Ismat al-Quran al-Karim wa Jahalat al-Mubashshirin
- Author died
- -
- Editions
- Maktabat Zahrā' al-Sharq
Ismat al-Quran al-Karim wa Jahalat al-Mubashshirin (عصمة القرآن الكريم وجهالات المبشرين, "The Infallibility of the Noble Qur'an and the Ignorances of the Missionaries") is a contemporary apologetic work by the Egyptian scholar and literary critic Ibrahim Awad (completed in 2003 CE; published in 1426 AH / 2005 CE), written in refutation of Christian missionary polemics targeting the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad.
Background and Purpose
The book was composed as a direct response to a polemical treatise titled Hal al-Qur'an Ma'sum? ("Is the Qur'an Infallible?"), published in Austria in 1994 under the pseudonym "Abdullah Abd al-Fadi." Awad authored the work while working with limited access to biblical references—relying primarily on the Catholic translation of the Bible—and completed the manuscript in 2003 CE.
In the introductory section, Awad criticizes the polemicist's hostility toward Islamic monotheism and the character of Muhammad. He contrasts the elevated moral depiction of prophets in Islamic tradition with biblical accounts in the Old and New Testaments regarding figures such as Noah, Abraham, Lot, Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, and Jesus, questioning the consistency of missionary critiques against Islam.
Structure and Method
Rather than addressing every minor point raised in al-Fadi's book, Awad focused his rebuttal on linguistic allegations alongside a broad selection of thematic objections regarding the Quran's content.
Linguistic Doubts
The first major division of the book (al-Shubuhat al-Lughawiyyah) examines the twenty-five linguistic queries raised by al-Fadi. Awad approaches these claims through historical linguistics and Arabic grammar:
- The Normative Standard of Arabic: He argues that classical Arabic rules were extracted inductively from the innate speech (saliqah) of pre-Islamic orators and poets, among whom Muhammad was immersed, making the Quranic text the foundational canon from which grammar was derived rather than a text subject to later prescriptive grammatical formulations.
- Critique of the Polemicist's Arabic: Awad documents numerous elementary grammatical, syntactical, and morphological errors committed by al-Fadi throughout his treatise, including mistakes in numerical gender agreement, accusative markers, and diacritics. For example, he refutes al-Fadi's attempt to correct the genitive construction in the verse مِنْ بَعْدِ ضَرَّاءَ مَسَّتْهُ (Surah Yunus: 21), showing that al-Fadi failed to recognize that darra' is diptotic (mamnu' min al-sarf) and thus takes a fathah in the genitive state.
Content and Thematic Objections
The book also addresses substantive contentions regarding Quranic subject matter, such as the presence of loanwords and non-Arabic vocabulary (al-alfaz al-a'jamiyyah). Awad presents classical scholarly positions, citing authorities such as al-Tabari, al-Razi, Ibn Abbas, and Ikrimah, explaining that shared vocabulary stems from common Semitic origins or that assimilated foreign terms are too marginal to detract from the Quran's clear Arabic expression (arabi mubin).
Publication
The work was published in a single volume by Maktabat Zahra' al-Sharq in Cairo in 1426 AH / 2005 CE.
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