One of the remarkable things about Islam is that its truth claims are utterly dependant on the bold assertion that the Qur'an is the word of an omniscient god. I've noticed that some Muslims resort to all sorts of fanciful means to explain away the various contradictions, linguistic difficulties, scientific errors and so on in that book.

For example, they often disguise an obvious error as a miracle. The verses that mention night and day and then say that the sun and moon float in an orbit are not advocating geocentrism (21:33, 36:37-40)! Nope, they are supposedly a miraculous revelation that the sun orbits the milkyway!

Well, one set of verses is so embarrassing that nobody attempts to salvage it as a miracle, but instead sometimes use various means to explain them away as meaning something more mundane. Even many translators interpolate extra words to try to lessen their impact. Those verses, in a passage about Alexander the Great (aka Dhu'l Qarnayn) are:

18:85-86 And he followed a road Till, when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring, and found a people thereabout. We said: O Dhu'l-Qarneyn! Either punish or show them kindness.

18:89-90 Then he followed a road Till, when he reached the rising-place of the sun, he found it rising on a people for whom We had appointed no shelter therefrom.

(Pickthall translation)

This story in the Qur'an is very, very similar to a popular contemporary legend about Alexander the Great. I've written an article about these verses, 18:86 and 18:90, which I hope some of you will find interesting, and if I'm lucky, you might give me some feedback ;) It's a bit of a niche interest topic, but I think I've discovered some important new info which undermines the various interpretations used to explain away these conspicuous blunders in the Qur'an.

For example, the most common strategy is to say the Arabic words in these verses are idioms for the East and West. In my article I point out that the Arabic word used in 18:90 is not used anywhere else in the Qur'an nor hadith in any kind of idiom to mean the East, and the most authoritative lexicon gives no support to that view either. Rather, everywhere else in the Qur'an where the east is mentioned, another word is used. I show some other new problems with the east-west interpretation too.

The other popular interpretation is that these words refer to Dhu'l Qarnayn reaching the times of sunset and sunrise. However, the same words in Arabic translated "then he followed a road till when he reached" appear a few verses later when this guy reaches a mountain valley! I point out lots of other awkward evidence in my article, as well as plenty supporting the literal interpretation.