Page:William Goldsack-The Qurān in Islām (1906).djvu/36

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"Ayesha said that the Sūra Akhrāb which she was reading was incomplete. In the time of the prophet it contained two hundred verses. And when ʿUsmān wrote the Qurān, he accepted nothing except what he found authenticated, and in it was Ayat Al-Rajam.” This testimony of the favourite wife of the prophet fully substantiates the statements made above as to the incompleteness of the present copy of the Qurān; for whereas Ayesha tells us that in the time of Muhammad Sūra Akhrāb contained two hundred verses, the present Qurān only contains seventy-three. Ayesha further adds her testimony to ʿUmr’s to the fact that Ayat Al-Rajam once existed in this Sūra; but, needless to say, no trace of it can be found in the present current edition of the Qurān. Another tradition, recorded in Kitāb Muhajarāt explains the disappearance of this celebrated verse. It is there recorded that,



“Ayesha said, Ayat Al Rajam and Ayat Rajaeta were sent down and committed to writing; but the paper was underneath my seat; and when the prophet (upon whom be blessing and peace) died, and we were busy with his funeral, a goat entered (the house) and ate it up”! We do not care to comment further upon this verse. The reader must either be devoid of all literary sense, or blinded by prejudice, if he fails to see how such facts as we have recorded above absolutely shatter all claims to a Divine protection of the Qurān. Lest this language should be deemed exaggerated, we quote a few