If a non-Muslim were to ask about the
authenticity of the Qur’an, how do we answer that and what proof can we
give/tell them that the Qur’an is in its original form since the
beginning and has never been distorted. Also, if a non-Muslim were to
ask what proofs do we (Muslims) have that the Bible was distorted.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Thank you, wa salaam
Assalamu ‘alaikum
wa rahmatullah.
Thank you very much for your question.
Revelation is a key part of the way God has organized
this universe. There are two aspects to revelation.
First the message itself and second the proof that the
message comes from God. The proof comes in various ways.
But, before looking at the proofs, let us briefly
consider the message and why revelation is itself
necessary in the scheme of things.
The basic need for revelation is to provide moral
authority, to guide human beings towards fulfilling the
purpose of existence, which is the will of Allah.
Without revelation, we may only judge what is
instrumentally useful to our condition. Yet, our purpose
in creation requires a greater authority than mere
worldly judgments. What is right? What is wrong? These
are questions about the ultimate nature of existence and
can only be answered through the Ultimate Being – Allah.
The Qur'an addresses this point head on. It starts with
the foundational prayer of Islam al-fatihah
– the opening. This is essentially a prayer to God
for guidance. The next surah (chapter) of the
Qur'an begins to answer this prayer with the following
statements:
This is the Book; in it is guidance
sure, without doubt, to those who fear God;
Surah 2 Verse 2
When it comes to proofs that a book is indeed from
Allah, there are a number of considerations. Firstly, we
can look at the textual integrity and historical facts
about its compilation. This establishes the historical
reality of the text. Then we can see how what is says
can serve as a proof of its origin, being the word of
God. Let us first look at the historical evidence and
consistency of the claims made in each text.
The Holy Qur’an
As for the authenticity of the Holy Qur’an, we can note
the following points:
God in the Holy Qur’an tells the Prophet:
Move not thy tongue concerning the
(Qur'an) to make haste therewith.
It is for Us to collect it and to promulgate it:
But when We have promulgated it, follow thou its
recital (as promulgated):
Nay more, it is for Us to explain it (and make it
clear):
Surah 75 Verses 16 - 19
God gives here a guarantee that the collection and the
promulgation of the Holy Qur’an are assured. It has been
recorded that the Prophet, who received the divine
revelation, not only dictated them to his companions,
but learned them by heart. Besides, the Prophet took all
measures to see that the companions also learned them by
heart. The Prophet said:
‘The most superior among you (Muslims) are those who
learn the Qur'an and teach it.' (Bukhari, VI - No. 546)
Following the Prophet’s instructions, many of his
companions learned the Qur’an by heart, immediately
after the verses were revealed. Imam Suyuti mentions -
in his Itqan - more
than twenty well-known persons who memorized the
revelation. The practice of memorizing the Qur’an was
encouraged by the Prophet so much, that not only his
companions, but the pious Muslims of later times also
took great care to memorize it.
It is true that the Qur’an was not compiled into a
single book in the Prophet’s time; but the verses
were scrupulously written down and passages were
recited, not only during prayer, but also on other
occasions. Muslims were taught that the recitation and
the contemplation of the Qur’anic verses were acts of
piety, worthy of great reward. For this reason, the
companions of the Prophet were eager to learn the
verses, which fact was to a great extent responsible for
the safeguarding the Qur’an in the hearts of the people.
The story of the conversion of Omar is well-known. In
Ibn Hisham’s account we can read how Omar asked his
sister to hand over to him a written sheet of the
Qur’an, which they have been reading. This points to the
fact that the practice of recording the verses on
available materials was already happening in the
earliest years of the revelation.
It has been clearly recorded, by the Prophet’s
biographers, that he had appointed many scribes to write
down the Qur’anic revelations. The following hadith
proves that the Qur’an was with the companions of
the Prophet in written form:
‘From Ibn Omar: ... 'The messenger of Allah (pbuh) said:
‘Do not take the Qur'an on a journey with you, for I am
afraid lest it should fall into the hands of the
enemy’’. (Sahih Muslim & Sahih
Bukhari)
Obviously this is a reference to the written Qur’an.
There are three hadiths in
Sahih Bukhari, informing us that Angel Gabriel
used to recite the Qur'an with the Prophet once a year,
but he recited it twice with him in the year he died.
This happened when the Prophet used to stay in
i'tikaf (solitude worship) for ten days every year
(in the month of Ramadan), but in the year of his death,
he stayed in i'tikaf for twenty days. (Bukhari)
It is clear for the above reasons that there is no
comparison between the Qur’an and other Holy Scriptures,
in the matter of recording and passing on to future
generations. While the books of the Old and New
Testaments, for example, were written, edited and
compiled over long periods, sometimes centuries, the
text of the Qur'an, once revelation had ceased, has
remained the same, up to this very day.
Zaid ibn Thabit was the chief scribe, who used to record
down the revelation, dictated by the Prophet. After the
Prophet’s time, in the battle of Yamama, a large
number of the huffaz (those who had memorized the
Qur’an) died. Then Abu Bakar appointed Zaid to collect
all the available written versions of the Qur’an and to
bring out a master copy. Since he had been the chief
scribe of the Prophet, he was the most suited person for
that job.
When he completed this work, he gave the collection of
written materials to Abu Bakar, which he kept with him
till his death. After his death, Omar, the second
khalifah, finally gave it to his daughter Hafsa –
one of the prophet’s wives - for safekeeping. It was
from this collection of material that Khalifah
Othman prepared several copies in the form of the first
books of the entire Qur’an. Some of these copies still
exist.
God assures us in the Holy Qur’an:
We have, without doubt, sent down
the Message; and We will assuredly guard it (from
corruption).
Surah 15 Verse 9
and
... indeed it is a Book of exalted
power.
No falsehood can approach it from before or behind
it: It is sent down by One Full of Wisdom, Worthy of
all Praise.
Surah 41 Verses 41 – 42
For more on the historical facts around the time of the
revelation of the Qur'an please read
‘Ulum al-Quran - An Introduction
to the Sciences of the Qur'an - by Ahmad Von
Denffer
The Bible
When we consider the history of the Bible, we find that
the story is entirely different. For one thing, the
Bible is not one book; no Christian can claim it to be
one book, revealed by God to one Prophet. Rather,
according to some Christian scholars, it is “a library
of books”. This means that the Bible was composed by
many authors at different stages in history. This is
a major difference between the Qur’an and the Bible.
The whole Bible is divided into the Old Testament and
the New Testament. The Old Testament consists of books
composed or compiled before Jesus Christ. Then, the New
Testament consists of books compiled after Jesus Christ.
According to the Encyclopedia
Universalis (Paris, 1974 edition, Vol. A pp. 246-
263: Entry: Bible, written by J.P. Sandroz, Professor at
the Dominican Faculties, Saulchoir), the Old Testament
appears as a literary monument to the Jewish people,
from its origins to the coming of Christianity.
The books it consists of were written, completed and
revised between the Tenth and the First centuries B.C.
It is a collection of works of greatly differing length
and many different genres. They were written in several
languages, over a period of more than nine hundred
years, based on oral traditions. Many of these works
were corrected and completed, in accordance with events
or special requirements, often at periods that were very
distant from one another.
To understand what the Old Testament represents, it is
important to retain this information, correctly
established today by highly qualified specialists.
‘A Revelation is mingled in all these writings, but all
we possess today is what men have seen fit to leave us.
These men manipulated the texts to please themselves,
according to the circumstances they were in and the
necessities they had to meet.’ (The
Bible, Qur’an and Modern Science - by Maurice
Bucaille.)
We also read in The Interpreter's
Dictionary Of The Bible:
‘The original copies of the New Testament books have, of
course, long since disappeared. This fact should not
cause surprise. In the first place, they were written on
papyrus, a very fragile and perishable material. In the
second place, and probably of even more importance, the
original copies of the NT [new testament] books were not
looked upon as scripture by those of the early Christian
communities.’ (George
Arthur Buttrick - Ed.: The
Interpreter's Dictionary Of The Bible, Volume 1,
p. 599 – under: ‘Text, New Testament').
The New Testament consists of 39 books. The first four
are known as the Gospels, which narrate the story of
Jesus. The remaining books were written by his supposed
disciples. The most prominent among them was St. Paul,
who wrote some thirteen books. The irony of the
matter is that this St. Paul, though a contemporary of
Jesus, has never met him, nor was he among the twelve
disciples chosen by Jesus himself! And yet, it is his
ideas, rather than those of Jesus or any of his
disciples, that have given most shape to modern
Christianity!
The four Gospel writers are Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John. Among the disciples of Jesus, we find all these
names except that of Luke. The Church fathers have been
teaching their followers that the Gospel writers were
“eyewitnesses” to the acts of Jesus. But modern research
points out that the Gospel writers and the disciples
were different persons. For example, there was a
disciple called Matthew, but the Gospel of Matthew was
not written by this Matthew! The King James Version of
the Gospels points to this fact, see the titles of the
Gospels: Gospel according to Matthew, Gospel according
to Mark… etc., and not Gospel by Matthew, Gospel by Mark
etc.
The Christian teaching is that these Gospels, as well as
the rest of the New Testament, were the “word of God”.
They contend that the Gospel writers were inspired by
God while writing, and so could not go wrong. If this
were true, how could they explain the inconsistencies
among the various gospels as to many details? For
instance Matthew and Luke give two different genealogies
for Jesus. (See Matthew: 1:1-17; and Luke 3: 23-38).
Only a few names in the two lists agree!
There are many more internal evidences in the Biblical
books, which prove that these books were not reliably
guarded from corruption. But for our purpose, I hope the
foregoing will suffice. It is quite evident, from the
above facts, that the Holy Qur’an as we have it now, is
an authentic text. This is while the claim about the
Bible (both the Old and the New Testaments) as
authentic, is a spurious one.
Moving beyond the historical realities of the texts,
there is much material on the nature of the Qur'an. One
key test of a text by which we may know it as the word
of God is that it is consistent internally and
consistent with science throughout time. Such claims
cannot reasonably be made about the Bible and science
but they can be made about the Qur'an and are.
Do they not consider the Qur'an
(with care)? Had it been from other Than God, they
would surely have found therein Much discrepancy.
Surah 4 Verse 82
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