"OVER IT ARE NINETEEN"
In answer to this false assumption, the Author (God Almighty) delivers
a dire warning - "SOON WILL I CAST HIM INTO HELL FIRE! . . ." Ending the warning with the final sentence:
OVER IT ARE NINETEEN.
{Holy Qu'ran 74:30}
In other words, if anyone makes the false accusation against the Holy
Prophet that he is the author of the Book of God, that person will have,
among other things, "Nineteen."
WHAT IS THIS 'NINETEEN'?
Our great commentators of the past had conjectured beautiful guesses
as to what this "19" implied. Some said it referred to the 19
angels who will be in control of the inmates of the Hell; others said
that the "19" refers to the 19 faculties of man and still others
to the major pillars and commandments of Islam. (See Abdullah Yusuf Ali's
and Moulana Daryabadi's commentaries) But every commentator ends his conjecture
with the expression, "But Allah knows best." None of
our commentators have been arrogant or dogmatic in his assertions. But
why 'Allah knows best.? Because our Holy Prophet did not explain the real
implication of the figure 19. If he had explain it there would have been
no reason for us to surmise.
"Nineteen" is simply a number. What did it mean to the
Arabs before the revelation of this verse under discussion? It meant nothing
other than 'ten plus nine' (10 + 9). From the time of its revelation until
today, what other meaning has this number "19" acquired in 1400
years? Nothing! Nineteen still remains nineteen . . . (10 + 9).
In the language of the world, different numbers connote different things,
beside there own numerical values. An example is the number "786".
Ask any Muslim child in South Africa what does "786" mean, and
he will unhesitatingly answer:
meaning: "IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, MOST GRACIOUS, MOST MERCIFUL."
How this is arrived at needs a detailed explanation. In a nutshell, the
Hebrew and Arabic letters are given a certain traditional numerical value.
If the numerical values of each letter of the above verse are added it
comes to 786. "786", is therefore an abbreviated form or formula
for the above verse.
In South Africa certain huge blocks of flats, when numbering the apartments
begin with 1,2,3 . . . and after 12 they go to 12a, 14, 15 etc.
Why 12a? Why do they omit 13? don't they know how to write 13?
You will get the answer that some people are superstitous and will not
live in a flat which is numbered 13, because they consider this 13 to
be an unlucky number. And what about "Friday the 13th?" Oh!
That would mean bad luck upon bad luck. DOUBLE BAD LUCK! Then we have
expressions like the "3rd degree," meaning physical torture.
And ask any "hot-gospeller" what "666" is and you
will be told the it refers to "the mark of the beast." He gets this idea from his Bible. In India and Pakistan if you wished
to describe a shady character, a pickpocket, a cheat or a common thief,
all you have to utter is the number 420 because all petty crimes are covered
under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code which Pakistan has also inherited.
Similarly in languages of the world; we have different numbers which have
acquired meanings other than the numerical values themselves.
Is it not strange that though Muslims have been repeating the sentence
- "Over it are Nineteen," for 1400 years, no secondary meaning
has become attached to it? This number "19" of the Qur'an has
remained uncontaminated. 19 still remains 19.
Since this number was given in answer to the charge - "That Muhummed
wrote the Book." Its real Author - God Almighty knew what that "19"
really implied. But if Muhummed wrote the Qur'an, in that case he too
would definitely have known what he was talking about.
We know for a fact that the Qur'an is the very Word of God put into the
mouth of Muhummed. This is what the Prophet claimed and this is what the
Qur'an testifies:
HE (Muhummed) DOES NOT SPEAK FROM HIS OWN DESIRE,
IT IS NO LESS THAN AN INSPIRATION SENT DOWN TO HIM.
HE IS TAUGHT BY ONE MIGHTY IN POWER.
{Holy Qur'an 53:3-5)
And he is made repeatedly to tell the people:
SAY: "I AM BUT A MAN LIKE YOURSELVES.
(BUT) THE INSPIRATION HAS COME TO ME.
THAT YOUR GOD IS ONE GOD . . .
{Holy Qur'an 18:110}
Full acknowledging and believing as we Muslims do that Muhummed did not
write or forge a single word of the Qur'an, yet by agreeing with his friendly
critic, just for a moment, (and for the sake of argument that 'Muhummed
did write the Book'), we will be able to show very quickly that "AL-QUR'AN
IS THE ULTIMATE MIRACLE OF CREATION," and absolutely beyond the
mind of man to conceive.
Perusing the chronological order of the Qur'anic Revelation, we find
that verse 30 ofSura Muddaththir (Chapter 74).
OVER IT ARE NINETEEN.
was the last verse given to Muhummed by the Archangel Gabriel on his
fourth visit. Gabriel on pausing here, instead of giving Muhummed the
balance of the 26 verses of this Chapter which would have completed it
- began to make him read the balance of Chapter 96 - the first Revelation. He was then given 14 more verses. On the first visit he was given just
5 verses to which 14 more were now added. How many verses does that make?
"Nineteen" is the answer. How did it happened that immediately
after uttering the word "Nineteen" of the above revelation,
a Chapter with 19 verses is completed? The sceptic will most probably
reply that this was sheer coincidence. Coincidence do occur. This we will
have to agree.
But did you know that the first five verses of the very first Revelation
(96:1-5) have just 19 words? That is 19 x 1. How did this happen? "Coincidence"
again? Those 19 words consist of exactly 76 letters, which is a multiple
of 19, i.e. 19 x 4. How did this happen? "Coincidence." This
96th Chapter! if we start counting backwards from the last Chapter 114,
to 113 and 112 and 111 and so on, we find when we reach this Chapter 96,
that it is the 19th Chapter form the end. How did it happen that
the Chapter with 19 verses is interlocked in the 19th position from the
end? "Coincidence" is the only available reply.
For anyone to write a book, he must first formulate it in his head. One
cannot keep on scribbling for over two decades and then try to rehash
it into a book. If Muhummed wrote the Qur'an then he would have been forced
to formulate some scheme for himself as anybody else would have done.
So, he would have had to say to himself (so to speak) that "I am
going to write a very thick book. It, will take me 23 years of my life
to complete the task. I will have to divide the book into Chapters for
easy reference and study by my followers." And then, let us suppose
that he decided on 144 Chapters. Not 113 or 115 but 114. Why 114? Because
it is an exact multiple of 19 . . . (19 x 6). Did he (?) not say 'I will
fix you with nineteen' to anyone who would attribute the authorship of
the Qur'an to him? How did it happen that there are just 19 x 6 = 114
Chapters in the Qur'an? Our well-disposed cynic or critic will respond
with the same monotonous term - "coincidence"! Has he
no other word in his vocabulary to explain this phenomenon? Obviously
he has not! This is the sickness of man, that when he fails to account
for any happening; he invents a word through which he bluffs himself that
he has answered the problem. He takes refuge behind a word! The unbeliever
is prepared to make the false charge that "Muhummed wrote the Book,"
but he is not prepared to credit that 1400 years ago this unlettered man
of the desert, without paper and pencil to have been following a mathematical
order in the production of his book.
We have stumbled across 5 "coincidences" already. Since the
unbeliever is not prepared to concede that Muhummed could have achieved
this impossibility, we will be generous enough to discount them all. We
can afford this generosity. We do, however, agree with Muhummed's antagonists
that it is an impossibility for Muhummed to have been the author of the
Qur'an on this basis. We are, however pressing the issue because the enemy
makes an allegation but is not prepared to stand by it.
Friends and foe alike agree that Muhummed was a man of his word. Long
before his prophethood, his fellow pagan countrymen had conferred upon
him the high and enviable designation of - "As-sadiq al Wa'd al-Ameen"
- THE FULFILLER OF PROMISES, THE HONEST, THE TRUSTWORTHY, THE TRUSTWORTHY,
THE UPRIGHT. If this man Muhummed uttered - "Over it are nineteen"
- 'I will make you to reckon with nineteen; nineteen will be imposed upon
you' He will definitely carry out his threat. Let us see to what great
lengths Muhummed is supposed to go to fulfill his promise.
Let us suppose that Muhummed said to himself (?) that 'my Book will be
an absolutely unique Book. No Book has ever been written before, nor will
one ever be written in the future, a book based on a mathematical structure.
O am going to evolve an intricate mathematical interlocking system to
protect my Book from any kind of tampering. No man will be able to add,
delete or interpolate a word to my completed text and that system will
be based on the numeral 19!'
Why 19? Is it because it is an easy number to work with? No! it is one
of the most difficult to work with. It has no denominators. Unlike its
sister number 18 which you can divide by 2, 3, 6 and by 9; and its other
sister number 20 which you can divide by 2, 4, 5 and by 10, 19 is indivisible.
It is a "prime" number in mathematics, and it is also a unique
number because it begins with 1, the lowest numeral of our mathematical
system and ends with 9, the highest numeral of our mathematical system;
it seems to be the "alpha and omega" of our mathematical
system. Perhaps Muhummed knew the 19 times multiplication table: whereas
Einstein the master mathematician did not know the 19 times table. I know.
To what degree did Muhummed know the 19 times table? it must be supposed
to have been to an infinite degree, we will discover as we go along, if
we keep on insisting that Muhummed was the author of the Qur'an. |
