Explaining his beliefs about the Quran to his host, Mutahir Sabri, Yusuf says on a radio program:

When you hold it (the mus-haf) in your hand and it’s a book, it’s not Quran, it’s called what? Kitab! KitabAllah, the book in your hand, this is representing the Quran, but it is not the Quran. We must give great respect to it, and honor to it, we mustn’t, you know, let people step on it, things like this, absolutely – we know that. But at the same time, this is not the Quran, because if it were the Quran, well, this is an amazing statement here, because a person could take that, and I’ve seen it happen in prisons for instance, when a non-Muslim guard will come along and he’ll take their Qurans and he’ll rip them up, or he’ll do something bad to it, or he’ll change it, or he can, one of them put, uh you know pig oil, what they call lard, and he put it in there, just to insult the Muslim. He did that! Now, can somebody do that to the Quran? It’s impossible! Allah’s protecting the Quran, and if you say the Quran can’t be changed, but you’re watching this man change it right there, man you would be confused if you didn’t understand this basic point – Quran is not this thing in your hand. This represents it.

Source: “What is Quran?” by Yusuf Estes (23 minutes into the program), available directly from one of his websites: http://www.allahsquran.com/goodies/audio.php, originally a radio broadcast called “Today Islam”.

Important Commentary

Yusuf Estes clearly states here that “the Book of Allah” (the mushaf) is not the Quran, and that it only represents the Quran.  This is a dangerous violation of the basic Islamic belief that Ahlus-Sunnah hold by consensus, as mentioned by the scholars of Islam throughout history.

Imam Al-Laalakaa’ee (d.418) said:

“Anyone who says that the Quran is (only) the one in the heavens has opposed Allah and His Messenger, rejected miracles of His Prophet, and opposed the Salaf – the Companions, the Taabi’oon, and the scholars of the Religion who came after them.” (Sharh Usool Ali-tiqaad, 2/367)

Imam Ibn Abil-‘Izz al-Hanafee (d.792) said:

Whoever says that what is written in the mushafs is a representation of Allah’s Speech, or a narration of Allah’s Speech, and that it is not actually the Speech of Allah, has surely opposed the Book, the Sunnah, and the Salaf of this nation, and that is sufficient as misguidance! (Sharh ‘Aqeedah at-Tahaawiyyah, pp.143-144)

This belief propagated by Yusuf Estes was considered kufr (disbelief) by the scholars, as shown above.  It is not a belief held by anyone from Ahlus-Sunnah.  It is merely a revival of some of the beliefs of some of the ancient sects of the Jahmiyyah Cult.

For more information on this important topic, refer to this free e-book:

The Teachings of Yusuf Estes About the Quran (PDF)