Islam prides itself on a few claims, the first claim is Muslims say Islam is pure monotheism in which they worship only 1 god (Allah). The second claim is Muslims profess that Muhammad is the last and greatest prophet (the seal of the prophets). The third claim is that the Qur’ān is perfectly preserved and never changed, each letter, sound, dot has been preserved. They get this from the following ayat in Surah Al-Hijr.

In this article we’re going to put the 3rd claim to the test, is the Qur’ān perfectly preserved? That’s what we’ll look to find out. In the history of how the Qur’ān was revealed to Muhammad, we’re told that Allah revealed the Qur’ān to Muhammad by angel Jibril (Gabriel) over the course of 23 years starting in the month of Ramadan when Muhammad was 40yrs old.

The traditional Islamic story is that Muhammad received the first revelation of the Qur’ān in Cave Hira during an isolated retreat to the mountains. At the time he was praying and Jibril appeared to him and began to squeeze Muhammad saying Iqra (ٱقْرَأْ) which means read. Are Muslims saying that Allah failed? Because if Allah can make anything happen by saying “Be” and it is, how come Allah was not able to do the same with Muhammad and make him read? It took multiple times to get Muhammad to read, that’s a failure on the part of Allah.

Muslims claim that Muhammad was incapable of reading as he was illiterate, this claim is untrue their prophet got them busted as Muhammad was able to read and write according to their own Hadith’s.

According to Sahih al-Bukhari Muhammad was on his deathbed (he died from poison), he calls some men who were in the house saying “Come near, I will write for you something after which you will not go astray.” Here we have their prophet saying he will write for them, the men were divided and started disputing between themselves. Ibn Abbas the cousin of Muhammad said it was unfortunate as their dispute prevented Muhammad from writing because of their differences and noise. Notice what the Hadith doesn’t say, it doesn’t say anything about Muhammad being illiterate and unable to read or write.

Continuing on the first revelation given to Muhammad according to Islamic tradition is found in Surah Al-‘Alaq, this is the verse in which Jibril told Muhammad Iqra (read). The problem is if the Qur’ān is perfectly preserved how is it this chapter is not found in the beginning but towards the end of the Qur’ān if this is the first revelation given? It would make sense for this Surah to be first if this is the first revelation from Allah to Muhammad but it’s not it’s at the end of the book.

Another problem the Qur’ān is faced with is verse 3 in Surah Al-Ma’idah. In this ayat we have Allah saying “This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islām as religion.” This ayat is found towards the beginning of the Qur’ān, in chapter 5 to be exact.

How can something be perfected (completed) if there are many more Surah’s which haven’t been revealed yet? The only way this can make sense is if this was the last verse revealed in the Qur’ān only then can Allah say he perfected the religion of Islam. It makes no sense to have this Surah in the beginning of the Qur’ān.

The Islamic tradition is that the Qur’ān was revealed over a 23yr period. The Qur’ān Muslims recite today is ordered differently from the Qur’ān revealed to Muhammad by Allah. This proves corruption in the Qur’ān, if Allah revealed Surah 96 first and it was moved towards the end of the Qur’ān and Surah 5 is moved toward the beginning this means the context of the Qur’ān makes no sense and the Qur’ān cannot be preserved.

Besides those issues the Qur’ān has other problems such as a goat eating Surah’s which are not found in the Qur’ān (stoning and breastfeding an adult ten times).

So who took the liberty to order these Surahs? The Islamic sources say Uthman ordered the Qur’ān Muslims read today. Who gave Uthman the authority to change the order of the Qur’ān, was Uthman a prophet as well that he could decide to move verses around whichever way he chooses?

There’s a Muslim site called tanzil.net an international project by Muslims in order to create verified Unicode for Qur’ān text in the development and standardization of Qur’ānic websites and applications. Tanzil has provided a chart which provides the chronological order of Surah’s revealed to Muhammad.

What does all of this tell us? It’s quite obvious that claim of perfect Qur’ānic preservation is a fabrication Muslims use in order to get individuals to become Muslim. If the time is taken to dig deeper and study some of these claims by Islam we find they fall flat. We challenge Muslims to provide proof for their claims, otherwise they need to admit the Qur’ān they have has been changed. Muslims come to Jesus Christ who is the true eternal Word of God perfectly preserved.