'The True Origin of Islam', by Dr. Jay Smith

The secrets of the Qur'an and early Islam

Imagine that the Qur'an - the most holy book of Islam, which is considered a divine gift from heaven - was revealed by the angel Gabriel to a man named Muhammad, who could neither read nor write, within 22 years. This alone makes the writing of the Koran extremely strange. However, the book was not written down until 24 years after Muhammad's death. This was in the year 656 A.D. It was the 4th Khalif, Uthman, who ordered this compilation and commissioned Zaid ibn-Talib and 3 other men with this monumental task. After completion, 4 copies were made and sent to various cities. To this day, it is claimed that two of these copies - called Mushafs - have been preserved in Istanbul and Tashkent. However, investigations from 2002 onwards were unable to confirm their authenticity.

This means there is no reliable original Qur'an left.

But this is only the beginning of the curiosities. The first comprehensive biography of Muhammad, ‚Sira‘, was written by ibn-Ishak in 765 AD - a full 133 years after the Prophet's death. This biography was then improved by ibn-Hisham in 833 AD. And what about the ‚hadiths‘, the sayings of the Prophet? These were collected by al-Bukhari in 870 AD, 240 years after Muhammad's death. He discarded 90% of the original material in order to ensure "authenticity". The interpretations of the Qur'an, called ‚Tafsir‘, were also compiled by al-Tabari in 923 AD - 267 years after Muhammad's death. But the mystery continues. There is no mention of Islam in historical records before 691 AD. Mecca, which today is considered the heart of Islam, is not mentioned for the first time until 741 AD. The most frequently mentioned places in the Qur'an are all 1000 kilometers north of Mecca, near Petra. The direction of prayer (kibla) of the early mosques was initially towards Petra. Then for the next 100 years there was "confusion" about this, before finally all mosques were uniformly oriented towards Mecca - 200 years after the Prophet's death. All these discoveries raise many questions about the true origins of Islam. It appears that the true birthplace and birth of the Islamic religion was not in Mecca, but in Petra, the Nabataean trading center of antiquity.