As-Salamu 'Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh: Those who disbelieve say: "The Hour will not come to us." Say: "Yes, by my Lord, the All-Knower of the Unseen, it will come to you; not even the weight of an atom (or a small ant) or less than that or greater escapes His Knowledge in the heavens or in the earth but it is in a Clear Book (Al-Lauh Al-Mahfuz). ( سورة سبأ , Saba, Chapter #34, Verse #3) The Arabic word in contention is ذَرَّةٍ and the claim of the brothers is that the Qur'an was talking about subatomic particles, in order to justify claims of science in the Qur'an. What is the truth about this word and about the claim that the Qur'an speaks of science and imparts scientific knowledge? Was-Salamu 'Alaykum wa Rahmatullah.

All praise be to Allah and may His blessings and peace be on His last messenger, Muhammad.

Although I prefer the use of a different translation to avoid that confusion, I must say that I don’t necessarily need to think that the translator attempted to mislead anyone. You want to first ask yourself about the meaning of the word atom itself, and whether it was used to refer to something other than the common meaning of it nowadays.

Etymologically speaking, here is the origin of the word atom, according to wikitionary.org: “From Old French atome from Latin atomus (“smallest particle”) from Ancient Greek ἄτομος (atomos, “indivisible”) from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + τέμνω (temnō, “I cut”).” According to Lisaan al-‘Arab, the most authoritative Arabic lexicon, authored in the seventh century A.H., the word atom means, amongst other things, that which is seen in the air when the sun rays enter through a window, and that which is not weighable; in other words, the smallest particle.

Based on the above, translating ذرة (dharrah) to atom is not technically mistaken. Now, neither word meant in the fifteenth century A.D. what they mean to us now. Please refer to my answer to the question about the egg-shaped earth for further information on scientific references in the Quran. Allah knows best.