A Christian-Muslim Dialog and Apologetic

Part 2: The True State Of The Qur'an
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CHAPTER IX:  SAMARQAND VS. 1924 EDITION - THE SAME?

Extensive Textual Comparison

 Von Denffer shows us copies of Pages #1 (Q2:7-10), and #375 (Q7:86-87). But that is little evidence after assuring us it indicates: 

"In other words: two of the copies of the Quran which were originally prepared in the time of Caliph `Uthman, are still available to us today and their text and arrangement can be compared, by anyone who cares to, with any other copy of the Quran be it in print or handwriting, from any place or period of time. They will be found to be identical." (Ulum, p.64)
 Indeed, what assurance can 4 verses provide when there are more than 6000 in the Quran and his claim about it being the Imam was also wrong! 

 Had Von Denffer been willing to show us Page 3, we would have found (see to the right) an extra ya in the modern 1924 Egyptian Arabic EDITION. 

In the pages just before Page #375 (Q7:86-87) we find what follows: 

 Page#373/374:

-In the last line of Page #373 the original of Q7:82 is quite different. Is it from original scribal ignorance? 

Page #370:
-In line #1 the original Q7:73 contains the letters lam-alif which someone has stroked out and which are absent from the modern version. 


 

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Page #369:
-In line #8 the letter alif is in the original of Q7:73 while the modern version has the letter h. 

Page #367:
-In line #1 the word in Q7:68 contains the letter sin in the original whereas in the modern versions the word has mim & ya

 However, had he looked even further he would have choked, for he would have found that what is accepted as Quran today is extremely different - if this is an original! 
We find: 

Page #90:
-In line #1 there is no word present in the Samarqand original of Q2:283 where the modern Arabic version has the word Allah!! 


 
 

-In line #8 we find the pronoun huwa [he] is present in the Samarqand original of Q2:284, whereas the modern Arabic version has the word Allah!! 


 

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Page #92: 
-In line #10 the original of Q3:37 is not in agreement with the modern version which has more words - including the word Allah! 

Page #108:
-In line #9 someone has tried to add extra words to the original -including the word Allah. Today they all appear in the modern Arabic version of Q3:78

Page #118:
-In line #4 the original is without the word Allah in Q3:109! It is in the modern version. 
-Also in line #4 the letter dal occurs, but is omitted in the modern version. 


 

Page #252:
-In line #1 the original of Q5:119 the word Allah is absent, yet has been introduced into the modern version. 


 

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Page #320:
-In line #1 the waw is absent in the original of Q6:140 but present in the modern version. 

-In line #7 words are  absent in the original of Q6:141 but present in the  modern version.

Page #321:
-In line #10 several words are absent in the original of Q6:144 [although the attempt has been made to introduce them in the margin] but are present in the modern version. 


 

Page #365:
-In line #2 a ya is present in the original of Q7:63whereas the modern version has two consonants.

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Page #323: -The modern version of Q6:146 contains many more words than are found in line #2 of the original [although again we see words added in the margin]. 



-In line #7 in the original of Q6:147 we note that an alif is present - but not in the modern version. 

Page #15: -In the modern version of Q2:57 a word appears which is not in line #5 of the original but a small portion remains in the margin where it was sought to add it. 

 The truth is that these are but a few of the many variations found between the modern versions of the Arabic texts and that which is found in the Samarqand original. 

 A large number of them can be viewed in Appendix A
 

                                                             VIEW APPENDIX A
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Further reading:
The Orthography of the Samarqand Codex by Arthur Jeffery