After Muhammad’s death in 632 AD, Abu Bakr became the ruler of the newly born Islamic nation. According to Sahi Bukhari (V6, B61, N509), narrated by Zaid bin Thabit, he was asked by Abu Bakr to collect the Quranic verses. Umar, the next ruler in line, brought this issue to Abu Bakr’s attention because many of the Qurra’ (those who knew the Quran by heart) were killed in the battle of Yal-mama. Apparently, Mama Allah did not want to save them and the verses they memorized. Umar was afraid of losing a large part of the Quran if more Qurra’ died. Zaid bin Thabit was honest about his intention; he asked Abu Bakr a valid question, "How will you do something which Allah's Apostle did not do?" Abu Bakr made a political comment, "By Allah, it is a good project." Zaid bin Thabit collected verses, as much as he could, and Abu Bakr preserved the relics until he died.  

Abu Bakr ruled only for 27 months and died in 634 AD. The second Caliph Umar took over and remained in power until 644 AD, when he was assassinated in an Islamic fashion. The relics stayed with him and passed to his daughter Hafsa, instead of giving them to the third Caliph Uthman. Finally, several years after Muhammad’s death, Uthman compiled the Quran and burned all other scriptures that existed. Ibn Abi Dawud records, “Musab ibn Sad ibn Abi Waqqas to have testified: ‘I saw the people assemble in large number at Uthman's burning of the proscribed copies; not a one spoke out against him.’ Ali commented, ‘If I were in command in place of Uthman, I would have done the same.’”  

Burning the Quran is a serious matter. If we try to burn a Quran today, Muslims will burn half of the world. Several people were killed when news broke out that a Quran had been flushed down the toilet, which, of course, is the right place for this book anyway. Yet nothing happened to Uthman when he burned a pile of Qurans. Even the original scriptures that carried the memory of the famous prophet of Islam were burned at a later time; this should break any pious Muslim’s heart. However, we do learn one significant lesson. The next time you are writing a thesis, burn all references that you have used; it will make your paper more authentic and free of challenge.  

There are 114 suras in the Quran and they are set in order, which cannot be changed. These suras are not in chronological order. Some verses of the same sura were placed at the beginning, but events took place at a later time after the rest of the verses of the same sura. The hodgepodge setting and continuous inconsistency of verses only give a migraine headache to a reader. It’s believed that Muhammad himself put those suras in order, which is possible. The intelligence used for arrangement indicates a disorderly, crazy person.  

Islamic countries have an excellent reputation for corruption that includes students cheating on an exam. Naturally, students of Madrasas are not angels; they too use a little extra help when examination time comes. There are reports of Madrasa students placing pages of the Quran in the toilet and leaving them in this unholy place after glancing at the verses that they forgot, but no Muslims complain about disrespecting the Quran.     

The Quran we see today is a copy of the Uthmanic Quran. The question is: Who gave Uthman the authority to edit the Quran? Did Allah send special instructions? We don’t have any record of Allah’s secretary, Gabriel, whispering in Uthman’s ear. Most scholars of Islam agree that Uthman had to do this special task because people differed over the Quran. How do we know if the Uthmanic Quran is the right version? Many ahadith indicate that there were suras much longer than those we have in today’s Quran.    

Do we even have a copy of the Uthmanic Quran?   

So far two known manuscripts of the Quran exist that have the possibility of being the Uthmanic Quran. One resides in Tashkent , Uzbekistan that only contains sura 2 to 43. Another is the Topkapi Manuscript of Istanbul , Turkey . Both were written on parchment and in the Kufic script. Modern Quranic experts, including Martin Lings and Yasin Hamid Safadi, agree that the Kufic script did not appear until 790 AD and later. So, these two books have the remote possibility of being one of Uthmanic books.  

According to some scholars, if the Quran had been composed in the seventh century, it should have been written in either the ‘Ma’il’ or ‘Mashq’ script. There is one Quran in the British Library in London that was written in the ‘Ma’il’ script and it is believed to be the oldest Quran in our possession today. However, Martin Lings, a practicing Muslim and the former curator for the manuscript of the British Library, certified that the Quran in question dates back to the end of the eighth century.

Several Islamic countries claim to have the ‘Uthmanic’ Quran in their possession but none of them have been verified or have been carbon dated-14, known as the AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) test. In this special type of test, a mere 0.5 to 1.0 mg of material is required and the accuracy of the test may vary only for a few years. However, the idea of having the Quran tested is an uncomfortable and embarrassing situation for the faithful (more accurately faith-fools) of Islam.

To the best of my knowledge, none of these Uthmanic Qurans have any publishing date and Muslims have not claimed any. This is not a Quranic miracle but the usual Quranic stupidity. Wouldn’t it be convenient for everyone if any of these Qurans had the name of the publisher and when was it published?

Now back to the fragility of the Quran...

How should Muslims handle the Quran?

They must, before touching the Quran, do 19 sit-ups, 19 pull-ups and 19 squats, since 19 is the miraculous number of the Quran.

On a serious note, Muslims cannot touch the Quran unless they have cleansed themselves. They don’t go inside of a washer and a dryer but they are required to wash their face, hands and feet, as if a surgeon is preparing for a surgery. Muslims not only handle the Quran like a broken piece of glass; they expect and sometimes force the people of other faiths or no faith to respect their holy book, too.

The concept of secularism and religious tolerance flourished in un-Islamic countries. Most of these countries did not compromise with religion while drafting their constitution; humanity took precedence over religious dogmas. In the contrary, Islamic countries tend to make their laws based on the Quran; specifically, oil-rich countries care less about democracy. 

<  back   1  |  2  |  3  next  >