Question: Here
is a question asked by my a Hindu friend. Hope you can answer it for me.
According to the Muslims, the Qur’an contains the words of God.
It is to be read as if God Himself had spoken these words stated in it.
(It is important to emphasize this point because if the Qur’an is
the word of God, then it should not contain any errors and it should hold
true for all times.) However, such is not the case. One of these errors
is that some of the verses in the Qur’an themselves show clearly
that they were obviously spoken by Mohammed and not by God. For example:
I take refuge with the Lord of the Dawn. (113:1)
For me, I have been commanded to serve the Lord of this
city, Him Who has sanctified it and to whom [Belong] all things; and I
am commanded to be of those who bow in Islam to Allah’s Will. (27:91)
Should I seek other judge than God, when it is He who
has sent down to you, the distinguishing book [the Qur’an]? (6:114)
Someone need not be a rocket-scientist
to comprehend that these words are clearly addressed to God, Any sane person
can see that these words are not spoken by Him but by Mohammed (sws) himself.
So how can the whole of the Qur’an be considered the word of God?
Answer: I am
afraid that your Hindu friend has not stated the stance of the Muslims
correctly. When Muslims say that the Qur’an is the word of Allah,
it means that whatever has been mentioned in it is divinely revealed by
Allah. It does not mean that at all its verses are spoken by Allah alone.
Your friend has pointed out just one of the sources of these verses – the
Prophet Muhammad (sws). If he can go through the Qur’an a bit more,
he will find that it contains statements from Satan, from the pagans, from
the hypocrites, from the Christians, Jews etc. Similarly, it contains passages
from Allah directly, from Gabriel and from the previous Prophets. However,
the words of all these passages are revealed from Allah. It is because
of being revealed by Allah that the Qur’an is called the Word of
Allah; it is not that each word is spoken by Allah: neither the Qur’an
nor the Muslims have ever claimed this.
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