Acknowledgment :
In the service of AL-QUR'AN-UL-KAREEM, I have in all humility taken liberty
of bringing the scientific findings of the great servant of Islam - Dr.
Rashad Khalifa Ph.D. in my own humble way.
Being charged with faith and deep emotion after studying his work, I
undertook to deliver a number of lectures to groups and to general public.
This effort is an extension of my zeal and enthusiasm. In it I have freely
utilised Dr. Khalifa's data and at places I have used his actual eloquent
words verbatim for lack of better expression.
May Allah accept the effort of his servants.
AAMEEN!
Ahmed Deedat
BACKGROUND TO THE BEGINNING
It has been a common trait of mankind since time immemorial that whenever
a Guide from God appeared to redirect man into the Will and Plan of his
Maker, instead of accepting the Message on its own merit, mankind demanded
supernatural proofs from these men of God.
For example, when Jesus Christ began to preach to his people - "The
Children of Israel" - to mend their ways, to refrain from mere legalistic
formalism and imbibe the true spirit of the Laws and Commandments of God,
his "people" demanded Miracles from him to prove his bona
fides, as recorded in the Gospel of St. Matthew, chapter 12, verses
38 and 39 - "Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees
answered, saying, Master, we would have a sign from thee. But he answered
and said unto them, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a
sign: and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet
Jonas:" Though on the face of this, he refuses to accede to their
request, but we learn from the Gospel narratives that he did perform many
miracles.
The Bible is replete with supernatural events accredited to the Prophets
from their Lord. In reality all those "signs" and "wonders"
and "miracles" were acts of God, but since they were
worked through His human agents, we describe them as the Miracles of Moses
or Jesus by whose hands they were wrought.
Muhummed (peace be upon him) the Prophet of God was born some six hundred
years after Jesus, in Makkah in Arabia. When he proclaimed his Mission
at the age of forty, his fellow countrymen made an identical request for
Miracles as had the people of Jesus from their promised Messiah.
YET THEY SAY; WHY ARE NOT SIGNS SENT DOWN TO HIM
FROM HIS LORD?"
{Holy Quran 29:50}
This is the general trend of their demand. In specific terms they asked
that he - Muhummed - 'put a ladder up to heaven and bring down a Book
from God in their very sight' - "THEN WE WOULD BELIEVE," they
said. Or 'you see the mountain yonder, turn it into gold' - "THEN
WE WOULD BELIEVE." Or "make streams to gush out in the desert'
- "THEN WE WOULD BELIEVE."
Listen to the soft, sweet pleadings of Muhummed against the unreasonable
sceptical demands - "Do I say to you, verily I am an angle? Do
I say to you, verily in my hands are the treasures of God? Only, what
is revealed to me do I follow." Listen further to the most dignified
reply he commanded to give the unbelievers from his Lord:
SAY: "INDEED THE SIGNS (Miracles) ARE WITH GOD
AND VERILY I AM A CLEAR-CUT WARNER."
{Holy Quran 29:50}
In the following verse the Holy Prophet is made to point to the Quran
as an answer to their hypocritical demand for some special kind of "Sign"
or "Miracle" for which their foolish, pagan mentality carved.
Look at the Quran!
IS IT NOT ENOUGH FOR THEM THAT WE HAVE SENT DOWN
TO THEE (O Muhummed!) THE BOOK (Al-Quran) WHICH IS REHEARSED TO THEM?
VERILY, IN IT (This Perspicuous Book) IS A MERCY AND REMINDER TO THOSE
WHO BELIEVE
{Holy Quran 29:51}
As proof of the Divine Authorship and the Miraculous nature of the Holy
Quran, two arguments are advanced here.
- 'That We (God Almighty) have reveled to YOU the Book.' "YOU"
who art an absolutely unlearned person. An "ummi" Prophet.
One who cannot read or write. One who cannot sign his own name. Let
Thomas Carlyle(2) testify regarding the educational qualifications of
Muhummed - "One other circumstance we must not forget: that he
had no school learning; of the thing we call school-learning none at
all."
Let the Divine Author (God Almighty) testify to the Veracity of Muhummed's
claim that he could never have composed the Holy Quran; he could not
have been its author.
AND THOU (O Muhummed!) WAS NOT (ABLE) TO RECITE A BOOK BEFORE THIS
(BOOK CAME), NOR ART THOU (ABLE) TO TRANSCRIPE IT WITH THY RIGHT HANDS:
IN THAT CASE, INDEED, WOULD THE TALKERS OF VANITIES HAVE DOUBTED.
{Holy Quran 29:48}
Had Muhummed been a learned man; had he been able to read or write;
then the babblers in the market places might have had some reason to
doubt his claim that the Quran is God's Word. In the event of him being
a literate person, the insinuations of his enemies that he had probably
copied his Book (Al-Quran) from the Jews and the Christians, or that
perhaps he had been studying Aristotle and Plato and must have browsed
through the "Torat," the "Zabur" and the "Injeel"
and had re-hashed it all in a beautiful language, might have carried
some weight. Then "THE TALKERS OF VANITY" - Might have
had a point. But even this flimsy point has been denied the unbeliever
and the cynic: a point hardly big enough to hang a fly upon!
- 'The Book?' Yes, the "BOOK" itself, carries its own
testimony that it is from God. Study it from any angle. Scrutinize it.
Its author (God) challenges the doubters:
DO THEY NOT CONSIDER THE QURAN (WITH CARE)? HAD IT BEEN FROM OTHER
THAN GOD, THEY WOULD SURELY HAV FOUND THEREIN MUCH DISCREPANCY.
{Holy Quran 4:82)
No human author can ever remain consistent in his teachings for twenty
three years. Passing through the most conflicting vicissitudes of life,
a man must somewhere along the line make compromises, must contradict
himself. No man can ever be the same always in his preachings as the
Message of the Holy Quran is: CONSISTENT WITH ITSELF, throughout. Or
is it that the unbelievers' objections are merely argumentative and
refractory against their own better light and judgment?
Again and again when Miracles are demanded from Muhummed the Prophet
of God, he is made to point to the Quran - Message from on High - as
"The Miracle." THE MIRACLE OF MIRACLES! And men of knowledge,
people with literary and spiritual insight, who were honest enough to
themselves, recognised and accepted Al-Quran as a genuine Miracle. Says
the Holy Quran:
NAY, HERE ARE SIGNS SELF-EVIDENT IN THE HEARTS OF THOSE ENDOWED WITH
KNOWLEDGE: AND NONE BUT THE UNJUST REJECT OUT SIGNS.
{Holy Quran 29:49}
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