Plato and the Quran

“ There is a numerical code that emerged in ancient Mesopotamia , became embedded in the Torah and the Gospels in Alexandria , and appeared later in the Qur’an : the key to its profound meaning can be found in the inspired writings of Plato “

Did Noah really live for 950 years?

Was Jonah, who is referred to in the Quran as prophet Younis, really swallowed by a whale? Did the youths of the Cave really sleep for three centuries? Plato and the Qur’an, the new book published in Spring 2023, provides a ground-breaking explanation of the allegories and numbers within the Qur’an. It shows how the esoteric knowledge of the ancient world can be found within ancient mythology, Plato’s dialogues, and the scriptures of the Abrahamic faiths. It asks: what continuities and correspondences can we find among these spiritual traditions, and how can they be explained?

We begin in Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and Persia: The Cradles of the Abrahamic religions. It is here that many of the world’s great myths and legends were first conceived and endowed with symbolic meaning.

Preserving the ancient wisdom of these civilisations was the Greek Philosopher Plato, who lived in Athens during the fourth century BC. His dialogues drawing on the mysterious teaching of Pythagoras conceal cosmic secrets using numbers and allegories, which many have struggled to decipher to this day.

Having explored the Platonic tradition, we then move into the world of ancient Judaism and Christianity, and Jewish Christian sects. We find that in the early Christian world, theologians like Clement and Origen of Alexandria were well-versed in Plato and the developments of his philosophy in later centuries , harmonising it with the teaching of religion.

We then witness the birth of Islam, showing how Platonic wisdom was already present in the Arab world long before the Islamic golden age, and may have influenced the development of the Muslim thinking . It was not just Greek science and philosophy that found their way into the creed of the Prophet Muhammad, but the ancient secrets contained within them.

Which brings us to the question: how are we to approach textual criticism of the Qur’an in light of its subliminal details? The answer to this question will not be explicitly stated but, emulating the Socratic method of Plato’s dialogues, drawn out by the findings to come.

After studying the sciences that Plato asked us to study – Arithmetic, Astronomy, Geometry and Musical Harmony – we present the code at the heart of Plato’s philosophy. We explore how this code can be deciphered within the allegories in the Qur’an towards a new theory of Noah’s Flood; the Sleepers of the Cave ; Younis (Jonah) and the Whale; Dhu al-Qarnyan ( He of the Two Horns) , the elusive figure in the Qur’an long thought to be Alexander the Great; as well as the cosmic significance of Islamic belief and practice itself, including the five daily prayers.

As above, so below. The universe is a macrocosm and human life a microcosm. This was the belief of Ikhwan al-Safa ( the Brethren of Purity), a mysterious school of Muslim Neoplatonists who knew of the resonances between Plato’s teachings and Islam. Their theories help to illuminate our new reading of the Qur’an as a vessel of ancient wisdom, whose treasures can only be retrieved upon deciphering the code.

Plato and the Qur’an helps to decipher that code, showing how numerical patterns can be found and interpreted in the Qur’an. In doing so, it paves the way towards a new method of Qur’anic interpretation or tafsīr that is not just inter-textual but supra-textual, unveiling the mysteries that have for centuries been hidden within Islam’s Holy Book.

Plato and the Quran Trailer

CHAPTER 3

The Philosophy of Plato

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” – The Apology of Socrates, 38a

Symbolised by his dream of fowlers trying hopelessly to capture a swan, Plato’s philosophy is renowned for its elusiveness. To those uninitiated, the teachings contained within his dialogues can feel at times impenetrable; far from laying out his ideas in a transparent fashion, they entail the gradual and subtle unfurling of truths through the presentation of interlocutors with differing points of view. At no point does Plato himself appear in his own dramas to tell the reader what he thinks; only the most perceptive of minds can begin to ascertain this. . .

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CHAPTER 13

An Interview with Youssef Seddik

“The first key to wisdom is constant and frequent questioning …for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth.” – Peter Abelard

After facing controversy over his books, Youssef Seddik has spent over half a century researching and contemplating what it means to “read” the Qur’anic text. He has sought to revive the intellectual spirit of the “Arab Age of Enlightenment” – the time of revelation and prophecy – in the modern world by re-interpreting the Holy Book independently of traditional authorities. . .

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CHAPTER 20

Plato’s World Soul

“This world is indeed a living being endowed with a soul and intelligence … a single visible living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related.” – The Timaeus 30b-d

The Timaeus is perhaps the pre-eminent Platonic dialogue. It is here that Plato presents his efforts to chart the structure and origins of the cosmos; a monotheistic credo; and a form of mysticism that bridges the two. This mystical monotheism was accentuated by Plotinus (d. 270 CE), who in turn provided Augustine (d. 430 CE) and other church fathers much of the material they needed to reconcile the Platonic view of the cosmos with Christian doctrine.

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CHAPTER 24

Jonah (Yūnus) and The Whale

“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” – (Matthew 12:40)

The Old Testament hero Jonah (in the Qur’an, Yūnus) is recognised as one of the twenty-five prophets in Islam. According to a hadith, the Prophet Muhammad once said to the Christian slave boy Addas that “Jonah was a Prophet of God and I, too, am a Prophet of God”. Allegedly, when the boy heard that the Biblical figure of Jonah was revered as a Prophet in Islam, he was inspired to convert to the faith.