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 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, 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 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 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 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
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.
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.
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.
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 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 (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 imply that the later revelation is from God.
