or removing wrong approaches, it will not hesitate to do so. What the Quran and the Muslim community do is have a book full of statements and wait passively for outside active work, to put like a sticker one of the answers of, for example, science, onto a statement in their book to make the specific verse valid, less complicated, or miraculous.
Before starting: the essentials
While reading my arguments about why I left Islam, I would like the reader to keep the following questions in mind, which were inspired by Efe Aydal's video on 'Understanding atheists', to be conscious of the bare minimum form of questioning for trusting a source or labelling it as a reliable source:
Even if verses are controversial because they are 'mistranslated', they do not affect the idea that the perfect God created humans to worship Him and would burn them in the fire if they don't worship Him.
Controversial verses create a vicious circle:
if verses can be controversial because of translation problems or a wrong interpretation, why does God repeat in a lot of verses that He revealed the verses clearly?
if you read the Quran in your own language other than Arabic, and it is said to be 'insufficient' as a translation, why are the translations into other languages all the same and have the same message?
if all these translations are wrong and only specific ones are correct, why are the verses that are supposed to be revealed 'so clearly by God', so susceptible to wrong translation?
if the verses are perfect words of God, but our minds are unable to understand them, why are they written in a way that the majority cannot understand? Why are people who are not able to understand a magnificent Book being held responsible for it?
and if we say that every verse that contradicts science and ethics is a 'wrong translation', instead of saying that it is a wrong and problematic verse, then do we really derive our morality from the verses or do we attribute our own morality to the verses?
With these questions in mind, we can start looking at verses in the Quran by reading its translation and understanding the meaning of certain words that are manipulated and adapted by Muslim scholars. We will then see that controversies and mistakes are openly covered up and any Muslim that understands this will only realize for how long he has been fooled. After that, we can ask ourselves the most important question: can God make mistakes in the Book He revealed?
Important to know: what is a fallacy?
A fallacy is a misleading type of argument that is common and tempting. It is a poor way of argumentation for an idea that you defend. Manipulation is the basis of a fallacy and there are two big groups of fallacies:
Loaded language: the use of language that is not neutral
Overgeneralizing: overlooking alternatives by using too few examples
There are many types of fallacies, but they are all built by either one of these two groups of fallacies or by a combination of the two. Unfortunately, when the Quran contains controversies or mistakes, the Muslim community and Muslim scholars have used different types of fallacies for centuries to cover up the truth and let people sleep on knowledge about the world and nature by putting the theories, facts and claims that science does in a questionable position.
In this post, I will make the reader realize that some arguments of the Muslim scholars given for certain problematic verses are actually a specific type of fallacy. I will specify their approach by clarifying the type of fallacy and explaining what it means and how it is 'carefully' used.
Astronomy & Cosmology (part 2)
Earth and heavens created in six days
To discuss certain important notions that are required for the understanding of this part, I might briefly refer to other verses from other chapters in between and then come back to the general argument to have a more complete analysis of the Quran. One example would be questioning what Allah means with the word 'day' in the Quran when explaining Earth's creation in six days if the heavens, which is everything outside the Earth including the Sun, are created after the Earth. What is a day if the Earth doesn't revolve around itself around the Sun? Or... is this implying geocentrism? Even if it does, the lack of the Sun on the first days is still very problematic to understand the concept of 'day' but do not worry, geocentrism in the Quran is not the topic of this post! It is just a little spoiler for future posts, though.
Chapter 41 Fussilat 1-12
Hâ-Mĩm.
This is a revelation from the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful.
It is a Book whose verses are perfectly explained—a Quran in Arabic for people who know,
delivering good news and warning. Yet most of them turn away, so they do not hear.
They say, “Our hearts are veiled against what you are calling us to, there is deafness in our ears, and there is a barrier between us and you. So do whatever you want and so shall we!”
Say, O Prophet, “I am only a man like you, but it has been revealed to me that your God is only One God. So take the Straight Way towards Him, and seek His forgiveness. And woe to the polytheists—
those who do not pay alms-tax and are in denial of the Hereafter.
But those who believe and do good will certainly have a never-ending reward.
Ask them, O Prophet, “How can you disbelieve in the One Who created the earth in two Days? And how can you set up equals with Him? That is the Lord of all worlds.
He placed on the earth firm mountains, standing high, showered His blessings upon it, and ordained all its means of sustenance—totaling four Days exactly1—for all who ask.
Then He turned towards the heaven when it was smoke, saying to it and to the earth, ‘Submit, willingly or unwillingly.’ They both responded, ‘We submit willingly.’
So He formed the heaven into seven heavens in two Days, assigning to each its mandate. And We adorned the lowest heaven with stars like lamps for beauty and for protection. That is the design of the Almighty, All-Knowing.”
The following verses continue with how God will punish people if they turn away from His message, so I will keep our analysis until verse 12. The bold parts in black are verses that I explained in part 2. The bold parts in colours (9-12) are verses about the famous scientific mistake of Earth and the heavens' creation in six days, which is the focus of this post.
Earth and heavens' creation in six days
When browsing with the mouse on the Arabic verses, you can see the translation on top of every word or every group of words. In Arabic, a day, or day is يوم , Latinized as yawm. The word for 'two days' is يَوْمَيْنِ , Latinized as yawmayn. This word can also be seen in verse 41:9 but the translation on top of the word is manipulated as 'two periods'. Every Arabic reader knows this word means two days, but God wanted us to understand this as 'two periods of time', which is a claim made by humans in the name of God. But why is yawmayn translated as two days in every other language?
To understand how Muslim scholars manipulate the translation of 'day', we can take a look at the footnote on verse 12, which is supposed to give us an answer for why 'day' is translated as 'periods of time'. The footnote on verse 12 tells us to go to the footnote of Chapter 7:54. Let's go.
(Chapter 7:54) "Indeed your Lord is Allah Who created the heavens and the earth in six Days, then established Himself on the Throne. He makes the day and night overlap in rapid succession. He created the sun, the moon, and the stars—all subjected by His command. The creation and the command belong to Him ˹alone˺. Blessed is Allah—Lord of all worlds!"
Here we see another verse where the creation of the Earth and the heavens in six days is mentioned and repeated. Looking at the footnote of the above verse, the Muslim scholars communicate with us that the word 'day' should not only be understood as a 24-hour period. To support their reasoning, they refer to Chapters 22:47 and 70:4 where the meaning of 'day' can refer to 1,000 years or even 50,000 years. They end their reasoning with the legendary emotional quote: "... known only by Allah." Allah knows best, but we will see how humans change what Allah knows best in the following paragraphs.
When I look at the mentioned two different verses to analyse whether the word 'day' (yawm) in Arabic can mean 1,000 years or 50,000 years to understand the argument of 'periods of time', I realize that the reasoning in this footnote is the perfect and direct example of how the interpretation of the Quran is controled. I immediately had the answer to my question. Let's take a look at verses 22:47 and 70:4 to see if the reader will understand what I mean.
(Chapter 22:47) "They challenge you ˹O Prophet˺ to hasten the torment. And Allah will never fail in His promise. But a day with your Lord is indeed like a thousand years by your counting."
(Chapter 70:1-4)
"A challenger has demanded a punishment bound to come
for the disbelievers—to be averted by none—
from Allah, Lord of pathways of ˹heavenly˺ ascent,
˹through which˺ the angels and the ˹holy˺ spirit will ascend to Him on a Day fifty thousand years in length."
Both of the verses use the exact same word for 'years', but the pronunciation for both of them differs. The word 'years' in Chapter 22:47, سنة, is close to the end of the verse but not the last word of the verse, which is read as sanatin. The word 'years' in Chapter 70:4, سنة, is the exact same word and conjugation as sanatin in Chapter 22:47, but it is the last word of the verse, right before the floral verse marking at the end, thus it is read as sanah. At this point, their only difference with each other is their pronunciation.
In both of these verses, Allah clarifies exactly how many years He means. For the argument of the word 'day' having different meanings by referring to these two verses, the interpretation implies the word 'day' is also used here, but it is not. The footnote randomly refers to the fact that the Quran talks about different time concepts in different verses, but their argument to defend the adaptation of 'day' into 'periods of time' is nowhere to be found.
Poor and tempting argumentation: is it a fallacy?
The first part of this footnote in Chapter 7:54 is a form of fallacy called 'red herring', which refers to introducing secondary information to direct attention from the main subject, in this case introducing other verses to cover up the manipulative translation of the word 'day' into 'periods of time' because the verses introduced as secondary information are indeed about longer periods of time. But this mention doesn't answer why the word 'day' is manipulated into 'periods of time'. The introduced verses to defend their argument mention directly how many years the author means, while the meaning of 'day', يوم , just means day.
Looking at the verses in Chapter 41 directly with the adapted translation into 'six periods of time' is as incoherent as 'six days'. This change actually doesn't mean anything. There is no such thing as life coming into existence in six different time periods, but there are Muslim scholars who will fit stories into this claim to make it valid. I discussed this way of approach to reality in the introduction as the difference between how science and Islam work to give answers to questions.
I once listened to the explanation of a Muslim scholar dividing the meaning of 'six periods of time' into a symbolism of the five daily prayers of Muslims plus the one that they can pray as an extra between midnight and the morning prayer. The story went on as the one prayer between midnight and the morning prayer that referred to the first period of time of God's creation of Earth, being symbolic of pregnancy. The morning prayer was the second period of time, which is a baby being born and was symbolic of Earth coming into existence. And then... I admit that the way I tell the story doesn't sound that professional, but it was so tempting to listen to it. Let's jump to the fourth prayer after sunset as a symbolism of the time when the apocalypse will show and the world, humanity and everything will be messed up with wars and a sense of loss, as if this was only meant to be near the end. It is the reason why the Muslim community discusses every other century the possibility of the apocalypse because anything is suspicious to be the end of the world and the universe. This is followed by the midnight prayer as the darkest time when the apocalypse will take place. The prayer after that, which is the one I started to tell this story, meaning the one between midnight and morning prayer, is our transition to the hereafter. And the morning prayer, again, is our lives' start in the hereafter, where we will be born again, resurrected, into a new endless life.
This storytelling deserves our attention to study the way Muslim scholars divert simple words into whole structured stories. Someone who did not study philosophy where they learn the rules of argumentation and clear reasoning by questioning everyday things will never snap out of Islam's power of storytelling. To see Islam’s inconsistency, manipulations and controversies, one does not have to have a philosophical background. But the storytelling is so professional that a lot of Muslims, even with the most historical and critical educational background would need a kick to really snap out of the magic. How do you make use of a community that is avoiding basic reflection on questions because the Muslim scholars advise them to just have faith? By giving your personal translation on controversies, by creating a whole story that should be very symbolic to make it look like it's logical and ending up with the legendary conclusion that "Allah always means something deeper, but we can only understand Him to a certain point. And at the end of the day, this question is... known only by Allah."
The second part of this footnote, which is the last sentence, contains two types of fallacies, which is 1. a circular argument where the Muslim scholars conclude after only two sentences that the meaning of 'day' means 'eons of time' by argumenting without providing any external evidence and making us accept their reasoning just like that, and 2. using loaded language, which is the part where they openly manipulate the reader by saying that the truth is known only by Allah. This plays on the emotions and the Muslim community's trust that they should have for Muslim scholars, as they know better. It also leads to a general lack of curiosity for really questioning the Quran because they point out that if you do so, you are questioning Allah's knowledge, which is not to be questioned.
"Firm mountains" and "all the means of sustenance"
The division of Chapter 41 verses 9-12 in three colours symbolizes two days for every colour. When verse 9 tells us about Earth's creation in two days, verse 10 tells us about how God put the next two days firm mountains and ordained all its (the world's) means of sustenance. Geologists confirm that mountains are first of all not firm. Secondly, mountains are formed over a very long time by slow movements and also because of earthquakes, which means mountains can not be objects that are placed firmly by God. Allah could have used a better clarification to avoid this scientific mistake about His creation, but the question is why did Allah, the All-Knowing, not do that?
Evolution is not only an approach to understanding how organisms and animals have evolved into the form that they are today, but all forms of sustenance also evolve which conflicts with the idea that it all might have come into existence in two days. Some fruits and vegetables did not exist in the early stages of Earth's forming. The first humans and the humans today do not have the same ways of surviving. And what does Allah mean by 'all the means of sustenance' anyway? It is one of the other verses where adding interpretation is needed to explain how we should understand God's words, which are supposed to guide humanity clearly.
(Chapter 22:16) "And so We revealed this ˹Quran˺ as clear verses. And Allah certainly guides whoever He wills."
The second sentence in this verse, which is repeated throughout the Quran, states that Allah guides whoever He wills. This controversy will be the topic of another post coming soon.
Allah formed the seven heavens in two days
The question I would like to ask when trying to understand verse 41:12 is about the same problem throughout the beginning of Chapter 41, which is the question of what 'day' means in this context. In this regard, I do not question whether a day means 'period of time', because we left that manipulation behind by looking at the word as its meaning, which is a day. Regarding what, is two days, two days? How is a day considered a day if the Earth and the whole are still 'being created' and these verses do not mention the crucial role of the Sun in understanding a day?
Until 1781, before the discovery of the planet Uranus by William Herschel, and the later discoveries of Neptunus and Pluto by other scientists, the general understanding of planets, existence and spatial celestial bodies was symbolized by the number seven. This means every visible planet seen from Earth, including Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturnus, together with the Sun and the Moon. The Earth was not included in the counting, nor were Uranus, Neptunus (1846) and Pluto (1930) that were discovered later. This is important and one of the reasons for the symbolism of seven in the old worldview.
Today, looking at the universe or the space outside the Earth, there is no such thing as a division of that space into seven specific lengths or sections. The worldview of the seven heavens might be one of the other pieces of knowledge that the Quran took over from other books and that was also dominant in the time of Mohamed. The Earth and the seven heavens can be a nice and interesting story to understand the Quran in its context, but not relevant to our modern-day knowledge.
Conclusion
The image of God we have is All-Knowing and Almighty, as it should be for being a God. He is supposed to know more about His creation than we do, isn't He? How come God tells us stories that were relevant only during the time of Mohamed? Does God not foresee the future, as time is supposed to be one of His creations? If we agree that God should not make a mistake in the Book He revealed, we should question whether this book can be His work. If Muslim scholars did not manipulate the Muslim community with how the Quran is the perfect word of God, it would have been easier for people to open the Book and read it with plain curiosity. This is not the case with a lot of Muslims, as when they are reading the Quran, they might read a passage where there is a clear scientific mistake but they will think they did something spiritual for Allah by reading His book. A Muslim might study Chapter 41 by heart and read it during one of the prayers. Will Allah give him spiritual well-being and His love for learning and reading verses that talk about a scientific mistake that He made?
The fact that I was probably reading meaningless verses by thinking I was being spiritual disturbs me because it shows how humans are strong enough to manipulate themselves through thought and emotions. As living creatures, we are mentally very weak, until we realize we can snap out of stories and control our thoughts ourselves, for a part at least.
I hope that I could show the reader one of the ways how Muslim scholars work to manipulate Muslims into not questioning the verses. All it takes to realize the poor and tempting argumentation is to follow your instinct by daring to question and read, as Angel Gabriel commanded Mohammed to do.
Thank you
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