Chemical Elements in the Quran Miracle

Some Islamic apologists claim:

Surat al-Hadid, which bears the name iron, contains information about the atoms making up the matter in the universe, given 1,400 years ago. The provision of this information, at a time when the elements and their atomic numbers had not been discovered, is yet another miracle of the Qur'an.

miraclesofthequran.com: SOME OF THE CHEMICAL ELEMENTS INDICATED IN THE QUR'AN

Incorrect methodology

This study was conducted taking the Arabic letter "Ra" as the "R" in Western alphabets or "Mim" as the letter "M." The sequence of the letters representing the element is not considered. It is sufficient for the letters to appear side by side. Because the letters in the element Kr, for example, do not represent another element by the name of "Rk."

miraclesofthequran.com: SOME OF THE CHEMICAL ELEMENTS INDICATED IN THE QUR'AN

Apologists don't differentiate between Kr and Rk, because "It is sufficient for the letters to appear side by side". So when they want to search for an element, they have double chance of finding it. If they don't find Kr, Rk will be good enough. The more chances there is, the bigger is the probability of finding coincidences and the less amazing the whole "miracle" is.

And If Allah is perfect, why can't his book be perfect and contain every name of the element in the correct order?

And the order of letters is relevant:

• Ra is radium, but Ar is argon
• Ca is calcium, but Ac is actinium
• Cs is cesium, but Sc is scandium
• Ga is gallium, but Ag is silver
• Br is bromine, but Rb is rubidium
• In is indium, but Ni is nickel
• Ta is tantalum, but At is astatine
• Fr is francium, but Rf is rutherfordium
• Mc is moscovium, but Cm is curium
• Al is aluminium, but La is lanthanum
• Re is rhenium, but Er is erbium
• Se is selenium, but Es is einsteinium

And also Arabic doesn't transliterate the latin symbols into the Arabic alphabet. The elements in Arabic are either referred to by their whole name or the latin symbol is kept.

Supposed mentions of elements

"Z" is represented by ظ although ز would be more appropriate. "O" is supposedly in the Quran although Arabic doesn't have an equivalent of the letter "o". "Sm" is backwards as مص... sometimes they use the atomic number, other times (often incorrectly rounded) atomic weight...

Element	Symbol	Atomic number	Atomic weight	Presented by apologists as	Symbol chosen by apologists
Radon	Rn	86	222.00	86Rn	رن
Zirconium	Zr	40	91.224	40Zr	ظر
Tantalum	Ta	73	180.948	73Ta	تا
Fluorine	F	9	18.998	9F	ف
Oxygen	O	8	15.999	8O	ا
Samarium	Sm	62	150.360	62Sm	مص
Potassium	K	19	39.098	39K	ق
Sulfur	S	16	32.065	32S	ث
Erbium	Er	68	167.259	167Er	عر
Neodymium	Nd	60	144.240	60Nd	ند
Vanadium	V	23	50.942	23V	و
Gallium	Ga	31	69.723	69Ga	غا
Nitrogen	N	7	14.007	14N	ن
Bismuth	Bi	83	208.980	83Bi	با
Chromium	Cr	24	51.996	24Cr	رج
Astatine	At	85	210.000	85At	ات
Lithium	Li	3	6.941	6Li	لا
Hafnium	Hf	72	178.490	178Hf	فه
Indium	In	49	114.818	114In	ان
Strontium	Sr	38	87.620	87Sr	رس
Actinium	Ac	89	227.000	89Ac	اج
Thorium	Th	90	232.038	90Th	تخ
Lutetium	Lu	71	174.967	71Lu	لا
Nickel	Ni	28	58.693	58Ni	نا
Beryllium	Be	4	9.012	9Be	بع
Sodium	Na	11	22.990	11Na	ت
Niobium	Nb	41	92.906	41Nb	نب
Magnesium	Mg	12	24.305	12Mg	مغ
Dysprosium	Dy	66	162.500	162Dy	ضي
Zinc	Zn	30	65.390	65Zn	نز
Chlorine	Cl	17	35.453	35Cl	لج
Carbon	C	6	12.011	12C	ج
Cerium	Ce	58	140.116	140Ce	جع
Krypton	Kr	36	83.800	83Kr	رك

And apologists didn't clearly define in the beginning what the counting method is. Are the letters of the element included in the counting or not? Are we counting in the imla'i or Uthmani script? Which qiraa'a? And are we going the be consistent with the counting method or are we going to do all kinds of mental gymnastics to force the numbers into the Quran?

Analysis of Radon miracle

Number of letters from the beginning of the verse until the letters "Rn" appear: 86 Atomic number of the element "Rn": 86

وَالْأَوْلَادِ كَمَثَلِ غَيْثٍ أَعْجَبَ الْكُفَّارَ نَبَاتُهُ ثُمَّ يَهِيجُ فَتَرَاهُ مُصْفَرًّا ثُمَّ يَكُونُ حُطَامًا وَفِي الْآخِرَةِ عَذَابٌ شَدِيدٌ وَمَغْفِرَةٌ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَرِضْوَانٌ وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا إِلَّا مَتَاعُ الْغُرُور ٢٠

(Surat al-Hadid, 22)

miraclesofthequran.com: SOME OF THE CHEMICAL ELEMENTS INDICATED IN THE QUR'AN

Arabic Qurans usually have a verse number after the verse. The quoted verse contains the verse number in Arabic numbers ٢٠ which is 20, but apologists lie and claim that it's verse 22.

And apologists didn't even show the full verse:

Verse 57:20 in the imla'i script:

اعْلَمُوا أَنَّمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا لَعِبٌ وَلَهْوٌ وَزِينَةٌ وَتَفَاخُرٌ بَيْنَكُمْ وَتَكَاثُرٌ فِي الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَوْلَادِ كَمَثَلِ غَيْثٍ أَعْجَبَ الْكُفَّارَ نَبَاتُهُ ثُمَّ يَهِيجُ فَتَرَاهُ مُصْفَرًّا ثُمَّ يَكُونُ حُطَامًا وَفِي الْآخِرَةِ عَذَابٌ شَدِيدٌ وَمَغْفِرَةٌ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَرِضْوَانٌ وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا إِلَّا مَتَاعُ الْغُرُورِ

Verse 57:20 in the uthmani script:

ٱعۡلَمُوٓاْ أَنَّمَا ٱلۡحَيَوٰةُ ٱلدُّنۡيَا لَعِبٞ وَلَهۡوٞ وَزِينَةٞ وَتَفَاخُرُۢ بَيۡنَكُمۡ وَتَكَاثُرٞ فِي ٱلۡأَمۡوَٰلِ وَٱلۡأَوۡلَٰدِۖ كَمَثَلِ غَيۡثٍ أَعۡجَبَ ٱلۡكُفَّارَ نَبَاتُهُۥ ثُمَّ يَهِيجُ فَتَرَىٰهُ مُصۡفَرّٗا ثُمَّ يَكُونُ حُطَٰمٗاۖ وَفِي ٱلۡأٓخِرَةِ عَذَابٞ شَدِيدٞ وَمَغۡفِرَةٞ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَرِضۡوَٰنٞۚ وَمَا ٱلۡحَيَوٰةُ ٱلدُّنۡيَآ إِلَّا مَتَٰعُ ٱلۡغُرُورِ

No disaster strikes upon the earth or among yourselves except that it is in a register before We bring it into being - indeed that, for Allah, is easy -

Quran 57:20

• The verse says nothing about radon.
• There are two important differences between the two versions of the Arabic Quran. How are we supposed to count it?
  • The imla'i script says الْأَمْوَالِ which consists of 7 letters, but the Uthmani script says ٱلۡأَمۡوَٰلِ which consists of 6 letters
  • The imla'i script says وَالْأَوْلَادِ which consists of 8 letters, but the Uthmani script says وَٱلۡأَوۡلَٰدِۖ which consists of 7 letters
  • In the Uthmani script there are 82 letters before "ر ن" and in the imla'i script, there are 84. At best we could say that the letter ن is 86th letter in the imla'i script. But the Uthmani script is older and more traditional.
• The sequence "Rn", that is رن is not really in the verse. The "R" (ر) is actually the last letter of the word al-kuffaar (الكفار) and the "n" (ن) is the first letter of the next word nabaatuhu (نباته). So there is no connected "Rn".

See also

• Arbitrary Numbers of Mathematical Miracles in the Quran
• Scientific Miracles in the Quran