WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.799 If Muslims today claim the Quran is one perfect 00:00:02.799 --> 00:00:06.080 unified book, was that always how things looked 00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:09.000 in the early Muslim community? Or do the earliest 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:12.179 sources show something more complicated? Several 00:00:12.179 --> 00:00:14.919 prominent early Muslims actually compiled their 00:00:14.919 --> 00:00:17.820 own personal collections of the Quran. On its 00:00:17.820 --> 00:00:21.059 own, that might not sound like a big deal. People 00:00:21.059 --> 00:00:23.859 could say they were just keeping their own notebooks. 00:00:24.260 --> 00:00:27.559 But the problem is this. Those collections differed 00:00:27.559 --> 00:00:29.760 from one another enough. that they caused real 00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:32.619 tension and conflict among Muslims. There were 00:00:32.619 --> 00:00:35.140 serious disagreements about what was and was 00:00:35.140 --> 00:00:38.399 not truly part of the Qur 'an. Three of the most 00:00:38.399 --> 00:00:40.799 important early collections were tied to three 00:00:40.799 --> 00:00:44.039 names you hear often in Islamic history. Abdullah 00:00:44.039 --> 00:00:47.979 ibn Masud, Ubay ibn Kab, and Zayd ibn Thabit. 00:00:48.100 --> 00:00:51.100 Each of these men was respected. Each was close 00:00:51.100 --> 00:00:53.840 to the Prophet in different ways, and each had 00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:56.359 his own codex or collection of Qur 'anic material. 00:00:56.759 --> 00:01:00.460 In the end, A modified form of Zayd ibn Thabit's 00:01:00.460 --> 00:01:03.759 collection is what became the standard text that 00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:07.140 Muslims around the world use today. Now, Christian 00:01:07.140 --> 00:01:10.079 researcher John Gilchrist, in his study titled 00:01:10.079 --> 00:01:13.420 Jam al -Qur 'an, The Muslim View of the Quranic 00:01:13.420 --> 00:01:16.280 Text, points out something very striking from 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:18.480 early Muslim scholars about these collections. 00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:21.480 Let me read you one of the statements he cites. 00:01:21.739 --> 00:01:25.040 In the classic work Al -Itqan fi Ulum al -Qur 00:01:25.040 --> 00:01:28.129 'an, Written by the famous Muslim scholar Jalal 00:01:28.129 --> 00:01:33.489 al -Din al -Suyuti on page 524, Suyuti preserves 00:01:33.489 --> 00:01:36.590 a report from Ibn Umar, the son of the second 00:01:36.590 --> 00:01:39.689 caliph Umar ibn al -Khattab. The chain goes like 00:01:39.689 --> 00:01:42.950 this. It is reported from Ismail ibn Ibrahim, 00:01:43.189 --> 00:01:47.510 from Ayyub, from Nafi, from Ibn Umar. And Ibn 00:01:47.510 --> 00:01:50.010 Umar said the following, Let none of you say, 00:01:50.150 --> 00:01:53.209 I have acquired the whole of the Quran. How does 00:01:53.209 --> 00:01:55.840 he know what all of it is? when much of the Quran 00:01:55.840 --> 00:01:59.400 has disappeared. Rather, let him say, I have 00:01:59.400 --> 00:02:02.640 acquired what has survived. That is Jalal al 00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:06.120 -Din al -Suyuti, Al -Itqan fi Ulum al -Qur 'an, 00:02:06.120 --> 00:02:10.740 page 524. Just pause on that for a second. This 00:02:10.740 --> 00:02:13.580 is not a Christian critic. This is a respected 00:02:13.580 --> 00:02:17.080 early Muslim scholar quoting Ibn Umar, a leading 00:02:17.080 --> 00:02:20.000 companion and the son of a caliph, saying that 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:22.909 much of the Quran has disappeared. and that a 00:02:22.909 --> 00:02:25.310 person should not claim to have the whole Quran, 00:02:25.569 --> 00:02:29.530 but only what has survived. Gilchrist also quotes 00:02:29.530 --> 00:02:33.050 another early Muslim source, the book Kitab al 00:02:33.050 --> 00:02:36.189 -Masahif, which means the book of the manuscripts, 00:02:36.689 --> 00:02:40.469 written by Ibn Abi Dawud, the son of the famous 00:02:40.469 --> 00:02:44.509 hadith collector Abu Dawud. On page 23 of Kitab 00:02:44.509 --> 00:02:47.590 al -Masahif, there is a statement that says this. 00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:50.159 Many of the passages of the Qur 'an that were 00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:52.699 sent down were known by those who died on the 00:02:52.699 --> 00:02:55.479 day of Yamamah. But they were not known by those 00:02:55.479 --> 00:02:58.439 who survived them. Nor were they written down. 00:02:58.639 --> 00:03:02.500 Nor had Abu Bakr or Umar or Uthman by that time 00:03:02.500 --> 00:03:05.500 collected the Qur 'an. Nor were they found with 00:03:05.500 --> 00:03:08.939 even one person after them. That is Ibn Abi Dawud, 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:13.020 Kitab al -Masahif, page 23. So what is that saying? 00:03:13.479 --> 00:03:15.819 The Battle of Yamama was an early and bloody 00:03:15.819 --> 00:03:18.360 battle where many of the Quran reciters were 00:03:18.360 --> 00:03:21.479 killed. This report says that many Quran passages 00:03:21.479 --> 00:03:24.580 were known by those who died there, but the survivors 00:03:24.580 --> 00:03:27.400 did not know them, they were not written down, 00:03:27.620 --> 00:03:30.259 and they were not found with anyone afterward. 00:03:30.659 --> 00:03:33.639 In other words, some revealed material disappeared 00:03:33.639 --> 00:03:36.439 from the community. Now think about how that 00:03:36.439 --> 00:03:39.340 fits with the confident modern claim that not 00:03:39.340 --> 00:03:43.139 one letter of the Quran has ever been lost. Early 00:03:43.139 --> 00:03:46.639 Muslim scholars like Suyuti and Ibn Abi Dawud 00:03:46.639 --> 00:03:49.259 are preserving traditions that openly acknowledge 00:03:49.259 --> 00:03:53.000 missing material. Gilchrist, in his book Jam 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:56.180 al -Qur 'an, brings these together to show that 00:03:56.180 --> 00:03:58.599 the early picture of the Qur 'an is more fluid 00:03:58.599 --> 00:04:01.560 and less complete than the polished version you 00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:04.159 often hear today. The full reference, again, 00:04:04.280 --> 00:04:07.719 is John Gilchrist, Jam al -Qur 'an, often published 00:04:07.719 --> 00:04:11.560 by Merkissi, where he cites al -Itqan fi Ulum 00:04:11.560 --> 00:04:15.219 al -Qur 'an. by Jalal al -Din al -Suyuti and 00:04:15.219 --> 00:04:19.519 Kitab al -Masahif by Ibn Abi Dawud. In this section 00:04:19.519 --> 00:04:21.879 of our discussion, what I want you to see is 00:04:21.879 --> 00:04:24.660 that several hadith reports and early historical 00:04:24.660 --> 00:04:27.220 statements line up with what Gilchrist highlights. 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:30.480 They suggest that some verses and passages known 00:04:30.480 --> 00:04:33.600 to early Muslims were later lost, and that not 00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:36.819 all collections were identical. This is especially 00:04:36.819 --> 00:04:39.819 important because many modern Muslim apologists 00:04:39.819 --> 00:04:43.360 insist not only that the Quran is inspired, but 00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:46.980 that it is also absolutely complete. They say 00:04:46.980 --> 00:04:50.379 no verse is missing. Nothing has been lost. But 00:04:50.379 --> 00:04:52.779 if early authorities admit that some of the Quran 00:04:52.779 --> 00:04:55.879 has disappeared, that raises serious questions. 00:04:56.240 --> 00:05:00.000 And here is where Surah 2, verse 106 comes back 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:03.360 into the conversation. Remember, that verse says 00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:06.629 that whenever Allah abrogates a revelation or 00:05:06.629 --> 00:05:09.329 causes it to be forgotten, he brings another 00:05:09.329 --> 00:05:13.069 like it or better in its place. So if some passages 00:05:13.069 --> 00:05:15.250 have vanished and were not replaced by something 00:05:15.250 --> 00:05:18.250 similar or better, then the promise of Surah 00:05:18.250 --> 00:05:22.329 2 verse 106 has not been fulfilled in those cases. 00:05:22.709 --> 00:05:25.790 Another thought follows from this. If some of 00:05:25.790 --> 00:05:28.029 the missing passages came late in Muhammad's 00:05:28.029 --> 00:05:30.670 life, they may have actually abrogated earlier 00:05:30.670 --> 00:05:33.920 verses. If those later abrogating verses are 00:05:33.920 --> 00:05:37.800 gone and only the abrogated verses remain, then 00:05:37.800 --> 00:05:40.360 Muslims could be following commands that were 00:05:40.360 --> 00:05:43.920 once superseded without even knowing it. Since 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:46.980 the text that most Muslims today use is based 00:05:46.980 --> 00:05:50.240 on the codex of Zayd ibn Thabit, as standardized 00:05:50.240 --> 00:05:53.519 under the Caliph Uthman, it becomes crucial to 00:05:53.519 --> 00:05:56.860 examine how that codex was compiled, what other 00:05:56.860 --> 00:05:59.939 codices existed, and what early Muslims themselves 00:05:59.939 --> 00:06:03.100 said about missing material. That is exactly 00:06:03.100 --> 00:06:05.939 why scholars like John Gilchrist in Jamal Quran 00:06:05.939 --> 00:06:10.199 and Muslim scholars like Suyuti and Ibn Abi Daud 00:06:10.199 --> 00:06:12.939 in their own works spend so much time talking 00:06:12.939 --> 00:06:15.639 about these early collections. So the question 00:06:15.639 --> 00:06:17.819 I want to leave echoing in your mind is this. 00:06:18.040 --> 00:06:21.120 If the earliest Muslim voices could say that 00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:24.180 much of the Quran has disappeared and that some 00:06:24.180 --> 00:06:26.920 passages were lost with those who died in battle, 00:06:27.420 --> 00:06:30.459 Is it really honest today to claim with absolute 00:06:30.459 --> 00:06:34.259 certainty that the Quran we hold now is both 00:06:34.259 --> 00:06:37.639 perfectly preserved and completely complete?