How the Quran Was Revealed and Compiled Hamza Yusuf Foundations of Islam Series Session 1

traditionally Muslims begin anything that they do that's worth doing there's Hadith that says anything worth doing should begin with which is also the actual first statement in the Quran if you open up any Quran the very first thing that will be read is which means in the name of Allah the merciful the compassionate and Rahman and rim are derived from the same root because Arabic words and I'm probably going to talk about this lot over this course of lectures Arabic words are built on triliteral Roots the Semitic languages are root-based languages so Hebrew has the same phenomenon you're dealing with language in which semantic field or constellation of meanings emerges out of primitive root structures which are based on three letters generally sometimes four but the vast majority are three-letter which is interesting in terms of cosmology three is very interesting number because it it introduces the idea of Multiplicity from the one came the two and from from the two Kad forms so three is literally the beginning of Multiplicity and so Language by its nature which is almost inexhaustible in sense and could in in in reality be considered inexhaustible is built in the Arabic language on three now the Quran itself is word which also comes from root word and there's some differences about it but generally in English it's written like this and now becoming more popular like this generally the word the the root words here are and and these are three Arabic letters is is really letter that probably we don't have an equivalent it's it's it's done in in using something in your throat by squeezing the upper portion of your throat together and ejecting this this sound so almost sounds like crow but the the second ra is similar to our our letter ra and then yah at its root meaning you get the word for City which is interesting because it brings in the idea of civilization and traditionally civilizations are built on books the vast majority of human civilizations you will find that there is fundamentally book at the core of the civilization for the Greek civilization it would probably be Homer and for the in other words we we can't really imagine Greek civilization without Homer given what we know about the Greeks Plato is dependent on Homer the the play rights are dependent dependent on Homer for the Hebrew people it was certainly the the tah or their Bible and this will become the foundational book for the Western peoples the European peoples the bible really becomes foundational book first in Greek and then in Latin and ultimately for the english- speaking people the King James Bible for the Arabs interestingly enough there is no book in the Arabic language until the Quran there's literally no book there're an ancient people and yet there is no book in the Arabic language until the Quran prior to that the closest thing that you could consider literary was poetry that was done orally and there was seven ODS that were quite popular that were were hung in the Kaaba in the house in Mecca and were honored by the Arabs the pre-islamic Arabs as being the quintessence of eloquence and of the Arabic art form of poetry so when the Quran comes to these people this is radical departure from any previous Concepts within the culture of knowledge and the transmission of of knowledge there the other root that you're going to find in here is the word to recite and in the Arabic language means two things it means to read and it means to recite so it has an oral and it has written quality to it now interestingly enough if you look at there's really wonderful book which recommend particularly all of you since you're teacher if you haven't read it it's really worth reading which is called AAS for ox by Barry Sanders and this book is talking about the fact that orality is the substratum of literacy if you do not have an oral tradition you cannot have literate tradition and one of the things one of his complaints is that our culture is losing its orality the oral tradition in this culture is dying out because of television and other other forms of media in which visualization and not orality becomes the dominant means of raising our children so if you look at children for the first 5 years of their life they are oral creatures they're in the oral world they're not literate they're in the oral world and traditionally what would happen is they would hear stories and their imaginations would be ignited and this was something that that that took place in all cultures now in this culture the recent phenomenon is children being raised in front of the television so the mother is no longer transmitting the oral lore the childish lore of the culture to these children but in fact it's being experienced through the medium of visualization which is powerful medium but it has certain effects and Sanders believes that that one of the effects is is the lack of humanization that he believes that morality is process of humanization the fact that the Arabs are an oral people is very significant they're they're an oral people and the Quran is Quran before it's book in other words the real meaning of Quran is the Rital it is the oral book and the the next word that the Quran is identified as is kab which means book and the root word means to join together it means to join together so what happens with the Arabs is that in 570 of the the Christian era boy is born in Mecca to mother who his father dies prior to that during her pregnancy am and this boy is named Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam and during this time for the first few years of his life he is sent to the desert to the oral Arabs to learn the language through this tradition of the Arabs in raising the aristocratic Arabs would send their children to the desert Arabs because they considered that they were the most eloquent Arabs and they wanted the children to absorb the language within the first 5 years of their life because they recognized that children that were raised amongst these these people who spoke very powerful Arabic would have also strong Arabic even if they spent the later portion of their life in the city and so during this time for the first 40 years of this man's life really from all if we look at it just in terms of human life very little matters of significance occur in this man's life by all intents and purposes one would really say that had the prophet not reached his 40th year that he would have been known amongst his people perhaps for one thing only which was that he was extremely trustworthy he was very quiet person he did not speak much he did not quote poetry he was not poet he was not known to engage in discourse with the people he was contemplative person he liked to go off and reflect on his own he was known to be extremely kind to poor people to orphans this is all mentioned in the tradition other than that he had no aspirations of being leader within his people as as some people would he was from an aristocratic Clan but he happened to be from sub grouping within that clan that was on bad times Benny Hashim now just prior to his 40th lunar year because the Muslims when they talk about years they they're talking about lunar years which is about 11 days short of solar year each year so his 40th lunar year would probably be about 39 years of age in terms of solar little little less probably at at the age just before his 40th birthday he began to see some dreams in the tradition but he would go off to mountain just outside of Mecca which is called Jeb the mountain of light and during that time the word that was used to describe what he was doing was and in Arabic is is polytheism means to avoid polytheism to avoid Idols so he was going out to this place and he would meditate in this cave and we really don't have description of the actual practices that he was doing but there was tradition amongst the Arabs called the HF or Theif and these were people who were inclined towards type of monotheism they did not worship the idols they did not believe in the idols but they did not necessarily speak out against the idols of the the the Jah Arabs or the Arabs prior to the prophet Muhammad's Mission so he would go to this cave and in the 40th year in the month of Ramadan he had an experience now there are many ways to look at this experience and Western orientalists generally said wretched things about the prophet if you read early traditional literature coming out of Europe just really not very nice thing they've become lot nicer recently since oil was discovered in the Arabian peninsula there needs to be diplomacy when we talk about people's beliefs and traditions when you have interests involved there so orientalists have definitely become and that's cynical way of looking at it think maybe there's been some growth as well within the academic community and certainly the the the impetus for attacking Islam prior to that was often based on an almost Evangelical type of Christianity that existed particularly within the Protestants in England the Anglican church and others who really felt it their duty to christianize the world was very strong ideal that we should civilize the world and certainly the Arabs need it just like anybody else and then you have long history within the Western tradition of just type of antagonism between the Islamic forces because they were they were world power for centuries and the Christian forces in Europe mean that tension really they were coexisting with lot of tension with few exceptions in different places like periods of time in Sicily for instance during the time of King Roger of Sicily where there was lot of interpenetration going on between the Arabs and the Christians so in the 40th Year anyway these orientalists basically would traditionally say things almost like that he had epileptic fits this type of thing the the more recent orientalists and not just orientalist but even theologians like Hans kunun wrote an interesting book called Christianity and the world religions one of the things he says in there is that we have to stop speaking derogatorily about the prophet Muhammad because whatever was taking place there it was certainly by all accounts that we have sincere phenomenon in other words he's not willing to accept and that's his prerogative that this was revelation but he is willing to accept that the person was sincerely duded which is big difference from simply saying that he was in saying or that he was Mal had Mal intention right the experience was basically this it's come down in the tradition that at the age of 40 he was in the cave and being came to him it was in the form of man and he said this was the first word now can be interpreted two ways it can be interpreted recite or read now the Prophet Muhammad was not he was neither reciter of poetry nor could he read and he said at that point he said don't know how to recite or don't know how to read it could be interpreted both way generally it's interpreted he did not know how to read second time third time and then in the tradition it says that he was actually squeezed until he thought that his sides would burst and then he said and this is the beginning of this phenomenon that will take place for the next 23 years of his life before he dies the Revelation said read in the name of your lord who created the human being from clinging tissue read in the name of your lord the most generous who taught the human being with the pen and taught the human being that which he did not know that's not very eloquent translation but I'm just doing that directly from the Arabic and I'm sure the text will have better better interpretation there at this point the prophet was concerned he did not know what was happening to him he went down to his wife and explained to her what happened his wife comforted him khadra she said to him she was an older woman she and her uncle had been an Arab who converted to Christianity she was familiar with Revelation she said you are good person you take care of the orphan you take care of the widows you take care of the needy and don't think something bad would happen to you like this cuz he thought that this might be like some kind of evil Spirit or something mean he really he did feel that they go she takes him to her uncle who had some knowledge of previous books and he says very interesting thing he said this is the Nam now for people that know Greek namus comes from nomos right and nomos means the law so he in other words he was saying this is nam that came to Musa in other words you are being given revelation that's what this is and he told him your people when they find this out will become your enemies and drive you from this city and he said would they do that because he had never done anything wrong to them before that and he said they will do that and wish that could was young man that might be by your side doing this now during the next period of time he begins to get these Revelation the next one you wrapped because he used to WAP himself when he would meditate wrapped in cloak and these Revelations begin to come with regularity now the Prophet Muhammad in description Al wasallam he said that sometime the Revelation came like bell like the ringing of bell in other words it was like it began as vibration and then it would move into to letters and then into the actual words and it's interesting because if when when you hear for instance there's group of letters that many of the chapters of Quran begin with 19 chapters in the Quran begin with these letters are called and if you hear them recited they now you can hear the vibr the vibratory Force there and this is how some of these Revelations were beginning literally like vibration moving into the material world from another realm according to the Muslim tradition during this time he began to tell close people and Khadijah is the first person who believes him his wife which is interesting she didn't you know abandoned him she was right there and she said believe this his nephew who was his cousin who was living in his house from his uncle the son of his uncle he was taking care of him who was young boy at that time but he also says that he believes tells him that he believes in the tradition and then other people from very close people that knew him Abu Bakr sik was very close person but at certain point he's commanded to warn his family so he he he gathers them all together and he says to them what would you say if told you that there was an Army on the other side of the mountains of Mecca waiting to attack you and they said we would believe you because you're Al you're the trustworthy one and he said what would you say if was messenger of God and was sent to you and they said we don't believe you and they rejected that and then as more people begin to come into Islam the qur began to get worried and it's very interesting what they said they said to they said about the prophet they said he makes us look stupid because he was saying do you worship pieces of wood and stone that can't hear or speak or benefit you and so that bothered them and there's there's an interesting analogy in the Quran with ibraim or Abraham where there's all these Idols that his people worshiped and one night he goes in he was only about 12 or 13 he goes in and he smashes all of the idols except for one of them and he puts the axe in in the big one and then he leaves and they come back and they find all their Idols smashed so they say this ibraim was talking about this they go get him and they say who did this and he said asked the big ones and they said what do you think we're stupid he can't they he can't say anything he said then why are you worshiping him and then it's very interesting verse in the Quran it says they became self-reflected very interesting they became self-re suddenly they said he's got point here now this became Troublesome for them because at that point window opens and it very quickly and somebody shouted get rid of him right and then it becomes mob scene yeah let's not think about this let's kill him right now there's an interesting German philosopher who heiger who has theory about what he calls thrownness that human beings are thrust into certain environment and they they literally take on all of these qualities not based on their own individual reality but based on what everybody else has told them and so we learn about the them very quickly and there's certain expectations within the context of them the the other like that we don't belch in public right mean we learn quickly that there are certain things we don't breach and they're not things that we chose they're things that are imposed on us and obviously they have purpose and and you know we're civilized people right we don't do certain things but also there's type of what felt was type of inauthenticity that went with that because people really hadn't reflected about who they were in their essence or or their essential nature they were really simply only confirming what had been reflected back to them from their culture and their society and people that break these models in England they would be called eccentrics right people that don't and the English actually kind of allow for that within their culture that that but you have to be rich that's prerequisite CU if you're poor they call you mad so but heininger felt that that person had who had never come to terms with this he called it an undifferentiated person they really hadn't ever thought that the only reason I'm the way am is because grew up in certain culture and environment and and this culture and environment has completely imposed upon me way of viewing the world language that involves world view all of these things are literally superimposed upon us and we submit to without reflection by and large now heer's solution to it was he said the only authentic act that you could really do once you realized this was die in other words nobody's going to teach you how to die nobody's going to you will do that very authentic with it so he said you become being unto death but for the Muslim and really think that the Quran really did this to the these people it forced them to look at what ha would call their thress in other words why are we worshiping these Idols why are we burying our our our our our girl our baby girls alive who people didn't think about it you see it's like in certain cultures mean in this culture we have very serious crisis where there's reflection on both sides with the abortion issue mean you know there's people say this is wrong and and we hear and we have to think about it whereas in that culture nobody was there saying it was wrong they were saying it was perfectly acceptable now here comes man who starts saying this is wrong that's very strong thing for people who have not given lot of reflection to themselves or their cultures so the Quran begins to literally question things very deeply and the first period which is 13 years is called the mecan period now during the meccan period the dominant themes within the Quran are primarily what in Arabic is called now is sometimes translated as monotheism which is don't like that translation the actual word in Arabic means to make one if you translated it quite literally it would be the making of one but the word means from quranic perspective is worshiping Allah or God with absolutely no association in that worship nothing is associated in that worship with God nothing whatsoever and this is if you want one word that will give you the theme of Quran it's this word and this is why the Muslims have in in the Western comparative religious tradition they have been called radical monotheists more so than the Jewish tradition and more so than the Christian tradition the Muslims are considered radical monotheists one there's absolutely no anthropomorphism in Islam there is no association of God with creation and the probably one of the most definitive verses in the Quran about the nature of is there is no thing like God the early Community said whatever occurs to your intellect God is other than that the companion of the Prophet Abu Bak the second khif or the first khif after the messenger said your inability to comprehend God is your comprehension of God your inability to to comprehend God is your comprehension of God that is the essence of now here's where we get in problem we say if God is unknowable then how do we know God right now it's interesting because within the Christian tradition the first person to really deal with this issue mean there's probably trillion you might have some inkings up but the first person really to deal with this issue is probably kirar who's very interesting philosopher because kard recognizes suddenly that the knowability of God there's definitely problem there now the way the Christians have tended to deal with that is through Christ Christ becomes the object of God's knowability that God becomes man so that man can understand God right mean this is this is an element within Christian theology for the Muslim the knowability of God is through the creation itself and this is why much of the Quran is focused on telling people to explore the creation itself because the creation is seen as theater of manifestation of divine manifestation that God is not entering in is not Incorporated is not becoming in he he is not becoming embodying himself into the creation like Incarnation is becoming the Flesh and likewise what Montgomery wat would like to suggest is that somehow God has embi himself nice fancy PhD word that God became book right which is not true the Muslims do not look at that even though they do believe that the Quran is an attribute of God that this Quran that we have here we do not say this is God's you know God on Earth or something like that no although we do believe that the Quran is the speech of God and we believe it's the uncreated speech of God in the Eternal meanings that move into the vehicle of language the intentions of God that is the speech of God so is very important theme the next idea is the idea of and means what comes after it means the end the Hereafter the interesting thing about the Arabs is the Arabs did not believe in Hereafter many Traditions have Hereafter the Arabs did not believe in Hereafter they thought this is it when you die it's over and they said if we're bones and dust will we be brought back to life the Quran says the one who brought you who created you the first time is is capable of creating you second time in other words the fact that you've come into existence one time second time even by our own logic would seem to be easier because if You' made something one time it's generally easier the second time around right so there's the logic behind that so the Arabs Deni this idea of or the next World now the next World in the Quran is quite descriptive and traditionally the Europeans often had difficult time with it because it's there are aspects of it that are quite sensual right the idea of gardens under which rivers flow of fruits of Maidens and beautiful Youth and these type of things so this idea of an is being introduced into the Arabian culture now they obviously had some they're meeting the Christians and the Jews on their Caravan routes and they're hearing about these things but they really had an attitude that was basically characterized as disbelief they did not believe in some other world they thought this is it and for them the world was what they called murua was virility manhood chivalry poetry women wine this was really the the environment of the ARA and they praised these these qualities and they praise these aspects of the world and much of their poetry is about wine and women right mean this is what they were interested in suddenly you have book that's radically challenging that world view radically challenging it very powerful experience for these people that are forced to begin to think about these things now for the first 13 years the prophet is persecuted in Mecca during this time these people were learning the Quran that was being revealed by memory the Quran was not revealed linearly which is important because it's not linear book and that's something if you really want to understand the Quran or be able to read it you have to surrender your desire for linearity right Plato would probably have been able to read the book Aristotle definitely not he would have had very hard time with this book because it does not begin in the beginning and end in the end it just doesn't work like that so in sense what the Quran really is demanding from people is that they submit to the book itself and think it's very fascinating that the the the really Pro the first verse of Quran after the opening chapter is three letters nobody knows what they mean every commentator on the Quran will ultimately say about these three letters God knows what they need now it's it's very interesting phenomenon to open up book and the first three letters that you read nobody knows what they mean and think part of the message there is to let us know that there's lot of things that we don't know and if we're not to if we're not going to admit that as starting point we're not going to benefit from this book if we're going to go to the book filled with ourselves and we're going to superimpose upon the book our own ideas is then we're not going to get anything out of the book so the book for the 13 years these meccan verses are being revealed now if you look at the the meccan verses they are even though they're 85 of the chapters in Quran are Mecca 85 39 of them are Medina only 11 out of the 30 parts of the Quran equal parts are from Mecca only 11 19 are from Medina so the mecan suras or chapters are very short and they tend to fall towards the end of the book even though they were revealed in the beginning of this dispensation so although the the meccan verses are the first verses they are generally the ones that are found at the end of the book which is very interesting and when Muslims learn the book by heart they will generally begin at the end that's where they'll begin they'll begin begin with the last 30th of the Quran now the next idea that is being introduced is the idea of what's called and means the end of time now the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him his understanding of himself was that he was the first sign of the beginning of the end of the worldly existence of this adamic species he actually viewed himself as the first sign in other words all Traditions that were based on Revelation according to the Islamic tradition were basically indicating that The Human Experience will come to an end and this is why within the the Jewish tradition you have an apocalyptic Vision within the Jewish tradition you have an apocalyptic Vision within the Hindu tradition you have an apocalyptic Vision the caluga period the last period of man within the Buddhist tradition you have an apocalyptic tradition and in many of the more tribal-based Traditions within the Hobie tradition the the Kanan scatti the last period in the Hy tradition when everything gets out of control within the may all these different peoples had an idea of some apocalyptic end the apocalyptic end in the Quran is talked about in terms of which is the last moment it's the last moment and the prophet Muhammad talked about signs and the Quran mentions signs of this time and so this was also now ultimately the end of time for the Muslim in reality is the end of our own individual life that is our end of time when die my worldly time is over and so in sense The quranic View was trying to bring people into type of presence of the imminence of death that death is imminent that death is not something in some distant future so for 13 years this was the focus after years the Quran is basically being memorized and if you've lived with oral peoples people that really still maintain these traditions and know Dr Sun yangang who's from Africa and and knows in the West African oral tradition there are peoples that will recite epic poems of tribes if they don't ex recite them exactly as they learn them then they literally lose their job they can't be storyteller so the the the Arabs were people that memorized poetry and and related poetry exactly was they had phenomenal memories and I've lived with the mortanian in West Africa whose memories are extraordinary like the young man who's here with us just phenomenal the amount of information that he retains exactly now for people that don't understand this oral tradition they find it very hard to imagine that human being can memorize this entire text the Arabic text and not make mistake now can bring that young man here and can read the Quran and can purposely leave out verse and he'll correct me immediately now the other thing that's interesting about the Quran is for people who memorize it and even parts of it will quickly learn that the Quran is self-correcting book because it has very unusual Rhythm that if you find verse moves out of Saint suddenly you're aware I've said something wrong and I'll give you an example few last week read the sub prayer and it was it was rather long Surah that read and at the end of it said verse that is actually out of the Quran but it wasn't the verse that went in that place and it used almost these same words and that morning probably for the next half hour something was bothering me and then realized what it was said the verse wrong and and corrected myself nobody corrected me in the prayer but corrected myself and it's very interesting when when you memorize because I've tried to memorize lot of things like you know used to memorize some poetry went to prep school and you had to memorize poems and and memorize like some pieces of Shakespeare and things like that the really interesting thing about it is is that the the Quran one is facilitated it's very easy to memorize it's not hard to memorized for for many many people and the other thing is it's actually quite difficult to for for get it if you will recite it within reasonable time limits repeat it every once in while it's very difficult to forget but the or the one who preserves the Quran is somebody who has memorized it by rot it usually takes about in in the Indian subcontinent they'll do it between year and half to 2 and a/ half years in morania they have more rigorous standards for because they have other things to learn than just rot memorization they usually take about four years doing it and they do it when they're children the Arabs they say memorization in youth is like carving in stone and memorization in old age is like painting on water and one of the Scholars they said it's not that the memory is gone it's that we've got too many worries when we get older children you know they don't have to worry so it all just sticks there or as you get older you you're thinking about lot of other things so but it's still phenomenal what we memor memorize so during these 13 years the Quran is being memorized this way it's also being written by the few people who know how to write it because most of the ARs were illiterate and the prophet Muhammad said in sound transmission he said we are an illiterate people we don't read and we don't calculate so he was admitting that about his people the Quran itself says he's the one who sent amongst the illiterates messenger that he recites to them his signs will you him and he purifies them and he teaches them the book and wisdom even if they were in clear erir before that so the the prophet is seen as messenger first and foremost to the Arabs who are an illiterate people now after 13 years of Oppression he makes migration to Medina right it's actually flight it's called the hij he he flees there because they actually tried to kill at that point and he he goes there and he many people begin to become Muslim now the discourse the quranic discourse radically changes from the meccan period to the medinan period you will see change between these two the focus of the verses moves away from these topics to the social environment how to implement once these have been internalized ized interiorized how are they implemented in social behavior if you believe in god what is that going to do to alter your character to alter your behavior how will that change you as an individual as person so be the focus becomes on character on building community on building society so you will see many of the verses revealed in Mecca begin Humanity humankind but in Medina they begin you who have accepted in other words the call in Mecca was to people from amongst those people there were those who responded and now the Revelation is going to focus on creating an environment in which this teaching will manifest at the societal level not simply at the individual level and so the next 10 years our Med here for 10 years you call it the med period now the interesting thing about the Quran is within meccan verses are Medan verses and within Medan verses are mecan ayas in other words there are sections because over the 23e period according to the the tradition of the the Sunni Muslims during this period it's our belief that gibel or Gabriel was coming to the prophet and telling him the order that the Quran should be in so it was revealed nonlinearly but now it begins to move into type of sequence and beginning mostly with the med SAS in the beginning and and the meccan SAS at the end after 10 years during that time the entire Quran is written during the lifetime of the Prophet but it is not collected together there is no collection but during his lifetime the entire Quran is written in his presence and and the Muslims don't have any doubt about that the orientalists the the older ones are actually better than than more the more recent ones from Germany but but they would definitely challenge that claim but the Muslims would not mean this is our belief that that during that time now in 632 the prophet Muhammad dies Sall Ali wasallam and at that point there are even few Revelations right before his death and we know what they were which verses they were so the prophet left companions behind who had memorized the entire Quran and one of them was who the prophet was commanded to have him recite the Quran to him and he would listen to it many of the companions had memorized the Quran during this time completely at this point they're teaching the people Islam is beginning to spread now in 633 there was battle called The Battle of yamama sever and it was actually fighting people in the in the Ned area who had there was man there who had claimed that he was prophet and Abu Bak sent an army to these people and there was battle that ensued and many of the Quran reciters were killed people that knew the Quran by heart were killed in that battle so at that point in Omar wants the the entire book to be collected and he goes to Abu Bakr and he says you have to collect this Quran and Abu Bakr says I'm not going to do something that the prophet didn't do himself in other words the prophet didn't put it in book collected together and don't want do that and and Omar kept telling you have to do this this is good thing you must do this what if people die the Quran will get lost and he said finally he said became convinced of that which Omar was convinced of he decides to collect the entire Quran he gets one of the most learned people of the Quran ZB and he tells him you need to gather the Quran want you to gather the Quran Zade says how can you do something that the prophet didn't do they were very worried about introducing because much of the Quran is talking about how previous Revelations were changed that that the people came after they changed the teaching of the Prophet so there was real fear within the first community of doing anything that their Prophet hadn't done so he continues to tell Zade until finally says realized that what Abu Bakr and Omar were saying was true so they begin to collect it and they have Criterion and the Criterion is that each piece of the Quran must be brought that had been written in the presence of the Prophet with two witnesses this is the Criterion and this takes place during that period it took them while to do this and they did this and there's only one verse there's two verses at the end ofba which is the chapter of repentance that they could not find two witnesses they only had one now who was an Anar from the people of Medina there is tradition that says that man from the people of the book came to the prophet and they they he disagreed with the prophet about something and there were no Witnesses and said I'll bear witness for you messenger of God and and the Propet looked at him and he said do you do you were you there that you should believe me and he said We Believe revelation comes to you from God so we won't believe you about business transaction and so the prophet said the witnessing OFA is like two people and so's those two verses which were known by other companions but it was the written with in the presence of two witnesses that they wanted they were accepted as part and this was made into one and which literally comes from which is tablets and it was done generally they used papy and and gazelle skin leather things like that prior to that they've been using Palm wrists and they were using the shoulder blades from camels that are quite large to write verses and things like this with soup they would use type of ink and this is how they were writing the Quran they put the entire Quran and it was kept Omar kept it and then it was given to now during the time of who is the the third Cal there is campaign in aeran and during this time there began to be some differences amongst the amongst the Muslims about the recitation of Quran because one of the things about the Quran is that it was being written there was no standardized writing so the Quran was literally being written for instance like this there were no dots what these These are called di critical marks there were no diacritical marks there were no vings and so the book is like this so you don't know if this is or if it's now because of this reason there were many people who memorized and knew what it was but there were other people that were beginning to learn it with the sheets and beginning to differ so man wanted to standardize the writing of the Quran and this is done 658 the prophet Sall alaihi wasallam dies in 632 so begins to set out and standardize the Quran and again Zade and three companions prepare they go back to this of and they prepare the Quran according to's recommendations and one of them was if you differ about anything then take the language of the because there were different ways of pronouncing words for instance the the say and the Ben said like that it's difference so there are different ways the said and other tribes said so you got differences of pronunciation so has this project carried through and then sends copies identical copies to the various centers of the Muslims and the governers and demands as the head of the Muslim government that all all of the qurans be burnt except these that were based on this writing now this is very early because mean if you look within the the Jewish tradition the Bible the the Old Testament is really it's gathered over about 900 years basically mean according to Modern scholarship and and you have you have there's four dominant versions like the the Elohim the sacal and you'll get some very you'll get some big differences the the within the Christian tradition also the the final codification is already 3:25 when when there's an agreement on the three on the four gospels at the Council of NAA the companions of the Prophet himself were the ones that gathered and did this and they were people who memorized is the entire Quran from the prophet based on this oral tradition so the Quran itself and this is really important to understand the written Quran is not the primary source in which the Quran is protected it is protected through oral transmission this is used one for people who don't memorize the Quran and two as crutch for people who memorize it to go back and be reminded if their teacher isn't there or some else who isn't but guarantee you when they finish printing of Quran they send it to people who memorize the Quran orally to check it they don't check it against other qurans they send it to several or the the the the people memorize the Quran and they will look at it IM tells very interesting story in his in his commentary on the Quran under the words when the Quran says we have revealed this reminder and we have taken it upon ourselves meaning God it's like royal we in Arabic and we have taken it upon ourselves to protect it IM says that there was Jewish man who wanted to find out from the three Traditions about the their books and so he took and he copied the entire Torah in Hebrew and he put mistakes in it specifically he went to rabbi and he gave him the tah and he asked him to read the entire tah and tell him if it was good addition when he came back the man said it was an excellent addition even though he knew there were mistakes in it when he went to the Christian he did the same thing with the gospels and the the Christian also said that it was an excellent addition of the gospels he did the same thing for the Quran and he went to Muslim scholar and asked him to read it and he had his mistakes in there and the Muslim scholar told him when he came back you have to burn this because there's mistakes in it now if this is like an apocal story or pagor graphical don't know it's historical validity but think the point is very well made that the Muslims really do view the Quran and rightly and justifiedly so as book that is preserved since this early time now now in terms of what exists today the the Quran we definitely without any doubt by by even the consensus of orientalist have several parts of the Quran from early first century Islam there would be some debate amongst orientalists whether there is actually an addition of the Quran that goes back to this original addition the Muslims would say that there are two possibly four there is copy now which is called saman copy or saman which used to be Southern Russia which is now in tes and it is definitely first century but is it one of the original the Muslims believe it is and there's also one in Egypt that definitely goes back to the year 68 after Hijra without doubt it's on gazelle leather which lasts an incredibly long time and then you also have an addition which is in NE in Iraq which is says at the end of it and it's written in an authenticated kufic script from that first period it says at the end that this was written by Ali the fourth KH so we believe that we do have original texts from this first period but even if we didn't there's no doubt in Muslim Scholar's mind and the vast majority of orientalists that have really examined the situation like Nicholson in his book called the literary history of the Arabs he was Cambridge scholar teacher of AJ arberry who who translated the Quran or interpreted it into English Nicholson says there's really no doubt about the authentic the historical authenticity of the Quran now this is not somebody who believes in in in the Revelation but he is accepting that the book is intact in terms of its historical authenticity that this is the book that this original Community was was hearing and was seeing and so I'm just going to end it there and open it up for some just if there's any questions yeah we we read today in the introduction and you've made reference to it too about the use of wheat when when God is speaking and you said that it's like the Royal we is that the only interpretation in the Arabic language it's called which means the plural of the one who's exalting himself so from an Arab's perspective if God's using it it's acceptable but when an individual uses it it's arrogance and you do find individuals in the Arab world that will say you know we ate lot today and he's about himself and and it's actually it's considered Bad Manners but this is this is the way it's Absolut it's never seen as indicating more than one God or absolutely not apply that what that didn't mean to apply that some there interestingly enough like the Mormons for instance do believe that the wi in the Old Testament is used to mean multiplicity of gods and some of the Christians have believed that the wi of the Old Testament was used also to indicate the Trinity for for instance mean there are many you'll find this in in many books Christian books for the Jews the Jews understand the same way that that the Arabs do it's just plural that's used majestically it's stronger if say now the interesting about the me and clear points this out think it's really valid Insight clear says that one of the really interesting things about the Quran is that the shift of perspectives because sometimes you know the Quran is saying that there's no God but sometimes there's no God but you sometimes there's no God but he so it it's shifting constantly this change in perspective sometimes it's plural sometimes it's singular and it's it's it's very fascinating phenomenon in the Quan any other questions uhhuh yes sir have this business in England about poly PE and Azel in Thea and understood that some of the leers of the Tash were pinched by his wife they ended up in her possession you know anything about yeah no they they say that few of the leaves were stolen and they also say interesting enough in in the Treaty of Versailles think it's like in the 246 the article 246 one of the conditions of surrender to the Germans was that they would return the copy of the Quran that was in their trust from the Ottomans and that's text that apparently just disappeared one of them was destroyed in fire in Syria think in 1898 so but have heard that and some of them showed up in sees yes this right some of them showed up for seale SES cause quite scandal uhhuh When Heaven is described as there being maidens and beautiful attendant youths is this to be taken literally yes and no well now don't you teach philosophy are you teacher of philosophy yeah school okay so cuz philosophers generally can deal with yes no answer there's there's type of paradox here one on the one hand we don't say that it doesn't not mean that on the other hand we certainly don't say that it means like we understand here right the paradise according to the Muslims it says the best description of it according to the Revelation is what no eye has seen and no ear has heard and has never occurred to the human mind so so there's an idea that we really can't understand what it is but we know that it is it is going to be the greatest experience of felicitous it's called and one of the 13th century Scholars actually said that that the sexual the sexual pleasure was the highest physical pleasure that God has given the human being not the highest mental because they believe it was higher but it was the highest and he actually said that this was to give the human being taste just for moment of glimpse of the approximation of of the Delights of paradise so the Muslims don't think have ever been like prudish about those type things you know mean there's not the prophet was not sensualist by any means and people that say that it's gross disservice to his character because he was not and he could certainly have been and and don't think even had he been he he would not have been faulted by his people but he was not his wives were elderly women they were widows and orphans with the and with the exception of one uhhuh have statement it's not really question but you talked about the Torah and gospels being written and putting these mistakes and on purpose there's tradition among scribes of the Torah which are always head andwritten to always have mistake put into the Torah to show man's imperfection it would be arrogant for Hebrew scribe to ever try to say this is perfect this only godat well see this is that's really good I'm glad you brought that up I'm glad you brought that up think that's really good point just sin of arrogance because see the Muslims believe that the Quran is the Divine word of God and therefore they believe that to put mistake in it would be of the greatest transgression in other words that it is sacred trust and in fact the Quran says that we gave this trust we offered this trust to the Heavens to the Earth and to the mountains and they refus to Bear it but the human being bore it now it's interesting because in the according to the Quran the Jews and the Christians said that they were given the task themselves of protecting their books and they fell short that's what the quranic version is but then it says about the Quran because it's the final one there would be no Prophet after the prophet to clarify that there were mistakes it says that God alone has taken it upon God the Divine to protect this book so the Muslims actually believe that it is divinely protected for that very reason and I'm really glad you brought up that point so think it's really it's it's very pertinent point just add postcript that because when they're to do their carpet work then they deliberate mistake right that's similar thing carpet with mistakes lot worth lot more than carpet that's made by machine in Belgium anything else uhhuh I'm curious how many people of approximately know the entire cor would say it it's probably it it's probably if not in the hundreds of thousands would say it's you know it would be hard to estimate but I'll give you an example when was in morania the tribe that stayed with and there's several thousand of them none of the men do not know the Quran by heart every single it's like prerequisite for that tribe his the tribe that man's from they all memorize the Quran and the women some of them memorize the entire Quran most of them memorize at least like third so they're really mean it's very you can go if you go to Mecca it's very interesting when you're at Mecca there's million people there and feel sorry for the Imam cuz he's got microphone if he makes mistake right he'll make mistake boom you just hear voices from all over breaking in and correcting him from everywhere really and it's actually it's not encouraged to do that you're supposed to give the Imam break and let him correct himself but people are so overzealous you know it's like knee-jerk response they hear mistake and made mistake and it's it's an interesting phenomenon and at my mosque where pray there's about seven or eight that are which is in America so that that's that's small number but if you go to Pakistan filled with people that memorize the Quran West Africa filled with people Egypt filled with people that memorize the Quan many in Syria many women in Syria there's been recent phenomenon of women memorizing the Quran in Syria many many women turkey all over the Muslim world you have and many the best piters are non-arabs right in fact some of the best are Malaysian women uhhuh you keep doing this practical don't when I'm working on my work if need to know something ring up Bookshop in London and just say to the girl on the desk can you just have shout is there in the shop and she is anybody here who memorized the entire the customers yes know you know they'll come to common it really is it's very common mean if you're in mosque pray you'll at least have one or two that memorize the entire and many that memorize large portions of it and it really it is the book that has created literacy in in in in in the world mean it's you know if you go to country where they say that people are illiterate the vast majority of people traditionally in the Muslim world could read and and recite the Quran and many could understand understand it because Arabic was it was like the linga franka it was the Latin of the Muslim world it's the sacal language uhhuh you mentioned last night that your teacher that has memorized like it was like the seventh version there's seven variants I'm glad you mentioned that there's because forgot to mention that there are seven variants which are dialectical in other words some of the Arabs could not pronounce the prophet's Lang language and so the the Quran was revealed in different variants based on the different tribes and they're all accepted there's seven of them and it's that's WR it does not change the meaning by consensus you will find no doctrinal change in the Quran for instance learned according to IM who's the African reciter and there are other people who recite the vast majority of Muslims recite by aen or who's originally from kufa if they hear me reciting and they're ignorant they might think I'm making mistakes you see they might think but if they're educated they'll know right away he's reading sound variant so just to give you an example if said in would say now Maliki means the possessor of the day of judgment meiki means the king so the the meaning is not changed they're both they're both maybe you should write that word and they can see well yeah just the difference here same root and the difference would be in the house there's there's just mark right there Malik and and in theik like that so there's only few differences like that the others will be more in pronunciation so it's time for the to pray