ancient qur'an fragments found in birmingham

A relevant and useful post from one of Shaykh Yaqoubi's* Facebook pages (full post can be found at the link below, I've copied a few points only below):

https://www.facebook.com/permalink....578834007&id=302237123133693&substory_index=0

"Therefore when a copy of the Quran reaches us like this truncated the way they found in Sana University or Birminghim University or any other place in the world; it doesnt shake us. I know that some orientalists have taken advantage of this to try and shake the beliefs of the Muslims in their holy book. They said a copy has been found which ages back to the first century etc and it is different from what the Muslims have today and this could review the status of the principles of Islam. None of what they said holds any value.

Our system is based on who wrote and from where. This is how we verify. We ask who wrote it so that we can be sure that he was righteous, protecting of his deen and upheld its rules. We ask from where did he copy so that we can be certain that it was copied from a reliable copy and not from the top his head or from an unreliable copy.

I wanted to draw your attention to this so that if the news reaches you on back of pamphlets or copies of Quran which are old and go back to prophetic times according examinations: if it agrees and matches what we already have as the Quran then we say welcome. However if it differs from what we have then the realiable is the Quran we have."

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* Not sure if the message is Shaykh Yaqoubi's words itself or someone else's; also am somewhat aware of the issues surrounding the Shaykh, but thought the post is relevant and useful and should be shared

 

as a muslim, i believe that it should be thus and not surprised.

but i wonder if someone can plant this to get good review and then produce "similar" leaves that could have anti-islamic writings, thereby creating confusion ("if you believed that, why reject this?"). the reason that my skeptic-sense tingles (skeptic NOT of the qur'an, al-iyadhubillah, but of the 'discovery') is because it sounds too good. indeed, i do not deny that it could be true and in which case, we muslims stand vindicated.

curiously, the leaf that is found is from surah maryam includes the ayat that refutes that Allah ta'ala has a son.
the other leaf is a mention of aS'Hab kahf, who were a sign for people of that time who had begun to deny resurrection.

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and of course, it could be genuine. if it is, then alHamdulillah, a sign to further strengthen our iman and that refutes orientalist drivel that qur'an is a post-dated work put together and transmitted by the conspiracy of hundreds of thousands of people of the first three centuries.

Allah ta'ala knows best.

 

this is the other page (on the right ) from surah kahf.

 

i quickly assembled a comparison from taha beginning and mariyam ending

 

will write a little more about it, just saw this and quickly compared one fragment with the text (see accompanying images). am still comparing the other fragment, from surah kahf. will post shortly.

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/22/oldest-quran-fragments-found-at-birmingham-university

http://www.newsweek.com/what-newly-dated-early-koran-tells-us-about-islam-356586