Ten Reasons Muhammad could have not authored the Qur'an. (Part two)

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6. WENT AGAINST CUSTOMS AND NORMS OF SOCIETY

The tribal society at the time of Prophet Muhammad gave little care or regard to those who were in positions of weakness in society, particularly women. The doctrine laid out in the Qur'an considerably improved the status of women in 7th century Arabia. For example it was the custom to bury alive unwanted female infants, a practice prohibited in the Qur'an:

"And when one of them is informed of [the birth of] a female, his face becomes dark, and he suppresses grief. He hides himself from the people because of the ill of which he has been informed. Should he keep it in humiliation or bury it in the ground? Unquestionably, evil is what they decide." [Chapter 16, verses 58-59]

In those days before Islam, women were treated like slaves or property. Their personal consent concerning anything related to their well-being was considered unimportant, to such a degree that they were never even treated as a party to a marriage contract. Women had been treated as possessions of their husbands. Again the Qur'an served to put an end to this:

"O you who have believed, it is not lawful for you to inherit women by compulsion..." [Chapter 4, verse 19]

Women were often used for one purpose, sexual gratification, and then discarded. The Pagan Arabs had no limit to the number of wives that they could marry. In fact Islam is the only Abrahamic religion whose Scripture explicitly limits the maximum number of wives (to four), on the condition that they are treated fairly and justly:

"And if you fear that you will not deal justly with the orphan girls, then marry those that please you of [other] women, two or three or four. But if you fear that you will not be just, then [marry only] one..." [Chapter 4, verse 3]

Before Islam, women had no independence, could own no property and were not allowed to inherit. Again the Qur'an guaranteed women a fair share of property:

"For men is a share of what the parents and close relatives leave, and for women is a share of what the parents and close relatives leave, be it little or much - an obligatory share." [Chapter 4, verse 7]

It must be noted that by comparison the Biblical rules of inheritance afford women no such rights. The laws of inheritance are outlined in Numbers 27:8-11 in the Bible. Accordingly to these laws a daughter can inherit only if no male heirs exist. Even in comparison to the Secular West, Islam was way ahead of its time. From the point of view of economic rights, we have to remember that in Europe until the 19th century, women did not have the right to own their own property. When they were married, either it would transfer to the husband or she would not be able to dispense of it without permission of her husband. In Britain, perhaps the first country to give women some property rights, laws were passed in the year 1860 known as "Married Women Property Act." More than 1,300 years earlier, that right was clearly established in Islamic law.

Prophet Muhammad had absolutely nothing to gain by uplifting the status and rights of women in tribal Arabia. Quite the opposite in fact, as the stance of the Qur'an only served to alienate those who were in positions of power and had a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

7. ABUNDANCE OF FALSIFICATION TESTS

For the sake of argument, were Muhammad the author of the Qur'an, with his sole mission and purpose in life being to accumulate as much power as possible throughout Arabia, then why does the Qur'an contain an abundance of falsification tests, such that were any one of them to be achieved or proven true by his many enemies and sceptics then it would have completely destroyed Islam as a religion. Here are just a few examples::

"Then do they not reflect upon the Qur'an? If it had been from [any] other than Allah, they would have found within it much contradiction." [Chapter 4, verse 82]

Say, "If mankind and the jinn gathered in order to produce the like of this Qur'an, they could not produce the like of it, even if they were to each other assistants." [Chapter 17, verse 88]

8. REVEALS KNOWLEDGE OF THE UNSEEN

Advances in our understanding of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs have shown that the Qur'anic use of the Egyptian term 'Pharaoh' is historically accurate. This is in spite of the fact that all knowledge of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs was unknown at the time of the Qur'anic Revelation.

Knowledge of the old Egyptian hieroglyphs had been totally forgotten until they were finally deciphered in the 19th century CE with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. The only source of knowledge of the religious past were the Bible-based stories in circulation, but Prophet Muhammad couldn't have copied from the Bible because the Bible gets it wrong with regards to its use of the Egyptian term 'Pharaoh'.

Muhammad couldn't have been the author of the Qur'an because its author consistently demonstrates knowledge of the unseen, which is not a trait of human beings.

9. PREDICTIONS ABOUT THE FUTURE

History has not always dealt kindly with Scriptures. The original Gospel of Jesus was lost in its infancy and replaced by the later works of anonymous writers. In fact prior to the Qur'an, every other revealed Scripture has either been lost or tampered with. It is in this backdrop that the author of the Qur'an makes a bold prediction about its preservation:

"Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur'an and indeed, We will be its guardian." [Chapter 15, verse 9]

One of the means by which the Qur'an has been perfectly preserved to this very day is through the language of the Qur'an itself:

"And We have certainly made the Qur'an easy for remembrance, so is there any who will remember?" [Chapter 54, verse 17]

It is estimated that there are at least 10 million Muslims alive today who have memorised the entire Qur'an in its original Arabic language. In fact if every written copy of religious Scriptures in existence today were to be somehow destroyed then it is only the Qur'an that could be recreated perfectly, thanks to its mass memorisation.

If Prophet Muhammad were the author of the Qur'an then he could not have guaranteed that the Qur'an would be perfectly preserved to this very day. This is because the track record of all other revealed Scriptures throughout history only serves to prove that the exact opposite is the case, that their loss and tampering is the norm.

10. REJECTION OF THE SUPERSTITIONS AND MYTHS OF THE ARABS

Arab society had many groundless superstitious beliefs at the time of Prophet Muhammad. This is only natural given that they lacked the technology to examine the world around them and had high rates of illiteracy. It is estimated that the number of literate persons in the centre of the region of the Hijaz did not exceed seventeen [2]. History has recorded a large number of myths and superstitions pertaining to the Arabs and the Iraqi Islamic scholar Sayyid Mahmud Alusi has collected many of them. For example, the Arabs took their cows and the oxen to the bank of a stream for grazing. At times it so happened that the oxen drank water but the cows did not. Thereupon they thought that this was due to the evil spirits which had accommodated themselves between the horns of the oxen and were preventing the cows from drinking. In order therefore to drive away the bad spirits affecting the cows they hit the faces of the oxen [3].

It was against this backdrop of ignorance that the Qur'an was revealed, utterly rejecting such superstition. The example that I will cover is the sun and moon, which were worshipped as gods by the Arabs. Rather than upholding these pagan beliefs, the Qur'an rejects them:

"And of His signs are the night and day and the sun and moon. Do not prostrate to the sun or to the moon, but prostate to Allah , who created them, if it should be Him that you worship." [Chapter 41, verse 37]

Moreover the Qur'an talks about the universe, particularly astronomy, using descriptions and terminology that is not out of place in modern times:

"It is not allowable for the sun to reach the moon, nor does the night overtake the day, but each, in an orbit, is swimming." [Chapter 36, verse 40]

"Do you not consider how Allah has created seven heavens in layers and made the moon therein a [reflected] light and made the sun a burning lamp?" [Chapter 71, verses 15-16]

There is also a notable incident recorded by the companions of Prophet Muhammad that on the same day his son Ibrahim died there was a solar eclipse and so the people linked the two events together. Prophet Muhammad personally denounced such beliefs, saying:

"The sun and the moon do not eclipse because of the death or life (i.e. birth) of someone..." [4]

There is absolutely no reason why Prophet Muhammad would go against the superstitions of his people, especially when he came from a tribal culture that blindly followed the traditions of their forefathers.

CONCLUSION

Sceptics/critics may attempt to argue away some of these points individually. However taken collectively, these arguments provide powerful and compelling evidence that the Qur'an could not have been an invention of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

Who then, is the author? The answer to the question of authorship lies in the Qur'an itself:

"Your Companion is neither astray nor being misled. Nor does he say (aught) of (his own) desire. It is no less than inspiration sent down to him. He was taught by one mighty in Power." [Chapter 53, verses 2-5]