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Authenticity of the Qur’an: Another Approach
It must be stressed that the Qur’an
is accurate about many, many things, but accuracy does not
necessarily mean that a book is a divine revelation. In fact,
accuracy is only one of the criteria for divine revelations. For
instance, the telephone book is accurate, but that does not mean
that it is divinely revealed. The real problem lies in that one
must establish some proof of the source the Qur’an’s information.
The emphasis is in the other direction, in that the burden of
proof is on the reader. One cannot simply deny the Qur’an’s
authenticity without sufficient proof. If, indeed, one finds a
mistake, then one has the right to disqualify it. This is exactly
what the Qur’an encourages.
Looking for Mistakes
Once a man came up to me after a
lecture I delivered in South Africa. He was very angry about what
I had said, and so he claimed, “I am going to go home tonight and
find a mistake in the Qur’an.” Of course, I said,
“Congratulations. That is the most intelligent thing that you have
said.” Certainly, this is the approach Muslims need to take with
those who doubt the Qur’an’s authenticity, because the Qur’an
itself offers the same challenge. And inevitably, after accepting
its challenge and discovering that it is true, these people will
come to believe it because they could not disqualify it. In
essence, the Qur’an earns their respect because they themselves
have had to verify its authenticity.
An essential fact that cannot be
reiterated enough concerning the authenticity of the Qur’an is
that one’s inability to explain a phenomenon oneself does not
require one’s acceptance of the phenomenon’s existence or another
person’s explanation of it. Specifically, just because one cannot
explain something does not mean that one has to accept someone
else’s explanation. However, the person’s refusal of other
explanations returns the burden of proof back on himself to find a
feasible answer. This general theory applies to numerous concepts
in life but fits most wonderfully with the Qur’anic challenge, for
it creates a difficulty for one who says, “I do not believe it.”
At the onset of refusal one immediately has an obligation to find
an explanation oneself if one feels others’ answers are
inadequate.
In fact, in one particular Qur’anic
verse that I have always seen mistranslated into English, Allah
mentions a man who heard the truth explained to him. It states
that he was derelict in his duty because after he heard the
information, he left without checking the verity of what he had
heard. In other words, one is guilty if one hears something and
does not research it and check to see whether it is true. One is
supposed to process all information and decide what is garbage to
be thrown out and what is worthwhile information to be kept and
benefited from immediately or even at a later date.
One cannot just let it rattle around
in one’s head. It must be put in the proper categories and
approached from that point of view. For example, if the
information is still speculative, then one must discern whether
it’s closer to being true or false. But if all the facts have been
presented, then one must decide absolutely between these two
options. And even if one is not positive about the authenticity of
the information, one is still required to process all the
information and make the admission that one just does not know for
sure. Although this last point appears to be futile, in actuality,
it is beneficial to the arrival at a positive conclusion at a
later time in that it forces the person to at least recognize,
research, and review the facts.
This familiarity with the
information will give the person “the edge” when future
discoveries are made and additional information is presented. The
important thing is that one deals with the facts and does not
simply discard them out of empathy and disinterest.
Exhausting the Alternatives
The real certainty about the
truthfulness of the Qur’an is evident in the confidence that is
prevalent throughout it, and this confidence comes from a
different approach: exhausting the alternatives.” In essence, the
Qur’an states, “This book is a divine revelation; if you do not
believe that, then what is it?” In other words, the reader is
challenged to come up with some other explanation. Here is a book
made of paper and ink. Where did it come from? It says it is a
divine revelation; if it is not, then what is its source? The
interesting fact is that no one has yet come up with an
explanation that works. In fact, all alternatives have been
exhausted. As has been well established by non-Muslims, these
alternatives basically are reduced to two mutually exclusive
schools of thought, insisting on one or the other.
On one hand, there exists a large
group of people who have researched the Qur’an for hundreds of
years and who claim, “One thing we know for sure: That man,
Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), thought he was a
prophet. He was crazy!” They are convinced that Muhammad (peace
and blessings be upon him) was fooled somehow. Then on the other
hand, there is a group that alleges, “Because of this evidence,
one thing we know for sure is that that man, Muhammad (peace and
blessings be upon him), was a liar!” Ironically, these two groups
never seem to get together without contradictions.
In fact, many references to Islam
usually claim both theories. They start out by stating that
Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was crazy and then end
by saying he was a liar. They never seem to realize that he could
not have been both! For example, if one is deluded and really
thinks that he is a prophet, then he does not sit up late at night
planning, “How will I fool the people tomorrow so that they think
I am a prophet?” He truly believes that he is a prophet, and he
trusts that the answer will be given to him by revelation.
The Critic’s Trail
As a matter of fact, a great deal of
the Qur’an came in answer to questions. Someone would ask Muhammad
(peace and blessings be upon him) a question, and the revelation
would come with the answer to it. Certainly, if someone is crazy
and believes that an angel put words in his ear, then when someone
asks him a question, he thinks that the angel will give him the
answer. Because he is crazy, he really thinks that. He does not
tell someone to wait a short while and then run to his friends and
ask them, “Does anyone know the answer?” This type of behavior is
characteristic of someone who does not believe that he is a
prophet. What the non-Muslims refuse to accept is that you cannot
have it both ways. One can be deluded, or one can be a liar. One
can be either one or neither one, but one certainly cannot be
both! The emphasis is on the fact that they are unquestionably
mutually exclusive personality traits.
The following scenario is a good
example of the kind of circle that non-Muslims go around in
constantly. If you ask one of them, “What is the origin of the
Qur’an?” he tells you that it originated from the mind of a man
who was crazy. Then you ask him, “If it came from his head, then
where did he get the information contained in it? Certainly the
Qur’an mentions many things with which the Arabs were not
familiar.” So in order to explain the fact that you bring him, he
changes his position and says, “Well, maybe he was not crazy.
Maybe some foreigner brought him the information. So he lied and
told people that he was a prophet.” At this point then you have to
ask him, “If Muhammad was a liar, then where did he get his
confidence? Why did he behave as though he really thought he was a
prophet?” Finally backed into a corner, like a cat he quickly
lashes out with the first response that comes to his mind.
Forgetting that he has already exhausted that possibility, he
claims, “Well, maybe he wasn’t a liar. He was probably crazy and
really thought that he was a prophet.” And thus he begins the
futile cycle again.
As has already
been mentioned, there is much information contained in the Qur’an
whose source cannot be attributed to anyone other than Allah. For
example, who told Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) about
the wall of Dhul Qarnayn—a place hundreds of miles to the
north? Who told him about embryology? When people assemble facts
such as these, if they are not willing to attribute their
existence to a divine source, they automatically resort to the
assumption someone brought Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon
him) the information and that he used it to fool the people.
However, this theory can easily be disproved with one simple
question: “If Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was a
liar, where did he get his confidence? Why did he tell some people
outright to their face what others could never say?” Such
confidence depends completely upon being convinced that one has a
true, divine revelation.
A
Revelation: Abu Lahab
Prophet
Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) had an uncle by the
name of Abu Lahab. This man hated Islam to such an extent that he
used to follow the Prophet around in order to discredit him. If
Abu Lahab saw the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)
speaking to a stranger, he would wait until they parted and he
would go to the stranger and ask him, “What did he tell you? Did
he say, ‘Black?’ Well, it’s white. Did he say ‘morning?’ Well,
it’s night.” He faithfully said the exact opposite of whatever he
heard Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and the Muslims
say.
However,
about ten years before Abu Lahab died, a little chapter in the
Qur’an (Surat Al-Masad, 111) was revealed about him. It distinctly
stated that he would go to the fire (Hell). In other words, it
affirmed that he would never become a Muslim and would, therefore,
be condemned forever. For ten years, all Abu Lahab had to do was
say, “I heard that it has been revealed to Muhammad that I will
never change—that I will never become a Muslim and will enter the
Hellfire. Well, I want to become Muslim now. How do you like that?
What do you think of your divine revelation now?” But he never did
that. And yet, that is exactly the kind of behavior one would have
expected from him, since he always sought to contradict Islam.
In
essence, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “You
hate me and you want to finish me? Here, say these words and I am
finished. Come on, say them!” But Abu Lahab never said them. Ten
years! And in all that time he never accepted Islam or even became
sympathetic to the Islamic cause.
How
could Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) have possibly
known for sure that Abu Lahab would fulfill the Qur’anic
revelation if he (Muhammad) was not truly the messenger of Allah?
How could he possibly have been so confident as to give someone 10
years to discredit his claim of Prophethood? The only answer is
that he was Allah’s messenger; for in order to put forth such a
risky challenge, one has to be entirely convinced that one has a
divine revelation.
The
Flight
Another
example of the confidence which Muhammad (peace and blessings be
upon him) had in his own Prophethood and, consequently, in the
divine protection of himself and his message, was when he left
Makkah and hid in a cave with Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with
him) during their emigration from Makkah to Madinah. The two
clearly saw people coming to kill them, Abu Bakr was afraid.
Certainly, if Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was a
liar, a forger, and one who was trying to fool the people into
believing that he was a prophet, one would have expected him to
say in such a circumstance to his friend, “Hey, Abu Bakr, see if
you can find a back way out of this cave.” Or, “Squat down in that
corner over there and keep quiet.” Yet, in fact, what he said to
Abu Bakr clearly illustrated his confidence. He told him, “Relax!
Allah is with us and Allah will save us!” Now, if one knows that
one is fooling the people, where does one get this kind of
attitude? In fact, such a frame of mind is not characteristic of a
liar or a forger at all.
So, as
has been previously mentioned, the non-Muslims go around and
around in a circle, searching for a way out—some way to explain
the findings in the Qur’an without attributing them to their
proper source. On one hand, they tell you on Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday that “the man was a liar,” and on the other hand, on
Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday they tell you that “he was crazy.”
What they refuse to accept is that one cannot have it both ways;
yet they need both theories, both excuses to explain the
information in the Qur’an.
An
Encounter with a Minister
About
seven years
ago, I had a minister over to my home. In the particular room that
we were sitting in, there was a Qur’an on the table, face down,
and so the minister was not aware of which book it was. In the
midst of a discussion, I pointed to the Qur’an and said, “I have
confidence in that book.” Looking at the Qur’an but not knowing
which book it was, he replied, “Well, I tell you, if that book is
not the Bible, it was written by a man!” In response to his
statement, I said, “Let me tell you something about what is in
that book.” And in just three to four minutes, I related to him a
few things contained in the Qur’an. After just those three or four
minutes, he completely changed his position and declared, “You are
right.
A man did not write that book,
the Devil wrote it!”
Indeed,
possessing such an attitude is very unfortunate, for many reasons.
For one thing, it is a very quick and cheap excuse. It is an
instant exit out of an uncomfortable situation.
As a matter of
fact, there is a famous story in the Bible that mentions how one
day, some of the Jews were witnesses when Jesus (peace and
blessings be upon him) raised a man from the dead. The man
had been dead for four days, yet when Jesus arrived, he simply
said, “Get up!” and the man arose and walked away. At such a
sight, some of the Jews who were watching said disbelievingly,
“This is the Devil. The Devil helped him!” Now this story is
rehearsed very often in churches all over the world, and people
cry big tears over it, saying, “Oh, if I had been there, I would
not have been as stupid as the Jews!” Yet, ironically, these
people do exactly what the Jews did when in just three minutes you
show them only a small part of the Qur’an and all they can say is,
“Oh, the Devil did it. The devil wrote that book!” Because they
are truly backed into a corner and have no other viable answer,
they resort to the quickest and cheapest excuse available.
Source :
http://islamonline.net/english/Quran/2005/06/article01.shtml
1)
QuraanicLessons.com
2) UnderstandQuran.com
3) emuslim.com
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