Both Christianity and Islam claim to be revealed
religions. Jesus Christ declared that the Message he
was delivering was not his but God's : "I have not
spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me, He
gave me a commandment, what I should say, and
what I should speak" (John 12 : 49). He described
himself as "A man that hati-, told you the truth,
which I have heard of Cod" (John 8 : 40). In the
same way it is claimed in the Qur'an that the revelation
which came to Prophet Muhammad was from
the Lord of the worlds: “And lo it (i.e., the Qur'an) is
a revelation of the Lord of the worlds, which the
True Spirit hath brought down upon thy heart (O
Muhammad), that thou mayest be one of the warners"
(the Qur'an 26 : 192-194). From this it follows
that the truth of either religion depends on the accuracy
with which the inspired words of its founder.
religions. Jesus Christ declared that the Message he
was delivering was not his but God's : "I have not
spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me, He
gave me a commandment, what I should say, and
what I should speak" (John 12 : 49). He described
himself as "A man that hati-, told you the truth,
which I have heard of Cod" (John 8 : 40). In the
same way it is claimed in the Qur'an that the revelation
which came to Prophet Muhammad was from
the Lord of the worlds: “And lo it (i.e., the Qur'an) is
a revelation of the Lord of the worlds, which the
True Spirit hath brought down upon thy heart (O
Muhammad), that thou mayest be one of the warners"
(the Qur'an 26 : 192-194). From this it follows
that the truth of either religion depends on the accuracy
with which the inspired words of its founder.
On the other hand, there is no such
doubt about the
Holy Quran. It contains nothing but the revelations
received by the Prophet Muhammad. The revelations
came to him in fragments, from time to time. As
soon as he received any, he used to conmunicate it to
his disciples and ask them not only to commit it to
memory, but also to write it down. On each such occasion
he indicated in a precise place to which the
revelation belonged. Thus the plete Qurai was committed
to writing and also preserve the hearts of hwidreds
of persons in the life time of the Prophet.
After the passing away of the Prophet, Abu Bakr,
the first Caliph, charged zaid ibn Thabit with the
task of preparing an authentic copy of a book. The
companions of the Holy Prophet had written teh revelations
that had come to the Prophet on parchments
or pieces of leather. Zaid ibn Thabit collected all
these and, after comparing them with what the followers of the Prophet had learnt by heart, compiled a
copy, called Mus’haf (bound leaves), about the genuineness
or correctness of which there was absolutely
no doubt.
At the order of Usman, the third Caliph, seven copies
of the Mus’haf edition of the Holy Quran, again
confirmed by the memory of those who had learnt it
by heart (hafiz) were prepared and sent to the different
centres of the vast Islamic world. One of these
seven copies is still in existence in Tashkent. The
Czarist government of Russia had published it with a
facsimile reproduction; and we see that there is completeidentity
between this copy and the text otherwise
in use allover the world. The same is true of the
other extant MSS of the Quran, complete or fragmentary,
dating from the first century of the Muslim
era.
From the time of the Prophet to our own time the
practice of learning the whole of the Ouran by hearthas continued unbroken, and the number of haffaz
can now be Counted in tle world by hundreds of
thousands. The result is that no scholar, Eastern of
Western, Muslim or non-Muslim, has ever cast any
doubt on the purity of the text of the Holy Ouran.
Even such an unfriendly critic as Sir William Muir
writes about the Ouran : "There is probably in the
world no other book which has remained twelve centuries
with so pure a text."I
Holy Quran. It contains nothing but the revelations
received by the Prophet Muhammad. The revelations
came to him in fragments, from time to time. As
soon as he received any, he used to conmunicate it to
his disciples and ask them not only to commit it to
memory, but also to write it down. On each such occasion
he indicated in a precise place to which the
revelation belonged. Thus the plete Qurai was committed
to writing and also preserve the hearts of hwidreds
of persons in the life time of the Prophet.
After the passing away of the Prophet, Abu Bakr,
the first Caliph, charged zaid ibn Thabit with the
task of preparing an authentic copy of a book. The
companions of the Holy Prophet had written teh revelations
that had come to the Prophet on parchments
or pieces of leather. Zaid ibn Thabit collected all
these and, after comparing them with what the followers of the Prophet had learnt by heart, compiled a
copy, called Mus’haf (bound leaves), about the genuineness
or correctness of which there was absolutely
no doubt.
At the order of Usman, the third Caliph, seven copies
of the Mus’haf edition of the Holy Quran, again
confirmed by the memory of those who had learnt it
by heart (hafiz) were prepared and sent to the different
centres of the vast Islamic world. One of these
seven copies is still in existence in Tashkent. The
Czarist government of Russia had published it with a
facsimile reproduction; and we see that there is completeidentity
between this copy and the text otherwise
in use allover the world. The same is true of the
other extant MSS of the Quran, complete or fragmentary,
dating from the first century of the Muslim
era.
From the time of the Prophet to our own time the
practice of learning the whole of the Ouran by hearthas continued unbroken, and the number of haffaz
can now be Counted in tle world by hundreds of
thousands. The result is that no scholar, Eastern of
Western, Muslim or non-Muslim, has ever cast any
doubt on the purity of the text of the Holy Ouran.
Even such an unfriendly critic as Sir William Muir
writes about the Ouran : "There is probably in the
world no other book which has remained twelve centuries
with so pure a text."I
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