The Qur’an, (Koran) meaning recitation, is the sacred book of Islam. According to Muslim tradition, it was revealed by God to the Prophet Muhammad in separate revelations over the major portion of his life at Mecca and at Medina. The Qur’an was probably compiled as a single volume under the third caliph, Uthman, who appointed a committee (651-52). The internal organization of the Qur’an is somewhat ad hoc. Revelations consisted of verses (ayat) grouped into 114 chapters (surah, plural – suwar).

This is what Qur’an says in its English Translation’s introduction, lets see how much words in Quran is from Allah, because as per Muslim’s claim each and every word between the two covers of the Quran is verbatim word of God (Allah). This question is beyond any doubt and Qur’an itself proves that some verse contained in it is from Muhammad, and if Qur’an contains a single alphabet of Muhammad, or anyone except Allah, it means it has to rejected entirely as it is altered by a mere man.

Quran itself claims that it is pure word of Allah, and it has no discrepancies or errors. Now it’s not my fault if I find even a single error, discrepancy or pseudo-science in Quran, and reject it, because Quran asks me to do so. Read the verse:

(Quran 4:82)
Do they not consider the Qur’an (with care)?
Had it been from other than Allah, they would
surely have found therein much discrepancy.

According to the Muslims the Quran contains the words of God. Quran is to be read as if God himself had spoken these words stated in it. It is important to emphasize this point because if Quran is the word of God then it should not contain any human words or errors and it should hold true for all times.

However, such is not the case. First, we will see how some of the verses in the Quran itself show clearly that some of the verses were obviously spoken by Muhammad and Not God (Allah).

(Quran 1:1-7)
In the name of the Merciful and Compassionate God.
Praise belongs to God, The Lord of the worlds, the merciful, the compassionate, the ruler of the day of the day of judgement! Thee we serve and Thee we ask for aid. Guide us in the right path,the path of those Thou art gracious to; not to those Thou art wroth with, nor of those who err.

Someone need not be a rocket-scientist to comprehend that these words are clearly addressed to God, in the form of a prayer. They are Muhammad’s words of praise to God, asking for God’s help and guidance. Some Muslim compilers conveniently add the imperative “say” in the English translation of the Quran at the beginning of the surah (chapter) to remove this difficulty. This imperative form of the word “say” occurs at least 350 times in the Quran, and its obvious that this word has, in fact, been inserted by later compilers of the Quran to remove countless similarly embarrassing difficulties. Thus, we have direct evidence that the Quran starts out with the words of Muhammad.

Very similar comment Swami Dayanand Saraswati gave in his book “The Light of Truth” on the very first verse of Quran, he said:

The Mohammedans claim that this Q’uran is the Word of God, but it appears from the above passage that the author of this book was some person other than God, since had it been God himself, He would not have said: “(I begin this book) in the name of God etc.” He would have, instead, said: “I write this book for the instruction of mankind.” If it be said that by beginning His book in this fashion He means to teach men as to what they should say when about to do a thing, it cannot be true, since some men will do even sinful deeds in the name of God and thereby bring disgrace on Him.

So it can be said that at least the very first chapter of Quran is without a shadow of doubt not from Allah, but either by Muhammad himself or some of the later compiler. Quran in many other places gives us evidence that it is not the God’s word, but of somebody else, like read Quran 6:104, which says:

(Quran 6:104)
Now have come to you, from your Lord, proofs (To open your eyes): If any will see, it will be for (the good of) his own soul; If any will be blind, it will be to his own (harm): I am not (here) To watch over your doings.

In this verse the speaker of the line “I am not to watch over your doings”– is clearly Muhammad’s word. In fact N J Dawood in his translation adds a footnote that the “I” refers to Mohammed here. Apart from this Al-Jalalayan in his explanation to this verse writes:

And I am not a keeper, a watcher, over you, of your deeds: I am but a Warner.

The case is crystal clear that Muhammad considered himself to be the warner, and a messenger. So this verse must have been revealed by Muhammad himself to frighten people of Mecca from the wrath of Allah, so that people embrace Islam in fear. The are loads of similar verse, in which Muhammad speaks in 1st person. Let’s see them too.

(Quran 27:91)
For me, I have been commanded to serve the Lord of this city, Him Who has sanctified it and to whom (Belong)  things; and I am commanded to be of those who bow in Islam to Allah’s Will

Again, the speaker here is clearly Muhammad who is trying to justify killing of innocent Meccans who were not willing to follow Muhammad’s version of God. Dawood and Pickthall both interpolate “say” at the beginning of the sentence which is lacking in the original Arabic version of the verse.

If we use word to word translation dictionary, it makes more clear that this verse is Muhammad’s own creation, instead of Allah’s. The actual verse in Arabic says:

innamā- “Only

umir’tu – I am commanded

an – that

aʿbuda – I worship

rabba- (the) Lord

hādhihil-baldati – (of) this city

By my wildest imagination also, I can’t understand why God commands himself to worship the lord. Or else the verse is by Muhammad or somebody else. In other places in Quran, the creator of world, the lord of Islam, starts swearing on his own creation. We have observed and seen, that people mostly swear on things or people very superior to them, like mother, father, god, holy books etc. We would have hardly noticed people, swearing seriously on their bikes, cars, or wallets, but never mind Allah does if he has revealed the verse (Quran 81:15) himself. The verse says:

(Quran 81:15)
So verily I call To witness the planets that recede… 

Ibn Kathir explains the verse by quoting a Sahih Hadith which says:

Muslim recorded in his Sahih, and An-Nasa’i in his Book of Tafsir, in explaining this Ayah, from `Amr bin Hurayth that he said, “I prayed the Morning prayer behind the Prophet , and I heard him reciting, (But nay! I swear by Al-Khunnas, Al-Jawar Al-Kunnas, and by the night when it `As`as, and by the day when it Tanaffas.)” Ibn Jarir recorded from Khalid bin `Ar`arah that he heard `Ali being asked about the Ayah; (لَا أُقْسِمُ بِالْخُنَّسِ. الْجَوَارِ الْكُنَّسِ) (Nay! I swear by Al-Khunnas, Al-Jawar Al-Kunnas.) and he said, “These are the stars that withdraw (disappear) during the day and sweep across the sky (appear) at night.”

Do we have any more doubt regarding the verse? Obviously its Muhammad, who swore on planets and stars. We find very similar verse in CH 84:16-19 too, which says:

(Quran 84:16-19)
I swear by the afterglow of sunset, and by the night, and by the moon when she is at the full.

Once again it is Muhammad and NOT God. He is unable to disguise his pagan heritage. He swears again in the name of the Sun and Moon, both of which were considered as holy deities by Pre-Islamic Arabs. We have got enough evidences to prove that Quran contains Muhammad’s own word, but this is not all, we are left with many of Muhammad’s verse, for example read Quran 6:114, which says:

(Quran 6:114)
Should I seek other judge than God, when
it is He who has sent down to you, the
distinguishing book (Koran)?

Any sane person can comprehend that those words are not spoken by God but Muhammad himself. Yusuf Ali in his translation adds at the beginning of the sentence “say”, which is not there in the original Arabic and he does so without comment or footnote. The Arabic verse starts with the word “afaghayra l-lahi” which means “Then is (it) other than Allah”. Any Muslim who reads Quran in Arabic can check this fact.

Now let’s come back to Muslims claim, that the book Quran is a verbatim word of Allah, and contains no human verses or letters or even an alphabet. But as per my knowledge and study of Quran, I have shown half a dozen verses of Muhammad, or else later compiler of Quran. Now would they reject Quran as word of God, or they will stick to their blind belief depends on them?

Interestingly I haven’t touched the errors and pseudo-science portion yet, which Allah has challenged us to find in Quran. Which will be done in next part of this article.