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‘Why authenticity of Holy Qur’an remains infallible’

By Moruf Onike Abdul-Azeez
08 January 2016   |   2:20 am
The question as to whether the holy Qur'an has different versions to which the answer is basically NO, can be easily explained by x-raying the Authenticity of this holy scripture, As an emphasis, it should be clearly stated that the Quran is as it was revealed to the Prophet. Since the foundation of any religion…
. Imam Onike

. Imam Onike

The question as to whether the holy Qur’an has different versions to which the answer is basically NO, can be easily explained by x-raying the Authenticity of this holy scripture, As an emphasis, it should be clearly stated that the Quran is as it was revealed to the Prophet.
Since the foundation of any religion is its scripture, whatever happens to that text will definitely rob off on that religion, Therefore, four key areas will be looked at in order to prove that the holy Qur’an being the words of God is one, has ever being one and will forever be one, no version, The Almighty God as the All knowing will always be consistent in His teachings.

The areas to look at are-

(1)REVEALATION-How,Where,When and to Whom was the Qur’an revealed?

(2)RECORDING-How was the Qur’anic recorded and by Whom?

(3)COMPILATION-How was the Qura’an compiled,by Whom and When?

(4)PRESERVATION-How has the Qur’anic survived history,maintaining its originality?

(5)AUTHORSHIP-Who speaks in the Qur’an?Using Elimination series,Could it be the Devil/evil sprit,The prophet,some xtian monks,?was it copied from the earlier scriptures,Or was it truly authored by Allah?

In answering the above Question,One needs to know how the word Qur’an comes about,
Literally,,it means a reading or recitation,it is different from the recorded sayings and deeds (sunnah) of the Holy Prophet Muhammad(Peace be upon him)these deeds and sayings are preserved in a separate set of literature which are collectively called Hadith(lit.”news”,”report” or “narration”.This is evident in the inclusion of the “word of command” to the Prophet in the Quran(Say-Qul) as reflected in qur’anic chapter 112,113,114 etc. Meaning that the holy Qur’an contains the words of Allah verbatim.

REVEALATION-The commencement of the revelation of the holy qur’an to the holy Prophet Muhammad through angel Gabriel took place in the cave of Hira in makkah with the first revealation being Quran chapter 96,the whole revelation took a period of  about 23 years.

RECORDING-The holy quran was recorded during the Holy Prophet’s time. Once the Prophet received a revealation,he would recite it to his companion as revealed,use it the observation of prayer,have it memorised by as many companions as possible. This method of recording/preservation has been confirmed to be highly effective according to Michael Zwettler,who notes that “In recent times,when writing was scarcely used,memory and oral transmission was exercised and strengthened to a degree now almost unknown”

In addition to encouraging companions to memorise verses of quran as being revealed,The holy Prophet asked his companions led by his chief Scribe Zayd Bn Thabit to write it,this writing was done on various materials. 

Worthy of mentioning also was the fact that the arrangement of chapter and verses were also done with the supervision of the holy prophet.

COMPILATION -As stated above,even though the arrangement of the quran was done during the life time of the Prophet,the compilation into book form that we have today was done during the reign of the first caliph after the Prophet’s death by the name Caliph Abu Bakr,(may Allah be pleased with him),Going down the memory lane,In the eleventh year after Hijrah,So many Qur’anic memorizers were lost in the battle of Yamamah,So based on the advice of Sayidina Umar(may Allah be pleased with him) who feared that qur’anic memorisers could go into extinction thereby causing quran to be corrupted,The Quran was compiled into book form and subsequently due to various linguistic variants,The dialect of the Prophet-Quraysh was chosen by caliph Uthman(may Allah be pleased with him)It should be mentioned that when revelation was going on,about seven dialects were used by Angel Gabriel to transmit the quran to the Prophet,In order to avoid disagreement on who pronounced correctly as we have some groups in yoruba land will pronounce “ile”(house) as “Ule” which does not change the intent and meaning.

To buttress the historical credibilty of the holy Qur’an and the fact that the Quran has no versions,Several first century copies of Quran still exist till today including some attributed to the time of Caliph Uthman,they are  available in the following locations

(1)Museum of the city of Tashkent in Uzbekista,Central Asia.
(2)Topkapi museum in Istanbul 
(3)Dar al Kutub as-Sultaniyyah in Egypt 
(4)Library of congress in Washington
(5)Chester Beatty Museum in Dublin(Ireland) etc

AUTHORSHIP-Using elimination method to handle the misconception that the quran was not authored by Allah,We would like at the purported author one by one and use our senses to arrive at a conclusion,
Muhammad-it could not have been him since he was unlettered,a claim accepted even by non Muslims orientalists,He was also known as Al Ameen

“The trust worthy” by Arabs then,Also in the inclusion of the “word of command” to the Prophet in the Quran(Say-Qul) as reflected in qur’anic chapter 112,113,114 etc

Devil-it could not have been it because in several areas was he condemned in the Quran(Q16:98,Q36:60 etc,moreover everyone knows the position of the Devil on morality,he could not written a book condemning vices as we have in the Quran.

Plagiarism-The facts that some Prophetic stories are more detailed in the Quran than any other scriptures is a pointer to the fact the part could not be larger than the whole Prophet taught by some Rabbis,monks or other religious leaders-By containing challenges to purported teachers of the Prophet,they would have come out then.

Allah-Looking at the internal consistencies such as the scientific evidences,historical facts,non contradictory facts,moral teachings etc,the Quran evidently could not have been authored by other than Allah who has preserved the holy Quran based on His promise in Quran chapter 15:9
Lastly,I will like to conclude by a quote in one of the publications of the Islamic education/dawah institute of Nigeria,minna, that “The evidence for the Divine Authorship of the Qur’and is also evidence for the existence of the Divine. Allah must exist, unless a more reasonably acceptable author of the Qur’an can be produced. The challenge remains!”

• Sheikh Moruf Onike Abdul-Azeez is Deputy Chief Missioner/Imam, Nasrul-Lahi-L- Fatih Society (NASFAT)
 
 

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