Comparison between the Quran and the Most Important Current Scriptures

By Editorial Staff

There is no denying that for the time being there are several religions on earth, including Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic religions. Just as the Abrahamic religions have supposedly heavenly scriptures, other non-Abrahamic religions also have scriptures mostly attributed to God.

As a matter of fact, there is a big difference between the Quran on the one hand and all other scriptures on the other hand, which themselves involve evidence that they are false, fabricated and manmade.

Please find below a brief discussion of the most well-known scriptures as well as their religions, ranking in terms of the number of followers, and salient features. Please note that all of those scriptures are available in downloadable versions.

Quran

Religion: Islam

Ranking: second in terms of the worldwide Muslim population

Quran’s Salient Features:

• Its name is revealed by God and given in it (e.g. An-Nisaa’ 4:82)
• It contains only the words of God rather than those of any human being (e.g. Al-An`am 6:19)
• It kept going down to Prophet Muhammad throughout 23 years (e.g. Yunus 10:15)
• It was revealed by only one God to only one prophet, namely Muhammad (e.g. Yunus 10:37)
• It was fully memorized but partially written down in Prophet Muhammad’s lifetime and then fully written down about two years after his demise (e.g. Al-Qiyamah 75:16-19)
• Each verse and chapter of it can be used for worship (Al-Israa’ 17:106)
• It was revealed and is still kept in Arabic. Its translation is not a quran in a foreign language but just an interpretation of some of its meanings (e.g. Yusuf 12:2)
• Its rhythm is rhetorically miraculous with which God challenged the greatest Arab eloquent orators (e.g. Al-Baqarah 2:23)
• It is concise and easy for recitation and memorization (e.g. Al-Qamar 54:17)
• It corroborates and upholds the previous sacred scriptures, namely the Torah, the Enjeel (Gospel) and Zabor (Psalms) but only in their original form without corruption (e.g. Al-Baqarah 2:89)
• God pledged to preserve it from distortion from its revelation time up to the Judgment Day (Al-Hijr 15:9)

Download: English Translation of Some of the Meanings of Qur’an by Pickthall (Plain Text)

Bible

Religion: Christianity

Ranking: first in terms of the worldwide Christian population

Bible’s Salient Features:

• Its name is neither revealed by God nor given in it
• It is mostly the words of man. It may be partially the words of God, but the words of God cannot be differentiated from the words of man (e.g. 21:24-25)
• God did not pledge to preserve it from distortion
• It is composed of ancient writings about the period from Prophet Moses’ times to the times of Jesus Christ and even his disciples
• It was neither compiled nor written down in the lifetime of any prophet. Rather, it was compiled and written down centuries after Jesus’ ascension
• It cannot be used for worship in its entirety except for some parts given the corruption and distortion it experienced (e.g. Genesis 9:20-21)
• Its Old Testament was written down in Hebrew and its New Testament in Greek though Hebrew was not the language of all the Old Testament prophets and Jesus’ language was Aramaic
• Its text is not rhetorically miraculous and the language of some parts of it are lower than that of the words of man (e.g. Genesis 19:30-32)
• It is too long to be recited or memorized

Download: Bible in English (King James Version)

Vedas

Religion: Hinduism

Ranking: third in terms of the worldwide Hindu population

Vedas’ Salient Features:

• Vedas are the plural of a Veda. A Veda is a Hindu scripture. Hindus do not have one scripture. They rather have several scriptures
• Vedas’ names are neither revealed by God nor given in them
• Vedas are the words of man
• Hinduism does not have a prophet so that Vedas would have been revealed to him by God
• Vedas continued to be compiled throughout 1000 or purportedly 3000 years and their compilers are anonymous
• Worship is handled in only one Veda, namely Upanishads
• Vedas are too long to be recited or memorized

Download: Hindu Vedas

Tipitaka (Three Baskets)

Religion: Buddhism

Ranking: fourth or fifth in terms of the worldwide Buddhist population

Tipitaka’s Salient Features:

• Tipitaka means the three baskets which are the three main categories of the Buddhist scriptures since Buddhism does not have only one scripture
• Tipitaka’s names are neither revealed by God nor given in them
• Tipitaka are the words of man
• Buddhism does not have a prophet so that the Tipitaka would have been revealed to him by God. Buddha was not a prophet. Supposing that Buddha was a prophet, only Sutta writings out of the Tipitaka can be ascribed to Buddha. They are Buddha’s sermons which were written down only after Buddha’s death
• In general, the Tipitaka were written down over centuries after Buddha’s death
• The Sutta writings constituting Buddha’s original teachings were written down in old Pali, but the rest of the Tipitaka writings were mostly written down in Sanskrit
• The Tipitaka writings are too long to be recited or memorized

Download: Buddhist Tipitaka

Guru Granth Sahib

Religion: Sikhism

Ranking: an Indian religion having about 27 million followers

Guru Granth Sahib’s Salient Features:

• Its name is neither revealed by God nor given in it
• It is the word of man
• Sikhism does not have a prophet so that the Guru Granth Sahib would have been revealed to him by God. Rather, the first rendition was compiled by the fifth Guru Arjan, whereas the rest of the second rendition was compiled by the tenth Guru Gobind Singh.

Download: Guru Granth Sahib

Mishnah

Religion: Judaism

Ranking: a religion having about 13.4 million followers

Mishnah’s Salient Features:

• Its name is neither revealed by God nor given in it
• It is mostly the words of man. It may be partially the words of God, but the words of God cannot be differentiated from the words of man
• God did not pledge to preserve it from distortion
• It is the study redaction of the oral traditions known as the “Oral Torah”. The Mishnah was redacted by Judah the Prince at the beginning of the third century CE
• Worship is only handled in only one Seder, namely Kodashim
• Its text is not rhetorically miraculous and the language of some parts of it are lower than that of the words of man

Download: Mishnah in English by Danby

Avesta

Religion: Zoroastrianism

Ranking: an Asian religion having about 2.6 million followers

Avesta’s Salient Features:

• Its name is neither revealed by God nor given in it
• It is the word of man
• It contains such writings compiled by Zoroaster’s followers after his death
• It was compiled a long time after Zoroaster’s death and was lost more than once

Download: The Zend Avesta

Ginza Rba

Religion: Sabianism

Ranking: an old Iraqi religion having about 70 thousand followers

Ginza Rba’s Salient Features:

• Its name is neither revealed by God nor given in it
• It is mostly the words of man. It may be partially the words of God, but the words of God cannot be differentiated from the words of man
• God did not pledge to preserve it from distortion
• It is composed of old writings allegedly revealed from the times of Adam up to the times of Yahya ibn Zachariah (John son of Zechariah)
• Its text is not rhetorically miraculous and the language of some parts of it are lower than that of the words of man

Download: Ginza Rba (in Arabic)

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Comparison between the Bible & Qur’an (1/3)

Comparison between the Bible & Quran (2/3)

Comparison between the Bible & Quran (3/3)

Comparison between Bible and Torah, Injeel and Zabur

Between Divine Revelation and Non-Divine Revelation in Islam and Christianity (1/2)

Between Divine Revelation and Non-Divine Revelation in Islam and Christianity (2/2)

Glossary of Sexual Terminology in Bible and their Counterparts in Qur’an