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all the praise is due to Allah we praise
him and we seek his help and we ask for
his forgiveness and we take refuge with
Allah from the evil of ourselves and
from the evil consequence of our evil
actions we're here today to talk about
the proof that Islam is the truth now in
the previous episode we talked about and
we discussed the written preservation of
the Quran how the Quran was preserved in
writing over a period of the 23 years in
which the Quran was revealed however
it's very important to understand that
primarily Societies in the time of the
Prophet Muhammad May Allah's peace and
blessings be upon him were in fact oral
Societies in other
words most of the information that they
transmitted from one to the other was
based upon stories information that they
remembered generation to generation
passed on from child to son from father
daughter and so on and so forth in
Gatherings so this is how information
was spread and memorized and stories
were retained in the hearts and minds of
people and in that respect the Quran is
not really any different however the
degree of the preservation of the Quran
in its oral form is really something
remarkable and that is what we want to
talk about today actually the Quran
itself mentions in the 17th Surah in
the6th Ayah the meaning of which is and
it is a Quran we have divided into parts
that you may recite it to men at
intervals and we have revealed it in
stages so the Quran is saying that it is
a book that has been divided into parts
different chapters and it was revealed
at stages and there is a great wisdom
behind the creator of the heavens and
the Earth doing that and the reason is
because this
facilitated the memorization and the
retention of the Quran in the memories
of people God would reveal some verses
of the Quran at a particular time
concerning a particular incident and
people would memorize those verses the
prophet sallallah alai am the Messenger
of God Muhammad he would memorize those
verses those companions who could write
those scribes he would order them to
write down the verses of the Quran and
they would write it down but the prophet
himself it's important to understand was
illiterate he was Omi he was a person
who was not learned he couldn't read and
write in fact there were very very few
people in Arabia at that time who were
actually capable of of reading and
writing very few of them but some of
them who could would write down the
verses of the Quran on various bits of
parchment and even Palm leaves or you
know the cured animal skins or bits of
Papyrus for example which was all that
was available at the time but most
people they would memorize the verses of
the Quran Not only would they memorize
them but then they would try to
inculcate and practice what those verses
were teaching in their life so this had
a type of dual effect memorizing it in
terms of the actual words and then
implementing it in terms of their actual
actions so this is one of the great
wisdoms of the Quran being revealed in
stages it also meant that the
implementation of Islam the practice of
the religion of Islam was allowed to be
done gradually and this is really in
concordance and in agreements with the
human nature it's very difficult for the
human beings to suddenly change
everything all in one go and that is one
of the amazing aspects of the revelation
of the Quran how it was revealed in
stages bit by bit slowly so that people
were able to practice it in their lives
now one of the things the Quran tells us
that is actually a re ation that has
been made easy to memorize the Quran
actually and in the Quran Allah subhana
wa ta'ala tells us that he has made the
Quran easy to
memorize and this is something that
isn't a really astounding fact how the
Quran has been memorized over the
ages and in order to Aid that
memorization amongst the generality of
the Muslims of course the Prophet
Muhammad sallallah alai wasallam and the
various imams or the people who were
leading the prayers for the Muslims in
different parts of Medina for example at
the time they would recite the Quran out
loud in the dawn prayer and the sunset
prayer and the night prayer so they are
constantly hearing the recitation of the
Quran in the prayers and this is
especially more the case in the month of
Ramadan
in the month of Ramadan the prophet
Muhammad may God's peace and blessings
be upon him would read through the whole
of the Quran and this was a habit that
the Muslims had and they retain it until
today of reciting the whole of the Quran
in the month of Ramadan and also the
prophet Muhammad sallallah alaihi
wasallam may God's peace and blessings
be upon him he would also encourage the
Muslims to memorize the Quran in fact it
is a very very virtuous thing in Islam
to be a person who has memorized the
whole of the Quran indeed there was an
incident where two companions who are
very very close friends died both at the
same time and the prophet Muhammad gave
the first burial and the most honored
position in the grave to the person who
had memorized the Quran the most in in
fact the person who is the Imam is most
entitled to be the Imam because he has
memorized the most of the Quran also the
prophet sallallah alai wasallam he would
encourage memorizing certain verses and
certain chapters and certain or or suras
of the Quran for
example before the Friday prayer the
prophet Muhammad used to encourage very
much the the reading
ofah also the prophet Muhammad described
sallallah alaihi wasallam he described
may God's peace and blessings be upon
Him Surah y as being the heart of the
Quran he said that Surah bakar and Ali
Iman would be intercessors for the
people on the day of judgment for the
people who had memorized it so all of
these things were really an
encouragement and a further in incentive
for people to memorize the verses of the
Quran so with all of these
encouragements and the recitation of the
Quran during the prayers this is how
stage by stage Peace by piece the Quran
came to be memorized in the minds and
the hearts of
people so let's look a little bit
further into some of the aspects of of
this
memorization by the time the prophet
Muhammad May Allah's peace and blessings
be upon him had died we find that there
are many many different people who had
become huas or they had become
memorizers of the entire Quran and these
people were very very respected of
course in the Muslim Community because
they had managed to memorize the entire
Quran and this memorization of the Quran
and was passed on generation after
generation through all the generations
of the Muslims until today in fact what
we have is what is called A M
Transmission of the Quran this concept
of what does it mean well
essentially it is an idea or it means
that so many different people have
narrated a particular story or a
particular thing from so many different
directions it is impossible it's
inconceivable that these people could
have gathered together to invent a
falsehood in other words imagine you
have a thousand people these thousand
people each of them are teaching another
thousand people and each of those
thousand people teach another hundred
people can you imagine how many hundreds
of thousands of people that constitutes
and is it possible that these people
could have all gathered together and
conspired together to invent something
no it's not something that is possible
and therefore it is considered in terms
of the oral transmission when something
is M there are so many people that have
narrated it that it's impossible that
they could have invented something and
this is the case with the Quran the
entire Quran every verse of the Quran
has come to us throughout the ages a
continuous M Transmission of these
verses of the
Quran also when someone wants to become
a expert a half of the Quran that they
will also have to sit with a teacher and
they will have to
learn the Quran in a special way and
we're going to discover a little bit
more about this this and this very
important chain of teachers of the Quran
all the way back to the prophet Muhammad
after the break so don't go away join us
after the break to discover more about
the amazing Quran and its oral
transmission throughout the ages assalam
alaykum assalam alaykum everybody
welcome back to the proof that Islam is
the truth and we're talking today about
the oral transmission of the Quran how
the Quran was was preserved in the minds
and the hearts of the Muslims over the
many generations and we talked about the
M the transmission of the Quran how the
Quran was passed on generation after
generation through countless thousands
of Muslims who have memorized the entire
Quran but it's not only about memorizing
the Quran there is a science of tajid
Taj is the exact and precise precise
pronunciation of all the letters and all
the words in the Quran and it is
something that in order to know it you
have to study it under a teacher and
traditionally these teachers who have
specialized in the Taj and the
recitation and the memorization of the
Quran have acquired students students
have studied with them for maybe 3 to
six years and after maybe it could be
anything from 3 to six years when a
student has really reached Proficiency
in this particular field then that
scholar will give them what is called
Taz it means they will give them a type
of written approval to recite and to
transmit the recitation of the Quran and
he only does this after very very
thoroughly checking that this person can
recite the Quran precisely and concisely
with a correct accent and with the
correct elongation of certain sounds of
it's a science really and so this also
further ensures that in no way shape or
form is the Quran allowed to be
distorted and corrupted another thing
that's very important to realize is that
Arabic is a living language it's a
living language people still speak
Arabic today and people who speak Arabic
they can pick up the Quran they can pick
it up and they can read it and they can
understand it even though this is
1,400 years ago people can still
understand the Arabic of the Quran so it
is a living language and this also we
have to understand is very important in
aiding the memorization of the Quran it
is the case of the
Quran that literally countless millions
of human beings throughout the ages have
memorized the entire Quran in fact in
the mosque where I work one of the imams
there had memorized the entire Quran by
the time he was 7 years old I mean think
about that he had memorized the entire
Quran by the time he was 7 years old
this is one of the truly amazing
miraculous aspects of the Quran so this
preserv of the
Quran through the oral transmission and
the memorization of the Quran in the
minds of people is not something only
that Muslims claim it is something that
even non-muslim Scholars have recognized
and have commented about so I'm just
going to read now a few comments from
some orientalists they are the scholars
who expert there's experti is in this
field so for example at Welch he writes
for Muslims the Quran is much more than
scripture or sacred literature in the
usual Western sense its primary
significance for the vast majority
through the centuries has been in its
oral
form the form in which it first appeared
as the
recitation that was chanted by Muhammad
to his followers over a period of about
20 years the revelations were memorized
by some of Muhammad's followers during
his lifetime and the oral tradition that
was thus established had a continuous
history ever since in some ways
independent of and superior to the
written
Quran through the centuries the oral
tradition of the entire Quran has been
maintained by The Professional reciters
until recently the significance of the
recited Quran has seldom been fully
appreciated in the
west also a leading orientalist whose
name is Kenneth
CAG he said the Quran is perhaps the
only book religious or secular that has
been memorized completely by millions of
people let's repeat that the Quran is
perhaps the only book The Only book
religious or secular that has been
memorized completely by millions of
people and he goes on to say this
phenomenon of the quranic recital means
the text has
traversed the centuries in an
unbroken line of living sequence of
devotion it cannot therefore be handled
as an antiquarian thing nor a historical
document of the distant past the fact of
hi meaning quranic memorization has made
the Quran a present possession through
all the lapse of Muslim time and given
it a human currency in every
generation never allowing its relegation
to Bear Authority and reference alone
this is a very deep and important
statement because it really really in it
further
reinforces that the Quran is not merely
a reference work it's not merely a text
it is something that is living it is
something that is vibrant and the
memorization and the constant renewal of
this memorization is what makes the
Quran so vibrant and so real
in the hearts and the minds and the
lives of everyday
Muslims in
conclusion we have a
book absolutely unique in its origin and
in its
preservation on the substantial
authority of which no one has ever been
able to cast a serious
doubt this is what the Reverend Bosworth
Smith quoted in his book Muhammad and
muhammadanism and I think it's just
worth repeating that again it's a book
he says unique in its
origin and its
preservation the
authority of this preservation of the
Quran no one has been able to cast a
serious doubt now there have been people
throughout the ages there have been
people who have attempted in various
shapes and various forms and some of
these people have come forward recently
trying to cast aspersions and some
doubts on the authenticity of the Quran
but in fact in reality no one has been
able to make a serious challenge to the
oral transmission of the Quran and this
is the point that we really have to
remember the Quran has been written down
it has been
recorded in written form and we do have
ancient manuscripts dating back very
closely to the time of the Prophet
Muhammad May Allah's peace and blessings
be upon him they do exist and we talked
about that in the previous episode but
what adds to this indisputable
authenticity of the Quran is this truly
remarkable system of heaves of the
memorization of the Quran and it's quite
a remarkable thing that I experience
myself in the month of Ramadan Muslims
gather for what is called the T prayers
these are some special prayers in the
nighttime where Muslims come together
and we pray for maybe an hour an hour
and a half and a lot of the Quran is
read now of course usually we will be
led by an Imam who has memorized the
entire Quran but almost inevitably there
are always two three four or five maybe
10 people other people in the audience
who have also either memorized that
portion of the Quran that the Imam is
reading or maybe they themselves are H
they are people who have memorized the
entire Quran now people sometimes make
mistakes it's inevitable human beings
are fallible they make mistakes they
forget things they may get one verse
confused with another but almost
inevitably if the IM stumbles or he
forgets or he pauses you hear another
voice from within the
congregation reminding of one h of
another this self correcting process and
the oral memorization and transmission
of the Quran it is you are witnessing
when you hear this a type of living
Miracle you are witnessing how God is
actively preserving in his word in the
hearts and the minds of the Muslims and
certainly Allah speaks the truth when he
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says verily we have revealed the
reminder and upon us is the preservation
of it this is a living Miracle is there
a book in the world like this is there
anything that can be compared to the
Quran in just this aspect
alone
yet this is only the beginning of the
wonders of the
Quran in our next episode we are going
to deal with the preservation of the
Hadith the
sayings and the actions and the tacit
approvals of the Prophet Muhammad May
Allah's peace and blessings be upon him
so that's what we're going to be talking
about in The Next Episode so please
don't forget to join us where we will be
talking about the preservation of the
Sunnah and the Hadith and sayings of the
final messenger Muhammad may God's peace
and blessings be upon him and may Allah
guide you and may Allah guide me and may
Allah guide all of us closer to the
truth it's been a pleasure talking to
you and I hope that you have been
inspired and motivated by these amazing
things that you are hearing and you're
going to be hearing more amazing things
in episodes to come so keep on tuning in
to the proof that Islam is the truth
this is your brother abdurahim green
saying to you