Heat. Heat.
[Music]
All praise is due to Allah. We praise
him. We seek his help and we ask for his
forgiveness. We take refuge with Allah
from the evil of ourselves and from the
evil consequence of our evil actions.
Whomsoever Allah guides, there is none
to misguide. And whomsoever Allah leaves
to go astray, there is none to guide.
And today over the next series of
programs, we are going to be doing our
best to prove to you that that is the
case. That indeed there is nothing
worthy of worship except Allah. and that
Muhammad sallallah.aii wasallam is the
messenger of Allah. And today we are
going to be talking about the
preservation of the Quran. Now why are
we going to be talking about the
preservation of the Quran? Why is that
important? And what has that got to do
with proving that Islam is the truth?
Well, I think from one angle,
it's a very important issue because if
we are going to say that one of the
evidences that we're going to put
forward to show that Islam is indeed
from Allah, the creator of the heavens
and the earth, is the Quran. and the
things that the Quran says
are a type of or constitute type of
evidence, then a person may quite
rightly ask, well, how do we know the
Quran is authentic? And to be perfectly
honest, this is one of the issues that
Muslims themselves bring up with, for
example, the Bible or the Vades or the
teachings of Buddha or anyone else. One
of the issues that we have is that okay
well you claim these things are from
this teacher or are from God or whatever
but prove it. How can we be sure that
your scriptures are authentic? They
maybe they have been corrupted. Maybe
they have been distorted. Maybe there is
some truth there and some falsehood
there. So what we would like to do today
is to do our best to show that the Quran
is indeed
a book that has been preserved from
corruption
and from distortion. So this is really a
very very important issue from one angle
because then when a person hears that
something is from the Quran or indeed
for that matter that something is from
the prophet Muhammad and it has been
authenticated
as being from the prophet sallallah.aii
alaihi wasallam may God's peace and
blessings be upon him then you can be
sure that this is something authentic
this is something verified this is
something that not h that has not been
changed and corrupted over time so this
gives us a lot of confidence that what
we're mentioning from the Quran is
indeed something that is true and
something that is correct
so um that That is what we're going to
be dealing with. But inshallah, before
we do that, we would just like to recap
on something very important that we
mentioned in a previous series of
programs. Because ultimately, at the end
of the day, my dear brothers and
sisters, one of the strongest proofs and
evidences that Islam is from Allah is
what the Quran teaches about Allah. And
now we have already mentioned this and
we've been through this in another
series of programs but I want to go
through it again very briefly without
repeating everything. You see the Quran
has a very beautiful teaching about God.
And in fact if this was the only thing
that the Quran was teaching
the oneness of God the uniqueness of God
the transcendence of Allah. If this was
the only thing the Quran was teaching
really for a person who is very logical
and rational and who is really in touch
with their nature and their inner
selves, then for them that probably
would be enough of a proof and evidence
that the Quran is from God. Because what
we find is that nearly every religion in
some way or another way distorts
the belief in the oneness of God in some
way or another. For example,
Christianity teaches that there is one
God, that there is one creator who has
brought this whole universe into
existence. In one way or another, this
idea is corrupted by the idea or the
concept that for example as Christianity
teaches that God has become man and that
somehow Jesus is both human and God.
So this is really a corruption and a
distortion of the pure teachings of
monotheism because in reality what we
find is that this is a type of
impossibility.
How can something be completely human
and completely divine at the same time?
Because the qualities of true divinity
and the qualities of true humanity are
incompatible. God is eternal whereas
human beings are finite.
God is self-sufficient whereas human
beings are needy. How can something be
eternal and be finite at the same time?
How can something be self-sufficient and
needy at the same time? You see, this is
the problem.
So any religion that teaches that God is
a man or that God is like some created
thing really how can we accept that to
be true because when it's talking about
God is already upon a type of corruption
and a distortion and a falsehood.
Whereas Islam is free from this type of
thing. The things that Islam teaches
about God are really very rational and
very reasonable. And this is one of the
strongest reasons for believing that the
Quran is from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So what we want to emphasize upon today,
my dear brothers and sisters, may Allah
have mercy upon you, may Allah guide us
all of us closer to the truth is the
issue of the preservation of the Quran.
Now, one of the things that I want to
touch upon is the historical evidence of
the preservation of the Quran. But
another thing I want to introduce is why
this is itself a type of miraculous
concept. Why it is really a type of
amazing thing. Why the preservation of
the Quran itself is one of the proofs or
one of the evidences rather it's more
accurate to say one of the evidences
because proof is one evidences are many
one of the evidences that the Quran is
from Allah subhana wa t'ala the creator
of the heavens and the earth so let's go
into a little bit about the historical
preservation of the Quran
Now according to traditional Muslim
sources, according to the teachings of
the hadith, the teachings of the prophet
sallallah.aii wasallam and those people
who came after him, the Sahabah and the
um the way that the Quran was preserved
at least in terms of writing because
there are two ways that the Quran has
been preserved. It has been preserved
partially through writing. Now mostly in
western culture for example a lot of
emphasis and a lot of importance is
given to the preservation in writing.
Whereas in fact it is not necessarily
true that something has been written
down in a scriptural form and that we
have something written down in a
scriptural way is necessarily the most
authentic thing. Anyway, inshallah
brothers and sisters we're going to get
back to that. But now we're going to
have a short break inshallah and I will
be back with you in a few minutes to
talk about the historical preservation
of the Quran.
[Music]
Alam alalayikum brothers and sisters.
Welcome back to the proof that Islam is
the truth. And today we're talking about
the preservation of the Quran. And I
just wanted to read an ayah from the
Quran. Verily
we have revealed the the reminder which
is one of the words for the Quran. And
verily upon us, Allahh is saying upon us
is the preservation of it. This is a
promise in the Quran
that Allah will preserve the Quran. And
the reality of the preservation of the
Quran is without doubt one of the
miraculous aspects of the Quran and one
of the proof the proofs and the
evidences that it is from Allah. In
fact, you will find that nearly every
type of book and scripture and writing
through time goes through many
alterations and distortions and
corruptions. Now this may not be the
case so much today with the invention of
the printing press. But of course in
ancient times when books were largely
transcribed
by scribes then there was a lot of
opportunity for corruptions and
distortions and additions
and deletions to take place. Yet
throughout the 1,400 years of Islamic
history, the Quran has remained the
same. In fact, it is one of the most
remarkable things that you could take a
copy of the Quran today. You could take
a copy of the Quran today. So for
example, if we took this Quran here, if
we took this Quran here and we looked at
the Arabic, so this is of course an
English Arabic Quran. But if you looked
at the Quran today and you took this
Quran and you compare it with a Quran in
Saudi Arabia and you compare it with a
Quran in Morocco and you compare it with
a Quran in China and you compared it
with the Quran in Siberia and even if
you went back in history 100 years, 500
years, 1,000 years, 1,200 years, In
fact, the most ancient manuscripts that
we have of the Quran date to a time that
is almost contemporious to the time of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
It means we have manuscripts of the
Quran dating back all the way back to
the time of the prophet sallallah.aii
wasallam. And the amazing thing is that
if you examined these manuscripts, you
would find that the actual words of the
Quran are exactly the same. Okay, the
style of writing may be different, the
use of certain diiocritical marks may be
different, but the actual words remain
exactly the same. This is a fact.
Actually, this is one of the greatest
arguments against those people who
claim. There are some people who are
trying to claim that the Quran has
evolved. It's an evolved text. They're
trying to make the same claims about the
Quran that have been discovered about
the Bible. But no one or few people take
these claims really seriously. And part
of the reason is is that the sheer
weight of evidence against such a claim
is there because we have these texts of
the Quran and we have different
manuscripts in places like for example
Tashkant. Uh we have manuscripts in
Cairo. We have manuscripts in Yemen. We
have very very ancient manuscripts that
date really to the time very close to
the time of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam. Let's go very briefly
through the history of the written
preservation of the Quran. Now, of
course, during the lifetime of
the Quran was never actually collected
as one book. And the reason for that, of
course, is that as long as the prophet
sallall.aii alaihi wasallam was alive,
it was still possible that some more
verses of the Quran would be revealed.
However, the prophet sallall.aii
wasallam, he used to recite the Quran
from beginning to end every Ramadan. And
in the Ramadan before he died, the
prophet sallall.aii wasallam recited the
Quran twice. And the angel Gabriel
Girrel used to come and go through the
Quran with the prophet sallallah.aii
wasallam in the month of Ramadan. So the
Quran was known from surah fata to
nurse. It was known by the people who
used to memorize the Quran and what was
known as the Quran was understood but it
was never written down as what is called
a musaf. They wrote down the Quran in
various pieces and fragments but it was
never written down as one book. However,
after the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam
died, there were what was called the
wars of these are the wars of apostasy
when many people began to apostasize
and leave the religion of Islam. And
there were some wars against those
people. And in those wars, many of those
people who had memorized the entire
Quran, who were known as the
memorizers or the preservers from Haf,
which means to preserve in Arabic. These
people had preserved and memorized the
entire Quran in their memory. We will
get back to that at a later stage about
the oral transmission and memorization
of the Quran. But now we're talking
about the written preservation of the
Quran. So these people, many of them
were killed in battle. So it was said to
Abu Bakr who was the ruler of the
Muslims, the first caiff or the first
ruler of the Muslims. Some people said
to him, "Why don't you write down the
Quran
to make sure that we don't suffer from
what the people suffered from who came
before us, meaning the Jews and
Christians, from their distortions and
the corruptions in their text, because
we're afraid that if the khars are
killed in great numbers, then maybe the
preservation of the Quran will not be
maintained."
So anyway, there was some dispute about
this because some of them said, "Well,
how can we do something that the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam never did but
they agreed and Omar and Abu Bakr having
discussed it with each other, they
agreed and the companions agreed that
this was a good idea. So what they did
is they got someone called Zed Iben
Tabit. They got him to organize this
collection of the Quran. And with the
agreements of those people who were the
hu who are still living, they agreed to
collect the Quran and to write it as one
musaf from the beginning to the end. And
they got a unanimous decision about
that. In fact, they got an agreement on
every single ayah. Two people, a minimum
of two people had to agree. every single
ayah of the Quran they had to agree that
this was the right ayah and it was in
the right place also. So this was the
first musaf and it stayed with Abu Bakr
and then when Abu Bakr died it was given
to Omar and when Omar died he gave it to
his daughter Hapsa. Hafsa was also one
of the wives of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam. Now after the death of
Omar the Islam had spread over many many
different lands. Islam had entered into
Persia. It had entered into Egypt and
there were so many people becoming
Muslim. Now some of the people began to
argue with each other about the reading
of the Quran because the prophet
sallall.aii Alaihi Wasallam and it's
very important he had allowed the Quran
to be read in seven different dialects.
So there were seven different dialects.
They were all considered to be the Quran
and the prophet allowed the reading of
the Quran in those seven different
dialects. However, some of the people
who read it in one dialect began to
argue with those who read it in another
dialect and they were saying our reading
is the right reading and your reading is
the wrong reading and vice versa. And
they nearly came to blows over this
issue. So one of the generals came to
man Iban and said look this is a
problem. Let us unite the people under
one reading and this way we will avoid
dissension and controversy. So man he
said okay this is a good idea. What we
will do is we will unite the people
under the reading of the Quresi dialect.
The Quri dialect was the dialect that
the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam he
used to use the most often. Okay. This
was the dialect the prophet
sallallah.aii Alaihi Wasallam himself
used to use. So once again he ordered a
compilation of the Quran and who did he
get? The same Z Ibat. They got the same
Z Ib Tabit to make a compilation of the
Quran. And once again he got a total
agreement for each ayah. A minimum of
two people had to agree about this ayah
that it was correct and that its
placement in the Quran was correct. And
once again they made a compilation of
the text of the Quran. Then they
compared this new compilation with the
compilation that had been made by Abu
Bakr and they found that the two
corresponded exactly. They were both
corresponding exactly one with the
other. So then man ordered that every
copy that people had made and every
writing that people have made of the
Quran should be destroyed and the way
that they destroyed it was by burning
it. Okay, this is considered to be a
clean and pure way to destroy the text
of the Quran. It's not like in maybe in
western culture these days you know when
they want to get rid of books they burn
the books as a type of protest. No, this
was considered to be a clean way to
dispose of the Quran. So every Quran
they had was either washed as the musaf
that was given to uh from Abu Bakr and
Omar to Hapsa. It was actually washed
clean and every type of copy of the
Quran was destroyed except this what is
called the imam manuscript. That was the
imam manuscript compiled by man under
the supervision of Zed ibitt
and from that seven copies or maybe nine
copies were made. So from that I im
manuscript seven or nine copies were
made and these copies were distributed
all over the Muslim world at the time
and every Quran therefore had to be an
exact replica an exact copy of those
Qurans.
So we still have according to many
experts in the field, we still have two
or three of those original manuscripts
existing that was compiled in the time
of man Iban which is only some
uh 20 years after the death of the
prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wasallam. And as I said, you can go
anywhere in the world today and you can
take a copy of the Quran and you can
compare it with one with Qurans anywhere
and you can go back in history 300, 400,
500 years and you can compare those
Qurans then with the Qurans that we have
today and you will not find they are
different. Not by a word, not by a
letter.
So this is a fact.
This is a fact and this is really an
astounding miracle of the Quran. But
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he said that
verily we have revealed the the reminder
and upon us is the preservation of it.
So this is the way that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala in his infinite wisdom has
preserved the Quran. What is important
here for the rest of our discussions in
the series to come is of course that
when we are referring to the Quran, we
are referring to a document that is
verified and certified to be authentic.
It is something that we do not differ
about. all the different Muslim sects,
all of us, we agree upon one single text
of the Quran. And we have agreed upon
one single text of the Quran for 1,400
years. So this is a book that is
preserved.
This is a book that is authentic. This
is a book that we can trust in and we
can believe in. And this is inshallah
what we will be discussing later in
future programs. The next one is the
oral preservation of the Quran. Until
then,
may the peace and blessings of Allah be
upon