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 miraculous 19-based mathematical system, all of those prophecies get fulfilled on a regular basis. The faith and certainty of the believers get increased exponentially, and the doubt is totally erased from their hearts.

• Whereas those who deny or reject the Quran’s 19-based system question what God really meant by the number 19 in these two verses, and claim that the Quran meant something totally different and that no miraculous 19-based mathematical system exists in the Quran.

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

However, a stunning discovery was made by Dr. Rashad Khalifa, the person who unveiled the Quran’s 19-based system.

In short, there were many dozens of violations to the 19-based mathematical system that came from verses 9:128-129, both small and large, almost as if the Quran itself was rejecting these two verses with a built-in security system.

Thus, due to the Quran’s own mathematical system that it prophesized in verse 74:31 heavily rejecting these two verses, this caused Rashad Khalifa to come to the conclusion that these two verses did not come from God and are man-made additions to the Quran.

As it turns out, it is not just the Quran’s mathematical system rejecting this, but historical documents also indicate that they are “pretty sus” as someone from Gen-Z (like me) would say.

Historical Documents

There may also be evidence found in historical narrations that the Quran was tampered with. Not only that, but as you will see, the committee responsible for putting together the Quran had no knowledge of those two verses, except for one person, whom they all believed.   

• The copy of the Quran owned by Hafsa, one of Muhammad’s wives, was used to standardize the Quran during the reign of the 3^rd Caliph Uthman. 

• According to a narration, Marwan ibn al-Hakam, an Umayyad caliph, destroyed Hafsa’s copy “fearing it might cause new disputes.” (Ulum Al-Quran by Ahmad von Denffer) The important questions are: why did Marwan have to destroy a copy of the Quran that belonged to one of the Mothers of the Believers if it was the same as the Quran in circulation? And if the Quran copies in circulation were the exact same as the original, why would it cause new disputes?

• At least four Hadith, all from Bukhari (Hadith numbers 4679, 4989, 7191, and 7425) are narrated by Zaid ibn Thabit which say something to the effect of, “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.” This story is thus referred to by some Islamic scholars (like the Yaqeen Institute) who talk about the compilation of the Quran as the “story of the missing verses”.

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, it was not specified whether Zaid had previous knowledge of the two verses or not. Other Hadith reports indicate only Khuzaimah himself knew of these verses.

Also, 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 states that most people believed Surah 9 had 127 verses before 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?

• 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.

• Therefore, he must have heard someone spreading rumors or misinformation about a stoning verse and believed it.

• This raises the possibility of others spreading false rumors about other verses too, possibly including verse 9:128-129.

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 looked for one to attach it to, and they attached it to 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).

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, 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”?

Conclusion

So in conclusion, it is not just the Quran’s mathematical system that rejects verses 9:128-129. Hadith narrations raise significant suspicion about these two verses as well.

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; thus He installed a security system in the Quran to help us distinguish between His original Quran and any man-made additions. Thus, only the Quran’s 19-based mathematical composition resolves the issue of the validity of verses 9:128-129 beyond all doubt and lets us know that these are false verses. 

There is a huge tendency to cling to longstanding beliefs even when the evidence is clear. We see documented many times in the Quran the excuses and objections the disbelievers make out of denial and rejection, when they are presented with new ideas from prophets and messengers.

We see this even in modern times when Muslims reject the Quran’s own declared 19-based mathematical structure as stated in verses 74:30-31, because accepting it requires the rejection of verses 9:128-129.

No matter how much evidence exists, we have a difficult time accepting that Quran’s built-in security system is doing its intended job, for the same reason that many polytheists and Christians cannot bring themselves to accept Islam; embracing Islam requires the rejection of centuries of teachings and traditions by their family members, ancestors, and religious scholars.

However, as Muslims we should be wise enough not to follow in their footsteps out of overattachment towards tradition, established teachings, and whatever the majority of people say.

That is because we follow a prophet who himself went against centuries of established Christian and pagan teachings for the sake of the truth.