Page 54 - World Religions I - Islam

Muslim belief that the Koran as it has reached us today is quite simply the perfect, timeless, and
unchanging Word of God.” Puin concludes that “what the Yemeni Korans seemed to suggest,...was an
evolving text rather than simply the Word of God as revealed in its entirety to the Prophet Muhammad in
the seventh century A.D.”

Some Muslims allege that earlier manuscripts disintegrated with age. Even if this were true, there would
still be fragments of documents in existence from the largely expanded seventh-century empire, which
stretched from Spain to India. Nothing from that period can be found, however. With the enormous
number of manuscripts available for the Christian scriptures– all compiled long before the time Muhammad
was born – it is incredible that Islam cannot provide a single corroborative manuscript of the Qur’an from
within a century of their founder’s death. If the only difference between the Uthmanic version of the
Qur’an and the variants were the omission of diacritical marks, it would have been logical to simply add
them to the variant manuscripts. The fact that the variants were burned gives credence to the suspicion
that the differences were more than just minor pronunciations.

o B. Most manuscript evidence in possession date 150-300 years after the events which they describe.
 The earliest manuscripts are only partial copies rather than the complete texts.30
 The oldest existing copy of the full text is from the 9th century.31
o All early manuscripts are devoid of vocalization (containing only consonants and lacking vowels),
serving mainly as an aid to memorization.32 33
o Most of the earliest Qur'anic manuscripts are not available to non-Muslim scholars for research.
• There are a number of authentic Hadith that make reference to disputes over the Uthmanic version of the Qur'an.
o These disputes include variant readings of individual ayahs, missing ayahs, missing surahs, and surahs of
substantially different lengths. 34 35 36 37 38
• Muslim apologists claim the only difference between the Uthmanic version of the Qur'an and the variants that
were burned was the addition of diacritical marks.
o The writing of the Qur'an was built on the use of early Arabic's 17 consonantal letters.
 When diacritical points are added, the number of distinct letters increases to 29.
• Only once further vowel pointings are added to the consonants does one know exactly
how the written words are to be pronounced and understood.
• Early Qur'ans were written as a guide to those who knew it already. Those unfamiliar
with the Qur'an would read it differently because there were no diacritical and vowel
symbols.39
• The Qur'an itself acknowledges the absence of a part of revelation which was abrogated or "caused to be
forgotten." Another verse speaks of verses that God substituted for others. A third verse reveals that not only
does Allah abrogate, but he defends himself for doing it. The Hadith reports that early Muslims used to recall
verses of revelation that were later deliberately excluded as "abrogated" (nusikha), "lifted" (rufi'a), "caused to be
forgotten" (unsiya), or "dropped" (usqita). One hadith (Al-Bukhari 6:60:008) mentions that one of the best Qur'anic
reciters was often ignored because he continued to recite verses that had later become abrogated. Some scholars
argue that Muhammad never compiled the Qur'an during his lifetime since there was always the expectation that
some verses may be abrogated and that some later modification was thus inevitable. Astonishingly, Muhammad
never seemed troubled by the inconsistency of affirming that the Qur'an is the perfect replica of an eternal book
of God while at the same time declaring that at times God must reshape or annul earlier revelations.
o "Whatever communications we abrogate or cause to be forgotten, we bring one better than it or like it.
Do you not know that Allah has power over all things?" - Al-Baqara (The Cow) 2:106
o When We substitute one revelation for another - and Allah knows best what He reveals (in stages) - they
say, 'Thou art but a forger'; but most of them understand not." - An-Nahl (The Bee) 16:101
o "Allah doth blot out or confirm what He pleaseth; with Him is the Mother of the Book." - Ar-Ra'd (The

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