Gabriel: "Read" or "Recite?"

George wrote: Even among Muslims there is a disagreement as to whether Muhammad could read or write. Also there is a study being done about whether Waraqa supported your prophet.  You can find it here:     Peace

As mentioned in my previous post, whether he was illiterate or unlettered, or in some arguement, he can read or write; all agreed to one fact that he was not able to produce the words that we now have in the Quran....(and thats the real message and how unfortunate that some eyes are blind to this and prefer to argue about whether he can write or read)...PERIOD - accept the fact that the prophet was unschooled to produce such a manuscript in pure Arabic i.e not in armaic or Hebrew.

With regards to Waraqah; here something to read....

Muhummad�s (pbuh) contacts with the Jewish and Christian scholars were very limited. The most prominent Christian known to him was an old blind man called Waraqa ibn-Naufal who was a relative of the Prophet�s first wife Khadijah (t). Although of Arab descent, he was a convert to Christianity and was very well versed with the scriptures. The Prophet only met him twice, first when Waraqa was worshipping at the Kaaba (before the Prophetic Mission) and he kissed the Prophet�s forehead affectionately; the second occasion was when the Prophet went to meet Waraqa after receiving the first revelation. Waraqa died three years later and the revelation continued for about 23 years. 

Some interesting fact that I discovered...:
The Arabic version of the Bible was not present at the time of Prophet Muhummad. The earliest Arabic version of the Old Testament is that of R. Saadias Gaon of 900 C.E. - more than 250 years after the death of our beloved Prophet. The oldest Arabic version of the new Testament was published by Erpenius in 1616 C.E. - about a thousand years after the demise of our Prophet.

Allah knows best
wassalam

Cyril wrote: I am always amazed how some know all the details of Muhammad's life. The longer the time elapsed from the death of a prophet and the more precise his biographies become. All we know about Muhammad is from oral traditions that were put to writing a long time after his death. We do not know the extent of his relations with Jews and Christians. He could have belonged to a group of Hanifs who were able to read and had close contacts with Jews and Christian. He certainly was not the only person attracted by monotheism around.

It is true that the Prophet did have religious discussions with the Jews and Christians but they took place in Madinah more than 13 years after the revelation of the Qur�an had started. The allegation that these Jews and Christians were the source (of the Quran) is perverse, since in these discussions Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) was performing the roles of a teacher and of a preacher while inviting them to embrace Islam and pointing out that they had deviated from their true teachings of Monotheism (Several of these Jews and Christians later embraced Islam)..

Allah knows best
wassalam

Cyril wrote: Ibnuarradi You were not you around with the Prophet in the seventh century. So how do you know that he did not meet such and such a person? He was a trader so he must have met people from different religions.   I did not say that he was necessarily in touch with Jews and Christians, but with Hanifs.   I really do not see what is "perverse" in the Quran being derived from Jewish and Christian teachings and scriptures (among others) as it is what every non-Muslim scholar or ordinary person thinks. One has only to read it.

Name me the Hanifs? Name me the source? Who are they?

Where there is similarities between Quran and the Jewish or Christian scriptures, there are many dissimilarities....if the Quran was derived from the Jews or Christian, the Prophet would have agreed to Jews and Christian and will not be pointing out to them that they had deviated from their true teachings of Monotheism.

Similarities between the scriptures does not necessarily mean that the former has been copied from the latter. In fact it gives evidence that all of them are based on a common third source; all divine revelations came from the same source - the one universal God. No matter what human changes were introduced into some of these Judeo-Christian and other older religious scriptures that had distorted their originality, there are some areas that have remained free from distortion and thus are common to many religions - a message that there is a one true God (and the continuation of the basic message of monotheism and not that the later prophets have plagiarised from the previous prophets). Period!

Allah knows best
wassalam

p.s  If someone copies during an examination he will surely not write in the answer sheet that he has copied from his neighbour or Mr. XYZ. Prophet Muhummad gave due respect and credit to all the previous Prophets. The Qur�an also mentions the various revelations given by God to different prophets.

My response to Cyril 'You were not you around with the Prophet in the seventh century.'

And you Cyril were not around with the Prophet Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Ishamel, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad etc so how do you know them? Did you see how Moses splitted the Red Sea? Did you see how Moses beat those magicians?  We Muslims believe in the prophets for they are the prophets of Allah eventhough we were not around with them. Islam tells us that they are the prophets of Allah (God) so we believe in them!