Al-Quran The Ultimate Miracle (By Ahmed Deedat)

"OVER IT ARE NINETEEN"

In answer to this false assumption, the Author (God Almighty) delivers a dire warning - "SOON WILL I CAST HIM INTO HELL FIRE! . . ." Ending the warning with the final sentence:

OVER IT ARE NINETEEN.
{Holy Qu'ran 74:30}

In other words, if anyone makes the false accusation against the Holy Prophet that he is the author of the Book of God, that person will have, among other things, "Nineteen."

WHAT IS THIS 'NINETEEN'?

Our great commentators of the past had conjectured beautiful guesses as to what this "19" implied. Some said it referred to the 19 angels who will be in control of the inmates of the Hell; others said that the "19" refers to the 19 faculties of man and still others to the major pillars and commandments of Islam. (See Abdullah Yusuf Ali's and Moulana Daryabadi's commentaries) But every commentator ends his conjecture with the expression, "But Allah knows best." None of our commentators have been arrogant or dogmatic in his assertions. But why 'Allah knows best.? Because our Holy Prophet did not explain the real implication of the figure 19. If he had explain it there would have been no reason for us to surmise.

"Nineteen" is simply a number. What did it mean to the Arabs before the revelation of this verse under discussion? It meant nothing other than 'ten plus nine' (10 + 9). From the time of its revelation until today, what other meaning has this number "19" acquired in 1400 years? Nothing! Nineteen still remains nineteen . . . (10 + 9).

In the language of the world, different numbers connote different things, beside there own numerical values. An example is the number "786". Ask any Muslim child in South Africa what does "786" mean, and he will unhesitatingly answer:

meaning: "IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, MOST GRACIOUS, MOST MERCIFUL." How this is arrived at needs a detailed explanation. In a nutshell, the Hebrew and Arabic letters are given a certain traditional numerical value. If the numerical values of each letter of the above verse are added it comes to 786. "786", is therefore an abbreviated form or formula for the above verse.

In South Africa certain huge blocks of flats, when numbering the apartments begin with 1,2,3 . . . and after 12 they go to 12a, 14, 15 etc. Why 12a? Why do they omit 13? don't they know how to write 13? You will get the answer that some people are superstitous and will not live in a flat which is numbered 13, because they consider this 13 to be an unlucky number. And what about "Friday the 13th?" Oh! That would mean bad luck upon bad luck. DOUBLE BAD LUCK! Then we have expressions like the "3rd degree," meaning physical torture. And ask any "hot-gospeller" what "666" is and you will be told the it refers to "the mark of the beast." He gets this idea from his Bible. In India and Pakistan if you wished to describe a shady character, a pickpocket, a cheat or a common thief, all you have to utter is the number 420 because all petty crimes are covered under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code which Pakistan has also inherited. Similarly in languages of the world; we have different numbers which have acquired meanings other than the numerical values themselves.

Is it not strange that though Muslims have been repeating the sentence - "Over it are Nineteen," for 1400 years, no secondary meaning has become attached to it? This number "19" of the Qur'an has remained uncontaminated. 19 still remains 19.

Since this number was given in answer to the charge - "That Muhummed wrote the Book." Its real Author - God Almighty knew what that "19" really implied. But if Muhummed wrote the Qur'an, in that case he too would definitely have known what he was talking about.

We know for a fact that the Qur'an is the very Word of God put into the mouth of Muhummed. This is what the Prophet claimed and this is what the Qur'an testifies:

HE (Muhummed) DOES NOT SPEAK FROM HIS OWN DESIRE,

IT IS NO LESS THAN AN INSPIRATION SENT DOWN TO HIM.

HE IS TAUGHT BY ONE MIGHTY IN POWER.
{Holy Qur'an 53:3-5)

And he is made repeatedly to tell the people:

SAY: "I AM BUT A MAN LIKE YOURSELVES.

(BUT) THE INSPIRATION HAS COME TO ME.

THAT YOUR GOD IS ONE GOD . . .
{Holy Qur'an 18:110}

Full acknowledging and believing as we Muslims do that Muhummed did not write or forge a single word of the Qur'an, yet by agreeing with his friendly critic, just for a moment, (and for the sake of argument that 'Muhummed did write the Book'), we will be able to show very quickly that "AL-QUR'AN IS THE ULTIMATE MIRACLE OF CREATION," and absolutely beyond the mind of man to conceive.

Perusing the chronological order of the Qur'anic Revelation, we find that verse 30 ofSura Muddaththir (Chapter 74).

OVER IT ARE NINETEEN.

was the last verse given to Muhummed by the Archangel Gabriel on his fourth visit. Gabriel on pausing here, instead of giving Muhummed the balance of the 26 verses of this Chapter which would have completed it - began to make him read the balance of Chapter 96 - the first Revelation. He was then given 14 more verses. On the first visit he was given just 5 verses to which 14 more were now added. How many verses does that make? "Nineteen" is the answer. How did it happened that immediately after uttering the word "Nineteen" of the above revelation, a Chapter with 19 verses is completed? The sceptic will most probably reply that this was sheer coincidence. Coincidence do occur. This we will have to agree.

But did you know that the first five verses of the very first Revelation (96:1-5) have just 19 words? That is 19 x 1. How did this happen? "Coincidence" again? Those 19 words consist of exactly 76 letters, which is a multiple of 19, i.e. 19 x 4. How did this happen? "Coincidence." This 96th Chapter! if we start counting backwards from the last Chapter 114, to 113 and 112 and 111 and so on, we find when we reach this Chapter 96, that it is the 19th Chapter form the end. How did it happen that the Chapter with 19 verses is interlocked in the 19th position from the end? "Coincidence" is the only available reply.

For anyone to write a book, he must first formulate it in his head. One cannot keep on scribbling for over two decades and then try to rehash it into a book. If Muhummed wrote the Qur'an then he would have been forced to formulate some scheme for himself as anybody else would have done. So, he would have had to say to himself (so to speak) that "I am going to write a very thick book. It, will take me 23 years of my life to complete the task. I will have to divide the book into Chapters for easy reference and study by my followers." And then, let us suppose that he decided on 144 Chapters. Not 113 or 115 but 114. Why 114? Because it is an exact multiple of 19 . . . (19 x 6). Did he (?) not say 'I will fix you with nineteen' to anyone who would attribute the authorship of the Qur'an to him? How did it happen that there are just 19 x 6 = 114 Chapters in the Qur'an? Our well-disposed cynic or critic will respond with the same monotonous term - "coincidence"! Has he no other word in his vocabulary to explain this phenomenon? Obviously he has not! This is the sickness of man, that when he fails to account for any happening; he invents a word through which he bluffs himself that he has answered the problem. He takes refuge behind a word! The unbeliever is prepared to make the false charge that "Muhummed wrote the Book," but he is not prepared to credit that 1400 years ago this unlettered man of the desert, without paper and pencil to have been following a mathematical order in the production of his book.

We have stumbled across 5 "coincidences" already. Since the unbeliever is not prepared to concede that Muhummed could have achieved this impossibility, we will be generous enough to discount them all. We can afford this generosity. We do, however, agree with Muhummed's antagonists that it is an impossibility for Muhummed to have been the author of the Qur'an on this basis. We are, however pressing the issue because the enemy makes an allegation but is not prepared to stand by it.

Friends and foe alike agree that Muhummed was a man of his word. Long before his prophethood, his fellow pagan countrymen had conferred upon him the high and enviable designation of - "As-sadiq al Wa'd al-Ameen" - THE FULFILLER OF PROMISES, THE HONEST, THE TRUSTWORTHY, THE TRUSTWORTHY, THE UPRIGHT. If this man Muhummed uttered - "Over it are nineteen" - 'I will make you to reckon with nineteen; nineteen will be imposed upon you' He will definitely carry out his threat. Let us see to what great lengths Muhummed is supposed to go to fulfill his promise.

Let us suppose that Muhummed said to himself (?) that 'my Book will be an absolutely unique Book. No Book has ever been written before, nor will one ever be written in the future, a book based on a mathematical structure. O am going to evolve an intricate mathematical interlocking system to protect my Book from any kind of tampering. No man will be able to add, delete or interpolate a word to my completed text and that system will be based on the numeral 19!'

Why 19? Is it because it is an easy number to work with? No! it is one of the most difficult to work with. It has no denominators. Unlike its sister number 18 which you can divide by 2, 3, 6 and by 9; and its other sister number 20 which you can divide by 2, 4, 5 and by 10, 19 is indivisible. It is a "prime" number in mathematics, and it is also a unique number because it begins with 1, the lowest numeral of our mathematical system and ends with 9, the highest numeral of our mathematical system; it seems to be the "alpha and omega" of our mathematical system. Perhaps Muhummed knew the 19 times multiplication table: whereas Einstein the master mathematician did not know the 19 times table. I know. To what degree did Muhummed know the 19 times table? it must be supposed to have been to an infinite degree, we will discover as we go along, if we keep on insisting that Muhummed was the author of the Qur'an.