1 Citing another woman by name multiple times (Sayyida Maryam) while not citing your own mother or wife. Maryam is cited by name 34 times!
His own mother Amina: 0. Aisha: 0. Khadija: 0.
If any man did this today, his family would have a serious reaction. But no, they knew he is not the author of this book.
2 The story of the blind Ibn Umm Maktum. When the blind man disrupted an important meeting, the Prophet peace be upon him was unhappy, but did not say anything so as not to offend this believer. He simply frowned silently. What happens next? It’s revealed in the Quran that his face changed and was unhappy: the very thing the Prophet peace be upon him had tried to conceal! What author would do this?
3 How about threatening yourself in the book your people recite publicly and daily: “If he (the Prophet) had attributed some fabrication to Us, We would certainly have seized his right hand and cut off his lifeblood, and none of you could have defended him” (69:44-47). Think about this: If your boss scolds you in a private email, would you then forward it to your staff? It would be a complete undermining of your authority. But no, the Sahaba knew this message is from Allah and the Prophet’s authority is from Allah too, not from his own charisma and effort.
4 Citing Prophet Musa nine times the amount of his own name (36 mentions in comparison to 4), while he is at war with the Jews and they are mocking him daily. They are in fact calling him an imitator who is copying them. If that happened to any of us, we would be sure to avoid citing the one we’re accused of copying.
5 Every author and every mover and shaker in the world is trying to be unique, original and bring something new to the world. Nobody wants to be a follower. But what does the Quran say? The exact opposite: “You are not anything new as a Messenger, say, ‘I am nothing but a follower of what is revealed to me'” (46:9).
6 How did the pagans mock the Prophet peace be upon him? By saying he was abtar, or cut-off, not having any sons or lineage. He, peace be upon him, was very hurt by this. Normally, people bury what hurts them. They want to forget it. But in contrast, we have this verse: “Muhammad was not the father of any of your men” (33:40 Ahzab). If he peace be upon him was the author, why would he remind himself of this hurtful thing and then have everyone recite all the time?
7 What would a man say if you said, “You’re trying to please your wife.” Add to that: how would the Arabs of the 7th Century take it? Well this is exactly what happens in Surat al-Tahreem (66). An entire mini-drama and inter-family problem is put on open display in the initial verses of this sura. Two wives are jealous of the third, they devise a plot, it works…and the story goes on. If an imam made a post airing a family dispute in it, how would that go down?
Now someone might reply, wow then His Lord was very mean to him, revealing these things like “cut off your bloodline” and “you’re not the father of men,” and all the other verses. But that is not the case, for the Prophet peace be upon him knew that these were all necessary for the sake of separating himself from any notion of authorship, just as many other hardships are necessary in the process of Prophethood.
And it proved true. The Quraysh called the Prophet many names, but eventually stopped calling him the author of the Quran. Abu Jahl himself admitted that it was a strategy that could not stand. Anyone who ponders this deeply will come to the same conclusion.
May Allah keep our hearts steadfast on trust, belief, and love of the Messenger peace be upon him.
Categories: Islam
Great post. I agree that there is tremendous internal evidence in the Qur’an against the hypothesis that it is from Muhammad, son of Abdullah.
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3. How about threatening yourself in the book your people recite publicly and daily: “If he (the Prophet) had attributed some fabrication to Us, We would certainly have seized his right hand and cut off his lifeblood, and none of you could have defended him” (69:44-47). Think about this: If your boss scolds you in a private email, would you then forward it to your staff? It would be a complete undermining of your authority. But no, the Sahaba knew this message is from Allah and the Prophet’s authority is from Allah too, not from his own charisma and effort.
It would be more clear to say that the “Messenger’s” authority is from Allah instead of saying that the “Prophet’s authority” is from Allah.
Of course, the Prophet’s authority is indeed from Allah but the Qur’an only gives infallibility to Muhammad ibn Abdullah in his capacity as Messenger, that is in his capacity as conveying the Qur’anic message to people around him.
Of the 20 some times, Allah says for us to have obedience, in EVERY time, Allah deliberately chose to use the word “rasool” (messenger–The message is obviously the Qur’an) and not “nabi” (prophet), or “Muhammad” or “Son of Abdullah,” etc.
When human beings use one word, they could have just as likely used a similar word if it was in their mind at that time, but for God, everything is completely in His mind. So, let us reflect on this.
“If he (the Prophet) had attributed some fabrication to Us, We would certainly have seized his right hand and cut off his lifeblood, and none of you could have defended him” (69:44-47).
May we increase our fear of God Almighty and not attribute oral narrations (hadith) to God Almighty.
The theory of 2 revelations that Shafi introduced a couple of centuries after the Prophet (pbuh), and which over the centuries got accepted for various institutional and social reasons, should be reexamined with this verse front and center.
Let us increase in taqwa, not neglect to use our reason that God entrusted with, and stop our temptation to follow the security blanket of a traditional approach that was developed.
Should we not fear God Almighty instead of easily making attributions to Him that He himself did not make?
Does it surprise anyone that a hadith skeptic tries to hijack this post to bash hadith? What’s the deal with that?
As Muslims we accept the Quran and sunnah, in effect two scriptures, as understood by the early Muslims and the imams of the four schools. None of us commenting on this blog are Islamic scholars who are qualified to go it alone and case doubt on orthodoxy.
It is not hijacking…it is using the verse to put some light on an issue that is shrouded in darkness.
Paul,
Yes, we should accept the Sunnah which is starkly different from hadith, although not opposite to the hadith.
I don’t think you realize the difference between Sunnah and hadith. Imam Malik emphasized it is vital to know the difference.
Sunnah ***by definition*** means something that is practiced regularly.
In contrast, sunnah does ***not*** believe some one-off sentences supposedly stated by the Prophet to one particular individual because of some chain that is attributed to five or six people who are now dead and thus cannot testify whether ***each*** of them really heard it narrated and whether ****each*** of them narrated it to the purported person in the chain.
We should not reject the hadith either ***for the umpteenth*** time.
So sad I need to repeat that so often.
Sunnah is ***not**** scripture although if a certain practice has been practiced enmasse through generations, it is reliable.
Hadith can have variable reliability but ***even*** according to medieval scholars who were somewhat oblivious to ***many relevant*** modern insights such as problem of anachronisms, etc, ….even they state that the “sahih” corpus is ***not having complete*** reliability in contradistinction to the Qur’an.
Example of Sunnah….the form of the ritual prayers….hajj rituals.
lets focus on the actual article. Rather than your hobby horse?
Paul,
The actual article is entitled: “If the ***Prophet*** was in fact the author of the Qur’an, there would be so many things that simply would not add up.”
But when we are talking of the Prophet in relation to the Message, the Qur’an uses a technical word
— Messenger —
That is what I said in the first post if you paid attention.
Let’s approach the Quran on its own terms and thus use terms and not conflate any more issues.
And, about your comment about we are not scholars and so on, you don’t know me…I have been studying Islam for 30+ years and studying the so-called hadith “science” on/off for almost a decade.
In terms of reading in breadth and variety as what is truly relevant, in many aspects I have read more than many who would be considered scholars and with a much more open mind and without being indoctrinated looking for confirmation bias like many scholars regarding this topic.
Because of those who find this line of reasoning inconvenient and try to restrict discussion, we also need another article entitled “If the Prophet or others was in fact the author of some of the ‘sahih’ hadith rather than God, there would be so many things counter to the 2 revelations from God theory — below is the serious research.”
Also, prophet (pbuh) could not read the very first verse of Quran when Angel Gibrael communicated it to him. So it would be foolish to think that he authored the magnificent Quran which is considered as an Arabic masterpiece even by non-believers. Yes-May Allah keep our hearts steadfast on trust, belief, and love of the Messenger peace be upon him. May Allah grant us forgiveness n correct understanding. Best wishes 💐
Good point Atul.
There is not a single person on the face of the earth in the past or now who can write a book the size of the Qur’an without many, many drafts.
And that is without even talking about the Qur’an’s poetic and rhetoric and linguistic and literary gems.
Amazingly, the Qur’an has the same awe-inspiring Divine voice regardless of the topic and regardless of the situation the Prophet (I am using this term in its lay usage) was going through.
If the Prophet wrote the Qur’an, we would not expect him to challenge anyone to write a chapter like it since a forger knows that others can write also something equal or even better.
If someone made such a challenge at a moment of passion, then we would certainly not expect him to do it repeatedly throughout his career when he and his close ones made so many sacrifices.
But we see this challenge mentioned 5 times in the Qur’an.
Alhamdulillah. Thanks for ur candid insight. Your points are pertinent as well. Best wishes