Addressing
the objections of a Muslim greenhorn
I am going to be responding to some of the objections that a
particular Muhammadan polemicist raised in the following “rebuttal”: https://mustafasahin33.wordpress.com/2016/08/26/does-the-quran-approve-the-bible-vs-does-christians-approve-the-bible/
The neophyte writes:
Point 2:
If Christians want to assert that the Quran does not assert the
Bible is Contaminated with false information. Then why do Christian Apologist
and Scholars them selves attest that there are ” Un-Authentic Narrations
attached to todays New Testament? So it is clear that Christians are not even
consistent with there own argument’s. Why then do Christians not accept
everything as Canonical inspired and Authentic?
For instance have a look at this:
Christian Apologist “David Wood” says; Every Scholar in the
World agree the last part of Marks Gospel ” Un -Authentic” Proof: Forward to 3
Minute 42 seconds.
In this Video Debate with Ali Ataie admits that the last part of
Marks Gospel is Un-Authentic.
Watch: https://youtu.be/Uko0Saf-orQgg
It is now evidently clear that Both Muslims and Christians agree
” Not Everything in the Bible is Authentically Realiable [sic]. So if Christians
want to accuse Muslims for misinterpreting the Quran for speaking corruption on
the Bible, why then do Modern Day Christian Scholars attest to Fabrications and
Alterations in the Bible?
RESPONSE
The foregoing is brimming with so many logical fallacies that it
almost makes me feel sorry for this greenhorn… almost!
Some of the fallacies committed by this Muhammadan include
strawman, red herrings, non-sequitur, fallacy of distraction, fallacy of false
effect, smoke and mirrors etc.
We are now going to help the greenhorn see how he committed
these fallacies in order to prevent him from writing any more rebuttals that
are so bad that they even make the Quran look coherent and logical by
comparison.
In the first place, bringing up the issue of textual corruptions
or variant readings of the Holy Bible does absolutely nothing to refute the
fact that Muhammad confirmed the Scriptures in the possession of the Jews and
Christians as the uncorrupt, preserved words of God. The only thing that the
neophyte’s argument proves (if correct) is that Muhammad was a false prophet
who didn’t know what he was talking about, since he mistakenly thought that the
Holy Bible had been perfectly preserved, when in fact it had been corrupted
beyond restoration.
I will simplify this even further so that the neophyte can see
his blunder.
The Bible can be an unreliable source even though Muhammad
believed it to be the perfectly preserved Word of God. As such, there is no
correlation between the Bible being changed and Muhammad’s belief that the
biblical Books in the possession of the Jews and Christians were the uncorrupt,
preserved words of God.
The greenhorn is, therefore, operating under the false
assumption that if he can show that the Bible has been changed then this
somehow proves that Muhammad and his Quran do not bear witness to the textual
reliability and authority of the Holy Bible. Yet, as we stated, all this proves
is that Muhammad was a false prophet (and he was but for other reasons) for erroneously
thinking that the Holy Bible is the perfectly preserved revelation that God had
given to the Jews and Christians.
I will put this in the form of a syllogism in order to further
assist the greenhorn in comprehending this argument:
1.
Muhammad thought that the biblical
Books which the Jews and Christians possessed at his time were the uncorrupt
revelations that God had originally sent down through the prophets and
messengers.
2.
The manuscript tradition of the Holy
Bible shows that the Books of Holy Scripture have been changed and tampered
with, so that God’s original revelations have not been perfectly preserved.
3.
Muhammad was, therefore, mistaken for
thinking otherwise, which in turn proves he was a false prophet since he
obviously didn’t know what he was talking about.
This leads us to our second point. The neophyte’s objection
fails to tell us what are the Torah and Gospel, which the Quran and ahadith
testify were in existence at Muhammad’s time?
Note, for instance, what the proceeding verses say:
“… A promise binding upon Him in truth; It IS IN the Torah [of Musa
(Moses)], THE GOSPEL [of Isa (Jesus)], and the Quran (revealed to
the Prophet Muhammad)…” S. 9:111 Syed Vickar Ahamed https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/9/st28.htm
“those who follow the Messenger, ‘the Prophet of the common
folk, whom they
find written down WITH THEM in the Torah and the Gospel…’” S. 7:157
Arberry
Here is another rendering:
“Those who follow the Rasul,
the Ummi (unlettered) Nabi (whose
natural disposition has not been corrupted and original purity is preserved)
who has been stated in
the Torah and the Gospel IN THEIR HANDS…” Ahmed Hulusi https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/7/st63.htm
Finally:
Yet how will they make thee their judge seeing THEY HAVE THE
TORAH, wherein IS God’s judgment, then thereafter turn their backs? They
are not believers. Surely
We sent down the Torah, wherein IS guidance and light; thereby
the Prophets who had surrendered themselves gave judgment for those of Jewry,
as did the masters and the rabbis, following such portion of God’s Book as they
were given to keep and were witnesses to. So fear not men, but fear you Me; and
sell not My signs for a little price. Whoso judges not according to what God has sent down
— they are the unbelievers. And therein We prescribed for them: ‘A life for a life, an eye for an
eye, a nose for a nose, an ear for an ear, a tooth for a tooth, and for wounds
retaliation’; but whosoever forgoes it as a freewill offering, that
shall be for him an expiation. Whoso
judges not according to what God has sent down — they are the evildoers.
And We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus son of Mary, confirming the Torah before him
(Ar. musaddiqan
lima bayna yadayhi minal-tawrati–confirming that which is between his hands of the
Torah) and We gave to him the Gospel, wherein IS guidance and light, and
confirming the Torah before it (Ar. wa’musaddiqan lima bayna yadayhi
minal-tawrati), as a guidance and an admonition unto the godfearing. So let
the People of the Gospel judge according to what God has sent down THEREIN.
Whosoever judges not according to what God has sent down — they are the ungodly.
S. 5:43-47
And now pay close attention to the following narrations:
Narrated Abdullah Ibn Umar:A group of Jews came and invited the
Apostle of Allah to Quff. So he visited them in their school.
They said: AbulQasim, one of our men has committed fornication
with a woman; so pronounce judgment upon them. They placed a cushion for the
Apostle of Allah who sat on it and said: Bring the Torah. It was then
brought. He then withdrew the cushion from beneath him AND PLACED THE TORAH ON
IT saying: I BELIEVED IN THEE and in Him WHO REVEALED THEE.
He then said: Bring me one who is learned among you. Then a
young man was brought. The transmitter then mentioned the rest of the tradition
of stoning similar to the one transmitted by Malik from Nafi’ (No. 4431).”
Grade: Hasan (Al-Albani) (Sunan Abu Dawud, Book
38. Kitab al
Hudud (“The Book of Prescribed Punishments”), Number
4434 https://sunnah.com/abudawud/40/99;
capital and underline emphasis ours)
36 Tribulations
(26) Chapter: The disappearance of the Quran and Knowledge
It was narrated that Ziyad bin Labid said:
“The Prophet mentioned something and said: ‘That will be at the
time when knowledge (of Qur’an) disappears.’ I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, how
will knowledge disappear when we read the Qur’an and teach it to our children,
until the Day of Resurrection?’ He said: ‘May your mother be bereft of you,
Ziyad! I thought that you were the wisest man in Al- Madinah. Is it not
the case that these Jews and Christians READ THE TAWRAH AND THE INJIL, but
they do not act upon anything of what is in them?’”
Grade: Da’if (Darussalam)
Reference: Sunan Ibn Majah 4048
In-book reference: Book 36, Hadith 123
English translation: Vol. 5, Book 36, Hadith 4048
(sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah/36/123;
capital and underline emphasis ours)
41 Chapters on Knowledge
(5) Chapter: What Has Been Related About Knowledge Leaving
Narrated Jubair bin Nufair:
from Abu Ad-Darda who said: “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 Ziyad bin Labid Al-Ansari said: ‘How will it be taken from us
while we recite the Qur’an. By Allah we recite it, and our women and children
recite it?’ He said: ‘May you be bereaved of your mother O Ziyad! I used to
consider you among the Fuqaha of the people of Al-Madinah. The Tawrah
and Injil ARE WITH THE JEWS AND CHRISTIANS, but what do they avail of them?‘”
Jubair said: “So I met ‘Ubadah bin As-Samit and said to him: ‘Have you not
heard what your brother Abu Ad-Darda said?’ Then I informed him of what Abu
Ad-Darda said. He said: ‘Abu Ad-Darda spoke the truth. If you wish, we shall
narrated to you about the first knowledge to be removed from the people: It is
Khushu’, soon you will enter the congregational Masjid, but not see any man in
it with Khushu’.'”
Grade: SAHIH (Darussalam)
Reference: Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2653
In Book Reference: Book 41, Hadith 9
English translation: Vol. 5, Book 39, Hadith 2653
(sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi/41/9;
capital and underline emphasis ours)
With the foregoing in view, here are some questions that this
neophyte needs to answer, which he has thus far failed to address.
What Torah and Gospel did the Jews and Christians have and read
from in Muhammad’s day?
What Torah and Gospel were the Jews and Christians to judge by,
and what Torah did Muhammad hold, praise and employ to judge the Jews of his
day?
And how could the Quran speak of what the Torah and Gospel
contained if these Books did not exist at Muhammad’s time?
Now the only answer to these questions is that the Torah and
Gospel that existed during Muhammad’s life are the very Books which Jews and
Christians read till this very day, since these are the only Scriptures that
these respective communities would have possessed at that time.
Therefore, it is now up to the greenhorn to show us whether the
copies of Mark’s Gospel at the time of his false prophet contained the longer
ending, since there is no doubt on textual, historical grounds, that Mark is
part of the very Gospel that the Christians of that time would have been
reading, a fact that is confirmed by the following Quranic verse:
“… and their likeness IN
the Gospel: as a seed that puts forth its shoot, and strengthens
it, and it grows stout and rises straight upon its stalk, pleasing the sowers,
that through them He may enrage the unbelievers. God has promised those of them
who believe and do deeds of righteousness forgiveness and a mighty wage.” S.
48:29 Arberry
Compare this with what Mark wrote:
“He said, ‘The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on
the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows;
he does not know how. For the earth bears fruit by itself: first the blade,
then the head, then the full seed in the head. But when the grain is ripe,
immediately he applies the sickle because the harvest has come.’” Mark 4:26-29
The following Muslim translators had no problem acknowledging
that Q. 48:29 is actually referring to the foregoing Markan passage:
The similitude in the Gospel is about how the good seed is sown
and grown gradually, even beyond the expectation of the sower: “the seed should spring and grow
up, he knoweth not how; for the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first
the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the earth”; MARK, iv 27-28 …
(Yusuf Ali, The
Holy Qur’an – Meaning and Translation, p. 1400, n. 4917; bold and
capital emphasis mine)
This parable is found in a sermon of the Prophet Jesus that has
been reported in the New Testament, thus:
“And he said, So is the kingdom of God as if a man should
east [sic]
seed into the ground: And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed
should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth
fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in
the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the
sickle, because the harvest is come [This is taken from Mark 4:26-29].
And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what
comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when
it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: But
when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and
shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the
shadow of it [This comes from Mark 4:30-32].”
The last portion of this sermon is also found in Matthew,
13:31-32. (S. Abul A’la Maududi, Meaning
of the Qur’an, Volume V, English rendering by A.A. Kamal, M.A.
[Islamic Publications (Pvt.) Limited, 13-E, Shahalam Market, Lahore-8
Pakistan], p. 67, fn. 56; underlined emphasis and comments within brackets
ours)
We, thus, have Muslims recognizing that the Quran refers to a
parable found only in Mark, which the Islamic scripture calls the Gospel!
That’s not all. One of the earliest sources on the life of
Muhammad goes so far as to identify John’s Gospel as the written record of the
very Gospel which God gave Jesus to pass on to his followers!
“Among the things which have reached me about what Jesus the Son of Mary stated in
the Gospel which he received from God for the followers of the Gospel,
in applying a term to describe the apostle of God, is the following. It is extracted FROM WHAT JOHN THE
APOSTLE SET DOWN FOR THEM WHEN HE WROTE THE GOSPEL FOR THEM FROM THE TESTAMENT
OF JESUS SON OF MARY: ‘He that hateth me hateth the Lord. And
if I had not done in their presence works which none other before me did, they
had not sin: but from now they are puffed up with pride and think that they
will overcome me and also the Lord. But the word that is in the law must be
fulfilled, “They hated me without a cause” (i.e. without reason). But when the
Comforter has come whom God will send to you from the Lord’s presence, and the
spirit of truth which will have gone forth from the Lord’s presence he (shall
bear) witness of me and ye also, because ye have been with me from the
beginning. I have spoken unto you about this that ye should not be in doubt.’
“The Munahhemana (God
bless and preserve him!) in Syriac is Muhammad; in Greek he is the paraclete. (The Life of Muhammad: A
Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah, with introduction and
notes by Alfred Guillaume [Oxford University Press, Karachi, Tenth impression
1995], pp. 103-104; bold and capital emphasis ours)
Ibn Ishaq cites John 15:23-16:1 and claims that it is taken from
the Gospel of Christ which John wrote down for Jesus’ followers!
Notice that Ibn Ishaq never once says that this particular
Gospel is corrupt or unreliable, which is rather ironic since this is the very
Gospel that Muslim polemicists are constantly attacking, even going as far as
to cite liberal critics to cast doubt on this Gospel’s historical reliability!
All of this now places the neophyte in a major dilemma. The data
we have thus far presented from the greenhorn’s most authoritative Islamic
sources prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the Gospel, which the Quran
confirms, can only be the fourfold Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John, since these are the writings that the Christians of Muhammad’s day read
and classified as the Gospel. As such, it is now the responsibility of the
neophyte to tell us whether the variant readings such as Mark’s longer ending
are genuine by examining the manuscript tradition to see if such readings were
part of the Gospels that the Christians were reading at Muhammad’s time.
After all, since Muhammad claimed that the Gospels that the
Christians of his day possessed are the uncorrupt revelations of God, he
basically confirmed whatever those copies of the Gospels contained. And if
those copies included readings such as Mark’s longer ending, or John’s pericope
of the woman caught in adultery (cf. John 7:53-8:11), then the greenhorn must
accept these readings as genuine revelations that God inspired, since his
prophet confirmed them as such!
With that said, it is time now to turn the tables on this
Muhammadan in order to show him what happens to his own religious (satanic)
beliefs if and when he applies his own objections consistently. Please proceed
to the second part of our rebuttal https://answeringislamblog.wordpress.com/2018/09/01/the-quranic-affirmation-of-the-holy-bible-revisited-pt-2/.
IHS
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