baqar

According to the Iranian Constitution, there has to a Christian member of Parliament at all times. I believe there is a significant Christian population in Iran and you may not find the Bible in every bookshop but it should be available if you contact a Christian shop.

Hi Aaron Welcome to this site, my friend. In answer to your question, I would like to tell you that I have read the three synoptic gospels and the Acts several times because in my Catholic school in India, they were part of my school curriculum. On my own, later in life, I have read all five books of the Pentateuch and a few others after those five books. I had planned to finish the whole Bible but I was caught up with other things and left it at that. In India, there is no dearth of Bibles. There are many Christian institutions. We have a significant Christian population there.

Scholars are not really agreed on the meaning of the word "Ummi," which is used here in the plural. Sunni scholars generally thought it meant "unlettered." Shia scholars, I think, thought it referred to the Prophet being from the city. Translators wrote whatever they thought met with their understanding. I think Muslims had not bothered to ask the Prophet the meanings of many verses and so when they were left to figure it out on their own, they were confounded, As you are aware, there was a problem with the leadership after the Prophet's death, so some may have avoided asking too many questions of Imam Ali, the most knowledgeable of them all, until he became caliph, which was some 35 years later.

Thanks for your kind words, brother. And God bless you and yours.

I don't know. But it appears that I was wrong in assuming that multiple versions are a fairy tale. They have indeed existed. Sorry about that. So the issue here is not whether multiple versions have existed but whether they are significantly different. The view of those who believe in them is that the meaning is not different at all. And that is where the article you gave me takes a different turn. It also tries to prove that Muslims have no idea of the original revelation delivered by Gabriel. So summarizing, the Muslim position is that (a) they do have the original revelation and (b) the variants are not different in meaning. The article, however, seriously tries to dismantle that premise. I think that parsing the sentences in the article one by one, like I was trying to do, it is possible to disrobe it sufficiently. But it is going to be a fairly time-consuming exercise. And I am sorry I have a lot of other things on my plate. Finally, I believe I have always tried to answer your questions to the best of my ability. So I hope you will not lose that confidence because of a small unintentional departure from that rule. Best Wishes, my friend. And adieu

Which version contains the actual words of the Revelation?

Thank you, brother. Was Salam

That cannot be, brother. Angel Gabriel must have brought ONLY one of the two.

Salam brother But the actual REVELATION cannot be both. It can only be one of the two. Which one is it?

Is the reading different or is the text also different?

Brother, is the difference only in recitation or also in text? If in text, then it means we have many different Qurans.

So according to the above table, the text is ACTUALLY different. Is that correct?

Sorry, my mistake!

In the third section, the fourth line should read He says "Some time later, when the groups met or converged ....." Sorry for the inconvenience.

Hi SoP, thanks for your kind words. But I don't understand why you have singled out that one sentence. You see, as a former Muslim, the author is clearly an enemy of Islam. So the statement makes perfect sense to me. As for "writing with their hands and saying it is from Allah," he might be doing something very similar. ===================== I not only wish to believe this whole thing is a scam, I have my reasons for doing so. For example, at one point, he says that the WARSH version was published by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Now the K of SA came into being only in the early part of the last century. So according to him, they have published the WARSH less than 80 years ago. That would mean that both versions have co-existed in that country at some point in the recent past. A KSA publication can never remain a secret. Now we have thousands of people visiting KSA from my native India every year and if it was the case that two contradictory versions had existed concurrently in the same place, we would have surely heard our visitors gripe and curse the KSA government. But never has a word been heard on those lines. ===================== Also, the author makes a lot of blanket statements. He provides no details for the first paragraph on the second page. What is the source of that information? He says "when the groups or converged" He needs to tell us what occasioned their meeting. Who had called this meeting and why? And when exactly? Also, he just says that the recitals were different. But not the text. It fails to show how variant versions came into being. Subsequent paragraphs do not provide any reference for the claims made. ===================== These versions seem to have come into being pretty early in the piece and apparently right in the heart of the Islamic world. So how come Imam Ali who was right there at the time makes no mention of it? By the time of Imam Hasan and Imam Hussain, these versions were apparently well alive and in use. But again, there is no mention of these anomalies by them or by the Imams after them. It is very doubtful that these noble Imams knew about them and yet avoided to talk about them. Sunni, Shia and most non-Muslim scholars have all accepted the extraordinary character of these Imams ===================== The article moves around many points and I think that we can produce reasons, such as the ones above, to show doubt, but it may be hard to refute it fully without the help of full-fledged scholars and historians. In any case, if people can take this seriously, it would be a good thing, I hope. It is also possible that this scam is a left-over from something scurrilous in the past, even the distant past. And in that case, our scholars already know about it and have written something in Arabic or Persian but it is not well-known. Just as most Muslims are unaware of the refutation of the massacre of the Bani Qurayza Jews. All the best. And a happy Easter again. ===================== .