Scriptures and the Difficulty of Preserving It

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Scriptures and the difficulty ofpreserving it!

The world is indebted. to the righteous souls whosearch the Truth

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V . R . ONE

ARROGANCEJEALOUSDECEIT

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LostIgnorant

Misunderstood

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Oh Lord, the Creator of All,

seen and unseen with Power andKnowledge 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 isto remove misconception on Islam, and see waysand means to find the similarities in the GreatMasters Teachings, through the availableScriptures, and to prevent Mischief.

We hope you will enjoy reading them, and alsofind useful n Truthful Information that will help usas a Society to live in Peace, whatever ourdifferences in Beliefs, Practices andUnderstanding.


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History of Religious BooksHow it came into Existence

Hinduismhinduwebsite.com/vedicsection/aboutvedas.aspThe Veda is the oldest Scripture of Hinduism. . Even todaymany 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 theVedas do not make sense today because of the changes that tookplace in the Vedic religion in the last 3000 years. We have noidea how much of the Vedas were compromised and how muchof it was kept intact. We know for sure that many of the ancientgods were sacrificed to keep the tradition alive and the priestsin power. Whatever might be the truth, the Vedas constitute thebase as well as the hub of the Hindu tradition

We give below short history of Faiths. The immense sacrificeby righteous person's to put oral preaching to paper could beunderstood 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 discoursesrecorded in the Pali Canon are not verbatim transcripts of theBuddha's words. First, there is the sheer size of the canon; theSutta Pitaka itself is considerably larger than the OldTestament, the New Testament, and the Koran combined.Considered simply as a treasure trove, full of wonderful storiesand thought-provoking lessons, the Pali Canon contains a lot oftreasure.Sri Lanka adopted the Buddha'sDharma eagerly, andit was in that island kingdom, under the sponsorship of King

Vattagamani, that the Fourth Buddhist Council was held, inabout 200BCE, with the express purpose of committing theteachings to writing. Once again, the council heard therecitation of the entire body of teachings; by this time, with

various accretions, the whole thing took over six months torecite, and it had become virtually impossible for a singlebhikkhu to memorize in its entirety. So, in order that theteachings would not be lost, the bhikkhus of the Fourth Councilundertook 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 JamesVersion has grave defects. By the middle of the nineteenth century,the development of Biblical studies and the discovery of manymanuscripts more ancient than those upon which the King JamesVersion 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 thenotorious killer Charles Manson) states in his new book: Divinityof Doubt; The God Question (in chapter 2)Christian writings wouldbe inadmissible in court because they all constitute hearsay and

are not properly authenticated. Since a jury would not be allowed toconsider such documents, these historic texts must also be deniedadmission in the courtroom of the mind of the seeker. World expertDr. Bart Ehrman bolsters that shocking statement with his ownshocking 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 originalbook of the New Testament!03


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Islam

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

In fact all the Believers were forced to commit to memory as it wasrecited 5times a day in the Prayers. At the time of his death, over tensof 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 themlive 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 itnecessary to have a Quran in every area as the it was perhapsenvisaged that memory alone would not be sufficient in lands where

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they did not know Arabic. Accordingly the 3 Caliph Osman got feworiginals written based on the certified manuscript and certified them,from which today's copies are made. As a wise and God fearingperson 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 Quranduplicated to the very last dot, and is IDENTICAL to thehundreds of millions who recite it daily in their 5 Prayers daily!

Check it out: Buy a Quran, borrow one from a Mosque orcolleague or simply go On Line.Note the Arabic will be allidentical, translations will be basically the same, only slightlydiffer based which period it was translated, and the personality ofthe translator.

Hadith these are, sayings, practices of the Prophet(pbuh)essentially to explain the Quran, and the way of life GOD expectsfrom us, in order to have Peace and Harmony among fellowHumans and all Created Matter. You will be surprised as the

science of Hadith and the dedication of people, and the extent Godfearing people go to preserve those teachings

Finally what does the Quran say1. 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 givesthe full meaning of the Creator of all that exists. In short Allah isuncreated, unborn, formless, all powerful and beyond onesimagination

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2. Indeed, it is We who sent down the message, and indeed, We willbe its guardian-15:93. praise be to Allah, who hath sent to his Servant the Book, and hathallowed therein no crookedness18:1

4. And We have indeed made the Quran easy to and understand andremember; Then is there any that will receive admonition?-54:175. Let there be no compulsion in religion. Truth stands out Clearfrom error-2:256

6. Leave alone those who take their religion to be mere play andamusement, and are deceived bythe life of this world-6:707. O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in your religion: norsay of Allah aught but the truth4:171

8. He has chosen you, and imposed no difficulties on you inreligion; it is the religion of your father Abraham-22:789. Revile not ye , those whom they call upon besides Allah, lestthey out of spite revile Allah out their ignorance-6:10810. Say We believe in Allah, and in what he has revealed to us, andwhat Was revealed to Abraham, Ismail, Jacob, and the Tribes, and inthe Books given to Moses, Jesus and the Prophets, from their Lord;we make no distinction between one another among them ,and toAllah do we bow our will-3:84

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11. If anyone desires a religion other than Islam(submission to thewill 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 iscalled 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 godexcept 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 thefollowing 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 toGOD, Lord of the Worlds, The Beneficent, the Merciful. Ownerof 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 earnThine anger nor of those who go astray.(1 : 1-7)

Further Reading & VideosQuran & Bible in the light of Science - Dr William Campbell & DrZakir 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) insections 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 theArabic name for GOD, even used in the Arabic Bible) and not animposter. So, the Qur'an had to be saved to prove to the latergenerations that Muhammad (PBUH) was really the last prophetof Allah.

One of the leading orientalists, Kenneth Cragg, said the

following regarding the memorization and preservation of theQur'anic text, This phenomenon of Qur'anic recital means thatthe text has traversed the centuries in an unbroken livingsequence of devotion. It cannot, therefore, be handled as anantiquarian thing, nor as a historical document out of a distant

past. Another orientalist scholar, William Graham, wrote: Forcountless millions of Muslims over more than fourteen centuriesof 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 DivineWord in a way unknown in history, but the authoritativeness ofthe Qur'anic book is only realized in its fullness and perfectionwhen it is correctly recited.

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Yet another, John Burton, stated: The method of transmitting theQur'an from one generation to the next by having the youngmemorize the oral tradition of their elders had mitigatedsomewhat from the beginning the worst perils of relying solely on

written records... At the end of a voluminous work on theQur'an's collection, Burton stated that the text of the Qur'anavailable today is the text which has come down to us in the formin which it was organised and approved by the Prophet....What

we have today in our hands is the mus-hafof Muhammad.With every succeeding generation of Muslims, the numbers ofthose who memorized all of the Qur'an has increased. Today thereare literally millions of Muslims throughout the world who have

done so.There is no other book, religious or otherwise, which has beenmemorized on this scale in recorded history. The Qur'an is aboutfour-fifths the length of the New Testament of the Christians, yet

not a single person in recorded history is known to havememorized the New Testament completely. In fact, if all of thebooks in the world were somehow destroyed, the only bookwhich could be rewritten, word for word, without a singlemistake is the Glorious Qur'an.

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The Qur'an has been preserved in both the oral as well aswritten 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 thatquestion lies in the following facts:

1. The earlier prophets and their books were sent to a particularpeople in particular periods of history. Once the period ended, a

new prophet was sent with a new book to replace the previousbook. So, it was not necessary that these books be preserved byAllah. The preservation of the earlier books was left up to thepeople as a test for them. Thus, when the people went astray, theychanged what was written in the books which their prophetsbrought in order to make allowable the things which wereforbidden to them. In that way, all of the earlier books ofrevelation became either changed or lost.

2. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was the last prophet whomAllah sent, and he was not sent to a particular people or aparticular time. He was sent to all of mankind until the end of theworld. 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. 34:2811

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Thus, his book of revelation, the Qur'an, had to be speciallypreserved from any form of change or loss so that it would beavailable to all the generations of man until the last day of theworld.The significance of the Qur'an's preservation is that Islam

has been kept in its original purity because of it. Humanity canalways return to the sources of Islam no matter what people mayhave added or forgotten in time. All of the essential principles ofIslam are to be found in the Qur'an. Consequently, the

preservation of the Qur'an meant the preservation of Islam in itsfinal form. The loss of the Gospel of Jesus means that Christianscan never return to the true teachings of Prophet Jesus except byaccepting Islam. (The Five Gospels, pp. 2-16)

Similarly, the original Torah was lost when Solomon's Temple inJerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians.[ The NewEncyclopedia Britannica, vol. 14, p. 7578] Thus, the Jews cannotreturn to the pure teachings of Prophet Moses except by followingIslam.

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

Verily, the only acceptable religion to Allah is Islam.

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i h l h if


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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, theProphet Muhammad used to read out the revealed passages to thesmall group of his followers and non-believers. His followers

used to commit the revelation to their hearts.

HadhratZayd was the full time Secretary of the Committee ofthe Scribes. On receiving a verse or verses from Allah, the HolyProphet used to call one of the members of the committee and get

it dictated. Then the written passage was read out to the Prophetand was corrected and approved by him.

The Qur'an was being revealed in accordance with the needs ofthe different stages of the prophetic mission. It was however not

compiled in the chronological order of its revelation. Whilecompiling and arranging it, the Qur'an was given a new order,which was to have a meaningful coherence for the readers infuture. Whenever the Prophet dictated a newly revealed passage

of the Qur'an to the Scribes, he used to direct them regarding theplacement of that passage in the Qur'an as well.13

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Thus the entire Qur'an was systematically recorded and arrangedon written material during the lifetime of the Prophet. Howeverthe 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 wasplaced in the Mosque of the Prophet (Masjid an-Nabawi) fromwhere any one was free to make a copy for himself or to refer to itin case he wished to memorize it.

It appears that the official copy, although complete, checked, andapproved by the Prophet was available in the life of the HolyProphet, 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 fivetimes a day, people used to commit it to their hearts and used tostudy 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 weregoverned in the light of the provisions of the Qur'an. All civilservants, military commanders and judges used to seek guidancefrom the Qur'an.

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During the Prophet's life time, when he used to send governorsand judges to far off places, he used to instruct them that theyhave to govern and decide in the light of the Qur'an. These factsshow thatQur'an was alive in that society not because of written

manuscripts but as a necessity of faith and an inevitable sourceof guidance for social, political and legal affairs.

It is also natural to believe that he could not neglect the taskof its preservation. One of the primary missions of the Holy

Prophet was to deliver the divine message to mankind. Thismessage consisted of the Holy Qur'an. He could not shift thisresponsibility to later generations.

HADITH

The importance of hadith: Sunnah also means the Prophet's wayof life. The Prophet (saaw) was a walking Quran. He was themanifestation of Quran on earth. And the companions were very

aware of this. This is why they accompanied him. This is whythey have the title Companions of the Prophet (saaw). The termCompanion is not used loosely. Not everyone who became abeliever 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 theProphet (saaw) referred to him as a companion even though hecould not come and meet the prophet saaw).

The Companions of the Prophet (saaw) realized his value and sothey put an unbelievable amount of effort to be with him and torecord and cherish everything he said and did. Omar (raa) had adeal with another companion that they would alternate, onewould 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. Atthe end of the day they would share what they learned.

Abu Hurairah is another example. Though he became a Muslimfairly late in the Prophet's years of Prophethood, yet he has the

most narrations of all the Prophet's companions. It is because assoon 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 havetested him because of his many narrations and he passed theirtests..

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Thi t diti k t l l th t if th P h t ( ) did


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This tradition was kept so closely that if the Prophet (saaw) didsomething in the original tradition, the narrators through outtime have did the exact same thing. There is a whole category ofhadith called Al-Musalsalat in which the narrator would say and

then the prophet (saaw) did this.. and he would the exact samething the prophet (saaw) did. For example, smile, or shake handsor entwine ones fingers with anothers fingers (tashbeek). This ishow precise these people maintained that tradition, that even if

the Prophet (saaw) would do a gesture they would be sure tomention it and repeat it.

The need for the science of hadith: Hadith Ranking: The ranks ofhadith were devised by scholars of hadith to evaluate the chain

and the body of the hadith and give it a rank that helps weed outfabricated a hadith. It should be noted that even these rankingsare not absolute. Some scholars of hadith were more strict thanothers. The scholars of hadith themselves are ranked as

moderate such as Al-Zhahabi, strict such as Ibn Al-Jawzi andAd-Daraqutani and Lenient such as Al-Hakim.

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HOW MANY HADITHS ?


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HOW MANY HADITHS ?

The number of hadiths collected and attributed to the prophetMuhammed is in the hundreds of thousands. As much as 99% of allthese hundreds of thousands hadiths are pure lies and fabricationsand were rejected by the early Muslim scholars who thought theycan figure out which hadith is authentic and which is not. Let us lookat 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 hisfamous "Musnad".He chose these 40,000 hadiths from among700,000 hadiths.

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

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

This will give you an idea of how much corruption entered or tried toenter Islam(gives an idea for other Religions too.) from the backdoor. 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 gothrough all the different ranks and levels and scrutiny of eachnarrator?

The main reason was to preserve hadith from being corruptedand altered by ideological and political influence. That is, toprotect 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 todedicate 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 ranksthey hold:

A scholar who is called a Hujjah of hadith is one who memorizes atleast 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 Ahmadmemorized one thousand thousand ahadith (not a type, that is onemillion). He said of them he knew 700,000+ that were Sahih.

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Abu Zara Ar Razi memorized 700 00 ahadith Muslim


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Abu Zara Ar-Razi memorized 700,00 ahadith. Muslimmemorized 140,000 on Tafseer (explanation of Quran) and300,000 ahadith in total. Imam Bukhari memorized 100,000Sahih hadith and 200,000 that were not Sahih.

A final point to think about is that despite all their work, thescholars of hadith are still scholars of hadith. Being a scholar ofhadith 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 ImamAbu Hanifah. And when he was asked on a certain matter he saidhe knew no hadith on this matter. Yet Abu Hanifah gave a fatwahon this matter based on a hadith that he proclaimed that he heard

from al-Amash. When Al-Amash inquired from Imam AbuHanifah, the Imam explained to him how he used one of theahadith that Al-Amash told him to view this and Al-Amash saidWe (the scholars of hadith) are like the Pharmacists and you (thescholars of Fiqh) are like the Doctors.

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[email protected]

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VR Ordinary Muslims trying to explain toOrdinary Non Muslims.

Authors Note:

Hope you found this little bookletTruthfuland informative. Youwill wonder why a basic Muslim takes this much of trouble? Theanswer is very simple. We want to follow the Basic Principles ofIslam. This can never be done without understanding theCharacter and Practices of the Final Prophet. Read his LastSermon 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, pleasedownload and Print at the corner store and distribute to

friends and Family, as it is done in a way to print easily. Youmay 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 Soulswho have made their work freely available.

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

Scriptures and the Difficulty of Preserving It

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