The Qur'an We Have Today is Not What Muhammad Dictated Verbatim.

- It seems that Pro did his research poorly, & thus I am forced to define & explain what exactly is the Qur’an, & what do the Uthmanic Transcription of the Qur’an stands for. - I am going to opt for simple & short definitions & explanations, for this is not an academic work, & we don’t have that much space anyways. - I am going to focus in this Round more on the Preservation of the Qur’an through Narration than its Preservation through Transcription. First: Tawatur = the condition of Flawless Succession: > Mutawatir Narrations require at least 7 to 12 to 20 to 40 to 70 to 300 Recitations with the conditions of Reliability & non-Contrariety throughout the chain of transmission, such that: 1. Reliability: a condition fulfilled through the three following conditions on the Reciter: * Trustworthiness: proven to have a quality of constant honesty with no precedence of lying or perjury, with testimonies backing that proof. Plus, proven to be a pious person that never showed any sign of contravention. * Judiciousness: proven to be mentally & physically capable of sound judgement, not sick or old or with precedents of mistaken judgment, with testimonies testifying to that. Plus, proven to have an impeccable memory. * Expertise: having been taught & licensed in the field of Qur’anic Sciences through a chain of authority that goes back to the Prophet, i.e: a real Reciter (scholar of the Qur’an), not a fake one. * Absence of Apparent Motive: not seeming to be coerced, or persuaded, or motivated by profit, or love, or kinship, or allegiance, or fanaticism. 2. Non-Contrariety: absence of opposing testimonies, in the sense that, there aren't any opposing claims against the Reciter. > Explanation: Recitation <<<< Trustworthiness <<<< Reciter <<<< Judiciousness <<<< Original Recitation. => Reliability infers the following: * Judiciousness => promises harmony between the Original & the Reciter: that is to say, the Reciter is believable to be fully capable of memorising the Original. << To do that, students are taught from an early age as they are made to memorise the Qur’an, over & over again, for 7 cycles, to the point where they can’t virtually make any mistake. I can attest to that, since I can do it at least for one third of the Qur’an. Besides, reciters around the world recite the Qur’an in prayer, & they very rarely omit something. * Trustworthiness => promises harmony between the Reciter & the Recitation: that is to say, the Recitation provided by the Reciter is believable to correspond to what the Reciter actually memorised. That is, a reciter who purposely distort even one word of the Qur’an is an Apostate, unless he repents. * Absence of Apparent Motive => rules out any reason to believe the above two conditions are not conclusive. => The three conditions put together makes the Reciter a Reliable one, & thus his Recitation is believable to correspond to the Original. > In Islamic Law (same as in common or civil law), to reduce as much as possible the chances of Perjury (false testimony/narration) a severe punishment is sanctioned against such cases (if proven of course): it’s one of the Ten Grave Sins + 80 lashes + revocation of the right to testify + forfeit of one-fifth the amount of restitution (if the case involves money); Plus, in the case of proven perjury on Recitation: + potential exile + potential death penalty + promise of Hell Fire: “Do not tell lies about me, for telling lies about me leads to Hell (Fire)” the Prophet. > Tawatur: - The condition of Tawatur is: the transmission of an identical Recitation by a large number of Reciters in each level throughout the Chain of Transmission, such that they could not have conspired to spread falsehood. - Let’s try & come up with a rough estimate of the chances the transmission of a Recitation by Reliable Reciters might be false. - If we assume that the possible combinations in a sentence is primarily infinite (very large), then the probability of picking the same sentence twice (or more) will depend solely on the dependence of the consecutive picking event. - Let X be the probability of false transmission of a Recitation by Reliable Reciters. => If we suppose that based on the restrictions & rules on the Reciters, 1 in every 100 reciters is liable to be Untrustworthy, & 1 in every 100 is liable to be Un-judicious, we have thus: X = 1/100 + 1/100 = 0.02 (as a high estimate = 2 in every 100). => If we suppose that 1 in every 10 of these is liable to commit perjury knowing the consequences, then: X = 0.02*0.1 = 0.002 (2 in every 1000). => If case there are ’n’ such individuals in the same level of the same chain of transmission, then the chances that they would be in the same situation is: X = 0.002^(n). > In the case of Tawatur, the minimum Reliable Reciters required is: 7. => In that case: X = 0.002^(7) = 1.3^(-19) => 1 in 8 billion billion chance of false transmission of a Recitation by Reliable Reciters. => Which makes the occurrence of such event virtually impossible. => Point: although the above model of Tawatur is a simplistic one, the conclusion is valid: Tawatur is conclusive. - Furthermore, the above model of Tawatur is called: Tawatur as-Sanad (Flawless Succession by Chain), which is the weakest of 4 degrees of Tawatur. The Qur’an takes into account 3 of these degrees, from which also the strongest called: Tawatur at-Tabaq’i = General Flawless Succession = i.e the transmission of a Fact by an entire human generation to the next, in out case: the transmission of a Recitation by all Reliable Reciters of a generation to all Reliable Reciters of the next. Second: Qiraat = Recitations - Qur’an = What is Revealed to Muhammad, in other words what he has recited & dictated as Revelation. - Qiraa = Recitation = a modes of Reciting the Qur’an transmitted through chains of authorities going back to the Prophet. - Ahrum Sab’a = The Seven Letters = Includes the most elequent of the tongues of Arabs & their variants. > “The Qur'an has been revealed in seven different Huruf (ways, letters, tongues), so recite it in the way that is easier for you.” the Prophet (Mutawatir Hadith = i.e. Hadith fulfilling the degree of Tawatur, which makes it 100% true). - Mushaf Uthman = The Uthmanic Codex compiled by Abu Bakr (the 1st Caliph) 2 years after the Prophet’s death, & canonised by Uthman (the 3rd Caliph) 20 years after the Prophet’s death. = It has at least 5 copies: > Medinian Codex. > Meccan Codex. > Kufi Codex. > Shami Codex. > Basri Codex. => These Codexes are almost identical, with very minor differences (exactly 55 as maximum estimate). - Qiraat al’Ashar = The Ten Recitations of the Qur’an = they are the 10 Schools (Modes) of Recitation (amongst 50 in total) that fulfil the three following conditions: > The degree of Tawatur as-Sanad. (as established above) > Corresponding to at least one of the Uthmanic Codexes. => Recited in spelling & pronunciation according to one or more of the Transcribed Uthmanic Codexes. > Corresponding to the Qurashi Arabic Tongue (or one of its variants). => Having a root in the known Arab tongues, & not outside of it. - These Ten Recitations allow a number of variants embedded in the Qur’an, though not all of them. > Variants of Rhythm.> Variants of Derivation.> Variants of Case.> Variants of Addition.> Permutations.> Commutations.> Variants of Pronunciation. => I’ll talk about this in later Rounds. - All these variants are part of the Original Revelation of the Qur’an, for they are: > Recited by the Prophet to his Companions & transmitted thereafter by Mutawatir Chains of Transmissions. > Transcribed by the Prophet’s scribes, compiled then by Abu Bakr, the Prophet’s Successor, & copied into the Canonical Uthmanic Codex. > Contained in the Seven Huruf of the Arab tongue. => Therefore, the Ten Recitations are very much the Verbatim Word of Muhammad. Three: Rebuttals - Pro makes the following mistakes: > Assumes that the Preservation of the Qur’an is analogue to that of the Bibles, & concludes thus that they must have the same problems. All that with NO proof whatsoever. > Concludes that there are Variants in the Qur’an, enforcing thus the muslim position for certain, & NOT his own. > Uses an palimpsest of the Qur’an, transcribed around the same time when Uthman ordered the removal of all previous Manuscripts of the Qur’an, & substituted them with the Canonical Codex, thus enforcing the Muslim Narrative that says Uthman did indeed order the removal & substitution of such Manuscripts (apparently the same fate Sanaa Palimpsest suffered) rather than contradicting it! > & Especially, Pro abuses the Arabic language in an unfathomable manner, or should I say his source. Although Pro obviously has a perfectly good excuse of that: he is not Arab :). => I’ll elaborate on the last point in later Rounds: - I’ll be also discussion more about Arabic Grammar, & why exactly is it that diacritics are just part of it, & implementing them in a text is generally useless. & why is it implemented in the Qur’an. - I’ll be also discussing, other topics of Arabic, & why is it that it may be even written with no dotting, & how can one know how to read such a writing. . . - I’ll be also discussing the Variants of the Qur’an, & what do they mean exactly, especially those of Pronunciation. - & also the Preservation of the Qur'an through Transmission. . . . etc.