Every sura (chapter) in the Quran opens with the statement "In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful," known as the Basmalah, with the exception of Sura 9. This conspicuous absence of the Basmalah from Sura 9 has been an intriguing feature of the Quran for 14 centuries. Many theories have been advanced to explain this phenomenon.

Why Sura 9?

Now we learn that the missing Basmalah is one of the signs from the Most Gracious, Most Merciful that Sura 9 has been tampered with. More specifically, two false verses were added to the end of Sura 9 after the last verse 127. There is absolutely no doubt that verses 9:128 and 9:129 do not belong to the Quran. The evidence for these verses being false and added to the Quran after Muhammad’s death is overwhelming.

9:128-129: The Suspects

From an historical point of view, these false verses have been sus-pected for more than 1300 years, as documented in such classical references as Bukhari, Al-Itqaan-i Suyooty, Ibn Kaheer, and others. Some of the findings in these documents indicate that Muhammad’s cousin Ali knew that false verses had been added to the Quran, and he said he was going to do something about it. He actually did something about it. He and his son Hussein fought to remove these false verses from the Quran. They did not fight for power as an-nounced by their enemies who killed them and many others who supported them. (For more information, please refer to Appendix 24, Tampering With The Word of God, "Quran: The Final Testament-Authorized English Version," Translated From the Original by Rashad Khalifa, Ph.D.)

Also, according to these Islamic references, every single verse in the Quran was verified by a multiplic-ity of witnesses. The only exception was for Verses 9:128 and 129. These verses were found only with Khuzeimah Ibn Thaabet Al-Ansaary, one of the late companions of the prophet. When some people questioned this improper exception, someone came up with a Hadith (saying) which stated that "the testimony of Khuzeimah equals the testimony of two men!"

Strangely, the traditional Quran printings indicate that Sura 9 is "Medinan" (revealed in Medina), except the last two verses, which they indicate as being "Meccan." The question is how could these "Meccan" verses be found with Khuzeimah, a late Medinan Muslim, when the universal convention has been to label as "Medinan" all revelations after the prophet’s Hijerah (emigration) from Mecca?!

The injection of the two false verses 9:128 and 9:129 was in accordance with God’s will. These verses demonstrated one of the major functions of the Quran’s mathematical system, and proved that no falsehood could enter into the Quran, as promised by God (41:42). The false verses also resulted in an awesome miracle in its own right, by God’s grace and wisdom.

Some people rightfully question that if God’s promise is true, then no one should have been able to add the two false verses into the Quran in the first place. The addition of these false verses is in accordance with God’s master plan. The people who had the Quran with the additional two verses did not lose any information. The original Quran is still preserved. The mathematical structure of the Quran which was destined to be unveiled 1400 years after the Quran’s revelation proved the impossibility of such tampering, and exposed the hypocrites.

Divine Protection

Here is an example of the mathematical structure of the Quran based on the number 19 that relates to the false verses 128 and 129 of Sura 9 confirming that they do not belong to the Quran:

1. There are only 9 suras (chapters) which have 128 or more verses.
2. In these 9 suras, there are only 19 verses which are a multiple of 128 or 129.
3. The sum of these 19 verses add up to 2698 (19 x 142).
4. The number 2698 is not an ordinary number. The Arabic word Allah (God) occurs in the Quran 2698 times.

Not only do these facts based on the number 19 point to Sura 9, but they also demonstrate how inter-connected this mathematical system is throughout the Quran. The fact that there are 19 such verses that are multiples of 128 or 129, and that their sum is equal to 2698, the number of times the word God (Allah) mentioned in the Quran, cannot be a coincidence or a result of personal manipulation.

It should be noted that if these false verses 128 and 129 of Sura 9 are included, then there will be 21 verses which are a multiple of 128 or 129. The sum of those 21 verses would be equal to 2955, not a mul-tiple of 19, nor a number of any significance. Thus the mathemati-cal structure would breakdown.

The findings on the false verses of Sura 9 can be explained more clearly in a table form. Therefore, one may want to refer to Table 1 below which summarizes these findings.

In addition to the straightforward mathematical facts demonstrated, there are other supportive findings regarding the numbers in this table. For example, when the numbers in columns 1-3 are written side by side, the resultant 49 digit number is a multiple of 19:

2 286 4 3 200 2 4 176 2 ... ... 37 182 2 = 19 x ...

Finally, when the numbers in the last column are written side by side, the resultant 27 digit number is also a multiple of 19:

771 257 257 257 257 128 257 257 257 = 19 x ...

Tip of the Iceberg

Of course, this is a minute example of the numerous other physical and verifiable facts discovered in the Quran based on the number 19. All these facts produce a mathematical system which is perfectly inter-twined and interlocked beyond co-incidence and human manufacture. This mathematical coding is re-ferred in the Quran to be "one of the great miracles or signs." It pro-vides the first physical evidence that the Quran is God’s message to the world. This is a tremendous blessing for anybody who is seeking for truth to know that every single word in the Quran (Arabic original) is a revelation from God Himself, the Almighty, the Most Wise.

Abdullah Arik