There is a myth that is widely accepted by Muslims that the Quran contains dozens of what they call ‘numerical miracles.’ According to the myth, the number of times the Quran mentions certain words carries special significance. Muslims believe that the abundance of such interesting patterns in the Quran cannot possibly happen by chance and must be a miracle. The myth is fairly new; in fact it is a computer based myth because it only came to light after the computers became widely available to Muslims. It is remarkable that whenever Muslims meet a new technology, it becomes a priority for them to adapt it to have a useful Islamic application. They have a long track record to support such a salient observation. The following are a few examples:

• When Muslims had access to printing machines, a few centuries ago, the first priority was to print the Quran.

• When Muslims had access to watches, the first priority was to ask the manufacturers to adapt them for Islamic use by adding an azan (call for prayer) facility.

• When Muslims had access to loud speakers, the first priority was to use them day and night for azan, prayers and recitations of the Quran.

• When Muslims had access to modern compasses, they asked the manufacturers to customize them to display the qibla(Mecca direction).

• When Muslims had access to mobile phones, the first priority was to ask the manufacturers to adapt them to play the azan (call for prayers) on time.

• When Muslims had access to radio and television broadcasting, they employed them to broadcast the Quran and other Islamic material.

• When Muslims had access to medical research, they employed it to prove the accuracy of the so-called prophetic medicine, which advocates healing through reading some verses from the Quran and drinking a glass of camel’s urine.

• When Muslims learned about the science of geology, they used it to prove that Mecca is at the center of the earth.

• When Muslims had access to the Internet, the first priority was to use it to propagate Islam by creating thousands of websites to propagate Islam and Islamic culture, like beheadings and destroying others’ websites. 

Therefore, it was only natural that when Muslims had access to computers and word processing softwares, their priority was to apply it to the Quran for the purpose of digging out some new miracles. 
 

The Background

Few decades ago, Rashad Khalifa, who was an American Muslim and founder of the Submission sect, claimed that the Quran is based on the number 19. Khalifa used complex calculations to claim that the Quranic verses, suras and letters have some kind of connection, no matter how remote, with the number 19. Despite the weird and confusing methods used in Khalifa’s deceitful work, the numbers did not add up. He even decided to remove some verses from the Quran in his frantic attempts to support his claim. With no regard for the Ummah’s sensitivity and the rage Rashad Khalifa removed verses 9:128 and 9:129 from the Quran. Khalifa became so obsessed with his theory that he eventually claimed that his own name was encrypted in the Quran as a messenger from Allah. He was killed shortly after that, of course by other Muslims.  
 

Here are a few verses where he has inserted his name: 

25:56] .We have sent you (Rashad) as a deliverer of good news, as well as a warner

[36:3] Most assuredly, you (Rashad) are one of the messengers.

[42:24] Are they saying, "He (Rashad) has fabricated lies about GOD!"? If GOD willed, He could have sealed your mind, but GOD erases the falsehood and affirms the truth with His words. He is fully aware of the innermost thoughts.

[81:22] Your friend (Rashad) is not crazy.
 

When computers became widely available, more Muslims indulged in a frenzy of discovering interesting patterns in the Quran. The abundant Arab oil money encouraged any work on anything that remotely suggests a scientific miracle in the Quran. Without any peer review, such works are always welcome for publication in the Islamic press. Currently, there are dozens of such claims that are considered by Muslims to be coded signals from Allah to help them believe in the divinity of the Quran.   
 

This is how the deception works: 

The Muslim’s strategy in claiming a miracle in the Quran is to overwhelm and confuse the reader. When Muslim scholars write about a scientific miracle in the Quran, they start by haranguing the reader with many scientific details that neither the readers nor the writers understand, but it gives the impression that there is some serious science involved in this Islamic stuff. The lengthy scientific introduction prepares the Islamic brain to accept whatever they will claim next. In the case of numerical miracles, the Muslim scholars do not publish one claim at a time, but dozens of them in a long list, such as:

• The word yum (day) is repeated 365 times

• The word shahar (month) is repeated 12 times

• The word malayka (angels) is repeated 88 times, on the other hand, the word Shaytan (Satan) is repeated 88 times.

• The word hayat (life) is repeated 145 times, on the other hand, the word Mawt (death) is repeated 145 times

• The word bihar (seas) mentioned 32 times, while barr(land) mentioned 13 times. This ratio of 32: 13 is the ratio of surface area of seas to that of land.

• And so on… 
   

The list may go on for pages and is designed to stun the reader. The length of the list intimidates the besieged reader from investigating any of the claims, because even with the assumption that some of the claims were incorrect, still there are too many of them to be explained on the basis of coincidence alone. It would never occur to the readers that most, if not all, of such claims are false. The errors are not the result of innocent mistakes in counting but are deliberate fabrication by those Muslims who make or propagate the claims to mislead their readers. Whenever those Muslims are reminded that their numbers are wrong they never apologize, but try all means to justify their count.

Investigating any of the above claims can be a very tricky exercise. The Arabic language is probably the most difficult when it comes to word search. In Arabic, the same word can come in different forms, which is all controlled by the Arabic grammar. For example, the word yum (Arabic for day), in the first example in the above list, may appear in many other forms with no difference in the meaning. The word yum may appear as alyum, yamun, yawman, yawmin, yawmikum, yawmihum, biyawmin, biyawmihim, and many more! Therefore, performing word search/ word count in Arabic requires some fluency in the language. There are few computer programs available to help in this task but they do not always give the same results. The most accurate way to count is to read the whole Quran every time you want to count a word, but no Muslims bother to do that in the presence of computers. However, the major trick in Arabic word counting is to choose the forms of the word that you like to include in your count. In the case of the word yum in the above example, missing one or two forms of the word can make all the difference without being noticed.

All the claims in the above list are wrong. Depending on the forms of the word yum you include in your count, you can get results ranging from 3 to 385, in the case of the word shahar (month) you get results ranging from 8 to 18. As to the counts of the word malayka (angels) and the word Shaytan (Satan) both counts are wrong, the word shaytan is repeated 77 times while the word malayka is repeated only 44 times. The Islamic claim that the mentioning of the words bihar (seas) and barr(land) comes in a ratio of 32:13, which is the ratio of surface area of seas to that of land,  is also a completely false claim. The word bihar is actually mentioned 41 times in the Quran, not 32.

I am afraid the Islamic claim of a coded signal in the Quran to prove its divinity is nothing more than a damning proof of Muslims’ fraudulence. It is also laughable to imagine how Allah would tell off the unbelievers, according to the Islamic beliefs, on the judgment day. He would say to them “ didn’t you notice that I mentioned the words seas and land in the ratio of 32:13?”

Many of the Muslims who actively propagate claims similar to the above, never actually check the numbers for themselves; their job is merely to copy and paste somebody else’s work. Probably they were stunned when they read the numbers for first time and expect others to be equally astounded by the findings. They naively think they have unearthed a treasure of science and mathematics. Nothing can be more disappointing to them than being told its all fake!

The numerical patterns in the Quran are no more frequent and no more interesting than in any other book of the same size. It is useless to debate such issues with Muslims, and it is a waste of time to investigate the claims they make. However, as I was busy performing the above word counts for the sake of this article, I stumbled upon some other interesting numerical findings, which Muslims can add to their collection of miracles.

The first finding is that the name Mohammed is mentioned four times in the Quran. This is not a computer finding, but an unquestionable fact known to Muslims for centuries. There is also another name that is mentioned four times in the Quran and it happens to be the name of the most hated animal in Islam. Yes you guessed it, it is khanzeer, the Arabic name for pigs! Does it get any more interesting? Yes it does, as more word search reveals an interesting word that is also repeated four times in the Quran and it is the Arabic word kazzab(liar). Can this happen by chance? Mohammed, pig, liar- or was it meant to be Mohammed big liar?  subhan allah!

The second interesting finding is to look at the number of times Mohammed’s titles, that is Rasul and Nabi, were mentioned in the Quran. The word rasul(messenger) is mentioned twice, the other form of the word al rasul (the messenger) is mentioned 45 times. The word nabi( prophet) is mentioned seven times and the other form of the word al nabi ( the prophet) is mentioned thirty times. The total number of mentioning Mohammed’s titles is 84 times. On the other hand, the number of times the following words are mentioned in the Quran is also 84 times: kazzaba (25 times), iftarahu (7 times), iftara (14 times)(all of which mean lied), kazzab (4 times), affak (2 times) ( all of which mean liar), majnun (6 times)( means mad), saher (7 times), asharr (2 times), atheem(5 times), muatadi (3 times), mureeb (7 times), zalim (2 times)(all of which are evil descriptions). Subhana allah!

Here is the details of Allah’s number miracle:

Mohammed (4):  3:144, 3:40, 47:2, 48:29

Pigs (4):  2:173, 5:3, 16: 115, 5:60 plural

Kazzab( 4):  38:4, 40:24, 40:28, 54:25

Kazzba (25):  3:184, 6:21, 6:148, 6:157, 7:37, 10:17, 10:39, 12:18, 15:80, 17:59, 20: 48, 25:11, 26:176, 29:18, 29:68, 35:25, 38:14, 39:25, 39:32, 50: 14, 53:11, 67:18, 75:32, 92:16, 96:13.

Iftarahu (7): 10: 38, 11:13, 11:35, 21:5, 25:4, 32:3, 46:8

Iftara (14):  3:94, 4:48, 6:21, 6:93, 6:144, 7:37, 10:17, 11:18, 18:15, 20:61, 23:38, 29:68, 42:24, 61:7.

Affak (2): 26:222, 45:7

Majnun (6): 37:36, 44:14, 51:39, 51:52, 52:29, 54:9.

Saher (7): 7:112, 10:79, 20:69, 38:4, 40:24, 51:39, 51:52.

Asharr(2): 54:25, 72:10.

Atheem(5): 2:276, 26:222, 45:7, 68:12, 83:12. 
 

Mutadi(3): 50:25, 68:12, 83:12.

Mureeb (7): 11:68, 11:110, 14:9, 34:54, 41:45, 42:14, 50:25.

Zalim(2): 18:35, 35:32.