101 Reasons Why We Left Islam – Chapter 4: Islamic History – Reason 50
The question is: “Is the Quran the direct and exact words of Allah: word for word, letter for letter, and annotation for annotation? Historical records show some challenging facts that we will discuss in reasons 50 and 51 for leaving Islam.
Islamic Dawahs claim that the Quran is the ‘direct’ and ‘undisputed’ words of God (Allah) that are preserved sentence by sentence, word by word, and letter by letter, which adds an undisputed clout to Islam being miraculous whereby God’s words rightly cannot and should not be changed or tampered with. However, historical facts, as detailed in Islamic sources, say otherwise. There are two ways to dispute it. One can look at the historical process, its issues, the different versions of the Quran that we know about, and those that continue to be discovered (following this reason, Reason #51 for leaving Islam). First, let us look at the historical issues in chronological order.
Issue 50.1: The compliance of the Quran started 2 years after the Prophet died, and it was scattered with scrolls written on stones, leather, and bits of paper. The first standardised copy was not even around 18 to 20 years later. This opens a significant challenge as to why Allah never asked for the book to be collated before the Prophet passed away. I have my analysis that I will discuss further in the next Chapter (Chapter 5: Failed Prophecies of End of Time).
Issue 50.2. Of the scribes, some argue there are four while others say they are as much as 40, many did not survive to be around for the standardisation of the first written copy. The whole Umma (Islamic nation), for 1400 years, relied on Zaid Ibn Tabith to remember 114 chapters with 6,350 verses in the correct order. Who is he? Is he an Iman of knowledge? Is he a Prophet? Is he a Khalifa? Is he a famous Sahabah that the Prophet appointed to take that vast responsibility? The answer to all these is no. Islamic scholars have tried to make out that he is a genius, has a sharp memory, and is an expert in his area. But the facts remain: he is a human who can make mistakes! Only the Prophet, by the authority of the all mighty, can verify if we got the exact words.
Issue 50.3. The Quran has too many repetitions that do not make sense. The message from Allah is supposed to be concise and clear. For example, “Then which of the favours of your Lord will you deny?” is repeated 31 times in different chapters until you realise the Prophet was getting old and forgetful, as the authentic hadith says in multiple places:
Narrated Aisha: The Prophet heard a man reciting the Qur’an in the mosque and said, “May Allah bestow His Mercy on him, as he has reminded me of such-and-such Verses of such a Surah.” Sahih Bukhari 6:61:556 Repeated in: Sahih Muslim 4:1720
And even mentioned in the Quran 87:6: “We will have you recite ˹the Quran, O Prophet,˺ so you will not forget.”
Issue 50.4. After Zaid supposedly did his job to collate the Quran into a book and send it around, there were edits to it whereby different parts of the empire saw issues with the verses he wrote. So, other variations of the Quran sprung up in various locations in Khalifa. Islamic sources confirm that the Calipha Uthman was so unhappy with clear differences in the Qurans among people of Syria and people of Iraq. Some may argue that the differences were minor and dialects only. That is not true. The differences were so great Uthman, and his companions feared future disputes as Sahih Bukhari quotes Hudhaifa bin Al-Yaman pleading to the Chalipha at the time: “Uthman, “O chief of the Believers! Save this nation before they differ about the Book (Qur’an) as Jews and the Christians did before.” So, Uthman asked Hafsa for her copy, ordering her to make many copies and destroy all the other copies. This shows that memorization ultimately did not work to preserve the exact wording of the Quran. You can read the process here: https://sunnah.com/bukhari:4987
Issue 50.5. Missing verses also challenge the claim of “perfect preservation”. Not only did we already discuss the missing verses that the sheep/goat ate in (Reason 2 for leaving Islam, specifically https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:1942 (Ranked: Sahih /Authentic)). But even the Hadith shows more damaging evidence. In Tafsir (explanation) of chapter 33 of the Quran, Surah Al Ahzab, Jami` at-Tirmidhi and Qurtubi’s tafsir, the authors report that at one time of the Prophet, chapter 33 (has 73 verses) is reported to have been originally bigger than chapter 2 (286 verses). You can read the reference to this issue here: https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:3104
What do you conclude? We conclude that the compilation of the Qur’an was a human process involving trial and error, memories fading with time, and decisions taken by men not given that authority by Allah or the Prophet to custodial that final message to humanity. And we can’t forget, of course, the pile of manuscripts reduced to ashes by Uthman in his desperate attempt to preserve one version of the Quran. Unfortunately, that still did not work in maintaining the Quran preservation “word for word and letter by letter”. The following reason, reason 51, is linked to this one – as we examine the current version of the most popular version of the Quran, different versions, and common misconceptions about comparing the other heavenly books with the Quran.