INVESTIGATING ISLAM

The Missing Qur’an

What the Manuscripts Don’t Say

Islam claims the Qur’an is perfectly preserved—unchanged since the 7th century, identical in every word and letter to what Muhammad revealed.

But when we turn to actual manuscript evidence, archaeology, and historical forensics, the reality is not only different…

…it’s damning.

I. The Qur’an’s Greatest Problem: The Missing Century

Islamic tradition claims that Caliph Uthman (r. 644–656) compiled a final, flawless Qur’an and distributed four identical master copies to the key Islamic centers: Mecca, Medina, Basra, and Damascus.

So where are they?

We have zero manuscripts from the 7th century that match this claim.

According to the best secular scholarship:

No Qur’anic manuscript can be reliably dated to Muhammad’s lifetime (d. 632).
Nothing from the Uthmanic recension (c. 650) has ever been verified.
The first securely datable manuscripts appear no earlier than 100 years after Muhammad’s death.

Wansbrough, Crone, Nevo, Schacht, and others agree:

“There is no Islamic document from the first 100 years that shows the Qur’an as we know it today.”

Muslims often mock Christianity for having too many manuscripts.

The Qur’an’s problem is the opposite: none from the beginning.

II. Topkapi and Samarkand: Not What You’ve Been Told

Muslim apologists love to parade two Qur’anic manuscripts:

📖 Topkapi (Istanbul, Turkey)
📖 Samarkand (Tashkent, Uzbekistan)

But here’s what they won’t tell you:

🧠 Both are written in Kufic script — which didn’t even exist in Muhammad’s lifetime.

Kufic is named after Kufa, Iraq — a city conquered after Muhammad’s death.
Scholars like Martin Lings, Yasin Safadi, and Gilchrist confirm: Kufic only developed in the late 8th century.
That means these manuscripts were produced at least 150 years too late to be Uthmanic.

And neither manuscript is:

Complete
Identical to each other
Identical to the modern 1924 Cairo Qur’an

So much for the “unchanged text.”

III. The Scripts That Should Exist… But Don’t

If the Qur’an was compiled in the 7th century, we should see it in:

Ma’il script — used in Mecca and Medina
Mashq script — used in early Medina

Yet only one Ma’il script Qur’an has been found. And it’s not in Mecca, Medina, or Cairo.

It’s in the British Library.

Even more damaging: This manuscript is dated to around 790 A.D. — 160 years after Muhammad’s death.

If Islam’s holiest book was so perfectly preserved, why is the earliest copy in London — and why does it date centuries too late?

IV. The 150-Year Black Hole: No Qur’anic Evidence

Islam conquered an empire from Spain to India by the end of the 7th century. Yet within this vast domain, covering millions of square miles and dozens of cultures, we find:

No original manuscripts
No verifiable fragments from Uthman’s Qur’an
No references to the Qur’an’s full content

Just gaps, silence, and speculation.

Compare that to Christianity, which has thousands of New Testament manuscripts, with some dating to within 100 years of the originals, and in multiple locations.

V. Forgery by Folklore: Talmud and Apocrypha in the Qur’an

Even more troubling is what the Qur’an does contain:

Not unique revelation, but borrowed mythology — often from heretical, non-canonical Jewish and Christian texts.

🧾 Jewish Sources:

Sura 5:31–32 – Cain and the raven: from Targum of Jonathan and Mishnah Sanhedrin
Sura 21:51–71 – Abraham in the fire: from Midrash Rabbah
Sura 27:17–44 – Solomon’s bird and Queen of Sheba: from Targum of Esther

🧾 Christian Apocrypha:

Sura 3:49 – Jesus makes birds from clay: from Gospel of Thomas (Infancy)
Sura 19:29–33 – Baby Jesus speaks: from Arabic Gospel of the Infancy
Sura 19:22–26 – Mary under the palm tree: from The Lost Books of the Bible

These texts were considered spurious, legendary, and fictional — rejected by Jews and Christians centuries before Muhammad.

Yet they appear in the Qur’an as divine revelation.

VI. Mi’raj: Muhammad’s Night Journey — Or Pagan Copy-Paste?

The Qur’an briefly mentions a “night journey” (Sura 17:1), but Islamic tradition fills in the details: Muhammad flew on a winged horse (Buraq), visited Jerusalem, ascended to the seven heavens, and met previous prophets.

Sound impressive?

It’s not original.

Earlier versions of this story appear in:

The Testament of Abraham (2nd century B.C.)
The Secrets of Enoch (1st century A.D.)
Zoroastrian Book of Arda Viraf — identical structure

All predate Islam. All feature:

A celestial journey
Ascent through heavens
Meeting angels or prophets
Returning to earth with divine knowledge

What Muslims present as a unique miracle is a recycled myth.

VII. The Scale of Deeds: Copied Morality

The Qur’an teaches (Sura 101:6–9) that scales will weigh your good and bad deeds on Judgment Day.

This too isn’t original.

The Testament of Abraham also teaches this — predating Islam by over 600 years.
Even Egyptian mythology used scales of justice in the afterlife.

VIII. So Where Did the Qur’an Really Come From?

If the earliest Qur’ans date from post-750 A.D., and much of the content is traceable to non-canonical Jewish and Christian myths, then the only rational conclusion is:

The Qur’an was compiled, edited, and expanded in the 8th–9th centuries.

And it borrowed liberally from:

Talmudic fables
Christian apocrypha
Zoroastrian and Hellenistic mythology
Arab oral traditions

There is no manuscript trail connecting Muhammad to the Qur’an we have today.

IX. Conclusion: The Manuscript Silence Screams the Loudest

Claim	Reality
"Perfect preservation since Uthman"	No manuscript from 650 A.D. exists
"Four original copies sent out"	Zero copies survive. No fragments found.
"Scientific miracle"	Debunked myths dressed up as science
"Biblical continuity"	Plagiarism of apocryphal, rejected stories
"Unchanged text"	Variant readings, script evolution, missing data
"Clear evidence"	A 150-year historical black hole

Islam’s strongest claim — that the Qur’an is unchanged and eternal — collapses the moment you ask to see the evidence.

If God really sent down a book, He failed to preserve even a single original copy. And worse — He let it be filled with folklore from rejected sources.

That’s not revelation. That’s fabrication.

🔍 Final Challenge:

If the Qur’an was preserved perfectly, where are the manuscripts?

If it’s divinely inspired, why is it filled with myths, legends, and plagiarized stories?

If it came from heaven, why does it look so much like the books men were already writing?

The silence of the manuscripts speaks louder than all the claims of tradition.

And that silence is fatal.