Blasphemous claims Fatwa No: 84088
- Fatwa Date:1-5-2002
I have been attempting to give Da'wah online in the Internet chat rooms, and I have encountered many Kafir distortions of Islam there. One of the most grievous is that there is an article being circulated that states that 'missing Qur'anic texts' have been found that show that Muslims are lying about the Qur'an having never been altered. The article claims that these Qur'anic pages include verses not currently in the Qur'an now, and that these documents were discovered in 1972 in Yemen.I have noticed that there is much pertinent data that the article has omitted including whether any Carbon-14 dating was done of the pages to confirm that they are from the 7 or 8th centuries. The article also does not discuss who the possible author could be, but I know that there are those who unsuccessfully have tried to alter the Qur'an.Do you knowledgeable people know anything about this archeological find in Yemen? If so, do you have any facts that I can use to prove this article false?I would appreciate any help you can give me.
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the World; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
Dear inquirer!
At first, you have to know that it is Haram to read writings of non-Muslim that contain suspicions except for one who can refute and confute them. The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) became angry when he saw a paper of the scripture of the People of the Book in 'Umar 's hand. He, the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) said: "O Ibn al-Khattab ! Do you doubt in the Message of Islam? I have brought it to you very pure and clear" .
Second, having read the long article you mentioned, it becomes very clear to me such an article depends, like so many writings of enemies of Islam, on exaggerations and playing with readers' minds. In addition, such an article is fruitless and meaningless. It is a form of provocative writing.
The Qur'an is reserved from any form of corruption by Allah. So, no one can find two different copies, i.e. There is no a copy that is different from another on earth since the original collection into a single copy. Even if one finds a distorted copy, Muslims would immediately discover its falsehood and refute it by Allah's Favor.
Here, we have to comment on the concerned article as follows.
1) It is not strange to find a manuscript that contradicts copies among Muslims. Such a manuscript could be done by some distorters at anytime, especially from Jews and disbelievers. But, this does not give an evidence that such a copy is right while others are distorted, since such a situation is dependent on some logic facts such as knowing the copyist/transcriber, the time of such a copy, nature and authenticity of transcription and its soundness of change. In fact, we have not seen any of such things in the article.
2) Although that the above-mentioned article is very long, with bad titles and headings, it does not present, any difference between the claimed copy and the Qur'an except its order of verses and spelling.
As for the claim that words are misspelled, it is a well-known fact among scholars of recitation/reading of the Qur'an, that the Qur'an was written without the vowel markings and consonantal dots in order to be understood according to all ways of reading among Arab tribes. The Qur'an was sent down in seven ways of reading and all of them are forms of the sound and pure Arabic language as mentioned in the Sunnah. Such a point is, in fact, an evidence that proves the miraculous nature of the Qur'an. Nobody among Christians can contest that.
As for difference in the order of the verses, such a point in no more than an obvious lie; otherwise, the article would present some examples and mention Surah and numbers of verses. But, it is no more than an exaggeration, misguidance and agitation.
3) More forms of exaggeration, agitation and fallacy are also clear in the concerned article since the writer discusses irrelevant issues such as the Hijrah of the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) and his life. Other padding issues were done in the writer's reports about some deviated personalities and their vicious stand from the Noble Qur'an without proof.
It was the writer's duty to discuss the main issue which he raised: "What is the Qur'an? A macabre Farce as he put in titles". In other words, he did not tell us any authentic information about "his manuscript".
Finally, we state that such an article does not deserve our reply and comments, but just to satisfy your wish we did present the above-mentioned. It is a false and malicious article unsupported by any form of scientific research.
Allah knows best.