William Muir on Qur’anic Composition: A Critical Evaluation of his Imagination

Authorship is the state or act of being the creator or inventor of a work. In Muslim-Christian relations, one of the most controversial topics was the authorship of the Glorious Qur’an. William Muir a Scottish historian and missionary claimed that the Glorious Qur’an was the result of human authorship rather than a divine revelation. He believed that the Qur’an was primarily written by Prophet Muhammad (saw). His views were in keeping with a broader trend among Western intellectuals at the time, who were skeptical of the vital religious texts of other cultures and religions. Muir applied the historical-critical method in analysing the Glorious Qur’an, examining it within the framework of seventh-century Arabian culture, and seeking to understand its origins and development from a historical perspective rather than a theological one. Although this argument is debatable, it needs specific, convincing, and concrete evidence to support it; Muir does not provide this, relying instead on a few flimsy pieces of evidence. Therefore, the research aims to explore, analyse and evaluate Muir’s views on the authorship of the Glorious Qur’an in the light of the Islamic viewpoint and historical reality. This research will be conducted qualitatively, and mostly in a library context. According to the results of the findings, the claim that the Glorious Qur’an was composed by the Prophet (saw) is neither true nor reliable. This is due to the fact that upon closer examination, as Muir suggests that Prophet (saw) composed the Glorious Qur’an by himself in response to the circumstances of his time, lack sufficient evidence, because an individual cannot come up with an exceptional work and attribute it to someone else. Therefore, it is said that the Prophet (saw) could not have produce the great and magnificent book as Glorious Qur’an and attributed it to Allah. Hence, it has been proven that the challenges posed by the Qur’an remain unanswered, which strengthens its status as an authentic work inspired by Allah.