Question
Some Qur’anic verses seem scientifically inaccurate— like sperm coming from between the backbone and ribs, everything being created in pairs, and other such descriptions. If these appear unscientific, is the Qur’an really God’s Word?
Answer
Thank you for writing to us.
Before we look at specific examples you provided, it’s essential to ask a larger question: what kind of book is the Qur’an, and in what language does it speak?
The Qur’an is not a scientific textbook. I am aware that there are Muslims out there who try to dig science from the Qur’an, but I am afraid this is a grossly incorrect approach. The Qur’an doesn’t claim to describe natural processes with laboratory precision. Its purpose is far deeper: to awaken the moral and spiritual awareness of human beings, to show them where they came from, why they exist, and where they are going. For this reason, it speaks in language that everyone, in every time and place, can understand.
This is not something unique to the Qur’an. Even scientists use vocabulary that is technically ‘wrong’ or ‘inaccurate.’ Especially when they write for the general public, they use common human language based on how things appear to ordinary observation. For example, they use the words “sunrise” and “sunset,” though scientifically the sun doesn’t move around the earth. They also use the word “Milky Way” but there is no milk spilled across the sky. It is simply a literary description but imprecise at the same time. They say “shooting stars” even though they are meteors burning in the atmosphere. Astronomers and physicists speak of “stardust” to describe the chemical elements left by dying stars, though there is no literal dust floating in the void. They use the word “wormhole” to describe a shortcut through spacetime, analogous to a worm’s tunnel through an apple. These words are not scientifically exact, yet they are true enough to communicate meaning to all people. They capture the experience of reality, not its mathematical description.
The Qur’an, or for that matter even the previous revealed texts, speaks in this same phenomenological language, the language of how things appear and what they signify to human beings. If the Qur’an had used the technical vocabulary of any one age — the medicine of Hippocrates, the astronomy of Ptolemy, or the physics of Einstein — it would have become obsolete the moment scientific understanding changed. Instead, it uses timeless and exalted speech, rooted in observation and reflection, that always remains meaningful. When it describes the heavens, the earth, and the creation of life, it does so to direct our attention to their Creator, not to teach us their chemical composition.
Science tells us how things happen; revelation tells us why they exist and what they mean. They address different dimensions of reality. A scientific theory can describe the process of birth, but it cannot explain why life exists at all, or why moral responsibility matters. The Qur’an speaks to this deeper plane of truth, the truth that gives purpose to everything we discover. It is not meant to replace science, but to complete human understanding by connecting knowledge to meaning.
Once we see the Qur’an from this epistemic perspective, we can revisit any passage about the heavens, the earth, or human creation, and realize that its intent is not scientific description but moral and existential insight. It speaks in human language, to human experience, about the reality behind all appearances.
To address the specific examples that you’ve brough up, please refer to the following published answers on our website. The links are provided in the description.
Further Reading on Our Site
- Does the Qur’an say that semen emanates from between the ribs and the backbone?
- Creation in pairs and everything created from water — Is the Qur’an scientifically incorrect?
- Is Questioning Islam a Sign of Weak Belief?
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Mushfiq Sultan
Assistant Fellow, Al-Mawrid
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