The quran is without doubt the most recited book in the world. Every practicing Muslim recites the verses of the quran in his five daily prayers and etymologically the word qu’ran means recitation. The book is considered by Muslim scholars as the greatest miracle of the prophet(pbuh).The qu’ran incorporates stories from the Torah, the Gospels and gives information about the prophets mentioned in other religious scriptures. No one will disagree that the prophet Muhammad(pbuh) is the one who transmitted the quran but not everyone accepts that the qu’ran was revealed to him by God on high himself. .
There are a lot of stories of people who claim to have spoken with God but since there is no physical description of God on high, many who claim to have heard from him are considered mad in many societies. But how does it come that the prophet(pbuh) received revelation from God through angel Gabriel within a period of 23 years and these revelations are being cherished and honored and considered divine more than 1400 years later. Was the prophet a genius or a very clever person or was the revelations that constitute the quran a message sent to mankind by God?
We are going to handle 5 arguments in the following lines that will help us understand if the message of the quran could have been fabricated or if God almighty is it author.
1.The prophet was illiterate
It is astonishing that the prophet who was illiterate transmitted the glorious quran, a recitation with unchallengeable linguistics features of the the Arabic language of his time and even beyond. Muhammad was a merchant married to an elder rich woman but was not among the learned of his tribe. Indeed he was known as trustworthy and righteous among his people but he was not fluent in poetry like some of the Arabic authors of his time and was not known to have produced any form of literature. When the first verses of the qu’ran were revealed, the prophet replied to archangel Gabriel that he cannot read. And in the Surat 29 verses 48 God says:
“And you did not recite before it any scripture, nor did you inscribe one with your right hand. Otherwise the falsifiers would have had doubt.”
2. The quran states several times that it is from God himself
God says himself that he sent down the verses of the quran. This is repeated in so many verses as it is the nature of divine relation to be repeated as a matter of fact :
“We have send down the quran ourself, and our self will guard it” (quran 15:9). And God has promised to guard the quran. As a matter of fact the qu’ran is being memorized from generations to generations. There is no other book in the history that is so memorized. Even when about seventy thousand reciters of the quran were martyred during the battles of Yemame, still the quran could be written in form of a book. The Calif Abu Bakr was ordered by Omar to gather reciters and write the quran. Moreover , the quran claims to be free from contradictions and unlike many other scriptures, there are no obvious contradictions in the quran. This is also a proof that the prophet was neither possessed nor mad.
“Do we not consider the Quran (with care)? Had it been from other than God, they would surely have found therein many contradictions.”
(quran 17:88).
The quran also challenges those who claim to be capable of imitating it. Say , “ Even if all mankind and jinn[spirits] came together to produce something like this qu’ran, they could not produce anything like it, however much they helped each other.
(quran 17:88)
3. The qu’ran has scientific knowledge that goes beyond space an time
The quran is full of scientific and historical facts which have become clearer with the latest discoveries. There are also knowledgeable about future evens. The quran made a prediction about the preservation of the body of the Pharaoh of Moses’s time and archaeologists discover that the body of the pharaoh was mummified. A time-line of ancient Egyptian history of the pharaoh’ from the birth of Moses till the Exodus recapitulates the rulers who were in power at the time of Moses. And a translation of hieroglyphs gives evidence of the fact that they were called pharaohs. According to many historians, Hatshesut was the Pharaoh during the time Moses fled, and Thutmose 3 was the pharaoh of the time Moses fled, whereas his sosn Amenhotep 2 was considered the pharaoh of the Exodus. His mummified body was found and has been conserved at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
| Dynasty | 1552-1069 | New kingdom | Pharaohs(kings who ruled Egypt) |
| Ahmose. Amenhotep Thuthmose Hatsheput Akhenaten Tutankhamen, Horemheb, Seti, Ramses, Merenptah |
Well renowned scientists have studied the quran and come to the conclusion that unlike certain Biblical passages, the verses of the quran confirms scientific discoveries that happened after the revelations.
“Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, (as one unit of creation), before we clove them asunder”(Quran 21:30)
4-The quran is a key to the unseen
The quran testifies that there is an unseen and there are many philosophies and theories about the possibility of a world(an existence) that we cannot perceive with the five sense. The quran is clear about the fat that believers are those who are acknowledged about this fact,”those who believe in the unseen…”(quran 2:3). Moreover the glorious quran explains that only God is knower of the unseen.
“It is he who knows what is hidden. He does not disclose it except to a messenger of his choosing. He sends watchers to go in front and behind.”(72:26-27)
The quran has an explanation to many supernatural phenomena that other religions cannot clearly explain. It is obvious that there are things we cannot perceive. We cannot see some beings from the spiritual realm even though they can see us. For instance we cannot see jinns and angels. According to the glorious qu’ran Satan and his army of evil spirits can see us. “ …Surely he(satan) and his kind see you in a way that you do no see them.”(qu’ran 7:27)
5-The quran is a miracle of miracles
definitely Every prophet was sent with a miracles. Moses(pbuh) was send with inimitable miracles that could silent the magicians as the pharaohs used to hired well-versed magicians. Jesus(pbuh) was sent with a healing capacity that was over the capacities of all healers of his time. He could heal leper, and even bring back a death to life. And when the Arabs asked Muhammad(pbuh) to let miracles happen, he warned them that miracles are in God’s control. Muslim scholars agree that the glorious quran is the greatest miracle of the prophet and this is a miracle that everyone can verify by himself.
References:
Qu’ran
The Eternal challenge, A journey towards the miraculous quran, Abu Zakariya
