The Qu’ran

As to the Qu’ran, it consists exclusively of the revelation or commands which the Prophet professed, to have received from time to time, as a message direct from God; and which, under divine direction, the Prophet delivered to those about him.

Every syllable of the Qu’ran is of divine origin, eternal and ‘uncreated’ as the Deity Himself. It is one of the Islamic arguments against the Jewish and Christian Scriptures that they are not exclusively oracles professing to proceed from God.

The Prophet himself neither read nor wrote. His being an illiterate man enhances the marvel of his revelation. [1] At the moment of inspiration or shortly after, each passage was recited by the Prophet in the presence of friends or followers, and was generally committed to writing by someone amongst them, at the time or afterwards upon palm-leaves, leather, stones, or such other rude material as conveniently came to hand. These divine messages continued throughout the twenty-three years of his prophetic life, so that the last portion was not received till near the time of his death.

The Qu’ran, being the divine revelation and the corner stone of Islam, the recital of a passage from it formed an essential part of daily prayer, public and private; and its perusal and repetition were considered to be a great privilege. The preservation of the various chapters, during the life–time of the Prophet, was not altogether dependent on their being committed to writing. The Qu’ran was committed to memory by almost every adherent of Islam, and the extent, to which it could be recited, was one of the chief sources of distinction, in the early stages of Islam. Amongst a crowd of warrior martyrs, he who had been the most versed in the Qu’ran was honoured with the first burial. The person who in any company could most faithfully repeat the Qu’ran, was ipso facto entitled to conduct the public prayers, and in certain cases to financial rewards.

The retentive faculty of the early Arabs favoured the task; and it was applied with all the ardour of an awakened spirit, to the Qu’ran. Several of the Prophet’s followers could during his life–time repeat with scrupulous accuracy, the whole as then in use. Four or five such persons are named; and several others also who could very nearly repeat the whole before the Prophet’s death. [2]

“However retentive the Arab memory, remarks Sir William Muir, we should still have regarded with distrust a transcript made entirely from that source. But there is good reason for believing, that many fragmentary copies, embracing amongst them the whole Qu’ran, or nearly the whole were during his life–time made by the Prophet’s followers.

“Such as the condition of the next during Muhammad’s life-time, and such it remained for about a year after his death, imprinted upon the hearts of his people, and fragmentary transcripts increasing daily” [3]

Further the same writer states: “The contents and arrangement of the Qu’ran speak forcibly for its authenticity. All the fragments have, with artless simplicity, been joined together…Even the frailties of the Prophet, as noticed by the Deity, have with evident faithfulness, been entered in the Qu’ran…In fine, we posses every internal guarantee of confidence [namely in the authenticity of the Qu’ran, as it exists in the present copies]. …. There is otherwise every security, internal and external, that we possess that text which Muhammad himself gave forth and used.

So carefully, indeed, has it been preserved that there are no variations of importance– we might almost say no variations at all– to be found in the innumerable copies scattered throughout the vast bound of the Empire of Islam. Yet, but One Qu’ran has been current amongst them; and the consentaneous use by all of the same Scripture, in every age to the present day, is an irrefragable proof, that we have now before us the very text prepared by command of the Caliph Othman who was murdered some time after the compilation of the Qu’ran. [4]

There is probably in the world no other work, which has remained twelve centuries [1861], with so pure a text.[5] This is only because the various revelations in the Qu’ran, regarding its divine nature, and its remaining forever free from corruption or contradistinction, are rightly confirmed. Here are a few verses bearing on this point: “We have surely sent down the Qu’ran; and we will certainly preserve the same from corruption.” [15:9]

“This Qu’ran could not have been composed by any, except God; but it is a confirmation of that which was revealed before it, and an explanation of the scripture; there is no doubt therefore; sent down from the Lord of all creatures. Will they say, [Muhammad] has forged it? Answer, Bring therefore a chapter like unto it; and call whom you may [to your assistance] besides God, if you speak truth.” [10:38]

“Say, Verily if men and genie were purposely assembled, that they might produce [a book] like this Qu’ran, they could not produce one like unto it, although they assisted each other. And we have variously propounded unto men in this Qu’ran, every kind of figurative argument; but the greater part of men refuse to receive it, merely out of infidelity.” [17:88]

The Rev. Rodwell states: “It must be acknowledged too, that the Qu’ran deserves the highest praise for its conception of the divine nature, in reference the attributes of Power, Knowledge and Universal Providence and Unity- that its belief and trust in the One God of Heaven and Earth, is deep and fervent.” 

“The simple shepherds and wandering bedouins of Arabia, are transformed, into the founders of empires, the builders of cities, the collectors of more libraries, than they at first destroyed, while cities like Fostat, Baghdad, Cordova and Dehli, attest the power. And thus, while the Qu’ran, which underlies this vast energy and contains the principles which are its springs of actions, reflects to a great extent its merit as a code of laws, and as a system of religious teaching, must always be estimated by the changes which it introduced into the customs and beliefs of those who willingly embraced it. In the suppression of their idolatries, in the substitution of the worship of God for that of the powers of nature and genii with Him, in the abolition of child murder, in the extinction of manifold superstitious usages, in the reduction of the number of wives to a fixed standard it was to the Arabs an unquestionable blessing, and an accession, it must not be forgotten that Europe, in the middle ages, owed much of her knowledge of dialectic philosophy, of medicine and architecture to Arabia writers, and that Muslims formed the connecting link between the West and the East for the importation of numerous articles of luxury and use.”

“For if he [Muhammad] was indeed the illiterate person the Muslims represent him to have been, then it will be hard to escape their inference, that the Qu’ran is, as they assert it to be, a standing miracle.”