The Quran is the most preserved Sacred Text amongst the world major religious texts. There exist numerous ancient manuscripts of the text of the Quran-some which date to the first century of Islam- all of which are identical (not similar but IDENTICAL).......(article continues.... ) In addition to the written text, Muslims maintained a rigorous system of oral transmission, practiced not only by scholars, but also by thousands of lay people, who could recite the whole book from memory, down to the letters and accents. Wherever you go in the Islamic world, you can always find innumerable people who have memorised the whole Quran and have been taught the exact pronunciation of every word in the Book.
This oral tradition is unique to the Quran, as I did not come across non-Muslims who can recite their holy book from beginning to end from memory.
Even western scholars who were known for their animosity to Islam, acknowledge the fact that the Quran text read today is identical to the text recited by the Prophet and his companions.
I am providing a link to an article by Theodor Nöldeke, a fierce critic of Islam, but even he admits that the text we have today is the same as the one which existed 20 years (at most), after the death of Prophet Mohamed.
I will deal with his article in a separate post a sort of rebuttal to various charges and point to weaknesses in his arguments.
Details and photos of Quran manuscripts (including photo on main page of this blog are from website of professor Brannon Wheeler, a distinguished American scholar and expert on Islamic and Middle Eastern history.
more Quranic manuscripts can be found here
