THE QUR’AN’S HISTORICAL PROBLEMS
Assessing the newest research on the historicity of the Qur’an
By Dr. Jay Smith
November 23, 2018
The ‘Inimitability’ of the Qur’an
What Muslims claim
- The Qur’an is uncreated and exists eternally on clay tablets in heaven (S.85:22)
- The Qur’an was sent down to Muhammad between 610 and 632 AD
- The Qur’an was finally completed by Uthman in 652 AD
- The Qur’an is unchanged in the last 1400 years
The ‘Inimitability’ of the Bible
What Christians claim
- The Bible was created, as it was written by man
- The Bible was not sent down to anyone, but inspired by God
- The Bible was complete in its original form
- The Bible has been changed in the last 2000 years, and we know where, and say so
Our remit today
What we will attempt to do
- We cannot critique an ‘uncreated’ or a ‘sent down’ Qur’an
- We can only critique an archaic, ‘complete’, and ‘unchanged’ Qur’an
- Thus, we would want to find:
- 1 Qur’an
- Dated from the mid-7th century (652 AD)
- Complete (i.e. all 114 Surahs)
- Unchanged (exactly like the 1924 ‘Hafs’ Qur’an used today)
Where we plan to go…
11 areas we will investigate
[A] What do modern Muslim Leaders Claim?
[B] What did early Muslim Scholars Say?
[D] Source Criticism
[E] The 2 compilations of the Qur’an
[F] The 6 Earliest Qur’anic Manuscripts
[G] The 2 Layers of the Sana’a Palimpsest
[H] The 4 Carbon Dating Lab Reports
[I] The late Diacritical Variants (i.e. the 31 different Arabic Qur’ans)