What are the evidences in favour of the Qur'an being a divine
Sripture?
Given below is a list of some of the evidences in support of the
divine nature of the Qur'an:
1. It , itself, declares that it is a divine Scripture
2. It shall remain unchanged upto the Last Day.
3. The path of right conduct that it prescribes is faultless.
4. It is practicable.
5. The history that it teaches is faultless and honest.
6. Its literature is incomparable.
7. The prophecies made in it can be seen to have come true.
8. The references in it to the varied phenomena of nature, as
representing the signs of God, are free of controversies.
9. There is no reference, whatsoever, of an unscientific nature in it.
10. It is free of all contradictions.
11. None has been able to take up the challenge it poses when it calls
forth all, and any, to produce an equivalent of at least one of its
chapters.
12. The person who was appointed with it in the world was himself of
a truthful and selfless nature.
Can it not be claimed that the Qur'an’s has been but the composition
of Muhammad (pbuh) himself ?
Prophet Muhammad (e) had lived in the light of history. It
was through him that the world first heard of the Qur'an. As such, all
that may be asserted by those who do not accept the divine status of
the Qur'an is that it is the composition of Muhammad (e). There are
however, certain facts that must be understood as the premises for
this discussion. It can only be on the foundations of these premises
that the question as to whether the authorship of the Qur'an can be
attributed to Prophet Muhammad (e) can be discussed.
One : Muhammad (e) had been, upto the age of forty, the most
favoured man among the Arabs. It was because he had claimed that
the Qur'an was divinely inspired and that the commandments within it
are to be adhered to, that he was hated; osctracized; and forced to
flee from his hometown.
Two : Even among his bitterestt opponents there was about the truthfulness of Muhammad(e). It is difficult, therefore, to
believe that after living forty years of his life with utmost truthfulness,
he should venture to declare a falsehood in the name of the Lord
Creator and that he should have risked his own life for the sake of its
propagation.
Three : Men of letters were accorded a high status in Arabia.
There was not the slightest dissenting opinion among any, as regards
the lofty position of the Qur'an in its viability as a literary creation. If
he had ventured to claim the Qur'an as his own work, he would have
gained great respectability and status amongst the Arabs.
Four : There are references in the Qur'an which have criticized
certain of the actions of Muhammad (e) himself.
Five : There are also other references in the Qur’an which
reproach Muhammad (e) in the strongest possible terms.
It should be in the light of these facts that the pros and cons of
the argument that the Qur'an is the work of Muhammad (e) should
be examined.
Indeed, if a work of great literary merit is composed and is then
attributed to the name of God, there must necessarily exist vested
interests that lurk beneath. To expose those vested interests will then
be the duty of the critics. It will be on the basis of such an exposition
alone that the truth of the claim can be ascertained.
In composing the Qur'an, could it not have been the intention of
Muhammad (e) to achieve for himself the wordly benefits that may
accrue in establishing himself as the messenger of God?
It is greatly probable that Muhammad (e), who had grown up
an orphan, was exposed to considerable hardships in life. However,
with his marriage to the business woman, Khadeeja (r), it is also
probable that there was, naturally, a considerable rise in his standard
of living. As the husband of Khadeeja, the possibility that he would
have been prone to the constraints of a financial kind is remote indeed.
The marriage of Muhammad (e) to Khadeeja took place fifteen years
before his attaining prophethood. This means that it was only after
fifteen years of his having led a life of financial security that Muhammad
(e) came on to the scene with the claim that he was a messenger of
God and that the Qur'an constituted the word of God. If the attainment
of wordly profits was his motive, his financial position should have
become stronger after he made the claim. But what was it that actually
transpired?
Says Aysha (r), the wife of the Prophet, “As there was no
food cooked in our house, the cooking place would go without a fire
being lit for one or two months at a stretch. Ours was a diet of dates
and water. Some times it would be the milk of goats and the dried
shells of dates which those from Medina would bring us.â€
Aysha was once recalling the past days to a person. The subject
of narration was the poverty s which the Prophet and his family endured
after the migration. She then talked of an occasion in which they worked
in the house in total darkness. “Was not there a lamp?†enquired the
person. She then replied thus: “If the oil to burn the lamp was in our
possession, instead of burning it, we would have drunk it to satisfy our
hunger.â€
This by no means, was the situation that was prevalent only in
the first years of the Prophet’s mission. Even after Muhammad (e)
had assumed the position of the powerful sovereign of a vast realm
his condition was not very much different. Let the inner sanctum of
the ruler of the Islamic empire be described in the words of Umar (r),
his own companion:
“I never saw anything save three pieces of leather in a corner
and a little barley in the room of the Prophet. I wept at this. The
Prophet asked, ‘Why is it that you cry?’ I said: “O messenger of Allah!
How will I hold back my tears? I see the imprint of the palm leaves on
thine own body. I am also aware of the contents of this room.O
messenger of Allah! Beseech Allah for the ample means of thine own
sustenance. For, while the rulers of the Persian and Roman people -
the Chosroes and the Caesars - live in the luxury of gardens beneath
which rivers flow, the chosen messenger of Allah should live in abject
