103- The Holy Qur’an -- A Book Free from Contradictions (Series: Inviting Reflections).

Two famous enemies of the Qur’an and known orientalists of the 20th century: Bell of Edinburgh and Torrey of Yale propounded a “Principle of Higher Criticism” to find out the fallacies and contradictions of a text. They applied the same on the text of the Qur’an and could not find any two verses which are in conflict with each other semantically; or, any verse which is not in line with the historical facts of the human history; or, any verse which is against the established scientific facts of life.

The Holy Qur’an claims:

."???? ????????? ?????????? ??? ?????? ???????? ????? ???? ???????? ? ???????? ????? ??????? ???????"      

(No falsehood can creep in it (the Qur’an) from the front or rear: It is sent down by One Full of Wisdom, Worthy of all Praise). Surah: 41, Verse: 42. It has been witnessed that the holy book does not contain any two verses which are semantically in conflict with each other; or, any information which is invalidated by the known history of human beings; or, any information which is not in agreement with the natural laws. The following challenge, as mentioned in one of our previous posts, has been repeated in the Holy Qur’an in various contexts; for example, a verse from Surah Al-Nisa’ reads:

."??????? ?????????????? ?????????? ? ?????? ????? ???? ????? ?????? ??????? ?????????? ????? ??????????? ????????"

(Do they (non-believers) not consider the Qur′an (with care)? Had it been from other than Allah, they would surely have found therein much discrepancies and contradictions). Surah: 4, Verse: 82.

The nature of discrepancy and contradiction is explained with the help of an example: The Holy Bible reads: [before The Flood of Noah A.S.] Then the Lord said: “I will not allow the people to live for ever; they are mortal. From now on they will live no longer than a hundred and twenty years”; please see: Genesis 6:3. It is surprising, however, we note at least ten descendants of Shem (Son of Noah A.S.) who had lifespans that range from 148 to 600 years, if we consider the lifespans of descendants down to Abraham A.S. Please see: Genesis 11: 11-32. No such discrepancy is seen in the Holy Qur’an.

The enemies of the Qur’an, in the history, have been trying to find out contradictions or false information given therein. Some insinuations and misgivings created by the orientalists; and, objections of the enemies against the Holy Qur’an are listed below along with brief explanation; and some other details which are not correct in other adulterated revealed books:

1- Most of the orientalists name The Broken Words: Al-Huruf al-Muqatta’at as “mysterious letters” which shows their level of enmity, intention and biasness. Without referring the problem to the Arabic literature and diction, some orientalists held that these Broken Letters were the symbols which signify those persons from whom Muhammad, peace be upon him, took help while composing these surahs.

2- Almost all orientalists have objected that why the Qur’an has not assigned different chapters (surahs) to different topics as we see it in the Holy Bible.

3- Arthur Jeffery claimed that the Qur’an contains 111 surahs and not 114. In fact the learned orientalist has inferred this novel idea from a report of a bibliographer namely: Ibn Nadim d. 384 AH, who says in his celebrated Al- Fehrist (A Bibliographic Work and an Index of the Books): “The personal copy of the Qur’an of the companion of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, namely: ‘Abdullah bin Mas’ud R.A. is extant but its first and last pages are missing”. The first page contained Al-Fatiha (the opening surah) and the last page, containing: Al- Mu’awwazatayn: ??????? ? ????  (last two surahs of the Qur’an). This statement of Ibn Nadim was the basis of the claim that the Qur’an contains 111 surahs. These two surahs are usually named by the orientalists as “Two Charms”.

4- The Holy Qur’an does not contain any data about the time line when the earth or other celestial spheres were created unlike other extant revealed books; and, the information imparted by these books has been refuted by the modern knowledge.

5- The Holy Qur’an claimed about the Jewish people:

." ????????? ?????????? ???????? ????? ??????? ????????? ??????????? ?????????? ????? ??????? ? ??????? ????????? ??????????????? "

(The Jews said, "Ezra is the son of Allah," and the Christians said, "The Messiah is the son of Allah." These are their statements, out of their mouths). Surah: 9, Verse:30.

The Jewish people have been objecting that neither Torah nor the Holy Bible contains any such statement which implies that in Jewish belief Prophet ‘Uzayr (A.S.) (Ezra) was a son of Allah as maintained by the Qur’an. It is true that the present prevalent versions of both books, Torah and Bible, do not contain any such statement. 

The wonders of the Qur’an will never come to an end. In the 40s and 50s of the twentieth century, Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered which were in old Serik and Hebrew languages and date back to the years 100-150 AD, almost 500 years before the advent of Islam. Some of the retrieved papers have already been published from Jordon and other European countries in the 1960s and some other materials are in waiting for publication. Among other things, a book has also been retrieved, probably by a Christian scholar, who has subjected Jews to severe criticism for believing ‘Uzayr (A.S.) as a son of Allah. (Please see for details: Muhadarat e Qur’ani (Lectures on the Qur’an) by Mahmud Ahmad Ghazi, 2009, pp. 274-276).

The Qur’anic assertion about Judaism is right and it is also an evidence about the fact that Qur’an is the only subtle source of pre-historic events.

6- The Qur’an used the phrase for Holy Mary: “O sister of Aaron”. It was objected that Holy Mary had no brother namely: Harun. It was responded by the Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, himself that it is a way of Arabs to name someone after dignitaries of his/her clan or culture.

7- It was also objected that the holy Qur’an names one as Haman among ministers or dignitaries of the royal court of Pharaoh of Moses A.S. Since this name has not been mentioned in the Holy Bible, it is believed that no Haman ever existed there. The objection is without any historical proof or empirical evidence.                

Dear readers! It is now known that the Holy Qur’an does not have  any two verses which are semantically in conflict with each other; or, any information which is invalidated by the known history of human beings; or, any information which is not in agreement with the natural laws.