Have you ever noticed how confidently many Muslims
say that not a single letter of the Quran has
ever changed? And have you ever asked yourself
what exactly they mean by that claim? One very
clear example of this modern view comes from
the introduction to Muhammad Mohsin Khan's English
translation of the hadith collection Sahih al
-Bukhari. In his introduction to Sahih al -Bukhari,
Muhammad Mohsin Khan writes that the Holy Quran
is a living miracle given by Allah to the Prophet
Muhammad, and that this Book of Allah was revealed
to him through the Holy Spirit. That is the angel
Gabriel. He goes on to say that 1400 years have
passed and nobody has been able to change a single
letter of it or produce anything like it. Then
he appeals to Surah Al -Hijr, Chapter 15, Verse
9. where the Quran says that Allah Himself will
guard the reminder. The full reference for this
introduction is Muhammad Mohsin Khan, translation
of Sahih al -Bukhari, in the introductory section
on the virtues of the Quran, typically found
before Book 66, Virtues of the Quran. You also
see the same kind of claim repeated in popular
outreach books aimed at non -Muslims. For example,
in the booklet, A Brief Illustrated Guide to
Understanding Islam, by E. A. Ibrahim, second
edition, on the early pages of the book. The
author explains that the Quran is the literal
word of God. He says that God revealed it to
the prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel.
He then states that Muhammad memorized the revelation
and dictated it to his companions. According
to Ibrahim, these companions memorized it, wrote
it down, and reviewed it with the prophet during
his lifetime. He also says that the Prophet Muhammad
reviewed the entire Quran with Gabriel once every
year and twice in the last year of his life.
The book then claims that from the time the Quran
was first revealed until today, there have always
been large numbers of Muslims who memorized the
whole Quran letter by letter, and that some even
did so by the age of ten. The author concludes
by saying that not one letter of the Quran has
ever been changed over the centuries. The full
citation for this work is I. A. Ibrahim, A Brief
Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam. Second
edition, Darussalam publishers see especially
pages 3 to 6 in most printings. Now, here is
the key question. When you compare these confident
modern claims to the historical material we have
just discussed about missing verses, abrogation,
variant codices, and the role of the Caliph Uthman,
In standardizing and burning other copies, do
these popular summaries tell the whole story?
Both Muhammad Mohsin Khan and Aya Ibrahim present
a very smooth and idealized picture. Revelation
comes down perfectly. The Prophet memorizes it
perfectly. The Companions memorize and write
it perfectly. And huge numbers of memorizers
in every generation protect every single letter
without any dispute. Yet we have seen from earlier
Islamic sources and from later scholarship that
the collection and canonization of the Qur 'an
involved disagreement, human decision, and the
loss of some material that early Muslims believed
had been revealed. Many modern readers are simply
not aware of those controversies. They hear the
polished version and never hear about the complex
history behind it. So what should someone do
who honestly wants to investigate this? For a
more detailed Muslim -focused critique of the
collection and arrangement of the Quranic text,
Christian researcher John Gilchrist wrote a book
titled Jam al -Qur 'an, meaning The Collection
of the Quran. In that work, he draws on classical
Islamic authorities such as Jalal al -Din al
-Suyuti and his book Al -Itqan fi Ulum al -Qur
'an, as well as on the early historians and hadith
compilers to show how the text came together
and what issues arose along the way. The full
reference is John Gilchrist's Jam al -Qur 'an,
the Muslim view of the Quranic text, often published
by Merksa or other evangelical presses. So we
are left with an important tension. On one side,
we have the modern popular claim that not a single
letter of the Quran has ever changed and that
its preservation is a perfect miracle. On the
other side, we have the historical record within
Islam's own sources that speaks of variant codices,
missing verses, abrogated passages, lost writings,
and human decisions about which readings to keep.
For you and me, as we talk this through, the
real question becomes this. Are we willing to
look past the simple slogans and examine the
evidence carefully, using the very sources Muslim
scholars themselves have preserved? to see whether
the modern claim of perfect letter by letter
preservation really stands up to scrutiny.