There Is No Scientific Knowledge in the Quran: A Critical Examination — Part Three

There Is No Scientific Knowledge in the Quran: A Critical Examination — Part Three

By Dr. Maxwell Shimba | Shimba Theological Institute

Introduction

In recent decades, there has been a growing trend among some Islamic apologists to claim that the Quran contains scientifically miraculous knowledge that predates modern discoveries. This apologetic strategy, often termed scientific apologetics, attempts to validate the divine origin of the Quran by aligning its verses with contemporary scientific understanding. However, upon closer inspection, these claims frequently fall short under historical, textual, and scientific scrutiny. In this segment, I will critically examine one such claim regarding geological knowledge in the Quran, compare it with antecedent biblical literature, and then briefly outline a framework for categorizing the Quran’s so-called scientific statements — many of which either reflect pre-existing beliefs, are misinterpreted, or are scientifically erroneous.

---

The ‘Mountains as Pegs’ Claim in the Quran

A frequently cited example of “miraculous science” in the Quran is found in Surah 78:6–7:

"Have We not made the earth as a wide expanse, and the mountains as pegs?" (Surah An-Naba, 78:6–7)

Muslim apologists assert that this verse reflects advanced geological knowledge, suggesting that mountains possess deep roots beneath the surface of the earth, thus stabilizing it — a notion compatible with the modern understanding of isostasy and tectonic plates. However, this interpretation demands scrutiny on several grounds.

1. The Idea Was Not Unique to the Quran

The concept of mountains having roots was neither novel nor miraculous at the time of the Quran’s compilation. The Hebrew Bible, written centuries before Muhammad, contains similar imagery. Consider the following examples:

• Job 28:9 (NIV):
  “People assault the flinty rock with their hands and lay bare the roots of the mountains.”

• Jonah 2:6 (NIV):
  “To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever.”

In these passages, the metaphorical concept of mountains having roots was already well-established within the biblical tradition. These references predate the Quran by over a millennium and suggest that such imagery was part of the wider ancient Near Eastern cosmology rather than an instance of divine revelation unique to Muhammad.

2. The Misapplication of Modern Geology

While modern geology indeed confirms that mountain ranges have subterranean roots, this should not be retroactively read into ancient texts unless those texts explicitly articulate such a concept in scientific terms. The Quran’s use of pegs (awtād) is metaphorical, in line with prevailing ancient worldviews where mountains were imagined as stakes or tent pegs holding down the earth’s flat expanse — a cosmological motif common in pre-Islamic Arab poetry and folklore.
Moreover, early tafsir (commentaries) by Muslim scholars such as Ibn Kathir and Al-Tabari interpreted these verses metaphorically as well, seeing mountains as stabilizing features but not offering scientific explanations akin to plate tectonics or geological isostasy.

---

Categories of Alleged Scientific Knowledge in the Quran

When reviewing the full corpus of alleged scientific miracles in the Quran, we find that these claims fall into three distinct categories:

Category 1: Verses Misinterpreted to Align with Modern Science

Many Quranic verses are made to say things they do not explicitly state through forced or selective interpretation. A well-known example is the claim that the Quran describes the Big Bang in Surah 21:30:

“Do not those who disbelieve see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, then We split them apart?”

Islamic apologists interpret this as a description of the Big Bang, despite the text’s original intent likely referring to the separation of the earth and heavens in the ancient Near Eastern cosmology of a flat earth covered by a solid firmament.

Category 2: Knowledge Widely Known Prior to the Quran

Numerous scientific facts attributed to the Quran were already well known in surrounding cultures and civilizations before the 7th century CE. For instance, notions about embryology, which Muslims often cite as a Quranic miracle, can be traced to earlier Greek medical authorities such as Hippocrates (c. 460–370 BCE) and Galen (c. 129–210 CE). The embryological sequence mentioned in Surah 23:12–14 mirrors concepts in Galenic medicine more closely than any revelation from an omniscient source.

Category 3: Scientifically Erroneous Statements

A number of Quranic verses make claims that are flatly contradicted by modern scientific knowledge. Among these:

• Surah 18:86 claims the sun sets in a muddy spring:

  “Until, when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it setting in a spring of black muddy water...”

  Scientifically, the sun neither sets in any earthly body of water nor is the sun’s setting a local event.

• Surah 67:5 equates stars with meteorites:

  “And We have certainly beautified the nearest heaven with lamps (stars) and have made from them what is thrown at the devils...”

  This suggests that stars (billions of light years away) serve as projectiles against devils, a notion incompatible with contemporary astrophysics.

• Surah 86:7 locates the origin of semen “between the backbone and the ribs”:

  “Emitted from between the backbone and the ribs.”

  Human semen is produced in the testes, which anatomically reside in the scrotum, and not between the spine and ribs. Even accounting for poetic language, this description misrepresents human reproductive anatomy.

---

Conclusion

Upon careful textual, historical, and scientific analysis, the claim that the Quran contains miraculous scientific knowledge does not withstand academic scrutiny. Not only do purported scientific verses either reflect ideas already present in earlier biblical or Greco-Roman texts, but many are also forced reinterpretations or scientifically erroneous. As such, these apologetic arguments fail to provide compelling evidence for the Quran’s divine origin.

A genuinely divine text would be expected to transcend the limitations of its historical and cultural milieu, offering knowledge demonstrably inaccessible to its contemporaries. The Quran, by contrast, mirrors the cosmology, anthropology, and embryology of the 7th-century Arabian world — a clear indication of its human authorship.

The conversation about science and scripture must remain honest, historically grounded, and free from anachronistic projections of modern knowledge onto ancient texts. In light of these observations, the assertion that the Quran contains scientifically miraculous knowledge remains unsupported.

---

Dr. Maxwell Shimba
Founder & Director, Shimba Theological Institute
Orlando, Florida

---