The following a collection of opinions, by Islamic figures, criticizing the methodology and veracity of the often touted "scientific miracle" claims in the Qur'an. The list will be updated as more critiques are found.
(NOTE: I do not agree with every view expressed in these opinions)
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Books
1. Guessoum, Nidhal. Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science. I.B.Tauris, 2010. Pages 141 - 172
http://books.google.com/books?id=zaL3AgAAQBAJ
Can be accessed here - http://www.scribd.com/doc/104338901/Islam-s-quantum-question
"... I consider the I‘jaz approach as perilous because it claims that one can identify scientific ‘facts’ and compare them with ‘clear Qur’anic statements’, which shows clear misunderstanding of the nature of science (Poincar´e said ‘science is not a bunch of facts just like a house is not a bunch of bricks’). Moreover, it distorts in young Muslim minds the very nature of science and the approach we should have towards the Qur’an. ..."
"...These two examples and approaches to I‘jaz by Bucaille and Moore appear to me as a good introduction to the methodology of I‘jaz with its many flaws... as we’ll see throughout this chapter, the problem is that the practitioners of the I‘jaz field hardly, if ever, stick to such proclaimed methodology..."
"... For fairness, however, I would note that such a theory, with its many startling claims and ill-founded methodology, is not exclusive to the Muslim world. Observers have pointed out that similar defensive and apologetic discourse has existed among some Christian fundamentalists, creationist circles, as well as some Hindu fundamentalists ..."
"... Most of al-Naggar’s (and al-Taftanazi’s) works consist of the following strategy: pick a ‘cosmic verse’ (a Qur’anic statement describing some natural phenomenon), present a dozen pages of scientific information that can be found in any encyclopedia, and end by proclaiming that it is truly miraculous (I‘jaz) that the verse had foretold all these scientific facts; ..."
".... After all these incredible statements and erratic methodologies, the question that we must first ask is: Why is this I‘jaz theory so extraordinarily popular? ... What level of critical thinking and analysis do we find in the Muslim society? How eager are the Muslim peoples today to turn their general defeat in all fields into a position of precedence and superiority and to convince themselves that their religion and civilization are indeed true – in the absolute sense – and superior? Without giving any clear answer to our question, the contemporary author Mustafa Abu Sway provides an element of understanding; he says6: ‘Rather than attaining science and maintaining its proper status within the Islamic worldview, it seems that the “scientific interpretation” provided a comforting cushion. The rest of the world can do science, and we, Muslims, can discover it anew in the Qur’an!’ ...."
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Articles
1. Shaykh Muhammad Umar Bazmul on the Study of The'Scientific Miracle' in the Qur'an and a Note About the 'Scientific Miracle' Bandwagon Peddlers by Aby Iyaad
www.aqidah.com/creed/articles/pbnod-shaykh-muhammad-umar-bazmul-on-the-study-of-scientific-miracle-in-the-quran.cfm
"...The mind-set that is created by az-Zindani's doctrine is that a Muslim must be free from doubt and speculation about his faith. This causes many individuals - when they interface with non-Muslims - to exaggerate in the so-called "Scientific Miracle" ... And often if an intelligent and shrewd non-Muslim is being invited, he may be able to overcome the ignorant Muslim, cause confusion and doubt, and refuge is from Allaah. So the ignorant Muslim goes back and then tries to find further correlation between scientific data and the texts of the Book and the Sunnah and so on hoping to impress the one who he is calling..."
"...Further, many of those who jump on this 'scientific miracle' bandwagon claim "foreknowledge," as in, mention of this information preceded modern science when in reality, some of these indications might already have been known to certain people or in certain civilizations or alluded to in books of antiquity..."
"...Thus, if an ignorant Muslim comes along and starts citing this scientist or that scientist in relation to a particular phenomenon (attempting to correlate a very specific and detailed scientific explanation to what is just a generalized indication in the Qur'an), he has really opened himself up for attack through the sayings of numerous other scientists who hold different theories and views as to why what is observed is observed at that level of detail..."
"...we see today confused and ignorant individuals like Hamza Tzortzis at one time arguing vociferously with the atheists for years on end in certain affairs, and then making a large turnaround, after being hammered and pounded by those very shrewd and cunning atheists..."
(NOTE: The author of the article seems to have fallen for the widespread misunderstanding among Muslims regarding the "science" of "sea barriers". See http://captaindisguise.blogspot.com/2012/02/sea-barrier-miracle-claim-debunked.html)
2. Advice Regarding Hamza Tzortzis and Company (iERA): Part 1 - Introduction by Abu Iyaad
http://www.aqidah.com/creed/articles/apzfw-advice-to-hamza-tzortzis-and-company-iera-part-1.cfm
"...This [scientific miracle] da'wah bandwagon is in many respects just a sophisticated, technical, media-savvy version of Jamaa'at at-Tabligh. Gather hundreds together, convince them they are obligated to give da'wah, give them a crash course in how to give da'wah (using kalam and falsafah) in two hours or less and then send them out on the streets to debate with atheists! I have been informed by people that many of those attending these iERA debates come back with doubts that they cannot answer and end up being confused and bewildered..."
"...[They] Convince people they must give da'wah and then get them out on the street with minimal or no real study, and give them flawed tools such as the kalam cosmological argument and exaggeration in the 'scientific miracle'..."
"...In the issue of embryology [Hamza Tzortzis] was making words in Qur'anic verses to bear meanings that they do not carry, that led the atheists to pounce on him with ferocity..."
3. Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan on the Study of the 'Scientific Miracle' by Abu Iyaad
http://www.aqidah.com/creed/articles/mevrk-shaykh-salih-al-fawzan-on-the-study-of-the-scientific-miracle.cfm
"...Scientific knowledge is always in a state of flux and attempting to correlate verses of the Qur'an with modern science is in reality speaking about the intent of Allaah without knowledge, and amounts to lying upon Allaah, the exalted..."
4. Advice Regarding Hamza Tzortzis and Company (iERA): Part 3 - Ibn Taymiyyah on the Path of Ahl al-Kalaam, Their Greatest Foundation and Its Consequences by Abu Iyaad
http://www.aqidah.com/creed/articles/tmwsv-advice-regarding-hamza-tzortzis-and-company-iera-part-3---ibn-taymiyyah-says-it-all-in-a-single-passage.cfm
"...This must be familiar to Hamza Tzortzis as it is something he has already been made to experience in the issue of embryology in the Qur'an. A matter which he embroiled himself in, going into excesses and speaking without knowledge thereby giving the atheists a sledgehammer with which they hammered him, his logic, and his rationality. Then he made a large turnaround, withdrew his paper on Embryology in the Qur'an and wrote his new paper on the topic of 'scientific miracles' in the Qur'an that suggests a new (more conservative) approach, as if to pretend nothing had happened, that its all just a part of showing that you are 'academically honest' and can 'move forward' (after essentially being exposed, mocked and humiliated by atheists - not something we wish for any Muslim)..."
5. Does the Qur'an Contain Scientific Miracles? by Hamza Andreas Tzortzis
http://www.hamzatzortzis.com/essays-articles/exploring-the-quran/does-the-quran-contain-scientific-miracles-a-new-approach/
"...Regrettably, the scientific miracles narrative has become an intellectual embarrassment for Muslim apologists, including myself..."
"...I decided to compile and write an extensive piece on the Qur’ān and embryology, with the intention to respond to popular and academic contentions. During the process of writing I relied on students and scholars of Islamic thought to verify references and to provide feedback in areas where I had to rely on secondary and tertiary sources. Unfortunately they were not thorough and they seemed to have also relied on trusting other Muslim apologists. When the paper was published it was placed under a microscope by atheist activists. Although they misrepresented some of the points, they raised some significant contentions. I have since removed the paper from my website..."
6. Sheikh Mahmud Connors' An Analysis of Hamza Tzortzis' paper on the Qur'an and so-called Scientific Miracles
http://muslimanswers.net/2013/09/20/an-analysis-of-hamza-tzortzis-paper-on-the-quran-and-so-called-scientific-miracles
"...However when I see people like Abdurrahman Green, Zakir Naik, Yusuf Estes, Bilal Philips, Khaalid Yaaseen and Hamza Tzortsis, I ask one question only: “Are they qualified enough to be the leaders of Muslims?” How can someone like Bilal Philips talk about Einstein’s equation and call it Shirk? How come Zakir Naik quotes verses from the Qur’an stating that these verses talk about the Earth being round and yet these verses have nothing to do with the shape of the earth? How come Abdurrahman Green tells people to follow the Qur’an and al-Bukhari directly without any formal scholarly guidance, while all the great scholars of this Ummah were part of a school of thought in Fiqh?..."
"...Brother Hamza calls upon others to speak out against this so called scientific miracles narrative. I personally as a scientist and as an Islamic scholar have been warning people against using these arguments to prove the veracity of Qur’an and disproving all their arguments. Again, this reminds me of certain Hadeeth fabricator establishments that would fabricate Ahaadeeth with good intentions in the early centuries of Islam to attract people into more worship or make them better practitioners of the religion..."
"...Someone can easily apostatize through an intellectual decision which is not related to a spiritual or psychological problem. If I[5] see that someone is telling me that the Big Bang is mentioned in the Qur’an, or if I listen to Zakir Naik who said that some Verses are proving the roundness of the Earth while it does not state this at all, then I may apostatize or reject Islam as a result of this, and this is solely based upon my intellect. This is because I am being lied to about the Qur’an, about the verses of the Qur’an. I am interested in Islam and all I get is a big fat lie. Obviously people who become Muslims due to these so-called scientific verses will leave Islam as soon as they find out about the misinterpretations of so called ‘scholars of Islam’..."
"...Islam is like a toy to play with for certain people; they are playing with the verses of Allah and claiming that their intentions are good. Who on the right frame of mind challenges a professor of embryology about embryology without medical or life sciences background? How blinded can some people get?..."
7. Paul Williams' The time has come for Muslims to be honest about ‘scientific miracles’ in the Quran
http://bloggingtheology.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/17724/
"...The fact that Muslims were largely silent and merely re-posting the same old stuff over and over again was troubling. I wondered why Naik was silent. Why couldn’t any of his ‘clones’ in his vibrant organisation in India reply to the missionaries and why couldn’t his people form a team of writers to actively counter such articles? I contacted a few of Naik’s students. Their replies were: 1. Just ignore such papers because the authors are unknown/not widely known individuals and if we reply to them we will give them an opportunity to make a name and rise in stature; 2. Rather than reply to these people, we simply get the sites removed from the internet by launching complaints against them..."
"...If I, someone born to a Muslim family, was so disturbed and upset after realising that the “science proves the Quran” arguments are based on potty science, then imagine the pain and difficulty faced by someone who converted to Islam solely based on this shoddy argument/reasoning. No wonder so many quickly/over time leave Islam after converting to it. They realise they have been lied to..."
"...I have no doubt now that Zakir Naik is a major fitna maker of our times (including all leading apologists deeply involved in this “science proves the Quran” industry), and I agree with those who address him as such. His argument is that just as magic was a big thing during the time of Musa (PBUH) – hence the miracle of his stick turning into a serpent – science is the big thing in the 20th and 21st centuries and so the argument to convince non-Muslims should be that science proves the Quran as the latter contains statements which science “proves” and which no one could know 1400 years ago. Period. This is his big selling point. Hence, you do get converts, but retaining these converts is difficult, particularly once they discover that you are a cheap conman who basically lied to them..."
8. Caution Against Muslim Apologists: Zakir Naik, the Big Bang and the Qur'an
http://www.aboutatheism.net/articles/owhkvbn-a-warning-against-pseudo-intellectual-muslim-apologist-charlatans-zakir-naik.cfm
"...Zakir Naik, a man with errors in elementary matters of Islamic creed whose polemics often hardly satisfy the reasoning of a child. Today the Muslim world is plagued with people like Zakir Naik who are in oblivion to the realities, times and circumstances in which they live. Rote-memorization with shallow understanding make a bad cake and 1980s Deedat style no longer works in a savvy 21st century cyber-environment. Reflection upon the activities of individuals like Zakir Naik appear to indicate that these people are more interested in amassing followers and audiences (for their institutions and organizations) than they are in genuinely trying to investigate,..."
9. The Trouble with the New “Islamic Science” by Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad. 2013
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-trouble-with-the-new-islamic-science
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/docLib/20130911_TNA39Ahmad.pdf
"...this new movement with that important period is a disservice to history. Moreover, this new movement to seek out science in the Koran is contrary to the scientific method and, in ignoring the Koran’s warning against confusing allegory with basic facts (3:7), is contrary to Islamic teaching."
"Part of the reason that Koranic passages should not be read as scientific guides is that they tend to be open to varying interpretations — and therefore are far too imprecise to be considered examples of theoretical predictions that can be scientifically falsified."
"...the claim that the Koran contains scientific facts in such a way that it “predicts” the discoveries of modern science risks turning the phrase “Islamic science” into a sad joke..."
10. Dawah Carriers Are Destroying Your Faith…And Having A Good Time In The Process by Asharis Assemble
http://asharisassemble.com/2014/04/10/dawah-carriers-are-destroying-your-faith-and-having-a-good-time-in-the-process/
"... Exeunt scholars and enter our new heroes: the ‘Dawah carriers’. On the face of it, an evolved form of talented amateurs such as Sheikh Ahmed Deedat, these new defenders had the beginnings of their current incarnation in Zakir Naik – an apparently gifted (gifted at what was soon to be made clear) amateur who rallied huge crowds in India and the Middle East by explaining Islam to ‘non-Muslims’ and taking their questions. Conversions and warm feelings invariably followed (the similarity between his conferences and Midwestern televangelists with people being possessed by the ‘Holy Spirit’ was of course lost on the Muslims) ..."
"... But there was one slight problem: the issue with not knowing anything is that you cannot know if you are being taught the truth. The feel good factor with Naik and the IRF crowd was immense…but the content was mostly for those who knew relatively little – little Islam and little science that is. But for those who dug deeper, serious problems were waiting ..."
" ... the Muslims speakers came to realise that if their opponents don’t know anything about Islam, well, they don’t need to either … "
"The new ‘defenders’, the ‘Dawah Carriers’ had not learnt Islam nor secular sciences – they had learnt politics and misdirection."
"... [Hamza Tzortzis'] embryology paper had to be withdrawn, but his self-publicising nature became evident when he tried to cash in on this momentous gaffe of his which afflicted countless Muslims by then taking it upon himself to be the architect of a ‘New Approach to Quran and Science’, despite his colossal error, exposed by atheists,..."
11. Dr. Salman Hameed's The Science of Scriptures
http://tribune.com.pk/story/238607/the-science-of-scriptures/
http://www.irtiqa-blog.com/2011/08/on-futility-of-finding-science-in-quran.html
"... those who are seeking scientific miracles in the Qur’an are driven neither by curiosity about the natural world nor by the desire to find explanations of unsolved problems. Instead, they know that they already know the answer. For them, the primary goal is to seek validity of one’s own belief through the authority of science. This search for science in scriptures is a relatively new phenomenon. It is the religious response to the advent of modernity and the rise of modern science as the most powerful method for explaining the natural world. Muslims are not alone in seeking validity from science. Christians find science in the New Testament, Jews find it in the Torah, Hindus find it in Bhagavad Gita, and Mormons find it in the Book of Mormon. Everyone is convinced that their holy book contains snippets of modern science. ..."
"Make no mistake. None of this is science."
12. Dr. Nidhal Guessoum's Critiquing I'jaz - the claim of "scientific miracles in the Qu'ran"
http://www.irtiqa-blog.com/2010/03/guest-post-critiquing-ijaz-claim-of.html
"Unfortunately ... the “Islamic Science” discourse has been snowed over by a mountain of literature, videos, conferences, and whatnot, that are nowadays devoted to what is known as I`jaz, which is short for “miraculous scientific content of the Qur’an”. In a nutshell, if you haven’t heard about this before, there are now numerous and widespread claims of Qur’anic verses presumably containing modern scientific established facts and theories, ranging from black holes and pulsars to embryology and genetics, not to mention lasers and the precise value of the speed of light… I know that the public, and probably most of the participating scholars, will be fully supportive of the I`jaz theory (despite its ridiculous methodology, it is unbelievably popular in this region)"
13. Nadeem F. Paracha's The Science of Farce. 2014
http://www.dawn.com/news/1083758
"Dr. Hoodbhoy tells us how in the mid-1980s millions of rupees were dished out by certain oil-rich Arab countries and the Ziaul Haq dictatorship in Pakistan, to hold lavish seminars in Islamabad dedicated to celebrate the validity of ‘Islamic science.’"
"By the late 1970s, however, the whole idea about Islamic science began to disintegrate into utter farce."
"Renowned author and scientist, Ziauddin Sardar, was one of them. In his book ‘Desperately Seeking Paradise,’ Sardar writes he soon bailed out (from Saudi Arabia) after realising that all the Saudis really wanted were ‘cranks masquerading as scientists.’"
""Bucaille’s claims were based not on empirical observation, but rather on his uncritical acceptance of certain musings of some of the most conservative and inflexible ancient Muslim jurists.""
14. Dr. Yasir Qadhi. 1999. An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur'an. page 282.
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Video Presentations
1. Hafiz Mahmut Connors' Science in The Quran - The Truth
2. Muhammad Ghilan's Scientific "Miracles" of the Quran?
(NOTE: I do not agree with every view expressed in these opinions)
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Books
1. Guessoum, Nidhal. Islam's Quantum Question: Reconciling Muslim Tradition and Modern Science. I.B.Tauris, 2010. Pages 141 - 172
http://books.google.com/books?id=zaL3AgAAQBAJ
Can be accessed here - http://www.scribd.com/doc/104338901/Islam-s-quantum-question
"... I consider the I‘jaz approach as perilous because it claims that one can identify scientific ‘facts’ and compare them with ‘clear Qur’anic statements’, which shows clear misunderstanding of the nature of science (Poincar´e said ‘science is not a bunch of facts just like a house is not a bunch of bricks’). Moreover, it distorts in young Muslim minds the very nature of science and the approach we should have towards the Qur’an. ..."
"...These two examples and approaches to I‘jaz by Bucaille and Moore appear to me as a good introduction to the methodology of I‘jaz with its many flaws... as we’ll see throughout this chapter, the problem is that the practitioners of the I‘jaz field hardly, if ever, stick to such proclaimed methodology..."
"... For fairness, however, I would note that such a theory, with its many startling claims and ill-founded methodology, is not exclusive to the Muslim world. Observers have pointed out that similar defensive and apologetic discourse has existed among some Christian fundamentalists, creationist circles, as well as some Hindu fundamentalists ..."
"... Most of al-Naggar’s (and al-Taftanazi’s) works consist of the following strategy: pick a ‘cosmic verse’ (a Qur’anic statement describing some natural phenomenon), present a dozen pages of scientific information that can be found in any encyclopedia, and end by proclaiming that it is truly miraculous (I‘jaz) that the verse had foretold all these scientific facts; ..."
".... After all these incredible statements and erratic methodologies, the question that we must first ask is: Why is this I‘jaz theory so extraordinarily popular? ... What level of critical thinking and analysis do we find in the Muslim society? How eager are the Muslim peoples today to turn their general defeat in all fields into a position of precedence and superiority and to convince themselves that their religion and civilization are indeed true – in the absolute sense – and superior? Without giving any clear answer to our question, the contemporary author Mustafa Abu Sway provides an element of understanding; he says6: ‘Rather than attaining science and maintaining its proper status within the Islamic worldview, it seems that the “scientific interpretation” provided a comforting cushion. The rest of the world can do science, and we, Muslims, can discover it anew in the Qur’an!’ ...."
_________________________________________________________________________________
Articles
1. Shaykh Muhammad Umar Bazmul on the Study of The'Scientific Miracle' in the Qur'an and a Note About the 'Scientific Miracle' Bandwagon Peddlers by Aby Iyaad
www.aqidah.com/creed/articles/pbnod-shaykh-muhammad-umar-bazmul-on-the-study-of-scientific-miracle-in-the-quran.cfm
"...The mind-set that is created by az-Zindani's doctrine is that a Muslim must be free from doubt and speculation about his faith. This causes many individuals - when they interface with non-Muslims - to exaggerate in the so-called "Scientific Miracle" ... And often if an intelligent and shrewd non-Muslim is being invited, he may be able to overcome the ignorant Muslim, cause confusion and doubt, and refuge is from Allaah. So the ignorant Muslim goes back and then tries to find further correlation between scientific data and the texts of the Book and the Sunnah and so on hoping to impress the one who he is calling..."
"...Further, many of those who jump on this 'scientific miracle' bandwagon claim "foreknowledge," as in, mention of this information preceded modern science when in reality, some of these indications might already have been known to certain people or in certain civilizations or alluded to in books of antiquity..."
"...Thus, if an ignorant Muslim comes along and starts citing this scientist or that scientist in relation to a particular phenomenon (attempting to correlate a very specific and detailed scientific explanation to what is just a generalized indication in the Qur'an), he has really opened himself up for attack through the sayings of numerous other scientists who hold different theories and views as to why what is observed is observed at that level of detail..."
"...we see today confused and ignorant individuals like Hamza Tzortzis at one time arguing vociferously with the atheists for years on end in certain affairs, and then making a large turnaround, after being hammered and pounded by those very shrewd and cunning atheists..."
(NOTE: The author of the article seems to have fallen for the widespread misunderstanding among Muslims regarding the "science" of "sea barriers". See http://captaindisguise.blogspot.com/2012/02/sea-barrier-miracle-claim-debunked.html)
2. Advice Regarding Hamza Tzortzis and Company (iERA): Part 1 - Introduction by Abu Iyaad
http://www.aqidah.com/creed/articles/apzfw-advice-to-hamza-tzortzis-and-company-iera-part-1.cfm
"...This [scientific miracle] da'wah bandwagon is in many respects just a sophisticated, technical, media-savvy version of Jamaa'at at-Tabligh. Gather hundreds together, convince them they are obligated to give da'wah, give them a crash course in how to give da'wah (using kalam and falsafah) in two hours or less and then send them out on the streets to debate with atheists! I have been informed by people that many of those attending these iERA debates come back with doubts that they cannot answer and end up being confused and bewildered..."
"...[They] Convince people they must give da'wah and then get them out on the street with minimal or no real study, and give them flawed tools such as the kalam cosmological argument and exaggeration in the 'scientific miracle'..."
"...In the issue of embryology [Hamza Tzortzis] was making words in Qur'anic verses to bear meanings that they do not carry, that led the atheists to pounce on him with ferocity..."
3. Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan on the Study of the 'Scientific Miracle' by Abu Iyaad
http://www.aqidah.com/creed/articles/mevrk-shaykh-salih-al-fawzan-on-the-study-of-the-scientific-miracle.cfm
"...Scientific knowledge is always in a state of flux and attempting to correlate verses of the Qur'an with modern science is in reality speaking about the intent of Allaah without knowledge, and amounts to lying upon Allaah, the exalted..."
4. Advice Regarding Hamza Tzortzis and Company (iERA): Part 3 - Ibn Taymiyyah on the Path of Ahl al-Kalaam, Their Greatest Foundation and Its Consequences by Abu Iyaad
http://www.aqidah.com/creed/articles/tmwsv-advice-regarding-hamza-tzortzis-and-company-iera-part-3---ibn-taymiyyah-says-it-all-in-a-single-passage.cfm
"...This must be familiar to Hamza Tzortzis as it is something he has already been made to experience in the issue of embryology in the Qur'an. A matter which he embroiled himself in, going into excesses and speaking without knowledge thereby giving the atheists a sledgehammer with which they hammered him, his logic, and his rationality. Then he made a large turnaround, withdrew his paper on Embryology in the Qur'an and wrote his new paper on the topic of 'scientific miracles' in the Qur'an that suggests a new (more conservative) approach, as if to pretend nothing had happened, that its all just a part of showing that you are 'academically honest' and can 'move forward' (after essentially being exposed, mocked and humiliated by atheists - not something we wish for any Muslim)..."
5. Does the Qur'an Contain Scientific Miracles? by Hamza Andreas Tzortzis
http://www.hamzatzortzis.com/essays-articles/exploring-the-quran/does-the-quran-contain-scientific-miracles-a-new-approach/
"...Regrettably, the scientific miracles narrative has become an intellectual embarrassment for Muslim apologists, including myself..."
"...I decided to compile and write an extensive piece on the Qur’ān and embryology, with the intention to respond to popular and academic contentions. During the process of writing I relied on students and scholars of Islamic thought to verify references and to provide feedback in areas where I had to rely on secondary and tertiary sources. Unfortunately they were not thorough and they seemed to have also relied on trusting other Muslim apologists. When the paper was published it was placed under a microscope by atheist activists. Although they misrepresented some of the points, they raised some significant contentions. I have since removed the paper from my website..."
6. Sheikh Mahmud Connors' An Analysis of Hamza Tzortzis' paper on the Qur'an and so-called Scientific Miracles
http://muslimanswers.net/2013/09/20/an-analysis-of-hamza-tzortzis-paper-on-the-quran-and-so-called-scientific-miracles
"...However when I see people like Abdurrahman Green, Zakir Naik, Yusuf Estes, Bilal Philips, Khaalid Yaaseen and Hamza Tzortsis, I ask one question only: “Are they qualified enough to be the leaders of Muslims?” How can someone like Bilal Philips talk about Einstein’s equation and call it Shirk? How come Zakir Naik quotes verses from the Qur’an stating that these verses talk about the Earth being round and yet these verses have nothing to do with the shape of the earth? How come Abdurrahman Green tells people to follow the Qur’an and al-Bukhari directly without any formal scholarly guidance, while all the great scholars of this Ummah were part of a school of thought in Fiqh?..."
"...Brother Hamza calls upon others to speak out against this so called scientific miracles narrative. I personally as a scientist and as an Islamic scholar have been warning people against using these arguments to prove the veracity of Qur’an and disproving all their arguments. Again, this reminds me of certain Hadeeth fabricator establishments that would fabricate Ahaadeeth with good intentions in the early centuries of Islam to attract people into more worship or make them better practitioners of the religion..."
"...Someone can easily apostatize through an intellectual decision which is not related to a spiritual or psychological problem. If I[5] see that someone is telling me that the Big Bang is mentioned in the Qur’an, or if I listen to Zakir Naik who said that some Verses are proving the roundness of the Earth while it does not state this at all, then I may apostatize or reject Islam as a result of this, and this is solely based upon my intellect. This is because I am being lied to about the Qur’an, about the verses of the Qur’an. I am interested in Islam and all I get is a big fat lie. Obviously people who become Muslims due to these so-called scientific verses will leave Islam as soon as they find out about the misinterpretations of so called ‘scholars of Islam’..."
"...Islam is like a toy to play with for certain people; they are playing with the verses of Allah and claiming that their intentions are good. Who on the right frame of mind challenges a professor of embryology about embryology without medical or life sciences background? How blinded can some people get?..."
7. Paul Williams' The time has come for Muslims to be honest about ‘scientific miracles’ in the Quran
http://bloggingtheology.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/17724/
"...The fact that Muslims were largely silent and merely re-posting the same old stuff over and over again was troubling. I wondered why Naik was silent. Why couldn’t any of his ‘clones’ in his vibrant organisation in India reply to the missionaries and why couldn’t his people form a team of writers to actively counter such articles? I contacted a few of Naik’s students. Their replies were: 1. Just ignore such papers because the authors are unknown/not widely known individuals and if we reply to them we will give them an opportunity to make a name and rise in stature; 2. Rather than reply to these people, we simply get the sites removed from the internet by launching complaints against them..."
"...If I, someone born to a Muslim family, was so disturbed and upset after realising that the “science proves the Quran” arguments are based on potty science, then imagine the pain and difficulty faced by someone who converted to Islam solely based on this shoddy argument/reasoning. No wonder so many quickly/over time leave Islam after converting to it. They realise they have been lied to..."
"...I have no doubt now that Zakir Naik is a major fitna maker of our times (including all leading apologists deeply involved in this “science proves the Quran” industry), and I agree with those who address him as such. His argument is that just as magic was a big thing during the time of Musa (PBUH) – hence the miracle of his stick turning into a serpent – science is the big thing in the 20th and 21st centuries and so the argument to convince non-Muslims should be that science proves the Quran as the latter contains statements which science “proves” and which no one could know 1400 years ago. Period. This is his big selling point. Hence, you do get converts, but retaining these converts is difficult, particularly once they discover that you are a cheap conman who basically lied to them..."
8. Caution Against Muslim Apologists: Zakir Naik, the Big Bang and the Qur'an
http://www.aboutatheism.net/articles/owhkvbn-a-warning-against-pseudo-intellectual-muslim-apologist-charlatans-zakir-naik.cfm
"...Zakir Naik, a man with errors in elementary matters of Islamic creed whose polemics often hardly satisfy the reasoning of a child. Today the Muslim world is plagued with people like Zakir Naik who are in oblivion to the realities, times and circumstances in which they live. Rote-memorization with shallow understanding make a bad cake and 1980s Deedat style no longer works in a savvy 21st century cyber-environment. Reflection upon the activities of individuals like Zakir Naik appear to indicate that these people are more interested in amassing followers and audiences (for their institutions and organizations) than they are in genuinely trying to investigate,..."
9. The Trouble with the New “Islamic Science” by Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad. 2013
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-trouble-with-the-new-islamic-science
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/docLib/20130911_TNA39Ahmad.pdf
"...this new movement with that important period is a disservice to history. Moreover, this new movement to seek out science in the Koran is contrary to the scientific method and, in ignoring the Koran’s warning against confusing allegory with basic facts (3:7), is contrary to Islamic teaching."
"Part of the reason that Koranic passages should not be read as scientific guides is that they tend to be open to varying interpretations — and therefore are far too imprecise to be considered examples of theoretical predictions that can be scientifically falsified."
"...the claim that the Koran contains scientific facts in such a way that it “predicts” the discoveries of modern science risks turning the phrase “Islamic science” into a sad joke..."
10. Dawah Carriers Are Destroying Your Faith…And Having A Good Time In The Process by Asharis Assemble
http://asharisassemble.com/2014/04/10/dawah-carriers-are-destroying-your-faith-and-having-a-good-time-in-the-process/
"... Exeunt scholars and enter our new heroes: the ‘Dawah carriers’. On the face of it, an evolved form of talented amateurs such as Sheikh Ahmed Deedat, these new defenders had the beginnings of their current incarnation in Zakir Naik – an apparently gifted (gifted at what was soon to be made clear) amateur who rallied huge crowds in India and the Middle East by explaining Islam to ‘non-Muslims’ and taking their questions. Conversions and warm feelings invariably followed (the similarity between his conferences and Midwestern televangelists with people being possessed by the ‘Holy Spirit’ was of course lost on the Muslims) ..."
"... But there was one slight problem: the issue with not knowing anything is that you cannot know if you are being taught the truth. The feel good factor with Naik and the IRF crowd was immense…but the content was mostly for those who knew relatively little – little Islam and little science that is. But for those who dug deeper, serious problems were waiting ..."
" ... the Muslims speakers came to realise that if their opponents don’t know anything about Islam, well, they don’t need to either … "
"The new ‘defenders’, the ‘Dawah Carriers’ had not learnt Islam nor secular sciences – they had learnt politics and misdirection."
"... [Hamza Tzortzis'] embryology paper had to be withdrawn, but his self-publicising nature became evident when he tried to cash in on this momentous gaffe of his which afflicted countless Muslims by then taking it upon himself to be the architect of a ‘New Approach to Quran and Science’, despite his colossal error, exposed by atheists,..."
11. Dr. Salman Hameed's The Science of Scriptures
http://tribune.com.pk/story/238607/the-science-of-scriptures/
http://www.irtiqa-blog.com/2011/08/on-futility-of-finding-science-in-quran.html
"... those who are seeking scientific miracles in the Qur’an are driven neither by curiosity about the natural world nor by the desire to find explanations of unsolved problems. Instead, they know that they already know the answer. For them, the primary goal is to seek validity of one’s own belief through the authority of science. This search for science in scriptures is a relatively new phenomenon. It is the religious response to the advent of modernity and the rise of modern science as the most powerful method for explaining the natural world. Muslims are not alone in seeking validity from science. Christians find science in the New Testament, Jews find it in the Torah, Hindus find it in Bhagavad Gita, and Mormons find it in the Book of Mormon. Everyone is convinced that their holy book contains snippets of modern science. ..."
"Make no mistake. None of this is science."
12. Dr. Nidhal Guessoum's Critiquing I'jaz - the claim of "scientific miracles in the Qu'ran"
http://www.irtiqa-blog.com/2010/03/guest-post-critiquing-ijaz-claim-of.html
"Unfortunately ... the “Islamic Science” discourse has been snowed over by a mountain of literature, videos, conferences, and whatnot, that are nowadays devoted to what is known as I`jaz, which is short for “miraculous scientific content of the Qur’an”. In a nutshell, if you haven’t heard about this before, there are now numerous and widespread claims of Qur’anic verses presumably containing modern scientific established facts and theories, ranging from black holes and pulsars to embryology and genetics, not to mention lasers and the precise value of the speed of light… I know that the public, and probably most of the participating scholars, will be fully supportive of the I`jaz theory (despite its ridiculous methodology, it is unbelievably popular in this region)"
13. Nadeem F. Paracha's The Science of Farce. 2014
http://www.dawn.com/news/1083758
"Dr. Hoodbhoy tells us how in the mid-1980s millions of rupees were dished out by certain oil-rich Arab countries and the Ziaul Haq dictatorship in Pakistan, to hold lavish seminars in Islamabad dedicated to celebrate the validity of ‘Islamic science.’"
"By the late 1970s, however, the whole idea about Islamic science began to disintegrate into utter farce."
"Renowned author and scientist, Ziauddin Sardar, was one of them. In his book ‘Desperately Seeking Paradise,’ Sardar writes he soon bailed out (from Saudi Arabia) after realising that all the Saudis really wanted were ‘cranks masquerading as scientists.’"
""Bucaille’s claims were based not on empirical observation, but rather on his uncritical acceptance of certain musings of some of the most conservative and inflexible ancient Muslim jurists.""
14. Dr. Yasir Qadhi. 1999. An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur'an. page 282.
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Video Presentations
1. Hafiz Mahmut Connors' Science in The Quran - The Truth
2. Muhammad Ghilan's Scientific "Miracles" of the Quran?