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Did the prophet copy the Holy Quran from the Holy Book

Thursday, 11 June 2009 12:26 -

 By Magdy Abd Al-Shafy

The enemies of Islam claim that the prophet of islam copied the Holy Quran
from the HolyBook.There are  a lot of  reasons and pieces of evidence
thatrefute this groundless claim.

Mohummed [p] was illiterate ,who could not read nor could he  write nor  had
he been in contact with any Christian or Judaic authority .

Furthermore, the assertion ofJudeo-Christian borrowing raises a


number of questions. JamalBadawi puts forward the following six
questions:

"Why is it in spite of theabundance of historical material on


Muhammad(P)'s life, and inspite of the extensive research on his
life for centuries by hissevere critics, that it was not possible to
discover themysterious teacher(s) through whom Muhammad(P)
might have learnedall that?

It is known that Muhammad(P) was opposed, ridiculed and

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persecuted for nearly 13 years by his owncontemporaries. With


this magnitude of severe enemies, was it not possible for them to
prove to the masses that Muhammad(P)'s claimof revelation was
sheer fabrication? Was it not possible for themto reveal and name
the person whom they alleged to be the human source or sources
of his teachings? Even some of his adversaries who had made this
assertion, changed their minds later on andaccused him, instead,
of magic or being possessed by evil... etc.Muhammad(P) was
raised among hispeople and every aspect of his life was exposed
to them, especially by the openness that characterizes tribal life in
thedesert. How could the multitudes of his contemporaries,
includingmany of his close relatives who knew him so well, how
could theybelieve in his truthfulness if they had any doubt that he
wasclaiming credit for ideas taught to him by some other teachers
without bothering to give them credit?

What kind of teacher might have taught Muhammad(P) a coherent


and complete religion that changed the face of history? Why didn't
he or they (if any) speak againstthe alleged student who continued
learning from them, whileignoring them and claiming some other
divine source for his teachings?

How could many Jews and Christians amongst his contemporaries


become Muslims and believe in his truthfulness if they knew he
was copying from their scriptures or learning from their priests or
rabbis?

It is known that some of the Qur'anic revelations to Muhammad(P)


were revealed  in the presence of people. The Qur'ân was revealed
over the span of 23 years, where then that was mysterious,

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perhaps invisible teacherof Muhammad(P)? How could he have


hidden himself for so long? Or how could Muhammad(P) who was
constantly surrounded by companions, how was he able to make
frequent secret visits to that mysterious teacher or teachers for 23
years without even being caught once?

The answer to all these questions are never given. But the
Christian missionaries' logic is that still Muhammad(P) borrowed
from the Judeo-Christian sources even though there is no
evidence to show. What you do not know, you do not have to
show; just say it and it becomes so."

Karen Armstrong in her book A History Of God writes about the


revelation to the Prophet Muhammadby God.

In about the year 610 an Arab merchant of the thriving city of


Mecca in Hijaz, who had neverread the Bible and probably never
heard of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, had an experience that was
uncannily similar to theirs.

Roger DuPasquier, a Swiss journalist and author, asserts that;

To this day no-one has put forward a defensible explanation of


how an unlettered caravan merchant of the early seventh century
might have been able, by his own devices, to produce a text of
such inimitable beauty, of such capacity to stir emotion, and which
contained knowledge and wisdom which stood so far above the

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ideas current among mankind at that time.  The studies carried


out in the West which try to determine the 'sources used by
Muhammad', or to bring to light the psychological phenomenon
which enabled him to draw theinspiration from his 'subconscious',
have demonstrated only one thing: the anti-Muslim prejudice of
their authors. We still want to add some questions that need to be
answered.

If Mohammad borrowed from Judeo-Christian sources,

Why does the Holy Quran scold them  for  the interpolations 
they inserted in their books and then copy from them?

If Mohammed had been copied fromthe Holy Book , he would not


have scolded them at least toescape  their objections and to win
them for his side at least to avoid any confrontation with them.

Those who claim that Mohammed copied from the scripture

should tell us where was thattranslated copy that he copied from 


, according to thehistorical authority , there was not any translated
copy in the time of the prophet Mohammed or even long after his
death?

If the Holy Quran copied from the Bible , why does the Holy Quran

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launch this fierce critique against the Bible concerning the story of
Trinity in the Bible but even renounces this fact and most
strikingly shows them thesource from which they got the concept
of Trinity .

The Holy Quran says : ….The Messiah is the son of Allah. That is
their saying with their mouths. They imitate the saying of those
who disbelieved of old."

Recent studies and exploration into the ancient religions prove


that there were sixteen saviors in the human history , all of them
were long anterior of Jesus ,many of the sayings that they ascribe
to Jesus were found in the ancient heathen religions?

Did Mohammed explore and study the ancient religions and come
to the conclusion that the concept of Trinity was inserted in the
Christianity.

If he was an  imposter why did he reject this concept and even
corrected it giving good reasons?

If Mohummed [p] had copied from the holy book, why did he not
copy the story of creation in Genesis , the story of creation in the
Holy Quran is mentioned in a way that is completely in agreement
with the newly discovered facts. ( Big Bang ,expansion of the
universe and the Big crunch is mentioned in the Holy Quran
).Moreover the Holy Quran gives an account to the stories of the

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prophets and the perished nationsin a way that fills you with
ecstasy , sometimes you find theHoly Quran in agreement with
some parts of the Holy Books andthen in disagreement with other
parts .The story of Joseph is the best example , if you compare
these holy books( Pseudepigrapha , Talmud , Targum , Midrash ) 
together concerning the story of  Joseph you will find a lot
ofcontradictions between them and then if you include the Holy
Quran you will find that the Holy Quran is in conformity with them
in the most reasonable parts ,i.e, it is in agreement withthis part in
this book while it is in disagreement with anotherpart in the same
book and then you find it in agreement with another book
concerning the part it is already in disagreement with the previous
one . Did Mohammed read all of these bookstogether? What was
that historical criterion on which he based his copy? What litmus
paper did he have to check which is valid and which is not?
Moreover , the Quranic story is always complete though
condensed in a few lines that are replete with meanings that can
be classified under many tenets .

The Quranic story moves yourheart , fills your eyes with tears ,
adds spiritual dimensions , set the best examples for the believers
to follow when being confronted with hardships of life , The
Quranic stories havetheir distinguishing character . The main
purpose of the Quranic story is.

Correcting the errors and adulteration in the Holy Book.

Deeming the prophets high and exonerating them from what they
were charged with .Giving the Moslems exemplars to follow

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Teaching wisdom and moral lessons.

Showing that it is only one God who revealed these holy Books.

Setting the examples of the perished nations for the Moslem,

So many could be said in this context but for the sake of brevity .

Enhancing and reinforcing the Moslems will in face of hardships.

Concerning the point of copying from the Holy Book, A Christian


scholar , now a Moslem, says in his book "I recognized that there
were two possibilities:

(1) the Prophet Muhammad didsteal his material or

(2)  the revelation he received was from the same god who sent
Moses, Jesus and the earlier prophets, as the Prophet Muhammad
himself claimed.  If it werethe latter, it would explain why there
would be much overlap in the teachings and message.  The same
God sent the earlier prophets and is simply recounting their
stories again in the new revelation.

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However, I immediately started tonotice some glaring differences


between the Quran and the Bible, even with respect to the
teachings about God.  If the Prophet Muhammad was “editing”
what he was hearing from the Bible—and by the way, at that time,
there was no Bible available in Arabic—then he was doing an
excellent job.

I found that the strange teachings about God that one finds
throughout the Bible are completely and unequivocally missing
from the Quran. For the sake of brevity, only a few examples
illustrating this point shall be given.

The New International Version of Genesis 3:8-11, reads,“Then the


man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was
walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the
LORD God among the trees of the garden.  (9) But the LORD God
called to the man, “Where are you?”  (10) He answered, “I heard
you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked?  Have you
eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

Here, God is pictured as walking in the garden in the cool of the


day.  What is even more astonishing is that Adam and Eve were
able to hide from God and he had to ask, “Where are you?”  If a
human is able to hide from Him in the garden, how is it that this
Lord is going to have knowledge of the sins that people commit?
 It would be difficult for any human to gender in his heart the kind
of love and fear of God that he should have when he believes that
his God is so faulty and weak that an event like this could occur to
him.

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In Genesis 32:24-28, there is the story and literal description of


Jacob wrestling with and defeating God.  In verse 28, it says,

“You [Jacob] have wrestled withGod and with men, and you have
won.” In other words, the creator of the universe whom mankind is
expected to worship and submit to was defeated by a mere mortal
in a wrestling match.

The Old Testament even picturesGod as one who intended to do


evil but then repented.  Exodus32:14states:

“And the Lord repented of theevil which he thought to do unto his


people” (KingJames Version).  It would not be surprising for
anyone to turn away from God and not consider Him worthy of
worship if He himself has to repent from His own evil.

The Old and New Testamentsdistort the image of the prophets and
defame them. Some prophetsgot drunk! Some showed their
nakedness to others! Some pretendfoolishness! And some
fornicate and commit adultery!

In the Qur'an, these distortions are non-existent. The reader to the


Qur'an will find continuous glorification to the prophets of God
because they are the `God-Elects' and they are the most righteous
of all men.

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The story of creation and human history in the Old Testament


contradicts the most basic science findings.

In the Qur'an, there are many verses of a scientific nature that


discuss the creation, the development of the embryo, the origin of
fresh underground water, and other physical and scientific
phenomena that were discovered hundreds of years after the
revelation of the Qur'an. None of these verses contradict any of
the proven scientific facts.

Now, if the Qur'an had a Jewish-Christian' origin, one would


expect to find in the Qur'an the same errors and distortions that
are in the Old and New Testaments. The question that must be
asked here: how could Muhammad correct the distortions in the
Old and New Testaments?

Another more question is that "How can you interpret the


existence of some stories which were not mentioned in the
widely-known bibles but only found insome codices that were
found recently , these were not known tothe contemporary
Christians of prophet Mohammed ,moreover they were in
languages that were at that time defunct . Did Mohammedread the
Pseudepigrapha
which was not known to his contemporary Christians.

Did Mohammed read the Red Sea scroll ,  which remained hidden
in one of the caves of the Dead sea and only were found in the
1948 ?Did Mohammed read the codices of Naga Hamadi in Egypt

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and that were only found a few years ago?

Did Mohummed read the Bible of Judas which was found recently
in Egypt and only translated into English a few years ago in US .
This bible in conformity with the Holy Quran concerning the story
of Crucifixion , it states thatit was not Jesus who was crucified and
some one else was.

Did Mohammed know all of these languages that these codices


were written in?

These books were written on leather , so huge and so easily to be


notices by his enemies who were searching for any proof against
his prophethood.

The similarity between the Holy Quran and the Holy Book doesn't
mean that the Holy Quran borrows from them , it means that both
came from the same source.

Does Similarities imply borrowing ?

Let's start with an example. Prophet Noah (P) was given certain
commandments. So was Prophet Moses
(P)

after him. If we were to see that the followers of Prophet Noah (

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P)

accusing of the followers of Prophet Moses


(P)

, how do we expect the followers of Prophet Moses


(P)

to respond? We might hear a response like this

The Law has come from the same source (from the one and
only God),Of course we would expect similar teachings
and not such as God is a twin or has a daughterfrom
eternity etc. Any differences from absolute similarities
would mean correction of the message that got corrupted
.Any other differences would mean additional Law with the
newer revelation.

The new revelation from the same source comes with its
own proof and evidences, otherwise anyone can attempt to
invent 'revelation' (while not coming from that same source
- God) and mislead many thereby. If there were no proofs
or evidences then how can someone verify its truthfulness
and authenticity, believe in it and accept it ?

We will thus see that the emphasis shifts to verifying the


inherent proofs or evidences of the fresh revelation when
older (or traces of the older) revelation still exists.
Therefore, similarity between two revelations can even

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imply that the later revelation is from God.

for comment : e-mail

magdy.abdalshafy@yahoo.com

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