The first example mentioned is that the word for ‘man’ (rajul) and
the word for ‘woman’ (amra’ or mar’a) both occur in the Quran
exactly 24 times each. The article claims this shows that man and
woman are equal. However, at least two Islamic websites inform us
that ‘man’ and ‘woman’ occur 23 times and they call this a miracle
because they say that this is also the number of “the chromosomes
from the egg and sperm in the formation of the human embryo. The
total number of human chromosomes is 46; 23 each from the mother
and father”. Please refer to these two webpages:
www.miraclesofthequran.com/mathematical_01.html
www.muhammedhasenoglu.com/miracles_quran.htm
So, whether these words occur 24 times or 23 times, it is called a
miracle in each case!
The whole argument is baseless in the first place. The number of
times the words ‘man’ and ‘woman’ occur has absolutely no relevance
to the teachings about men and women. Imagine that a book contains a
sentence saying: “A man is vastly superior to a woman. A man has all
rights, a woman has no rights at all.” The words ‘man’ and ‘woman’
both occur in this sentence the same number of times, but does that
mean this sentence is saying that men and women are equal?
...
Certainly they do occur 24 times each in this form but these words
occur in other forms as well. Also, there are other words in the Quran
for ‘man’ and ‘woman’ apart from these two. The word imra’a has a
masculine form mar’, and although it usually means human being (for
example in 8:24 “Allah comes in between a man and his heart”), there
are cases where mar’ means specifically a male. These are:
1. “between a man and his wife”, 2:102.
2. “If a man dies who has no son”, 4:176.
3. “your father was not a wicked man”, 19:28.
4. “The day when a man flees from his brother”, 80:34.
So why is this word not counted as an occurrence of ‘man’? It is
most strange that they count the word imra’a for ‘woman’ and yet they
do not count its masculine form (mar’) for ‘man’, when this form, on
four occasions, can only mean a male human being.
Plurals are also not counted by them. Hence the words rijāl (men)
and nisā’ (women), occurring so frequently, are not included despite
their usage in fundamental verses like 4:1 about men and women. The
words rajul and imra’a also occur in dual forms rajulān (2:282, 5:23,
16:76, 18:32, 28:15) and imra’atān (2:282, 28:23) meaning ‘two men’
or ‘two women’. They do not count these dual forms. But,
interestingly, if they did include them then the question would arise
whether each of these is to be counted as one occurrence or as two
occurrences because the word means ‘two’, men or women!
"And when my servants ask thee concerning me, then will I be nigh unto them. I will answer the cry of him that crieth, when he crieth unto me: but let them hearken unto me, and believe in me, that they may proceed aright."The Quran - The Heifer - 2:186 (verse in image above)
