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Several years before Michael
Drosnin's profitable publication of The Bible Code, a biochemist
named Dr. Rashad Khalifa discovered a statistical anomaly in the Qur’ân that
ultimately led to the identification of what he described as a mathematical code
embedded within its Arabic text. The message he read within that code was not
about Bill Clinton or the stock market or Princess Diana's death. Instead, its
purpose was to remind Muslims of something they had forgotten: Believe in God
Alone and take God at His Word. Don't add anything! Rely on the
Qur’ân Alone for all guidance. Don't mix men's words with God's.
Dr. Khalifa's discovery made him
quite popular in the Muslim world, because it was viewed as a testament to the
divine origin of the Qur’ân. However, it eventually led to his declaration that
he was a messenger of God, with a duty to preach the message of "God Alone,
Qur’ân Alone." In the tradition-steeped bastions of old-world Islâm, Dr.
Khalifa's declaration amounted to a self-imposed death sentence. He knew that
his declaration was an open invitation for anyone intoxicated by unreasoning
religious zeal to assassinate him. He was free to write books about his findings
and capitalize on his burgeoning popularity. Nevertheless, he chose to make his
declaration. What compelled him to do it?
Dr. Rashad Khalifa was violently
assassinated on January 31, 1990.
How It All Began. Dr. Khalifa
wanted to translate the Qur’ân into English. This had been done several times
before in history, but he was not satisfied with existing translations. A major
source of his concern was that previous translators had not handled the most
difficult passages correctly. To put it bluntly, whenever God said something
that contradicted established tradition, the translators dutifully corrected
Him. Dr. Khalifa believed that a responsible translator should handle such
problems by taking a more literal approach and letting the text speak for
itself. He believed that nothing could be more important than translating the
Word of God with utmost accuracy. He set about his work with one overriding
criterion in mind: to translate the Qur’ân from beginning to end, without
proceeding to any portion until the previous portion had been faithfully and
accurately completed, and above all without questioning God's choice of words.
The Mysterious Initials.
No sooner had Dr. Khalifa completed the very short but very important first
chapter of the Qur’ân than he encountered his first difficulty. The second
chapter began with three inexplicable letters: alif-lâm-mîm. Called muqaţţa‘ât
in Arabic, these are simply initials with no explanation—anywhere from one to
five in a row—that constitute the first verse (and in one case the second as
well) of twenty-nine chapters of the Qur’ân. They had never been interpreted.
Many theologians and translators had guessed at their meaning, but no amount of
speculation could solve the riddle of what they really were or why they were
there. Undaunted, Dr. Khalifa was determined to understand their meaning before
proceeding with his translation—not by speculating, as the previous translators
had done, but by analyzing with care precisely how the initials actually behave
in the Qur’ân. It reportedly took him four years to translate that one verse,
which consisted of nothing more than those three letters.
Counting the Letters. Armed with
a computer (which no previous translator had had available), Dr. Khalifa keyed
in the entire Qur’ânic text in Roman letters (using A for alif, M for mîm, and
so forth). He then had his computer count up the frequency of occurrence of each
letter. Each letter, of course, had its characteristic frequency, expressed as a
proportion—the total number of alifs, for example, divided by the total number
of letters in all.
The First Sign. Now it came time
for Dr. Khalifa to take another look at the mysterious initials. Would the
frequencies tell him anything about them? Would they stand out as being in some
way unusual? They did indeed. As it turned out, the mysterious initials occurred
with far greater frequency in those chapters in which they were featured as
initials than in the Qur’ân as a whole.
Dr. Khalifa pondered his finding.
If, as one theory suggested, the initials belonged to the various scribes who
had penned the manuscripts collated under the third Caliph for purposes of
dissemination, they would not have any statistical relationship with the text.
If, as another theory suggested, they were abbreviations for certain of God's
attributes, again they would not have any such relationship. Then it dawned on
him: The
meaning of the muqaţţa‘ât lay within the structure of the text itself.
The Number 19. Dr. Khalifa
eventually found that several sets of initials occurred in their respective
chapters in multiples of 19. This reminded him of the number 19 mentioned at
74:30. In the verse that follows, the number 19 is assigned a clearly defined
purpose. But how can a mere number do what is described there? How can a mere
number reinforce the faith of the believers, cast aside the doubts of the
undecided, and shake up the disbelievers? For fourteen centuries the matter had
been relegated to speculation. Nevertheless, there were some things that every
schoolchild knew: There are 19 letters in the Qur’ânic invocation (called the
basmalah
in Arabic, you will find it at the top of this page). While there are 114
chapters in the Qur’ân (19 x 6), the invocation does not introduce all of them.
Nevertheless, there are exactly 114 invocations in the Qur’ân as well. Dr.
Khalifa excitedly began counting and tabulating all of the mysterious initials,
looking for more multiples of 19.
What We Are Left With. Dr.
Khalifa's legacy is a voluminous, somewhat disparate collection of patterns
based on multiples of 19 in the quantities of letters, words, verses, chapters,
and other structural features of the Qur’ân that in an ordinary book would be
completely random. These are divulged in various media, including a few
websites. Here are a few useful references:
Beyond Probability: Discovery
of the Qur’ân Code. Includes Abdullah Arik's notoriously mind-boggling findings.
Miracle of Qur’ân: Concise summary of Dr.
Khalifa's findings, with more background about Dr. Khalifa's early work.
Mathematical Miracle of the Qur’ân:
Long list of cites covering a wide range of details about the Qur’ân Code.
Since Dr. Khalifa's untimely
death, the community that had grown around him has become deeply divided. The
greatest source of divisiveness has stemmed from the question of how to treat
Dr. Khalifa's expressed opinions on a variety of religious issues that are of
central importance in the light of the Qur’ân Code. Some treat Dr. Khalifa as
infallible. Others treat him as superior to the average person, authenticated by
his discovery, so his opinions must be unquestioned unless challenged by a major
change of consensus. Still others treat him as fallible but gifted, so his
opinions can do no more than serve to raise new questions that each individual
must solve through careful study and meditation. A few abandoned the community
long ago upon discovering that Dr. Khalifa had made mistakes in his presentation
of the Qur’ân Code.
History is filled with similar
examples. Everything that inspires overwhelming conviction cuts several routes
through human society—several leading to it, and inevitably one leading away.
This is a testament to the power of the message. It is also an indicator of its
controversial nature.
One can speak of Dr. Rashad
Khalifa as a great man, or a tragic one. One can believe him, disbelieve him,
worship him, or revile him. I believe Dr. Khalifa most probably would have
wished only that we examine the message that he delivered, honestly appraise it,
and draw our own conclusions. He would have preferred to be reviled than
worshipped. Moreover, he would have insisted that the messenger is fallible.
If we choose without looking,
believe without questioning, or act without thinking, we will err without
knowing. The burden is upon each of us to verify everything for ourselves.
This website is devoted to
studying the mathematical structure of the Qur’ân statistically. It does not
provide an exhaustive list of all mathematical features that have been
discovered in the Qur’ân. Rather, it intends to look at one major discovery at a
time, slowly and carefully, to assess its statistical significance. The analyses
may appear dry, tedious, and cumbersome at times, but this is part and parcel of
cold objectivity. I welcome your suggestions about things that could be made
clearer.
WARNING
If you already accept Dr.
Khalifa's findings as fact but want to keep an open mind, then this website is
for you. Contrarily, if you have already
made up your mind that anything that discredits any of his findings cannot
possibly be true, then you are in the wrong place.
If you believe Dr. Khalifa's
findings are nothing but random anomalies but want to keep an open mind, then
this website is for you. Contrarily, if
you have already made up your mind that anything that corroborates his findings
cannot possibly be true, then you are in the wrong place.
Think about it.
If you are not afraid to use your
head and to verify things for yourself, especially when they have to do with God
and religion, then this website is for you. You will not find any miracles
here—only statistics.
All statistics can do is
demonstrate whether what you observe is an accident or not.
If you determine that something
is not an accident, then it is up to you to decide what it is. Is
it a miracle? If so, then establish that the observed anomaly could not
reasonably have occurred by human agency. Is it the product of human ingenuity?
If so, then it is up to you to establish how it was achieved.
In short, if you would like to
take a highly serious look at some of the claims concerning the Qur’ân Code,
then put on your thinking cap and explore this site with your sensibilities
intact.
There are no tricks here, just
facts and analyses. What you decide to believe is up to you.
The Qur’ân Code:
Home page.
The Mysterious Qur’ânic Initials:
An explanation and chapter-by-chapter count of the Qur’ânic initials.
Use of Statistics: How
statistics can be used to analyze the Qur’ânic text.
Defining the Data Set to be Analyzed:
Overview of the nature of the Qur’ânic initials and definition of the principal
data set.
The Principal Analysis:
Includes links to supplementary analyses.
Implications of the Present Findings:
Discusses the outcome of the principal analysis.
Supplementary Analyses:
Overview, with links to individual analyses.
General Summary of Findings by Statistical Significance:
Compilation of all analyses for comparison of outcomes.
© Copyright Abu Jamil and
The Q Zone
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