Yes, I know the Muslims claim the Bible was corrupted, but the problem with this theory is that there's no actual evidence to support it. The evidence that we do have overwhelming shows that the Bible is the most creditable ancient literary document of all time. There are over 24,000 New Testament manuscripts that have been found, nearly 6000 that have been found in the original Greek it was written in. We have fragments of the New Testament from as little as 30 years after the original was first written, and at least one complete copy for all of the Biblical books of the New Testament around 150 years after they were first written. In contrast, there are been no Qur'an manuscripts fragments dated before 120 years after Muhammad's death, and the entire Qur'an is not found until 200 years after Muhammad's death.
Number of New Testament Manuscripts:
New Testament: 24,000; 6000 in the original Greek
Qur'an: ?????
Time between Earliest Fragment and the Original Writing:
New Testament: 30 years
Qur'an: 120 years
Time between the Earliest Complete copy and the Original Writing:
New Testament: 150 years
Qur'an: 200 years
Number of Uncertainties about what was Written in the Original Text:
Bible: 120 - 99.8% Accuracy
Qur'an: ?????
There's no question that the New Testament is much more credible than the Qur'an in the area of Textual Criticism. The New Testament can be proven unchanged over the past 1800 years. The only room for corruption would have been in the 150 years between the original, and even then it is very unlikely due to the many fragments of manuscripts that have been found. Any chance that the Bible has been corrupted is small in comparison to the chance that the Qur'an has been corrupted since the Qur'an has much fewer manuscripts and a larger period of time between the original and the first fragments and the first complete copy. There is no valid reason to believe the New Testament has become corrupt without also believing that every other work of ancient literature, including the Qur'an, has also become corrupt, since the New Testament has more support than all others.
The Qur'an was revealed over decades, bit by bit. The Qur'an is arranged by the chronology of its revelation. People were memorizing and recording the Qur'an while Muhammed still lived.
"Verses in the Qur'an originated from verbal tradition, as Islam holds the text was almost entirely memorized by Muhammad's companions as Muhammad recited them, although some verses are believed to be written by Muhammad's companions during Muhammad's dictation. In the
Sunni tradition, the collection of the Qur'ān took place under the
Caliph Abu Bakr, this task being led by
Zayd ibn Thabit Al-Ansari. "The manuscript on which the Qur'an was collected remained with
Abu Bakr until
Allah took him unto Him, and then with '
Umar until Allah took him unto Him, and finally it remained with Umar's daughter,
Hafsa bint Umar."
[19] An original copy of
the Uthman's standard version of Qur'an from his time is on display at the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul.
"The
Qur'an preservation
Main article: Origin and development of the Qur'an
Abu Bakr was instrumental in preserving the Qur'an in written form. It is said that after the hard-won victory over Musaylimah in the Battle of Yamama fought in 632, Umar (the later
Caliph Umar), saw that many of the Muslims who had memorized the
Qur'an had died in battle. Fearing that the Qur'an may be lost or corrupted, Umar requested the Caliph Abu Bakr to authorize the compilation and preservation of the Book in written format. After initial hesitation, Abu Bakr made a committee headed by
Zayd ibn Thabit which included the memorizers of the Qur'an and Umar and to collect all verses of the Book. After collecting all Qur'anic verses from texts in the possession of various
sahaba,
Zayd ibn Thabit and members of his committee verfied the reading by comparing with those who had memorized the Qur'an. After they were satisfied that they had not missed out any verse or made any mistakes in reading or writing it down, the text was written down as one single manuscript and presented in a book form to the Caliph Abu Bakr. This process happened within one year of the death of Muhammad when most of his
sahaba (companions) were still alive, ensuring that the text would not be corrupted in any form.
Prior to his death, Abu Bakr gave this authorized copy of the Qur'an to Umar - his successor. It remained with him throughout his tenure as Caliph (10 years). Prior to his death, Umar gave this Book to his daughter
Hafsa bint Umar, who was one of the wives of Muhammad. Umar did not nominate his successor on his deathbed, and thus preferred to leave this copy with Hafsa so as not to indicate his personal preference of who would be the next caliph. Later on, it became the basis of
Uthman Ibn Affan's definitive text of the
Qur'an which was published far and wide merely 18 years after the death of the Prophet. Later historians give Uthman Ibn Affan the principal credit for re-verification and publishing the
Qur'an. Shi'as reject the idea that Abu Bakr or Umar were instrumental in the collection or preservation of the
Qur'an.
[18]"
These are from the Wiki articles on the Qur'an and Abu Bak'r
Abu Bakr died within about three years after the death of Muhammed. So your contention that it was not written for 200 years is ridiculous.
& vegetables when they`re having a party.
