Sunday, April 19, 2020

Islam critiqued finds another good reason; piecemeal revelation guarantees better preservation?



In answer to the video "Was Muhammad a False Prophet?"

As already alluded to previously, the prophet's opponents would critisize the periods during which no new verses were revealed and recited by him
7:203"And when you bring them not a revelation they say: Why do you not forge it? Say: I only follow what is revealed to me from my Lord; these are clear proofs from your Lord and a guidance and a mercy for a people who believe".
Consequently, at various places in the Quran, the Prophet is told to exercise resolve and patience 20:113-4 until the whole of the Quran is revealed to him, and he needs not worry as the arrangement of it rests on Allah 25:32 and no falsehood can approach it 41:42.

 The One upon whom its establishement in the prophet's memory is entirely dependant upon, and who could therefore either take it away completely or erase chunks of it from the prophet's mind without him even noticing it 17:86-7,87:6-7 will take care of arranging it in the form of a Book with an ultimate recital structure which he and all Muslims will be bound to follow in the future. If any directive needed further explanation, it will be done so at this last recital, and in this manner this book will stand completed in every way after memorization, collection and arrangement and explanation by the Almighty Himself
75:16-19"Do not move your tongue with it to make haste with it, Surely on Us (devolves) the collecting of it and the reciting of it. Therefore when We have recited it, follow its recitation. Again on Us (devolves) the explaining of it".  
This Divine arrangement gives the Quran a unique feature, it can be read a few verses at a time as anyone can see for himself. One can open it at any page and start reading, even skipping the beginning of the Book and starting in its middle, in most cases even starting at any verse on a page without going back many verses to know what it is speaking of and will still gain a lesson of wisdom.

The Divine structuring of the Quran was solidified by the promise to protect it 15:9, one of the fullfilments of this promise is to guard from extinction the Arabic language in which the Quranic message was coded. Unlike ancient Hebrew in which the HB was put to writing and the Aramaic of Jesus, which both became extinct, classical Arabic flourished and developed since the revelation of the Quran. A language that was confined to the tribes of the Arabian peninsula 1,400 years ago has since developed into the lingua franca of peoples from the extremities of Asia to the farthest corners of Africa. And another fullfilment is that besides all the scholarly scrutiny of the skeptics, no discrepencies can be found in it
4:82"Had it been from other Than God, they would surely have found therein Much discrepancy".

The gradual process solidified the Quran in the believers' hearts 28:51, as a sign of Allah's pledge to secure it and preserve it. Consequently the Prophet would memorize each verse as it was revealed, recite it to the "Scribes of the Revelation" (kuttab al-wahy) who would write it down immediately, in the manner of prophets of old. Jeremiah for instance dictated his prophecies to his disciple Baruch son of Neriah, when God commanded him
Jer30:1"Write for you the words that I have spoken to you, on a scroll"  
Jer36:4"And Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote from Jeremiah's mouth all the words of the Lord that He had spoken to him, on a roll of a book".
The prophet Jeremiah was literate and also wrote a scroll by himself Jer51:60.

It is stated in many traditions that whenever a portion of revelation was received by the Prophet, he told his followers to write a verse before such and such a verse and after such and such a verse, thus indicating its place and position in the Quran. The suras were memorized and recited in that order, in perfect accordance with the divine will
75:16-19"Do not move your tongue with it to make haste with it, Surely on Us (devolves) the collecting of it and the reciting of it. Therefore when We have recited it, follow its recitation. Again on Us (devolves) the explaining of it".
A final arrangement and recital occured twice the year the Prophet died, permitting to secure it from any eventual loss or doubts. The process of memorization as well as writing down of the revelations had thus started right from the beginning of the Prophet's mission.

This dual process of preservation had the additional advantage of checking the one with the other. The Prophet specially emphasized the practice of memorization and attached great merit to it. That the revelations were not collected into one compilation before his death but rather on all kinds of available supports (palm-leaves, bones, parchments..), was because these continued to come down till the last day of the Prophet's life. Yet, as already stated, he had arranged the separately revealed pieces into surahs and had also set the order of the surahs of the Quran.

By the very nature of things the collection of the surahs into one compilation had to be done after his death; and that is exactly what was done by his immediate successor, Abu Bakr. And in doing so, he did not miss the implication of the Prophet's practice of having the Quranic texts both written down and committed to memory. Hence in making the compilation he required the written text to be compared with the memorized text, and vice versa, and nothing was included in the compilation that did not meet this strict criterion.

Also, even when the written compilation was completed, the process of memorization was not discouraged or discontinued, so that even today Muslims can count in their ranks thousands of huffaz.

No other book went through this process of memorization followed by writing in a precise manner even as far as the numbering of the verses instructed by the archangel Gabriel, they were all redacted years even centuries after the message was sent.



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