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In Search of the Original Koran: The True History of the Revealed Text | 
| Author: Mondher Sfar
Creator: Emilia Lanier
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Category: Book
List Price: $26.98
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Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 101597
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 152
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 1591025214
Dewey Decimal Number: 297.1221
EAN: 9781591025214
ASIN: 1591025214
Publication Date: March 25, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: Direct From Distributor - Light Shelf Wear - No Remainder Mark
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Orthodox Muslims venerate the Koran as the sacred word of God, which they believe was literally revealed by dictation from the angel Gabriel to the prophet Muhammad. This fundamentalist attitude toward the Muslim holy book denies the possibility of error in the Koran--even though there are some fairly obvious self-contradictions, inconsistencies, and incoherent passages in the text. To justify the claim that the Koran is inerrant, the orthodox have simply pointed to centuries of hidebound tradition and the consensus view of conservative leaders who back up this interpretation. But does the very beginning of the Muslim tradition lend support to the orthodox view? In this fascinating study of the origins of Islam, historian Mondher Sfar reveals that there is no historical, or even theological, basis for the orthodox view that Muhammad or his earliest followers intended the Koran to be treated as the inviolable word of God. With great erudition and painstaking historical research, Sfar demonstrates that the Koran itself does not support the literalist claims of Muslim orthodoxy. Indeed, as he carefully points out, passages from Islam's sacred book clearly indicate that the revealed text should not be equated with the perfect text of the original "celestial Koran," which was believed to exist only in heaven and to be fully known only by God. This early belief helps to explain why there were many variant texts of the Koran during Muhammad's lifetime and immediately thereafter, and also why this lack of consistency and the occasional revisions of earlier revelations seemed not to disturb his first disciples. They viewed the Koran as only an imperfect copy of the real heavenly original, a copy subject to the happenstances of Muhammad's life and to the human risks of its transmission. Only later, for reasons of social order and political power, did the first caliphs establish an orthodox policy, which turned Muhammad's revelations into the inerrant word of God, from which no deviation or dissent was permissible. This original historical exploration into the origins of Islam is also an important contribution to the growing movement for reform of Islam initiated by courageous Muslim thinkers convinced of the necessity of bringing Islam into the modern world.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Who is this auther? August 11, 2008
M. Shaban (California)
0 out of 14 found this review helpful
I am not sure what the author of this book was smoking when he wrote this book but for sure he had a lot of good imagination.
First of all, the idea that Quran was changes, missing chapters or had some additions is in the minority Shia's belief. Even the Shia's followers themselves mostly don't believe in this lie.
The early Quran was written by the Companions of the Prophet on leather pieces that were preserved in the Caliph's center. The Islamic Empire was growing rapidly, and different copies of Quran was spreading across the Muslim World. These were not different in any way other than the different dialects, i.e. Yamani, Shami, Najdi....etc..
The third Caliph was the one who asked his area governors to collect and have all of these copies be destroyed and he worked on having one single copy based on the original copy by Prophet Mohamed classic Arabic without any changes due to dialects. A copy of the Original classic Arabic Quran was then sent to each of the new areas with a "QARI" or a reader form the prophet companions to teach the people of these areas the right way to read and interpret the Quran. The Different interpretations of Quran don't mean that there are different versions of Quran. It is just the individual effort by several scholars to come up with the right meaning. New technologies and facts tend to confirm the correctness of Quran and until now never ever conflicted with scientific facts.
The claim that there existed several different copies has no bases and is just a fabricated novel trying to twist facts. Wake up people.
 The Failure of the Preservation of the Qu'ran March 22, 2008
F. Ramos (Ontario, CA USA)
17 out of 18 found this review helpful
Mondher Sfar has done humanity a great favor in writing this book. It is excessively rare to find anything on the history of the Qu'ran as a text and revelation. This is a very short book but it kicks butt. this work is only 4 chapters but each is packed with information and references. It is commonly and blindly believed by fellow Muslims that the Qu'ran has been preserved with out alteration or corruption. This is simply not true. All works in history, before the printing press, have been preserved but not perfectly since things like scribal errors and abrogation sometimes takes place. There are multiple Qu'rans that don't even match up. For example the Cairo Edition of the Qu'ran contains 6,236 verses and the Traditional Ibn Abbas Edition of the Qu'ran contains 6,616 verses. There's a difference of 380 verses missing or added on to the Qu'ran!
Here is a short synopsis of what is contained within the book:
Ch.1 "The Koran is not the Original One"
Theory of Variants among the early Muslims and their versions of the early Qu'rans. The 7 ways of recitations are also discussed in fair detail. The Satanic Revelations and the ad hoc abrogation of these verses by the Islamic God. Manipulations engendered by early Muslims on the Qu'ranic text, since memorizing the Qu'ran is not perfect and contradictory. Near the end there are two Prayers that are missing from the Utmanic canon of the Qu'ran. You can read these missing Prayers directly and see what was left out of the Qu'ran! Sfar also mentions at the beginning the self-contradicting and self-conflicting views Muslims have on Revelation and how if the Original Qu'ran is inscribed in a Tablet (Surah 85:21-22) Why was the Qu'ran recited to Muhammad in the first place? Writing is always superior to memorization. It lasts longer and doesn't it change it's opinion. Also the history involving Uthman and Omar (the author spells him as Umar)and their dirty contributions on making a Qu'ranic canon, is discussed.
Ch.2 "The Components of the Koran"
This section is basically oriented investigating how the verses, Surahs (Chapters), Preambles and strange letters that even Muslims can't understand presumably, came to be. The titles of the Surahs are discussed as well. Also the plausible sources and interchanging of terms involving the the first few words out of most Surahs (Chapters) " Basmala al-Rahman al-Rahim " which essentially means " In the name of God, most gracious, most merciful"
Ch.3 "Writings of the Koran"
This section discusses more in detail the scribal errors generated by devoted Muslims to their text by accident. In fact the Manuscript of Samarkand is a case in point and is discussed in detail as to the scribal corruption of the Qu'ran. Also there is discussion of the Sources of Islamic stories from the Christians and Jews and how secretaries of Muhammad like Zayd Thabit had access to Judeo-Christian literature.
Ch.4 "Myths and Prejudice"
All false beliefs of Muslims involving the ordered natural creation of the Qu'ran are exposed and summarized. Especially the false mythology of "perfect transmission" and that "all Qu'ran's are the same". Yeah right.
Conclusion
Appendix "The Solar Eclipse of January 27, 632 AD"
This simply discusses how to evaluate the Chronology and events of the Prophet.
Overall, very short, but powerful. This book deserves a wide audience. Muslims should read this and engage the debate of the preservation of the Qu'ran. Even non-Muslims should read this to better informed about the history of the text of slam. For further reading, look forward to Ibn Warraq's next anthology "Which Koran?: Variants, Manuscripts, And the Influence of Pre-Islamic Poetry". It should be an interesting read. Also another good work on the History of the Qu'ran as a text by a MUSLIM is Variant Readings Of The Quran: A Critical Study Of Their Historical And Linguistic Origins by Ahmad Ali Al-Imam. It's very short but very detailed also.
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