A Mathematical Sura Like It
Article by Ian McNamara. (e-mail: ianmcn@hotpop.com)

In the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful.

Foreword

Peace be upon you,

I have decided to write a foreword to explain the reasons behind writing this article, and to outline what I wish to achieve by it.

Being a follower of the Qur'an alone who doesn't believe that the claimed 19-code is a miracle has put me in somewhat of an awkward position, as I am neither accepted by those who believe in the code, nor by more 'orthodox' Muslims.

When I started discussing Islam other Muslims, specifically followers of the Qur'an alone, I was welcomed with open arms. However as soon as I began to ask questions about problems with the analysis and methods of the code, I was called a disbeliever, hypocrite, and was told that I was condemned to Hell.

Now I hadn't even said that I didn't believe in the miracle, all I had done was to say that a few calculations were wrong, and some of the methods were inconsistant. These sorts of actions are the sort of thing which 19-code believers often attack Sunni Muslims with, for attacking anyone who dares to question their beliefs.

This article is not written to be an attack on peoples belief, I undertook this work for two main reasons:

To find out for myself if the code can be reproduced
To show 19-believers that there is grounds to not accept it

Ofcourse point number two was only applicable if I managed to reproduce the code. I believe that I have done so, or at the very least something "like it". I hope that the persecution of Muslims by other Muslims based on the validity of the 19 code can now stop. As God said:

"Surely the believers and the Jews,
Nazareans and the Sabians, whoever believes
in God and the Last Day, and whosoever does right,
shall have his reward with his Lord
and will neither have fear nor regret" - [2:62]

This work is intended to be the last word in the 19-code debate, I think it provides enough evidence to give credibility to those who choose not to accept the code as a miracle, and I hope it is recognised as such.

To those who do believe in the 19-code, please do not insult and attack those who do not believe in the code, it is their choice to not believe in the code, just as it is your choice to believe in it.

To those who do not believe in the 19-code, please do not insult and attack those who believe in the code, it is their choice to believe in the code, just as it is your choice to not believe in it.

I ask that you read this article objectively, and ask God to show you the truth.

God bless you all,
Ian McNamara.

Introduction

This is a response to the 19-code believers to produce a sura which is mathematically coded in a manner similar to that of the Qur'an's claimed code.

To create a sura which is mathematically coded, I have based my work on Dr. Rashad Khalifa's translation of sura 96. The work has been done in english, as I do not understand arabic.

The work is entirely accurate to my knowledge.

*********
THIS IS NOT A CHALLENGE TO THE DIVINITY OF THE QUR'AN!
*********

This sura was not divinely inspired.

This work does not disprove the divinity of the Qur'an, it is a response to the challenge to reproduce the claimed 19-code.

Please read the foreword to understand the goals of this article, I am not challenging the divinity of the Qur'an. I am a follower of the Qur'an alone who hopes to stop the persecution of those who do not believe that the 19 code
is a miracle.

Modified version of Rashad Khalifa's translation of the Qur'an
Sura 96 - Al-'Alaq
The following is not to be used as a translation of the Qur'an

Sura 96 - A.E.H.M.R.S.T.U.Y. (or The Embryo [Al-'Alaq])

For Allah, the Greatest*

A.E.H.M.R.S.T.U.Y.*

1.Read, in worship of your Lord, who made you
2.He made you from an embryo
3.Read, and your Lord, the Most Praised
4.Does teach by the pencil
5.God teaches man what they never knew
6.Indeed, the humans stray
7.If they finally become rich
8.To your god is the ultimate destiny
9.Have you sons seen the one who wants to keep
10.Us from our prayers?
11.Better for him is to follow the guidance
12.Or to promote righteousness
13.If he disbelieves you and runs away
14.Does he realize that Allah perceives it?
15.Indeed, unless he refrains, we will take him by his forelock
16.A forelock that is disbelieving and sinful
17.Let him call to his helpers
18.We will then summons the 19** guardians of Hell
19.You shall refrain from obeying him; fall prostrate, to move higher

Notes:

* Unnumbered verse

The initials are printed at the beginning mostly for your in counting, the verse was composed without the initals being printed inside of the chapter, and submission.org's challenge said only to use letters multiple of 19 times, inserting the initials into the chapter actually makes composing the chapter easier, so I left them out. I could also see arguements over whether or not initials should be included in letter counts.

** 19 may or may not be included depending on whether or not you want to include it in the word and or letter count. As we see in 74:29-30 the number of guardians of Hell is 19.

The Letter Count of the Initials

Gematrical Values Table

This is almost exactly the same as the Arabic Gematrical values table (There are two less letters in the english alphabet, hence two less in the table)

The Facts

Notes:

1. Basmalah not included in the counts except where it is specifically mentioned.
The number 19 is not included in the word or letter counts as it is a number

*: See table of gematrical values above

**: This either confirms the position of the number 19, or is emphasising that the number of guardians of Hell is 19.

***: Sum of initials in verse 18
= A + E + H + M + R + S + T + U + Y
= 2 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 0
= 19 (19x1)

****: Sum of the gematrical value:
A + E + H + M + R + S + T + U + Y
= 1 + 5 + 8 + 40 + 90 + 100 + 200 + 300 + 700
= 1444 (19x19x4)

Probability Calcuations

The probability that a random number is divisible by the number X is 1/X. Therefore, the probability of a number being divisible by 19 is 1/19.

Calculations:

The probability of the number of times which a letter occurs being divisible by 19 is 1 in 19.

Therefore the probability of nine different letters each occuring a number of times which is divisible by 19 is:

1/19x1/19x1/19x1/19x1/19x1/19x1/19x1/19x1/19
= 1/199
= 1 / 322,687,697,800
= 1 in 322,687,697,800

Thus the probability of all of the facts appearing in one sura is:

1/199x1/19x1/19x1/19x1/19x1/19x1/19x1/19x1/19x1/192
= 1/1919
= 1 in 1,978,419,656,000,000,000,000,000

Notes:
1. Numbers are given as accurately as my calculator would allow
2. For the probabilities of each seperate fact see the section above, "The Facts"

The Challenge - "A Sura Like It"
http://www.submission.org/challenge.html

The website submission.org posted a challenge which stated that the sura challenge had nothing to do with the literary quality of the Qur'an, but rather a mathematical code. They then proceeded to challenge anyone to fulfill the following challenges, I assume to prove the non-miracle stature of the 19-code.

Submission.com's requirements for a sura like it, and my response.

1. The sura should be made up of, say, 19 sentences.

My sura has 19 verses

2. The total number of words is a multiple of 19.

My sura has 133 words which is 19x7.

3. The word God and two of his attributes should be used each, say, eleven times.

I have used the word Allah, and Most Praised the same amount of times (1). The original sura used God and Most Exalted once. This part of the challenge has nothing to do with 19.

4. The word messenger should be used five times.
5. The word law should be used seven times.

These are arbitrary numbers which have nothing to do with the number 19. Why the inclusion of requirements which have nothing to do with 19?

6..15. The number of the letter "X", "X" should be a multiple of 19.

My sura has nine letters which occur a multiple of 19 times. The initials in the Qur'an do not each have an individual count divisible by 19, Dr. Khalifa used a variety of methods to come up with 19, the counts themselves, adding the initials, adding the initial counts to other suras with the same initials, adding the initial counts to other suras with different initials. There is no sura which has more than five initials, my sura has nine.

16. If you choose to use numbers inside your statements, their total. when added together, should be a multiple of 19. If you are not using numbers then substitute this factor by manipulating the numbers in such a way that if you multiply the number of the words in the third verse (sentence) by the number of its letters, the total should be a multiple of 19.

My sura uses one number, 19. It is not unrelated either, as we see from 74:29-30 the number of guardians of Hell is 19.

'19' is not counted as a word as it is a number. Even if you object to this, remove '19' from my sura.

Alternatly:

The sum of the initials in the verse where the sura number plus the verse number is a multiple of 19 (Which actually relates to the number 19 unlike submission.org's challenge to use verse 3) is a multiple of 19.

17. While reading your statements, the reader would close his/her lips, pronouncing your words, 19 times or a multiple of nineteen. ( as in Sura 1 in the Quran).

To my knowledge, this is not a fact for every sura, in fact I am only aware of it being a fact for sura 1 (Although in terms of probability, 5 others should also fulfil this challenge).

18. If you add the gematrical value of all the letters you use in your writing, they should be a multiple of 19. The gematrical values of the Arabic Alphabets are known and can be found on our web site. The gematrical value of the English Alphabets or any other language can be assumed as A=1, B=2, C= 3...etc., if you choose to write it in English or any other language. Let us know these values when you are done.

The sum of the gematrical values of all the letters in the sura is 51243 which is 2697x19.

I used an almost identical version to the arabic table (There are two less letters in the english alphabet and this is the only difference) so no complaints about arbitrary numbers. See the table above for my table of gematrical values.

(19) These 19 sentences should make complete and perfect laws or advise for moral correction and should be grammatically and linguistically sound. They should be judges as being excellent in composition by people who speak the language.

I do not see what this has to do with the mathematical challenge. The information is close enough in meaning to the original translation of the Qur'an, and the sura makes sense.

Submission.org's page containing the challege criticized those who complained about someone responding to the Qur'ans challenge on literary grounds. They then continued said that this kind of response "only reflects their ignorance with the
Quran and the miracle of the Quran". Yet now they themselves are falling back on the literary quality of the work?

(See webpage http://www.submission.org/challenge.html)

Facts Which Are In My Sura, Which Are Not Part Of
www.submission.org's Challenge

I have fulfilled the challenge, those which you may deem as 'incomplete' or not satisfactory, can be made up for by these facts. I am sure that there are more, the facts presented in this document are the ones I tried to create, I am sure
that there are more that could be found if someone was willing to take some time to look for them.

1.The number of words is a multiple of 19

2.The number 19 appears (or is referred to) in the only verse where the verse number plus the sura number is a multiple of 19

3.The sum of the initials in this verse (verse 18) is also a multiple of 19

4.The sum of the gematrical values of the initials is a multiple of 192

Problems With www.submission.org's Challenge

I have read almost all of the research on the number 19 which has been made available to me. I have never seen any sura which fulfills the challenge which submission.org has put forward.

Now, if every sura in the Qur'an cannot fulfil all the requirements above, why challenge someone to meet all of these challenges? God states that even if all the humans and jinns joined together they could not even produce something
like it. So why challenge us to produce something superior to the Qur'an?

To my knowledge, there is no sura which fulfills all of the challenges above. For example, challenges 6-15, require that the letter count of each of 10 different letters is a multiple of 19. Contrast this fact however to the Qur'anic initials which Dr. Khalifa and his followers claimed were an integral part of the 19-code.

These challenges (6-15) are, I assume, to mimic the initials usage. However, if you read appendix 1 from Dr. Khalifa's translation of the Qur'an, you will see that the initialed letters do not occur in multiples of 19. Dr. Khalifa used different methods to come up with multiples of 19. The methods Dr. Khalifa used increased the probability of finding multiples of 19. For example adding the letter counts of each initial in each verse together and adding it to the other suras with similar initials.

No sura has more than five initials, and even in these five initials suras, the amount of times each initialed letter occurs is _not_ a multiple of 19. Contrast this
to the challenge from submission.org who challenge to have 10 different letters occuring a multiple of nineteen times for each letter. I managed to get 9 letters in a very short time, the initials of my sura are far superior to anything presented in Dr. Khalifa's appendixes. Most of Dr. Khalifa's occurances have a probability of 1 in 19, the probability of my sura is 1/199.

Hence we can see that the Qur'an itself fails the Sura challenge put forward by submission.org.

Notes on challenge 16:

This challenge asks that:
"If you are not using numbers then substitute this factor by manipulating the numbers in such a way that if you multiply the number of the words in the third verse (sentence) by the number of its letters, the total should be a multiple of 19."

The number 19 is a prime number. You cannot multiply two numbers together to get 19. As such, multiplying the letter and word count together will not yield a multiple of 19. This challenge should have been to get either the word or letter count to a multiple of 19.

How Would The Mathematical Structure Of My Sura Have Been Interpreted?

Well, following the analysis of the numbers would most likely have been made if these facts were part of the analysis of the Qur'an.

The initials are divinely protected due to the sum of their gematrical value being a multiple of 19 squared. All of the letters in the sura which occur a multiple of 19 times are counted as initials, so there is no arbitrary choice in this.

The initials ensure that the initialed letters cannot be added or subtracted from the verse.

The number of verses is a multiple of 19, so adding or subtracting verses is defended against.

The fact that the total number of letters in the sura is a multiple of 19, means that non-initial letters cannot be added or subtracted easily.

Futhermore, the word count being a multiple of 19 means that to add anymore non-initial letters, would require adding a multiple of 19 words, this would no doubt also throw the initial counts out. This also ensures that words cannot be added easily.

The sum of the gematrical value of the entire sura ensures that letters cannot be interchanged, as because each letter has a different value. For example substituting a P for a Q would mean that the gematrical value of the sura would no longer be
a multiple of 19.

Emphasis on the number 19, the number 19 is mentioned (or referred to) in the only verse where the sum of the verse number and sura number is a multiple of 19.

Also, the number of initialed letters which appear in this verse is a multiple of 19 further emphasizing the importance of 19.

The number of letters in the Basmalah protects it from having letters added or subtracted from it.

What can actually be changed in the sura?

Possible discrepencies, or problems

Please see the file "Response to Criticism" for more discussions on possible problems. God willing I will move them into this section soon.

All of the possible descrepencies in my sura that I can think of is as follows:

1. The initials are not printed in a numbered verse.
2. The number 19 is counted as a number, and not a word.

1. When I started to work on getting the sets of letters divisible by 19 (As challenged by www.submission.org) I did not put the initials in, besides this fact, putting the initials in would be a method of making the process easier as that would mean I could add letters into the sura which have no meaning or context in it. There were many times when I needed to add more letters to the sura to get the letter count to a multiple of 19, and also needed to put these letters in, I could have taken the easy way out and put the letters into the sura thus completing the challenge by just putting in letters which bear no context in the passage. Debate would most likely have occured over whether or not initials should be included in counts and so on, so I believed that it was best to leave them out anyway.

2. I used 19 as a number, however if you wish to use it as a word, and count it as such aswell as its letters, then remove it from the sura. The other facts referring to the importance of 19 in this verse are still relevent as we know from 74:29-30 that the number of guardians of Hell is 19, hence the code (as would have been claimed) confirms this fact.

Features In My Sura Which Are Not In The Claimed Qur'anic Code

1. Protection of the initials

The initials in my chapter are protected. The sum of their gematrical values is a multiple of 19 squared. 1444 (19x19x4)

2. Initials more important and mathematically structured

The occurance of every initial in the chapter is a multiple of 19. This is far more impressive than the facts given in relation to the Qur'an. Dr. Khalifa used the sums of the occurance of the letters most of the time, which means even though he may have 5 initials, the probability of adding them to 19 is 1 in 19. In my chapter however, as indicated, every initial occurs a multiple of 19 times. As there are nine initials, the probability of this is:

199 = 322,687,697,800

3. Far better protection of the text

There are a few facts which ensure the protection of my sura. (See the section on how the mathematics of my sura would have been interpreted)

1. Letter count is a multiple of 19

2. Sum of the gematrical values is a multiple of 19

3. Word count is a multiple of 19

4. Sum of the gematrical values of the initials means that any letter which appears a multiple of 19 times must be an initial, this relates back to point 1 above.

5. The position of the number 19 (or the reference to something which is directly related to 19) is protected both by the amount of initialed letters used, and also by the fact that adding the verse number and sura number yields a multiple of 19.

Conclusion

I have successfully created a sura which is composed so that it is protected by a mathematical structure based on the number 19.

Composing my sura took a little over four hours, this is including the time to write the software to count the letters, words, and gematrical value of the sura (Composing the verse by hand would not be impossible, it would just require keeping some sort of a tally system, and would take a little longer).

1. I have composed a sura which is protected by mathematics.

2. I have incorporated many of the components of the structure claimed to be in the Qur'an

3. I have incorporated many features which are not part of the mathematical structure of the Qur'an, and greatly increase the protection of the sura.

4. The Qur'an fails the submission.org challenge

Can we claim that this whole challenge means nothing because Muhammad "couldn't have possibly done it 1400 years ago in the desert"?

[17:88]
"Say, "If all the humans and all the jinns banded together in order to produce a Quran like this, they could never produce anything like it, no matter how much assistance they lent one another." "

God says that we cannot produce a Qur'an, or produce anything similar to it, even if every human and every jinn helped eachother. 19-code believers claim that this challenge refers to the 19-code, and that it is the code which cannot be replicated.

You be the judge, I have fulfilled the challenge to create a mathematically protected sura based on the number 19, so is the 19-code really proof of the divinity of the Qur'an?

I have not produced a Qur'an, but I have produced a sura, which contains mathematical properties which are the same as those in the Qur'an, as well as others which the Qur'an does not contain. So this qualifies sura as atleast "a sura like it" as far as the 19-code believers and their challenge are concerned.

Ask yourself the question, if these same properties were shown to you as part of the Qur'an, would you have accepted them as a miracle?

God bless,
Ian McNamara.
ianmcn@hotpop.com

[2:164]
"In the creation of the heavens and the
earth, the alternation of night and
day, the ships that roam the ocean for
the benefit of the people, the water
that GOD sends down from the sky to
revive dead land and to spread in it
all kinds of creatures, the manipulation
of the winds, and the clouds that are
placed between the sky and the earth,
there are sufficient proofs for people
who understand."

[20:54]
"Eat and raise your livestock. These
are sufficient proofs for those who
possess intelligence."