Manuscripts

The reply is that a claim to be Almighty does not automatically settle the question of divinity, and that manuscript issues matter when deciding what the Bible actually says. The speaker says the longer reading is not found in the early manuscripts, so the argument is leaning on a text-critical claim rather than a straightforward Bible verse.

Uthman presents a book of scanned manuscripts from the time of the Prophet, peace be upon him, to the present generation. The manuscripts show letter by letter, word by word, the same text — identical across fourteen centuries. Unlike the Bible, which has no manuscripts from the time of Jesus (even credit-card-size scraps date to 70-90 AD, and the earliest semi-complete codices are third or fourth century), the Quran has documented manuscript evidence from the first generation. Furthermore, the methods of recitation — including even the precise pronunciation and elongation of individual letters — are proven through continuous chains of transmission (isnad) going back to the Prophet himself.

Uthman responds that even the red-letter verses in the New Testament cannot be authenticated as the actual words of Jesus. Paul's epistles — a large portion of the New Testament — are not direct quotes from Jesus. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are named after people but were not authored by them: the books themselves contain no authorship attribution, and the names were applied by tradition centuries later. The earliest semi-complete Bible (Codex Sinaiticus, fourth century) contains books that are not in the modern canon, meaning the canon itself was still undetermined in the fourth century. The words of Jesus — if preserved — are not verifiably the words in these documents. In contrast, the Quran can be shown to be the words of the Prophet through documented chains of transmission (isnad) going back to the Prophet himself, covering both the text and the precise method of its recitation.

Uthman shows a book of scanned Quranic manuscripts from the time of the Prophet to the present, demonstrating letter-by-letter, word-by-word identity across fourteen centuries. He explains that the preservation of the Quran is not only textual but methodological: even the method of recitation — every elongation, every pause, every precise pronunciation — must be proven through a continuous chain of teachers going back to the Prophet himself. He gives the example of two recitation variants for one verse (Maliki/Maliki Yawm al-Din): both variants are documented through separate authenticated chains. This level of chain-of-custody verification does not exist for any part of the Bible. Uthman concludes: I believe in the words of Jesus, Moses, and Muhammad — peace be upon all of them. But if you ask me what the preserved words actually are, I can prove it is the Quran.