Ten Reasons why Prophet Muhammad Could Not Have Authored the Qur’an. A problem facing many Scriptures is multiple authorship over many generations. The Old Testament consists of 39 books authored by numerous individuals over a period of many centuries. The New Testament contains 27 books written by multiple authors spanning a period of nearly half a century. The questions and uncertainties that surround the chronology and authorship of the Bible, for example many of the books were written anonymously, only serve to hinder one from accepting, at least wholesale, that it is the pure word of God. This is not a problem that affects the Qur’an. There is no doubt that Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was the person responsible for transmitting the Qur’an. There are mass historical reports that support this claim, and the Qur’an itself confirms that it was revealed to him. Although Muhammad was responsible for transmitting the Qur’an, was he its author? It will now be demonstrated that it is impossible for Muhammad to have been the author of the Qur’an: 1. HE WAS NOT A POET Many non-Muslims are unaware that the Qur’an was not originally delivered to its first audience in the form of writing, but rather speech. Remarkably the Qur’an often did not have the opportunity for an editorial process, as many verses were revealed on the spot as a response to questions and challenges that were brought forward to Prophet Muhammad from both believers and non-believers. Moreover, although the Qur’an was revealed gradually over a period of 23 years, it did not go through multiple revisions as it was revealed. This is in contrast to the New Testament which has undergone numerous corrections as the manuscripts were passed from one scribe to another and they decided to correct each other’s mistakes. So had any mistakes or errors crept into the Qur’an, it would have been extremely difficult to correct or retract them given the rapid and mass spread of the Qur’an to multiple tribes and countries. In the face of all these obstacles, one would naturally expect the Qur’an to exhibit traits of incoherence, contradictions, redundancy, errors and other such issues. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as the Qur’an is incontestably the standard of the Arabic tongue, a literary masterpiece. Every page of the Qur’an is literally filled with such rhetorical devices and literary nuances. Prophet Muhammad could not read or write. The Qur’an itself confirms this: “Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered prophet, whom they find written in what they have of the Torah and the Gospel…” [Chapter 7, verse 157] Moreover throughout his life, prior to Prophethood, Muhammad did not have a reputation for poetry. In fact we know from history that at a personal level he disliked it and wasn’t a skilled poet. There are instances where he attempted to relate some poetry and would jumble the words up [1]: Qatadah narrated, Aisha was asked: Did the Prophet, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, use to relate anything from poetry?” She said: It was most detestable thing to him except that (at times) he used to relate a verse from the person of Banu Qays and he jumbled it up. Abu Bakr told him it was not like that. So the Prophet of Allah said, “By Allah I am not a poet and neither is it appropriate for me.” How could a man, unable to read or write and without any reputation for being a poet, have authored the Qur’an, the most important work (in terms of literary merits) in the whole of Arabic literature? 2. THE QUR’AN IS INIMITABLE Perhaps the greatest miracle of the Qur’an is its inimitability. The author of the Qur’an tells us that it is impossible for any human being or jinn to produce just one chapter like the Qur’an, even if we were to all aid one another in the effort: Say, “If mankind and the jinn gathered in order to produce the like of this Qur’an, they could not produce the like of it, even if they were to each other assistants.” [Chapter 17, verse 88] What’s remarkable is that the tools needed to meet this challenge are the finite grammatical rules and the twenty eight letters that comprise the Arabic language; these are independent and objective measures available to all. For argument’s sake, were the origin of the Qur’an merely the invention of the mind of Prophet Muhammad, then surely another human being, with equal or greater literary ability, should be able to produce a chapter like it. Many have tried and failed to meet this challenge, and this is in spite of having the very blueprint, i.e. the Qur’an itself, as an example. The Arabs at the time considered themselves (and are still considered by historians and linguists to this day) to be masters of the Arabic language. If the Qur’an was written by Prophet Muhammad, why were not Arab scholars and linguists able to rival it? The failure of those at the peak of their trade – mastery of the Arabic language - to rival the Qur’an which challenged them should make one think. To be continue In shaa Allah
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 20:24:49 +0000
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