An Islamic scholar writing late in the tenth century recounted a story in which the confusion of two sets of Arabic letters—zay (ز) for ra (ر) and ta (ت) for ba (ب)—came into play. A young man named Hamza began reciting the Qur’an’s second sura, which begins, “This is the book, there is no doubt in it” (2:2). “No doubt in it” in Arabic is la raiba fihi, but this unfortunate young man read out la zaita fihi, or “no oil in it,” so that the book, instead of being beyond question, was oil-free. (Hamza was thereafter known as al-Zayyat, or “the dealer in oil.”)
The implications of this trivial incident are enormous, and have never been explored. Until now. In the new revised and expanded edition of Did Muhammad Exist?. Get yours here.
gravenimage says
‘This is the book, there is no oil in it’
…………………..
Except for snake oil, that is…
James Lincoln says
?
Wellington says
Seconded.
Aussie Infidel says
GI, You got it right
mortimer says
The AMBIGUITY of the Arabic alphabet is notorious and is a reason why no sensible deity would reveal a message in this alphabet.
The traditional Muslim foundational narrative is that the Koran was revealed in 7 different ‘dialects’.
However, Arabic in the 7th century DID NOT have pointing (dots that indicate vowels), and thus NO DIALECTAL FEATURES COULD POSSIBLY BE INDICATED in the skeletal, consonantal Koran text.
Such facts emerge daily which demonstrate incontrovertibly that the Koran is of human origin and the standard Islamic foundational narrative is FULL OF HOLES that no Muslim can fill.
Islam is hopelessly flawed and modern scholarship is making the collapse of Islam inevitable. The mullahs all know this and shudder. They are helpless to stop it.
Dave says
That’s one of the most hopeful things I’ve heard this week; thank you!