Chapter 3.1.Quran Introduction
1. What exactly is the Quran?
The traditional Quran consists of 114 chapters (Surahs), made
up of 30 parts, 6,616 verses (ayahs), 77,943 words, and 338,606 letters
(Mishkat III, p.663)
(Note:
Lately it was found that the various versions of the Quran texts differ with
the number of verses. Read more where we discuss the difference between the
Hafs and Warsh Versions.)
86 of the Surahs were revealed in Mecca, while 28 Surahs
were revealed at Medina. Yet, portions of some Surahs were recited in both
places.
The Surahs vary in length and are known by a name or title,
taken from the theme of that Surah, or a particular subject, person, or event
mentioned in it
Each verse or portion of the Surah is known as an ayah,
which means ‘miracle’
Muhammad claimed that the Quran was his sole miracle, though
the Quran did not exist in its written form during his lifetime (In fact much
of the controversy concerning the chronology of the Quran can be blamed on the
fact that he was not around to verify its final collation (Cook 1983:67)
Muslims believe that the exact Arabic words which we find in
the Quran today are those which exist eternally on the original stone tablets,
in heaven (S.85:22)
This gives the Quran its ultimate importance for Islam,
supporting the notion that it indeed is the ‘Mother of books’ (refer to Surah
43:3-4)
Thus, Muslim’s claim, no other book or revelation can
compare. In fact, in both Surahs 2:23 and 10:37-38 we find the challenge to,
‘Present some other book of equal beauty’
The problem is that Arabic didn’t exist prior to the 2nd c. ad
Just to compare any Surah in the Qur’an with the ‘beauty’ of
Psalm 23 that is so more superior. This could be said of numerous other
chapters of the Bible.
About the Quran and the number of verses of the traditional
Quran:
I found this information and want to bring it under readers
attention:
-
A’isha, the favourite wife of the Prophet,
says, according to a tradition recounted by as-Suyuti, "During the time of
the Prophet, the chapter of the Parties used to be two hundred verses when read.
When ‘Uthman edited the copies of the Quran, only the current (verses) were
recorded" (As-Suyuti, page 73).
-
As-Suyuti also tells this story about Uba ibn
Ka’b, one of the great companions of Muhammad:
-
This famous companion asked one of the
Muslims, "How many verses in the chapter of the Parties?" He said,
"Seventy-three verses." He (Uba) told him, "It used to be almost
equal to the chapter of the Cow (about 286 verses) and included the verse of
the stoning".
-
The man asked, "What is the verse of the
stoning?" He (Uba) said, "If an old man or woman committed adultery,
stone them to death."
More About the Number of Verses in the Quran:
- It seems that the number of
verses in Hafs is 6236, while Warsh has only 6214 Verses. Which one is correct?
Which one is the right version? Which is the one Muhammad recited? Which one
matches the eternal preserved tablets that is with Allah as Muslims believe.
2. Where to read the Quran text.
A helpful website to Read the Quran: Webkitab Website.
Introduction to Al-Kitab
For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says Allah. (Taurat,
Shaya 55:8)
Mankind needs
divine guidance. The Creator revealed his Word through the
prophets so that we could learn his ways. Some things are hard
to understand at first, such as this prophecy from the holy Zabur of Prophet Dawud (pbuh):
In the scroll of Al-Kitab it
is written about me. I delight to do your will, my God. Yes,
your Taurat is within my heart. I have proclaimed
the Injil of righteousness in the great assembly. (Zabur 40:7-9)
Of whom is the
prophet speaking in these verses–himself or someone else? This passage teaches
several things about this unnamed individual. First, he delights to do God’s
will. Second, he has the Taurat within
his heart, and third, he proclaimed the Injil. Who is this
person? Perhaps Al-Kitab itself can answer the
question. In all Al-Kitab, there is only one person
of whom all these things are explicitly taught. As it is written in the holy
Quran:
Then Allah will say:
“O ‘Isa Ibn Maryam! Recount my favour to you and to your
mother. Behold! I strengthened you with the Holy Spirit, so that you
spoke to the people in childhood and in maturity. Behold! I taught
you Al-Kitab and wisdom, the Taurat and the Injil. (Quran 5:110; also
3:45)
The unnamed individual
mentioned in the Zabur passage above is
undoubtedly Prophet ‘Isa Ibn Maryam. Of him, the
verse says, “In the scroll of Al-Kitab it is
written about me” (confirmed by the Injil, Hebrews 10:7).
The Taurat, Zabur, Injil, and Quran all teach
that ‘Isa is a great prophet, but there is more. They also
declare that he alone is al-Masih, or the
Messiah, the One chosen by Allah to lead and rescue his people. There have been
many prophets and apostles, but only one who is called al-Masih.
To open the Website: http://www.al-kitab.org/webkitab/
All four of the holy books are collected here for you to discover more about ‘Isa Ibn Maryam, and how important he is in the plan of Allah as al-Masih, the Chosen One.
Just Click on any one here... Taurat, Zabur, Injil or Quran
As ‘Isa himself
says in the holy Injil, you search Al-Kitab, because you think that in its
writings you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me.
(Injil, John 5:39)
May our Lord grant
spiritual insight and wisdom as you read, compare, and search for the truth.
Enjoy!
3. What Muslims claim about the Quran
The Quran is unique and the mother of books:
Will they say, ‘Muhammad hath forged it?’ Answer: ‘Bring
therefore a chapter like unto it, and call whom ye to your assistance, besides Allah,
if ye speak truth.’ (Surahs 10:37-38; 2:23; 17:88)
It is the “Mother of Books” (Surah 43:3)
Also, the Hadiths claim that the Quran
is unique.
“The Quran is the greatest wonder among the wonders of the world. This book is second to none in the world according to the unanimous decision of the learned men in points of diction, style, rhetoric, thoughts and soundness of laws and regulations to shape the destinies of mankind” Hadith (Mishkat III, pg. 664)
That’s why some Muslims will repeatedly
claim that "the Quran (in Arabic) is the verbatim word of God, in the
unaltered and final revelation of God; infallible and error-free”.
Or...“The Quran is a living Miracle!” By that they mean that
the Quran is unchanged.
Or...“No other book in the world can match the Quran; The
astonishing fact about this book of Allah is that it has remained unchanged,
even to a dot, over the last fourteen hundred years.
No variation of text can be found in it. You can check
this for yourself by listening to
the recitation of Muslims from different parts of the world”
(Basic Principles of Islam, Abu Dhabi, UAE: The Zayed Bin
Sultan Al Nahayan Charitable & Humanitarian Foundation, 1996, p 4)
In conversations with Muslims, you can bring all the
researched facts about the original flaws and errors about the Quran to them, but
they just respond with...
“As the Holy Quran is preserved and well-guarded by Allah,
it just can't have errors or contradictions”.
They will mostly have one or more of these responses:
To say that the Quran is false is a lie! Impossible! False news! It won't be excepted!
Islamophobia! Why you target and hate Islam?
Most of the time they will not even try to respond to the issues one mentioned about the Quran; they will rather immediately aim at the Bible: Your Bible is corrupt; there are many mistakes; it’s full of many contradictions” etc.
4. Islam’s understanding of Revelation
Islam maintains that Allah is remote, and is incapable of
revealing himself to humanity personally, so revelation is one-way, from Allah
to man. Consequently, Allah is forced to employ appointed prophets, known as Rasul,
meaning ‘the sent one.’ These prophets are mere humans and so finite. Each
prophet is given a book, the last and greatest the Quran, to Muhammad
The Quran is an exact ‘word-for-word’ copy of God's final
revelation, found on the original, eternal tablets that are in heaven (see
Surah 85:21-22), even so far as the punctuation, titles, and divisions of
chapters are concerned.
The
Inspiration of the Quran: How it was revealed
According to Muslim tradition, these `revelations were sent
down (Tanzil or Nazil) (Surah 17:85), to the lowest of the seven heavens during
the month of Ramadan, in the night of power or destiny (lailat al Qadr)
It was then revealed to Muhammad in instalments, via the
angel Gabriel (Surah 25:32). Consequently, every letter and word are free from
any human influence, which gives the Quran an aura of authority, even holiness,
and is revered as such.
(Note: Compared this with Christian’s understanding of
Inspiration, Chapter 3:4)
The Arabic term which best explains the process of
revelation is the word Wahy, which can mean `divine inspiration’.
According to the Quran the primary aim of Wahy is two-fold:
1) to prove Muhammad's call to prophet-hood (Surahs 13:30 and 34:50) and 2) to
give him authority to warn people (Surah 6:19)
In Surah 42:51 we find wahy explained as such: “It is not
fitting for a man that Allah should speak to him except by inspiration, or from
behind a veil, or by the sending of a Messenger to reveal, with Allah's
permission, what Allah wills, for He is most high, most wise”
Muhammad’s Inspiration:
Allah communicates to his creation 1) by indirect
inspiration, 2) from behind a veil, 3) through a messenger (the implication is
that of an angelic being)
Seven forms of inspiration with Muhammad:
1)
Physical Manifestations:
According to Muhammad’s wife Aisha, there were the sounds of bells ringing as
he sweated profusely. He would become greatly perturbed and his face would
change (Mishkat IV, p.359). Muslim Tradition tells us that sometimes he would
shiver and swoon, his mouth would foam, and he would roar like a camel (Pfander
1910:345).
At other times when the
inspiration descended there was the sound near his face like the buzzing of bees
(from Umar ibnu’l Khattab and the Mir’at I Kainat, vol.1,p.411), while at other
times he felt a tremendous headache (from Abu Hurairah). Many times, it seemed
to his friends that he swooned and looked like someone intoxicated (from Ali
Halabi’s Insanu’l ‘Uyun)
2)
Wahy came to him in dreams
3)
Inspiration also came to him in
visions while he was awake
4)
At times he saw an angel in the
form of a young man (Mishkat, p.514)
5)
At other times he saw angels in
angelic form (Surah 42:51)
6)
During an evening (known as the
Mi'raj) he was raptured through the 7 heavens (according to the Hadith)
7)
Allah spoke to him from behind
a veil (Surah 42:51)
Questions concerning Muhammad’s
Inspiration:
(From lectures by Dr. Jay Smith; The Qur’an’s internal
problems - Assessing the Internal Difficulties with the Qur’an, 2020)
When we look at all these examples of inspiration a picture
begins to form of a man who either had a vivid imagination, or was possessed,
or suffered from a disease such as epilepsy.
Muhammad supports this diagnosis himself, who,
according to `Amr ibn Sharhabil, mentioned to his wife Khadijah that he feared
he was possessed by demons and wondered whether others might consider him
possessed by jinn (Pfander 1910:345)
Anyone acquainted with occult phenomena would be aware of
the conditions of those who participate in seances. Occult phenomena in
childhood, daydreams, the hearing of voices and calls, nightly meditations,
excessive perspiration during trances and the subsequent exhaustion and
swoon-like condition; as well as the ringing of bells are common. Even the
intoxicated condition resembles someone who is in a normal deep trance.
5. Islam’s traditional narrative about the Origin of the Quran.
The traditional
narrative that is what every Muslim, from childhood, were taught and
believed as the only truth, is that the revelation of the Quran is considered
by Muslims to be Muhammad's greatest miracle and a miracle for
all times, unlike the miracles of other prophets,
which were confined to being witnessed in their own lifetimes.
What is the Islamic traditional narrative
about the origin of the Quran?
-
During the 23 years of Muhammad's
time as a prophet, the verses of the Quran were memorized as they were
revealed, and about 42 scribes wrote the verses on different materials such as
paper, cloth, bone fragments and leather. (In ancient times, literacy was a
skill that few people had and Muhammad himself did not know how to read or
write.)
-
Then (that's how the story continue)
... During the time of Caliph Abu Bakr, after 70 people who knew the Quran by
heart (qari), were killed in the Battle of Yamama, Umar ibn al-Khattab became
concerned and appealed to Abu Bakr to compile the Quran into a book.
-
Abu Bakr formed a delegation
under the leadership of Zaid ibn Thabit, one of the leading scribes. This
delegation of 12 people came together in Umar's house and collected all the
materials on which verses from the Quran were written.
-
In addition, the verses
memorized by the companions were heard as well.
-
Thus, all the verses of the
Quran that describe the creation of the universe and people, judgment day,
exemplary stories of the people who lived before and the beliefs, worship, morals,
and legal bases that believers should obey, were collected into a single-volume
book.
-
Each of the verses was exactly
as taught by the archangel Gabriel and declared by Prophet Muhammad. (The verse
is the name given to each sentence of the Quran and the surah is the name given
to each part of the holy book. There are 6,236 verses (or is it 6666), 114
surahs and about 323,000 letters in the Quran.
-
The total
numbers of verses in Quran are 6666. But some scholars of
Islam said that there are 6236 verses in
the Quran because they divided the long verse as two or
three verses, while some others count them as one complete verse.
-
Saeed ibn al-Aas wrote them
down on gazelle skin. The writing used was the Arabic script of the time, which
was already old and used commonly at that time in Hejaz.
-
The copy of the Quran was
recited to the companions at a general meeting. There was no objection. So,
a book called "Mushaf" emerged, which means written verses.
-
A total of 33,000 companions
agreed that every letter of the Quran was in the right place.
It’s just amazing how every Muslim just belief this!? Without
questioning any of the variabilities possible in such a ‘story’.
-
Afterwards a difference was
observed in the recitation of the Quran in the Armenia battles between Muslims
from Damascus and Iraq during the period of the third caliph, Uthman.
-
Hudhaifah, one of the
companions, went before the caliph on his way back from an expedition and asked
him to prevent this.
-
On the 25th year of the hijra
(647), Uthman gathered a delegation attended by Abdullah ibn al-Zubair, Saeed
ibn al-Aas and Abd al-Rahman ibn Harith under the leadership of Zaid ibn
Thabit. All of them, except for Zaid, were from Quraysh. Uthman said that the
dialect of Quraysh should be preferred if they were to fall into conflict with
Zaid regarding the dialect, since Muhammad was from the Quraysh tribe. The
Quran had been revealed in seven dialects of the Arabic language of the time.
-
The first Muslims, who were
literate, could easily read the writing of their own language, but somewhat
differently, since at the time the Arabic script did not have diacritical marks
to differentiate letters or vowel symbols.
-
For example, those from the
Tameem tribe pronounced the letter "sin" as "te" and read
the word "nas" as "nat." It was diverse and convenient and
did not change the meaning.
-
The delegation brought the
original Mushaf from Hafsah. In this Mushaf, the surahs were not separated from
each other. The surahs were sorted according to the order of their descent in
Ali's manuscript and according to their lengths in the manuscript of Abdullah
ibn Masood.
-
Now the verses were written in
the Quraysh dialect. The surahs were arranged in rows, separated from each
other regarding their length and alignment with each other. The order of the
surahs was not based on the order the archangel Gabriel gave them to Prophet
Muhammad, but on the consensus of the companions.
-
Afterwards the old copies were
destroyed to prevent future conflicts.
-
That means the old copies of
the Quran was burnt. Can one believe it? One should rather expect them to put
it in the archive for future research.
-
That’s why some Shia sects
accused Uthman of changing the Quran.
Must one still believe that "it was preserved till end"
because that's what Muslim’s ‘talk’ or repeat only because their leaders told it
to them?
6. Another Opinion and a critical Question from Dr. Taha Hussein
After Uthman completed his Quran, he forced all the Islamic
countries to have one Quran - and banned all other codices. He finished
the matter by burning all other codices of the Quran. (Read
more here)
Dr. Taha Hussein, a well-known author, college professor, and minister of
education in Egypt, wrote in his book Al- Fitnato Al-Korba (The Great
Sedition):
The prophet Muhammad said: "The Quran was
revealed in seven dialects all of them are right and perfect." When
Uthman banned whichever, he banned from the Quran, and burned whichever he burned
of it, he banned passages Allah has revealed and burned parts of the Quran
which were given to the Muslims by the messenger of Allah. He appointed a
small group of the Sahaba (close friends of Muhammad) to rewrite the Quran and
left out those who heard the prophet and memorized what he said. Therefore,
Ibn Massoud was angry, because he was one of the best men who memorized the
Quran. He said that he took from the mouth of the prophet seventy suras
of the Quran while Zaid Ibn Sabit was yet a young lad.
Ibn Massoud objection to the burning of the other codices of
the Quran.
What was the response to Ibn Massoud objection? Uthman took
him out of the mosque with violence, and struck him to the ground, and broke
one of his ribs (Read
more about it here).
7. Shi’a Muslims do not believe in the present Quran
The Shi’a Muslims do not believe that
the present Quran is authentic for the following 4 big reasons:
1)
The Shi’as accused Sayyidian
'Uthman that he had DESTROYED the ORIGINAL Quran by BURNING it, and all the
chapters which contained the virtues of 'Ali and the ahl al-Bait were also
DESTROYED.
2)
The Shi'ite belief that all the
Companions of the Holy Prophet Muhammad the transmitters of the Quran, were
LIARS. In addition, they belief that the Imams of the ahl al-Bait were also LIARS
and used to observe taqiyya (religious dissimulation). If all the Sahabah and
the member of the Prophetic household were lairs, from whence did they receive
the original Quran from the Holy Prophet Muhammad?
3)
The Sahabah, the lairs, and
FIBBERS in Shi'ite estimation, narrated the Quran and were responsible for its
propagation and widespread recitation. On the other hand, the Imams of the Ahl
al-Bait did not have the privilege and the opportunity of narrating it or
verifying it, how can they then accept the present Quran to be perfect and in
its entirety?
4)
There are more than two hundred
narrations (regarded as authentic by Shi'ahs) in Shi'ite primary sources which
testify that the present Quran has been TAMPERED with, some things ADDED, and
some OMITTED.
Question: Is this not making the Quran a FAKE scripture?
8. The Origins of the Quran according to Dan Gibson?
Dan Gibson, historian,
and author has been studying the earliest evidence of the origins of Islam. The
disclosure of these discoveries of Dan Gibson are rewriting the history of
Islam. Al Fadi and Dr. Jay Smith conclude their discussion of these
discoveries, and how this are rewriting the history of Islam (Look video here).
Specifically in this
episode Al Fadi and Dr. Jay Smith discuss the origin and history of the Quran
in its earliest versions, along with the biography of Muhammad and the Hadith.
They also explore the origin
of the name of Allah. Did the name originate with the god Dushara and his wife
Al-Lat?
Muslims are taught
that Mecca is the historical home of Muhammad and Islam began from there.
Evidence, however, points to another origin, the ancient city of Petra.
9. How to reconcile these historical facts with the Standard Islamic Narrative? (SIN)
As it is very clear that much of the original Quran was
burned, while other parts were rewritten. How can we reconcile these historical
facts with the following words of the Quran?
Nay, this is a Glorious Quran [ inscribed] in a Tablet
preserved (Sarat Al-Buru 85:21,22).
That this is indeed a Quran most honourable in a book well
guarded (Sarat Al-Waqiah 56:77,78).
These are very
serious questions regarding a book said to be God’s word that is not answered by Muslims up till now.
Welcome to Continue to the next Chapter 3.2.
Back to Home Page
No comments:
Post a Comment