Criticism of the Quran

The Quran is viewed to be the scriptural foundation of Islam and is believed by Muslims to have been revealed, without issue, to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel. Criticism of the Quran has frequently occurred since western scholarship has looked to decipher, understand and verify the claims of Islamic thought as stated in the Quran. Issues relating to the authenticity and morality of the Quran are criticized.Both critics and some scholars of western, eastern and secular backgrounds claim to have discovered scientific errors adding allegations of contradictions in the Quran while questioning its interpreted moral and ethical message.

According to Francis Peters, Professor Emeritus of History, Religion and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University:

"What commends it (Quran) so powerfully to the historian is its authenticity, not as the Word of God, of course, as the Muslims believe but as the secular historian cannot and should not, but rather as a document attesting to what Muhammad said at that time and place, early seventh-century Mecca. It is not a transcript, however; our present Quran is the result of an edition prepared under the orders of Uthman... but the search for significant variants in the partial versions extant before Uthman's standard edition, what can be called the sources behind our text, has not yielded any differences of great significance. Those Uthmanic clues are fragmentary, however, and large 'invented' portions might well have been added to our Quran or authentic material deleted. So it has been charged in fact by some Muslims who failed to find in the present Quran any explicit reference to the designation of a successor to the Prophet and so have alleged tampering with the original texts. But the argument is so patently tendentious and the evidence adduced for the fact so exiguous that few have failed to be convinced that what is in our copy of the Quran is in fact what Muhammad taught, and is expressed in his own words."

Most Muslims believe that the Quran is the literal word of God as recited to the Islamic prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. Muhammad, according to tradition, recited perfectly what the angel Gabriel revealed to him for his companions to write down and memorize. Muslims believe that the wording of the Quranic text available today corresponds exactly to that revealed to Muhammad in the years 610–632.

Maurice Bucaille, medical doctor, author and member of the French Society of Egyptology, states in The Bible, The Qur'an and Science that "The Quranic Revelation has a history which is fundamentally different from the other two. It spanned a period of some twenty years and, as soon as it was believed to be transmitted to Muhammad by Archangel Gabriel, Believers learned it by heart." It is traditionally believed to have been written down during Muhammad's life.

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