Answering Islam - A Christian-Muslim dialog

Noah’s Ark Or Noah’s Steamboat?

Masud Masihiyyen

People who are familiar with the modern techniques of Islamic propagation know that adapting some scientific discoveries to some vague verses of the Koran has been very trendy among certain Islamic commentators since the last century1. According to the inventors of the overall hypothesis that the Islamic scripture is in perfect harmony with recently discovered scientific facts, a large number of scientific and technological developments are mysteriously and miraculously found predicted in the Koran. A famous Turkish researcher named Harun Yahya gives a detailed list of all the alleged scientific miracles of the Koran on his webpage2. Another Islamic writer and researcher of Turkish origin is Haluk Nurbaki, whose similar contentions about the miraculously scientific peculiarity of the Islamic scripture are presented in his book entitled Verses From The Glorious Koran and The Facts of Science3.

Interestingly, some of the allegations concerning the scientific miracles and accurate predictions of the Koran are not as popular as the ones put forward by writers like Yahya and Nurbaki. According to a similar theory of comparatively low popularity, the account of Noah’s ark in the Koran contains two specific verses4 that talk of a boiling oven, which predict the invention of steamboats.

(Thus it was) till, when Our commandment came to pass and the oven gushed forth water, We said: Load therein two of every kind, a pair (the male and female), and thy household, save him against whom the word hath gone forth already, and those who believe. And but a few were they who believed with him (Surah 11:40).

Then We inspired in him, saying: Make the ship under Our eyes and Our inspiration. Then, when Our command cometh and the oven gusheth water, introduce therein of every (kind) two spouses, and thy household save him thereof against whom the Word hath already gone forth. And plead not with Me on behalf of those who have done wrong. Lo! they will be drowned (Surah 23:27).

In one of his articles about the type of Prophet Noah’s ark, Mehmet Paksu, a Turkish writer on religion and ethics, asserts that Noah’s ark was not an ark or a sailing boat: “The essentially significant thing for this ark is that it was not an ordinary sailing boat, but a steamboat that had an oven”5. While elaborating on this claim, Paksu refers to Surah 11:40 along with its interpretation by Elmalili Hamdi Yazir6, a prevalent Turkish commentator of the Koran that lived in the early days of the Turkish republic and contributed to the translation of the Islamic scripture into Turkish. After pointing to the original clause in the Koran that talks both of an oven and the act of gushing forth/boiling, Elmalili Hamdi Yazir concludes: “Now we never hesitate to figure out that the ark was actually a boat ready to move when we see that with regard to the ark the commandment to ‘embark’ it was given right when the oven boiled”7.

In the 41st issue of a monthly magazine named Kirmizi Cizgi (Red Line) İlhami Yangin8 reiterates this new Islamic designation of Noah’s ark as a steamboat when it likens the ancient ark to the Titanic of modern times. More, the article cites Elmalili Hamdi Yazir’s comments to support the hypothesis that “The other issue on which experts reached a consensus is that the ark ran on steam”. Yazir later focuses on the definition of the Arabic word tannur in the verse as an oven by a commentator named Abu Hayyan and makes use of Hayyan’s literal translation to substantiate his theory that the ark had an oven that functioned as the engine of a steamboat. In Yazir’s view, Abu Hayyan regards the tannur as the place where the water was accumulated and this interpretation implies the presence of an oven in the ark9.

In his booklet highlighting the affinity between the Koran and sciences Safvet Senih – another Islamic writer – walks in Elmalili Hamdi Yazir’s footsteps when he audaciously considers the ark the first model of modern steamboats and thus discovers in the Koran an implicit reference to the future construction of big ships running on steam. He bases this theory on the literal interpretation of the Arabic word tannur, which is said to be the English equivalent of the word “oven”10.

Obviously, what instigates some Muslim commentators and theologians like Yazir to create this odd theory about Noah’s ark is solely the deliberate literal interpretation of the word “oven” that bizarrely occurs in two accounts of Noah’s ark. Yazir and others’ tendency to thematically associate the oven with the ark itself is first challenged by the fact that the Koran imparts no information about the type or peculiarities of the ark except for once when it says:

And We carried him upon a thing of planks and nails, That ran (upon the waters) in Our sight, as a reward for him who was rejected. And verily We left it as a token; but is there any that remembereth? (Surah 54:13-15)

As this only direct reference in the Koran to the form of the ark neither implicitly nor explicitly talks of an oven, the argument that the word “oven” in Surah 11:40 and 23:27 should be construed as a part or component of the ark is weakened. Furthermore, the emphasis on the wooden structure of the ark in Surah 45:13 rebuts those who take Yazir’s claim one step further by depicting Noah’s ark as a boat made of steel rather than of wood11.

The second noteworthy piece of information that undermines Yazir’s theory is that the Koran not even once uses a different noun to highlight the supposed peculiarity of Noah’s ark. Interestingly, the Koran never distinguishes the ark from all the contemporary sea vessels of Islamic period by using either different vocabulary or grammar. The word used for Noah’s ark (FULKE in Arabic) in the Islamic scripture is identical with the word used for every sailing boat:

Then We inspired in him, saying: Make the ship under Our eyes and Our inspiration (Surah 23:27)

Build the ship under Our eyes and by Our inspiration, and speak not unto Me on behalf of those who do wrong (Surah 11:37).

(O mankind), your Lord is He Who driveth for you the ship upon the sea that ye may seek of His bounty. Lo! He was ever Merciful toward you (Surah 17:66).

And of His portents are the ships, like banners on the sea (Surah 42:32).

As we said before, 40th verse of Surah 11 and 27th verse of Surah 23 are the two places in the entire Koran that identically talk of the boiling of an oven with respect to the catastrophic flood, and nowhere else is made any implicit or explicit reference to this mysterious oven. It should also be noted that in both sentences the puzzling reference to an oven is embedded into an adverbial clause:

(Thus it was) till, when Our commandment came to pass and the oven gushed forth water We said: Load therein two of every kind, a pair (the male and female), and thy household, save him against whom the word hath gone forth already, and those who believe. And but a few were they who believed with him (Surah 11:40).

Then We inspired in him, saying: Make the ship under Our eyes and Our inspiration. Then, when Our command cometh and the oven gusheth water, introduce therein of every (kind) two spouses, and thy household save him thereof against whom the Word hath already gone forth. And plead not with Me on behalf of those who have done wrong. Lo! they will be drowned (Surah 23:27).

In order to understand whether the word “oven” in the clause “when our commandment came and the oven gushed forth water” is used in its literal sense or not, it is necessary to scrutinize the eleventh and twenty-third chapters of the Koran comparatively and deal with the problem of obscurity by relying on the internal coherence of these chapters in addition to their textual affiliation with each other. First, the linguistic analysis of the 11th and 23rd chapters of the Koran reveals that the account of the deluge in Surah 23:27 is the mere duplicate of the original account in Surah 11:40. This is not only because Surah 11 has the most organized and detailed narrative about the flood, but also because the adverbial clause “when Our commandment came to pass” occurs five times throughout the 11th chapter whilst it appears only once in the 23rd chapter. Indeed, this adverbial clause provides textual coherence in the 11th Surah by highlighting the identical tragic end that befell various sinful communities of the former messengers:

(Thus it was) till, when Our commandment came to pass and the oven gushed forth water, We said: Load therein two of every kind, a pair (the male and female), and thy household, save him against whom the word hath gone forth already, and those who believe. And but a few were they who believed with him (Surah 11:40).

And when Our commandment came to pass We saved Hud and those who believed with him by a mercy from Us; We saved them from a harsh doom (Surah 11:58).

So, when Our commandment came to pass, We saved Salih, and those who believed with him, by a mercy from Us, from the ignominy of that day. Lo, thy Lord! He is the Strong, the Mighty (Surah 11:66).

So when Our commandment came to pass We overthrew (that township) and rained upon it stones of clay, one after another (Surah 11:82).

And when Our commandment came to pass We saved Shu'eyb and those who believed with him by a mercy from Us; and the (Awful) Cry seized those who did injustice, and morning found them prostrate in their dwellings (Surah 11:94).

Obviously, the repetitive use of the clause “when our commandment came to pass” signifies the beginning of the time of divine punishment, the commandment referring to Allah’s will to castigate all communities that deny his messengers. After the clarification of the function of this recurrent clause, it can be easily understood that in Surah 11:40 (and in Surah 23:27, which is just the duplicate of this verse with slight variations in the form of the narrative) the “oven” is related to the depiction of the disastrous flood rather than to the type of Noah’s ark. When read in the same context as the divine commandment that comes to pass for the destruction of disbelievers, “the boiling of the oven” (or its gushing forth water) pertains to the symbolic representation of the flood.

Another Koran verse is surprisingly in favor of this metaphoric signification of the word “oven” with regard to the portrayal of the catastrophic deluge:

Then opened We the gates of heaven with pouring water, and caused the earth to gush forth springs, so that the waters met for a predestined purpose (Surah 54:11-12).

This verse overtly remarks that the earth played a significant role in the cause of the flood at Noah’s time by gushing forth springs and thus collaborating with the heavy rain pouring down from the sky at Allah’s command. The idea of the personified earth’s compliance with the heavens strengthens the reasonable analogy between the land and an oven gushing forth hot waters. In an article examining the relation between earthquakes and soil liquefaction, Ellis L. Krinitzsky points to this analogy used in the Koran: “Another relation between soil liquefaction and the Flood is found in the Koran where the Flood starts when ‘water gushed forth from the oven’”12.

Some Muslim translators and theologians dissent from Elmalili Hamdi Yazir’s literal interpretation of the word “oven” and endorse the view that the Koran verse talking of a boiling oven is thematically associated with the catastrophic incident. A different online Koran version13 translates the verses as follows:

Until when Our command came and water came forth from the valley, We said: Carry in it two of all things, a pair, and your own family -- except those against whom the word has already gone forth, and those who believe. And there believed not with him but a few (Surah 11:40).

So We revealed to him, saying: Make the ark before Our eyes and (according to) Our revelation; and when Our command is given and the valley overflows, take into it of every kind a pair, two, and your followers, except those among them against whom the word has gone forth, and do not speak to Me in respect of those who are unjust; surely they shall be drowned (Surah 23:27).

Likewise, Ismail Hakki Izmirli, another Islamic commentator in Turkey, replaces the word “oven” with “land” while translating the 40th verse of Surah 11 (p. 227)14.

In addition to these, those who support Yazir’s theory about the ark cannot answer why the Koran does not state that “the oven stopped boiling” when Noah and the others disembarked at the end of their voyage after the flood. Were the supposition that the boiling of the oven implies the movement of the ark be true, a new reference to the change in the functioning of the oven after the flood would become crucial.  However, such a reference can be found neither in the 11th nor 23rd Surah.

Finally, it should be emphasized that making a symbolic use of the word “oven” in the portrayal of the flood is nothing peculiar to the Islamic scripture. Historic evidence testifies to the pre-Islamic depiction of Noah’s flood as the boiling of an oven in the traditional writings and commentaries of Judaism. According to the information in the Jewish Encyclopedia, the reference to the oven in the Islamic version of Noah’s story illustrates Talmudic influence: “The accounts in the Koran (suras xi. 42, xxiii. 27) end with the words: ‘Then our decree came [true] and the oven boiled’. This is evidently a reproduction of the Talmudical saying, ‘The generation of the Flood was judged with boiling water’” (Sanh. 108)15. Dr. G. Weil is another writer who underscores the connection between the Islamic version of the account in the Koran and the one in the MidrashSource.

The incorporation of the Jewish traditional views and commentaries about the flood into the Koran undergo a transformation and gain a new sense in the hands of some Islamic commentators. While exposing the original sources of the Koran, Tisdall dedicates a chapter to the analysis of the Jewish and Sabian ideas and practices in the Islamic scripture and contends that Islamic ignorance of the Jewish statements about the flood in traditional writings of Judaism led some Muslims to the invention of new legends: “In Surah XI., Hud, 42, and again in Surah XXIII, Al Mu'minun, 27, we are told that in the time of Noah "the furnace boiled over." This doubtless refers to the Jewish opinion (Rosh Hashshanah xvi., § 2, and Sanhedrin cviii.) that "The generation of the Flood was punished with boiling water”. … “Probably in ignorance of this the commentary of Jalalain on Surah XI., 42, says that it was ‘a baker's oven’ that ‘boiled over’ and that this was a sign to Noah that the Flood was at hand”16. Further, in his comprehensive commentary of the Koran, E. M. Wherry gives a detailed account of the Islamic opinions concerning this legendary oven17.

It seems that some vague phrases and expressions adopted by the authors of the Koran from non-biblical sources of Judaism turn into innovated and awkward doctrines in the mouths of some commentators who misinterpret them mostly out of ignorance. Elmalili Hamdi Yazir, one of such commentators, adds a new link to the chain of wrong and legendary inferences about the account of Noah’s flood in the Islamic scripture when he insists that “the boiling of the oven” in Surah 11:40 and 23:27 is meant to designate the ark as a steamboat. Yazir’s personal interpretation that disregards the symbolic use of the word “oven” in the Koran is meant to serve the overall Islamic argument that Islam and science are perfectly compatible.

This tendency takes the form of a bad habit for plenty of Muslims who read the Koran without understanding the original meaning and source of some vague statements in it. The outcome of this casual or deliberate ignorance is the increase in the number of verses that allegedly possess scientific miracles or accurate historic predictions. Muslims who detach the meaning of the word “oven” from Jewish commentaries and claim that Noah’s ark was the first model of a steamboat follow exactly the same strategy as the Muslims who claim that the preservation of the Pharaoh’s body in Moses’ time was predicted in Surah 10:91-92.18 Once this strategy is recognized and demolished, the supposed miracles of the Koran instantly disappear.


Footnotes

1 This has become hugely popular since the 1970ies but this approach of trying to prove the divine origin of the Koran by finding modern scientific insights in it started already in the earlier part of the 20th century.

3 Verses From The Glorious Koran and The Facts of Science, published by Diyanet Vakfı in Ankara, 1989.

4 For all the Islamic scriptural references in this study, unless otherwise stated, Pickthall’s English translation is used, available e.g. here

5 This quotation (translation mine) is taken from Mahmet Paksu’s article entitled “What form did prophet Noah’s ark have?” published on 3 June 2008 Tuesday at 16:03 here.

6 Elmalili Hamdi Yazir named his Turkish tafsir “Hak Dini Kur’an Dili”, which was first published between the years 1936 and 1938, four years before Yazir’s death. For further information on Yazir and his tafsir in Turkish, available here.

7 From Paksu’s same article, translation mine.

8 All the references to Ilhami Yangin’s article entitled “Prophet Noah’s ark was similar to the Titanic” come from the web version of the magazine, here, translation mine.

9 In his Turkish tafsir Hamdi Yazir writes six clauses in defense of his innovated theory about the steamboat supposedly used by Noah during the flood (source).

10 Senîh, Safvet. Kur’an ve İlimler. İzmir: Nil, 1995 p. 61 (translation mine).

11 Source (translation mine)

12 Published 28 September 2004 (source).

14 Kur’an- i Kerim ve Turkce Anlami (Holy Koran and its Turkish meaning). Istanbul: Celtut, 1977.


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