The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page xc
GENERAL INTRODUCTION (iii) of the creation of heaven and earth, we have many accounts in the Vedas. But these accounts contradict one another as much as the accounts of ghosts and fairies do in children's tales. In the Sama-Veda, Purva Archik (VI, 1:4), we have that the heaven and the earth were made by the Soma god. But in the Rig-Veda (VIII, 26:4) we find that the heaven and the earth were made by the god Indra living on the Soma juice. In another place in the Rig-Veda (II, 40:1) made by Soma and Pushan. In the Yajur-Veda (13:4) it is written that the heaven and the earth were made by Brahma. Number of Vedic Gods We believe, as we have said before, that the Vedas were originally a revelation of God and as such they taught nothing but the Unity and Oneness of God. But the Vedas, as we know them today, are not the Vedas which were revealed to the Rishis. The Vedas today are full of polytheistic descriptions, and these descriptions are to be found in such abundance that what little in the Vedas still bears on the Unity of God is relegated to the background. We give below a few examples: In the Yajur-Veda (7:19) we are told that there are in all thirty-three gods, eleven on the earth, eleven in the sky, eleven in the waters. In the Rig-Veda (III, 9:9) we are told that the total number of gods is 3,340. This, because, according to the Rig-Veda, 3,339 gods went to the fire- god and fed him with ghee. On his joining the big company, the total number of gods became 3,340. Accordingly, in the Rig-Veda (x, 52:6) the total number of gods is 3,340. This divergence in the number of gods present in different parts of the Vedas is amazing in the extreme; according to the Yajur-Veda 33 and according to the Rig-Veda, 3,340! To have departed from the conception of One God was dangerous enough. But such wide divergence in the number of gods proposed in different parts of the Vedas seems worse than dangerous. Contradictions of this kind compel us to conclude that though the original Vedas were most certainly revealed, the present Vedas no longer retain their original character, and are incapable of giving satisfaction to those who are in quest of spiritual solace. They need to be replaced by another Book which should be free from all immoral, contradictory, savage and superstitious teaching. That Book, we claim, is the Quran. lxiv