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The Islamic Bulletin

Issue 18

When this aspect of the Qur’an is mentioned in the West,

however, we are likely to hear it said that while this may indeed

be so, nowhere is this fact referred to in the translations of the

Qur’an which we possess today, or in the prefaces and commen-

taries that accompany them.

This is a very judicious remark. Muslim - and indeed non-Mus-

lim - translators who have produced a French version of the

Qur’an are basically men of letters. More often than not, they

mistranslate a passage because they do not possess the scientific

knowledge required to understand its true meaning. The fact

is, however, that in order to translate correctly, one must first

understand what one is reading. A further point is that translators

- especially those mentioned above - - may have been influ-

enced by notes provided by ancient commentators often came

to be regarded as highly authoritative, even though they had no

scientific knowledge - nor indeed had anybody else at that time.

They were incapable of imagining that the texts might contain

allusions to secular knowledge, and thus they could not devote

attention to a specific passage by comparing it to other verses in

the Qur’an dealing with the same subject - a process that often

provides the key to the meaning of a word or expression. From

this results the fact that any passage in the Qur’an that gives rise

to a comparison with modern secular knowledge is likely to be

unreliably translated.

Very often, the translations are peppered with inaccurate - if not

totally nonsensical - statements. The only way to avoid such er-

rors is to possess a scientific background and to study the Qur’an-

ic text in the original language.

SCIENTIFIC ERRORS

In the subject of man, as well as the other topics mentioned ear-

lier, it is not possible to find any corresponding data in the Bible.

Furthermore the scientific errors contained in the Bible - such as

those describing man’s first appearance on earth, which, as we

have seen, may be deduced from the Genealogies that figure in

Genesis are not to be found in the Qur’an. It is crucial to under-

stand that such errors could not have been ‘edited out’ of the

Qur’an since the time they first became apparent: well over a

thousand years have elapsed since the most ancient manuscripts

and today’s texts of the Qur’an, but these texts are still absolutely

identical.

Thus, if Muhammad were the author of the Qur’an (a theory

upheld by some people), it is difficult to see how he could have

spotted the scientific errors in the Bible dealing with such a wide

variety of subjects and have proceeded to eliminate every single

one of them when he came to compose his own text on the

same themes. Let us state once again, that no new scientific facts

had been discovered since the time the Bible was written that

might have helped eliminate such errors.

In view of the above, it is imperative to know the history of the

texts, just as it is essential to our understanding of certain aspects

of the Bible for us to be aware, of the conditions in which it was

written. As we have noted earlier, experts in Biblical exegesis

consider the books of Old and New Testaments to be divinely

inspired works. Let us now examine, however, the teachings of

Muslim exegetes, who present the Qur’an in quite a different

fashion.

When Muhammad was roughly forty years old, it was his custom

to retire to a retreat just outside Mecca in order to meditate. It

was here that he received a first message from God via the Angel

Gabriel, at a date that corresponds to 610 A.D. After a long

period of silence, this first message was followed by successive

revelations spread over some twenty years. During the Proph-

et’s lifetime, they were both written down and recited by heart

among his first followers. Similarly, the revelations were divided

into suras (chapters) and collected together after the Prophet’

death (in 632 A.D.) in a book: the Qur’an.

The Book contains the Word of God, to the exclusion of any

human additions. Manuscripts dating from the first century of

Islam authenticate today’s text, the other form of authentication

being the recitation by heart of the Qur’an, a practice that has

continued unbroken from the time of the Prophet down to the

present day.

UNCORRUPTED NATURE OF THE QUR’AN

In contrast to the Bible, therefore, we are presented with a text

that is none other than the transcript of the Revelation itself; the

only way it can be received and interpreted is literally. The purity

of the revealed text has been greatly emphasized, and the uncor-

rupted nature of the Qur’an stems from the following factors:

First, as stated above, fragments of the text were written down

during the Prophet’s lifetime; inscribed on tablets, parchments

and other materials current at the time. The Qur’an itself refers to

the fact that the text was set down in writing. We find this in sev-

eral suras dating from before and after the Hejira (Muhammad’s

departure from Mecca to Medina in 622 A.D.) In addition to the

transcription of the text, however, there was also the fact that

it was learned by heart. The text of the Qur’an is much shorter

than the Old Testament and slightly longer than the New Testa-

ment. Since it took twenty years for the Qur’an to be revealed,

however, it was easy for the Prophet’s followers to recite it by

heart, sura by sura. This process of recitation afforded a consid-

erable advantage as far as an uncorrupted text was concerned,

for it provided a system of double-checking at the time the

definitive text was written down. This took place several years

after the Prophet’s death; first under the caliphate of Abu Bakr,

his first successor, and later under the caliphate of Omar and in

particular that of Uthman (644 to 655 A.D.) The latter ordered an

extremely strict recession of the text, which involved checking it

against the recited versions.

TEXT OF QUR’AN UNCORRUPTED

After Muhammad’s death, Islam rapidly expanded far beyond the

limits of the area in which it was born. Soon, it included many

peoples whose native language was not Arabic. Very strict steps

were taken to ensure that the text of the Qur’an did not suffer

from this expansion of Islam: Uthman sent copies of his entire re-

cession to the principal centers of the vast Islamic empire. Some

copies still exist today, in more or less complete form, in such

places as Tashkent (U.S.S.R) and Istanbul. Copies have also been

discovered that date from the very first centuries after the Hejira;

they are all identical, and all of them correspond to the earliest

manuscripts.

Today’s editions of the Qur’an are all faithful reproductions

of the original copies. In the case of the Qur’an, there are no

instances of rewriting or corruption of the text over the course of

time. If the origin of the Qur’an had been similar to those of the

Bible, it would not be unreasonable to suppose that the subjects

it raised would be presented in the light of the ideas influenced

by certain opinions of the time, often derived from myth and su-

perstition. If this were the case, one might argue that there were

untold opportunities for inaccurate assertions, based on such

sources, to find their way into the many and varied subjects brief-

ly summarized above. In actual fact, however, we find nothing of

the kind in the Qur’an.

But having said this, we should note that the Qur’an is a reli-

gious book par excellence. We should not use statements that

have a bearing on secular knowledge as a pretext to go hunting

after any expression of scientific laws. As stated earlier, all we

should seek are reflections on natural phenomena, phrases oc-

casioned by references to divine omnipotence and designed to

emphasize that omnipotence in the eyes of mankind through-

out the ages.

The presence of such reflections in the Qur’an has become par-

ticularly significant in modern times, for their meaning is clearly

explained by the data of contemporary knowledge. This charac-

teristic is specific to the Qur’an.

UNEXPECTED DISCOVERIES

It was not until I had learnt Arabic and read the Qur’an in the

original that I realized the precise meaning of certain verses. Only

then did I make certain discoveries that were astounding. With

my basic ideas on the Qur’an - which to begin with were inaccu-

rate, just as those of most people in the West - I certainly did not

expect to find in the text the statements that I in fact uncovered.

With each new discovery, I was beset with doubt lest I might be

mistaken in my translation or perhaps have provided an interpre-

tation rather than a true rendering of the Arabic text.

Only after consultations with several specialists in linguistics

and exegesis, both Muslim and non-Muslim, was I convinced

that a new concept might be formed from such a study: the

compatibility between the statements in the Qur’an and firmly

established data of modern science with regard to subjects

on which nobody at the time of Muhammad - not even the

Prophet himself - could have had access to the knowledge we

possess today. Since then, I have not found in the Qur’an any

support given to the myths or superstitions present at the time

the text was communicated to man. This is not the case for

the Bible, whose authors expressed themselves in the language

of their period.

Answers for crossword puzzle

Across: 1. Inshallah; 6. Alim; 8. Hump; 10. Amina; 12. Yasin; 14.

Moat; 15. La; 17. Baitullah; 19. Din; 20. Al Aqsa; 13. Off; 24. Ruh;

25. Arnaze.

Down: 1. Isha; 2. Spain; 3. Alhamdulillah; 4. Lip; 5. Halal; 7.

Minaret; 8. Muallim; 1.. Malaysian; 13. Sahara; 16. Dhul Qada; 19.

Hafiz; 22. Qul.