Blogging Theology
Suleiman Hani – Proof that the Qur’an is Divine
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Similar with hamdu lillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah. While early he or Sacmi he woman wanna, I want to preface this by saying this is one of my favorite subjects by far. And I have been delving into this for a number of years. And in fact, it was the topic of my master's thesis at the University of Jordan. And I'm still very passionate about continued research, and especially teaching on this topic because of how foundational it is. Like many other people, for me, the evidence for truth matters. And like many other people who are not exposed to this topic, frequently, especially non Muslims who may not know any better, or Muslims who have never really
read much, or heard much about the topic of urges in Quran, the miraculous nature of the Quran. This is one of those topics that really serves as a foundation for everything else. So when someone asks, for example, why Islam, it is this subject that serves as one of the foundational responses to it. And so I want to start actually, by sharing a story and some examples of experiences of conversations. I enjoy one on one conversations more than anything else, when it comes to talking about religion when it comes to searching for what people believe is true. And what I noticed often what I noticed over the last at least 10 years or so, it's often times when people are searching for
truth and truth here, again, they people understand in different ways. They're coming to truth with some assumptions already with a methodology already. And what I mean by this is the following. In many of these one on one conversations, someone would say something along the lines of I will believe in God when and then they'll give an example of a term a proof a sign and evidence on their terms, that they will then accept according to their claim as sufficient to believe in God or I'll become Muslim, if I were to see x y&z Proof evidence, which is understandable at a very surface level. But one of the, you know, most unreasonable things to do is to come to the truth with limited
terms with limited possibilities. And what I mean by this is the following. A convert to Islam converted from atheism. And later on, he was agnostic for a while, and then a deist, actually, and then from there, he became a Muslim. The conversation started off like many other conversations where he said, prove to me that God exists. And I know this may seem like a very weird preface to the subject, that's at hand, but bear with me, Inshallah, tada, it is very relevant. Prove to me that God exists a very common first sentence that I receive, whether through emails or messages online, in person, prove to me that God exists. What would convince you to believe in God? under
what terms what sign would suffice for you to believe, and people respond in different ways, but oftentimes, it's something that's very empirical, something that is breaking the laws of nature in some way. So many people say, Well, if God would reveal Himself to me, or if God healed someone right in front of me, or if God did X, Y, and Z right in front of me, I'll then believe, and my usual response, depending on what they say is, so you believe there's one possibility of a sign or an evidence for the reality of God? And you would believe in God based on that? Yes or no? Yes. Logically, it's very straightforward. Do you believe there are other possibilities than the one you
listed? Is it logically possible that there are other signs of God that you might be ignoring? Is it possible? Or is it impossible? So while it is possible, of course, how many possibilities are there? And usually, when I asked this question, the person has gone from claiming one evidence, one possibility and belief in God to then having to admit there are countless possibilities, countless science, countless miracles, countless evidences of the reality of God. And in one of these conversations, and the one that I've referenced that hamdulillah But long story short, I asked him, if one of these signs if one of these miracles is a revelation from God, what do you imagine it
would contain so that you know it's not manmade so that you know it is from God? He would say it has to be perfect, has to have information, no human being can know. We have to know that it's not been changed by people so as to be preserved. And as he's listing these, I'm smiling. He's like, why are you smiling? I'm like, Can I introduce you to the Quran? They already know about the Quran. So what do you know about the Quran? I said, some of the things you listed we already have. We already know these things. Do you think 2 billion Muslims just want to follow blind faith? Do you not think we have a very clear evidence that the final revelation is the one that we are following the Quran is
from Allah subhanaw taala. Long story short handed, I became Muslim. But this is one of many conversations that I've had with people who sincerely as far as I can see in terms of the action are looking for truth and will follow the evidence. Now there are many other people who will say, I will believe in Islam or I will become Muslim or I will believe in God and they will give you a claim but they're not sincere about the claim and we can't see in people's hearts so we do our part and we move on. So this question, why Islam is answered through two primary things two primary topics among
To others, and the first which I will not be covering today is the proofs of profit to Adela, Enugu and the proofs of prophethood. We believe every prophet that was chosen by God came with a proof, because otherwise anyone can claim to a prophet which has been the case in history, there have been imposters in life. So a prophet comes with proofs and people ask what is an example of a proof Musa Ali Salam Moses had many signs and many proofs that people could not deny unless there was some arrogance and pride. So the splitting of the sea is just one example. You have examples of prophets that come with different types of proofs that are limited in time and space. Long story short,
Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him salAllahu alayhi wa sallam had many proofs and the Quran serves as one of these proofs, and it is a timeless proof it is a timeless evidence in terms of the subject of if Berta Nobu or della Enugu. And this is one that I will not be covering, you can find a lot about it. In other places, I will be covering the second topic, which is foundational, and that is the miraculous nature of the Quran. This is a topic every Muslim needs to know about. And in fact, I will, I will say this, every person who claims to be searching for truth should want to know about this. Why? Because oftentimes, when people are searching for truth, they'll claim Well, there are
too many religions to search through. I've spoken to an atheist before said there's too many possibilities out there 1000s of religions, I said, well, first of all, do you think God is unjust, that you would have no clear evidence in terms of the truth? Second of all, are you really claiming they are all equally valid in terms of the evidences that they provide, or in terms of the opportunity to research look at, for example, the main religious adherence or the main religions of the world, in terms of the number of followers and see what is it that they have, it's not that many options you look through, then you find very quickly, a number of problems in the New Testament,
Christian history and other things that I won't be getting into here. But they have been covered in blogging, theology. And then you get into Islam, which by 2050, or 2060, I believe, according to one projection, maybe 2070. And Allah knows best will be the largest religious group in the world. And it's not about the quantity here, but just a matter of fact that it's easy to find the resources you're looking for. So it doesn't hurt the one who claims to be searching for the truth. To explore. This subject is topic of the miraculous nature of the Quran, with an open mind and open heart. If you're looking for the truth, you will find it and Allah subhanaw taala the Creator guarantees that
those who put an effort towards guidance towards the truth will be guided and they will be given God consciousness. May Allah subhanaw taala keep us amongst them along I mean,
what is a miracle? What is a miracle now in if you look at the different companion books and philosophy and philosophical theology, when it comes to the subject of miracles, it means many different things. And this is why I actually want to define it very cautiously here. In English, the word miracle means many things. And even in Western philosophy has a number of different approaches to introductory text about the definition of a miracle. I'm not talking here about just the breaking of a natural law, the laws of physics, a miracle is in Islamic theology. A more Jesus specifically, is the breaking of customs. And it's not just the laws of nature, it includes the Quran, things that
people cannot imitate, and it is from God's command, it is from Allah subhanho wa taala. Otherwise, we will not call it a Marchesa and I will be using this term more frequently in this presentation, just so we are clear about what a miracle is, because sometimes it's understood in different ways. One of the scholars proposed that there are shorter at conditions for a mortgages and there are many different approaches. This is according to call the Abdul Jabbar in a morning. And he says an act requires the fulfillment of four conditions in order to be considered a miracle. And some of these can be combined in one some of these are subjective in their approaches, but these are just to kind
of introduce listeners inshallah Tada to what a miracle is or a more Jesus. The first is that the miracle must be coming from Allah subhanaw taala, directly or indirectly. Now what that means directly or indirectly is that, for example, the splitting of the sea, we cannot see how exactly this took place in terms of the command from Allah subhanaw taala. So you might use the word directly here, and other things like, for example, some of the miracles that came to the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, in terms of angels that then carried out these orders, we don't really know the details behind the scenes. But this is why we cover all bases by saying directly or indirectly,
revelation comes through Gibreel, Gabriel adding Salam. So this is an example of something that is from God at the end of the day, but it could be through an angel, rather than just a direct command of a punishment that comes down to a previous nation or anything like that. The second condition is that the miracle must break the habit, the other of the people. Basically what this means is that it's doing something that people themselves cannot do and will not be able to do. So the second and third condition are very similar here. And if you want you can combine them, it breaks the habits, the practices, the abilities of people, it's something that has not been done or cannot be done. An
example of this is the splitting
of the sea, or the miracle that was given to Jesus Prophet Raisa Ali Salam, with the clay bird to be given a life. This is mentioned in the Quran and this affirms, in fact, what was mentioned in the rejected Gospel of St. Thomas. And so this is just an example of a miracle that people themselves cannot do. And it is one of many proofs that it's not coming from a human being,
and how they did their job or actually adds this third condition, this third shot, so he says people must be unable to perform it. This is where Arges in capacity and capability comes in, with respect to its kind, its genes or its Asli for its quality. So it's going to be something people cannot imitate themselves because they are limited in their capacities. And the fourth, a miracle must be specifically linked to the one who claims prophethood here's where there's a distinction in Arabic or sorry, Islamic theology and using the word English in Western philosophy, where in Arabic when we use more jeiza, we're referring to something given to a prophet. When we use other terms, we may be
referring to the let's say, somebody asks about the Dogen. The End of Time is sometimes used in English, the term is the Antichrist, those kinds of abilities given to a dungeon or a miracle given to a righteous person who is not a prophet that's not falling under the discussion of a mortgage here. So what is the point of all of this, the Quran in Islamic theology, the Quran is a proof of Prophethood It is a miracle. It is a verification that the individual claiming what he's claiming is truly blessed by God with prophethood with the mission and the responsibility of delivering a specific message to the people and in this case, we are talking about Prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam peace be upon him with the final message, the final revelation from Allah subhanaw taala to all of mankind until the end of times. So what is the Quran as a mirage Isa, the subject here is a jazz and Quran and this is the term that's usually used. We believe as Muslims that the Quran has characteristics that are of a miraculous nature, meaning it is beyond the capability of human beings because it is the word of Allah subhanaw taala Kalam Allah and mankind's inability or Hodges to imitate the Quran is a proof of its divine origin, therefore we believe it is an ongoing Marchesa, the word in English we're using loosely is miracle and it breaks the ability, the natural
order until the Day of Resurrection, people are unable to imitate it or come up with anything like it and it is a clear proof of prophethood. Now when we apply this word adjust to the Quran, we are referring to the unique and inimitable quality of the Quran, that is from Allah subhanaw taala it is the most superior
speech it is the it is superior to all other books and all other things and it cannot be rivaled it is unparalleled. And the basis for all of this the entirety of what is called a dozen Quran if you want to call it a doctrine, the entirety of this doctrine of the origins of the Quran is actually from the Quran itself, where when the opponents and the opposition to Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, when especially the elite of the wealthy, the rich, the people of political status would reject Islam because they had their own agendas and their own power to hold on to their own. Basically worldly ambitions and so on and so forth. They rejected the Quran and came up with many excuses and
when they came up with these excuses when they would say it's fabricated or He's a magician or he's a liar, or he's crazy make up your mind which of it which of these excuses are you actually choosing? When they said it? It's fabricated or it's from someone else or it's from something else or it's magic? Allah subhana wa Tada commended them very clearly and give them a challenge. When quantum fee Robbie mana Zina ADINA, if you have doubts about what we brought down what Allah revealed to His slave, his servants, Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, here's the challenge, that to be sorted minister, then come bring forth a surah in Arabic Surah here, sorry, in English,
it means like a chapter of the Quran number of eight or verses, bring forth a chapter like it. And you'll find many other challenges like this in the Quran. In fact, on six occasions, there are references to different types of challenges produce something like if you don't believe it's from God, then bring something like it. If it's manmade, you can clearly and very easily imitate it. In fact, not only should you be able to imitate it, if you think it's not from God, you are the most likely of people the most proficient in rhetoric in Arabic poetry, to come up with something like it if you think it is not from God. And then Allah subhanaw taala, in fact, makes it very clear and
this is a promise of Allah that has been fulfilled or will continue to be fulfilled in the following verse of Surah Al Baqarah 24 the Atlanta Falcons one interview, and if you are unable to do so, to meet this challenge of God to bring something like his speech if you are unable to do so, and you will never be able to do so.
Oh, you will never be able to do so. And when I mentioned this once to an agnostic colleague, he said to me very bluntly, he's like, Well, this sounds like the type of challenge that cannot be one like there is no, there isn't a possibility of falsifying it. I said, you're thinking about this from either a philosophical lens or a scientific lens. You know what the Quranic challenge is, you know, what the original Quran is about? This is Allah subhanaw taala, speaking boldly and clearly, and about the future as well that people will not be able to meet the challenge. If you think you can meet the challenge and study urges of Quran and see what's brought forth, the most likely of
people could not muted as many academics, Muslims or non Muslims have stated over the years this challenge was never met, this challenge has never been met. Now. The verses here, sometimes they are referred to as the verses of the challenge I added to hottie. It's a subjective term you can use to understand what we are referring to. Basically, there is a challenge to produce something like the Quran if you don't believe that it is from God, if you believe it is manmade. And according to the famous scholar of tafsir, Ibn katheer Rahim Allah, he held the opinion that the initial challenge when they when they came up with this excuse in this rejection of the truth is that there was a
challenge for produce something similar to the entire Quran, when they could not it was reduced, the next challenge was reduced to 10. So what 10 chapters if you could not there was reduced them to one surah. And they still could not meet that challenge. And these were the most
proficient and most advanced in terms of Arabic rhetoric. And I want us to consider just for a moment, a small tangent here, people usually know we're the stories of the prophets, the previous messengers, examples of what might be called a miracle or a Marchesa, so Prophet Ibrahim Alehissalaam, Abraham was thrown into the pit of fire, and it was made cool and safe for him. While Jesus reciting his Salam, by the will of Allah subhanaw taala was able to heal the sick and revive the dead musante Salam witnessed a number of different miracles and His people saw these miracles from the staff, to the the frogs to the example of the splitting of the sea, there's famous and of
course, the staff that had consumed and defeated the Pharaoh sorcerers and they became Muslim they submitted it was a clear sign of God, clear sign of profit to it. When the truth comes to you. Don't wait. Don't reject, don't procrastinate. Don't allow your pride or your ego to get in the way. And there were other prophets that were given, you know, different miracles. Solomon, Solomon, I said, I was given the power of controlling the winds for transportation, understanding the language of animals from a Quranic perspective, all of these are more on desert and more desert are also signs, signs of God, and they serve various purposes. You look through the Quran, and you find every area
is a sign. And this is why the word in English verse or verses is a kind of like a weak translation. The i and the Quran is an indicator of truth and indicator of God's power is an indicator of who you are as a human being. And they fulfill different purposes. One of the purposes of signs, as you heard earlier, is for people who are not upon the truth to then follow the truth for people to be guided. But not everyone follows signs, you know, even in a worldly sense, some people drive and it says though, they're blind to all the signs that they see around them, right? They drive and it's like, there are no signs at all. How many times do you want to warn somebody Warning, warning,
warning, slow down, slow down, slow down, and then they crash? I wish I was warned before I wish I paid attention to you. Well, the signs were there. That's a very insignificant, worldly example. People do this all the time, unfortunately. But with regards to signs of God, they're there for you to find the truth and then to find reinforcement. And that's why when you are Muslim, and you do pray, and you fulfill the command of God, and you're taking those warnings very seriously, and the glad tidings as well. You pray every single day and you recite in the nostril autonomo stuff, Please guide us along the straight path, keep us guidance, in other words, so you don't want to say I want
to see the truth and then accept it and then let go of it. Rather, I want to continue taking in all the signs of the Quran and the signs around us and within us, so that we are not people of arrogance, and that we are following the truth. Because at the end of the day, people are either following the evidence is for truth or they are following their desires. Whether the desires of worldly things and worldly temptations or the desire to be pleasing to other human beings and to buckle under the pressure of societal pressures. May Allah protect us from pride and arrogance. Allah subhanaw taala tells us and it's very frightening verse in the Quran in surah seven Aya 146.
So obviously for yatta yatta yatta Verona will only be negative help. I will turn away from my signs those who act unjustly with arrogance in the land and this is talking about the state of one's heart then then manifest into actions arrogance is the most destructive of traits and it blinds you from the truth. It is something that completely clouds a person's judgment, you can give someone 100 miracles that are both empirical, rational and filtery based according
to natural disposition, and they will reject every single proof that you've given them because they're not after the truth. They're not after some evidence or sign they're holding on to what they want to hold on to. And here's the frightening part. Allah subhanaw taala says, What era Aquila Atilla ubia. If they were to see every sign, every miracle every type of sign, they would still not believe in them. And if they see the right path, they will not take it if they see a crooked path, they will follow it. This is because they deny the signs of alone they were heedless of the makan have often in May Allah protect us from any kind of pride or arrogance. And here's the promise once
again, Allah subhanaw taala says, salary him, Tina, Phil family, a few unforeseen had to obey. And now we'll have we will show them Our signs in the universe and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth here it some of the scholars that have say Islam or the truth, meaning the Quran, specifically, the signs of Allah subhanaw taala suffice, the miracles are all around us. Do not limit yourself to your terms to your claims, because you don't know that that is the completeness or the exhaustive list of miracles that are out there. Rather you recognize Allah can give you any type of sign. And one of the signs that Allah subhanaw taala decreed for humanity
and for the jinn as well is the Quran is Revelation, and here a preserved message until the end of times. Now these Meccans received the Quran. And some of them started to request like people of the 21st century started to request visual science, empirical science fell yet to be I didn't come at all see that alone. So and I want us I want us to consider here the context of the Mexicans were rejecting this. Allah subhanaw taala saying just to translate let him that they're saying let him bring us a tangible sign. Like those prophets since before I'm adding in the Tafseer. With the commentary here, the reality is there have been people who requested empirical science in the past,
and they rejected them. And I want you to imagine today we are at 8 billion human beings, approximately, I want you to imagine there was a way to survey all eight, 8 billion human beings and to be asked the following question, if such an such sign or a miracle from God were to take place, let's say today, would you believe in God, or would you become Muslim? And I want you to imagine all 8 billion people agree that if this thing appeared out of thin air, or this thing happened, that we would all believe in God, imagine everyone makes the claim. That's all I want you to imagine the claim was made. So the people of Saudi Alayhis Salam Prophet, Sylar was sent to the people of the
moon, they requested a camel, she camel, an apple, they were given the miracle on that term, they were given the miracle to see, you would think with the way people talk today with the way that there is radical skepticism, and very bold claims that people are looking for proofs that everyone became Muslim. No, some of the people rejected Prophet saw they had a Salam. Not only that, some of them killed, plotted and killed and slaughtered the camel. What does that tell you? Not everyone is after the truth. And this is a really frightening reminder for us to as human beings to look within ourselves and make sure we are sincere and that we are humble. When the truth comes to us that we
accept them, we follow it and Allah subhanaw taala says why manana and notice the level at law in Canada, we have a well known, nothing keeps us from sending those demanded signs, except that they had already been denied by people before and a lot of references that people have demoed. And so the reality is not everyone is after the truth. And I want us to keep this in mind. Because oftentimes, when we talk about technology that assigns, we're looking for something specific. And once the term wants the miracle on our terms is there then some people like Okay, now we'll accept the truth. Let's look at this further from one last angle and see that there are people today and people in the
past who said that if they could see God, or they could see certain things, they would still not believe they would think they're hallucinating. Other people would say it's magic. Other people would say, something's wrong with me or somebody said this, some people will never believe, let's end it and just say, Let's approach the topic of the miraculous nature of the Quran with complete sincerity, that we are looking for what is true, so that when the evidence is there, we follow it, we're held accountable for everything we do, and that we pass the question in the trials of what we did with our lives and what we did do with the signs that came to us.
Sorry, interrupt, I also acknowledge that, you know, remember that Iman is greater than merely believing in the existence of God or merely believing that
you, I mean, who has been exposed to more signs than IBLEES himself? Right? I mean, Iblees, has, is exposed to the supernatural realm. He knows a prophet Mohammed Salah Salem is a true prophet of God, ie, those very well, that sounds true. But he's not spiritually receptive to that truth. He's not willing to submit to that truth. And so, at the same time, you know, mere evidence
acceptance of evidence may not be sufficient for spiritual transformation for many people, because, okay, they may come to acknowledge that this is a true religion, but they may not be spiritually disposed or read or are inclined towards submitting to that faith and submitting to align with Allah. So I think this is something else that we also need to consider that it's not just some intellectual block that is there, as some of you know, people reject this, I'm trying to portray that, you know, I am not intellectually persuaded by the evidence for your faith. I mean, there could also be spiritual obstacles there as well. Whereas some people are too arrogant to, to submit
to a higher power, and to, you know, and so on. So I think that's also useful to to remember and bear in mind.
Does that look at it absolutely. Medical, if you can, somehow oftentimes, people see this as a purely intellectual pursuit and that's why we started those examples of people are given all types of signs and miracles and evidence that they don't accept. And for many people, it's it's kind of the the entry point, you know, the evidence is there and you become Muslim. And then you have to build your Eman, develop it, learn who Allah is, submit to Allah Subhana Allah humility, develop a sorry purify your, your natural disposition, the fifth one that Allah gave you, this is more of a fifth broad based or spiritual pursuit than an intellectual one. But the proof here for those who
don't know is, is that this is also an intellectually rigorous religion that we are not just blind followers looking for, you know, what you might see as just feelings. There's a spiritual element of, you know, faith and there's email and belief in Allah subhanaw taala. And there's of course, the intellectual justification if someone is
in need of that a lot of animal medical or physical. A lot of times people ask, I know this is history, a lot of people may not be interested in this. I'll try to make this very brief inshallah Tada. I kind of explore this further and in more detail in one of the articles online on the origins of cron, long story short, the history of iridescent Quran as a doctor where he mentioned, the concept itself is from the Quran, the concept is at the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa salam peace be upon him. We are talking here about the packaging. And this is how you see other fields as well like filth and ofall. And, you know, Tafseer, that there's a packaging in terms of
how to teach it, how to approach it in a structured fashion. Why did it develop further and when and by whom there are a number of different people who wrote about it, not many texts, or have survived from the earliest of centuries, the first and second century, for example, but there are references, and one of them is hydrogen NewBlue biochar. We don't necessarily take everything he said, however, he was somebody who addressed it. And you'll find that there was a lot of discussion on jazz and Quran under the cat under the subject of proofs of prophethood. It was one of many topics when talking to non Muslims or people that were being exposed to Islam. For the first time, this was a
subject that would arise to have the factors that seemed, and I say seen, because it's not always easy to know, but two factors that seem to contribute most to the development of our Jasmine Quran. And the first is the significant amount of commentary Tafseer on it to hottie the verses of the challenges and so there was commentary from a poverty amongst others on the nature of the Quran, the miraculous nature of the Quran. And there was one other as well factor which is one of the groups, the heretical groups with deviant views about the nature of the Quran, the Morteza will talk about the creativeness of the Quran, and they turn this into an inquisition. Long story short, they went
after many Muslim scholars,
the most notable of course, the Imam Muhammad and humbled in terms of the Inquisition, the man and what he went through. And the point that the reason I mentioned this, the point here is that the ongoing conversations about the nature of the Quran amongst different groups at that time that became prominent and then died out in terms of some of their influence, and some of their influence lasted. And later you had the SRA scholars actually scholars as well, talking about the origins of Quran, the most notable maybe amongst the ones I have here is at Belkin learning, talking about, you know, theological and philosophical issues, expedited some of the discussions that people were
having the scholars were having the students of knowledge were having, so it saw some progress in in adjusted Quran doctrine in the fourth century, especially in the third century as well. I gave some examples here of detailed works from the scholars of the fourth century in the fifth century. Hijiri are many of Hatami. Babylonia are some of the most notable ones. And when I mentioned these names, I'm not necessarily endorsing all of their views, but rather these are the scholars who wrote about images of Quran you had later on a journey. And of course, some of the notable names that people know like it'd been terminated from law wrote about urges. You have of course, Gillette, Idina
Sutera, Malloy wrote a lot about jazz of Quran and many others as well. This is a little bit of the history but again, there's the tufts
See of certain verses, there is the dispute about the nature of the Quran and then there and that's interests Namic and then you have the Dawa. The conversations about Islam and religion when Islam started to spread across the world and people were being exposed to Islam for the first time. So the proofs of Prophethood was at the forefront of also introducing dangers of Quran this is kind of a brief summary but this is the history that some people are not really interested in so I will move on inshallah Tada
the scope of your Jasmine Quran what are we talking about here? I know some people they hear about this like what makes it miraculous just to get right to it. We're building these foundations inshallah Tada step by step so bear with me, what makes the Quran miraculous now the Quran is miraculous in multiple ways meaning there is urges as you'll come to see as we'll explain, inshallah Tada from multiple angles. And this is the opinion of many scholars, including even tainment, and many others, even before that, Bobby held this opinion and it was beyond just the, let's see literary or linguistic miracle of the Quran. Some of the scholars used to focus on just one aspect
of the origins of the Quran. And so Allah Kalani wrote a lot about the literary argument. And there's there are so many in depth studies and writings and publication just about the linguistic miracle of the Quran. But generally, overall, you will find a scholars explored in a desert Quran, they will be able to demonstrate and you'll see shortly and charlatan, that really, it's beyond just one facet beyond what just one aspect of a miraculous nature, you have the knowledge of the natural world and knowledge of the future, the knowledge of the past, that people have not been exposed to the only later generations, people realize you have the impact on the hearts and own societies on
nation states, you have the laws of the Quran, the morality that is timeless, you have the, of course the linguistic miracle, and that itself has, you know, 5060 different categories of origins. Within it, you have the perfection of the Quran, you have the context of how it came down. All of these are examples which we'll get to. And at the end of the day, the names of the scholars you see are some of the scholars who held the opinion that and they give examples that the Quran is miraculous in multiple ways. And here are some of the ways now, I created here I tried my best I'm not a very artistic person tried my best to create this type of diagram. It's a type of Venn
diagram, I believe, talking about these different categories, and I didn't include them specifically here for a reason. What you see on the left are facets of the ages of Quran. So when somebody asks, What do you mean the Quran is miraculous how what makes it a miracle, you have the literary miracle, that's the most common one that's used, you have the knowledge of the future that no human being can possibly know. So eliminate all most of these will eliminate all discussions on human authorship, human attribution. Now you have the preservation of the Quran, the fact that is the only preserved scripture that was given to any messenger and there are ways to prove this as well. You have the
elucidations, about the origin of life, the existence of God, who is the creator names and attributes of Allah subhanaw taala. These are not things you can just rationalize, you have to know who Allah is based on what he tells us. You have the universal laws you have the ease by which the Quran is memorized the perfection of the Quran, no errors, no contradictions, the impact of the Quran on human beings, on one's heart and mind and body on nation states and civilizations. All of these are examples.
And I what I did with the Venn diagram is and the reason I did this I'll explain. Sometimes when you read one surah, one chapter of the Quran, you might find some of these facets there, but not others. It doesn't mean that the jazz in all of these categories and more needs to be in every single verse of the Quran. The Quran is miraculous in its entirety. And if you were to take different passages you will find different types of images. The linguistic miracle is found throughout the Quran, this cannot be denied the perfection of the Quran in terms of the lack of errors in terms of no contradiction found throughout the Quran, the personal experiences can be in a single I have no plan
in fact, I mean part of an eye of the Quran so you cannot really take one category and say this is in like half of the Quran the others in the entire Quran only. So these are all different facets of urges, which we'll go through shortly. Inshallah Tada and they do impact us in different ways. And some of them will be more common in the Quran and others will be limited in terms of the occurrences and so the knowledge about the natural world you might not find this in every verse, knowledge of the future, you might not find this in every verse, but it is there in the Quran, it is still one of the most important to consider. Now, I want to mention something that I think we'll help many people
as they digest this. People are impacted by these types of jazz in different ways by the facets of jazz in different ways. And you don't necessarily need to go to someone and say listen here I have 10 examples of your jazz Quran, and I'm gonna go through all 10 And I expect all tend to impact in the same way. Some people will will struggle a lot to connect to the literary miracle of the Quran. There are ways to explain it in a non Arabic research, but it's not always the first thing that clicks for someone
I've surveyed over the years, many converts to Islam and many Muslims have been practicing for 1020 30 years, sorry, 1020 30 years about the justifications they have for belief in the Quran. And the Quran is from Allah. And they've all given different examples. And the reason I share this is because sometimes you will find, you know, just one of these or two of these to really hit home for you. And that really suffices. And I if you don't mind, a cleaver, some want to share just an example a young man who claimed he loved Islam because of intellectual reasons. After many years, he decided to finally talk about it. And he traveled from out of state and came to Michigan, I have had
many people come to Michigan, just to talk about Islam, which is a positive sign for them that they're sincere taking the step and I pray that he was sincere. And I saw you know, the fruition of that. He came to talk about his doubts and intellectual questions. And I was waiting to hear what is the thing that caused this man so much confusion, a young college student, and I thought there was going to be some philosophical argument that he was confused about, and that I would have to respond to none of that. We sat there casual conversation, we had coffee. And then finally, we spoke about and I love to bring up energiser Quran, I found it suitable once I got to know him that he related
to the Quran. So it was suitable in that type of data environment. We talked about 10 categories of edges. And when we went through these, he said, after I finished and there was a brother with me, another shell, we finished and I basically, like I looked at him and we're like trying to assess like, how are you feeling? What do you think? He says, Well, five of these I believe he said five of these. They're so clear cut I can deny. But I'm still struggling. I have doubts about the other four or five. So I'm not ready like to really just, and then the other shift, just like interject, he's like, wait, wait, hold on, hold on. Five of these made sense to you. And they're clear cut proves
that the Quran is miraculous. And you're you're not moving forward, because you have doubts about the other four or five, does that make any sense to you that you're letting the doubt take the like, the foundation is your doubt, and everything has to make sense to you for you to move forward. All you need is one proof that the Quran is from God for you to accept it, that's all you need. One proof if you're looking at purely an intellectual pursuit, he said, you've already accepted four or five of these, they're very obvious, you can't deny them. And you're not yet certain about the others we can help you explain those over the years but you're certain about a few move forward.
Don't be amongst those who reject and allow your foundation of certainty to be replaced with a little bit of doubt, the doubt will be cured inshallah Tada can take care of it. By now you have certainty about some things. As we go through these, when you find certainty, accept it, and that serves as your foundation, nothing else should shake the entire foundation, suddenly, out of the blue, you're like, I don't get, you know, this 10th category or the seventh example. You're just, it's all there it is there. But here's another important point, speaking to another convert to Islam and from that this person had not left Islam in return, but rather and that brother by the way, did
become Muslim Hamdulillah this person converted to Islam. When we were talking about the original Quran, he said, like, you know, like, I understand like, you know, one or two to kind of make sense three and four kind of makes sense primacy kind of has like been nothing is like, like so abundantly clear. I'm like, What do you mean by abundantly clear? He's like, you know, like, if for example, if every time I recited the Quran, he started to float in the air I believe it's from God, I'm like, Are you serious right now? Like that's what you're doing? That's your term for belief. Do you not think God is greater than that? Like the Quran just floating when you're it's not Harry Potter. Now,
what are you talking about? You're reading the Quran and you're receiving from Allah subhanaw taala. All these proofs. Now, here's what we said to conclude.
You can only deny something with a little bit of like your doubt or confusion. Maybe somebody gave you the wrong explanation of it. For so long before you say how many different pieces of the puzzle do you need, until you finally say, I can't ignore the overwhelming evidence when you look at the big picture? All these examples are just, you really cannot deny that the Quran is from God. And this is why, you know, when I had finished the thesis that I did, I went in with this lens of critique, not criticism, a critique of our arguments from a Western lens to see what arguments are being brought up in counter arguments. And by the end of it, I literally shared with my friends and
classmates and my teachers, the same thing that I had started with which is you can't say the Quran that it's improbable to come from who we know it's impossible to come from a human being it's impossible and that's why we're calling this a mortgage. That's why it is miraculous. It's impossible. And I assure you if you delve into this topic, inshallah Allah with a sincere heart and open mind, for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala. In the pursuit of truth, you will find as well that you don't have any doubts the Quran is from Allah Subhana Allah, this is Kalam Allah. Now, one of the questions
it's interesting how you also pointed out that, you know, some some facets may resonate with some people more than more than other facets. And I think there could also be some flexibility in terms of how we present these evidences right. You know, one may see the strength of these evidences holistically.
As a package deal, you may look at some of the evidences. So for example, one of the evidences that was mentioned was the ease by which the Quran is memorized. One person may say, Okay, this seems like a circumstantial argument to me.
Maybe not a very strong one. Others may say, No, it's a very strong circumstantial argument, because this is a very unique aspect. Yes, that argument by itself, in isolation of everything else, will probably not persuade me to accept it as a divine book. But it's certainly a very good circumstantial argument. And I'm going to look at it in accumulation along with all these other different facets that you're presenting. So there may be some leeway in viewing just how definitive and compelling each of these individual arguments are. But I think undoubtedly, what we're looking at here is that when looked at as a package deal of sorts, or or holistically, that the evidence is
quite compelling and overwhelming.
Does that clock it on? Absolutely not a coffee and oftentimes that's, that's a step that person needs to to take forward Subhan Allah may Allah subhanaw taala grant us sincerely in the pursuit of truth and reinforcement upon it as well long I mean,
I want to begin with this question that comes up and I will come back to it inshallah Tada at the end as well. What about Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam so anytime the conversation of the origins of Quran comes up the nature of the Quran, we have to address the very obvious thing, which is what about Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him? Because there is a very obvious problem with those who reject belief in the Quran, divine origins, no matter how indirect their language is, there is this assumption they have about the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi salam with regards to either his integrity, or his sanity or his character if they are not accepting the Quran as being
the word of Allah subhanho wa Taala because those who claim that the Quran was authored by human beings and they're ignoring everything else about it, and yes, if they're claiming the Quran is authored by Prophet Muhammad himself, sallAllahu Sallam there suggests suggesting some kind of worldly motive material gain or power which easily is eliminated and has been refuted. And it's not too difficult to refute, or the claims not can be refuted using historical evidence or reasoning or any kind of objective metrics like the prophesy, some did not gain more of dunya. After prophethood, he lost more of a dunya and he rejected a dunya. He rejected power rejected bribery of all types.
And there are many, many academics, many non Muslims who have attempted to study life of the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, and they mistakenly would assume that he was an unrivaled genius who authored the Quran in his subconscious mind, intellectual occupation, right? And we're mistook it as revelation from God. And this claim is really ridiculous. Why? Because it automatically will prevent this individual from seeing that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is one of the biggest factors in accepting that the Quran is from Allah subhanaw taala because you've already established as many, many Westerners and others and Orientals and others have established his sincerity, his
illiteracy, that he was not taught to read and write his lack of exposure to Scripture. And, as many of them said, it seems that he had not read any scripture or their inability to properly and coherently explain the concept of Revelation. Why revelation Islam is a little different than other religions. But what he they're trying to explain it through a secular or materialist psychological lens, but the at the end of the day, the Quran itself rejects all claims of human authorship. The Quran itself in terms of images, rejects all of that. And the life of Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he is the most documented a famous figures in history, as many Orientalist have
asserted, and many of them who have studied his life, admitted that although it seemed that the initial accusations of the Arabs of Karachi pagans to reject the Quran that they had accused the prophesizing of authorship they men change their arguments to other things. And here you have an example of a response Allah subhanaw taala is telling the Prophet salallahu salam to respond. And just to keep it brief, I'll read the transition very quickly when Our Clear revelations are recited to them those who do not expect to meet with us neither one subhanaw taala will then say bring us a different Quran or change it open deal and the Prophet sallallahu wasallam was told to respond. It
is not for me to change it of my own accord. I only follow what is revealed to me and I fear the torment of a tremendous day if I were to disobey Allah, another command Prophet Muhammad say the following. If Allah had willed, I would not have recited it to you, nor would he have made it known to I lived an entire lifetime amongst you before it revelation came to me how can you then not use your reason if and that afternoon? I lived amongst you for 40 years before prophethood began. You know that the Prophet Solomon did not learn from a poet you know that there is nothing that is similar to the Quran, you know that nobody else in the inter
hearty of Arabia has anything like the Quran. So there's nothing that matches it nothing similar to it does not fit into any kind of category in terms of poetry and the Prophet salallahu Salam is known as a satirical Amin, the trustworthy, the honest, nobody has this nickname after 40 years of living amongst the people, unless they've really built that reputation. He was a Saudi of Colombia, and they knew him for this. So I just want us to keep in mind when people talk about the Quran, they are oftentimes coming with an existing assumption. So if they were to reject different aspects of the Quran try to come up with a different explanation for ages. The sad reality is, they are
indirectly claiming that there's an imposter theory here, or that it is man made or that the profit is not honest. And you have to build that foundation first, who is profiting from a silhouette Christendom. And I will come back around to this at the end, I just wanted to introduce this very briefly in Charlottetown. One of the common examples of the origins of Quran and this is something that you can read, maybe hundreds of 1000s of pages about in dissertations and books and articles and things like that is the linguistic miracle, which is not easy to explain. And sometimes, and I'm sorry, it's not easy to explain in the English language to or in a non Arabic research setting.
Because when you study Arabic, or the more you you know, of Arabic, and even if it's an introduction to Arabic, like you understand some basic words, you start to automatically understand the linguistic miracle that is embedded in every single area of the Quran, you will find when you delve into deeper, it's in the grammar in the structure in the storytelling and the syntax in the word precision. The word choice in some verses over other verses, you'll find sometimes in the same kinds of stories in different aisles or sorry, different songs, different passages, different words being used, and they both have their own settings for those words, and you'll find as well, of course, the
Quran is impactful on the hearts when you listen to it. There are many people there are many people who embraced Islam. And when we asked them why their answer was I heard the Quran for the first time I heard it and I didn't even know what it meant. Now, that may not sound convincing to someone who's skeptical and asking, Well, how does that prove that it's miraculous. There are many things that move us emotionally there are many things that we listen to, that affect us, there's music for some people that moves them. And so you look at the actual literary features of the Quran, the devices, the you look at the word choice, as well as the conciseness. In some places, and elaboration and
other places. You look at the perfect blend between the power of emotion and reason and intellect and feeling all in one you find in the storytelling in the arguments in the intellectual in the rhetorical in the doctrines in the laws they come, as well as the stories about the Day of Judgment, all of that you find a very powerful and emotive force, you find that the Quran has a voice of majesty behind it, it's a very bold, strong voice consistently throughout. And there are ways in a linguistic setting to demonstrate with even the shortest source chapters of the Quran, how there is a an energizer that a human being cannot come up with. And when you study it and you explore it, you
find really, it's an ocean of energy. It's an ocean of study. But one of the best ways to explain the literary miracle in a non Arabic setting is to remember some of the following contexts and I want to share maybe these two points and feel free after that as well. But some if you want to interject, I know this is supposed to be maybe the longest example. I want people to keep in mind the Quran was revealed and conveyed over the course of 23 lunar years, various times different places, different audiences. And you have to keep this in mind. With regards to literary and non literary categories of our guests. The method of delivery was verbal Prophet sallallahu alayhi salam
would receive revelation and was commanded to recite and sometimes it was conveyed, the revelation was conveyed when a question would arise. They would come to us Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam about a certain thing, or they would come to test him and challenge him. Right. So some of the Jewish tribes in Medina would would give the courageous questions to ask the Prophet salallahu Salam, to test him see if he actually knows if he knows what's in the old scriptures. There are things he won't know about. Right? So one example of this is the oral delivery of the Quran. If I were to ask anyone, including myself and Bassam here, if I were to ask you, like, you know, Bassam,
give us like a five minute summary of like any topic you want, and something you you're well versed in. You would likely give something remarkable in sha Allah Tala. But if then I were to ask you like hey, like, can you write it as a research paper and have it reviewed by 100 different professors. So you know, there are no mistakes, no issues, no linguistic things, nothing of content, nothing of gram. You're basically getting a final product with the Quran that is verbally conveyed to the people in different times different places, disseminated to the masses and cannot be retracted. And there is no proofreading process. There is no opera
You need to change. Well hold on, I want to change what that verse says, Oh, the verse says it's it's there. People heard it, it's reported to memorize a lot of people in the operations. Of course, they're listening very attentively, any opportunity, they had to jump on something, they would love to jump on it, they could not find anything. And this is why you'll find historically, there was not a single issue, a single thing that they could find with regards to the linguistic aspect of the Quran with how perfect it was, they couldn't, they could mock they could make fun of they can start to attack physically and violate the rights of Muslims and persecute them, harass them, kick them
out of their land and wage war against them. But that's only because they could not meet the challenge of the Quran. And so this example I know like the example like the five minute impromptu speech versus like a one month research paper with 100 peer reviews. I know this is not a perfect analogy, a perfect example to the point at hand because really with the Quran, with oral delivery, there can be no mistake the Quran is very clear about the Allah is very clear that there are no mistakes in the Quran. So there can be no mistake in the revelation of God, it has to be perfect without errors or contradiction. And it has to Harmoniously flow and intertwine the meanings with
the rhythm with the rhetorical features with the precision in word choice. And it's been conveyed not just to followers, but to those were challenging its origins, any tiny slip up any tiny thing that would even seem like an error would give its opposition, its opponents, the upper hand would confuse the followers themselves and the people have punished could not, of course meet that challenge. And Allah subhanaw taala mentioned as well. They asked the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam about a ruler, the Solway assoluta Can you pull your roll from Emily Robbie one oh T 2 million around me in love Polydor. The soul is from the affairs of my Lord, meaning it's a matter of the
knowledge of my Lord. And mankind has not been given of knowledge except very little. It's one of the things we know very little about. And so they would ask these direct questions where Soluna can and the response came about and the response cannot be changed and now and yet when you read the Quran, sometimes these verses would flow perfectly. And this brings me to the second point, not only was it on the spot, also it was non chronological. Surah Al Baqarah. The longest chapter of the Quran is 286 verses and according to him in our basket all day long, even our best his opinion was that the last idea to be revealed Nine Nights before the Prophet saw the light and and passed away
is verse 281, of Sorrell tillbaka otelco Real women total Gerona fee and Allah fear the day in which you shall indeed return to Allah and every soul be given what it earned and don't want to be treated with injustice, nobody will be wronged over 15 years, arguably of Surah terracotta coming down. And yet you read this final verse and you read all the other revelations of the Quran, all of the revelations of the Quran, and they flow perfectly. And this is a really important concept to keep in mind because the Quran has over 6000 verses that have the highest order of perfection, in language in sound, an unparalleled eloquence and composition and organization, the notion of the Quran, you
find, with many forms of literature, not just a preparation that the author has, like, you know, when you're an author, you prepare a lot, you have multiple manuscripts and drafts and changes, you have a beginning, middle and end usually formulate in your mind, you somehow are going to bring about a chronological delivery after after the development of what you're doing, even with the greatest of masterpieces of literature or what people reference of, you know, movies or TV shows doesn't matter what it is, no matter how creative you are in coming up with it. You can't find anything worldly to to even closely compare to the Quran 23 years of Revelation, non
chronologically, to different audiences to opposition as well in front of different people, followers and opposition alike in different regions, cities and places as well. Those who memorized it as it was being conveyed, you cannot take it back from them. So they were instructed by Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam where to place each of the newly revealed passages or the newly revealed yet and so when you study or hear about the literary aspect of the Quran or any other aspect of urges, you have to consider the perfection of it in terms of the context on the spot, as well as the non chronological delivery. And you have to recognize as well that if you're not
understanding of some of the grammar or the language or anything like that, this is something that can be learned you may not fully appreciate it, but you will realize the more you study the Arabic language, the more you appreciate how majestic and how miraculous the the language of the Quran is. There's a lot more to say about the linguistic miracle of the Quran. And I would urge you to for those who are interested but do not speak or read Arabic at all, to try to understand through different types of studies and publications. You have even the shortest chapters of the Quran like Surah toto Thoreau salt and also how there is a miraculous language to it despite the fact that it
is the shortest chapter in the Quran and features that can
Not to be done on the spot and cannot you cannot find alternatives for in terms of the word precision, you find the thing, the grammatical shifts as well, the effect is perfect in every area of the Quran, you find the first person, second person third person references, you find as well that the verses that were revealed in longer chapters, but not all at the same time fit in perfectly and flow perfectly. And you find that they touch the, the intellectual and the emotional all at the same time in different ways. And there's also the technical of the laws and the cam that are timeless, but this is a very short introduction to the literary miracle of the Quran and octopus,
and if you want to add anything, let me know and shout out otherwise, I'll move on.
It's like, well, thanks for that. I mean, you know, a common
objection that comes our way is that, well, you know, there's a lot of literary masterpieces, and, you know, people come and the fourth shit, will you William Shakespeare, you know, as an example, that, okay, you know,
you know, Shakespeare is quite difficult to imitate Shakespeare, you know,
gate, you know, provided, you know, wrote things that were unprecedented in terms of their, you know, linguistic brilliance and whatnot.
Does that alone, really serve as some sort of argument just because it's a literary masterpiece, or just because it's so exceptional and unique and unprecedented? I mean, so many things come into existence and are introduced to mankind, because for the first time, and they're unprecedented, so why can't the Quran be similar in that it is a literary masterpiece of the Arabic language that is unprecedented. And just, you know,
the brilliant work of, you know, a really a, you know, a brilliant human being, for example, I think that kind of objection that that shakes, the Shakespearean objection comes our way very frequently. Any thoughts on that?
Yeah. Just a couple of hidden. Two things. The first is,
it is very common thing that comes up as an objection. And I think I've had maybe 1000 conversations just on this topic because of how common it is. The first thing is that not only is the Quran unprecedented, because some things may be unprecedented, but they are not inevitable. There's a difference between the two. So yes, the quantum is unprecedented, but also it's inevitable. And this is not just the claim of muscle. There are non Muslims, academics and linguists and others who say that up to this point, the Quran has been clearly inimitable, nothing has come close to that. That's that's not the argument I'm going to rely on here. When people ask about Shakespeare, it seems like
there are a lot of misunderstandings because while the works of Shakespeare are considered excellent. I don't I don't consider myself but they're considered excellent to many people. The view of experts and academics and researchers is that the works of Shakespeare are not just imitable, like you can imitate them and come up with something like them. But they're, in fact surpassed by many other other authors who are not well known unless you're in that field. And you understand a lot about, you know, literature and especially literature of that time. So you have examples, and I wrote about this in one of my articles, where Professor Hugh Craig of Newcastle University, ranked
Shakespeare not as first or second or third in terms of the greatest English speaking playwrights. He categorized them as seven gave him the rank of seventh behind a number of other people were not considered inimitable either. And so the idea that he's inevitable is very odd. And the comparison between the works of Shakespeare in the Quran are very odd for a number of reasons. Here's why the first Shakespeare was known to people taught, and he had teachers he had known teachers in Greek and Latin languages. And Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi. Salam never had any teachers. And this is not just the claim of Muslims, but also there are non Muslim academics who have said the same
prophet Muhammad never had teachers to teach him poetry or language or anything like that. The second is that Shakespeare was a known playwright who continued to refine his skills so he, his his literature like was improving and changing in fact, there's a study of how Shakespeare's works evolved Prophet Muhammad's Eliasson never had any poetry or novels in his life, never published anything, and never said anything in terms of anything like that. What I never said anything before the Quran that anyone would say, Well, this is building up to something greater. Furthermore, Shakespeare had the opportunity to edit and modify proofread his works. Prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alayhi salam could not retract the verses of the Quran for so called quality control, once conveyed to Muslims and non Muslim audiences, the writing of Shakespeare as well number four, the writing of Shakespeare as well was a precedent. It it was paralleled, it was not the newest thing. It was great and it's been impactful for
many different reasons and there are actually a number of,
you know, unfortunate things that that are known about Shakespeare and some of the borrowing and some of the other things as well, in terms of his works, or as the brand's unique composition was both unprecedented, and as I said before, remains unmatched remains unparalleled. The works of Shakespeare were developed and published based on his plans, whereas the verses of the Quran came down not chronologically, over the course of 23 years revealed at times instantaneously to various audiences. And lastly, the writings of Shakespeare are extremely limited in scope to a few subjects and a few themes and a few target audiences. Whereas the Quran is a divine, multifaceted multi
dimensional Book of guidance affecting all human beings, affecting people who are leaning more towards the intellectual as well as fulfilling the spiritual, it addresses the individual and the collective. It addresses societies in a timeless way north, east, south and west. And it contains knowledge of the Unseen, it's conveyed through a morally upright man who lived amongst his people for 40 years, known consistently, as the honest and the trustworthy. And it continues to serve that same purpose in a miraculous way. And it will until the end of times, so the argument of Shakespeare is a very weak one. And those who know a lot about again, literature in the works of Shakespeare
wouldn't come up with with an argument like that unless they were looking for something maybe surface level or they maybe did not understand. As you said, they did not understand what it means when we say the Quran is a literary miracle that it is beyond this world. But I also want people to keep in mind the following those who believe in God and those who believe in a creator, and even those who don't but but will at least posit the following point. Do you imagine that the speech of God is going to be like the speech of man, of course, the word of God is going to be perfect, no errors, no contradictions, and if it's revealed to human beings is going to be revealed through
somebody who's honest not through like a pathological liar. It's going to be given through an honest person and you know, this honest person they've known him for 40 years has never learned you cannot assume that this person is now suddenly lying to you and they have something that cannot be explained with any human being cannot be attributed to any human being. They want people to consider this this reality that the eloquence and perfection of the Word of God cannot be compared to human speech. And that's why it's not surprising to us as Muslims. When you read the Quran we've already established we believe in God that the Quran is is miraculous, and yet it still amazes us when we
study it. It still amazes us when we read it may Allah subhanaw taala grant us humility and steadfastness upon the truest
medical offical, another of the quick points that I'll bring up. And I'm not going to spend so much time on this because it's addressed in different places. You find a lot of presentations on the preservation of the Quran, a lot of different wonderful papers and publications as well. But for those who don't know, as Muslims as 2 billion Muslims we believe and we follow we agree on one Quran we don't have multiple versions of the Quran. We don't have multiple books, we don't have multiple, quote unquote chapter slashing Gospels in which someone had to be accepted or rejected in the first second third century after the Prophet know, the Quran was preserved at the time of the Prophet
slicin. A memorize through the Companions, in fact compiled physically all in one place, although is written down, it was compiled in one place from cover to cover, literally less than two years after the departure of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. And despite the fact that there have been many types of heretical or odd or weird groups that have become prominent and died out in history, still the same Quran we have one version of the Quran that's what we all follow as Muslims. And of course, it's not shocking or surprising that because Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi salam is the final messenger of God. It necessitates that for for all human beings to still be able to follow him
that there needs to be some kind of message that is preserved. And so Allah promised the preservation of the final message international Zelena, Nicaragua, in Allahu Allah happy one we have brought down Allah Subhana Allah revealed a vicar the reminder, the Quran is one of its nicknames, and thicker and we will we will preserve it, it is the Promise of Allah that the Quran is preserved. And of course, you can study this as its own sub topic and sub category of lumen Quran the sciences of the Quran, this is something Subhanallah just recently I teach a class on original Quran through another live Institute, and one of the students reached out afterwards. And they shared that they
had become Muslim only because they were introduced to the preservation of the Quran. So the first time they heard that the Quran is unchanged, they said their entire lives they were confused as Christians as to how they can justify following the New Testament knowing that there are many vague and confusing things about its history as well as many problematic things from from an objective lens in terms of preservation in terms of what you accept and what you reject in terms of the authors in terms of changes over time. So they said it's so odd
To be how I was following your book that I cannot guarantee is from God, or even inspired to those first disciples and others from God. But when it came to the Quran I did not know that Muslims believe in the same Quran that was revealed to Prophet Muhammad. And so this student, a woman in her 40s in the United States of America, for her this was sufficient and this is a very common sentiment a very common thing that convert share was it was a very easy entryway into Islam that you know, this is unchanged and of course, they looked into it really it's unchanged. Is that really the case? You all believe in the same Quran we believe in the same Quran. So when we talk about the
translations of the Quran, we say these are translations of the Quran attempts to explain the meaning of the Quran. The Quran is one it is in Arabic, it is Kalam, Allah is the word of Allah subhanaw taala. And it is unchanged. And this is something that is important for many people, because they want to know that what they're they're following is the same message that human beings did not interfere with it. And one time I was talking to someone who was asking about, like, you know, the Signs of God, he wants to explore Islam further. And he said, Well, I would believe in something if I knew that people didn't meddle with it, because what I know of my tradition, my
history as a Christian, he said, it's it's been meddled with in so many different ways. So this guy went through agnosticism, and Buddhism and Christianity. He said, but I can't rely on the New Testament, I just can't justify it. There are too many problematic things that cannot be resolved. There's always an unlock, I was looking for something that was perfect, but I didn't know Muslims believe in one Quran that it is preserved and is the same Quran that Prophet Muhammad and the Companions would recite out of the Allahu Anhu. So for him that was an entryway and a catalyst to learning about and becoming Muslim, and Hamdulillah. But again, a longer discussion maybe for
another time. How is this miraculous?
Through all the wars and battles of humanity and history through all the different, you know, natural disasters, the different things that could have happened? Allah subhanaw taala promised to preserve the Quran and you find going back to the earliest of generations, the preservation was not was not only written, it was memorized by a lot of people it was memorized. So when you when it reaches a point where so many people are memorizing it, there's a level of certainty with mass transmission what might be called torture, but without specifying number there was mass transmission mass memorization of the Quran. So nobody could doubt somebody, nobody could change, nobody could
interfere with their metal with the word of Allah subhanaw taala. So it's not shocking to us. And then this brings me to what might what might seem to be a purely intellectual and rational argument for a jazz or Quran and I say might seem because people take these things in different ways. I recently wrote and submitted, it's not been published yet a very lengthy paper on knowledge of the future in the Quran. We talk about this and usually people hear about this when it comes to Hadith, right? There are so many Hadith, the narrations of Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi salam about the future that came true. And you can only ignore these evidences for so long before you say, Well,
where is this knowledge coming from? You know, if somebody said one Hadith, there's only one Hadith out of like, 10,000. And it was, it was about the future and it came true, someone who say, well, it was just a lucky guess that's not right to say. But they might argue that this is just one off, you know, situation. You have 3040 5060 100 examples of authentic hadith. They've been authenticated a long time ago. And they've been fulfilled in many different ways throughout history, and some only in recent times, until one will someone you know, deny that this knowledge is coming from the unseen, it's coming from Allah subhanaw taala to the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, the same goes
for the Quran. I explore this in really in a lot of detail. And I found that most of the studies most of the most of the books, even in Arabic focus on the Hadith, more than the Quran, and the Quran, they would list very quickly examples, even even tamerlano listed a dozen examples, but did not go into a lot of depth, which I feel is something worth exploring. That's why I wrote about it. And it would suffice as as a fulfillment of this category, knowledge of the future where does it come from? So I asked one time an ex atheist he became
a deist and then became Muslim later, and it's a weird transition, it's for another time inshallah Tada, but I asked him, What would convince him that the Quran is from Allah subhanaw taala. He said, If the Quran has information about the future, and it came true, and you can prove historically that it came true, all believe in it, I said, That's it. So that's, that's the that's one of the main proofs. For me, that's like very obvious. And I told you earlier, a lot of people they'll resonate with different aspects of your Joseph Quran. And as you said, the same. This is a category that for some reason, a lot of people do incline to maybe because it seems like a very pure, rational
intellectual one, rather than addressing it with the heart or the fitrah. But the common the common example, is Surah toolroom. But before I talk about sorta to room I want to give some quick context. And I want to do share that by the way prophecies, knowledge of the future is considered a miracle because human beings cannot imitate it. They cannot do it. And it's
Have link to a profit to specific profit. So it is considered a miracle. And I write about this in depth and short time and that papers published we can share it.
What is the point here, you look at the second bullet point. And I'm trying to summarize as best as I can. This is a much longer discussion from 602 to 628, Common Era, there were the Roman Persian battles and the Roman Byzantines here and the Persians as well, they were the two superpowers of the time, I'm going to summarize as much as I can, for the sake of time 602 to 615, there were a number of Persian conquest, they are taking over city after city after city. And I had to go through book after book after book from historians, non Muslim historians, for the most part, who are experts when it comes to the Persian Empire and experts when it comes to Byzantine history. And as I went
through, I believe over 10,000 pages of research just on this one subject, I found that they all came to the same kinds of conclusions. And they all shared the same kind of history. So there's no contradiction here. The Persians were absolutely dominating and destroying the Roman Byzantine Empire. And in 614, to capture the area of Jerusalem they captured later on 615, Asia Minor areas of Turkey today. And I just want everyone to remember this. This is known Heraclea, as the emperor of the Romans was willing to concede the concession was willing to surrender, and to turn the Roman Byzantine cities that survived to turn the existing state into a client state of the Persian Empire.
So he literally surrendered. And he took permission from the Senate, the Roman Senate, to surrender. And they presented this basically proposal to kiss law, the second that they want to surrender, but they want to survive and they want to be client state to the Persians, you'll find this in a number of different, you know, prominent books, and these are again, experts in this area, they are non Muslims. So there is no claim of bias here, although that's that's a really ridiculous claim. Okay. So what happens here in 615 616, is Kisara rejected the offer, and the two main historians that I was reading both about the Persians and about the Romans, both of these experts said, and they're
both non Muslim, Walter kg is one of them. They both said that the the Roman Empire was basically on the verge of collapse. Now, I want you to imagine an empire that's being wiped out city after city, and people are dying, and cities are being conquered. Kisara rejects the offer. And he continues expanding. Here's where I want us to pause what's happening between those two superpowers, and to turn to what's happening in Arabia. What happened in Arabia, this is before the digital the digital migration was in 622. What happened in the latter years of the Mexican dollar in the Mexican years, is the revelation of surah. To room so I will go forward show you the example of what kingdom Surah
room the first seven verses and if lambing holy butcher room, the Romans have been defeated. Which defeat is this referring to there were many battles that they had lost. Again, there's a series of wars and battles, so you cannot claim Well, there was another battle another time. So this doesn't make sense. No, there are multiple battles. But generally, people knew and historians have stated today as well, the Romans were defeated at that time, the original order they were home in value, whatever him say only bone, they were defeated Vietnam, in a nearby at dinner has to connotations nearby, and close and also in a low land, war home in value. hornbeam say on a boat, but after their
defeat, they will triumph they will be victorious. When the knowledge of the future here makes it very clear, the builder is singing within three to nine years, a quick tangent here, somebody asked me once, why does the Quran say three to nine years and it doesn't tell us the exact year? Well, the Quran doesn't have to tell you the exact year there's a reason or wisdom for why Allah subhanaw taala said that, but it's not weird, because even in English, you say, a decade, a century within a decade means one to 10 years. What does it mean in 200 years, you say within a century, it's up to 100 years. So these are normal expressions that we use Allah subhanaw taala is telling the Muslims
and the non Muslims, the people of Croatia are attacking the Muslims, that within three to nine years, the Roman Empire will rebound. medullary is used elsewhere in the Quran, I believe in sort of Jusuf as well. And billary is a common word as a common usage at that time. And it's again, a measure of time, right? So you say three to nine years, but it cannot be more than 10. The end of the nine years basically is the cutoff. Allah subhanaw taala is guaranteeing this, this is a promise of Allah at the beginning of a surah that's all about promises of Allah and all about the afterlife, and the end of the solar as well as possible in the wind. Aloha. This is the Promise of Allah. I'm
gonna go back now. And I want to just sorry, but I want to stress on the fact that if three is explicitly clear, that's using the future tense, because I had a couple of people in the past telling me, oh, well, maybe this idea was revealed after it all happened. Well, if it was revered, revealed, after all happened, you know, obviously, this is going to read wrong and it's gonna, you know, come across as extremely strange to everyone and people at the time would have pulled out the process on that if that was the case. So the idea is explicitly
fear that's talking about something that will happen. And you know, we just
did that. So yes, in Arabic, sadly, boom, they will triumph, meaning this is in the future tense. And I was going to basically add to this. Sorry, I was going to add to this the following context what was happening at this time. And this is how you know, this is the future of context, the pagans of Mecca. By the way, for those who don't know, and maybe even wonder and are skeptical, how do you know that's when it was revealed, even non Muslim historians, and so called experts of the Quran like Theodore know that in others, they also attributed the revelation of sorta room to the Meccan era. So it was not after 622, this was wild, the Romans had been defeated. So going back to the
context here, the pagans of Mecca, their reaction, you'll find this in many authentic iterations. Again, there's an authentic, rigorous process here in terms of the authentication of Hadith. They made fun of the Muslims, first of all, and the prophets Allah isn't guaranteed the companions. They will the Romans will triumph they will rebound authentic hadith prophesized and is guaranteed yet in another authentic report. And by the way, why were they so happy? Why were the pagans so happy because they related more to those are Austrians of the Persian Empire, and the Christians, the Romans who are Christians or Christians are similar close to as people of the book 100 kita, close
to the Muslims. So it says though, like, Hey, your people, your side of things, your people are getting defeated, and maybe also means your next maybe in the future, you'll be defeated. This is in Mecca. They're already going through harassment, persecution, torture, the attacks that they you know, some of the family members had because they converted to Islam. So what happened during this time in the authentic report of Abu Bakr on the long run, is that they were willing to wager on it, you're telling us your friend, Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam is saying that the Romans will rebound within three to nine years, they were willing to bet on it. Now people don't bet for very, you know,
random reasons. They were willing to bet 100 camels I want to imagine in our times, like 100, really, really nice cars. By the way, some camels are nicer than cars. Why not? Because their camels but rather, it's an apple, it's a sheep camels. So we'll give birth to another camels. So it's like a car that produces a car. Anyways, 100 100 camels I was gonna say 100 cars, they were willing to wager. And they told Apple Beckett, since it's been already seen in three to nine years, how about we meet in the middle? So they said how about five or six years he accepted the offer? He went and told Prophet Muhammad it's a lie. semitone Why did you accept the oboe Beckett? He said, Let me see
is up to nine years the Prophet SAW lies in the nose, the Promise of Allah is true, but Allah does not say six years, Allah said up to below nine years. So go back and increase the wager. By the way, the Hadith mentions this is before betting was forbidden, just in case anybody wonders. So I'll go back and went back to them increase the wager. And they added basically the 100 camels to it. And that's how confident the Mexicans were. I want to pause here and I want people to think about what's happening. Because during this time, the historian say the Roman Byzantine emperor, it just there's no way anyone would assume that it's going to come back. Nobody would assume it's going to rebound
when you study the histories of empires. No, you would never assume it's coming back. And you might think, Oh, is this a lucky guess? One time an evangelical missionary came to Dearborn, Michigan, where we have a large concentration of Muslims. And he came to the mosque, and he told me I want to talk to you afterwards about Islam. I thought he wanted to ask about Islam, because that's what he asked. And I went and met with him at a public cafe. And as we're sitting out there, he had this book in front of him. He's a missionary came with a very specific mission as an Evangelical, and he's like, why do you believe in Islam, I told the Quran I had just finished my thesis that I had
been referencing, I had just finished it, so it's all fresh. He's like, Well, what is it about the Quran? Like, for example, do you believe the Quran has knowledge of the future? It's a very odd question. I said, Yeah, I can give you examples of that. He's like, Let me guess the Romans. I said, yeah, the Romans so it looks like you already know what I'm going to say. He's like, Yeah, that's ridiculous. He's a Christian this book. And I know you want to mention the book. It's so ridiculous. It's academic academically, just trashed. No citations. No, nothing just all trashed. He's like in this book. It says, this is like two NBA teams basketball teams playing in the playoffs. You play
seven games, right? So it's like one team won the first week and the next week, the other team one? What's the big deal with guessing that the other teams are going to win? I said, Did you really just compare two superpowers and empires attacking each other one being almost wiped out with all these casualties and losses to a basketball team? Is that your academic comparison? Is that like something that you're basing your belief on? is like, Well, no, that's a weird example. I'm like, look at the book that you just gave me Is there a citation for for these arguments? And he looked at no citations at all. I'm like, what kind of guests do you think this is when you take a step back? And
the Quran is very clear about where it's coming from the it's from God, and very clear that you will never find an error in the Quran, a contradiction, a mistake. There can't be guesses. There cannot be lucky things. And what what do you assume is luck when it comes to an empire?
or that had just surrendered was willing to become a client state, According to historians were willing to surrender fully had lost between 602 and 615. And are in fact, actually up to 619. In Egypt, they lost so many cities, major cities, you think it was a guess? How many guesses? Do you think profits?
Technically, he put, you know, from a naturalistic lens, all his eggs in one basket with taking this huge risk for, you know, portraying it as he's not just giving his own personal opinion here about what he thinks will happen. But you know that this was actual revelation. So to risk it all, to risk it all. If he knew that he or the biller was a false prophet, that does not seem to make sense. And at the same time, it appears that there wasn't any naturalistic basis upon which you would even take like an educated guess. It's not like the Romans invented, you know, cannons, and everyone say, okay, they invented this nice new weaponry right now. They're definitely gonna make a comeback.
There was no naturalistic basis upon which, you know, anyone would even make such a prediction anyways. So yes, it's definitely a fallacious analogy. Yeah. So it's so ridiculous when people bring it up. In fact, that same year that the migrate the Muslims migrated, I want everyone to remember this, they migrated to Medina, and at this time, they, they did not yet see the fruition of this. You want to call it a prophecy, you might but it's for knowledge, the knowledge of a loss of habitat is not, you know, just it's not a human being like seeing into the future in some weird way. Allah subhanaw taala is telling us what will happen. So the Muslims had migrated to Medina and at this
point, the historians that I was going through their text parvana is a known historian of the Persian Empire, she wrote about and published about a number of times, she wrote about this, the Persians were poised for World Dominion at this time. That's how strong they were. So at the time, the revelation already came down the wager had taken place the Romans were being defeated left and right cities were being conquered people were dying soldiers were being killed all over the the Persian Empire was ready basically, for World dominion. And I want you to imagine you are a Muslim. I want anyone here to imagine you are a Muslim. In the makinde years, and this surah came down and
you're like, looking around these people are mocking you. But Allah is promising you that this will happen. In fact, he mentioned almost parlementaires it is a promise of ALLAH SubhanA wa de la, la yo cliff, Allahu Allah. Allah never fails in his promises. So this is not a guest. This is Allah's knowledge. Subhan Allah to Allah being shared with us about what will happen in the future. What happened between year 622 to 627, the Roman Empire rebounded, I delved into the questions of why, and I found a number of different reasons, they are not important for the discussion here in terms of why the Persian Empire started to suffer and struggle internally with many different things, as
well as what the Romans strategy was, when they were willing to surrender, they were being wiped out. Long story short, the main point is what the Persians sorry, the Romans did rebound. That's the point here, they rebounded, and they recaptured a number of major cities. By 624, they had in fact, invaded one of the most important cities and they destroyed some of the fire temples of the Persians and one of the main shrine. So this means it's symbolic, like when they when they would take over major city at that time and destroy a shrine, it's very symbolic, like we've taken over something very important to you, that means we've made a lot of progress, you couldn't protect that thing that
was important to you. This was in 624 624, is also the year of the Battle of Beddit. So the Muslims rejoice in the very first battle that they express the most decisive and first, sorry, a decisive and very important battle in the beginning of their years in Medina, the second year, after the Hedgehog, again, 620 to 624 626, there was a siege of Constantinople. So it could be any one of these but the Byzantine Empire was weakened, what was mentioned by the historian was weakened up to this point in 626, beyond recognition, and all of these battles when the Romans had rebounded, led to in fact, the the slow decline of the Persian Empire, which later just declined altogether and
ended altogether. So this all took place from 622 years of the migration all the way to 627. And those battles between the two empires ended. And long story short, the Romans rebounded as Allah subhanaw taala said and here's what the Muslim said reported by Timothy one of the companions said, the day that the news reached the Arabs the news of what the news that the Romans had rebounded, the day that the news reached us, it was authentically reported that many people embraced Islam or Islam or under Vatican us and kefir, their reports of autonomy the the question is, why do people rejoice? People rejoice for a number of reasons. The first is because the truth was made clear. The Quran was
proven once again, that is from Allah subhanho wa taala. It proved the veracity and the truthfulness of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam so his prophethood it also was a victory for
The people of the book Al Kitab. Over these are Austrians it also signaled the weakening and decline of the Persian Empire and the strength, the forthcoming strength of the Muslims. There was also a rejoicing for the battle of Beddit that the Muslims enjoyed. And also this was about, in a way, the downfall of Kisara. The second and this coincided for the believers with a tree of her Davia later on, but long story short, I want those who imagine they were in Mecca tonight, imagine the day that the news reached No way. The Roman Byzantine empire that was almost wiped out, is now is now victorious, as Allah subhanaw taala said, as came down to us years ago, the promise was fulfilled
and as Allah says, why the law now you can if Allahu Allah, this is the Promise of Allah. Allah never feels in his promise, but most people know not. And they're one of the wisdoms of a revelation like this, because a lot of times people ask, Well, why did this have to happen? Like, why was their foreknowledge? Why was their knowledge of the future that Muslims had to experience in the non Muslims as well who converted to Islam on that day, because they saw clearly, this is from God, I want us to think about just the reality of human beings, not when somebody tells you something about the future. It's amazing when it comes true. But when somebody tells you something about the future
that is highly unlikely from a naturalistic secular lens, and it comes true, it's even more shocking. It's even more convincing. It's even more to be to to be that confident to lose it. All. Right. Like you said, all the eggs
in one basket.
Excellent, excellent. Is that more hidden. And there are other examples, by the way, and of course, it's not a time place to delve into just one category or just you have the example of secularism in general where you will learn to double the battle better, that the Muslims would be victorious at and again that coincided with the victory of the Romans and this came down in the night before the Battle of video. I don't want to do photography Laquan. He mentioned that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam led them outside and he said, he showed us where the enemies that bedded would fall and die. So he would place his hand on the ground and say, So and so will fall here or die here
tomorrow in sha Allah by the will of Allah and he would go to another place on the ground say so and so far here in sha Allah. There are many other examples like this, and the Prophet sallallahu Sallam on that day of bedded. He went out and he was wearing his armor and he recited to you who's emerald Jana, where you want Luna Dubois they will flee and they will be running in multitudes. This is referring to the 1000 plus of the Qureshi is versus the 313 of the Muslims are honorable kebab says, I swear by the one who sent him with the truth, none of them those enemies that bedded fell, other than exactly where the prophets hand had touched some Allahu Allahu wa salam. And he also said about
this as one other companion reported to, he said, when this was revealed, initially, I was trying to understand who is El Djem, who are the people who will be running at fleeing. He said, When the battle took place, I realize the promise of last year I realized that it was referring to the core issues that were attacking and on and on and on many other promises in the Quran. What did these promises of Allah do? They reinforced the faith of those who are Muslims. They also were clear evidence in Sinai against those who rejected the Quran. Where do you explain this coming from? What are you explaining this as if if you're hesitant, why are you not accepting the Quran? What's your
hesitation? This is clearly from Allah subhanaw taala the confidence the claim the explicit details of the claim and many other claims of the Quran as well. What more do you need, there was a promise of Allah subhanaw taala as well about the liberation of Mecca that you will enter Mecca, Armenian you will enter in safety and security, all of these promises came true. So this is why the early Muslims have the strongest of iman, they witnessed these things happening however, there were many other promises that took place later on one of the promises of Allah subhanaw taala regarding images of Quran Paula in HTML to install Gino Allah yet to be with me how the Quran Allah tuna remitly
Whatever kind of Babu Lee Baldon la Hera se or Prophet sallallahu alayhi salam, if all human beings and the jinn were to come together to produce the equivalent of this Quran they could not produce, it's equal no matter how much they supported one another. That promise has been fulfilled up to this point and will continue to be fulfilled until the end of times. Again, a lot more to say about this particular topic. But there are many examples of foreknowledge in the Quran that was witnessed and can be proven historically as well. Through a number of different evidences for those who are interested in those who are inclined towards it belong to Allah, Adam.
And again, here are the verses of Surah Tarun,
this is a topic I will be very brief with inshallah Allah unlike the last one. A lot of people ask, does the Quran contain scientific miracles, scientific miracles, such an interesting area of literature. I want us to be very cautious because unfortunately there are many people have taken this idea of scientific miracles to a place that is not correct in dower in calling people to Islam or talking about the Quran. There are verses in the Quran that talk about speak about the natural world. This is true. There are many verses like this and many other many different content