The origin of the Qur'an

[theVOID]

This documentary deals with some of the earliest manuscripts of the Qur'an and points out the massive difference between the reality of it's formation and the traditional story out how it came to be:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJyeuXtZF...r_embedded

[Anomalocaris]

Can mere facts help reprobate fools who have already been immunized by faith against all possibilities of enlightenment?

[theVOID]

Hey, if only a few of them get the point, or at least think a little differently about their "perfect and unchanging" text then it's done some good.

At the least it gives us ammo against pesky Muslim trolls

[Ashendant]

HAHA arabic Sucks, missing the dots

[Minimalist]

Can mere facts help reprobate fools who have already been immunized by faith against all possibilities of enlightenment?

It hasn't worked with xtians. No reason to think that allah's gang will be any better.



One imagines that stones will be soon flying!

[annatar]

I've heard of this thing before... There are some people in Turkey who believe that the quran is misinterpreted. They call themselves "Hanif muslims". They are even crazier than regular muslims though. They are making the most improbable interpretations and finding funny miracles(one of them claimed that polar shift is written in quran ).. But at least they are harmless(at the moment)..

[Rayaan]

This was a clip from Channel 4's documentary "The Quran" aired on 2008, I believe. And someone just put it up on atheistmedia.com to stir up some of the fringe theories again.

The documentary mainly highlights the opinions of Dr. Puin and Christoph Luxenberg to make it seem as if they have finally "exposed" the origin of the Quran, as if the Muslims have no idea as to the history of it. Further, I sensed a lack of sincerity in the program because Luxemberg's argument that the language of the Quran has Syro-Aramaic origins has been widely discredited by the academic community. Even Puin's arguments were dismantled by Dr. Azami in his book "The History of the Quranic Text, from Revelation to Compilation: A Comparative Study with the Old and New Testaments." A lot of what he said about the origins of the Quran were unsupported and others were contradictory with his own claims. Fortunately, Muslims are smart enough not to get fooled by such a revisionist scholar who tries to attack the preservation of the Quran under the guise of objective analysis.

I will not go into the details and specific examples on Luxemberg's arguments because that's going to be too much time-consuming for me and I don't even know where to start from on this topic. A lot of the things that he said about the Quran have been thoroughly examined in this website.

Also, this is not something new because Imam Suyuti has already mentioned in his book about the science of Quran, Al-Itqan, that some of the words in the Quran could also be found in other languages. These words already became a part of the Arabic dictionary during that time and this is a well-known phenomenon that has occurred in all the other languages as they gradually evolved over the course of time.

For example, the word "alcohol" is obviously an English word. But the word also has an Arabic origin, which comes from the root word al-kuhl, a powder used as an eyeliner. In the same way, certain words in the Quran may have a Syro-Aramaic origin, but this doesn't mean that the words themselves are not Arabic or that the Quran is using words from other languages.

As in the case of missing dots in the early manuscripts of the Quran, that's how many of them were written because they were written in the Kufi script, and secondly, there wasn't even any need for the vowel dots at the time for people to recite the Quran. Why? Because the Arabs had the freedom to recite the Quran according to their own dialect, which varied amongst the Arab tribes, and that's why it was not necessary to put any of the signs and dots on the vowel letters to aid in the pronunciation as we see in the Qurans of today. There were seven different modes of recitation that existed during Muhammad's time and they are known as the seven ahrufs (or modes of expression). He allowed his followers to recite any of those modes of expression they prefered because this would make it easier for them to read the Quran and especially to memorize the Quran.

"This Qur'an has been revealed to be recited in seven different ways, so recite of it whichever is easier for you" (Saheeh Bukhari: Volume 6, Book 61, Number 582).

And memorization of the Quran through daily recitation was one of the key factors in the preservation of the Quran. In a book titled "The Oral Tradition of Classical Arabic Poetry," the author says, “In ancient times, when writing was scarcely used, memory and oral transmission was exercised and strengthened to a degree now almost unknown" (Zwettler, 14). The word "Quran" literally means "recitation" in Arabic.

See this: Preservation of the Quran (part 1 of 2): Memorization

Later on, when the Quran was being distributed to the non-Arabs in other parts of the world, it became necessary for the vowel signs to be added in the Quran since otherwise people would be confused on how to pronounce the words correctly. Uthman, the third Caliph in Islam, decided to unite all the Muslims by compiling the Quran in only 1 out of the 7 dialects that existed, which is the Quraishi dialect because this was the dialect of the Prophet (pbuh).

If one dedicates enough time to do research on the preservation of the Quran, and does it with an honest approach, then he should realize how much care was taken by the early Muslims to preserve it through the ages. A lot of them even memorized it so that the Quran stays preserved in their hearts. Among them were some of the companions of the Prophet who lived during his own lifetime. Also, it is the only holy book which has been passed on from the mouth of a prophet with an unbroken chain of narration with an overwhelming amount of evidence.

A general summary: Preservation & Chronology Of The Quran

But of course, the question of whether the Quran is corrupted or not doesn't actually serve as a means of proving the existence of Allah. So either way it doesn't matter for an atheist.

____________________________________________________________________

Video: Preservation of the Holy Quran (all the 8 parts)

This is a lecture where the speaker, Jamal Badawi, goes through the 3 main stages of the Quran's compilation (i.e. from the Prophet's time, to Abu Bakr, and then to Uthman), while at the same time using some of the internal and external evidences in respect to the Quran and also by using authentic historical proofs to support them.

[Ashendant]

It isn't much of their opinion if it's stated quite blatantly in those books, also keep it short, expressing yourself in walls of text doesn't make you sound smarter

[Anomalocaris]

, also keep it short, expressing yourself in walls of text doesn't make you sound smarter

But it's a tried an true form of theistic discourse. It's call argument from verbosity.

[Ashendant]

, also keep it short, expressing yourself in walls of text doesn't make you sound smarter

But it's a tried an true form of theistic discourse. It's call argument from verbosity.

i couldn't find the preview with a bigger rant