11-07-2004, 12:35 PM
The author, M. M. Al-A’zami, trace the history of Holy Qur’an in comparison with the Jewish and Christian scriptures – The Old Testament and the New Testament.
Holy Qur’an is a unique book in many ways, but the most extraordinary aspect of its uniqueness arises from its own claim that it is the actual Word of Allah revealed to Prophet Muhammad in “clear Arabic” (arabiyun mubeen, al-Qur’an: 16:103). The Muslims have always believed in this divine origin of the Book, which forms the basis of their faith.
On the other hand. The non-Muslims, the Orientalists and a whole range of Western scholars refused to accept the Qur’anic claim on a ‘scientific basis’. This denial gained momentum with the first translations of Holy Qur’an into Western languages in 1143, developed into a complete academic discipline that continues to flourish. New variations have been added to the original objections raised by the Makkan non-believers. Borrowing some of the tools of the so-called higher criticism of the Bible, many Western scholars have painstakingly
constructed ‘scientific’ theories that deal with the text of Holy Qur’an and attempt to prove that the Book, as we have it today, could not have come into existence without being changed and distorted on the way.
The book is not merely a refutation of Western allegations; rather, it is concerned with a wide range of issues dealing with the nature of religious texts, and a third of it is devoted to the Old and the New Testaments. At first sight this may seem inappropriate and irrelevant, but as one reads it becomes clear that the author has devoted so much attention to the two because the history of these texts and their corruption is directly related to Western attitudes toward Holy Qur’an.