Differences
Analysis · argument tier
Questions raised about the text
Linguistic, historical, scientific and internal-consistency questions, verse by verse. Each item is an argument, with the sources it cites and a place for the responses.
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All categoriesOpen question · old site “Question”
Questions raised by the passage.
60
Open question
31% of items
60 original · 0 proposed · old “Question”
39
Linguistic
20% of items
39 original · 0 proposed
24
Internal contradiction
13% of items
24 original · 0 proposed · old “Quranic Contradiction”
24
Historical background
13% of items
24 original · 0 proposed · old “Historical Background”
21
Historical
11% of items
21 original · 0 proposed
15
Ambiguity
8% of items
15 original · 0 proposed
5
Parallels with earlier sources
3% of items
5 original · 0 proposed · old “Copied from other sources”
3
Scientific
2% of items
3 original · 0 proposed
0
Geographical
0% of items
0 original · 0 proposed
Each item is filed under one category from the old site's list (its most specific one); the other categories it carries still show as tags.
- 2:30 Open question Argument This verse recounts Allah telling the angels that he was planning to create a human being, yet they replied with an implied objection, saying, “‘Wilt Thou place therein one who will do evil therein and shed blood?...’” (Q 2.30). …
- 2:313 verses Open question Argument Verses 31–33 are a continuation of the conversation between Allah and the angels concerning the creation of man. These verses state that Allah taught Adam the names of “all of them.” Then Allah asks the angels to repeat these nam…
- 3:14 Open question Argument Regarding this verse, most of the scholars said, “Allah has beautified to people the love of desires and things they covet.” Al-Zamakhsharī explains that Allah beautified for people the love of desires and things they covet to te…
- 3:54 Open question Argument The closest translation to the Arabic is found in the Pickthall translation: “Allah is the best of schemers” (Q 3.54). The Arabic text is clear in discussing Allah’s fight against evil by stating that Allah answers deception with…
- 3:59 Open question Argument This verse demonstrates the similarity of the origin of Jesus and Adam as they were both created without a father. However, the difference is that Adam was created from dust or clay, while Jesus was created by the word of Allah, …
- 3:144 Open question Argument This verse was unknown to the Muslims of Muhammad’s day, even to Muhammad’s friends. The account of its revelation was recorded by the scholar al-Qurtubī: When Muhammad died and the news spread, ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattāb went to Muham…
- 3:192 Open question Argument This verse declares that whoever Allah sends to hell will be humiliated: “Lord! verily, whomsoever Thou hast made to enter the fire, Thou hast disgraced him.” It is well known that the Qur’ān states that everyone will go to hell:…
- 5:14 Open question Argument This verse tells us that Allah mandated that Christians enter into a covenant with him. Al-Rāzī clarifies that this covenant was the belief in Muhammad; however, when Christians broke the covenant, Allah declared, “...we excited …
- 6:108 Open question Argument This verse says that Allah makes the people’s bad deeds attractive to them. If Allah lures people into doing bad deeds and then justifies them in their own eyes, would he be fair (just) to judge them for those same deeds? (See th…
- 7:13 Open question Argument In this verse, Allah orders Satan to leave heaven, for he is not allowed to exalt himself there, as if the passage implies that it is allowable for Satan to exalt himself on earth. Al-T. abarī responded to this ambiguity: [T]he m…
- 7:16 Open question Argument After Satan was ordered to leave al-Janna, he accused Allah of being the one who tempted him: “I will repel the sons of Adam from worshipping and obeying You; I will lure them as You lured me and mislead them as You misled me.” T…
- 7:157 Open question Argument The verse describes Muhammad as the ummī prophet, translated by Palmer as “the illiterate prophet”. The exegetes explain that the meaning of the ummī prophet is one who is sent to the Arabs (who were an illiterate people). The ve…
- 7:176 Open question Argument This verse likens the unbeliever to a dog: “and his likeness was as the likeness of a dog, whom if thou shouldst attack he hangs out his tongue, or if thou should leave him, hangs out his tongue too...” (Q 7.176). The verse uses …
- 9:28 Open question Argument The verse describes the mushrikūn (blasphemers, idolaters) as najasun (the unclean, defiled, impure). Some exegetes explain the description najasun to be an abstraction for their insult and contempt. Others say that the reason th…
- 9:79 Open question Argument The verse states that Allah ridicules those who ridicule Muslims. Is portraying Allah as a cynic consistent with Allah’s transcendence? (Compare the comment on Q 3.54, where Allah is described as a deceiver).
- 10:20 Open question Argument The verse shows that the Quraysh wished Muḥammad would perform a miracle, sent down from Allah, as evidence of his prophetic claims. Muḥammad responded that such a demand is among the unseen things that only Allah knows, adding, …
- 10:21 Open question Argument The verse states that idolaters use a stratagem, a cleverly contrived trick, against Allah and then adds that Muḥammad should inform them that Allah is swifter than they are at scheming a stratagem: “God [Allah] is quicker at str…
- 10:53 Open question Argument The Quraysh asked Muḥammad, “whether it be true.” According to Islamic commentaries, the question refers to the authenticity of Muḥammad’s claim of prophethood and the veracity of the Qur’ān. Another suggestion claims that the qu…
- 11:12 Open question Argument This verse describes Muḥammad’s hesitancy towards his people about dropping parts of the Qur’ān that displease them. It is as if the verse is asking, “Muḥammad, are you thinking about hiding parts of the verses of the Qur’ān? Are…
- 11:34 Open question Argument In this verse, Noah declares his inability to convince his people to believe if Allah’s will is to lead them into sin. Based on this verse, al-Qurṭubī rejects the opinion of some Muslim scholars who believe that humans are free t…
- 11:40 Open question Argument The verse states that the Flood was preceded by the eruption of tannūr, which normally means “oven.” However, Muslim scholars disagree about this word’s meaning here in this verse and offer the following opinions: Tannūr refers t…
- 11:702 verses Open question Argument Regarding the story’s elements and sequence, this verse has two issues: Alternate versions The text of Q 11.70 states that when the guests of Ibrāhīm (Abraham) did not eat of his food, “he could not understand them, and harboured…
- 11:105 Open question Argument The verse states that no one will be allowed to speak on the Day of Judgment except by Allah’s permission. However, the Qur’ān states in Q 16.111, “On the day every soul will come to wrangle for itself.” The Qur’ān also states in…
- 11:1182 verses Open question Argument The verse states that Allah created people to be different. What is understood from the context is that the difference is a “difference in religions,” an opinion held by the majority of Islamic commentators. However, another opin…
- 12:303 verses Open question Argument This text contains the story of the women who mock Zelicha because of her infatuation with Joseph and Zelicha’s response to “their malicious talk.” She invites these women to a banquet in her home, so that they too would be dazzl…
- 12:106 Open question Argument In this verse, how could “most of them” believe in Allah and yet continue to worship other gods? ĢanafÏ Muslim exegete Muģammad al-Rāzī attempts to resolve this situation by offering several explanations: The phrase “most of them…
- 13:74 verses Open question Argument Some of the Quraysh requested Muamhmad to bring forth a miracle to prove the authenticity of his claim of being a prophet (verse 7). He responded, “God knows what each female bears, and what the wombs fall short of or add…” (vers…
- 13:27 Open question Argument The people of Mecca demanded that Muhammad give them tangible miracles. According to Islamic commentators, the people of Mecca asked that an angel appear with him or that Muhammad would bring out to them a treasure. But what was …
- 15:103 verses Open question Argument The text contains an address to Muhammad, stating that every messenger who came “before thee” (verse 10) was “mocked” (verse 11). The following text (verse 12) states that mockery is “put” by Allah into the hearts of misbelievers…
- 15:172 verses Open question Argument The Qur’ān explains in these verses an astronomical phenomenon: the shooting star. According to Islamic commentators, verse 17 states that the lower heaven has been kept away from every devil except the one who eavesdrops; he is …
- 15:26 Open question Argument The verse states that Adam was created from “crackling clay of black mud wrought in form.” The salsāl (“crackling clay”) is the dry mud that, when baked, becomes clay. The hama’ al-masnūn (“black mud”) is the mud that turns black…
- 15:2815 verses Open question Argument Although Iblīs’ refusal to bow to Adam in adoration is first mentioned in Q 2.34, both instances (Q 2.34 and Q 15.33) have generated puzzling explanations by Muslim scholars that appear contradictory to other teachings of the Qur…
- 15:493 verses Open question Argument The verse contains an address to Muhammad ordering him to tell the Quraysh that Allah is “the pardoning, the merciful” and that Allah’s punishment is a “grievous woe.” Then the text continues, “And inform them concerning Abraham’…
- 15:922 verses Open question Argument The text states that all the people will be asked on Yawm al-Qiyāma (“Day of Judgment”) about “what they have done”. This verse contradicts Q 55.39: “On that day neither man nor ginn shall be asked about his crime!”
- 16:21 Open question Argument This verse presents two issues: Redundant prose The verse describes the idols as “[d]ead, not living.” The word “dead” would have been sufficient in Arabic to describe their state. Why does the verse add “not living”? What manner…
- 16:26 Open question Argument The Qur’ānic story in this verse does not clearly identify the mentioned group of people nor provides any clues to help the reader. To resolve this problem, Islamic commentators suggest that the verse is speaking about Nimrod and…
- 16:76 Open question Argument In trying to clarify the incapability of idols, Islamic commentators suggest that this verse compares an idol to a mute man. Al-Ţabarī explains that just as a mute man is a burden to his family, so is the idol a burden to his own…
- 17:16 Open question Argument The decree of Allah, given in the verse, states that if he wanted to destroy a city he would command “the opulent ones thereof” and they would spread abomination. In other words, when Allah decides to destroy a town, he prepares …
- 17:58 Open question Argument This verse forewarns that every city will face perdition before the “day of judgment”. Muslim exegetes state that all towns will either be subject to utter destruction or that killing and suffering with overtake them, including M…
- 17:64 Open question Argument In this verse Allah responds to Iblīs by stating that Iblīs may “[e]ntice away” people and use his power to oppress them and share with them wealth and children. In their explanation of this verse, Muslim exegetes discuss the key…