Allah’s Challenges in the Quran and Its Missing Chapters

Allah threw open challenges to man as well as Jinn to create a book like the Quran or at least a chapter of it and that he would keep the Quran unchanged for eternity. He failed in both challenges. Find out why?

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Challenging someone or an open challenging to all on an issue is a means of maintaining integrity of a challenger. It is not easy for someone to challenge on any subject, howsoever a master or expert one is in his/her field. One can throw a challenge only when he/she is 100% sure that he can never fail or be proven wrong.

But what happens if someone takes on the challenge and proves the challenger wrong? Undoubtedly, the challenger is dismayed and mortified; and people, who erstwhile cherished the challenger, start avoiding him/her, not to be deceived again.

Here, we will discuss about Allah, whom Muslims consider to be the god of the universe, who eagerly throw open challenges to mankind in the ‘Quran’. In this book, he asserts that his words are unchangeable (Quran 15:9) and brimming with his wisdom and that no one else in the entire universe can reach his level of elegance. He even challenges other creatures besides mankind, the Jinns (invisible creatures), to assist mankind to create a replica of the Quran or at least a single Sura (chapter), in order to prove that the Quran is not from God.

It was, indeed, a very brave challenge for Allah, intended to boosts His honor and the belief of skeptics that the Quran was truly a creation of God.

Allah in his book ‘Quran’ Chapter 2 in verse 23, that to produce single chapter as he has in his book Quran. Translation is as follows:

“And if you all are in doubt about what I have revealed to My servant, bring a single chapter like it, and call your witnesses besides God if you are truthful.” (Quran 2:23)

Quran 17:88 goes:

“Say: ‘If all mankind and the jinn would come together to produce the like of this Quran, they could not produce its like even though they exerted all and their strength in aiding one another.’”

Interesting point is that the Quran’s two shortest chapters contain only 3 verses. The names of the chapters are Al-Asr and Al-Nasr.

Some sects in Islam claim that two chapters---named Sura Al-Wilayat and Sura Al-Nurain---originally intended for the Quran, are missing from its current version.

Sura Al-Wilayat

Translation:

On the name of the all merciful God,

1. You who are believers, believe in the prophet and the saint (patron, God-man)"which is Ali Bin Abi Taleb, Mohammed cousin" which we sent, they will guide you to the strait path.

2. A prophet and a saint "belong to" each other, and I am the all knowing, the experienced.

3. Those who do (obey) God's covenant they "deserve" comforting paradises.

4. And those who if it read to them our verses, they contradict it.

[Meaning: If somebody (unknown) were to read the verses (from the Qur'an) to them, they reject would it.]
5. They have a great (big) place in Hell, if they called in the day of judgement: where is the unfair, the contradictory for the messengers?

6. The messengers don't leave them "without" the truth, and God "will not allow them" to win (appear, show) till a short time.
7. Praise your lord "and" thank "him", and Ali "Ali Bin Abi Taleb, Mohammed’s cousin, "one" from the witnesses.

Suran Al-Nurain

Translation:

"O you who believe, believe in the two lights

He has revealed them unto you, warning you against the torture of the Great Day -- two lights emanating from one another, for I am the All-Hearing and the All-Knowing.

Truly those who fulfill Allah's pledge and his Apostle's verses shall be rewarded with Paradise.

Those who disbelieve by breaking their covenant and what they have pledged to do before the Apostle shall be thrown into hell, for they did injustice to themselves and disobeyed the supporter of the Apostle.

Therefore, they shall be caused to drink from the Hamim River in hell.

Truly Allah is the light of heaven and the earth as he wills, and he has chosen his angels and apostles and made believers of those whom he created.

All do whatever he wills. There is no god but him -- the Merciful and the Compassionate.

Those who came before them cheated their apostles, and so I have stricken them with my cunningness vehemently and painfully.

O Apostle! Preach my admonition, for they shall know.

Those who fulfill their pledge to you are likened to me to be rewarded by Paradise.

Truly Ali is one of the pious. We have sent Moses and Aaron, being appointed his successor, yet they disobeyed Aaron.

Be of good patience! They will become old. We have given you judgment, just as we did to other apostles before you. We have appointed a guardian to you from them, that they might return.

Truly Ali is devout, lying prostrate at night, warning as regards the Last Day, and hoping for the mercy of his Lord.

Say: "Should those who act unjustly be treated equally, while they know my torture?"

Today, these two Suras (chapters) are missing from the Quran. This claim has been made by a sub-sect in Shiaism. However, not all Shias hold this claim but stick, like Sunni Muslims, with the idea that the Quran has never been changed.

There is nothing strange, surprising or shocking in this attitude of Sunni Muslims, who tactically tried and are still trying to defend the action of Othman, the third caliph of Islam, who deteriorated credibility of the Quran by burning its original texts, after compiling whatever suited his interests.

However, what is strange, surprising and shocking is that the Shias, despite their scornful attitude toward Sunnis, have swallowed up as truth of “twelve imamates”, whatever the Sunni Muslim have dished out to them about the truthfulness of the Quran. They have provided the reason that there was confusion in Arabic grammar and pronunciation in various parts of Arabia at the time that made it difficult for many Arabs to utter the words of the Quran precisely; hence, the meaning of the Quran was misinterpreted. Consequently, they had to think seriously about this matter and the reformation in the Quran was higher necessity.

Here, I would like to shed light on the behavior of Shia Muslims against Sunni Muslims and their hatred toward each other. Shia Muslims, the followers of Ali, not only rejected and reject Abu Bakar and Umar, the first two caliphs of Islam, respectively, but the caliphate of Othman, who was, according to Shias, elected by fault. When Othman ordered to burn original texts of the Quran, he was nearly eighty. Apparently, a person in his late seventies can be easily manipulated; on the other hand, Othman also appointed his kinsmen and close cousins and relatives to higher positions in different parts of caliphate, after he threw the rightly appointed off from their posts. Amir Muawiya, the close cousin of Othman and the governor of Syria, manipulated Othman to burn original text of the Quran in order to take his revenge that he and his father, Abu Sufyan, suffered on the day of Conquest of Mecca, when Muhammad destroyed all respected gods and idols of Arabia, which Abu Sufyan and Muawiya had to watch helplessly, and could nothing to save their age-old revered gods and idols.

Conclusion

My objective is not to establish what happened to these chapters or who eradicated them from the Quran. But let’s suppose that these chapters were not revealed to be included in the Quran, but were created by man. What the readers should note is how beautiful, elegant and eloquent these two chapters are, much better than many chapters of the Quran, which threatens Allah’s open challenge that no-one can create a chapter like those of the Quran. Thus, not only one chapter but two chapters have been created by man like a mirror through which a humiliated and disgraced Allah can see Himself.

Now, I have a simple question to all Muslims: Have not Allah lost His challenge in Quran 2:23, therefore, His honor and integrity as the claimed God of the universe?

Muslims can help maintain Allah’s honor and integrity only by accepting that those two chapters were indeed revealed by Allah for inclusion in the Quran. In that case Allah again fails in His promise/challenge to maintain the Quran unchanged.

The Consequences of America's Failure to Understand Islam

Soon after the murderous attack on the enlisted men and women at Fort Hood, Texas, the picture of the officer who mounted that carnage was flashed on the television screen. It revealed the physiognomy of a Mideastern man! Before long, he was described as a psychiatrist with the rank of Major in the U. S. Army, the son of an immigrant Palestinian family, born and educated in the United States. Radio, television, newspapers, and the various Internet websites continued reporting on the massacre, and delved into the motives that caused a medical doctor to turn into an executioner.
I was struck immediately with the fact that his parents had given him the name Nidal. I am familiar with many of the names Muslims give their children, but have never heard of the name “Nidal,” which means “Struggle” being given to a Muslim boy
I am convinced that these wanton murders could have been averted if our political leadership and the mainline media, were not blinded by an abysmal ignorance of the true nature of Islam. As a life-time student of Islam, its history and authoritative texts, I would like to point to the massacre at Fort Hood as a consequence of America’s failure to understand Islam. Here is a shocking example:
On the 10th of November, 2009, The Wall Street Journal published an article with this headline, “After the Fort Hood Massacre: Sorting the Hasans from patriotic Muslims in the U.S. military.” The following excerpts I believe display a false dilemma regarding the presence of Muslims in the military:
“There are two irreconcilable views of Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan’s murder of 13 people last Thursday at Fort Hood, Texas. One is that Major Hasan should be seen as not much different than many other disturbed individuals, whose demons pitch them into homicidal frenzies. The other is that the Hasan murders raise hard questions about the ability of Muslims to serve at all in the American military. Neither view is acceptable. It will be the job of public and military officials in weeks ahead to shape a policy response that recognizes the hard political and ethnic realities of the Fort Hood massacre. So no, Major Hasan is not just another nut. He volunteered himself into a larger Islamic jihad, whose political weapon of choice is the murder of innocents across the globe. Just as Americans can’t blink away the dangerous world of radical Islam, however, we also cannot pretend that we can field a military that doesn’t include Muslims. The unreality of attempting to fight this enemy without Muslim soldiers or operatives should be obvious.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704402404574525743684356798.html
I am thoroughly baffled by these words, “we also cannot field a military that doesn’t include Muslims. The unreality of attempting to fight this enemy without Muslim soldiers or operatives should be obvious?” The author of this op-ed has actually muddied the waters at a time when clear thinking is absolutely necessary in the aftermath of this unspeakable tragedy.
The Defense Department is fully aware that Muslim recruits have entertained scruples about “fighting other Muslims,” and is willing to grant them the status of “conscientious objectors.” A strange concession indeed! Did it ever enter the minds of the DOD officials that granting Muslim soldiers such a selective ‘conscientious objection’ is tantamount to implying that the US Army does not dispute their allegations that it is targeting innocent Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan! Traditionally, the classification of “conscientious objection” is granted to U.S. citizens who are members of pacifist churches and communions, and thus object to all wars regardless of who the enemy is. If Muslims cannot fight even “bad” Muslims such as those of al-Qaeda or members of the Taliban, why has it become absolutely necessary for the DOD to bend backwards in order to accommodate would-be Muslim recruits? I cannot comprehend this twisted logic!
Let me refer to an article of mine that was posted on this website, on 21 October, 2009, and which dealt with a related topic. In “Islam and the Decline of the West,” I pointed to the danger faced by Western nations due to the growing number of Muslims residing among them. This issue is extremely important and still unresolved nine years after 9-11.
See http://www.faithfreedom.org/2009/10/21/islam-the-decline-of-the-west.
Several months before the above mentioned article appeared on the Elaph website, I had commented on a 15 December, 2008, article that was also posted on Elaph with this headline: An Increase in the Islamic Terrorist Danger Facing Europe and America. It had predicted that more terrorist attacks would take place in both Europe and America. It can be found here: http://www.news.faithfreedom.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2202

The author of this article had premonitions about future acts of jihadist violence that would occur on both sides of the Atlantic. In the light of what some of these responsible and reformist Arab intellectuals have been writing on this subject, I offer the following hypothesis:
All Muslims carry in their cultural and religious baggage a strong exclusivist belief that they are the guardians of Allah’s mission and message to all mankind. Danger is on the horizon when this belief becomes extreme and radicalized in certain Muslims. For such persons, this exclusivism may lie dormant in their consciousness until conditions become ripe for putting a more extreme face on this worldview, which in turn can lead to the commission of terrorist acts. A Muslim man’s journey starts in earnest when he begins attending mosques led by fiery and radical Imams. Such Imams harangue worshippers during the Friday worship services with messages filled with invectives against the Kuffar. All non-Muslims who do not submit to Islam fit into this hated category.
Even the most “moderate” Muslim, attending this type of Friday propagandistic services week after week and month after month, would be made susceptible to forming attitudes and a mindset extremely critical of all non-Muslims that could eventually wreak havoc in various ways, including terror attacks. The continuous virulence of such an Imam’s sermons, coupled no doubt with copious quotations from the Qur’an and the Hadiths backing up such rants, would inevitably trigger in the psyche of a believer a dangerous urge to do something “fi Sabeel Allah” (In the Pathway of Allah,). As recent history has proven, Muhammad ‘Atta and his vicious cohorts certainly gleaned hatred from such instruction and perpetrated the horror of 9-11. How influential such teachings from radical mosques and Imams were in the life of Major Nidal, the Fort Hood terrorist, is yet to be determined.
My thesis would explain the Fort Hood tragedy, especially as I ponder once again the details that surfaced in the aftermath of the 9-11 attack. The papers packed in Muhammad ‘Atta’s suitcase did not accompany him on the flight into the Twin Towers in New York City. Eventually they were made public and published on the Internet. I read and re-read the speech he gave to his fellow believers the night before the horrific attack. He exhorted them to remain firm in their resolve to punish the arrogant USA by attacking the World Trade Center, which to him was a symbol of America’s arrogance. He quoted passages from the Qur’an to strengthen them in their determination to go through the suicidal mission.
Further research into ‘Atta’s background was revealing. Testimony from his German professor at Hamburg University was telecast on the internet some months ago. It was noted that ‘Atta had been a normal student doing excellent work in his chosen field. His thesis regarded “Urban Renewal,” a much-needed work in his native Egypt.
So what radicalized an otherwise intellectually brilliant student who had so much to offer his native country? One answer is certainly his Mosque attendance while a student in Hamburg. He chose to worship at the Jerusalem Mosque notoriously famous for being led by a fiery Imam who never ceased hurling curses and imprecations at the Infidels. I can only conclude that ‘Atta’s conscious and subconscious mind became saturated with that fire and brimstone preaching of the radical cleric. He became mentally unstable, and now he had justification from his spiritual leader to go on a jihad and do something great for Allah. His aim became to murder as many Infidels as possible.
So much for my hypothesis. Ali Sina is certainly well aware of the situation the world community is faced with in Islam. He recently wrote on the Fort Hood murders. I conclude with these important words from that article:
“Another Muslim, another terrorist saga, more innocent lives lost. What else isnew? All Muslims are not terrorists, but they are potentially.”