The Qur’an said Solomon talked with ants and Christians claim this is absurd. But didn’t Jesus turn water into wine, and didn’t Moses divide the Dead Sea? Doesn’t all this fall into the same category as Solomon’s issue?<\/p>\n\t
The Qur’an claims that Solomon communicated with ants through the great wisdom that God gave him.<\/p>\n
At length, when they came to a valley of ants, one of the ants\u00a0said<\/strong>: “O ye ants, get into your habitations, lest Solomon and his hosts crush you (under foot) without knowing it.”<\/p>\nSo he smiled, amused at her\u00a0speech<\/strong>; and he said: “O my Lord! so order me that I may be grateful for Thy favours, which Thou has bestowed on me and on my parents, and that I may work the righteousness that will please Thee: And admit me, by Thy Grace to the ranks of Thy Righteous Servants.”
\n[Sura An-Naml [The Ant] (27):18-19]<\/blockquote>\nNo miracle of God is claimed for this story, it is supposedly an ability that came with wisdom. The problem is that ants do not communicate with sound. They are basically deaf. They can feel vibrations in their surroundings, but they cannot sense vibrations in the air. Ants communicate through odors. If Solomon “overheard” the speed of ants, it had to have been by a great miracle of God both to give the ants intelligence beyond their ability (this ant supposedly knew Solomon’s name) and gave Solomon the ability to sense chemical communication. Yet, there is no claim of a miracle here. Therefore, it shows that the writer of the Qur’an did not understand how ants communicated, assuming that the reason we don’t understand ant-speech is that we aren’t smart enough.<\/p>\n
Jesus turning the water into wine was claimed to be a miracle. It was an interruption of the natural order of things — something only God can do. “This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him<\/em>” (John 2:11).<\/p>\n
Moses’ parting the Red Sea was by the power of God as well. Moses obeyed God, but all acknowledge that it was God who did the work. “So the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Thus Israel saw the great work which the LORD had done in Egypt; so the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD and His servant Moses<\/em>” (Exodus 14:30-31).<\/p>\n
By themselves, you could claim that the miracles of God were nothing but stories, but the problem is that there were witnesses. It made an impact on history. The crossing of the Red Sea, experienced by millions of Israelites, also resulted in the wiping out of Pharaoh and his army. Word of that spread through the nations. Rahab, a Canaanite in Jericho said, “I know that the LORD has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed<\/em>” (Joshua 2:9-10). The Canaanites had no love for God to promote evidence of His deeds, yet they knew what had happened. The Pharaoh whom historians suspect died in this event had his name expunged from monuments. Egyptians did not tolerate defeat well.<\/p>\n
Jesus turning the water to wine was also witnessed by both the disciples and the servants at the feast. This particular miracle did not have an impact in history, but it was one of many events in which multiple witnesses, both favorable and neutral, could attest to the fact that it did happen.<\/p>\n
The Qur’an was written 900 years after Jesus, 1900 years after Solomon. The story of the ants did not pre-exist the Qur’an. No one could verify the truth of the story or interview the witnesses. The event of the parting of the Red Sea was written down by Moses. Those living at the time, and there were a lot of witnesses, could testify that it really did happen. The event of the changing of water to wine was written down less than 40 years after it happened. The witnesses, and there were several, could be interviewed as to whether the recording was true. That is a\u00a0big<\/strong>\u00a0difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: The Qur’an said Solomon talked with ants and Christians claim this is absurd. But didn’t Jesus turn water into wine, and didn’t Moses divide the Dead Sea? Doesn’t all this fall into the same category as Solomon’s issue? Answer: The Qur’an claims that Solomon communicated with ants through the great wisdom that God gave…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[37,361,363,362],"class_list":["post-25270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-apologetics","tag-islam","tag-miracles","tag-muslims"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25479,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-difference-between-islam-and-christianity\/","url_meta":{"origin":25270,"position":0},"title":"What is the difference between Islam and Christianity?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is the difference between Islam and Christianity? If Jesus is God, what about the prophet Moses (Torah), or the prophet David (Injil)? The holy book Torah had been given to the prophet Moses and the holy book Injil had been given to the prophet David. Likewise, the holy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26659,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-was-the-source-of-the-water-used-to-fill-the-bronze-sea\/","url_meta":{"origin":25270,"position":1},"title":"What was the source of the water used to fill the bronze sea?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What was the source of the water used to fill the bronze sea? Answer: The Bible doesn't mention what water was used to fill the bronze sea. Jerusalem had numerous pools and we know from archeology that Solomon has several underground cisterns hewn into the rock. Ecclesiastes 2:6 mentions\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68450,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-fathers-helpful-words-to-his-son\/","url_meta":{"origin":25270,"position":2},"title":"A Father\u2019s Helpful Words to His Son","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 19, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Gregory Roark \"Now the days of David drew near that he should die, and he charged Solomon his son, saying: 'I go the way of all the earth; be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a man. And keep the charge of the Lord your God: to walk in His\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23579,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-are-the-first-five-books-of-the-bible-called\/","url_meta":{"origin":25270,"position":3},"title":"What are the first five books of the Bible called?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What are the first five books of the Bible called? Answer: \"Then He said to them, \"These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25273,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-explain-some-of-the-prophecies-about-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":25270,"position":4},"title":"Can you explain some of the prophecies about Christ?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The Bible says that Jesus committed mistakes; it's in II Samuel 7:12-17. I'm guessing it was like, in the day that Jesus, when he was 12, went to the place to discuss with the wise men. His parents noticed He was missing when they were going back home already.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4103,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-ii-samuel-711-14-talking-about-christ-or-solomon\/","url_meta":{"origin":25270,"position":5},"title":"Is II Samuel 7:11-14 talking about Christ or Solomon?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 18, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hey Mr. Jeffrey, I'm having issues understanding II Samuel 7:14. Clearly, it is a reference to Jesus and the kingdom of God, but who is God talking about committing iniquity in this passage? Answer: \"The LORD also declares to you that the LORD will make a house for you.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}