Islam, the Qur’an and Mohammad

Muhammad Part I

Muhammad is one of the most controversial person in the history of mankind. Muslims believe that he is the greatest prophet, the seal of the prophets, and that no prophet will come after him. Christians believe that Muhammad is a false prophet.

More than eight hundred million human beings confess Islam, the religion Muhammad founded. Therefore it is important to know Muhammad and his teachings. It is fitting that we study Muhammad's life from his birth to his death as well as the Qur’an. Thomas Carlyle, a Scottish historian who lived between 1795 and 1881, wrote concerning Muhammad:

Is it possible that so many creatures have lived and died for something which must be regarded as a tragic fraud?

Because of the great number of people who follow Muhammad and his religion, Islam, Carlye assumed that Muhammad was sincere and original. Carlyle forgot what the Lord Jesus Christ said:

Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it (Matthew 7:13, 14, NKJ)

We cannot judge any religion by the number of its adherents.

Alighieri Dante, the Italian poet who lived between the years 1265 and 1321 A.D., wrote THE DIVINE COMEDY. In it he describes Muhammad, with his body split from the head down to the waist, in the twenty-eight sphere of the inferno and shows him tearing apart his severed breast with his own hands, because he is the chief among the damned souls who have brought schism into religion.

To the medieval mind, Muhammad's claim to deliver a divine revelation, superseding Judaism and Christianity, can only be regarded as an implausible fraud. Yet, Anis Mansoor, a well known Egyptian journalist, wrote a book entitled “The distinguished personalities in history are one hundred, Muhammad is the greatest of them”. How can there be such diverse and extreme opinions regarding one man such as there are about Muhammad?

Let us study this man Muhammad. Let us also study the Qur’an.

Here you will find a documented analysis of Muhammad's life: his roots, his marriages, his call, his migration, his battles, and his death. It is also a documented analysis of the Qur’an

What is the Qur’an? The Qur’an is the Muslim's Holy Book - they call it "The Glorious Qur'an" or "Al-Mushaf Al-Shareef." The Qur’an came almost 600 years after Christ. Many of its contents contradict the Bible and it records many of the Bible stories with great distortion. It commands the killing of Jews and Christians, permits polygamy, permits the husband to beat his wife, and permits a Muslim man to marry a Christian or a Jewish woman, but forbids the Muslim woman to marry a Christian or a Jew. Many more things are mentioned in this book.

It would be helpful for not Arabic speaking readers to buy a translation of the Qur’an and read it carefully to see the great contradictions between it and the Bible, and at the same time to discover the discrepancies in the Qur’an itself.

This writing compares the Qur’an and the Bible. It has been written after many years of research to inform people concerning Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, and the Qur’an.
It is offered with much prayer.

MUHAMMAD FROM HIS BIRTH TO HIS DEATH

MUHAMMAD'S ROOTS AND HIS FIRST MARRIAGE

Muhammad was born in Mecca in the Arabian Peninsula in the year 570 A.D. to a pagan family who worshipped idols and had no faith in God. It is of great interest to note that the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, does not mention Muhammad's birth, his father or his mother, or any of his ancestors. The only ones who are mentioned in the Qur’an are Abu Lahab, Muhammad's uncle, and his wife. In Surat Al-Lahab both were destined to hell fire because Abu Lahab refused to support Muhammad and ridiculed him. (Surat Al-Lahab 111:1-5).

But we read in the Bible about Moses' father and mother and all the details of his birth (Exodus 2:1-10). Moses was born into a family of strong faith in God as we read in the letter to the Hebrews:

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw he was a proper child: and they were not afraid of the king's commandment (Hebrews 11:23 NKJ).

The New Testament also gives the details of Jesus' birth and how it fulfilled the prophecies concerning him (Matthew 1:18-23; Luke 1:26-38 and 2:1-13). Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary to whom the angel Gabriel was sent from God to announce his birth:

And the angel came in unto her, and said, "Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women... behold thou shall conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke 1:28-33).

The only source of information concerning Muhammad's roots is found in the Arabic book Alsera Alnabawia (The Biography of Muhammad) written in 758 A.D. by Ibn Ishaq, edited in 833 A.D. by Ibn Hesham, and also by other Arab biographers.

The full name of Muhammad is Muhammad Ibn (Ibn means son) Abdullah, Ibn Abdul-Muttalib, Ibn Hashim, Ibn Admanaf, Ibn Qussai. Ibn Hesham mentioned in his book tha Qussai, the great grandfather of Muhammad, was the governor of Mecca and the Guardian of the Kaaba where three hundred and sixty idols were worshipped by the different Arab tribes. The Kaaba was the holy shrine of the Arabs.

Muhammad's father's name was Abdullah, which means the "slave of Allah." We can see from that name that Allah was a deity known to the Arabs before Islam. He is the moon god and not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible, whom the Jews and Christians worshipped, was not called Allah but Jehovah (Psalm 83:18).

Abdullah died before Muhammad's birth. When he was born, his mother Aminah, daughter of Wahab, could not breast feed him, so she gave him to a woman by the name of "Halima" to nurse him with her son.

Muhammad's mother Aminah died when he was six years old and his grandfather, Abdul Muttalib, assumed responsibility for him. After the death of his grandfather, his uncle Abu-Talib cared for him.

The only verse we read in the Qur’an concerning Muhammad's childhood is recorded in Surat Al-Duha 93:6:

Did He not find thee and orphan and give thee shelter?

Muhammad's childhood was difficult. Loneliness left its toll on his life.

Arabian Society in Muhammad's Time

Muhammad's uncle Abu-Talib was a merchant and he used to take Muhammad with him on trading caravans across Arabia. Muhammad was introduced to the surrounding world and many different kinds of people during these journeys with his uncle.

H.A.R. Gibb, professor of Arabic at Oxford University, wrote in his book, MUHAMMADANISM:

Mecca at this time was no sleepy hollow, remote from the noise and bustle of the world. A busy and wealthy commercial town, almost monopolizing the entrepot trade between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean, it recalls Palmyra without the flasy Greek veneer. Its citizens, while preserving a certain native Arab simplicity in their manners and institutions, had acquired a wide knowledge of men and cities in their intercourse, commercial and diplomatic, with Arab tribesmen and Roman officials. Amongst their leaders these experiences had stimulated intellectual faculties and moral qualities of prudence and self-restraint rare in Arabia (MOHAMMEDANISM, pages 24, 25).

Arabia was largely paganistic, but we have to remember that Judaism and Christianity were both present. Jewish tribes had lived in Arabia for hundreds of years by the time Muhammad was born. They were established, prosperous, and were well respected.

There were also many Christian cults in Arabia: the Ebionites who denied the deity of Christ: the Docetic Gnostic who emphasized His deity but denied His humanity; the Arians who attributed to Him a subordinate deity; and the Nestorians, who denied the proper union of His two natures.

In one of these caravans Muhammad met Buhaira, a Nestorian monk. Ibn Hesham recorded that Buhaira looked at Muhammd's back and saw a mole on it, which was supposed to be a sign of prophet hood, and warned his uncle Abu-Talib to protect him from the Jews.

In addition to these cults there were also true Christians in Arabia. We will read Muhammad's response to all of them in the Qur’an.

Muhammad's First Marriage

A wealthy Meccan widow, Khadija, hired Muhammad to manage her business. After a short time she fell in love with him and sent her maid, Nafisa, to propose marriage to him on her behalf, He was twenty-five years old, she was forty. Muhammad accepted her proposal of marriage as her wealth was more important to him than her age. Muhammad's marriage to Khadija assured him of prestige among his tribe, the tribe of Quraysh (THE MIND CRISIS IN ISLAM, page 89, written by Mustafa Geha).

Her cousin, Bishop Waraka Ibn Nofal, who was the Ebionite Christian Bishop of Mecca, officiated at the marriage ceremony. So Muhammad's marriage was in a way a Christian marriage, which explains why Muhammad did not marry any other woman as long os Khadija lived (KASSON WANABI - A Bishop and a Prophet, page 37).

This marriage indicates that before Islam there were women in the Arabian peninsula who were in control of their lives, and who could hire men to manage their businesses. Muhammad lived with Khadija in Mecca and she provided for him a constant source of support and a comfortable lifestyle.

MUHAMMAD FROM HIS BIRTH TO HIS DEATH

MUHAMMAD'S CALL

After Muhammad's marriage to Khadija, Bishop Waraka Ibn Nofal befriended him and set his mind to train and disciple Muhammad to succed him as the Ebionite Bishop of Mecca. Muhammad's prosperous union with Khadija gave him time for solitude at the cave fo Mount Hira in a suburb of Mecca. It was there that Bishop Waraka began to teach and train him.

Bishop Waraka taught Muhammad many of the Old and New Testament stories of the Bible. These stories are mentioned in the Qur’an with great distortion. He also taught Muhammad about Jesus according to the Ebionites' belief, which as we mentioned before denies the deity of Christ.

One night when Muhammad was forty years old, he was alone in the cave of Hira when a spirit appeared to him at the door of the cave. That spirit grasped him suddenly and squeezed him until he thought he would die and commanded him, "Read."

"I cannot read," Muhammad answered, because he was illiterate. The spirit squeezed him again so tightly he that thought he would die, and commanded him again, "Read." "I cannot read," he answered. The The spirit tightened his grasp and squeezed him more and said for the third time, "Read." Afraid that he might die, Muhammad said, "What shall I read?" The spirit said:

Read: in the name of thy Lord who Createth. Createth man from a clot. Read: and thy Lord is the Most Bounteous, Who teacheth by the pen, Teacheth man that which he knew not (Surat Al-Alaq 96:1-5 MPT)

Then the spirit disappeared. Muhammad returned to his wife, frightened and in great distress. He worried that what had happened to him was an hallucination or the appearance of a jinni. The READER'S DIGEST ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIC DICTIONARY defines the word "Jinni" as follows:

Jinni: (plural Jinn) in Muslim legend, a spirit capable assuming human or animal form and exercising supernatural influence over man.

Muhammad asked Khadija to cover him for he was shivering. Khadija covered him, surprised by his fear, his shivering, and his pale face. Khadija took Mohammad to her cousin, Bishop Waraka Ibn Nofal, who declared his belief that Muhammad was chosen to be the prophet of his people. Keep in mind it was an Ebionite Bishop who declared that Muhammad was a prophet! Muhammad declared in his Qur’an in Surat Al-Imran 3:19:

The religion before Allah is Islam.

Again in verse 85 of the same Surat:

If anyone desires a religion other than Islam, never will it be accepted of him; and in the hereafter he will be in the ranks of those who have lost.

In Surat Al-Ahzab 33:40 we read:

Muhammad is… the Messenger of Allah and the Seal  of the Prophets.

Analysis Of Muhammad's Call

At this point we have to analyze Muhammad's call to decide if he is a true or a false prophet. We will address this issue with the following questions:

First: Since Islam is the only religion accepted before Allah and Muhammad is the seal of the prophets as the Qur’an declares, why was it that the call of Muhammad came through that spirit and not by a direct call from God?

Moses, the founder of Judaism, received a direct call from God. God spoke to him from the midst of the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-10). The Qur’an declares in Surat Al-Nisa 4:164:

And to Moses Allah spoke direct.

If Islam is superior to Judaism and Christianity, Muhammad should have received a direct call from God. Instead, he passed through that terrible experience at the cave of Hira when the spirit squeezed him, and he thought he would die.

Second: Who will testify concerning that call? Muhammad was the only witness to that experience. One witness is not acceptable in substantiating such a claim.

God said in the book of Deuteronomy 19:15:

By the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.

Jesus Christ said to the Jews of his days:

If I bear witness of Myself, my witness is not true. There is another that bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true. You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved…But I have a greater witness than John's, for the works which the Father has given me to finish - the very works that I do - bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me. And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me…You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me (John 5:31-39 NKJ).

Christ has four witness:

- The testimony of John the Baptist.
- The testimony of the miracles He performed.
- The testimony of the Heavenly Father.
- The testimony of the prophetic word.

Muhammad is the only witness for himself. We cannot accept his sole testimony

Third: God authenticated the call of Moses with miracles and He witnessed His Son, Jesus Christ, with miracles. Why was it that Muhammad was unable to perform miracles?

Concerning Moses' miracles, the Bible says:

Israel also came into Egypt, and Jacob dwelt in the land of Ham…He sent Moses His servant, and Aaron whom He had chosen. They performed His signs (miracles) among them, and wonders in the land of Ham. He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they did not rebel against His word. He turned their waters into blood, and killed their fish. Their land abounded with frogs, even in the chambers of their kings. He spoke, and there came swarms of flies, and lice in all their territory. He have them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land. He struck their vines also and their fig trees, and splintered the trees of their territory. He spoke, and locust came, young locusts without number, and ate up all vegetation in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground. He also destroyed all the firstborn in their land, the first of all their strength. (Psalms 105:23, 26-36 NKJ).

The Qur’an declares:

To Moses We did give nine Clear signs (miracles) (Surat Al-Isra 17:101).

The Bible recorded ten miracles, not nine.

We also read about Jesus' miracles in the New Testament. Jesus said to His disciples:

Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves (John 14:11 NKJ).

In his Gospel, the apostle John recorded many miracles Jesus performed. At the end of his Gospel he says:

And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name (John 20:30, 31 NKJ).

The Qur’an also declares that Jesus Christ performed many miracles. He healed the man who was born blind, and the leper, and raised the dead (Surat Al-Imran 3:49).

But Muhammad declared that he could not perform any miracles. The Qur’an does not mention a single miracle attributed to him. The Qur’an declares in Surat Al-Ankabut 29:50:

Yet they say: "Why are not signs sent down to him from his Lord?" Say (Muhammad): "The signs are indeed with Allah and I am indeed a clear warner."

In Surat Al-Isra Muhammad's contemporaries asked him to perform a miracle so that they could believe in him. Muhammad answered:

Glory to my Lord! Am I aught but a man, a messenger (Surat Al-Isra 17:93).

Muhammad's call was not authenticated by miracles.

Who Was The Spirit That Squeezed Muhammad At The Cave?

It is of great importance to identify the spirit who squeezed Muhammad at the cave of Hira near Mecca. After his encounter with the spirit, Muhammad was afraid that what happened to him was from a Jinni. Then later, Muhammad declared in the Qur’an that the spirit who squeezed him was the angel Gabriel. We read in Surat Al-Baqarah 2:97:

Say: Whoever is an enemy to Gabriel - for he brings down the (revelation) to the heart by Allah's will, a confirmation of what went before, and guidance and glad tidings for those who believe.

Was the spirit really the angel Gabriel?

The answer is: Absolutely not!

First: Had the spirit been Gabriel, he would have calmed Muhammad and relieved his fear. But the spirit left him in extreme distress.

Gabriel appeared to many people before his alleged visit to Muhammad and each time the first thing he did was to allay that person's fear.

Gabriel appeared to the prophet Daniel. Daniel was afraid but Gabriel touched him, he did not squeeze him, he only touched him:

And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, "Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision." So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face…but he touched me, and set me upright… (Daniel 8:16-18).

Gabriel appeared to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, who is called Yihia in the Qur’an; he identified himself and said to Zacharias:

Do not be afraid, Zacharias... I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God (Luke 1:13, 19).

Gabriel appeared to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary was greatly troubled but Gabriel said to her:

Do not be afraid, Mary (Luke 1:30).

But the spirit who squeezed Muhammad left him frightened and in great distress. Therefore the spirit could not have been the angel Gabriel.

Second: Had the spirit been Gabriel, he would not have contradicted his former revelations.

Six hundred years before Muhammad, Gabriel said to Mary when he appeared to her:

The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called Son of God (Luke 1:35).

But the spirit who appeared to Muhammad said to him:

…and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah. That is their saying with their mouths. They imitate the saying of those who disbelieved (literally those who are infidels) of old. Allah (Himself) fighteth against them. How perverse are they (Surat Al-Tawbah 9:30 MPT).

Gabriel said to Mary that Jesus would be called the Son of God. The spirit who gave the revelations to Muhammad said that this is the saying of the infidels, and declares that Allah Himself fights against the Christians who confess that Jesus is the Son of God. Was the spirit really the angel Gabriel? Could Gabriel contradict himself in such an important matter?

Third: Had the spirit been Gabriel, Khadija would have believed Muhammad's testimony and would not have tested the spirit the way she did.

We are told by Ibn Hesham, who wrote Muhammad's biography, that Khadija tested the spirit who squeezed Muhammad. She said to Muhammad:

"Would you please tell me when the spirit comes to you?" When Muhammad told her of the spirit's arrival, Khadija said "Muhammad, sit on my left thigh." Muhammad sat on her left thigh. "Do you see the spirit?" she asked. "Yes." "Then sit on my right thigh." Muhammad sat on her right thigh. "Do you see the spirit?" she asked. "Yes," he answered. "Then sit on my lap." Muhammad sat on her lap. "Do you see the spirit?" she asked. "Yes," he answered. Khadija uncovered a feminine part of her body while Muhammad was sitting on her lap. "Do you see the spirit?" "No," he answered. Then Khadija said, "Muhammad, that spirit is an angel, not a devil" (Ibn Hesham, part 2, pages 74, 75).

What a strange way to test a spirit!

Fourth: Had the spirit been Gabriel he would not have given a false scientific revelation to Muhammad.

The spirit said to Muhammad:

Read: in the name of thy Lord who Createth. Createth man from a clot (Surat Al-Alaq 96:1-5).

These words are scientifically wrong. Professor Haanein Muhammad Makhloof, on page 508 of his Dictionary of the Meanings of Words of the Qur’an, says that the Arabic word "alaq" translated into English as "clot" means frozen blood. Man was created from the dust of the ground, not from frozen blood. Even the Qur’an states this fact:

Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: "I am about to create man from clay. When I have fashioned him and breathed into him of My spirit, fall ye down in prostration unto him" (Surat Sad 38:71, 72).

Here the Qur’an contradicts itself. In one instance it says that many was created from "a clot" which means "frozen blood," while in another it says that man was created from "clay." The fact is, man was created from the dust of the ground as the Bible states.

Dr. William Campbell in his book, The Qur’an and The Bible, says on page 185:

As every reader who has studied human reproduction will realize, there is no state as a clot during formation a fetus, so this a very major scientific problem.

Would the angel Gabriel make such a scientific error?

Fifth: Had the spirit been Gabriel, he would have taught Mohammad to read and write.

The Qur’an declares that Allah taught Jesus how to write. In Surat Al-Imran 3:48 it is said concerning Jesus:

And Allah will teach him the book and wisdom, the Torah and the Gospel.

Ibn Katheir in his exposition of the Qur’an (Vol. 1, page 344), says:

The book mentioned here means writing.

We would expect that Muhammad, who calls himself the seal of the prophets, would be taught to read and write. The spirit said in his revelation to Muhammad:

Read; and thy Lord the Most Bounteous, who teaches by the pen, teacheth man that which he knew not (Surat Al-Alaq 96:3-4).

The question is, if God teaches man that which he knew not by the pen, why did He not teach Muhammad how to read and write, instead of leaving him illiterate all his life?

There came a time when Muhammad was in doubt concerning the revelations he received from the spirit. The Qur’an recorded:

If thou wert in doubt as to what we have revealed unto thee, then ask those who have been reading the Book from before thee: The truth hath indeed come to thee from thy Lord; so be in no wise of those in doubt (Surat Yunus 10:94).

The "Book" mentioned in this verse is the Bible, and that shows very clearly that the Bible was the final authority for Muhammad even when he was in doubt. If Muhammad had been a learned man he would have known the truth directly from the Bible. But the spirit left him illiterate.

Muhammad had the right to be in doubt of the revelations given to him by the spirit which appeared to him at the cave of Hira, for that spirit was not the angel Gabriel. If he was a learned man, he would have known what the New Testament says concerning Satan:

And no Wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14 NKJ).

It is obvious that Muhammad was totally deceived, for he was illiterate, and could not search for the truth as it is recorded in the Holy Scriptures which were available in his time.

Muhammad's Call Was Not Like the Call Of Moses Or Jesus, Who Were Sent On A Special Mission

Moses' mission as expressed in the Bible was:

Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt (Exodus 3:10 NKJ).

We know that Moses fulfilled his mission to the letter. Jesus Christ declared His own mission in these words:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (Luke 4:18, 19 NKJ).

The spirit who squeezed Muhammad did not assign to him any special mission. He merely said to him:

Read: In the name of thy Lord who Createth, Createth man from a clot (Surat Al-Alaq 96:1-5).

Source: http://www.thespiritofislam.com/books/imk/index.html

Continues on Part II

IHS