robert spencer-did muhammad exist__ an inquiry into islams obscure origins-intercollegiate studies institute (2012) (1)

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The Non-Arabic Arabic Qur'an A Book in Pure and Clear Arabic (with Some Non-Arabic Thrown In) The twentieth-century translator of the Qur'an Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, an English convert to Islam, once declared that the Qur'an in Arabic was an “inimitable symphony, the very sounds of which move men to tears and ecstasy.” 1 Pickthall would not have dared to claim the same about any translation of the Muslim holy book, including his own English translation. For Muslims, the Arabic of the Qur'an is essential, such that in any other language, the book may contain the meaning of the Qur'an but is no longer truly the Qur'an. This belief stems from the Qur'an itself, which insists on its Arabic character so often that Islamic theologians have quite understandably understood Arabic to be part of the Qur'an's very essence. The Qur'an says that it is written in “Arabic, pure and clear” (16:103). 2 It is an “Arabic judgment” (13:37). It is “the revelation of the Lord of all Being” that was “brought down by the Faithful Spirit upon thy heart, that thou mayest be one of the warners, in a clear, Arabic tongue” (26:192–195). Allah says that he has “sent it down as an Arabic Qur'an, in order that you may learn wisdom” (12:1). 3 It is “a Qur'an in Arabic, that you may be able to understand” (43:3). 4 The Qur'an is not only a guide to understanding but is also intended for those Arabic speakers who already grasp its message: It is “a Book whose signs have been distinguished as an Arabic Koran for a people having knowledge” (41:3). Allah even explains that if he had sent down the Qur'an in any other language, people would have complained: “Had We sent this as a Qur'an in a language other than Arabic, they would have said: ‘Why are not its verses explained in detail? What! Not in Arabic and its Messenger an Arab?’” (41:44). 5 It is, quite simply, an “Arabic Qur'an” (12:2; 20:113; 39:28; 41:3; 42:7). Islamic tradition reinforces this point. In one hadith, an early Muslim, al-Hasan, recounts of another early Muslim: “I heard Abu Ubaida say that whoever pretends that there is in the Qur'an anything other than the Arabic tongue has made a serious charge against God, and he quoted the verse ‘Verily we have made it an Arabic Qur’an.'” 6 Ibn Kathir, author of a renowned medieval commentary on the Qur'an that is still widely read by Muslims, elaborated the orthodox view: “The Arabic language is the most eloquent, plain, deep and expressive of the meanings that might arise in one's mind. Therefore, the most honorable Book was revealed in the most honorable language, to the most honorable Prophet and Messenger, delivered by the most honorable angel, in the most honorable land on earth, and its revelation started during the most honorable month of the year, Ramadan. Therefore, the Qur'an is perfect in every respect.” 7 There is only one problem with the widespread assertion that the Qur'an was written in Arabic: It doesn't seem to be true. Even the most cursory examination of the evidence indicates that “the most honorable Book” in its original form was not actually “in the most honorable language” at all.
Thou Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks The very fact that the Qur'an asserts so many times that it was handed down in Arabic raises questions. Why would a clear and easily understandable book need to assert more than once that it was clear and easy to understand? Why would an Arabic book need to insist again and again that it was in Arabic? The various authors of the Greek New Testament never feel the need to assert the fact that they're writing in Greek; they're simply doing so. This is a point that they take for granted. Of course, the New Testament doesn't make the claims about Greek that the Qur'an makes about Arabic. Greek in Christianity is not the language of God; it has no more significance than any other language. But that in itself is part of the mystery of the Qur'anic claims: Why did they need to be made at all? Why was there such anxiety about the Arabic character of the Qur'an that it had to be repeated so many times? This peculiar insistence on the Arabic character of the Qur'an even became part of Islamic theology, which affirms that Arabic is the language of Allah and that the deity who created every human being and presumably understands every human tongue will not accept prayers or recitations of the Qur'an in any other language. When the Qur'an repeatedly insists that it is written in Arabic, it is not unreasonable to conclude that someone, somewhere was saying that it wasn't in Arabic at all. A point needs emphasis only when it is controverted. As the nineteenth-century man of letters John Henry Cardinal Newman wrote in a vastly different context, “No doctrine is defined till it is violated.” 8 In other words, the assertion of a religious doctrine, in an environment involving a competition of religious ideas, doesn't generally take place except as a response to the contrary proposition. The Qur'an thus may insist so repeatedly on its Arabic essence because that was precisely the aspect of it that others challenged. The Qur'an is highly polemical in nature. It answers the theological claims of Judaism and Christianity and responds to the arguments of the unbelievers and hypocrites against Muhammad's prophetic claims and its own divine origins. On practically every page there is a denunciation of the unbelievers; many of these contain reports of what those unbelievers are saying against Muhammad and Islam, and explanations of why their charges are false. It would not be unusual if it also took on challenges to its Arabic origins. Muhammad's Non-Arabic Sources The Qur'an itself tells us of challenges to claims of the book's Arabic origins. According to the Qur'an, Muhammad's detractors charged the prophet of Islam with getting material from non-Arabic sources and then passing off what he received as divine revelation. The Qur'an responds furiously to those who deride the prophet for listening intently—perhaps to the Jewish and Christian teachers whose teachings ended up as part of Qur'anic revelation: “And some of them hurt the Prophet, saying, ‘He is an ear!’” Allah tells Muhammad how to respond to those who make fun of him in this way: “Say: ‘An ear of good for you; he believes in God, and believes the believers, and he is a mercy to the believers among you. Those who hurt God's Messenger—for them awaits a painful chastisement’” (9:61). Muhammad's foes apparently charged him with getting material from a non-Arabic speaker as well:
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DID MUHAMMAD EXIST? An Inquiry into
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Dedicated to all those who do not f
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Contents Foreword by Johannes J. G.
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scholars will not be interested in
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650s-660s: Arabian conquest of Nort
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Muhammad and His Family, According
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Introduction
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historicity of Muhammad. Although t
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No one knows, for it has never rece
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Some of the bold scholars who have
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Influenced by this, the historians
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1
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ut this could apply to any of the Q
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Was That Muhammad? In light of all
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leader as the “devil.” It is un
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them, reprimand them, warn them, an
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was not even able to save himself f
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of polemical hyperbole or using a t
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2
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encountering some mention of Islam,
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The first biographer of Muhammad, I
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Allah [is] great in greatness and g
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This Qur'anic material is the earli
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that orthodox theologians produced
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Arabic language, he was eloquent an
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3
Page 54 and 55: The same can be said of an explanat
Page 56 and 57: “anyone who establishes in Islam
Page 58 and 59: But with Muhammad held up as an exe
Page 60 and 61: When Ibn Umar says that yes, he did
Page 62 and 63: these are known as as-Sahih as-Sitt
Page 64 and 65: was self-contradictory or absurd on
Page 66 and 67: latter's “godlessness and opposit
Page 68 and 69: Switching On the Full Light of Hist
Page 70 and 71: Ibn Ishaq's Reliability So are thes
Page 72 and 73: Muhammad's virtues, or a combinatio
Page 74 and 75: Jansen administers the coup de grâ
Page 76 and 77: Central to Islam, therefore, is the
Page 78 and 79: (Nor, for that matter, do Muslim hi
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Page 82 and 83: The problem with the third option i
Page 84 and 85: years of age. 6 The earliest Islami
Page 86 and 87: elationship, the Qur'an also has Ma
Page 88 and 89: einforced the point that Muhammad h
Page 90 and 91: “worked on Allah's Apostle so tha
Page 92 and 93: The Unchanging Qur'an Changes The Q
Page 94 and 95: during the eighth and ninth centuri
Page 96 and 97: did not worry over such matters, wh
Page 98 and 99: Rajam be inflicted on him who commi
Page 100 and 101: telling indications that it has bee
Page 102 and 103: ut suddenly verses 238 and 239 inte
Page 106 and 107: “We know indeed that they say,
Page 108 and 109: Puin explains: “The Koran claims
Page 110 and 111: a person dies, his Book (of deeds)
Page 112 and 113: The Syriac influence is not restric
Page 114 and 115: To provide the new religion with it
Page 116 and 117: What the Qur'an May Have Been A Clu
Page 118 and 119: An Islamic scholar writing late in
Page 120 and 121: Luxenberg states that if Qur'an “
Page 122 and 123: symbolism of the wine of Paradise.
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Page 126 and 127: unbelievers, may say, “What did G
Page 128 and 129: gods except the Creator of all, nor
Page 130 and 131: in Paradise reserved exclusively fo
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Page 134 and 135: who have been true in their covenan
Page 136 and 137: for them to brandish. Nor is it eve
Page 138 and 139: The First Mention of the Qur'an If
Page 140 and 141: Uthman approved did not survive, ev
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Page 144 and 145: years after its birth, Islam has re
Page 146 and 147: The realm of political theology, th
Page 148 and 149: The real proliferation of material
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Page 152 and 153: Notes Introduction: The Full Light
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34 Ibid., 63-64 (= Patrologia Greca
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6 Al-Qastellani, X, 342 (quoted in
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7 Arthur Jeffery, “The Quest of t
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Chapter 6: The Unchanging Qur'an Ch
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29 Ibn Kathir, Tafsir Ibn Kathir, v
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49 Nevo and Koren, Crossroads to Is
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Further Reading There is a great de
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Acknowledgments I could not have wr
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Muhammad and, 2, 7, 24-28, 41, 48,
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Encyclopedia Britannica, 1 Ephraem
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Islamic calendar, 48-49, 204 Islami
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Mufid, Sheikh al-, 81 Mughira, al-,
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Rosenthal, Franz, 154 Ruqayya (daug
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robert spencer-did muhammad exist__ an inquiry into islams obscure origins-intercollegiate studies institute (2012) (1)

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