The purpose of this website is to consider reverently and honestly the truth about the Holy Quran, for outside the ranks of a few able Muslim scholars even the traditional view concerning the Quran is distorted. We shall therefore commence by considering the traditional claims made about the Holy Quran.
What Islam Teaches. --- In pdf
Muhammad's Strange Misconceptions About Isa and Mariam. --- In pdf
Christianity and Islam - A Friendly Discussion--- In pdf
Muhammad Was Hijacked --- In pdf
Countering The Muslim Arguments Against The Triunity Of God (Allah) --- In pdf
The Triunity Of God (Allah) --- In pdf
Was Jesus Really Crucified?--- In pdf
A Christian Weighs Up A Muslim's Arguments In Defence Of The Quran. --- In pdf
1). The Traditional Seven Recensions Of The Holy Quran.
Strictly speaking, of course, from the point of view of the tradition we should not speak of ‘the Holy Quran’ but of seven differing recensions of the Holy Quran each of which claimed to accurately reproduce the teaching of Muhammad. These seven representations of the Holy Quran were said to be written down by seven close followers of Muhammad, and differed not only as to dialect but as to original text (as some Muslim commentators bring out).
2). The Production of the Holy Quran.
For the fact was that, according to the traditional view, Muhammad, who could neither read nor write, did not give out the whole of the Quran at one time but recited it piecemeal, in differing presentations, as he felt that circumstances demanded, over a period of some twenty-three years. And even then, his immediate disciples did not immediately commit the whole to writing. It was preserved by some portions being memorized, while others were transcribed upon 'palm leaves, leather, slabs of stone,' etc.. Inevitably therefore discrepancies would soon have arisen, and from the traditions we learn that within a comparatively short time serious differences arose in the reading of the Quran, differences by no means confined to pronunciation.
3). Early Concerns About Differences In The Holy Quran.
In the well-known book of traditions, the Mishkat-al-Musabih in the chapter called Fajail-ul-Quran we read : -
“Umr-ibn-al-Khatab said, 'I heard Hisham-ibn-Hakim ibn-Hijami reading Sura Furqan in a different way from that which I was accustomed to do ; but the prophet had taught me this Sura. Then I wished to immediately forbid him, but allowed him to read to the end. Then I seized his dress, and took him to the prophet, and said, Oh prophet of God; I heard this man reading Sura Furqan in another way; he read it differently from what you taught me. Then the prophet said to me, 'Let him go.' He then told him to read. He then read in the manner which I had heard. Upon that the prophet said; It has been revealed in this way.' Again he said to me, 'Do you read also.' Then when I had read, he said, 'It was revealed in this way also; the Quran was revealed in seven readings, read it in the way which is easy to you'."
In another tradition, recorded by Muslim, we learn that Ibn-Kab, one of the most famous of the Quran readers, heard two men reciting the Namaz in a reading different from his own. Upon reference being made to the prophet, the latter pronounced both correct, "upon which," says Ibn-Kab "such a revolt arose in my heart as had not existed since the times of ignorance."
From these various traditions it is clear that, if they are true, even during the lifetime of the prophet the Quran was being recited in various mutually conflicting ways. Indeed so grave were the differences that quarrels soon arose; for the inhabitants of Hims stood by the recitation of Al-Miqdad-ibn-al-Aswad; the Kufites by that of Ibn-Mas'ud; the Busrites by that of Abu-Musa, and so on. But it would be a mistake to suppose that these differences simply consisted in the recitation of the Quran in the various dialects of Arabia, for there is ample evidence to show that the differences extended far deeper. Indeed we learn from the Itqan that the two men mentioned above, 'Umr and Hisham, were both of the same tribe, the Quraish, so that a supposed difference of dialect does not account for the difference recorded above. (for information about textual variants click on Textual Variants.
4). The Attempt To Establish A Single Text Of The Holy Quran.
From the third chapter of the Mishkat we learn that for some time after the death of the prophet, the Quran continued to be preserved in the memories of the people, and was still recited in various conflicting ways; but in the famous battle of Yamamah some of the Quran reciters were slain. Then 'Umr, fearing lest another battle should still further reduce the number of those able to recite the Quran, with the result that much of it might have been lost, came to Abu-Bakr and importuned him to order the Quran to be collected into one book. At first Abu-Bakr objected. "How can I do a thing which the prophet has not done?" he asked. But yielding at last to the entreaties of 'Umr, the Khalif gave orders to Zaid-ibn-Sabit, who had been an amanuensis of the prophet, to search out the Quran and bring it all together. This the latter did, "collecting it from leaves of the date, white stones, and the hearts of men". This copy of the Quran was given to the Khalif Abu-Bakr, after whose death it passed into the possession of the Khalif 'Umr, who in turn gave it into the keeping of his daughter Hafsa, one of the widows of Muhammad.
There are, however, external grounds for thinking that some of these 'early traditions' were invented later in order to try to suggest that the Quran and the historical sources came into being a century or two before they did. (For scholarly scepticism about the early history see Scholarly scepticism.
5). The Zaid Committee.
We learn from Al-Bukhari that as time passed the discrepancies and contradictions which existed in the various readings of the Quran became of a still graver nature; until at last the Khalif 'Usman took steps to allay the doubts which began to arise in the minds of the people. It was the Khalif's expressed desire to preserve the Quran in the Quraish dialect, the dialect of the prophet himself. The means which 'Usman adopted were drastic in the extreme, and simply consisted in transcribing one complete copy of the Quran in the Quraish dialect, and then burning all other copies. For this purpose the Khalif appointed a committee, with Zaid at its head, to do the work. But in the case of any difference of opinion Zaid, who was a native of Medina, had to give way to Quraish members of the revision committee, or to the Khalif himself. A significant illustration of the latter's interference is given in one of the traditions. It is recorded that 'Ali wished to write a particular word with a different preference to the committee, but 'Usman decided in favour of the latter as being according to the Quraish dialect.' It so happens, however, that the word is not an Arabic word at all, but was borrowed by Muhammad with many other words from the ancient Hebrew! It is simply the Hebrew for 'ark,' and as such is introduced into the story of Moses in Sura XX. This incident serves to show how difficult the compilers of the Quran found it to preserve the Quran in the Meccan dialect, the claimed language of Gabriel and of Muhammad.
6). Archaeological Discoveries About The Holy Quran.
The fact of these differing representations of the Quran has been demonstrated by archaeology in the most remarkable way, for not only are differing versions revealed by early coinage, by rock inscriptions, and by inscriptions in the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, but a treasure chest of copies of the Quran was discovered in 1972, during the restoration of the Great Mosque of Sana'a, in Yemen, when laborers working in a loft between the structure's inner and outer roofs stumbled across a remarkable collection of manuscripts, although they did not realize its significance at the time. Their ignorance was excusable. For it contained nothing more than an unappealing mish-mash of old parchment and paper documents -- damaged books and individual pages of Arabic text, fused together by centuries of rain and damp, and gnawed into over the years by rats and insects. Intent on completing the task at hand, the laborers gathered up the manuscripts, pressed them into some twenty potato sacks, and set them aside on the staircase of one of the mosque's minarets, where they were locked away and there they would probably have been forgotten once again, were it not for Qadhi Isma'il al-Akwa', who was then the president of the Yemeni Antiquities Authority, who realized the potential importance of the find.
Al-Akwa' sought international assistance in examining and preserving the fragments, and in 1979 managed to interest a visiting German scholar, who in turn persuaded the German government to organize and fund a restoration project. Soon after the project began, it became clear that the hoard was a fabulous example of what is sometimes referred to as a "paper grave" -- in this case the resting place for, among other things, tens of thousands of fragments from close to a thousand different parchment codices of the Quran, the Muslim holy scripture. In some pious Muslim circles it is held that worn-out or damaged copies of the Quran must be removed from circulation; hence the idea of a store-house, which both preserves the sanctity of the texts being laid to rest and ensures that only complete and unblemished editions of the scripture will be read.
Some of the parchment pages in the Yemeni hoard seemed to date back to the seventh and eighth centuries A.D (Islam's first two centuries). They were fragments, in other words, of perhaps the oldest copies of parts of the Holy Quran which were existent at the time. And what is more, some of these fragments revealed small but intriguing aberrations from the standard Quranic text. Such aberrations, though not surprising to textual historians, are troublingly at odds with the orthodox Muslim belief that the Quran as it has reached us today is quite simply the perfect, timeless, and unchanging Word of God.
In the light of all this, and in view of the approach taken by Muslim apologists, who treat the Holy Bible in this way, we now attach a list of apparent contradictions in the Quran.
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