Question:
The Qur’an says Nuh lived 950 years. Today no one can live 950 years. How can you accept that?
Answer:
How can you say it is impossible? Do you have historical evidence proving no one lived that long? A person’s lifespan cannot be extracted from bones like the way height can be. Height can be measured from skeletons. Lifespan cannot be. If there is no proof found, does that mean it did not happen? The Qur’an says it happened. Then we accept that those people were created with bodies capable of lasting that long — cells not dying quickly, not weakening early.
Even our grandfathers were physically stronger than us. If earlier generations were even stronger and lived 600, 900, even 1000 years, we believe it — because Allahuﷻ says so in the Qur’an. There is no scientific proof disproving it. Science too has not proven it false.
Someone says based on today’s human cell research, humans cannot live 1000 years. But he is studying present-day human cells. He did not examine a person from, 1000 years ago. So that too is speculation. Science often works on hypotheses.
So we accept that Nuh lived 950 years. There is no contradiction with science. Lack of proof does not equal proof of absence. Many creatures existed and became extinct. Only a few like dinosaurs have fossil proof. Not everything has proof.
If proof is found, we say proof exists. If not, we say proof is not found. But we cannot say it never happened. So, we accept Adam and Nuh’s lifespans as stated in the Qur’an. If the Qur’an itself stated Adam was 60 cubits tall, we would accept that too. Our rejection is only when something contradicts the Qur’an.