Qur'an. the Divine Scripture

 

Similar to all the books in the world, Al Qur’an has also an Author, and we Muslims believe it to be Allah SWT. Most of the non-Muslims do not accept this and unfortunately, many of the Muslims also have doubts about this fact. To defend this fact, many Muslims in the past have written books and articles to debate with the non-believers. But as Allah mentioned in His Holy Book that “He gives guidance to whom He wills” Al Qur’an 28:56 https://quran.com/28/56

I have gathered some points to defend this fact, as I have a logical understanding of this fact that this miraculous and glorious book can only be written by an author who is all-knowing and who is the lone creator of heavens and the earth “Allah SWT” He said this in Qur’an 25:59 https://quran.com/25/59

First of all, for the sake of argument, if we talk about the beliefs of non-believers, this book Holy Qur’an is not from the creator of the universe Allah SWT (nauz’billah). Then, as a common understanding, there has to be an author of this book, as every book in the world has its author. There could be 4 possibilities that we can assume to see if this claim of non-believers is correct or not:

1. Prophet Muhammad SAW wrote this Book himself.
2. Prophet Muhammad SAW used the previous books and scriptures to write a new book.
3. Prophet Muhammad SAW used the help of a knowledgeable person (Jew or Christian).
4. Satan helped Prophet Muhammad SAW to write this book.

Now we will shed light on mentioned each possibility one by one, which will at the end provide us with the fact to explain that the Qur’an is a word from Allah or the dis-believers are right about this.

Prophet Muhammad SAW was an illiterate person, which means he could neither read nor write. This fact was known to all the people around Him SAW (Muslims, non-Muslims, Friends, Family, Enemies etc.). This fact is obvious proof that such a person cannot write such a miraculous book, despite that, we will try to find if there is any possibility of such scripture can be written by Muhammad SAW himself. Below are some key points to note down if someone thinks that He SAW was the author of the Qur’an:

a.       Writing Style: There is a clear difference between the writing style of Hadith Books and Al Qur’an. Many of the hadith were fabricated by people that came after Muhammad SAW and most of them are not authentic. Even if one authentic hadith was transmitted by one companion, the same hadith was in a distinct style and wordings if it was transmitted by the other one. Unlike this, Qur’an has been unchanged from the day it was revealed by Allah to Prophet Muhammad SAW, not a single alphabet was changed since then. It is because Allah took the oath to take care of this scripture by himself in many places in Qur’an such as 15:9 https://quran.com/15/9

2. Blaming Verses: There are many verses in Qur’an in which Allah SWT directly blamed Prophet Muhammad SAW for certain actions that he did, such as:

i.         https://quran.com/9/43

2. https://quran.com/66/1

iii.      https://quran.com/80/1-2

Now if Qur’an was not a word from Allah, and it was written or said by Muhammad SAW Himself, then why would He SAW include such verses that directly blame him for his actions? This also shows that Muhammad SAW did not have control over writing Qur’an or arranging its verses.

c.       Threatening Verses: There are many verses in the Qur’an that directly threaten Prophet Muhammad SAW if He would have turned away from the signs or disbelieved after Qur’an was sent down. Below are some example verses that in which Allah has directly threatened Muhammad SAW:

1. https://quran.com/2/120
2. https://quran.com/72/22

iii.      https://quran.com/6/15

if Muhammad SAW wrote Qur’an Himself, why would he include such threatening verses, this also shows that He SAW didn’t have the authority to delete or reject such verses.

d.      Revelation Format: Qur’an was revealed in the form of verbal communication, instead of a written form. Jibra’il AS (Gabriel) used to bring the verses of the Holy Qur’an in the form of wahy (verbal revelation from Allah) and Muhammad SAW used to repeat the same in the form of recitation, and His companions used to remember and note down on barks of tree and pieces of leather. This fact also confirms that this book no doubt is from the creator of the heavens and the earth. Because if this was revealed in the form of written text, there might be an option to correct things, but Qur’an was revealed in the form of recitation which could not be corrected once revealed.

5. Prophecies: There are many prophecies in the Qur’an that happened during the lifetime of Muhammad SAW, many happened after He left the world. Below are some events that happened during the lifetime of Muhammad SAW and after him:
1. https://quran.com/30/2-4
2. https://quran.com/48/27

How could Muhammad SAW know this? And if He was unfamiliar with these events before these were revealed to Him, then who informed Him about these events? These events must have been prophesied by the Divine Entity, who knows everything.

f.        Miracles: There are hundreds of miracles of the Qur’an in the form of prophecies mentioned 1400 years ago. Many of them are related to the end times of the world that we are experiencing now and some are yet to come, and many of them are related to the science that modern technology has discovered and most of them are yet to be discovered. Below are some of these miracles discovered by modern science and people of the modern age:

1. https://quran.com/75/3-4 Unique Finger Prints.
2. https://quran.com/21/30 Creation of everything from Water and Big Bang Theory.

iii.      https://quran.com/57/25 Iron was sent down.

iv.     https://quran.com/21/32 Sky, a Protective Shield.

v.       https://quran.com/23/14 Human Development Stages in Mother’s Womb.

vi.     https://quran.com/55/19-20 Two Sea joining, but their water does not mix.

vii.    https://quran.com/54/7-8 People on the day of Judgment will walk similar to Locusts.

viii.  https://quran.com/6/125 Higher Altitudes create breathing problems.

ix.     https://quran.com/27/88 Mountains are moving.

x.       https://quran.com/39/5 Vortex movement of planets, Sun is also moving.

xi.     https://quran.com/24/40 Oceans have inner waves.

How could a simple man who was illiterate and had no knowledge of the future, He had no assistance from anyone to prophecies these, and many more events and facts that amazed the modern world? These events must have been prophesized by some Divine Entity who knows everything, and that entity is one and only Allah SWT.

g.      Delay in Wahy: On certain occasions, the revelation (wahy) was delayed from Allah SWT, so much so that Prophet Muhammad SAW had to face difficulty against that delay. For example:

1. When Jews came to prophet Muhammad SAW questioning about the people of Cave, He SAW replied to them, saying I will answer you tomorrow (without saying Insha’Allah). The revelation was delayed for a few days for which He SAW had to face consequences.
2. When Ayesha RA was falsely accused in her honor, the revelation for the truth was again delayed for few days. During that time, Prophet Muhammad SAW had to face harsh words from people around him.

If prophet Muhammad SAW was the author of the Qur’an, why would he delay in answering such questions in which his honor and truthfulness were at risk? If he was the author, he would come up with the answer without any delay.

h.      The challenge: In Qur’an, Allah SWT has challenged the disbelievers many times to bring even a single verse as this Qur’an has. If Muhammad SAW was the author, why would he offer such a risky challenge to embrace himself. This challenge was offered not only to the humans but to the jinn’s as well, who we all know have some superpowers that we humans do not have.

9. Personal Information: Qur’an does not have any personal information about the prophet Muhammad SAW, not about his family, background, residence, or anything relating to Him. His name ‘Muhammad’ was mentioned only 4 times in the Qur’an, which is much fewer than the mention of other prophets like Moses, He AS was mentioned 134 times in Qur’an, and other prophets were also mentioned dozens of times in Qur’an in many places.

If He SAW was the author, like other books of the world, Qur’an should have details of Muhammad SAW. About his life, his childhood, his marital life, his background, his lineage, anything or detail about his life. But Qur’an is a word of Allah and He focused on delivering his message to people.

Considering all the mentioned above points in detail, we conclude that the first assumed possibility “Prophet Muhammad SAW wrote this Book himself” to find out the author of the Qur’an is void, and that Muhammad SAW could not have been the author of Qur’an.

Heading towards the 2^nd assumed possibility, “Prophet Muhammad SAW used the previous books and scriptures to write a new book” below are key points to ponder upon if we can find anything to defend this claim or not:

a.       Prophet Muhammad was Illiterate: Prophet Muhammad SAW was illiterate, then how could He first read the previous books and scriptures (Torah, Zabour, Gospel), understood them and took points from all of them and then wrote a unique new book. He SAW could not read and write, which is also an amazing selection of Allah SWT. If He SAW was literate, people would have easily blamed him for writing this himself.

2. Arabic Difference: Muhammad SAW was a native Arabian. He was unfamiliar with Arabic literature. He knew very simple Arabic, which was limited to the speaking skill. We all know that the Arabic language in Quran is so difficult that even Arabians first have to learn the literature and grammar used in Qur’an to understand it. How could He SAW wrote the Quran in such a difficult language that follows strict rules of grammar and Arabic literature?
3. Different Language of other Divine Revelations: Torah, Zabur and Bible were in different languages. The first Arabic translation of the Bible was made in the 9^th century, that is 100 years after the death of prophet Muhammad SAW. How could he have read it, made notes out of it, and then made a book out of those notes? And the first translation of the Torah was made in the 10th century by Saadia Gaon. It was previously in the Hebrew language.
4. Availability of other Religious Books: Until around the 18^th century all the churches were hiding the Bible from common people, so even after the Bible was translated into Arabic, even after 8 more centuries were past Bible was not easily available to the people in the market for reading and understanding.

This makes it impossible for a normal human (who is also illiterate) to read, understand and rewrite the book in his own words.

Coming to the 3^rd assumed possibility, “Prophet Muhammad SAW used the help of a knowledgeable person (Jew or Christian)” below are some key points to understand whether Muhammad SAW used the help of Christian or Jews to rewrite his version of the revelation:

a.       No mention in Qur’an or Hadith: There is no mention of even a single encounter in which Muhammad SAW was helped by any Christian or Jew in inquiring about any past event mentioned in the Bible or Torah. As these two books are the only authentic books of events that we have in the modern world, this clears the fact that Muhammad SAW never got assisted by any non-Muslim in gaining knowledge about the past.

2. Enmity: It was a clear and understood fact that Jews and Christians were having rage for prophet Muhammad SAW because He SAW was a new emerging star among people and many Christians and Jews were converted to Islam because of his teachings. How could Jews or Christians then allow Muhammad SAW to write a book that goes against their teachings?
3. The difference in Beliefs: We know that Christians call Jesus the son of God, and Islam mentions very clearly from the day first that Allah is neither begot anyone nor was He begotten https://quran.com/112/3 How could Christians agree to help Muhammad SAW?

a.       Christians Beliefs: https://quran.com/5/72

2. Hatred of Jews: https://quran.com/5/82

These facts void the 3^rd assumed the possibility of finding the Author of Qur’an other than Allah SWT.

Heading to the 4^th and the last assumed possibility of finding the author of this Holy Book which is “Satan helped Prophet Muhammad SAW to write this book” and by name, it is the most illogical possibility for finding the author of Qur’an. And below are the reasons why:

a.       In many places in Qur’an, Allah cursed Satan and his followers directly, and instructed us to stay away from him. If the book was written with his help, then why would he add such verses that curse him?

2. It is mentioned many places in Qur’an, that Satan swore to mislead humankind https://quran.com/7/16-17, then why would he have helped Muhammad SAW to write a book that guides us?
3. All the past revelations from Allah SWT and Qur’an depict Satan as the major villain character for the human being. Then why would he help Muhammad SAW to write Qur’an?
4. Qur’an directly instructs to seek refuge from Satan before reciting Qur’an https://quran.com/16/98 then how could Satan himself have helped Muhammad SAW in writing this holy book?

The mentioned above points clarify that Qur’an was not written with the help of Satan as well. Finally, all the 4 assumed possibilities nullify and now the question is, if no one helped Muhammad SAW to write this glorious book, then how does this miraculous book come into existence. The answer to this question lies within it.

Qur’an 81:19-29 explains the proper procedure of revelation. https://quran.com/81/19-25 “[That] indeed, it [i.e., the Qur’ān] is a word [conveyed by] a noble messenger [i.e., Gabriel], [Who is] possessed of power and with the Owner of the Throne, secure [in position], Obeyed there [in the heavens] and trustworthy. And your companion [i.e., Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ)] is not [at all] mad. And he has already seen him [i.e., Gabriel] in the clear horizon. And he [i.e., Muhammad (ﷺ)] is not a withholder of [knowledge of] the unseen. And it [i.e., the Qur’ān] is not the word of a devil, expelled [from the heavens].”

This explains that the miraculous Qur’an is a direct revelation from Allah SWT to Muhammad SAW through Gabriel AS.

 

Useful Video Links:

Qur’an, a book without doubts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL2hDhkYoao&t=148s&ab_channel=ManyProphetsOneMessage