NOTES OF A FRINGE-WATCHER MARTIN GARDNER

The Numerology of Dr. Rashad Khalifa

This is the second of two related columns. In 1972 Dr. Khalifa privately printed to 19 x 8,534 = 162,146. The first, "Farrakhan, Cabala, Baha'i, a monograph titled Number 19: A Each of twenty-nine suras is prefixed and 19," appeared in the March/April Numerical Miracle in the Koran. He by a mysterious set of either one, two, 1997 issue. believed this booklet offered for the first three, four, or five disconnected, seem- time in history physical proof of God's ingly meaningless letters. The signifi- n recent years the Muslim who existence. How? By showing beyond all cance of these letters has long been a worked the hardest in searching for doubt that the Koran must have been mystery. Khalifa claimed to have Iinstances of 19 in the Koran was the written by Allah, and tiiat the text, decoded diem, and that they, too, bristle late Dr. Rashad Khalifa. After graduat- unlike the Christian Bible, had been with 19s. Dozens of other findings ing from in Cairo, perfectly preserved. In a 1980 letter to involving 19 derive from applications of where he ranked first in his class, he me he said his results were "so over- the ancient gematria. obtained a master's degree from the whelming that they will inevitably shake Dr. Khalifa's research used a com- University of Arizona, and a doctorate the world," although Satan would do all puter program that counted the number in plant biochemistry in 1964 from the he could to block the great revelation. of times each letter occurred in each sura University of California, Riverside. I have space for only a tiny selection of the Koran. On the traditional belief After two years with the Egyptian gov- of claims made by Dr. Khalifa. The diat could neither read nor ernment, he became a research assistant Koran has 6 X 19 = 114 suras (chap- write, the embedding of 19 throughout at the University of Arizona, followed by ters). The number of verses is 19 X 334 die Koran is proof. Khalifa maintained, work for die Monsanto Company in St. = 6,346, and the digits of that number that the Koran was dictated by Allah. Louis. add to 19. The Koran contains 19 X Khalifa's writings on 19 sold widely During 1975 and 1976 Khalifa was 17,324 = 329,156 letters. The invoca- throughout Islamic countries where science advisor to the Libyan govern- tion verse, called the Basmala ("In the they became strongly controversial, not ment. He was employed by the United name of Allah, most gracious, most only because his numerology tended to Nations' Industrial Development merciful"), heads every sura except the support the Baha'i heresy with its Organization, in Vienna, before he ninth, but appears an extra time in the emphasis on 19 (see my March/April became a senior chemist in Arizona's middle of Sura 27 (3 X 9). This invoca- column), but also because Khalifa State Office of Chemistry in 1980. He tion contains 19 Arabic letters. Its first rejected the last two verses of Sura 9 as published more than twenty scientific word, Bism, occurs in die Koran 19 spurious. Why? Because in nine places papers, a book tided The Computer times. Its second word, Allah, appears diey violated the secret 19-code. So Speaks: God's Message to the World, a 19 X 142 = 2,698 times. The third much for his earlier claim that the text 538-page new translation of the Koran, word, Al-Rahman, is repeated 19x3 = and numerous religious articles and 57 rimes, and the fourth word, Al- Martin Gardner's latest book is The Last pamphlets. His books and related publi- Rahmeen, occurs 19 x 6 = 114 times. Recreations (Springer- Verlag, Copernicus, cations are available from the The sum of die verse numbers that 1997), a collection of twenty-three of his International Community of Submitters mention Allah is 19X6,217= 118,123. Scientific American columns from the (ICS), P.O. Box 43476, Tucson, AZ Thirty different numbers are mentioned last seven years before his retirement from 85733. in the Koran. These thirty numbers add the magazine in 1981.

1 6 September/October 1997 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER of the Koran had been miraculously pre- and in how they divide suras into verses. served from corruption! Above all, he accuses Khalifa of failing Attacks on Khalifa increased in to make clear what he considers a Muslim nations. His writings were "word." banned. Muslim scholars likened his Many Arabic words have multiple numerology to Jewish and Christian forms, and Khalifa is inconsistent in his gematria. But it was much more than counting rules. Sometimes he includes that. Khalifa rejected (words plural forms, sometimes not. Should a attributed to Muhammad), word with an affixed pronoun be called (practices said to have been initiated by one word or two? In English the mean- Muhammad), and Ijma (die consensus ing of word is fairly clear because of of scholars about Muslim doctrines). In spaces between words, but in Arabic brief, he rejected Islamic tradition. Like there are no spaces. Even in English his counterparts among Protestant fun- diere is vagueness. Lomax's example is truck. In counting truck in a book damentalists with respect to the Bible, he Figure 1. The only possible magic hexagon. should you include trucks, trucked, and held that the Koran was the only reliable Every straight row of cells adds to 38. or twice 19. trucking*. One looks in vain for Khalifa's source of Islamic beliefs. Islamic leaders definition of word. were incensed by his demand that the to 19—he was assassinated, dying in the last two verses of Sura 9 be removed. mosque's kitchen from multiple stab Lomax likens die doctor to those Their fury increased when Khalifa's ego- wounds. He was fifty-four. The alleged astronomers who once fancied they tism grew to the point of declaring him- assassins were Black Muslims from a could see canals on Mars. He concludes: self the divine messenger of Allah fore- fanatical sect called Fuqra. Four mem- "Dr. Khalifa's claims, at best, fall into told in tbe Koran (3:81). Death threats bers of die sect were arrested in 1993 at the category of pious fraud. . . . Had against him steadily mounted. their compound near Buena Vista, God intended die Qur'an to carry a The Muslim Digest, published in Colorado, and later charged with mur- code verifying its perfect preservation, South Africa, strongly attacked Khalifa der. One man, John Williams, was con- he could have done it much more effec- as a sinister heretic. Its July/October victed. The odicrs jumped bail and van- tively and simply than the complex, arbitrary, and inconclusive 'code' 1986 issue disputed his word counts. ished. The sect had earlier been impli- claimed by Dr. Khalifa." The word Allah, it is claimed, is in the cated in the firebombing of Hare Koran 2,811 times, not 2,698 as Khalifa Krishna temples in Denver and Yuksel, of course, believes he has said. Al-Rahman is there 169 times, not Pennsylvania, and a 1983 bombing of a completely demolished all of Lomax's 57 as Khalifa insisted. And so on. hotel in Portland, Oregon, owned by objections. His curious book is available "Obviously," an editor wrote, "Dr. followers of the East Indian guru from his Monotheist Productions, P.O. Rashad Khalifa's computer needs to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Box 43476, Tucson, AZ 85733. brush up on its arithmetic." Earlier What is one to make of Khalifa's Now for some 19 number juggling, attacks on Khalifa are in issues July/ numerology? It is, of course, no surprise supplied in part by correspondent August 1981 and March/April 1982. that many 19s would show up in a book Monte Zerger. Nineteen is, of course, a : 1 2 In 1984 Khalifa initiated an unsuc- as long as die Koran, but Khalifa's 19s prime. It is equal to 10" - 9; to l + 3 + cessful lawsuit of $38 million against die exceed die bounds of chance. The most 3'; and to 3' - 2'. The number 1,729, or National Academy of Sciences for pub- plausible explanation is that he deceived 19 X 91, was involved in a famous inci- lishing Science and Creationism, a book- himself by unconscious fudging. The dent between the British madiematician let assuming that evolution was a best account known to me of how easily G. H. Hardy and his friend Ramanujan, die Indian number-theory genius. Godless process. On the contrary, he could do this is in Running Like Having taken a taxi to visit Ramanujan Khalifa argued, we know from the Zebras, a 1995 book edited by Edip in a hospital. Hardy remarked that die Koran and from laws of probability that Yuksel, the nation's top Khalifire. taxicab number, 1,729, was a dull num- life could not have arisen without die The book contains 19 X 6 = 114 ber. Ramanujan immediately replied, creative actions of Allah. Each species pages (coincidence?) that reprint a "No, it is an interesting number. It is the debate on the Internet between Yuksel was independendy created, with evolu- smallest number expressible as the sum tion operating only within a species. We and Daniel (Abdulrahman) Lomax, a of two cubes in two different ways [12' +• can be certain tbat God created the first Muslim skeptical of Khalifas findings. 1' and 10' + 9']." Note that the digits of humans from mud because die Koran He accuses the chemist of careless com- 1,729 add to 19. says so in 32:7 and 15:28. puter searching, of rejecting two verses In Tucson, Dr. Khalifa founded a of die Koran as spurious because they In 1989 (a multiple of 9) it was proved masjid (mosque) where he served as die don't fit his calculations, and of not imam (minister). On January 31, revealing diat versions of die Koran dif- FRINGE-WATCHER 1990—note that the digits of 1990 add fer in dieir number of words and letters. continued on page 58

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER SeDlember/Odo&ef 1997 17 FRINGE-WATCHER the same cyclic order. Multiplying by 19 work." from page 17 produces a row of 2 X 9 = 18 nines. The numbers most often encoun- The Constitutional Amendment giv- tered in the Bible are 12 and 7. They are that every integer is the sum of no more ing women the vote was the 19th. The reflected in our calendar, with its seven than 19 fourth powers. The smallest 19th hole in golf is the bar where golfers days to a week and twelve months to a number requiring 19 such powers is 79, sink drinks like they sink puts in 18 year. The sum of the two numbers is 19- die sum of four fourth powers of 2 and holes. Every 19 years all phases of the Figure 1 on page 17 reproduces a fifteen fourth powers of 1. The repeating moon fall on the same days of the week thing of strange beauty. The nineteen decimal of 1/19 is the 2 X 9 = 18-digit throughout the year. The Psalms is the cells hold integers 1 through 19. Every number 052631578947368421. Multi- Bible's 19th book. Psalm 19 opens with straight row of cells adds to 38, or twice ply it by any number from 2 through 18 "The heavens declare the glory of God, 19. It would make a wondrous amulet and the product has the same 18 digits in and the firmament showeth his handi- for the Baha'is. D

CSICO•fe^ t kth Anniversary Conference V A • • "Science in the Age of {Misinformation" fN TAPES First World Skeptics Congress H H ••. .sM ™ No. of Price Per Session Qty Session# Session Title Tapes Session Total 1 Opening/Welcoming Remarks $7.95 2 Role of the Media in (Mis) Informing the Public 2 $15.90 3 CONGRESS ADDRESS—Leon Lederman $10.00 4 The Growth of Anti-Science 2 $15.90 5 CONGRESS LUNCHEON—Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files $10.00 6 UFOIogy $7.95 7 Astrology $7.95 8 Homeopathy $7.95 9 Therapeutic Touch $7.95 10 Chiropractic $7.95 11 Creation/Evolution $7.95 12 KEYNOTE ADDRESS—Stephen Jay Gould 2 $20.00 13 Parapsychology: Recent Developments $15.90 14 CFI LUNCHEON—Sir John Maddox $10.00 15 Mechanisms of Self-Deception $7.95 16 Alternative Health Cures $7.95 17 Philosophy and Pseudoscience $7.95 18 Psychoanalytic Theory and Therapy $7.95 19 Critical Thinking in Education $7.95 20 Spiritualism, the UB Expose $7.95 21 The Paranormal in China $7.95 22 AWARDS CEREMONY AND ENTERTAINMENT (Steve Allen) $10.00 23 World Skeptics Update 3 $23.85 COMPLETE SET $242.85 TOTAL ORDER U Bil me LI Check or money order enclosed Charge my • MasterCard g Visa Plea se make checks payable Card # Exp. t0 CSICOP and return to: CSICOP Signa ture P.O. Box 703 Name Amti —^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^—^^— Mill erst, NY 14226-0703 Addre ss Creij City State Zip tol -free 1-800-6 34-1610 Phon e or FAX (716) 63 6-1733

5 8 September/October 1997 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER