Islam
Père Zakaria Boutros

The Codices of the Holy Bible and the Quran

The author      : Father Zakaria Boutros
The publisher:  www.fatherzakaria.com
 
 

There are many codices of the Holy Bible reaching thousands

The most recent discovery of them was the codices of Qumran Valley discovered on1958-1959 dating back to the first century before the Christ, in which there are complete parts of the Old Testament
On those codices Mr. Abbas Mahmoud Al-Akad wrote in Al-helal book, under the title:" the treasures of Qumran Valley:” we thought that the discovery of the codices of Qumran Valley would affirm the falsification of the Holy Bible ,but those codices came affirming the veracity of the Holy Bible, and he wrote: those archaeological wisps were discovered in one of the caves of Qumran Valley, in eastern Jordan … wisps from 2000 years {i.e. before the appearance of Islam by more than six centuries} , after spreading them for inspection they showed that they include a complete copy of Isaiah book …and many other holy books, those books were showing no minor difference between them and the holy books we have nowadays not a single difference or alternation"
That testimony came from that eminent Islamic writer; he has many famous books as: geniuses of Muhammad, geniuses of the Christ, and other books, and he is well known writer
Those discoveries of Qumran Valley exists in hundred of books, they are present now in the museum of Jerusalem, and many researches were done on them from all the scientific organizations
 In addition to those old codices there are also codices dating to the second and third Gregorian century of them:
1) The Vatican codex, preserved till now in the Vatican, dated to about 250 years before Islam

2) The Sinian codex that was discovered in Saint Catherine monastery in Sinai, dated to more than 200 years before Islam, it is Present now in the British museum

3) The Alexandrian codex, dated to about 200 years also before Islam, it is also present in the British museum

And many other codices present in Cambridge and the recent codices of Nagi Hamady

All of them affirm the veracity of the Holy Bible and nihility of its falsification
 
 
 

It is very obvious that the Holy Bible was preserved and guarded by the Almighty hand of God and till now there is no proof for untruthfulness of the Holy Bible or any minor difference from the original codices

Any inquiries regarding discrepancies present in the Holy Bible are only outward discrepancies, that appear to the superficial reader, but when he reads the whereas he can realize the truth, as an example of that:

1- The transfiguration story mentioned in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 17 said:” And after six days, Jesus took Peter and James, and his brother John, and brought them up into a high mountain privately”

And in the gospel of Luke, chapter 9 it said eight days, so it seems that the discrepancy is obvious, but in fact the exegesis for that is simple:

- Matthew in his calculation when he said six days, he didn’t count the day of his speaking and the transfiguration day , and he mentioned the days in-between those two days , so they were six days , while Luke counted the day in which the Christ spoke and the day of the transfiguration, so they are eight days, so for the superficial reader it seems that there is a discrepancy between six and eight

The discrepancies are only outwardly, and there are no proofs for their veracity

That issue is provoked by the enemies of the Holy Bible, those atheists lived in the European development epoch in the sixteen century as they exited from the church and religion and started to attack the Holy Bible , and some ignorant Muslims quoted those calumnies and used them for aspersing  the Holy Bible

I am saying ignorant Muslims with respect to their positions as simply the quran is attesting for the veracity of the Holy Bible  , for the atheist they can asperse in the Holy Bible , but the Muslim who is aspersing in it is harming himself and his own creeds
 

People say that there was a bible named Barnabas' Bible

It is a flam and not a bible

- It was mentioned in the simplified Arabic encyclopedia concerning that issue:”Barnabas' Bible is a spurious book written by an European in the fifteenth century, And in its description of the political and religious circumstances in Jerusalem during the time of the Christ were grave mistakes, It stated that Iesa (Jesus) proclaimed that he was not the Christ, but he came telling the glad tiding of the coming of Muhammad who will be the Christ” (1)

Barnabas' Bible has no relation to the Holy Bible at all
 
 
 

Codices of the quran:

The quran’s scientists wrote about codices of the quran

There are two codices of the quran

1) Samarqand Codex

It is preserved in the Turkish museum named Dotkary museum in Istanbul, turkey
It was said that it is dated to year 32 A.H (654 G), it is lacking speckling so "?" is similar to  ?" "or" ?"
It is also lacking the figuration of letters
It is also available over the internet on the site: www.geocities.com
That codex is showing great difference between it and the current quran, as there are 750 differences, among those differences:
- In the family of Imran chapter (Surat Aal-'Imran) 78 the codex said:” they say, “That is from God”; it is they who tell a lie against God”
While the current new quran said:” they say, "That is from God," but it is not from God: It is they who tell a lie against God”
So there is a suffix added to the text, why??? Was that suffix present in the conserved tablet? , that’s an old codex dated to year 32 A.H , it is supposed to be the quran of Othman Ibn Affan  and that’s its text , so why there is addition in the text , was that addition from God?
- Another example in the cattle chapter (Surat Al-An'am) 146, the codex said:” And unto those who are Jews, we forbade them the fat of the ox and the sheep”
While the current new quran said:” And unto those who are Jews, We forbade every animal with undivided hoof, and we forbade them the fat of the ox and the sheep”
So there is an added suffix to the text
- also in the cattle chapter (Surat Al-An'am) 141, the codex said:” And it is He who produces gardens trellised and date palms, and crops
While the current new quran said:” And it is He who produces gardens trellised and untrellised” so there is added suffix, why it was added? Was that present in the conserved tablet?? How could any one add anything to the conserved tablet??
 
 

- In the family of Imran chapter (Surat Aal-'Imran) 37, the codex said: "This is from Allah, Allah provides sustenance to whom He wills, without limit"
While the current new quran said:” This is from Allah. Verily, Allah provides sustenance to whom He wills, without limit" why there is addition while it was said that the quran is preserved in the conserved tablet before the beginning of time
Every Muslim reads in the quran” This is a Glorious Quran, in Lauh Mahfûz (Preserved Tablet)” as long as it is a glorious quran and it is preserved in a tablet, so why there are alternations and changing ?
And so on there are 750 similar differences
2)  London’s codex:
 

It is present in the British museum in London dated to year 150 A.H (772 G), so it is dated to the second Hijri century

Although that codex dated to the second Hijri century, yet it is devoid of figuration and speckling exactly as Othman’s quran

Al-Sajistany mentioned that Al-Hassan and Ibn Serene hated the speckling of the quran as Abu Al-Awed Al-Gothaly started to speckle the quran and put figuration into it, they disapproved that as definitely one couldn’t differentiate between:
"?", ?" "or" ?" so the single letter could be read in several different ways
They gave an example: ? ? ? ? ? could be read in eleven different ways: ??????or ?????? or ??????   or ???????or ?????? or???????? or ??????? or ???????? or ????????or???????? ?or????????
So in Arabic language if there is a word without figuration and speckling, how could one read it? As there are eleven possibilities for the pronunciation of that word, with different meanings, that resulted in enormous discrepancies between the different qurans?
For example the table chapter (Surat Al-Ma'idah') 60 said:”Say:” Shall I inform you of something worse than that, regarding the recompense from Allah: those who incurred the Curse of Allah and His Wrath, those of whom He transformed into monkeys and swines, those who worshipped evil, those are worse in rank, and far more astray from the even path!
The Arabic text:
??? ??? ???????????? ??????? ???? ?????? ????????? ????? ?????? ??? ????????? ?????? ???????? ???????? ???????? ???????? ?????????? ?????????????? ???????? ??????????? ??????????? ????? ????????? ????????? ??? ?????? ??????????
By superficial reading it seems that the verb ?????? “meaning” to worship” is related to God, and that’s impossible as God could never worship evil, therefore they put for it several recitations:
There were seven recitations for Ibn Masoud, and four recitations for Obay, and six recitations for Ibn Abbas, Anas and Obeid Ibn Omeira
The seven recitations for Ibn Masoud were:
1- ?? ????? ??????? ?                   2 - ???????? ???????                  3- ?????? ???????
4- ??????? ???????                           5- ?????? ???????                         6- ???????? ???????
7- ?????? ???????
Those discrepancies was the reason behind burning of the qurans by Othman to avoid the great problems arising from those different recitations , and after Othman Al-Hajaj Ibn Yousef Al-Thaqafy came and he also burned the newer versions of the qurans  (2)
So to recapitulate:
1- Muhammad didn’t leave an assembled quran in one book, but rather written verses on bones, sheets and palm leaves
2- The quran assembled by Abe Baker after the death of the messenger was preserved with Hafsa and it was completely demolished by Marawan Ibn Al- Hakam as he tore it and burned it
3- After that Othman Ibn Affan burned the qurans because of the great discrepancies among them which caused the Muslims to fight together and so did also Al-Hajaj Ibn Yousef Al-Thaqafy
4- The codices present in turkey and London are different from the quran presently available with Muslims
From that emerges the big question: is the present quran the same quran that was present during the time of Muhammad??!!

(1) The Simplified Arabic encyclopedia page 354
(2)” the qurans” by Al-Sajistany, page 158, 159