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What They Say about the Qur'an
By : Arthur J. Arberry
Humanity has received the Divine guidance only through two channels: firstly the word of Allah; secondly the Prophets who were chosen by Allah to communicate His Will to human beings. These two have always been going together and attempt to know the Will of Allah by neglecting either of these two have always been misleading.
The Hindus neglected their prophets and paid attention to their books that proved only word puzzles which they ultimately lost. Similarly, the Christians in total disregard to the Book of Allah, attached all importance to Jesus Christ and they not only elevated him to Divinity, but also lost the very essence of Monotheism contained in the Bible.
As a matter of fact, the main scriptures revealed before the Qur'an, i.e., the Old Testament and the Gospel, came in book-form long after the days of the Prophets and also the translation. This was because the followers of Moses and Jesus made no considerable efforts to preserve these Revelations during the life of their Prophets . Rather they were written long after their disappearance. Thus, what we now have is in the form of the Bible (i.e., the Old and the New Testament) which is translations of individuals' accounts of the original revelations which contain additions and deletions made by the followers of the said Prophets.
On the contrary, the last revealed Book, the Qur'an is extant in its original form. Allah Himself guaranteed its preservation and that is why the whole of the Qur'an was written during the life time of the Prophet Muhammad though on separate pieces of palm leaves, parchments, bones, etc. Moreover, there were tens of thousands of the companions of the Prophet who memorized the whole Qur'an and the Prophet used to recite it to the Angel Gabriel once a year and twice when he was about to die.
Then the first Caliph Abu Bakr entrusted the collection of the whole Qur'an in one volume to Prophet's scribe, Zaid Ibn Thabit. This volume was with Abu Bakr till his death. Then it was with the second Caliph Umar and after him it came to Hafsa, the Prophet's wife. It was from this original copy that the third Caliph Uthman prepared several other copies and sent them to different Muslim territories.
The Qur'an was so meticulously preserved because it was to be the Book of guidance for humanity for all times to come. That is why it does not address the Arabs alone in whose language it was revealed. It speaks to man as a human being. "O Man! What has made you careless concerning your Lord, the Most Generous." (82:6)
The practicability of the Qur'anic teachings is established by the examples of Muhammad and the good Muslims throughout the ages. The distinctive approach of the Qur'an is that its instructions are aimed at the general welfare of man and are based on the possibilities within his reach. In all its dimensions the Qur'anic wisdom is conclusive. It neither condemns nor tortures the flesh nor does it neglects the soul. It does not humanize God or does it deify man. Everything is carefully placed where it belongs in the total scheme of creation.
Actually, the scholars who allege that Muhammad was the author of the Qur'an claim something which is humanly impossible.
Firstly, could any person of the sixth century C. E. utter such scientific truths contained in the Qur'an? Could such person describe the evolution of the embryo inside the uterus so accurately as we find it in modern science?
Secondly, is it logical to believe that Muhammad who up to the age of forty was marked only for his honesty and integrity, began all of a sudden the authorship of a book matchless in literary merit and the equivalent of which the whole legion of the Arab poets and orators of highest caliber could not produce?
Lastly, is it justified to say that Muhammad who was known as AL- AMEEN (The trustworthy) in his society and who at the same time admired by the non-Muslim scholars for his honesty and integrity, came forth with a false claim and on that falsehood could train thousands of men of character, integrity and honesty, who were able to establish the best human society on the surface of the earth? Surely, any sincere and unbiased searcher of truth will come to believe that the Qur'an is the revealed Book of Allah.
Without necessarily agreeing with all what they said, we furnish here some opinions of important non-Muslim scholars about the Qur'an. Readers can easily see how the modern world is coming closer to reality regarding the Qur'an . We appeal to all open-minded scholars to study the Qur'an in the light of aforementioned points. We are sure that any such attempt will convince the reader that the Qur'an could never be written by any human being.
"However often we turn to it [the Qur'an ] at first disgusting us each time afresh, it soon attracts, astounds and in the end enforces our reverence.. Its style in accordance with its contents and aim is stem, grand, terrible - ever and anon truly sublime.. Thus this book will go on exercising through all ages a most potent influence." Goethe, quoted in T. P. Hughes, "Dictionary of Islam", p. 526.
"The Koran admittedly occupies an important position among the great religious books of the world. Though the youngest of the epoch-making works belonging to this class of literature, it yields to hardly any in the wonderful effect which it has produced large masses of men. It has created an all but new phase of human thought and a fresh type of character. It first transformed a number of heterogeneous desert tribes of the Arabian peninsula into a nation of heroes, and then proceeded to create the vast politico-religious organizations of Muhammadan world which are one of the great forces with which Europe and the East have to reckon today." G. Margoliouth, Introduction to J M. Rodwell's, The Koran, New York: Everyman's Library, 1977, p. VII.
"The above observation makes the hypothesis advanced by those who see Muhammad as the author of the Qur'an untenable. How could a man, from being illiterate, become the most important author, in terms of literary merits, in the whole of Arabic literature? How could he then pronounce truths of a scientific nature that no other human being could possibly have developed at that time, and all this without once making the slightest error in his pronouncement on the subject?" Maurice Bucaille, The Bible, the Quran and Science, 1978, p. 125.
"Here, therefore, its merits as a literary production should perhaps not be measured by some pre-conceived maxims of subjective and aesthetic taste, but by the effects which it produced in Muhammad's contemporaries and fellow countrymen. If he spoke so powerfully and convincingly to the hearts of his hearers as to weld hitherto centrifugal and antagonistic elements into one compact well organized body, animated by ideas far beyond those which had until now ruled the Arabian mind, then its eloquence was perfect, simply because it created a civilized nation out of savage tribes, and shot a fresh woof into the old warp of history." Dr. Streingass, quoted in Hughes, Dictionary of Islam, p.528.
"In making the present attempt to improve on the performance of my predecessors, and to produce something which might be accepted as echoing however faintly the sublime rhetoric of the Arabic Koran, I have been at pain to study the intricate and richly varied rhythms which - apart from the message itself - constitute the Koran's undeniable claim to rank amongst the greatest literary masterpieces of mankind... This very characteristic feature - 'that inimitable symphony,' as the believing Pickthall described his Holy Book, 'the very sounds of which move men to tears and ecstasy'- has been almost totally ignored by previous translators; it is therefore not surprising that what they have wrought sounds duff and flat indeed in comparison with the splendidly decorated original."
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