Scriptures and the difficulty of preserving it!

The world is indebted. to the righteous souls who search the Truth

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…Oh Lord, the Creator of All, seen and unseen with Power and Knowledge of the seen , unseen, past, present and future, open all

our Hearts to the Truth and Guide Us All to the Straight Path.

Amen

The series of Booklets that have been produced is to remove misconception on Islam, and see ways and means to find the similarities in the Great Masters Teachings, through the available Scriptures, and to prevent Mischief.

We hope you will enjoy reading them, and also find useful n Truthful Information that will help us as a Society to live in Peace, whatever our differences in Beliefs, Practices and Understanding.

History of Religious BooksHow it came into Existence

Hinduismhinduwebsite.com/vedicsection/aboutvedas.aspThe Veda is the oldest Scripture of Hinduism. . Even today many scholars tend to define a person as a Hindu only if he or she accepts the authority of the Vedas. Most of the hymns in the Vedas do not make sense today because of the changes that took place in the Vedic religion in the last 3000 years. We have no idea how much of the Vedas were compromised and how much of it was kept intact. We know for sure that many of the ancient gods were sacrificed to keep the tradition alive and the priests in power. Whatever might be the truth, the Vedas constitute the base as well as the hub of the Hindu tradition

We give below short history of Faiths. The immense sacrifice by righteous person's to put oral preaching to paper could be understood by the details in the booklet.

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Buddhismhttp://dharmastudy.org/essays/the-pali-canon/ No one knows what language the Buddha actually used to deliver his teachings. It's almost certain that the discourses recorded in the Pali Canon are not verbatim transcripts of the Buddha's words. First, there is the sheer size of the canon; the Sutta Pitaka itself is considerably larger than the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Koran combined. Considered simply as a treasure trove, full of wonderful stories and thought-provoking lessons, the Pali Canon contains a lot of treasure.Sri Lanka adopted the Buddha's Dharma eagerly, and it was in that island kingdom, under the sponsorship of King Vattagamani, that the Fourth Buddhist Council was held, in about 200BCE, with the express purpose of committing the teachings to writing. Once again, the council heard the recitation of the entire body of teachings; by this time, with various accretions, the whole thing took over six months to recite, and it had become virtually impossible for a single bhikkhu to memorize in its entirety. So, in order that the teachings would not be lost, the bhikkhus of the Fourth Council undertook to write the whole thing down.

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Christianityhttp://www.allabouttruth.org/origin-of-the-bible.htm http://www.bible-r e s e a r c h e r . c o m / r s v p r e f a c e . h t m l

The King James Version has with good reason been termed "the noblest monument of English prose." …..Yet the King James Version has grave defects. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the development of Biblical studies and the discovery of many manuscripts more ancient than those upon which the King James Version was based, made it manifest that these defects are so many and so serious as to call for revision of the English translation. http://www.premiercommunity.org.uk/group/unbelievable/forum/topics/1-year-later-b-s t r o n g -is?page=2&commentId=2060181%3AComment%3A1104359&x=1#2060181Comment1104359

Vincint Bulgiosi (the famed prosecutor who prosecuted the notorious “killer” Charles Manson) states in his new book: Divinity of Doubt; The God Question (in chapter 2)“Christian writings would be inadmissible “in court” because they all constitute hearsay and are not properly authenticated. Since a jury would not be allowed to consider such documents, these historic texts must also be denied admission in the courtroom of the mind of the seeker.” World expert Dr. Bart Ehrman bolsters that shocking statement with his own shocking confession: “we don't even have a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy, etc, etc, etc, of any original book of the New Testament!”03

Islam

The Quran is preserved in its original form. The Quran was revealed over 23 years period, to the Prophet (pbuh) by angel Gabriel. He was an illiterate person, of very noble character, and he committed the Revelation to memory.

In fact all the Believers were forced to commit to memory as it was recited 5times a day in the Prayers. At the time of his death, over tens of thousands knew it by memory, and today there is easily over 10-15 million who know the Quran by memory cover to cover. All of them live in every part of the world!

The writing of the Quran was undertaken by the Prophet(pbuh) himself by a team of scribes. It was meticously done, by him personally rechecking it, by listening to its recital.

The phenomenal spread of Islam during the Caliphate made it necessary to have a Quran in every area as the it was perhaps envisaged that memory alone would not be sufficient in lands where

rdthey did not know Arabic. Accordingly the 3 Caliph Osman got few originals written based on the certified manuscript and certified them, from which today's copies are made. As a wise and God fearing person he saw to it that all other writings of the Quran was destroyed, thus preserving the Originality of God's Word.

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Today the Museums, Mosques, Bookstores all have the same Quran duplicated to the very last dot, and is IDENTICAL to the hundreds of millions who recite it daily in their 5 Prayers daily!

Check it out: Buy a Quran, borrow one from a Mosque or colleague or simply go On Line. Note the Arabic will be all identical, translations will be basically the same, only slightly differ based which period it was translated, and the personality of the translator.Hadith these are, sayings, practices of the Prophet(pbuh) essentially to explain the Quran, and the way of life GOD expects from us, in order to have Peace and Harmony among fellow Humans and all Created Matter. You will be surprised as the science of Hadith and the dedication of people, and the extent God fearing people go to preserve those teachings

Finally what does the Quran say 1. This is the Book, about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those conscious of Allah*-2:2* ALLAH is an Arabic word that gives the full meaning of the Creator of all that exists. In short Allah is uncreated, unborn, formless, all powerful and beyond ones imagination

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2. Indeed, it is We who sent down the message, and indeed, We will be its guardian-15:93. praise be to Allah, who hath sent to his Servant the Book, and hath allowed therein no crookedness18:14. And We have indeed made the Quran easy to and understand and remember; Then is there any that will receive admonition?-54:175. Let there be no compulsion in religion. Truth stands out Clear from error-2:2566. Leave alone those who take their religion to be mere play and amusement, and are deceived bythe life of this world-6:707. O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in your religion: nor say of Allah aught but the truth4:1718. He has chosen you, and imposed no difficulties on you in religion; it is the religion of your father Abraham-22:789. Revile not ye , those whom they call upon besides Allah, lest they out of spite revile Allah out their ignorance-6:10810. Say “We believe in Allah, and in what he has revealed to us, and what Was revealed to Abraham, Ismail, Jacob, and the Tribes, and in the Books given to Moses, Jesus and the Prophets, from their Lord; we make no distinction between one another among them ,and to Allah do we bow our will-3:84

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11. If anyone desires a religion other than Islam(submission to the will of the Creator) Never will it be accepted-3:8512. For We assuredly sent amongst every People a Messenger-16:36

Islamic Prayer: They pray 5 times a day, the call for prayer is called Azan and it reads thus:

Allahu Akbar-God is Great(4 times)

Ashhadu an la ilaha illa Allah - I bear witness that there is no god except the One God.(2times)

Ashadu anna Muhammadan Rasool Allah - I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of God.(2times)

Hayya 'ala-s-Salah - Hurry to the prayer (2 times)

Hayya 'ala-l-Falah - Hurry to success (2times)

Allahu Akbar-God is Great [2times]

La ilaha illa Allah - There is no god except the One God

Prayer: All muslims must Glorify and seek guidance in the following manner in Arabic in each prayer. Note the powerful meaning, which each one of us could easily include in our Prayer

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In the name of GOD, the Beneficent, the Merciful Praise be to GOD, Lord of the Worlds, The Beneficent, the Merciful. Owner of the Day of Judgment, Thee (alone) we worship; Thee (alone) we ask for help. Guide us on the straight path, The path of those whom Thou hast favored; Not (the path) of those who earn Thine anger nor of those who go astray.(1 : 1-7)

Further Reading & Videos

Quran & Bible in the light of Science - Dr William Campbell & Dr Zakir Naik

http://www.discoveringislam.org/naik_vs_campbell.htm

The preservation of the Quran

By: Dr. Bilal Philips

The Qur'an was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in sections throughout the twenty-three years of his prophethood. THE ERA OF THE PROPHET (PBUH) 609-632 CE

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The Qur'an was the main miracle given to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to prove that he was a true prophet of Allah(this the Arabic name for GOD, even used in the Arabic Bible) and not an imposter. So, the Qur'an had to be saved to prove to the later generations that Muhammad (PBUH) was really the last prophet of Allah.

One of the leading orientalists, Kenneth Cragg, said the following regarding the memorization and preservation of the Qur'anic text, “This phenomenon of Qur'anic recital means that the text has traversed the centuries in an unbroken living sequence of devotion. It cannot, therefore, be handled as an antiquarian thing, nor as a historical document out of a distant past.” Another orientalist scholar, William Graham, wrote: “For countless millions of Muslims over more than fourteen centuries of Islamic history, 'scripture', al-kitab, has been a book learned, read and passed on by vocal repetition and memorisation. The written Qur'an may 'fix' visibly the authoritative text of the Divine Word in a way unknown in history, but the authoritativeness of the Qur'anic book is only realized in its fullness and perfection when it is correctly recited.”

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Yet another, John Burton, stated: “The method of transmitting the Qur'an from one generation to the next by having the young memorize the oral tradition of their elders had mitigated somewhat from the beginning the worst perils of relying solely on written records...” At the end of a voluminous work on the Qur'an's collection, Burton stated that the text of the Qur'an available today is “the text which has come down to us in the form in which it was organised and approved by the Prophet....What we have today in our hands is the mus-haf of Muhammad.”

With every succeeding generation of Muslims, the numbers of those who memorized all of the Qur'an has increased. Today there are literally millions of Muslims throughout the world who have done so.

There is no other book, religious or otherwise, which has been memorized on this scale in recorded history. The Qur'an is about four-fifths the length of the New Testament of the Christians, yet not a single person in recorded history is known to have memorized the New Testament completely. In fact, if all of the books in the world were somehow destroyed, the only book which could be rewritten, word for word, without a single mistake is the Glorious Qur'an.

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The Qur'an has been preserved in both the oral as well as written form in a way no other religious book in history has.

Why did Allah preserve the Qur'an and allow His earlier books of divine revelation to be changed or lost? The answer to that question lies in the following facts:

1. The earlier prophets and their books were sent to a particular people in particular periods of history. Once the period ended, a new prophet was sent with a new book to replace the previous book. So, it was not necessary that these books be preserved by Allah. The preservation of the earlier books was left up to the people as a test for them. Thus, when the people went astray, they changed what was written in the books which their prophets brought in order to make allowable the things which were forbidden to them. In that way, all of the earlier books of revelation became either changed or lost.

2. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was the last prophet whom Allah sent, and he was not sent to a particular people or a particular time. He was sent to all of mankind until the end of the world. Allah said in the Qur'an, “I have only sent you (Muhammad) as a giver of glad tidings and a warner to all mankind, but most men do not understand.” 34:28

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Thus, his book of revelation, the Qur'an, had to be specially preserved from any form of change or loss so that it would be available to all the generations of man until the last day of the world.The significance of the Qur'an's preservation is that Islam has been kept in its original purity because of it. Humanity can always return to the sources of Islam no matter what people may have added or forgotten in time. All of the essential principles of Islam are to be found in the Qur'an. Consequently, the preservation of the Qur'an meant the preservation of Islam in its final form. The loss of the Gospel of Jesus means that Christians can never return to the true teachings of Prophet Jesus except by accepting Islam. (The Five Gospels, pp. 2-16)

Similarly, the original Torah was lost when Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians.[ The New Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 14, p. 7578] Thus, the Jews cannot return to the pure teachings of Prophet Moses except by following Islam.

It is only in Islam that the pure teachings of the prophets have been preserved without any change. That is why Allah said in the Qur'an,

“Verily, the only acceptable religion to Allah is Islam.”

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During the Holy Prophet's Life

- Committee of the Scribes

-People used to commit it to their hearts

During the first thirteen years of his ministry at Makkah, the Prophet Muhammad used to read out the revealed passages to the small group of his followers and non-believers. His followers used to commit the revelation to their hearts.

Hadhrat Zayd was the full time Secretary of the Committee of the Scribes. On receiving a verse or verses from Allah, the Holy Prophet used to call one of the members of the committee and get it dictated. Then the written passage was read out to the Prophet and was corrected and approved by him.

The Qur'an was being revealed in accordance with the needs of the different stages of the prophetic mission. It was however not compiled in the chronological order of its revelation. While compiling and arranging it, the Qur'an was given a new order, which was to have a meaningful coherence for the readers in future. Whenever the Prophet dictated a newly revealed passage of the Qur'an to the Scribes, he used to direct them regarding the placement of that passage in the Qur'an as well.

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Thus the entire Qur'an was systematically recorded and arranged on written material during the lifetime of the Prophet. However the Qur'an was recorded not in one volume but on tanned hides, stone tablets, wooden tablets, pieces of cloth etc. One complete set of the Qur'an was with the with the Holy Prophet. It was placed in the Mosque of the Prophet (Masjid an-Nabawi) from where any one was free to make a copy for himself or to refer to it in case he wished to memorize it.

It appears that the official copy, although complete, checked, and approved by the Prophet was available in the life of the Holy Prophet, yet it was not bound in one volume (bayn al-lawhayn). The Holy Qur'an constituted the life blood of the early Muslim community during the life of Holy Prophet. It was recited five times a day, people used to commit it to their hearts and used to study it with utmost care and concentration.

People were graded and appreciated on the basis of their knowledge and the extent of the Qur'an that they had memorized. All affairs of the state as well as the social life of Arabia were governed in the light of the provisions of the Qur'an. All civil servants, military commanders and judges used to seek guidance from the Qur'an.

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During the Prophet's life time, when he used to send governors and judges to far off places, he used to instruct them that they have to govern and decide in the light of the Qur'an. These facts show that Qur'an was alive in that society not because of written manuscripts but as a necessity of faith and an inevitable source of guidance for social, political and legal affairs.

It is also natural to believe that he could not neglect the task of its preservation. One of the primary missions of the Holy Prophet was to deliver the divine message to mankind. This message consisted of the Holy Qur'an. He could not shift this responsibility to later generations.

HADITH

The importance of hadith: Sunnah also means the Prophet's way of life. The Prophet (saaw) was a walking Quran. He was the manifestation of Quran on earth. And the companions were very aware of this. This is why they accompanied him. This is why they have the title Companions of the Prophet (saaw). The term Companion is not used loosely. Not everyone who became a believer at the time of the Prophet (saaw) is a companion,

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only those who got to to meet him (except for one man whom the Prophet (saaw) referred to him as a companion even though he could not come and meet the prophet saaw).

The Companions of the Prophet (saaw) realized his value and so they put an unbelievable amount of effort to be with him and to record and cherish everything he said and did. Omar (raa) had a deal with another companion that they would alternate, one would go out and work to provide for his family while the other would stay with the prophet and record all that he said and did. At the end of the day they would share what they learned.

Abu Hurairah is another example. Though he became a Muslim fairly late in the Prophet's years of Prophethood, yet he has the most narrations of all the Prophet's companions. It is because as soon as he became a Muslim, he became one of Ahlu-Suffah (poor companions who stayed at the mosque of the Prophet saaw) and he dedicated his life to accompanying the Prophet (saaw) and learning from him. So much so that some companions have tested him because of his many narrations and he passed their tests..

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This tradition was kept so closely that if the Prophet (saaw) did something in the original tradition, the narrators through out time have did the exact same thing. There is a whole category of hadith called Al-Musalsalat in which the narrator would say and then the prophet (saaw) did this.. and he would the exact same thing the prophet (saaw) did. For example, smile, or shake hands or entwine ones fingers with anothers fingers (tashbeek). This is how precise these people maintained that tradition, that even if the Prophet (saaw) would do a gesture they would be sure to mention it and repeat it.

The need for the science of hadith: Hadith Ranking: The ranks of hadith were devised by scholars of hadith to evaluate the chain and the body of the hadith and give it a rank that helps weed out fabricated a hadith. It should be noted that even these rankings are not absolute. Some scholars of hadith were more strict than others. The scholars of hadith themselves are ranked as moderate such as Al-Zhahabi, strict such as Ibn Al-Jawzi and Ad-Daraqutani and Lenient such as Al-Hakim.

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HOW MANY HADITHS ?

The number of hadiths collected and attributed to the prophet Muhammed is in the hundreds of thousands. As much as 99% of all these hundreds of thousands hadiths are pure lies and fabrications and were rejected by the early Muslim scholars who thought they can figure out which hadith is authentic and which is not. Let us look at some of the famous hadiths collectors and what they collected.

(1) Malik Ibn Anas collected about 500 hadiths in his famous book, "Al-Muwattaa"

(2) Ahmed Ibn Hanbal, collected about 40,000 hadiths, in his famous "Musnad".He chose these 40,000 hadiths from among 700,000 hadiths.

(3) Bukhary collected about 600,000 hadiths and accepted 7275 hadiths.

(4)Moslem collected 300,000 hadiths and only accepted 4000 of them.

This will give you an idea of how much corruption entered or tried to enter Islam(gives an idea for other Religions too.) from the back door. Now we should understand why God promised to preserve, protect and safeguard His book, the ONLY authentic hadith, the ONLY acceptable hadith, the BEST HADITH, the Quran

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Authentication of Hadith: Why Authenticate hadith? Why go through all the different ranks and levels and scrutiny of each narrator?

The main reason was to preserve hadith from being corrupted and altered by ideological and political influence. That is, to

protect hadith from fabrication. Fabrication had many reasons, some were political, some were simply personal interest. Still,

once the fear of people making up ahadith and attributing them to the prophet became a real one, scholars of religion began to dedicate themselves to preservation of the prophetic traditions.

Terminology of the scholars of hadith:

Just so that can get a picture of the amount of work and dedication these scholars put into their work, let us look at the titles and ranks they hold:

A scholar who is called a Hujjah of hadith is one who memorizes at least 300,000 ahadith. A Hafiz is one who memorizes 100,000. A Hakim is one who memorizes all of the known ahadith.

If you find these numbers amazing. Consider this.. Imam Ahmad memorized one thousand thousand ahadith (not a type, that is one million). He said of them he knew 700,000+ that were Sahih.

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Abu Zara Ar-Razi memorized 700,00 ahadith. Muslim memorized 140,000 on Tafseer (explanation of Quran) and 300,000 ahadith in total. Imam Bukhari memorized 100,000 Sahih hadith and 200,000 that were not Sahih.

A final point to think about is that despite all their work, the scholars of hadith are still scholars of hadith. Being a scholar of hadith does not automatically make one a scholar of Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence). An obvious example of this is Al-Amash who was one of the greatest scholars of hadith in the time of Imam Abu Hanifah. And when he was asked on a certain matter he said he knew no hadith on this matter. Yet Abu Hanifah gave a fatwah on this matter based on a hadith that he proclaimed that he heard from al-Amash. When Al-Amash inquired from Imam Abu Hanifah, the Imam explained to him how he used one of the ahadith that Al-Amash told him to view this and Al-Amash said We (the scholars of hadith) are like the Pharmacists and you (the scholars of Fiqh) are like the Doctors.

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VR Ordinary Muslims trying to explain toOrdinary Non Muslims.

Authors Note:

Hope you found this little booklet Truthful and informative. You will wonder why a basic Muslim takes this much of trouble? The answer is very simple. We want to follow the Basic Principles of Islam. This can never be done without understanding the Character and Practices of the Final Prophet. Read his Last Sermon to Understand better( we are asked to inform others even if we know even one thing!).

If you think this information in the Booklet will be useful, please download and Print at the corner store and distribute to friends and Family, as it is done in a way to print easily. You may also go to the website for other articles of Social Value. GOD Bless

It is not possible to get these details.THANK YOU ALL good Souls

who have made their work freely available.

10http://www.vr-one.org