The Original Quran and the Discovery of Makkah Dear Scholars, I have the following question: A Christian missionary by the name of Jay Smith during a debate with Brother Shabir Aly claimed that the Quran which we have today is from the period of 740–750 AD. The Quran compiled by the third caliph, `Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) and present in Topkapi Museum in Turkey and in Tashkent, Russia, does not reflect the period of `Uthman but the period of 740–750 AD. He based his views on the coins he had of the period from 740 AD onwards.He further adds, quoting the archeology work of Patricia Crone, that Makkah was not discovered until the ninth century. In other words, he claims that we dont have any record of Makkah and our Prophet (peace be upon him) in the seventh century. What is your view regarding this accusation? The arguments of Jay Smith based on the so-called historical research of persons like Patricia Crone and Michael Cook betray only their bankruptcy in attempting to discredit Islam. This can be understood by anyone who has a cursory knowledge of the wonderful transformation of the Arabs of the Jahiliyyah time (pre-Quranic period) brought about by Islam. The Islamic scholar Abdur-Raheem Green has copiously answered the questions raised by Smith and others. You may read his scholarly reply in detail by clicking here. The fundamentalist missionaries, such as the likes of Jay Smith, are masters in confusing and deceiving through spurious scholarship. Smith adopts the position of rejecting Muslim sources as regards Islam, and accepting only hostile non-Muslim sources. I confine this answer only to the two points you have raised in your mail: Quran Manuscripts First, Smiths charge against the original copies of the Quran: According to him, the earliest available manuscript of the Quran belongs to a period much later than that of its revelation. Even if it were true, it does not necessarily mean that the extant manuscript is not the original Quran revealed to the Prophet. In fact, Muslims believe that the Quran revealed to the Prophet has been handed down intact from generation to generation for two reasons: 1. It has been clearly guaranteed by Allah Almighty Himself in the Quran that He will preserve the Quran from corruption or loss: *{We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it.}* (Al-Hijr 15:9) 2. From the day the Quran was originally recited to the people, it has been with the people. As soon as a few verses were revealed, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) taught them to the Muslims and they learned them by heart. The Quran is also the only scripture that has been memorized by the people from the time of its revelation to the present. At any point in history after the Prophets time, there lived a large section of believers who could recite the whole of the Quran from beginning to end. Five times a day Muslims recite portions of it in their prayers, apart from reading at least part of it daily in the morning. This has been continuing from day one to the present and so there was no question of any portion of the Quran being changed or lost. Referring to this Islamic tradition of keeping the scripture vibrant and well-preserved, Dr. Kenneth Cragg wrote the following: This phenomenon of Quranic recital means that the text has traversed the centuries in an unbroken living sequence of devotion. It cannot, therefore, be handled as an antiquarian thing, nor as a historical document out of a distant past. The fact of hifz has made the Quran a present possession through all the lapse of Muslim time and given it a human currency in every generation never allowing its relegation to a bare authority for reference alone. ( The Mind of the Quran, George Allen & Unwin, 1973, p.26.) It is true that most of the early Quran manuscripts with us now date after the second century Hijrah. But there are a number of fragments of Quranic papyri that date from the first century. There is also a complete Quran in the Egyptian National Library on parchment made from gazelle skin that has been dated AH 68 (688 CE). We have differing accounts of the number of copies directly ordered and sent out by the Caliph `Uthman. Two of these are extant: one at Topkapi in Istanbul and the other in Tashkent. Smiths arbitrary dating of the origins of the Kufic script, in which these manuscripts were written, actually contradicts early coin and rock inscriptions. Even Western scholars have noted this. His argument is that the city of Kufah became a major center much after the Prophet, and so the Kufic script is also of a later origin. This, according to him, means that the manuscript in Kufic script is also of a later date. There is, however, historical evidence to prove that what came to be called Kufic script was in existence much before the origin of the city of Kufah. What is more important is that there is no deviation in these manuscripts from the Quran we have today. Thus the claims of Crone, Crook, and Smith about the Quran do not stand scrutiny in the light of the research findings of recognized scholars. John B. Taylor, Director of Dialogue With People of Living Faiths and Ideologies, World Council of Churches, wrote the following: Thus we can feel confident that the Quran which we have today is as far as is humanly possible the text which was established within a few years of the Prophets death. ( Thinking about Islam, quoted in Islam Message: islammessage/books/e/proofs/14.htm) Makkah The second point you have is Jay Smiths claim that Makkah was not discovered until the ninth century and that there is no record of Makkah or the Prophet (peace be upon him) in the seventh century. By claiming that Makkah was not discovered until the ninth century, they might mean that the city was little known outside Arabia. Anyway, one can see what historians have to say on this topic. Here is one account from an outsiders point of view, quoted from the website of the World History Project: The Hejaz rises from the western coastal plain from Yemen in the south to the Sinai peninsula in the north. One of the oases in the Hejaz is Mecca, set among the barren hills fifty miles inland from the sea. This site had several advantages: Mecca possessed a well (the Zemzem) of great depth, and two ancient caravan routes met there. An east-to-west route ran from Africa through the peninsula to Iran and Central Asia, and a northwest-southeast route brought the spices of India to the Mediterranean world. Another significant advantage of Mecca was its importance as a religious sanctuary. An ancient temple, an almost square structure built of granite blocks, stood near the well of Mecca. Known as the Kaaba (cube), this square temple contained the sacred Black Stone, which was said to have been brought to Abraham and his son Ishmael by the Angel Gabriel. According to tradition, the stone, probably a meteorite, was originally white but had become blackened by the sins of those touching it. For centuries the Kaaba had been a holy place of annual pilgrimage for the Arabic tribes and a focal point of Arabic cultural and linguistic unity. The Kaaba itself was draped with the pelts of sacrificial animals, and supposedly held the images and shrines of 360 gods and goddesses. By the sixth century, Mecca was controlled by the Koraysh tribe, whose rulers organized themselves into syndicates of merchants and wealthy businessmen. The Koraysh held lucrative trading agreements with Byzantine and Persian contacts, as well as with the southern Arabian tribes and the Abyssinians (Ethiopians) across the Red Sea. In addition, a number of neighboring merchant fairs, such as one usually held at Ukaz, were taken over by the Koraysh to extend the economic influence of Mecca. The Koraysh were also concerned with protecting the religious shrine of the Kaaba, in addition to ensuring that the annual pilgrimage of tribes to the holy place would continue as a source of revenue for the merchants of the city. (history-world.org/islam.htm) This was Makkah before Islam. By suggesting that there are no records of the connection between Muhammad (peace be upon him) and Makkah, Smith simply denies the reliability of not only the Quran, the Hadith and the seerah (the Prophets biography), but also of all the historians who base their books on those original sources. Source : onislam.net/english/ask-about-islam/faith-and-worship/quran-and-scriptures/166909-the-original-quran-and-the-discovery-of-makkah.html
Posted on: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 18:32:20 +0000
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