Here we are again to expose the contradictions in the Qur’ān. According to the two ayats below are two different accounts regarding the same event. We know that angel Jibril (“Gabriel”) came to Maryam to announce she would have a son (Isa) in Surah Maryam.
19:17 … Then We sent to her Our Angel, and he represented himself to her as a well-proportioned man. In the Arabic text the word (رُوحَنَا) is “Our Spirit” rūḥanā singular.
The verse is very clear only Jibril visited Maryam to give her the news of a son. Right? Wrong! The following verse says the angels came to Maryam to bring her the news of a son. More than one angel?!
3:42 … when the angels said, “O Mary, indeed Allah has chosen you …
What’s going on here we clearly have a contradiction, in one verse it says there was 1 angel who came to Maryam, and another verse that says it was multiple angels.[1]
It’s apparent that the Qur’ān is riddled with contradictions, Muhammad couldn’t remember what he said before and busted himself. I would like to hear a Muslim explain this clear contradiction in the Qur’ān. And just to be clear even their own scholars contradict themselves in the Tafsir.
Muslims are told by their Imam’s that the Quran recited today is the same original Quran from the time of Uthman. Is this true according to the Islamic sources, and if not what does that mean for Islam?
According to the authentic Hadiths (Sahih) from Bukhari there was a war and a Muslim named Hudhaifa bin Al-Yaman approached Uthman (the son-in-law to Muhammad). Because the Quran was memorised by men there was concerns that during the war individuals who knew the Quran by memory would be killed, thereby, they would lose portions of the Quran. Hudhaifa was afraid of the differences in the recitation of the Qur’an and said to Uthman “Save this nation before they differ about the Book (Qur’an) as Jews and the Christians did before”.
This is interesting, the Hadith is saying there were different recitations of the Quran which means different verses and words. Uthman then sought to standardize all of the different readings into 1 Quran.
Uthman then orders his men to rewrite the manuscripts in perfect copies, afterwards he returns Hafsa’s manuscripts and orders to burn any other Qur’anic materials, whether written in fragmentary manuscripts or whole copies. This proves that Uthman was trying to destroy other Arabic versions of the Quran which contradicts the Hafs version in order to make 1 Quran.
In this Hadith we have the account of Musa al-Ash’ari sending for “the reciters of Basra”, these were 300 Muslim men. These 300 men were the best among the inhabitants of Basra. Yet they used to recite Surah Bara’at but they forgot this Surah. They also had another Surah Musabbihat which was also forgotten. The Question is where are these Surah’s because they are not in the Quran, the Hadith mentions Bara’at and Musabbihat?
Missing verses of the Quran because of being eaten by sheep
Here in this Hadith we’re told that the were verses referring to stoning and adult breastfeeding 10 times revealed by Muhammad. These verses were in Aisha’s possession under her pillow, these verses are also not found in the Quran because they were eaten by a sheep. Therefore, the claim that the Quran is preserved cannot be true.
Abu Bakr burns the books of Hadith
Aisha the wife of Muhammad narrated in Abu Dhahbi’s “The memorial of the Hadith masters” that Abu Bakr collected 500 Hadith’s of Muhammad then after a night of torment, he asked Aisha to tell him the Hadith she knew and she did and then he gathered them and burned them. Aisha asked him why did you burn them? And he said “I feared that I would die with these words on me and they would be full of his words that I trusted but it would transpire that it was not what he said and I would have relayed them incorrectly”. This narrative is verified by Abu Bakr who has the least narrations of the Hadith of all the companions of the prophet despite him being the companion that was with him the most. Al Nawawi said “Abu Bakr Al Sadeek narrated one hundred and forty-two Hadith, Bukhari and Muslim agreed only on six of them, Bukhari verified eleven on his own and Muslim confirmed one Hadith. The reason for him having so few hadiths despite him being the closest companion of the prophet is because he died before the spread of Hadith and the followers of Islam becoming more concerned with hearing, gathering and preserving them.”
Narrated Aisha: My father gathered the ahadith of the Messenger of Allah, and they totalled five hundred, then he spent his night sleeplessly turning on his sides. I thought that he was upset because of someone’s complaint, or because of some news which he had heard. The next morning, he said to me, `Daughter! Bring me the ahadith in your possession,’ so I brought them to him, and he set them on fire.” Then he said: “It is possible that there should be certain things in it which did not correspond textually with what the Prophet had uttered, so I was worried that I die and these ahadith remain with me. — Reference: p. 237, Vol. 5, of Kanz al-`Ummal Refer also to Ibn Kathir’s book Al-Bidaya wal-Nihaya as well as p. 5, Vol. 1, of al-Dhahabi’s Tadhkirat al-Huffaz
Qur’ānic Manuscripts From Uthman?
We’ll end with a quote from two Islamic scholars Dr Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and Dr Tayyar Altıkulaç.
Dr Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu: of Turkey is the former Secretary-General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. (OIC). He’s written numerous books, articles and papers in Turkish, English and Arabic on science, Islamic culture, Turkish culture, relations between the Muslim world and the Western world, and Turkish-Arab relations.
Dr Tayyar Altıkulaç: was born in Devrekani in Kastamonu in 1938.He went to primary school in the district where he was born and finished secondary and high school in Istanbul. He became a hafiz at the age of 9 before finishing primary school. In 1963, he graduated from High Islamic Institute. He taught at Imam Hatip (Religious) High School until 1965. He was a research assistant and lecturerat the High Islamic Institute in Istanbul and Kayseri. In the meantime, he specialized in Arabic Language and Literature at Baghdad University in the 1967-68 academic year. He completed his doctorate in interpretation.
In there book called Al-Mushaf Al-Sharif Attributed To Uthman Bin ‘ Affan, page 35 we have the following quote concerning if the current Quran used world wide by Muslims. The Hafs Quran also known as the 1924 Cairo edition is the same Quran manuscripts from Uthman’s time.
“One of the most important questions of Qur’ānic history is the whereabouts of the Mushafs attributed to Caliph Uthman and whether any of them reached the present day. Unfortunately, we do not have a positive answer to this question …In our view, this situation is one of the greatest weaknesses of the Islamic world throughout history” — Dr Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and Dr Tayyar Altıkulaç, Al-Mushaf Al-Sharif Attributed To Uthman Bin ‘ Affan, p. 35
If the scholars are saying they don’t “have a positive answer to this question”. Then the question must be asked, where is the “Mushafs attributed to Caliph Uthman and whether any of them reached the present day”? Any Muslims know the answer?
For Muslims the preservation of the Quran is essential to their faith. For years Muslims have been claiming there’s only one Quran, and that you will not find any variations in “letters”, “dots”, “vowels”, “sound”. This means if any one of these are proven to be not true Islam is false because this would mean the Quran has not been preserved.
Recently Muslim scholar Dr. Sheikh Yasir Qadhi had an interview on Muhammad Hijab’s channel in which Hijab asked Qadhi a series of questions regarding the preservation of the Quran. Qadhi was reluctant to answer the pressing questions concerning Ahruf and Qiraat. Hijab asked if Qadhi was given a blank Mus’haf (Codex) would he be able to write down word for word what’s currently in the Quran, and which Quran would he use? Would he use the Hafs, Warsh, Qalun etc. Qadhi then diverts and says this is not a simple answer.
The Seven Ahruf and Multiple Qiraat – A Quranic Perspective
Ubayy b. Ka’b reported: I was in the mosque when a man entered and prayed and recited (the Qur’an) in a style to which I objected. Then another man entered (the mosque) and recited in a style different from that of his companion. When we had finished the prayer, we all went to Allah’s Messenger and said to him: This man recited in a style to which I objected, and the other entered and recited in a style different from that of his companion. The Messenger of Allah asked them to recite and so they recited, and the Apostle of Allah expressed approval of their affairs (their modes of recitation). And there occurred in my mind a sort of denial which did not occur even during the Days of Ignorance. When the Messenger of Allah saw how I was affected (by a wrong idea), he struck my chest, whereupon I broke into sweating and felt as though I were looking at Allah with fear. He (the Holy Prophet) said to me: Ubayy, a message was sent to me to recite the Qur’an in one dialect, and I replied: Make (things) easy for my people. It was conveyed to me for the second time that it should be recited in two dialects. I again replied to him: Make affairs easy for my people. It was again conveyed to me for the third time to recite in seven dialects. And (I was further told): You have got a seeking for every reply that I sent you, which you should seek from Me. I said: O Allah! forgive my people, forgive my people, and I have deferred the third one for the day on which the entire creation will turn to me, including even Ibrahim (for intercession). — Sahih Muslim 1787
Its expressed in the above Hadith that the Quran was “revealed” to Muhammad in seven ahruf, this caused confusion and problems for Muslims. Sources prove that the variations between these renditions of the Quran disturbed Muhammad’s companions.
We have a disagreement between the Muslims as to how they should recite the Quran. It was different to what they were used to reciting and brought the issue to Muhammad. At that time Muhammad had them recite which was different from the other recitation, this cased denial in the Muslims mind and because of this Muhammad “struck” his “chest”. Typical how Muslims resort to violence when frustrated which is what we’re seeing now as the problem with the “perfect preservation” of the Quran continues to crumble.
Here are some quotes from Muslim scholar Dr. Sheikh Yasir Qadhi on the preservation of the Quran: note how his messaged changed from the Quran being perfectly preserved, no change in letters and words, to now there are changes in letters, words and Harakat.
“So the Caliph Uthman standardized the copies of the Quran. And therefore, from his time up until our time there has never been two copies of the Quran that are different even in one letter or one word and this is because of the farsightedness of the Caliph Uthman” — Dr. Sheikh Yasir Qadhi
It’s known that in order for the Quran to be “standardized” Uthman burned manuscripts of the Quran which were different from the one he had. There was a battle and the men who memorized the Quran had recited the Quran differently, out of fear Hudhaifa came to Uthman about the differences in the recitations, with Uthman burning any competing copies.
Narrated Anas bin Malik: Hudhaifa bin Al-Yaman came to Uthman at the time when the people (Muslims) of Syria and the people of Iraq were waging war to conquer Armenia and Azarbaijan. Hudhaifa was afraid of their (the Muslims of Syria and Iraq) differences in the recitation of the Qur’an, so he said to ‘Uthman, “O chief of the Believers! Save this nation before they differ about the Book (Quran) as Jews and the Christians did before.” So ‘Uthman sent a message to Hafsa saying, “Send us the manuscripts of the Qur’an so that we may compile the Qur’anic materials in perfect copies and return the manuscripts to you.” Hafsa sent it to ‘Uthman. ‘Uthman then ordered Zaid bin Thabit, ‘Abdullah bin Az-Zubair, Said bin Al-As and ‘AbdurRahman bin Harith bin Hisham to rewrite the manuscripts in perfect copies. ‘Uthman said to the three Quraishi men, “In case you disagree with Zaid bin Thabit on any point in the Qur’an, then write it in the dialect of Quraish, the Qur’an was revealed in their tongue.” They did so, and when they had written many copies, ‘Uthman returned the original manuscripts to Hafsa. ‘Uthman sent to every Muslim province one copy of what they had copied, and ordered that all the other Qur’anic materials, whether written in fragmentary manuscripts or whole copies, be burnt. … (Sahih al-Bukhari: vol. 6, bk. 61, no. 510)
More contradicting statements from Yasir Qadhi, in the first quote Qadhi says “there has never been two copies of the Quran that are different even in one letter or one word”. Once again in the following quote he continues to say “there’s only one Quranthere are no various versions”.
“ah and the Quran ah there’s only one Quranthere are no various versions or whatnot its one standard copy of the Quran across the Muslim world…and uh there’s really not been any variants versions of the Quran the Quran is the Quran for all sects and schisms and groups of Islam…and we also all Muslims take pride in the fact that there is but one Quran there’s no variants of the Quran” — Dr. Sheikh Yasir Qadhi
Now in the next two quotes he changes his tune and admits there’s “slight differences in pronunciation slight differences in letters”, but remember he said before “there has never been two copies of the Quran that are different even in one letter or one word”. Now he’s telling us there’s been “changes in letters and words”.
“And when we say the various different ways to recite the Quran we’re not talking about different voices or different styles we’re talking about slight differences in pronunciation slight differences in letters. Especially those who have been exposed to some of our brothers who live Algeria or Morocco or other north African countries they recite the Quran in a slightly different way. Not just a voice or not just a speaking style but also changes in letters and words and Harakat” — Dr. Sheikh Yasir Qadhi
“The standard narrative has holes in it” — Dr. Sheikh Yasir Qadhi
Muslims need to wake up and realise that the so called “perfect preservation of the Quran” is completely bogus and cannot be defended. Our lost Muslim friends are all welcomed to come to the One who can perfectly preserve their soul. The Lord Jesus said:
John 10:27-29 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any [man] pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave [them] me, is greater than all; and no [man] is able to pluck [them] out of my Father’s hand.
That’s true perfect preservation from the One who created all things. Come to Christ and live Muslims, He’s waiting for you with open arms. Instead of adhering to the “holes in the narrative” you need to come to the One who has Holes in His hands and feet.
Whatsoever Things Are True 