The greatest miracle of Islam! Review this article on how Quran was preserved and accept only the divine message of Allah that never changes. Must read for all Muslims and non-Muslims.
The bottom-line agreed by ALL MUSLIM AND HINDU SCHOLARS is that ONLY THAT DIVINE BOOK SHOULD BE FOLLOWED WHICH IS UNCHANGEABLE.
This belief on unchangeable book as the only book of Allah or Ishwar is one point on which BOTH Islam and Hinduism agree. And this is so reasonable a criteria that any Theist would believe this to be true.
Hence rightfully, the most critical foundation of Islam is that they believe only in final and foolproof message of Allah. Since Allah is so benevolent and perfect, the acid test of a scripture being His message is whether it is unchangeable or not. It was on this pretext that followers of Islam justly rejected the message given to Moses, Dawood or Jesus. Since Quran is the only book known to Muslims as unchangeable book of God, they are perfectly justified in believing in Islam.
Now we should explore what other books are considered divine by Muslims. They now believe (refer works of Zakir Naik and Abdullah Tariq) that Vedas were also divine. And Quran is supposed to retell the message of Vedas. However because Vedas are oldest and first message of Ishwar, Allah or God, they are assumed to have been distorted by now. Thus even if one has to follow Vedas, one should follow Quran – this is what Islamic scholars would recommend to their most genuine intentions. Vedas being an intricate subject and being away from full grasp of Muslim scholars due to the fear of apostasy (that implies death sentence as per Zakir Naik) have not been properly understood by Muslim scholars. Nonetheless, we admire Zakir Naik and Abdullah Tariq and many other scholars for at least frankly admitting that they do consider Vedas to be divine. But their only concern is that they make not be available in same pristine format as gifted by Allah.
But we reviewed in “Why Vedas cannot be changed” factual points on how the Vedas have been preserved in a manner that despite being the oldest text of human history, it is available in same pristine format without any alteration. These Vedas form the foundation of the beliefs of the East popularly known as Hinduism. And hence Hinduism has a foundation that it un-shakeable. Given this new information that Muslim scholars did not have so far, now the only reason why they should follow Quran is that Quran is also unchangeable. And if that be so, even Hindus would have no objection in embracing Quran as another scripture worth respect. Afterall Hinduism has historically been so accommodating.
But the litmus test for this HAS TO BE that Quran is also unchangeable. If that not be so, the only way for a Muslim to be a genuine Muslim having admiration for Allah is to follow Vedas because Vedas alone are unchangeable. (We shall not dwell here on differences in Quran and Vedas. We are trying to find common grounds.)
So let us critically review if Quran is indeed unchangeable. If that be so, let us all submit to Quran as a great message for humankind. And follow it blindly without applying our own minds. Because how can we be smarter than Allah.
But if Quran is found to be defective after merely 1400 years of inception, when Vedas are available for millions of years in same format, then true Islam would imply surrendering to the Vedas. If modern Quran is found to be prone to defects, it means Vedas alone is the true Quran and as true Muslims we all should follow only the unchangeable word of Allah.
The miracle of Islam still holds valid then: That the Message of Allah remains unchanged for all human beings till end of the world and there would be no prophet taking birth who would bring any new message. The only minor point is that the message of Allah is the Vedas.
So let us review this miracle of Islam through this fact-based research article authored by Indian Agnostic.
The Divine, Perfect, Unchanging Word of God? You Decide!
Not long ago, billions of people strongly believed that the earth is flat. Any scientist opposing this factually wrong worldview was looked down upon with great contempt and few unfortunate ones may have been gleefully put to death.
The Church and the State would feel morally & religiously justified in putting to death any person going against their holy book. However, Mother Earth didn’t become flat because a billion+ people believed so or their holy book said so
The moral of the story is that even a billion+ people can be wrong and that blind belief cannot change a fact.
This article finds itself in a similar predicament. It has some facts to share and some rationale to put forward. The contents & facts of this article stand against the blind belief of a billion+ people. The author hopes that in this age of reason and rationality (?), the reader would not find it difficult to shun his/her belief in favor of the facts presented herein.
THE FACT IS THAT THE QURAN HAS CHANGED OVER TIME AND IS NOT AS PERFECT AS MANY BELIEVE.
IT’S ALSO ARGUED THROUGH FACTS THAT ISLAM IS QUITE LIKELY A BORROWED IDEOLOGY AND NOT DIVINE.
In short , ISLAM is a man made religion that borrowed much of its tenets from the Sabians, Christians, Jews, Pagans of its time and that as a book of guidance, the Quran, is an IMPERFECT , CONTRADICTORY later day collection of revelations which could NOT be preserved in its original form
While nothing more than commonsense is required to establish this fact, the power of blind belief cannot be underestimated. Why? Some people believe even today that the earth is flat because their holy scripture says so…despite the authoritative contrary evidence provided by science. If you are a flat earth believer this article is NOT for you.
This article is meant for those with an open mind receptive to facts and reason. I invite you to take this journey along with me. And believe me it’s important. It’s important because once you know the truth, you won’t mind reforming your religion and aligning it to our times rather than keeping yourself stuck in the beliefs and practices of 7th century Arabia. It’s important because you would not hate fellow human beings just because your holy book says so. It’s important because it’s important for humanity and religious co-existence…and most importantly because IT IS THE TRUTH.
So let’s start the journey. We’ll explore through archeological evidences, Sahih Hadits (all hyper linked to their original sources) and commonsense
- If evidence is established against our belief we should give up that belief.
Belief
The Quran has been preserved and not changed at all since
the time it was revealed (as claimed in Quran 15:9)
Counter Evidence
(A)
There isn’t a single copy of Quran available today that dates back to the time
of prophet. The Tashkent Version (which by the way is 1/3rd of the
modern day Quran) and the Sana Mosque manuscripts (only a fraction of some
surahs) apart from being incomplete
are dated 100+ years after the death of the prophet.
(B) The
earliest available partial
manuscripts (Sana Mosque) reveal that the Quran verses of today are not exactly the same as
the one’s mentioned in these manuscripts
Video 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA2leL6f5KY
This is FACTUAL EVIDENCE! And a fact doesn’t even need common sense to establish itself. A fact is a fact is a fact!
(C)
Though not a pure evidence, but it is important to note that many muslims
claim(on account of hadit references) that the previous scriptures of God [the
Torah, Injeel etc] have been corrupted.If we treat this claim as an evidence ,
it can be be rationally conculded that Allah is somehow vulnerable to
corruption.If He failed before thrice in preserving his message, there is NO
REASON to trust Him when he says that the fourth time he won’t fail ! He is
thrice shy
ConclusionSo the fact is that the Quran
did change with time and we don’t have a single copy available
from the time of Muhammad which means that it was not preserved as Allah
promised us.
2. If evidence is established against our belief we
should give up that belief.
Belief
The Quran is the word of God
Counter Evidence
(A) The
Quran Verses 58:19-21(known as Satanic Verses) are attributed to Satan! Can you
tell me one holy book that has Satan’s commands in it ? When you hold that
quran in your hand you are holding at least three commands of Satan in it. Does
that sound Divine?
(B) The
very first utterance in the Quran is Bismillah. Unfortunately, this verse
itself is agreed by Islamic scholars to be a later day addition. (Read in
detail here http://www.agniveer.com/bismillah)
(C) Now
let’s look at some sahih hadit accounts (click on the link to verify yourself)
as to how Muhammad received revelations and more importantly from WHOM?
Muhammad himself says bell is the instrument of Satan
Sahih Bukhari Book 024, Number 5279: Abu Huraira reported
Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The bell is the musical instrument of
the Satan.
Muhammad telling us that he received revelation as the ringing
of a bell!!
Sahih Bukhari Book 1, Number 2: Narrated ‘Aisha: (the mother of the faithful believers) Al-Harith bin Hisham asked Allah’s Apostle “O Allah’s Apostle! How is the Divine Inspiration revealed to you?” Allah’s Apostle replied, “Sometimes it is (revealed) like the ringing of a bell, this form of Inspiration is the hardest of all and then this state passes ‘ off after I have grasped what is inspired
(D) At
least three Quranic verses were revealed by Umar and then by Allah
Sahih Bukhari, Book 8, Number 395Narrated ‘Umar (bin Al-Khattab):
My Lord agreed with me in three things:
1. I said,”O Allah’s Apostle, I wish we took the station of Abraham as our
praying place (for some of our prayers). So came the Divine Inspiration: And
take you (people) the station of Abraham as a place of prayer (for some of your
prayers e.g. two Rakat of Tawaf of Ka’ba)”. (2.125)
2. And as regards the (verse of) the veiling of the women, I said, ‘O Allah’s
Apostle! I wish you ordered your wives to cover themselves from the men because
good and bad ones talk to them.’ So the verse of the veiling of the women was
revealed.
3. Once the wives of the Prophet made a united front against the Prophet and I
said to them, ‘It may be if he (the Prophet) divorced you, (all) that his Lord
(Allah) will give him instead of you wives better than you.’ So this verse (the same as I had said)was revealed.”
(66.5)
(E) The words of God cannot be self-contradicting! But the Quran contradicts
itself at many places indicating that it’s a manual endeavor and hence the
contradictions
Video 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhoAwQoddFM
Conclusion
The Quran has been altered by humans (the introduction of
Bismillah), and has Satanic verses in it. What’s more, the prophet has no
qualms in accepting that he receives revelations as the ringing of the bell
which is considered satanic by no other person than the prophet himself.
Rather than being convinced of its divine origins, the facts actually point to
a very unpleasant conclusion that the Quran may have been inspired by Satan
To add to the irony, there’s at least one verse (Quran
Verse number 66:5) that is Umar’s VERBATIM
contribution to the Quran…What more proof does one need that it’s not the word
of God!
Well friends, that is more than enough evidence for a rational mind to conclude that the Quran was neither preserved nor is it perfect. The Question on its divinity is raised not by me but the authentic Islamic scriptures themselves. I hope that you would research this further on your own and arrive at the truth. The rational reader would have already arrived at the same conclusion. However, here are more facts to help you understand:
Even if you leave the above evidences aside, do you know that Quranic verses were canceled/dropped out of the Quran !!
Sahih Bukhari Book 52, Number 69: Narrated Anas bin Malik: For thirty days
Allah’s Apostle invoked Allah to curse those who had killed the companions of
Bir-Mauna; he invoked evil upon the tribes of Ral, Dhakwan, and Usaiya who
disobeyed Allah and His Apostle. There was reveled about those who were killed
at Bir-Mauna a Quranic
Verse we used to recite, but it was canceled later on. The
Verse was: “Inform our people that we have met our Lord. He is pleased with us
and He has made us pleased”
The sanequestions to ask here are
How can you call a book perfect and complete when it’s evident that revealed verses were cancelled from the book?
You very well know that ‘stoning to death” is justified according to hadit sunnah ( Both Iran[Shia] and Saudi[Salafi,Sunni] schools endorse it).But this verse is missing from the Quran! do you still believe that the book is complete?
Do you seriously need more evidences after learning so much already?
Anyways…even if you leave that aside, how can you deny the uncanny similarity of the teaching of zaid bin amr to Islam?..What! you dint know that? . You would be surprised to learn that Muhammad’s monotheism springs not from Allah but from Zaid bin Amr who himself learned about monotheism from a Christian scholar !!!
Sahih Bukhari
Book 58, Number 169
Narrated ‘Abdullah bin ‘Umar:
The Prophet met Zaid bin
‘Amr bin Nufail in the bottom of (the valley of) Baldah before any Divine
Inspiration came to the Prophet. A meal was presented to the
Prophet but he refused to eat from it. (Then it was presented to Zaid) who said, “I do not eat anything
which you slaughter in the name of your stone idols. I eat none but those
things on which Allah’s Name has been mentioned at the time of slaughtering.”
Zaid bin ‘Amr used to criticize the way Quraish used to slaughter their
animals, and used to say, “Allah has created the sheep and He has sent the
water for it from the sky, and He has grown the grass for it from the earth;
yet you slaughter it in other than the Name of Allah. He used to say so, for he
rejected that practice and considered it as something abominable. Narrated Ibn
‘Umar: Zaid bin ‘Amr bin
Nufail went to Sham, inquiring about a true religion to follow.
He met a Jewish religious scholar and asked him about their religion. He said,
“I intend to embrace your religion, so tell me some thing about it.” The Jew
said, “You will not embrace our religion unless you receive your share of
Allah’s Anger.” Zaid said, “‘I do not run except from Allah’s Anger, and I will
never bear a bit of it if I have the power to avoid it. Can you tell me of some other religion?”
He said, “I do not know any other religion except the Hanif.” Zaid enquired,
“What is Hanif?” He said, “Hanif is the religion of (the prophet) Abraham who
was neither a Jew nor a Christian, and he used to worship None but Allah
(Alone)” Then
Zaid went out and met a Christian religious scholar and told
him the same as before. The Christian said, “You will not embrace our religion
unless you get a share of Allah’s Curse.” Zaid replied, “I do not run except
from Allah’s Curse, and I will never bear any of Allah’s Curse and His Anger if
I have the power to avoid them. Will you tell me of some other religion?” He replied, “I do not know any other
religion except Hanif.” Zaid enquired, “What is Hanif?” He replied, Hanif is
the religion of (the prophet) Abraham who was neither a Jew nor a Christian and
he used to worship None but Allah (Alone)” When Zaid heard
their Statement about (the religion of) Abraham, he left that place, and when
he came out, he raised both his hands and said, “O Allah! I make You my Witness
that I am on the religion of Abraham.” Narrated Asma bint Abi Bakr: I saw Zaid bin Amr bin Nufail standing
with his back against the Ka’ba and saying, “O people of Quraish! By Allah,
none amongst you is on the religion of Abraham except me.” He used to preserve the lives of
little girls: If somebody wanted to kill his daughter he would say to him, “Do
not kill her for I will feed her on your behalf.” So he would
take her, and when she grew up nicely, he would say to her father, “Now if you
want her, I will give her to you, and if you wish, I will feed her on your
behalf.”
Wouldn’t you ponder over these:
Islam has an uncanny similarity to the teachings of Zaid of whom Muhammad was pretty much influenced. Zaid himself learned about this from the Christians and the Jews
Belief in Abraham as a hanif, Slaughtering of animals in the name of Allah, protecting the girl child was already a religion of Zaid the Hanif.Why did Muhammad created Islam out of it?
Even if you leave that aside, it’s a fact that the people of the book(Jews and Christians) used to share their teachings with the Arabs in Arabic. The bible(injeel) and Torah was pretty much known to Arabs in Muhammad’s time.
Jews taught Torah in Arabic to the Muslims in Muhammad’s time
Sahih Bukhari
Book 92, Number 460
Narrated Abu Huraira: The
people of the Book used to read the Torah in Hebrew and then explain it in
Arabic to the Muslims. Allah’s Apostle said (to the Muslims).
“Do not believe the people of the Book, nor disbelieve them, but say, ‘We
believe in Allah and whatever is revealed to us, and whatever is revealed to
you.
Now the questions to ask are:
what makes you believe that Muhammad didn’t know about the stories of the Torah and the Bible when his fellow Arabs knew about these stories themselves?..he was illiterate ..but i am sure you’d agree that he was not deaf ..right?
When there is all the proof that Muhammad had access to Jewish and Christian teachings as well as inspiration from Zaid the hanif ..what makes you so sure that he was divinely inspired ..specially when the only proof of his prophet hood was he himself and nobody else ?
Even if you leave the above evidences aside, can you believe that a PERFECT book does not order the chapters in any sane way? ..The First Revelation of the god of Quran appears in the 96 Sura (chapter) !! The absurdity does not stop here, the last verse revealed is not authoritatively agreed upon!! Apologists Muslims try to play this down by saying that the mushaf(written book) is different than the Quran(revelation) ..My question is plain and simple..Why is the perfect book of God not perfectly organized? Doesn’t it indicate that the collection of Quran was not divinely ordained?
Even you leave the above arguments aside, how perfect would you call a God that declares today that ”today I have perfected your religion for you”(Quran 5:3) but still continues with his revelations tommorow ? Can you forgive the imperfection of such a God that has more to say after he has perfected his religion?
Even after declaring in Quran 5:3 that He has perfected his religion, Allah
found out that his religion was not so perfect.So he kept revealing more verses
.The last one as per Sahih Muslim is listed below for verification of the claim
Kalala Sahih Muslim,Book
011, Number 3939:
“Al-Bara’ (Allah be pleased with him) reported that the last verse revealed in the Holy
Qur’an is:” They ask thee for a religious verdict; say: Allah
gives you a religious verdict about Kalala (the person who has neither parents
nor children)” (iv 177).”
[Unfortunately there is no 177th verse in new Quran! The one given
in this Hadith is found at 176th place.]
Now the questions to ask are:
What made Allah declare prematurely that he has completed the religion when he had a lot many other things to reveal?
Most Importantly, If the God of Quran is an incremental revealer, why should one believe that he perfected his religion in the 7th century arabia?
Even if you leave that aside, do you know that the prophet never ordered the compilation
of the Quran ? that the collection of Quran was ordered by
Caliphs and not the prophet? that the
collector of Quran found this task to be more difficult than moving mountains?
that the Quran was
compiled from bones,leaves, hides and the hearts of believers!!
? .still you believe that with all this hodge podge ..the Quran surely remained
uncorrupted and complete!!!?
here’s the Sahih Hadit that shows how it all started
Click here to read from source
Sahih Bukhari, Book 60, Number 201: Narrated Zaid bin Thabit Al-Ansari: who was
one of those who used to write the Divine Revelation: Abu Bakr sent for me
after the (heavy) casualties among the warriors (of the battle) of Yamama
(where a great number of Qurra’ were killed). ‘ Umar was present with Abu Bakr
who said, ‘Umar has come to me and said, The people have suffered heavy
casualties on the day of (the battle of) Yamama, and I am afraid that there
will be more casualties among the Qurra’ (those who know the Qur’an by heart)
at othe r battle-fields, whereby a large part of the Qur’an may be lost, unless
you collect it. And I am
of the opinion that you should collect the Qur’an.” Abu Bakr added, “I said to
‘Umar, ‘How can I do something which Allah’s Apostle has not done?’ ‘Umar said
(to me), ‘By Allah, it is (really) a good thing.’ So ‘Umar kept
on pressing, trying to persuade me to accept his proposal, till Allah opened my
bosom for it and I had the same opinion as ‘Umar.” (Zaid bin Thabit added:)
Umar was sitting with him (Abu Bakr) and was not speaking. me). “You are a wise
young man and we do not suspect you (of telling lies or of forgetfulness): and
you used to write the Divine Inspiration for Allah’s Apostle. Therefore, look
for the Qur’an and collect it (in one manuscript). ” By Allah, if he (Abu Bakr) had ordered
me to shift one of the mountains (from its place) it would not have been harder
for me than what he had ordered me concerning the collection of the Qur’an. I
said to both of them, “How dare you do a thing which the Prophet has not done?”
Abu Bakr said, “By Allah, it is (really) a good thing. So I
kept on arguing with him about it till Allah opened my bosom for that which He
had opened the bosoms of Abu Bakr and Umar. So I started locating Quranic material and
collecting it from parchments, scapula, leaf-stalks of date palms and from the
memories of men (who knew it by heart). I found with Khuzaima
two Verses of Surat-at-Tauba which I had not found with anybody else, (and they
were):– “Verily there has come to you an Apostle (Muhammad) from amongst
yourselves. It grieves him that you should receive any injury or difficulty He
(Muhammad) is ardently anxious over you (to be rightly guided)” (9.128) The
manuscript on which the Quran was collected, remained with Abu Bakr till Allah
took him unto Him, and then with ‘Umar till Allah took him unto Him, and
finally it remained with Hafsa, Umar’s daughter.
The questions that any sane person would ask are
Were Abu Bakr and Umar prophets who were divinely inspired to do what the prophet Muhammad himself didn’t do
How sure can one be that the whole of Quran would have been collected when one had to collect it from bones and parchments and the memories of ordinary men?
“Sahih Bukhari Book 61, Number 558: Narrated Aisha: Allah’s Apostle heard a man
reciting the Qur’an at night, and said, “May Allah bestow His Mercy on him, as he
has reminded me of such-and-such Verses of such-and-such Suras, which I was
caused to forget.”
If the correctness of the verses was left to the judgment of Zaid and other people …is there any doubt that the validation of Quran was a human exercise rather than a divine exercise under the guidance of a live prophet and hence open to all kind of omissions and errors
7. The most critical element for practicing Islam, Shahada does not come as single line anywhere in Quran. It has been deliberately created by picking and choosing two different lines from different places! In this manner anyone can join any two phrases from different parts of the Quran and prove anything!
8. Another question arises, why does not at all Quran describe the methods of prayers, no of prayers per day, etc? When these elementary information cant be found in Quran how can it be called as complete? Worship, being the most important thing in Islam (since we were created only to worship Allah), should have been described in Quran in such a manner that no ambiguity could arise regarding number and types of prayers. But as we know, there is dispute among the scholars of not only from different sects of Islam but within one sect too regarding number of prayers per day, some say its five times and some say its three!
9. It is a well known fact that the compiler of Quran, Uthman was murdered at the time when he was reciting from it. Aisha and her brother were amongst the rebels against Uthman. Now question comes, if Aisha had malign motives for Uthman and Uthman was right, how can her narrations of Hadith be taken seriously and truthful, which are the bases for most of the verses of Quran? If Uthman was wrong and Aisha was right, how can the book Quran, which was compiled by him be assumed to be free from errors when its compiler was later found to be wrong?
10. Hadith of goat eating some verses of Quran: Sunan Ibn Maja, Volume 2, Page 39, Published from Karachi-
Ayesha: “When the verses “Rajm” [Stoning] and ayah “Rezah Kabir” descended, they were written on a piece of paper and kept under my pillow. Following the demise of Prophet Muhammad (S) a goat ate the piece of paper while we were mourning.”
[http://www.sunniforum.com/forum/showthread.php?18179-Hadiths-that-Say-Quran-is-Missing-Lost].
Every sane person would have known by now that how false the claims of Mullahs (who are misguiding the masses) regarding the preservation of Quran are.
11. Shaia’s claim of 17000 verses in Quran: It is from Shia sahih hadith
Kulayni. “Usool al-Kafy” vol. 2, Kitaab: Fadlul-Qur’an, narration # 28:
“Ali b. al-Hakam from Hishaam b. Salim from Abu Abdullah [as] saying: Verily, the Qur’an which Gibril
[as]
came up with to Muhammad [saw] is 17,000 verses”.
This is yet another evidence that how a significant portion of Muslims refuses to believe the current Quran to be ultimate. Note that Vedas have around 20000 verses, and if you remove verses that occur with similar meanings in same language, the number is closer. Does it mean Muhammad was actually talking of Vedas. (There were popular poems in Arab literature glorifying Vedas which were written before Muhammad was born. And while he may not have access to Vedas directly, he may have known that actual book of Ishwar has around 17000 unique verses.)
And now my friend, if you have left all of these facts and observations aside, this article was never meant for you in the first place .The minds open to reason and facts can easily see from above that Islam is not perfect(like any other religion) nor are it’s books free of corruption or external influence.
Friend, the intention of the article is not to downplay the religion, but to share with you the facts which can embolden your resolve to bring the much needed and much delayed reforms in Islam. Christianity is reforming and so is Hinduism or any other religion. It’s time for Islam to do the same and
- Challenge those hate filled verses that divide humanity and get rid of them
- Challenge the anti-humanity Hadits that sanction violence, gender bias and defame the prophet and bring/carve out the spiritual side of Islam for the world
Wake up and wake others. Let us arrive at least at a stage where peaceful religious co-existence is not a one-way slogan. And better still accept Vedas that if for entire humanity, for all times, for all geographies and the only message of Allah that never changes.
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