Jamal Badawi – The Preservation of the Qur’an
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of the Quran in preserving its value and verifying its authenticity, as well as the use of "has been revealeded" and "has been revealeded" in scripture. They stress the importance of proper research to determine the origin of certain figures and the need for proper research to verify the truth. Additionally, they mention a book called "teen Yvonne" that describes a woman claims to have been sexually assaulted by her father's actions, but do not provide much context or details about the conversation.
AI: Summary ©
hamdulillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu salam ala MV mursaleen Seder Mohammed he was early he wasabia Jemaine, my dear brothers and sisters in Islam salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. And may Allah reward you on and organizers for giving me that great pleasure of being amongst you today.
There were basically two topics assigned to me for this forum this year. One deals with salah and other did with the preservation of the Quran.
To begin with, as you see on the screen
the basic outline for presentation begins with some introduction.
It goes on to address the so called internal evidence within the Quran itself, of its preservation.
Thirdly, we look at the external evidence by examining the three major stages in which the Quran was preserved at the time of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam Abu Bakr and Osman,
in the fourth topic or sub area, depending on the time available, and we might touch at least on some of the objections raised by
Western scholars or orientalist or others, and respond to a few at least of them, and a conclusion inshallah.
In the following slide, we'll begin with the introduction,
which makes basically three points. First of all,
that there are two primary sources for Islam, all others are regarded as secondary.
The two primary sources are the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam.
And the reason they are called primary is that both of them are revelatory in nature. They are based on the revelation either in word and meaning as is the case with the Quran, or revelation of meaning with the Prophet sallallahu Sallam using his own words, as the shines and how this person
the second major point, then is that
in addition to their importance being primary sources,
the Quran has had a great impact on history.
It changed the lives of countless millions of people who embraced Islam.
And it did influence the whole word even Islamic and non Islamic where the Quran was the moving and dynamic force behind those changes. And until today, as you may hear of the stories of some of those who came to Islam, like Yusuf Islam and others, that often time it began even by reading an interpretive translation of the meaning of the Quran like Yusuf Ali as other which does not even fully capture the original Quran yet, it was sufficient in many cases, to make a lot of people see the light.
Now
to speak in one session about preservation and core of the Quran and Hadith is a bit too ambitious. So I thought for maximum benefit, to just focus on the Quran and not the whole Quran again, why?
When we speak about primary sources, and when we try to learn how to respond to objections,
and all the campaign to discredit Islam, it's teaching it's profit and it's book.
Then we need In fact, to make sure of two things. First, how do we know that the Quran indeed is the word of Allah?
What to say to those who say the Quran is just a book that was written by a group of people similar to the various authors of the Bible, for example,
or that the Quran was written by Prophet Mohammed Salah Selim, as you find typically in most social studies books, Koran written by Muhammad if they don't say it directly, even they quote is, and the Quran and says Mohammed said, and they called the Quran, implying that he was the author
or those who say that the
And basically it's a sort of compilation from various sources because there are similarities between the Quran and Bible and other sources apocryphal literature even. So what the prophet must have done is simply to study all of this and sort of make a term paper incorporating all of these.
That's what we call perhaps the issue of authority of the Quran. And again, that require a separate presentation itself, even in the most superficial way required a whole session. But that was not the topic really assigned to me.
The other aspect of ascertaining
why the Quran is very important for Muslims, and why it's, it's not just a matter of authority, but also authenticity. By that we mean when suppose the Quran is proven to be the word of Allah and there is lots of evidence to that effect. How do we know that the Quran we have today is the same as uttered by the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasallam. without editing, without tampering, without addition, or deletion.
Both the issues of authority and authenticity of the Quran are usually referred to along with other sciences as the sciences and plural of the Quran, which include beside these two issues pertaining to tafsir occasion of revelation ness, which I like to translate a superstition rather than abrogation, and many other areas that the division of Mackey and madnani revelations that this is a huge field in itself, they just want to give a sort of outline on me. So that basically sets the parameters or show where the topic today fit as a humble little point, in a whole spectrum of areas pertaining to the Quran.
And the second sub area
I just wanted to address First, if we can move that down trees and move that up the internal evidence, this is something which is acceptable in scholarly circles of Islamic Studies, Biblical Studies and other that before you analyze anything, look first, as to whether a claim is made internally whether we did with authority or authenticity, we focusing on authenticity, that's the question should come first, not that this is sufficient, because anyone can write anything and put any evidence in that but as a beginning point, so the basic question we have here,
number one, is there any evidence in the Quran itself from within the Quran, that it will be preserved?
First of all, we know it that we do have explicit and clear statements in the Quran, that it it will be preserved.
And the Sudan a a number that you see on the screen 15 nine is only one example but it's one of the oft repeated and quoted is from dakara.
In which Allah subhanaw taala speaks in nationalism the vicar or in Allah Who would have known must have heard that many times. It is remians Allah we hear is the plural of majesty, not committee of gods. it's we who revealed the reminder reminder is a reference to the Quran. And it is we Allah that we're going to take care
of preserving it.
Like I said, this is only one you find other is in the Quran. We're in now who lakita when Aziz laity Hill belt illumine mania de here lm unhealthier than zero min Hakeem and Hamid that's in in sort of 41
we find evidence also.
When the Prophet sallallahu Sallam used to speed up with recitation after jabril when he dictates the Quran to him.
We are afraid that he might miss a word.
And Allah subhanaw taala assured the Prophet as we see in Surah Taha sort of 20 in a a 114 will attach and bill for any nonpublic and jacoba ilica who walk around visit me and I don't hasten with the Quran before its revelation is completed to you on Hamad. salatu salam and say, Oh Allah, increase me in knowledge. But there is something also pertaining directly to preservation that we find in Surah 75 in ar 16.
That's even much more revealing.
It says to the Prophet sallallahu Sallam led to Henrik v. lisanna. Caleta de la v. In Allah in JAMA who Walker Anna.
Don't move your tongue in haste concerning it. That means the Quran
it is up to us means to Allah
Gema Hua Khurana to preserve it, and to promulgate it.
So as far as the evidence in the Quran, these are only examples of many.
But in what sense was the promise made in the Quran for its preservation? Here we find evidence internally of the genuine promise of preserving the Quran.
First of all memory which is even more important, much more important. It is interesting to notice, for example, that in one Hadith in Muslim and Muslim
It is said that the Prophet sallallahu Sallam was told that you will be given a for an lay and the whole map, which will not be erased with water because that's the way sometimes when they write and something and then they want to clean it, they wash it with water to write again.
And some people did not pay enough attention to this, that forget even about any written record of the Quran. The promise is that this Quran can never disappear, you can burn all copies in the Quran in the world, you can raise any manuscript, but the Quran would remain,
for example, the first citation in Surah to noon, so that 24
we are told quite clearly, that the Quran would be preserved mainly in the heart of people who are a bayonet and theists will do de la Vina del mundo la de Fuca Bell who is on bayonet and fiso du de la Vina within the Quran is nothing but clear science in the hearts didn't say books, even though writing will come. But that particular one focus in the heart. So those those who are given knowledge.
I put that first because I think it's even the more important one.
Yet we find evidence in the Quran also, of its preservation, in writing.
There are numerous references to that.
In sudo, Allah Allah, Accra Bismillah big No, the word could mean read and recite, but as you know, in some narration, it's a that jabril La Silla brought a parchment and asked the prophets I send them to read but if you continue with the first few areas in Surah, 96, Allah Allah,
Allah, Allah will call them in the context of the Quran. It says that a lot taught the human with the pin. So that also a reference to writing.
In surah, 98 described the Prophet sallallahu wasallam Rasool Allah He yet loo, softened, Mahara fie hackaton a messenger from Allah, the citing
source of means leaves containing valuable books
describing the Quran in surah 80 also,
that it is the ID safira, kurama. And Barrera would be written or recorded by the hands of righteous, honorable scribes.
So I think again, that should be quite enough to articulate that second point. But now let me come to a controversial question that very frequently comes and is faced by Muslims living among Christians and Jews.
Some people would say, you're trying to tell us
that God's promised to preserve his word, the Quran, you say yes.
But doesn't your own Quran also say that what was revealed to Moosa and Risa? PSP upon them both and other prophets was also the word of Allah.
As a Muslim, what can you say? Yes, was the word of Allah? Why is it that Allah did not choose to preserve his word, and new people claim that all other scriptures did not remain in tact? As the Quran did? Why did God choose to preserve some of his words, but not the others?
An interesting question isn't it must have heard that. First of all, you can dismiss it with one very quick answer, but I'd like to elaborate a little more on that.
The answer to that is that what do you mean by word of Allah?
Do you mean that it has to be specifically in having a title of a book that some people even might have given to the Scripture, the word Bible itself, to my knowledge was not uttered by the name of any profits, the profit before? Torah? Yes, maybe that was mentioned both in the Bible and the Quran, that this is true. But what Bible for example, did not come when we speak about
The word of Allah means His revelation, his guidance to mankind. That guidance could have come, or did come in some form, as revealed to one Prophet, it was elaborated or repeated, through another prophet. So when you speak about the Quran as the last preserved word of Allah and revelation from Allah, it is the word of Allah preserved. You see what I mean? In other words, even if people neglected to preserve the word of Allah, ultimately Allah preserved it because you talk about the scale of time, the prophetic missions, and the series and sequence of revelations throughout history, ultimately, the word of Allah is preserved in the Quran. The fact that at some point other
people forgot some parts or changed some parts did not really touch on the essential message that Allah sent to mankind. Even if you take some basic concepts, the issue for example of the tablet or the oneness of Allah subhanaw taala. In spite of all the changes that might have taken place, in previous scriptures, even you go in today, to the Old Testament, or the Hebrew Scripture, as you'd like to call it, or to the to the New Testament, and the Quran, and you find the word of Allah, in essence has been preserved even in all three it speaks about the oneness of Allah subhanaw taala. That would be a simple way to answer the question. But something really attracts attention
when the Quran gives a more explicit and detailed answer to that question,
you read in the Quran
in zaneta ratafia houden one word that's inserted to my Ada sort of five and a 47. In Zen naturopathy, who don't want more. Yakumo b&w and Allah Dena Islam, Latina hairdo, what Robin you and I will borrow Bemis to further notice that will be Mr. filho minkee tabula he or kennady Shahada,
the free translation of the meaning. Allah says we indeed revealed the Torah
containing light and guidance, used as a basis for judgment by the rabbis and the scholars or doctors of law.
Those who submitted to Allah Allah in Islam, for those who are Jews,
and the other scholars are Mr. B Mr. Fado, by virtue of the fact that they were given the responsibility of preserving the book of Allah. This is very crucial is to faithful men kita Bella, they by virtue of being giving the responsibility to preserve the word of Allah. You can see the difference now, don't you? So prior to the revelation of the Quran,
Allah subhanaw taala gave the responsibility for its present preservation, or preservation of his word and revelation to the learned people, human beings.
Human beings have their own shortcomings, and they have their failings and they failed. There's no question that they failed. In the case of the Quran, since it has to culminate and preserve the essence of the Word of God. Allah decided that no more will that responsibility be given to human beings, being the last revelation being the last book, I myself is going to take care of it. So there is absolutely no inconsistency between statements in the Quran about validity of previous revelation that conformed to the Quran, and the fact that the word of Allah ultimately was preserved through the Quran. I hope that will be enough to answer that.
Now we go to the third sub area. And that's perhaps the major part of the presentation.
Even though, since the topic is rather technical, I've tried to simplify it as best as possible and maybe during discussion, we could elaborate.
If this is the case,
in what stage is then from the historic sand point, can we refer to the Quran as to how it was preserved? Well, obviously, the first stage was during the time of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam.
And the first thing we notice and they'll come to that point, again, towards the end, is the wide spread memorization of the Quran.
In fact, multitudes of people memorized the entire Quran. multitudes memorized major parts of the Quran And like I said, we'll come back that again, there's no question about that the there are mutawatir information metadata means information that are coming consistently through variety of sources or variety of chains of narration.
that support the fact that the Quran was preserved indeed as the Quran itself says fissile duty in the heart of people.
And this might sound rather strange, especially for our, you know, Jewish and Christian friends who
have never heard, I have never heard personally of anyone throughout the entire human history who memorizes the Bible from A to Z word for word, it doesn't exist.
You know, so that the this is something that is rather amazing and unique about the Quran.
The second point is that we find in numerous sound and authentic a Hades
that it was the custom of jabril la Salaam to come to the Prophet sallallahu wasallam every Ramadan during the last 10 days during his Etta calf, and reviews with him, what has been revealed in the entire Qur'an up to that point of time.
It was narrated also, that in the last year of the life of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam the last Ramadan, his ettercap, extended to the last 20 days of Ramadan. And gibreel reviewed the Quran with him twice instead of once. And interestingly enough, and that's related to another point that's coming, you know, who was with the prophet SAW Selim during this reviews, was the chief scribe of Revelation.
So that says that issue
then we come to the question of the scribes.
And in spite of the misunderstanding that some people given or superficial interpretation of some Hadees, that might give the impression that there were only four or seven scribes of Revelation, we find that both Muslim and even many non Muslim scholars admit that you get lots of reports about scribes of Revelation, which includes,
in some cases, as many as 40, in some cases, as many as 52 names of people who wrote or what charged of writing revelation to the Prophet sallallahu wasallam.
Secondly, we go to the time of abac, the lavonne.
And first of all, we ask, what was the occasion for Abu Bakar contribution to the preservation of the Quran? If the entire Quran was memorized, and committed to writing at the time of the Prophet? What exactly did Abu Bakr do?
Here we must remember that while the entire Quran was written down, it was not all collected in one place or under the same roof.
And in fact, memorization would have been sufficient. And you will see that from the dialogue that went on between Abu Bakr and Omar delana.
As you know, as soon as Abu Bakr became Khalifa, immediately, there was that rebellion, that some historian called Heroku read that apostasy wars,
whether we have a reservation on the term itself or not, but we all know that there have been big commotions. And there have been some people who embraced Islam in a very superficial way. And with the death of the province of Salem, they just started to get loose, and the whole structure of the states and order was threatened.
As a result in one of those battles known as the Battle of MMR,
it was reported that 70 of the memorizers of the Quran, were martyred.
And by the way, that's a further evidence that memorization was not limited to a few, just in one battle. 70 memorizers were martyred, and these are not all the memorizers.
So Rama rhodiola, and went to Abu Bakr and he said to him, I'm afraid if that situation continues, and more and more memorizes of the Quran gets martyred, that sometimes down in the future, the Quran could get lost. Maybe he wasn't quite sure whether a memory alien alone would be enough. He's just the great care they wanted to give to the preservation of the book, Allah Allah.
So I'm at your Abu Bakr asking What do you want me to do with them? Well, he said you should collect all the manuscripts, verify it and have it all under one roof so that you have the whole volume of the Quran in one place.
And Abu Bakar hesitates and he tells me, why should we do something that the Prophet didn't do?
But Rama again with his his understanding and skill?
Tell him that yes, if the Prophet didn't do it, but there is something which is beneficial to Muslims. So he kept influencing Apple back until Allah opened our workers heart to this idea. Then abubaker called no less than Zaid who was the chief scribe of revenue.
And who was the Prophet during this last reviews? He said to him, you're a young man.
And we have no accusation whatsoever against you and us to write revelation for the Prophet sallallahu sallam. So go around and collect all those manuscripts verify it, and put it in one place. What was the methodology used by Zaid and his committee? He was not the only one. It was public actually, it said that Amr went around and said anyone who has manuscripts within you know, bring it
their methodology, in addition to memorization, and Zaid himself was a memorizer
was not to accept any claimed manuscripts of the Quran unless there are two witnesses testifying to it.
That's the minimum. In fact, some element interpret that in three ways. Some said means two witnesses, that they have heard it with their own ears directly from the mouth of the Prophet sallallahu sallam.
Some said it means to witnesses who have seen that being written at the time the Prophet was dictating it.
Others said, not necessarily, it could be one on one. So at least there is one written manuscript and other testimony of memorizers. There are even those who said it's meant for because there is reference to writing reference to memorizing so that means, actually for but suppose even we take the more conservative one that there were two witnesses, at least whatever writing and or memorization of every area in the Quran before it was accepted to be part of the collection. But like I said, again, all these writings could have been useless. So long as the memorization of the Quran is ascertained by multitudes of people around the Prophet sallallahu wasallam.
That
original collection, you might say it was not writing. And I'd like to clarify an issue here that just coming to that the question of compilation, that was nothing more than compilation, not writing. And some writers unfortunately tried to confuse the reader
by using terms and expression to the effect of giving the impression that the Quran was not written at the time of the Prophet It was written at the time of our work. This is totally incorrect. To compile something means to bring the already written manuscript, put it together, order it and arrange it according to the order of the suit as, as the profits are seldom explained to them. So this is an issue that has to be kept in mind it was not writing it was compiling.
That copy remained in the custody of Abu Bakr as halifa. After his death, it went to Ahmad rhodiola Han and after the death of Rama, it remained in the custody of hafsa. la de la was also a widow of the prophet SAW Selim until we see later, it was bordered by aasmaan, or the lavonne for the copy for the verification of the copy that is sent all over the world. So that gives a sort of very brief summary, I'm leaving many details because like I said, the topic would be very dry if you get too much branching and now we move to a smaller time. I tried to again put it in some simplified form, but we'll add some more points as we go on.
First of all, what was the occasion we know that the occasion of Abu Bakr its effort was to
to make sure that at least in addition to memorizing there is some authentic
Codex as they call it, or written manuscript? How about us man, what was the occasion?
I mentioned something here briefly, which is rather complex, but just simplify it and then inshallah, towards the end of this time I elaborate more. This is the notion of the so called a hero. What does Ashraf mean? Some people translate a hero as Kira art or recitations This is not strictly correct. This is not correct.
Ahead of actually is a reference to the fact that while the Quran was revealed to the Prophet sallallahu wasallam
in the tongue or dialect of Quraysh, you see, it was all in Arabic. But even in in Arabia at that time, they were also different tribes, and all of them spoke Arabic, but there are different dialects. For some types. One word is totally unknown to them. There'll be some equivalent word that would make the meaning clearer to them, slight variations in expression of the same meaning.
The Prophet sallallahu wasallam stated and this is seven Hadees that nonetheless, I know less about, the Quran was revealed on seven some interpret that as strictly seven or more
Some say that number seven actually refer to more than one. It doesn't necessarily mean that each and every area was revealed in different dialects. But what he meant by that, that for some tribes who might have been unfamiliar or found some of the expressions in the crocheted dialect with which the Prophet utter the Quran, difficult for them, the prophet Allah with them, but not their own invention, Allah with them alternative
or modes of expression as they usually translate modes of expression to get the same meaning. That's why he used the term actually fakra. Mateus salmon, read what is easy for you, he never meant that to be like something permanent for all time to come. But for that transitional period, the purpose of the Quran is to communicate. Yes, they're all Arabs, but it might be difficult for them in some specific expressions to allow them those alternate expressions.
Now, even at the time of the Prophet sallallahu, wasallam, two companions came to him after some dispute happened between them, because they were very meticulous scores, they knew this is the word of Allah, nobody should have even any letter different. That's the reference they have for the Quran. So one of them is Sora. And the other recited and everybody say no, your recitation is wrong, because this is the way I heard it from the Prophet. And he said, No, you're wrong. I heard that also from the Prophet, so they can do the prophet SAW seller.
So he said to the first one, recite, he recited the surah. And the prophecies hacker that unzila that's how it was revealed. He asked the other one today to recite, he recited it with that slight variation also, dialect and the Prophet. And that's what how it was revealed. So he tried to show them that you should not really dispute and that it's the same meaning it is something to make it easy for people to comprehend the Quran.
Now, this is just the background. How does that relate to what else man or the Alon did?
As you know, by the time of us, man,
nearly half of the known world was under Muslim role. And Muslims went in all kinds of directions carrying the message of Islam to other lands.
But some of the Sahaba that went also belong to several tribes.
So, one time for they have an alien man, one of the great companions of the Prophet SAW Selim came back to us man, alarmed.
Us man asked him, what's the matter?
He said, I have noticed in some of I think it was in Armenia and Azerbaijan, he said, I noted that there is some dispute among the companions. Everybody say my dissertation is better than us, or my mode of expression is better than us, even though it's basically the same Quran but they started disputing. And he said, You should really take a firm position on that issue, before they differ on their Quran, as the Jews and Christian differ about their scriptures.
So what else man did, he called again, Zaid, who was still living the same chief scribe of Revelation.
And he gave him the exact instructions. First of all, he would not work alone, there was a number of companions with him. Number two, that this would that would be done in public under come to that point, again, it's not something that's secretive behind closed doors. In fact, Horace Mann announced that anyone who had any manuscripts, even those who wrote for their own personal collection should bring it. And he bought it also the copy that was already in the house of hafsa. That was written at the time of the Prophet sallallahu sallam. And he asked them to go again through that collecting verse for verse, or if we're
getting witnesses comparing against the original copy, and finally, he ordered that several copies would be made of this copy to be sent in the mosque, not the one in front of him. Jama mosque is a common term that had been used and messaged the JAMA that's the central mosque in several places in the world. Historian mentioned at least four places some go as much as seven that were copied directly from that time on
after us, man, we really notice two things. One is that
he out there that all unofficial manuscript that has not gone through this collective verification. And notice here that's important. Verification was both in writing and through memorize or some of whom have already heard it from the mouth of the prophet SAW Selim and they were still living at the time of us mantra de la Osman was a companion himself. There were a lot of people who were memorizers who heard it from the crowd.
In addition to the verification in writing, he said anything that people might have made mistake in writing for their own collection or other dialects, even even if they heard, even if it was verified, but in a different dialect, that the dialect of kurush it should be written in the dialect of Christ, because that's the way the Prophet uttered it because he belongs to Christ. That means that's the original, authentic version, or way or mode of expression and say version actually mode of expression of the Quran.
Like I said, I might come back again to the question, but I thought that we cannot really understand the significance and importance of what a man did, without appreciating the occasion that led to this.
Now we can move to
the next area,
hoping that you still awake. Like, as I did give you a warning before, this is not a simple topic. And in spite of all that simplification, it's still you know, something that requires a fair amount of concentration.
The first question that some people might say,
you say, You people seem to be approaching the Quran in a way that is really different from the so called,
high criticism of the Bible.
And the problem is really a problem of perception. You see, if you happen to have been a Western scholar, belonging to Judaism,
or Christianity,
and when the high criticism began, it in 19th century continued ever since, to verify the authenticity of the Bible. The only way that anything of the Bible, Hebrew Scripture or the script or New Testament, could be verified, was nothing but manuscript something in writing, not even original in the original language. Because there is no complete copy of the Gospels. For example, in the Aramaic, the language in which Jesus spoke this translation, we don't know even what the audition is worth. So biblical scholars, if they say we want to make an objective research, they had absolutely nothing, nothing to stand upon, except what had can be proven mainly in manuscripts. So
they go back and say, all right, what are the oldest manuscripts of the Bible available in museums? What archaeological discoveries might confirm or disconfirm. And the debate continues, I think some of you might have seen in recent issues in the Time magazine and others in the last few years, discoveries that negate things or confirm things because there is no other way of verification.
But it is rather
curious that a lot of Western scholars and orientalist who are critics of Islam and critics of the Quran,
want to impose the exact same methodology on the verification of the Quran in the name of objectivity and free historical, scientific research.
If like I said earlier, if all the copies of the Quran were burned down, the Quran would have remained
the Quran will remain exclusively through memory. In fact, I must add one point that some might not be aware of.
Do you know even what kind of script was used in recording the Quran at the time of the prophet SAW Selim?
those scripts did not have dots. And you know the dots are very important. If you have just something like this. You wouldn't know whether that is back if you have a dot underneath or
if you have two dots on top or if you have three or if you have one, but it could be known.
Get my point number one, there will no system of that to distinguish letters.
Secondly, there was nothing which is called diacritical remarks. You know, sometimes you get marks on the Quran, like this is Fattah cassara, Hamza shed in the various ways which would make a difference in utterance.
But what I'm saying here that the western scholars
try to project something which is suitable only for their scriptures and require that that must be done also in the case of the Quran, whereas like I say, even even if somebody tells you okay, I can produce this is impossible, but supposedly I can produce you the entire Quran that was written at the time of the prophet SAW Selim, it would have not been enough to preserve it because you don't know how to pronounce it be better. GM haha also is contingent on that that's
what preserved the Quran which is unique into it is memorization.
And it's only through memorization. And through the early people who were really fit, that was the language that was their bread and butter, that you know exactly how they should be recited.
But in addition to this, we must say that even if you come to the notion of
memorization, which some people find it impossible, how could you depend on memory of people to preserve over 60 to 100. As in the Quran, we notice first of all, number one,
that while writing was known among Arabs, and after Islam and the writing of the Quran, of course, it became more widespread than before, why writing was known.
The majority of Arabs depended on memory,
before Islam even
to memorize or preserve their lineage, they depended on memory, history, they depended on memory, poetry. There's one story whether it's correct or exaggerated, but it's quite revealing of the strange ability of people to memorize. It says that someone went to his friend, he was a poet.
And he told him, Look, I got a brand new, long poem of 100 verses.
Of course, that's a great deal of source of pride. So I said, All right, recited to me. So he started going on through the 100 verses.
And the man his friend said, You're telling me this is new?
He said, Yes, I just finished it. He said, Oh, it's not new. I heard it before. He said, I challenge you. So he went reciting the exact 100 verses as the arts, you know, it's not new.
He said, I can't believe it. No, no, it's so common. He called his wife behind the curtain, and said, Did you hear about the poem about such and such? She said, Yes, is it? What does it say? And she went to exactly
the man got mad, is it Oh, I can get you My servant. He heard by them three times. And you decided to go out of the, of course, the like I said, regardless of the tissue of the story, but it's at least carries some essence of the amazing ability of the early Arab, of course, because their obsession with poems and beautiful expression, and when the Quran came to challenge all that eloquence, obviously, it really captured their attention very immensely. Number two,
the Quran was not like other scriptures. If you look into the competitive religious aspects of it, you find, for example, that the Torah was largely available to the rabbis and the doctors of law. You know, they teach the public but they are the ones really who keep, you know, the the law in their hands. If you look at the history of Christendom, for example, you find that even when the Bible was put into writing,
usually manuscripts were only available in the hands of the scholars, the priests, the clergy. And as you know, especially in the Catholic among Catholics, until relatively recently, it was not regarded as appropriate for common Christian, for example, to read the Bible on his own because they said he could get confused or get the wrong message. So he just goes to church sit, listen to the priest, making selection, and teaching them what to say it was, of course, as you know, Martin Luther, who raise this issue that every Christian should have access to the Bible should not be
a monopoly of the learned or the priests, but we'll talk about centuries after that. But the case of the Quran was quite different. The Quran was revealed, not in secret, not with a few select companions of the Prophet or seller, but wherever he was traveling, sitting in the battlefield, and everybody is present in the masjid, and everybody's hearing and watching what's taking place, but more importantly, that it became a religious duty on Muslims and a praiseworthy act to memorize the Quran. You go to Valeri for example, and we'll talk about 1211. Quran a whole chapter on the virtues of the Quran, and other books of Hadith. And see the amount of Hadith in which the prophet SAW Selim
encourage people to learn the Quran, to teach it to their children to have the children memorize it. Some of you might remember one of the famous had this high eurocom mental Lama or an older man, very eloquent. How eurocon mentale Mr. Khurana wildomar. The best to you is one he or she is the one who learns the Quran and teach it to others. So that was a source of immense encouragement for all people. Certainly.
And I still in spite of what all that you say, some people still
In the Western frame of mind, say How could anyone memorize that whole book,
even at the time of the Prophet, and what they forget
that the Quran was revealed in piecemeal, over a period of nearly 23 years, a little here, a little there. And that makes it a lot easier to memorize than saying, God, I take that whole book, memorize it and come to tell me in two hours, it was all period,
hold periods for
fourthly, unlike the Hebraic law, or the Torah, or the teaching of the New Testament,
which was used, yes, but not really anything that comes close to the constant use of the Quran, in the daily life of the Muslim, the Muslim pray five times a day and there is always not only the Fatiha the opening sort of the Quran, there is encouragement of reading beyond that. And of course, they will not like us today. Rushing rushing Al Fatiha Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. These people used to pray in much, much longer and elaborate way than most of us are doing today us find some hobbies even that in the same regard, you finish Surat Al Baqarah and go even beyond how many of us even can take that anyway. So the Quran was recited every day in prayer and required prayer. It was recited
in natural prayer in Sunnah, encouraged, or non mandatory prayers. And then we find lots of evidence in sound, a hadith in the variety of Hadees book,
that it was the custom of the companions of the Prophet SAW Selim to recite the Quran at night, spent most of the night reciting the Quran. Look at the significance and implication of this Hadees when the prophet SAW Selim for bait for bear that you should finish the Quran in less than three days. Suppose even that statement came earlier, when the Quran was not completed, still indicate that some people were doing it that he said, Take it easy, and not less than three days. But again, it encouraged to be, you know, not much more than seven days. And now if when people finish the Quran in one month or two, they think that they are really doing a good job. So the constant user,
but the use of the Quran also was not only for prayer, or worship or recitation at night or teaching, more importantly,
it was for learning how to apply it to their lives. So whenever there was a dispute or problem, and you find that still in books of jurisprudence until today, it says, No, you should not do that. Or you should do that. And the evidence that Allah subhanaw taala says, and then he quotes from the reference book, for all phases and aspects of the life of the community.
But finally, that is something that shocks a lot of people, when they know about it, when you tell them very simple statement, tell them today.
Today, in the 20th century, in spite of the loss of the eloquence that reached its epic at the time of the Prophet and Sahaba,
in spite of the weakness of the memory, we depend on anything now, you know, some of you who have kids in the school, you know, this calculators, if you ask them, if he doesn't have calculator, add up 22 and 29. It might take them half an hour says give me a calculator.
So the the memory today has been spoiled with the availability of all this stuff that we have, it might get even weaker, in spite of that big lag.
You can find today, not adult children,
as young as nine or 10 years old, whose mother tongue is not Arabic is not Arabic,
who memorized the entire Quran from A to Z with the exact punctuation and some people are not aware of non Muslims particularly, that every year there are various competitions of memorizing the Quran and some our children and their language. Their mother tongue is not Arabic. They could be Indians, Nigerians, Malaysians, Indonesians, you name it, let alone those who find it easier even because it's their language, and they can understand No wonder. Allah Subhana Allah stated in the Quran and it was repeated in the same surah so many times, while aka dia, seven Alcott, en la Vickery for headman would decade indeed we made the Quran easy for remembrance, is there anyone who needs it?
Today in North America, even let alone the Muslim world? Where do you get 10s of 1000s of heifers and those brothers and sister will come from the indo Pakistani sub content. Of course, the term half is, is a very common someone who memorized the entire Quran even though my only reservation that when they leave
They read so fast as if missile is going through without thinking about the meaning. But it shows that they really memorize very accurately and very correctly the entire Quran.
Now, I wonder what how much we're doing with time. If we get to the very last one, I'll only choose maybe one or two, before I lose track myself even
about the objections, and I left that open because I didn't know which ones we're going to deal but with your permission, assuming that you'll you can keep keep awaking
for a few more minutes, I just addressed two points.
The one
that deals with that we mentioned earlier, not karate.
And related to that issue, of course, is an objection that you hear about in written form and speeches by critics of the Quran. That Osman must have burned other versions of the Quran. So we don't know really what was there in the Quran. So there were other neurons in plural. And Osman chose one of those core ons and burn the other so we don't know really, if we have the complete or unavailable This is one issue.
The second issue that they say right even had this literature and in Muslim historical works, there are references to the so called the other Codex is
the Codex of Abdullayev nosode are biocarbon said they will not identical. So how come if you if you put claiming that there was only one core and how come this Codex is, or codices are acknowledged, or in your own
historical references? Well, first of all, let's go back to the issue of the seven whatever seven is interpret the seven modes of expression. Again, this is not recitations, because you see in recitation, it's almost like CL ml our topic like when you say mu or musei. You hear sometimes some recitals. Moosa or musei would talk about the same person musasa This is known as carrot, okay, but is not exactly the same really. So the basic question they say, right, if a hero is not exactly the same, doesn't that contradict what the Quran says? What kind of Mandalay de la he loves to fear dlF and cathedra that if the Quran was from any source, other than Allah, he would have found many
inconsistencies or deviations. But here again, we must say that the act of or different modes of expression, have the same meaning or the same area does not necessarily mean contradiction of meaning. It is all within what the professor said them permitted and old within the meaning of the area. Let me give you a few examples. And those who are interested there was an excellent scholarly article on the subject, written by Dr. Mohammed Abdullah dres, who is one of the foremost scholars of the Quran. It was published some times back many many years back maybe over 20 years in the Islamic horizon. He has a book also
about the Quran I think it's called the viral Quran here something of that nature. Very
another a lot of images of head of the head of cornea is the one by Malik Barnaby Mohammed Abdullah says about how he was an excellent volume on the subject but let me just give a few examples.
Take one of the expressions like a Surat
and some of the Arabian tribes they are used to read it with sub This is the more common one that we need now in our set up and Mr. Kane sod
some of them are not familiar with this Surat to them it is a set up with seen but both of them refer exactly to the identical meaning means the way it then a Surat. Another variation that some people use then make lots of noise about that there are different currents or different versions.
When the Quran speaks about the day of judgement about what will happen to the mountains what the Kunal jivaro
calorie any element fouche What does the word mean in Arabic?
some tribes are not familiar with that at all. They weren't allowed to read it a safe, safe and English both means what? This is sort of alternative way of expression.
In some cases, you find a difference that doesn't really imply any contradiction. When you read for example, had the estate as a rasuluh. Water no and now homepod cusabo when the mental
inggeris reached a point of desperation and they think that they have been belied in some of the other modes of expression, one know a nonprofit called vivo,
which also give the same meaning. But again, some of us might wonder,
why again, was that allowed? Why didn't the Prophet insists on everybody reciting and memorizing the Quran according to the way he expressed it being a crocheted himself. But like we said earlier, it is something that was needed at that time to make it easy for people, especially for elders. You see, when you get a child, to teach them, you can teach them all right, the kurashiki mode of expression, but how about people who became adult already? How could you they grasp that in the short time that is available, so the focus in the mind of the prophets I send them which was also guided by Allah, because this modes of expression or error was not his own invention, it was also
through jabril, what Allah with some of those variations. So the idea or focus here was to understand the Quran, because the record is already kept in writing and memorization in the tongue of kurush, as uttered by the prophet sallallahu sallam,
but then the question that some people would say, did what else man did really constitute interference, or destruction of evidence that could have been useful otherwise to discern and examine objectively? The preservation of the Quran? And the answer is no. Number one,
when Islam spread in different parts of the world, some who accepted the masses of those who accepted Islam, what non Arabs?
What difference does it make for the non Arab? Whether you ask them to recite the Quran in this mode, or that, just to simplify the question, suppose you don't know a word of French, okay? You're starting to learn the French language. Does it make much difference to you, whether you are taught classical French, French, or Quebec and style of French, get my point, it doesn't make any difference for you, because you're not Arab. You're not you're not French speaking, you're not born
with this as your mother tongue. So since the masses of Muslims came from non Arab source waters mandate to direct people towards the way of it, after the Quran, would have not imposed any difficulty on them whatsoever, and as such, he viewed that as a transitional stage until that generation is finished and then the new generation would all follow the dialects of, of kurush.
Another aspect is that and this is very important in terms of scholarly verification of sources also, when it comes to the dialect, in which the Prophet uttered the Quran sallallahu sallam, we find that there is so called power waters, that water means that it has been confirmed over and over and over again by masses of people because, as you know, the Prophet did not recited once, over the 23 years, he leads the prayer, he recited all the time and people listening to him. So the confirmation has come through overwhelming evidence, whereas some of those attributes or modes of expression came through what the scholars have assumed called a bar ahead. That's only through one
or a few sources. And obviously, even from the scholarly standpoint, you give much more weight to the one that has been confirmed with totters
number four, and that's very important. They trust man that they allow and take that decision on his own.
And do you think that Muslims who believed in the Quran as the word of Allah would have allowed us man or anyone else to tamper with the word of Allah? If indeed, there was any secret Korans that disappeared as a result of the action of us man? The answer is no. It was made in public. It was made in the presence of memorizers of the Quran. It was made in the presence of even those who wrote or wrote down manuscripts for their personal use with or without error.
And let us remember one thing that is very essential
that the decision was made with the consent of all those who are present and even some of the Sahaba as I've come to later about the Codex is who objected to that and insisted on their own particular manuscript. They came around and agreed, ultimately, with the decision of us mundo de la one.
That leads us to the second question, so what Osman did like I said, it's not a secret thing, destroy this hide the evidence was done in the presence of all and by the way, like we said earlier, one of the songs
He used for verification was the original manuscript that was still in the house of hafsa, the widow of the Prophet and daughter of Ahmed roseola. Han. But let me come to the second point. And I think that would be quite enough for now
is the issue of codices. Some people would say that we hear about
a copy of the Quran or manuscript that belonged to Abdullah in the muscle road or the lawn.
And it says why it has basically the same Quran, it is claimed that it did not contain Al Fatiha.
And the model was that in algebra bill Falak, and Colorado verbenas.
The answer to that question, first of all,
and that's again, the very significant issue of our time that seemed to be brushed aside by many biased Western orientalist.
Going back again, to the question of authority.
If you have
a narration
that has come through multiple channels, and they're all identical,
would you give that greater importance? Or would you give importance to one or two people reporting something different?
so obvious, even I was reading in a book in Christian theology.
And while there that committed Christian himself was writing as a basic rule that they accept in their own theology, he says that you must interpret anything that is really shared or different, quite different in the light of something which is very bountiful. For example, if, if profit is our SLM, he argues, in hundreds of statements indicate his humanity, and then there may be some statement that somehow carries possibility of interpretation, you must interpret them in the light of the many not interpret the many and the light of the few. That's a very simple rule of logic and theology, whether it applies to Islam or others. So this issue must be brought to mind also up to
laburnum So, it is a great companion of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam okay. Suppose and by the way, there are some scholars who dispute even that require dispute that indeed, Abdullah did not include Al Fatiha and Martin and this are well known scholars in verification.
And Naui, and Abner has an are very important names among historians and scholars of Hadees. And all of them
believe that this narration about the Codex of Ebon muscle is weak. But I'm going even beyond that, suppose it would not week number one.
How do we know that Al Fatiha is part and parcel of the Quran? through one or two or three sources? It is absolute torture, there is no single Muslim, past or present, including Assad himself who did not memorize Al Fatiha it's well known that is part of the pillars are the essential prerequisite for the validity of prayers. So whether even if it was through whether he lost that page, or for some reason, or did not put it because everybody memorize it. Furthermore, you talk about monoliths and at the end of the Quran, even if you say that he might have not might have lost a manuscript suppose he didn't write it even everybody memorize that and there is there are numerous sound, a
Hadith of the Prophet SAW Selim about more with the tin Massa elesa in a way Muslim our the sky then we stayed on the Muslim that there are lots of talk about the mod attain and it comes also by the water through numerous sources. So, this is something again, that one has to keep in mind.
One more thing before concluding.
Some people say or try to exploit it,
to explore it. The difference
of understanding about America between Muslim Sundays and Shias and say, Look in some of the polemical writings,
it is claimed that there is a different Koran for the Shia, you know, all this kind of political things, that there were other sutras in the Quran that Osman suppressed because they speak favorably about Ali and his eligibility to be the halifa after the Prophet sallallahu wasallam.
So the claim is made that some of the Quran was lost, suppressed by us man or something was added in order to support one political view or theological view or the other. You might have heard also, those of you have read in the subject, that there was a surah called surah till wilayah especial surah in the Quran speaking about Haley's wilaya that he should be the leader of Muslims.
Now, there are four basic responses to that before I finish one
that this kind of claims are bottle bottle button. They are
false, false. You go today to Iraq, in Shia area, you go to Iran, a stronghold of Shia Islam
in India, or any place in the world. Personally I have never seen the so called Shiite Quran. And if any brother or sister here who follow the chia interpretation
can tell me and I would welcome to hear that if they have ever seen the so called Shia Quran that is different is that anyone here by show of hands? Anyone who so called, saw that she our current? Where is it?
Why it's not in the marketplace. It is a myth to speak about the so called Shia Quran. It is an exploitation of difference between Muslims are the concept of Imam to try to widen the gap and create myth or to use write things that might have been written by some writers but then, you know, there are polemical writings on both sides that is not something that one should give a serious scholarly attention to, number one. Number two,
one of the greatest Shiite scholars is known as a top Rossi in his famous volume known as metromile. Ban, he says and I quote him in Arabic first amnezia, the TOEFL Quran, thermo Jamal and Allah clarnia.
What a man knocks on fashion to stellar,
which means as far as anything that was added to the Quran, there is a Jamal there is unanimity that this is false.
And as far as reducing or removal of anything, not sudden diminishing from the Quran, it is even more impossible. And these are the words of one of the main pillars of Shiite theology.
Number three, the question that I raised earlier, earlier, the alarm and other people, other Sahaba contemporaries of the probes are selling very powerful figures, were there already? Would they allow us man or anyone else to tamper with what they believe is the word of Allah that must be preserved intact? It's an impossibility. We don't hear about this. And even some of those rebels who ultimately murdered last month or their loved one
who when they raise an issue, it was only just to try to gain some support. We said what are your Quran but they could not offer a single iota of evidence against us man that he tampered with. And it was not a man's decision. It was a collective decision of the oma, that let's not divide even on the modes of expression, keep it exactly as uttered by the prophet sallallahu wasallam, which brought a great unity and the Muslim man till today to the point that one of the non sympathetic Muslim was non Muslim scholars, William Boyd, and I are, after going through a very critical
analysis, very critical of how the Quran was preserved, he concluded, finally, he said, we can say that the Quran we have today that means all over the Muslim world, get any copy anywhere, published or printed at any time manuscript. In any point of history, it is all the same. He said, we can say, as a non Muslim, that the Quran we have today is almost we might say the same, he The truth is very difficult to attach. He doesn't want to say it even openly says almost, but maybe you can say the same as the manuscript of us man, his main difficulty, as I indicated in my humble little test, by the way, for those who are interested in the subject album, seven of the Islamic teaching series,
all deal with the question of sciences of the Quran, and was quoted there, that what what I said that more
was not as objective by trying to cut the connection between the manuscripts written under the supervision of the Prophet that was collected by Abu Bakr and Osman, as if there's something happened in between, but at least he could admit openly that the Nasca or the copy of Usman is the same as the same as we have today. But then there is tremendous evidence that it is exactly the same also, as written, the time of the Prophet and compiled by a robot and finally, very simple logic, logical question.
If indeed, anyone tampered with the Quran, removed any part pertaining to earlier lavonne dropping or adding Do you realize that it raised the alarm on himself was Khalifa for six years
and has full power? He was the halifa Yes, there were troubles like other highly qualified they were for going on disputes and commercials. But why? That's so called hidden Koran or hidden sewers of Vallejo, others.
never appeared, he has every authority to publish and even burn off copies that are sent to the upside or to the cities. Finally, one point only for the sake of connecting between this and another very curious and important topic. Very interesting one, in an indirect way that sometimes when you tend to think about the authenticity of the Quran, you keep focusing in depth, on preservation by memory by writing, codices, and so on. But there is something very simple and very logical.
Many of you are familiar
with the literature that came up in recent times about the Quran, the jazz, the miracle of the Quran, not from the standpoint of historical or archaeological arguments, but from purely scientific, decisive known science, not scientific theories, established facts of science. And you're lucky here in Toronto that you have, of course, Dr. Keith Moon, and some of you must have seen his lectures about the amazing, precise expression in the Quran. about human embryology even genetics is science that developed only in recent decades, that shows that indeed, the Quran could have not been written by humans. My question here is this, aside from the argument, on the issue
that we didn't deal with today, the authority of the Quran the evidence that it is impossible that Prophet Muhammad wa sallam wrote that or any human because these are scientific invention that you only read recently, aside from that line of argument, my question is very simple. If indeed, there was the slightest tampering, in the words of the Quran, how come this amazing discoveries are known today? In other words, if somebody tampered with the Quran, and then they are yet and so on, so that 23 that deals with the embryonic stages, or if that gives a clear indication about genetics, that it is the sperm of the men that determine the * of the fetus, not the egg, which is established in
genetics. Now,
if there was the slightest tampering, would we have that precise expression in the Quran today, so, that could be another issue, that you can go on and research and related actually, to the issue of authenticity. In conclusion, I must apologize to you that in a way, before I gave that talk, I asked my brothers for some advice. I said, if the kind of audience we have today is the kind of audience that is looking mainly for general inspirational talk, no problem, I could have talked about salah and we have some slides also about some aspect of Salah.
If, however,
there is a high degree of seriousness and interest, then perhaps we can try to touch on a topic as complex and as deep as this topic. And the advice I got that hamdullah the audience is very receptive and very
attentive and I could testify that I hardly heard anyone really snoring or I might have seen a couple of cases of people getting a little bit astounded by the information. But hamdulillah I am grateful to Allah subhanaw taala that you were able to go through this very
laborious type of presentation. May Allah subhanaw taala make it useful, and if some of you at least felt it is too dry, I seek only your forgiveness for one reason that in recent decades, and especially in last few years, with the constant attempt to destroy Islam and Muslims, we find various means of destruction. That is fair is the destruction of Muslims physically through genocide, as we have seen an occupied Palestine and in Bosnia, in India in Kashmir, other place in Cambodia.
in
Burma, former Burma, we see one attempt to destroy Muslim or liquidate them physically.
But what is even more dangerous and serious and very relevant to Muslims living in the West here that I can see because I'm interested in that area I see in literature, and the kind of speakers that are going around the country, giving lectures to churches and other places in talk shows. So books, talks, videos, that there is an attempt to also to destroy Islam by this attacking the credibility of its Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam. They realize that Muslims are awfully lucky by having a book which is both authoritative and authentic, that there was no tampering which is unparalleled in human history of any religious faith. So they want to add
Tek both the authority and authenticity of the Quran. And if I had time, I could have given you more examples of the so called errors of science in the Quran, errors of grammar in the Quran that lots of all kinds of
unjustified and erroneous critiques on objective, it that pure objective, but it's really unscientific and objective attacks on the authority and authenticity of the Quran and through attacking its own teaching, that it's old fashioned, or Korean or whatever. So I believe that why the topic, I admit, is even less interesting for some are less or more dry than dealing, for example, with the authority of the court and how do we know it is the word of Allah, which is still an elaborate topic, but perhaps a little bit more
easy to follow. I believe, however, that it might be useful, for some at least, and might at least generate some interest on the part of some of you. That's why I'd like to conclude by mentioning some of them, I did mention that that should be at the last, the very end of the list, but for something that might be readily available is album Seven, six and seven, actually of the Islamic teaching series, where you have a total of 32 hours of taping, all about the Quran. The first part is on authority. The other one is authenticity and sciences. But for those who read Arabic,
the best source in my judgment contemporary source, in terms of scholarship and response to some of the orientalist claims is the one written by the another martyr, a chef, Dr. Mohammed soppressata. the close of his Salah is a great Lebanese scholar who wrote two important volumes. One is called my bathysphere on my back has is not like some people in Egypt believe like security service member has begun my path means research or areas of research pertaining to the sciences of the Quran, and another one is another my bath in the sciences of Hades. This is an excellent source on the topic.
In terms of relatively recent ones, the book by Azur cleany it's called
as a Quran, like remember the title correct, is a very important source and that among the earliest writings, which has been quoted frequently by many writers, is gelada clt. Again, on Holloman current sciences of the Quran, I'm not trying to say that these are the only ones at least these are ones that I'm familiar with that really have great importance and a wealth of information. For those who do not read Arabic. It is unfortunate that you don't have as many translated because like I said, the topic is very hard itself.
The among Muslim as public, very few are aware of many of those aspects. And among people even who specialize or study in that area, there are not too many because of the difficulty of the topic itself and some technical elements involved. However, a simplified and reasonable source is written by a German Muslim who accepted Islam.
It's called the aluminum core an alum of course Quran
Hanalei becoming old forgetting names His name is Ahmed want them for exactly, then van de en denford Yvonne den for V o n, and the last name then for d n, double F, er, that's a good
book also on the subject and I pray that Allah subhanaw taala may enabled me sometimes to not as a Highland but as a student parliament to compile some of this information which has already actually on the tapes, but to put it also in some
written form. So my apologies again, and I hope that kind of data mimics some benefits of this extremely lengthy presentation was Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah America.