Transcription
If I could change one thing at all in the realm of Christian apologetics it would be getting Christians and Muslims to understand what the Quran says about the Bible, about the Jewish and Christian scriptures. This would change the course of history and make the world a much better place. And I'm not exaggerating. Your average Muslim has no clue what the Quran says about the Bible. He thinks he knows what the Quran says about the Bible, but the Quran actually says the opposite of what he thinks it says. If he knew what the Quran actually says about the Bible, conversations between Christians and Muslims would go very, very differently.
As things are now, you're talking to your Muslim friend. He says he believes in Allah and Muhammad and the Quran. You say you believe that Jesus is Lord, that he died on the cross for sins and rose from the dead. At some point, your Muslim friend is going to have to say, "Well, you believe that because your Bible's been corrupted." So he has to declare that the Bible's been corrupted. He says the Bible's been corrupted because that's what he's been told by his sheikhs and imams. So the conversation then turns to the preservation of the Bible and textual criticism and stays on those kinds of issues forever.
But if you could show your Muslim friend that, according to the Quran, he has to believe in the inspiration, the preservation, and the authority of the Jewish and Christian scriptures, you would have some very interesting common ground to build upon. You and your Muslim friend would agree that the Bible is authoritative for you and for him, and you could then move on to showing him what the Bible says. Eventually, you could show him that since the Quran affirms the inspiration and the preservation and the authority of the Bible, and yet contradicts the Bible on basic doctrines, the Quran self-destructs and he should leave Islam. Wouldn't that be fun?
So why don't we do that? I'll show you how most Muslims, again, are convinced that the Quran teaches that Jews and Christians corrupted our scriptures. This is one of the main reasons Allah had to send the Quran. The Quran is supposed to correct the false teachings inserted into the Torah and the gospel by Jews and Christians, but this is simply a myth. The Quran never even hints that the Torah and the gospel are no longer reliable.
So if the Quran doesn't claim that the Torah and the gospel have been corrupted, what is the Quran's view of the Christian scriptures? In a nutshell, the position of the Quran is that Allah sent prophets into various parts of the world. In fact, everyone had their prophet, and he inspired scriptures for different groups of people around the world. These scriptures, these different scriptures, are reliable and authoritative for the groups that they were revealed to. Some members of these groups obey their scriptures and others don't.
As of the early seventh century, Arabs didn't have a revelation in their own language. But these Arabs couldn't simply trust what Jews and Christians were telling them, couldn't trust what Jews and Christians were just saying about the Torah and the gospel because some Jews and Christians misinterpret and misrepresent what is in the Torah and the gospel. So the Arabs needed a revelation in Arabic. That's why Allah sent Muhammad.
Now that Arabs have the Quran, a revealed book that they can understand for themselves in their own language, they're supposed to judge by the Quran. Other groups are supposed to judge by their own books. Jews are to judge by the Torah, Christians are to judge by the gospel, and so on. That's the real position of the Quran, and it's very different from what most Muslims believe.
But don't take my word for any of this; let's turn to the Quran. Go through the Quran and see if we can put together a true picture of the actual Islamic perspective on the Christian scriptures. In Surah 16, verse 36 of the Quran Allah says, "And certainly we have raised in every nation an apostle, saying, 'Serve Allah and shun false gods.'" An apostle was sent to every nation. The Arabs were the last to receive guidance, so Muhammad was the last of the prophets. Counting Muhammad, the Quran names 25 of them.
We find some examples in Surah 3, verse 84: "Say, we believe in Allah and in what has been revealed to us and in what was revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes and in what was given to Moses and Jesus and the prophets from their Lord. We do not make any distinction between any of them, and to him do we submit." Muslims are required to believe in the revelations given to all of Allah's prophets and messengers. They are not to make any distinction between any of these revelations.
I can't help but point out that if someone says all of the revelations are corrupted except mine, that's a pretty big distinction. Everyone else's revelations have been corrupted but not mine! That would be the distinction of all distinctions. The Quran commands Muslims to make no distinction between these various revelations around the world.
Allah also names some of the books that he revealed. For instance, the Quran affirms the inspiration of the Torah and the gospel in Surah 3:3-4: "He (Allah) has revealed to you the Book with truth, verifying that which was before it, and He revealed the Torah and the gospel a four time, a guidance for mankind, and He revealed the criterion (the Quran)." So Allah gave the Torah and the gospel as guidance for mankind.
What happened then? Did the Jews corrupt the Torah and did the Christians corrupt the gospel? Not according to the Quran. The Quran says that Jews and Christians still had the Torah and the gospel in the seventh century when Muhammad was preaching in Arabia. The Quran affirms the preservation of the Torah and the gospel in a variety of ways, some of which aren't very clear in translation.
Even here in Surah 3, verses 3-4 where the inspiration of the Torah and the gospel is obviously affirmed, the preservation of these texts is somewhat obscure in the English translation. The Quran is said to verify that which is before it. Does this mean before it in time? Is the Quran only saying that the Torah and the gospel were reliable when they were originally revealed, but not necessarily later? Or does it mean something much more significant?
Well, the Arabic phrase translated as "before it" here, which literally means "between its hands," when it's used as an idiom, "B Yi" means "in its presence." So the Quran isn't verifying books that came before it but were corrupted at some point in the past. The Quran is verifying books that were still available as it was being revealed. Since the Quran specifically refers to the Torah and the gospel here, the Torah and the gospel still existed and were verified as the word of Allah during the time of Muhammad.
Let's read the commentary of Muhammad Assad, a translator and commentator, just so you don't think I'm making stuff up. His commentary on the phrase "B" suggests that most of the commentators are of the opinion that "Ma Yi" – literally that which is between its hands – denotes here the revelations which came before it, i.e., before the Quran.
This interpretation is not, however, entirely convincing. Although there is not the least doubt that in this context the pronominal "Ma" refers to earlier revelations, particularly the Bible, as is evident from the parallel use of the above expression in other Quranic passages, the idiomatic phrase "Ma Yi" does not in itself mean that which came before it, i.e., in time, but rather that which lies open before it.
Since, however, the pronoun refers here to the Quran, the metaphorical expression "between its hands" cannot possibly refer to knowledge but must obviously refer to an objective reality with which the Quran is confronted. That is, something that was coexistent in time with the revelation of the Quran.
So when the Quran refers to the Torah and the gospel before the Quran, it's not saying before the Quran in time; it's saying the Torah and the gospel are there before the Quran as I would say, "I here I stand before you."
Interestingly, Muhammad Assad again, the translator and commentator, believed that the Torah and the gospel had been corrupted because he knew that the Torah and the gospel contradict the Quran. But he was forced, just based on the language, to acknowledge that the Quran is affirming something that was still available as Muhammad was receiving his revelations.
The Quran uses this phrase "Mai" (between his hands or in its presence) over and over again to show that it's confirming texts that were still present in the seventh century. Surah 6:92 states, "And this, the Quran, is a blessed book which we have sent down confirming that which is B Yi (between its hands or in its presence)." Surah 10:37 states, "And this Quran is not such as could ever be produced by other than Allah, but it is a confirmation of that which is B Yi (between its hands or in its presence)."
Again, these passages are referring to the earlier scriptures. Surah 35:31 says, "And that which we have revealed to you of the Book, that is the truth verifying that which is B (between its hands or in its presence)." Surah 46:30 states, "They said, 'Oh Our People, verily we have heard a book, the Quran, sent down after Moses verifying what is B (between its hands or in its presence).'"
It's as if Allah is saying, "How can I make it any clearer to you that I'm talking about texts that are still around, not about texts that were corrupted centuries ago?" Not surprisingly, since the Quran verifies the Torah and the gospel still in existence in the seventh century, it also declares that seventh-century Jews and Christians were still reading the Torah and the gospel.
In Surah 7, verse 157, we read, "Those who follow the messenger, the unlettered prophet" – most Muslims believe this is talking about Muhammad – "those who follow the messenger, the unlettered prophet whom they find written down with them in the Torah and the gospel, it is they who will prosper."
How can we be talking about Jews and Christians who find Muhammad mentioned in our book? How can we find Muhammad in the Torah and the gospel if we don't have the Torah and the gospel? The Quran is saying that there are parts of the Torah and the gospel that are about Muhammad. These are reliable even though the rest of it has been corrupted. How would you know that the parts about Muhammad weren't also corrupted? It seems like the argument wouldn't work very well.
What's the point of appealing to a book to validate your prophet if you're simultaneously claiming that the book you're appealing to as evidence and proof of your prophet has been corrupted? Contrary to charges of corruption, the Quran asserts that no one can change Allah's words.
In Surah 6:114-115, it states, "Shall I then seek a judge other than Allah? And He it is who has revealed to you the book made plain, and those to whom we have given the book know that it is revealed by your Lord with truth; therefore, you should not be of the disputers. And the word of your Lord has been accomplished, truly and justly; there is none who can change His words, and He is the Hearing, the Knowing."
There is none who can change Allah's words. Surah 18:27 states, "And recite what has been revealed to you of the Book of your Lord; there is none who can alter His words, and you shall not find any refuge besides Him." There is none who can alter His words. Who can corrupt Allah's words? Can the Apostle Paul? Or people at the Council of Nicaea? Can Christians? Can Jews? The answer is no one.
At this point, my Muslim friends usually say, "Well, this is just referring to the Quran." No one can corrupt His words in the Quran. But it doesn't just say that. It says no one can alter His words, and as we've seen, according to the Quran, the Torah and the gospel are Allah's words.
In case anyone's wondering whether I'm interpreting these verses correctly, I should point out that in Islam, Muhammad is considered the greatest interpreter of the Quran, and Muhammad was certainly indisputably convinced that Jews and Christians still had reliable scriptures.
In Sun Abu Daud 4449, Muhammad is judging a dispute among the Jews. Here's what happens: They set out a cushion; the judge would sit on the Judgment cushion. They set out a cushion for the messenger of Allah and he sat on it. Then he said, "Bring me the Torah!" It was brought, and he took the cushion from beneath him and placed the Torah on it.
Notice the imagery: he's setting the Torah on the Judgment cushion as the judge of this dispute! He placed the Torah on it and said, "I believe in you and in the one who revealed you." So the Jews have a copy of the Torah! Seventh-century Muhammad speaks to it and says, "I believe in you and in the one who revealed you." This goes far beyond confirming the initial inspiration of the Torah 2,000 years earlier. Muhammad confirms the Torah that the Jews still had in his time.
But Jews weren't the only ones whose scriptures had been accurately preserved. In Jamia Ter 2653, Muhammad's companion Abu narrates: "We were with the prophet when he raised his sight to the sky. Then he said, 'This is the time when knowledge is to be taken from the people until what remains of it shall not amount to anything.'"
So Zad bin Laith Al-Anari said, "How will it be taken from us while we recite the Quran?" Muhammad says knowledge is going to be taken away from my community. Someone objects, "What are you talking about? We recite the Quran! How's knowledge going to depart from us?" He says, "By Allah, we recite it and our women and children recite it."
He (Muhammad) said, "May you be bereaved of your mother!" That's a pretty harsh response. "I used to consider you among the fuqaha" – those are Islamic jurists of the people of Al-Medina. "The Torah and the gospel are with the Jews and Christians, but what do they avail of them?" Zad wants to know how it's possible for knowledge to depart from the Muslim community when they still have the Quran.
Muhammad points to the Jews and Christians and says they still have the Torah and the gospel, don't they? Muhammad's response makes no sense if he thought the Torah and the gospel had been corrupted because he's only bringing them up to show that just because you have reliable scriptures and you teach them and quote them, this doesn't mean you're on the right track.
So Muhammad certainly didn't believe that the Torah and the gospel had been corrupted. Muslims who maintain that the Christian scriptures have been corrupted are therefore claiming to understand what Allah says in the Quran better than their own prophet did. That's presumptuous.
But the Quran goes even further than defending the inspiration and preservation of the Torah and the gospel. The Quran insists that these texts are still authoritative.
In Surah 5, verse 43, some Jews come to Muhammad to settle a dispute. Watch Allah's response. This is how Allah responds to them: "Why do they come to you for judgment, O Muhammad, when they have the Torah before them wherein is the judgment of Allah? Yet they turn back after that, and these are not the believers."
Why are they coming to you, Muhammad, when they've got their own revelation? What are they doing with you? For according to the Quran, do Jews need the Quran? No, they've got their own book. According to Muslims today, do Jews need the Quran? According to Muslims today, Jews need the Quran because the Torah has been corrupted.
Notice they're saying the exact opposite of what their God says. What about Christians? Surah 5, verse 47 – this is just a few verses later. It's a few verses after Allah tells the Jews they don't need Muhammad. Allah commands Christians: "Let the people of the Gospel judge by what Allah hath revealed therein. If any do fail to judge by the light of what Allah hath revealed, they are no better than those who rebel."
According to the Quran, should Christians judge by the gospel? Absolutely! We're rebels if we don't. According to your Muslim friends, should Christians judge by the gospel? Of course not; it's been corrupted! They're saying the exact opposite of what their God says.
See the difference? If the Torah and the gospel have been corrupted, Jews and Christians have nowhere else to turn because in Surah 5:68, Allah tells Muhammad to say: "O people of the Book, you have no ground to stand upon unless you stand fast by the Torah, the gospel, and all the revelation that has come to you from your Lord."
We have no ground to stand upon unless we stand fast by what? Corrupt scriptures? That wouldn't make any sense. It wouldn't make any sense to say, "You have no ground to stand upon unless you stand upon corrupt scriptures."
Interestingly, the Torah and the gospel were authoritative even for Muhammad. When Muhammad was having doubts about his revelations – and he certainly had some doubts – he was commanded to go to the people of the Book, Jews and Christians, for confirmation.
So that we would confirm his revelations, Allah tells Muhammad in Surah 10:94, "But if you are in doubt as to what we have revealed to you, ask those who read the Book before you. Certainly, the truth has come to you from your Lord; therefore, you should not be of the disputers."
Why would Allah tell Muhammad to verify his revelations by checking with people who have corrupt revelations? The only way his revelations would line up with corrupt revelations was if his revelations were also corrupt.
So the Torah and the gospel are authoritative not only for Jews and Christians but even for Muhammad himself. Our book is the standard on whether his book is from God. Now, if the Torah and the gospel are the inspired, preserved, authoritative word of Allah, why did Allah need to send the Quran?
It tells us in Surah 46:12: "And before this Quran was the Book of Moses as a guide and a mercy, and this book (the Quran) confirms it in the Arabic language to admonish the unjust and as glad tidings to those who do right." The Quran confirms the Torah in Arabic.
Why Arabic? So that Muhammad could warn the Arabs. Surah 2:7 states, "And thus we have revealed to you, Muhammad, an Arabic Quran that you may warn the mother city Mecca and those around it."
And that you may give warning of the day of gathering together wherein is no doubt. "Part of shall be in the garden and another party shall be in the burning fire." If Allah hadn't given a revelation in Arabic, the Arabs would have had an excuse on the day of judgment.
In other words, if you didn't have a revelation in your own language, you could say, "I didn't know what I was supposed to do." Surah 6:155-157 states, "And this Quran is a book we have revealed as a blessing; therefore, follow it and guard against evil, that mercy may be shown to you. Lest you should say the book was only revealed to two parties before us and we were truly unaware of what they read, or lest you should say, 'If the book had been revealed to us, we would certainly have been better guided than they.'"
So Allah doesn't reveal the Quran because all other revelations have been corrupted. He reveals the Quran so that Arabs can't complain that they don't have a book in their own language.
By the way, my Muslim friends tell me that the Quran is the book for all people. All languages! Yet the Quran can only be understood in Arabic. If the point of revealing the Quran in Arabic – according to the Quran itself – was for a particular group of people to have a revelation in their own language so that they could understand it, what sense does it make to say that the Quran is the book for all people when the vast majority of the world's population can't understand Arabic?
What Muslims say over and over again completely contradicts what their own God and their own Prophet say. So the Quran's view, both of itself and of the Jewish and Christian scriptures, is quite different from the view held by Muslims today.
But how do Muslims respond when we show them that their book affirms the inspiration and the preservation and the authority of our book?
We'll quickly go through the four most common things they say. They can say other things, but these are the ones you'll hear over and over again.
First, Muslims state the obvious: they'll say, "But the Bible contradicts the Quran!" and they'll conclude that the Quran can't possibly be affirming a book that it contradicts. Sorry, but we know that the Bible contradicts the Quran. That's part of the Islamic dilemma.
The Quran affirms a book that contradicts the Quran. The fact that the Quran contradicts the Bible doesn't change the fact that the Quran affirms the Bible. If I were to say that I affirm the inspiration and the preservation and the authority of the Quran and then I contradict it, that would be a problem for me.
Thinking would be incoherent on this issue, and that's the point: the Quran is incoherent. It's affirming scriptures that contradict it. So that doesn’t help.
They'll also say when the Quran talks about the gospel, it's referring to a book that Jesus brought, not to the gospels Christians have today. Very common. They say this because of Surah 5 verse 46 of the Quran, which says that Allah gave Jesus the gospel. So they think that Allah gave Jesus a book that Jesus then gave to his followers, and they say that the Quran is only affirming this book that Allah gave to Jesus and not the gospels.
But that just doesn't work because the Quran says that Christians still have the gospel. The Quran says that Christians were still reading the gospel during the time of Muhammad. The Quran says that Christians have to judge by the gospel, and that we're rebels if we don't.
The Quran says that Christians have no ground to stand upon if we don't stand upon the gospel. So if the Quran is saying all of this about a book that we don’t have and that we’ve never even heard of, the Quran is even more incoherent than we thought.
We don't have a book that was given to Jesus. We can't read a book that we don't have. We can't judge by a book that we don't have. The Quran affirms a book that we have. Here's the book that we have. Do the math.
Third, Muslims will quote Surah 2, verse 79 of the Quran and claim that this verse is about the corruption of the Bible. The verse reads, "Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands and say, 'This is from Allah,' to purchase with it a little price. Woe to them for what their hands have written, and woe to them for what they earn thereby!"
See? It's talking about your Bible being corrupted. Nice try. There are literally dozens of problems with this response, but there's just no way this is talking about the corruption of the Bible.
In context, the Quran is discussing Muhammad's interactions with Jews. According to the Muslim commentary, Surah 2, verse 79 is either about some Jews writing a false prophecy about Muhammad and saying that it's the Torah, or it's about Jews who were writing blessings for non-Jews and saying that it's from the Torah and then selling these little blessings.
Either way, it can't possibly have anything to do with the Torah being corrupted because we've got the rest of the Quran, which constantly affirms the inspiration, the preservation, and the authority of the Torah. But even in the same chapter, so I'll just glance at a couple of verses from the exact same chapter, both before it and after it for context.
Surah 2:40-41 says, "O children of Israel, call to mind the special favor which I bestowed upon you, and fulfill your covenant with me as I fulfill my covenant with you and fear none but me, and believe in what I reveal, confirming the revelation which is with you."
Allah says He's confirming the revelation that they still had. Doesn't sound like He thought it was corrupted. Surah 2:85 – Allah rebukes the Jews for violating the commands of the Torah. Look at what He says:
"Yet it is you who slay your people and turn a party from among you out of their homes, backing each other up against them unlawfully and exceeding the limits, and if they should come to you as captives, you would ransom them. While their very turning out was unlawful for you. Do you then believe in a part of the Book (Torah) and disbelieve the other? What then is the reward for such among you as do this but disgrace in the life of this world? And on the Day of Resurrection, they shall be sent to the most grievous chastisement. And Allah is not at all heedless of what you do."
Did you catch that? Allah condemns them for believing part of the Torah and not all of it, and He says He'll send them to hell for only believing part of the Torah and not all of it. What do our Muslim friends tell us?
They tell us to only believe in the parts of the Torah that line up with Islam and to not believe the rest, which Allah says is a one-way ticket to hell. Here again, and there are plenty of these: Surah 2:101 – "And when there cometh unto them a messenger from Allah confirming that which they possess, a party of those who have received the scripture fling the scripture of Allah behind their backs as if they knew it not."
Notice a messenger from Allah—that's Muhammad. When Muhammad comes confirming that which they possess, talking about their scripture that they have, the Quran here condemns Jews, I mean, yeah, condemns Jews for rejecting Muhammad when Muhammad confirms that which they possess.
According to the Quran, do Allah and Muhammad confirm the Torah that Jews possess? Absolutely, indisputably. According to Muslims today, do Allah and Muhammad confirm the Torah that Jews still possess? Not at all! They constantly contradict their own God and their own prophet, and they just don't realize it. That’s why we have to tell them.
Finally, here, Surah 3, verse 78 – they quote this to show that the Bible's been corrupted. Fortunately, this just requires the ability to read words off a page to see the problem: "And lo, there was a party of them who distort the scripture with their tongues that you may think that what they say is from the scripture when it is not from the scripture, and they say it is from Allah when it is not from Allah, and they speak a lie concerning Allah knowingly."
What's it actually say? Corruption of the scripture? It says they distort their scripture with their tongues. It’s talking about speech—talking about misrepresenting what's in the scripture! It's about people misrepresenting what the Bible says, not about people corrupting the text in the Bible.
On the contrary, since it says at the end there that they distort the scripture with their tongues and that they do it knowingly, they would have to still have uncorrupted scripture if they know that they're twisting the scripture with their tongues.
So these are the main reasons Muslims give when they try to respond to the obvious fact that the Quran affirms our scriptures. These are not good responses, but fortunately, there are Muslims who are starting to admit what the Quran actually says.
Here's Dr. Abdullah S. Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne, who writes, "Since the authorized scriptures of Jews and Christians remain very much the same today as they existed in the time of Muhammad, it is difficult to argue that the Quranic references to 'Torat' and 'Injil' (Torah and Gospel) were only to the pure Torat and Injil, as existed at the time of Moses and Jesus respectively.
If the texts have remained more or less as they were in the seventh century CE, the reverence the Quran has shown them at that time should be retained even today. Many interpreters of the Quran, from Tabari to Razi to Ibn al-Jawzi, and even Ibn Kathir, appear to be inclined to share this view.
The wholesale dismissive attitude held by many Muslims in the modern period towards the scriptures of Judaism and Christianity do not seem to have the support of either the Quran or the major figures of Tafsir. Our hope is that our Muslim friends will soon come to have the same reverence for the Torah and the Gospel that we find in the Quran and in the teachings of Muhammad.
So just to put everything together, I've got two books here: the Bible and the Quran. Always make sure your Bible is bigger than the Quran; that's a psychological impact. Like, "Oh, what's your cute little book say? I'm going to show you what my big book says."
But we've got this book, and this book affirms the inspiration, preservation, and authority of this book. Notice we call it a dilemma because there are only two possibilities here: either we have the inspired, preserved, authoritative word of God here or we don't. One or the other!
If we have the inspired, preserved, authoritative word of God here, Islam is false because Islam contradicts the inspired, preserved, authoritative word of God on basic fundamental doctrines. If, on the other hand, we don't have the inspired, preserved, authoritative word of God here, Islam is false because Islam affirms the inspiration and the preservation and the authority of what we have.
So if we have the word of God, Islam is false. If we don't have the word of God, Islam is false. Either way, Islam is false. That's a pretty big problem, and we want our Muslim friends to understand that so that they leave Islam. And that, my friends, is the Islamic dilemma.