محمد سلامة المصري
Member
أرسل لي أحدهم قائمة طويلة من الشبهات بالإنجليزية (بسبب نشاطي الدعوي على موقع "ريديت") وطلب أن أرد عليها، ففعلت. وللفائدة ها هي الشبهات والردود.
المعتاد في الأوساط الدعوية عند التعامل مع مثل هذه الشبهات هو اللجوء لردود ضعيفة مكررة لا تقنع الباحث الجاد.
مثال: الشبهة الأولى عن عدم وجود أدلة تاريخية في البلاد الأخرى على انشقاق القمر. الرد المعتاد قصه ولصقه في هذه الحالة هو الإشارة لإشارة عابرة في مخطوطة هندية أو لرسم على جدار في أمريكا الجنوبية. وهي إشاراى علاقتها بالحادثة موضع شك، سواء بالنظر لزمن تدوينها أو لمحتواها نفسه المقطوع من السياق.. وبسهولة يمكن لأي ملحد مجتهد يعرف أصول البحث والتحري أن يشكك فيها.
مثال آخر: لم يثبت العلم أن الجبال تثبت الأرض. الرد المعتاد هو تحريف ترجمة مقال إنجليزي عن التوازن بين الجبال والقشرة الأرضية، ثم تقديمه وكأنه يؤكد دور الجبال في تثبيت القشرة، مع أن محتواه، إن تحرينا الصدق، لا يشير لهذا إطلاقا، بل على العكس يشير لتثبيت الجبال لنفسها، لا أنها مصدر ثبات لما حولها! وهذا التدليس في الوسط الدعوي يسهل على الملحدين كشفه وفضح عواره، لكنه "سد خانة" مؤقت يستخدم كثيرا لعدم وجود بديل.
وحيث أني لا أحب هذا النوع من التدليس، فلا أعتمد عليه في الردود.
قائمة الشبهات:
- انشقاق القمر لم يشاهده أهل البلاد المجاورة للعرب
- السماء ليست سقفا يمكن أن يقع على الأرض
- المني لا يخرج من بين الضلوع والعمود الفقري
- المني لا يتحول لدم متجلط، والدم المتجلط لا يتحول إلى لحم
- المني لا يتحول لجنين (يقصد أن القرآن لا يذكر البويضة)
- الجنس لا يتحدد في مرحلة العلقة
- لالعظام لا تتكون قبل اللحم
- ليست كل المخلوقات الحبة أزواجا (يقصد التكاثر اللاجنسي)
- التفكير ليس محله القلب
- اللبن لا يتكون بين الدم والبراز
- الشمس لا تغرب في عين حمئة
- الأرض والسماء لم يتكونا في 6 أيام
- الأرض لم تتكون قبل النجوم
- الأرض ليست مستوية مسطحة
- النجوم ليست أصغر من الأرض ولا يمكن أن تقع على الأرض
- لا وجود لمادة الدخان (كربون محترق) في مراحل تكون الكون
- لا وجود لسبع أرضين
- الشمس والقمر مختلفان في البعد والحجم
- القمر لا ينير بنفسه
- الشهب ليست نجوما تحرق الشياطين
- مواقيت الصوم والصلاة لا صلح في المناطق القطبية التي تغرب عنها الشمس مرة واحدة سنويا
- لا وجود لآدم وحواء ولا لإنسان خلق من طين
- الحواجز بين الأنهار والبحار ليست دائمة
- الجبال لا تحفظ الأرض من الحركة، بل هي نتيجة حركة الألواح التكتونية
- الجبال لم يتم إلقائها من الأعلى على الأرض (بل خرجت من الأرض)
- الزلازل ليست عقابا للبشر
- لا وجود لجبال برد في السماء
- الصواعق ليست عقابا ربانيا
- النمل لا يتكلم مع البشر
- الخيل لم تخلق للركوب (بقصد أنها كانت برية في الأصل ثم استأنسها البشر)
- ما كل الحيوانات تعيش في مجتمعات (يقصد الحيوانات المنفردة بلا أسرة ولا قطيع)
- إمساك الطير في الهواء ليس معجزة
- لا وجود لسد معدني بين جبلين على الأرض يحبس يأجوج ومأجوج
- مريم ليست جزءا من الثالوث
-داود لم يخترع درع الحلقات
- المصريون القدماء لم يستخدموا الصلب كعقاب
- آثار النبط في الحجر ليست بيوتا سابقة لزمن فرعون
- السامريون لم يظهروا إلا بعد موسى بـ 500 سنة
وها هي الردود:
- Moon splitting would have been out of context for peoples who didn't know about Muhammad yet (how could the Chinese for example understand that this is miracle by a prophet named Muhammad living on another continent?! They totally lacked context), so God probably prevented them from looking up during the phenomenon's duration. God can blind people to what is in front of them, like what He did when Muhammad escaped to Madina while his would-be assassins were waiting at his door. He walked in front of them and they couldn't see him.
- Sky isn't the same as the 7 Heavens. The outer limits of the universe can't be reached by human scientists to determine if the black background we see is a void or actually solid. I believe, personally, that the universe is a closed system, spherical in nature.
- All males, Arabs or not, can see exactly where semen comes out from :) The ayah in question is talking about the human body as a whole, using the parts to refer to the whole, especially the hard parts in front and in the back (ribs & backbone). This is called a Synecdoche.
- The stages of the fetus clearly resemble a blood clot at one point! And, as the ayah also mentions, also resembles a chewed piece of meat. It's not literally chewed by the mother :) It's just an apt description of what it looks like.
And obviously life starts as sperm/semen and develops into flesh eventually!
- Gender is known by God even before the person is conceived. That an angel is tasked with writing it at a certain stage is a confirmation of this foreknowledge. *Manifesting* the knowledge into reality is a separate thing.
- The ayah carefully chooses another verb (not make/create as the other verbs in the sequence) when mentioning *covering* the bones with flesh. Flesh was already there, which should be obvious really since the previous sentences mentioned it looking like chewed meat!
- All things are in pairs. Even day/night, good/evil, etc. Even micro organisms that produce asexually might have gender differences we aren't aware of. We can't simply ask bacteria what pronouns it uses
- The heart is simply a muscle. That it is also a place where faith resides is of the unknown realm, a supernatural idea that can't be refuted by our understanding of natural laws. Just like the concept of a soul. We all have one, we die when it departs the body, but you can't see it.
- Milk, just like the ayah about ribs & backbone, is produced inside the animal's body. The ayah is simply referring to the fact that a good thing comes from a body that has inedible things, which is a sign of God's mercy as He cares for us and makes things easier, instead of making things difficult by mixing the milk with the blood & excrement!
- Sun-setting is a common concept still used to this day. In Arabic it means, according to Lisan alArab lexicon, disappearing in the west. So at the extreme western end of dry land, a man can easily literally see the sun disappear in the west, in the ocean. That one of those western spots has a spring in it (probably an oil seep near the shore) isn't unusual at all!
- The Big-bang Theory isn't repeatable science. It's merely a guess about ancient events, and like Macro-evolution, impossible to reproduce in a lab environment. That religion says God exists and did create the universe in 6 days is more plausible than a theory that says things, given time, create themselves and order the world in this amazing way!
Details of the BB aren't authoritative enough to judge religion and the order in which God created celestial bodies, or the shape of the early stages (smoke, water, etc.). They are completely different: one assumes there is a creator God, the other assumes the universe made itself. Of course they will clash!
- The surface of Earth is indeed spread out. In Arabic 'flat' & 'surface' use the same root (s-t-h). Even today in geometry we talk about the surface of a sphere using the word 'sth'.
- The size of stars isn't mentioned in Islam. It's said they will "scatter". The falling "on earth" interpretation is a mere ijtihad by some exegetes.
- There are indeed 7 earths. You might be surprised to know that man hasn't drilled to the core of the earth, not even close! All what we have seen of Earth is as deep as an apple's skin to the actual apple. All the info we have are guesses and conjecture, based on studying speed of sound waves in rocks & metals and theories that keep changing from decade to decade.
- Qur'an doesn't mention the distance/size of the sun/moon. Obviously since the moon eclipses the sun it's closer to us than the sun! Just like a bird in the sky is logically closer than the moon since it moves in front of it. Common sense that can be guessed by any Bedouin or an ancient Greek.
- Moon gives us light sometimes yes. The mechanism isn't described in the Qur'an, since it's not religiously relevant.
- In Arabic there were no distinction between the words 'star', 'planet' and 'comet', etc. Even to this day English has "shooting star".
- Polar extremes, regarding prayer/fast times, were addressed in fiqh/jurisprudence, just like thousands of topics where the text was used as a basis to deduce legal Shari'a details. Actually Muhammad made a prophecy regarding the end-times and the anti-Christ where the day will be long, and told his companions to not use the sunset in that case, but to use the normal times. So the concept is there from the beginning.
- Barriers between seas and rivers obviously exist! The ayah is talking about how God made it that we still have fresh water to drink even though the ocean is open to the river. The fact that both salt and fresh water still co-exist on Earth is a gift from God, otherwise salt water would have taken over fresh water thousands of years ago, if God hadn't made it so that they can safely co-exist.
- Geology doesn't know about the function of mountains as stabilizers, that's true. God, who created them, knows. Science can't "remove mountains" to experiment and show they *don't* stabilize the earth! Like the big bang and Macro-evolution, this kind of science is just guesses, and impossible to replicate. Mere assumptions.
- Disasters have natural reasons and at the same time are meant as warnings. Not mutually exclusive concepts at all! Lightning can smite a person.
- The clouds described as mountains isn't literal :) obviously! (Q 24:43)
- Miracles aren't meant to be normal events! Actually they intentionally break the norm. Supernatural gifts, like talking to animals, are SUPER-natural, not natural.
- All animals have communities (Q 6:38). Just like humans where a person can live alone or in a family, but still be part of the human race.
- Bird flight is not a miracle. Who claimed it is?! (Q 16:79, 67:19) It's arranged by God, like all the laws of nature He created.
- Just because humans took time to know the purpose of something, doesn't mean it wasn't created for that eventual purpose. Horses, iron, solar power, medicinal herbs, etc. They are there in the wild, waiting for us to tame them and know how God wants us to use them. Camels won't just come to you and tell you to ride them. You have to figure it out.
- The dam of Gog & Magog isn't visible on Earth anymore, that's true. When the time comes theses end-times events will reveal themselves. I always like to compare it to the final season of LOST, where the cave of light was ALWAYS behind the bamboo forest, but no one could see it until being told about it by Jacob. Supernaturally hidden.
- Qur'an never said that Mary is part of the trinity! It said she was worshiped, AND that Christians also claim that God is a Trinity. Islam considered praying to her a form of worship. Even following the rabbis & monks in their corruption of religion is explicitly considered a form of worship (Q 9:31)
- That a prophet of God received divine knowledge about making chain-mail, before other nations knew about the technique, isn't out of the ordinary when it comes to religion! It's even claimed by some that he miraculously melted the iron with his own hands, so it might have been exclusive to him and couldn't be reproduced by ordinary smiths until much later.
- The word crucifixion in Arabic isn't exclusive to the Roman style of execution. It's from the root s-l-b, which means simply to be put on wooden thing until you die. How can any Egyptologist, with a straight face, claim that for thousands of years no Egyptian ever was tied to a tree as punishment?! The records aren't *that* extensive :)
- al-Hijr was re-populated. What we have now came later, just like Egypt might have a Roman temple that was originally the site of an older ancient Egyptian temple. Besides, Quraysh was aware of the history of Aad & Thamud tribes, and didn't argue against the fact that God punished them. Quraysh itself were witness to a recent divine punishment the year Muhammad was born, and recorded the "birds from Hell" incident as part of their history.
- The Old Testament is corrupt. Its claim about the Samaritans has no authority over Islam. That said, the word itself obviously existed in the time of Moses, since it's a Hebrew word for watchmen. Simply, the Samarian guy is described by his profession, he was a night watch man.. which makes sense that he was the one to notice the angel while no one else did! You see, it all fits together beautifully, and that from Muhammad who didn't know Hebrew!
A general note: science limits itself by rejecting the supernatural, so it's understandable that sometimes it reaches different conclusions than religion. Since scientists refuse to take into consideration what can't be seen, they believe in silly theories like Darwinism claiming dinosaurs became chicken!
ردودي مكتوبة بأسلوب إنجليزي سهل ويمكن لأي موقع ترجمة فورية أن يترجمها للعربية ببساطة، لكن من يريدني أن أتوسع في الرد بالعربية على شبهة معينة من القائمة تثير اهتمامه فليطلب.
Can you respond to every single one of those claims
- The moon did not split in two, nobody else in the neighbouring cities/countries seen it
- The sky/heaven is not a ceiling that can fall down
- Semen does not come from between the backbone and the ribs
- Sperm does not form congealed blood. Congealed blood does not form lumps of flesh
- Embryos are not formed from semen
- Gender is not decided at "clot stage"
- Bones aren't formed before flesh
- Not all organisms are created in pairs
- The heart is not a locus of contemplation and thought
- Milk is not produced in the body somewhere between excretions and blood
- The sun does not set in a muddy spring
- Earth and heavens were not formed in six days
- Earth was not formed before the stars
- Earth is not 'spread out' and laid flat
- The stars are not lamps smaller than the earth, nor can they fall from the sky
- There is no stage in the formation of the universe that involved smoke (Dukhan means literal smoke of the sort that rises from a fire)
- Quran 65:12 plainly states that there exist seven earths
- The sun and moon are not of comparable size and distance
- Two Qur'anic verses that say the Moon is a "light". Instead, the word noor (nooran) is used, which simply means "a light", and, in another verse, the word muneer (muneeran) is used, which means "giving light" and is from the same root as noor
- Meteors are not stars fired at devils
- The keeping and breaking of a fast and the times of prayer, among other things, are related to times of sunrise and sunset. But there are regions of the earth where the sun rises and sets only once a year
- First humans were not created from clay
- There were no Adam & Eve
- There is no permanent barrier between "the two seas" of fresh and salt water. Estuaries, often used as an excuse, are not permanent
- Mountains are not pegs that prevent the earth from shifting. They are in fact the result of shifting tectonic plates
- Mountains were not cast upon Earth
- Earthquakes are not a punishment
- There are no mountains of hail in the sky
- Allah doesn't smite with thunderbolts
- Ants do not converse with humans
- Horses were not created as transportation
- Not all animals live in communities
- Bird flight is not a miracle
- There is no massive wall of iron among mountains anywhere on the Earth built by somebody named Dhul Qarnayn to segregate Gog & Magog
- Mary is not considered part of the Trinity
- David did not invent coats of mail
- There were no crucifixions in ancient Egypt
- Nabatean rock tombs at al-Hijr were not homes and palaces from before the time of Pharaoh
- The Qu'ran states that Moses dealt with a Samarian during his time. However the Samarians did not exist until well over 500 years after Moses is supposed to have existed
- The moon did not split in two, nobody else in the neighbouring cities/countries seen it
- The sky/heaven is not a ceiling that can fall down
- Semen does not come from between the backbone and the ribs
- Sperm does not form congealed blood. Congealed blood does not form lumps of flesh
- Embryos are not formed from semen
- Gender is not decided at "clot stage"
- Bones aren't formed before flesh
- Not all organisms are created in pairs
- The heart is not a locus of contemplation and thought
- Milk is not produced in the body somewhere between excretions and blood
- The sun does not set in a muddy spring
- Earth and heavens were not formed in six days
- Earth was not formed before the stars
- Earth is not 'spread out' and laid flat
- The stars are not lamps smaller than the earth, nor can they fall from the sky
- There is no stage in the formation of the universe that involved smoke (Dukhan means literal smoke of the sort that rises from a fire)
- Quran 65:12 plainly states that there exist seven earths
- The sun and moon are not of comparable size and distance
- Two Qur'anic verses that say the Moon is a "light". Instead, the word noor (nooran) is used, which simply means "a light", and, in another verse, the word muneer (muneeran) is used, which means "giving light" and is from the same root as noor
- Meteors are not stars fired at devils
- The keeping and breaking of a fast and the times of prayer, among other things, are related to times of sunrise and sunset. But there are regions of the earth where the sun rises and sets only once a year
- First humans were not created from clay
- There were no Adam & Eve
- There is no permanent barrier between "the two seas" of fresh and salt water. Estuaries, often used as an excuse, are not permanent
- Mountains are not pegs that prevent the earth from shifting. They are in fact the result of shifting tectonic plates
- Mountains were not cast upon Earth
- Earthquakes are not a punishment
- There are no mountains of hail in the sky
- Allah doesn't smite with thunderbolts
- Ants do not converse with humans
- Horses were not created as transportation
- Not all animals live in communities
- Bird flight is not a miracle
- There is no massive wall of iron among mountains anywhere on the Earth built by somebody named Dhul Qarnayn to segregate Gog & Magog
- Mary is not considered part of the Trinity
- David did not invent coats of mail
- There were no crucifixions in ancient Egypt
- Nabatean rock tombs at al-Hijr were not homes and palaces from before the time of Pharaoh
- The Qu'ran states that Moses dealt with a Samarian during his time. However the Samarians did not exist until well over 500 years after Moses is supposed to have existed
المعتاد في الأوساط الدعوية عند التعامل مع مثل هذه الشبهات هو اللجوء لردود ضعيفة مكررة لا تقنع الباحث الجاد.
مثال: الشبهة الأولى عن عدم وجود أدلة تاريخية في البلاد الأخرى على انشقاق القمر. الرد المعتاد قصه ولصقه في هذه الحالة هو الإشارة لإشارة عابرة في مخطوطة هندية أو لرسم على جدار في أمريكا الجنوبية. وهي إشاراى علاقتها بالحادثة موضع شك، سواء بالنظر لزمن تدوينها أو لمحتواها نفسه المقطوع من السياق.. وبسهولة يمكن لأي ملحد مجتهد يعرف أصول البحث والتحري أن يشكك فيها.
مثال آخر: لم يثبت العلم أن الجبال تثبت الأرض. الرد المعتاد هو تحريف ترجمة مقال إنجليزي عن التوازن بين الجبال والقشرة الأرضية، ثم تقديمه وكأنه يؤكد دور الجبال في تثبيت القشرة، مع أن محتواه، إن تحرينا الصدق، لا يشير لهذا إطلاقا، بل على العكس يشير لتثبيت الجبال لنفسها، لا أنها مصدر ثبات لما حولها! وهذا التدليس في الوسط الدعوي يسهل على الملحدين كشفه وفضح عواره، لكنه "سد خانة" مؤقت يستخدم كثيرا لعدم وجود بديل.
وحيث أني لا أحب هذا النوع من التدليس، فلا أعتمد عليه في الردود.
قائمة الشبهات:
- انشقاق القمر لم يشاهده أهل البلاد المجاورة للعرب
- السماء ليست سقفا يمكن أن يقع على الأرض
- المني لا يخرج من بين الضلوع والعمود الفقري
- المني لا يتحول لدم متجلط، والدم المتجلط لا يتحول إلى لحم
- المني لا يتحول لجنين (يقصد أن القرآن لا يذكر البويضة)
- الجنس لا يتحدد في مرحلة العلقة
- لالعظام لا تتكون قبل اللحم
- ليست كل المخلوقات الحبة أزواجا (يقصد التكاثر اللاجنسي)
- التفكير ليس محله القلب
- اللبن لا يتكون بين الدم والبراز
- الشمس لا تغرب في عين حمئة
- الأرض والسماء لم يتكونا في 6 أيام
- الأرض لم تتكون قبل النجوم
- الأرض ليست مستوية مسطحة
- النجوم ليست أصغر من الأرض ولا يمكن أن تقع على الأرض
- لا وجود لمادة الدخان (كربون محترق) في مراحل تكون الكون
- لا وجود لسبع أرضين
- الشمس والقمر مختلفان في البعد والحجم
- القمر لا ينير بنفسه
- الشهب ليست نجوما تحرق الشياطين
- مواقيت الصوم والصلاة لا صلح في المناطق القطبية التي تغرب عنها الشمس مرة واحدة سنويا
- لا وجود لآدم وحواء ولا لإنسان خلق من طين
- الحواجز بين الأنهار والبحار ليست دائمة
- الجبال لا تحفظ الأرض من الحركة، بل هي نتيجة حركة الألواح التكتونية
- الجبال لم يتم إلقائها من الأعلى على الأرض (بل خرجت من الأرض)
- الزلازل ليست عقابا للبشر
- لا وجود لجبال برد في السماء
- الصواعق ليست عقابا ربانيا
- النمل لا يتكلم مع البشر
- الخيل لم تخلق للركوب (بقصد أنها كانت برية في الأصل ثم استأنسها البشر)
- ما كل الحيوانات تعيش في مجتمعات (يقصد الحيوانات المنفردة بلا أسرة ولا قطيع)
- إمساك الطير في الهواء ليس معجزة
- لا وجود لسد معدني بين جبلين على الأرض يحبس يأجوج ومأجوج
- مريم ليست جزءا من الثالوث
-داود لم يخترع درع الحلقات
- المصريون القدماء لم يستخدموا الصلب كعقاب
- آثار النبط في الحجر ليست بيوتا سابقة لزمن فرعون
- السامريون لم يظهروا إلا بعد موسى بـ 500 سنة
وها هي الردود:
- Moon splitting would have been out of context for peoples who didn't know about Muhammad yet (how could the Chinese for example understand that this is miracle by a prophet named Muhammad living on another continent?! They totally lacked context), so God probably prevented them from looking up during the phenomenon's duration. God can blind people to what is in front of them, like what He did when Muhammad escaped to Madina while his would-be assassins were waiting at his door. He walked in front of them and they couldn't see him.
- Sky isn't the same as the 7 Heavens. The outer limits of the universe can't be reached by human scientists to determine if the black background we see is a void or actually solid. I believe, personally, that the universe is a closed system, spherical in nature.
- All males, Arabs or not, can see exactly where semen comes out from :) The ayah in question is talking about the human body as a whole, using the parts to refer to the whole, especially the hard parts in front and in the back (ribs & backbone). This is called a Synecdoche.
- The stages of the fetus clearly resemble a blood clot at one point! And, as the ayah also mentions, also resembles a chewed piece of meat. It's not literally chewed by the mother :) It's just an apt description of what it looks like.
And obviously life starts as sperm/semen and develops into flesh eventually!
- Gender is known by God even before the person is conceived. That an angel is tasked with writing it at a certain stage is a confirmation of this foreknowledge. *Manifesting* the knowledge into reality is a separate thing.
- The ayah carefully chooses another verb (not make/create as the other verbs in the sequence) when mentioning *covering* the bones with flesh. Flesh was already there, which should be obvious really since the previous sentences mentioned it looking like chewed meat!
- All things are in pairs. Even day/night, good/evil, etc. Even micro organisms that produce asexually might have gender differences we aren't aware of. We can't simply ask bacteria what pronouns it uses
- The heart is simply a muscle. That it is also a place where faith resides is of the unknown realm, a supernatural idea that can't be refuted by our understanding of natural laws. Just like the concept of a soul. We all have one, we die when it departs the body, but you can't see it.
- Milk, just like the ayah about ribs & backbone, is produced inside the animal's body. The ayah is simply referring to the fact that a good thing comes from a body that has inedible things, which is a sign of God's mercy as He cares for us and makes things easier, instead of making things difficult by mixing the milk with the blood & excrement!
- Sun-setting is a common concept still used to this day. In Arabic it means, according to Lisan alArab lexicon, disappearing in the west. So at the extreme western end of dry land, a man can easily literally see the sun disappear in the west, in the ocean. That one of those western spots has a spring in it (probably an oil seep near the shore) isn't unusual at all!
- The Big-bang Theory isn't repeatable science. It's merely a guess about ancient events, and like Macro-evolution, impossible to reproduce in a lab environment. That religion says God exists and did create the universe in 6 days is more plausible than a theory that says things, given time, create themselves and order the world in this amazing way!
Details of the BB aren't authoritative enough to judge religion and the order in which God created celestial bodies, or the shape of the early stages (smoke, water, etc.). They are completely different: one assumes there is a creator God, the other assumes the universe made itself. Of course they will clash!
- The surface of Earth is indeed spread out. In Arabic 'flat' & 'surface' use the same root (s-t-h). Even today in geometry we talk about the surface of a sphere using the word 'sth'.
- The size of stars isn't mentioned in Islam. It's said they will "scatter". The falling "on earth" interpretation is a mere ijtihad by some exegetes.
- There are indeed 7 earths. You might be surprised to know that man hasn't drilled to the core of the earth, not even close! All what we have seen of Earth is as deep as an apple's skin to the actual apple. All the info we have are guesses and conjecture, based on studying speed of sound waves in rocks & metals and theories that keep changing from decade to decade.
- Qur'an doesn't mention the distance/size of the sun/moon. Obviously since the moon eclipses the sun it's closer to us than the sun! Just like a bird in the sky is logically closer than the moon since it moves in front of it. Common sense that can be guessed by any Bedouin or an ancient Greek.
- Moon gives us light sometimes yes. The mechanism isn't described in the Qur'an, since it's not religiously relevant.
- In Arabic there were no distinction between the words 'star', 'planet' and 'comet', etc. Even to this day English has "shooting star".
- Polar extremes, regarding prayer/fast times, were addressed in fiqh/jurisprudence, just like thousands of topics where the text was used as a basis to deduce legal Shari'a details. Actually Muhammad made a prophecy regarding the end-times and the anti-Christ where the day will be long, and told his companions to not use the sunset in that case, but to use the normal times. So the concept is there from the beginning.
- Barriers between seas and rivers obviously exist! The ayah is talking about how God made it that we still have fresh water to drink even though the ocean is open to the river. The fact that both salt and fresh water still co-exist on Earth is a gift from God, otherwise salt water would have taken over fresh water thousands of years ago, if God hadn't made it so that they can safely co-exist.
- Geology doesn't know about the function of mountains as stabilizers, that's true. God, who created them, knows. Science can't "remove mountains" to experiment and show they *don't* stabilize the earth! Like the big bang and Macro-evolution, this kind of science is just guesses, and impossible to replicate. Mere assumptions.
- Disasters have natural reasons and at the same time are meant as warnings. Not mutually exclusive concepts at all! Lightning can smite a person.
- The clouds described as mountains isn't literal :) obviously! (Q 24:43)
- Miracles aren't meant to be normal events! Actually they intentionally break the norm. Supernatural gifts, like talking to animals, are SUPER-natural, not natural.
- All animals have communities (Q 6:38). Just like humans where a person can live alone or in a family, but still be part of the human race.
- Bird flight is not a miracle. Who claimed it is?! (Q 16:79, 67:19) It's arranged by God, like all the laws of nature He created.
- Just because humans took time to know the purpose of something, doesn't mean it wasn't created for that eventual purpose. Horses, iron, solar power, medicinal herbs, etc. They are there in the wild, waiting for us to tame them and know how God wants us to use them. Camels won't just come to you and tell you to ride them. You have to figure it out.
- The dam of Gog & Magog isn't visible on Earth anymore, that's true. When the time comes theses end-times events will reveal themselves. I always like to compare it to the final season of LOST, where the cave of light was ALWAYS behind the bamboo forest, but no one could see it until being told about it by Jacob. Supernaturally hidden.
- Qur'an never said that Mary is part of the trinity! It said she was worshiped, AND that Christians also claim that God is a Trinity. Islam considered praying to her a form of worship. Even following the rabbis & monks in their corruption of religion is explicitly considered a form of worship (Q 9:31)
- That a prophet of God received divine knowledge about making chain-mail, before other nations knew about the technique, isn't out of the ordinary when it comes to religion! It's even claimed by some that he miraculously melted the iron with his own hands, so it might have been exclusive to him and couldn't be reproduced by ordinary smiths until much later.
- The word crucifixion in Arabic isn't exclusive to the Roman style of execution. It's from the root s-l-b, which means simply to be put on wooden thing until you die. How can any Egyptologist, with a straight face, claim that for thousands of years no Egyptian ever was tied to a tree as punishment?! The records aren't *that* extensive :)
- al-Hijr was re-populated. What we have now came later, just like Egypt might have a Roman temple that was originally the site of an older ancient Egyptian temple. Besides, Quraysh was aware of the history of Aad & Thamud tribes, and didn't argue against the fact that God punished them. Quraysh itself were witness to a recent divine punishment the year Muhammad was born, and recorded the "birds from Hell" incident as part of their history.
- The Old Testament is corrupt. Its claim about the Samaritans has no authority over Islam. That said, the word itself obviously existed in the time of Moses, since it's a Hebrew word for watchmen. Simply, the Samarian guy is described by his profession, he was a night watch man.. which makes sense that he was the one to notice the angel while no one else did! You see, it all fits together beautifully, and that from Muhammad who didn't know Hebrew!
A general note: science limits itself by rejecting the supernatural, so it's understandable that sometimes it reaches different conclusions than religion. Since scientists refuse to take into consideration what can't be seen, they believe in silly theories like Darwinism claiming dinosaurs became chicken!
ردودي مكتوبة بأسلوب إنجليزي سهل ويمكن لأي موقع ترجمة فورية أن يترجمها للعربية ببساطة، لكن من يريدني أن أتوسع في الرد بالعربية على شبهة معينة من القائمة تثير اهتمامه فليطلب.
