Transcription
Have Muslims been misreading, misinterpreting, and misunderstanding the Quran for nearly 14 centuries? Let's find out.
Jesus' death by crucifixion is regarded by historians and New Testament scholars as one of the best established facts of the ancient world. Jesus' death isn't simply a point of Christian doctrine; it's a historical fact, as even non-Christian scholars are happy to admit. Atheist New Testament scholar G. Ludeman declares that Jesus' death as a consequence of crucifixion is indisputable. John Dominic Crossan of the infamous Jesus Seminar says that there is not the slightest doubt about the fact of Jesus' crucifixion under Pontius Pilate. Marcus Borg, another member of the Jesus Seminar, notes that Jesus' execution is the most certain fact about the historical Jesus. Jewish scholar Pinkus Leed affirmed that Jesus' death by crucifixion is historically certain. According to Paula Fredriksen, a convert to Judaism, the single most solid fact about Jesus' life is his death; he was executed by the Roman prefect Pilate on or around Passover in the manner Rome reserved particularly for political insurrectionists, namely crucifixion. Bart Ehrman maintains that one of the most certain facts of history is that Jesus was crucified on orders of the Roman prefect of Judea, Pontius Pilate.
Notice that these non-Christian scholars aren't simply saying that we have some evidence that Jesus died by crucifixion; they're saying that it's indisputable, that it's historically certain, and that it's one of the most certain facts of history. We can only conclude that any worldview that denies Jesus' death by crucifixion is simply out of touch with reality. Yes, I'm talking to you too, Jesus mythers.
So, that's what we find when we consider Jesus' crucifixion from a purely historical perspective. From a Christian perspective, Jesus' death on the cross isn't merely another historical fact; there are theological implications. The death of Jesus is foundational to Christianity; it was part of a divine plan. Jesus said things like, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45) and "The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and when he has been killed, he will rise three days later" (Mark 9:31). He also said, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed; but if it dies, it produces many seeds" (John 12:23-24).
Jesus also warned his followers that false prophets were coming. Now, if Jesus' death is really as important as he makes it sound, do you think his death might be something a false prophet is going to deny or distort? So, when Muhammad comes along and says, "I have received a revelation, and my revelation tells me that Jesus never died," there can be only one answer to that: We've been expecting you, Muhammad, because Jesus warned us about you. If someone claims to speak for God and he denies the crucifixion of Jesus, he might as well get a tattoo across his forehead that says, "Hi, I'm a false prophet. Don't believe anything I say ever."
Why would our Muslim friends tell us to believe in Muhammad while simultaneously telling us that he bears one of the surest signs of a false prophet? Well, our Muslim friends have been forced into this position by the Quran—or so they think. The entire problem comes from just one verse of the Quran: Surah 4:157. Let's read it:
"That they said in boast, ‘We killed Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, the Apostle of God.’ But they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them. And those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no certain knowledge, but only conjecture to follow. For, of assurity, they killed him not."
The next verse declares, "Nay, God raised him up unto Himself, and God is exalted in power, wise."
So, according to the Quran, some Jews were boasting about killing Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the Apostle of God. Allah corrects them and says that they didn't kill him or crucify him; it only appeared to them that they had killed him and crucified him.
Now, what does the Quran mean when it says that the Jews didn't kill or crucify Jesus but that they thought they did because it was made to appear to them that they did? The Quran doesn't explain, but the traditional Muslim explanation goes something like this: Jesus went around telling people to believe in God and in the Torah. For some strange reason, this upset the Jews so much that they decided to kill him. But God had a plan. God took Jesus out of this world into heaven and miraculously disguised someone else to make him look like Jesus, and it was this other person who was crucified. But God made everyone think that it was Jesus. This is called the substitution theory—the theory that Jesus was replaced by a substitute.
There are numerous problems with substitution theory. Let's consider four.
First, substitution theory portrays Allah as a cosmic trickster, more like Loki than like the God of the Bible. If Jesus didn't actually die but Allah made people think that Jesus died, the real reason billions of people are now convinced that Jesus died is that Allah did an outstanding job tricking everyone. According to the traditional Muslim explanation, you can't trust your senses; even if you see someone die with your own eyes, Allah might be tricking you.
Once you have an omnipotent deceiver running the universe, how do you know what to believe? How can you tell when the omnipotent deceiver you believe in is tricking you or not tricking you? Oh, because our Prophet says... How do you know that the omnipotent deceiver you believe in isn't tricking you through your Prophet?
Second, the Islamic view portrays Jesus as a total failure. The Jesus of the Quran spent years preaching Islam only to have his life's work sabotaged by Allah, who tricked the world into believing that Jesus died by crucifixion, ultimately giving rise to Christianity. According to the Quran, Jesus' followers were devout Muslims, but they must have disappeared rather quickly, without so much as a whimper, because we have no records that any Muslim followers of Jesus even existed.
Thus, the Islamic Jesus couldn't win a single lasting Muslim convert, and he accomplished absolutely nothing of any lasting significance. We respect Jesus, how? By believing that your God sabotaged his life's work?
Third, Surah 61:4 of the Quran claims that Allah aided the true followers of Jesus until they became uppermost over those who rejected Jesus. But the followers of Jesus who became uppermost over those who opposed Jesus were Christians, who proclaimed Jesus' death and resurrection. See the problem? Allah says He helped the true followers until they became uppermost, yet the followers who became uppermost believed in Jesus' death and resurrection. Our Muslim friends tell us that Jesus didn't die and that he didn't rise from the dead, so according to our Muslim friends, Allah aided the wrong people.
Fourth, Surah 7:157 of the Quran says that Christians were still reading the gospel during the time of Muhammad, and Surah 5:47 of the Quran commands Christians to judge by the gospel. Since we know that the gospel read by Christians in the seventh century proclaimed Jesus' death by crucifixion, Muslims are contradicting the Quran when they say that Jesus didn't die by crucifixion. See the problem? Allah affirms the gospel—the gospel that Christians had in the seventh century, which is the gospel that we still have. The gospel that we have tells us over and over again, like a beating drum, that Jesus died on the cross.
So how can we believe the Quran when the Quran orders us to judge by scriptures that contradict the Quran? Our Muslim friends think they can avoid this problem by saying that the gospel was corrupted.
But notice: if the gospel was corrupted, then Allah was ordering Christians to judge by a corrupt book. Not only does Allah order Christians to judge by a corrupt book, He's the one who corrupted it. According to our Muslim friends, Jesus never died by crucifixion. We open the gospel and we read about Jesus dying by crucifixion. Where did people get the idea that Jesus died by crucifixion? From Allah, who tricked people into believing that Jesus died by crucifixion.
So if the gospel was corrupted, who corrupted it? According to our Muslim friends, the gospel was corrupted by the omnipotent deceiver they worship. Here we have to ask our Muslim friends: Do you have any clue how insane this sounds to anyone who actually respects God and Jesus? You're telling us to believe in a God who tricks billions of people for no reason, starts false religions, undermines the work of his own prophets, and affirms the inspiration and authority of scriptures that he corrupted. This sounds thoroughly demonic.
Why do you say it again? You say it because the Quran has forced you into this position. Or has it? And that's the question I really want to address here: Does the Quran really deny the crucifixion of Jesus, or are Muslims misinterpreting the Quran?
Fun fact: there has always been a minority position in Islam that rejects the traditional Muslim explanation of Surah 4:157. For many centuries, there have been Muslims who insist that the Quran doesn't deny Jesus' death by crucifixion, and as we're about to see, they may be right.
Let's find out why some Muslims are convinced that Jesus died by crucifixion and why they reject the traditional Muslim explanation of 4:157. To be clear, if you ignore everything else in the Quran, Surah 4:157 does seem to deny the crucifixion of Jesus. They said in boast, "We killed Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, the Apostle of God," but they didn’t, they killed him not, nor crucified him—it was made to appear to them that they killed him, but they didn’t. That definitely sounds like it's denying Jesus' death and crucifixion, and that's why most Muslims believe that Jesus didn't die and that he wasn't crucified.
But watch what happens when we dig a little deeper. Surah 4:157 is part of a passage in which Allah is rebuking a group of Jews. The Quran says that the Jews broke their covenant; they killed prophets. Allah put a seal on their hearts because of their blasphemy; they falsely accused Mary; they bragged about killing Jesus. But every Jew will believe in Jesus before he dies, i.e., they'll find out the truth about Jesus when the angel of death appears. In context, then, Surah 4:157 is not a response to the Christian belief that Jesus died on the cross; it's not a response to the historical claim that Jesus died on the cross; it's a response to a group of Jews who were saying, "We don't have to believe in Jesus because we killed him."
Simply reading the context opens the door for some alternative interpretations. For instance, is 4:157 saying that Jesus never died and was never crucified, or is it saying that even though this group of Jews thought they had exposed Jesus as a false Messiah by crucifying him, they didn't really kill him? They didn't really crucify him, meaning to kill someone by crucifixion because Allah raised him up.
"You think you don't have to believe in Jesus because you killed him? You didn't really kill him because Allah raised him up." What does "it was made to appear to them" mean? Does it mean that Allah took another person and miraculously disguised him to make him look like Jesus, so that people thought they were crucifying Jesus even though they were crucifying someone else? That's the traditional view. But that's not what the verse actually says.
Could it simply mean that they thought they had exposed Jesus by killing him, but that it only appeared to them that way because Allah vindicated him by raising him from the dead? So just by examining the surrounding context, we can see why some Muslims have interpreted this verse differently.
But there are more challenges to the traditional Muslim explanation in other parts of the Quran. In Surah 19:33, Jesus is speaking miraculously as a baby, and he says, "So peace is on me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life again." Notice the pattern: the day I was born, the day that I die, the day that I shall be raised. Birth, death, resurrection.
What happened to Jesus in Surah 4:158? "God raised him up unto Himself." According to Jesus in the Quran 19:33, what was supposed to happen to him before he was raised? He was supposed to die. So if Jesus was raised in 4:158, why would Muslims say that he didn't die in 4:157? Are they saying that Jesus was wrong in 19:33? Are they saying that Jesus was a false prophet?
The point here is that Islamic baby Jesus describes a simple pattern: he was born, he would die, he would be raised. Our Muslim friends present a much more complicated pattern; they say he was born, then he was raised without dying, one day he will be lowered back to Earth, then he'll die, then he'll be raised again. That doesn't sound anything like what Jesus said in 19:33, and it doesn't sound anything like what Allah says in Surah 3:55, where Allah speaks to Jesus during his ministry and tells him what's about to happen: "Behold, God said, ‘Oh Jesus, I will take thee and raise thee to myself and clear thee of the falsehoods of those who blaspheme. I will make those who follow thee superior to those who reject faith to the day of resurrection; then shall ye all return unto me, and I will judge between you of the matters wherein ye dispute.’"
What a ridiculous translation! Yusuf Ali translates this as, "I will take thee and raise thee to myself." I will take thee. The Arabic here is "mutfa." Most Muslim translators do what Yusuf Ali did; they translate this as, "I will take you" or "I will gather you." But that's just not what "mutfa" means. Surah 3:55 doesn't say that Allah will take Jesus away without Jesus dying; it says that Allah will cause Jesus to die.
The kind of taking that Allah says He's about to do refers to causing death. Islam also teaches that when a person goes to sleep, Allah takes away his soul, but then returns it when he wakes up. So when the context is something about going to bed, Allah taking your soul can refer to Allah causing you to fall asleep. But when there's nothing about going to bed in context, taking your soul means taking your soul from your body and causing you to die.
Most Orthodox Muslims mistranslate 3:55 because they know it contradicts their interpretation of 4:157. "They killed him not, nor crucified him." So they decide, based on 4:157 that Jesus never died, and then they go to 3:55 where Allah says, "I will cause you to die," and they have to mistranslate it as, "I will take you" or "I will gather you."
But look at three translations from non-Orthodox Muslims. Here's the Sher Ali translation: "Allah says, ‘Oh Jesus, I will cause thee to die a natural death and will raise thee to myself.’" And the Khalifa translation: "Oh Jesus, I am terminating your life, raising you to me." And the Muhammad Asad translation: "Oh Jesus, verily I shall cause thee to die and shall exalt thee unto me."
What about non-Muslim translations? Here's the Palmer translation: "Oh Jesus, I will make thee die and take thee up again to me." And the Rodwell translation: "Oh Jesus, verily I will cause thee to die and will take thee up to myself." And the Saheeh translation: "Oh Jesus, verily I will cause thee to die, and I will take thee up unto me."
Are you seeing a pattern? From translators who aren't deliberately mistranslating this verse to avoid contradicting their interpretation of 4:157, everyone seems to understand that it means Allah is going to cause Jesus to die.
But don't take my word for it; you can perform a little experiment from the comfort of your own home. Look up Surah 3:55 on a Quran site that has the Arabic. Copy the Arabic and paste it into a translator like Google Translate. Here's what you'll get: Google Translate has Allah saying, "Oh Jesus, I will cause you to die, and I will raise you to me." Even Google Allah admits that this is saying Allah would cause Jesus to die.
Why do non-Orthodox Muslims and non-Muslims and even Google Translate understand 3:55 as Allah telling Jesus that he's going to cause him to die? Because that's what the verse says. But again, most Muslim translators won't translate 3:55 accurately because they think to themselves, "Hmmm. Surah 4:157 clearly says that Jesus wasn't killed and wasn't crucified, so Jesus never died. Therefore, Surah 3:55 obviously can't be saying that Jesus died. We have to come up with a different translation."
They start with their interpretation of 4:157, "They didn't kill him nor did they crucify him," and they use that interpretation to reinterpret 3:55, "Allah will cause Jesus to die and raise him." But notice they could do the exact opposite. They could say, "Well, in 3:55 Allah clearly said he was going to cause Jesus to die, so we should probably rethink our interpretation of 4:157. Maybe it isn't saying that Jesus never died."
To be clear, 4:157 says, "They killed him not, nor crucified him." If you read it completely on its own, it does sound like it's denying Jesus' death, just as 3:55, "I shall cause thee to die," if you read it completely on its own sounds like it's affirming Jesus' death. Assuming you want to avoid a contradiction, you have to reinterpret one of these verses.
Now, when you're in this position, when you have two verses that seem to be saying opposite things and you have to reinterpret one of them, you should ask yourself: what other reasons do I have for interpreting verse such and such this way or that way? Are there other considerations that could tip the balance in one direction or the other?
355: "Oh Jesus, verily I shall cause thee to die," sounds like it's saying that Jesus was about to die. What reasons do we have for reinterpreting this and concluding that it's not affirming Jesus' death? There's only one reason: the traditional Muslim interpretation of 4157. They killed him not, nor crucified him.
So what reasons do we have for reinterpreting 4157 and concluding that it's not denying Jesus' death? Here we have all kinds of reasons for reinterpreting this. We've already seen that in context, 4157 isn't a response to Christian beliefs about Jesus' death; it's a response to a Jewish claim that Jesus' death had exposed him as a false Messiah.
We've seen that in 355, Allah says he's going to cause Jesus to die; many people would say that Surah 5:117 also affirms Jesus' death. We've seen that 1933 suggests that Jesus would be born, then die, then be raised, which doesn't fit well with the standard Muslim interpretation of 4157.
We've also seen four theological problems with the standard Muslim interpretation of 4157. Substitution theory portrays Allah as a cosmic trickster who starts false religions for no reason and corrupts the teachings of his own prophets. The traditional Muslim view portrays Jesus as a total failure who spent years preaching but couldn't win a single lasting convert.
The Quran claims that Allah aided the true followers of Jesus until they became uppermost over those who rejected Jesus, and we know that the followers of Jesus who became uppermost definitely believed in his death by crucifixion. Additionally, the Quran affirms the inspiration, preservation, and authority of Christian scriptures that clearly, indisputably say that Jesus died by crucifixion.
So we have some very good reasons to reinterpret Surah 4:157. But we can go even further because we can try to figure out what Allah is actually saying in 4:157. Allah says, "They killed him not, nor crucified him."
If we keep digging, we can come up with a different way of understanding 4157, a way that doesn't conflict with history and theology and the rest of the Quran. We should probably go with this alternative interpretation because everything else we have to go on tells us that Jesus died.
But what could Allah possibly mean when He says they didn't kill him, nor did they crucify him? I'll give you two possibilities straight from the Quran. I'm not smuggling in my own views here; these come from the Quran.
Suppose right before we read Surah 4:157, we read Surah 3:169: "Think not of those who are slain in God's way as dead; nay, they live, finding their sustenance in the presence of their Lord." If someone dies for Allah, don't think of him as dead because he's alive; he's in the presence of Allah.
So let's say you're a Muslim and your friend Abdullah goes out to fight the kufar, and the kufar kill him. Then the kufar come to you and say, "Haha! We killed Abdullah. We shot him with a bunch of arrows and now he's dead." As a Muslim, how are you supposed to respond? According to Surah 3:169, when someone says Abdullah is dead because we killed him, you're supposed to reply, "No, he isn't, and no, you didn't. Abdullah is alive and safe with Allah."
So suppose you absorb what Allah says in 3:169: "Don't think of those who are slain for Allah as dead because they're alive." Then you read 4:157-158: "They said in boast, ‘We killed Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, the Apostle of God,’ but they killed him not, nor crucified him; but so it was made to appear to them. And those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no certain knowledge but only conjecture to follow; for of assuredly they killed him not," and "Nay, God raised him up unto Himself."
If you read 4:157-158 right after reading 3:169, would you conclude that the only possible interpretation of 4:157 is that Allah miraculously disguised some other person, made this other person look like Jesus, and had this other person die in Jesus' place? No, because there's a much, much simpler interpretation based on what Allah says in 3:169.
It makes perfect sense to interpret 4:157-158 as Allah saying, "It may have appeared to this group of Jews as if they killed Jesus; it may have appeared to them as if they crucified Jesus, but Jesus is alive and safe with Allah. Allah raised him up, so they didn't really do what they thought they did." Much simpler.
But I said I was going to give two possible ways to interpret 4157 from the Quran. Here's the other possibility: suppose right before you read Surah 4:157, you read Surah 8:17. This is about the Battle of Badr. Muslims were outnumbered, but they defeated the Meccans. At one point, Muhammad threw a handful of dust at the Meccans. After the battle, some of the Muslims were boasting about killing the kufar.
Look at what Allah says to them: "It is not you who slew them; it was God. When thou didst throw a handful of dust, it was not thy act but God's, in order that he might test the believers by a gracious trial from himself; for God is He who heareth and knoweth all things." The Yusuf Ali here is a bit awkwardly worded; let's read the Hilali-Khan translation: "You killed them not, but Allah killed them; and you, Muhammad, threw not when you did throw, but Allah threw, that He might test the believers by a fair trial from Him. Verily, Allah is all hearer, all knower."
Picture this: Muhammad and his companions are totally outnumbered, but they defeat the Meccans. Muhammad's companions start boasting, "Look at all the unbelievers we killed." And then Allah reveals, "You didn't kill them; I did."
When you ran out into battle to fight the kufar and killed five of them, Allah says, "No, you didn't; you didn't kill them. You didn't stab them with your sword; you didn't shoot them with your bow; you didn't do any of that. It appeared to you that way, but in reality, I was the one who was doing it. I was accomplishing my purposes through you."
It's a little strange to think that way about a battle, but that's exactly how Allah commands Muslims to think about their battles. You run out into battle to fight the kufar, you kill five of the kufar, you run back and say, "I killed five kufar," and Allah says, "No, you didn't; you didn't kill them. You didn't stab them with your sword; you didn't shoot them with your bow; you didn't do any of that. It appeared to you that way, but in reality, I was the one who was doing it."
Suppose you read that and you get your mind around what Allah is saying in 8:17. When you do certain things, you're not really doing them. Then you read 4:157-158: "They said in boast, ‘We killed Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, the Apostle of God,’ but they killed him not, nor crucified him; but so it was made to appear to them. And those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no certain knowledge but only conjecture to follow; for of assuredly they killed him not; nay, God raised him up unto Himself."
If you read 4:157-158 after reading 8:17, are you going to think that this is Allah declaring, "No, you didn't kill Jesus; you didn't crucify him; you only think you did because I took another person and I miraculously changed his appearance to make him look like Jesus, and it was this other person that you crucified"? Is that how you would interpret this verse? Or would you go with the much simpler interpretation: "You think you killed Jesus? You think you crucified Jesus? You didn't do anything to Jesus that I didn't want to happen. You didn't cause Jesus to die; I caused Jesus to die."
What did Allah say in 3:55? Allah said to Jesus during Jesus' earthly ministry, "Oh Jesus, verily I will cause thee to die and will take thee up to myself." Who's really causing Jesus to die, according to Allah? Are the Jews causing Jesus to die? No. Are the Romans causing Jesus to die? No. Who's causing Jesus to die? Allah.
So if Allah told Jesus, "Jesus, I'm going to cause you to die, then I'm going to raise you up," and some Jews talking to Muhammad say, "Why should we believe in Jesus when we killed him?" How should Allah respond? He should respond by saying, "You may think you killed Jesus; it may have appeared to you that you exposed him as a false Messiah, but in reality, this was all part of my plan. This was something I was doing; I told Jesus this was going to happen; I told him I was going to cause him to die, and I completely vindicated him by raising him."
And that's exactly what Allah sounds like he's saying in 4:157-158 if we read the passage after reading 8:17: "You killed them not—but Allah killed them."
So putting all of this together, there is one—count him—one Quran verse that sounds like it's saying Jesus didn't die. There are other Quran verses that sound like they're saying Jesus did die. Most Muslim scholars over the centuries have decided to stick with their interpretation of the one verse that sounds like it's saying Jesus didn't die, and they use their interpretation of that one verse to reinterpret other Quran verses and to reject the consensus of historians and to accuse Allah of deceiving billions of people, undermining the work of his own prophet, and corrupting his own revelations, and helping the wrong group become uppermost, and starting the world's largest false religion—Christianity.
According to Muslims, we've got two main hypotheses here: one, Jesus died by crucifixion; two, Allah tricked people into believing that Jesus died by crucifixion. If we were to put all of the evidence and all of the different considerations that favor one hypothesis over the other into a balance, one side basically drops to the floor. The hypothesis that Jesus died by crucifixion is massively stronger than the hypothesis that Allah tricked people into believing that Jesus died by crucifixion.
Yet you can put all this information, and much more, in front of the average Muslim and ask him, "Did Jesus die?" and he'll reply with complete confidence, "No, Jesus didn't die; it says right there in Surah 4:157, 'They killed him not, nor crucified him.'"
So case closed.
The amazing thing about this is that Muslims are quite happy to reinterpret just about any other verse in the Quran. We ask our Muslim friends, "What does Allah mean when he says, ‘Fight those who believe not in God nor the Last Day?’" "Oh, he means only fight in self-defense." We ask, "What does Allah mean when he says that Christians and Jews have no ground to stand upon unless we stand fast by the Torah, the Injil, and the Gospel?" "Oh, he means that the Torah and the Gospel have been corrupted, so everyone just needs to go to the Quran."
Apparently, it's quite common for Allah to sound like he's saying one thing, even though he's actually saying something completely different. The only exception is 4:157; there Allah means exactly what he sounds like he means, even though the context, other Quran verses, history, and theology give us a lot of very, very good reasons to think that Allah means something different.
So why are most Muslims obsessed with substitution theory? Because they've been conditioned to always go along with whatever their sheikhs and imams say, and their sheikhs and imams don't want to admit that Jesus died and rose from the dead. Because believing in Jesus' death and resurrection might bring Muslims a little too close to Christianity. Can't have that!
So they just keep propagating substitution theory; they keep ignoring the context; they keep ignoring other Quran verses; they keep rejecting history; they keep rejecting scholarship.
But that raises an important final question for Muslims: My Muslim friends, is Islam the religion of submission to Allah, or is it the religion of submission to your sheikhs and imams? If Islam is the religion of submission to Allah, now would be a really good time to take a closer look at what Allah says, so that you don't falsely accuse him of saying things that he didn't say and of doing things that he didn't do.
And if your sheikhs and imams tell you something different—if they tell you to submit to them and not to Allah—you should probably find some better sheikhs and imams. But if you still think you can trust them, be sure to watch my video, "What the Quran Really Says About the Gospel," where I go through every single verse in the entire Quran that so much as mentions the Gospel. And oddly enough, I can't find one word about the Gospel being corrupted. In fact, Allah says the exact opposite of what your sheikhs and imams say.
How can you trust them when they lie to you?