WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.600 Have you ever noticed how confidently many Muslims 00:00:02.600 --> 00:00:06.360 say that not a single letter of the Quran has 00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:09.839 ever changed? And have you ever asked yourself 00:00:09.839 --> 00:00:13.300 what exactly they mean by that claim? One very 00:00:13.300 --> 00:00:15.759 clear example of this modern view comes from 00:00:15.759 --> 00:00:18.420 the introduction to Muhammad Mohsin Khan's English 00:00:18.420 --> 00:00:21.800 translation of the hadith collection Sahih al 00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:25.000 -Bukhari. In his introduction to Sahih al -Bukhari, 00:00:25.399 --> 00:00:28.120 Muhammad Mohsin Khan writes that the Holy Quran 00:00:28.120 --> 00:00:31.500 is a living miracle given by Allah to the Prophet 00:00:31.500 --> 00:00:34.600 Muhammad, and that this Book of Allah was revealed 00:00:34.600 --> 00:00:37.700 to him through the Holy Spirit. That is the angel 00:00:37.700 --> 00:00:41.740 Gabriel. He goes on to say that 1400 years have 00:00:41.740 --> 00:00:45.100 passed and nobody has been able to change a single 00:00:45.100 --> 00:00:48.460 letter of it or produce anything like it. Then 00:00:48.460 --> 00:00:51.539 he appeals to Surah Al -Hijr, Chapter 15, Verse 00:00:51.539 --> 00:00:54.909 9. where the Quran says that Allah Himself will 00:00:54.909 --> 00:00:57.770 guard the reminder. The full reference for this 00:00:57.770 --> 00:01:00.770 introduction is Muhammad Mohsin Khan, translation 00:01:00.770 --> 00:01:04.109 of Sahih al -Bukhari, in the introductory section 00:01:04.109 --> 00:01:06.909 on the virtues of the Quran, typically found 00:01:06.909 --> 00:01:11.450 before Book 66, Virtues of the Quran. You also 00:01:11.450 --> 00:01:13.810 see the same kind of claim repeated in popular 00:01:13.810 --> 00:01:17.250 outreach books aimed at non -Muslims. For example, 00:01:17.390 --> 00:01:20.650 in the booklet, A Brief Illustrated Guide to 00:01:20.650 --> 00:01:24.340 Understanding Islam, by E. A. Ibrahim, second 00:01:24.340 --> 00:01:27.620 edition, on the early pages of the book. The 00:01:27.620 --> 00:01:30.439 author explains that the Quran is the literal 00:01:30.439 --> 00:01:33.680 word of God. He says that God revealed it to 00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:36.140 the prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. 00:01:36.620 --> 00:01:39.480 He then states that Muhammad memorized the revelation 00:01:39.480 --> 00:01:42.959 and dictated it to his companions. According 00:01:42.959 --> 00:01:46.379 to Ibrahim, these companions memorized it, wrote 00:01:46.379 --> 00:01:49.280 it down, and reviewed it with the prophet during 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:52.510 his lifetime. He also says that the Prophet Muhammad 00:01:52.510 --> 00:01:55.730 reviewed the entire Quran with Gabriel once every 00:01:55.730 --> 00:01:58.510 year and twice in the last year of his life. 00:01:58.829 --> 00:02:01.250 The book then claims that from the time the Quran 00:02:01.250 --> 00:02:04.510 was first revealed until today, there have always 00:02:04.510 --> 00:02:07.230 been large numbers of Muslims who memorized the 00:02:07.230 --> 00:02:11.030 whole Quran letter by letter, and that some even 00:02:11.030 --> 00:02:14.030 did so by the age of ten. The author concludes 00:02:14.030 --> 00:02:17.509 by saying that not one letter of the Quran has 00:02:17.509 --> 00:02:20.580 ever been changed over the centuries. The full 00:02:20.580 --> 00:02:24.939 citation for this work is I. A. Ibrahim, A Brief 00:02:24.939 --> 00:02:28.259 Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam. Second 00:02:28.259 --> 00:02:31.740 edition, Darussalam publishers see especially 00:02:31.740 --> 00:02:36.000 pages 3 to 6 in most printings. Now, here is 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:38.840 the key question. When you compare these confident 00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:41.919 modern claims to the historical material we have 00:02:41.919 --> 00:02:45.300 just discussed about missing verses, abrogation, 00:02:45.500 --> 00:02:49.360 variant codices, and the role of the Caliph Uthman, 00:02:49.879 --> 00:02:53.219 In standardizing and burning other copies, do 00:02:53.219 --> 00:02:55.780 these popular summaries tell the whole story? 00:02:56.159 --> 00:02:59.780 Both Muhammad Mohsin Khan and Aya Ibrahim present 00:02:59.780 --> 00:03:03.319 a very smooth and idealized picture. Revelation 00:03:03.319 --> 00:03:06.740 comes down perfectly. The Prophet memorizes it 00:03:06.740 --> 00:03:09.819 perfectly. The Companions memorize and write 00:03:09.819 --> 00:03:12.800 it perfectly. And huge numbers of memorizers 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:16.300 in every generation protect every single letter 00:03:16.300 --> 00:03:19.590 without any dispute. Yet we have seen from earlier 00:03:19.590 --> 00:03:22.889 Islamic sources and from later scholarship that 00:03:22.889 --> 00:03:25.349 the collection and canonization of the Qur 'an 00:03:25.349 --> 00:03:29.090 involved disagreement, human decision, and the 00:03:29.090 --> 00:03:31.650 loss of some material that early Muslims believed 00:03:31.650 --> 00:03:34.650 had been revealed. Many modern readers are simply 00:03:34.650 --> 00:03:37.490 not aware of those controversies. They hear the 00:03:37.490 --> 00:03:40.449 polished version and never hear about the complex 00:03:40.449 --> 00:03:43.509 history behind it. So what should someone do 00:03:43.509 --> 00:03:46.500 who honestly wants to investigate this? For a 00:03:46.500 --> 00:03:49.000 more detailed Muslim -focused critique of the 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:51.259 collection and arrangement of the Quranic text, 00:03:51.520 --> 00:03:55.159 Christian researcher John Gilchrist wrote a book 00:03:55.159 --> 00:03:58.340 titled Jam al -Qur 'an, meaning The Collection 00:03:58.340 --> 00:04:01.960 of the Quran. In that work, he draws on classical 00:04:01.960 --> 00:04:05.319 Islamic authorities such as Jalal al -Din al 00:04:05.319 --> 00:04:09.639 -Suyuti and his book Al -Itqan fi Ulum al -Qur 00:04:09.639 --> 00:04:12.960 'an, as well as on the early historians and hadith 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:15.900 compilers to show how the text came together 00:04:15.900 --> 00:04:19.220 and what issues arose along the way. The full 00:04:19.220 --> 00:04:22.160 reference is John Gilchrist's Jam al -Qur 'an, 00:04:22.220 --> 00:04:25.639 the Muslim view of the Quranic text, often published 00:04:25.639 --> 00:04:29.139 by Merksa or other evangelical presses. So we 00:04:29.139 --> 00:04:31.980 are left with an important tension. On one side, 00:04:32.100 --> 00:04:35.579 we have the modern popular claim that not a single 00:04:35.579 --> 00:04:39.180 letter of the Quran has ever changed and that 00:04:39.180 --> 00:04:42.589 its preservation is a perfect miracle. On the 00:04:42.589 --> 00:04:45.089 other side, we have the historical record within 00:04:45.089 --> 00:04:48.730 Islam's own sources that speaks of variant codices, 00:04:49.069 --> 00:04:53.329 missing verses, abrogated passages, lost writings, 00:04:53.589 --> 00:04:56.449 and human decisions about which readings to keep. 00:04:56.750 --> 00:04:59.470 For you and me, as we talk this through, the 00:04:59.470 --> 00:05:02.269 real question becomes this. Are we willing to 00:05:02.269 --> 00:05:04.930 look past the simple slogans and examine the 00:05:04.930 --> 00:05:07.930 evidence carefully, using the very sources Muslim 00:05:07.930 --> 00:05:11.430 scholars themselves have preserved? to see whether 00:05:11.430 --> 00:05:13.689 the modern claim of perfect letter by letter 00:05:13.689 --> 00:05:16.449 preservation really stands up to scrutiny.