Jihat al-Islam Vol.12 (January – June 2019)No 2 1 D.B. MacDonald on Qur’ānic Origins: Critical Study Muhammad Tariq Ramzan* Muhammad Feroz-ud-Din Shah Khagga** Abstract: It is an incontrovertible historical truth that the text of the Holy Qur‟ān extant today is, syllable for syllable, exactly the same as the Holy Prophet (PBUH) had offered to the world as the Word of God. Yet a perpetual propagation against Qur‟ānic text has been proliferated in the Muslim and Western academic circles particularly in the near past. D.B. MacDonlad is one of the leading Orientalists who contributed with the same zeal and zest creating certain historical labyrinths regarding the Muslim fundamental sacred text i.e. Qur‟ān. The study focuses and reviews the thoughts of D.B. MacDonald about the history of origins of the Qur‟ān which he presented in his series of lectures delivered at Hartford theological seminary in 1909 and later on, these lectures were published under the title “Aspects of Islam” in 1911. Key words: Qur‘ānic text, Orientalism, D.B. MacDonald & Textual Criticism. Duncan Black MacDonald (d.1943 A.D.) was a famous, prominent and legend scholar and Orientalist. A high esteemed gratitude was and is still being venerated to him on his scholarly work and the endeavors in theological aspects and comparative religious studies by the Western research scholars and his successors. He was born on April 9, 1863 at Glasgow, Scotland. 1 He received his early education from Glasgow and later on he got his ―Art Degree‖ from Glasgow University in 1885. Along with this, he won a prize in English literature. 2 He was primarily known as a scholar in the fields of Islamic theology and religious experience. In eyes of the Westerns, D.B. MacDonald has highly esteemed status in promoting and proving better the Christian- Muslim relations and is considered as a reliable bound in this direction. He was the first man who introduced special courses for preparing the priests and missionaries who were thrilled and excited to work in Muslim soil. 3 MacDonald has a keen interest in Muslim history and theology. In order to observe the Muslim culture and rituals and fulfill his lust to visit the Muslim soil, he took one year vacations and he established a foreign tour of Muslim places like Cairo, Palestine, Syria and Beirut. After returning back from this tour, he delivered ten lectures at Hartford theological seminary in 1909 and later on, these lectures were published under the title ―Aspects of Islam‖. In these lecturers, he presented his observation about what he saw and experienced in the Muslim countries. 4 MacDonald introduced several books on *Ph.D Scholar Dept. of Islamic Studies, University of Sargodha, **Assistant Prof., Dept. of Islamic Studies, University of Sargodha