OLD OR NEW REVELATION?

Quoted from the "ISLAM REVEALED"

THE QURAN EXPOSED

OLD OR NEW REVELATION?

Revelation is the process by which God imparts to man truths which cannot be known naturally. For example, since man was not created until the sixth day, God had to reveal to Moses details reflected in Genesis 1-5.
The uniqueness of the Quran is also claimed to be due to the information it presents regarding the past and the future. However, these claims cannot be substantiated.

Quranic Teachings

The teachings of the Quran concerning God, creation, Adam and Eve, sin, the Fall, angels, heaven, hell, Abraham, Moses, the Hebrew race, and prophets had already been revealed and proclaimed in the Old Testament. Muhammad added nothing new. Perhaps some of this was new to his hearers, but Jews and Christians knew even more from their Bibles.

Muhammad's revelations were in no way superior to the revelations given by earlier prophets; neither did they unquestionably provide evidence of a fresh divine revelation. All the above-mentioned truths and more had been revealed and taught for centuries before the birth of Muhammad.
One of the perplexing statements in the Quran can be construed as a revelation indeed, but not a divine one! It is the unequivocal Quranic declaration that General Alexander the Great of Macedonia was a prophet. How on earth or in heaven can a heathen general whose debauchery and drunkenness contributed to his death at thirty-three ever be considered a prophet of God Almighty? That is some revelation in the "Book whose tablets are preserved in heaven" (Surat al-Kahf [The Cave] 18:83-100). Theological authorities demand that six conditions be fulfilled before any supposed revelation can be accepted as true revelation.

(1) It must satisfy the yearning of the human spirit to obtain eternal happiness.

(2) It must coincide with the conscience, which is the moral law written in man's mind.

(3) It must reveal God's true attributes.

(4) It must confirm man's reasoning that God is one.

(5) It must make very plain the way of salvation.

(6) It must reveal God Himself in books, through prophets, and in person."

Neither Muhammad nor the Quran fulfills all of these six requirements. The Quran only fulfills the fourth criterion. The other five are missing.

Muhammad's Prophecies

As to the so-called prophecies of Muhammad, no one who diligently studies these verses can accept such a claim. Let us examine some of the twenty-one passages which are claimed as prophetic. The first group deals with promises of victory.
Such claims are made before a battle to infuse courage in the fighting forces. One of any two opposing generals who makes such a prediction will of necessity win. Yet that victory can by no means constitute a claim by the general that he is a prophet, or as Muhammad was declared to be, "the Seal of the Prophets" or a "Messenger of Allah."
There is no doubt that Augustus Caesar, Ghangiz Khan, Taimur Lang, and even the famed Arab warrior Salah Eddin promised their followers success in battle. Yet no one considers that the fulfillment of their promises makes them prophets or apostles of God! The fighting Arabs became almost invincible due to their belief in Muhammad's divine mission to wage war against the Quraish, the Jewish tribes, neighboring countries, and the world. What more weighty reason could any human being find to achieve than being told "Allah Almighty commands it and that is His Divine Desire"? In fact, one finds this clearly enunciated in the following story related in Hayatul Qulub (vol. 2, chap. 30):

Muhammad informed his Companions that the caravan had passed and that the Quraish were advancing towards them, and that God Most High had commanded him to fight a Jihad with them. On hearing this his Companions became very much afraid and very anxious ... and cried out loud and wept. Therefore, to encourage them and enable them to fight manfully a battle upon which so much depended. Muhammad repeated Surat al-Qamar (The Moon) 54:44, 45.

The promise of victory, Muhammad declared, came from God. The Muslims were encouraged tremendously and fought valiantly and won. Can these words be justly called prophetic?
One should never overlook that biblical standards of prophecy demanded 100 percent accuracy, according to Deuteronomy 18:20-22:

But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, "How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?" --when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

The following Quranic passage is supposed to validate the prophethood of Muhammad:

The Romans have been defeated in the nearer land, and they, after their defeat, will be victorious within ten years--Allah's is the command in the former case and in the latter--and in that day believers will rejoice.

But this alleged prophecy has several problems. First, there is no conclusive evidence of when the prophecy was first given, making it impossible to date the ten-year limit accurately. Second, the passage is ambiguous in several places since it is written in Cufik Arabic, which does not use vowels. Third, the Muslims' rising power was evident to everyone around, and it didn't take a prophet to predict their eventual triumph over the infidels. Fourth, the prophecy declared victory within ten years. In reality, it took Muhammad and his armies twelve years from the generally accepted date of the prophecy to subdue these enemies. Fifth, the Arabic word bid’i, which is translated as "ten years," signifies not ten years but no less than three years and no more than nine. In other words, Muhammad missed the prophecy's deadline by at least three years!

The Human Source of the Quran
Having studied the Quran, I think it was composed this way. Muhammad was collecting his prose and poems and trying to edit them before publishing them when he unexpectedly died. In my opinion, this is the reason the narratives are so disjointed and even at times seem contradictory. Any Arabic language expert with patience can eliminate the problem by reorganizing the narratives into logical sequence.

There is hardly a single complete narrative on any given topic recorded in one Surat. Instead, bits and pieces are recorded here and there. In fact, the entire Quran, according to scholarly investigation, must be read backwards to give the correct chronological and logical perspective.

Surely, if God speaks only Arabic and sent down the Quran from heaven in Arabic, he would certainly have used more discretion, better organization, and a glowing sequence of facts and events. The chaotic condition of the English translation of the Quran is a glaring example of the disorganization in the original Cufik dialect of Arabic.

How can the one God send two clashing revelations, the Bible and the Quran, to confuse men? It is not the Bible which is contradictory and confusing. No, it is definitely the Quran. If Muslims insist that the Bible is corrupt, I will have to declare that the evidence, much of which I have presented in this book, vindicates the Bible and condemns the Quran. No reasonable person presented with the evidence can believe otherwise.

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