Battle of Yamama:-
There are hundreds of religions flourishing around the world: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Bahaism, Babism, Zoroastrianism, Mormonism, Jehovas Witnesses, Jainism, Confucianism etc; each and everyone of these religions claims, that its scripture is preserved from the day it was revealed (written) until our time.
A religious belief is fterall, as authentic as the authenticity of the scripture it follows. For any scripture to be labeled as 'Authentically Preserved' it should follow some concrete and rational criteria.
Therefore, for any claimants to declare that their scripture is preserved in purity, they have to provide concrete evidence that the Scripture was written in its entirety AND memorized in its entirety from the time it was revealed to our time, in a continuous and unbroken chain.
If the memorization part doesn't exist parallel to the written part to act as a check and balance for it, then there is a genuine possibility that the written scripture may loose its purity through unintentional and intentional interpolations due to scribal errors, corruption by the enemies, pages getting decomposed etc, and these errors would be concurrently incorporated into subsequent texts, ultimately loosing its purity through ages.
It should be made clear, that all that was required for any pagan Arabian tribe to become 'Muslim' in the days of Muhammad, meant that its chiefs so became.
Immediately after the death of Muhammad, many of the Arab tribes who were 'Islamized' because of his acts of terror against them, apostacized immediately after his death.
Many such tribes in al Yaman, al Yamama and Uman felt reluctant to pay the Zakah to the Madina. The death of Muhammad provided the excuse for active refusal. Jealousy against the rising hegemony of the Hijaz capital was one of the underlying motives. The old centrifugal forces that are charcteristic of Arabian life were once more in operation.
Abu Bakr, the first Caliph was adamant in his insistence on the unconditional surrender of the seceders or war unto destruction.
In December 632 AD in the plain of Aqraba in the region of Yamama the
Banu Hanifah and allies gathered under a self proclaimed prophet Musaylimah, and faced the forces of Abu Bakr.
With about 40,000 men under his command, Musaylimah crushed two 'Muslim' armies before Khalid ibn al Walid overcame him with a third.
During the ensuing slaughter, enough reciters of the Quran died (estimated at 450) to endanger the perpetuation of the knowledge of the 'sacred book'.
"During the battle of Yamama, 450 reciters of the Quran were killed.”
(The True Guidance, An Introduction To Quranic Studies, part 4 [Light of Life - P.O. BOX 13, A-9503 Villach, Austria], p. 47- citing Ibn Kathir’s Al-Bidaya wa al-Nibaya, chapter on Battle of Yamama)
There exists, unfortunately, within the Muhammadan community, a major fallacy which has been circulating amongst their public in regards to the Quran.
The fallacy relates to the supposed textual preservation of the Quranic text, and the notion that the Quran remains virtually intact, without additions or deletions, without any variant readings which would call into question the integrity of the Muhammadan text.
This fallacious argument, unfortunately, has convinced many uninformed people to believe, that whereas the Bible has suffered textual corruption, the Quran is free from such tampering. It is thus claimed that based on this fact the Quran is rendered superior and is a more reliable document than the Holy Bible.
However, a close examination of the historical references regarding the compilation of the Quran, demonstrates that the weight of the evidence does not support the Muhammadan claims.
On the contrary, the evidence, without exception, supports the fact that the Quran has suffered an enormous amount of TEXTUAL variations and ommissions in the way of its compilation and transmission.
The majority of the references are taken directly from Muhammadan scholars and writings, in order to avoid the 'Muslim' accusations of western scholarly bias.
Such accusations are often promoted in an attempt to side-track the obvious implications on their mendacious claims.
The first issue that needs to be addressed is the claim that a complete Quranic Codex existed during the time of Muhammad. This claim finds no support whatsoever anywhere in the tradfitions, since the first complete text was allegedly compiled during the Caliphate of Abu Bakr, AFTER the death of Muhammad.
Let's examine the REAL TRUTH regarding the COMPILATION of the QURAN:
Sahih Al-Bukhari HadithHadith 6.201 & 9.301 Narrated byZaid bin Thabit
who was one of those who used to write the Divine Revelation:
Abu Bakr sent for me after the (heavy) casualties among the warriors (of the battle) of Yamama (where a great number of Qurra' were killed).
'Umar was present with Abu Bakr who said, 'Umar has come to me and said, The people have suffered heavy casualties on the day of (the battle of) Yamama, and I am afraid that there will be more casualties among the Qurra' (those who know the Qur'an by heart) at other battle-fields, whereby a large part of the Qur'an MAY BE LOST, unless you collect it. And I am of the opinion that you should collect the Qur'an."
Abu Bakr added, "I said to 'Umar, 'How can I do something WHICH ALLAH’S APOSTLE HAS NOT DONE?' [That is, collect the Quran in ONE book]
'Umar said (to me), 'By Allah, it is (really) a good thing.' So 'Umar kept on pressing, trying to persuade me to accept his proposal, till Allah opened my bosom for it and I had the same opinion as 'Umar."
(Zaid bin Thabit added:) Umar was sitting with him (Abu Bakr) and was not speaking to me. "You are a wise young man and we do not suspect you (of telling lies or of forgetfulness): and you used to write the Divine Inspiration for Allah's Apostle. Therefore, look for the Qur'an and collect it (in one manuscript). " By Allah, if he (Abu Bakr) had ordered me to shift one of the mountains (from its place) it would not have been harder for me than what he had ordered me concerning the collection of the Qur'an.
I said to both of them, "How dare you do a thing WHICH THE PROPHET HAS NOT DONE?" Abu Bakr said, "By Allah, it is (really) a good thing. So I kept on arguing with him about it till Allah opened my bosom for that which He had opened the bosoms of Abu Bakr and Umar.
So I started locating Quranic material and collecting it from parchments, scapula, leaf-stalks of date palms and from the memories of men (who knew it by heart).
I found with Khuzaima two Verses of Surat-at-Tauba WHICH I HAD NOT FOUND WITH ANYONE ELSE, (and they were):-
9:128/9 "Verily there has come to you an Apostle (Muhammad) from amongst yourselves. It grieves him that you should receive any injury or difficulty He (Muhammad) is ardently anxious over you (to be rightly guided)"
Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 6, Book 60, Number 201:
The manuscript on which the Quran was collected, remained with Abu Bakr till Allah took him unto Him, and then with 'Umar till Allah took him unto Him, and finally it remained with Hafsa, Umar's daughter.
According to another source, when these men died they took with them portions of the Quran that they alone had memorized:
John Burton, The Collection of the Qur'an, pp. 126-127, Abu Bakr `Abdullah b. abi Da'ud, Kitab al-Masahif, ed. A. Jeffery, Cairo, 1936/1355, p. 23:
Zuhri reports, 'We have heard that many Qur'an passages were revealed but that those who had memorised them fell in the Yemama fighting.
Those passages had not been written down, and following the deaths of those who knew them, were no longer known; nor had Abu Bakr, nor `Umar nor `Uthman as yet collected the texts of the Quran.
Those lost passages were not to be found with anyone after the deaths of those who had memorised them.
This was obviously, one of the considerations which impelled them to pursue the compilation of the Quran during the reign of Abu Bakr, committing it to sheets for fear that there should perish in further theatres of war men who bore much of the Quran which they would take to the grave with them on their fall, and which, with their passing, would not be found with any other.
From these and other sources we realize that:
Ahmad b. Ali b. Muhammad al Asqalani, ibn Hajar, Fath al Bari [13 vol., Cairo 1939], vol. 9, p. 9:
[Zaid b. Thabit said:] The Prophet died and the Quran had not been assembled into a single place.
John Gilchrist, Jam' Al-Qur'an - The Codification of the Qur'an Text A Comprehensive Study of the Original Collection of the Qur'an Text and the Early Surviving Qur'an Manuscripts, [MERCSA, P.O. Box 342 Mondeor, 2110 Republic of South Africa, 1989], p. 27- citing Ibn Abi Dawud, Kitab al-Masahif, p. 5:
It is reported from Ali who said: "May the mercy of Allah be upon Abu Bakr, the foremost of men to be rewarded with the collection of the manuscripts, for he was THE FIRST to collect (the text) between (two) covers".
Another tradition confirms that besides Masud, Ka'b and Thabit, there were at least two others who had also collected the Quran-
Sahih Muslim 6029:
Anas is reported to have said: Four persons collected the Qur'an during the lifetime of Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) and all of them were Ansar:
Muadh Bin Jabal, Ubayy Bin Kab, Zaid Bin Thabit, Abu Zaid. Qatada said: Anas, who was Abu Zaid? He said: He was one of my uncles.
[There are even more such references that can be looked at in the DEFINITIONS section under: Collection of the Quran]
Based upon all the information that we have available, entirely from ISLAMIC SOURCES, the Muhammadan claim that the Quran that we have today is the same as that in the days of Muhammad, is so preposterous and unrealistic, that it borders on INTELLECTUAL and MORAL Deparavity and Obscenity.
It is in fact, a case of being totally IN DENIAL as a LAST RESORT to keep the Believers' own sanity and self esteem after having been indoctrinated all their life in a totally ERRONEOUS, FALSE and UNFOUNDED BELIEF SYSTEM ***
