Hi everyone and welcome, this is The Apostate Prophet
When talking about Islam
Especially if someone is newly introduced to Islam
There is always this question: Who wrote the Quran?
How did it come into existence?
The answer is not very simple
A short Islamic answer to the question is
That the Quran is the direct spoken word of Allah
who is almighty, all-knowing and omnipresent according to Islamic belief
Muslims believe that Allah spoke his words directly through Gabriel
to Muhammad who then revealed it to his followers
But in reality it went through a huge and questionable process
I want to go through that process with you, provide some information
But also look at it from a critical skeptic perspective
The actual Islamic belief held by the vast majority of Islamic scholars is as follows
Muhammad was a merchant in Mecca Arabia in the 6th and 7th centuries
For a while he had dreams that reportedly came true in reality
which no one can prove of course
And he loved going to a cave called Hira
And retreating for a while
where after he would go to Khadija his employer and wife
To discuss his spiritual activities that he claimed he had
One day in the cave in 610, when he was 40
He was suddenly visited by the angel Gabriel who told Muhammad to read
Muhammad said, "I can't read." so Gabriel squeezed him and told him again to read
At this time Muhammad was like. "I can't read, what am I supposed to read?"
And Gabriel squeezed him again so hard that Muhammad was overwhelmed
and Gabriel recited the first verses of the Quran
Recite in the name of your Lord who created
created man from a clinging substance
Recite and your Lord is the most generous
Who taught by the pen, taught man that which he knew not.
These five verses are believed to be the first revelation
And are in today's Quran in chapter 96
The chapter has more verses than that
But those are believed to have been revealed at a later time
During Muhammad's entire lifetime, there was no book call to the Quran
The Quran was only verbally revealed by Muhammad verse-by-verse
depending on what he had to deal with currently
and it was written down and memorized by people around him
Muhammad would praise people who memorized the Quran
and would give others the duty to do so
That's why more and more people who trusted him memorized his words,
which he claimed were from Allah
But that's why memorizing the Quran is still seen
as a very honorable and pious thing to do in Islam
Although it had no special meaning
in other contemporary cultures like the Romans
and has no big importance in today's time
where you have little gods in your pockets
Only when Muhammad died that his followers come together
and decided to compile all the Quran verses and turn it into one book
There were hundreds of people who memorized parts of the Quran
and dozens of people who wrote down Quran verses
Dozens of scribes who had separate written parts of the Quran
The Sunni belief is that hundreds of those who memorized it
were killed in a battle after Muhammad's death
on the first caliph Abu Bakr's rule
and that Umar who would later become the second caliph
Urged Abu Bakr to compile the Quran
Abu Bakr then gave a man called Zayd ibn Thabit who was Muhammad's scribe
the mission to compile all verses that were scattered among scribes
in a narration Zayd says that this was an almost impossible thing to do
and the hadith also points out
that Muhammad never ordered or did such a thing
According to vastly approved evidence
Muhammad never explicitly stated the idea
to compile all the Quran verses into one book
Zayd did his best and collected everything he found
Even from the memorizes
and he put together this collection with the help of few other people
From an objective point of view especially among historians
He would never trust the authenticity of something that was brought together by one person
from completely unknown origins
and then later on turned into a huge book by again multiple other people
Considering that we are talking about Arabia in the 600's it's even less credible
Because Arabia didn't have a history of credible reports and books,
but in Islam, you could view this as a miracle
Because it's certainly not believable. It's certainly not trustworthy
And by adding this Quran verse, you have to believe that it was a miracle
Indeed, It is he who sent down the Quran and indeed, it is he who will be its guardian?
That's not all according to Islamic belief. Even after this happened.
There was not one single form of the Quran
There were so many different ones with verses varying among the owners
Also Arabic was not a strong and unitary language
There were many different dialects and ways to read a text
and since Arabic didn't have very well outlined rules back then
The scribes and the readers had their own versions of the Quran.
That's why a task was initiated
Most probably by Uthman the third caliph
to unify the Quran by creating one canonized form of the Quran
which would overrule all other Quran
The purpose was to create specifications of vowels and diacritical points
in accordance with one specific dialect of Arabic
So that the Quran cannot be understood differently by reading it differently
because in Arabic a word can be spelt the exact same way
But can have a different outcome his meaning depending on how you read it.
Look at this for example
All of these are spelled the same way but have different meanings
The vowel indicators and diacritics define the meanings
Uthman wanted to prevent this and created a final canonized supreme version of the Quran
and ordered to burn all other copies
According to Islam not all of the copies were burned
because some refused to burn the copies
and others just went unnoticed
That's why there are still different versions of the Quran alive today
Which contradicts with the common Islamic belief, that Allah's word can't be changed.
I mean Allah's word can stay unchanged
if Allah's word is different in every text to begin with, right?
Some who know about this suggests that the differences were very little and insignificant
But that's not true.
The different ways of reading the Quran can change the meaning minimally or very much
Most Muslims only trust in the current version of the Quran
because that one was cleared by Uthman to be supreme
A human. a regular Muslim and political ruler 20 years after Muhammad's death
That's why Islamic teachers prefer not to teach their Muslim students transparently
and clearly about this
but, that's why you have me
This was basically the history of the Quran summarized
in its vastly accepted form by the consensus of Islamic scholars
as for why the Quran is not in chronological order
Muslims don't have a clear answer on that
But most of them agree that Muhammad was the person
who told his followers to rearrange the chapters of the Quran
as you know by now Muhammad would just speak and his followers would make notes
according to the general belief
Muhammad would speak the verses
and then tell his scribes that what he just said goes in this or that chapter
Some chapters and verses were also put together by Uthman and others independently
Most importantly the chapter of repentance which is the ninth chapter of the Quran
is not only the most dangerous and aggressive one.
It is also one that has no clear beginning
and was just placed where it is by Muhammad's surviving companions
According to a hadith, Uthman didn't know what to do with the verse
because Muhammad used to give them further instructions about where to place verses
but Muhammad died before he could give them any instructions about this one
So the Muslims didn't put a beginning line to this chapter
and placed it somewhere where it would be similar to surrounding verses.
Doesn't sound like an almighty God's plan at all, right.
This is the Islamic scholarly consensus
I'm not making this up
Mohammed died in the middle of the process
and that's supposed to be Allah's plan
That's it. To make it short all that is how the Quran came into existence
Today it has 114 chapters in 6236 verses
Verses that were allegedly spoken by Almighty God
Through his angel to a merchant in Arabia
Who then revealed all these verses to his scribes
in the Arabian desert in the 7th century
But the question was who wrote the Quran, right?
If you follow Islam blindly
The answer is Allah wrote it. Sort of
If you don't follow the Quran
You should know the fact that the Quran was written by multiple people over a quite long period
which is a weird thing for a book that is supposed to be Almighty Allah's direct word
Especially if we want to follow the common Muslim belief that the Quran is uncreated
Meaning it was not simply produced by Allah in Muhammad's time
It existed long before humans
Although Muslims believe that the Quran is Allah's word.
It looks very much like it was actually Muhammad's word,
but after going through such a long process did it really protect what Muhammad said?
Was it really a divine mission a divine message?
It's very questionable
Especially if you look at Quran verses like this
that make little sense if the Quran was with Allah forever
Even before humans existed
O you who have believed
Do not enter the houses of the Prophet except when you are permitted for a meal
without awaiting its readiness
But when you are invited then enter
and when you have eaten disperse without seeking to remain for conversation
Indeed that behavior was troubling the Prophet
and he's shy of dismissing you, but Allah is not shy of the truth
oh and when you asked his wives for something asked them from behind a partition
that is purer for your hearts and their hearts
and it is not conceivable or lawful for you to harm the Messenger of Allah
or to marry his wife's after him ever
Indeed that would be in the sight of Allah an enormity
Seriously, what was Allah planning with this Quran for us before Muhammad even existed.
Why did Allah even say these words?
What am I gonna say? What am I supposed to do with this?
Is this really Allah's uncreated direct word for all eternity
for all humankind?
I will leave that to you
Thanks for watching.
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Have a great day
And stay away from Islam