What
Muslims Believe about the Quran What
Muslims Believe about the Quran You can read thru the text below, or go directly to each topic area:
The Quran was given by God to Mohammad
According to Islamic History, the Quran was given by God to the prophet Mohammad through the agency of the angel Gabriel. According to Islamic history, it happened in, or around the year 610. Mohammad was asleep, or in a trance, when the angel Gabriel appeared to him and said three times, "Recite! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One Who taught man by pen what he did not know." Following a period of his own disbelief wherein Mohammad wondered if he himself might not be possessed by a devil, he began to accept, with the help of his wife Khadijah, the revelations, believing that he was the chosen apostle of God.
The Quran is the Word of GodMuslims believe the internal claims of the Quran that it is the Word of God revealed to Mohammad. It "confirms" the "previous" scriptures of the "Torah" and "Gospels," and is God's final revelation to man. The basis for this belief rest entirely upon the claims of the Quran:
"This Quran is not such as can be produced by other than Allah; on the contrary, it is a confirmation of (revelations) that went before it, and a fuller explanation of the book Ñ wherein there is no doubt Ñ from the Lord of the Worlds." [10:37 Yusuf Ali translation]
Many of Mohammad's hearers doubted his "revelations. Of this the Quran is honest, noting that the "revelations" seemed to change from time to time.
"When we substitute one revelation for another, Ñ and Allah knows best what He reveals (in stages), Ñ they say, 'Thou art but a forger": but most of them understand not." [16:101 Ali translation. Note: the phrase, "in stages" does not appear in the Arabic.]
Some of his hearers claimed Mohammad was taught much of his teaching by others, to which Mohammad made refutation.
"We know indeed that they say, 'It is a man who teaches him.' The tongue of him they wickedly point to is notably foreign, while this is Arabic, pure and clear." [16:103 Ali Translation.]
Such a verse in the Quranic context is interesting since it shows that there was someone else they already knew of who apparently gave some of the same teachings as Mohammad. Thus, were his "revelations" solely from God, as Mohammad claimed, or not?
Unlike the concept of "inspiration" that is subscribed to by most of the Christian church, Muslims believe that the Quran is literally the Word of God since its very words were not so much repeated by Mohammad, but Mohammad was controlled by God and spoke them. I.E., God speaking through him at that moment. Muslims draw an important distinction between the Quran as the Word of God and another class of writings called Hadith, which many Muslims believe chronicle sayings of Mohammad, including sayings given by God. However, since Mohammad repeated these sayings as opposed to God speaking them through him, they are not considered to be on the same authoritative level as the Quran.
Muslims believe the Quran is God's final revelation to man. Since it is the final revelation, it is regarded as superior to the others (Torah and Injeel, otherwise known as Gospels). Interestingly, one wonders how a perfect God could reveal something less than perfect as regards His own words. This is not something generally addressed by Muslims. Muslims believe that only the unaltered Arabic text is actually God's word. Translations are inferior, and Muslims hold that the Quran itself can never truly be translated. This is partially true as some words do not correspond exactly between Arabic and English. It is also true because many of the Quranic sayings in the Arabic text are incomprehensible even to native Arabic speakers. However, on the practical level, as with all documents and languages, translation to extreme accuracy is quite possible. The Quran suffers, however, in its English translations, because such translations have traditionally be done by one or two individuals instead of teams of linguistic experts in Arabic and English. Even the most respected English translations by Abdullah Yusuf Ali and Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall suffer in this way. Compared to the manner of translation for the Bible, by large teams of experts in Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and English, Quranic translations are far inferior in terms of keeping the original text up with modern language usage.
The Quran is Perfect in Literary Style, Grammatical Text, and Factual InformationAdherents to Islam often cite these three areas as proof that the Quran is the Word of God and Mohammad is His prophet. Style"God has now revealed the best of Scriptures, a book uniform in style proclaiming promises and warnings." [39:23 Dawood translation] Text "A Quran in the Arabic tongue, free from any flaw..." [39:28 Dawood translation] Factual Information. (Also supported by previous verse.) Since, as is claimed, Mohammad was an "illiterate man," how else but through God could he have produced a document as eloquent and flawless as the Qura?. As can be readily seen, however, in all three cases, the Quran false seriously short.
Regarding uniformity of style there are two approaches in answering this claim. First, the entirety of the Quran is purported to have been given or written by one man: Mohammad. It is not, therefore, a surprise that there should be such uniformity. In fact, there is far too much uniformity. Take for instance, God's quoting of Moses, Joseph and Jesus. Grammar and style and completely the same as if it were Mohammad talking, or his enemies in other passages, or God through Mohammad. (Compare Joseph's speech in Sura 12 with that or Mohammad elsewhere.) There is no taking into account, within any of the text, of the many character's differing personalities or styles of speech; something God would certainly account for as this would be well within His knowledge and ability if He were speaking through Mohammad. Either God is quoting these men exactly, and they talked exactly like Mohammad, or He is paraphrasing them, which no Muslim accepts.
The second approach is that the Quran is not perfectly uniform in style. Given over a period of more than two decades, there are changes in the manner in which Mohammad speaks. Curiously, as Mohammad's attitude changed toward certain people, God's attitude changed as well. This is true in the way he speaks of Jews and Christians. Note: "Believers, Jews, Christians and Sabeans whoever believes in God and the Last Day and does what is right Ñ shall be rewarded by their Lord and have nothing to fear or regret." [2:62 Dawood translation] Then compare with this: "Believers, take neither the Jews nor the Christians for your friends." [5:51 Dawood translation]
Muslims, taking their cues from the Quran, claim the Quran is without selfcontradictory statements. "Do they not consider the Quran (with care)? Had it been from other than Allah, they would surely have found therein much discrepancy." [4:82 Pickthall translation] Yet even the Quran itself denies that this is necessarily true. "Such of Our revelations as We abrogate, or cause to be forgotten, We bring one in place better or the like thereof." [2:106 Pickthall translation]
The Quran has been Perfectly Preserved through HistoryMuslims today claim that the Quran has been perfectly preserved in its original form since it was first ordered collected into a single volume by Mohammad. However, extent copies of ancient quotations and texts relying upon ancient copies of the Quran have shown that dramatic variations in text existed. Even in the 20th century, there are Arabic versions of the Quran which have varying Sura. In their excellent reference work, Answering Islam, Normal Geisler and Adbul Saleeb note:
"Some time later, during the reign of Uthman, the third Muslim Caliph, it was reported that several Muslim communities were using different versions of the Quran. Once again, Zayd was called in to oversee the official revised version of the Quran. It is this version that has remained uniform and intact to this day....
"Jeffrey concludes....'there were wide divergencies between the collections that had been digested into Codices in the great Metropolitan centres of Madina, Mecca, Basra, Kufa, and Damascus.' So 'Uthman's solution was to canonize the Madinan Codex and order all others to be destroyed.'
"Watt....writes....'No copies exist of any of the early Codices, but the list of variant readings from the two just mentioned is extensive, running to a thousand or more items in both cases.'" [Answering Islam, Geisler & Saleeb, page 192]
Coming soon: text from a Quran prior to Uthman. It's radically different than today's Quran!
The Quran is Scientifically AccurateHaving become only recently popular because of advances in medical technology and theoretical cosmology, many of today's Muslims claim that the Quran reveals scientific information that was previously unknowable to 7th century man. That information, covering reproduction and cosmology, contains no error and could not have been discovered apart from the revelation of God. However, a brief study of history reveals that many of the "scientific concepts" touted from the Quran were actually conceived of as early as a millennium prior to Mohammad. Some of the medical information is also in great error. The areas of science to which the Quran is claimed to reveal by way of revelation are as follows:
Origin of the Universe
Interstellar Matter
State of the Universe
Planets and Earth(s)
Human Reproduction
DNA & Genetics
"Other" Revelations
Each topic will be addressed on its own page. Watch for these updated pages to appear as they are produced. Our apologies for the current inconvenience.
This covers a few basics about what Muslims believe about the Quran. There are several good books on Islam that will help to answer your questions further. Check you local bookstore, or Christian bookstore for the following titles:
Answering Islam
Norman Geisler & Abdul Saleeb
The Islam Debate
Josh McDowell & John Gilchrist
Sharing your Faith with a Muslim
Islam: It's Power, People and Politics
Abdiyah Akbar AbdulHaqq
George Braswell
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