Some Islamic scholars, following the work of Rashid Khalifa, assert that numerous coincidences regarding the number "19" in the Quran are beyond chance, and prove that "a super intelligent source is responsible for this document [the Quran]; one who designed the work in this extraordinary manner, then managed to keep it a well guarded secret for 14 centuries, for a predetermined time. ..." (Source: http://www.19.org/english/articles/code19.htm ) Just as the Bible Code is alleged to prove the divinity of the Judeo-Christian God, the "Code 19" phenomenon is purported to show that Allah himself is indeed real, and most definitely the author of the Quran.

What are some of the patterns involving "19"  behind this startling hypothesis? Edip Yuksel cites several on the www.19.org web page, including:

• The first verse, i.e., the opening statement "Bismillahirrahmanirrahim", shortly "Basmalah," consists of 19 Arabic letters.
• The first word of Basmalah, Ism (name), withouth contraction, occurs in the Quran 19 times.
• The second word of Basmalah, Allah (God) occurs 2698 times, or 19x142.
• many, many more...

As with the Bible Code, the phemomenon is asserted to occur nowhere but in the Quran. As Yuksel writes, "The Quran is characterized by a unique phenomenon never found in any human authored book...."

But, just as the "amazing" Bible Code coincidences, which are alleged to be found ONLY in the Hebrew Torah, can be found in virtually ANY text (War and Peace, Moby Dick, and Drosnin's own Bible Code books are favorites), so too can "amazing" "19" coincidences be found in any text.

As an example, consider what I found after just a few minutes of study on just the first paragraph of the American Declaration of Independence: "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."

In the image above, the words of the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence are listed vertically. To the right of each word appears the number of letters in that word (punctuation marks such as commas and apostrophes have been omitted, per standard code custom).

The Red Boxes show all the occurrences of groups of contiguous words (e.g., a few words IN A ROW) which have sums of letters equalling 19. BEHOLD - THERE ARE EXACTLY 19 SUCH "COINCIDENCES" !!! Each occurrence is identified with a bold-face number above the corresponding Red Box.

The Blue Boxes show all the occurrences of words occurring ONLY ONCE in the entire Declaration of Independence, AND WHICH ALSO appear in the first paragraph: BEHOLD - THERE ARE EXACTLY 19 SUCH WORDS !!! Each occurrence is numbered with an italicized number to the left of the corresponding Blue Box.

I've only begun to scratch the surface. I'm sure that a great many "19 coincidences" can be found in the Declaration, or in any other text.

Is "Code 19" found ONLY in the Quran?  Quite simply, "NO!" (Or, as the slang expression goes, "Not a chance!")

Note to Readers: 

It is not my intent to criticize the Quran itself, nor the Islamic religion. Just as I have no quarrel with those who accept the Judaic Torah or the Judeo-Christian Bible as sacred texts needing no justification beyond faith, I have no quarrel with those who accept the Quran as the inspired word of Allah.

I am only commenting on these and similar studies because they purport to show SCIENTIFIC, MATHEMATICAL PROOF of the divinity of sacred texts. Once you bring SCIENCE into the picture - and start talking about subjects like statistics, improbability, and the like - then, as a scientist, I have no qualms about discussing my scientific views regarding the alleged "scientific" phenomena.

Peace,

Dave Thomas

 

Code 19 LINKS!

Mathematical Miracles in the Qur'an or the Bible?
http://www.answering-islam.org.uk/Religions/Numerics/

Society > Religion and Spirituality > Opposing Views > Islam > Submitters
http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Opposing_Views/Islam/Submitters/

The above page has MANY links to code 19 critiques, including this one:

Code 19 Deceit
http://www.inet.ba/~hardy/code_19.htm

This site has many pages with discussions critical of Code 19. On one of these, "Quran versus Code 19," (http://www.inet.ba/~hardy/quranvscode.htm), the author notes "Believers in code 19 reject two verses from the Quran. Why would anyone be interested in adding any extra verses at all ? On one side believers in code 19 promote that Mohammed was not illiterate and the Quran was written down in his own time. Despite this they don't accept the only Quran which has been available for over 1400 years...."

 

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