robert spencer-did muhammad exist__ an inquiry into islams obscure origins-intercollegiate studies institute (2012) (1)

all sorts of hymns, more than all the other vigils.” Indeed, in the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Divine
Liturgy of the Nativity was traditionally celebrated at dawn, after a nightlong vigil—“Peace it is, till the
rising of dawn.” 55
In addition, the thirteenth-century Arabic lexicon Lisan al-Arab (The Language of the Arabs) quotes
the ninth-century Arab philologist al-Asmai referring to a winter night that “lasts so long that all the stars
appear during it. It is also the night of the birth of Jesus—on our Prophet and on him blessing and wellbeing—and
the Christians honour it and hold vigils during it.” 56
In time, however, this connection was forgotten, such that, says Luxenberg, “the Muslims of today are
no longer aware that the night that they celebrate and honour with so much fervour is in reality the night of
Christmas.” 57
Who Is Responsible?
Clearly the text of the Qur'an has been worked over. Even Islamic scholars acknowledge that diacritical
marks were added to the Arabic, and that other additions were made after the revelation of the Qur'an.
And as we have seen, a host of other evidence indicates that much of the text was reworked from
Christian source material.
But who would have taken this Christian text and adulterated it, and why? If a new religious text or
even a new religion had to be constructed, why not start from scratch rather than rework existing
material? The answers to these questions are elusive, although a number of clues enable us to piece
together a coherent narrative. In order to do that, we must first examine the history of the Qur'an after it
was supposedly collected and distributed by the caliph Uthman.