# Did Noah really live 950 years? *Noah's 950 years: ancient counting systems, not a copied error* - URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zz85auzek5w/s/32/ - Date: 2021-04-06 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #209 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (3:14:46–3:19:16) - Status: general teaching - Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ85AUzeK5w&t=11686s - Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zz85auzek5w/ **Topics:** Stories of the prophets; The ancient Near East and scripture; Responses to critics **Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Noah's 950 years refers to an ancient counting system like those of the Sumerian king lists, signalled by the verse's unusual wording, not to ordinary years; he never said the Quran copied an error from the Bible. ## Longer summary The critics' clip says Mufti Abu Layth claims the Old Testament got Noah's age wrong and the Quran copied it; Mufti says they twist his argument. He says he argued that the Quran's wording, a thousand years less fifty, using two different words for year in the same verse, is out of the ordinary and refers to very ancient calendars rather than contemporary years. He points to the Sumerian king lists, which counted reigns in thousands and hundreds of years with a system based on sixty, from which he says we inherit 360, and says the Old Testament contains remnants of such systems in the ages of certain kings and ancient figures, not Noah, giving them as examples of the inheritance. He says he is not even aware of the Bible giving Noah 950 years in the way they claim, and asks them to steel-man his arguments rather than straw-man them. ## Sources and names cited - Nuh (Noah) - Quran 29:14 (a thousand years less fifty): https://quran.com/29/14 - the Sumerians - the Old Testament ## Transcript (machine tier, 3:14:46–3:19:16) [3:14:33] contemporary of uh Amritsari, the great Aul hadith scholar from Dilli and and and in that So you see that they were actually hadith scholars. They weren't even Maliki. But just because they use some of them use their voice of reason. Oh, they too must be zindik. But okay, now or something like let's Oh yeah. [3:14:58] Yeah. So we're back. Did so basically that that's the number in the Old Testament, right? That means that the writers of the Old Testament got it wrong. Okay, that means and we copy [laughter] he's got to give his two pants in it [laughter] cuz you know in our kingdom but this one. [3:15:32] So look now look how they're twisting this. I had highlighted and I've got a whole video and you can watch it. The age of Noah and I mentioned that this is a reference to very prehistoric uh calendars. It's not a reference to contemporary calendars of these years. And that's why Allah uses two different words for years in the same verse. He uses sun and why that's really and God Allah does not say he was you know 950 years old. [3:16:05] He says he uses a thousand minus this years and he uses it in a way which is really it's it's not it's out of the ordinary. Allah could have just said, "Oh, this was his age." And I mentioned that if you look at the ancient kingdoms of of Suma, the Sumerian kings, and you look at the the anti- deluge counting system, I mean, you could just Google it. [3:16:30] Just Google it. just look into the Samrian kings and their timelines. And they measured in things like 1,200 years, uh 3,000 years, uh you know, 900 years. They measured like in hundreds and they were many of them they had a uh a multiplication system that they would and this is where things like in the ancient Sumere where things like uh the wheel were discovered and 360 we inherit it from them. [3:17:00] you know this whole because they had this system where they times everything by 60. So that's how they did things. Now obviously around them there were other kingdoms too. It wasn't just always sum. They had their own counting systems and I mentioned that you see some remnants of that counting system in the old Jewish Bible in the Old Testament. [3:17:26] So in the Old Testament when they're speaking of not of Noah. So here he says him and and Borat say a so basically they got it wrong and the Quran copied them. They they don't they're not even speaking about the age of Noah. I mention that they give references. So, if you watch my video, I'm speaking about timelines in when they're referring to certain kings or ancient figures, not Noah, but they say things like, oh, 600 years, 700 years, or they say like 400 years. [3:17:58] And I said these are remnants that they inherited from that old system. So, and I I was just giving an example that it's still you still find traces of that old system being inherited. So here they say that they completely change what I'm saying. They're saying that, oh, I'm alluding to the Jewish Bible got this wrong and mentioned that Noah lived for 950 years. [3:18:24] I'm totally unaware that the Bible actually mentions anything like that. But they're saying that the Bible mentions it and I'm saying the Quran copied it from there and got it wrong. Look, just completely misattributing what why don't you just steal man arguments? bring my actual arguments and destroy them. Why are you saying things I'm not even saying and then destroying that? That's like such a cheap shot. [3:18:50] Quran copied. Let's the truth is the nature of the Quran whenever speaking about Jesus is often vague and ambiguous. Is he what many people have understood here is [laughter] [gasps] Allah tells Ibraimis and they bring this part as well about Abraham and they find it obviously very uh difficult to believe. ## Cite Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment zZ85AUzeK5w/s/32. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/zz85auzek5w/s/32/ Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.