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Introduction
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 Quran. Thomas Carlyle, a
Scottish historian who lived between 1795 and 1881, wrote concerning
Muhammad:
Can it be possible that so many
creatures have lived and died for something which must be regared
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 revelatin, 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 Quran.
This book is 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 Quran, which the Muslims spell "Qur'an."
What is the Quran?
The Quran is the Muslims's Holy Book - they call it "The Glorious
Qur'an" or "Al-Mushaf Al-Shareef." The Quran 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 (marring more than one woman at one time), 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 the English
speaking reader to buy an English translation of the Quran 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 Quran itself.
This book
compares the Quran and the Bible. It has been written after
many years of research to inform the English speaking people concerning
Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, and the Quran.
It
is offered with much prayer.
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MUHAMMAD
FROM
HIS BIRTH TO HIS DEATH
Chapter
1
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 Quran, 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 Quran 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 shalt conceive
in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt 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 Quran
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
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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 simplictiy 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 (MUHAMMADANISM, 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 diety 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 recored that Buhaira
looked at Muhammd's back and saw a mole on it, which was supposed
to be a sign of prophethood, 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 Quran.
Muhammad's
First Marriage
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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
Chapter
2
MUHAMMAD'S
CALL
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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 Quran 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 spirti 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, suprised 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 Quran 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
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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 Quran 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 Quran 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 concerning 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 Quran 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 Quran 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 Quran does not mention a single
miracle attributed to him. The Quran 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 Quran 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?
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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 Quran; 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 Quran, 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 Quran 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 Quran 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 Quran 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 Quran 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
Quran (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 Quran 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,
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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).
Muhammad
Does Not Pass The Test Of A True Prophet.
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In the final analysis, we find that
Muhammad is not a true prophet, for the true prophet according
to the Bible must have special qualifications.
1.
The true prophet, who is chosen by God to be the founder of a
new religion must receive a direct call from God (Exodus 3:9,10).
Muhammad received his call from the spirit which squeezed him
at the cave of Hira.
2.
The true prophet, chosen to declare a new religion, must be committed
to holiness (2 Peter 1:21). The main interest of Muhammad
was to have as many wives as he could, and not to live a holy
life.
O Prophet! We have made
lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou hast paid their dowers;
and those whom thy right hand possesses out of the captives of
war whom Allah has assigned to thee; and daughters of thy paternal
uncles and aunts, and daughters of thy maternal uncles and aunts,
who migrated with thee; and any believing
woman who gives herself to the prophet. If the prophet wishes
to wed her; - this only for thee, and not for the believers
(at large) (Surat Al-Ahzab 33:50).
3.
The true prophet must perform miracles to authenticate his call.
There is no mention in the Quran of a single miracle attributed
to Muhammad.
4.
The true prophet must utter prophecies that must be fulfilled
to the letter. The only so-called prophetic utterance Muhammad
recorded in his Quran is Surat Ar-Rum it says:
The Romans have been defeated
- in a land close by: But they (even) after (this) defeat of theirs
will soon be victorious within a few years, with Allah is the
command in the past and in the future: On that day shall the believers
rejoice (Surat Ar-Rum 30:2-4).
This surat cannot be considered a prophecy
in any sense, for it does not mention who defeated the Romans, where
they were defeated, or who shall be defeated by them. It seems
strange that the Muslims would rejoice because of the victory of
the Romans who were Catholics at that time.
Why do they not rejoice today for
the victories of the Christians?
If one apples this set of criteria
and the required qualifications of the prophet to Muhammad, one
must conclude that he is not a true prophet.
In addition, Islam did not establish
commandments or principles superior to those of judaism and christianity.
All Muhammad did was to permit:
- Polygamy instead of monogamy.
- War and bloodshed instead of
peace.
- Revenge instead of forgiveness.
- Salvation by good deeds, instead
of salvation by the grace of God through the shed blood of Jesus
Christ, and
- A sensual paradise after death
where the Muslims will have rivers of wine, women with wide
lovely eyes and beautiful boys instead of a new heaven and new
earth in which righteousness dwells (II Peter 3:13). (Compare
Surat Al-Tur 52:17-24 to II Peter 3:13).
More importantly, Jesus Christ was
the last Messenger of God to mankind, there was no one come after
him. He is also the heir of all things. This is clear
from the words we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews.
God, who at various times and
in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,
has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom he has appointed
heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who
being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His
person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when
He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the
right hand of the Majesty on high. . . (Hebrew 1:1-3 NKJ).
The Quran declares that Allah is the
one who will inherit all things:
It is We Who will inherit the
earth, and all beings thereon: to Us will they all be returned
(Surat Maryam 19:40).
Lo! and it is We, even We,
Who quicken and give death, and we are the inheritor (Surat
Al-Hijr 15:23 MPT).
If we acknowledge that Christ is the
inheritor of all things, we have to confess that He is also God
the Son. At the end of His earthly life, Jesus said to His
disciples:
Let not your heart be troubled:
ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house
are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told
you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if
I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive
you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (John 14:1-3).
Jesus told His disciples that He would
come again to take them to His Father's house. He did not
tell them that another prophet would come after him. It is
not acceptable that God will send a slave after sending His eternal
Son.
[TOP]
MUHAMMAD
FROM
HIS BIRTH TO HIS DEATH
Chapter
3
Muhammad's
Wives
After the death of Khadija, his
wife of almost twenty years, and after proclaiming himself the
Messenger of Allah, Muhammad unleashed his sexual desires and
in a span of ten years he married fourteen wives in addition to
his many concubines. Not one of them was mentioned in the
Quran by name, for Islam has no regard for women. They were,
however, mentioned in Muhammad's biography written by Ibn Hesham.
Before we mention the wives of Muhammad,
we have to remember the words of the Quran concerning Muhammad.
So, if Muhammad married all these wives
without any sense of guilt, a good Muslim can marry four women without
any sense of quilt. Muhammad is his excellent example.
A Washington Post Parade Magazine
reporter printed a column entitled "Sex in Saudi Arabia."
Here is that column.
This reporter rang up Dr. Seymour
Gray in Brookline, Massachusetts, recently and asked the former
Harvard Medical School professor if he really believed that the
late King Ibn Saud, founder of modern-day Saudi Arabia, had married
300 women in his lifetime. Dr. Gray, 72, worked from 1975
to 1978 as physician in charge of the medical department at the
King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh. He is the author of
Beyond the Veil - The Adventures of an American Doctor in Saudi
Arabia, a fascinating book published earlier in the year.
"I don't know if Ibn Saud was married to precisely 300 women,
" Gray replied, "but that approximate number, give or take a dozen
or two, seems to be correct."
We then asked if it is true that Moslems
by law and tradition are permitted to have only four wives - admittedly
a far cry from 300.
"Under Islamic law," Gray explained,
"a man can have no more than four wives at any one time.
What some royal Saudis do is to divorce their oldest wives when
they reach 35 or 40 and take younger ones. Divorce in Saudi Arabia
is quick and simple. All the husband has to do is to announce
three times, 'I divorce you,' and that's it."
Gray contends that many Saudi men are
obsessed with sex because Islamic law segregates the sexes
so strictly. Saudi women must wear veils and avoid the society
of men. Adultery is punishable by death. Premarital
sex is so taboo that later, after a man marries, he often has a
compulsion to engage in sexual relations as frequently as he can
manage. Gray writes in his book that many male Saudis consider
themselves impotent if cannot indulge in sexual intercourse
more than two or three times a day.
One of Gray's must illustrious patients
was Prince Ibrahim Mugrin el-Kabir, who had fought alongside
Ibn Saud early in the century. The prince complained of
"decreasing sexual prowess" and explained that he had fathered
no offspring for five years. He demanded improvement of
his waning potency, but-at 90-age was against him. He soon
died, leaving an estate valued at $32 billion, which was divided
among his four wives, 23 sons and 11 daughters (Washington
Post Parade Magazine, November 13, 1983, page 9).
These people
and many more are just following Muhammad's excellent example.
There is a story related to every
wife of Muhammad but space only allows us to mention the most
interesting one.
Muhammad
Married A Six Year Old Child
[TOP]
Aisha, daughter of Abu-Bakr was
a beautiful little girl. Muhammad married her when he was
fifty three years old and she was only six years old. He
had intercourse with her when she was nine years old. (Wives
of the Prophet, pages 57-61).
This is a gross case of child abuse
by the prophet of Islam.
When Muhammad married Aisha, he
set an example for the Muslims. To this day older Muslim
men marry much younger girls, following Muhammad's example.
The Egyptian weekly magazine Almussawar
printed a letter sent to Ameenah Al-Saaeed, one of its editors,
from a woman who was a teacher of languages in Egypt. The
letter appeared in the September 6, 1991 issue. Here is
a part of that letter:
Dear mother Ameenah Al-Saaeed:
My problem is. . . my husband
came home with a friend who is about his age. He requested
that our daughter "Marwa" who is nine years old bring tea to his
friend. At night he told me with great joy that his friend agreed
to marry "Marwa." His friend is fifty years old, "Marwa"
is nine years old. When I objected, he told me that he is
following the prophet Muhammad's example when he engaged
Aisha when she was six years old and had sex with her when she
was nine years old as is written in Sahih Al-Bukhary.
Muhammad Sobhi Alantabli, a high ranking
police officer, sent a letter to the same editor, which was printed
in Almussawar magazine in the December 20, 1991 issue. Here
is a part of that letter:
The chief of a tribe invited me
to attend his wedding. He was eight four years old and his bride
was fourteen years old. "Why do you marry a girl who is
much much younger than you?" I asked. "Because my
other three wives became old, and when the woman gets old she
will be like a rusty car. I mean a car covered by rust,"
he answered. The young bride's father was very happy because
of that marriage.
Muhammad
Married His Daughter-In-Law
[TOP]
Zainab, daughter of Gahsh.
Dr. Aisha Abd-Alrahman cited in
her book, Wives of the Prophets, page 130, what Al-Tabari, the
great Muslim expositor, wrote concerning that marriage with Zainab:
Muhammad asked his wife Khadija
to give him one of her slaves. He asked her to give him
"Zaid." When Zaid's father came to pay a ransom and take
him back, Zaid chose Muhammad over his father and family.
Muhammad took Zaid to the chiefs of Quraysh and announced to them
that he took Zaid to be his adopted son, and that Zaid was his
heir, and that they were witnesses of that adoption.
From that time on Zaid was called "Zaid son of Muhammad."
Zaid was one of the first persons who
accepted Islam. When Zaid came of age to be married, Muhammad
chose for him "Zainab," Muhammad's cousin. Zainab was
a beautiful Hashemite woman of high rank, but Zaid was a slave freed
by Muhammad. So Zainabe rejected Muhammad's proposal to marry
Zaid. In order to achieve his purpose, and to convince Zainab
to marry Zaid, a revelation was given to Muhammad from Allah.
It is not fitting for a believer,
man or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah and his
Messenger (Muhammad), to have any option about their decision:
If anyone disobeys Allah and his Messenger, he is indeed in a
clearly wrong path. (Surat Al-Ahzab 33:36).
Facing that so called divine revelation,
Zainab submitted to Muhammad's decision and married Zaid.
One day Muhammad went to visit Zaid.
Zainab was in her room wearing her nightgown, the wind moving the
drape hanging at the door. Muhammad saw his daughter-in-law
and his heart was moved by her beauty. She asked him to come
in. He refused and went talking to himself in a loud voice
saying "Praise be Allah who changes hearts." When Zaid came
home Zainab told him about Muhammad's visit and what he said.
Zaid went to Muhammad and asked him "Shall I divorce Zainab?"
"Retain her as your wife," Muhammad answered. After that day
Zainab treated her husband, Zaid, harshly and with no respect.
He could not take it any more, so he divorced her.
It was very difficult situation
for Muhammad. He had a great desire for Zainab and he wanted
to marry her, but she was his daughter-in-law.
Muhammad needed help and that help
must come from his Allah. At last help came in a revelation brought
by the spirit who appeared to him at the cave of Hira, in the
following verses recorded in the Quran.
Behold! Thou didst say to
one who had received the grace of Allah and thy favour: "Retain
thou (in wedlock) thy wife, and fear Allah." But thou didst
hide in thy heart that which Allah was about to make manifest:
Thou didst fear people, but it is more fitting that thou shoulds
fear Allah. Then when Zaid had dissolved (his marriage)
with her we joined in marriage to thee: In order that (in
future) there may be no difficulty to the believers
in (the matter of) marriage with the wives of their adopted sons,
when the latter have dissolved (their marriage) (Surat
Al-Ahzab 33:37).
(The whole story is written in Wives
of the Prophet, pages 127- 140.)
Muslim
commentators tried very hard to justify that marriage but in vain.
For Muhammad to marry his daughter-in-law was a disgrace.
Analysis
of Muhammad's Marriage to His Daughter-in-Law
[TOP]
First:
Since that marriage was planned by Allah and Muhammad, we would
rightly expect that the married couple couple would live happily
ever after. Instead, that marriage turned out to be a very
miserable marriage.
Second:
Muhammad claimed that he counseled with Allah before they (he
and Allah) made the decision that Zainab should marry Zaid.
But we read in the pure word of God:
... who
has known the mind of the Lord? or who
has become
His counselor? (Romans 11:34 NKJ).
When Muhammad
claimed that he counseled with Allah he made
himself equal
to Allah.
Third:
When Muhammad made the decision that Zainab should marry Zaid,
so he could demonstrate that in Islam there is no difference between
the rich and the poor, the slave and the free, he did not care
care about Zainab's happiness and satisfaction. Muhammad's
decision regarding that marriage turned into a failure.
Fourth:
When Muhammad lusted after his daughter-in-law, he opened the
door for any Muslim man to lust after the wife of his friend and
marry her after she is divorced.
God's command
says:
...Thou
shalt not covet thy neightbour's wife. (Exodus 20:17)
let alone, your
daughter-in-law.
Fifth:
In light of Jesus' words, Muhammad is considered an adulterer,
because he married a divorced woman.
Jesus Christ
said:
Whosoever
shall marry her that is divorced committeth
adultery
(Matthew 5:32).
Sixth:
Muhammad mocked Allah and used his name to satisfy his sinful desire
when he claimed that Allah joined him in marriage to Zainab.
God never commanded anything against His word. No wonder that
his wife Aisha said to him when she knew that he married Zainab:
I see your
Allah quickly grants you your desire.
In the name of
Allah, Muhammad committed all his gross sins.
For Muhammad
to claim that Allah joined him in marriage to Zainab is an insult
to the word and holiness of God.
Let us record
the rest of the list of Muhammad's wives:
- Suda,
daughter of Zamma.
- Hafsa,
daughter of Omar.
- Zainab,
daughter of Khuzima.
- Om Salma,
her name was Hind.
- Gawariah,
daughter of Al-Harith.
- Safia,
daughter of Huyay, a Jewess whose husband was killed with all
the Jews whom Muhammad killed at Kheiber. She was seventeen
years old and very beautiful.
- Om Habiba.
There are five
other wives who are not mentioned by Ibn Hesham,
- Sharaaf,
daughter of Khalifa.
- Al-Alia,
daughter of Zabian.
- Wasna,
daughter of Al-Naaman.
- Maria,
the Egyptian Coptic Christian who was given to Muhammad by Al-Mockawkas,
the ruler of the Coptics in Egypt. She bore Muhammad's
son Ibrahim who died before he was two years old. Maria
did not convert to Islam.
- Maimona,
daughter of Harith.
Added to these
fourteen wives were many concubines and many women who were taken
captive during his battles.
Jesus
Is The Best Example
[TOP]
If Muhammad had come before Christ,
we might have accepted this kind of polygamy. For King Solomon
married 700 wives, and he had 300 concubines. Other patriarchs
like Abraham and David married more than one wife. But none
of them married more than one wife by God's command. In
fact, the Bible says that king Solomon ended his life shamefully
because of those wives and concubines (I Kings 11:1-10).
The Bible declares that polygamy was always a cause of misery
and disaster. But Muhammad claimed falsely that he married
all those wives by Allah's command and for humanitarian and political
reasons.
The fact is that Jesus Christ came
six hundred years before Muhammad. He is the gold standard
and his word is the absolute standard
by which we measure any kind of behavior. This is what he
said:
Have you not read that He who
made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said,
"For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be
joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?"
So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore
what God has joined together, let no man separate
(Matthew 19:1-6 NKJ).
Moreover, we read in the New Testament:
Nevertheless, to avoid fornication,
let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her
own husband (I Corinthians 7:2).
One woman for one man at one time,
that is what God planned when he created Eve for Adam. That
is what the Holy Bible, the infallible word of God, teaches.
And that is the gold and absolute standard.
Muhammad violated the law of God
and married all those women, claiming falsely that he married
them by Allah's command. Even though he declares in his
Quran that a Muslim can marry only four women at one time, he
gave himself the privilege of marrying fourteen women demonstrating
that he is above the law of Allah.
Moreover he says in his Quran that
he can marry any woman who offers herself to him and this privilege
is reserved for him only (Surat Al-Ahzab 33:50).
According to the Quran, marrying
many women was a privilege for the Prophet of Islam.
What a
Prophet!
MUHAMMAD
FROM
HIS BIRTH TO HIS DEATH
[TOP]
Chapter
4
Muhammad's
Migration To Al-Madina
Al Madina was a city located 200
kilometers from Mecca. Its name was Yathrib. Muhammad
migrated with many of his followers to Al-Madina. This migration,
called in Arabic "Hijra,"is regarded by Muslims as the key date
in the history of Islam, and the Muslim calendar begins with that
year. Today, in Muslim lands, documents, letters, and newspapers
are dated from the Hijra.
The
Meccans Rejected Muhammad
[TOP]
When Muhammad began calling people
to Islam in Mecca, the majority of Meccans did not respond to
his call. They criticized him, and called him mad (Surat
Al-Hijr 15:6, Surat Al-Qalam 68:51), a possessed poet (Surat Al-Saffat
37:36, a forger (Surat Al-Nahal 16:101) and bewitched (Surat Al-Furqan
25:7,8). They persecuted his followers.
In the beginning of his call to
Islam, Muhammad spoke highly concerning the Jews and declared
that Allah assigned the Holy Land to them. The Quran says:
And verily we gave the children
of Israel the Scripture and the command and the Prophethood, and
provided them with good things and favored them above (all) peoples
(Surat Al-Jathiya 45:16 MPT).
And (remember) when Moses said
unto his people: O my people! Remember Allah's favour
unto you, how he placed among you prophets, and he made you
kings, and
gave you that (which) He gave
not to any (other) of (His) creatures. O my people! Go into
the holy land which Allah hath ordained for you (Surat Al-Maidah
5:20, 21 MPT).
These verses in the Quran clearly show
that prophethood is exclusively for Israel, not for the Arabs.
Moreover, it declares that the holy land was ordained for Israel.
The holy land was given to Israel by God's decree. The Muslims
have no right to object to Jerusalem being the capital of Israel
if they believe the Quran.
Muhammad tried to win the Jews to
his side. He also tried to win the people of other religions.
He declared in the Quran:
Lo! Those who believe (in
that which is revealed unto thee Muhammad), and those who are
Jews, and Christians, and Sabaeans - whoever believeth in Allah
and the Last Day and doeth right - surely their reward is with
their Lord, and there shall no fear come upon them
neither shall they grieve (Surat Al-Baqarah 2:62 MPT).
In spite of all that Muhammad siad
to win the people in Mecca, the Meccans rejected his call to Islam.
Muhammad's
Migration To Al-Madina
[TOP]
In the year 622 A.D. Muhammad asked
his followers to make their way in small numbers to Al-Madina,
a journey of several weeks by camel. Learning that the Quraysh
were planning to prevent him from leaving Mecca, he and Abu-Bakr
escaped from the city, hid for several days in a cave, and then
took a safe route to Al-Madina.
In Al-Madina, Muhammad established
a kingdom for himself. He tried to win the Jews of Al-Madina
to his side so he commanded the Muslims to pray toward the destroyed
Jewish temple in Jerusalem. But the Jewish clans rejected
his claim that he was a true prophet; first, because he was an
Arab, not a Jew, and also, because they saw that he lacked all
the qualifications of a true prophet. A true prophet must
perform miracles, utter prophecies, and be consistent with that
which was revealed in the Torah (The Old Testament).
They realized that Muhammad performed
no miracles. He uttered no prophecies. He contradicted
by his revelations the clear teachings of the Torah. And
He used the revelations which he claimed that he received from
Allah to satisfy his desires and achieve his purposes.
They rejected him and rightly so.
The Quran did not convince the Meccans, the true Christians, and
the Jews, so Muhammad decided to use the sword.
MUHAMMAD
[TOP]
FROM
HIS BIRTH TO HIS DEATH
Chapter
5
Muhammad's
Battles
In Al-Madina, Muhammad organized
a Muslim army to fight the Meccans, and annihilate the Jews and
the Christians who rejected Islam. He had decided that he
could achieve with the sword the results his Quran had to produce.
Using force is a sign of weakness.
When a head of state resorts to force against his own people,
it shows that he is unable to solve his problems by peaceful means.
It is a clear indication of his weakness, fear of losing his authority,
and a troubled mind.
Muhammad
Convinced His Followers To Fight
[TOP]
To convince his followers to fight,
Muhammad had to give them revelations from Allah, especially since
they had to fight against their own relatives in Mecca - against
their fathers, brothers, and even grandfathers.
The revelations came in the following
verses in the Quran:
O Apostle (Muhammad) incite (literal
translation) the believers (Muslims) to fight (Surat Al-Anfal
8:65).
Then Muhammad distorted a story which
he took from the Old Testament, to convince the Muslims who were
driven out of their homes in Mecca to fight their clans. That
story is the story of the children of Israel when they asked the
Prophet Samuel to appoint for them a king. That king was king
Saul. Muhammad, did not know the name of the prophet Samuel
or the name of king Saul (I Samuel 8:4,5 and 10:21-24). So
he did not mention Samuel and he called Saul, Talut.
He also mixed the biblical story
where God commanded Gideon to bring to the water all the people
who were gathered with him to fight so that God might test them,
with the story of Saul and his fight against the Philistines,
(compare Surat Al-Bqarah 2:245-249 and Judges 7:2-7). Muhammad
did just that to motivate the Muslims to fight.
Fight in the way of Allah, and
know that Allah is Hearer, Knower. . .
Bethink thee of leaders of
the Children of Israel after Moses, how they said
unto a Prophet whom they had. Set up for us
a king and we will fight in Allah's way. He said:
Would ye then refrain from fighting if fighting were prescribed
for you? They said: Why should we not fight in Allah's
way when we have been driven from our dwellings with our children?
Yet, when fighting was prescribed for them, they turned away,
all save a few them. Allah is aware of evil-doers. (Surat
Al-Baqarah 2:224, 246 MPT).
Those who are familiar with the Bible
story know that the children of Israel were not driven from their
homes and families, but rather were commanded by God to leave Egypt.
But because those who migrated with Muhammad to Al-Madina were Meccans,
who were driven from their homes and their children in Mecca, Muhammad
distorted the Bible story to achieve his purpose. The verses
continue:
Warfare is ordained for you, though
it is hateful unto you; but it may happen that ye hate a thing
which is good for you and it may happen that ye love a thing which
is bad for you, Allah knoweth, ye know not (Surat Al-Baqarah 2:216
MPT).
Lo! Allah loveth those
who battle for his cause in ranks, as if they were solid structure
(Surat Al-Saff 61:4 MPT).
Move revelations were given to Muhammad
to convince the Muslims to fight:
When thy Lord inspired the angels,
(saying:) I am with you. So make those who believe stand
firm. I will throw fear into the hearts of those who disbelieve
Then smite the necks and smite of them each finger. That is because
they opposed Allah and His messenger. Whoso opposeth Allah and
His messenger, (for him) lo! Allah is severe in punishment.
That (is the award), so taste
it, and (know) that for disbelievers is the torment of the Fire.
O ye who believe! When ye meet those who disbelieve in battle,
turn not your backs to them. Whoso on that day turneth his back
to them, unless maneuvering for battle or intent to join a company,
he truly hath incurred wrath from Allah, and his habitation will
be hell, a hapless journey's end (Surat Al-Anfal 8:12-16 MPT).
This verse demonstrates the behavior
of those who obey the Quran.
When the Muslims mourned because
they killed their relatives in battle, a revelations came to Muhammad
to comfort them:
Ye (Muslims) slew them not, but
Allah slew them.
And thou threwest not when thou
didst throw, but
Allah threw, that He might test
the believers by
a fair test from Him. Lo!
Allah is Hearer, Knower
(Surat Al-Anfal 8:17 MPT).
As he began to win battles and his
power increased, Muhammad's dream was to establish a united Islamic
Kingdom in the Arabian Peninsula. It would be a kingdom where
the Jews and the Christians would live as second class citizens,
despised, deprived of all privileges, and forced to pay high taxes,
or be killed.
This is what Muhammad said to the
Muslims concerning the Jews and the Christians:
Fight against such of those who
have been given the Scriptures (Jews and Christians) as believe
not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which
Allah hath forbidden by His Messenger
(Muhammad) and follow not the religion of truth (Islam), until
they pay tribute (taxes paid by Jews and Christians who do not
want to renounce their religion), being brought low (Surat Al-Tawbah
9:29 MPT).
The above mentioned verse clearly shows
that Islam was promoted by the sword, and that Jews and Christians
living in an Islamic country are to be treated as second class citizens
and obliged to pay high taxes to retain their religion.
The following verse demonstrates
the intention of Islam to build and Islamic empire:
Say to infidels (literal translation),
if (now) they desist from unbelief their past would be forgiven
them: but if they persist, the punishment of those before
them is already (a matter warning for them). And fight them until
there is no more sedition (literal translation) and religion (Islam)
becomes Allah's in its entirety (Surat Al-Anfal 8:38,39).
The Muslims think that they are agents
of Allah on earth, and that their duty is to promote Islam by force
and terrorism.
To ensure that Muslims would fight
even till death, Muhammad promised every Muslim who dies in battle
total forgiveness of all his sins and eternal life in Paradise
where he will be wedded to women of wide lovely eyes, and enjoy
rivers of wine. (Surat Al-Tur 52:17-24). Martyrdom
is the only way for a Muslim to obtain forgiveness of sins.
And if you are slain or die, in
the way of Allah, forgiveness and mercy from Allah are far better
than all they could amass. And if ye die, or are slain Lo!
it is unto Allah ye are brought together (Surat Al-Imran 3:157,158).
Allah hath purchased of the
believers (Muslims) their persons and their goods; for theirs
(in return) is the garden (of Paradise). They fight in
His cause, and slay and are slain a promise binding him (Surat
At-Tawbah 9:111).
Fight them, and Allah will
torture (literal translation) them by your hands and disgrace
them, help you to (victory) over them . . . .(Surat At-Tawbah
9, 14). The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and
His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be
that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and
feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of
the land. Such will be their degradation in the world,
and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom (Surat Al-Maidah
5:33 MPT)
For the Muslims to kill, crucify or
cut the hands and feet of those who do not believe in Islam was
a clear sadistic behavior. These Quranic verses are still used as
commandments and rules in Islamic countries.
The
Sword of Islam Goes Forth
[TOP]
With this kind of ammunition, the
followers of Muhammad were ready to fight till death. Muhammad
led twenty nine raids. The reason for the raid of Badr in
the first place was not to promote Islam, but to attack and loot
the caravan of Abu-Sufian which was loaded with precious goods
(Prophets of Allah, page 438).
Abu-Sufian knew of Muhammad's planned
raid and escaped by taking another route. Muhammad continued
his raids against the Meccans. Meanwhile he decided to exterminate
the Jewish clans from Al-Madina. He expelled the Jewish
clan of Banu Qainuqa, attacked another Jewish clan, Banu Alnadir,
and drove them out of Al-Madina.
Banu Quraiza, sympathizers with
the Meccans during the battle of Ditch, suffered a worse fate
when its women and children were enslaved and its men were slaughtered.
In 628 A.D. the Jews of Khaybar
were dispossessed of their lands. Al-Madina had no more
Jews.
Muhammad decided to use force to
subdue the Meccans and all those who opposed him. He led
several raids: the raid of Uhud, the greater raid of Badr,
the raid of Hunain, then the raid of Tabuk. These raids
resulted in several small Jewish and Christians clans submitting
to Muhammad.
Finally, Muhammad led his conquest
of Mecca. This time the Meccans received him. He was
Quraysh and from now on his Quaraysh clan would reign over a united
Arabian Peninsula.
Thus, by the
sword Muhammad eliminated Judaism and Christianity from the Arabian
Peninsula. He declared that the Jews and the Christians
were polytheists, and as such they were unclean and should not
be allowed to approach the sacred mosque, the Kaaba in Mecca.
Muhammad declares in the Quran:
The Jews call "Uzair a son of
Allah, and the Christians call Christ the Son of Allah.
That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate
what the infidels (literal translation) of old used to say.
Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from
the truth (Surat At-Tawbay 9:30).
Muhammad commanded the Muslims:
O ye who believe! Truly
the polytheists (literal translation) are unclean, so let them
not, after this year of theirs, approach the sacred mosque (Al-Kaaba
in Mecca) (Surat At-Tawbah 9:28).
O ye who believe, take not
the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors.
They are but friends protectors to each other. And he
amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them.
Verily Allah guideth not a people unjust (Surat Al-Maidah 5:51).
In view of this last verse, it is of
great interest to notice that Arab Muslims in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
pleaded to Christians nations to protect them against the attack
of Saddam Hussein, the Muslim president of Iraq, and force him to
withdraw from Kuwait during the Gulf War in 1991.
It seems that when it comes to power,
politics and money, and when heads of Muslims states feel that
they are in danger, the commands of the Quran are ignored.
For the Arabs of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to ask the Americans
and Europeans, which are known as Christian countries, to protect
them from Iraqi invasion is a total disobedience of the commands
of the Quran.
On the other hand, what would anyone
expect from the Muslims, after they read all these violent verses
in the Quran inciting them to fight? It is not surprising
to see them fight until death and sacrificing their lives in suicidal
attacks against the Jews and Christians, who the Quran stigmatizes
as infidels.
Is is clear that the Quran condone
racism, violence, terrorism, and killing of Jews and Christians,
in the name of Allah. When there is a command in the Quran,
the Muslims must obey it. In that case, all Muslims are
fundamentalists. The question then arises as to why there
is such animosity from islam toward Judaism and Christianity.
Why don't we read in the Quran verses against Buddhism and Hinduism
and other pagan religions which were in existence before Islam?
Is it because the Bible, the book of the Jews and Christians.
expose the atrocities and brutality of Islam?
MUHAMMAD
FROM
HIS BIRTH TO HIS DEATH
Chapter
6
Muhammad's
Death
[TOP]
The final days of Muhammad arrived.
He had gained total control of the Arabian peninsula and made
the Kaaba in Mecca the only holy shrine to be acknowledged, although
there were many other Kaabas in Arabia.
In the tenth year after the Hijra,
Muhammad made his farewell pilgrimage to Mecca. Soon after
his return to Al-Madina, he fell ill. Two verses in the
Quran refer to his death:
Muhammad is no more than a Messenger:
many were the messengers that passed away before him. If
he died or were slain, will ye then turn back on your heels? (Surat
Al-Imran 3:144).
Say: I have no power
over any good or harm ot myself except as Allah willeth.
If I had knowledge of the unseen, I should have multiplied all
good, and no evil should have touched me: I am but a warner..
(Surat Al-Araf 7:188).
Writing about Muhammad's death, Al-Baidawi,
the great expositor of the Quran, said:
"If he should die or be slain,
will you then turn back on your heels?" (refers to the incident
in which) Abdallah Ibn Qami'a al-Harithi threw a rock at
Allah's Messenger that broke four of his front teeth and gashed
his face. Mus'ab Ibn Umair, who was the standard-bearer
defended (Muhammad). So Ibn Qami'a killed (Mus'ab), assuming
that he killed the Prophet. Then, as it is reported, he
said "I killed Muhammad." Someone cried out, "Behold, Muhammad
has been killed," and the people turned on their heels.
Then the Messenger cried out, "Come to me, servants of Allah,"
Thirty of his followers joined him and protected him until they
scattered the unbelievers. Some hypocrites said, "Had he
been a prophet, he would not have been killed." Anas Ibn
Nadr, the uncle of Anas Ibn Malak, said, "O, people, if Muhammad
is slain, Muhammad's Lord is alive, and dies not; what shall you
do if you live after him? So fight for what he fought for,"
and added "O Allah, I acquit myself of what they say and exonerate
myself from it." He then clasped his sword firmly and fought
till he was killed, and the verse was revealed.
When Khaybar was conquered,
and the people felt secure, Zainab Bint al-Harith, Salam Ibn
Mishkam's wife, went about asking which part of the lamb was
Muhammad's favorite to eat. People told her, "It is the
front leg, for it is the best part and the farthest from harm."
So she took a lamb, slaughtered it, and cut it up. Then
she took a deadly poison that kills instantly and poisoned the
lamb, putting more poison in the leg and shoulder. When
the sun set, Muhammad led the people in the evening prayer.
When he finished he wanted to go, but she was sitting at his
feet. He asked her, and she said, "O Abu al-Qasim, here
is a gift I have for you." Muhammad ordered some of his
friends to take it from her, and it was put before him in the
presence of his friends, among whom was Bishr Ibn al-Bara' Ibn
Ma'rur. Muhammad said, "Come near and be seated."
Muhammad took the leg and ate, too. When Muhammad had
swallowed his bite, Bishr swallowed his, and the rest of the
people ate of it. Muhammad said, "Raise your hands; this
leg and this shoulder tell me they are poisoned." Bishr
said, "By the One who honored you, I found the same in my morsel,
but nothing kept me from spitting it out except that I would
spoil the pleasure of your food. When you ate that which
was in your mouth, I did not desire my own soul more than yours,
and wished that you had not swallowed it." (One opinion
has it that) Bishr died then and there. A
part of the lamb was thrown to a dog, and the dog died.
Another opinion says that (Bishr's) color turned black and his
pain lasted two years, after which he died. It was also
said that Muhammad took a bite of the lamb, chewed it, and spit
it out, whereas Bihr swallowed his morsel. Then Muhammad
sent for this Jewess and asked her, "Have you poisoned this
lamb?" She said, "You have acquired certain
powers with which you judge those who are not loyal to you.
You killed my father, my uncle and my brother. . . So I said,
"If he is a king, then I would be relieving us of him, and if
he is a prophet, he will be able to perceive.'"
It was said that he pardoned her, while others say he commanded
her to be put to death and crucified. When Muhammad fell
ill just before his death, he said to Aisha, "Aisha,
I still feel the effect of the poisoned food I ate;
this is the time of my demise by that poison." When
Bishr's sister entered his room during the time of his last
sickness, he said to her, "This is the time of my demise by
the meal I ate with your brother in Khaybar."
(The above quotation is from the book Is The Quran
Infallible by Abdallah Abd al-Fadi, pages 378- 381).
Finally on June 632 A.D., death came
to Muhammad in the room of his wife Aisha as he rested on her lap.
He was sixty-three years old. Aisha was only sixteen years
old.
Muhammad's
Death Compared to That of Moses
[TOP]
It is said that a grave was dug
in that very place, and in it the prophet of Islam was buried.
Later a mosque was built and Muhammad's grave became a place of
pilgrimage in Al-Madina.
Now, we realize a great difference
between Muhammad's death and burial and Moses' death and burial.
Moses died when he was one hundred and twenty years old.
The Bible says:
Moses was a hundred and twenty
years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength
gone (Deuteronomy 34:7 NIV).
Muhammad died when he was sixty-three
years old with four of his front teeth broken.
Moses died according to the word
of the Lord. His funeral was and angelic funeral (Jude 9).
The Lord himself buried him in Moab and no one knows where his
grave is.
He buried him in Moab, in the
valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where
his grave is (Deuteronomy 34:5, 6 NIV).
Muhammad, poisoned by a woman whose
father, uncle and brother had been killed by him, died on the lap
of a woman. His grave is for pilgrims to visit in Al-Madina.
Concerning the Tomb of Jesus Christ,
we read the words of the angel to Mary Magdalene and the other
Mary who came with her to see the tomb:
He is not here; for He is risen
as He said. Come see the place where the Lord lay (Matthew
28:6).
Here is the great difference between
Jesus Christ, who died to save those who believe in Him and rose
again, victorious over death, and Muhammad who was poisoned and
defeated by death.
The Quran records the death of Muhammad
and his followers:
Lo! thou wilt die, and lo! they
will die (Surat Al-Zumar 39:30 MPT).
Jesus Christ says to His followers:
Because I live, you will live
also (John 14:19 NKJ).
Christians believe in a living Savior.
[TOP]
THE
HISTORY OF THE Quran
Chapter
7
THE
HISTORY
The Quran is the Muslim’s Holy Book
- they call it "The Glorious Quran" or Al-Mushaf Al-Shareef.
It contains one hundred and fourteen suras ( a surat is a chapter).
The suras are not arranged chronologically but by length. As those
who arranged the Quran put the longest suras first and the shortest
at the end.
[TOP]
Strange
Names
Many suras
in the Quran are named after animals or small creatures or other
objects. One surat is named after the jinn ( evil spirits).
Surat Al-Baqarah (Number 2) The
Cow
Surat Al-An’am (Number 6) The Cattle
Surat Al-Ra’d (Number 13) The
Thunder
Surat Al-Nahl (Number 16) The Bee
Surat Al-Kahf (Number 18) The Cave
Surat Al-Naml (Number 27) The Ant
Surat Al-’Ankabut (Number 29) The
Spider
Surat Al-Dukhan (Number 44)
The Smoke
Surat Al-Tur (Number 52) The
Mount
Surat Al-Najm (Number 53) The Star
Surat Al-Qamar (Number 54) The Moon
Surat Al-Hadid (Number 57) The Iron
Surat Al-Qalam (Number 68) The Pen
Surat Al-Jinn (Number 72) The Jinn
Surat Al-Buruj (Number 85) The Mansions
of the Stars
Surat Al-Fajr (Number 89) The Dawn
Surat Al-Shams (Number 92) The Night
Surat Al-Layl (Number 92) The Night
Surat Al-Duha (Number 93) The Morning
Hours
Surat Al-Tin ( Number 95) The Fig
Surat Al-’Alaq (Number 96) the Clot
Surat Al-Asr (Number 103) The Declining
Day
Surat Al-Fil (Number 105) The Elephant
Surat Al-Falaq (Number 113) The Day
Break
These are strange names for section
of a book which Muhammad claimed was the book of Allah.
It is difficult to understand why Allah would name the chapters
of his book. The Cow, The Bee, The Ant, The Spider, The
Star, The Sun, The Night, the Fig, The Elephant and even the Jinn.
How
the Quran Was Written
[TOP]
Sheikh Abd El-Fatah El-Kady wrote
in his book Al Mushaf Al-Shareef
(The Quran - Its History and Tests), pages 14 and 55.
The Quran was not delivered to
Muhammad all at once. It came piecemeal according to the
events and occasions, as we read in the Quran. [It is] a Quran
which we have divided [into parts form time to time], intervals:
We have revealed it by stages
(Surat Al-Isra 17:106)
He continues:
The Quran was written during Muhammad’s
like, on the branches of palm trees, on thin stones, on paper,
on skin, on shoulders and side bones of animals.
All of the Quran was written
during Muhammad’s life, but was not collected in one volume.
Its suras were not organized. It was scattered on the
branches of palm trees, skin and in the memories or breasts
of Muhammad's "close friends" (Al-Sahaba in Arabic).
Not only were the Quranic writings
disorganized, but there were seven different versions of them.
The reason for these different versions of the Quran is that the
Quran was revealed to Muhammad in seven different ways (Al-Mushaf
Al-Shareef, page 64).
Muhammad said in the Hadith:
The Quran has been revealed to
be recited in seven different ways, so recite of it that which
is easier for you (Sahih-al-Bukhari, Vol. 6, page 510).
Tabari, the great expositor of the
Quran, said that the difference between, the seven versions of the
Quran (Al-Ahruf Al-Sabaa) was not in the meaning but in the words.
To illustrate: A person can use the word grace, gracefulness. Or
the work goods, possessions, or property. But the fact is that the
difference in those seven versions were not purely of words but
at times related to the basic content of the Quran's text itself.
After Muhammad’s death, at the time
of caliph Abu-Bakr, ,many of those who had memorized the Quran
died while fighting the apostates in the battle of " Alyamama,
"Omar feared that the death of those men would result in the loss
of a great portion of the Quran and suggested to Abu-Bakr that
the Quran should be collected in one volume. Abu-Bakr was
reluctant to do that, because Muhammad did not collect the Quran
in one volume during his life. After much discussion Omar
persuaded Abu-Bakr to order the collection of the Quran. Abu-Bark
ordered Aid Bin Sabot to do the job (Al-Mush Al-Shareef, page
59,60).
By Allah! If they had ordered
me to shift one of the mountains, it would not have been heavier
for me than this ordering me to collect the Quran. Zaid
Ibn Sabit said. Then I said to Abu-Bakr, " How will you
do something which Allah's Apostle did not do?"
Abu-Bakr said " By Allah, it is
a good thins"
(Sahih-al-Bukhari, Part 6, page
477).
It is quite clear that the collection
of the Quran is something which Muhammad did not do. It is
also clear that the Quran was not completely written in one volume
during Muhammad’s life. This is why Omar and Abu-Bakr feared
the loss of great portions of the Quran, If the men who memorized
it should die.
Therefore Zaid Ibn Sabit agreed
to collect the various pieces of the Quran. However, when
Islam became the religion of many countries, every country used
the version of the Quran which was known among them: the
Syrians read AbiKaab’s version, the people of Kofa read Abdallah
Ibn Massoud’s version, others read Abu Moussa Alashaby’s version
and so on.
When Caliph Uthman took the caliphate,
he was confronted by such confusion and sedition concerning the
reading of the Quran in the different Islamic countries that he
ordered it to be rewritten.
Uthaman ordered Zaid Ibn
Sabit and three other men form Quraysh, Abdullah Ibn Al-Zubeer,
Saeed Ibn El-Uss, and Abdelrahman Ibn Al-Harith Ibn Hesham, to
rewrite the Quran. It was Uthman’s order to the scribes
" If you disagree with Zaid Ibn Sabit in anything of the
Quran, write it in the language of Quraysh, because the Quran
was revealed in the language of Quraysh." They did
(Al-Mushaf Al-Shareef, Pages 66,70).
After Uthman competed his Quran he
forced all the Islamic countries to have one Quran - and banned
all other codices. He finished the matter by burning all other
codices of the Quran.
Dr. Taha Hussein , a well known
author, college professor, and minister of education in Egypt,
wrote in his book Al- Fitnato Al-Korba (The Great Sedition):
The prophet Muhammad said:
"The Quran was revealed in seven dialects all of them are right
and perfect." When Uthman banned whichever he banned from
the Quran, and burned whichever he burned of it, he banned passages
Allah has revealed and burned parts of the Quran which were given
to the Muslims by the messenger of Allah. He appointed a
small group of the Sahaba (close friends of Muhammad) to rewrite
the Quran and left out those who heard the prophet and memorized
what he said. This is why Ibn Massoud was angry, because
he was one of the best men who memorized the Quran. He said
that he took from the mouth of the prophet seventy suras of the
Quran while Zaid Ibn Sabit was yet a young lad. When Ibn
Massoud objected to the burning of the other codices of the Quran,
Uthman took him out of the mosque with violence, and struck him
to the ground, and broke one of his ribs (The Great Sedition,
pages 160,161,181,182).
It is very clear that much of the orginal
Quran was burned, while other parts were rewritten. How can
we reconcile these historical facts with the following words of
the Quran?
Nay, this is a Glorious
Quran [ inscribed] in a Tablet preserved (Sarat Al-Buru
85:21,22).
That this is indeed a
Quran most honorable in a book well guarded ( Sarat Al-Waqiah
56:77,78).
If the Quran
was inscribed in “a tablet preserved,” and in “a book well-guarded,”
why was it necessary for Utham to rewrite the Quran? How could
he burn the other codices? Why were there other codices in
the first place? These are very serious questions regarding
a book said to be God’s word.
The
Bible Is The Gold Standard
[TOP]
To rightly
evaluate the Quran, we have to compare it with the Bible.
The Bible is the gold standard by which we must evaluate the Quran.
Even the Quran declares that the Bible is the absolute standard.
When Mohammad doubted the revelations given to him by the spirit
who appeared to him at the cave of Hira,, Allah directed him to
ask those who read the Bible before him
And if thou
[Muhammad] art in doubt concerning that which we reveal unto thee,
then question those who read the scripture [that was] before thee.
(Surat
Yunus 10:94MPT).
It is clear that
the scripture that was before Muhammad is the Holy Bible.
We have thousands of manuscripts of the Bible which were in existence
before Muhammad.
The
late Robert Chapman of England wrote the following statemant concerning
the Bible.
This book
contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation,
the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers.
its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories
are true,and its decisions are immutable. Read to be wise,
believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains
light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to
cheer you. It is the traveler’s map, the pilgrims’
staff, the pilot’s compsss, the soldier’s sword, and the Christian’s
charter. Here paradise is restored, heaven is opened, and
the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand subject,
our good its design, and the glory of God its end.
It shoul fill the memory, test the heart, and guide the
feet. Read it slowly, frequently, prayerfully.
It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory and a river
of pleasure. It is given you in life, will be opened at
the judgment, and be remembered forever. It invloves
the highest responsibility, rewards the greatest labor,
and condemns all who trifle with its sacred contents.
(The Bible Has the Answer, page 31).
Contrary to the
Quran, the Bible is arranged in chronological order.
It begins with the Book of Genesis and ends with the Book of Revelation.
Dr. Lehman Srauss wrote in the introduction of his book, The book
of The Revelation, pages 17,18:
One careful
reading of the Bible will convince anyone that this inspired volume
forms a complete cycle. Gensis is the book of commencement;
Revelation is the book of consummation. Revelatioon is an
excellent finish to the devine library.
Genesis
- The commencement of Heaven and earth (1:1)
Revelation
- The consummation of Heave and earth (21:1)
Genesis
- The entrance of sin and the curse (3:1-19)
Revelation
- The end of sin and the curse (21:27; 22:3)
Genesis
- The dawn of Satan and his activities (3:1-7)
Revelation
- The doom of Satan and his activities (20:10)
Genesis
- The tree of life is relinquished (2:9;3:24)
Revelation
- The tree of life is regained (22:2)
Genesis
- Death makes it extrance (2:17;5:5)
Revelation
- Death makes its exit (21:4)
Genesis
- Sorrow begins (3:16)
Revelation
- Sorrow is banished (21:4)
The first book
of the Bible knows no completion apart from the last book of
the Bible, and all the rest of the sixty-four books in between are
dependent upon each other. Not one book in the Bible
is an independent contribution to be divorced from the other
books.
This is not
the case with the Quran. Its opening surat is a prayer which must
be repeated five times a day by evey Muslin, followed by Surat
Al-Baqarah which contains many verses that were abrogated in other
suras, and it ends with the follwing surat:
In the name
of Allah, the Beneficent , the Merciful Say: I seek refuge
in the Lord of mankind, the King of mankind, The God of
mankind, from the evil of the sneaking whisperer,
who whispereth in the hearts of mankind, of the jinn of
mankind. (Surat Al-Nas 114:1-6 MPT)
This is how the
Quran ends, with fear of Jinn, fear of the sneaking whisperer,
and of men, while the Bible ends with the hope of the second coming
of Christ and with the grace of Christ on the believers (Revelation
22:20,21). The Quran is complety different fromt he Bible
in its language, style, and seting. The Bible reconts the
stories of the fall of Adam, of the call of Abraham, the stories
of Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses and other prophets and great
men of God. These stories demonstrate the truthfulness and
honesty of the Bible and the precious lessons from the life of those
patrarchs. It also records how human begins got to speak different
languages even thoughtthey are the decendants of one man.
Adam, and one woman, Eve.
[TOP]
Contradiction
Between the Bible and the Quran
The Quran
mentions many stories and commandments written in the Bible with
great distortions and contradiction. The following are a
few examples:
1. Noah’s
Wife And Son
The Quran
declares that Noah’s entered hell, and that one of his sons was
drowned by the flood:
Allah cited
an example for those who disbelieve: The wife of Noah and
the wife of Lot, who were under two of our righteous slaves,
yet betrayed them so that they [the husbands] availed them
naught against Allah and it was said [unto them]: Enter
the fire along with those who enter (Surat Al-Tahrim 66:10
MPT).
And it
sailed [the ark] with them amid waves like mountains, and Noah
cried unto his son and he was standing aloof - O my son!
Come ride with us, and be not with the disbelievers. He
said: I shall betake me to some mountain that will save
me from the water, [Noah] said: This day there is
none that saveth from the commandment of Allah save him on whom
He hath had mercy. And the wave came in between them,
so he was among the drowned. ( Surat Hud 11:42,43 MPT).
These Quranic
verses contradict the Bible which says:
In the selfsame
day entered Noah, and Shem and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah,
and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into
the ark (Genesis 7:13).
Whom should we
believe, the Quran or the Bible? The Bible tells us that the
human race descended after the flood from Shem. Ham and Japheth.
Since none of them drowned, the Quran is in error.
2. Miriam
and Mary
In the Arabic
Bible both Miriam, the sister of Asron, and Mary, the mother of
Jesus, are named “ Maryam.” But the Quran we read that Mary,
the mother of Jesus, is the daughter of Imran, and the sister
of Aaron.
Read also
verses 29-34 of the same surat.
The fact
is that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is not the daughter of Imran
or the sister of Aaron. The difference in time between the
two Marys is more than 1300 years. Besides, Mary the mother
of Jesus, was from the tribe of Judah, Mary the sister of Aaron
was from the tribe of Levi.
3. The Planet
Earth Circle Or Flat?
Hundreds of
years before Copernicus and Galieo, the prophet Isaiah declared
that the planet earth is a sphere, he wrote:
It
is He who sits above the circle of the earth (Isaiah 40:22 NKJ).
Four times
the Quran declares that the planet earth is flat:
Do they
not consider ... How the earth has been flattened out? (Surat
Al- Ghashiyah 88:20 T.B. Irving - The First American Version of
the Quran)
Have
We not made the earth as a side expanse, and the mountains as
pegs? (Surat Al-Naban 78:6).
And
the earth and Him who spread (surat Al-Shams 91:6).
And
the earth have we spread out (Surat Al-Hijr 15:19).
This is clear
evidence that the Bible was inspired by God, while the Quran was
not. If the Quran was inspired by God, the spirit who spoke
to Mohammed would have told him that the planet earth is a sphere.
Moreover, the
Bible declared, thousands of years before any scientific discoveries
concerning the planet earth, that the planet earth is hanging on
nothing:
He
hangs the earth on nothing (Job 26:7).
This is
how accurate the Bible is.
5. The
Throne Of God, Is It On Water Or In Heaven?
The Quran
declared that the throne of God is upon water:
And He it
is Who created the heavens and the earth in six days and his
throne was upon the water (Surat Hud 11:7 MPT).
The Bible declares
that the throne of God is in heaven:
Swear not
at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne ( Matthew 5:34).
6. How
Are The Dead Resurrected?
In the Quran
we read that Abraham asked to show him how He gives life to the
dead:
Behold!
Abraham said: “My Lord! show me how that givest life to the dead.”
He said: “Dost thou not then believe?” he said: “Yea!
but to satisfy my own heart. “He said: “ Take four
birds, tie them {cut them into pieces], then put a portion of
them: on every hill, and call to them: they will come to thee
[flying] with speed. Then know that Allah is exalted in
power, wise” (Surat al-Baqarah: 2:260).
[TOP]
Is The Bible Corrupted?
Because of the many contradictions between
the Bible and the Quran, and because the Bible does not mention
any prophecies concerning Muhammad, Muslim scholars claim that
the Bible has been altered and corrupted. Such a claim is totally
against several clear verses of the Quran.
The Quran states explicitly that the Old and the New Testaments
are the inspired word of God. Here we have to emphasize the fact
that we have at least five thousand ancient manuscripts of the
entire Bible which are called codices. These codices go back to
the year 350 A.D. that is almost two hundred and fifty years before
the birth of Muhammad. One of these ancient codices is kept in
the British Museum in London, others are kept in France and in
the Vatican at pome.
Because these ancient codices were in existence before the Quran,
which came more than six hundred years after Christ, what the
Quran declares about the Bible must be applied to these without
any dispute. This is what the Quran declares concerning the Old
and the New Testament which were in the hands of the Jews and
the Christians.
We gave Moses the Book, and made it a guide to the children
of Israel... (Surat Al-Isra 17:2).
We did indeed aforetime give the Book to Moses: Be not then
in doubt of its reaching [thee]: And We made it a guide
to the children of Israel (Surat Al-Sajdah 32:23).
How can they choose you as ajudge when they have the Torah,
which contains God's judgment?...We have
sent down the Torah containing guidance and light (Surat Al-Maidah
5:43, 44 T.B. Irving - The First American Version of the Quran).
It is clear from these
Quranic verses that it was not necessary for the Jews to go to Muhammad
for judgment, because they had the Torah which came down from heaven
and contained all the needed guidance and light. They had no need
for Muhammad or his Quran.
It is we who revealed
the Torah [to Moses]: therein was guidance and light. By its standard
have been judged the Jews, by the prophets who bowed to Allah's
will, by the rabbis and the doctors of law: For to them was entrusted
the protection of Allah's Book, and they were witnesses thereto:
Therefore fear not
men, but fear Me, and sell not my signs for a miserable price.
If any do fail to judge by what Allah hath revealed, they are
unbelievers (literally infidels) (Surat Al-Maidah 5:44).
This verse declares that
the Torah was revealed to Moses, that it gives guidance and light,
and that the prophets, rabbis and doctors of law were entrusted
the protection of Allah' s book.
The important question
is: Will God entrust His word to people who would corrupt and
alter it? Obviously not. Moses said to the children of Israel:
Ye shall not add
unto the word which I command you, neithershall ye diminish aughtfromit,
that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I
command you (Deuteronomy 4:2).
The apostle Paul declares:
What advantage then
hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much
every way: Chiefly, because that unto them were committed
the oracles of God (Romans 3:1, 2).
God committed His oracles
to the Jewish prophets. They were kept pure throughout history.
If the Jews had altered
the Old Testament, they would have taken out the story of the fall
of their King David (1I Samuel 11:1-26); the hard words directed
to them (Isaiah 1:21); and the terrible prophecies concerning their
future (Zechariah 14:1,2).
The existence of these
and other stories related to them indicate the truthfulness of the
Old Testament.
Now
let us examine the testimony of the Quran concerning the New Testament
(Ingeel in Arabic).
And in their footsteps
we sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Torah that had come
before him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidance and light.
And confirmation of the Torah that had come before him: A guidance
and an admonition to those who fear Allah (Surat Al-Maidah 5:46).
According to this Quranic
verse, Jesus confirmed the Torah. The New Testament also teaches
that Jesus confirmed the Torah:
Do not think that
I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you,
even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would
have believedme: forhewroteofme. But if you believe not his writings,
how shall ye believe my words? (John 5: 45-47).
The Quran declares that
the Gospel was sent to Jesus. What is the Gospel? The apostle Paul
defines the Gospel in the following words:
Moreover, brethren,
I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you...that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was
buried, and that He rose again the third day
according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then
by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren
at once (ICorinthians 15:1-6 NKJ).
In this passage we see
that the death of Jesus Christ was to fulfill the Scriptures, and
that His burial and resurrection were also to fulfill the Scriptures.
The crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ were not
a man made story. It was a Biblical and historical reality, foretold
in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New Testament.
The Gospel was given
in four books, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The four books
were in reality one gospel in different settings, but their focal
point was the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Moreover, each book gave a special picture of Jesus Christ. TheGospel
of Matthew is the Gospel of Jesus the King. The Gospel of
Mark is the Gospel of Jesus the Servant. The Gospel of Luke is
the Gospel of Jesus the Perfect Man. The Gospel of John is the
Gospel of Jesus the Son of God. But the four Gospels concentrated
on one issue, and one event that is the crucifixion, burial, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It is clear from the
Quranic verses which will be mentioned below that the Quran does
not supersede the Torah or the gospel. If the Quran supersedes
them why does the Quran say that the people of the book (Jews
and Christians)will not have any guidance until they keep the
Torah and the Gospel?
Say: O' people of
the scripture! Ye have naught [of guidance] till ye observe the
Torah and the Gospel and that which was revealed unto you from
your Lord (Surat Al-Maidah 5:68).
Let the People
of the Gospel judge by what AUah hath revealed therein. If any
do fail to judge by what Allah hath revealed, they are those
who rebel (Surat Al-Maidah 5:47 MPT).
The Quran is explicit
in confirming the authenticity of the Bible:
It is very clear from
these verses that God promised to guard His word. There is no way
to alter it.
If God is immutable and
unchangeable, and most certainly He is, then this principle must
be applied to all his books. He can not guard one of his books
and leave the other to be corrupted. No one would trust a God who
guards a part of his word and leaves another part to be tampered
with. The conclusion is, since the Bible is the Word of God,
then it was guarded and kept pure throughout history by the power
of God. We have no choice but to accept it as such without
any dispute.
The
claim, by some Muslims, that the Bible was cormpted, is in conflict
with the Quran which confirms the Bible. At the same time it is
an insult to God, who gave the Torah to Moses and the Gospel to
Jesus, to say He was unable to guard these books from corruption.
In
addition, the New Testament ends with these solemn words:
For I testify unto
every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book,
if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him
the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall
take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall
take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy
city, and from the things which are written in this book. (Revelation
22:18, 19).
Who would dare to add
or take away from the Word of God after such a warning?
We are assured that the
God of the Bible is immutable, unchanging, and most certainly He,
blessed be His name, guarded the Bible and kept it pure.
For ever, O Lord,
thy word is settled in heaven
(Psalm 119:89).
So, the question is,
which one is the true word of God, the Quran or the Bible? The truth
is that the Bible is the original Word of God. It was in the hands
of the Jews and the Christians 600 years before the Quran. The Quran
must be the altered document because of the clear contradictions
between it and the Bible.
The Bible is like a piece
of pure gold. It holds in itself the proof of its purity.
The Bible is self-interpretive. It can be understood by comparing
its verses to interpret scripture with scripture. When anyone
receives the Lord Jesus Christ as his or her savior, the Holy tSPkn~~euminates
his or her heart and mind to understand and enjoy
Concerning the Quran
we read:
No one knows its
true meaning except Allah (Surat Al-Imran 3:7).
The Quran is a book the
meaning of which no one can know. Would God give us a book that
no one can understand?
[TOP]
Chapter
8
Is
the Quran A Miracle?
When
a Christian asks a Muslim about the Quran, the Muslim's answer
is that "the Quran is the miracle of miracles." Is the Quran really
the miracle of miracles?
Definition
of a Miracle
The definition
of the word miracle according to the Reader's Digest Illustrated
Encyclopedic Dictionary (page 1083) is:
(1) An event
that appears unexplainable by the laws of nature and so is held
to be supernatural in origin or an act of God.
(2) Broadly,
any event that seems exceptionally fortunate: It was a miracle
she escaped unhurt.
(3) A person,
thing, or event that excites admiring awe.
Is the Quran
a miracle by any of these definitions?
Testimony
of Mohammad's Contemporaries
Muhammad's contemporaries
did not believe that the Quran was a miracle, rather they called
Muhammad a poet possessed (Surat AsSaffat 37:36). they called
the Quran tales of the ancients dictated to Muhammad (Surat Al-Furqan
25:5) and they called it magic derived from old and nothing but
a word of a mortal (Surat Al-Mudathir 74:24, 25).
What
the Caliphs Said
Caliph Alwaleed Ibn
Yazid, who ruled the Muslims in the year 743 A.D., said about
Muhammad and his Quran these arabic words Talaaba be-inoboati
Hashimeon bela wahion attaho wala kitabo which means in English
that Muhammad the Hashemite manipulated people by his claim
that he was a prophet, without true inspiration or an inspired
book. Abd-Allah Ibn Al-Zaabari also denied the prophethood
of Muhammad (The Islamic Ca[iphare, page 59).
It is said about Caliph
Abd-Almalik Ibn Marawan who was a Muslim cleric and a scholar
of the Quran that the Quran was on his lap when he was appointed
Caliph. After he became a Caliph he folded the Quran and
said "this is the last time I will ever use you (Islamic Ca[iphare,
page 173).
[TOP]
The
Teacher Who Corrected the Quran
Al-Hagaag Ibn
Yousof Al-Thakafi, who lived in the years 660-714 A.D., was a
teacher of Arabic language in the city of Taif. Then he joined
the military and became the most powerful person during the reign
of Caliph Abd-Elmalik Ibn Marawan and after him his son AlWaleed
Ibn Abd-Elmalik. Because Al-Haagag taught Arabic, he gave himself
the liberty to change several words of Caliph Uthman's Quran,
which is an indication that he did not believe that the Quran
was verbally inspired or was inscribed in a "tablet preserved."
We will mention but a few of the words Al-Haagag Ibn Yousof AlThakafi
changed:
(1) In Surat Yunus
10:22, he changed the word yanshorakom, which means "spread you,"
to yousayerokom , which means "makes you to go on."
(2) In Surat Ash-Shuara
26:116, he changed the word A[Mukhrageen, which means "the
cast out," to AI-Margoomeen which means "those who are to be stoned
[to death]."
(3) In Surat Ash-Shuara
26:167, he changed the word Min AIMargoomeen,which means "those
who are to be stoned to death," to Al-Mukhrageen ,which means
"those who will assuredly be cast out."
(4) In Surat Muhammad
47:15, he changed the word yasen, which is poor Arabic to Asen,
which means "unpolluted."
(5) In Surat Al-Hadid
57:7, he changed the word wataqu, which means "feared Allah,"
to Wa-anfaqu, which means "spend in charity."
With all the
changes Al-Haggag made, there are still grammatical errors in
the Quran. Here are a few examples:
In Surat Ta Ha
20:63, the Arabic word "Hazani Lasaherani" should be "Hazaini
Lasahirieni." In Surat Al-Maidah 5:69, the Arabic word "Alsabeoun"
should be "Alsabieen." In Surat Al-Maidah 5:38, the Arabic
word "Aidyahoma" should be "Yadihoma." In Surat Al-Nisa 4:162,
the Arabic word "Almukemeen" should be "Almukemoon." In Surat
Al-Munafiqun 63:10, the Arabic word "Akon" should be "Akoon."
Muhammad claimed
that the Quran was given to him in pure Arabic (Surat Al-Nahl
16:103), but with all these grammatical errors, how could it be
pure Arabic? It is not appropriate to call any book a miracle.
If we think that
any book could be a miracle then The Eliad, and The Odyssey written
by the Creek poet Homer in the 8th century B.C., and the plays
of William Shakespeare, the greatest English writer who lived
in the 16th century A.D., are also miracles.
Can
the Quran, which is full of scientific, historical, and grammatical
errors, be considered a miracle? When the Quran is translated
into any other language, it totally loses its poetic rhyme and
becomes almost incomprehensible.
[TOP]
Qu'ran's
Principles Not Consistent With The Bible
If the Quran
is the true inspired book of the latest major religion revealed
to mankind, then it must be completely consistent with the Bible
and its principles, because God would not contradict Himself.
In addition, should'nt its principles and morality be superior
to JudaismandChristianity? Butthat is not thecase. The fact is,
the Quran is in total contradiction to the Bible. Let us consider
a few examples:
[TOP]
I.
Love or retaliation and racism?
Jesus Christ commanded Christians:
Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and
persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which
is in heaven. .. (Matthew 5:44, 45).
The Quran says:
There is the law of equality. If then any one transgresses
the prohibition against you, transgress ye likewise against him
(Surat Al-Baqarah 2:194).
O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians
for your friends and protectors: They are but friends and protectors
to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them [for
friendshipl is of them. Verily Allah guideth not a people unjust
(Surat Al-Maidah 5:5).
Could any Muslim honestly and sincerely
befriend any Jew or Christian if he or she obeys the Quran?
[TOP]
2.
Peace or sword?
Jesus said to Peter,
His disciple:
Put up again thy
sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish
with the sword (Matthew 26:52).
The Quran says:
O Prophet! rouse
the believers to fight (Surat Al-Anfal 8:65).
It is recorded in Al-Tabari's
history that Muhammad said:
I was sent by the
sword, the good is with the sword, the good is in the sword, the
good is by the sword. My followers will be always good as long
as they carry the sword (Islamic Ca[iphate , page 144).
In the first part
of this book we mentioned many verses in the Quran commanding Muslims
to fight. Here, we have to realize that when Jesus said:
Think not that I am
come to send peace on earth: I come not to send peace, but a sword
(Matthew 10:34), that sword was not the sword to kill but the
sword of division. This is clear from His words:
Do you suppose that
I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather
division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three
against two, and two against three. Father will be divided
against son and son against father, mother against daughter ~d
daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law (Luke 12:51-53
NKJ).
This often happens when
one member of the family becomes a Christian, the rest of the family
will be against him or her. The sword Christ mentioned is
not the sword to kill, but a sword of division between those who
believe in Him and those who do not.
The Quran, on the
other hand, upholds the use of the sword for killing and for sheddingthe
blood of anyone who does not believe in Muhammad and his Quran.
One example of
brutality in Islam is seen in the beheading of Sadeq Abdul Kareem
Malallah in Saudi Arabia. The Washington Post recorded that
beheading in an article by Carlyle Murphy on Thursday, October
1, 1992:
KUWAIT CITY, Sept.
30 Saudi Arabian authorities, in a case that has drawn protests
from human rights groups and questions from other Muslims, have
beheaded a 23-year-old Saudi man convicted of insulting the prophet
Muhammad and Islam' s holy book, the Quran.
Sadeq Abdul Kareem
Malallah was publicly executed in a marketplace in the town of
Qatif on Sept. 3, according to a statement the next day by the
Interior Ministry.
The statement said
Malallah, a member of Saudi Arabia's minonty Shiite Muslim
sect who was convicted in 1988 and imprisoned
since, had "insulted God, the holy Quran and Muhammad
the prophet." His conviction, upheld by two Islamic law appeal
courts, was confirmed by King Fahd in August, it added.
Malallah called Muhammad
"a liar and swindler" and accused him of using "witchcraft" and
"help from devils," the government said. He allegedly termed
the Quran, which Muslims believe is a revelation from God, "a
product of the prophet," and said Islam is "a fabricated religion."
"This is not mere
apostasy," the government said. "Indeed, it is a crime calling
for death, but even death will not pardon Sadeq in front of Muhammad
and the Quran."
A London-based human
rights group supported by Saudi dissidents quoted a witness to
the execution as saying that those gathered at the scene experienced
a "massive shock" at the sentence, and that just before his death
Malallah was shouting: "I am innocent. You are oppressive."
The case highlights
the importance of religious orthodoxy in Saudi society, whose
Sunni Muslim leaders base much of their political legitimacy on
the claim to be custodians of the original intent of Muhammad's
teachings as well as of Islam's holy places.
But the secretive
proceedings against Malallah, allegations of mistreatment in prison
and the fact that he belonged to the Shiite minority have
raised questions about his execution.
"I've never heard
of such a case in Saudi Arabia because it's very rare for a Saudi
to say [such things] in Saudi society," said Fahmy Howeidy, an
Egyptian journalist specializing in Islamic affairs.
'The question is not
what the Quran says about apostasy and its punishment," he added.
'The point is, is it true that he said such a thing? And was he
given a legal trial and given justice, and a lawyer to defend
him? We cannot discuss the [matter] from an official Saudi statement
only." Amnesty International has protested to the Saudi government
over the execution of a "possible prisoner of conscience."
The organization said
it has asked the Riyadh government to release details of the charges
and legal proceedings against Malallah, citing reports that he
was held in solitary confinement for long periods and beaten in
prison.
Aziz Abu Hamad, a
human rights investigator with the New York based Middle East
Watch, cited Malallah's execution in recent testimony he gave
to the U.S. Congress on Saudi Arabia's human rights record.
"This is the first
time in Saudi history where a man was killed for such a crime,"
Hamad said in a telephone interview. "My reading is
that the government wants to seize the moral high ground from
the [Islamic] fundamentalists."
The London-based International
Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in the Gulf and the
Arabian Peninsula, which is supported by exiled Saudi dissidents,
including Shiites, also protested the execution.
Based on interviews
with his relatives and former inmates of Mababeth prison in Dammam,
Saudi Arabia, where Malallah was held for a time, the committee
said he was arrested in April 1988 for allegedly "throwing stones
at a police car."
Later, a judge in
Qatif "accused him of smuggling a Bible into the country" and
asked him to convert to Wahhabi Islam, the puritanic sect prevailing
in Saudi Arabia, which harbors deep suspicions about Shiite Muslims,
the committee alleged. When Malallah refused, he
reportedly was placed in solitary confinement
and physically abused, the committee said.
To criticize
Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, or to say that the Quran is "a
product of the prophet," or that Islam is a "fabricated religion,"
or to smuggle a Bible into a country ruled by the Quran, is a
crime punishable by beheading. It should be noted also that Islam
is a prison with no exit. Once you enter that prison, you
can not come out of it alive. Once a Muslim, always a Muslim.
According to
Islamic law, the Muslim who converts to Christianity from Islam
is an apostate and must be killed.
The International
Christian Concern, in its press release of October 2, 1996,
wrote under the title, "Apostate"
Christian Pastor Murdered in Iran::
News of another murder
of an Iranian Christian pastor reached the West seven days after
his body was found on September 25 hanging from a tree in a secluded
forest. Rev. Mohammed Ravanbaksh was killed shortly after he had
reportedly been detained and questioned by the Iranian police.
He is the fourth Christian leader to have been murdered in less
than three years.
Since the 35 year old
pastor had converted from Islam to Christianity 11 years ago,
he has been labeled by the Iranian authorities and Muslim leaders
as an "apostate" who was deserving of death. He was ordained by
the Assemblies of God Church under the leadership of the late
Bishop Haik Hovespian-Mehr, who was brutally murdered after being
abducted inJanuary 1994. Rev. Ravanbaksh has been pastoring an
underground church since 1988, after the Iranian authorities forcibly
closed down the three churches he had been pastoring. Another
martyred pastor and former Muslim, Mehdi Dibaj, served as mentor
to Rev. Ravanbaksh. Mehdi Dibaj was murdered in 1994 shortly after
serving more than nine years in prison on charges of apostasy.
Rev. Mehr was outspoken on behalf of Mehdi Dibaj during his imprisonment,
which led to an international campaign that resulted in Mehdi
Dibaj's release in late 1993. Since the time of Pastor Dibaj's
death, Rev. Ravanbaksh has been caring for Dibaj's young children.
In addition to Dibaj's children, Rev. Ravanbaksh's wife, Akhtar,
is left to care for two small children of their own who are now
without a father.
Rev. Ravanbaksh is
said to have been willing to follow in the footsteps of Mehdi
Dibaj who wrote these words a short time before his death: "I
have always envied those Christians who were martyred for Christ
Jesus our Lord. What a privilege to live for our Lord and to die
for Him as well... I am ready to give my life for the sake of
Jesus Christ." A protest campaign has
been launched by International Christian Concern
(ICC) for the purpose of drawing international attention
to the intense persecution against evangelical Christians in Iran
and to condemn the Iranian government's continued detention, imprisonment,
torture, and murder of Christian leaders. Numerous pastors have
received death threats. Christians who dare to openly
practice their faith fear government harassment
and even death.
America as well
as many European Christian nations went to war, shed the blood
of their soldiers and billions of dollars to rescue Muslims in
Kuwait, Bosnia, Somalia. Yet, Islamic fanaticism is spreading
all over the world. An Islamic invasion is taking place in America
with hundreds of thousands of Muslims given visas and green cards
to migrate to America. Their hidden agenda is to ultimately
convert this country to Islam.
In
the West, as well as in Islamic States, Muslim clerics have the
right to convert Christians to Islam without any threat or danger
to them. But once a Muslim is converted to Christianity
he is threatened, persecuted, tortured, and ultimately executed.
If
Islam is Allah's religion, as the Quran claims, the Muslims should
leave to Allah the protection of his religion, and if He is in
need of human help, then this Allah is not the true and living
God.
[TOP]
3.
One wife or four?
The Bible commands one woman for
one man with no permission for divorce except for fornication:
Have ye not read, that he which
made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said,
for this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall
cleave to his wife: and they shall be one flesh? Wherefore
they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God
hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him,
"Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement
and to put her away?" He saith unto them, "Moses because
of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives:
but from beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, whosoever
shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall
marry another, commmitteth adultery: and whoso marrieth
her which is put away doth commit adultery" (Matthew 19:4-9).
Nevertheless, to avoid fornication,
let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have
her own husband (1 Corinthians 7:2).
The Quran says:
to deal justly [with them]
then only one, or that which your right hands possess. . . (Surat
Al-Nisa 4:3).
This verse in the Quran gives the right
to the Muslim to marry two or three or four women, especial if the
Muslim follow the example of Muhammad who married fourteen wives.
Muhammad is the excellent example for every Muslim. No Muslim
will fear that he will be unjust. Here we have to mention
the double standard of Islam. The Quran
permits the Muslim man to marry a Christian or a Jewish woman, but
forbids the Muslim woman to marry a Christian or a Jew.
The above mentioned verse also permits
the Muslim to have sex with his slave girls, which the Quran call
"that which your right hand possess." Polygamy - one man marrying
more than one woman - demonstrates inequality and female subservience.
It invites exploitation of the wives and degrading competition among
them.
Dr. Moody Adams recorded the following
true story in his book, The Religion that is Raping America, (pages
77, 78 & 79):
A friend of mine was brought face
to face with the Muslim sexual practices which are so attractive
to men and so deplorable to women. She told me that thirty
years ago in England she had a very beautiful female cousin, whose
name was Sylvia. She said: "Sylvia was ten years older than
me; I always admired her and wanted to be like her, she
had beautiful blonde hair, blue eyes and a peach complexion.
She was always full of life and had an unquenchable thirst for
adventure. When she was eighteen she went on a vacation
to the Middle East. On this vacation she met a handsome
Lebanese sheik and fell in love. She told her parents that
she was going to marry him, but they were very afraid for her;
they said they had heard stories that Muslim men had many wives
and harems full of concubines. They had heard that the wives
were kept as virtual prisoners with very few rights. They
also had heard that Middle Eastern men coveted the blonde hair
and blue eyes of a European woman; it was like a trophy.
Sylvia told them not to be
afraid; her future husband was a very modern Muslim and did
not think and behave like that. She also told them
that he had said he would never take another wife, as with Sylvia
he only needed the one. Sylvia was married in a small
civil ceremony in London with her parents in attendance and
then taken by her husband back to Lebanon, where she converted
to Islam and was married in an Islamic ceremony.
She seemed to be happy for
a few years and had two handsome sons. Then without any
warning, her parents did not hear from her for quite a few months;
they began to worry. Her parents tried to call her in
Lebanon, but her husband took the phone calls and told them
she was ill and could not talk; but that they were not to worry
as she had good doctors attending her and would be fine.
Three more months passed and
they still had not heard from her. No-one would take their
phone calls; then finally Sylvia’s husband called to say she
had died suddenly. Her parents felt there was more to
this story than an illness. They were poor and could not
go to Lebanon themselves; but they got in touch with their local
politician. This man was a very caring individual who
had known Sylvia as a child. He assured her parents that
he would make discreet inquiries.
After about a month they received
the most heartbreaking news. Sylvia’s life in Lebanon
in this strict Muslim home was bondage; she had been one of
four wives and, indeed, her husband did have concubines.
Her parents worst predictions had been correct.
Her parents learned Sylvia
had tried to escape from her husband with her two sons.
She was caught by her husband’s "guards" and returned to him.
A few weeks later she had taken one of her husband’s cars and
tried to escape again. Her husband had anticipated this
and set a trap by tampering with the brakes. Sylvia lost
control of the car and went over a cliff to her death.
The crash decapitated her.
Sylvia’s sons remained in Lebanon;
her parents never had a chance to see them and they were told
that they would not be able to bring her husband to justice;
he was only subject to Islamic law and under the law he had
done nothing ‘wrong’"
(Printed by permission).
We must not forget that a Muslim can
divorce his four wives and marry another four and another four with
no end. A Muslim can therefore marry a large number of women
during his lifetime.
[TOP]
4.
Love your wife or beat her?
The Bible commands the husbands
to be kind to their wives, to honor them and to love them.
Husbands, love your wives, and
be not bitter against them (Colossians 3:19).
Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with
them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife,
as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the
grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered (I Peter 3:7).
Husbands, love, your wives,
even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself
for it . . . (Ephesians 5:25).
The Quran says:
As to those women on whose part
ye fear disloyalty and ill-conduct, admonish them, refuse
to share their beds, and beat them (Surat Al-Nisa 4:34).
Just a suspicion of disloyalty on the
part of a wife is justification for the husband to beat her.
[TOP]
5.
The Case Of The Divorced Wife
The Bible states that remarriage
of the divorced wife to the same husband, after marrying another
man, is an ABOMINATION in the sight of God. The Quran however,
sanctions remarriage of the divorced wife to her husband upon
the condition that the woman must first marry another man.
Without actually marrying another man, she cannot marry the same
husband.
What the God of the Bible calls ABOMINATION,
the Quran calls the limits ordained by Allah. In the book
of Deuteronomy we read:
When a man takes a wife and marries
her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes
because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her
a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out
of his house, when she has departed from his house, and goes and
becomes another man’s wife, if the latter husband detests
her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand,
and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies
who took her to be his wife, then her former husband who divorced
her must not take her back to be his wife after she has
been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord,
and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God
is giving you as an inheritance (Deuteronomy 24:1-4 NKJ).
This is a very clear commandment of
God.
Now, read what the Quran says:
If a husband divorces his
wife [irrevocably], he cannot, after that, remarry her until after
she has married another husband and he has divorced her.
In that case there is no blame on either of them if they re-unite,
provided they feel that they can keep the limits ordained by Allah.
Such are the limits ordained by Allah, which He makes plain to
those who know (Surat Al-Baqarah 2:230).
There is a clear contrast here between
the Bible and the Quran. These two conflicting commandments
could not be from the same source.
[TOP]
6.
The Islamic Veil
The Old Testament recorded many
women’s names: Eve, Adah, Zillah, Sarai, Asenath, Miriam,
Deborah, Ruth, Hannah, Abigail, Esther, and many more. The
New Testament also recorded many women’s names, Mary the mother
of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Martha, Elizabeth, Priscilla, Pheobe,
Dorcas, Lydia, and many more.
The Bible says:
There is neither... male nor female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).
In the Quran,
the only woman mentioned by name is Maryam, the mother of Jesus.
Even Muhammad’s wives were not mentioned in the Quran for women
have no value in Islam. This is why men can marry four
women at one time, and this is why the Quran commanded the Muslim
women to wear a veil which they call the "Hejab." One Saudi princess
wrote about her sister when she was ordered by her father to wear
the veil:
Sara had been veiling since her
menses. The veil stamped her as a nonperson (Italics mine),
and she soon ceased to speak of her childhood dreams of great
accomplishment. She became distant from me, her younger
sister, who was as yet unconcerned with the institution of veiling.
The sharpening of Sara’s distance left me longing for the remembered
happiness of our shared childhood. It suddenly became apparent
to me that happiness is realized only in the face of unhappiness,
for I never knew we were so happy until Sara’s unhappiness stared
me in the face (Princess, page 27).
What we read in the Quran is retaliation,
racism, life by the sword, polygamy, wife beating and veiling.
This is clearly opposite to the glorious teachings and practices
of Judaism and Christianity.
[TOP]
Chapter
9
DOES THE Quran TEACH POLYTHEISM?
Polytheism
is the belief in, or worship of, more than one god. Muslims accuse
Christians of being polytheistic, because they believe in a Triune
God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They ignore the
fact that Christians believe in one true God, who is triune.
On the contrary, our study of the Quran will clearly show that
it teaches polytheism. Before we mention the Quranic verses which
teach polytheism, an important question should be asked and answered,
and that question is:
[TOP]
From
Where Did We Get Our Knowledge About the True and Living God?
The answer is, from one of two sources.
First,
we can imagine God with our foolish hearts and darkened minds,
which is what the pagans did. This is what the Apostle Paul said
concerning the pagans:
Because that, when they knew God,
they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and
changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made
like corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and
creeping things... who changed the truth of God into a lie, and
worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who
is blessed forever, Amen (Romans 1:21-25).
Secondly,
we can know the true God by a special revelation from Him, which
Christians have received in the Bible. We take God at His word and
believe His revelation of Himself. God is everlasting, having no
beginning; therefore He must be self-sufficient.
No one can fully comprehend
God. The finite human mind cannot contain the infinite God. If
we could contain God in our minds, he would no longer be God.
The great and true God is
eternal, infinite, and everlasting. His attributes also must be
eternal and everlasting. He should not lose any of His attributes
nor acquire new ones. God is immutable in wisdom, in power,
in holiness, in justice, in goodness, in truth.
According to the Bible, God
is called Father (Malachi 2:10, John 8:41). Eternal fatherhood
demands eternal sonship. God is love (1 John 4:16) and love
demands someone to be loved. God talks, hears, and sees.
Here we have many important
questions concerning God that need an answer. Before God created
angels and men, with whom was he talking? Whom did
He hear? Whom did He see? Most importantly,
whom did He love? These questions cannot be answered unless
we believe in a triune God.
The only logical and perfect
God must be a triune God to exercise His attributes with no need
of His creation. This is the confession of every true Christian,
which was expressed in the Wesmminster Confession ofl;aith, chapter
2, in the following words.
There is but one living and true
God, who is infinite in being and perfection... God hath all life,
glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of himself; and is alone
in and unto himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any
creatures which he hath made... In the unity of the Godhead there
be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity:
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.
[TOP]
No
one can fully comprehend God.
The finite human mind cannot contain
the infinite God. If we could contain God in our minds, he would
no longer be God.
The great and true God is
eternal, infinite, and everlasting. His attributes also must be
eternal and everlasting. He should not lose any of His attributes
nor acquire new ones. God is immutable in wisdom, in power,
in holiness, in justice, in goodness, in truth.
According to the Bible, God
is called Father (Malachi 2:10, John 8:41). Eternal fatherhood
demands eternal sonship. God is love (1 John 4:16) and love
demands someone to be loved. God talks, hears, and sees.
Here we have many important
questions concerning God that need an answer. Before God created
angels and men, with whom was he talking? Whom did
He hear? Whom did He see? Most importantly,
whom did He love? These questions cannot be answered
unless we believe in a triune God.
The only logical and perfect
God must be a triune God to exercise His attributes with no need
of His creation. This is the confession of every true Christian,
which was expressed in the Wesmminster Confession ofl;aith, chapter
2, in the following words.
There is but one living and true
God, who is infinite in being and perfection... God hath all life,
glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of himself; and is alone
in and unto himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any
creatures which he hath made... In the unity of the Godhead there
be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity:
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.
[TOP]
The
Bible Reveals A Triune God
The Old Testament
uses the plural name of Deity:
And God
said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness... so God
created man in His own image (Genesis 1:26,27).
And the
Lord God said behold, the man is become as one of us (Genesis
3:22).
Also I heard
the voice of the Lord, saying, whom shall I send, and who will
go for us? (Isaiah 6:8).
Here we have
to notice the two words, “I” and “us.” For the One who says
“I” says also “us.” That indicates the oneness of the Triune
God.
It is of great
importance to notice that God never used the word “we” or “us”
to magnify himself in the Bible. It was not the custom of
the kings of the great empires to use the word “we” to magnify
themselves.
King Nebuchadnezzar,
the Emperor of the great Babylonian empire, issued a decree saying,
“Therefore I make a decree...” (Daniel 3:29). King Darius
issued a decree saying, “I make a decree...” (Daniel 6:26).
So when God uses the words “we” or “us,” it is not to magnify
Himself but indicate that He is a Triune God.
In the
book of Numbers, there is a clear demonstration of the Triune
God. The prophet Balaam came to King Balak upon the request
of the King to curse Israel. In that story we read three
verses which clearly show the Triune God.
The first
verse: And God met Balaam
The second
verse: And the LORD met Balaam
The third
verse:... and the Spirit of God came upon him (Numbers 23:4, 16
and 24:2).
Here, we see
God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit in
clear manifestation.
Then we read
in Psalm 110:1:
The LORD
said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine
enemies thy footstool.
Jesus asked the
Pharisees concerning this passage saying:
What think
ye of Christ? Whose son is He? They say unto him,
the son of David. He saith unto them, how then doth David
in spirit call him Lord, saying, “the LORD said unto my Lord,
sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool”
(Matthew 22:42-44).
The only right
answer for this passage is the belief in the triune God. For
in this passage we see “The LORD” is God the Father and “my Lord”
is God the Son. David, by the Spirit, called Him Lord and
that Spirit is the “Holy Spirit.”
Again,
we read in the book of Proverbs:
Who has
ascended into heaven or descended? Who has gathered the
wind in his fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his
name, and what is His son’s name, if you know (Proverbs 30:4 NKJ).
Dr. Charles
Bridges says in his commentary on Proverbs (pages 591, 592):
. . . and
no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone
know the Father except the Son. . . (Matthew 11:27 NKJ).
Yet there is a Son in the Eternal Godhead; a Son not begotten
in time, but from eternity (Proverbs 8:22-30); his name therefore,
not as some would have it, a component part of his humiliation,
but the manifestation of his Godhead: co-existent with his
Father in the same ineffable nature, yet personally distinct.
What is his name? and what is his Son’s name? Sovereignty-Omnipresence-Omnipotence
are His. He too controls the winds and water, and establishes
the earth...”
We have
to realize that these passages are taken from the Old Testament,
the book of the Jewish people who believe in monotheism. Clearly,
the plurality of God’s being was still consistent with the Jewish
monotheistic doctrines.
We come
now to the New Testament.
On the
occasion of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, we see clearly
the Triune God.
When He
had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and
behold, the heavens were opened to hi, and he saw the Spirit of
God descending like a dove and alighting upon him. And suddenly
a voice came from heaven saying, “This is my beloved son, in whom
I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:16, 17 NKJ).
In this scene
we have:
- The Father
speaking from heaven, calling Jesus “My beloved Son.”
- The
Son, Jesus Christ, coming up from the water.
- The
Holy Spirit like a dove descending from heaven and alighting
upon the son.
- The
Quran also testifies to the existence of the Holy Spirit as
a separate manifestation of the godhead.
We
gave Jesus the Son of Mary evidence, clear [signs] and strengthened
him with the Holy Spirit (Surat Al-Baqarah 2:87).
To Jesus
the Son of Mary We gave clear [signs], and strengthened him with
the Holy Spirit (Surat Al-Baqarah 2:253).
Ibn Katheir
cited Ibn Abbas who said, “The Holy Spirit is the Greatest Name
with which Jesus was able to raise the dead.” Ibn Katheir
cited also Al Zamakhshari who said, “The Holy Spirit here means
the Spirit of Jesus Himself” (Ibn Katheir, Volume 1, pages 117,
118).
The triune God
is the God revealed in the Bible.
This profound
mystery of the Godhead is summed up in the word of Dr. Boardman,
the great theologian.
The Father
is all the fullness of the Godhead invisible.
No one has
seen God at any time. (John 1:18 NKJ)
The son is all
the fullness of the Godhead manifested.
No one has
seen God at any time. The only begotten son, who is in the
bosom of the father, He has declared Him (John 1:18; NKJ).
In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God...and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and
we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth (John 1:1-14; NKJ).
The Holy
Spirit is all the fullness of the Godhead acting immediately upon
the creature.
But as it
is written: “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered
into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those
who love him. But God has revealed them to us through His
Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yea the deep
things of God (I Corinthians 2:9, 10).
The Quran
declares that God is visible and invisible, and seated Him on a
throne.
He is the
first and the last, and the outward (literally the visible) and
the inward (literally the invisible); and he is the knower of
all things. he it is who created the heavens and the earth
in six days; then he mounted the throne (Surat Al-Hadid: 57:3,
4 MPT).
God is invisible.
The apostle Paul says that He is:
. . .dwelling
in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath
seen, nor can see: To whom be honor and power everlasting.
Amen (I Timothy 6:16).
But God
became visible in the person of Jesus Christ. The apostle
Paul says:
“And without
controversy great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest
in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen angels, preached unto
the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory”
(I Timothy 3:16).
Why is it
difficult for Muslims to believe that Jesus Christ is the incarnated
Son of God when the Quran has incarnated God in many of its verses?
1.
The Quran gave God a face
Every
one upon it will disappear while your Lord’s face will remain
full of majesty and splendor (Surat Al-Rahman 55:26, 27
T.B. Irving, The First American Version of the Quran).
2.
The Quran gave God a hand
Lo!
those who swear allegiance unto thee [Muhammad}, swear allegiance
only unto Allah. The Hand of Allah is above their
hand (Surat Al-Fath 48/:10 MPT)
3.
The Quran gave God an eye
When the Quran
mentions Moses’ mother, it says:
Behold!
We sent to thy mother, by inspiration, the message: “Throw
[the child] into the chest, and throw [the chest] into the
river. The river will cast him up on the bank, and
he will be taken up by one who is an enemy to Me and an enemy
to him”: But I endued thee with love from Me.
And [this] in order that thou mayest be reared under Mine
eye (Surat Ta Ha: 20:38-39).
4.
The Quran seated God on the throne
He it is
who created the heavens and the earth in six days: then he mounted
the throne (Surat Al-Hadid 57:4 MPT).
The Quran gave
Allah a face, a hand, and an eye, and seated Him on the throne.
This is incarnation, however, Muslims may say this is allegorical.
Such expressions
in the Quran, where it is said that God has a face, a hand, and
an eye are to be understood only in the sense that those human expressions
are used in order to bring the infinite within the comprehension
of the finite. The conclusion is that incarnation is necessary
for human beings to comprehend at least a glimpse of the Divine.
Christians accept
the Biblical revelation concerning the nature of God and the incarnation
of Jesus, the eternal Son of God. It is the only source for
knowing the true God - the Triune God.
[TOP]
The
Bible Reveals A Supreme God
God is the
supreme Being, no one is above Him. No one associated with
Him In the Book of Hebrews we read:
For when
God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one
greater, He swore by Himself (Hebrews 6:13 NKJ).
For men
indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is
for them an end of all dispute (Hebrews 6:16 NKJ).
Every time God
swears in the Bible, He swears by Himself because no one is greater
than Him. In the Book of Genesis, He said to Abraham:
By Myself
I have sworn, say the Lord... in your seed all the nations of
the earth shall be blessed (Genesis 22:16-18 NKJ).
In the book of
Isaiah, He said:
I have sworn
by Myself; the word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness,
and shall not return, that to Me every knee shall bow. .
.(Isaiah 45:23 NKJ).
In the Book of
Jeremiah, He said:
I swear
by Myself, says the Lord (Jeremiah 22:5 NKJ).
The true and
supreme God could not swear by someone else, let alone anything
else. So He swore by Himself. Christians are not polytheists
by the Muslims are. The Quran puts Allah in a lesser position
than His creation since He swore by many things other than Himself.
This is polytheism which the Muslims call “shirk” in Arabic.
[TOP]
The
Quran Reveals That Allah Is Lower Than His Creation
Allah swore
in the Quran twenty-four times,
by the Quran, the angels, the winds, the mount, the star, the
pen, the moon, the night, the dawn, the day of resurrection, the
sky, the day of judgment, the men and odd numbers, the sun, the
earth, the soul, the creation of male and female, the fig, the
olive, the city of Makkah. Are these things greater than
Allah that He would swear by them? What is the value of
the pen, the sun, the moon, the fig or the olive compared to Allah?
Suppose that
you are called as a witness in court, and instead putting your
hand on the Bible or the Quran and saying that you will tell the
truth and nothing but the truth, you say, “Your honor, I swear
by the fig, the olive, the pen, and the star to tell the truth.”
Will the judge accept your testimony?
For the
Quran to declare that Allah swore by things He had created is
to teach heresy and clear polytheism.
1.
Allah swore by the Quran five times
By the Quran
full of wisdom (Surat Ya Sin 36:2)
By the
Quran, full of admonition (Surat Sad 38:1).
By the
Book that makes things clear, we have made it a Quran in Arabic,
that ye may be able to understand (Surat Al-Zukhruf 43:2).
By the
Book that makes things clear (Surat Al-Dukhan 44:2). By
the Glorious Quran (Surat Qaf 50:1).
2.
Allah swore by different ranks of angels or probably men
By those
who arrange themselves in ranks. Those who so are strong
in repelling [evil]. Those who thus proclaim the message
of Allah (Surat Al-Saffat 37:1-3).
By the
[angels] who tear out [the souls of the wicked with violence]
by those who gently draw out [the souls of the blessed]
and by those who glide along [on errands of mercy], and
then press forward as in race, then arrange to do [the commands
of their Lord] (Surat Al-Naziat 79:1-4).
3.
Allah swore by the winds
4.
Allah swore by the mount, the inscribed book the kaaba, and the
ocean
By the mount,
by the book inscribed in a parchment unfolded, by the much-frequented
house [Kaaba} by the canopy raised high and by the ocean filled
with swell (Surat al- Tur 52:1-6).
It is
of great importance to notice in this verse that Allah swore
by the Kaaba, while it was the shrine of three hundred and sixty
idols.
5.
Allah swore by the star
By the star
when it goes down (Surat Al-Najm 53:1).
6.
Allah swore by the pen
By the pen
and by the record which [men] write (Surat Al-] 68:1).
7.
Allah swore by the moon, the night, and the dawn
Nay, verily:
By the moon, and by the night as it retreateth, and by the dawn
as it shineth forth (Surat Al-Muddathir 74:32-34).
8.
Allah swore by the Resurrection Day and the self-reproaching soul
I do swear
by the Resurrection Day. And I do swear by the self-reproaching
soul. Surat Al-Qiyamah 75:1, 2).
9.
Allah swore by the sky, the Day of ;Judgment, and by the one that
witnesses
By the sky,
with its constellations, by the promised day [of judgment].
By one that witnesses and the subject of witness (Surat
Al-Buruj 85:1-3).
10.
Allah swore again by the sky
By the sky
and the night-visitant (Surat Al-Tariq 86:1).
11.
Allah swore by the dawn, the ten nights, by the even and odd, and
by the night
By the dawn,
by the ten nights; by the even and odd [contrasted]. And
by the night when it passeth away (Surat Al-Fajr 89: 1-4).
12.
Allah swore by the city (Makkah)
Nay, I do
swear by this city (Surat Al-Balad 90:1).
13.
Allah swore by the sun, the moon, the day, the night, the firmament,
the earth, and the soul.
By the sun,
and his [glorious] splendour: by the moon as she follow
him; by the day as it shows up [the sun’s] glory; by the
night as it conceals it; by the firmament and its expanse;
by the soul, and the proportion and order given to it; and its
inspiration as to its wrong and its right (Surat Al-Shams
91:1-8).
14.
Allah swore by the night, the day, and the creation of male and
female
By the night
as it conceals [the light]; by the day as it appears in glory;
by the creation of male and female (Surat Al-Layl 92:1-3).
15.
Allah swore by the morning light, and by the night
By the glorious
morning light, and by the night when it is still, thy Guardian-Lord
hath not forsaken thee, nor is He displeased (Surat Ad-Duha
93:1-3).
Ahmad Abdelwahab
city Muhammad’s biographers wrote in his book, Prophecy and Prophets,
the following:
Revelations
ceased from coming to Muhammad for a long time (some say two years);
some of Muhammad’s friends may have said to him “It seems that
you Allah has forsaken you.” The prophet passed through
a terrible spiritual crisis. The biographers of Muhammad
say: “During that time Muhammad though to commit suicide
by throwing himself from the top of Mount Hira, or Mount
Abi-Qubees, because he felt desperate and lonely” (Prophecy
and Prophets, pages 177, 178).
Could you
imagine the Prophet Muhammad thinking of committing suicide?
At that time Allah swore to Muhammad “by the glorious morning light,
and by the night that He had not forsaken him, nor was He displeased
with him.”
Who is
this Allah, who swore by the glorious morning light, and by the
night? How could anyone believe in a promise based on this
oath?
16.
Allah swore by the fig, the olive, Mount Sinai, and the city of
Makkah
By the fig
and the olive, and Mount Sinai, and this City of Security [Makkah]
(Surat Al-Tin 95:1-3).
17.
Allah swore by the steed, which, according to the commentators of
the Quran, might be camels, war-horses, or spiritual forces
By the [Steeds]
that run, with panting [breath] and strike sparks of fire, and
push home the charge in the morning, and raise the dust in clouds
the while, and penetrate forthwith into the midst [of the foe]
(Surat Al-Adiyat 100:1-5).
18.
Allah swore by time through the ages
By the time,
verily man is in loss (Surat Al-Asr 103:1,2).
Doesn’t the association
of Allah, the almighty and supreme God, with these objects and creatures
represent polytheism?
Muhammad positioned
himself as a counselor with Allah, when he forced Zainab, daughter
of Gahsh, to marry Zaid, Muhammad’s adopted son. When Zainab
refused Muhammad’s proposal, the Quran declares that this proposal
was the decision of Allah and Muhammad.
It is not
fitting for a believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided
by Allah and His Messenger, to have any option about their decision.
If anyone disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he is indeed on a
clearly wrong path (Surat Al-Ahzab 33:36).
The Bible declares
that God does not accept any human counseling:
Oh, the
depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding
out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who
has been His counselor? (Romans 11:33, 34 NKJ).
For Muhammad
to associate himself as a counselor with Allah is clearly polytheism.
[TOP]
The
Quran Positioned Mohammed As The Center Of Praise In Heaven, And
On Earth
Lo!
Allah and His angels shower blessings on the prophet. O
ye who believe? Ask blessings on him and salute him with
a worth salutation (Surat Al-Ahzab 33:56 MPT)
The literal translation
of this verse is:
Allah and
His angels pray on the prophet. O ye who believe pray on
him and salute him with a worthy salutation.
If Allah in heaven
is praying on the prophet, the question is, to whom is Allah praying?
Why do Muslims doubt the deity of Jesus Christ because He prayed
when He was on the cross:
My God,
my God, why have You forsaken Me? (Matthew 27:46 NKJ)
If the Muslim
accepts the Biblical revelation of God, and believes that God is
a Triune God, if he understands that the one who was incarnated
in the person of Jesus Christ is God the Son, and that Jesus took
the form of a servant, came in the likeness of men, and being found
in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to
the point of death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians
2:7,8 NKJ), then he would know that Jesus, as a servant, cried out
to God. ”My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Charles Haddon
Spurgeon commented on that verse saying:
In order
that the sacrifice of Christ might be complete, it pleased the
Father to forsake his well-beloved Son. sin was laid
on Christ, so God must turn away his face from the Sin-Bearer.
To be deserted of his God was the climax of Christ's grief, the
quintessence of his sorrow. See here the distinction between
the martyrs and their Lord; in their dying agonies they
have been divinely sustained; but Jesus, suffering as the Substitute
for sinners, was forsaken of God. Those saints who have
known what it is to have their Father's face hidden from them
even for a brief space, can scarcely imagine the suffering that
wrung from our Savior the agonizing cry, “My God, my God,
why has thou forsake me?” (Matthew: The King has Come,
page 406).
Nevertheless,
the first word Christ uttered while on the cross was:
Father forgive
them, for they do not know what they do )Luke 23:34 NKJ)
Then he committed
his human spirit to the Father, saying:
Father,
into your hands I commit My spirit (Luke 23:45 NAS).
He was always
the Son calling His Father. In addition, He offered that prayer,
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” to demonstrate that
He was the one whom the prophet David spoke about in Psalm 22.
All the prophecies in that Psalm were fulfilled to the letter when
Christ died.
We have to
see in Christ's prayer Jesus as the Son of man, praying to God
the Father, and in that hour of darkness, God is still the God
Christ reveals.
But in the
Quran Allah, who is absolute, prays to himself on the prophet.
The Muslims accept that. They should not question Christ's
deity because of his prayer on the cross. More importantly,
if Allah and his angels in heaven are praying on the prophet,
and on earth Muslims are praying on the prophet, then Mohammed
is the center of worship in heaven and on earth. This is
also the conclusion arrived at by some intellectual Muslims.
The daily
Egyptian Newspaper, Alwafd, (September 9, 1992), recorded
the following question sent to Sheik Hassan Mamoun, one of the
prominent clerics in Egypt:
What is your
judgment concerning prayer on Mohammed, the messenger of Allah,
doesn't that mean worshipping him?
Muslims never
mention the name of Mohammed without saying peace be upon him
or in Arabic Salla Allaho Alihe Wasalaam or Alihe Alsalaato Wasalaam
which means “Allah's prayer and salutation on him.”
Look at
any Islamic inscribed sign, and you will read the name “Allah”
at the same level of the name “Mohammed.”
Muhmoud Al-Saadani,
the well known Egyptian journalist, wrote a critical article in
the August 9, 1996 issue of Almussawar, Egyptian weekly magazine,
in which he said:
On the memorial
birthday of the Messenger [Mohammed] I listened to the Friday
message on an Arabic television. The speaker was a young
man.. he said while shedding tears over the decline of Muslims
in this age... the only cause for the Muslims’ demise
in this age is that they do not glorify the master of creatures,
Mohammed Ibn Abdullah, as they should glorify this glorious Messenger,
who is the beginning and the last of all creation...
the early Muslims used to glorify the Prophet to the point
of drinking his urine...
Some Christians
think that the God of Islam is the same God revealed to Jews and
Christians in the Bible. When they talk about Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam, they call the three major religions the monotheistic
religions. The Quran declares to the Jews and the Christians:
Our God
and your God is one (Surat Al-Ankabut 29:46).
In fact, the
Allah of Islam is not the same God as the God of the Christians
and the Jews revealed in the Bible.
Clearly,
the Quran and Islamic traditions fall short of monotheism and
in fact teach polytheism by their representation of Allah swearing
by lesser creatures and objects, and by raising the level of created
things to that of Allah as well as associating the praise and
superiority of Mohammed with that of Allah.
[TOP]
Chapter
10
THE
Quran AND THE CRUCIFIXION OF CHRIST
The irreconcilable difference
between the Bible and the Quran, and between Christianity and
Islam, is in the issue of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon said,
"Leave out the cross and you have killed the religion of Jesus.
Atonement by the blood of Jesus is not an arm of Christian truth;
it is the heart of it."
Christianity is the final religion
in the plan of God for mankind. No other true religion can
come after it. God sent Moses and the Jewish prophets to
set the foundation for Christianity. The Old Testament,
by its offerings, prophecies, types, symbols, and characters was
the foundation on which Christianity was built.
Jesus Christ and His crucifixion
are the grand subject of the Old Testament. When Christ
came and was crucified, the plan of God for the redemption of
mankind was completed. This is what Christ proclaimed when
he said "it is finished" (John 19:30). The great building
of the plan of God was perfected magnificently. Judaism
is the foundation, Christianity is the building built upon that
foundation.
How can it be accepted that,
after this royal building was erected and perfectly completed,
a man who came six hundred years later could challenge this grand
design, claiming that his religion is the only religion accepted
by Allah? On what foundation was
his religion built? There are no prophecies, types, symbols,
or characters to point to Islam in the whole Bible.
But concerning Christianity, we read a massive number of prophecies
pointing to Jesus Christ and his crucifixion in the Old Testament.
One chapter of the book of
the prophet Isaiah portrays the sufferings of the crucified Christ
and how that He would be buried in a rich man's tomb. That
chapter was written seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus
Christ. The four gospels confirm that the prophecies written
in that chapter were fulfilled to the letter.
David, who was a king as well
as a prophet, prophesied Christ's crucifixion. This is what
David wrote:
For dogs have compassed
me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced
my hands and my feet (Psalm 22:16).
David died an honorable death
in his palace, but his son according to the flesh, Jesus Christ,
died by crucifixion - the only death in which the hands and the
feet are pierced.
All the offerings mentioned in
the book of Leviticus were a type of Jesus Christ who was to be
crucified. The crucified Christ was the burnt offering, the
meat offering, the trespass offering, the peace offering, and the
sin offering. God was preparing His people through these offerings,
prophecies, symbols, and types for the crucifixion of His son Jesus
Christ.
The fiery serpent made of brass
and lifted up on a pole in the wilderness was a symbol of Christ
on the cross. It gave life to those who were bitten by fiery
serpents if they looked at it in faith. Jesus referred to
that symbol when He said:
And as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted
up. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have eternal life (John 3:14, 15).
We have to remember that the brazen
serpent was in the shape of the fiery serpent, but with no poison
in it. Jesus came in the form of man, yet was born without
sin, and lived a sinless life.
[TOP]
The
Quran Denies the Crucifixion of Christ
With all these solid proofs,
which confirm the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Muhammad, who came
six hundred years later, a man who never lived in the land of
Israel, who was illiterate, unable to read the prophecies of the
true prophets concerning the birth, the life, the death, the burial,
the resurrection, the ascension, and the second coming of Jesus
Christ, denied in his Quran the crucifixion of Christ.
Here are the words of the
Quran:
That they said [in boast],
"We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of
Allah," but they killed him not, nor crucified him. Only
a likeness of that was shown to them. And those who
differ therein are full of doubts, with no [certain] knowledge.
But only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed
him not (Surat Al-Nisa 4:157).
This verse in the Quran which
says that someone other than Jesus was crucified is in total contrast
with the Bible. The four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John are centered around the crucifixion of Christ. If Christ
was not crucified, then the New Testament, indeed Christianity as
a whole, is null and void.
[TOP]
The
three days of the Quran
We have to realize that the
Quran mentions three days in the life of Jesus Christ:
In Surat Maryam, the Quran records
that Jesus said:
Peace on me the day I was
born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive (Surat
Maryam 19:33 MPT).
It is clear that every day come
chronologically one after the other.
The
Day of Jesus’ Birth
Christ was born in Bethlehem;
that is the day when He took the form of a servant, and became
a man. Here I should say that it is impossible for the finite
to be infinite, but it is quite possible for the infinite to become
finite and remain infinite. The king can become a soldier
and remain a king.
The
Day of Jesus’ Death
Christ was crucified on the
cross for the sin of mankind; that is the day He died. The
Muslim clerics have many different interpretations concerning
Christ’s death, but they deny his crucifixion.
The
Day of Jesus’ Resurrection
Christ was raised from the
dead by His own power. he said to the Jews:
By His triumphant resurrection
He was declared to be the everlasting Son of God. The apostle
Paul says concerning this fact:
Christ our Lord who was
born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared
to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of Holiness,
by the resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:3 NKJ)
The death of Jesus on the cross of
Calvary was a necessity to glorify God and redeem mankind.
The apostle Paul summed up the central
theme of Christianity in the following words:
Redemption that is in Christ
Jesus;... to demonstrate his righteousness... that He might be
just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans
3:23-26 NKJ).
Christianity does not proclaim
a God who is a despotic dictator who forgives whom He wills and
punishes whom He wills without any basis of justice, but a God
who is a just God, and who is also the justifier.
The only logical solution
for the problem of sin is the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
The sinless and perfect Savior died to redeem sinful and wretched
men.
[TOP]
Eye
Witnesses tot he Crucifixion
The apostle Peter declared
tot he Jews who lived at the time of the crucifixion of Christ:
Ye men of Israel, hear these
words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles
and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you,
as ye yourselves also know: Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up,
having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible
that he should be holden of it (Acts 2:22-24).
The apostle John, who was an
eye witness of the crucifixion of Christ recorded:
Then came the soldiers,
and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified
with him.. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead
already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers
with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood
and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record
is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might
believe. For these things were done, that the scripture
should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom
they pierced (John 19:32-37).
Thomas, one of the disciples,
put his finger in the pierced hands of the risen Christ, and cried
out:
My Lord and my God (John
20:28).
These words were not an exclamation
but a confession.
More than five hundred people
saw the risen Christ (I Corinthians 15:6).
All of the events of the crucifixion
and resurrection of Jesus Christ were "according to the scriptures"
and fulfilled Old Testament prophecies tot he letter (I Corinthians
15:1-4). All of the witnesses of these events - many of
whom were martyred because of their testimonies - are more than
sufficient to confirm the truth about the crucifixion of Christ.
More importantly, the crucifixion
of Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world:
. . . knowing that you were
not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver and gold, from
your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish
and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the
foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times
for you (I Peter 1:18-20 NKJ).
If Muhammad and his Quran deny
the crucifixion of Christ, then we have to apply to Muhammad the
words of the apostle Peter:
But there were false prophets
also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among
you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying
the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom
the way of truth shall be evil spoken of (2 Peter:1, 2).
[TOP]
Chapter
11
TESTING
THE TRUTHFULNESS OF THE Quran
The
First Test Is The Test Of True Source Of Inspiration
The Bible is the absolute standard
in this area. When God called Moses to be the founder of
Judaism he spoke to him directly:
And to Moses Allah spoke direct
(Surat Al-Nisa 4:164).
There are many instances mentioned
in the Torah where it is said, "The Lord spoke to Moses." Thirty-five
times we read in the book of Leviticus "And the Lord spoke to Moses."
The line of communication never stopped between God and Moses, since
he was called to be a prophet, and in every move Moses followed
God's directions.
God confirmed His call to Moses with
miracles. When Moses erected the tabernacle of meeting, and
Aaron offered the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace
offering, we read how God demonstrated His glory to authenticate
Moses' prophethood:
And Moses and Aaron went into
the tabernacle of meeting, and came out and blessed the people.
Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people, and fire
came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering
and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they
shouted and fell on their faces (Leviticus 9:23, 24 NKJ).
Now we come to Muhammad. His
call came by the spirit who met him at the cave of Mount Hira, squeezed
him so tightly that he thought he would die, and left him in great
distress of mind. Then the spirit left him with no revelations
for a period of time.
Muhammad suffered greatly every time
he received a revelation from that spirit.
Al-Imam (cleric) Al-Bukhary quoted
Aisha, Muhammad's wife, when she said:
Harith Ibn Hesham asked the messenger
of Allah: "Messenger of Allah, how do you receive the revelation?'
"Sometimes it comes to me like a ringing bell, and this is the
hardest. When he leaves me I remember what he said" Muhammad
answered. Then he continued, "Sometimes the angel appears
to me as a man, he speaks to me and I remember what he said."
Aisha said, "I saw him when revelation comes down to him, sweat
covers his forehead in the very cold day."
Imam Ahmad cited Abdallah Ibn Omar,
who asked Muhammad, "Do you feel the revelation?" "I hear ringing,
then I stay silent. Every time the spirit came with revelation
I thought I would die," Muhammad answered.
Ibn Saad quoted Aisha when she said:
When revelation comes down to
Muhammad, he submerged his head in water, his face turns pale,
he feels that he is very cold and he sweats with large drops of
sweating (Al-Helal Magazine, December 1970, page 73).
Allah did not speak to Muhammad directly,
only the spirit of unknown origin did.
Moreover, when Muhammad entered Makkah
victoriously, and cast out all of the idols from the Kaaba, God
did not reveal His glory there as he revealed it in the Tabernacle
of Meeting. No sign of God's presence was felt in the Kaaba.
Ibn Hesham recorded that the prophet
stood there to display the Muslims' armies with all their banners.
Abu-Sufian the Amowite and Al-Abaas, the prophet's uncle, stood
to watch the parade.
"The Kingdom of your nephew Muhammad
became so great today" Abu-Sufian said to Al-Abaas. "It
is the prophethood, not the Kingship, Abu-Sufian," Al-Abaas "As
to prophethood, I still have my reservations concerning it," Abu-Sufian
answered (Islamic Caliphate, page 103).
There were great doubts in the hearts
of many in Arabia concerning Muhammad's prophethood. Some
of the contents of the Quran declare that it was not inspired by
God. Read the following verse:
Also mention in the book Idris:
He was a man of truth [and sincerity], and a prophet. And
we raised him to lofty station (Surat Maryam 19:56, 57).
Ahmad Bahgat recorded on page 164 of
his book, The Prophets of Allah:
Legends say that Idris is Osiris
the hero of the ancient Egyptian legend.
Idris is the Arabic pronunciation of
Osiris. The Reader's Digest Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
defines "Osiris" on page 1203:
The ancient Egyptian god of the
underworld. In Egyptian mythology the god who was ruler
and judge in the underworld and the brother and consort of Isis.
He is identified with the Nile, and his annual death and resurrection
symbolized the self-renewing vitality and fertility of nature.
The Quran declares that Idris, or Osiris,
who was the ancient Egyptian god of the underworld, is:
... a man of truth [and sincerity],
and a prophet. And We [Allah] raised him to lofty station
(Surat Maryam 19:56, 57).
Amazing!!
Is Osiris the god of the underworld,
or a prophet? With such an error, could the Quran be the
inspired word of the true God?
Another person was mentioned in the
Quran and commentators have no idea who he was. His name
is Zul-Kifl and he is mentioned in Surat Al-Anbiyaa 21:85, 86:
And remember Ismail, Idris, and
Zul-Kifl, all [men] of constancy and patience.
Who is Zul-Kifl? Nobody knows!
That is contrary to what is written in the Bible:
For whatever things were written
before were written for our learning, that we through the patience
and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope (Romans 15:4 NKJ).
But the Quran recorded things with
no benefit for its readers.
[TOP]
The
Story of Joseph in the Quran is Distorted
We have to remember that Christianity
is the extension of Judaism and is founded on the Old Testament.
The stories of the Old Testament are referred to but are not repeated
in the New Testament because together they are one book "The Bible."
The New Testament is a continuation of the Old Testament.
The Quran, however, is not the extension
of the Bible and is not consistent with the Bible. Therefore,
Islam cannot not be accepted as God's final religion for mankind.
The Quran repeats the biblical stories of Abraham, Moses, Joseph,
Jesus and others and it does so with significant distortion.
We see this clearly from the conflicting story of Joseph in the
Bible and the Quran.
In the Bible we read how Potiphar's
wife tried to seduce Joseph to lie with her, and how Joseph refused
to commit such a gross sin. The biblical story describes
a young man who felt the presence of God with him who, by the
grace of God, refused to lie with his master's wife. The
two conflicting stories are recorded on these pages for the reader
to discern which one is true inspiration.
The Bible
story:
Now it came to pass after these
things that his master's wife cast longing eyes on Joseph and
she said, "Lie with me." But he refused and said to his master's
wife, "Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house,
and he has committed all that he has to my hand. There is
no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything
from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can
I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"
So it was, as she spoke to Joseph
day by day, that he did not heed her, to lie with her or to be
with her. But it happened about this time, when Joseph went
into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house
was inside, that she caught him by his garment, saying, "Lie with
me." But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside,
and so it was, when she saw that he had left his garment in her
hand and fled outside, that she called to the men of her house
and spoke to them, saying, "See, he has brought in to us a Hebrew
to mock us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried
out with a loud voice. And it happened, when he heard that
I lifted my voice and cried out, that he left his garment with
me, and fled and went outside."
So she kept his garment with her
until his master came home. Then she spoke to him with words
like these, saying, "The Hebrew servant whom you brought to us
came in to me to mock me; so it happened, as I lifted my voice
and cried out, that he left his garment with me and fled outside."
So it was, when his master heard
the words which his wife spoke to him, saying, "Your servant did
to me after this manner," that his anger was aroused.
Then Joseph's master took him
and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners
were confined. And he was there in the prison
(Genesis 39:7-20 NKJ).
Now, the distorted
story in the Quran:
Ladies, said in the city:
"The wife of the [great] Aziz is seeking to seduce her slave.
Truly hath he inspired her with violent love: we see she
is evidently going astray.
When she heard of their malicious
talk, she sent for them and prepared a banquet for them:
she gave each of them a knife: and she said [to Joseph],
"Come out before them." When they saw him, they did extol him,
and [in their amazement] cut their hands: they said, "Allah
preserve us! no mortal is this! This is none other
than a noble angel!"
She said: "There before
you is the man about whom ye did blame me! I did seek to
seduce him from His [true] self but he did firmly save himself
guiltless!... And now, if he doth not my bidding, he shall
certainly be cast into prison, and [what is more] be of the company
of the vilest!" (Surat Yusuf 12:30-32).
Another distortion
concerns life in the eternal state. Jesus said:
For in the resurrection they neither
marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God
in heaven (Matthew 22:30)
The Quran
declares:
As to the Righteous, they will
be in gardens, and in happiness. They will recline [with
ease] upon couches arranged in ranks, and We shall wed them to
maidens with beautiful big and lustrous eyes (Surat Al-Tur 52:17,
20).
Other examples of the distorted biblical
stories written in the Quran are the story of Noah (Surat Al-Ankabut
29:14, Surat Al-Tahrim 66:10); and the story of Abraham where the
Quran says that he was ordered to sacrifice Ishmael, not Isaac (Surat
Al-Saffat 37:100-107).
These distorted stories and teachings
are far from being God's inspired word.
Any discerning reader has the right
to question the source of the Quran's revelations.
[TOP]
Muhammad
Used the Quran to Solve his Own Problems and to Satisfy His Own
Desires
It is clear from the following examples
that Muhammad used the revelations of the Quran to solve his own
problems and satisfy his carnal desires.
1.
Muhammad lusted after Zainab, his daughter-in-law, and desired
to marry her, so a revelation came to him from his Allah saying:
Then when Zaid [Muhammad's adopted
son] had dissolved [his marriage] with her [with Zainab, his daughter-in-law]
We joined her in marriage to thee (Surat Al-Ahzab 33:37).
2.
Aisha, the youngest of Muhammad's wives, conspired with his other
wives against him because he had sex with Mary, the Coptic slave,
in the bed of his wife Hafsa, daughter of Omar. Muhammad refused
to share their beds for one month. Then the following revelation
came to threaten them:
When the Prophet disclosed a matter
in confidence to one of his consorts, and she then divulged it
[to another], and Allah made it known to him, he confirmed part
thereof and passed over a part. Then when he told her thereof,
she said, "Who told thee this?" He said, "He told me Who is the
Knower, the Aware."
If ye two turn in repentance to
Allah, your hearts are indeed so inclined; but if ye back up each
other against him, truly Allah is his Protector, and Gabriel,
and [every] Righteous one among those who believe and furthermore,
the angels will back [him] up.
It may be, if he divorced you
[all], that Allah will give him in exchange consorts better than
you - who submit [their wills], who believe, who are devout; who
turn to Allah in repentance, who worship [in humility], who fast
- previously married or virgins (Surat Al-Tahrim 66:3-5).
Muhammad's wives were scared.
They repented. The revelation did what Muhammad wanted and
he came back to them. (The full story is in the book, The
Wives of the Prophet, pages 100-104.)
3.
Muhammad's wives asked his permission to adorn themselves, and
wanted him to raise their allowance, so the following revelation
came to threaten them:
O Prophet! say to thy consorts:
"If it be that ye desire the life of this world, and its glitter
- then come! I will provide for your enjoyment and set you
free in a handsome manner (Surat Al-Ahzab 33:28).
This meant that he would give them
money and divorce them. The sword of divorce was always ready
to threaten Muhammad's wives and subdue them in the name of Allah.
4.
Muhammad was afraid that his wives would be seduced by other men,
so a revelation came to him to order his wives as well as other
Muslim women to wear a veil:
O Prophet! Tell thy wives
and daughters, and the believing women, that they should cast
their outer garments over their persons [when out of doors]:
That is most convenient, that they should be known [as such] and
not molested. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful
(Surat Al-Ahzab 33:59).
Another verse was given to Muhammad's
wives:
O ye wives of the Prophet!
Ye are not like any other women. If ye keep your duty [to
Allah], then be not soft of speech, lest he in whose heart is
a disease aspire [to you], but utter customary speech (Surat Al-Ahzab
33:32).
5.
Muhammad was afraid that his wives might commit lewdness hind his
back, especially since some of them were much younger than him,
so the following revelation came to threaten them and instill terror
in their hearts:
O ye, wives of the Prophet!
Whosoever of you committeth manifest lewdness, the punishment
for her will be doubled, and that is easy for Allah (Surat Al-Ahzab
33:30).
The question is: if Muhammad's
godly example and the teachings the Quran had an influence on the
wives of Muhammad, to keep them honest and pure, why would such
a threat be needed?
6.
Muhammad was annoyed by those who used to enter his houses without
permission, and was afraid that they might seduce his wives, so
the following revelation came to him:
O ye who believe! Enter
not the Prophet's houses, until leave is given you, for a meal,
[and then] not [so early as] to wait for its preparation:
but when ye are invited, enter; and when ye have taken your meal,
disperse, without seeking familiar talk. Such [behavior]
annoys the Prophet he is shy to dismiss you, but Allah is not
shy [to tell you] the truth.
And when ye ask [his ladies] for
anything ye want, ask them from before a screen: that makes
for greater purity for your hearts and for theirs. Nor is
it right for you that ye should annoy Allah's Messenger, or that
ye should marry his widows after him at any time. Truly
such a thing is in Allah's sight an enormity (Surat Al-Ahzab 33:53).
7.
Muhammad was annoyed by those who called him from behind his apartments,
so he needed a revelation to stop them from doing it.
Those who shout out to thee from
without the inner apartments - most of them lack understanding.
If only they had patience until thou couldst come out to them,
it would be best for them: but Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most
Merciful (Surat Al-Hujurat 49:4, 5).
8.
To motivate his followers to pay alms to him, that he would pray
for them or meet them in private for counsel, Muhammad needed a
revelation. The revelation came in the following words:
Of their wealth take alms, that
so thou mightest purify and sanctify them; and pray on their behalf.
Verily thy prayers are a source of security for them: And
Allah is One Who heareth and knoweth (Surat At-Tawbah 9:103).
Incidentally, the reader may ask how
Muhammad, who is himself a sinner, can purify and sanctify his followers,
something only God can do.
O ye who believe! When ye
hold conference with the messenger, offer an alms before your
conference. That is better and purer for you. But
if ye cannot find [the wherewithal] then lo! Allah is Forgiving.
Merciful (Surat Al-Mujadilah 58:12 MPT).
Muhammad's prayers and counsel cost
Muslims their money.
9.
When Muhammad went to Al-Madina, he commanded the Muslims to pray
toward Jerusalem, toward the destroyed Jewish temple which is
now "Al Aksa Mosque." He thought that by this act the Jews would
accept him as a true prophet. However, the Jews rejected
him, so he wanted to change the direction from Jerusalem to the
Kaaba in Makkah. It was a political move to please the Arabs.
But he needed a revelation to do it:
The fools among the people will
say "What hath turned them from the Qiblah [the direction to which
the Muslims must turn when they pray] to which they were used?"
Say: To Allah belong both East and West: He guideth
whom He will to a way that is straight.
We see the turning of thy face
[for guidance] to the heavens: now shall we turn thee to
a Qibla that shall please thee. Turn then thy face in the
direction of the Sacred Mosque: Wherever ye are, turn your
faces in that direction (Surat Al-Baqarah 2:142, 144).
We must not forget that the sacred
mosque, the Kaaba, was full of idols at that time.
10.
When Abu-Bakr suggested to Muhammad to take ransom from the prisoners
of war at the battle of Badr and free them, Omar suggested that
the prisoners of that war should all be killed. Now Muhammad
needed a revelation to justify Omar's suggestion since it was
against any code of war. The revelation came as follows:
It is not for any Prophet to have
captives until he hath made slaughter in the land. Ye desire
the lure of this world and Allah desireth [for you] the Hereafter,
and Allah is Mighty Wise. . (Surat Al-Anal 8:67 MPT).
11.
According to Muhammad, Allah had commanded that a man could marry
up to four women at any one time:
Marry women of your choice, two,
or three, or four (Surat Al-Nisa 4:3).
Four women were not enough for Muhammad,
so he needed special permission from Allah to marry any number of
women he wished. The revelation came as follows:
O Prophet! We have made
lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou has paid their dowers; and
those whom thy right hand possesses out of the captives of war
whom Allah has assigned to thee; and daughters of thy paternal
uncles and aunts, and daughters of thy maternal uncles and aunts,
who migrated with thee; and any believing woman who gives herself
to the Prophet if the Prophet wishes to wed her - this only for
thee, and not for the believers [at large]; we know what we have
appointed for them as to their wives and the captives whom their
right hands possess - in order that there should be no difficulty
for thee. And Allah is Oft Forgiving, Most Merciful (Surat
Al-Ahzab 33:50).
12.
To instill terror in the hearts of his enemies, revelations came
to say:
The punishment of those who wage
war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and
main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion,
or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile
from the land: that is their disgrace in this world and
heavy punishment is theirs in the hereafter (Surat Al-Maidah 5:33).
Remember thy Lord inspired the
angels [with the message] "I am with you: give firmness
to the Believers: I will instill terror into the hearts
of the infidels [literal translation] smite them above their necks
and smite all their finger-tips off them"
(Surat Al-Anfal 8:12).
All the verses we mentioned, indicate
how in the name of Allah, Muhammad got everything he wanted.
Many of the suras are concerning Muhammad and directed to him.
It has no meaning to the 20th century person; no application to
his life.
Moreover, we sense in these verses
a sadistic behavior toward those who oppose Muhammad.
Many verses of the Quran were revealed
to solve Muhammad's problems and satisfy his desires.
[TOP]
Chapter
12
TESTING
THE TRUTHFULNESS OF THE Quran
2.
THE CHALLENGE OFFERED BY THE Quran
The Second Test if the Challenge
Given by the Quran in Mankind and Jinn to Produce the Like of
the Quran
This test is set by the Quran itself
in the following verse:
Say: " If the whole of mankind
and Jinn were to gather together to produce the like of his Quran
they could not produce the like thereof, even if they backed up
each other with help and support" (Surat Al-Isra 17:88).
This challenge was met. In the
age of Jhailia before Muhammad there were men who produced the like
of the Quran.
Before he became a prophet, Muhammad
heard Qus Ibn Saedah Al-Ayadi, who died in the year 600 A.D.,
speaking in the Okas Market and admired him very much. Abu-Bakr
who memorized what Qus Ibn Saedh said, used to repeat his speeches
to Muhammad. his Arabic speech was similar to the Quran
and many of his words were mentioned in the Quran.
The poet Omaia Ibn Abi Alsalat, who
died in the year 624 A.D., mentioned in his poetry Gabriel and
Michael, whom Muhammad mentioned in his Quran. The poet
Al-Haseen Iban Hamam, who died in the year 611 A.D., mentioned
in his poetry the scales by which the deeds of men will be weighted
in the day of judgment. The same wording was mentioned in
the Quran in Surat Al-Araf 28.9.
The poets Antara Al-Abasi (who died
in 610 A.D.), Waraka Ibn Nafal (who died in 592 A.D.) and Lubaid
( who died in 671 A.D.) all wrote poetry similar to the
Quran. The poet Roba Ibn Al-Ajaj wrote somethign every similar
to Surat Al-Fil (Islamic Caliphate, pages 60-71).
Now ho about the jinn? Were
they able to produce the like of the Quran? The answer is:
certainly.
The Quran includes Surat Al-Jinn.
It is surat number r72. In the surat, a company of Jinn
listened to the Quran:
They said: "We have really
heard a wonderful recital! It gives guidance to the right
and we have believed therein: we shall not join [in worship] any
[gods] with our Lord (Surat Al-Jinn 72:1, 2).
The rest of Surat Al-Jinn recorded
the words of the jinn as if they were the words of Allah.
The style of the jinn is very similar to the style of the Quran.
The Quran declares that the jinn are evil creatures associated with
satan:
Iblis [satan] he was one of the
jinn, and he broke the command of his lord (Surat Al-Kahf 18:50).
The jinn were able to produce the like
of the Quran and in fact, they produced one whole chapter of the
Quran and this is why it is called "Surat Al-Jinn." In that
surat the jinn told Muhammad, "Amongst us are some who are Muslims
(literal translation) (Surat Al-Jinn 72:14).
Ahmad Bahgat in his book Prophets of
Allah, page 386, quoted Abdallah Ibn Massoud who said:
The Messenger of Allah said to
his followers, "Everyone of you is escorted by a jinni and
an angel." "Even you, messenger of Allah?" they asked.
"Even me, Muhammad answered, but Allah helped me and he was converted
to Islam, since that time he does not order me to do good.
here we have to ask, since Muhammad
was escorted by a jinni, what kind of suggestions did the jinni
give to Muhammad before the jinni became a Muslim?
The challenge of the Quran was met
by poets and jinn to assure us that the Quran is not the word of
God.
[TOP]
Chapter
13
TESTING
THE TRUTHFULNESS OF THE Quran
3.
INTERNAL DISCREPANCIES
The Third Test is the Test of
Internal Consistency
If a book is truly inspired by the
true God, it should not contradict itself. WE see an example
of this in the four Gospels in the New Testament as we mentioned
before.
In contrast to the Bible, the Quran
is full of discrepancies and many Muslim scholars firmly believe
that is has also been altered. There is no doubt that Calipah
Uthman tampered with it. Aisha, Muhammed’s wife said:
Surat Al-Ahzab was 200 verses
during the prophet’s life; when uthman wrote the Quran it became
what is now (72 verses) (Alostora Wa-Altorath- The Legend and
the Heritage, page 274).
The Bible was written over a period
of 1500 years, by almost forty writers, among them a shepherd like
Amos, a fisherman like Peter, a King like Solomon, a priest like
Ezra, a statesman like Daniel, and a tax collector like Matthew.
But the unity of sixty-six books of the Bible is amazing.
We cannot interpret the book of Hebrews without reading the book
of Leviticus; we cannot explain the book of Revelation without reading
the book of Genesis. This proves that the Holy Spirit is the
inspirer of all the books as the apostle Peter says:
Knowing this first, that no prophecy
of Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy
came not in old time by the will of man, but holymen of God spoke
as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (II Peter 1:20, 21 NKJ)
More importantly, we noticed that every
book of the Bible has a special message, Genesis is the book of
beginnings, exodus is the book of redemption, Proverbs is the book
of practical daily life, Eccelsiastes shows that all the things
under the sun are vanity of vanities and Psalms is the book of experience
of joy and sadness of desperation and trust.
on the other hand, we find that
the Quran, which was given to one man Muhammad in a period of
less than twenty-three years, is full of contradictions and inconsistencies.
The Quran declares that Allah caused
some of his revelations to be abrogated, and some to be forgotten
and in that case Allah gave Muhammad better or similar revelations.
here are the words of the Quran:
None of Our revelations do we
abrogate or cause to be forgotten, but we substitute something
better or similar: knowest thou not that Allah hat power over
all things? (Surat Al-Baqarah 2:106)
That verse shows that Allah is not
immutable, it shows that he is competing with himself. he
abrogates a verse to give a better or similar one. The questions
here is: If Allah will give a similar verse why does he cancel
the first verse?
Abdallah Abd Al-Fadi said:
Abrogation in God’s words goes
against His wisdom, truthfulness and foreknowledge. It is
the short-sighted man that issues laws and replaces them according
to situations and circumstances. The omniscient God, however,
knows about all things before they come to pass. How then
could it possibly be said about God that He changes, exchanges,
abrogates and blots out? (Is the Quran Infallible?, page 331).
The Quran also declares that satan
caused Muhammad to say words contrary to Allah’s words, and made
suggestions to him that wee contrary to Allah’s plans. That
happened when Muhammad praised the pagan deities Lat, Uzza, and
Manat. he said to a gathering of Quaraysh that Lat, Uzza,
and Manat could intercede with Allah. When Muhammad was rebuked
by some of his friends, the following revelation came to him.
Never did we send a messenger
or a prophet before thee, but, when he framed a desire, satan
threw some [vanity] into his desire, but Allah will cancel anything
[vain] that satan throws in, and Allah will confirm [and establish]
his signs: for Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom (Surat Al-hajj
22:52).
The fact is it never happened to any
true prophet that satan inspired him with false revelations.
Furthermore, if satan could throw in the prophet’s mind words opposite
to Allah’s words, how could we know which words that prophet are
from Allah, and which are from satan?
The Quran suggests a test for itself
in he following verse:
Do they not ponder the Quran?
had it been from other than Allah, they would surely have found
therein much discrepancy (Surat Al-Nisa 4:82).
The fact is there are many discrepancies
in the Quran. The following are some of the many clear contradictions
in the Quran.
|
The Verses
|
Their Contradictions
|
Those who believe [in the Quran]
and those who follow the Jewish [Scriptures] and the Christians
and the Sabians, any who believe in Allah and the last
days, and work righteousness, shall have their reward
with their Lord, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they
grieve.
(Surat Al-Baqarah 2:62) |
The Jews call Uzair a son of Allah
and the Christians call Christ the Son of Allah.
That is a saying from their mouth; [in this] they but
imitate what the infidels (literal translation) of
old used to say. Allah’s curse be on them: how they
are deluded away from the truth.
(Surat Al-TawBah 9:30). |
| Let there be no compulsion in
religion: Truth stands out clear from error. (Surat Al-Baqarah
2:56).
Unto you your religion and unto me my religion
(Surat Al-Kafirun 109:6).
|
Fight those who believe not in
Allah nor the last day, nor hold that which hath been
forbidden by Allah and His Messenger [Muhammad], nor acknowledge
the religion of truth [Islam], from among the people of
the book [Jews and Christians] until they paid the Jezia
[special taxes paid by the Jews and Christians who do
not want to denounce their religion] with willing submission,
and feel themselves subdued (Surat Al-Tawbah 9:29).
And fight them on until there is no more sedition (literal
translation) and religion [Islam] becomes Allah’s in
its entirety (Surat Al-Anfal 8:39).
|
| To Allah belong the East and the
West: whithersoever ye turn, there is Allah’s face,
for Allah is all-Embracing, All Knowing (Surat Al-Baqarah
2:115). |
So from whencesoever thou startest
forth, turn thy
face in the direction of the sacred mosque [the Kaaba];
and wheresoever ye are, turn thy facethither
(Surat Al-Baqarah 2:150). |
| O Prophet rouse the Believers [Muslim] to fight, if
there are twenty amongst you, patient and persevering,
they will vanquish two hundred: if a hundred, they will
vanquish a thousand of the unbelievers: for these are
a people without under-understanding. (Surat Al-Anal 8:65). |
Now hath Allah lightened your burden, for He knoweth
that there is weakness in you. So if there be of
you a steadfast hundred they shall overcome two hundred,
and if there be of you a thousand they shall overcome
two thousand by permission of Allah. Allah is with
the steadfast (Surat Al-Anfal 8:66). |
Thy duty is to make [the message] reach them.
It is our part to call them to account (Surat Al-Rad
13:40).
If it had been Allah’s will, they would not have taken
false gods but We made thee not one to watch over their
doings, nor art thou set over them to dispose of their
affairs.
(Surat Al-Anam 6:107). |
..I will instill terror into the
hearts of the unbelievers: smite ye above their necks
and smite all of their finger-tips of them this because
they contended against Allah and His Messenger: If any
contend against Allah and His Messenger. Allah is
strict in punishment (Surat Al-Anfal 8:12). |
| O Prophet! We have made lawful
to thee thy wives to whom thou has paid their dowers;
and those whom they right hand possesses out of the captives
of war whom Allah has assigned to thee; and daughters
of thy paternal uncles and aunts, who migrated with thee;
and any believing woman who gives herself to the prophet
if the Prophet wishes to wed to her-this only for thee,
and not for the believers [at large]; We know what We
have appointed for them as to their wives and the captives
whom their rights hands posses-in order that there be
no difficulty for thee. And Allah is Oft Forgiving,
Most Merciful (Surat Al-Ahzab 33:50). |
It is not lawful for thee [to
marry more] women after this, nor to change them for [other]
wives even though their beauty attract thee, except any
thy right hand should possess [as handmaidens]: and Allah
doth watch over all (Surat Al-Ahzab 33:52) |
And nearest among them in love
to the believers [the Muslims] wilt thou find those who
say "we are Christians because amongst these are men devoted
to learning and men who have renounced the world, and
they are not arrogant" (Surat Al-Maidah 5:82)
We sent after them Jesus the son of Mary, and
bestowed on him the Gospel; and we ordained
in the hearts of those who followed him
compassion and mercy
(Surat Al-hadid 57:27).
We did aforetime grant to the children of
Israel the Book, the power of command, and
prophethood; We gave them, for sustenance,
things good and pure; and We favoured them
above all nations
(Surat Al-Jathiyah 45:16) |
O ye who believe! Take not the
Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors:
they are but friends and protectors to each other. And
he amongst you that turns to them [for friendship] is
of them. Verify Allah guideth not a people unjust
(Surat Al-Maidah 5:51). |
| To Moses We did give Nine Clear
Signs: Ask the Children of Israel: When he came to them,
Pharaoh said to him: "O Moses! I consider thee, indeed,
to have been worked upon by sorcery." Moses said,
"Thou knowest well that these things have been sent down
by none but the Lord of the heavens and the earth as eye
opening evidence: and I consider thee indeed, O Pharaoh,
to be one doomed to destruction!" Soon he resolved
to remove them from the face of the earth: but We did
drown him and all who were with him (Surat Al-Isra 17:101-103
MPT) |
We took the children of Israel across the sea: Pharaoh
and his hosts followed them in insolence and spite. At
length when overwhelmed with the flood, he said: "I believe
that there is no god except Him Whom the children of Israel
believe in: I am of those submit [to Allah in Islam]."
[It was said to him]: "Ah now!-But a little while before,
wast thou in rebellion! -And thou didst mischief
[and violence]! "This day shall We save thee in thy body,
that thou mayest be a sign to those, who come after thee!
But verily, many among mankind are heedless of Our signs!"
(Surat yunus 10:90-92). |
Adam
and Jesus
The similitude of Jesus before
Allah is as that of Adam; He created him from dust, then
said to him: "Be": and he was
(Surat Al-Imran 3:59). |
Adam was not created by the
word "Be" but by the breath of Allah
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 38:70,71)
Jesus was not conceived by the word "Be"
And Mary [mother of Jesus] the daughter of Imran,
who guarded her virginity (literal translation); and
we breathed into [her body] of our spirit; and she testified
to the truth of the words of her Lord and of his revelations,
and was one of the devout [servants] (Surat Al-Tahrim
66:12).
|
Say: O disbelievers! I worship
not that which ye worship; nor worship ye that which I
worship. And I shall not worship that which ye worship.
Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion.
(Surat Al-Kafirun 109:1-6 MPT). |
Say: "If The Most Gracious Had
a son, I would be the first to worship."(Surat Al-Zukhruf
43:81). |
| We have made it a Quran in Arabic,
that ye may be able to understand (Surat Az-Zukhruf
43:3).
This verse indicates that the Quran is exclusively
for
the Arabic speaking people. It could not be a miracle,
because people of other tongues cannot even read it.
|
He it is Who has sent down to
thee the book [the Quran]...no one knows its true meaning
except Allah (Surat Al-Imran 3:7). |
According to the Quran, Jesus Christ is a word from Allah:
Behold: the angels said: "O Mary! Allah giveth thee glad tidings
of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of
Mary, held in honour in this world, and the hereafter and of [the
company of] those nearest to Allah (Surat Al-Imran 3:45).
It is of great importance to deal with two verses of the Quran at
the close of this selection. The first verse is:
Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, whom
they find mentioned in their own [scriptures]. In the Torah
and the Gospel for he commands them what is just and forbids them
what is evil...(Surat Al-Araf 7:157).
The second verse is:
And remember, Jesus, the son of Mary, said: "O children of
Israel: I am the messenger of Allah [sent] to you confirming the
Torah[ which came] before me, and giving glad tidings of a messenger
to come after me, whose name shall be Ahmad...
(Surat Al-Saff 61:6).
We are confident that there is no mention of Muhammad and no prophecy
concerning him in the Torah and the Gospel. Muhammad is not
the prophet like Moses, as Muslim scholars claim. he is not
the comforter, for the comforter is the Holy Spirit. Muhammad
is not a spirit. he is not the servant mentioned in Isaiah
42:1, and he is not the stone cut out without hands mentioned in
Daniel 2:34.
All these prophecies were fulfilled to the letter in Jesus Christ
and in the Holy Spirit who descended from heaven in the Day of Pentecost.
Jesus is the prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15-19 and Acts 3:19-23),
He is the servant chosen by God (Isaiah 42:1-4 and Matthew 12:17-21),
He is the stone cut out without human hands (I Peter 2:6-8 and His
kingdom will fill the earth at His second coming (revelation 11:15).
In short there are no prophecies concerning Muhammad in the sixty-six
books of the Bible. When the Quran says that Muhammad was
mentioned in the Torah and the Gospel, and was mentioned by Jesus,
the Quran is in error.
One more verse should be dealth with:
Allah hath purchases of the Believers their persons and their
goods; for theirs [in return] is the garden [of paradise]: they
fight in his cause, and slay and are slain: a promise binding
on Him, in truth throughout the Torah, the Gospel, and the Quran.
And who is more faithful to his covenant than Allah? Then
rejoice in the bargain which ye have concluded: that is the achievement
supreme (Surat Al-Tawbah 9:111).
Contrary to what the Quran said here, the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob did not command the children of Israel to fight so that
Judaism would be the only religion. But Allah of Islam commanded
them to force people to be Muslims. More importantly, we find
no command in the Gospel for Christians to fight. We read
that God purchases of the Christians their persons by the blood
of Jesus (Revelation 5:9). God does not exchange eternal life
in paradise with fighting in his cause, or with goods works, or
any human merits.
In fact, in the New Testament God commanded his people:
Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to
wrath; for it is written "Vengeance is mine, I will repay," says
the Lord. "Therefore if your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap
coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but
over come evil with good (Romans 12:19-21 NKJ)
We repeat, God does not command Christians to fight for His cause.
The questions is: if the Muslims believe that Islam is Allah’s religion,
why do they leave Allah to protect and defend his religion?
When God called Gideon to save Israel from the hand of the Midianties,
he ordered him to tear down the altar of Baal which his father
had, and to cut down the wooden image that was beside it.
When the people discovered what Gideon did, they said to his father,
"bring out your son that he may die, because he has torn down
the altar of Baal." Joash, Gideon’s father, answered them:
Would you plead for Baal? If he is a god, let him plead
for himself, because his altar has been torn down...(Judges 6:31
NKJ)
Certainly,
the True and Almighty God does not need anyone to fight for Him.
[TOP]
Chapter
14
TESTING
THE TRUTHFULNESS OF THE Quran
4.
PROVIDING SPIRITUAL NEEDS
The Fourth Test is the Test of
Providing for the Basic Spiritual Needs of Mankind
If the Quran is the true word of
God, it must give satisfactory answers to the basic spiritual
needs of mankind. If it fails to give these needed answers,
then it is not the true word of God. There are four basic
spiritual needs of the human heart.
- The need to be loved and to
love.
- Assurance of total forgiveness
of sin, so that the believer would not feel the sense of guilt,
but rather experience joy and peace.
- A way of life designed by God,
the supreme authority, to show the believer how to please his
creator and to deal with his fellow men.
- Assurance of eternal life with
God in heavenly bliss.
Are there any satisfactory answers
in the Quran for these basic needs?
[TOP]
The
Need to be Loved and to Love.
The New Testament declares that:
God demonstrates His own love
toward us, in that while we are still sinners, Christ died for
us (Romans 5:8 NKJ). Beloved let us love one another, for
love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows
God. he who does not love does not know God, for God is
love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us,
that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we
might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God,
but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for
our sins. Beloved if God so loved us, we also ought to love
one another...if someone says "I love God," and hates his
brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love is brother whom
he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen (I John
4:7-11, 2 NKJ)
We see the magnificent example of forgiveness
and love in Jesus Christ. While Jesus was hanging on the cross
in great agony, he prayed for his enemies:
Father, forgive them; for they
know not what they do (Luke 23:34)
Concerning the love of Christ for his
own, we read:
...having loved His own which
were in the world, he loved them unto the end (John 13:1).
The Muslims do not believe that "God
is love." That name is not mentioned in the Quran among the
ninety-nine excellent names of Allah. You will not find even
one verse in the Quran that says Allah loves sinners.
The Quran does not satisfy the need
to be loved and to love.
[TOP]
The
Need of Total Forgiveness
Sin is a heavy burden. It
disturbs man's conscience and robs him of joy and peace.
The prophet David cried out:
For mine iniquities are gone over
mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me
(Psalm 38:4).
Mohammed felt the burden of sin. It
was too heavy for him and made him bend under its weight.
Have We not expounded thee thy
breast? And removed from thee thy burden (literally "iniquity").
The which did gall thy back (Surat Al-Inshirah 94:1-3).
The Bible declares that man is a sinner
by nature and actions. The Prophet David said:
Behold, I was shaped in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me (Psalm 51:5).
The apostle Paul said:
For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I
do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice;
but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to
do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is
no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I
know that in me (that is in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for
to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I
do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do;
but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. now if I
do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin
that dwells in me (Romans 7:14-20 NKJ).
The doctrine of original sin or inherited
sin has no room in the teaching of Islam. man, according too
the Quran and to Mohammed, is born in a natural state of purity
or fitrah. Whatever becomes of man after birth is the result
of external influences. This Quranic teaching is false, because
there was any external influence Cain, the firs son of Adam and
Eve, hated his brother Abel and killed him The act was motivated
by his inherited sinful nature.
Jesus said:
For from within, out of the hear
t of men, processed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication's,
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things
come from within, and defile the man (Mark 7:21-23).
Psychology confirms what the Bible
says. There is the "id," the dark side of the human psyche.
The Bible declares that sin is the transgression of the law of God
(I John 3:4). It is negligence of doing what is good (James 4:17).
it was whatever is not of faith (Romans 14:23). It is an evil
or foolish thought (Proverbs 24:9). In the light of the Biblical
definition of sin, we can say with the apostle Paul:
...All have sinned, and come short
of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
To deny that all men are sinners, is
to deceive ourselves (I John 1:8). The Quran does not offer
assurance of forgiveness. Mohammed said to the Muslims:
Do good things, give alms, but
know that none of your will escape judgment by his work.
"Even you Messenger of Allah?" his followers asked,
"Even me, unless Allah bestow his mercy on me" (The Doctrines
of Islam, page 75).
There are give Islamic rituals which
are called pillars of Islam. Every true Muslim fulfill
them.
- The Shahada or testimony.
Every Muslim should testify that there is no god but Allah and
that Mohammed is the Messenger of Allah.
- Prayer. Every Muslim should
pray five times a day. Before offering the prayer one
must wash parts of his body-the Muslim call that ablution.
If, after washing, the man touches a woman, then he has
to repeat his ablution; touching a woman defiles the Muslim
(Surat Al-Nisa 4:43).
- Fasting the month of Ramadan
each year. The fast starts before the break of the dawn
and ends at sunset.
- Giving alms, which is called
Zakaht. That means the Muslim with means must distribute
Zakaht, money or material possessions, among the rightful beneficiaries.
- The Pilgrimage (Hajj).
It is a mandatory performance for every Muslim who is able to
visit the Kaaba in Mecca, at least once in his or her
lifetime.
With the performance of all these obligations,
a Muslim cannot be assured that his sins are forgiven. The
Quran declares salvation by works:
For those things that are good
remove those that are evil (Surat Hud 11:114).
But at the Day of Judgment scales will
be set to weigh the good and evil deeds.
The balance that day will be true:
Those whose scales [of good] will be heavy, will prosper: Those
whose scale will be light will find their souls in perdition (Surat
Al-Araf 7:8,9).
A Muslim is terrified
of the Day of Judgment. he is not sure of the result of weighing
his good and evil deeds in the balance.
On April 3,
1991, the Egyptian magazine, Akher Saa, recorded a heated
debate between four female journalists and Sheik Doctor Abdu-Almonim
Al-Nimr who holds a high position at Al-Azher Islamic University.
One of the journalists asked him :”Is the Hejab [veil] Obligatory
for women in Islam? If I do not wear the hejab shall I go
to hell in spite of my other good deeds. I am talking about
the decent woman who does not wear the Hejab?”
“The ordinances in Islam are many,
my daughter, Allah made us accountable to each. It means
if you do that ordinance you earn a point. If you neglect
one you lose a point. If you pray, you earn a point, if
you do not fast you lose a point and so on,” Dr. Al-Nimr answered.
Then he continued, "I did not invent a new theory .. for every
man there is a book in which all his good and evil deeds are recorded
.. even how do we treat our children."
The journalist said: "That
means, if I do not wear the Hejab I will not enter the hell fire
without taking into account the rest of my good deeds."
"My daughter, no one knows who will
enter the hell fire .. I might be the first one to enter it" Caliph
Abu-Bakr Al-Sadik said: "I have no trust concerning Allah's
schemes, even if one of my feet is inside of paradise who can
determine which deed is acceptable and which is not. You
do all what you can do, and the accountability is with Allah.
You ask him for acceptance."
The Bible clearly shows that sin
is rebellion against the Holy God. No one may be granted
forgiveness by good deeds. The only way for forgiveness
is through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
For by grace you have been saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
not of works, lest anyone should boast (Ephesians 2:8, 9 NKJ).
If you confess with your mouth
the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised
Him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9).
The Quran offers no assurance of forgiveness,
and that is in stark contrast with what is said in the Bible.
The apostle Paul says:
In Him we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of
His grace (Ephesians 1:7).
The apostle John says:
If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness (I John 1:9 NKJ).
[TOP]
Does
the Quran Provide a Decent Way of Life?
Could we find a decent way of life,
a life that pleases God and helps us to deal fairly with our fellow
men in the Quran? In his book, Knowing God, J.I. Packer
wrote on pages 14 and 16:
Knowing about God is crucially important
for the living of our lives... Godliness means responding
to God's revelation in trust and obedience, faith and worship,
prayer and praise, submission and service. Life must be
seen and lived in the light of God's Word. This, and nothing,
else is true religion.
Man cannot live beyond the attributes
of the god he believes in. If his god is cruel he will be
cruel. If his god is kind, he will be kind. If his
god is holy, he will be holy. The apostle Peter wrote to
the Christians:
But as he which hath called you
is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because
it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy (I Peter 1:15, 16).
The apostle Paul says:
Be ye therefore followers of God,
as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved
us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling savor (Ephesians 5:1, 2).
For to this you were called,
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example,
that you should follow His steps. "Who committed no sin,
nor was deceit found in His mouth" (I Peter 2:21, 22 NKJ).
God is the supreme example of true
Christians. Now, who is this Allah in the Quran, that the
Muslim should imitate? In the Quran:
Allah
is the best plotter:
And when those who disbelieve
plot against thee [O Mohammed] to wound thee fatally, or to kill
thee or to drive thee forth; they plot, but Allah [also] plotteth;
and Allah is the best of plotters (Surat Al-Anfal 8:30 MPT).
Allah
is a deceiver:
The Hypocrites - they seek to
deceive Allah but it is Allah who deceives them. When they
stand up to prayer, they stand without earnestness, to be seen
of men, but little do they hold Allah in remembrance (Surat Al-Nisa
4:142).
Allah
is a murderer:
Ye [Muslims] slew them not, but
Allah slew them. And thou [Mohammed] threwest not when thou
didst throw, but Allah threw, that He might test the believers
by a fair test from Him. Lo! Allah is Hearer, Knower
(Surat Al-Anfal 8:17 MPT).
Allah
is a torturer:
Fight them and Allah will torture
(literal translation) them by your hands, and disgrace them, help
you [to victory] over them, heal the breasts of believers (Surat
Al-Tawbah 9;14).
Allah
is unjust and unfair:
And when we would destroy a township
we send commandment to its folk who live at ease, and afterward
they commit abomination therein, and so the Word [of doom] hath
effect for it, and We annihilate it with complete annihilation
(Surat Al-Isra 17:16 MPT).
Allah commands those who live at ease
to disobey and commit abomination, and when they obey and commit
abomination according to his command he annihilates them.
That is unjust and unfair.
Now, if a Muslim follows the pattern
of Allah who is presented in the Quran, he would plot, deceive,
murder, torture non-Muslims, be unjust and unfair without any
sense of guilt. This is the way of life the Quran presents
to the Muslims, and this is why when any Muslim believes that
Jesus Christ is his Savior and Lord, Muslims persecute, torture
and eventually kill him or her in the name of Allah.
[TOP]
Does
the Quran Provide Assurance of Eternal Life with God in Heavenly
Bliss?
The only
way by which a Muslim might enter paradise is to die a martyr's
death fighting non-Muslims for the cause of Allah. The Prophet
Mohammed himself was terrified from expecting to be tortured after
death.
Sahih Al-Bukhari recorded the following
event:
A Jewess entered Aisha's room
and mentioned the torture of the dead in the grave and said to
her "may Allah save you from the torture of the grave."
Aisha [Mohammed's wife] asked him about the torture of the grave,
"yes, there is torture in the grave," he answered. Aisha
said: "I never saw the Messenger of Allah praying after
that, but asking for refuge from torture of the grave" (Sahih
Al-Bukhari , Vol. l, 2, page 584).
Sahih AI-Bukhari stated also:
Abu-Huraira said "The Messenger
of Allah, was always calling Allah, and saying 'I take refuge
in you from the torture of the grave, and hell fire, and from
the sedition of life and death and from the sedition of the false
messiah'"(Sahih Al-Bukhari, Vol. 1, 2 page 585).
The Quran decrees that every Muslim
will enter Hell:
Man says: "What! When
I am dead, shall I then be raised up alive?" But does not man
call to mind that We created him before out of nothing?
So, by thy Lord, without doubt, We shall gather them together,
and [also] Satan's [with them], then shall We bring them forth
on their knees round about Hell; then shall We certainly drag
out from every sect all those who were worst in obstinate rebellion
against [Allah] Most Gracious. And certainly We know best
those who are most worthy of being burned therein. Not one
of you but will enter it (literal translation); this is, with
thy Lord, a decree which must be accomplished (Surat Maryam 19:66-71).
It is said in the Quran, that hell
has seven gates (Surat Al-Hijr 15:43, 44). Every Muslim shall
enter hell.
Ibn Katheir the great expositor of
the Quran interprets the words "Everyone of you will enter it" by
the following stories.
The first story:
Abd-Elrazak cited Ibn Ayeena,
who cited Ibn Abi Khalid, who cited Qyse Ibn Abi Hazim, who said
that Abdullah Ibn Rowaha was putting his head on his wife's lap,
he wept, his wife wept, he asked her: Why do you weep?
"I saw you weeping so I wept" she answered. He said I remembered
what Allah said "Not one of you but will enter it." I do not know
if I will escape from it or not.
The second story:
Ibn Qurair cited Abu-Kareeb, who
cited Ibn Yaman, who cited Malik Ibn Magul, who cited Abu-Ishacc,
who said: Abu Mysarah used to say every night before he
goes to bed, I wish that my mother had not given birth of me,
then weep. Someone asked him "Why do you weep Abu Mysarah?"
"The Quran told us that we shall enter Hell, but we were not told
that we will get out of it."
The third story:
Abdu-Allah Ibn Al-Mubarak cited
Al-Hasan Al-Basari: A man said to his brother: do
you know that you will enter Hell fire? "yes" his brother
answered. "Do you know if you will get out of it?" he asked.
"No" his brother answered. "Why do you laugh then?" From
that time on he was never seen laughing till he died (Ibn Katheir
on Surat Maryam Vol. 3, page 129).
This is in stark contrast with what
Christ said in the Bible:
Most assuredly, I say to you,
he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting
life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death
into life (John 5:24 NKJ).
There is no
hope for the Muslim to escape Hell fire
The real Christian
is completely assured that he or she will never enter hell fire:
There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit (Romans 8:1).
These things have I written
unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye
may know that ye have eternal life (I John 5:13).
[TOP]
Chapter
15
TESTING
THE TRUTHFULNESS OF THE Quran
5.
FRUITS OF TRUE RELIGION
The Fifth Test is the Test of
Fruits
Jesus Christ instituted this test
when he instructed us to test prophets by their fruits:
Beware of false
prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they
are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.
Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears
bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a
bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear
good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore
by their fruits you will know them (Matthew 7:15-20 NKJ).
What are the fruits of the Quran,
in Muhammad's own home, in the society he created, and in the
cultural, intellectual, and scientific environment of Islam'?
[TOP]
Muhammad's
Household
Good examples of plotting and deception
are found in Muhammad's own household. Dr. Aisha Abd-Alrahman,
known as "Bint Al-Shati," in her book, Wives of the Prophet, portrays
a vivid picture of life in Muhammad's home. Aisha, the youngest
and the most beautiful of his wives was accused of committing
adultery with Safwan Ibn Almouatal Alsalmi. When rumors
spread concerning that accusation, Muhammad became disturbed and
treated Aisha harshly. The crisis between them continued
until Muhammad received a revelation that Aisha was innocent.
Another event took place in Muhammad's
home when he married Asma, daughter of Al-Namam, who was a very
attractive woman. Aisha conspired with Hafsa and one of
Muhammad's other wives to abort their marriage. They went
to Asma and advised her to say to Muhammad when he came in to
her "I seek refuge in Allah from you," if she wanted to please
him. The naive bride believed them. When Muhammad
came into her room, she said "I seek refuge in Allah from you."
Hearing that, Muhammad sent her back to her parents. The
conspiracy of his wives was successful (Wives of the Prophet,
page 77, 78).
Once, all of his wives conspired
against him, so he threatened to divorce all of them (Surat
Al-Tahrim 66:5). More concerning the troubles and conspiracies
in Muhammad's home are recorded in the book, Wives of the Prophet.
This is the fruit of the Quran in Muhammad's household.
[TOP]
The
Society Muhammad Created
If one examines the impact of Islam
on the society Muhammad created by the dictates of his Quran,
one discovers a society full of corruption, bloodshed, lack of
individual freedom, and brutality.
1.
Corruption and bloodshed
Caliph Omar Ibn-Alkhataab acquitted
Al-Mugherah Ibn Shuba who committed adultery with a woman named
Omm Jameel. He hinted to Zyad Ibn Samila, one of four witnesses,
to testify in support of Al-Mugherah. Zyad testified against
three other eye witnesses Abi-Bakra, Nafi Ibn Alharith, and Shibl
Ibn Maabad who testified that they saw Al-Mugherah in the act.
Caliph Omar accepted the witness of Zyad and acquitted Al-Mugherah
and ordered him to beat the three eye witnesses who testified
against him (Al Ostorah Waltorath, The Legend and Heritage, page
266).
Caliph Alwathic, the last Caliph
of Abaseieen was homosexual. His partner was "Muhag," an
attractive young man. It is said: If Muhag gets angry
with Alwathic and refuses to have sex with him, the Caliph would
suspend all the government activities until Muhag resumes his
relationship with him (The Hidden Truth, pages 124 - 126).
A good example of the bloodshed
under Islam is found in the succession of Caliphs who came after
Muhammad. Caliph Omar was assassinated and Caliph Ali Ibn
Abu Talib was assassinated. Caliph Uthman Ibn Affan, who
ordered the writing of the new Quran, was also assassinated.
The Muslims refused to bury him in the Muslim cemetery and after
his death two Muslims jumped on his dead body and broke one of
his ribs (The Hidden Truth, pages 25, 26).
Caliph Alwaleed Ibn Yazeed used to
shoot the Quran with arrows until holes covered it. Then
he wrote a poem in which he spoke to the Quran saying:
In the day of judgment, when Allah
asked you: Who made all these holes in you? say:
Alwaleed did that (The Hidden Truth, pages 86, 87).
Many of the Muslim governors during
the Caliphate period robbed the countries they governed and became
very rich. When they died they left an enormous amount of
wealth.
That was the society Muhammad created
with his Quran. Muslims killed Muslims. The Islamic
history of the first century after Muhammad is stained with blood
and characterized with brutality. What about the modern Islamic
societies?
2.
Lack of individual freedom
Muslims who leave their own countries
to seek a better way of life enjoy total freedom in the Christian
nations of Europe, Australia, and North America, and take advantage
of that freedom to promote Islam by means of television, radio,
books, tracts, and financial aid to those who embrace Islam.
They are also building mosques with oil dollars coming from Libya,
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. Yet,
they do not permit the preaching of the gospel in their countries.
In some Islamic states there is not even one church building.
It is a crime to smuggle a Bible into these countries. If
a Muslim accepts Jesus Christ as his savior and Lord, he is considered
apostate and should be executed. A Muslim can not express
his opinions freely if they are critical of Islam.
On August 9th, 1996, Al-Ahram, the
semi-official daily newspaper in Egypt, reported:
The High Court of personal affairs
announced its verdict in the case of Dr. Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid professor
at Cairo University, and demanded that he divorce his wife, Ibtihal
Yunus, because, as the court stated, Dr. Abu Zaid was an apostate
and that was clear from what he wrote in his books mocking Muhammad
and the Quran, and saying that the Sharia (Quran's laws) is the
reason for the demise of the Muslim countries.
Mrs. Abu Zaid did not wish to divorce
her husband. Abu Zaid and his wife fled from Egypt.
The New York Times on August 6, 1996,
quoted a human rights advocate who said "The ruling is a slap in
the face of civil society."
The situation in Afghanistan, under
the Taliban Islamic movement, is another example. Newsweek
Magazine (October 14, 1996) printed a report by Rod Nordland and
Tony Clifton under the title The Islamic Nightmare. Here is
a part of what they wrote:
The Mullahs who took over that
week in Kabul, the conquered capital of Afghanistan, made Iran's
ayatollahs look like Western playboys. The fundamentalist
Taliban movement issued decree after decree through its six-member
ruling council, the Shura. Television stations and movie
theaters were shut down, and music was banned from the radio.
Kabul's one million people were ordered to pray five times a day
- including two visits to the local mosque, where attendance would
be taken. Criminals were threatened with beatings, mutilation
and death. Men were given 45 days to grow proper Muslim
beards - which are left untrimmed - and were told to shed their
Western clothes in favor of traditional Afghan dress.
Women were chastised even more
severely. They were sent home from their schools and jobs
and were instructed to veil themselves from head to toe, preferably
in the suffocating burqa, in which even the opening for the eyes
is screened with mesh. Violators of the female dress code
were beaten on the streets by Taliban fighters. In a sermon
last Friday, the Muslim Sabbath, Syed Ghiasuddin, the acting education
minister in the new theocracy, explained that a woman is like
"a rose - you water it and keep it at home for yourself to look
at and smell. It is not supposed to be taken out of the
house to be smelled." The establishment of a severely fundamentalist
regime in Kabul set off alarm bells all over the region.
Amnesty International accused the Taliban of conducting "a reign
of terror."
3. Blind
hatred
The Washington Post Magazine in its
issue of August 25, 1996, wrote the story of David Belfield, a Baptist
young man from a small town on Long Island, who came to Washington
to study at Howard University. Under the influence of an Iranian
Muslim, David embraced Islam, changed his name to Daoud Salahuddin
and became increasingly devout. His Iranian handler had little
trouble persuading him to kill a man he had never met. Daoud
saw the act as an Islamic duty. The late Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini ordered the assassination of Ali Akbar Tabatabi who lived
in Bethesda, Maryland, and was the chief spokesman in the United
States for the counter-revolutionary forces against the Khomeini
government. Daoud Salahuddin assassinated Tabatabai, fled
to Canada and then to Tehran. The Iranian government had agreed
to send him to China to study medicine but never did. Here
is what the Post Magazine wrote on page 22:
The community Salahuddin had chosen
to enter was international in scope but driven by sectarian and
political feuds, despite heady talk of Arab and Muslim world unity.
In the early "70s, Shiite Iran and Sunni Iraq were supporting
Kurdish rebellions in each other's countries; radical Palestinians
and royalist tribes, all Sunni Muslims, were fighting for control
of Jordan; the Muslims of Pakistan were splitting into two separate
nations, and the Arab countries - under competing Muslim monarchist,
socialist and nationalist rulers -were plotting constantly against
one another.
This is a true picture of what Islam
has done for Islamic countries. And this is how they turn
some of those who are converted to Islam into assassins in the name
of Allah.
4.
Brutality
In 1995 the Sudanese Islamic government
tried to assassinate President Hosny Mubarak of Egypt in Ethiopia.
There has also been a great deal
of turmoil in recent times in Egypt, Algeria, Afghanistan, Yemen,
Israel, Uganda, and Iran. The source of trouble is the militant
Muslims who obey the Quran to the letter. The Washington
Times said in an article printed on August 25, 1996:
The Sudanese government proceeded
to escalate the war. They even redefined the war.
It was no longer a civil war between the state and a group of
dissenting citizens but a Jihad by Muslims against "Infidels."
Every non-Muslim and non-Arab became an enemy of the state....
It is in this context that the massive aerial and ground bombardments
of innocent civilians have been and are being conducted...
to them war is heaven. Their warriors are taught that if
they kill an "infidel" they get a place in heaven. If they
are killed by an "infidel" they are wedded to one of Allah's pretty
virgins in heaven. A rosy portrait indeed. The slave
market is as thriving as never before. Thousands of women
and children captured in slave raids remain in captivity.
Add to that the many Sudanese Christians
who were tortured and crucified and the boys and girls who were
captured and forced to be Muslims and trained to fight Christians.
In addition, many Coptic Christians were killed in Egypt, and many
girls were kidnapped and raped, and forced to marry Muslims.
This is the society that the Quran created.
Dr. Christian Goforth wrote the following
story which portrays how Christians are suffering and are martyred
under Islamic regimes.
[TOP]
The
Story of Zia Nodrat
In Kabul, Afghanistan, during
1964, a fourteen year old boy, Zia Nodrat enrolled in the NOOR
Institute for the Blind. He already knew the whole Quran
by heart. In Western terms that would be like an English
speaker memorizing the complete New Testament in Greek, since
Arabic was not Zia's mother tongue. He completed the six
primary grades of the Institute in three years.
While attending his classes in
Braille in the Institute for the Blind, Zia also mastered English.
He did this by listening and repeating what he heard on a transistor
radio. With the help of a small ear plug, he heard programs
coming into Afghanistan from other countries. He eventually
started asking questions about what he had heard, such as, "What
do you mean by the substitutionary atonement?" He had heard
such theological concepts during Christian radio broadcasts like
the Voice of the Gospel coming from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, Africa.
Finally, he shared with a few
persons that he had received Jesus the Messiah as his personal
Savior. They asked him if he realized that he could be killed
for this, since the Islamic Law of Apostasy for anyone leaving
Islam is death. He answered, "I have counted the cost and
am willing to die for the Messiah, since He has already died on
the cross for me."
Zia then became the spiritual
leader of the few Afghan Christians. In the Institute for
the Blind in Kabul, the students elected him as the president
of their association. But the next year after it was known
that he had become a Christian, he lost the election for this
position. One of his Christian teachers told him how sorry
she was that he lost. He replied, quoting the prophet John
the Baptist who said of Jesus, "He must become greater, I must
become less" (John 3:30). His goal in life was not to seek
prominence for himself, but to be a humble servant of his Lord.
Zia's father said that before he had entered the Institute for
the Blind, he had been like a cold and unlit piece of charcoal.
After his experience there, he had become like a red hot, brightly
burning coal.
Once he borrowed an English Braille
copy of the Gospel of John. He opened it and read with his
fingers. He then returned it and said that his question
had been answered. When asked what his question was, he
replied that in John 13:34 Jesus said, "A new commandment I give
you that you love one another." He wondered why the Lord
Jesus called it "new," since the commandment "love your neighbor
as yourself' had already been given to Moses, as recorded in the
Old Testament Book of Leviticus 19:18. But now he understood.
He explained that until the incarnation of the Messiah the world
had never before seen love personified. He went on to state
that the Bible reveals that God is love, and that Jesus as God
in human flesh is love incarnate. This was what made the
command new. Jesus said, "A new commandment I give you that
you love one another as I have loved you." In his perfect
life Jesus has now given us a new model to follow.
Zia was the first blind student
to attend regular sighted schools in Afghanistan. There
he had a small recorder with which he taped everything his teachers
said, so that he could go over it and learn it thoroughly.
He thus became the number one student out of hundreds at his grade
level. Those who failed in their classes were given a second
chance to take examinations after the three month vacation.
He studied the next year during this break and passed the tests.
In this way he completed high school, finishing two grades each
year.
Zia wanted to study Islamic Law
so that he could defend Christians who might be persecuted for
their faith. He therefore entered the University of Kabul,
from which he graduated with his law degree. He also studied
Calvin's Institutes on the side since he wanted to grasp the concepts
of this Reformation leader.
The Christoffel Blind Mission
in Germany gave the Institute for the Blind in Afghanistan an
extensive library of Braille books in German. Since Zia
wanted to read these, along with his other classes, he went to
the Goethe Institute in Kabul and learned German. As the
top student there too, he won a scholarship to go to Germany to
study advanced German. When the Germans found out that he
was blind, they withdrew the fellowship since they did not have
the arrangements or accommodations for a blind person. He
asked them what he would have to do. They replied that he
would have to travel alone and take care of himself. When
he agreed to do that, they finally accepted him. While studying
there with top students from Goethe Institutes around the world,
he was number one in this advanced course as well.
Zia also translated the New Testament
from Iranian Persian into his own Afghan Dari dialect. This
was published by the Pakistan Bible Society in Lahore. Its
third edition was published by the Cambridge University Press
in England in 1989. He also traveled to Saudi Arabia where
he won a memory contest on the Quran. The Muslim judges
were so amazed and chagrined that a non-Arabic speaker had taken
first place, that they also awarded another prize for the best
Arab in the competition.
Because earlier blind students
like Zia had become Christians, the Muslim government in Afghanistan
sent a written order closing the two Institutes for the Blind
in March 1973, one of which was in Kabul and the other seven hundred
miles to the west in Herat. All the expatriate teachers
of the blind along with their families were ordered to leave Afghanistan
within one week. As these dedicated teachers left, God gave
them a promise from Isaiah 42:16, "I will lead the blind by ways
they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough
places smooth. These are the things I will do: I will
not forsake them. "
The Muslim Government then destroyed
the Christian Church building in Kabul, after previously having
given permission to build it. President Eisenhower had requested
permission for construction of this building from King Zahir Shah
on his visit to Afghanistan in 1959, since a mosque had been built
in Washington, DC, for the Muslim diplomats there, and Christian
diplomats and other Christians needed a place to worship on a
reciprocal basis in Kabul. Christians from nations all around
the world contributed toward its construction. At its dedication,
the cornerstone carved in beautiful Afghan alabaster marble read:
"To the glory of God 'Who loves us and has freed us from our sins
by the blood of Jesus' this building is dedicated as a 'house
of prayer for all nations' in the reign of H. M. Zahir Shah, May
17, 1970 A.D., 'Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone.'"
When troops arrived and started
knocking down the wall between the street and the Church property
preparatory to destroying it, a German Christian businessman went
to the mayor of Kabul, who had given the order, and said, "If
your Government touches that House of God, God will overthrow
your Government." This proved to be a prophecy. The
mayor then sent a letter to the congregation ordering them to
give the Church for destruction, since that would mean that the
government would not have to pay compensation. They replied
that they could not give it to anyone since it did not belong
to them. It had been dedicated to God. They also added
that if the Government took it and destroyed it, they would be
answerable to God.
Police, workmen and bulldozers
were sent to destroy the Church. The congregation, instead
of opposing, offered them tea and cookies. Christians all
around the world prayed and many of them wrote letters to Afghan
embassies in various nations. Billy Graham and other world
Christian leaders signed a statement of concern and sent it to
the King.
On July 17, 1973 the destruction
of the Church building was completed. That very night the
Afghan government responsible for the destruction was overthrown
in a coup. Afghans who are quick to see omens in events
say that Jesus the Messiah came down from heaven and overthrew
the government because the government had overthrown His Church.
It had been a monarchy for 227 years. That night it became
a Republic under President Daoud. In 1978 this government
was toppled by a Communist coup, followed by the Russian invasion
just after Christmas in 1979. Millions of Afghans had to
flee their country as refugees. One of them was heard to
say, "Ever since our government destroyed that Christian Church,
God has been judging our country."
Under the Communists, the Institute
for the Blind in Kabul was reopened and Zia was put in charge.
He did a fine job of reorganizing it. Then pressure was
brought on him to join the Communist party. He refused.
One official told him that if he did not join, he might be killed.
He replied that he was not afraid to be killed because he was
sure he was going to heaven. He asked the Communist if he
knew where he would go when he died.
Finally Zia was arrested on false
charges and put in the Puli Charkhi political prison outside of
Kabul, where thousands were executed. There was no heat
in the jail to protect the prisoners from the cold winter weather.
He had to sleep on the freezing mud floor in his overcoat.
A prisoner next to him was trembling with cold since he did not
even have a jacket. Zia knew John the Baptist had said,
"The man who has two coats should share with him who has none"
(Luke 3:11). He took off his only coat and gave it to the
neighbor. From then on, the Lord miraculously kept him warm
every night. He slept as if he had a comforter over him.
In prison the Communists gave
Zia shock treatments to try to brainwash him. The electric
burns left scars on his head. But he did not give in.
When he was offered the opportunity to study Russian in prison,
he mastered this language also. The Communists finally freed
him in December 1985.
Following his release from prison
Zia read Genesis 12:1-3 in his Braille Bible, "The Lord said to
Abram, 'Leave your country, your people and your father's household
and go to the land I will show you. I... will bless
you... and you will be a blessing. I will bless those
who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples
on earth will be blessed through you.'" Zia felt God was
calling him to leave Afghanistan to go as a missionary to Pakistan.
He therefore got in touch with a friend, a blind beggar.
He then dressed himself in rags. On their way out of the
country, he let his friend do all the talking, thereby concealing
his identity or detection from the soldiers. They thus were
able to get through the Soviet check points along the main highway
from Kabul. It took them twelve days to travel the 150 miles
to the Khyber Pass and then on into Pakistan.
After Zia arrived in Pakistan,
he was offered an opportunity to travel to the United States to
study Hebrew since he was also working on a translation of the
Old Testament into his Dari language. He declined, saying
he had so much to do among the Afghan refugees that he could not
leave. He started an Institute for the Blind for them.
He learned the main language of Pakistan, Urdu, preaching in this
language in Christian churches. He furthermore completed
a book of New Testament stories in Dari for children.
On March 23, 1988, Zia was kidnapped
by a fanatical Muslim group, Hisbe Islami, ("The Party of Islam")
and was accused of being a CIA agent because he knew English,
a KGB or Khad spy because he knew Russian, and an apostate from
Islam because he was a Christian. He was beaten for hours
with rods. A sighted person can brace and flinch when the
blow comes. But a blind person cannot see the club coming
and thus gets the full force, even like the torture the Lord Jesus
Christ experienced when he was blindfolded and then struck (Luke
22:64). His wife and three daughters had been able to get
out of Afghanistan and were with him in Pakistan at the time he
was kidnapped.
Soon after his wife gave birth
to a beautiful boy who looks much like his father. No one
knows whether Zia ever heard that he had a son.
The latest word, though not absolutely
definite, is that Hisbe Islami murdered Zia. Before he was
kidnapped, he had told a friend that if this party ever captured
him they would kill him. This same party caught two Pakistani
Christians taking relief items to needy Afghans and tortured them.
Before releasing them, one of the captors stated, "We are not
going to kill you the way we killed Zia Nodrat." In addition,
an Afghan news reporter on the Northwest Frontier of Pakistan
claims to have evidence that Hisbe Islami murdered Zia in a cruel
way.
The United Nations Universal Declaration
of Human Rights in article 13 states, "Everyone shall have the
right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; freedom
to manifest one's religion or belief." The story of Zia
is a story of infringement of human rights. Zia has been
denied his freedom and has probably been martyred for his faith.
Before his capture, he asked a Christian friend that if anything
happened to him, his friend would take care of his family.
The friend answered in the affirmative, not realizing that a short
time later Zia would be kidnapped. He was able to arrange
for Zia's wife and two of his children to be brought to North
America.
God does not force a belief system
upon people. He has given them liberty to choose.
Therefore what right does an earthly regime or group have to impose
a certain belief system? (Printed by permission)
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Contribution
of Islam to Mankind
What about Muslims' achievements
and inventions? Philosophers in Islam such as Ibn Al-Haytham
and Ibn Sina, who practiced primitive medicine, and one who formulated
algebra are recognized, but where is the modern contribution of
Islam today? What kind of life would the Muslim countries
be living if they had not discovered oil in their lands and used
foreign technology?
All the comforts Muslims enjoy today
are the products of Christian minds. There is a sharp contrast
between the social and economic conditions of the many countries
in Europe and North America where societies were founded on the
basis of Christianity and the teachings of the Bible, and the
social and economic conditions in many Islamic countries.
[TOP]
Chapter
16
A
MUSLIM'S PERSONAL TESTIMONY
In the next few pages we record
the testimony of a man whom God had led to study the Bible and
compare it with the Quran in desperate search for the truth.
At the end of his long search he came to the conclusion that the
Bible is the infallible word of God. He believed in his
heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and received Him as
his Lord and Savior.
I was born in Bethlehem, Israel.
My birthday was one of the holiest days of Islam - the birthday
of the Muslim prophet Muhammad (Al-Mauled Al-Nabawi). My
father considered this an honor, and for that reason he named
me Walid which relates to the Arabic word Mauled (in English "The
Birth"), to always remember the birthday of the Muslim prophet.
My father was a Palestinian Muslim
who taught English and Islamic studies in the Holy Land, and my
mother was an American who married my father during his studies
in the United States in 1956.
My parents feared the American way
of life. So, with two children and my mother pregnant with
me, my parents left in 1960 to live in Bethlehem which was in
Jordan at that time. I was born shortly after they arrived
in Bethlehem. As my father changed jobs, we moved to Saudi
Arabia, then back to the Holy Land, this time to the lowest place
on earth, Jericho.
As I grew up in the Holy Land I
lived through several battles between the Arabs and the Jews.
The first battle (while we lived in Jericho) was the Six Day War
when the Jews captured old Jerusalem and the rest of Palestine.
This was a great disappointment to Arabs and Muslims worldwide.
The American Consul in Jerusalem
came to us just before the war to evacuate us, along with all
the Americans in the area, since my mother was an American.
But my father refused to leave because he loved his country.
The war was called the Six Day War
because it was won in six days. On the seventh day a Rabbi
by the name of "Goren" blew the ram's horn on the wailing wall
in Jerusalem declaring the victory. Many Jews claim that
this was a parallel to Joshua when he went around the walls of
Jericho six times, then on the seventh day seven times, and on
that day the priests blew the trumpets and everyone shouted with
one voice and took the city. For my father in Jericho it
seemed that the walls crumbled on him.
Later on we moved back to Bethlehem
and my father enrolled us in an Anglican-Lutheran school as they
had a better English course. My brother, sister, and myself
were the only Muslims in the school, and the teachers would beat
us and students would laugh at us.
When the Bible class started I would
leave the class and remain outside waiting. One day I walked
into the Bible class and the class "bully" stood up to fight.
He shouted "we don't want this half American and Muslim to be
here!" I refused to get out and the lady who was teaching
the class asked me to sit down. Since that incident the
school's policy was changed and for the first time the school
allowed a Muslim to study the Bible. For the next three
years I studied it despite all the mocking.
Later my father transferred me to
a government school where I grew in the faith of Islam.
There I was fed the idea that one day a fulfillment of an ancient
prophecy by the Muslim prophet Muhammad would come to pass.
This prophecy foretold a battle in which the Holy Land would be
recaptured and the elimination of the Jews would take place in
a massive slaughter.
This prophecy in fact is documented
in the Hadith, Muhammad's Book of Traditions, which states the
following:
"The day of judgment shall not come
to pass until a tribe of Muslims defeat a tribe of Jews."
When Muhammad was asked where will that take place he said: "In
Jerusalem and the surrounding nations."
During my youth like my father I
was always tuned to Islam and what our Muslim teachers taught.
Believing in Muhammad's prophecy I offered my life to "Jihad"
or "Holy War" as the only means to obtain either victory or martyrdom.
In Islam, martyrdom is the only way you can ensure salvation and
entry into paradise especially since Allah and his prophet Muhammad
promised it, as the Quran states:
Think not of those who are slain
in the way of Allah, [in a Holy War] as dead, nay, they are living.
With their Lord they have provision (Surat Al-Imran 3:169 MPT).
During school riots against what we
called the Israeli occupation I would prepare speeches, slogans,
and write anti-Israel graffiti in an effort to provoke students
to throw rocks at the armed Israeli soldiers. We shouted "No
peace or negotiations with the enemy," "our blood and our souls
we sacrifice to Arafat," "our blood and our souls we sacrifice to
Palestine," "death to the Zionists"....
Nothing could change my heart, I
could only die or a miracle needed to happen. The simplest
way to describe myself is that I was one of those whom one would
view on CNN throwing rocks and molotov cocktails in the days of
the Intifada or "The Uprising." I was one of those whom
the Jews would call a terrorist.
The interesting thing is that I
was not only terrorizing but I was terrorized by my beliefs.
I had to gain enough merit and do enough good deeds to go to heaven
but never was sure if my good deeds would out weigh my bad deeds
in the scale when I was judged by God. Of course, to die
fighting the Jews would ease Allah's anger towards my sin and
I would be secure in a good spot in paradise with beautiful wide
eyed women to fulfill my most intimate desires. Either way
I would win, and terror was the only way.
I remember students used to ask the
teacher during our Islamic studies in Bethlehem High School if
it was permitted for Muslims to rape the Jewish women after we
defeated them. His response was "The women captured in battle
have no choice in this matter, they are concubines and they need
to obey their masters. Having sex with slave captives is
not a matter of choice for slaves." This in fact was written
in the Quran for it says:
And all married women [are forbidden]
unto you save those [captives] whom your right hands possess.
It is a decree of Allah for you (Surat Al-Nisa 4:24).
Another verse of the Quran says:
O Prophet! Lo we have made lawful
unto thee... those whom thy right hand possesseth of those
whom Allah hath given thee as spoils of war (Surat Al-Ahzab 33:50).
We had no problem with Muhammad taking
advantage of this privilege as he married fourteen wives for himself
and several slave girls from the booty he collected as a result
of his victorious battles. We really never knew how many wives
he had and that question was always a debatable issue to us.
One of these wives was taken from his own adopted son "Zaid" as
Allah declared that she was given to the prophet. Others were
Jewish captives forced into slavery after Muhammad beheaded their
husbands and families.
In an attempt to change the hearts
of Palestinians the Israeli television station would show Holocaust
documentaries. I would sit and watch, cheering the Germans
while I chewed on food. It was impossible for me to change
my mind or heart concerning the Jews. Only a heart transplant
would do that job.
On the other hand, my mother tried
to teach me what she called God's plan. She taught me Bible
prophecy. She said that the return of the Jews to Palestine
was preplanned by God and was fulfilled prophecy. This to
her was God's miracle in our generation, for the world to see
that "His will shall be done."
She also told me about many future
events to be fulfilled in our generation which are surfacing every
day now. She told me that false messiahs and counterfeits
who would arise. But all that had little effect, for my
heart was set on fighting against the Jews.
Many times my mother would take
me on trips to several museums in Israel, and I fell in love with
archeology. I was fascinated with it. In many arguments
with her I would bluntly tell her that the Jews and Christians
corrupted the Bible. She responded by taking me to the scroll
museum in Jerusalem and showed me the scroll of the prophet Isaiah,
still intact. But there was no one taking pictures of this
scroll to prove any Bible errors or any corruption and I could
not respond to my mother.
I remember the times when I was
tormenting my mother by calling her an "infidel" and a "damned
American imperialist." I would show her the pictures in
the newspaper of all the teenagers supposedly martyred as a result
of violence, demanding answers from her. I hated her and
always asked my father to divorce her and remarry a good Muslim
woman.
I lived in Israel during the Six
Day War, the PLO resistance, the Jordanian black September civil
war, the bloody wars in Lebanon, and the war of Yom Kippur.
I thought about all the attempts to exterminate the Jewish people
throughout history. Haman tried to annihilate them during
the reign of King Ahasuerus, instead he was crucified. In
modern days, Hitler tried to annihilate them, instead Germany
was defeated and Hitler committed suicide. Gamal Abd-EI
Nasser of Egypt tried to destroy them. Egypt's army was
defeated in the Six Day War and Nasser died at an early age.
I dreamed of one victory to destroy Israel.
I was fascinated with Islamic history
as I learned that the prophet Muhammad exterminated a Jewish tribe
from the Arabian peninsula and ordered the beheading of all the
men from another tribe and the women were taken as concubines.
I used to believe as Islam taught, that only a Caliph (Islamic
ruler) can test the world. Islam is not a religion for one's
personal and moral life, but a system of law and government for
the whole world. If not achieved through peaceful means,
Muslims would have to wage war against those who do not submit
to Islam. And with one billion Muslims living today I believed
that it could happen.
I will be honest, all my life I was
terrified every time I read the Quran, as many of its verses declare
the threat of hell fire for this sin or that. All I wanted
was to receive Allah's forgiveness. But the Quran says:
And establish regular prayers
at the two ends of the day and at the approaches of the night.
For those things that are good remove those that are evil.
That is a reminder for the mindful (Surat Hud 11:114).
I failed to keep count of all my sins
and my good deeds, and I was sure that at the end, my sins would
outweigh my good deeds. So I lived my sinful life with no
assurance of forgiveness. I always wondered about my destiny.
Lost in my fears and doubts, I really hated the idea of killing
Jews or Christians that I might be saved.
Sometime in 1992 I was fascinated
when I read a book titled Armageddon, Appointment with Destiny,
by Grant Jeffrey.
Some of the things explained in
this book had many detailed prophecies about Jesus: his
birth, life, death, and resurrection; and the re-creation of the
state of Israel. Many of these prophecies came to pass as
God told us in the Bible!
What also amazed me was to find
out that the chance for a man to predict hundreds of historic
events written hundreds and thousands of years before their occurrences
is one in zillions.... What is more fascinating is that
the margin of error had to be zero, especially when the fulfillment
of many of these prophecies are happening in my generation.
This kind of evidence had to come from a divine origin.
That origin had to be God Almighty.
The struggle began. I was
confused. How could the Bible be corrupted by the Jews and
Christians while the very land I grew up in spoke and cried out,
as thousands of pieces of archeological evidence surfaced from
its antiquities, confirming the Bible. A scroll of the book
of Isaiah was discovered in the Qumran caves by a Muslim named
Muhammad Deib who was from a town near Bethlehem. He was
looking for a lost sheep when he discovered that scroll.
From that discovery they found the rest of the Old Testament confirming
the Bible in our hands today with hundreds of verses predicting
the restoration of Israel and the coming of Jesus Christ.
I decided to read the Bible to find
out for myself who Jesus really was. God finally led me
to the bottom line and I read what Jesus said:
I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which
was, and which is to come, the Almighty (Revelation 1:8)
Christ also said to the Jews:
Most assuredly, I say to you,
before Abraham was, I AM (John 8:58 NKJ).
Vowing to make a decision for The Truth,
I stayed up late many nights comparing many details between the
Quran and the Bible. At some point during my study I prayed
saying "God, you are the creator of heaven and earth, the God of
Abraham, Moses, and Jacob, you are the beginning and the end, you
are The Truth the only Truth the maker of the true Scripture, the
one and only word of God. I suffer to find your truth, I want
to do your will in my life, I long for your love and in the name
of The Truth I ask, AMEN!!!"
I wanted real gold and would not settle
for an imitation. I started to scratch very hard to look beyond
the surface of the world's plastic religions.
I discovered many serious historical
errors in the Quran, one of them concerning a person named Zul-Qarnain.
Commentators of the Quran say that he might be Alexander the Great,
or an ancient Persian King, or a prehistoric Himyarite king.
The Quran gives us no material on which we can base a positive
172
answer concerning this person.
All what the Quran says about him is:
When he reached the setting place
of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring (Surat Al-Kahf
18:86 MPT).
Who would accept that the sun sets
in a muddy spring?
With many of these discoveries the
claim that the Quran is a miracle was in question. The foundation
I was standing on tumbled down as sinking sand. I found
out that the Bible prophecies, which were written hundreds and
thousands of years before, were all true. It is of great
importance to notice that many of the nations mentioned by the
Prophet Ezekiel in Chapter 38 which will gather against Israel
in the last days and will be totally destroyed, are Muslim nations
growing towards Islamic fundamentalism today. Among them
are Iran, Libya, Sudan and Turkey.
I was also amazed at the great number
of Bible prophecies concerning Jesus Christ from his birth to
his crucifixion, to his resurrection and ascension. All
these prophecies were fulfilled to the letter. No one has
ever presented such detailed prophecies concerning future events
without having more errors than truth. I realized that the
Quran lacks that prophetic element. There are no real prophecies
in the Quran. The only one who knows the end from the beginning
is God, who said:
I am God, and there is none like
Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times
the things that are not yet done, saying, "My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all my pleasure" (Isaiah 46:9, 10).
God did not only foretell future
events, but brought them to pass, unlike the Quran which simply
used
173
terror tactics to force Muslims
to believe. Since I dismissed the belief that the Bible
was corrupted, I spent many days searching it to find a prophecy
concerning Muhammad, for he claimed in the Quran that the Bible
wrote about him, but my search was in vain.
I was blind, but with the Bible I
began to see, I mean really SEE!!! I began to see that sin
is the source of all man's problems, and that the Devil is man's
worst enemy. I was led to view the world and the meaning
of life, and I felt my need for salvation.
I continued reading the Bible diligently.
I found out that the Jewish prophets were chosen by God to write
God's Word, and God's plan for salvation through Jesus the Messiah
and the Redeemer of man. I also learned that Jesus was Jewish.
He was born in "Beth-Lechem" which means "House of Bread" as he
said:
I am the Bread of Life, he who comes
to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never
thirst" (John 6:35 NKJ).
Beth-Lechem was given its name before
Jesus came to this world. The prophet Micah prophesied that
the Messiah would be born there (Micah 5:2).
I saw Jesus Christ, The Truth, and
The Life and received him in my heart by faith. This changed
my way of thinking from believing in Muhammad to believing in
Christ, from believing lies to knowing the truth, from being spiritually
dead to being spiritually alive, from living in darkness to seeing
the light, from being damned to being saved, from doubt to faith,
from hate to love, and from evil works to God's grace through
Christ.
This transformation taught me that,
without the (true) Word of God, things could look good on the
surface but in the core lays deception. I accepted Jesus
the Messiah, as my Lord and Savior, who died for all of my sins,
I submitted to Him.
Testing the Quran in the light of
true inspiration proves that it is not inspired by God.
Will you be another Walid?
Will you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord?
Listen to Jesus' final words to his disciples:
Let not your heart be troubled: ye
believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house
are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told
you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you
unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (John 14:1-3).
Jesus is
coming again. He is coming soon. The Quran says:
And [Jesus]
shall be a sign [for the coming of] the hour [of judgment]:
therefore have no doubt about the [hour] (Surat Al-Zukhruf 43:61).
Are you
ready for the second coming of Christ? Is Christ your Savior
and Lord? Then rejoice in Him and wait for His return.
[TOP]
Chapter
17
IT
IS YOUR DECISION
Your eternal
destiny depends upon your decision. This is why
this concluding section is written as an extended invitation to
you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, not only as a great teacher
and prophet, but as the eternal Son of God, the only Savior of
mankind, the final message of God to man.
A desperate man asked the apostle
Paul and his fellow worker Silas "Sirs, what must I do to be
saved?" (Acts 16:30). That man felt the heavy burden
of sin, the agony of guilt, and the fear of the coming day of
judgment. He wanted to be saved from all of these.
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31 NKJ) was the answer of
Paul and Silas. The desperate man believed and was
saved and his heart was filled with joy.
You can do as he did. Think
about Jesus Christ, His sinless life, His love for His enemies,
His love for sinners, and His forgiveness. Think about His
death on the cross for you, to pay the penalty for your sins -even
before you were born. He knew everything about you even
before your birth. The prophet David said:
My frame was not hidden from You,
when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest
parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet
unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days
fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them (Psalm 139:
15, 16 NKJ).
You can be saved if you confess your
sins to God and put your trust in Jesus Christ and His finished
work on the cross. He said:
I am the Way, the Truth, and the
Life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John
14:6 NKJ).
Jesus Christ is not a way, but He is
the only Way. He does not just tell the truth, He is the Truth
incarnated. He does not point us to life, He is the Life.
The apostle John says:
If we receive the witness of men,
the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God
which He has testified of His Son. He who believes in the
Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe
God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony
that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony
that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God
does not have life (I John 5:9-12 NKJ).
The apostle Peter says:
Nor is there salvation in any
other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men
by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12 NKJ).
In the Gospel of John we read:
He who believes in the Son has
everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not
see life, but the wrath of God abides on Him (John 3:36).
When you believe in Jesus Christ as
your Savior and Lord, it means that your name is written in the
book of life. It means you will be with God in heaven on the
Day of Resurrection. You will never enter Hell or pass over
it. On the other hand, you have to expect that while you are
on earth you will be persecuted, afflicted, imprisoned, and possibly
even executed for the sake of Christ.
For unto you it is given in the
behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer
for His sake (Philippians 1:29).
Yea, and all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12).
Jesus said to His disciples:
These things I have spoken to
you, that you should not be made to stumble... Yes, the
time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers
God service. And these things they will do to you because
they have not known the Father nor Me (John 16:1-3 NKJ).
That is the price of your faith in
Jesus Christ, but in all your afflictions for His sake you will
never be left alone, you will always feel his presence, for He promised:
Lo, I am with you always, even
unto the end of the world (Matthew 28:20).
In addition, you will be rewarded with
great reward:
For I consider that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed in us (Romans 8:18 NKJ).
And I saw a new heaven and
a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth
were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I heard
a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of
God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall
be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their
God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes;
and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things
are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said,
Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write:
for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto
me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain
of the water of life freely (Revelation 21: 1, 3-6).
And there shall be no more
curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be
in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see
his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And
there shall be no night there (Revelation 22:3, 4).
This is the
destiny of those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
TheSpiritOfIslam.com
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MUHAMMAD
Muhammad’s
Roots and His First Marriage