The Story of Verses 9:128-129

The Quran in verse 74:30 states that there are 19 angels appointed to watch over the affairs of Hell.

Then in verse 74:31, God in the Quran says that He appointed “their number” (the number 19, which is the number of the angels guarding Hell) to carry out five distinct functions some time in the future.

[74:30] Over it is nineteen.

[74:31] We have made not but angels as custodians of the Fire, and We have not assigned “iddatahum” (their number, i.e. the number 19) except as a trial for those who have disbelieved, for those who were given the Book may attain certainty, and that those who believed may increase in faith, and that those given the Book—as well as the believers—may not doubt, and that the ones who have sickness within their hearts—as well as the disbelievers—may say, “What did God intend with this example?” Like that, God sends astray whom He wills, and guides whom He wills; none knows the soldiers of your Lord except He. It is but a reminder for humanity.

The five distinct functions of the number 19 as foretold in verse 74:31 are:

1. To be a trial for the disbelievers,
2. To help the People of the Book (Jews and Christians) achieve certainty,
3. To help increase the faith of the believers,
4. To remove doubt from the hearts of the believers and People of the Book,
5. And to allow the disbelievers and people who are sick in their hearts to react to the number 19 with mockery and ridicule, asking what God really meant by this.

And with the discovery of the Quran’s complex 19-based mathematical system, all of those prophecies get fulfilled on a regular basis. The faith and certainty of the believers who witness this miracle get increased exponentially, and the doubt is totally erased from their hearts, because this confirms Islam as the truth.

• The reason why the Quran’s 19-based structure is so miraculous is because the prophet Muhammad could not have unintentionally or unknowingly composed a book mathematically based on the number 19 and could not have unintentionally put a prophecy of 19 in the Quran.

• Yet, despite the prophet’s lack of awareness of anything related to number 19, the Quran has a very complex 19-based structure, and also predicted that the number 19 will one day prove Islam as the truth, beyond a doubt.

The second foundational article of our masjid lists in detail a portion of this enormous mathematical composition based on the number 19.

However, the Quran’s 19-based system caused a stunning discovery.

It turns out that there are more than six dozen violations to the Quran’s 19-based mathematical system that come from the addition verses 9:128-129, both small and large, as if the Quran itself was rejecting these two verses with its own built-in security system.

Due to such overwhelming evidence, any honest believer would realize that the Quran is telling us something: verses 9:128-129 do not belong in the Quran.

As it turns out, it is not just the Quran’s mathematical system rejecting this, but a number of historical documents also indicate that these two verses are “pretty sus” as someone from Gen-Z (like me) would say.

Historical Documents

The first red flag about these verses is that verses 9:128-129 are believed to be Meccan verses, but the rest of the Surah is Medinan.

• This is very strange, because Hadiths state that Surah 9 was sent down all at once as a complete Surah, in one single revelation. It was not revealed part-by-part like other Surahs.

• But if Surah 9 was sent as a complete Surah, altogether at once, in Madina, then why did the last two verses originate in Mecca, separate from the other 127 verses? If we accept the Meccan verses 9:128-129 as authentic, then Surah 9 was not truly revealed in full. Two things cannot be true at once.

• Abu Ishaq said that he heard al-Bara’ b. ‘Azib (Allah be pleased with him) say: The last complete sura revealed (in the Holy Qur’an) is Sura Tauba (i e. al-Bara’at, ix.), and the last verse revealed is that pertaining to Kalala. (Muslim, no. 1618)

• Narrated al-Bara: The last Sura which was revealed in full was Baraa (i.e. Sura-at-Tauba), and the last Sura (i.e. part of a Sura) which was revealed was the last Verses of Sura-an-Nisa’:– “They ask you for a legal decision. Say: Allah directs (thus) About those who have No descendants or ascendants As heirs.” (Bukhari, no. 4364)

The next red flag is that even though the Quran was memorized by a lot of people in the Muslim community, for some reason no one (not even Zaid ibn Thabit himself, who was one of the prophet’s scribes) was aware of verses 9:128 and 9:129. After searching all written sources and searching every male who memorized the Quran, he discovered only one man named Khuzaima who knew of those two verses.

• How can it be that not a single other Quran hafiz (memorizer) was aware of those verses, but they were found with only one man, Khuzaima ibn Thabit?

• Narrated Zaid bin Thabit: Abu Bakr sent for me owing to the large number of casualties in the battle of Al-Yamama, while Umar was sitting with him. Abu Bakr said (to me), Umar has come to my and said, ‘A great number of Qaris of the Holy Qur’an were killed on the day of the battle of Al-Yamama, and I am afraid that the casualties among the Qaris of the Qur’an may increase on other battle-fields whereby a large part of the Qur’an may be lost. Therefore I consider it advisable that you (Abu Bakr) should have the Qur’an collected.’ I said, ‘How dare I do something which Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) did not do?’ Umar said, By Allah, it is something beneficial.’ Umar kept on pressing me for that till Allah opened my chest for that for which He had opened the chest of Umar and I had in that matter, the same opinion as Umar had.” Abu Bakr then said to me (Zaid), “You are a wise young man and we do not have any suspicion about you, and you used to write the Divine Inspiration for Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ). So you should search for the fragmentary scripts of the Qur’an and collect it (in one Book).” Zaid further said: By Allah, if Abu Bakr had ordered me to shift a mountain among the mountains from one place to another it would not have been heavier for me than this ordering me to collect the Qur’an. Then I said (to Umar and Abu Bakr), “How can you do something which Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) did not do?” Abu Bakr said, “By Allah, it is something beneficial.” Zaid added: So he (Abu Bakr) kept on pressing me for that until Allah opened my chest for that for which He had opened the chests of Abu Bakr and Umar, and I had in that matter, the same opinion as theirs. So I started compiling the Qur’an by collecting it from the leafless stalks of the date-palm tree and from the pieces of leather and hides and from the stones, and from the chests of men (who had memorized the Qur’an). I found the last verses of Sirat-at-Tauba: (“Verily there has come unto you an Apostle (Muhammad) from amongst yourselves–‘ (9.128-129) ) from Khuzaima or Abi Khuzaima and I added to it the rest of the Sura. The pages (suhuf) of the Qur’an remained with Abu Bakr till Allah took him unto Him. Then it remained with Umar till Allah took him unto Him, and then with Hafsa bint Umar. (Bukhari no. 7191)

• Narrated Zaid ibn Thabit: “Abu Bakr sent for me and said, “You used to write the Divine Revelations for Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ): So you should search for (the Qur’an and collect) it.”  I started searching for the Qur’an till I found the last two Verses of Surah At-Tauba (verse 9:128-129) with Abi Khuzaima Al-Ansari and I could not find these Verses with anybody other than him.” (Bukhari, no. 4989)

There are other Bukhari hadiths from Zaid which state that he was looking for a verse (33:23) which he knew, but didn’t find it with anyone other than Khuzaimah.

• Bukhari Hadith 4784: “When we collected the fragramentary manuscripts of the Qur’an into copies, I missed one of the Verses of Surat al-Ahzab (33:23) which I used to hear Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) reading. Finally, I did not find it with anybody except Khuza`ima Al-Ansari, whose witness was considered by Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) equal to the witness of two men: ‘Among the believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah.’”

The difference here is that Zaid specified that he previously knew of verse 33:23, but no one else other than Khuzaimah did, thus making him the second witness for verse 33:23.

• Whereas for verses 9:128-129, the Hadith reports did not indicate that Zaid ibn Thabit had prior knowledge of those two verses. There is no documented proof that he even knew those two verses existed.

• Also, many dozens of parts of the Quran’s 19-based mathematical system would be destroyed with the deletion of verse 33:23, whereas the mathematical system overwhelmingly rejects the addition of verses 9:128-129. 

Hadiths from Al-Suyuti

There is a Hadith that put verse 9:128-129 in question, which the scholar al-Suyuti mentioned in his book “Al-Itqaan”: 

• On the authority of Ubayy ibn Kaab, they were collecting the Quran and when they reached the end of the verse in surat Baraa: Thus, God has diverted their hearts, for they are people who do not comprehend, they thought that this was the last of what had been revealed. Then, Ubayy said, “God’s messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, had me recite two verses after this: Indeed, a messenger has come to you from among yourselves…”to the end of the Sura, (and he said) “Meccan.” (Al-Itqaan)

This story should bring forth some issues. This one mentions Ubayy ibn Kaab, not Zaid or Khuzaima, as the only one who knew of these verses. The others (including Zaid) believed that 9:127 was the end.

• So this narration suspiciously states that everyone believed Surah 9 had 127 verses. But Ubayy ibn Kaab, out of nowhere, claimed that there were two additional verses.

Here is another Hadith from al-Itqaan that casts suspicion into verses 9:128-129:

• “The people would come to Zaid ibn Thabit and he would only write a verse from two upright witnesses. Even though the end of Sura al-Baraa was not found except with Khuzaima ibn Thabit, he said: Write it, for God’s messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, made his testimony as the testimony of two men. So it was written, even though Umar brought the verse of stoning and it was not written because he was alone.” (al-Itqaan)

This Hadith states that verses 9:128-129 were accepted from one man (Khuzaima) because his testimony is like that of two people, but Umar ibn al-Khattab’s stoning verse was rejected because he was one person.

• Where did Umar get his “verse of stoning” from in this Hadith? We cannot find such a verse anywhere in the Quran. Umar was a close companion of the prophet and his father-in-law, so he would not intentionally fabricate lies against God and the prophet.

• What if Khuzaima also had false verses, but they was only accepted because everyone, for some unknown reason, believed his testimony to be worth that of two people?

• On what grounds is Khuzaima’s testimony worth more than the prophet’s own father-in-law?

Hadith from “Kitab al-Masahif”

There are a few narrations from Ibn Abi Dawud’s book “Kitab al-Masahif” that paint a different picture than the official narrative that only Khuzaimah knew of these two verses. Ibn Abi Dawud is the son of one of the six renowned Hadith collectors in Sunni Islam, Abu Dawud.

• Ibn Zubair said, “Al-Harith ibn Khuzaima brought two verses from the end of Surah Baraa: Indeed, a messenger has come to you from among yourselves. Your suffering is hard on him. He is anxious over you, compassionate and merciful to the believers, until His saying, the Lord of the glorious throne, to Umar. So he [Umar] said, ‘Who is with you in this?’ He [Al-Harith] said, ‘I only know that I bear witness that I heard them from God’s messenger, peace and blessings be upon him.’ Then, Umar said, ‘And I bear witness that I heard them from God’s messenger, peace and blessings be upon him.’ Then he said, ‘If it was three verses, I would make them a separate Surah. Then, they looked for a Surah from the Quran and attached them to it. Thus, it was attached at the end of Baraa” (Ibn Abu Dawud Vol. 2, 30).

• Uthman ibn Affan stood up and said, ‘Whoever has something from the Book of God, let him bring it to us.’ And nothing would be accepted until two witnesses testified to it. Then, Khuzaima ibn Thabit came and said, “I see that you left out two verse that you did not write.” They said, “What are they?” He said, “I learned from God’s messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, (9:128-129): Indeed, a messenger has come to you from among yourselves. Your suffering is hard on him. He is anxious over you, compassionate and merciful to the believers…,” to the end of the Surah. Uthman said, “I bear witness that they are from God. So, where do you think you should put them?” He said, “Conclude the last of what was revealed of the Quran with them.” So Baraa was concluded with them. (Ibn Abu Dawud vol. 2, 31).  

The first Hadith says that the scribes who compiled the Quran would have made it a new Surah if it were three verses instead of two. They randomly looked for one to attach them to, and they attached it to the end of Surah 9.

• The Quran in verse 24:1 stated that God obligates the Surahs and brings down the Ayah (verses), and in 75:17 states that the compilation of the Quran is upon God.

• Therefore, they had zero authority to put the verses anywhere they wanted, or make a new Surah, but in this story, they seemed to believe they had the authority to do that with those two suspect verses (because they didn’t know where those two verses belonged).

• Also according to the first Hadith, how did Umar also bear witness alongside Khuzaima about verse 9:128-129? If Umar really heard it from the prophet, how did Umar not even know where those verses belonged?

There are some important issues in the second Hadith as well. The first is that Zaid was supposed to have already collected the verses from Khuzaima and sent them to Uthman before the compilation started (according to Bukhari), but since Khuzaimah mentioned these verses at the end of the compilation, and Uthman asked where those two verses should go, it doesn’t seem like it happened according to this narration.

• Also, it seems like Uthman is the second witness for these two verses. If that’s the case, then how come Uthman had to ask which Surah to put those two verses on? If he truly was the second witness then he surely would have known which Surah had those two verses. And how come Uthman “left out” the two verses before Khuzaimah declared their existence, if he already was aware of those two verses as the “second witness”?

What Does Preservation of the Quran Really Mean?

So in conclusion, many extant Hadith narrations about the origins of verse 9:128-129 are very problematic, thus providing the first hint that these two verses are man-made additions into the Quran.

There have been other known attempts at adding false verses into the circulating copies of the Quran in early Islamic history, and one of them is a Hadith about a mysterious “verse of stoning” commonly attributed to Umar.

• Umar bin Al-Khattab said: “Verily Allah sent Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) with the truth, and he revealed the Book to him. Among what was revealed to him was the Ayah (verse) of stoning. So the Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) stoned, and we stoned after him. I fear that time will pass over the people such that someone will say ‘We do not see stoning in the Book of Allah.’ They will be misguided by leaving an obligation which Allah revealed. Indeed stoning is the retribution for the adulterer if he was married and the evidence has been established, or due to pregnancy, or confession.” (Tirmidhi, no. 1432, graded Sahih)

Verses 9:128-129 were just the only attempts at corrupting the extant manuscripts of the Quran which actually succeeded.

But at the end of the day, reliance on Hadith and historical reports are not conclusive evidence to determine how reliable verses 9:128-129 are, no matter how much suspicion they cast onto verses 9:128-129.

God made it His responsibility to guard the Quran from false additions. However, God only guaranteed that the original Quran will be preserved, rather than any man-made copy of the Quran. Falsehood cannot enter the original Quran. This begs the question: What is the original Quran?

• The original Quran exists in two forms: physical, and oral.

• The physical form is inside the “guarded tablet” (verse 85:22). The oral form of the original Quran is the “tanzeel” (transmission) that came directly from God to the prophet (verse 41:42).

• Every written Quran that we produce is not the original Quran, but a physical copy of the original written Quran that exists with God. Every verse of the Quran that we recite is an oral copy of the original oral transmission (tanzeel) recited to the prophet by God.

• God is not going to magically chop off anyone’s hand for writing mistakes in the physical Quran copies, nor destroy the vocal cords of anyone who accidentally makes a mistake in reciting the oral Quran copies. When the Quran is guarded from falsehood, that means only the original is guarded, not its copies.

• [41:42] Falsehood will neither come to it (the Quran) from before it nor behind it. It (the Quran) is a transmission from a Wise, Praiseworthy one.

• [85:21-22] Rather, it is a Quran in a guarded tablet.

Therefore, to distinguish any added falsehoods, God installed a security system in the Quran to help us align our corruptible paper and digital copies with the original physical and oral Quran.

• What good is a security system if there is nothing to put it to the test? Hence, verses 9:128-129 are two false verses which were allowed to test the success of the Quran’s security system.

Some might say, “When God says falsehood can never enter the Quran, that means falsehood can never enter how the Muslims collectively remember the Quran. The collective memory of the Muslim community, established through mass memorization, is infallible, and verse 9:128-129 is part of that collective memory.”

• But if the Quran is whatever the Muslims collectively remember it to be, and if Sunni Muslims follow all Sahih Hadith, then according to the Sunni collective memory, the Quran is missing a verse of stoning. (Tirmidhi, no 1432) But falsehood cannot enter the Quran at any point in time, therefore the preserved Quran exists independently of the collective oral and written memory of the Muslims (i.e. within the preserved tablet, and in the original oral transmission from God which the prophet heard).

Moreover, certain Hadiths state that the Quran was revealed with seven different “ahruf” (groups of letters). This means there are seven revealed versions of the Quran.

• Narrated Ibn `Abbas: Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said, “Gabriel read the Qur’an to me in one harf, and I continued asking him to read it in different ways till he read it in seven different ahruf.”

Okay, what exactly are the 7 ahruf? Some theorized that those refer to the “qira’at” (known Arabic dialects) of the Quran. The Qira’at are minor dialect differences in the recitation of the Quran. The problem is, however, there are 10, not 7, recognized “Qira’at” of the Quran (such as Hafs, Warsh, Qalun, Ad-Duri, etc).

If Ahruf = Qira’at, then are there three false ahruf of the Quran which Sunnis recognize? Which three are false? How would you know? In this case, did not falsehood enter the Quran that exists in the memory of the Sunnis?

But if Ahruf does not equal Qira’at, then what exactly are Ahruf? Why do we only have a single Ahruf (version) of the Quran available, where are the other six? In this case, did not 6 out of 7 ahruf of the Quran disappear, according to the collective memory of the Sunni Muslims?

Moreover, a Hadith states that God revealed verses allowing for breastfeeding adults and stoning adulterers, which were eaten by a sheep, hence not present in today’s Quran. So the Quran that exists in the memory of Sunni Muslims is officially acknowledged by Sunnis to be not fully preserved and missing several verses.

• “The Verse of stoning and of breastfeeding an adult ten times was revealed, and the paper was with me under my pillow. When the Messenger of Allah died, we were preoccupied with his death, and a tame sheep came in and ate it.” (Sunan Ibn Majah, 1944, graded Hasan)

Sahih Muslim and Sahih Bukhari are believed by Sunnis to be the two most accurate books after the Quran. This Hadith in Sahih Muslim states that a person who used to recite a Surah similar in length to Surah al-Bara’ah, but he cannot remember that Surah except a verse about the children of Adam having two valleys of riches not being enough to satisfy their greed. No such verse exists anywhere in today’s Quran, hence this is an official Sunni acknowledgement that an entire Surah from the Quran is missing.

• Abu Harb b. Abu al-Aswad reported on the authority of his father that Abu Musa al-Ash’ari sent for the reciters of Basra. They came to him and they were three hundred in number. They recited the Qur’an and he said: “You are the best among the inhabitants of Basra, for you are the reciters among them. So continue to recite it. (But bear in mind) that your reciting for a long time may not harden your hearts as were hardened the hearts of those before you. We used to recite a surah which resembled in length and severity to (Surah) Bara’ah. I have, however, forgotten it with the exception of this which I remember out of it: “If there were two valleys full of riches, for the son of Adam, he would long for a third valley, and nothing would fill the stomach of the son of Adam but dust.”… (Sahih Muslim, 1050)

This is proof that the Quran is not defined by what the majority of Muslims remember the Quran to be. The Quran exists independently of human memory as a book in the “guarded tablet” according to verse 85:22.

• If most Muslims believe Surah al-Baqarah has 285 verses, for example, this does not mean Surah al-Baqarah really has 285 verses.

• Likewise, if most Muslims believe Surah 9 has 129 verses, this does not actually mean that Surah 9 has 129 verses.

• The original Quran that exists with God in the guarded tablet is whole and protected. But the Quran that exists in the memory of Sunni Muslims is missing verses, missing an entire Surah, and more!

• Falsehood cannot enter the Quran (verse 41:42), but falsehood has certainly entered the version of the Quran that exists in the Sunni memory. So this is proof that the Quran that exists in human memory is not the same as the Quran that exists with God.

• The 19-based mathematical structure is the resource provided to the Muslims to resolve all textual disputes and match existing copies with the original copy of the Quran that exists with God. And verses 9:128-129 violate the Quran’s mathematical structure, hence they do not belong in the Quran.

Conclusión

When Rashad Khalifa correctly stated that verses 9:128-129 do not belong in the Quran, this generated significant controversy and was ultimately one of the reasons Rashad was assassinated.

But where was all of this controversy at the Sahih Hadiths which suggest that several verses, and even an entire Surah, is missing from the Quran?

Needless to say, the addition of an extra Surah to the Quran, as well as adding the alleged verses of stoning and breastfeeding, and retaining verses 9:128-129, will almost destroy the Quran’s extensive 19-based structure.

But the removal of verses 9:128-129 keeps the Quran’s mathematical structure intact.

The true believer should look at this decisive evidence and ask himself and herself: “Am I going to follow what the majority of people say?”

“Or am I going to believe what God alone is telling me through the number 19, the same number which God Himself said (in verse 74:30-31) will confirm the Quran as the truth beyond all doubts?”