Allah’s eternal words are transcriber onto paper is known as the Quran. The claim is that the Quran is eternal and is uncreated. And the physical book, the paper, and the ink is the physical part of the Quran that
Allah’s eternal words are transcriber onto paper is known as the Quran. The claim is that the Quran is eternal and is uncreated. And the physical book, the paper, and the ink is the physical part of the Quran that is created. The big question here is how Allah’s eternal word contained in a physical book. Just think about it for a second. How can words even begin to describe eternity? Or the idea of timelessness? To claim that timelessness is contained in the book is mind-blowing, we can not think or write without before or after clauses. This is the topic we are exploring in this article “What is the Word of Allah?”
Today Islam and Christianity face the same issue. Islam is dealing with the Quran and its physical and eternal aspects and Christians dealing with Jesus and his physical and eternal aspects. Where does the line lay between the created and the uncreated? How can the Quran be eternal yet be physical? And are there issues if you hold to this view. Obviously, Yes! How can something that is very limited in nature, like a physical book, have the attribute of eternity? If the Quran is something other than eternal, then we do face significant consequences. They range from Quran not being true to Muhammad’s position as a prophet comes into a question. We all understand that we can hold to beliefs by faith but in this article, we are after the reasonable answer. We want to make sense of things. Our life, our knowledge, our faith and the tradition that we hold to is our responsibility to validate. No one will take the blame for what you or I believed. If the truth is something other than what we thought, who is to blame other than ourselves. We are to blame if we believed a lie or a false tradition. Hence the reason why we write and go down the trail of reasons to assure You! Me! And Us! That what we believe is, in fact, true.
Let’s review two opposing doctrines of the Quran. Let us first state that these doctrinal disputes go back to the first century. Today, Sunni hold to the doctrinal position of Quran being co-eternal with Allah. This was not always the case, but for the majority of the history, it was. The opposing view is called Createdness, and it refers to the doctrinal position that the Quran was created. Today, Createdness is held by the lesser denomination of Islam and began with rationalist philosophical school known as the Mu’tazila during the first century.
Quranic Createdness View:
The Quranic Createdness claim is fundamental: Allah created the Quran, and He can change it at will. They reject the idea of Quran being equal with Allah because how can Quran precede Allah’s speech. Both are eternal. Therefore it is a contradictory statement. How can eternal exist before eternal? It can not.
All doctrines should have a foundation in the word of Allah. May it be in the Quran or the Bible. And Createdness is formed from the Quranic text. The Quran reference that they use to develop their view is from Quran 2:106 “Any revelation We cause to be superseded or forgotten, We replace with something better or similar. Do you [Prophet] not know that Allah has power over everything?”
The argument goes something like this: If the Quran can be subjected to change, a new verse superseding an earlier one, then the Quran is not co-eternal with Allah but is created.
The critics have been silent for the most part ever since the first century. Their response was always silence in the face of opposition. But they prevailed. Here is the big issue, those who believe in Createdness are admitting that the Quran can be changed and superseded at any point in time. This means that the Quran is not an absolute truth. If the Quran is not eternal, then Muhammad did not indeed receive what he claimed he did. Therefore, the Quran is not the last revelation, and Muhammad is not the last prophet. If Allah can supersede the Quran with something better, then it makes the Quran as authoritative as the hadith.
Additionally, it brings Allah omniscience into question. As if Allah is growing in His knowledge and as soon as He gets a revelation He updates everyone else by sending a new prophet down to earth to reveal the new truth to humanity. This is not something many are willing to accept. Therefore silence is the best response to the Quranic Createdness.
The opponents to Createdness are considered orthodox. An Orthodox Muslim is the one who stands by the absolute authority of the sacred texts over and above those who make use of reason. And they heavily depend on the hadith and oral traditions. How is anyone to know what the correct interpretation of the scripture is if not depend on earliest sources and earliest traditions. The closer you are to the lights source the brighter it is. But the earliest of tr