Units of Measurement in the Quran

Brother Pehliven found that the letter separation between the mention of the moon (Alqamar) in sorat Alqamar and the first mention of the earth in the same sora when divided by three (the number of letters in the word moon in Arabic) gives the minimum distance between the moon and the earth as measured in moon diameters (306 / 3 = 102 moons).

He also noticed that the word separation to first mention of moon after the moon of sorat Alqamar (which is the moon in sorat ArRahman that is used with the sun for calculations) gives 350 which again when divided by 3 gives 116.6 which is the maximum separation between the earth and the moon in moon diameters.

The justification for using the moon in Alqamar is that it is a miraculous moon. Allah states that the moon was divided as a sign of the approach of the Last Hour.

We applied a similar technique for the sun counting from the first mention of the miraculous sun (that will rise from the West before the Last Hour). We found that the distance in words between this sun and the earth before it was 107 words which is the distance between the sun and the earth in solar diameters (the values can range from 106 to 109). Note that we did not divide by 3. Similarly, the distance from this sun to the earth after it is 1168 letters which when divided by 3 gives 389 which is the number of lunar distances from earth and the sun.

This may not all be very scientific for lack of consistency but it may point to a Divine system for units of measurement that is natural which should be applied to other objects in the visible universe.

Moreover, distances on the surface of the earth can also benefit from a natural unit of measurement based on the distance between the Mosque in Makkah and Alaqsa mosque in Jerusalem (722 miles or 1155 km) since Allah mentions them at the beginning of sorat Alisraa in almost two consecutive words. Therefore the number of words between any two named places in the Quran could represent the distance between them in this measurement unit.

Allah knows better.

Hatim Zaghloul

Egypt, 2014