QURAN—The Preserved Book of God

QURAN The Preserved Book of God The fifth Surah of the Quran states: Today I have concluded for you your religion, and I have completed my favour upon you, and I have approved Islam as your religion. (Quran, 5:3) Some people have taken this verse to mean that previous religions were incomplete, and that they were only made complete with the religion of the final Prophet, Mohammad, on whom be peace. But this interpretation is mistaken. By ‘conclusion of religion’ in this verse is meant conclusion of the Book of God which had been revealed to Prophet Mohammad over a period of 23 years. This is the last verse of the Quran to be revealed and marks the completion to the Book of God in Arabic. The meaning of this verse is not that the religion which God had been sending down since the beginning of human history had gradually been developing and had now taken on its final and complete form. It is the revelationary completion of the Quran in Arabic that is referred to, not the evolutionary completion of divine religion as a whole. There is, essentially, one Book of divine guidance. That Book has been called Ummul Kitab (The Essence of the Book) in the Quran. The divine scriptures were editions of this Ummul Kitab, revealed to the different Prophets. The difference between one Scripture and another is one of language and style. There is no question of one Scripture being complete and another incomplete. After the final Prophet, however, the only way to salvation is by means of the Quran and Islam. Following previous scriptures and religions cannot now earn one salvation. But there is only one reason for this: the fact that the Quran is preserved in its original form whereas other religions are not. The Quran still exists as it was revealed, but previous Scriptures have been altered and are not now as they originally were. This difference between the Quran and other Scriptures is a historical fact, that cannot be doubted on any academic grounds. Clearly, only that edition of the Book of God which