Do nonmuslims who criticise the quran know how to study the quran properly? Do people who claim to be muslims know how to study the quran properly? Are nonmuslim scholars only responding to nonsense of muslims which they take for deen of islam or do they have anything original to contribute to the proper understanding of the message of the quran?
My question to all such scholars is, please tell me what are the very basic requirements for understanding anything at all? I ask this question because both muslims and nonmuslims claim that the text of the quran is nothing more than a jumble of verses that make no sense on their own. Is there anything in this universe that anyone can make any sense of without pondering over it? Was the universe and were the things in it there before a person was born? My answer is yes. Was that person aware of all that he saw with his eyes, heard it with his ears, smelled it with his nose, tasted it with his tongue and felt it with his sense of touch? Was he born with proper understanding of all this? No, not at all. If that is the fact then how did one come to make sense of all things that he has become aware of so far? The day scholars come to realise this fact they will come to know that the quranic text is not a collection of random verses. The universe was a perfectly working order complete system before our birth but we only came to know about it once we used our own brains and senses to explore the universal realities to make sense of them. It is we who began to see connection between things after we started observing and doing things with whatever we could get our hands on. This is how gradually we built our information bank about the universal realities and our brains by constructing, de-constructing and reconstructing that information started making sense of things. The process is exactly the same when it comes to the quran. As anyone comes across anything the very first time, things seem disconnected or remote and random till one starts making sense of them, so the quran is not any exception in this respect.
To understand anything, to begin with we only need brain language which is all preprogrammed just like a computer comes ready to process information. If we did not have preprogrammed brains to a degree we will not be able to process any data that we sensed with our senses. Imagine putting on windows on a computer that had no cpu=central processing unity. More precisely the ALU arithmetic logic unit that acts as a cpu. All this is called hardware. The brain is a biological computer if you like. That is biologically hard wired ready to make use of its senses and to process any information it gets through them as a mechanism for stimulus or a window to outside world.
Brain keeps collecting information through its senses but it then wants to act on this information so it uses its body mechanisms to express itself or connects to outside world to influence it the way it wants. This is how comes about interaction between things in the environment one is born in. This interaction forced people to communicate with each other using additional languages basically body language and sign language and then that led to spoken language as sounds made by people began to take form of codes for real world realities as their names or names of their actions etc.
Unless people therefore understand the origin and development of spoken and written language they cannot understand anything about the origin and development of revelation of Allah through out times and places or origin and development of humanity itself.
This should leave one in no doubt at all as to why so called scholars both muslims and nonmuslims fail to make proper sense of the text of the quran. It is because the language provides the very foundational context of any spoken or written word in any book not just the quran.
The truth is both muslims and nonmuslims scholars seriously lack knowledge about deen of islam and due to that all people are busy killing each other due to animal behaviour or worse.
From my above explanation it should be very clear how important communication is between people and therefore the importance of language becomes very much self evident. Now think about how a human baby learns a human language. Once a baby is born into this world his brain and senses begin to work according to environment of this universe so he keeps observing things as they happen all around him and so data keeps gathering in his head as time goes on. He tries to make sense of things as much as he can at each moment of his awareness. He begins to see that people around him react to each other through body movements as well as some sounds. After long period of quiet observation he tries to act the same way in order to copy others in their movements as well as their sounds. He begins to see that others also react to him as he makes some moves or sounds so he keeps remembering these little things and so builds up a bank of codes in his mind for movements and words. From this it should be clear that people only come to know what they have picked up through their observations and nothing beyond till they develop capability of thinking at higher level. Not only that it also makes it amply clear that thinking does not start all by itself rather there has to be some triggering factors that draw attention towards something to think about. So learning is all about something drawing attention of people and then people exploring the thing towards which their attention is drawn. If attention of a person is not drawn to something in some way ever, one will never become aware of it ever.
This should explain how people learn a language and why they speak only that language to which their attention has been drawn and do not speak any other language to which they have not been exposed. Take this to origin of human species ie how people invented language in sense of listening and talking as well as reading and writing. Human species came about from tree of life just like other species of living things and developed with time. They started as another species of animals in human shape and gradually developed various way of communication among themselves through observing other things that were already there. Originally humans were driven by their drives and reflexive behaviour due to their very limited thinking capacity due to their limited observations and life experiences. However as they built on their experiences generation after generation they began to think first and act after. Just as a human baby acts first and then thinks if he is forced to do so by some sort of reaction to his action so original humans gradually became a thinking people who began to reason things out just as babies gradually learn to reason things. This is why the wider and deeper life experience one has the better his making sense of things is.
Since we know how human language came about and developed the question arises, how did people give meanings to words? Originally people had certain imaginations in their heads about things they observed so there were no words but then they made bodily gestures to each other and learned to code them in their minds and that helped them to code sounds as well. Any bodily gesture made by anyone meant the whole things not just one word as we know it today. If one raised his hand to show someone I am going to beat you up that is what it meant by raising of hand that way. If one showed by gesture of hand that I am going to catch you, that is what it meant by that gesture. But as soon as sounds became codified the bodily gestures took form of words the same bodily gestures were translated into meaningful words that made sense to people among themselves. The sound language came about because people wanted to explain to each other things they could not explain by bodily gestures alone eg for preservation purposes for future generations. The same urge led mankind to finding a way of writing down the information. This is how people ended up drawing pictures to explain events they experienced. Pictorial writing gave way to letters and letters were modified again and again to refine them for ease of writing. Likewise spoken language went through modifications for sake of refinement or precision. If we go back to how baby starts talking using very same word for each and everything but then as time goes on he develops capability of saying more and more words to say what he wants to say. With time he builds up vocabulary and so did human beings originally generation after generation. As we can see each and every step in human development was driven by need or usefulness. In other words all this helped mankind to survive and progress because knowledge and skills help people get through life easier as compared to those who remain ignorant and unskilled.
Originally people drew pictures of things as a way of writing down what they wanted to say eg they drew picture of a head of an ox or a bull to represent power or authority. They drew picture of a tent to represent family or a household, picture of water to represent sea or a human head to represent chief and so on and so forth. If we look into arabic letters they are meaningful words eg ALIF means bull and it represent power and authority or stick, BAA means house because originally it was pronounced BAAIT in hebrew where arabs got it from. What is known as RAA in arabic was RAISH in hebrew or in arabic RAAS=head or chief. Likewise letter AIN means eye both in hebrew as well arabic. Since all letters in hebrew are meaningful words so they are in arabic. The root system also originates from hebrew and ancestral languages. In root system a few letters are taken as a unit or set or root which is given the meanings based upon individual letters as well as sum total of meanings of all letters. This is why each root has various concrete meanings as well as derived meanings because originally each meaning was a label given to a reality in real world eg BAA=BAAIT=house and house is a concrete reality then word BAAIT itself has three letter root ie BAA, YAA and TAA, so these meanings keep on expanding with each extra word and its combination of letters. YAA means YAD both in hebrew and arabic and it means hand. This is how letters were attached meanings in forms of roots. Once a letter was given concrete meanings a set of conceptual meanings also came about based upon what a things was and what it did or what it was useful for or was used for or the way it worked or served a purpose. For example, letter AIN means eye but what is eye and what it does or is used for is also part of meanings of letter ain. This is why in arabic a root can have many meanings not just one or two. Now that things about origin and development of language are explained in detail it is easy for anyone who has knowledge to see how many objections people raise against the quran based on lack of understanding of language as to how it came about and developed and how words got their meanings or how language works in actual fact etc etc.
Let us now turn to the quran. People ask, why Allah does not explain each and everything in detail in the quran? It is because Allah had a purpose in his mind and had a plan for mankind due to which he created people and the rest of the universe and sent his revelations for mankind to live by so that purpose and plan of Allah comes to its fulfilment. All this is explained in detail in the quran the final revelation of Allah for the mankind. Whenever anyone does anything one has some reason or purpose for doing it. Allah created mankind and the universe and sent his revelations because he is a living being and wanted to express himself. The only way he decided to express himself was through creation and revelation. Since he wanted to express himself he decided to create mankind for appreciating his creator out of his own choice and that is why humans are taken as special creatures of Allah unlike all other creatures.
Since humans have been created with ability to choose to do things at a greater level than all other creatures therefore Allah could not fully program people to be like fully programmed robots instead he had to program them to a degree and leave them to program themselves for the rest of things that is why he gave people brains, senses, bodies, provisions and revelations to learn and do as they please. This is why the quran only contains information as much as it serves purpose and plan of creator of the universe and nothing more than that. It is the implication of what one does that binds one to his plan and purpose and so Allah himself bound himself by this purpose and plan and nothing can make Allah change his mind because if he changes his mind then his purpose and plan will fail and that is impossible ie plan of Allah cannot fail. No one forced Allah to take on this responsibility upon himself but he decided to do all this so he will go through with it no matter what. Since Allah has a purpose and a plan to fulfil so it is not possible that Allah should do anything that ruins the whole thing for him.
Allah is capable of a lots of things but only as a God just as man is capable of doing things but only as a human being and this is why the quran is the way it is. What do I mean by that? I mean that the quran is a limited text in a language that was not yet fully developed. Why Allah had to send the quran in an ancient language and why he chose arabic in particular? It is because arabic was the only language that could serve purpose of divine revelation in this age. Why? Because it was a root based language and that made it very flexible for meanings of words so Allah could express his thoughts in a human language that was so flexible in its meaning therefore it could accommodate thoughts of Allah for guidance of mankind. Not only that but all other root based languages were not as wide spread as arabic at the time and since then. This is what made it right for the purpose of Allah. But why Allah did not wait till arabic language developed to its fullest? It is because a fully developed language becomes very precise therefore needs more text for explaining the very same thing because it has more words for more concepts. Let us go back to development of a human baby. A human baby begins with less words to tell many things and as he grows with time he gets to know more and more words for telling about more and more things. However his ratio of words and thoughts gradually reduces ie he uses more number of words for expressing lesser number of thoughts and that is what lead to precision use of language. So what the baby told us using a word or two now he can tell us in many words. His parents had no problem understanding him because they had learned to make sense of what he used to say when he was speaking less number of words. So people who learn things can understand them and those who do not bother to make sense of things they do not understand them regardless the language is under developed or over developed, course or fine.
If the quran was revealed in a fully developed language its text ought to increase many folds than the text of the quran we have. Imagine Allah revealing a huge encyclopaedia containing each and everything we humans ever needed, could we make any use of it? No, why not? Because human brain is not that capable to cope with that amount of information. As things are in this universe the way it works, it will have been impossible for people to copy information and share it with each other or to preserve it for coming generations or to carry it about. So even though Allah was capable of sending people a huge book, people were not able to cope with it. This is why people need to look at things in the context they are explained in the quran by Allah himself instead of telling Allah what he should or should not have done. This is not for people to decide but right of Allah because when Allah decided things people were not around to give him their suggestions.
This explanation should make clear to anyone with knowledge why knowing things about language is so important because then one can clearly see implications of attacking the quran from the wrong angles eg why Allah did not explain things in more detail etc.
The study about origin and development of language tells us that words have various meanings and that those meanings are based upon solid foundation beyond a shadow of doubt. This deals a fatal blow to criticism of the quran by those people who say that muslims are seeing things in the quran which were not there before after they have been discovered by scientists? It shows that if people who claim to be scientist do not have knowledge about the origin and development of language then they can end up making false claims about something they know nothing about. This is how looking at things in their proper context reveals the truth beyond a shadow of doubt. Take for example letter AIN in arabic. It means eye but it also means a spring why? Because when eye cries it sheds tears and that is why it also means a source of water ie water spring or well or pond etc. Moreover the very same letter ain means help or support and that is because eye is very much helpful to a person who uses it to see things to find his way to things. This is why to guard or to keep an eye on things and likewise many other meanings come about as a result of a rule whereby meanings of words keep on expanding. On one hand this flexibility in the language helps accommodate various concepts but on the other it also creates a problem that if a word can have so many meanings then how do we choose the right meaning of a word?
After language based context one has to look at the text on basis of its purpose. For example, if I am going to employ someone to guard a place as a watchman then other meanings of word AIN will fall away and that means I am not talking about a water spring. Likewise if I am lifting something heavy and need help with it then I am not looking for a guard or water spring and that is how context makes things very clear despite and word having so many different meanings due to context of origin and development of language. Likewise when we look at words in the quran we need to keep in mind that we are looking at the quran as a supposed word of Allah. Why do we need to do that? Because the quran so claims ie it tells us it is word of God. Since the quran itself claims to be word of God therefore we have no choice but to examine it for what it claims to be. We cannot investigate something for which we have no claim or accusation or no reason to investigate. Unless there is some case to answer or some accusation or claim about something we have no reason to start an investigation. Only when we have a reason for starting any investigation we will start an investigation. When it comes to the quran, we cannot start an investigate for what it does not claim to be because we can only start an investigation for what it claims to be and since it claims to be word of God so that is the only reason we can start investigating its claim to see if it proves itself true or not. This means anyone trying to prove the quran is not the word of God is looking at things the wrong way round. It is a situation like someone claims he has murdered someone and another person comes along and says no he did not. Now we have two opposite claims but the priority rests with person who claims to have murdered someone.
So first we will have to ask the person who claims to have murdered someone to bring his evidence and only if he fails in providing one that we may go to the other person to see what is his evidence for claiming he did not murdered someone. However if the person who claims to have murdered someone comes up with a credible or irrefutable evidence then the other person is proven wrong who claimed he did not murder someone. This means people who instead of investigating the quran for its claim raise other claims against it but have never been able to properly investigate the quran to begin with their claims about the quran are not credible at all. To show they have investigated the quran for its truth the first things they will need to know is origin and development of language and then the purpose of revelation of the quran in the context of the quranic text. If a person is unable to show the quran has any model in its text but in actual fact there is a model that can be shown from the quranic text then the case is clear that either the person investigating the quran does not have the tools needed to know how to investigate the quran properly or that one is being deliberately dishonest for one reason or the other better known to oneself.
What do we need to keep in mind when we investigate the quran for its truth? We need to keep in mind that if the quran is truly word of God then it is talking about things exactly as they are so all meanings of all words need to be taken in that context because God is creator of all things he is talking about in the quran ie he is talking about things from his point of view where he talks from his point of view unless he is quoting others. The other thing we need to keep in our minds is that we are human beings and as human being we do not know facts as they are till we learn about them in detail through our own research and exploration. So it is a matter of fact that we may not know actual facts about things because we may not have learned them therefore we will not be able to make proper sense of things we never learned. So if we do not know some things then we cannot be certain in expressing our opinions about them till we have come to know them. If we say something is right or wrong without knowing it then that is not the right way to do things. For example, Allah talks in the quran about human beings in detail but to know what Allah is saying we also need to reach our own understandings about human beings through our own research and exploration or we will not know what Allah is talking about if we are not familiar with things he is talking about. The question is, have we carried out our own research and exploration as to what human beings are so that we could make sense of what Allah is exactly talking about when he talks about human beings? Allah talks in the quran in detail about human society, politics, economics etc etc but if we do not know anything much about any of these issues then how can we claim we know what the quran is talking about? Likewise Allah talks in the quran in detail about philosophy of science and philosophy of history but do we know what philosophy of science and philosophy history is about? Allah talks in the quran in detail about his program, goals and guidelines for mankind but do we know anything about all this? Allah talks about the universe and things in it in detail but have we carried out any research and exploration to know the universe and things in it? He talks about constitution and laws for mankind but do we know anything about them? Allah talks about organisation and regulation of human society but have we learned how to organise and regulate ourselves properly as a proper human community? So who has investigated the quranic text in detail to reach a conclusion one way or the other about the quran?
All this explanation should show very clearly to people of knowledge whether anyone has investigated the quran properly ever since its revelation after the messenger of Allah passed away. To be able to answer questions about deen of islam one has to know the quran properly and one cannot know the quran properly till one has reasonable grasp over idea of origin of language, how it got its concepts therefore meanings. It is because the quran was revealed in a particular human language at a particular time in written form as well as in form of a reading.
No mullah has any idea about the origin of language, its development and progress and the relevant implications. This is why almost all translations of the quran are mostly defective because they do not take into account the contexts of the quranic text. Who can say anything for certain about anything if one has no idea what human language itself is? If anyone wants to make sense of the quranic text, one has to look for information outside the box in which so called scholars and mullahs have put people for a very long time now.
1)Which scholar or mullah do you need to go to for studying origin of language? All you need to do is learn any facts about any language from any people who are expert in knowing and teaching those facts about a language and they do not have to be muslims only or nonmuslims only. In fact they can be atheists or theists or neitehr.
2)Which scholar or mullah do you need to go to, to learn about realities of real world? All you need to do is go to people who observe real word realities and explore and carry out research works therefore discover things and inform people about them.
3)It is a matter of fact that one cannot understand the quran unless one knows facts about the human language and the language used for the quran by Allah. Because it gives us foundational context of the quranic text. It is due to having proper sense of human language that we are able to make sense of realities of our universe in which we are born. It is then that these realities of real world give us secondary foundational context to see what the message of the quran may be. If we do not know things about language or real world realities then we have no way of knowing what words are and what they actually mean. This is why the quran puts emphasis on using our God given brains, senses, bodies and provided things including his revelation properly, otherwise people are nothing more than animals. In fact God himself labels them worse of all the animals.
4)Only if one has sense of these contexts the context of the quranic text within itself becomes important not otherwise. Once we have the understanding of the quranic text in these contexts only then we have the context for things attributed to the messenger of Allah as criterion to see if they are true or false. Once we have all these things properly in their proper contexts we can see what people attributed to people is true or false because then we have the solid criterion to judge things by.
All this explanation shows that one does not need any scholar or mullah to explain anything at all because learning and doing things is common heritage of humanity. We can learn anything from anyone who knows it. However whatever we learn we have a duty to pass it on to others for ensuring well being of mankind.
The quranic use of languages helps expand human power of thinking. How does it do it? It does it by using less number of words for expressing more number of concepts and facts. It is because when things are talked about in less detail then the listener has to put pressure on one's own mind to think out what the talker is talking about and that helps mind expand and become more sophisticated ie the more one tries to figure out things the more human mind expands and becomes more capable of making sense of more things which in turn helps humanity make progress and prosper. Through revelations Allah has been drawing human attention to things so that people are stimulated to explore things and grow both physically and mentally. So the revelations by Allah played a huge role in helping humanity to be what it is though people did not make full use of it so far otherwise world could have been in a much better state than it is.
To address questions about quranic transmission is also important. The fact is, the quran we have today is the same as the one the messenger of Allah left behind. it is because the transmission of the quran has been flawless. The quran came to us in three different ways independent of each other. In form of written text that has been copied from written copies. In form of memorised words through hufaaz and in form of meanings of the words used in the text. You cannot write the quran out of memory nor memorise it from written text without differences due to nature of the arabic language the way it is due to its origin, development and progress as well as its working. Because there is uniformity in memorised quran and written quranic copies that proves it beyond a shadow of doubt the quran was transmitted flawlessly. It is because the way arabic was written in ancient times people could not memorise the quran as a uniform recitation from their individual writings due to interchanging in letters and likewise they could not write it from memory as a uniform text due to various ways of writing the same words. This is why to claim the quran was not a written down text in the time of the prophet falls flat on its face.
Anyone who knows about origin of language and its development knows that arabic uses a letter replacement idea in words a lot. It is because arabic is a relatively new language as compared to its sister or ancestral languages such as aramaic, hebrew, ugaritic, phoenician, syriac, akkadian etc. Since arabic comes from other languages so it borrows words from them therefore it ends up using multiple roots to express the very same concept due to transliteration problems between languages. For example, word MAKKAH is also called BAKKAH why? Because these two words arabic borrowed from two or more different languages. It is like word PARAAN and FARAAN. In persian both sounds exists ie P as well as F but in arabic P sound does not exist so the arabs use their own closely resembling sound P which is F. So while persians say PARAAN arabs say FARAAN. The same is case with word PAKISTAN ie arabs say BAKISTAN ie they replace P with B.
This problem exists between languages as a matter of fact. It is also a matter fact that languages have been borrowing from each other heavily. In some cases one language has borrowed from another language directly but in other cases indirectly ie first a word was borrowed by one language so it was modified to suit use of that language and then from that language it was borrowed by another language and was modified to make it suitable for use in that language. So depending on from how many different languages a word has been borrowed by a borrowing language it became pronounced and written in different ways in the very same language that borrowed it and this is the case in case of arabic language as well. In arabic letters like TAA, SAA and TWAA are interchangeable because they sound very close. Likewise letter BAA, FAA, MEEM and WOW are interchangeable. The case is same with letters SEEN and SWAAD or letter ZAAL, ZAA, ZWAAD and ZOE, ZWAAD however can also be interchanged with letter DAAL. Same is problem with letter KHAA, QAAF and KAAF. HAA and HAA etc etc. Over a period of time in arabic itself letters and pronunciations became standardised but transliteration problems between different languages remain the same even today. Arabs did not modify their language beyond 28 letters or with HAMZAH 29 letter symbols. The quranic text is based upon that standard. There has been no modification in number of letters since the revelation of the quran. So long as quran remains in existence and people keep adhering to it there will not be any modification in arabic language of that nature which changes it completely into a modern lanaguge breaking its ties with its past like other languages. However borrowing between arabic and newer languages continues even today and so it continues between other languages as well.
The purpose of this explanation was to show why arabic has more than one root set for a word in some cases. For example, let us take word KITAAB. It has only one root in arabic ie KAAF, TAA and BAA. However this is not the case with word ISRAA. This word has a few roots ie SEEN, RAA and WOW; SEEN RAA and YAA; SEEN, WOW and RAA; and SEEN, YAA and RAA. In ancient times all arabs moved away from each other so they were not one people living in one and the same place speaking exactly the very same kind of arabic even though originally they come from the very same ancestors. Human race is originally one race that comes from same ancestors but people moved away from each other as their needs and situations or circumstances demanded or dictated. After separating each people kept on inventing more things and words to talk about them so today people have come together again but they speak very many different languages from what they learned from their original ancestors though some of the word we can still make out among all people because they remained unchanged or suffered less change despite transliteration. Likewise arabs even though were same people but they moved away from each other and then they were united and there were differences between their spoken and written language of this nature because each group borrowed from other people of other languages they were in contact with as they needed. All this explanation in my view was necessary to come to the point because it will help people understand something I am going to explain about the originality of the quranic text.
As explained above a lot of words in arabic are written using different letters. For example, let us take word SIRAAT. In arabic language word SIRAAT is written in two ways ie using SEEN as its first letter or SWAAD. In some places people write word SIRAAT using letter SWAAD and in others using letter SEEN so word SIRAAT has two roots ie SWAAD, RAA and TWAA and SEEN, RAA and TWAA. If we read the quranic text, no where in the quran word SIRAAT is written with letter SEEN at the beginning and everywhere in the quran word SIRAAT is always written with letter SWAAD. You will agree that if the quran did not come down in written form and people made copies out of their memories then we ought to find that some copies of the quran ought to have in them word siraat written with letter swaad and in others word siraat written with letter seen. In fact each copy was bound to have letters seen and swaad in different places compared to each other. Since all copies of the quran to date contain this word written only and only by using letter swaad then how do we explain this consistency unless people were given a copy of the quran in writing to copy the written text from it exactly as it was? Let me explain this in another way in english. If I dictated to a mixed group of people from different countries in different places to write down word MUHAMMAD, will they all write it exactly as I have it in my mind or will they do it the way they know it according to their own life experiences in their own places? An italian person will write muhammad the way he thinks and an english person will write it the way he thinks and a french person will write it the way he thinks etc etc. Some will end up writing muhammad others mohammed and yet others mohamed and so on and so forth. Word SIRAAT is not the only one but there are dozens of such words used in the text of the quran throughout the text of the quran and they have been transmitted constantly exactly the same. It should leave no doubt in one's mind that the quran was transmitted both in written and spoken form right from the day one otherwise the differences between copies that still exist in the world will have been unimaginable due to nature of the arabic language.
The other thing in the quran is letters in the beginning of some surahs. Some of them if were not pronounced as well as written they could confuse people as to they were words or separate letters eg take surah two verse one letters ALIF, LAAM and MEEM. The way they are written in surahs they could be taken for meaningful words because there is a word in arabic which is pronounced ALAM eg see in surah 94 verse one.
Yet other evidence is the fact that the very first verse of the quran is always written the very same way ie BISMILLA HIRRAHMAA NIRRAAHEEM. It is written with 19 letters in it always whereas it can be written with a few more letter eg ALIF in ISM of BISMILLAH is MISSING. Word ISM is written in surah 96 verse one with ALIF. Anyone will find that all copies of the quran throughout the world are written exactly that way. Had each person someone dictated the quranic text out of memeory and each person wrote it down the way one knew then we ought to see very many differences in written texts of this nature but there are none.
All copies of the quran have no bismillah at the start of surah nine. Had people made copies as they liked then we will have found variations between them some including and some excluding letters, words and verses in the text. So there is water tight evidence that the quran as we have it was written down by the prophet himself and handed down to his people before he passed away. He actually delivered the message of Allah as it was supposed to be delivered ie in recitation and writing otherwise he could not have been chosen as a messenger by Allah. Even we humans do not choose bad workers for getting our works done if we can help it so how could Allah be expected to do such a silly thing as choose someone unfit for the job? That will have ruined the whole purpose and plan of Allah for humanity. Had prophet himself not left the quran behind and the people at the time fully accepting it they could have ended up divided about it right from the very beginning for ever and none could have united them on the basis of the quran after the prophet. Today whatever else muslims do they have only one quran and copies of the quran are available throughout the world even from long time in the past. According to some claims we have copies of the quran even from the time very near to the time of the prophet. Unfortunately muslims are not good at preservations, observations, research and explorations. It is a miracle in itself for quran to have survived intact till now somehow. The way people claiming to be muslims are busy killing each other it is not going to take very long before they are all gone. Any remaining ones will be done away with by kufaar. But then Allah has a plan of his own so we will come to know whatever awaits for us good or bad. Muslims fight among themselves due to their ignorance and stupidity and not because there is anything wrong with the quran.
Please do note that scribal errors are there in the hand written copies of the quran and so are there printing errors in printed copies but they should not be taken seriously as human errors are human nature. These errors if I sit down with copies of the quran can find and correct but I will not do so nor advise anyone else because that will be tempering with original copies that are historical documents of huge value. However since we are aware of these like errors therefore we should not let them through to newer copies we make through future media that is more capable of helping us for coping with this task. Moreover when we talk to people about errors in the quranic text we should never claim that there are no human errors in the copies of the quran. Such errors have no affect upon the actual message of the quran.
مصحف سيدنا عثمان بن عفان رضي الله عنه - YouTube
نسخة أصلية لمصحف سيدنا عثمان إبن عفان رضي الله عنه - YouTube
مصحف عثمان ابن عفان - YouTube
The problem with claims of all western scholars of the quran is they are not aware of certain facts about the quran due to which they have no idea what the deen of islam actually is. Their biggest problem is mullahs who had no sense and who misinterpreted the actual quranic text and misrepresented it and their whole responses are in that context. A true scholar of the quran will separate the quran from its followers and look at it as a document in its own right and see what it says afresh according to rules explained above by myself very clearly. If they did not find the model of real islam in the quran that could not be defeated then they had the right to claim all those things they claim about the quran.
They assume right from the very beginning that the message of the quran is what people who claim to be muslims say they believe it to be. This means they are not examining the text of the quran but what people claim about the text as to what it means. It shows their scholarship is not up to standard the quran requires for its scrutinizer or cross examiner or criticiser. This only proves their ignorance and stupidity or ulterior motives just like rulers, money lenders and mullahs or both.
1) Questions have been raised by muslims and nonmuslims alike whether it is possible to translate the quranic text perfectly. What has been explained about the nature of the language in sense of its origin, development and the way it works and what is explained about role of God and role of humanity should leave one in no doubt that it is not possible for humanity to interpret the message of God precisely ever. The main reason is difference between the knowledge of God and knowledge of people. However, it is very much possible for all practical purposes for people to know and teach the message of the quran to each other with a degree of accuracy in sense of its purpose, which is mainly guidance of mankind to some degree. So any claim that anyone ever knew the quran perfectly is a false claim. Even the messengers of Allah only came to know as much of the revelation of Allah as was humanly possible for them according to their own time and place. All one can say is that they knew the message maximum possible at the time or that no one knew the message as good as the messengers of Allah at the time. Any claim about any messenger of Allah about knowing things beyond human capability is attributing falsehood to the messengers of Allah. In deen of Allah there is no such thing as personality cult. It is because the reference is always the revealed scripture from Allah not any particular person be one a messenger of Allah. It is because only Allah is free of making any mistakes so only his message can be free of all errors.
As for human beings they cannot be declared free of human errors but one can say they never did anything deliberately wrong if they were true followers of the word of Allah. This is why they cannot be the reference point. In the quran Allah talks about prophet ibraheem as an exemplary messenger of Allah and he is said to be leader of mankind but only so far as his following of the message of Allah. Even when he asks Allah about his biological and ideological children to be made leaders of mankind, he is told very clearly that yes but only if they also followed message of Allah like you. The idea that quran asks people to follow any messenger of Allah as a model in his own right is attributing falsehood to Allah and his messengers. This is a very important and a decisive point for all people to pay their attention to and who wish to know the message of the quran properly. A clear proof that deen of islam is not a personality cult as claimed by mullahs of various sects. This is why the primary source of information about deen of islam is the Quran not the ahaadith attributed to the messenger of Allah nor the information passed down the generations of muslims in form of books of fiqh= the so called islamic jurisprudence. This does not mean the books of hadith or fiqh are not important but only as secondary sources to the quran. The main reason for that is the status or position of the quran in deen of islam. The quran is taken as word of Allah, the master of the universe and all that exists. He is sole ruler of it by right of its ownership. This being the case no human being should claim nor should be accepted as an authority on equal footing with Allah. All human beings be they messengers of Allah are still his creatures and not Gods in their own rights so people cannot be given same status as that of Allah.
2) When it comes to interpretation of the quran, as explained already it must be interpreted mainly in context of its language and its purpose in light of self evident facts or in light of real world realities ensuring that one does not introduce contradictions within the testament of Allah or between the testament of Allah and self evidence facts or real world realities when the quran claims to be free of such contradictions and tells mankind to check it against real world realities to see how consistent it is. That means people who sit down to interpret the quranic text must first be familiar with things the quran is talking about because if anyone will try to interpret the quran not knowing the required information for doing this job then such a person will make tonnes of mistakes and if such mistakes are passed onto people as the message of Allah then it could have serious consequences for humanity as a whole even if such mistakes are result of an innocent adventure by a person. It is because people who accept the message will not be accepting the message of the quran but its inaccurate translation which will be a false teaching in its name and by acting upon it one will do things that could end up harming oneself and others.
Likewise people who will reject the message due to mistakes in it will be rejecting it as the message of the quran thinking it is the true message of Allah which it is not so they will remain away from the true guidance of Allah. The consequences will be serious because the result will be more and more divisions among people of the book and more and more people will move away from the book and as people remain divided the more and more fights and wars will continue between people because of wrong interpretations of the message. So one can see what is at stake if things were not done the right way. However this will be taken advantage of by those who want things to be that ie rulers, money lenders, mullahs, their touts and supporters due to their ignorance and stupidity as well as arrogance ie due to their sense of dominating others by undermining them so that they could use and abuse them at will. In short such people will try their best to use the scripture as a tool for manipulating mankind to fulfil their own objectives thereby.
3) It is very important that when we talk about islam we have some understanding of the actual situation. The main issue when we discuss islam is, what do we take islam for ie a set of make beliefs and some useless rituals for individuals or a program for mankind for accomplishing some goals according to some guidelines as a proper human community based upon quranic constitution and law for running a kingdom in the name of Allah according to his guidance?
Anyone who takes islam as a religion has to answer a main question, why there are guidelines for a constitution and laws for organisation and regulation of human society? What has praying to with God and with running of a kingdom or a community? It is because religion is all about individuals having some so called beliefs and doing some acts of so called worship as one sees fit. It is not anyone's business what anyone else believes or does because it is a private affair between a person and his God. The main question one has to ask oneself is, does islam fit this category? My answer is very clear that islam does not fit this category therefore I do not accept islam is a religion nor should anyone who knows the quran better.
All people who have learned some sense and have studied the quran for knowing islam believe that islam is not only about God and man but about God and man as well as about humanity as a whole. In other words islam is a way of life that leads mankind to an end that is set by Allah for mankind. It is the main reason why islam is called deenillah or sabeelillah or ADDEEN or deen of islam ie the way of life advised for mankind by Allah for a blissful, dignified and secure existence. All this explains why Allah advised this way of life for mankind.
Since in my understanding of the quran islam is not a religion therefore any argument over religion of islam is a nonsense and shows a person is totally confused about islam be one a person who claims to be a muslim or a nonmuslims. The main thing is that anyone who thinks islam is a religion must first prove islam is a religion before one accepts it or rejects it or raises any objection against it. In other words there is no sense in talking about islam as a religion because it is not a religion so why waste time and energy on something that is not really there. I therefore oppose any person who claims islam is a religion regardless one claims to be a muslim or happens to be a nonmuslim. I want such a person to prove from the quran that his claim is right about islam that it is only a system of some beliefs and some rituals that have nothing at all to do with real world realities. It is because religion cannot be but a private matter for an individual and his God whereas the quran is very clear that islam is not a private affair of an individual and his God. This is why in my view islam is a deen. Since it is a deen so all need to understand it as such regardless they claim to be muslims or happen to be nonmuslims. So all questions about deen of islam are to be asked and answered in that context.
Since islam is a deen sent by Allah therefore it is a program from Allah for mankind for accomplishing some goals according to his provided guidelines. Since it is a program for mankind therefore the message of the quran must be taken to all people in the world so that they have a look at it and think it over and if they like what they are told they come together to form a community network on basis of a constitution and its laws as par guidelines provided in the quran. This is the context in which people need to understand islamic shariah or law or jurisprudence. It is in this context one must come to know the procedure for writing a constitution or forming a law. This is why individuals need to know the quran and have their opinions and arguments to back them up but it is the ummah that is to decide together what is to be the correct interpretation of the book and arrive at a consensus after having the knowledge needed for interpreting the quran properly. Unless it is ummah that accepts a constitution or a law as a whole, it cannot be called an islamic law or shariah. From this procedure it should be very clear why fatwas by ignorant, illiterate and uneducated foolish individuals mean nothing at all in proper context of deen of islam in light of the quran. One must remember that a constitution or any laws must be accepted by all in the ummah freely after at least a simple properly educated lmajority agrees upon them. None is supposed to accept any constitution or law that goes against the stated goals and guidelines of the quran. Before people sit down to argue over what the constitution or law should be they must have good ideas what are goals they want to achieve or accomplish as an ummah and what are the guidelines so that no clause is put in the constitution that is in conflict with the aims and the objectives of the constitution.
In other words a constitution needs to be written with declared objectives right at the top of the document. Since aims and objectives are the starting point of written constitution so all clauses that follow must be in line or consistent with these objectives otherwise the so called constitution or law will not be worth the paper it is written upon. Once a constitution is structured with all its clauses as a complete document with all the needed laws regarding institutions, office bearers and individuals and groups in the ummah then ummah as a whole must examine it with care and see if any mistake has been made in constructing this document before it is ratified and implemented by the ummah. If anything important is left out or something has been added which is not right then changes can be made in the constitution or law even after ratification but each time any change has been made it must be put before ummah and accepted by it otherwise the document will become invalid as a constitution or law. I have already explained what are the aims and objectives or goals set for ummah to accomplish and what are guidelines here and there so no point in repeating all this in here.
The other important point to remember is that the quran is about three states of existence of muslims ie as individuals in any place in the world, as a community anywhere in the world and as a community within a kingdom of their own. Each of these three states of existence have their own requirements. Individuals are only required what they can do as individuals and community is only required what community can do as a community and a community in a kingdom of its own is required what it can do as a community in a kingdom of its own. In short there are very limited requirement for individuals but requirement increase when people become a community and they increase even more when the community has its own kingdom. It is because as people who accept deen of islam increase in their numbers their power increases and therefore their responsibilities also increase towards each other and towards rest of mankind. For example, an individual is mainly responsible for learning and educating oneself about all one can learn in one's life time as well as about learning the quran and only when one has learned deen of islam properly oneself one's responsibility increases for teaching it to others the best one can. It is binding upon more than one muslims to live together as a family fully supporting each other in every way and keep working to bring more and more people into fold of deen of islam. Once a few people come together they must organise and regulate themselves according the quranic guidelines. They must form a constitution to help them organise themselves and work out laws to help them regulate themselves in light of quranic guidelines as well as in light of ground realities that face them as per their situations and circumstances.
From all this explanation it should be clear to people what deen of islam really is and what being a muslim actually means.
My question to all such scholars is, please tell me what are the very basic requirements for understanding anything at all? I ask this question because both muslims and nonmuslims claim that the text of the quran is nothing more than a jumble of verses that make no sense on their own. Is there anything in this universe that anyone can make any sense of without pondering over it? Was the universe and were the things in it there before a person was born? My answer is yes. Was that person aware of all that he saw with his eyes, heard it with his ears, smelled it with his nose, tasted it with his tongue and felt it with his sense of touch? Was he born with proper understanding of all this? No, not at all. If that is the fact then how did one come to make sense of all things that he has become aware of so far? The day scholars come to realise this fact they will come to know that the quranic text is not a collection of random verses. The universe was a perfectly working order complete system before our birth but we only came to know about it once we used our own brains and senses to explore the universal realities to make sense of them. It is we who began to see connection between things after we started observing and doing things with whatever we could get our hands on. This is how gradually we built our information bank about the universal realities and our brains by constructing, de-constructing and reconstructing that information started making sense of things. The process is exactly the same when it comes to the quran. As anyone comes across anything the very first time, things seem disconnected or remote and random till one starts making sense of them, so the quran is not any exception in this respect.
To understand anything, to begin with we only need brain language which is all preprogrammed just like a computer comes ready to process information. If we did not have preprogrammed brains to a degree we will not be able to process any data that we sensed with our senses. Imagine putting on windows on a computer that had no cpu=central processing unity. More precisely the ALU arithmetic logic unit that acts as a cpu. All this is called hardware. The brain is a biological computer if you like. That is biologically hard wired ready to make use of its senses and to process any information it gets through them as a mechanism for stimulus or a window to outside world.
Brain keeps collecting information through its senses but it then wants to act on this information so it uses its body mechanisms to express itself or connects to outside world to influence it the way it wants. This is how comes about interaction between things in the environment one is born in. This interaction forced people to communicate with each other using additional languages basically body language and sign language and then that led to spoken language as sounds made by people began to take form of codes for real world realities as their names or names of their actions etc.
Unless people therefore understand the origin and development of spoken and written language they cannot understand anything about the origin and development of revelation of Allah through out times and places or origin and development of humanity itself.
This should leave one in no doubt at all as to why so called scholars both muslims and nonmuslims fail to make proper sense of the text of the quran. It is because the language provides the very foundational context of any spoken or written word in any book not just the quran.
The truth is both muslims and nonmuslims scholars seriously lack knowledge about deen of islam and due to that all people are busy killing each other due to animal behaviour or worse.
From my above explanation it should be very clear how important communication is between people and therefore the importance of language becomes very much self evident. Now think about how a human baby learns a human language. Once a baby is born into this world his brain and senses begin to work according to environment of this universe so he keeps observing things as they happen all around him and so data keeps gathering in his head as time goes on. He tries to make sense of things as much as he can at each moment of his awareness. He begins to see that people around him react to each other through body movements as well as some sounds. After long period of quiet observation he tries to act the same way in order to copy others in their movements as well as their sounds. He begins to see that others also react to him as he makes some moves or sounds so he keeps remembering these little things and so builds up a bank of codes in his mind for movements and words. From this it should be clear that people only come to know what they have picked up through their observations and nothing beyond till they develop capability of thinking at higher level. Not only that it also makes it amply clear that thinking does not start all by itself rather there has to be some triggering factors that draw attention towards something to think about. So learning is all about something drawing attention of people and then people exploring the thing towards which their attention is drawn. If attention of a person is not drawn to something in some way ever, one will never become aware of it ever.
This should explain how people learn a language and why they speak only that language to which their attention has been drawn and do not speak any other language to which they have not been exposed. Take this to origin of human species ie how people invented language in sense of listening and talking as well as reading and writing. Human species came about from tree of life just like other species of living things and developed with time. They started as another species of animals in human shape and gradually developed various way of communication among themselves through observing other things that were already there. Originally humans were driven by their drives and reflexive behaviour due to their very limited thinking capacity due to their limited observations and life experiences. However as they built on their experiences generation after generation they began to think first and act after. Just as a human baby acts first and then thinks if he is forced to do so by some sort of reaction to his action so original humans gradually became a thinking people who began to reason things out just as babies gradually learn to reason things. This is why the wider and deeper life experience one has the better his making sense of things is.
Since we know how human language came about and developed the question arises, how did people give meanings to words? Originally people had certain imaginations in their heads about things they observed so there were no words but then they made bodily gestures to each other and learned to code them in their minds and that helped them to code sounds as well. Any bodily gesture made by anyone meant the whole things not just one word as we know it today. If one raised his hand to show someone I am going to beat you up that is what it meant by raising of hand that way. If one showed by gesture of hand that I am going to catch you, that is what it meant by that gesture. But as soon as sounds became codified the bodily gestures took form of words the same bodily gestures were translated into meaningful words that made sense to people among themselves. The sound language came about because people wanted to explain to each other things they could not explain by bodily gestures alone eg for preservation purposes for future generations. The same urge led mankind to finding a way of writing down the information. This is how people ended up drawing pictures to explain events they experienced. Pictorial writing gave way to letters and letters were modified again and again to refine them for ease of writing. Likewise spoken language went through modifications for sake of refinement or precision. If we go back to how baby starts talking using very same word for each and everything but then as time goes on he develops capability of saying more and more words to say what he wants to say. With time he builds up vocabulary and so did human beings originally generation after generation. As we can see each and every step in human development was driven by need or usefulness. In other words all this helped mankind to survive and progress because knowledge and skills help people get through life easier as compared to those who remain ignorant and unskilled.
Originally people drew pictures of things as a way of writing down what they wanted to say eg they drew picture of a head of an ox or a bull to represent power or authority. They drew picture of a tent to represent family or a household, picture of water to represent sea or a human head to represent chief and so on and so forth. If we look into arabic letters they are meaningful words eg ALIF means bull and it represent power and authority or stick, BAA means house because originally it was pronounced BAAIT in hebrew where arabs got it from. What is known as RAA in arabic was RAISH in hebrew or in arabic RAAS=head or chief. Likewise letter AIN means eye both in hebrew as well arabic. Since all letters in hebrew are meaningful words so they are in arabic. The root system also originates from hebrew and ancestral languages. In root system a few letters are taken as a unit or set or root which is given the meanings based upon individual letters as well as sum total of meanings of all letters. This is why each root has various concrete meanings as well as derived meanings because originally each meaning was a label given to a reality in real world eg BAA=BAAIT=house and house is a concrete reality then word BAAIT itself has three letter root ie BAA, YAA and TAA, so these meanings keep on expanding with each extra word and its combination of letters. YAA means YAD both in hebrew and arabic and it means hand. This is how letters were attached meanings in forms of roots. Once a letter was given concrete meanings a set of conceptual meanings also came about based upon what a things was and what it did or what it was useful for or was used for or the way it worked or served a purpose. For example, letter AIN means eye but what is eye and what it does or is used for is also part of meanings of letter ain. This is why in arabic a root can have many meanings not just one or two. Now that things about origin and development of language are explained in detail it is easy for anyone who has knowledge to see how many objections people raise against the quran based on lack of understanding of language as to how it came about and developed and how words got their meanings or how language works in actual fact etc etc.
Let us now turn to the quran. People ask, why Allah does not explain each and everything in detail in the quran? It is because Allah had a purpose in his mind and had a plan for mankind due to which he created people and the rest of the universe and sent his revelations for mankind to live by so that purpose and plan of Allah comes to its fulfilment. All this is explained in detail in the quran the final revelation of Allah for the mankind. Whenever anyone does anything one has some reason or purpose for doing it. Allah created mankind and the universe and sent his revelations because he is a living being and wanted to express himself. The only way he decided to express himself was through creation and revelation. Since he wanted to express himself he decided to create mankind for appreciating his creator out of his own choice and that is why humans are taken as special creatures of Allah unlike all other creatures.
Since humans have been created with ability to choose to do things at a greater level than all other creatures therefore Allah could not fully program people to be like fully programmed robots instead he had to program them to a degree and leave them to program themselves for the rest of things that is why he gave people brains, senses, bodies, provisions and revelations to learn and do as they please. This is why the quran only contains information as much as it serves purpose and plan of creator of the universe and nothing more than that. It is the implication of what one does that binds one to his plan and purpose and so Allah himself bound himself by this purpose and plan and nothing can make Allah change his mind because if he changes his mind then his purpose and plan will fail and that is impossible ie plan of Allah cannot fail. No one forced Allah to take on this responsibility upon himself but he decided to do all this so he will go through with it no matter what. Since Allah has a purpose and a plan to fulfil so it is not possible that Allah should do anything that ruins the whole thing for him.
Allah is capable of a lots of things but only as a God just as man is capable of doing things but only as a human being and this is why the quran is the way it is. What do I mean by that? I mean that the quran is a limited text in a language that was not yet fully developed. Why Allah had to send the quran in an ancient language and why he chose arabic in particular? It is because arabic was the only language that could serve purpose of divine revelation in this age. Why? Because it was a root based language and that made it very flexible for meanings of words so Allah could express his thoughts in a human language that was so flexible in its meaning therefore it could accommodate thoughts of Allah for guidance of mankind. Not only that but all other root based languages were not as wide spread as arabic at the time and since then. This is what made it right for the purpose of Allah. But why Allah did not wait till arabic language developed to its fullest? It is because a fully developed language becomes very precise therefore needs more text for explaining the very same thing because it has more words for more concepts. Let us go back to development of a human baby. A human baby begins with less words to tell many things and as he grows with time he gets to know more and more words for telling about more and more things. However his ratio of words and thoughts gradually reduces ie he uses more number of words for expressing lesser number of thoughts and that is what lead to precision use of language. So what the baby told us using a word or two now he can tell us in many words. His parents had no problem understanding him because they had learned to make sense of what he used to say when he was speaking less number of words. So people who learn things can understand them and those who do not bother to make sense of things they do not understand them regardless the language is under developed or over developed, course or fine.
If the quran was revealed in a fully developed language its text ought to increase many folds than the text of the quran we have. Imagine Allah revealing a huge encyclopaedia containing each and everything we humans ever needed, could we make any use of it? No, why not? Because human brain is not that capable to cope with that amount of information. As things are in this universe the way it works, it will have been impossible for people to copy information and share it with each other or to preserve it for coming generations or to carry it about. So even though Allah was capable of sending people a huge book, people were not able to cope with it. This is why people need to look at things in the context they are explained in the quran by Allah himself instead of telling Allah what he should or should not have done. This is not for people to decide but right of Allah because when Allah decided things people were not around to give him their suggestions.
This explanation should make clear to anyone with knowledge why knowing things about language is so important because then one can clearly see implications of attacking the quran from the wrong angles eg why Allah did not explain things in more detail etc.
The study about origin and development of language tells us that words have various meanings and that those meanings are based upon solid foundation beyond a shadow of doubt. This deals a fatal blow to criticism of the quran by those people who say that muslims are seeing things in the quran which were not there before after they have been discovered by scientists? It shows that if people who claim to be scientist do not have knowledge about the origin and development of language then they can end up making false claims about something they know nothing about. This is how looking at things in their proper context reveals the truth beyond a shadow of doubt. Take for example letter AIN in arabic. It means eye but it also means a spring why? Because when eye cries it sheds tears and that is why it also means a source of water ie water spring or well or pond etc. Moreover the very same letter ain means help or support and that is because eye is very much helpful to a person who uses it to see things to find his way to things. This is why to guard or to keep an eye on things and likewise many other meanings come about as a result of a rule whereby meanings of words keep on expanding. On one hand this flexibility in the language helps accommodate various concepts but on the other it also creates a problem that if a word can have so many meanings then how do we choose the right meaning of a word?
After language based context one has to look at the text on basis of its purpose. For example, if I am going to employ someone to guard a place as a watchman then other meanings of word AIN will fall away and that means I am not talking about a water spring. Likewise if I am lifting something heavy and need help with it then I am not looking for a guard or water spring and that is how context makes things very clear despite and word having so many different meanings due to context of origin and development of language. Likewise when we look at words in the quran we need to keep in mind that we are looking at the quran as a supposed word of Allah. Why do we need to do that? Because the quran so claims ie it tells us it is word of God. Since the quran itself claims to be word of God therefore we have no choice but to examine it for what it claims to be. We cannot investigate something for which we have no claim or accusation or no reason to investigate. Unless there is some case to answer or some accusation or claim about something we have no reason to start an investigation. Only when we have a reason for starting any investigation we will start an investigation. When it comes to the quran, we cannot start an investigate for what it does not claim to be because we can only start an investigation for what it claims to be and since it claims to be word of God so that is the only reason we can start investigating its claim to see if it proves itself true or not. This means anyone trying to prove the quran is not the word of God is looking at things the wrong way round. It is a situation like someone claims he has murdered someone and another person comes along and says no he did not. Now we have two opposite claims but the priority rests with person who claims to have murdered someone.
So first we will have to ask the person who claims to have murdered someone to bring his evidence and only if he fails in providing one that we may go to the other person to see what is his evidence for claiming he did not murdered someone. However if the person who claims to have murdered someone comes up with a credible or irrefutable evidence then the other person is proven wrong who claimed he did not murder someone. This means people who instead of investigating the quran for its claim raise other claims against it but have never been able to properly investigate the quran to begin with their claims about the quran are not credible at all. To show they have investigated the quran for its truth the first things they will need to know is origin and development of language and then the purpose of revelation of the quran in the context of the quranic text. If a person is unable to show the quran has any model in its text but in actual fact there is a model that can be shown from the quranic text then the case is clear that either the person investigating the quran does not have the tools needed to know how to investigate the quran properly or that one is being deliberately dishonest for one reason or the other better known to oneself.
What do we need to keep in mind when we investigate the quran for its truth? We need to keep in mind that if the quran is truly word of God then it is talking about things exactly as they are so all meanings of all words need to be taken in that context because God is creator of all things he is talking about in the quran ie he is talking about things from his point of view where he talks from his point of view unless he is quoting others. The other thing we need to keep in our minds is that we are human beings and as human being we do not know facts as they are till we learn about them in detail through our own research and exploration. So it is a matter of fact that we may not know actual facts about things because we may not have learned them therefore we will not be able to make proper sense of things we never learned. So if we do not know some things then we cannot be certain in expressing our opinions about them till we have come to know them. If we say something is right or wrong without knowing it then that is not the right way to do things. For example, Allah talks in the quran about human beings in detail but to know what Allah is saying we also need to reach our own understandings about human beings through our own research and exploration or we will not know what Allah is talking about if we are not familiar with things he is talking about. The question is, have we carried out our own research and exploration as to what human beings are so that we could make sense of what Allah is exactly talking about when he talks about human beings? Allah talks in the quran in detail about human society, politics, economics etc etc but if we do not know anything much about any of these issues then how can we claim we know what the quran is talking about? Likewise Allah talks in the quran in detail about philosophy of science and philosophy of history but do we know what philosophy of science and philosophy history is about? Allah talks in the quran in detail about his program, goals and guidelines for mankind but do we know anything about all this? Allah talks about the universe and things in it in detail but have we carried out any research and exploration to know the universe and things in it? He talks about constitution and laws for mankind but do we know anything about them? Allah talks about organisation and regulation of human society but have we learned how to organise and regulate ourselves properly as a proper human community? So who has investigated the quranic text in detail to reach a conclusion one way or the other about the quran?
All this explanation should show very clearly to people of knowledge whether anyone has investigated the quran properly ever since its revelation after the messenger of Allah passed away. To be able to answer questions about deen of islam one has to know the quran properly and one cannot know the quran properly till one has reasonable grasp over idea of origin of language, how it got its concepts therefore meanings. It is because the quran was revealed in a particular human language at a particular time in written form as well as in form of a reading.
No mullah has any idea about the origin of language, its development and progress and the relevant implications. This is why almost all translations of the quran are mostly defective because they do not take into account the contexts of the quranic text. Who can say anything for certain about anything if one has no idea what human language itself is? If anyone wants to make sense of the quranic text, one has to look for information outside the box in which so called scholars and mullahs have put people for a very long time now.
1)Which scholar or mullah do you need to go to for studying origin of language? All you need to do is learn any facts about any language from any people who are expert in knowing and teaching those facts about a language and they do not have to be muslims only or nonmuslims only. In fact they can be atheists or theists or neitehr.
2)Which scholar or mullah do you need to go to, to learn about realities of real world? All you need to do is go to people who observe real word realities and explore and carry out research works therefore discover things and inform people about them.
3)It is a matter of fact that one cannot understand the quran unless one knows facts about the human language and the language used for the quran by Allah. Because it gives us foundational context of the quranic text. It is due to having proper sense of human language that we are able to make sense of realities of our universe in which we are born. It is then that these realities of real world give us secondary foundational context to see what the message of the quran may be. If we do not know things about language or real world realities then we have no way of knowing what words are and what they actually mean. This is why the quran puts emphasis on using our God given brains, senses, bodies and provided things including his revelation properly, otherwise people are nothing more than animals. In fact God himself labels them worse of all the animals.
4)Only if one has sense of these contexts the context of the quranic text within itself becomes important not otherwise. Once we have the understanding of the quranic text in these contexts only then we have the context for things attributed to the messenger of Allah as criterion to see if they are true or false. Once we have all these things properly in their proper contexts we can see what people attributed to people is true or false because then we have the solid criterion to judge things by.
All this explanation shows that one does not need any scholar or mullah to explain anything at all because learning and doing things is common heritage of humanity. We can learn anything from anyone who knows it. However whatever we learn we have a duty to pass it on to others for ensuring well being of mankind.
The quranic use of languages helps expand human power of thinking. How does it do it? It does it by using less number of words for expressing more number of concepts and facts. It is because when things are talked about in less detail then the listener has to put pressure on one's own mind to think out what the talker is talking about and that helps mind expand and become more sophisticated ie the more one tries to figure out things the more human mind expands and becomes more capable of making sense of more things which in turn helps humanity make progress and prosper. Through revelations Allah has been drawing human attention to things so that people are stimulated to explore things and grow both physically and mentally. So the revelations by Allah played a huge role in helping humanity to be what it is though people did not make full use of it so far otherwise world could have been in a much better state than it is.
To address questions about quranic transmission is also important. The fact is, the quran we have today is the same as the one the messenger of Allah left behind. it is because the transmission of the quran has been flawless. The quran came to us in three different ways independent of each other. In form of written text that has been copied from written copies. In form of memorised words through hufaaz and in form of meanings of the words used in the text. You cannot write the quran out of memory nor memorise it from written text without differences due to nature of the arabic language the way it is due to its origin, development and progress as well as its working. Because there is uniformity in memorised quran and written quranic copies that proves it beyond a shadow of doubt the quran was transmitted flawlessly. It is because the way arabic was written in ancient times people could not memorise the quran as a uniform recitation from their individual writings due to interchanging in letters and likewise they could not write it from memory as a uniform text due to various ways of writing the same words. This is why to claim the quran was not a written down text in the time of the prophet falls flat on its face.
Anyone who knows about origin of language and its development knows that arabic uses a letter replacement idea in words a lot. It is because arabic is a relatively new language as compared to its sister or ancestral languages such as aramaic, hebrew, ugaritic, phoenician, syriac, akkadian etc. Since arabic comes from other languages so it borrows words from them therefore it ends up using multiple roots to express the very same concept due to transliteration problems between languages. For example, word MAKKAH is also called BAKKAH why? Because these two words arabic borrowed from two or more different languages. It is like word PARAAN and FARAAN. In persian both sounds exists ie P as well as F but in arabic P sound does not exist so the arabs use their own closely resembling sound P which is F. So while persians say PARAAN arabs say FARAAN. The same is case with word PAKISTAN ie arabs say BAKISTAN ie they replace P with B.
This problem exists between languages as a matter of fact. It is also a matter fact that languages have been borrowing from each other heavily. In some cases one language has borrowed from another language directly but in other cases indirectly ie first a word was borrowed by one language so it was modified to suit use of that language and then from that language it was borrowed by another language and was modified to make it suitable for use in that language. So depending on from how many different languages a word has been borrowed by a borrowing language it became pronounced and written in different ways in the very same language that borrowed it and this is the case in case of arabic language as well. In arabic letters like TAA, SAA and TWAA are interchangeable because they sound very close. Likewise letter BAA, FAA, MEEM and WOW are interchangeable. The case is same with letters SEEN and SWAAD or letter ZAAL, ZAA, ZWAAD and ZOE, ZWAAD however can also be interchanged with letter DAAL. Same is problem with letter KHAA, QAAF and KAAF. HAA and HAA etc etc. Over a period of time in arabic itself letters and pronunciations became standardised but transliteration problems between different languages remain the same even today. Arabs did not modify their language beyond 28 letters or with HAMZAH 29 letter symbols. The quranic text is based upon that standard. There has been no modification in number of letters since the revelation of the quran. So long as quran remains in existence and people keep adhering to it there will not be any modification in arabic language of that nature which changes it completely into a modern lanaguge breaking its ties with its past like other languages. However borrowing between arabic and newer languages continues even today and so it continues between other languages as well.
The purpose of this explanation was to show why arabic has more than one root set for a word in some cases. For example, let us take word KITAAB. It has only one root in arabic ie KAAF, TAA and BAA. However this is not the case with word ISRAA. This word has a few roots ie SEEN, RAA and WOW; SEEN RAA and YAA; SEEN, WOW and RAA; and SEEN, YAA and RAA. In ancient times all arabs moved away from each other so they were not one people living in one and the same place speaking exactly the very same kind of arabic even though originally they come from the very same ancestors. Human race is originally one race that comes from same ancestors but people moved away from each other as their needs and situations or circumstances demanded or dictated. After separating each people kept on inventing more things and words to talk about them so today people have come together again but they speak very many different languages from what they learned from their original ancestors though some of the word we can still make out among all people because they remained unchanged or suffered less change despite transliteration. Likewise arabs even though were same people but they moved away from each other and then they were united and there were differences between their spoken and written language of this nature because each group borrowed from other people of other languages they were in contact with as they needed. All this explanation in my view was necessary to come to the point because it will help people understand something I am going to explain about the originality of the quranic text.
As explained above a lot of words in arabic are written using different letters. For example, let us take word SIRAAT. In arabic language word SIRAAT is written in two ways ie using SEEN as its first letter or SWAAD. In some places people write word SIRAAT using letter SWAAD and in others using letter SEEN so word SIRAAT has two roots ie SWAAD, RAA and TWAA and SEEN, RAA and TWAA. If we read the quranic text, no where in the quran word SIRAAT is written with letter SEEN at the beginning and everywhere in the quran word SIRAAT is always written with letter SWAAD. You will agree that if the quran did not come down in written form and people made copies out of their memories then we ought to find that some copies of the quran ought to have in them word siraat written with letter swaad and in others word siraat written with letter seen. In fact each copy was bound to have letters seen and swaad in different places compared to each other. Since all copies of the quran to date contain this word written only and only by using letter swaad then how do we explain this consistency unless people were given a copy of the quran in writing to copy the written text from it exactly as it was? Let me explain this in another way in english. If I dictated to a mixed group of people from different countries in different places to write down word MUHAMMAD, will they all write it exactly as I have it in my mind or will they do it the way they know it according to their own life experiences in their own places? An italian person will write muhammad the way he thinks and an english person will write it the way he thinks and a french person will write it the way he thinks etc etc. Some will end up writing muhammad others mohammed and yet others mohamed and so on and so forth. Word SIRAAT is not the only one but there are dozens of such words used in the text of the quran throughout the text of the quran and they have been transmitted constantly exactly the same. It should leave no doubt in one's mind that the quran was transmitted both in written and spoken form right from the day one otherwise the differences between copies that still exist in the world will have been unimaginable due to nature of the arabic language.
The other thing in the quran is letters in the beginning of some surahs. Some of them if were not pronounced as well as written they could confuse people as to they were words or separate letters eg take surah two verse one letters ALIF, LAAM and MEEM. The way they are written in surahs they could be taken for meaningful words because there is a word in arabic which is pronounced ALAM eg see in surah 94 verse one.
Yet other evidence is the fact that the very first verse of the quran is always written the very same way ie BISMILLA HIRRAHMAA NIRRAAHEEM. It is written with 19 letters in it always whereas it can be written with a few more letter eg ALIF in ISM of BISMILLAH is MISSING. Word ISM is written in surah 96 verse one with ALIF. Anyone will find that all copies of the quran throughout the world are written exactly that way. Had each person someone dictated the quranic text out of memeory and each person wrote it down the way one knew then we ought to see very many differences in written texts of this nature but there are none.
All copies of the quran have no bismillah at the start of surah nine. Had people made copies as they liked then we will have found variations between them some including and some excluding letters, words and verses in the text. So there is water tight evidence that the quran as we have it was written down by the prophet himself and handed down to his people before he passed away. He actually delivered the message of Allah as it was supposed to be delivered ie in recitation and writing otherwise he could not have been chosen as a messenger by Allah. Even we humans do not choose bad workers for getting our works done if we can help it so how could Allah be expected to do such a silly thing as choose someone unfit for the job? That will have ruined the whole purpose and plan of Allah for humanity. Had prophet himself not left the quran behind and the people at the time fully accepting it they could have ended up divided about it right from the very beginning for ever and none could have united them on the basis of the quran after the prophet. Today whatever else muslims do they have only one quran and copies of the quran are available throughout the world even from long time in the past. According to some claims we have copies of the quran even from the time very near to the time of the prophet. Unfortunately muslims are not good at preservations, observations, research and explorations. It is a miracle in itself for quran to have survived intact till now somehow. The way people claiming to be muslims are busy killing each other it is not going to take very long before they are all gone. Any remaining ones will be done away with by kufaar. But then Allah has a plan of his own so we will come to know whatever awaits for us good or bad. Muslims fight among themselves due to their ignorance and stupidity and not because there is anything wrong with the quran.
Please do note that scribal errors are there in the hand written copies of the quran and so are there printing errors in printed copies but they should not be taken seriously as human errors are human nature. These errors if I sit down with copies of the quran can find and correct but I will not do so nor advise anyone else because that will be tempering with original copies that are historical documents of huge value. However since we are aware of these like errors therefore we should not let them through to newer copies we make through future media that is more capable of helping us for coping with this task. Moreover when we talk to people about errors in the quranic text we should never claim that there are no human errors in the copies of the quran. Such errors have no affect upon the actual message of the quran.
نسخة أصلية لمصحف سيدنا عثمان إبن عفان رضي الله عنه - YouTube
مصحف عثمان ابن عفان - YouTube
The problem with claims of all western scholars of the quran is they are not aware of certain facts about the quran due to which they have no idea what the deen of islam actually is. Their biggest problem is mullahs who had no sense and who misinterpreted the actual quranic text and misrepresented it and their whole responses are in that context. A true scholar of the quran will separate the quran from its followers and look at it as a document in its own right and see what it says afresh according to rules explained above by myself very clearly. If they did not find the model of real islam in the quran that could not be defeated then they had the right to claim all those things they claim about the quran.
They assume right from the very beginning that the message of the quran is what people who claim to be muslims say they believe it to be. This means they are not examining the text of the quran but what people claim about the text as to what it means. It shows their scholarship is not up to standard the quran requires for its scrutinizer or cross examiner or criticiser. This only proves their ignorance and stupidity or ulterior motives just like rulers, money lenders and mullahs or both.
1) Questions have been raised by muslims and nonmuslims alike whether it is possible to translate the quranic text perfectly. What has been explained about the nature of the language in sense of its origin, development and the way it works and what is explained about role of God and role of humanity should leave one in no doubt that it is not possible for humanity to interpret the message of God precisely ever. The main reason is difference between the knowledge of God and knowledge of people. However, it is very much possible for all practical purposes for people to know and teach the message of the quran to each other with a degree of accuracy in sense of its purpose, which is mainly guidance of mankind to some degree. So any claim that anyone ever knew the quran perfectly is a false claim. Even the messengers of Allah only came to know as much of the revelation of Allah as was humanly possible for them according to their own time and place. All one can say is that they knew the message maximum possible at the time or that no one knew the message as good as the messengers of Allah at the time. Any claim about any messenger of Allah about knowing things beyond human capability is attributing falsehood to the messengers of Allah. In deen of Allah there is no such thing as personality cult. It is because the reference is always the revealed scripture from Allah not any particular person be one a messenger of Allah. It is because only Allah is free of making any mistakes so only his message can be free of all errors.
As for human beings they cannot be declared free of human errors but one can say they never did anything deliberately wrong if they were true followers of the word of Allah. This is why they cannot be the reference point. In the quran Allah talks about prophet ibraheem as an exemplary messenger of Allah and he is said to be leader of mankind but only so far as his following of the message of Allah. Even when he asks Allah about his biological and ideological children to be made leaders of mankind, he is told very clearly that yes but only if they also followed message of Allah like you. The idea that quran asks people to follow any messenger of Allah as a model in his own right is attributing falsehood to Allah and his messengers. This is a very important and a decisive point for all people to pay their attention to and who wish to know the message of the quran properly. A clear proof that deen of islam is not a personality cult as claimed by mullahs of various sects. This is why the primary source of information about deen of islam is the Quran not the ahaadith attributed to the messenger of Allah nor the information passed down the generations of muslims in form of books of fiqh= the so called islamic jurisprudence. This does not mean the books of hadith or fiqh are not important but only as secondary sources to the quran. The main reason for that is the status or position of the quran in deen of islam. The quran is taken as word of Allah, the master of the universe and all that exists. He is sole ruler of it by right of its ownership. This being the case no human being should claim nor should be accepted as an authority on equal footing with Allah. All human beings be they messengers of Allah are still his creatures and not Gods in their own rights so people cannot be given same status as that of Allah.
2) When it comes to interpretation of the quran, as explained already it must be interpreted mainly in context of its language and its purpose in light of self evident facts or in light of real world realities ensuring that one does not introduce contradictions within the testament of Allah or between the testament of Allah and self evidence facts or real world realities when the quran claims to be free of such contradictions and tells mankind to check it against real world realities to see how consistent it is. That means people who sit down to interpret the quranic text must first be familiar with things the quran is talking about because if anyone will try to interpret the quran not knowing the required information for doing this job then such a person will make tonnes of mistakes and if such mistakes are passed onto people as the message of Allah then it could have serious consequences for humanity as a whole even if such mistakes are result of an innocent adventure by a person. It is because people who accept the message will not be accepting the message of the quran but its inaccurate translation which will be a false teaching in its name and by acting upon it one will do things that could end up harming oneself and others.
Likewise people who will reject the message due to mistakes in it will be rejecting it as the message of the quran thinking it is the true message of Allah which it is not so they will remain away from the true guidance of Allah. The consequences will be serious because the result will be more and more divisions among people of the book and more and more people will move away from the book and as people remain divided the more and more fights and wars will continue between people because of wrong interpretations of the message. So one can see what is at stake if things were not done the right way. However this will be taken advantage of by those who want things to be that ie rulers, money lenders, mullahs, their touts and supporters due to their ignorance and stupidity as well as arrogance ie due to their sense of dominating others by undermining them so that they could use and abuse them at will. In short such people will try their best to use the scripture as a tool for manipulating mankind to fulfil their own objectives thereby.
3) It is very important that when we talk about islam we have some understanding of the actual situation. The main issue when we discuss islam is, what do we take islam for ie a set of make beliefs and some useless rituals for individuals or a program for mankind for accomplishing some goals according to some guidelines as a proper human community based upon quranic constitution and law for running a kingdom in the name of Allah according to his guidance?
Anyone who takes islam as a religion has to answer a main question, why there are guidelines for a constitution and laws for organisation and regulation of human society? What has praying to with God and with running of a kingdom or a community? It is because religion is all about individuals having some so called beliefs and doing some acts of so called worship as one sees fit. It is not anyone's business what anyone else believes or does because it is a private affair between a person and his God. The main question one has to ask oneself is, does islam fit this category? My answer is very clear that islam does not fit this category therefore I do not accept islam is a religion nor should anyone who knows the quran better.
All people who have learned some sense and have studied the quran for knowing islam believe that islam is not only about God and man but about God and man as well as about humanity as a whole. In other words islam is a way of life that leads mankind to an end that is set by Allah for mankind. It is the main reason why islam is called deenillah or sabeelillah or ADDEEN or deen of islam ie the way of life advised for mankind by Allah for a blissful, dignified and secure existence. All this explains why Allah advised this way of life for mankind.
Since in my understanding of the quran islam is not a religion therefore any argument over religion of islam is a nonsense and shows a person is totally confused about islam be one a person who claims to be a muslim or a nonmuslims. The main thing is that anyone who thinks islam is a religion must first prove islam is a religion before one accepts it or rejects it or raises any objection against it. In other words there is no sense in talking about islam as a religion because it is not a religion so why waste time and energy on something that is not really there. I therefore oppose any person who claims islam is a religion regardless one claims to be a muslim or happens to be a nonmuslim. I want such a person to prove from the quran that his claim is right about islam that it is only a system of some beliefs and some rituals that have nothing at all to do with real world realities. It is because religion cannot be but a private matter for an individual and his God whereas the quran is very clear that islam is not a private affair of an individual and his God. This is why in my view islam is a deen. Since it is a deen so all need to understand it as such regardless they claim to be muslims or happen to be nonmuslims. So all questions about deen of islam are to be asked and answered in that context.
Since islam is a deen sent by Allah therefore it is a program from Allah for mankind for accomplishing some goals according to his provided guidelines. Since it is a program for mankind therefore the message of the quran must be taken to all people in the world so that they have a look at it and think it over and if they like what they are told they come together to form a community network on basis of a constitution and its laws as par guidelines provided in the quran. This is the context in which people need to understand islamic shariah or law or jurisprudence. It is in this context one must come to know the procedure for writing a constitution or forming a law. This is why individuals need to know the quran and have their opinions and arguments to back them up but it is the ummah that is to decide together what is to be the correct interpretation of the book and arrive at a consensus after having the knowledge needed for interpreting the quran properly. Unless it is ummah that accepts a constitution or a law as a whole, it cannot be called an islamic law or shariah. From this procedure it should be very clear why fatwas by ignorant, illiterate and uneducated foolish individuals mean nothing at all in proper context of deen of islam in light of the quran. One must remember that a constitution or any laws must be accepted by all in the ummah freely after at least a simple properly educated lmajority agrees upon them. None is supposed to accept any constitution or law that goes against the stated goals and guidelines of the quran. Before people sit down to argue over what the constitution or law should be they must have good ideas what are goals they want to achieve or accomplish as an ummah and what are the guidelines so that no clause is put in the constitution that is in conflict with the aims and the objectives of the constitution.
In other words a constitution needs to be written with declared objectives right at the top of the document. Since aims and objectives are the starting point of written constitution so all clauses that follow must be in line or consistent with these objectives otherwise the so called constitution or law will not be worth the paper it is written upon. Once a constitution is structured with all its clauses as a complete document with all the needed laws regarding institutions, office bearers and individuals and groups in the ummah then ummah as a whole must examine it with care and see if any mistake has been made in constructing this document before it is ratified and implemented by the ummah. If anything important is left out or something has been added which is not right then changes can be made in the constitution or law even after ratification but each time any change has been made it must be put before ummah and accepted by it otherwise the document will become invalid as a constitution or law. I have already explained what are the aims and objectives or goals set for ummah to accomplish and what are guidelines here and there so no point in repeating all this in here.
The other important point to remember is that the quran is about three states of existence of muslims ie as individuals in any place in the world, as a community anywhere in the world and as a community within a kingdom of their own. Each of these three states of existence have their own requirements. Individuals are only required what they can do as individuals and community is only required what community can do as a community and a community in a kingdom of its own is required what it can do as a community in a kingdom of its own. In short there are very limited requirement for individuals but requirement increase when people become a community and they increase even more when the community has its own kingdom. It is because as people who accept deen of islam increase in their numbers their power increases and therefore their responsibilities also increase towards each other and towards rest of mankind. For example, an individual is mainly responsible for learning and educating oneself about all one can learn in one's life time as well as about learning the quran and only when one has learned deen of islam properly oneself one's responsibility increases for teaching it to others the best one can. It is binding upon more than one muslims to live together as a family fully supporting each other in every way and keep working to bring more and more people into fold of deen of islam. Once a few people come together they must organise and regulate themselves according the quranic guidelines. They must form a constitution to help them organise themselves and work out laws to help them regulate themselves in light of quranic guidelines as well as in light of ground realities that face them as per their situations and circumstances.
From all this explanation it should be clear to people what deen of islam really is and what being a muslim actually means.
