Muslim Preachers misused this hoax of the so-called Quranic miracle of the City of Irum, and brainwashed millions of innocent people into believing in Islam. But this is not a Quranic Miracle, but only a lie.
We just hope to bring innocent people out of this religious propaganda and show them the truth.
The Qur'an says in Sura 89:6-8 (Yusuf Ali's translation):
(Quran 89: 6-9) Seest thou not how thy Lord dealt with the 'Ad (people),-Of the (city of) Iram, with lofty pillars, The like of which were not produced in (all) the land?
Modern Muslim preachers come up with this claim (link 1, link 2):
And this city of 'Ad (i.e. Iram), with tall pillars, was found in 1990 in Oman (link).
Thus, it is a miracle of the Quran, which told about this city, which was destroyed before the arrival of the prophet Muhammad and the Quran
Answer:
Actually, it has not been proven that this is the city of Iram.
Firstly: Prove that the pillars in the city of Iram are the tallest in the world
Having few pillars does not automatically make it the city of Iram. But according to the Quran translation (which modern Muslims use to prove it to be a miracle), these pillars should be so long that no other pillars in the world should match them.
(Quran 89: 6-9)
Have you not considered how your Lord dealt with ‘Aad [With] Iram – who had lofty pillars, The likes of whom had never been created in the land?}
So, what is the height of these few pillars, and how Muslims declared them to be the tallest in the world?
The answer is that these pillars/towers are only 30 feet high (link). There are tons of ancient pillars/towers which are much higher than towers of Iram city.
Note:
This excavation (which Muslims give the name of the city of Iram) does not have pillars, but only TOWERS (Link).
There is a huge difference between pillars (which are used for making BUILDINGS, and Towers.
And verse 89:7 used the word الْعِمَادِ, which has also been used in Hadith for Building
قَالَتِ التَّاسِعَةُ زَوْجِي رَفِيعُ الْعِمَادِ طَوِيلُ النِّجَادِ عَظِيمُ الرَّمَادِ قَرِيبُ الْبَيْتِ مِنَ النَّادِي
The ninth one said: My husband is the master of a lofty building,
Secondly: Salaf (i.e. Earlier) Muslims considered the people of 'Ad to be tallest in this verse, and not the pillars
The modern Muslim preachers translated/interpreted verse 89:7 (إرم ذات العماد) as:
Iram – who had lofty pillars
While the earlier Muslims interpreted this verse 89:7 (إرم ذات العماد) as (link):
The people of Iram excessively tall
And it makes much more sense with tall people of 'Ad, who are unmatched in the land (in their height), as compared to the height of pillars.
Imam Qurtabi wrote under the commentary of this verse (link):
قال أبو عبيدة: «ذاتِ العِمادِ» ذات الطُّول. يقال: رجل مُعَمَّد إذا كان طويلاً. ونحوه عن ابن عباس ومجاهد.
Abu Ubaidah said, “Dhat al-Imad” (ذات العماد) in this verse means tall people. This phrase is said, (Rijl Mu'amed رجل مُعَمَّد) when a man is tall. Similar has been narrated from Hazrat Ibn Abbas and Mujahid.
There are many more Islamic traditions, which claim that the people of 'Ad were the tallest.
Thirdly: This city was destroyed only 100 to 300 years before Muhammad
These pillars were built about 2000 years ago, and they were destroyed about 100 to 300 years before Muhammad.
The leader of the team of archaeologists, which discovered and worked on this excavation, wrote (Link):
Under the direction of Juris Zarins, the team began excavation, and within weeks had unearthed the wall and towers of a fortress dating back more than 2,000 years. Clapp suggested that the evidence was "a convincing match" for the legendary lost city of Ubar. The city's destruction, he postulated, happened between A.D. 300 and 500 as the result of an earthquake which precipitated the collapse of the limestone table
According to Islam, there came no other prophet between Jesus and Muhammad. This is a period of 600 years.
So, how could the prophets come to 'Ad between 100 and 300 years before Muhammad, and the nation of 'Ad was destroyed due to those other prophets?
https://questionsonislam.com/question/was-prophet-sent-between-jesus-and-muhammad-pbuh
Question: Was a prophet sent between Jesus and Muhammad (pbuh)?
Answer:
Dear Brother / Sister,
It is stated in the historical sources that no prophet was sent between Jesus and Muhammad. This period is called as interregnum.
Salman (ra) said,
"The interregnum between Jesus and Muhammad is 600 years." (Bukhari, Manaqibu'l-Ansar 53)
The meaning of the interregnum in the hadith is the period between these two prophets when no prophet was sent by Allah.
Fourthly: The city was not destroyed due to any wind/sandstorm
The Quran mentioned that the nation of 'Ad was destroyed by a violent wind/sand Strom (Verses 41:16, 46:24, 51:41, 54:19, 69:6).
Later research on this excavation showed (link):
As far as the legend of Ubar was concerned, there was no evidence that the city had perished in a sandstorm. Much of the fortress had collapsed into a sinkhole that hosted the well, perhaps undermined by the removal of ground water for irrigation.
Fifthly: The nation of 'Ad made buildings on EVERY height/hill (according to the Quran)
Quran claims that 'Ad made buildings on EVERY hill.
Quran 26:128:
أَتَبْنُونَ بِكُلِّ رِيعٍ ءَايَةً تَعْبَثُونَ
What, you build a monument on every hill merely for fun
While this so-called ruin (i.e. the city of Iram) is a very small place. So, where are the other buildings of 'Ad on the hills?
Off course, Muhammad was only copying pre-Islamic poets and Jewish folklore.
"However legendary a place Iram might have been, there are many references to Iram and 'Ad in pre-Islamic and Islamic poetry.3 The early anthology of mostly pre-Islamic poetry, the so-called Mufaddaliyyat, contain corroboration of Iram in pre-Islamic poetry: a verse, which has been attributed to Şuraym b. Ma'shar al-Taghlibi who probably lived in the second half of the sixth century (Sezgin 1996:150) and who is better known as Ufnun al-Taghlibi."
Source, A Paradise in the Desert: Iram at the Intersection of One Thousand and One Nights, Qur’anic Exegesis, and Arabian History by Orhan Elmaz
And:
"Now God had prepared the way for Islam in that they lived side by side with the Jews who were people of the scriptures and knowledge, while they themselves were polytheists and idolaters. They had raided them in their district and whenever bad feeling arose the Jews used to say to them, ‘A prophet will be sent soon. His day is at hand. We shall follow him and kill you by his aid as 'Ad and Iram perished."
Source, Sira of Ibn Ishaq
Sixthly: Muslim claim that the city of Iram was found in Ebla Tablets
The Ebla tablets are a collection of as many as 1,800 complete clay tablets, which were found in the ancient city of Ebla, in Syria. There is a mention of a city, with the name Ubar in them. Due to the similarity in the name, the Muslim preachers claimed that Ubar is the same city as the Iram of the Quran.
But the Ebla Tablets are 4500 to 4300 years old (link), while the excavation (which Muslims claim to be the city of Iram) is only 3000 years old (as mentioned above).
How can then these Ebla Tablets predict a city which is going to be formed 1300 to 1500 years later in the future?
That is why Muslims failed to give any direct link to Ebla Tablets about the presence of any city of Iram in them. At the most, they cite a reference from National Geographic from 1978, which wrote:
- The names of cities thought to have been founded much later, such as Beirut and Byblos, leap from the tablets. Damascus and Gaza are mentioned, as well as two of the Biblical cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah. Also included is Iram, an obscure city referred to in Sura 89 of the Koran.
References: Ebla: Splendor Or An Unknown Empire” by Howard La Fay (pp. 730-759), published in 1978National Geographic, December 1978, page 735-736
Please note that both Howard La Fay and National Geographic failed to give any direct quote from Ebla Tablets about Iram City.
Actually, Ebla Tablets were discovered only in 9174-1975 by (link). But then some sensationalist claims were made by Giovanni Pettinato and his team about the connection between the findings of Ebla Tablets and the stories of the Bible. It turned into a great controversy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebla%E2%80%93biblical_controversy
Pettinato, in a meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in St. Louis on October 29, 1976, said that he had identified the names of Sodom, Gomorrah, and Zoar/Bela in the Ebla tablets, locations which are known from Genesis 14 of the Hebrew Bible.[4] He repeated this claim in a speech in December[5] and a survey article in 1977.[4] Alfonso Archi fiercely contested these findings in 1979 and 1981. These back-and-forth interpretations of Eblaite tablets were based on tablets whose facsimiles had not been published for others to study,[4] and some of Pettinato's findings changed. For example, Pettinato claimed to find references to Sodom and Gomorrah, but retracted his Zoar reading.
Thus, National Graphics was unable to have any direct study to those Ebla Tablets about the City of Iram in 1978, and it relied on speculations of others for what it wrote in 1978.
Later, much of Pettinato's claims were found to be wrong.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebla_tablets#Biblical_archaeology
However, much of the initial media excitement about supposed Eblaite connections with the Bible, based on preliminary guesses and speculations by Pettinato and others, is now widely deplored as generated by "exceptional and unsubstantiated claims" and "great amounts of disinformation that leaked to the public".[11] The present consensus is that Ebla's role in biblical archaeology, strictly speaking, is minimal.[2]
In simple words, Muslim preachers are unable till today, to show any direct quote about the City of Irum from Ebla Tablets.
The archaeologists, who worked on this excavation, they talked about the city of Ubar (and not the city of Iram) in Ebla Tablets. Islamic preachers later claimed that Ubar is Iram, due to some resemblance in their names.
Moreover, this excavated city does not automatically become the city of Iram, while:
- Where did Ebla Tablets mention the tallest pillars of Iram?
- And are these pillars/towers of the excavated city really the tallest? No, but it is only a random old ruin with some towers in it. On these criteria, every such ruin with some towers/pillars could be named the city of Iram.
- Please also note, no Pillars were found in this excavated city of Ubar, but only TOWERS. There is a huge difference between pillars and towers.
- And where did Ebla Tablets mention the nation of 'Ad in that city?
- It is only wonder, how can then Islam apologists still claim that this excavation is the same as the city of Iram in the Quran.
Conclusion:
There is absolutely no solid proof present that this excavation is the same as the city of Iram which is mentioned in the Quran.
This location is only some random place with some pillars. How can then these modern Muslim preachers give it the name of the City of Iram?
Practically, Muslims can claim any ruin with pillars in it, to be the city of Iram.
City of Iram VS Flat Earth Model in the Quran
There is absolutely no proof present that these pillars belonged to the city of Iram and the nation of the 'Ad. Nevertheless, Muslims still do a lot of propaganda in its name.
On the other hand, the Quran and the Hadith are full of the Flat Earth Model, but still these same Muslims deny these undeniable proofs.
Flat Earth Model in the Quran & Hadith
Please compare both of these topics, and you will see the Double Standards of Islamic apologists.
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