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MY'STORY

The MOVE Fire

This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985 Philadelphia police fired thousands of rounds at the MOVE house, city officials approved dropping an explosive device on the roof, the resulting fire was allowed to burn, 11 people—including five children—died, and 61 homes were destroyed. Philadelphia City Council later called it a “brutal attack carried out by the City of Philadelphia on its own citizens” and acknowledged that no individual faced criminal consequences for the bombing. One timeline correction worth preserving for the BHP record: the major previous MOVE-police confrontation was August 8, 1978, about seven years before the bombing, not a year or two earlier. Officer James Ramp was killed, other police and firefighters were wounded, nine MOVE members were later convicted, and television cameras recorded police beating Delbert Africa during his arrest. The 1985 MOVE Commission later specifically criticized city planners for failing to adequately use lessons from that 1978 confrontation. And that actually strengthens the point you’re making: 1985 did not happen without precedent or institutional memory. There had already been a deadly confrontation with MOVE, years of conflict, negotiations and police involvement before Osage Avenue.

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BLACK FACTS
The Truths They Never Taught You...

The Violence That Helped Spark the NAACP

In August 1908, a white mob attacked Springfield, Illinois’s Black community, destroying homes and businesses and lynching two Black men. National outrage over the violence helped spur the movement that created the NAACP the following year.

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Wikipedia

Quran code

The term Quran code (also known as Code 19) refers to the claim that the Quranic text contains a hidden mathematically complex pattern. The claimed code is based on alleged multiple appearances of the number in 19 in counts of words, letters and surahs. Advocates believe that the code represents a mathematical proof of the divine authorship of the Quran. The most notable proponent was Rashad Khalifa.

History

[edit]

In 1969, Rashad Khalifa, an Egyptian-American biochemist, began analyzing the separated letters of the Quran (also called Quranic initials or Muqattaʿat), and the Quran to examine certain sequences of numbers.[1] In 1973 he published the book Miracle of the Quran: Significance of the Mysterious Alphabets, in which he describes the Quranic initials through enumerations and distributions.[2]

In 1974, Khalifa claimed to have discovered a mathematical code hidden in the Quran, a code based around the number 19. He wrote the book The Computer Speaks: God's Message to the World, in which he thematizes this Quran code. He relies on Surah 74, verse 30 to prove the significance of the number: "Over it is nineteen".[3][4]

Proponents of the code include United Submitters International (an association initiated by Rashad Khalifa) as well as some Quranists and traditional Muslims.[5]

Example

[edit]
A tree diagram of the Qur'anic initial letters, The Quran Code argues that these letters are repeated in multiples of 19 in the relevant surahs.

Believers in Quran Code often use certain word counts, checksums and cross sums to legitimize the code.[5]

Edip Yüksel, a Turkish Quranistic author and colleague of Rashad Khalifa, makes the following claims in his book Nineteen: God's Signature in Nature and Scripture:[6]

  • The Bismillah (bismi ʾllāhi ʾr-raḥmāni ʾr-raḥīm), the Quranic opening formula, which, with one exception, is at the beginning of every Surah of the Quran, consists of exactly 19 letters.
  • The first word of the Bismillah, Ism (name), without contraction, occurs 19 times in the Quran (19×1). [Also no plural forms, or those with pronoun endings]
  • The second word of the Bismillah, Allah (God), occurs 2698 times (19×142).
  • The third word of the Bismillah, Rahman (Gracious), occurs 57 times (19×3).
  • The fourth word of the Bismillah, Rahim (Merciful), occurs 114 times (19×6).
  • The multiplication factors of the words of the Bismillah (1+142+3+6) give 152 (19×8).
  • The Quran consists of 114 chapters (19×6).
  • The total number of verses in the Quran including all unnumbered Bismillahs is 6346 (19×334). The cross sum of 6346 is 19.
  • The Bismillah appears 114 times (despite its absence in chapter 9, it appears twice in chapter 27); 114 is 19×6.
  • From the missing Bismillah in chapter 9 to the additional Bismillah in chapter 27, there are exactly 19 chapters.
  • The occurrence of the additional Bismillah is in Surah 27:30. Adding this chapter number and the verse number gives 57 (19×3).

The separated letters in the Quran

[edit]

The Quran consists of 114 Surahs, of which a total of 29 Surahs are provided with separated letters, Muqattaʿat or also called Quranic initials.[7] These are listed in the following table:

Number of the Surah Initial letter(s) Number of verses in that Surah
2 Alif–Lām–Mīm 286
3 Alif–Lām–Mīm 200
7 Alif–Lām–Mīm–Sād 206
10 Alif–Lām–Rāʾ 109
11 Alif–Lām–Rāʾ 123
12 Alif–Lām–Rāʾ 111
13 Alif–Lām–Mīm–Rāʾ 43
14 Alif–Lām–Rāʾ 52
15 Alif–Lām–Rāʾ 99
19 Kāf–Hāʾ–Yāʾ–ʿAin–Sād 98
20 Ṭāʾ–Hāʾ 135
26 Ṭāʾ–Sīn–Mīm 227
27 Ṭāʾ–Sīn 93
28 Ṭāʾ–Sīn–Mīm 88
29 Alif–Lām–Mīm 69
30 Alif–Lām–Mīm 60
31 Alif–Lām–Mīm 34
32 Alif–Lām–Mīm 30
36 Yāʾ–Sīn 83
38 Sād 88
40 Ḥāʾ–Mīm 85
41 Ḥāʾ–Mīm 54
42 Ḥāʾ–Mīm and ʿAin–Sīn–Qāf 53
43 Ḥāʾ–Mīm 89
44 Ḥāʾ–Mīm 59
45 Ḥāʾ–Mīm 37
46 Ḥāʾ–Mīm 35
50 Qāf 45
68 Nūn 52

Rashad Khalifa wrote in his book, The Computer Speaks: God's Message to the World, that the separated letters of the Quran, or Quranic Initials, held the key to the Quran Code. By analyzing the Quran's 29 initialized Surahs statistically, Khalifa claimed to reveal complex mathematical patterns centered around the number 19.[8][9]

Quranic Gematria

[edit]

Each Arabic letter can be assigned a specific numerical value, also called Abjad numerals or gematria:[10][11]

Alif ا 1
Yā' 10 ي Ṭā' 9 ط Ḥā' 8 ح Zāy 7 ز Wāw 6 و Hā' 5 ه Dāl 4 د Jīm 3 ج Bā' 2 ب
Qāf 100 ق Sād 90 ص Fā' 80 ف ʿAin 70 ع Sīn 60 س Nūn 50 ن Mīm 40 م Lām 30 ل Kāf 20 ك
Ghain 1000 غ Zā' 900 ظ Dād 800 ض Dhāl 700 ذ Chā' 600 خ Thā' 500 ث Tā' 400 ت Shīn 300 ش Rā' 200 ر

This system is the same as Syriac alphabetic numerals.[12]

Abdullah Arik, a Quranistic author, uses this method in his book Beyond Probability: God's Message in Mathematics to analyze the Basmala gematrically. He gives various numerological arguments relying on these values to bolster his arguments.[13]

Reception in the Western world

[edit]

Khalifa's research received little attention in the Western world. In 1980, Martin Gardner mentioned Khalifa's work in Scientific American.[14] In 1997, after Khalifa's death, Gardner devoted a short article to the subject while a columnist for the Skeptical Inquirer.[15]

Criticism

[edit]

Common critiques of numerological claims also apply to the Quran Code. Critics often invoke the concept of stochastic processes to explain how seemingly mystical patterns could appear in any large dataset. One such critic was Bilal Philips, who argued that Rashad Khalifa's "miracle 19" theory was a hoax based on falsified data, misinterpretations of the Quran's text, and grammar inconsistencies.[16]

Additionally, since early Quran manuscripts can contain orthographic differences in certain passages, the precise number of letters in those sections can be unclear.[17][18] For example, since the frequency of the letter Alif is subject to debate, there is not a universally agreed letter count in the Alif initialized Surahs. However, to prove his theory Khalifa chose those versions of the text that included letter frequencies divisible by 19.[19] Additionally, Khalifa claimed that the initial "Nūn" in Surah 68 should be spelled as to include an additional Nūn: "Nūn Wāw Nūn" in place of the orthodox spelling, "Nūn". This allowed Khalifa to claim that there are 133 (19×7) Nūns in Surah 68, instead of 132, which is not a multiple of 19. However, Khalifa's spelling does not appear in any Quranic manuscripts.[20] He also assumed that the correct spelling or reading of the word "basṭatan", which occurs in Surah 7, verse 69, contains the Arabic letter Sīn instead of the letter Suād, which is the conventional spelling.[21][22] He based this assertion on the Samarkand Codex, a 9th-century Quranic manuscript which includes a spelling with the letter Sīn in place of Suād.[23]

Khalifa also claimed that two verses in the Quran, specifically Surah 9, verses 128 and 129, were humanly added, and should not be included. He supports this claim by the hadith Sahīh al-Bukhārī 7425, according to which Zaid ibn Thābit, tasked by Abu Bakr with compiling the Quran, found only one witness to attest to the validity of verses 9:128–129, Khuzaima al-Ansari.[24] Thus, Khalifa claimed that the Quran has only 6346 verses instead of the traditional count of 6348. The omission of these verses is integral to his theory; if these two verses are taken into account, there are 2699 occurrences of the word "Allah" and 115 occurrences of the word "Rahim", neither of which are multiples of 19.

Furthermore, the version of the Quran code is questioned, as it is only used for certain aspects or Quranic initials. Surahs that are not initiated are not fully examined in this context. Since early Quran manuscripts differ orthographically in certain passages, it makes it difficult to reconstruct an "urtext" – or in another expression a "primordial text" – for the Quran, which in turn is used for letter enumerations as well as gematria.[25][26]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Musa, A. (2008-05-12). Hadith As Scripture: Discussions on the Authority of Prophetic Traditions in Islam. Springer. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-230-61197-9.
  2. ^ Melton, J. Gordon (2003). Encyclopedia of American Religions. Gale. p. 971. ISBN 978-0-7876-6384-1.
  3. ^ Bangert, Kurt (2016-04-25). Muhammad: Eine historisch-kritische Studie zur Entstehung des Islams und seines Propheten (in German). Springer-Verlag. pp. 114–116. ISBN 978-3-658-12956-9.
  4. ^ Momen, Moojan (1999). The Phenomenon of Religion: A Thematic Approach. Oneworld. p. 561. ISBN 978-1-85168-161-7.
  5. ^ a b SAALEH, ABDURRAHMAAN (2016). "Sectarian Islam in America: The Case of United Submitters International-The Foundation". Islamic Studies. 55 (3/4): 235–259. ISSN 0578-8072. JSTOR 44739746.
  6. ^ Yuksel, Edip (2011). Nineteen: God's Signature in Nature and Scripture. Brainbow Press. ISBN 978-0-9796715-9-3.
  7. ^ Khwaja, Jamal (2012-11-06). Living the Qur′an in Our Times. SAGE Publications India. p. 45. ISBN 978-81-321-1724-7.
  8. ^ Geisler, Norman L.; Saleeb, Abdul (2002). Answering Islam: The Crescent in Light of the Cross. Baker Books. pp. 107, 190. ISBN 978-0-8010-6430-2.
  9. ^ Khalifa, Rashad (1981). The Computer Speaks: God's Message to the World. Renaissance Productions International. pp. 104–197. ISBN 978-0-934894-38-8.
  10. ^ Bugday, Korkut (2014-12-05). An Introduction to Literary Ottoman. Routledge. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-1-134-00655-7.
  11. ^ Taylor, Isaac (1883). The Alphabet: An Account of the Origin and Development of Letters. Kegan Paul, Trench. pp. 314–316.
  12. ^ Gareth Hughes, A guide to numerals in Syriac, 2010 https://www.academia.edu/1736797/A_guide_to_numerals_in_Syriac
  13. ^ Arik, Abdullah (2012), Beyond Probability, United Submitters International, pp. 17–36, ISBN 9781890825027
  14. ^ Gardner, Martin (1980). "Mathematical games". Scientific American. 243 (3): 20–24. Bibcode:1980SciAm.243c..20G. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0980-20. ISSN 0036-8733.
  15. ^ Gardner, Martin (September–October 1997). "The numerology of Dr. Rashad Khalifa". Skeptical Inquirer, (Column "Notes of a Fringe Watcher"). 21 (5): 16–17, 58. ISSN 0194-6730.
  16. ^ Philips 1987, p. 64
  17. ^ Brubaker, Daniel Alan (2019-05-21). Corrections in Early Qurʾān Manuscripts: Twenty Examples. Think & Tell. ISBN 978-1-949123-03-6.
  18. ^ Brockopp, Jonathan E. (2017-08-10). Muhammad's Heirs: The Rise of Muslim Scholarly Communities, 622–950. Cambridge University Press. pp. 73, 76. ISBN 978-1-108-50906-0.
  19. ^ Sardar, Ziauddin (1989). Explorations in Islamic Science. Mansell. pp. 31, 35. ISBN 978-0-7201-2004-2.
  20. ^ Sardar, Ziauddin (1989). Explorations in Islamic Science. Mansell. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-7201-2004-2.
  21. ^ Sardar, Ziauddin (1989). Explorations in Islamic Science. Mansell. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-7201-2004-2.
  22. ^ Pickthall, Marmaduke William; Asad, Muhammad (1988). Islamic Culture. Islamic Culture Board. p. 39.
  23. ^ Corpus Coranicum (2021-06-03). "Manuscripta Coranica".
  24. ^ "97 Oneness, Uniqueness of Allah (Tawheed)". Sahīh al-Buchārī (in English and Arabic). listed at sunnah.com
  25. ^ Brubaker, Daniel Alan (2019-05-21). Corrections in Early Qurʾān Manuscripts: Twenty Examples. Think & Tell. ISBN 978-1-949123-03-6.
  26. ^ Brockopp, Jonathan E. (2017-08-10). Muhammad's Heirs: The Rise of Muslim Scholarly Communities, 622–950. Cambridge University Press. pp. 73, 76. ISBN 978-1-108-50906-0.

Bibliography

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Wikipedia

Quran code

The term Quran code (also known as Code 19) refers to the claim that the Quranic text contains a hidden mathematically complex pattern. The claimed code is based on alleged multiple appearances of the number in 19 in counts of words, letters and surahs. Advocates believe that the code represents a mathematical proof of the divine authorship of the Quran. The most notable proponent was Rashad Khalifa.

MORE →
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Wikipedia

Rashad Khalifa

Rashad Khalifa (Arabic: رشاد خليفة; November 19, 1935 – January 31, 1990) was an Egyptian-American biochemist, closely associated with the United Submitters International (USI), an organization that promotes the practice and study of "Quran, the Whole Quran, and Nothing But the Quran." Khalifa saw his role as purging the accretions that found their way into Islam via hadith and sunnah, which he claimed were corruptions. Similarly, he believed that previous revelations of God, such as the Bible, contained contradictions due to human interference (a concept known as tahrif). Instead, he believed that the beliefs and practices of Islam should be based on the Quran alone. He is also known for his claims regarding the existence of a Quran code, also known as The Number 19. In the last years of his life, Khalifa used the English words “Submission” and “Submitter” instead of the Arabic words ‘Islam’ and “Muslim”, and stated this in his publications and used it in his 1989 translation of the Qur'an.[1] His changing views regarding the essence of faith, recorded in his two renditions of the Quran, and declaring himself as a divine messenger who communicated with Gabriel, drew opposition from other Muslims. On January 31, 1990, Khalifa was found stabbed to death inside the Mosque of Tucson, in Arizona, which he founded.

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Wikipedia

Quran

The Quran (Arabic: الْقُرْآن, lit. 'the recitation' or 'the lecture'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, and is believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God (Allāh). It is organized in 114 chapters (sūrah, pl. suwar) which consist of individual verses (āyah). Aside from its religious significance, it is widely regarded as the finest work in Arabic literature and has significantly influenced the Arabic language. Muslims believe the Quran was orally revealed by God to the final Islamic prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel incrementally over a period of some 23 years, beginning on the Laylat al-Qadr when Muhammad was 40 and concluding in 11 AH/632 CE, the year of his death. Muslims regard the Quran as Muhammad's most important miracle, a proof of his prophethood, and the culmination of a series of divine messages starting with those revealed to the first Islamic prophet Adam, including the holy books of the Torah, Psalms, and Gospel in Islam. The Quran is believed by Muslims to be God's own divine speech providing a complete code of conduct across all facets of life. This has led Muslim theologians to fiercely debate whether the Quran was "created or uncreated". According to tradition, several of Muhammad's companions served as scribes, recording the revelations. Shortly after Muhammad's death, the Quran was compiled on the order of the first caliph Abu Bakr (r. 632–634) by the companions, who had written down or memorized parts of it. Caliph Uthman (r. 644–656) established a standard version, now known as the Uthmanic codex, which is generally considered the archetype of the Quran known today. There are, however, canonical variant readings (qirāʾāt), transmitted through oral tradition, with minor variations in wording and nuance that may lead to subtle differences in meaning, while preserving the core message of the Quran. It is the subject of a modern field of academic research known as Quranic studies. Some argue that manuscript evidence, textual variants (such as the Sanaa manuscript), and historical sources suggest a more gradual and complex process of compilation and canonization. The Quran describes itself as a guide for humanity (2:185). It alludes to significant narratives found in biblical and apocryphal texts. While it devotes considerable space to some of these narratives, it does not quote any paragraph from these sources directly, but summarizes and uses different versions of some in different sections. Islamic theorists tend to explain this situation as the Quran's focus on the moral lessons to be drawn from events. This allusive style and summarization entail many explanatory efforts (exegesis). To extrapolate the meaning of a particular Quranic verse, Muslims rely on tafsir, or commentary, often in conjunction with translations of the text. Furthermore, hadiths, which are valued in most Islamic schools of thought for their role in establishing Islamic laws and regulations, are oral traditions that were later written down and are believed to reflect the words and actions of Muhammad, serving as additional guidance alongside the Quran for most Muslims. During prayers, the Quran is recited only in Arabic. A person who has memorized the entire Quran is called a hafiz (female hafiza). Ideally, verses are recited with a special kind of prosody reserved for this purpose called tajwid. It is a tradition for some Muslims to recite the entire Quran during the tarawih prayers throughout the month of Ramadan.

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Wikipedia

United Submitters International

The organisation United Submitters International (USI) founded by Khalifa has its center in Tucson, Arizona, United States. It has published a monthly newsletter with the title Submitter's Perspective since 1985. The movement popularised the phrase: "The Quran, the whole Quran, and nothing but the Quran. "Among those influenced by Khalifa's ideas include Edip Yüksel, Ahmad Rashad, and Supreme Court of Nigeria Judge, Isa Othman. In the United States, at the end of the 20th century, the Egyptian Quranist Rashad Khalifa, who is known as the proponent of the Qur'an code (Code 19), which is a mathematical code in the Qur'an, developed a theological doctrine that influenced Quranists in many other countries. With the aid of computers, he performed a numerical analysis of the Qur'an that, according to his claims, demonstrated its divine origin. The number 19, which is mentioned in chapter 74 of the Qur'an as being "one of the greatest miracles" played the fundamental role, which according to Khalifa can be found everywhere in the structure of the Quran. Some objected to these beliefs and, in 1990, Khalifa was assassinated by someone associated with the Sunni group Jamaat ul-Fuqra. A Turkish (of Kurdish descent) activist, Edip Yüksel, initially campaigned for a Quranist-Islamic revolution in Turkey, which is why he was imprisoned. Later he met Khalifa and joined the organisation after witnessing the "19 miracle". In 1989 he had to leave the country because of this and joined the headquarters in Tucson. Yüksel and two other authors created their own translation of the Quran. In some points, however, his views differ from those of Khalifa.

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TOPIC OF THE DAY

Greenwood / Black Wall Street

Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.

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TRIVIA QUESTION OF THE DAY

What prosperous Tulsa district became widely known as “Black Wall Street”?

The Greenwood District.