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Recordings › Prof. Dr Khalil Andani | The Oral Text & the Ontology of The Quran | Mindtrap with Mufti #28 · 3 Jul 2020 › Segment 20 of 23

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If the Quran wasn't a book, why is it on a heavenly tablet?

muftis ilm al-kalam kalaam theology koran quraan mufassir mufasir mufassireen quran commentator ayah aya ayat ayaat aayah aayat tilawah tilawat tilaawah wahy wahi wahee sufi sufism soofi

Why would the Quran be on a tablet if it was not a book?

QuestionLive chat · questioner not identifiedAnswered 3 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu LaythSegment 20 of 23 in the recording2020-07-03-S20

Includes guest speechQuoted view · not his position
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This segment1:35:02 to 1:36:51 · 1 min 49 sA view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position held

The answer in brief

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The guest says the one verse on the guarded tablet refers to 'a recitation', not an Arabic text, and that the Quran became Arabic for its audience.

In more detail

A chat question asks why the Quran would be on a tablet if it was not originally a book or text. The guest says only one verse refers to the tablet, and it speaks of 'a glorious Quran', an indefinite recitation, in a guarded tablet, not the Arabic Quran as such. He says none of the Quran's references to a heavenly archetype suggest an Arabic text, and that its Arabisation is the result of a process the Quran calls tafsil, which happens for the audience, not in heaven. Mufti Abu Layth adds narrations that the Quran was revealed as one revelation and then distributed over twenty-two years.

Question as read aloud · questioner not identified

Why would the Quran be on a tablet if it wasn't originally a book or a text?

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Position stated

This segment presents a view in order to discuss or respond to it. It is recorded as quoted, never as held, and no position is attributed from it.

Kind: a view quoted in order to be discussed, not a position held Speakers: host and guest; guest speech is labelled and excluded from positions

Transcript

machine1:35:02 to 1:36:51 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary

A guest speaks in this segment. Guest speech is labelled and is excluded from the positions layer.

This segment states a view in order to discuss it. It is recorded as a quoted view, not as a position held.

1:34:30

I would agree that in the Kalam tradition, you don't really hear about it. And that's why the Sufis criticize them with the Kalamun for being dry and sort of you know, lacking in emotion and lacking in devotion. Now, as for its role in Christian-Muslim relations, it's hard to really say. I haven't really researched that. I don't know. I know today it's a Christian polemical talking point that the God of Islam is not a loving God, but again, it depends which theological school you follow.

1:35:02

I don't I disagree with such sort of generalized statements about the God of so-and-so because there is more than one Islam. There are many Islams. And many people see it personally. Professor, why would you question Why would the Quran be on a tablet if it is if it wasn't originally a book or a text? So, so there's only With regard to the tablet, there's only one verse of the Quran that refers to a tablet.

1:35:30

Um And and and the whole thing states like it is a glorious Quran. Like it refers to Quran in the indefinite. It's not When it says When it says Quran is in a guarded tablet, it's not even referring to the Quran. It says it is a Quran, a recitation, uh you know, in in a protected tablet. And that's all it says.

1:35:54

It's kind of like It's kind of like information, sacred kind of information. Right. I I mean, if you look at every time the Quran talks about a heavenly archetype, you do not get the sense that this is written in an Arabic text. It's simply not there. The Arabization of the revelation, the Quran is very clear. This is the result of a process called tafsil.

1:36:20

From fasala. Fussilat ayatu as Allah says the Quran. Right. So, that happens for the audience. It doesn't happen in heaven. There's no Arabs in heaven. So, hence some of the narrations Hence some of the narrations says al-Quran was revealed najmatan wahida. It was one revelation. It was the kind of the the the It was spread out, distributed over the 22 years and occurred as a phenomenon.

1:36:50

Tying in question there, Abbas Aga asks, "What does professor say about if about the Quran having a beginning? Has it always existed?" Okay. So, for for the like one view on this is the Quran as Arabic, the Arabic text, according to the many mufassirun and some theologians, God created the Arabic Quran before the world, but he created it in the tablet.

Paragraphs overlapping 1:35:02 to 1:36:51. Full text on the recording page.

Cite this segment

Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2020-07-03-S20, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/xznxiyp0b5s/s/20/ (accessed 1 November 2026)

APA 7 
Mufti Abu Layth. (2020, July 3). If the Quran wasn't a book, why is it on a heavenly tablet? [Video, segment 2020-07-03-S20, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/xznxiyp0b5s/s/20/
Chicago author-date 
Mufti Abu Layth. 2020. "If the Quran wasn't a book, why is it on a heavenly tablet?" Video, segment 2020-07-03-S20, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded July 3, 2020. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/xznxiyp0b5s/s/20/
BibTeX 
@misc{abulayth-2020-07-03-S20,
  author = {Mufti Abu Layth},
  title = {{If the Quran wasn't a book, why is it on a heavenly tablet?}},
  year = {2020},
  month = {7},
  date = {2020-07-03},
  howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/xznxiyp0b5s/s/20/}},
  url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/xznxiyp0b5s/s/20/},
  organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive},
  urldate = {2026-11-01},
  note = {Segment 2020-07-03-S20, auto-transcribed, may contain errors}
}
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