1. It (contents of the book) must remain as it was revealed without any alteration.
2. It must have some evidence to show that it is indeed from God.
3. It must be consistent with the rational and intuitive conclusion on God.
4. It must be free from contradictions.
Now let us see if Quran can withstand these criterions or not.
1. The contents of the book must remain in it's original form without any alteration.
"Barring one or two slightly different manuscripts [which differ only in very minor issues like the angle some signs indicating the vowels in Arabic scripts are scribed] the Qur'an the world over is exactly the same book This can be tested easily for there are thousands of huffaz [individuals who have committed the Qur'an to memory] who have memorized the Qur'an the world over. They recite the Qur'an every day in salat [prayer]. During the month of Ramadhan the entire Qur'an is recited aloud in salat in masjids around the world. Were anyone to recite it differently it would immediately be recognized. Any Muslim is familiar with this, for we have all witnessed the correcting of the Imam [Leader in prayer] should he falter or make an error in prayer.
Consider what this means. It means that over the last 1400 years as Muslims have moved to live all over the globe, there has been no alteration at all to any of the manuscripts of the Qur'an. If there had been then there would definitely be variants of the Qur'an. The Qur'an held by a man in London would be different than one held by a woman in Vienna. As the Qur'an is the same the world over this has not occurred.
One can imagine this as a spider's web. Each strand represents the spread of Muslims around the world and over time. If there were changes to the Qur'an at any point the manuscripts at the end of the web would be different at different points. As they are not it means that we hold the same Qur'an as the version at the center of our imaginary web.
The centre of the web represents the period where Uthman the third Khalifah of Islam gathered together all variant manuscripts and produced one standard manuscript based on the version that Abu Bakr had used. The sahabi [companions of the prophet] reached a consensus regarding the correct nature of this version as the Prophet had himself made the majority of them memorize the Qur'an before his death. This version was distributed to the other Muslims of the state. As currently we all have the same version of the Qur'an it must be the very same copy of Abu Bakr's that Uthman standardized for everyone as previously explained.
It cannot be argued the Qur'an may have been tampered with at this point, and that we possess other than that which Allah revealed. If anything had been added into the Qur'an or altered by men, then these verses would have lost their inimitable quality, their miraculous nature (discussed later). As the entire Qur'an to this day still possesses these attributes, what was compiled by Uthman and the companions was definitely all revelation from the Creator." [1]
Consider what this means. It means that over the last 1400 years as Muslims have moved to live all over the globe, there has been no alteration at all to any of the manuscripts of the Qur'an. If there had been then there would definitely be variants of the Qur'an. The Qur'an held by a man in London would be different than one held by a woman in Vienna. As the Qur'an is the same the world over this has not occurred.
One can imagine this as a spider's web. Each strand represents the spread of Muslims around the world and over time. If there were changes to the Qur'an at any point the manuscripts at the end of the web would be different at different points. As they are not it means that we hold the same Qur'an as the version at the center of our imaginary web.
The centre of the web represents the period where Uthman the third Khalifah of Islam gathered together all variant manuscripts and produced one standard manuscript based on the version that Abu Bakr had used. The sahabi [companions of the prophet] reached a consensus regarding the correct nature of this version as the Prophet had himself made the majority of them memorize the Qur'an before his death. This version was distributed to the other Muslims of the state. As currently we all have the same version of the Qur'an it must be the very same copy of Abu Bakr's that Uthman standardized for everyone as previously explained.
It cannot be argued the Qur'an may have been tampered with at this point, and that we possess other than that which Allah revealed. If anything had been added into the Qur'an or altered by men, then these verses would have lost their inimitable quality, their miraculous nature (discussed later). As the entire Qur'an to this day still possesses these attributes, what was compiled by Uthman and the companions was definitely all revelation from the Creator." [1]
Please be mindful that there exists numerous translations of the Quran which varies in their translated meaning but not the Arabic text in which it was revealed. There are some who raised doubts about the preservation of the Quran. Scholars of Islam have addressed these doubts with due responses. I have added a weblink below for the interested readers who want to dig further into this topic:
http://www.islamic-life.com/other-refutations/quran/article-quran-preserved
2. It must have evidence to show that it is from God.
Before we establish that the 'Quran is a miracle, hence it must be from God'; I would like to first explain the differences between miracle and magic.
" One good definition of miracle: An event that appears so inexplicable by the laws of nature, that it is held to be supernatural in origin or an act of God. So if a man for example split the red sea in the name of God or split the moon into two parts, his claims to prophet-hood would be verified in the eyes of those who witnessed the miracle, or later who verified its occurrence by some other means.
The breaking of natural law may only occur via the permission of the one who defined them and brought them into existence; the Creator of the universe. As all of mankind, like everything else in the universe is bound by these laws, the proclaimed messenger who performs a miracle has proven, he is indeed a messenger. For only God may alter or suspend the natural laws. Thus the messenger has done so by His permission alone as there is no other way and so authenticated his claims. No ordinary man has the ability to do this.
It would not be correct to say that illusionists and the like appear to break the natural law. Their illusions cannot withstand scrutiny, rather they are revealed to merely be deception. The miracles of the past were so apparent as to withstand any scrutiny. The two examples mentioned already demonstrate this; the splitting of the red sea and the splitting of the moon. In the times of these two miracles, attributed to prophet Musa and Muhammad (Peace be upon them) respectively, there were no cameras, special effects or television.
Any sincere and intelligent man who witnessed prophet Isa (peace be upon him) give life to the dead or saw prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) emerge from the raging fire unharmed would believe they were indeed, as they claimed to be, messengers of God. There is no other explanation for a miracle, an event which defies the laws of nature, the only possibility is that it occurs by the permission of the Creator. As there is no other possibility this reason must be true, it must be the cause for the effect witnessed." [2]
The breaking of natural law may only occur via the permission of the one who defined them and brought them into existence; the Creator of the universe. As all of mankind, like everything else in the universe is bound by these laws, the proclaimed messenger who performs a miracle has proven, he is indeed a messenger. For only God may alter or suspend the natural laws. Thus the messenger has done so by His permission alone as there is no other way and so authenticated his claims. No ordinary man has the ability to do this.
It would not be correct to say that illusionists and the like appear to break the natural law. Their illusions cannot withstand scrutiny, rather they are revealed to merely be deception. The miracles of the past were so apparent as to withstand any scrutiny. The two examples mentioned already demonstrate this; the splitting of the red sea and the splitting of the moon. In the times of these two miracles, attributed to prophet Musa and Muhammad (Peace be upon them) respectively, there were no cameras, special effects or television.
Any sincere and intelligent man who witnessed prophet Isa (peace be upon him) give life to the dead or saw prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him) emerge from the raging fire unharmed would believe they were indeed, as they claimed to be, messengers of God. There is no other explanation for a miracle, an event which defies the laws of nature, the only possibility is that it occurs by the permission of the Creator. As there is no other possibility this reason must be true, it must be the cause for the effect witnessed." [2]
So basically Magic is a deception employed by the magicians which can be exposed through scrutiny and Miracle is an event which defies the laws of nature in reality for which there can be no other explanation except that it's an act of God. Now let us see how we can conclude that the Quran is a miracle. It can be proven by the following:
a. The linguistic and literary inimitability
b. It contains prophecies that have been fulfilled.
c. It mentions some scientific facts that could not have been known by man at the time of revelation
2.a. The linguistic and literary inimitability:
" The Qur’an states:
'If you are in doubt of what we have revealed to our messenger, then produce one chapter like it. Call upon all your helpers, besides Allah, if you are truthful' [Qur’an 2:23]
Muslim and non-Muslim exegete have commented that these verses, and other verses similar to it, are an open challenge to humanity to try and match the literary and linguistic feature/nature of the divine text. It is not surprising that this chapter is often quoted and its significance highlighted by those propagating the Islamic way of life.
This chapter is used as a proof of the Islamic creed. If someone can meet the challenge, then the text cannot be from the Divine. All that they need to do is to produce one chapter like that of the Quran and the smallest chapter in the Quran is consist of only three sentences. However if the challenge can not be met, even though there are a finite set of literary and linguistic ‘tools’ at their disposal; then the question of authorship has great implications.
The Qur’an was revealed more than 1400 years ago and for this amount of time the challenge has remained. This however does not mean that no one has attempted to match the literary and linguistic style/feature/nature of the text. Throughout the centuries thinkers, poets, theologians and literary critics have attempted to challenge the Qur’an. Some of these challengers include Musaylamah, Ibn Al-Mukaffa‘, Abu'l-'Ala Al-Marri, Yahya b. Al-Hakam al-Ghazal, Sayyid 'Ali Muhammad, Ibn al-Rawandi, Bassar bin Burd, Sahib Ibn 'Abbad, Abu'l - 'Atahiya and the contemporary Christian Missionaries who developed the ‘True Furqan’.
Even though the challengers have had the same set of ‘tools’, which are the 29 letters, finite grammatical rules and the blue print of the challenge – which is the Qur’an itself; they have failed to:
Replicate the Qur’ans literary form
Match the unique linguistic genre of the Qur’an
Select and arrange words like that of the Qur’an.
Select and arrange particles like that of the Qur’an.
Match the Qur’ans phonetic superiority.
Equal the frequency of rhetorical devices
Match the level of informativity
Equal the Qur’ans conciseness and flexibility " [3]
Select and arrange particles like that of the Qur’an.
Match the Qur’ans phonetic superiority.
Equal the frequency of rhetorical devices
Match the level of informativity
Equal the Qur’ans conciseness and flexibility " [3]
" Given the Arabic language, given the blueprint of the entire Qur'an itself, it should definitely be possible to imitate the style for only three lines. But the challenge to this day remains unmet. How can this be? If a man had produced the Qur'an then another man would have been able to copy the process and achieve the same result. It should be noted that the process only need be replicated for only 3 lines! The fact that this cannot be done defies all the known laws of language, and yet it is the case.
This is analogous to giving a team of expert Ferrari engineers the blueprint to a Ferrari, all of the building materials and tools and yet they are unable to assemble it. Pharmaceutical companies may spend years and invest millions of pounds in producing a new drug, but they immediately patent the drug to prevent other companies from producing the same thing. This is because the drug can be examined in a laboratory, its composition analyzed, the process replicated. The same rules apply to language, any style can be examined, its rules understood, the style replicated. But with the Qur'an this has never been done." [4]
This is analogous to giving a team of expert Ferrari engineers the blueprint to a Ferrari, all of the building materials and tools and yet they are unable to assemble it. Pharmaceutical companies may spend years and invest millions of pounds in producing a new drug, but they immediately patent the drug to prevent other companies from producing the same thing. This is because the drug can be examined in a laboratory, its composition analyzed, the process replicated. The same rules apply to language, any style can be examined, its rules understood, the style replicated. But with the Qur'an this has never been done." [4]
“…and that though several attempts have been made to produce a work equal to it as far as elegant writing is concerned, none has as yet succeeded.” ( F. F. Arbuthnot. 1885. The Construction of the Bible and the Koran. London, p 5 )
The implication of this is that there is no link between the Qur’an and the Arabic language; however this seems impossible because the Qur’an is made up of the Arabic language! On the other hand, all the combinations of Arabic words and letters have been used to try and imitate the Qur’an. Therefore, it can only be concluded that a supernatural explanation is the only coherent explanation for this impossible Arabic literary form – the Qur’an.
William Shakespeare, who was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, is often used as an example of unique literature. The argument posed is that if Shakespeare expressed his poetry and prose in a unique manner - and he is a human being - then surely no matter how unique the Qur’an is, it must also be from a human being.
However there are some problems with the above argument. It does not take into account the nature of the Qur’an’s uniqueness and it doesn’t understand the uniqueness of literary geniuses such as Shakespeare. Although Shakespeare composed poetry and prose that received an unparalleled aesthetic reception, the literary form he expressed his works in was not unique. In many instances Shakespeare used the common Iambic Pentameter (The Iambic pentameter is a meter in poetry. It refers to a line consisting of five iambic feet. The word "pentameter" simply means that there are five feet in the line.)
However in the case of the Qur’an, its language is in an entirely unknown and unmatched literary form. The structural features of the Qur’anic discourse render it unique and not the subjective appreciation of its literary and linguistic makeup." [5]
William Shakespeare, who was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, is often used as an example of unique literature. The argument posed is that if Shakespeare expressed his poetry and prose in a unique manner - and he is a human being - then surely no matter how unique the Qur’an is, it must also be from a human being.
However there are some problems with the above argument. It does not take into account the nature of the Qur’an’s uniqueness and it doesn’t understand the uniqueness of literary geniuses such as Shakespeare. Although Shakespeare composed poetry and prose that received an unparalleled aesthetic reception, the literary form he expressed his works in was not unique. In many instances Shakespeare used the common Iambic Pentameter (The Iambic pentameter is a meter in poetry. It refers to a line consisting of five iambic feet. The word "pentameter" simply means that there are five feet in the line.)
However in the case of the Qur’an, its language is in an entirely unknown and unmatched literary form. The structural features of the Qur’anic discourse render it unique and not the subjective appreciation of its literary and linguistic makeup." [5]
I will just provide two examples of fulfilled prophecies here.
Prophecies fulfilled during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad (saw):
The Quran states:
"Perished are the two hands (works) of Abu Lahab, and he is perished. His money and whatever he has accomplished will never help him. He will enter a fire full of flames.”(Source: Holy Quran, Surah Masad, Ayah 1 to 3)
Inspite of Mohammad’s (PBUH) continuous preaching, the ill-fated man never embraced Islam. It is reported from Ibn Masud (RA) that when the messenger of Allah (PBUH) called people to faith, Abu Lahab said:
“Even if what my nephew says is true, I will save myself from the painful torment on the Day of Judgement with my wealth and my children.”
Notice that this was a golden opportunity for Abu Lahab and his wife to belie the Qur’an by embracing Islam (even superficially as a Hypocrite) and hence break the whole foundation of Islam that Qur’an is a divine revelation and it cannot be false or wrong. But they failed to do so although they had time of over 11 years to prove Qur’an wrong. Ultimately, they died as a disbeliever.
Prophecies fulfilled after the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad (saw):
The Quran states:
“Absolutely, We have revealed the reminder (The Qur’an), and, absolutely, We will preserve it.” (Source: Holy Qur’an: Surah Hijr, Ayah 9)
Since it's revelation more than 1400 years ago, the original Qur’an is still fully preserved and intact word by word as it was when it was first revealed on the holy Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). This proven fact has been discussed in section 1 in this article.
2.c. It mentions some scientific facts that could not have been known by man at the time of revelation
There are numerous evidences of scientific facts that are mentioned in Quran which have been proven by science in recent past. I am going to mention here one example only.
The Quran states:
"Lo! Those who disbelieve Our revelations, We shall expose them to the Fire. As often as their skins are consumed We shall exhange them for fresh skins that they may taste the torment. Lo! Allah is ever Mighty, Wise" [Quran chanpter 4, verse 56]
This verse indicates that there is something in the skin which makes us feel pain. This is exactly what modern science tells us i.e. pain receptors are responsible for feeling pain. It was thought that the sense of feeling and pain was dependent only on the brain. Recent discoveries however prove that there are pain receptors present in the skin, without which a person would not be able to feel pain. When a doctor examines a patient suffering from burn injuries, he verifies the degree of burns by a pinprick. If the patient feels pain, the doctor is happy, because it indicates that the burns are superficial and the pain receptors are intact. On the other hand, if the patient does not feel any pain, it indicates that it is a deep burn and the pain receptors have been destroyed.
Prof. Tegatat Tejasen, Chairman of the Department of Anatomy at Chiang Mai University in Thailand, has spent a great amount of time on research of pain receptors. Initially he could not believe that the Qur'an mentioned this scientific fact 1,400 years ago. He later verified the translation of this particular Qur'anic verse. Prof. Tegatat Tejasen was so impressed by the scientific accuracy of the Quranic verse, that at the 8th Saudi Medical Conference held in Riyadh on the Scientific Signs of Qur'an and Sunnah, he proudly proclaimed in public: "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad (Peace Be upon Him) is His Messenger."
The Ayat under discussion mentions the burning of the skin. The severity of a burn depends on its depth, its extent, and the age of the victim. Burns are classified by depth as first, second, and third degree. First-degree burns cause redness and pain (e.g., sunburn). Second-degree burns are marked by blisters (e.g., scald by hot liquid). In third-degree burns, both the epidermis and dermis (external and internal parts of the skin) are destroyed, and underlying tissue may also be damaged. Further burn in the skin would damage the pain receptors and hence the person would not feel pain. Quran rightly mentions this 'extreme' stage for the change of skin. The Arabic word used is نضجت which indicates the burning to the extreme stage. Ibn e Faris says that its basic meaning includes burning something to the last stage.
3. It must be consistent with the rational and intuitive conclusion on God.
For example if a book describes God as dependent and limited being like humans (God dying or eating food) then we can safely assume that this book is not from God, as God by necessity must be external to the universe, eternal and omnipotent. [read here for explanations on these rational necessities of God].
The most concise definition of God in Islam is given in the four verses of Surah Ikhlas which is Chapter 112 of the Quran:
"Say: He is Allah, The One and Only. Allah, the Eternal, Absolute. He begets not, nor is He begotten. And there is none like unto Him." [Al-Quran 112:1-4]
"Say: He is Allah, The One and Only. Allah, the Eternal, Absolute. He begets not, nor is He begotten. And there is none like unto Him." [Al-Quran 112:1-4]
2. It must be free from contradictions.
To find out if Quran contains contradictions or not one needs to read Quran by him/herself. So far no one could come up with a justified claim of contradiction in the Quran. There are some unscrupulous claims regarding contradictions in Quran, which have been addressed by Islamic scholars in depth. One can easily find those in the web. I have added a web link below for the interested readers on this topic:
Conclusion
"The sincere and deep man who scrutinizes the miracle of the Qur'an will easily arrive at the realization that mankind is in possession of a perfectly preserved codex of revelation from his Creator. This book, the Qur'an is the only such book in the world today. It explains clearly how all of mankind must live their lives and organize their societies. It teaches him right from wrong and gives us knowledge of life after death and creation that we would otherwise never know. It directs us in each and every one of our personal matters, our family issues, from how we pray and clean ourselves to the relationships between nations and how a state governs itself." [6]
[1] http://www.caliphate.eu/2007/10/proof-of-quran.html
[2] http://www.caliphate.eu/2007/10/proof-of-quran.html
[3] http://hamzatzortzis.blogspot.com/2007/07/three-lines-that-changed-world.html
[4] http://www.caliphate.eu/2007/10/proof-of-quran.html
[5] http://hamzatzortzis.blogspot.com/2009/01/questions-how-does-qurans-uniqueness.html
[6] http://www.caliphate.eu/2007/10/proof-of-quran.html
No comments:
Post a Comment