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January 25 - February 25, 2022
If Muhammad was the prophet of the Arabs, and if they were energized and motivated by his teachings, why is it that the Arab conquests of the Middle East, North Africa, and Persia never mention his name? These conquests occurred in the middle of the seventh century, immediately after Muhammad’s death, yet none of the contemporary records mention Muhammad. In fact, none mention a holy book or even the word Muslim.
Although Mecca is reputed to be a trade center, it never appears in any trade routes until the turn of the eighth century; none of the earliest mosques faced toward Mecca (all faced toward either Jerusalem or Petra until about the turn of the eighth century); Mecca is mentioned only once in the Quran; the descriptions of the land in the Quran sound very little like Mecca, much more like northern Arabia;
Puin argued that “every fifth sentence or so simply doesn’t make sense.”1 Preemptively defending his assertion, Puin adds, “Many Muslims—and Orientalists—will tell you otherwise, of course, but the fact is that a fifth of
Stradivarius, a man who lived from the mid-1600s to the 1700s, is reputed to have made the most acoustically perfect violins the world has ever heard; not even with our modern technology have we been able to reproduce their perfection.3 Were he to have said that his violins were made by God and offered their matchless quality as evidence, we would have thought him a lunatic or a liar. In what way does an excellent product prove divine origin?
The second minor problem is the number of years it took for the Byzantines to be victorious; the verse of the Quran uses a word that implies ten years or less, but it took seventeen years for the Romans to ultimately defeat the Byzantines.
The same hadith tells us that at least two verses were known by only one person: “I started searching for the Qur’an till I found the last two Verses of Surat at-Tauba with Abi Khuza’ima Al-Ansari and I could not find these Verses with anybody other than him.”15 In other words, two verses of the Quran have been included on the testimony of just one individual.16
“A verse from Surat Ahzab was missed by me when we copied the Qur’an and I used to hear Allah’s Messenger reciting it. So we searched for it and found it with Khuza’ima bin Thabit Al-Ansari.”17 It
“Keep on reciting the Qur’an because it escapes from the hearts of men faster than camel do.”18 He was not exaggerating, as even he forgot verses of the Quran. Upon hearing a man reciting the Quran at night he said, “May Allah bestow His Mercy on him, as he has reminded me of verses which I forgot.”19
“Umar said, ‘Ubay was the best of us in the recitation of the Qur’an yet we leave out some of what he recites.’ Ubay says, ‘I have taken it from the mouth of Allah’s Messenger and will not leave it out for anything whatever.’ ”20 So the very best reciter of the Quran was adamant that verses of the Quran have been left out.21 Muhammad himself chose Ubay as one of the best teachers of the Quran,22 and yet he disagreed with today’s Quran.
Finally, as we saw in chapter 14, the text of the Quran was undergoing abrogation. Muhammad would cancel certain older verses and replace them with newer verses. The Quran itself testifies to this in 2.106 and 16.101. Muslims
The text of the Quran was fluid during the time of Muhammad. He would recite the same verse multiple ways, saying he could do so up to seven ways.2
All that was required was to stop reciting certain verses and to “forget” what had been revealed.3
According to early Islamic sources, Ubay had two chapters at the end of his Quran that are not in the modern Quran: surat al-Hafd and surat al-Khal.4 Ubay was not alone in including these chapters, as at least two other companions of Muhammad believed them to be a part of the Quran.5
When giving a list of the four best teachers of the Quran, Muhammad named Abdullah ibn Masud first.6 He disagreed with Ubay, saying that Ubay’s final two chapters were divine revealed prayers, not scripture. On that very same basis, though, he disagreed with the modern Quran, insisting that sura 1 as well as suras 113 and 114 are divinely revealed prayers, not portions of the Quran. He
