The Qur'an is a Flawed Text

1. Fist things first, this has been terribly, terribly quoted. I urge you to check the following link: http://quran.com... However, as to the Samari, new research based on a more careful study of the Samaritan Chronicle has led to a re-evaluation of their origins. The Samaritans are the direct descendants of the Joseph tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, and until the 17th century C.E. they possessed a high priesthood descending directly from Aaron through Eleazar and Phinehas. The Quranic mention of the name al-Samiri sometimes translated as the "Samaritan" is entirely consistent with modern investigations into the origin of the Samaritan sect. http://en.wikipedia.org... http://www.islamic-awareness.org... 2. To put it bluntly, " This is the first of the three episodes here mentioned, his expedition to the west. "Reaching the setting of the sun" does not mean the extreme west, for there is no such thing. West and East are relative terms. It means a western expedition terminated by a "spring of murky water." This has puzzled Commentators, and they have understood this to mean the dark, tempestuous sea." http://quran4u.com... I definitely disagree with the sun setting in murky waters. As an aside, poetry and figurative language are everywhere in the Quran - It's written more beautifully than anyone else could hope to equal. This doesn't make the Quran a poem. 3. To begin with, these verses say nothing whatsoever about the creation of sperm or the creation of anything else. Consequently, they do not inform us of where the creation of sperm takes place. They merely say that the substances under discussion come out form the places being described. The word being used is "yakhruj" meaning "to exit, leave, come out, emerge". It in no way implies anything related to creation or origination. Secondly, the phrase "ma'dafiq" (emitted fluid) is not restricted in meaning to sperm but is used in Arabic for both the sperm and the egg. Ibn Kath?r, in his commentary on this verse, writes: "It emanates from the man and the woman, and with Allah's permission, the child comes forth as a product of both.' Thirdly, the words translated as "backbone" (sulb) and "ribs" (taraib) are not understood in Arabic to belong to the same person. Arabs understand the "sulb" to refer to a part of the male body and the "taraib? to a part of the female. Ibn Kathir states: "It refers to the 'sulb' of the man and the 'taraib' of the woman, which is the area of her chest." He then quotes this interpretation on the authority of the Prophet's companion Ibn `Abb's. This same understanding is given in all the major classical works of Quranic commentary. Moreover, the word "sulb" should not necessarily be translated as "backbone". This word has many possible meanings and backbone is only one of them. It is also quite commonly used to mean the loins of a man. This is how it is used elsewhere in the Quran. Allah says: "Prohibited to you (for marriage) are...wives of your sons proceeding from your loins (aslab, the plural of sulb).? [Surah al-Nisa: 23] There can be no problem with sperm coming out from the area of a man's loins. Likewise, when we look at the word being translated as ?ribs? (taraib, the plural of tarabah) we find that it is used linguistically for the general are of the chest and the abdomen. In al-Qamus, the famous classical dictionary of al-Fayruzabadi it is defined as a number of things: "the bones of the chest or what comes after the two collarbones or what comes between the collarbones and the chest or the four ribs to the right of the chest or the four ribs to the left of the chest or the hands, eyes and feet or the collarbones." Some Companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and some Successors had also provided many possible meanings, like the lower ribs and al-Dahhakas statement that it is the area between the breasts and feet and the eyes (a mere indication of centrality). This word clearly has a very broad and diverse definition. It is so ambiguous a word that the Companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him) could not give it a precise definition. Scholars of Quranic commentary have consistently admitted to there being at least three different possible meanings for this word as it is used in the verse. This is an admission that they do not know for certain what the taraib are, except that they generally agree it refers to an area of the woman?s body. It can apply to any region nearing the ribcage. Therefore, the area of the ovaries, the fallopian tubes, or the uterus can easily fit into the general area that is being indicated by these verses. What we are dealing with here is a gross error in translation and not a scientific error at all. http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com... 4. Simply put, the freshwater and saltwater layers stratify. They don't actually "mix". They always separate from each other. I'd like a source for your claim that they do mix, as I couldn't really find anything when I searched. 5. I'm not sure what the problem here is. This verse was sent down in Muhammad's (pbuh) lifetime, which was approximately 570-630 C.E. Horses were domesticated in Arabia around 3000 B.C.E. Horses were domesticated then.