Exposing more of Shabir Ally’s misinformation
In this post, I am going to tackle the assertions made by Shabir Ally in one of his shows where sought to answer a question asked by a Muslim regarding the Quran’s blunder in identifying Mary, the blessed mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the sister of Moses and Aaron (Q&A: Why Does the Quran Call Mary the Sister of Aaron? | Dr. Shabir Ally https://bloggingtheology.net/2016/12/17/qa-why-does-the-quran-call-mary-the-sister-of-aaron-dr-shabir-ally/).
This short video further confirms what I have been saying about Ally’s integrity (or lack thereof). Sadly, Ally is one of the most dishonest Muhammadans I have ever encountered, one who does not hesitate to use trickery, deceit, and misinformation in order to win a debate or mislead people into embracing his religion.
This is what Ally said in response to the question of the Quran confusing the two Marys:
But when the question was put to the prophet according to the hadith as to why Mary is called sister of Harun here, it is reported that he said that tell them that – tell the questioners about this – that people normally give the names of their ancestors to their children. So if we think of today’s societies we will find its very common that within the same household you can have Mary, and a Aaron, and a Moses, and a Zechariah and so on. You can have names from very different segments of past history all culminating in the same household among brothers and sisters. So as Muslims doing that now, people would have done that in the past as well, and that would explain why Mary is called sister of Aaron. Perhaps she had a brother named Harun.
Here is the hadith that Ally had in mind:
Mughira b. Shu’ba reported: When I came to Najran, they (the Christians of Najran) asked me: You read “O sister of Harun” (i.e. Hadrat Maryam) in the Qur’an, whereas Moses was born much before Jesus. When I came back to Allah’s Messenger I asked him about that, whereupon he said: The (people of the old age) used to give names (to their persons) after the names of Apostles and pious persons who had gone before them. (Sahih Muslim, Book 025, Number 5326 http://searchtruth.com/book_display.php?book=025&translator=2&start=0&number=5326)
Suffice it to say the argument set forth here is laden with problems.
To begin with, the onus is on Ally to prove that Mary had a brother named Aaron since her parents chose to name their offspring after the prophets or righteous persons that came before them. However, Ally faces a major dilemma since there is no credible historical record that he can point to, which would confirm that the blessed mother of our risen Lord actually had a brother, especially one named Aaron.
The other, more serious problem with the response given by Ally’s “prophet” is that this conveniently ignores the fact that Mary isn’t merely said to be the sister of Aaron:
Then she came up with him to her people carrying him. They said, “O Maryam, (Mary) indeed you have readily come with a fabricated thing. O sister of Harun, (Aaron) in no way was your father a woeful person, and in no way was your mother a prostitute.” S. 19:27-28 Muhammad Mahmoud Ghali http://www.islamawakened.com/quran/19/st21.htm
She is also said to be the daughter of Imran in the Quran, with her mother being identified as the wife of Imran:
(Remember) when the wife of ‘Imran said: “O my Lord! I have vowed to You what (the child that) is in my womb to be dedicated for Your services (free from all worldly work; to serve Your Place of worship), so accept this, from me. Verily, You are the All-Hearer, the All-Knowing.” Then when she delivered her [child Maryam (Mary)], she said: “O my Lord! I have delivered a female child,” – and Allah knew better what she delivered, – “And the male is not like the female, and I have named her Maryam (Mary), and I seek refuge with You (Allah) for her and for her offspring from Shaitan (Satan), the outcast.” S. 3:35-36 Hilali-Khan
“And Maryam (Mary), the daughter of ‘Imran who guarded her chastity…” S. 66:12 Hilali-Khan
{Note – Imran is the Quranic equivalent of OT Amram, and Maryam is the Arabic cognate of Miriam (Mary’s Hebrew name).}
Now the only Mary who had a brother named Aaron and whose father’s name was Imran was none other than Moses’ older sister!
“Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dancing.” Exodus 15:20
“And the name of the wife of Amram was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom her mother bore to Levi in Egypt, and she bore to Amram Aaron and Moses and Miriam their sister.” Numbers 26:59
“The children of Amram were Aaron, Moses, and Miriam.” 1 Chronicles 6:3
This explains why Moses, Aaron and Mary are grouped together as the leaders whom God raised up for Israel:
“For I have brought you up from the land of Egypt, and from the house of slaves I have redeemed you; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.” Micah 6:4
What makes this all the more troubling for Ally is that the supposedly authentic narrations attributed to Muhammad even refer to the prophet Moses as the son of Imran!
Abu al-‘Aliya reported: Ibn Abbas, the son of your Prophet’s uncle, told us that the Messenger of Allah had observed: On the night of my night journey I passed by MOSES B. ‘IMRAN, a man light brown in complexion, tall. well-built as if he was one of the men of the Shanu’a, and saw Jesus son of Mary as a medium-statured man with white and red complexion and crisp hair, and I was shown Malik the guardian of Fire, and Dajjal amongst the signs which were shown to me by Allah. He (the narrator) observed: Then do not doubt his (i.e. of the Holy Prophet) meeting with him (Moses). Qatada elucidated it thus: Verily the Apostle of Allah met Moses. (Sahih Muslim, Book 001, Number 0317 http://searchtruth.com/book_display.php?book=001&translator=2&start=0&number=0317)
They continued travelling and the Prophet said: “O Jibril, who was this?” He replied: “This is Musa IBN `IMRAN.”… The gate was opened. When they came in they saw Harun. Half of his beard was white and the other half was black. It almost reached his navel due to its length. Surrounding him were a company of the children of Israel listening to him as he was telling them a story. The Prophet greeted him and he returned his greeting and said: “Welcome to the righteous brother and the righteous Prophet!” Then he invoked for goodness on his behalf. The Prophet asked: “Who is this, O Jibril?” He replied: “This is the man who is beloved among his people, Harun IBN `IMRAN.”… As they went in the Prophet saw Musa IBN `IMRAN (again), a tall man with brown complexion, similar to one of the shanu’a — the (Yemeni) men of pure lineage and manly virtue — with abundant hair. (Commemorating the Prophet’s Rapture and Ascension to his Lord, Commemorating the Prophet’s Rapture and Ascension to his Lord http://www.sunnah.org/ibadaat/fasting/ascen3.htm; bold, capital and underline emphasis ours)
In light of the foregoing, it is little wonder that renowned religious scholar Karen Armstrong could write in her quite popular biography on the life of Muhammad that Ally’s prophet erroneously assumed that the risen Lord’s blessed mother was the same as the sister of Moses:
“… Muhammad’s knowledge of scripture was still limited, however. The prophetic figures venerated by the Arabs in their own traditions were put side by side with the prophets of the Bible as though they were equal in status: indeed, as we have seen, the Qur’an sees all rightly guided religions as coming from God. Muhammad did not know the chronology in which the scriptural prophets appeared: he seems, for example, to have thought that Mariam, the mother of Jesus, was the same as Mariam, the sister of Moses in the Jewish scriptures…” (Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet [HarperSanFrancisco, 1992], 6. The Satanic Verses, pp. 130-131)
Ally must, therefore, face the music and accept the fact that his prophet made an egregious historical blunder since he made Jesus the nephew of the prophet Moses!
Ally’s woes are far from over as we are about to see in the second part of our rebuttal https://answeringislamblog.wordpress.com/2017/08/25/what-type-of-messiah-does-the-quran-say-jesus-happens-to-be-pt-2/.
IHS
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