Reason 5 of 10
One witness, no signs, and a text that changed
Islam rests on revelation received by one man alone, without the public signs the Quran itself says it will not give. The earliest Islamic sources record verses withdrawn, verses lost, rival codices burned and an episode later scholars wished away.
A single, private witness
Sahih al-Bukhari's account of the first revelation has Muhammad alone in the cave of Hira, returning home terrified, and being reassured by his wife Khadija and her Christian cousin Waraqa ibn Nawfal. No one else saw or heard the angel then or later.
The Bible's standard is that a matter is established by two or three witnesses. The prophets of Israel spoke in public, and Jesus' resurrection was seen by named apostles and by more than five hundred people at once.
15One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin that he sins. At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.
Deuteronomy 19:15 (WEB) · context
5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.
1 Corinthians 15:5-8 (WEB) · context
22“Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him among you, even as you yourselves know,
Acts 2:22 (WEB) · context
Sahih al-Bukhari 3 Summary, not a quotation
The first revelation in the cave of Hira; Muhammad returns trembling to Khadija, who takes him to Waraqa ibn Nawfal.
Read the full text on sunnah.comThe Quran declines to give signs
When Muhammad's hearers asked for a miracle, the Quran's answer was that signs are with God and that Muhammad is only a warner. Muslims point to the Quran itself as the miracle, and to reports such as the splitting of the moon (Q 54:1). Jesus answered the same demand by pointing to his works, done in public.
وَقَالُوا۟ لَوْلَآ أُنزِلَ عَلَيْهِ ءَايَٰتٌ مِّن رَّبِّهِۦ قُلْ إِنَّمَا ٱلْـَٔايَٰتُ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ وَإِنَّمَآ أَنَا۠ نَذِيرٌ مُّبِينٌ 50
50And they say: Why are not portents sent down upon him from his Lord? Say: Portents are with Allah only, and I am but a plain warner.
Quran 29:50 (Pickthall) · context
وَيَقُولُ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ لَوْلَآ أُنزِلَ عَلَيْهِ ءَايَةٌ مِّن رَّبِّهِۦٓ إِنَّمَآ أَنتَ مُنذِرٌ وَلِكُلِّ قَوْمٍ هَادٍ 7
7Those who disbelieve say: If only some portent were sent down upon him from his Lord! Thou art a warner only, and for every folk a guide.
Quran 13:7 (Pickthall) · context
وَمَا مَنَعَنَآ أَن نُّرْسِلَ بِٱلْـَٔايَٰتِ إِلَّآ أَن كَذَّبَ بِهَا ٱلْأَوَّلُونَ وَءَاتَيْنَا ثَمُودَ ٱلنَّاقَةَ مُبْصِرَةً فَظَلَمُوا۟ بِهَا وَمَا نُرْسِلُ بِٱلْـَٔايَٰتِ إِلَّا تَخْوِيفًا 59
59Naught hindereth Us from sending portents save that the folk of old denied them. And We gave Thamud the she-camel - a clear portent save to warn.
Quran 17:59 (Pickthall) · context
وَأَقْسَمُوا۟ بِٱللَّهِ جَهْدَ أَيْمَٰنِهِمْ لَئِن جَآءَتْهُمْ ءَايَةٌ لَّيُؤْمِنُنَّ بِهَا قُلْ إِنَّمَا ٱلْـَٔايَٰتُ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ وَمَا يُشْعِرُكُمْ أَنَّهَآ إِذَا جَآءَتْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ 109
109And they swear a solemn oath by Allah that if there come unto them a portent they will believe therein. Say; Portents are with Allah and (so is) that which telleth you that if such came unto them they would not believe.
Quran 6:109 (Pickthall) · context
37If I don’t do the works of my Father, don’t believe me. 38But if I do them, though you don’t believe me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
John 10:37-38 (WEB) · context
36But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father gave me to accomplish, the very works that I do, testify about me, that the Father has sent me.
John 5:36 (WEB) · context
The Satanic verses
The historian and Quran commentator al-Tabari (died AD 923), the biographer Ibn Sa'd (died AD 845) and others report that Muhammad once recited, as revelation, words praising the goddesses al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat as intercessors, then withdrew them as words Satan had cast. The Quran says Satan casts into every prophet's recitation and God abolishes it.
Shahab Ahmed's study (Before Orthodoxy, Harvard University Press, 2017) shows the report was widely accepted in the first two Islamic centuries; later Sunni scholarship mostly rejected it.
19Have ye thought upon Al-Lat and Al-'Uzza 20And Manat, the third, the other? 21Are yours the males and His the females? 22That indeed were an unfair division! 23They are but names which ye have named, ye and your fathers, for which Allah hath revealed no warrant. They follow but a guess and that which (they) themselves desire. And now the guidance from their Lord hath come unto them.
Quran 53:19-23 (Pickthall) · context
وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَا مِن قَبْلِكَ مِن رَّسُولٍ وَلَا نَبِىٍّ إِلَّآ إِذَا تَمَنَّىٰٓ أَلْقَى ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ فِىٓ أُمْنِيَّتِهِۦ فَيَنسَخُ ٱللَّهُ مَا يُلْقِى ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ ثُمَّ يُحْكِمُ ٱللَّهُ ءَايَٰتِهِۦ وَٱللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ 52
52Never sent We a messenger or a prophet before thee but when He recited (the message) Satan proposed (opposition) in respect of that which he recited thereof. But Allah abolisheth that which Satan proposeth. Then Allah establisheth His revelations. Allah is Knower, Wise;
Quran 22:52 (Pickthall) · context
Compiled, standardised, burned
Sahih al-Bukhari reports that after many Quran reciters were killed in battle, Abu Bakr had Zayd ibn Thabit collect the Quran from parchments, bones and the memories of men, and that a final verse was found only with one man. Under Uthman (caliph 644-656), disputes over recitation led to one standard copy; every other manuscript was ordered burned.
Classical sources record that the codices of two leading companions, Abdullah ibn Mas'ud and Ubayy ibn Ka'b, differed from Uthman's: Ibn Mas'ud's reportedly lacked the last two surahs (Sahih al-Bukhari 4977 alludes to his view; the fuller report is in Musnad Ahmad), and Ubayy's reportedly had two extra short surahs (Ibn Abi Dawud, Kitab al-Masahif; al-Suyuti, al-Itqan).
The lower text of the Sana'a palimpsest (Sana'a 1), a seventh-century Quran manuscript, is a non-Uthmanic text with many word-level differences from the standard Quran (Sadeghi and Goudarzi, Der Islam, 2012).
Sahih al-Bukhari 4986 Summary, not a quotation
Abu Bakr has Zayd ibn Thabit gather the Quran from scattered material and men's memories.
Read the full text on sunnah.comSahih al-Bukhari 4987 Summary, not a quotation
Uthman has a standard copy made, sends copies to the provinces, and orders all other copies burned.
Read the full text on sunnah.comSahih al-Bukhari 4977 Summary, not a quotation
Ubayy ibn Ka'b is asked about the two closing surahs, with reference to what Ibn Mas'ud says about them.
Read the full text on sunnah.comAbrogation and missing verses
The Quran teaches that God replaces some verses with others. Sahih Muslim records Aisha saying a verse on ten breast-feedings was revealed, then replaced by five, and was still recited when the Prophet died; neither is in the Quran today. Sahih al-Bukhari records Umar insisting that a verse of stoning for adultery was revealed, though it is not in the Quran, which prescribes a hundred lashes.
The Quran says God guards it and that a book from anyone else would contain much incongruity. A text that replaces its own verses and loses others does not fit that claim.
مَا نَنسَخْ مِنْ ءَايَةٍ أَوْ نُنسِهَا نَأْتِ بِخَيْرٍ مِّنْهَآ أَوْ مِثْلِهَآ أَلَمْ تَعْلَمْ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ قَدِيرٌ 106
106Nothing of our revelation (even a single verse) do we abrogate or cause be forgotten, but we bring (in place) one better or the like thereof. Knowest thou not that Allah is Able to do all things?
Quran 2:106 (Pickthall) · context
وَإِذَا بَدَّلْنَآ ءَايَةً مَّكَانَ ءَايَةٍ وَٱللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا يُنَزِّلُ قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّمَآ أَنتَ مُفْتَرٍۭ بَلْ أَكْثَرُهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ 101
101And when We put a revelation in place of (another) revelation, - and Allah knoweth best what He revealeth - they say: Lo! thou art but inventing. Most of them know not.
Quran 16:101 (Pickthall) · context
يَمْحُوا۟ ٱللَّهُ مَا يَشَآءُ وَيُثْبِتُ وَعِندَهُۥٓ أُمُّ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ 39
39Allah effaceth what He will, and establisheth (what He will), and with Him is the source of ordinance.
Quran 13:39 (Pickthall) · context
ٱلزَّانِيَةُ وَٱلزَّانِى فَٱجْلِدُوا۟ كُلَّ وَٰحِدٍ مِّنْهُمَا مِا۟ئَةَ جَلْدَةٍ وَلَا تَأْخُذْكُم بِهِمَا رَأْفَةٌ فِى دِينِ ٱللَّهِ إِن كُنتُمْ تُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرِ وَلْيَشْهَدْ عَذَابَهُمَا طَآئِفَةٌ مِّنَ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ 2
2The adulterer and the adulteress, scourge ye each one of them (with) a hundred stripes. And let not pity for the twain withhold you from obedience to Allah, if ye believe in Allah and the Last Day. And let a party of believers witness their punishment.
Quran 24:2 (Pickthall) · context
إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا ٱلذِّكْرَ وَإِنَّا لَهُۥ لَحَٰفِظُونَ 9
9Lo! We, even We, reveal the Reminder, and lo! We verily are its Guardian.
Quran 15:9 (Pickthall) · context
أَفَلَا يَتَدَبَّرُونَ ٱلْقُرْءَانَ وَلَوْ كَانَ مِنْ عِندِ غَيْرِ ٱللَّهِ لَوَجَدُوا۟ فِيهِ ٱخْتِلَٰفًا كَثِيرًا 82
82Will they not then ponder on the Qur'an? If it had been from other than Allah they would have found therein much incongruity.
Quran 4:82 (Pickthall) · context
Sahih Muslim 1452a Summary, not a quotation
Aisha: ten clear breast-feedings was revealed in the Quran, then replaced by five, and the Prophet died while it was still recited.
Read the full text on sunnah.comSahih al-Bukhari 6829 Summary, not a quotation
Umar: the verse of stoning was revealed, and he fears people will say they do not find it in the Book.
Read the full text on sunnah.comWhat Muslims answer
Muslims answer that the Quran's preservation through memorisation is unique; that the Birmingham manuscript, radiocarbon-dated to AD 568-645, shows the text is early; that Uthman only unified the recitation dialect; that the seven ahruf (Sahih al-Bukhari 4992) and the canonical qira'at are all revealed; and that abrogation is God's wisdom in giving law in stages.
Why that answer fails
An early manuscript proves a text is early, not that it never changed: the Sana'a lower text is early too, and different. Burning the rival copies removed the evidence that could show what was lost. A book that its own earliest guardians say lost verses cannot be offered as a perfectly preserved copy of a heavenly tablet.
The New Testament was never controlled by one ruler: it spread in thousands of copies across many languages within a few centuries, and no one could have burned the variants. That is why its textual history is open to inspection.
Where scholars disagree
- The Satanic verses report: accepted by many early authorities, rejected by most later Sunni scholars as unreliable in its chains.
- The exact relation of the Sana'a lower text to the Uthmanic text is debated (Sadeghi and Goudarzi regard it as a companion codex).
Sources
- Earliest source Sahih al-Bukhari 3, 4977, 4986, 4987, 4992, 6829; Sahih Muslim 1452a (numbering as on sunnah.com).
- al-Tabari, Tarikh al-rusul wa'l-muluk; English: The History of al-Tabari, vol. VI, Muhammad at Mecca, trans. W. Montgomery Watt and M. V. McDonald (SUNY Press, 1988).
- Shahab Ahmed, Before Orthodoxy: The Satanic Verses in Early Islam (Harvard University Press, 2017).
- Behnam Sadeghi and Mohsen Goudarzi, "San'a' 1 and the Origins of the Qur'an", Der Islam 87 (2012) 1-129.
- University of Birmingham, Cadbury Research Library, Mingana 1572a (radiocarbon announcement, July 2015).
- The Quran, Pickthall translation: 2:106, 4:82, 6:109, 13:7, 13:39, 15:9, 16:101, 17:59, 22:52, 24:2, 29:50, 53:19-23, 54:1.