“Islam in Christ’s Eyes”A study of the origins of Islam and the Christian response

byWissam Youssif

Lesson Eight- “The Sacred Scriptures of Islam” Spring Quarter - 2018

I. Introduction

A. The title for the lesson today is “The Sacred Scriptures of Islam.”

B. Do you remember what was the date, location and occasion that

started the Islamic clock ticking?

C. It was on August 10th, 610, when “the Night of Destiny”

occurred that started Islamic history.

C.1. In a cave called “Hira” two miles outside of Mecca, the

angel Gabriel appeared and told Muhammad that he was

“the messenger of God.”

C.2. From that moment, Muhammad began receiving messages

from the angel that would later become the Quran.

D. Muhammad was 40 years old and it was the month of Ramadan.

D.1. Gabriel told Muhammad to recite from the book but the

young man initially resisted and said “I cannot recite.”

D.2. Sura 53:5-18 portrays Gabriel as miraculously filling the

horizon in whatever direction Muhammad turned, so the

man ultimately yielded.

E. After this experience, Muhammad was afraid.

E.1. He wondered if he had gone insane.

E.2. He went to his wife Khadija, who consoled him and

suggested that the two of them consult her cousin, Waraqua

Bin Nawfal, who had become a Christian.

E.3. Muhammad told him what had happened in the cave with

Gabriel.

E.4. When Waraqua heard this, he concluded from the

Scriptures that Muhammad was the expected prophet from

Deuteronomy 18:15 who was the successor to Moses.

E.5. He said Muhammad was bringing the word of Allah to the

Arabs who had never yet received a Scripture of their own.

E.6. His very first revelation was Sura 96 verses 1-5, “Recite in

the name of your Lord who created-created humanity from

an embryo. Recite your Lord is all-giving who taught by

the pen, taught humans what they didn’t know previously.”

F. Did Muhammad immediately record those words to become the

sacred scriptures of Islam called “the Quran?”

F.1. No. Why? Muhammad could neither read nor write.

F.2. He also had no followers at that point in Mecca to record

his revelation for the prophet.

F.3. Later, we will examine how the Quran was compiled after

Muhammad’s death.

G. All of Islam is based on the trilogy of three sacred texts which are

the Quran, Hadith and Sira.

H. The question we will ask and answer today and next week is,

“What were the origins of the Quran?

I. The following week we will examine the origins of the Hadith

and Sira.

J. The first half of this course focused on the life and times of the

prophet Muhammad.

J.1. We had to learn the origin of the prophet who gave the

world the religion of Islam.

J.2. We needed to know what made Muhammad, Muhammad.

J.3. We needed to know how he gave birth to Islam.

K. As we said earlier, this religion was born in a cave outside of

Mecca on August 10th, 610.”

K.1. According to Muhammad, the Angel Gabriel appeared to

inform this man that he was God’s messenger to the world.

K.2. Let’s reexamine what Gabriel said to Muhammad.

K.3. Gabriel said in Sura 96:1-5, “Recite in the name of your

Lord who created-created humanity from an embryo.

Recite your Lord is all-giving who taught by the pen,

taught humans what they didn’t know previously.”

L. To Muslims, this is the equivalent to Genesis 1:27 which says,

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he

created him; male and female he created them.”

M. Why was the Islamic account of the creation of man not Sura 1

like Genesis 1? Why was it Sura 96 rather than Sura 1?

M.1. The Quran is not arranged chronologically.

M.2. It does not give an time line account of Muhammad’s failed

time in Mecca then to Medina to start Jihad and back to

conquer Mecca and back to his death Medina.

M.3. Rather, the Quran is arranged according to the length of the

Suras and therefore the length of the chapter about the

creation of man in Islam is shorter than 95 other Suras.

M.4. Therefore, the Islamic story of creation of man is not

chapter one like Genesis 1 reveals the beginning of

humanity.

N. Since the Quran is not written as an unfolding story of

Muhammad’s life and his teachings, it is very difficult to read and

understand.

N.1. Most Muslims do not understand the Quran and know little

about Muhammad or his true history.

N.2. In fact, it’s likely that you know more about the truth of his

life than most Muslims.

O. Questions or comments? The first thing we will examine is . . .

II. The Bible Versus the Quran

A. Do you believe Genesis 1:1 and everything that follows through

Revelation 22 is the Word of God? Why?

A.1. How do you know the Bible is the Word of God?

A.2. There is a story that I use when I teach the course “Did God

Really Say . . .” which is an explanation of how we got the

Bible.

A.3. After I read you this story, I will ask you a question which

is, “How is the way we got the Bible different from the way

Muhammad got the Quran?”

A.4. The story will give you the information to answer the

question.

B. Here’s the story. During a question and answer session at a

speaking engagement, a preacher was asked by a college student,

“Why do you believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God?”

The preacher answered, “First, the Bible is not just one single

book. This is a common misconception. Rather than being a

single book, the Bible is actually a collection of 66 books, which

is called the canon of Scriptures. These 66 books contain a

variety of genres such as history, poetry, prophecy, wisdom

literature, letters and apocalyptic just to name a few. Second,

these 66 books were written by 40 different authors. These

writers came from a variety of backgrounds: shepherds,

fishermen, doctors, kings, prophets and others. And most of these

authors never knew one another personally. Third, these 66

books were written over a period of 1500 years. Yet again, this

another reminder that many of these authors never knew or

collaborated with one another in writing these books. Fourth, the

66 books of the Bible were written in three different languages.

In the Bible, we have books that were written in the ancient

language of Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. And finally, these 66

books were written on three different continents: Africa, Asia and

Europe. All this is a testament to the varied historical and

cultural circumstances of God’s people.” Then the preacher told

that college student this, “Think about these realities; 66 books,

written by 40 different authors, over 1500 years in 3 different

languages on 3 different continents. What’s more, this collection

of books shares a common storyline-the creation, the fall and

redemption of God’s people; a common theme- God’s universal

love for all of humanity; and a common message - salvation is

available to all who repent of their sins and commit to following

God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. In addition to

sharing these commonalities, these 66 books contain no historical

errors or contradictions. God’s Word is truly an amazing

collection of writings.” Then the preacher offered this challenge

to the college student: “I challenge you to go to any library in the

world, you can choose any library you like and find 66 books

which match the characteristics of the 66 books of the Bible. You

must choose 66 books, written by 40 different authors over 1500

years, in 3 different languages, written on 3 continents. However,

they must share a common storyline, a common theme, a

common message, with no historical errors or contradictions. If

you produce such a collection of books, I will admit that the

Bible is not the inspired Word of God.” The student’s reply was

almost instantaneous. He emphatically stated, “But that’s

impossible. No collection of human writings could pass that

test.” That’s true. No collection of mere human writings could

pass that test because the standards are impossibly high.

However, the Bible says in Matthew 19:26, “With man this is

impossible, but with God all things are possible.” The Bible

passes the test because it contains 66 books, written by 40

different writers over 1500 years in 3 different languages, on 3

different continents with no historical errors or contradictions and

has one theme: the salvation of mankind by a loving God.”

C. How do you like that story by Ron Carlson?

C.1. It’s the best quick summary of how we know the Bible is

the Word of God that I have ever seen.

C.2. Yet, there are other evidences that are even better but take

longer to explain.

D. I used the example of the professor’s explanation of how we got

the Bible to give you a basis of comparison with the way Islam

came to possess the Quran.

E. Remember our question is, “How is the way we got the Bible

different from the way Muhammad got the Quran?”

E.1. The Bible was written by 40 men over 1500 years in three

different languages on three different continents with no

errors or contradiction and yet has one theme: the salvation

of mankind through Jesus Christ.

E.2. The Quran was written by one man over 23 years and it has

many, many contradictions as we will soon see.

E.3. And we will see that Muslims have a special method of

solving those contradictions called “abrogation.”

F. Why do we need to study the origin and compilation of the Quran

and the other sacred writings of Islam?

G. The same reason we must know our own sacred Scriptures.

G.1. Jesus said in John 5:39, “You diligently study the

Scriptures because . . . by them you possess eternal life.”

G.2. The Bible is our authority for everything we believe and the

Quran, Hadith and Sira form the authority for everything a

Muslim believes as well.

H. When you study with them, you better be able to explain how we

got the Bible and how they got the Quran. Why? Because that

will be the battlefield.

I. God only wrote one book.

I.1. We must be able to explain why we believe the Bible is the

true Word of God.

I.2. And we must be able to explain why the Quran is not.

J. The Bible says about itself in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, 16 “All

Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking,

correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of

God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

K. How are we going to be able to show a Muslim that the Bible is

the true God breathed book? The Bible commands us in 2 NKJV,

Timothy 2:15, “15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to

God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing

the word of truth.”

L. The phrase “rightly dividing the word of truth” means “to cut

straight.”

L.1. We are called to be able to rightly divide the Word of God.

L.2. We are to cut it surgically straight to be able to accurately

share it with others and that includes Muslims.

L.3. Not only do we need to know how to divide our sacred

Scriptures but you also need to know how to divide the

Quran and the other Islamic writings as well.

M. Questions or comments?

III. An Overview of the Trilogy of Islam

A. Let’s take a quick look at the three documents that make up the

sacred writings of Islam.

A.1. First, the Quran is what Muhammad said the angel Gabriel

revealed to the prophet which came from Allah Himself.

A.1.a. The Quran is similar to the Torah, the first five books

of the Old Testament.

A.2. Second, Sira, which means biography, compares to the

Gospels.

A.2.a. The Gospels are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

which reveal the life of Jesus.

A.2.b. Sira is the biography of Muhammad’s life.

A.3. And third, the Hadith has similarities to the letters written

in the New Testament because the greatest part of Islamic

beliefs are found in the Hadith.

A.3.a. It reveals the traditions of Muhammad.

A.3.b. One story is a hadith and a collection of these stories

make up a Hadith.

A.3.c. Don’t ask me to make sense of that.

B. Consider these facts about the Islamic writings:

B.1. Measured by textual doctrine, Islam is 86% Muhammad

but only 14% Allah. That is, the Quran is 86% of

Muhammad said but only 14% is supposedly what God

said to Gabriel to tell Muhammad.

B.2. And since Muhammad is the only person who ever “heard”

from Allah, the Quran is really about Muhammad.

B.3. So Islam is 100% Muhammad and it all hinges on him.

C. The Quran is often wrongly compared to the Bible.

C.1. What were some of the major differences between the

compilation of the Bible and the Quran as we noted earlier?

C.2. The Bible was written by 40 different men; the Quran was

derived from the words of just one man.

C.3. The Bible is our complete guide and authority for all

spiritual matters.

C.4. The Quran is actually only 14% of Islam’s sacred texts and

does not contain nearly enough information to tell someone

how to be a Muslim.

C.5. Therefore, they also follow the Hadith and Sira.

D. The real Muslim Bible is not just the Quran but also includes the

Sira and the Hadith which form the trilogy of Islam.

E. I think it is ironic that the greatest prophet that gave Islam its

sacred writings could not write nor could he read them.

F. The only source authority of Islam’s writings that claimed to be

inspired of God came from one man who could not read or write

what he claimed was the word of Allah.

G. How do we know that? Muhammad himself said in the Quran in

Sura:157, “Those who follow the messenger, the Prophet who

can neither read nor write . . .”

H. Ironic isn’t it?

I. Questions or comments?

IV. The Compilation of the Quran

A. Since Muhammad did not write the Quran, how was it compiled

and organized?

B. During his life, Muhammad received many revelations from the

angel Gabriel.

C. When he would one, the prophet would then convey it to his

followers.

D. His followers would then take his words and recite them to other

believers living elsewhere to perpetuate the teaching.

E. The word “Quran” means “to recite.”

E.1. It does not mean “to write.”

E.2. The Quran was a recited body of information originally and

it was not recorded until later after the death of

Muhammad.

E.3. None of Muhammad’s original words were written down

by his followers immediately.

E.4. Not until after his death, did Muhammad’s followers begin

to see a need to record them.

F. In contrast, the word “Bible” means book which implies that it

contains the writing of God’s Word.

F.1. The Lord knew that the weakest ink is better than the

strongest memory.

G. After the Night of Destiny in the cave outside of Mecca where

Muhammad first heard from Gabriel, the prophet continued to

receive individual revelations for the next 23 years.

H. According to Islamic tradition, when Muhammad received a new

revelation, he indicated where it should be placed in the Quran

even though it did not even exist yet.

H.1. Islam teaches that Muhammad had already determined the

structure of the Quran even though he would not be able to

read it.

H.2. This seems unlikely to me. Do you agree? Why?

H.3. A man who could neither read nor write, who only told his

followers of his revelations and shared those teachings only

orally with others would more likely think that his

teachings would be passed from one generation to the next

by word of mouth.

H.4. No where in the Quran, Hadith or Sira did Muhammad

command his followers to record his words during his life

or after he passed from this life.

H.5. The practice of recording Muhammad’s “revelations” was

done by his followers in the years after his death.

I. A typical English translation of the Quran is about 500 pages.

I.1. It is the record of Muhammad’s 23 years as a prophet that

started on the Night of Destiny in the cave outside of

Mecca.

I.2. His last recorded words are found in Sura 5:119-120, “God

will proclaim, ‘This is a day when the truthful will be saved

by their truthfulness.’ They have deserved gardens with

flowing streams. They abide therein forever. God is pleased

with them, and they are pleased with Him. This is the

greatest triumph. To God belongs the sovereignty of the

heavens and the earth, and everything in them, and He is

Omnipotent.”

I.3. Isn’t that a nice ending to the Quran? It speaks of Heaven

and God who is well pleased.

I.4. In reality, the last Sura revealed to Muhammad does not

come at the end of the Quran because it was the fifth

longest and that is how it was placed in Islam’s holy book.

I.5. Again, this hurts the reader’s ability to understands the

book in it’s entirety.

J. The Quran has about 6200 verses which are called “ayats.”

J.1. When you divide his 23 years as a prophet into the number

of verses in the Quran, you get approximately one verse per

day from those years.

J.2. Muhammad did not receive one verse per day but rather on

average he uttered one verse per day.

K. At the death of Muhammad, where did the Quran exist? Only in

the memories of his followers.

K.1. There were no Suras recorded.

K.2. According to one source I read, paper did not exist among

the Arabs for the next one hundred years until they took the

technique of making paper from the Chinese after defeating

them in battle.

K.3. Writing material was scarce in Arabia as we will soon see.

L. After his death, 700 of Muhammad’s followers who knew the

Quran by heart were killed in a battle.

L.1. Realizing that the teachings of the prophet could be lost,

Umar urged Abu Bakr to collect the Quran out of fear that

the reciters would all die in battle.

L.2. Where were Umar and Abu Bakr?

L.3. Abu Bakr was the first Caliph or the first pope king after

the death of Muhammad and began the leader of the

Islamic nation.

L.4. Umar would later be the second Caliph after the death of

Abu Bakr.

L.5. Umar concluded that unless an effort was made to collect

the teachings of Muhammad, they would be quickly lost.

M. The man chosen to do the collection of the Quran was Zayd ibn

Thabit.

M.1. Zayd organized a group of scribes who would record a

hand written manuscript of the complete revelations of

Muhammad.

M.2. This was sixty years after the death of Muhammad and

some had begun writing the sayings of the prophet from

their memory of them lest they forget the prophet’s

teachings.

M.3. Muhammad himself said “Allah’s apostle heard a man

reciting the Quran at night and said, ‘May Allah bestow his

mercy on him as he has reminded me of such and such

Suras. Which I was caused to forget.” Hadith “Sahih al-

Bukhari, vol.6, Bk. 61. No. 558

M.4. Muhammad admitted that he forgot portions of the Quran.

N. Is it possible and even likely that much of the Quran has been

forgotten or corrupted by the memory of mere men?

N.1. How do we know that the 700 men who were killed in

battle who had the Quran memorized did not take portions

of it with them to the grave?

N.2. How could the memory of mere men be reliable to

accurately realize a book that is 500 pages long containing

6200 verses?

O. Do you think this would be an easy task to collect all the sayings

of a prophet over the 23 year period he received the revelations?

O.1. The task was very difficult and Zayd said, “I started

looking for the Holy Quran and collected it from what was

written on palm leaf stalks, thin white stones and also from

men who knew it by heart, until I found the last verse of

repentance with Abi Khuzaima al-Ansari, and I did not find

it with anybody other than him.” Wikipedia - The History

of the Quran

O.2. Do you think it strange that Abi was the only man who

knew the verse about “repentance” and he was supposed to

be the only one who knew the “word of Allah” according to

Zayd?

O.3. These words are included in the Quran and was based on

the testimony of just one uninspired, non-angel seeing

Muslim.

P. Therefore, palm leaf stalks, thin white stones, men’s memories

and animal bones were the means that Muhammad’s revelations

had been recorded which Zayd and his committee collected and

used them to form the first Quran.

P.1. Zayd’s contribution to the project came solely from his

memory because he also had not previously recorded any

of Muhammad’s sayings.

P.2. All the materials that were used to record the Quran were

burned by the committee once the final manuscript was

completed. Self Study 2-14

Q. Can you imagine such a thing being done by Christians who had

a copy of the words of Jesus that went back to with a few years of

His death? Not likely. Why? They would be worth more than a

Brink’s truck full of gold.

R. Yet one wonders, if many of Muhammad’s followers knew the

Quran by heart, why was it necessary for Zayd to find palm

fronds, white stones and animal bones to find the revelations of

the prophet?

R.1. If those many members of Islam had the Quran already

memorized, why did they look high and low for all the

fragments of Muhammad’s sayings?

R.2. And once they were found, why did they burn the evidence

written on palm fronds, white stones and animal bones

which would prove their claims that these were the original

words of Muhammad?

S. Once completed, the manuscript stayed with Bakr until his death.

S.1. This was the first complete written Quran according to

Islamic tradition and is referred to as the “Uthman Codex.”

S.2. This is the most important document in the Islamic world

because it is the text that is used to create the Quran for

each new generation of Muslims.

S.3. It was completed approximately 60 years after the death of

Muhammad. “A Christian’s Self-Study - pg.2-14

S.4. It is the most authoritative version of the Quran to this date

among Muslims and they believe it has been unchanged

since it’s compilation by Zayd.

S.5. The Quran was the first book written in the history of

Arabia. 2-14

T. However, there is no existing Uthman manuscript of the Quran

that goes beyond 750 A.D which is more than a century after the

death of Muhammad.

U. Interestingly, the two manuscripts of the Quran that are

considered to be the most ancient are not written in Arabic but

rather a Persian dialect from Iraq.

U.1. This is a big problem for Islam which claim it was

unchanged since it was first assembled by Uthman.

U.2. These two manuscripts contain numbers and symbols that

do not match the Uthman manuscript that is used by

Muslim scholars today as the so-called “original text.”

U.3. Those early Persian manuscripts were not neat and some of

the writing is compressed and cramped.

U.4. It does not appear to be the work of just one scribe nor does

it appear to have been copied at one time.

U.5. The copyists did not make determined attempts to be

reverent in the way they recorded the text which also goes

against Islamic claims of the way the Quran was treated in

the early years of it’s history.

U.6. The wording of the oldest manuscripts in several places

also differs from the manuscripts used by Islamic scholars

today as well.

U.7. This destroys the claim made by Muslim scholars who say

the Quran has never changed since it’s original recording.

U.8. Their own oldest manuscripts disprove this important

claim.

V. There is not one single corroborated manuscript of their holy

book from even within a century of their founder’s birth.

V.1. Since the two early manuscripts were found to contain

these problems for Islam, the documents are longer allowed

to be examined because other problems may be revealed as

by scholars as well.

W. Let’s go back to the early years of Islam.

W.1. The Quran of Uthman was copied and dispersed among the

followers of early Islam.

W.2. However, the third Caliph noticed that differences in some

of the manuscripts of the Quran.

W.3. The teachings of Muhammad began to appear throughout

Islam that differed from what Uthman considered to be the

true teachings of the prophet.

W.4. Different versions of the Quran began to circulate.

W.5. In fact, Muslim tradition states that there were at least four

different early versions of the Quran.

X. Attempts were made to find all those that differed from Uthman’s

manuscript and those that were found were burned.

X.1. Why? Is it possible that other versions were even earlier

than the Uthman manuscript and contradicted his version?

X.2. Would have other versions hurt Uthman’s authority among

Muslims?

X.3. The Islamic scholars of Uthman did not seek the oldest

manuscripts of the Quran to form the most accurate

version.

X.4. They simply wanted their version to be the one that was

persevered and it did.

Y. However, another Muslim named Ali ibn Abu Talib possessed a

personal transcript of the Quran which he supposedly collected

six months after the death of Muhammad.

Y.1. Some Muslims say this was the first complete version of

the Quran.

Y.2. However, Ali’s version was not accepted by the Islamic

community at that time because it contained verses that

were not original material to the religion.

Y.3. Again, this destroys the notion that the Quran has never

changed through history.

Z. Any questions or comments about the compilation of the Quran?

V. Conclusion

A. What have you learned about the sacred Scriptures of Islam

today?

B. First, the sacred Scriptures of Islam includes the Quran, the

Hadith and Sira.

C. Second, the Quran was written by just one man over 23 years and

it has many, many contradictions.

D. Third, the Quran was not compiled by Muhammad but rather by

his followers many years after his death.

D.1. The only place the Quran existed after the death of the

prophet was in the memories of his disciples.

D.2. His words were not recorded during his lifetime and later

led to many variations in what Muslims claim to be the real

Quran.

D.3. When the Caliph Uthman discovered this, he tried to collect

all versions that differed from his and burned them.

E. Next week we will continue to examine the sacred scriptures of

Islam.