一些诋毁伊斯兰教的人主张，这段历史并无特别之处，更谈不上神迹。他们声称，穆罕默德ﷺ要么是直接从同时代人口中听来这些故事，要么是抄袭了后来已经失传的圣经手稿。说先知ﷺ是被别人喂养知识的指控，在先知ﷺ在世时就已存在，但很快便销声匿迹；直到今天，大多数认真的《古兰经》批评者都避免提出这种荒谬的说法，因为它显得十分牵强。首先，这与穆罕默德ﷺ品格无可争辩的诚信相违背。
Some detractors of Islam argue that none of this history is remarkable, let alone miraculous. They claim Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم either learned these accounts directly from the mouths of his contemporaries or that he plagiarized them from manuscripts of the Bible that have since been lost. The accusation of being spoon-fed by others existed during the Prophet’s صلى الله عليه وسلم life, but it quickly disappeared, and until today most serious Qur’an critics avoid citing such a ludicrous proposition because it appears desperate. First, this would be contrary to the historically indisputable integrity of Muhammad’s character.
其次，有人提出穆罕默德ﷺ关于先知及其民族的知识来自麦加一位罗马铁匠（一个普通人），或来自一次无法核实、仅在正午偶然经过时与修士巴赫拉的相遇，或来自与临终的瓦拉盖·本·纳瓦法尔的一次交谈，这些说法实在难以令人信服。
Second, the suggestions that Muhammad’s صلى الله عليه وسلم knowledge of previous prophets and nations came from a Roman blacksmith in Mecca (a layman), or from an unverifiable, passing midday encounter with Baḥīrah the Monk, or to a single conversation with a dying Waraqah ibn Nawfal , are simply implausible.
明智的人会意识到,先知穆罕默德ﷺ所带来的内容之庞大与真实性,只能在数十年的学习积累之后才能达到,而这样的积累对他而言是不可能隐瞒的。安拉在《古兰经》中说:"你说:'如果安拉意欲,我就不会向你们诵读此经,他也不会把它昭示你们;我在它降临以前,已经在你们中间生活了一辈子。难道你们不理解吗?'"440 至于第二项指控,即抄袭犹太教和基督教学者的文本,只有带着强烈确认偏见的人才会考虑这种可能,理由主要有两点:
Sensible people realize that the bulk and veracity of what the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم brought could only be attained with decades of apprenticeship that would be impossible for him to hide. Allah says in the Qur’an, “Say, ‘If Allah had willed, I would not have recited it to you, nor would He have made it known to you, for I had remained among you a lifetime before it. Then will you not reason?’”440 As for the second accusation, that of plagiarism from the texts of Judeo-Christian scholars, only someone with a strong confirmation bias would consider this possibility, for two major reasons:
首先，正如前文所确立的，《古兰经》并不包含《圣经》中所见的诸多历史性错误。因此，若要说《古兰经》独特的叙述是抄袭自更早的经典，就必须假定先知ﷺ曾以某种方式接触过那些数以千计的抄本异文中的准确版本。而且，这个版本只可能存在于七世纪的阿拉伯半岛，偏偏又是一种先知ﷺ暗中学习过的外语，之后却不留痕迹地消失了，再也无从找回。
Firstly, as established earlier, the Qur’an does not contain the many historical inaccuracies found in the Bible. Therefore, for the unique Qur’anic narrative to have been plagiarized from an earlier scripture, this would necessitate that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم somehow had access to the accurate version from the thousands of variant manuscripts. Moreover, this version would have existed only in seventh-century Arabia of all places, in a foreign language Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم secretly learned, then vanished without a trace, never to be recovered again.
其次,即便这种荒诞的假设成立,它也只能解释这种惊人精确性的来源,却忽略了最终成品的神迹性质。《古兰经》回应了这一说法,断言:“我确知他们说:‘教他(先知ﷺ)的只是一个凡人。’他们所指的那人的语言是外国话,而这部《古兰经》是清晰的阿拉伯语。”441
Secondly, even if this bizarre hypothetical were true, it only accounts for the source of this incredible precision and ignores the miraculous nature of the end-product. The Qur’an responds to this notion, asserting, “And We certainly know that they say, ‘It is only a human being who teaches him [the Prophet].’ The tongue of the one they refer to is foreign, and this Qur’an is [in] a clear Arabic language.”441