{"id":4862,"date":"2021-01-04T20:56:01","date_gmt":"2021-01-04T20:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nogodbutallah.org\/?page_id=4862"},"modified":"2022-11-15T17:03:52","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T17:03:52","slug":"quran-is-perfectly-preserved","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nogodbutallah.org\/?page_id=4862","title":{"rendered":"Qur&#8217;an is perfectly preserved"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #800080; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">In the name of All\u0101h,<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">the Beneficent, the Merciful.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Peace and Blessings of All\u0101h on Mohammad.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ff0000; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">DEDICATED TO<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">All\u0101h\u2013the Glorious and the High,<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Lord of the worlds<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ff0000; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">AND TO<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Mohammad\u2013who brought the world<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">to our feet and eternity to our arms.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">*<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <span style=\"color: #800080;\">QUR&#8217;AN\u00a0 IS PERFECTLY PRESERVED<br \/>\n<\/span>Part 1:\u00a0 Christian critics<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Part 2:\u00a0 Sana&#8217;a manuscript of the Qur&#8217;an, Author, Taha<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Part 3:\u00a0 Writing a chapter like that of the Qur&#8217;an<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #800080; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">PART 1:\u00a0 CHRISTIAN CRITICS<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">One Christian critic notes verses of different copies of the Qur\u2019an where certain words differ and claim that the Qur\u2019an is not perfectly preserved.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">He notes:<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">-Qur\u2019an 2:58 <span style=\"color: #800080;\">nagh firu<\/span> vs. yugh firu (<span style=\"color: #800080;\">shall forgive<\/span> vs. shall be forgiven)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">-Qur\u2019an 2:140<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> taquuluuna<\/span> vs, yaquluuna (<span style=\"color: #800080;\">You say<\/span> vs. They say)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">-Qur\u2019an 2:219 <span style=\"color: #800080;\">kabirun<\/span> vs. katheerun\u00a0 (<span style=\"color: #800080;\">a great sin<\/span> vs. plenty sin)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">-Qur\u2019an 2:271 <span style=\"color: #800080;\">yukafferu<\/span> vs, nukafferu (<span style=\"color: #800080;\">He will remove\/expiate<\/span> vs. We will remove). <span style=\"color: #800080;\">(Notably, only Allah can expiate\/remove sin. Allah also refers to Himself in the plurality of Majesty \u201cWe\u201d).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">As observed, these differences in the above-noted verses do not change\/alter the meaning\/significance of the verse\/text.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">What needs to be borne in mind. Whereas dots and vowel points were inserted after the Prophet\u2019s reign for the benefit of people whose language was not Arabic, the recitation of the Qur\u2019an by the Prophet was present <span style=\"color: #800080;\">(and which several Muslims knew by heart)<\/span> and which recitation determined the placing of dots and vowels.\u00a0 Thus, the text and recitation of the Qur\u2019an were compatible.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">For example, if one was to attempt to read the written text\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #800080;\">\u201cMry hd lttl lmb\u201d<\/span> this would indeed prove difficult, since various vowels can be added to produce a reasonable statement, for instance: <span style=\"color: #800080;\"><em>\u201cMary hid (the) little lamb\u201d <\/em><\/span>or <em><span style=\"color: #800080;\">\u201cMary had a little limb\u201d, <\/span>or<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> \u201cMoray had a little lamb\u201d<\/span>.<\/em> But if that person is instructed by one who has memorized the correct or original statement then the meaning can only be one:\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #800080;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cMary had (a) little lamb.\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #800080;\">The Qur&#8217;an was handed down in both, text and recitation.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">(In his Preliminary notes to his translation of the Qur\u2019an (p. xlvi-xlviii under chapter 6 \u201cDIFFERENCES OF READING\u201d; Muhammad Ali has dealt with this subject in detail. His exposition on the Qur\u2019an is a King Solomon\u2019s mine of knowledge\/information. And he has explained Arabic words\/terms and given a background to which verses were revealed <span style=\"color: #800080;\">\u2013many of which critics quote like parrots to vilify Islam<\/span>. MA\u2019s translation of the Qur\u2019an can be viewed\/downloaded at <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.muslim.org\">www.muslim.org<\/a>.\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #000000;\">MA has also dealt with this in his comprehensive work <em>The Religion Of Islam<\/em> as well as in his <em>The Early Caliphate <\/em>also obtainable from <a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.muslim.org\">www.muslim.org<\/a>).\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Because of difference in dialect of certain tribes that entered Islam, it was allowed for the Qur\u2019an to be recited in \u201cSEVEN MODES\u201d -(Bokhari Vol. 4, #442; Vol. 6, #513). These &#8220;seven modes&#8221; does not mean that the entire Qur&#8217;an is read seven different ways; only that certain words were allowed to be read\/pronounced differently:\u00a0<span style=\"color: #800080;\">\u201cThere were differences in the utterance of certain words, but there was no difference at all to the significance conveyed,\u201d<\/span> Muhammad Ali explains.<span style=\"color: #800080;\"><br \/>\n(It is yet to be shown that difference in \u201cword\u201d among these \u201cseven modes\u201d have altered the meaning\/significance of the verse).<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Muhammad Ali notes in his\u00a0<i>The Religion of Islam<\/i> that when people of different tribes began to accept Islam in large numbers <span style=\"color: #800080;\">\u201cit was found that they could not pronounce certain words in the idiom of the Quraish, being habituated from childhood to their own idiom, and it was then that the Prophet allowed them to pronounce a word according to their own peculiar idiom.\u201d For example \u2013\u201c<i>Hatta\u00a0<\/i>(meaning\u00a0<i>until<\/i>) was pronounced\u00a0<i>\u2018atta<\/i> by the Hudhail; <i>ta\u2019lamun\u00a0<\/i>(meaning\u00a0<i>you know<\/i>) was pronounced <i>ti\u2019lamun<\/i>\u00a0by the Asad; the Tamim read\u00a0<i>hamzah<\/i>\u00a0one of the letters, whereas the Quraish did not\u201d\u2013(pp. 34-35).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">However, \u201cvarieties of pronunciation found their way into writing.\u201d\u00a0 It was to stem this tide of variations that \u2018Uthman had copies of the Qur\u2019an made \u201cfrom the standard volume prepared in Abu Bakr\u2019s time,\u201d and which was in the possession of Hafsah, the Prophet\u2019s wife. Such copies were sent to other Islamic centers. It would have been \u201ca half measure\u201d to leave the \u201cunauthentic versions\u201d of the Qur\u2019an with their \u201cdiscrepancies\u201d in circulation. They had to be \u201cabsolutely obliterated.\u201d These were put into the fire. (Muhammad Ali, <em>The Early Caliphate<\/em>, pp. 145, 146. <span style=\"color: #800080;\">Muslims burn <em>inauthentic <\/em>copies of the Qur&#8217;an so followers will not be mislead, Christians alter their Bible to mislead future generations &#8211;<\/span><span style=\"color: #800080;\">See <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/nogodbutallah.org\/?page_id=535\">Bible corrupt &amp; obsolete<\/a><\/span>).<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">It is possible, however,\u00a0 that a stray copy or two may not have been collected, and may have found its way into the archives of today.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Muslims have only one Qur\u2019an. There are no different versions of the Qur\u2019an.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">While this difference in words was allowed only for recitation and not to be a part of the written text, seemingly, certain communities, for whatever reason <span style=\"color: #800080;\">(perhaps for their people&#8217;s ease of remembrance),<\/span> have decided to use these differences instead of the dialect of the Quraysh which the Prophet recited and handed down to us and which is to be the standard used throughout the Muslim world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The communities\/publishers that deviated from the Quraysh dialect are to return to the standard recited by, and handed down to us, by the Prophet. And, if need be, insert their \u201cdialect\/word\u201d above the word(s) of the Quraysh dialect. Islamic authorities are to look into this.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">However, as the Qur\u2019an was revealed in \u201cseven modes\u201d, then, <span style=\"color: #800080;\">in whichever of these \u201cseven modes\u201d the Qur\u2019an is recited\/written, the Qur\u2019an is perfectly preserved. <\/span>In fact, the Qur\u2019an is perfectly preserved in each and all of its \u201cseven modes.\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As Allah revealed:\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n&#8220;Surely, We have revealed the Reminder (Qur&#8217;an), and surely We are its Guardian&#8221; -(Qur&#8217;an 15:9; 56:77-80).<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #800080;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Whereas man can alter physical books <span style=\"color: #800080;\">-like the FAKE AMERICAN QUR&#8217;AN produced by the haters of truth and dumped in Kuwait and parading online as The True Furqan-<\/span> the Qur&#8217;an is perfectly preserved in the Divine system\/scheme :<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">&#8220;Nay, It is a glorious Qur&#8217;an, in a guarded tablet&#8221; -(Qur&#8217;an 85:21-22).<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>As no language can give the full meaning of the Arabic, a non-Arabic Qur\u2019an is not perfectly preserved. Only the Arabic with its \u201cseven modes\u201d is perfectly preserved. Perhaps, it is because of this discrepancy in non-Arabic translations that some scholars are of the view that the Qur\u2019an should not be translated into other languages. \u00a0<span style=\"color: #800080;\">Translations must include the Arabic text.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">There are writings of the Qur&#8217;an that date back between 568 AD-645 AD <span style=\"color: #800080;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\">(Prophet Mohammad was born in 570 AD and died in 632 AD.\u00a0 These writings fall within his ministry). <\/span><\/span><\/span>For the 7 oldest Qur&#8217;ans in the world see <span style=\"color: #800080;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oldest.org\/religion\/qurans\/\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">https:\/\/www.oldest. org\/religion\/qurans\/<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\">PART 2:\u00a0 SANA&#8217;A\u00a0 MANUSCRIPT<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Regarding the Sana\u2019a manuscripts the following is taken from<\/span> <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/ponderingislam.com\/2015\/02\/05\/understanding-the-sanaa-manuscript-find\/\">https:\/\/ponderingislam.com\/2015\/02\/05\/understanding-the-sanaa-manuscript-find\/ <\/a><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Author: Taha).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">\u201cThe Sana\u2019a\u00a0Manuscripts<br \/>\n<\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"background: white; margin: 12pt 0cm; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; color: #444444;\">In 1972\u00a0an assorted collection of old parchment\u00a0pieces were found hidden between the ceiling of the Grand Mosque of San\u2019a\u2019 and the roof, of these are several Qur\u2019anic manuscripts.\u00a0Very intriguingly, one group of such Qur\u2019anic manuscripts contain\u00a0<em>two<\/em>\u00a0Qur\u2019ans: The original text which was erased and written over with\u00a0another Qur\u2019anic text. Scholars can read both the erased and the apparent text (called the \u201clower\u201d and the \u201cupper\u201d text respectively) due to modern lighting methods.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">In this article we shall look at both the upper and lower texts individually.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>The upper text<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The upper text has been found to be the standard Uthmanic Qur\u2019an we have today[4]. The main differences between the Uthmanic\u00a0Qur\u2019an and the upper Sana\u2019a\u2019 text are mostly\u00a0due to how words are spelled[5].<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Of more interest is the dating of the text itself. The upper text exhibits the type of writing style that you would typically see in the first century: some time between the death of the Prophet (632AD) to the start of the 7th century (700AD) is quite feasible. Sadeghi states that there isn\u2019t enough information on early writing styles to narrow the dating further[6] but a guess could be taken. Since the lower text is non-Uthmanic, and the upper text\u00a0<em>is<\/em>\u00a0Uthmanic, and because the upper text was written over the lower one, what possibly could have taken place\u00a0is that scribes were simply seeking to replace the lower text with the upper one as soon\u00a0as they received the Uthmanic version with the order to adopt it. This means that the upper text could date from around ~650AD, two decades from the death of the Prophet (or when the Uthmanic compilation took place). However this is all just guesswork: all we know for certain is that it is from the first century of Islam.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Before we move on to the lower writing here\u2019s a picture of the manuscript (upper text visible) as it is:<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ponderingislam.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/02\/untitled.png\" \/><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">I am not sure whether the faded writing is the lower text that has become apparent or simply the writing on the other side of the page showing through. It is probably the former:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">In \u1e62an\u2018\u0101\u2019 1, as with some other palimpsests, over time the residue of\u00a0the ink of the erased writing underwent chemical reactions, causing a color change and hence the re-emergence of the lower writing in a pale\u00a0brown or pale gray color. Sana\u2019a\u2019 1 (page 6)<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>The lower text<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The lower text of the sana\u2019a\u2019 manuscripts are of enormous interest because they are considered to non-Uthmanic. Historical reports tell us that as the Qur\u2019an was promulgated by the Prophet Muhammad (\u0635), there arose differences in the text of the Qur\u2019an in terms of dialectal variation (refer to start of article). As Islam started to spread to\u00a0further lands, new converts started\u00a0to dispute over which of the dialects of the Qur\u2019an was \u201cbetter\u201d or \u201cproper\u201d[7], Uthman (\u0631) made the decision to resort to one text that would put an end to the disagreements. He went about doing this by taking the existent manuscripts and recitations (from people\u2019s memories) and writing down the most popular reading for each of the verses,\u00a0<em>as long as the manuscript or the person\u2019s memory had taking directly from the Prophet (\u0635<\/em><em>) himself.<\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em>The source manuscripts were then burned and the new, Uthmanic Qur\u2019an was sent to the regional centres of the Islamic world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">I recall this familiar account so that we have a clear understand of what the variants present in the lower text of the\u00a0San\u2019a\u2019 manuscripts actually are.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Dating the lower text<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Just like the upper text, the lower text is written in a very early writing style. Unlike the upper text, however, it is possible to use radio carbon dating to find an approximate age for the it. As we know, there was very little literary activity in the Arabian peninsula before the Qur\u2019an. Simply put, there was nothing else to write.\u00a0This manuscript is made of vellum, which requires the use of animal skin: its size is also large enough to indicate that a whole flock of animals was\u00a0needed to create this copy of the Qur\u2019an[9]. Since writing had only just started gaining importance in the Hijaz during the early years of Islam, it is very unlikely that people simply had a whole stack of vellum simply lying around: it would have had to be created and then written on shortly afterwards.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Knowing this, it is possible to find the date of the lower text (the first thing written on the parchment) by carbon-dating the parchment itself, since they would be similar. The results are quite exciting.<br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ponderingislam.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/02\/datingsanaa.png\" \/>Results of radio-carbon dating Sana\u2019a\u2019 parchment[10]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">To highlight the significance of the results, I have created a table with the age of the parchment relative to the traditional death date of the Prophet (\u0635):<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ponderingislam.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/02\/datingsanaatable.png\" \/><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">What is significant about the dating is that there is a very good chance that this was written while the companions were still alive. This is very important in learning about the text of the Qur\u2019an in its very early stages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>The Text of the Lower Sana\u2019a\u2019 Manuscripts and its non-Uthmanic nature<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The type of Qur\u2019an the lower writing represents is non-Uthmanic. This is obvious because it has a lot of variants <em>not<\/em>\u00a0found in the Uthmanic version.\u00a0<em>If\u00a0<\/em>the person writing down this Qur\u2019an was copying from the Uthmanic version, then we would expect it to be very similar to the Uthmanic version. It is not. Though the variants are quite minor, there are a lot of them, and there are some major variants such as those found in the following table which cannot be explained by scribal error alone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Sadeghi, Goudarzi and Bergmann have named the Sana\u2019a\u2019 manuscript as a \u201cCompanion Codex\u201d. Islamic literary sources, as we have already seen, tell us that the Qur\u2019an was revealed in different dialects, and sometimes the Prophet taught one companion a surah differently to another (with differences in wording).\u00a0It was only after Uthman standardized one codex did the other \u2018companion codices\u2019 fall out of use. The variants in this manuscript are\u00a0<em>the same types of variants the Islamic sources tell us<\/em>.\u00a0Here are the biggest variants:<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ponderingislam.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/02\/variantsana.png\" \/><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The differences between this codex and the Uthmanic one can be summarized as follows[11]:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Variants which arose due to the Prophet teaching the Qur\u2019an differently. The variants in this category are as equally authoritative as Uthmanic readings.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Scribal errors\u00a0such as accidental word omission, assimilation of parallels, et cetera.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">As the text is non-Uthmanic, and is very old, it probably represents some sort of companion reading of the Qur\u2019an that is different from the Uthmanic one. In a sense, this is probably the type of manuscript that Uthman would have taken to write his codex and then would have had burned.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">On a final note, I hope I have made clear that the fact that this Qur\u2019an differs from the Uthmanic one does not mean that the Qur\u2019an is somehow \u201cchanged\u201d. If I were to do a google search for\u00a0\u201cSana\u2019a\u2019 manuscripts\u201d I am taken to a list of Christian apologetics websites that misrepresent the Muslim understanding of the Qur\u2019an. We already\u00a0<em>have<\/em>\u00a0the original, as the Uthmanic copy along with its readings is ensured to be a perfect representation of the \u2018Prophetic prototype\u2019, this manuscript is simply an extra version that represents some other reading. <span style=\"color: #800080;\">As long as one of the divinely authorized readings reach us, we have the whole Qur\u2019an<\/span> [12][13]. On the other hand, <span style=\"color: #800080;\">this new discovery is an enormous find since it goes a very long way to strengthening the Muslim position.<\/span> <span style=\"color: #800080;\">(Color\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\">NGBA<\/span><\/span>).<\/span><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">What the Sana\u2019a\u2019 manuscripts can tell us about the Qur\u2019an.<\/span><\/h4>\n<ol style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong> Uthman did not change the Qur\u2019an.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">This contention is\u00a0quite a common one, even though it could be dispelled by simply reading any historical account of the Uthmanic compilation, it has been repeated very often among apologetics circles, even through the mouths of scholars[14].<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">If historical reports from the Islamic sources constitute good evidence to prove otherwise, that Uthman did not change anything from the Qur\u2019an, this manuscript is even stronger evidence for this, since it is flesh-and-blood proof. There is nothing in the manuscript so far that suggests any\u00a0meaningful difference from the standard Qur\u2019an. There is no proof that Uthman somehow added any theological or legal idea into the Qur\u2019an. The biggest differences are words being used in place of their synonyms. This manuscript, for the first time ever, gives us hard physical evidence for something Muslims have already known: Uthman was sincere in his efforts to compile the Qur\u2019an.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol style=\"text-align: justify;\" start=\"2\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong> The Qur\u2019an really did exist during the time Muslims say it did.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">This will probably come as a surprise to some of you: some revisionist scholars have held that the Qur\u2019an is some sort of composite text originating\u00a0<em>later\u00a0<\/em>than the traditional dating. The easiest way to\u00a0disprove that something does not exist is to show that object existing! <span style=\"color: #800080;\">Since we actually\u00a0<em>do<\/em> have a Qur\u2019an dating from during this time, we can safely put to rest any fanciful ideas on the origins of the Qur\u2019an. (Color <span style=\"color: #000000;\">NGBA<\/span>).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The manuscript also confirms a part of the Islamic Hadith tradition. Though these sources are written much later<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> they are\u00a0<em>remarkably accurate<\/em> in telling us that there were early manuscripts owned by the companions of the Prophet that had variants. They also relate to us what types of variants are found in these manuscripts, and at times the variants mentioned in the Islamic literature is word for word the same as those that are found in this particular manuscript.\u201d (Color <span style=\"color: #000000;\">NGBA).<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span>(<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/ponderingislam.com\/2015\/02\/05\/understanding-the-sanaa-manuscript-find\/\">https:\/\/ponderingislam.com\/2015\/02\/05\/understanding-the-sanaa -manuscript-find\/<\/a> <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/ponderingislam.com\/2015\/02\/05\/understanding-the-sanaa-manuscript-find\/\">\u00a0<\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Author: Taha<\/span>).<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">As we have shown, these differences do not alter the meaning\/ significance\u00a0 of the text\/verses of the Qur\u2019an. See also\u00a0 Dr. Shabir Ally on:<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ED7Z4qOQquQ\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ED7Z4qOQquQ<\/a><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XHqUIQ4Ik98\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XHqUIQ4Ik98<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #800080; font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">PART 3: WRITING A CHAPTER LIKE THAT OF THE QUR&#8217;AN<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">The Qur\u2019an was written between 610-632 AC (After Christ). It contains 114 chapters with each chapter <span style=\"color: #800080;\">(except the ninth)<\/span> having a title and begins with the benediction <span style=\"color: #800080;\">\u201cIn the Name of Allah the Beneficent the Merciful.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">In Qur\u2019an 2:23 (also 10:38; 11:13) Allah invites the doubters of the Qur\u2019an: <span style=\"color: #800080;\">\u201cAnd if you are in doubt as to that (Qur\u2019an) which We have revealed to Our servant (Mohammad), then produce a chapter <strong><u>LIKE IT<\/u><\/strong> (like that of the Qur\u2019an) and call on your helpers besides Allah if you are truthful.\u201d<\/span><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">One who wants to meet this invitation\/challenge is to choose one of these 114 chapters of the Qur\u2019an and write an original chapter <span style=\"color: #800080;\">\u201cLIKE IT\u201d\u00a0 (in Qur&#8217;anic Arabic, diction and style)\u00a0<\/span> giving their chapter a title and benediction.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\">The atheists and Christians attempt to discredit the authenticity of the Qur\u2019an is useless. If atheists and Christians can prove that Mohammad made prophecies and statements on science of his own accord 1400 years ago and wrote Qur\u2019an; they would have debunked the Qur\u2019an as Divine revelation. <\/span><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Prove it!<\/span> (See <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/nogodbutallah.org\/?page_id=123\">Qur\u2019an-science<\/a><\/span>).<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">****************************************************\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Christians follow the <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/nogodbutallah.org\/?page_id=535\">Bible which is corrupt &amp; obsolete, <\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\">they <\/span><\/span>put God into the belly of a woman and pull God out through her menstrual passage\/vagina <span style=\"color: #800080;\">(making Adam and Eve cleaner than God (Job 4:17; 25:4),\u00a0<\/span> circumcised God and pin Him in diapers <span style=\"color: #800080;\">(not even Hinduism has cut the foreskin of any of its millions of Gods)<\/span> and have God eat butter and honey so He would be able to choose good and refuse evil (Isaiah 7:14-15), have God commit the injustice of putting Adam\u2019s sin onto helpless, blameless and morally and mentally non-competent babies and have God commit more injustice and complicit in the murder of Jesus to forgive Adam\u2019s sin <span style=\"color: #800080;\">(which blaming and killing of the innocent for the guilty are expected of tyrants; and such a God is not worthy of adoration)<\/span>; and they try to find non-existent fault(s) with the Qur&#8217;an to have Muslims apostatize and ape them in their enormity against God.<br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\">Any man and woman of honest reflection would agree that such <\/span><span style=\"color: #800080;\">ascriptions to God are not only gruesome monstrosities and blasphemy, but are repugnant to reason and do not befit Twentieth Century intelligence.<br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\">Even if the Qur\u2019an was not perfectly preserved Christianity would yet be a fake religion<\/span> <span style=\"color: #800080;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">(see <\/span><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nogodbutallah.org\/?page_id=5090\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Christianity dupes people<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #800080;\">.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\">And atheism an insult to intellect<\/span> <span style=\"color: #000000;\">(see<\/span><\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/nogodbutallah.org\/?page_id=4730\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Apostate Prophet-Qur\u2019an poor science<\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">).<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the name of All\u0101h, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Peace and Blessings of All\u0101h on Mohammad. DEDICATED TO All\u0101h\u2013the Glorious and the High, Lord of the worlds AND TO Mohammad\u2013who brought the world to our feet and eternity to our arms. * \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4862","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nogodbutallah.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nogodbutallah.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nogodbutallah.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nogodbutallah.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nogodbutallah.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4862"}],"version-history":[{"count":58,"href":"https:\/\/nogodbutallah.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6074,"href":"https:\/\/nogodbutallah.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4862\/revisions\/6074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nogodbutallah.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}