Authenticity of the Quran
Prophet Muhammad (S) was Unlettered
It is impossible for this Qur’an to have been produced by a single
individual or to have been borrowed by him from other sources,
particularly an individual who was unlettered, had not even studied, and
had grown up in the degenerate environment of the Arabian peninsula at
that time, an environment which was totally alien to science and
philosophy.
All historians are unanimous that the Prophet was an unlettered man who
had never known books or teachers and never learned how to write. The
Qur’an itself addressed him as follows:
“Before this, you did not read any book, nor did you write anything
with your hands”. (29:48).
Before the revelation of the Holy Qur’an, the Holy Prophet could
neither write with his own hand nor could he read anything written by
the others, and this is a fact vouched by one and all of the age of the
Holy Prophet.
No opponent in the life time of the Prophet ever raised his voiced to
challenge this verse, since for the forty years they stayed with him,
they knew he was unlettered. How could have then the prophet authored
such an unmatchable book by himself. With this fact in view, it would be
sheer absurdity to say that what he delivered as the Qur’an was not the
revelation from God, but a reproduction of what he read in the other
scriptures and what he wrote, i.e. composed of and memorised.
One may wonder why God, the Almighty commissioned one who was deprived
of the capacity of reading or writing as His Apostle? Was not the
Prophet supposed to be the most knowledgeable one who was required to
teach the people the Book and the wisdom? The answer is that inability
to write and read does not mean ignorance, as the Holy Prophet was
gifted divine knowledge through miracle, and according to some
researchers, the Prophet knew how to read and write not through learning
from a teacher but through divine inspiration and miracle.
Infact, the immediate next verse of the Holy Qur’an asserts that the
Prophet was granted knowledge:
“Nay! It (Qur’an) is the clear signs in the breast of those who have been granted the knowledge” (29:49).
The Prophet (S) confirmed this by saying: “I am the city of Knowledge
and Ali is its door”.
Whatever the case, the obvious fact remains the same: the one who had
never learnt from any human teacher how to read or write, to present
this incontestable and universally recognised truth - the Qur’an - which
never before was revealed even to the great apostles in the past, could
not have possibly been without its source being from above.
Unfortunately, there were some who accused the Prophet that he learnt
the contents of Qur’an from the others. But this is refuted by the
Qur’an eloquently:
“Say (O Muhammad)! The Holy Spirit (Jibriil) has brought it (Qur’an)
down from your Lord with the truth, that it may establish those who
believe, and as a guidance and glad tidings unto those who submit
(themselves to God). And indeed We know what they say: ‘It is only a man
that teaches him’. The tongue of him whom they falsely hint at, is
outlandish (foreign language, not eloquent, slang), while this language
is Arabic (pure and) plain”. (16:102-103).
However, it is remarkable that such a man who had never studied from
any mortal being, was given the most eloquent book: The Glorious Qur’an,
and became the standard-bearer of a movement calling for science and
free thought. It is said that the mystic object in keeping the Prophet
unaware of the art of reading and writing was to help the people to
recognise the Qur’an as a Word of God.
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