The fourth part of my mini-series: Textual Criticism of the Koran.
Today I look at variants of the book, as Muslims claim only one, single version exists. They mostly claim that only one version was memorised and thus there can be only one version. I look at the different texts to see if this claim is true.


http://islamoscope.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/the-myth-of-perfect-preservation-examining-a-variant/

http://www.studytoanswer.net/myths_ch1.html

http://www.jstor.org/pss/606724

http://www.submission.org/miracle/writing.html

http://www.sunnipath.com/library/books/B0040P0009.aspx

http://www.searchtruth.com/book_display.php?book=60&translator=1&start=0&number=201#201



To see what a better Koran could look like:
www.TheBetterQuran.com

Background audio: cover version of Oh Yeah by Yello
Background video used under provision of Fair Use



Dome of the Rock vs Koran

"peace be upon him the day he was born, and the day he dies, and the day he shall be raised alive!"
"peace be upon me, the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I am raised alive!" (19:33)

Other sentences from the Koran regarding Jesus, such as 4:157 or 61:6 are missing
they did not slay him [Jesus], neither crucified him
Children of Israel! I am the Messenger of Allah unto you confirming the Torah which came before me, and giving glad tidings of a Messenger to come after me, whose name shall be Ahmed





The Quran is believed to be the exact word of Allah, so leaving a paragraph out when copying it is quite frowned upon. It’s also typically best not to alter words here and there. An even bigger no-no is printing 120,000 copies of your bad copy-paste job and distributing them internationally, as happened with state-issued copies of the holy book in Kuwait in 1999.

The minister for justice and Islamic affairs was the unfortunate person in the firing line when this came to light. He was accused of “trying to disfigure the faith of Muslims” and the result was that the entire Kuwaiti parliament was dissolved. Members of the government’s opposition claimed the misprints were created intentionally to provide an excuse for parliament to be broken up and a new election called.


http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+trappings+of+democracy.-a055294065