Lowest Land prediction

Dawahganda Argument

Premises

1.   Qur'an states that the Romans were defeated in “adna al-ard”.

2.1 “adna” means lowest.

2.2 “al-ard” means land or earth.

3.   Qur'an states that the Romans were defeated in the lowest land.

4.   The Romans were defeated at the Dead Sea Shore. 

5.   The Dead Sea Shore is the lowest land on earth.

Conclusion

Therefore, the Qur'an stated that the Dead Sea shore is lowest land on earth (before anyone knew of this fact).

Source for Argument

Harun Yahya – The Victory of the Byzantium

http://miraclesofthequran.com/predictions_01.html

Verses

غُلِبَتِ الرُّومُ

فِي أَدْنَى الْأَرْضِ وَهُم مِّن بَعْدِ غَلَبِهِمْ سَيَغْلِبُونَ

(Pickthall Translation)

30:2-3 - The Romans have been defeated. In the nearer land, and they, after their defeat, will be victorious.

(Transliteration)

30:2-3 - Ghulibati arroom. Fee adna al-ardi wahum min baAAdi ghalabihim sayaghliboon

For other translations, visit http://quranx.com/30.2-3

For word-by-word analysis, visit http://quranx.com/Analysis/30.2, http://quranx.com/Analysis/30.3

Objections

1) Adna means "near" and not "low"
2) Fallacy of Equivocation
3) False Information about the defeat of Romans

1) Adna means "near" and not "low"

Adna comes from the root word dal-nun-waw. Visit link below.

http://corpus.quran.com/qurandictionary.jsp?q=dnw#%2830:3:2%29

According to lane's lexicon, the root word dal-nun-waw literally means "near" which has been the meaning given by all classical scholars and prominent translators and is in fact the more legitimate one.[1]

(pg 920, middle column, Lane's lexicon)

(pg 921, third column, Lane's lexicon)

2) Fallacy of Equivocation

According to lane's lexicon, the definition "low" is not referring to depth BUT it is referring to inferiority/ weakness/ disgrace.¹ The Qur'an has also used this word to mean "inferior" in verse 7:169

(pg 920, middle column, Lane's lexicon)

(pg 921, middle column, Lane's lexicon)

Thus the Muslim apologist has committed the fallacy of equivocation and has failed to establish that the words “adna al-ard” does in fact mean “lowest land.”

3) False Information about the defeat of Romans

If "adna al-ard" meant "lowest/ deepest land", the dawahganda argument would actually invalidate the Qur'an.

Harun Yahya states the following in his website (linked above under “source for argument”)

“for Christian Byzantium, the loss of the True Cross was the heaviest blow in that defeat in Jerusalem, located near the shores of the Dead Sea”

Now the problem is much simpler. Harun Yahya himself admits that the defeat occurred at Jerusalem. One can also confirm this in any academic source including the Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and the Middle East, Volume 1, page 555 which states the following,

“The advancing Persians killed thousands of Christians and destroyed hundreds of churches. On reaching Jerusalem in April 614, the Persians placed the city under siege for a month. When it finally fell, 60, 000 Christians were murdered and over 30,000 put into slavery as punishment for their resistance...In 627, the Byzantines defeated the Persians in a major battle at Nineveh”[2]

Thus this entire apologist claim can be refuted with a single question. Does the Qur'an say that the defeat will be in a place located near the lowest land? Or does it say (according to Apologists) that the defeat will be in the lowest land.

If what Muslim apologists say is true, then the Qur'an would be in error since it would be saying that Jerusalem is the lowest land.

Conclusion

The term “adna al-ard” does not mean “lowest/ deepest land” and the Romans were not defeated at the Dead Sea shore. Therefore, this miracle claim has been debunked.

---

[1]. Lane, Edward William; "An Arabic-English Lexicon"; Librairie Du Liban, 1968. Vol. 3, pages 920 – 921

http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume3/00000086.pdf (pg 920)

http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume3/00000087.pdf  (pg 921)

[2]. Stokes J & Gorman A. Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and the Middle East, Volume 1. Infobase Publishing. 2008. page 555