Critical Study of John Burton’s Objections on the Qur’ān Regarding Its Revelation in Seven Letters (Saba’ Ahruf)

Abstract

Almighty Allāh is the Creator of the mankind. When He Created Hazrat Ādam and sent him in this world, He said that He would send guidance from Himself and whoever would follow that guidance he would have neither fear nor grief on the Day of Judgment.  So to fulfill this promise, Almighty Allāh sent almost one lac and twenty four thousand prophets and revealed to many of them His scriptures as He revealed Torah to Hazrat Mūsa (Moses), Zabūr to Hazrat Dawūd (David) and Injīl to Hazrat Īsa (Jesus), likewise, the Qur’ān is the last and final link in this series under which the first books have been revealed. Almighty Allāh revealed the Holy Qur’ān to His last and final Messenger Hazrat Muhammad (P.B.U.H) almost fifteen hundred years ago. The Qur’ān itself says that it is not a new thing; rather it is a continuation of the pre-existing direction. Orientalists have denied this fact and wrote many books to create doubts in the minds of the people regarding the Qur’ān and Islām. A famous orientalist John Burton has also written his book “The Collection of the Qur’ān” and objected on the Holy Qur’ān. He tried to prove that the Qur’ān is not the book of Allāh rather it has been written by Prophet Muhammad himself.    John Burton has raised objections on the Holy Qur’ān on the base of difference of recitations of the Holy Qur’ān. He argues that differentiation in the recitation of the Qur’ān causes differentiation in the Islāmic rules. In this article, the reality and status of seven letters (Saba’ Ahruf) has been discussed and the justification of the revelation of the Qur’ān in seven letters has been proved with rational and textual arguments. Furthermore, the misconceptions of John Burton regarding Saba’ Ahruf have also been clarified with proofs in this article.