How can I prove the Quran has been unchanged in 1400years?

for people of the book - here's one

This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord,
I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
Hebrew 10:16

17. And We have indeed made the Qur'an easy to understand and remember:
then is there any that will receive admonition?
mentioned 5 times in chapter 54

format_quote Originally Posted by bamboozled

How can I prove to non- Muslims that the Quran has been unchanged in 1400 years? Particulary athiests?

format_quote Originally Posted by bamboozled

I am looking for something more evidential, maybe a study into proving this by like a university? Maybe someone declaring that it was unchanged (from high non-muslims

There are non-Muslim sources that confirm this.

Here are two different studies involving the Bible and Qur'an respectively:

Dr. J.K. Elliott, of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Leeds University, wrote an article published in The Times, London (10th Sept., 1987) entitled “Checking the Bible’s Roots”. In it, he stated that: “More than 5,000 manuscripts contain all or part of the New Testament in its original language. These range in date from the second century up to the invention of printing. It has been estimated that no two agree in all particulars. Inevitably, all handwritten documents are liable to contain accidental errors in copying. However, in living theological works it is not surprising that deliberate changes were introduced to avoid or alter statements that the copyist found unsound. There was also a tendency for copyists to add explanatory glosses[9]. Deliberate changes are more likely to have been introduced at an early stage before the canonical status of the New Testament was established.”

The author went on to explain that “no one manuscript contains the original, unaltered text in its entirety,” and that, “one cannot select any one of these manuscripts and rely exclusively on its text as if it contained the monopoly the original words of the original authors.”

The same principles of analysis which were applied to Bible manuscripts by Bible scholars and which exposed the flaws and changes, have been applied to Qur’aanic manuscripts gathered from around the world. Ancient manuscripts found in the Library of Congress in Washington, the Chester Beatty Museum in Dublin, Ireland, the London Museum, as well as Museums in Tashkent, Turkey and Egypt, from all periods of Islamic history, have been compared. The result of all such studies confirm that there has not been any change in the text from its original writing. For example, the “Institute fur Koranforschung” of the University of Munich, Germany, collected and collated over 42,000 complete or incomplete copies of the Qur’aan. After some fifty years of study, they reported that in terms of differences between the various copies, there were no variants, except occasional mistakes of copyists, which could easily be ascertained. The institute was destroyed by American bombs during the Second World War.[54]

So, 5,000 manuscripts of the Bible, and no two of them agree, 42,000 manuscripts of the Qur'an and they are all basically the same. Subhaanallah, that is a part of the miracle of the Qur'an, that it's unchanged, the same, and fully preserved, whether written or recited as Br Ramadhan mentioned above.

And non-Muslims words on the authenticity of the Qur'an and whether it's been changed:

One of the leading orientalists, Kenneth Cragg, said the following regarding the memorization and preservation of the Qur’aanic text, “This phenomenon of Qur’anic recital means that the text has traversed the centuries in an unbroken living sequence of devotion. It cannot, therefore, be handled as an antiquarian thing, nor as a historical document out of a distant past.”[49] Another orientalist scholar, William Graham, wrote: “For countless millions of Muslims over more than fourteen centuries of Islamic history, ‘scripture’, al-kitab has been a book learned, read and passed on by vocal repetition and memorization. The written Qur’an may ‘fix’ visibly the authoritative text of the Divine Word in a way unknown in history, but the authoritativeness of the Qur’anic book is only realized in its fullness and perfection when it is correctly recited.”[50] Yet another, John Burton, stated: “The method of transmitting the Qur’an from one generation to the next by having the young memorize the oral tradition of their elders had mitigated somewhat from the beginning the worst perils of relying solely on written records...”[51] At the end of a voluminous work on the Qur’aan’s collection, Burton stated that the text of the Qur’aan available today is “the text which has come down to us in the form in which it was organised and approved by the Prophet...What we have today in our hands is the mushaf[52] of Muhammad.”[53]

Source: The True Message of Jesus Christ by Dr Bilal Philips © Copyright 1996 Dar Al Fatah

It's actually a very good read (and relatively brief), and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in comparative religion and authenticity and accuracy of the Qur'an versus the Bible. For example this, which I've quoted just for interest, in which notable Christian scholars of the major denominations themselves conclude that their basic prayer, the Lord's prayer, is not authentic and was added into the Bible centuries later by scribes. They also conlclude that 80% of the words said to have been spoken by Jesus (peace be upon him) in the Bible are of doubtful authenticity:

In the international news magazine, Newsweek[3], which carried an article entitled ‘O Lord, Who Wrote Thy Prayer?’, a group of theologians from the major Protestant sects, along with noted Roman Catholic Biblical scholars in the United States, after a detailed examination of the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament, concluded that the only words of the “Lord’s prayer”[4] that can be accurately attributed to Jesus Christ is “father”. That is, according to these learned church scholars, all the words that came after the beginning phrase, “Our father”, of the most fundamental Christian prayer, were added centuries later by church scribes who copied the early manuscripts of the Gospels[5]. U.S. News & World Report, further quotes the team of scholars as saying that over 80 percent of the words ascribed to Jesus in the Gospels may be apocryphal[6]. That includes Jesus’ Eucharistic[7] speech at the Last Supper (“Take, eat. This is my body ...”) and every word he is said to have uttered from the cross.[8]

Sometimes Christians say that in the Bible, it says that people worshipped Jesus (peace be upon him) and that he didn't object and accepted that worship:

It is argued that since Jesus is reported to have accepted the worship of some of his followers, he must have been God. However, a closer examination of the texts indicates both a case of dubious translation, as well as misinterpretation. The term “worship” can be found in the King James Version and The Revised Standard Version accounts of the three wise men who came from the east. They were reported in Matthew 2:2, to have said, “Where is the baby born to be the king of the Jews? We saw his star when it came up in the east, and we have come to worship him.”[82] However, in The New American Bible (Catholic Press, 1970), the text reads: “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We observed his star at its rising and have come to pay him homage.”

In The Revised Standard Version, John 9:37-38,: “37 Jesus said to him, ‘You have seen him, and it is he who speaks to you.’ 38He said, ‘Lord, I believe’; and he worshipped him.”[83] However, in The American Bible, the scholarly translators added a footnote which read:

"9:38 This verse, omitted in important MSS [manuscripts], may be an addition for a baptismal liturgy."

This verse is not found in important ancient manuscripts containing this Gospel. It is probably a later addition made by Church scribes for use in baptismal services.

Furthermore, as a renowned authority on the Bible and its original language, George M. Lamsa, explained, “The Aramaic word sagad, worship, also means to bend or to kneel down. Easterners in greeting each other generally bowed the head or bent down.[84] ...‘He worshipped him’ does not imply that he worshipped Jesus as one worshipped God. Such an act would have been regarded as sacrilegious and a breach of the First Commandment in the eyes of the Jews, and the man might have been stoned. But he knelt before him in token of homage and gratitude.”[85]

The final scripture, the Qur’aan, clarifies the issue of worshipping or not worshipping Jesus, by quoting a conversation which will take place between Jesus and God on the Day of Judgement. Allaah states in Chapter al-Maa’idah, (5):116-7:

وَإِذْ قَالَ اللهُ يَا عِيسَى ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ ءَأَنْتَ قُلْتَ لِلنَّاسِ اتَّخِذُونِي وَأُمِّيَ إِلَهَيْنِ مِنْ دُونِ اللهِ ... مَا قُلْتُ لَهُمْ إِلاَّ مَآ أَمَرْتَنِي بِهِ أَنِ اعْبُدُواْ اللهَ ربّي وَرَبَّكُمْ ...

“When Allaah will say: ‘O Jesus, son of Mary, did you tell people: “Worship me and my mother as two gods instead of Allaah?” ’...[Jesus will say]: ‘I only told them what You commanded me to say: “Worship Allaah, my Lord and your Lord ...” ”

Also another source has some more non-Muslim sources which attest to the fact that the Qur'an is unchanged:

Schwally concurs that “As far as the various pieces of revelation are concerned, we may be confident that their text has been generally transmitted exactly as it was found in the Prophet's legacy” [40].

Source: http://www.ilaam.net/Articles/AuthenticQuran.html

Hope that helped a bit.



P.S. The numbers in brackets are the original references given in the text for the source of that information. They are listed in detail at the end of the book and end of the other webpage I quoted respectively.

this is an excellent start:
http://www.islamic-awareness.org/
I also recommend this book:
http://www.amazon.com/History-Qurani...6126559&sr=8-2

Salam Alaikkum

If you would go to history, you will find out that at that time of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) only 17 people in Mecca knew how to read and write. So preservation in writing was not given importance.

On the other hand, Arabs were best in recitation and poetry. Islam spread through recitation and memorization. They would say people can make mistake, but this is promise from Allah (swt), He make it easy for us to remember Quran, alhamdollelah, and to prove that, pls refer to post of Brother Ramadan, 7yrs old & below memorized the whole Quran, no other books even the Bible was recited like Quran.

When the first collection of the Quran was written, it was made for Arab and thus the writing was readable for Arab only. In a sense that e.g. if you write muhammad in arabic, it is written as letter m, h, m & d, there is no vowel, when the Holy Quran was made available for Non Arab, then it was written with vowel -which is called fatha or kasrah, muhammad is still written the same way without additional letter but fatha & kasrah is applied for correct pronunciation. I cant get the fatha & kasrah in keyboard but I can show tanween,

if you google the OLD Quran made for Arabs, Muhammad is written this way which is not the same as the Quran that we have now (only the sense of adding vowels)
م ح م د
or محمد
Letters Mem, Ha, Mem, Da

if you want to write Muhammad to Muhammadin, there is no additional letter but add tanween (two lines below)محمدٍ

until today, Arabs do not use Kasrah, fatha or tanween (vowels) in their communications, even in legal matters, so if you asked me to read, its difficult to guess unless I know the words (hint)

We all know old Quran still exist, which is 1000+yrs old

If your friend can see the point of an old book still exist, you may question him, if he can show you any mistakes or record of revision.The best way to present to Atheist is the Science in Quran, I hope you can see youtube videos, it would help you present the best ideas for them inshallah.

Allah love you and reward you Big for spreading the truth about ISLAM, Amen