WHY DO PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT THEIR HOLY BOOK IS FROM GOD?

I met an Australian convert to Islam of 50 years at the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur where she volunteers. I asked her why she had become a Muslim and why she believed that The Qur’an is the truth. She explained that she had married a Muslim but had also observed that the Muslims she had met in Malaysia were both friendly and gracious and reasoned that their religion had something to do with it. She added that the Qur’an provided detailed instructions about how to live, and that she has found these very satisfying.

She also admitted that she is not a scholar and gave me a few pamphlets to fill in the blanks. One of them was entitled “Islam is Truth: The Qur’an, the Final Revelation.” It claims:

·       The Qur’an is indeed a miracle because “even if all mankind & the jinn combined together, they can never produce anything like it.” (17:88)

Why couldn’t they? What would prevent them from doing so? By what criterion couldn’t they produce such a writing? I was left unimpressed.

However, the pamphlet presented other reasons to believe that The Qur’an came directly from God:

·       Allah tells us that there are no errors in the The Qur’an, and then challenges us to find a single mistake in it. “Will they not reflect on the The Qur’an? If it was from a source other than Allah, they would have found many contradictions in it.” (4:82). The Qur’an has no inaccuracies whatsoever.

·       "No change is there in the Words of [God]. That is what is the great attainment."  (10:64)

Is the Qur’an without errors? Seemingly, it contains many errors. The Qur’an states that one night, Allah took Muhammad to "al-Aqsa" mosque in Jerusalem:

·       "Exalted is He who took His Servant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al-Aqsa” ...(17:1)

However, the Muslim army captured Jerusalem in 637 AD and al-Aqsa mosque was built in the early 8th century. But Muhammad died before the Muslim army even reached Jerusalem and decades before al-Aqsa mosque was built. http://www.billionbibles.org/sharia/errors-in-quran.html

The Qur’an claims that Moses confronted "Aaron" and a "Samaritan" for having made the golden calf for the Israelites while he (Moses) was on Mount Sinai:

·       "[Moses] said, "O Aaron, what prevented you, when you saw them going astray, from following me? Then have you disobeyed my order?" [Aaron] said, "O son of my mother, do not seize [me] by my beard or by my head. Indeed, I feared that you would say, 'You caused division among the Children of Israel, and you did not observe [or await] my word.'" [Moses] said, "And what is your case, O Samaritan?"  (20:92-95)

However, Samaritans did not exist until after 722 BC when the Assyrians settled foreigners in the conquered land of Israel, 700 years after Moses. These came to be known as “Samaritans.”

The Quran claims Mary, the mother of Jesus, was “the daughter of Imran” (or “Amran” as in the Bible) and the "sister of Aaron":

·       "Then she brought [Jesus] to her people, carrying him. They said, "O Mary, you have certainly done a thing unprecedented. O sister of Aaron, your father was not a man of evil, nor was your mother unchaste." (19:27-28)

·       "And Mary, the daughter of Imran, who guarded her chastity, and We breathed into (her body) of our spirit; and she believed in the words of her Lord and of His revelations, and was of the devoutly obedient." (66:12)

However, this “Mary” (or “Miriam”) was the sister of Moses who lived in the 15th century BC.

The Qur’an misconstrues that the NT doctrine of “Trinity” claims three gods. There are two verses in the Quran which teach this mistake: https://carm.org/what-are-some-of-the-mistakes-in-the-quran

·       "O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in your religion: Nor say of Allah aught but the truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) an apostle of Allah, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Him: so believe in Allah and His apostles. Say not “Trinity”: desist: it will be better for you: for Allah is one Allah: Glory be to Him: (far exalted is He) above having a son. To Him belong all things in the heavens and on earth. And enough is Allah as a Disposer of affairs. (4:171)

·       "They do blaspheme who say: Allah is one of three in a Trinity: for there is no god except One Allah. If they desist not from their word (of blasphemy), verily a grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers among them." (5:73)

However, there is nothing in the NT that claims that there is three gods. Instead, it claims that God in One (1 Corinthians 8:4).

The Qur’an also mistakenly claims that Christians believe that Mary is the third member of the Trinity:

·       "And behold! Allah will say: 'O Jesus the son of Mary! Didst thou say unto men, worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of Allah?” ” He will say: “Glory to Thee! Never could I say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, thou wouldst indeed have known it. Thou knowest what is in my heart, Thou I know not what is in Thine. For Thou knowest in full all that is hidden." (5:116)

The Qur’an wrongly assumes that the NT teaches that God engaged in sex to bring forth Jesus:

·       "To Him is due the primal origin of the heavens and the earth: How can He have a son when He hath no consort? He created all things, and He hath full knowledge of all things." (6:101)

Instead, the Bible never teaches this. Instead, it consistently teaches that Jesus is eternally God (John 1:1-3).

There are many other inaccuracies. However, I do not want to labor this point any further. Instead, let’s look at one last argument for the divine origin of The Qur’an, which the pamphlet offered:

The Qur’an is uniquely preserved.

·       The is a fulfillment of Allah’s promise: “We have sent down the Message, and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption).” (15:9)

One modern scholar on the history of Islam summarizes the changes to the Qur’an, which had finally led to today’s Qur’an:

·       "Islamic sources report that the Quran was collected on two separate occasions, once during the caliphate of Abu Bakr and again during the caliphate of Uthman; and that additional redactional activity took place during the caliphate of 'Abd al-Malik. The sources also report that a systematic campaign to destroy non-conforming Qur'an codices was carried out on two separate occasions, first during the caliphate of Uthman and again during that of 'Abd al-Malik; and that in the year 45/665, the suhaf or sheets collected by Zayd b. Thabit for Abu Bakr were destroyed by the governor of Medina." (David Powers, “Muhammad is Not the Father of Any of Your Men” (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009) 161)

Consequently, Luke Wayne has concluded: https://carm.org/the-early-transmission-of-the-quran

·       The question, of course, that one must inevitably ask is: did the various governing authorities that chose which text and which readings were correct and who destroyed all the others get it right? How can we know?...The tragedy of early Quranic history is that, with so much material destroyed, we may never know. As Dr. Keith Small observes:

o   "While bearing testimony to the careful preservation of one particular consonantal text, the history of the transmission of the Qur'an is at least just as much a testament to the destruction of Qur'an material as to its preservation." (Keith Small, “Textual Criticism and Qur'an Manuscripts” (Lexington Books, 2011) 180)

It seems clear that the Qur’an had not been uniquely preserved. Even if it had been, this wouldn’t argue that it came from Allah. Perhaps the discrepant Qur’ans had all been humanly discarded, as even Islamic history acknowledges.

I know that what I have written is highly offensive. However, I’d like to ask the Muslim to consider these points:

1.    Islam criticizes the Bible. Shouldn’t we have the right to defend it?

2.    Islam demands favorable status to be above criticism. Meanwhile, it criticizes the faith of others. Islam also demands equal status in the West but refuses to extend to other faiths equal legal status.

3.    Islam has shed so much innocent blood and continues to do so because of its many teachings on Jihad. Shouldn’t these teachings be challenged?

However, I have an even more important reason for writing this. We already know that we are sinners who only deserve punishment from our righteous God. Even our best deeds are “filthy rags” in His cite. Instead, we know that we need the undeserved mercy and forgiveness of God.

However, someone had to pay the penalty that our sins require, and only the sacrifice of God Himself could do this (Isaiah 53). His forgiveness and eternal life is open to all who believe in Him (John 3:16).