• the Word of Almighty God ("Allah" [in Arabic]) [i.e. the Qur'an]
• the Prophets sent by the Allah to communicate His Will to mankind
  

These two things have always been going together, hand in hand.

The Hindus neglected their prophets and paid all attention to their books that proved only word puzzles which they ultimately lost.

Similarly the Christians, in total disregard to the Book of Allah sent with Jesus, totally disregarded the Book of Allah and then attached an extreme importance to "Christ" and so not only elevated him to the level of divinity, but also lost the very essence of monotheism ("Tawheed" in Arabic) which had been contained in the Bible.

As a matter of fact, the main scriptures revealed before the Qur'an, i.e.; the Old Testament ("Torah" in Arabic and Hebrew) and the Gospel ("Injeeel" in Arabic), came into book- form long after the days of the Prophets often only translations into other languages have survived, leaving not one actual original of any part of the Bible. This was because the followers of Moses, peace be upon him, and Jesus, peace be upon him, made no attempts to preserve these Revelations during the life of their Prophets. Actually they were written long after their deaths. So what we now have in the form of the Bible is actually translations of individuals who made accounts of the original revelations. These contain additions and deletions made by the followers of the prophets. However, they were written long after their deaths.

The opposite is true of the last and final revelation of Almighty Allah, who Himself guarantees in writing to preserve it until the Last Days. That is why the whole of the Qur'an was written during the lifetime of the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. It was recorded on pieces of palm leaves, parchment and even bones of animals.

More important though, there were at that time, tens of thousands of his companions ("sahabi" in Arabic) who memorized the complete Qur'an from the instruction of the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Even the prophet himself, peace be upon him, used to recite it while angel Gabriel once a year and in the last year of his life he recited it two times just before the month in which he died.

Next, the leader who came after the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, (Abu Bakr) entrusted the collection of the Qur'an to be written in one volume by one of the Prophet's scribe, Zaid Ibn Thabit. He kept it till his death. Then the next leader, Umar and after him to his daughter, Hafsa who had been one of the wives of prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.

Then from the original text which now resides in Topkope Museum, in Istanbul, Turkey, the next leader, Uthman prepared several other exact duplications and sent them to various Muslim territories such as; Uzbekistan and Turkey and England. Today many of the Muslims from these areas are still memorizing the Qur'an.

The Qur'an was so meticulously preserved because it is the Book of Guidance for all of humanity for all times. That is why it does not address just the Arabs, in whose language it was revealed. In fact Arabs today do not comprise more than 13% of the Today of Muslims in the world today.

"It soon attracts, astounds, and in the end enforces our reverence... Its style, in accordance with its contents and aim is stern, grand, terrible -
ever and always, truly sublime -
So, this book will go on exercising through all ages a most potent influence."
- Goethe - quoted in T. P. Huges "Dictionary of Islam", p. 526

"The Koran (Qur'an) admittedly occupies an important position among the great religious books of the world. Though it is the youngest of the epoch making works belonging to this class of literature, it yields to hardly any in the wonderful effect which it has produced on large masses of men. It has created an all but new phase of human thought and a fresh type of character. It first transformed a number of heterogeneous desert tribes of the Arabian peninsula into a nation of heroes, and then proceeded to create the vast politico-religious organizations of Muslims world wide which are one of the great forces with which Europe and the East have to reckon with today."
- G. Maragliouth in his Introduction to J. M. Rodwells - 'The Koran", New York - 'Everyman's Library, 1977, p VII

"A work, then, which calls forth so powerful and seemingly incompatible emotions even in the distant reader - distant as to time, and still more so as mental development - a work which not only conquers the repugnance which he may begin its perusal, but changes this adverse feeling into astonishment and admiration, such a work must be a wonderful production...
indeed and a problem of the highest interest to every thoughtful observer of the destinies of mankind."
- Dr Steingass quoted in T. P. Hughes - "Dictionary of Islam", pp 256-257

"It is impossible that Muhammad, peace be upon him, authored the Qur'an. How could a man, from being illiterate, become the most important author, in terms of literary merits, in the whole of Arabic literature?

How could he then pronounce truths of a scientific nature that no other human-being could possibly have developed at that time, an all this without once making the slightest error in his pronouncement on the subject?"
-Dr. Maurice Bucaille - author of "The Bible, the Qur'an and Science" 1978, p. 125

"Here, therefore, its merits as a literary production should perhaps not be measured by some preconceived maxims of subjective and aesthetic taste, but by the effects which it produced in Muhammad's contemporaries and fellow countrymen.
If it spoke so powerfully and convincingly to the hearts of his hearers as to weld hitherto centrifugal and antagonistic elements into one compact and well organized body, animated by ideas far beyond those which had until now ruled the Arabian mind, then its eloquence was perfect, simply because it created a civilized nation out of savage tribes, and shot a fresh woof into the old warp of history"
- Dr. Steingass, quoted in Hughes' Dictionary of Islam p. 528

"In making the present attempt to improve on the performance of my predecessors, and to produce something which might be accepted as echoing however faintly the sublime rhetoric of the Arabic Koran, I have been at pain to study the intricate and richly varied rhythms which - apart from the message itself - constitute the Koran's undeniable claim to rank amongst the greatest literary masterpieces of mankind.. This very characteristic feature - 'that inimitable symphony', as the believing Pickthall described his Holy Book, 'the very sounds of which move men to tears and ecstasy' has been almost totally ignored by previous translators; it is therefore not surprising that what they have wrought sounds dull and flat indeed in comparison with the splendidly decorated original.."
- Arthur J. Arberry - "The Koran Interpreted", London: Oxford University Press . 1964, p. x.

"A totally objective examination of it [the Qur'an] in the light of modern knowledge leads us to recognize the agreement between the two, as has been already noted on repeated occasions. It makes us deem it quite unthinkable for a man of Muhammad's time to have been the author of such statements, on account of the state of knowledge in his day.
Such considerations are part of what gives the Qur'anic Revelation its unique place, and forces the impartial scientist to admit his inability to provide and explanation which calls solely upon materialistic reasoning."
- Dr. Maurice Bucaille in his book: "The Bible, The Qur'an and Science" -1981, p. 18

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