format_quote Originally Posted by
DonTheWise
My first question is simple: How do Muslims know that the Quran was not changed a long time ago? People would answer to me and say that you memorised the Quran to keep it safe from such changes. But comon, what if it was hanged at the time it was written down on paper by the Kaliphites.
The Old Testament is unquestionably the work of many hands. Only very conservative Orthodox Jews believe the Torah is literally the word of God. Most scholars will tell you there are several different traditions composited into the Torah (e.g., the Elohist, the Yawhist, etc.)
The New Testament is also unquestionably the work of many hands. Obviously, there are four Gospel authors, and they do not always agree. There are in fact no two manuscripts that are identical, though this is not as important as some say (in my opinion). Obviously, Paul did not write all the letters attributed to him (the Greek is quite different), the author of 1st Peter is not the author of 2nd Peter, etc.
So the case for Biblical corruption is clear. Now I believe that is not a "case closed" kind of thing because the important point is the tradition, at least in the Catholic/Orthodox world, though in Protestant circles, scripture is everything.
That's point one.
Point two is that the Old Testament was an oral tradition for centuries before it was written down. The New Testament was likely an oral tradition for decades...the earliest written Gospel was probably Mark, which might be as late as 70 AD. Paul's letter to the Thessolonians, which is likely the oldest part of the New Testament, might be earlier but it's still at least 20 years after the events it describes.
The Qur'an went from purely oral form to written form shortly after the Prophet's death. Prior to his death, and continuously since, there have been thousands of people who've had it memorized. At any point in the last 1300-odd years, you could find tens of thousands of people who know the entire Qur'an by heart (today it is in the millions).
So how could it be changed? You would have to have all of those people agree. In fact, the event that lead to the writing down of the Qur'an was the fact that many hafiz (those who'd had the Qur'an memorized) were killed in a battle and there was fear the Qur'an might be lost.
It is not really possible that the Qur'an was changed. You would need a conspiracy of tens if not hundreds of thousands of people. The key point I think you need to understand is that the Qur'an transmission is primarily oral, from generation to generation. That is the preserver, not the written form. Don't get me wrong - the written form is important (and makes it much more accessible), but one hafiz to another is truly how it is preserved.
To give you an example, suppose someone today wanted to change the lyrics to "America the Beautiful". He would need to go to millions of people and either force them to agree and keep it quiet or kill them. It's just not possible.
Another thing, if I may, please forgive me, but where's the proof that the Quran was the word of God? Muhammad (PBUH) could just be a genius who thought of all this. Even if the Quran does not promote violence or anything horrible, it could have been man's work.
There is something to what you say. But you are positing a man able to compose a brilliant work of art (the high point of Arabic) that is completely internally consistent, all in his head.
All tradition describes Muhammad as illiterate. Could later generations have made that up? Perhaps, but generally people invent things about their heroes that are positive, not negative.
If you study the Qur'an, you'll find there are some remarkable consistencies, similarities, and meanings that make it unlikely that one man composed it all. For example, Jesus is mentioned by name 25 times. Adam is mentioned by name exactly 25 times. Is that a coincidence? Maybe, but there are many such "coincidences" (that is just one I remember off the top of my head).
Today, with a word processor, the Internet, enormous computational power, etc., someone could write a long book and make sure that Adam and Jesus are mentioned exactly the same number of times (which has theological significance). But in the 7th century?
Keep in mind the Qur'an was not something Muhammad worked on for years and then revealed all at once. Each chapter is a separate revelation and was spread at the time it was revealed, so Muhammad would have had to keep everything internally consistent over many decades, all in his head. A Surah was revealed and then 10 years later, a different Surah is revealed. Muhammad would need to have kept everything consistent between them - possible? Maybe, but extremely unlikely.
Yes, I agree, ultimately there is an element of faith.
I advise that you pray to God, in whatever tradition you come from, and ask Him to guide you to the truth. God will not lead you astray.