What is the Holy Qur'an?

The holy Qur'an is Islam's Holy Book, believed by Muslims to be the direct word of Allah revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. The language of the Qur'an is Arabic, but it has been translated into many other languages. The Qur'an has not been expressed using any human's words. Its wording is letter for letter fixed by no one but Allah.

Prophet Muhammad (saas) was the final Messenger of Allah to humanity, and therefore the Qur'an is the last Message which Allah has sent to us. Its predecessors such as the Torah, Psalms, and Gospels have all been superceded. It is an obligation - and blessing - for all who hear of the Qur'an and Islam to investigate it and evaluate it for themselves. Allah has guaranteed that He will protect the Qur'an from human tampering, and today's readers can find exact copies of it all over the world. The Qur'an of today is the same as the Qur'an revealed to Muhammad (saas).

What makes the holy Qur'an unique from other holy books available today, such as the Bible, is that the holy Qur'an is still in its original form. It is in the same original language, with the same alphabet and letters. It has been conveyed to us today not only by being written in books, but also through chains of people who memorize the holy Qur'an, each generation from the previous one. Therefore, there is only one version on the holy Qur'an today. The copy of the holy Qur'an being read by a Muslim in Indonesia is exactly the same, letter by letter, as the one being read by the Muslim in Egypt, Nigerea or the USA.

On the other hand, the Bible for example, has been translated and re-translated many times over. It was never preserved as a single book, and it was never memorized letter by letter and transmitted through the generations. The Bible we have today contains the writing of people about Jesus, spread over hundereds of years after his death. Most parts of the Bible are is not the direct word of God, or even Jesus.