Bismillah
Praise be to Allah, King of the Kings and Creator of all creations, prayer and peace be upon His Messenger Mohamed Ibn Abdullah.
To continue on the Ayah:" "Verily We: It is We Who have sent down the Reminder (i.e. the Qur'an) and surely, We will guard it (from corruption)." (Quran 15:9)
Was the Quran subject to distortion or falsification?
Evidences from Quran that prove falsification as impossible
- Spelling of words: A large number of words of Quran were scribed using a totally different spelling than what we use at our present time. It was rather scribed in the spelling that was used at the time of Ta`been (successors). However, on certain positions, many times the used spelling was different from how the same word usually appeared. To further explain this, we bring the following examples:
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On another example, the letter Ya was omitted from the word of "fˉa `budūn " whenever it was mentioned in Quran except in the Ayah saying:" Wa 'ani u`budūnī Hādhā Şirāţun Mustaqīmun" (Surat Yaseen). The Ya was omitted as well from the word: "ikhshawn" except in Allah's Saying:" falā takhshawhum wa ikhshawnī" (Quran 2:150). The word "muhtad" appears also in Quran without the letter Ya at the end with the exception of Allah's Saying:" Man yahdi Allāhu fahuwa al-Muhtadī" (Quran 7:178).
Imam Jalale Deen Asseyoufi may Allah bestow mercy on his soul, dedicated one of the eight chapters of his book: "Excellence in the Science of Quran" to this topic in particular. The chapter was titled as "Spelling and tools of writing".
Imam Malek may Allah Bestow mercy upon his soul received a question on whether writing in the mushaf should be made according to the newly made spelling? His answer was no and that the original spelling and font style must be used. In other words, the spelling of the early Othmani.
Actually, Muslim scholars were all in agreement with what Imam Malek prescribed in this regard. He was also asked about the letters of Quran which are written but not pronounced (constant) such as the letters Waw and alef as in:"Ulowa". He still insisted not to change any of the spellings of the words as they appeared in the initial Mushaf.
Imam Ahmed may Allah Bestow mercy on his soul states: It is prohibited to violate the spelling as it appears in the initial (Imam) mushaf even regarding a letter of waw, Ya, alef or others.
Bayhaqi in his Parts of Faith book wrote: One who scribes a Mushaf must maintain the spelling as used by the first scribers without any change. He added, they were more versed in terms of knowledge, more truthful in the heart and tongue as well as more honest than us. We must never think that we may correct them in any way.
Now let us focus on the point we need to make here, in case there is a minimum possibility of amendment or change (let alone falsification) in Quran, the words that are not scribed in uniformity with how it appears in most of the positions would have been subject to this change. Keep in consideration that the spelling was decided upon through the consensus of scribers of the Othmani Mushaf.
Thus, there is no room to call it misspelling. Prior to the invention of printing methods, Mushafs were copied by hand. Yet, all the copies still maintained the same spelling used in the Othmani Mushaf.
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- The separated letters: 29 chapters (Surah) of Quran started with a number of separated l letters. They come in the form of either one letter such as in Sad, Qaf and Noun. Or two letters such as Ta ha, Ta seen, Ya seen and Ha meem, or in other positions they come in three letters such as in Alef Lam meem, Alef Lam Ra and Ta Seen meem. In other positions, they appeared in sets of four as in Alef meem Ra, Alef meem Sad. Five sets also were present in Quran as in Ka ha Ya A`yn Sad, Ha meem A`yn Seen Qaf. Such sets of letters are all of certain features. <ol>
<li>They don’t maintain the same position in Quran texts. Each of such letters represent an independent Ayahs in all of the chapters where it was included except Alef Lam Ra, Alef Lam Meem Ra, Ta Seen, Ya Seen Sad and Qaf and Noun each of them is a part of an Ayah. While for example Ka ha Ya A`yn Sad is an individual Ayah. But for instance, Ha meem A`yn Seen Qaf are two Ayahs. - Quran is originally based on the continuation of recitation which is proved through the haraka / tashkeel (signs placed to the letter to determine the pronunciation) even at the end of the Ayah. Although stopping at the end of each Ayahs is a Sunnah, yet the last word of each Surah or even the last word in the Mushaf which is "annas" included in Suratu Annas has a Kasrah under the letter seen to be pronounced as Annasi. This spelling is made based on the presumption of connecting the word annas with Surat Fatiha. For example,
"Wa 'innahu Laĥaqqu al-Yaqīni.51.
And Verily, it (this Qur'an) is an absolute truth with certainty.*
Fasabbiĥ biāsmi Rabbika al-`Ažīmi.2.
* So glorify the Name of your Lord, the Most Great." (Quran 69:51-52) Bismillah ArRahaman ArRaheem "Sa'ala Sā'ilun bi`adhābin Wāqi`in."
".A questioner asked concerning a torment about to befall" (Quran 70:1)
And also:"Al-Ladhī yuwaswisu fī Şudūri an-Nāsi. * Mina al-Jinnati wa an-Nāsi. ) Bismillah ArRahaman ArRaheem Alhamdulelah ..and the remaining of the Ayahs
."Who whispers in the breasts of humankind, ."Of jinns and men.". Note the signs that determine the pronunciation of each final letter.
However, the separated letters are based on the rule that one who recited stops on them without using a sign of tashkeel: Such as Alef Lam Meem, Ka Ha Ya A`yn Sad and Ha Meem * A`yn Seen Qaaf, as recited by the Messenger salla Allah a`lyhee wa sallam to the companions which was transmitted from generation to generation till our present time and shall remain the same till the Day of Resurrection.
None of the companions inquired about the meaning of such letters, neither did the Messenger salla Allah a`lyhee wa sallam commented on them. It was accepted by all groups including even the Kufar and people of the book without any discussion. While those groups; Kufar and people of the book were adopting an attitude of striving to identify a mistake which they may use as an argument against Islam.
Imam Sayouti commented on this issue saying: Unless Arabs recognized that it has an established indication, other wise they would have been first to object about it. Whereas the Messenger salla Allah a`lyhee wa sallam recited to them Ha Meem Fusilat, Sad and other separated letters without any objection on their part. On the contrary, they openly admitted the high level of eloquent style when they were anxiously looking for a pitfall or a slight mistake. As a result, this makes the issue as a well established matter that no one can object to. In case Quran was subject to falsification, wouldn’t the person involved focus first on such letters in any manner?
Narrated Abdullah May Allah Be Pleased with him saying: While praying behind the Messenger salla Allah a`lyhee wa sallam, we used to say Assalam a`la Allah, Assalam a`la xyz (peace be upon Allah or xyz). On another narration: Assalam a`la Jebreel, Assalam a`la Mickael. The Messenger salla Allah a`lyhee wa sallam told us one day: Allah Is Assalalm, thus when one sits during Salah (prayer) say: attaheyatu lellah, wassalawatu attayebat, assalalm a`lyaka ayuha annabi wa rahamtu Allah wa barakatu, assalam a`lyana wa a`la e`bandullah assalehyeen. Once the person say these words, they will cover each righteous servant of Allah whether in sky or on earth, ashhadu anna la ilaha ila Allah wa ashhadu anna Mohamdan a`bduh wa rasouluh. Then one may invoke upon Allah of whatever one desires either for Dunia or the Hereafter, before saying salam.
(Reported by Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Daoud, Nasaai, and Termidhi)