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IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE MOST MERCIFUL
Inspite of his desperate and abortive endeavors to show that the Qur’aan–e–Hakeem is not authentic and that the Qur’aan Shareef has suffered the same fate as the Bible in regard to distortion, interpolation and deletion, John Gilchrist has been constrained to make the following admission:
“This booklet contains a brief historical survey of the collection of the Qur’aan text from the time of Muhammad’s death until the caliphate of Uthmaan when the text was finally standardized into the form in which it appears today.” (Page i- Gilchrist’s brochure on the Qur’aan)
In fact Gilchrist’s contentions are all supposedly based on the developments during the period stated in the aforementioned paragraph of Gilchrist’s booklet, hence he says on the cover of his brochure:
“A study of the textual history of the Qur’aan from the death of Muhammad to the Caliphate of Uthmaan.”
From this statement and the abovementioned admission made by Gilchrist, the following facts are of great significance:
The supposed changes (supposed by Gilchrist) which occurred in the Qur’aan Shareef were wrought in the period from the death of Muhammad (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) until Uthmaan’s Khilaafat. Since the time of the Khilaafat of Hadhrat Uthmaan (Radiallahu anhu) to this day there exists the “standardized form” of the Qur’aan Shareef. In other words, Gilchrist concedes at least this much that the Qur’aan which the World of Islam possesses and reads today is the same Standard Form which was “finally standardized” by Hadhrat Uthmaan (Radiallahu anhu). The demise of Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) occurred in the year 632 of the Christian Era and the demise of Hadhrat Uthmaan (Radiallahu anhu) happened in 656 of the Christian Era (C.E.).
Thus, the period from the demise of Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) to the demise of Hadhrat Uthmaan (Radiallahu anhu) was a duration of a mere 24 years. But for the purpose of our discussion this period shrinks to a mere 14 years since the event of the standardization of the Qur’aan Shareef by Hadhrat Uthmaan (Radiallahu anhu) took place in about 26 Hijri (646 C.E.) after the Conquest of Armenia by the forces of Islam.
These facts lead to the conclusion that the contended change and interpolation (supposed by Gilchrist) occurred during these 14 years. At the end of this brief period, the process of interpolation was effectively halted by Hadhrat Uthmaan (Radiallahu anhu) who arranged the Standardized Copy of the Qur’aan Shareef – the very same version we possess to this day, a fact which Gilchrist himself concedes in his statement:
“.. until the caliphate of Uthmaan when the text was finally standardized into the form in which it appears today.”
Insha’Allah, it shall be shown later that the ‘Standardized Form” in our possession is the very Qur’aan which existed during the time of Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) – the Qur’aan which Nabi–e–Kareem (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) and all the Sahaabah recited. There is absolutely no difference in the Version which the Ummah recites today and in the Version which Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) recited.
However, before proceeding to negate and neutralize the baseless claims and assertions of Gilchrist pertaining to the supposed change which occurred in the brief span of 14 years, it is necessary to draw attention to the admission of Gilchrist – an admission which knocks out the very bottom of his contention that the Qur’aan is not authentic.
It is Gilchrist’s claim that the Qur’aan Shareef has been altered and the Qur’aan in our possession today is not the whole of the Qur’aan which existed during the time of Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam). But, his claim contains an absurd contradiction in that he concedes the authenticity of the Version standardized by Hadhrat Uthmaan (Radiallahu anhu) while denying the irrefutable fact that the “Uthmaan” version is none other than the very Version which existed in the time of Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam).
In conceding that the Qur’aan which we have today in our possession is the “text” which was “standardized into the form in which it appears today” by Hadhrat Uthmaan (Radiallahu anhu) more than 1400 hundred years ago, Gilchrist is guilty by implication of the ludicrous claim that while the Qur’aan Shareef withstood the ravages and vicissitudes of fourteen hundred years (from the time of Uthmaan –Radiallahu anhu – to the present) and retained the authenticity bestowed by Uthmaan (Radiallahu anhu), it (the Qur’aan) failed to maintain its originality during the short period of 14 years (from the demise of Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) – to the time when it was standardized by Hadhrat Uthmaan – (Radiallahu anhu).
This conclusion is absurd to the extreme. No unbiased and intelligent person can be prepared to accept that the Qur’aan inspite of withstanding the ravages of 14 centuries in maintaining its form (as standardized by Uthmaan) lacked the ability to perform this same feat of maintaining its authenticity in the short period of 14 years.
How is it possible for the Qur’aan to have been so well preserved for 14 centuries and on the admission of Gilchrist himself the very form standardized by Uthmaan (Radiallahu anhu) “appears today”, but could not be preserved in the form handed down by Muhammad (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) for only 14 years?
If the process of interpolation and deletion had set in after the demise of Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam), how was this supposed process arrested and eliminated to give rise to a Qur’aanic version which held its originality and authenticity for fourteen centuries – from the time of Uthmaan (Radiallahu anhu) to this day?
The following facts should not escape the seeker of the truth:
i) After the demise of Hadhrat Uthmaan (Radiallahu anhu) the process of the initiation of deviated sects set in. Groups inimical to the Sahaabah and the true teachings of Islam reared their heads.
ii) A great number of Sahaabah had already departed from this world.
iii) In contrast, the number of the Sahaabah living during the fourteen years from the demise of Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) to the occasion of the “standardization” of the Qur’aan Shareef was greater.
Keeping in mind these facts, it can never be accepted that inspite of the Qur’aan retaining its originality (the “form standardized” by Uthmaan) for 14 long centuries when all the Sahaabah, the first students, scribes and teachers of the Qur’aan, had departed and deviated sects sprang up, it (the Qur’aan Shareef) lost its authenticity in the very first fourteen years after the demise of Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam), a period in which all the Sahaabah existed.
If the first Scribes – those who memorized the whole Qur’aan under the supervision of Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) – and the first Students of Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) had failed to preserve the originality and the authenticity of the Qur’aan Shareef in the first 14 years, then how was it possible for the Ummah of Islam to have retained the authenticity of the Uthmaani Version for such a long period of 14 centuries when so many forces inimical to Islam were arraigned against the Qur’aan and Islam?
If this feat could have been accomplished by those not directly connected with the Qur’aan (i.e. non-Sahaabah), what is the difficulty which precluded those directly connected to the Qur’aan (viz., the Sahaabah) to have retained the authenticity of Muhammad’s Version for a mere 14 years?
Intelligence will not accept Gilchrist’s claim to be rational.
Gilchrist has named his brochure: “Evidences for the Collection of the Qur’aan”. On the basis of these “evidences” he seeks to refute the authenticity of the Qur’aan Shareef. But all such “evidences” are confined to the initial fourteen-year period when all the Sahaabah and authorities of the Qur’aan were alive and propagating the Qur’aan, its teachings and recital, exactly as they had obtained it from Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam). In the attempt to negate the authenticity of the Qur’aan Shareef, Gilchrist has been compelled to ignore fourteen centuries which have passed over the Qur’aan-e-Hakeem – fourteen hundred years which saw no change overcoming the Qur’aan according to even Gilchrist who has been constrained by the miraculous nature of the Qur’aan to proclaim the authenticity of this Divine Book in the following words, albeit inadvertently:
“…the collection of the Qur’aan text from the time of Muhammad’s death until the caliphate of Uthmaan when the text was finally standardized into the form in which it appears today (fourteen hundred years after the event).” (NB: Words in brackets are ours).
If the Qur’aan has undergone change as the Bible has according to Gilchrist, then why has he overlooked fourteen centuries of the Qur’aan’s history? If the process of interpolation and deletion supposedly wrought in the Qur’aan was initiated after the demise of Muhammad (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam), why did this process not continue after the 14 years when it was “finally standardized into the form in which it appears today”?
What hidden and mysterious power preserved the authenticity and originality of the “standardized” version for full fourteen hundred years?
Insha’Allah, it shall be shown that the form standardized during the time of Hadhrat Uthmaan (Radiallahu anhu) was the very same form which existed during the time of Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam). It now devolves on us to produce the proof to establish this claim. Once it has been substantiated that the Version recited by Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) is the very same Version adopted during the Khilaafat of Hadhrat Uthmaan (Radiallahu anhu), then Gilchrist will have no rational option other than conceding the authenticity of the Qur’aan since he has already admitted that the form of the Qur’aan standardized by Hadhrat Uthmaan (Radiallahu anhu) is the very same form which is in our possession today.
MUSLIM ATTITUDE TO THE TEXT OF THE QUR’AAN
Gilchrist says on page 1 of his brochure:
“It is universally believed throughout the Muslim world that the Qur’aan in circulation today is precisely that which Allah revealed to Muhammad, that nothing whatsoever has been changed, that no passage has been omitted from the text, that no man added to it, and that, down to the last letter, it has been preserved intact by the power of God.”
This is precisely what Muslims claim. The Qur’aan is the Divine and Eternal Truth. The Qur’aan in our possession is the very Qur’aan- down to the last letter – which was revealed to Muhammad (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam). Over fourteen centuries of time attests to the authenticity and the unchanged form of the Qur’aan. Friend and foe alike bear testimony to the Eternal and Unaltered Truth of the Qur’aan. Gilchrist’s laments and baseless comparison with the Bible will never alter the irrefutable authenticity of the Qur’aan. We contend without the slightest fear of contradiction that nothing whatever has been added to or deleted from the Qur’aan. Whatever “proof” and “evidence” Gilchrist has adduced in his brochure to refute the claim of Islam will, Insha’Allah, be demolished.