In the Qur'an, we find talking ants in Sura 27:18-19, observe a conversation of Solomon with the Hoopoe bird in Sura 27:20-28 and we even read:

He [Allah] said, "We have tempted thy people since thou didst leave them. The Samaritan has led them into error." Then Moses returned ...
... and we cast them [(gold) ornaments], as the Samaritan also threw them, into the fire." (Then he brought out for them a Calf, a mere body that lowed; and they said, "This is your god, and the god of Moses, whom he has forgotten.") ...
Moses said, "And thou, Samaritan, what was thy business?" ...
-- Sura 20:85-88, 95

How can a mere piece of gold moo like a live cow? (This is stated again in 7:148). Apart from the scientific problem which could be answered by the reply that God can do a miracle, there is the theological problem: Has Allah given a miracle to this false idol even though idolatery is so detested by him? This also contradicts the word of God in the Zabur, since Psalm 155:4-5 says:

But their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.
They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see; ...

And God says about the idols in Isaiah 46:7 "Though one cries out to it, it does not answer," and in Jeremiah 10:5, "Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk".


One could ask where this notion of the "lowing of the calf" comes from and find that it might have been taken from a legend from the Jews as in Pirqey Rabbi Eliezer, § 45 we read: "And this calf came out lowing, and the Israelites saw it. Rabbi Yehudah says that Sammael was hidden in its interior, and wa lowing in order that he might deceive Israel."

The strange idea that this golden calf was lowing is not in the Torah, but is only found in this Jewish legend. And Muhammad seemingly didn't understand who Sammael [angel of death] was, and so it got changed it into a word he knew, Samiri, the Samaritan as he knew the Samaritans are enemies of the Jews, so it made sense that they would want to deceive the Jews and lead them astray. [More details: Tisdall, "The Original Sources of the Qur'an", p. 112-114]


Contradictions in the Qur'an
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