The Qur’an An Abiding Wonder
The Qur’an: The Book of God
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are in total harmony with nature.
EXTERNAL INCONSISTENCY
Now we turn to external inconsistency. External
inconsistency in a literary work occurs when what it
asserts is contradicted by some reality in the outside
world. Since man’s speech and writing occur within
the sphere of his own knowledge, which is marked
by human limitations, what he writes or says fails to
conform to the external reality. We produce here a
few comparative examples to illustrate this point.
Certain ancient Arab tribes sometimes killed their
children, in most cases female babies, for fear of
being unable to feed a large family. It was in this
context that the following verses were revealed:
Do not kill your children for fear of want: We
shall provide sustenance for them as well as
for you. Truly, the killing of them is a great
sin. (17:31)
Inherent in this pronouncement of the Qur’an was
the claim that the growth in population, whatever
its extent and degree, would not create a problem of
