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Historical Attestation of Muhammad: Difference between revisions
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Historical Attestation of Muhammad (view source)
Revision as of 22:03, 26 December 2013
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==Qur'an== | ==Qur'an== | ||
The traditional narrative of Muhammad's life identifies him as the original author, or reciter, of the Qur'an. If this is true then the Qur'an would be a document contemporary to his life and could serve as a valuable source of information about the prophet. Unfortunately, however, the Qur'an offers very few details about the author nor much information about the lives of the people in early 7th century Arabia. | |||
===References to Muhammad=== | |||
===Collection of the Qur'an=== | |||
One fundamental problem with accurately dating the contents of the Qur'an is that the verses, even by traditional Muslim accounts, were not collected and put together into a single book during the lifetime of Muhammad. They were put together at least a decade after his death through a process of gathering and recording verses that had been etched upon scraps of papyrus, bone, and wood along with interviewing members of the early community who had committed parts of the Qur'an to memory. | |||
If this narrative of the Qur'anic collection is true then we are left wondering how accurate was the collection of the book and were any mistakes made? It is possible that parts of the originally recited Qur'an were not included in the book or, worse, entire passages were included that came from an author other than Muhammad. There were countless [[Legends|legends]] and stories circulating at this time in the Middle East and any number of them could have been erroneously added to the Qur'an. Based on this information, we have to question whether the handful of verses we find in the Qur'an about Muhammad's life are actually authentic. They may well have been later fabrications that found their way into the book we have today. | |||
===Earliest Manuscripts=== | |||
==Sura Literature== | ==Sura Literature== | ||