Authenticity of the Quran

Introduction: Who is the author of the Qur’an?

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

Whatever the arguments of the non-believer critics, the Qur’an states explicitly:

“(This is) revelation of the book in which there is no doubt, from the Lord of the worlds. Or do they say he has forged it? Nay it is the truth from the Lord.” (32:2-3)
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From the time of its revelation till today, people have tried to cast doubts about the Divinity of the Holy Qur’an, and have tried to argue in vain that the author of the Qur’an is Prophet Muhammad himself; but they have not succeeded because of its inherent truth.
 
Our study of the Qur'an acquaints us with a distinguishing characteristic of this holy book. This distinguishing characteristic is the absolute authenticity of its source. That is, without the slightest need of any comparison between the oldest manuscripts, it is evident that what we recite as the verses of the Holy Qur'an, are exactly the same words presented before the world by the Almighty Allah (swt) through His messenger Muhammad ibn Abdallah (S).

In another words, the distinguished  feature of the Qur'an is the quality of its contents: its teachings are genuinely original and have not been adopted or plagiarized. Its teachings have been delivered to the Prophet from a world that transcends his thought and mind. The Prophet (S) was only a recipient of this revelation and message.  As Allah says:

“. . . and those who are firmly rooted in knowledge say: We believe in it, it is all from our Lord." (3 :7).

This paper attempts to present several logical arguments, textual analysis, historical evidence and scientific data to prove that the ‘Source of Qur’an is God’, in a simple way for Madrassa teachers to use as a Resource paper in the subject.
 
Due to magnitude of the subject matter, this paper will limit itself to one angle of discussion only: simple and straight forward evidences to prove the “Authenticity of the Qur’an as a Word of God”. However, separate study paper will be required to discuss and make critical review and refutation of : “Authorship theories on the source of Qur’an as forwarded by the unbelievers”, as the biased unbelievers have forwarded several baseless theories on the authorship of Qur’an, which require a detailed critique.
 
Similarly, altogether separate study papers are needed on the following themes:

• Evidences on the “Originality and Genuineness of the Qur’an”, i.e. Qur’an has remained immune against any type of interpolation or transfiguration in its text and even its arrangement, contrary to other revealed books.

• A study on “Comparison between Qur’an and the other revealed books”.

• A paper on “Process of Revelation, Compilation and Preservation of Qur’an”.