To be quite honest, this does not sound like a two way conversation. Does the person "want" an answer or "want" to engage in conversation, or are we assuming they do?

wa alaykum as salam.

Before you can start teaching the person about the Qu'ran and Sunnah, you have to first understand hwo the person thinks, and where theyre coming from.

For example, if the person doesnt believe in God, you are not going to start teaching him/her about wudhu right away!

First, they need to understand and believe in one God. If they do, then you have to ask them this question:

If there is a God, did he just leave us to do whatever we want wandering aimlessly, or did he leave some kind of code or instruction?

If they acknowledge that much, then you have to show that whatever code he wants is applicable in all areas of your life.

Its somethign that deals with both the society and the indvidual and doesnt ignore anything and has a solution for whatever problem exists.

The issue is to point out how through the Qu'ran and Sunnah, this "instruction manual" that God has left us applies to us and how it makes sense.

If you have any further questions/issues, feel free to contact me.

I hope this has helped. :)

jazakumAllah kheir! thanks for the input and useful information..i didnt know. but in this case..were talking to a non muslim..who again doesnt care to hear about what the Quran says or anything about the sunnah. so we would say to them..as human beings we do things based upon unknown knowledge. EVERYDAY. for example..something simple as ure class schedule. it has the time, hall number, and professors name. how do we know. how can we trust this paper and actually believe that the lecture is at that specific time and place. knowledge of the unseen.

our professor gave us a good example. he told it to us as a dialogue between a muslim and a non muslim. this is how it went.

M: who are ure parents?

NM: Sara and mike.

M: how do i know that?

NM: what do u mean? u asked me who are my parents and i told u. and i am sure about it.

M: can u prove it to me?

NM: ok. i will go and get u a DNA test..and it will prove to u that these 2 are my parents.

M: ok.

NM: here are the test results..and it shows that they are my parents.

M: this is just a paper with some numbers and words. did u conduct the test? HOw can i believe that this is right. this means nothing to me.

NM: OK. i will go and conduct the test myself. (he did and after a few years he returned with the test results he conducted)

M: (after he was presented with the new results) he said: how did u conduct this test? was it from your own knowledge?

NM: no..surely i studied in the university and studied from books and practiced in labs and conducted the study and here are the results.

M: did u write the books u studied from? how do u know that the information in the books are
correct.

So the point is that we as humans believe in things we dont see for ourselves everyday. thats how we live. it doesnt work otherwise. so if the person u are arguing with can prove to u that they dont ..then they have a respectable argument.

As for knowing how the Quran was not changed:

Just go to a Islamic library and compare manuscripts of the Quran over the centuries with a present-day copy. They will be exactly the same (older ones might not show vowels, tho).

Hmm, a good place to read up would be along the lines of "The Miracle of the Quran."

Some points along those lines I can think of are:

1. It contains knowledge of the unseen. Somethings that cannot be verified in this life (e.g. Heaven and Hellfire), and other things that can (e.g. past & future events). An example of an event is the discovery of the mummy of Ramses II (thought to be Pharoah in the Quran).

2. The science contained in the Quran was absolutely unimaginable in that century. The west was in "the dark ages" and the Arabs were involved mostly in trade. Examples of science are the description of the fetus, description of mountain ranges, how elemental iron actually came to Earth from outer space, orbits in space, etc.

3. If you read the biography of the Prophet (peace be upon him) you will find that many verses were revealed as a "result" of context (I say "result" in quotes because Allah always knew the context of revelation, but to us it appears to be as a consequence of an action.) For example, in one narration of this story, when Umar ibn Al-Khattab said to the Prophet (peace be upon him) that the funeral prayer should not be said over a hypocrite, soon after the verse was revealed enforcing what Umar had said.

4. The Prophet (peace be upon him) was illiterate. He could not have possibly come up with the science, history and prophecies in the Quran.

This is just a few ideas I gathered from the top of my head. For more on the miralce of the Quran, look at this website, it has graphics and detailed explanations:
www.islam-guide.com

Hope this was helpful!