12-26-2012, 07:58 AM
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:
Separated letters _ 2:
There was a consensus acceptance around the separated letters, with which 29 Surahs (chapter) of the Quran start, without the least argument or questioning. None of the companions of the Messenger salla Allah a`lyhee wa sallam, questioned them, nor the Messenger himself salla Allah a`lyhee wa sallam gave any explanation to them. However, the dominating sense of those letters that they contain some secret. Each party, the believers and people of the book strove hard in order to solve its code, whereas the non believers didn’t have an openly expressed opinion about them.
As for the believers, some of them perceived those letters as acronyms or abbreviations of sentences. Ibn Abbass may Allah Be Pleased with both of them, commented saying: Alef lam meem is an acronym of Anna Allah A`lam ( I M Allah I Know), alef lam meem sad is an acronym of Anna Allah Afsel (I M Allah I Settle), and alef lam ra is an acronym of Anna Allah Araa (I M Allah I See). While he commented about alef lam ra, ha meem, and noon as being a set of separated letters that form the name ArRahman. Others perceived those letters as acronyms to Allah's Names explaining for example kaf ha ya a`yn sad as kafen which means One Who Protects and Suffices haden which means One Who Guides, Ameen, A`zeez, Sadek (Trustworthy, Mighty Who Is not to be Beaten, Truth Sayer). They added, that using some of the letters of the word is a common for Arabs. Arabs pronounce one letter to indicate the word of which its is composed. Others referred to such letters as being the Greatest Name of Allah, however, we are not aware of its composition using those letters.
As for the Jews, they took another perception towards this matter, narrated Jaber Ibn Abdullah may Allah be pleased with him, that Abu Yasser Ibn Akhttab was among a group of Jewish men who passed by the Messenger salla Allah a`lyhee wa sallam while he was reciting the first part of Surat Baqarah:
1"Alif-Lam-Mim * Dhālika al-Kitābu Lā rayba fīhi Hudan lilmuttaqīna.". Then he met with his brother Huyay Ibn Akhtab sitting among Jewish men who were discussing saying: Do you know in the name of Allah I heard Mohamed reciting in part of what is revealed to him" "Alif-Lam-Mim * Dhālika al-Kitābu ". He said: did you hear him yourself? He said yes.
Huyay took the group of men sitting with him and went to meet the Messenger salla Allah a`lyhee wa sallam and told him: Didn’t you mention that you recite of what is revealed to you: "Alif-Lam-Mim * Dhālika al-Kitābu ". The Messenger said: yes, they replied: Allah Sent before you many prophets, we are not aware of any of them to whom Allah Revealed and informed about the duration of his ruling or the life of his Ummah except you. They further explained saying that the alif = one, lam = thirty, meem = fourty which adds up to seventy one years. Do you expect us to join the religion of a prophet whose duration of rule and Umma comes up to only seventy one years? He then added: O Mohamed, did you receive any similar parts? He said: yes, alif meem Sad, Huyay commented saying: this is more heavy and longer. Alif is one, lam is thirty, meem is forty and Sad is sixty which adds up to a hundred and thirty one years. He continued asking: is there other similar letters? He said: yes: alif lam ra, he replied this is even more heavy and longer: alif equals one, lam equals thirty, and ra two hundred which comes up to total of two hundred and thirty one years. He further said: We are confused about your situation and position that we are totally unaware of whether Allah Granted you little or much. Then he turned to his friends and said: just go away and leave him. Abu Yasser told his brother and the rest of the group: how can you not be sure that Allah Didn’t add up all of this to him which is seventy one plus hundred and thirty one plus two hundred thirty one plus two hundred seventy one which comes up to total of seven hundred and four years. They concluded saying this matter is so confusing to us.
While the pagans of Quraish actually never commented about those separated letters, when in fact they were trying to seize any chance to ridicule the Ayahs of Allah. When Allah Revealed:"'Adhalika khayrun Nuzulāan 'am Shajaratu az-Zaqqūmi..
Is that (Paradise) better entertainment or the tree of Zaqqoom (a horrible tree in Hell)?" (Quran 37:62)
He instructed his slave girl saying in a mocking manner zaqqimina (which translates as bring us zaqqoom to eat). She served him dates and butter. He then turned to his friends saying: Tazaqqamoo (which means eat the zaqqoom), this is what Mohamed is warning us against, he claims that hell grows trees while fire in fact burns trees. In the case of revealing the Ayah of: " Over it are nineteen (angels as guardians and keepers of Hell)." (Quran 74:30) he mocked the Ayah telling Quraish: may your mothers loose you by death, I heard Ibn Abi Kabsha (referring to the Messenger salla Allah a`lyhee wa sallam), he is informing you that the guardians of Juhanam are nineteen while you are those who are large in number and courageous, will it be difficult for each ten of you to defeat one of them? One of the pagans said: I would push with my right shoulder ten and with my left shoulder nine, then you all may easily pass through to reach Jannah. Another one said I can handle seventeen and you just handle two. Abu Jahl concluded saying: is it difficult for each hundred from among you to harshly defeat one of them then you are out of Hell?
They were capable of making all of such mocking against several Ayahs revealed in Quran, yet, they were never able to come up with any comment or accusation against the separated letters.
Even the orientalists tried to understand the secret behind those letters. A number of them saw it as keys to the Quran Surahs. They even made an analogy with the musical key notes which are placed at the beginning of any music note.
Regardless of the diverse perceptions about the separated letter, none came up one day questioning why do we continue placing in the Mushaf some letters of which the indication is ambigious? Why don’t we take it off the Mushaf?
We can then easily conclude that the placement and maintenance of such letters in the Mushaf throughout the time is a strong evidence against the possibility of any distortion or change in the Quran. If there were any possibility of such change, such letters would have been the first target. We can also safely say that it suffices if Allah Included such letters in the Quran to stand as an evidence against the distortion or falsification of Quran. However, no doubt that they carry another secret which is not declared to us from Allah till now.
Narrated Abdullah Ibn Masoud may Allah Be Pleased with him saying: that the Messenger salla Allah a`lyhee wa sallam used to end prayer by saying as salam alykom wa rahmatullah on both sides making sure to fully turn till you can easily see the whiteness of his cheeks.
This hadeeth was included in 55 narrations, in one of them, the formula that the Messenger used was just assalam alykom, two using the formula assalalm alykim wa rahamatullah wa barakatuh to the right and just assalalamu alykom to the left, and 52 with the above mentioned formula.