What I call "unscientific Quran" is the elements of the Quran which claims truths about the physical world we live in which are not scientifically likely. It includes the creation myth, the great flood, anything about flying horses or a moon split in half.

I am wondering how many Muslims believe in this literally? Is there any reliable estimation of this?

I did not separate the questions, since it seems unlikely that someone believes in flying horses but not in a 6000 year old earth, and vice versa.

I am also interested in estimation per country, since the local education system may have a lot to do with this.

  • This question might be off topic since it's about what individual Muslims believe, not what Islam says. As for 6000 years old, that's a very niche opinion among scholars, it's usually - and has historically been - interpreted as 6 not necessarily equally long intervals of time. – G. Bach Dec 19 '16 at 0:28

Every Muslim believes Allah's ultimate power, and that if He will something, He order it to be.

His command is only when He intends a thing that He says to it, "Be," and it is. (Quran 36:82)

Now coming to your questions, I don't get what you mean by saying "creation myth"? If you believe that you came to life because of some gigantic numerical combination of digits, I don't get how that is less myth than what you mean.

And no, who said it is a flying horse? Buraq is just an animal that is bigger than a donkey and smaller than a mule, and it is white. It does not have wings. The prophet (PBUH) used it to travel from Mecca to Jerusalem, and it was not used when he ascended the heaven. It is not as the popular culture portrays it. (source) What is mentioned here in Britannica is very wrong.

Lastly, where did you get this 6000-year old earth from?


Muslims believe in every single word of Quran to be true. There is nothing "unscientific" in Quran. Your understanding is very weak or the information you have received is distorted. You need to read the Quran yourself and ask scholars where you don't understand. Science is nothing but human experience with the world around us. It may be correct or wrong until its proven.

  • What I was wondering is whether most people think like you or not. As for "science may be correct or wrong until it is proven " , what do you mean by that? What kind of proof are you looking for ? – user5751924 Dec 19 '16 at 10:10
  • You need to know what science is and how it works. Then you will know what that means. – J.Khan Feb 27 '17 at 23:11

Sometimes what Quran tells us contradicts with some of the Muslim beliefs, mostly because of the hadiths. For example:

The great flood is not mentioned in Quran as a planetwise disaster, rather it could easily be interpreted as a local disaster, which only wiped out only one tribe/nation. There are many other examples of nationwide natural disasters in the Quran, espacially the description of one is highly looks like a volcano explosion.

The splitting of the Moon is an event that not yet happened according to Quran. It will happen in the last days of earth, while the humankind is being destroyed completely. But if you look at some hadiths, it is already happened as a miracle of Prophet Muhammed (poh).

Quran doesn't say or even imply anything about the earth's age. The 7000 thing is a belief coming from Judaism as far as I know. And again it has a place among some hadiths.

I don't know any Quranic reference about flying horses, but I heard something about 1 specific horse (Prophet Muhammed's horse) in an action like that at 1 specific time, during a miracle. And even in that saying, there is no flying, but something more like rising through dimensions (it may happen even without any kind of movement if it was real).

The creation is a different topic thou. It is mentioned directly in Quran that, humankind is multiplied from a single couple, Adam and Eve. And there is a clear mention about 6 eras of creation of the universe. Although there is absolutely no information about how long they lasted, or were they lasted equally.

So, many Muslims believe that kind of things, except flying horses, and many don't. But in the creation concept, every Muslim except a very tiny little group believe as such. This group of people interpret the creation parts in Quran as metaphores and try to unite Islamic View with the Evolutionary View, but their numbers are like a drop in the ocean.

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