Home > Surah 25 - The Criterion
The Quran Verse
Surah 25:4–5:
Those who disbelieve say, 'This [Quran] is nothing but a falsehood he has invented, and another people has assisted him with it.' ... And they say, 'Fables of the ancients which he has written down, and they are dictated to him morning and afternoon.'
This is a devastating internal admission. Muhammad’s own neighbors—people who knew his daily habits—accused him of having human collaborators and copying "fables of the ancients" (asāṭīru l-awwalīn).
Traditional Islamic history names potential candidates like Addas (a Christian slave) or Salman the Persian.
Critics argue that if the Quran were self-evidently divine, his contemporaries (who spoke the same "pure Arabic") wouldn't have so easily identified the "human assistance" and specific folklore he was allegedly recycling.