Prophet Muhammad and the Qur’an

I am sure that most of you have some familiarity with the Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, and the Qur’an but for some points that I will make later, I believe a very brief introduction to the two is in order.

Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, was born around 570 years after the birth of Jesus Christ. He was born in Mecca, in the Arabian Peninsula. The people of Mecca were devoted to idol-worship. The area was not known as a place of advanced civilization or learning at its time. In fact, the Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, was illiterate.

At the age of forty, Muhammad received his first revelation. Although he was known among his people as “the trustworthy,” the majority of the Arabs belied him and soon after started a massive campaign to persecute those who believed in him. After thirteen years of preaching in Mecca, the Prophet himself left for the city of Medina, where he already had some followers. They made him the leader of the city.

The disbelievers of Mecca did not rest and attempted to militarily squash the new faith. However, what was originally a small band of Muslims grew in number and were able to withstand the onslaught of the disbelievers.

Within ten years, the Prophet himself led an army back to Mecca and conquered it in a bloodless victory. Thus, Islam became victorious in Arabia and began spreading throughout the world. The Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, finally died in 632.

As for the Qur’an, it was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad over a period of twenty-three years. It was revealed directly to him via the angel Gabriel. He would receive the revelation and then convey it to his followers. Thus, the Qur’an is very different from the Bible. There are no human contributions to the Qur’an; it is only the revelation from God. In other words, you will not find any stories about the Prophet written by his Companions in the Qur’an.  In fact, you will not even find in the Qur’an any of the Prophet’s speech outside of what he stated to be the revelation of the Qur’an. The Prophet’s own words have been kept completely separate from the Qur’an.

One final note, the Qur’an is only in Arabic. The best translation is not the Qur’an. Once you lose something in its original wording and rely only on translation, the original is truly lost.