Are there contradictions in the Quran?

Yes - and the honest way to see it is on the Quran's own terms, because the book stakes its divine origin on having none. It even invites the test: 'If it had been from other than Allah, they would have found within it much contradiction' (Surah 4:82). The fair thing is to accept that invitation on the book's own terms, not to import a foreign standard.

Applied honestly, the test doesn't come back empty. There is more than one canonical printed Quran - the Hafs, Warsh, and Abu 'Amr readings, all certified authentic - and they sometimes say different things. Many differences are complementary: at Surah 1:4 God is read as both 'King' and 'Owner.' But some diverge in meaning. At Surah 11:81 the certified editions give Lot two different commands about his wife on their natural readings. And within a single text there are tensions the tradition itself worked to resolve - the days of creation, Mary called 'sister of Aaron' - enough that Muslim scholars built a whole genre, mushkil al-Quran, to smooth them.

Here charity means precision, not concession. Harmonizing difficulties is a legitimate tool; Christians use it for the Bible too. But the two books make different claims. The Bible never stakes its origin on having no difficulties, and Christians argue its truth on other grounds, since good manuscripts prove preservation, not truth. The Quran, in 4:82, stakes its divine origin on flawless consistency - a standard it set for itself. Measured by that self-issued test, the showpiece argument claims more than the data will bear. We welcome the very same scrutiny of the Gospels' coherence, and answer it gladly, case by case. But note the asymmetry: Christianity never staked its truth on a slogan of flawless internal consistency, so that scrutiny tests our honesty, not the foundation of the faith.