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Wednesday 9 February 2011

The Authenticity of the Glorious Quran


by Abdel Kareem Strange on Monday, 24 January 2011 at 20:59
 
 
The Authenticity of the Glorious Quran


Who is the author of the Quran?
Whatever the arguments of the non-believer critics, the Quran states explicitly: “(This is) revelation of the book in which there is no doubt, from the Lord of the worlds. Or do they say he has forged it? Nay it is the truth from the Lord.” (32:2-3)
From the time of its revelation till today, people have tried to cast doubts about the Divinity of the Holy Quran, and have tried to argue in vain that the author of the Quran is Prophet Muhammad himself; but they have not succeeded because of its inherent truth.
Our study of the Qur'an acquaints us with a distinguishing characteristic of this holy book. This distinguishing characteristic is the absolute authenticity of its source. That is, without the slightest need of any comparison between the oldest manuscripts, it is evident that what we recite as the verses of the Holy Qur'an, are exactly the same words presented before the world by the Almighty Allah (swt) through His messenger Muhammad ibn Abdallah (saww).
In another words, the distinguished feature of the Qur'an is the quality of its contents: its teachings are genuinely original and have not been adopted or plagiarized. Its teachings have been delivered to the Prophet from a world that transcends his thought and mind. The Prophet (saww) was only a recipient of this revelation and message. As Allah says: “. . . and those who are firmly rooted in knowledge say: We believe in it, it is all from our Lord." (3 :7).
This paper attempts to present several logical arguments, textual analysis, historical evidence and scientific data to prove that the ‘Source of Quran is God’, in a simple way for Madrassa teachers to use as a Resource paper in the subject.
Due to magnitude of the subject matter, this paper will limit itself to one angle of discussion only: simple and straight forward evidences to prove the “Authenticity of the Quran as a Word of God”. However, separate study paper will be required to discuss and make critical review and refutation of : “Authorship theories on the source of Quran as forwarded by the unbelievers”, as the biased unbelievers have forwarded several baseless theories on the authorship of Quran, which require a detailed critique.
Similarly, altogether separate study papers are needed on the following themes:
Evidences on the “Originality and Genuineness of the Quran”, i.e. Quran has remained immune against any type of interpolation or transfiguration in its text and even its arrangement, contrary to other revealed books.
A study on “Comparison between Quran and the other revealed books”.
A paper on “Process of Revelation, Compilation and Preservation of Quran”.

Evidences on the Authenticity of the Holy Quran
As the opponents want us to believe, the Holy Quran is not the product of the holy Prophet’s speculation and thinking, rather it is a revealed book in which every word is the word of the Almighty that was communicated to the Prophet through the process of revelation. While historical testimony in this regard is unquestionable, the Quran emphasizes it further with a view of showing the opponents of Islam that what came out from the sacred lips of the Prophet was a divine revelation:
“(This is) the revelation of the book in which there is no doubt, from the Lord of the worlds. Will they say: ‘He has forged it!’ Nay, it is the Truth from the Lord ...”. (32:2-3)
“But Allah bears witness that what He has revealed to you (O Muhammad), He has revealed from His own knowledge, and the angels bear witness (to it), but sufficient is Allah for witness”. (4:166).
“And you (O Muhammad) did not recite any book before this, nor you were able to transcribe one with your right hand. In that case, indeed those who talk vanity could have doubted.” (29:48).

The Exclusive Eloquence of the Holy Quran
The Prophet of Islam began conveying his heavenly messages in the midst of society where people’s minds revolved exclusively around eloquent speech and the composition of beautiful and attractive poetry and literary excellence. Under these conditions, God equipped His prophet with a weapon, the Quran, that apparently belonged to the same category as the literary works of the age but possessed unique and astonishing characteristics that were beyond the capacity of the human being to reproduce.

a) The Role of Poetry in the lives of the Pre-Islamic Arabs
To understand why Muhammad's strongest argument or miracle was a book, the Holy Qur'an, it is necessary to understand the role language and linguistic composition played in the lives of the pre-Islamic Arabs. It is also important to understand the nature of the Arabic language itself during the pre-Islamic period. This understanding will help to show why the revelation of the Qur'an through Muhammad (saww) found attentive ears among his contemporaries, who not only were articulate users of the language but held those skilled in the arts of linguistic composition in high esteem.
Before the rise of Islam, Arabic was mainly a spoken language with an oral literature of elaborate poetry and, to a lesser extent, prose. Writing had not yet fully developed and memorization was the most common means of preserving the literature. Both poetry and prose in the pre-Islamic era dealt with a rather limited range of topics which included in the case of poetry praise, eulogy (panegyric), defamation, and love, and in the case of prose superstition, legends, parables, and wisdom tales.
Pre-Islamic Arabs took great pride in their language and in articulate and accurate speech, the latter being one of the main requisites for social prominence. On this particular point, Professor Hitti writes: “No people in the world manifest such enthusiastic admiration for literary expression and are moved by the word, spoken or written, as the Arabs. Hardly any language seems capable of exercising over the minds of its users such an irresistible influence as Arabic”.
Such was the role that the spoken word played in the life of pre-Islamic Arabs. With the emphasis placed on eloquent and articulate speech, the prominent position occupied by those who had the talent for linguistic composition, and the pride the early Arabs took in their language, it is little wonder that the Qur'an was revealed in the most eloquent, articulate, and elaborate style the Arabic language has known. The Qur'an has without doubt provided a level of linguistic excellence unparalleled in the history of the Arabic language.
Theologians explain this phenomenon as God's wisdom in addressing the articulate Arabs through the medium in which they were most adept and with which they felt most comfortable. The effectiveness of the Qur'an was thus ensured by the fact that it represented a level of eloquence unattainable even by their most eloquent speakers.

b) Miracles should be relevant to the time
God offered the Qur'an as the Prophet's sign in the same way as He offered signs for all the other prophets. He sent the things most appropriate to the time in which they were sent. Thus Prophet Musa (as) had the power to divide the sea with his hand and rod, and to let the rock burst forth with water in the desert, and all his other signs in a time of magic. And Prophet Issa (as) had the power to bring the dead back to life, to make birds out of clay, to cure those who had been blind from birth and the leprous, and all his other signs in a time of medicine. And Prophet Muhammad (saww) had the book and all his other signs in a time of eloquence.
If the Prophet had performed some miracle other than the Quran, it would have no meaning for that people, given their mental structure. The path would have been open for all kinds of doubt and hesitation. But the Arabs of that age who were addressed by the Quran could never have any doubts about its extraordinary eloquence, for they were all aware of all the mysteries of rhetoric and had living among them masters of language and literary composition, hence their admitting that the Quran could not have been the production of Prophet Muhammad (saww).

The Challenge of the Holy Quran

a) The Unbelievers failed to produce the like of Quran
When the revelations of the Quran began, the Most Noble Messenger clearly proclaimed the Quran to be the word of God, and said it was impossible for any human being to duplicate it. If anyone disagreed, he ought to make an attempt to copy it, and should feel free to seek help from any source in doing so. None was able to take up this challenge and produce even a short surah similar to the Quran.
The Qur'an remains a book of inimitable quality, not only from a linguistic, but also from and intellectual, point of view. When Muhammad was challenged by his fellow countrymen to present a miracle, in keeping with the tradition of other prophets, he presented the Qur'an to them. The inimitability of the Qur'an is repeatedly emphasized in the Holy Book itself.
The Quran issued a challenge not only to the contemporaries of the Prophet but also to men in all ages. In order to demonstrate the incapacity and impotence of people to imitate it, it issued the following universal proclamation: “Were all mankind to come together and wish to produce the like of the Quran, they would never succeed however much they aided each other”. (17:88)
It then modifies the challenge and reduces its scope by saying: “Do people imagine that this Quran is not from Us, and that you, O Prophet are falsely attributing to us? Tell them that if they are speaking truly they should produce ten surahs resembling the Quran, and that they are free to call on the aid of anyone but God in so doing.” (11:13)
Then, at the third stage, the scope of the challenge is reduced still further: the deniers are called on to produce only a single surah resembling the Quran: “Oh people, if you doubt the heavenly origin of this Book which We have sent down to Our servant, the Prophet, produce one surah like it.” (2:23)
A yet stronger challenge occurs in another chapter:
“Or do they say: 'He forged it'? Say: 'Bring then a sura like unto it and call [to your aid] anyone you can”. (10:38)
Since we know that some of the shorter surahs consist only of a few brief sentences, this final challenge constituted a definitive proof of the human being’s inability to imitate the Quran. Can the person of today take up the challenge of the Quran and produce a Surah like it, thereby conquering the stronghold of Islam and invalidating the claim of its Prophet?
Let us not forget that this challenge was issued to a people whose leaders were threatened by the devastating attacks of the Quran - their lives, their property, their ancient customs, their ancestors, their whole social position. If it had been at all possible for the Arabs to respond to the challenge of the Quran, they would have taken it up immediately, with the unstinting aid of the masters of eloquence that were by no means rare in that age. Thus, they would have invalidated the proofs of the Quran and won an everlasting victory.
Quran has proposed a very simple challenge to those who oppose it. Why do then the deniers of prophethood choose roundabout ways, avoiding this direct method of confronting and defeating Islam? Is not because the door is firmly closed on meeting the challenge posed by the Quran?
It is not that they did not try to mute the challenge. In fact, they called into play all their resources in an effort to meet the challenge of the Quran, but all their efforts came to naught. They were unable to point even to a single error or defect in the Quran, and were obliged to admit that its words were situated on a higher plane than the thought and speech of the human being.


Lack of Contradiction in the Holy Quran
The Noble Quran contains profound and exact statements on a wide variety of subjects. It establishes and legislates principles and regulations for the practical and ethical duties of the human being and for the ordering and administration of society. It gives accurate account of future predictions, anecdotes of past communities and Prophets, as well as Scientific truths unknown at the time of revelation. However, slightest variation or contradiction whatsoever is not to be seen in this great mass of material.
Every scientist and researcher is liable to change from time to time, his attitude to scientific topics under investigation and the opinions he bases on them. Relying on the knowledge and conclusions he has accumulated, he may express a certain opinion on a given topic at one time and later repudiate that opinion in the light of continuing and more extensive research and the solution of certain problems. However, as regards to Quran, although it was revealed over a period of twenty-three years, it is uniform and lacking in contradiction. The uniformity, unity and the consistency of the ideas in the Quran signify its coming from the Unique One, Allah (swt).
Quran says: “Do they not reflect on the Quran? If this book were from other than GOD, they would certainly find much variation and contradiction in it”. (4:82)
Since everything in the world is in a state of growth and self-perfection, then the Qur'an would of necessity lack harmony since it was revealed over a period of twenty-three years; it would lack harmony that is if we were to suppose that it was the work of a man rather than of a prophet. Thus, lack of contradiction in the Quran proves a Divine hand in the its authorship.

Prophet Muhammad (saww) was Unlettered
It is impossible for this Quran to have been produced by a single individual or to have been borrowed by him from other sources, particularly an individual who was unlettered, had not even studied, and had grown up in the degenerate environment of the Arabian peninsula at that time, an environment which was totally alien to science and philosophy.
All historians are unanimous that the Prophet was an unlettered man who had never known books or teachers and never learned how to write. The Quran itself addressed him as follows: “Before this, you did not read any book, nor did you write anything with your hands”. (29:48).
Before the revelation of the Holy Quran, the Holy Prophet could neither write with his own hand nor could he read anything written by the others, and this is a fact vouched by one and all of the age of the Holy Prophet. No opponent in the life time of the Prophet ever raised his voiced to challenge this verse, since for the forty years they stayed with him, they knew he was unlettered. How could have then the prophet authored such an unmatchable book by himself. With this fact in view, it would be sheer absurdity to say that what he delivered as the Quran was not the revelation from God, but a reproduction of what he read in the other scriptures and what he wrote, i.e. composed of and memorised.
One may wonder why God, the Almighty commissioned one who was deprived of the capacity of reading or writing as His Apostle? Was not the Prophet supposed to be the most knowledgeable one who was required to teach the people the Book and the wisdom? The answer is that inability to write and read does not mean ignorance, as the Holy Prophet was gifted divine knowledge through miracle, and according to some researchers, the Prophet knew how to read and write not through learning from a teacher but through divine inspiration and miracle.
Infact, the immediate next verse of the Holy Quran asserts that the Prophet was granted knowledge: “Nay! It (Quran) is the clear signs in the breast of those who have been granted the knowledge” (29:49). The Prophet (saww) confirmed this by saying: “I am the city of Knowledge and Ali is its door”.
Whatever the case, the obvious fact remains the same: the one who had never learnt from any human teacher how to read or write, to present this incontestable and universally recognised truth - the Quran - which never before was revealed even to the great apostles in the past, could not have possibly been without its source being from above. Unfortunately, there were some who accused the Prophet that he learnt the contents of Quran from the others. But this is refuted by the Quran eloquently:
“Say (O Muhammad)! The Holy Spirit (Jibriil) has brought it (Quran) down from your Lord with the truth, that it may establish those who believe, and as a guidance and glad tidings unto those who submit (themselves to God). And indeed We know what they say: ‘It is only a man that teaches him’. The tongue of him whom they falsely hint at, is outlandish (foreign language, not eloquent, slang), while this language is Arabic (pure and) plain”. (16:102-103).
However, it is remarkable that such a man who had never studied from any mortal being, was given the most eloquent book: The Glorious Quran, and became the standard-bearer of a movement calling for science and free thought. It is said that the mystic object in keeping the Prophet unaware of the art of reading and writing was to help the people to recognise the Quran as a Word of God.

No Resemblance between the Words of Holy Quran and Hadith
After Quran, the second source of doctrine and legislation in Islam is the Ahadith (utterances) of the Holy Prophet (saww) himself. A very large number of collections of the Prophet’s words thus appear under the title of Ahadith, and thousands of Ahadith and traditions attributed to the Holy Prophet are recorded in the Ahadith books.
The amazing remarkable point here is the fact that all these utterances of the Prophet (Ahadith) which were also in pure Arabic language like that of Quran, and the Prophet whose tongue would recite the Arabic Quran, bore no resemblance whatsoever to the Quran. What must be heavily stressed overhere is the disparity between these two groups of texts - Quran and Ahadith - from a literary and stylistic point of view. It would be unthinkable to compare the style of Quran with that of the Ahadith. This itself is a convincing proof that the Quran originated from a source other than the mind of the Prophet.

Non-Muslims Admit
Even the non-Muslim scholars admit to the authenticity of the Quran. For example, Laura Vaccia Vaglieri, professor at the University of Naples, has the following to say: “The heavenly book of Islam is miraculous and inimitable. Its style is totally unprecedented in Arabic literature, and its peculiar impact on the spirit of the human being derives from its special and superior characteristics. How is it possible that such a book should be the work of Muhammad, an Arab who had never studied? We find in this book a treasury of knowledge beyond the capacity of the greatest philosophers and statesman, and for this reason it is also impossible to regard the Quran as the work of an educated person”.
Smith writes in his book: Muhammad and Islam: “I boldly assert that one day the loftiest of human philosophers and the most veracious principles of Christianity will confess and bear witness that the Quran is the Word of God. An unlettered and unlearned Prophet was chosen by God to bring the Quran to Mankind, a book that has in the course of history produced thousands of other books and treatises, brought libraries into being and filled them with books, and placed before mankind laws and philosophies and educational, intellectual and ideological systems.
“He arose in an environment where there was no trace of learning and civilization. In the whole of Madina, there were only eleven people who knew how to read and write, and in all the branches of Quraysh, in Mecca and its environs, not more than seventeen people were literate.
“The teachings of the Quran, which mentions knowledge and the pen in its opening verses, brought about a tremendous transformation. Islam proclaimed study to be a religious duty, and made the black ink of scribe and the scholar to be superior to the red blood of the martyr.
“Thanks to the teachings of the Quran and its emphasis on the cultivation of knowledge, countless scholars made their appearance and wrote innumerable books. Different scientific disciplines were derived from the Quran and spread across the world by Muslim thinkers. The world was illuminated with the lights of the Quran and the culture of Islam.”
Numerous other non-Muslim Scholars have attested to the fact that Quran is the word of God. However, we shall not mention them for the sake of brevity.
The Holy Quran is not the product of the Holy Prophet’s speculation and thinking. Rather every word of the book is the word of God, which was communicated to the Prophet through the process of revelation. Communicated to the Holy Prophet not as mere inspiration but as recitation and clear guidance in plain Arabic Language. Descended upon the heart of ‘heart’ of the Prophet not metaphorically but literally - namely in the form of language known by the people who subsequently transcribed it under the guidance of the Prophet himself.
Being the revealed word of Allah, Quran imparts knowledge which is immune from all possibilities of doubt and every form of discrepancy. It is the substantiation of Truth and guidance that leads humanity from darkness towards the light. It is an embodiment of mercy and glad tidings from God to those who follow it faithfully, and a criterion which distinguishes clearly the right from the wrong. It emphasises that all unbiased persons dedicated to knowledge are bound to uphold its truth at the time of its revelation and to attest it in later age as the horizons of human knowledge expand further and further.
However, biased persons tried to doubt the authenticity of the Quran being the word of God and attested it to various misgivings. But they failed to prove their false claims, and the Quran stood high in all ages as the bearer of Divine Light unaffected by the whims of the mischief-mongers. A truth-seeker always bowed down his head infront of the afore-mentioned evidences which unequivocally prove the authenticity of the Quran as the word of God, the Almighty.
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