Absurd things Muslims actually believe in
Islam is packed with absurd claims that are so ridiculous that one would assume that no one could possibly take them seriously and that Muslims would see them as mere allegories, at best, like Christians do when they read wild stories in the Bible.
But that is not the case. Any true believer, i.e. the immense majority of Muslims, take them literally and will defend them with the most ridiculous rationalizations.
There is this verse in the Quran which mentions Mohammed flying to some remote but not further defined mosque by night:
17:1 سُبْحَـٰنَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَسْرَىٰ بِعَبْدِهِۦ لَيْلًۭا مِّنَ ٱلْمَسْجِدِ ٱلْحَرَامِ إِلَى ٱلْمَسْجِدِ ٱلْأَقْصَا ٱلَّذِى بَـٰرَكْنَا حَوْلَهُۥ لِنُرِيَهُۥ مِنْ ءَايَـٰتِنَآ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْبَصِيرُ ١
Glory be to the One Who took His servant ˹Muḥammad˺ by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque whose surroundings We have blessed, so that We may show him some of Our signs. 1 Indeed, He 2 alone is the All-Hearing, All-Seeing.
Although there is no mention of Israel or Jerusalem, Muslims interpret the "farthest mosque" as being the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, using this as pretext for their claim to Israel.
They also believe that Mohammed "split the moon", supposedly to "convince the non-believers":
54:1 The Hour has come near, and the moon has split [in two].
54:2 And if they see a miracle, they turn away and say, "Passing magic."
Also in the Hadiths:
https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3636
Narrated `Abdullah bin Masud: [3636]
During the lifetime of the Prophet (ﷺ) the moon was split into two parts and on that the Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Bear witness (to thus).
Narrated Anas: [3637]
That the Meccan people requested Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) to show them a miracle, and so he showed them the splitting of the moon.
Narrated Ibn `Abbas: [3638]
The moon was split into two parts during the lifetime of the Prophet.
Note how the story of the splitting of the moon is collected from 3 different narrators in the Bukhari Hadith collection. That does not stop Muslims from taking this ridiculous story seriously. And note how it evolved from the Quran, where Mohammed tried to use natural events (e.g. eclipses) as "proof of Allah's existence" to intimidate people into following his cult (a really old trick used by all religions and cults) to the much more elaborate version in the Hadiths, where the "miracle" actually happened because Mohammed wanted it.
These stories about Mohammed flying by night and splitting the moon were further developed and all sorts of "details" were added, e.g. that Mohammed was flying on a mythical Buraq, a winged mule with a female face. A fairy tale one would expect from 1001 Nights.
The first description of this Buraq creatrue were added in Sahih Bukhari 5:58:227: "Then a white animal which was smaller than a mule and bigger than a donkey was brought to me." [...] "The animal's step (was so wide that it) reached the farthest point within the reach of the animal's sight"
Despite the obvious fictional nature of those verses, western educated Muslims are not ashamed to admit in public that they believe in them, as in this debate at Oxford University:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWfHkLbMm6w
Rationalization for Buraq fairy tale
Someone asked "What evidence is there that Mohammed flew to heaven on a winged horse?" on Quora.
https://www.quora.com/What-evidence-is-there-that-Muhammad-flew-to-heaven-with-a-winged-horse
Here is a (non-sharable) reply from a Muslim, Ahmed Ali, who wrote a lengthy rationalization. It's absolutely baffling to what extent believers will go to defend the most indefensible points of their cult/sect/religion or ideology.
This guy clearly has no clue how scientific research works. He doesn't understand any of the scientific topics he alludes to and he completely misrepresents what is said in the Islamic texts.
It's a pathetic attempt at retro-fitting modern ideas to extremely vague and meaningless verses. I added my own comments in square brackets:
His description of the voyage is the strongest evidence to the truth of that miraculous flight.
- He visited the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) never visited Jerusalem before. When he described the mosque for his people, who were fighting him, the individuals who visited Jerusalem were shocked with the accuracy of the prophet’s description.
[there was no mosque in Jerusalem until about 70 years after Mohammed's death, so even the Hadiths were retro-fitting more recent events to Mohammed's life]
- He visited other places during his travel, such as Mount Tor in Sinai, which he never visited before and he described them accurately as well.
[whoever made up the corresponding Hadith retro-fitted whatever he had heard about it]
- On his Mir’aj (flight outside earth) from Jerusalem to the sky, he described lots of things that modern physics scientists can relate and those things were never known then, such as:
[absolutely no mention of the fact that there was no air; Mohammed thought that the earth was flat, so we know with 100% certainty that he never went "outside of earth"]- The word “Mi’raj” and “Ma’arej” does not mean straightforward lift upward. It is literal meaning is swerving; i.e. moving in curvatures.
[like a bird flynig in the wind...]
This very specific information was never known before the prophet.
[This guy actually pretends that Mohammed never saw a bird swerving in the wind]
Now, scientists confirm that the universe has curving paths because most-likely it is shaped as a sphere (p.s., the Qur’an and Hadith say that the universe has the shape of a sphere 1400 years ago). Ref.: The Physics of the Universe
[I don't know if he actually read the article, it doesn't sound like it; it is completely unrelated to anything he claims; if Mohammed had really traveled through space at the speed of light, he would not have noticed any "curves", much less any "swerving"; to the observer, the curvature of space is not noticeable, just as the earth appears "flat" to those who live on it]
- If the prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) was making up the story, he would have been expected to say, like all scientists until his era, that as he went up the light increased or have been intensified. Basically, an average man would say that as he would go outside earth, it becomes all morning.
[There were no scientists, in his era! Smarter people than Mohammed had fugured out 1000 years earlier than the earth was round by making intelligent observations and coming to logical conclusions; there was absolutely no one claiming anything about the sky getting brighter]
Surprisingly, the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) said that as he went outside the earth everything became darker. I.e., it was night. Now, it is proved that as we go outside earth, it is night-like vision. Yes, there is the sun light and light of other state, but this light is not bouncing off because there is no atmosphere. (Remember, this was long, long time ago before Olber’s Paradox: Olbers' Paradox | Astronomy 801: Planets, Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe)
[everyone could see that the sky was dark, by night]
- The prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) said that before he started his travel, Archangel Gabriel placed a material in his body (in something like a surgery) - the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) did not name the material, indicating that it is not an earthly material. The prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) pointed out that this material is to enable him get outside the earth. This was on time before humans knew that they cannot go outside earth for reasons of respiration, coldness, harmful rays in the space, etc…
[so Allah was not powerful enough to do it by magic? Some "material" was required? these guys are so full of it...]
- In his travel, the prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) said that earth to the 1st sky (i.e. our universe) is like a speck of a sand to a massively big desert. The same applies to 1st sky to 2nd sky, and so on until you reach the 7th sky.
[The Quran actually claims that stars are "decorations" attached to the 1st sky, the one closest to earth, while the sun and the moon are in another, not specified sky, so the sun and the moon are supposed to be further away than the stars, cf. Annexe about Astronomy in the Quran]
And all the skies compared to the throne of the Lord are like a speck of a sand or a coin compared to a massively big desert.
[Funny he should mention the "throne of Allah"; the Hadiths claim that this throne is somewhere near one of the outer planets, that the sun has to go "under the throne of Allah, by night, and beg to be allowed to rise in the morning", so clearly, Mohammed didn't know that the day/night cycle is merely a perception of the rotation of planet earth]
There have been depiction and illustrations of our universe by ancient scientists and they stated that universe is big. But not one scientist did give that image of how tiny and insignificant we are compared to a universe that we cannot measure its end.
[Hindus invented the zero to express really gigantic numbers; calculating the distances they attributed to "one godly step" would represent several lightyears, so Hindus did see the universe as a really gigantic place, while Mohammed's world was ridiculously small; he actually thought that the entire world was pretty much limited to the world he knew about - the Arab deserts and a few areas outside he had heard about; the stars being mere "decorations", the rest of the universe was equally tiny; he also assumed that the sun and moon were as small as they appear in the sky]
Ancient scientists either said that universe has no borders/endless or that universe is not legendary big and is confined with borders. Yet, Islamic teachings (Qur’an and Hadith) say that the Universe started with a Bing-Bang and it started expanding.
[Islam says no such thing! It merely plagiarizes previous creation myths which all get the sequence of events completely wrong; besides, the Big Bang remains an unconfirmed hypothesis; there's some supporting evidence, but absolutely no one would claim that it is an established "fact"; so if the scientific explanation of the beginning of the universe evolves, will the retro-fit the Islamic "miracles" to the new explanation? Of course they will!]
It will keep expanding until it will have to be folded again.
[folded? really?]
So the depiction of the universe in Islam is that universe is legendary big
[Absolute nonsense - the universe in the Quran is so ridiculously small that even the stars are just little lamps and this all-powerful creator of the universe "Allah" pays extraordinary attention to this one minuscule planet, which seems to be the center of this universe; he needs armies to "conquer" it, for some reason; and he is fabulously interested in the reproductive practices of the human species]
yet, it has a starting point and logically has a border. This image matches with the scientific findings nowadays. (By the way, this depiction is the logical answer to Olber’s paradox mentioned in point (b) above).
[the "boundaries" refer strictly to the earth and the "places" where the sun rises or sets, there is absolutely no implication that there's a bounded universe]
- In Islamic teaching, the Buraq (the creature that the prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) used for his ride) is created of light.
[Light as in "waves" or "particles"? is he really claiming that it was a solid object Mohammed could sit on made of photons? 😂]
The same is for the angels. And they went with high speed, where the starting point is their speed of light.
[That's the END POINT! Nothing can go faster than light; as soon as something has mass, it would require an infinite amount of energy to push it to light speed; forget about faster than light]
Although the travel might seem impossible to those who hate Islam
[So he tries some emotional manipulation: "you just mock our fairy tales because you hate us" is a fallacy argument; it doesn't seem impossible, it obviously is]
a flight across universe with a speed that way transcends light speed makes it acceptable to those who study the relativity theory.
[Anyone who knows the theory of relativity also knows that going faster than light is mathetically impossible; he basically claims that this is all "magic" or a "divine miracle", so why does he try to invoke a scientific argument that clearly does NOT support his delusions?]
- Referring to point (d) above, regarding the speck of a sand description, the prophet (Peace Be Upon Him), as revealed to him by God
[funny how this "god" could never tell him that the earth is a planet?]
tells that even beyond the seven skies there are other realms and universes.
[He also never defines those 7 heavens, which just happen to have been plagiarized from ancient cultures with the 7 layers of hell etc.]
The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) tells us that the paradise, which is another universe beyond ours
[Mohammed literally claims that paradise is a place in the physical universe near earth and that Djinns try to enter it by escaping from earth, which angels have to prevent by throwing stars at them which we see as meteors; totally up-to-date scientific information 😂]
is way bigger than the skies that the skies are insignificantly small compared to that paradise. Scientists, now, who are struggling to develop “Theory Of Everything” say that, in order for their theory to be theoretically logical, they expect to find multiple universes, where our universe is just like an atom compared to those other universes.
[The multiverse is purely a mathematical abstraction or a speculation about the idea that there could be an infinitely large number of universes and that we live in one where the conditions happen to be appropriate for the development of life; basically an atheist explanation for why our universe just happens to be perfect for life]
- The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) used that description many times when he was describing the space: “a coin in a massive desert”. May be he was referring to this: 'Silver Dollar' Galaxy Glistens in New Photo
["May be he was referring to this" - NO, he was NOT! Deserts were about the only thing Mohammed knew; he was referring to his own incredibly limited perception of reality and just tried to impress his followers]
- The word “Mi’raj” and “Ma’arej” does not mean straightforward lift upward. It is literal meaning is swerving; i.e. moving in curvatures.
- When the people of Mecca mocked the prophet
[there were clearly smart people living in Meccas at the time of Mohammed]
he told them that in his way home he helped a caravan that lost one of its camels to find the camel. The prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) described the camel, its decoration, its loads and the way it went. Because the prophet was travelling via an excessive speed, he told them that the place were he helped the tribes is 3 days far from Mecca. Enemies of the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) were excited for the 3 days to pass and prove it is a hoax. After the 3 days pass, a caravan passed by Mecca and Mecca inhabitants rushed to ask them: “Did something happened to you three nights ago?”. The members of the Caravan responded that they lost a camel at one night and heard the voice of a man telling them where the camel went. Kindly note that the enemies of the prophet did not deny the caravan incident, so it is an event that was validated by both the allies and the enemies of Islam.
[This is such a ridiculous retro-fitted story, I cannot believe that anyone should attribute any credibility to it and expect others to believe it; what is wrong with this guy? Mohammed could also have sent a messenger to the caravan, paying them to tell this story to the people in Mecca; I would not be surprised if Mohammed used such tricks; he did similar things many times; he also sent assassins to murder his opponents]
- From physics perspective, by breaking the speed of the light, and going into worlds with other calendars
[other calendars? Does he even know what a calendar is? 🤦♂️]
you can roam the globe and return in few hours.
[Sure, when you are tripping on drugs, you can "do" a lot of things]
But this information was never known during the era of the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him).
[It is still not "known", today, as it is utter nonsense]
If he wanted to add credibility to a story he invented, the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) would have disappeared from his tribe for few days and returned back with a fatigue look.
[He wanted to create followers by impressing people with ridiculous fairy tales, not tell them credible stories about traveling]
But, guess what? The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him)said that the he went for a travel beyond our boundaries and went through events and meetings that would take long but returned in the same night.
[Aisha, his "favorite wife" he married when she was just 6 and raped when she was 9, says in her own Hadiths that Mohammed never left his tent during the night of his alleged trip; that's pretty strong evidence that he never went anywhere and was just dreaming or having a drug-induced deluion ... unless he just made it up out of thin air]
- If the reader is a Christian, please read this text from John 3:13: “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven--the Son of Man”. The speaker, here, is Jesus (Peace Be Upon Him) and he is not speaking about himself but a son of man to come, and he will be ascended to heaven. And, under Jude, the son of man was the name of the Prophet to come after Jesus (Peace Be Upon Him); i.e. Prophet Muhammad.
[There's ZERO connection between Islam, Christianity and Judaism other than plagiarism by Mohammed; at best, if there actually was a connection, Mohammed would be the anti-Christ]
- In the Israa’ and Mi’raj travel, the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) have met Prophet Jesus (Peace Be Upon Him).
[Yeah, sure he did; in modern times, we call this "name dropping": "I swear I met Schwarzenegger and he told me that I was cool"]
Can you relate when you read this: Daniel 7: 13, 14 : "I continued to observe the night vision—and look!—someone like the Son of Man was coming, accompanied by heavenly clouds. He approached the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. To him dominion was bestowed, along with glory and a kingdom, so that all peoples, nations, and languages are to serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion—it will never pass away—and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed."
[And that's supposed to be Mohammed? A guy who grew up as an orphan, was abused by one of his cousins, married a much older, rich woman, suffered from epileptic attacks that probaby caused his first "visions"; made up his own cult by stealing elements from every religion he was aware of, raped underage girls and became a war lord; right, sure... his "dominion" is currently 57 completely disparat Islamic countries that are in their immense majority poor, socially and cuturally under-developed, handicapped by endless cousin marriage, and often at war with each other]
You can say this is twist of words or coincidence. But would twist of words or coincidence will be that compatible with future science and older scriptures? It is your call.
[Verdict: Islam is to Science what the Teletubbies are to culture]
Peace be upon you!
[In practice, this translates into "Submit or die"]
"Astronomy" in the Quran
All the ancient civilizations showed an enormous interest in astronomy, which also lead to astrology, the mythical interpretation of astronomical observations. The Babylonians, Egyptians, Mayas and Greeks all studied the skies - there wasn't much else to do, by night, after all - no TV, no Internet, no books... so those who were so inclined recorded the positions of stars and observed soon that some of those "stars" were moving, while others were not.
They observed planets, comets, meteors and other objects and events that were visible with the naked eye, e.g. solar and moon eclipses.
Mohammed picked up some of this information and the associated mythological beliefs, but got most of it wrong. He actually was not educated enough or smart enough, hence most of his beliefs about the earth and the "sky" were stuck on the most primitive level, way behind what the smartest observers had discovered long before his day and age.
The Quran clearly states - multiple times - that the stars are "decorations" and attched to the "first" sky, the one supposedly closest to earth, which would imply that the moon and the sun are further away. Which anyone actually studying the sky would have known to be false, as stars clearly disappear behind them.
He Who created the seven heavens, one above the other. And We have adorned the lowest heaven with lamps (67:3,5)
And He completed them seven heavens in two days and inspired in each heaven its command; and We adorned the lower heaven with lamps, and rendered it guarded (41:12)
We have indeed adorned the lower heaven with the beauty of the stars. (37:6)
Do you not see how God has created the seven heavens one above the other, and made the moon a light in their midst, and made the sun as a lamp? (71:15-16)
Notes about the Hadiths
There are about 1 million Hadiths - random collections of stories that circulated after Mohammed's death. About 10'000 pass for "authentic", basically those collected by Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, yet even Muslims are forced to admit that they really strain the imagination and are self-contradictory. This Islamic expert highlights some of them:
https://www.mohammedamin.com/Community_issues/How-reliable-are-hadith.html
As he points out, they can't get rid of the Hadiths as otherwise essential parts of Islam would be undefined. e.g. the Quran never defines the 5 pillars of Islam - those exist only in the Hadiths. So Muslims are stuck with the Hadiths.
And sticking strictly to the Quran solves nothing - it is packed with self-contradictions, pure evil and utter nonsense.
This list of Quora replies to the questiona about the reliability of the Hadiths is an excellent illustration about how conflicted Muslims themselves are:
https://www.quora.com/How-reliable-are-Islamic-Hadiths