Article #7
Educating both Christians and Muslims in the Essentials of the Faith
I. Common Ground
A. God Is One
B. Jesus
C. Angels
D. Judgment
E. Heaven and Hell
II. The Relation Between the Koran and the Bible
A. The Bible’s corruption according to the Koran
1. Before, during, or after Muhammad’s time
2. Only interpretation was corrupt
a. Tahrif bi’al ma’ni
3. Bible text free of corruption
a. Manuscripts
B. The Koran
1. Nasikh-wa-mansukh
a. Abrogation of the Koran
b. Abrogation of the Bible
2. The Compilation of the Koran
a. Battle of Yamamah (A.D. 633)
3. Its origin
a. Eternity
b. Affirms plurality in unity
4. Its perspective of who God is
a. Unknowability of God
b. Arbitrary view of ethics
c. Absolute Determiner
III. The Bible
A. Doctrines that Christians believe
1. The Trinity
2. The Incarnation
3. The Crucifixion
IV. The Gospel
A. The Message of Freedom
There are many truths that Muslims and Christians can agree on. However, a common mistake that both Muslims and Christians make is to reject (or accept) an idea without first investigating the authoritative basis of its teaching. Our life’s aim, if it’s to be meaningful, should be to align our thoughts, actions, and motives to truth. All truth is God’s truth and should not be rejected on the basis of where it comes from, lest we become guilty of committing a fallacy of logic called the Genetic Fallacy (to deny truth based on its source). Therefore, that which does not correspond to truth does not correspond to God and ought to be rejected; everything else ought to be accepted.
God is One – Central to the teaching of Islam is that God is one. There are two words in the Arabic language that express God’s oneness: Ahad (without partner), and Wahid (same one for all). That God is one is taught in both the Koran and the Bible: “He is Allah, the One and Only” (surah 112:1). Likewise, on the testimony of Moses, “The LORD our God is one” (Deut. 6:4), and on the testimony of Jesus, “The Lord our God is one Lord” (Mark 12:29), and on the testimony of the apostle Paul, “But to us, there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things” (1 Cor. 8:6).
Jesus – There are many agreements on the person of Jesus. He was born of a virgin: “She [Mary] said: ‘O my Lord! how shall I have a son when no man has touched me?’” (surah 3:47; 19:20). “And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son…Then said Mary unto the angel, ‘How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?’” (Luke 1:31-34). He is the Christ, meaning the Messiah: “Allah gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name will be called Christ Jesus, the son of Marry, held in honor in this world and in the Hereafter” (surah 3:45; 5:17). “Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, ‘Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?’ And Jesus said, ‘I am’” (Mark 14:61-62). He performed miracles: “O Jesus…you healed those born blind, and the lepers…you brought forth the dead by My leave” (surah 5:110). “For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will” (John 5:21). He would die and resurrect from the dead: “So Peace is on me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life [again]” (surah 19:33). Christ “died for our sins…was buried, and rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:1-4). He ascended to God: “Allah raised him [Jesus] up unto Himself” (surah 4:158, see also 3:55). “And it came to pass, while he [Jesus] blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven” (Luke 24:51).
Angels – One of the five main articles of faith in Islam is the belief in angels: “It is righteousness – to believe in Allah…and the Angels” (surah 2:177). “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels” (2 Thess. 1:7).
Judgment – “Only on the Day of Judgment shall you be paid your full recompense” (surah 3:185). “He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained” (Acts 17:31).
Heaven and Hell – “Our Lord! Give us good in this world and good in the Hereafter, and defend us from the torment of the Fire!” (surah 2:201). “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire” (Matthew 25:34, 41).
THE RELATION BETWEEN THE KORAN AND THE BIBLE
The Bible’s Corruption According to the Koran
In spite of the many agreements between the Koran and the Bible, it is often believed that Christians no longer have a trustworthy revelation, that today’s Bible has been corrupt, and that their Gospel is no longer the true and pure Gospel which was given to Jesus. But upon what authoritative basis can this assertion be made? The Koran itself may give some understanding to these accusations. Since the Bible is charged with corruption, there are only three possible time periods it could have become corrupt: before, during, or after Muhammad’s time.
In spite of the above, Jews and Christians are still accused of corrupting their holy books. To leverage support against the Christians, Muslim scholars have formulated a doctrine called tahrif. The doctrine of tahrif details the many “errors” that Christians and Jews have made in corrupting the Bible, concealing the true message and mission of Muhammad, and inventing false doctrines such as the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Crucifixion. Muslims believe Muhammad supersedes all other prophets, including Jesus, using both the Koran and the Bible as support. And since Christians believe Jesus supersedes all prophets, including Muhammad, they have been accused of corruption.
However, there are two types of corruption: 1.) tahrif bi’al ma’ni, which means corruption of the meaning of a text, and 2.) tahrif bi’al lafz, which means corruption of the text itself. Several Koranic verses, all found in the Medinan passages (see Nasikh-wa-Mansukh below), reveal the type of corruption the Jews and Christians were accused of. They were accused of “concealing the truth” (surah 2:42; 3:71), of distorting the Book [the Bible] “with their tongues” (surah 3:78; 4:46), and of not knowing all parts of the Bible (surah 2:78, 85). These passages are very revealing of the true nature of corruption. But none of these passages in particular, or the whole Koran in general, teach that the Jews and Christians were ever guilty of corrupting the text of the Bible (tahrif bi’al lafz), only that they were guilty of distorting the meaning and the interpretation of the text (tahrif bi’al ma’ni).
Thus it has been demonstrated that the Bible was never corrupt before, during, or after Muhammad’s time, and that the corruption that is alleged to have occurred was only in the interpretation of the Bible, not the text itself.
But is the text of the Bible today the same as it was in Muhammad’s time? Not only does the Koran support the fact that it is, but ancient manuscripts also support this fact. Manuscripts are copies of the original text that’s been used and passed on through the centuries. For example, if we wanted to prove that today’s text of the Koran has not become corrupt since Muhammad’s time, we would compare it with the Medinan Codex of the seventh century (see The Compilation of the Koran below). Likewise, if we wanted to prove that the Bible of today has not suffered corruption, we could compare it to the many manuscripts of the past. And there are over 5700 Greek manuscripts (thousands more non-Greek) of the Bible. Two of the more well-known manuscripts containing both the Old Testament and the New Testament are the Codex Vaticanus (A.D. 325) and the Codex Sinaiticus (A.D. 325). Both still exist today at the Vatican Library of Rome and the National Library of the British Museum. Therefore, we conclude that the text of the Bible has never suffered corruption based on the testimony of:
Nasikh-wa-Mansukh – But even if the Bible has not been corrupt, hasn’t it at least been abrogated by the Koran? Nasikh-wa-Mansukh is the Islamic doctrine of substituting a previous revelation with a new one. And it has profound implications on how we view the authority of the Bible. For if the Koran has abrogated the revelation of the Bible, then the Bible is no longer our final authority for faith and practice. The Koran does not use the word “abrogate” to describe the stages of revelation. Instead, it uses the word “substitute” – “None of our revelations do We abrogate…but We substitute something better or similar” (surah 2:106; 16:101; 13:39).
Abrogation of the Koran – To understand the development of Koranic substitution, it’s necessary to understand the history of Muhammad. There are two major stages in the life of Muhammad: the Meccan period (A.D. 610-622), and the Medinan period (A.D. 622-632). In Muhammad’s time, the people of Mecca were polytheists (the worship of many gods). It was in this environment that Muhammad is claimed to be a “warner” (surah 87:9) calling upon men to submission to the one true God. He speaks in a favorable tone towards the Jews and Christians saying “those who follow the Jewish (scriptures) and the Christians…shall have their reward with their Lord” (surah 2:62; see also 29:46). He also speaks favorably towards the Bible calling it the “Word of God” (surah 2:75), a “light and guidance to men” (surah 5:45-49; 40:53-54), and “the Book of God” (surah 2:101; see also 5:68). In the twelve years of his Meccan ministry, he won over only a few converts, but at the cost of great opposition from the polytheist. In fact, the opposition became so great that Muhammad left Mecca and migrated 200 miles north to a city called Medina, which would begin the second stage of Muhammad’s ministry. This has been called the Hijra (Flight) of A.D. 622. Medina was now Islam’s new base of operations. The Medinans were more accepting of Muhammad because the city was monotheistic (worship of one God) because of Jewish influences. In Mecca, Muhammad was primarily a religious figure. But now in Medina, he becomes both a religious and political figure drawing up a new constitution for the city. However, in spite of his new success as a political reformer, he was never successful at winning over the Jews of Medina. In an attempt to win them over, he orders his followers to turn towards Jerusalem when praying and adopt the practice of Ashura (the Jewish Day of Atonement).
However, the Jews still rejected Muhammad as God’s prophet because his revelations were incompatible with theirs. And as the antagonism grew, Muhammad’s “revelations” towards the Jews and Christians evolved and became less favorable, claiming that “they have incurred divine displeasure: in that they broke their Covenant” (surah 4:155-161; see also 3:85; 5:59; 62:5-7). It’s at this point in the history of Islam that the evolution (the “substitution”) of Koranic passages begin to emerge. As the Jews and Christians rejected the message of Islam, Muhammad begins to substitute earlier revelation with new revelation so that the newer revelations were less favorable towards the Jews and Christians.
In the Koran, there are three types of substitution: 1.) the text and its directive are changed, such as in surah 53:19-23 where previously, according to Islamic tradition, the intercession of the three goddesses could be sought, 2.) the text changes, but its directive stays the same, such as in surah 24:2 where the adulterer is punished with “lashes” rather than stoning, 3.) the text remains the same, but its directive is changed, such as in surah 2:138-150 where praying towards Jerusalem is changed to praying towards Mecca, and fasting during the ten days of Ashura is changed to fasting during the whole month of Ramadan (surah 2:179-185).
Abrogation of the Bible – So far, it’s been shown that several earlier Koranic passages are substituted with later Koranic passages. In fact, there are over 225 verses in the Koran that have been changed. But does this “substitution” extend beyond the Koran to previous holy books? In a sense, the Old Testament has been fulfilled with the advent of the New Testament. Therefore, it would seem to make sense that the New Testament has been fulfilled with the advent of the Koran. So could the Koran really be the fulfillment (substitution) of Biblical prophecy? To answer this, it is necessary to first compare the Old Testament to the New Testament to see just how the New Testament fulfills the Old Testament. The Old Testament is the story about the Jewish people being governed under the Law of Moses as they entered their promised land. The Law of Moses contained two types of law: ceremonial law, and moral law. Their ceremonial laws contained rules for ritual purity, washings, and sacrificial rites (blood of goats and bulls, etc.) until God’s promise of Gen. 3:15 – the “seed of the woman”, Eve, to crush the head of the serpent – was given. This “seed” was Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:16). Once Jesus instituted the New Covenant, obedience to the ceremonial law was no longer necessary because Jesus himself was the fulfillment of the ceremonial law (Mat. 5:17; Rom. 8:3-4; 10:3-11; Gal. 3:1-25; Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:16-17; Heb. 7:18-19; 10:1-18). But the moral law, being rooted in the nature of God, and not merely the Law of Moses, is universally binding on all men of all times. Therefore, the ceremonial law has been fulfilled in Jesus. But the moral law has not been fulfilled, nor can it be, since it is rooted in God’s unchangeable nature. Thus the ceremonial law of the Old Testament is fulfilled in Jesus.
However, the teachings of Jesus are not fulfilled in the Koran for the following reasons: 1.) the Koran never claims that it would fulfill the New Testament. The Koran does substitute other Koranic passages, but substitution occurs only within the Koran. Neither is there any other authoritative teaching, such as the Hadith, Old Testament, New Testament, or any other tradition indicating that the Koran would substitute the Bible, 2.) Jesus promised His disciples that they would be lead “into all truth” (John 16:13). If more truth – the Koran – were necessary, then the disciples would have been waiting for a long time to receive it, since the Koran was not given till 600 years later; the disciples were long dead by then. But the disciples were indeed lead into all truth as the Spirit of God so moved within them to write the books of the New Testament, concluding with the apostle John who wrote the last New Testament book in about the year A.D. 95, and gave a strong warning to anyone who would add to God’s truth (see Rev. 22:18-19), 3.) Biblical prophecy that is believed to point to Mohammad actually does not. One of the more well-known prophecies is in John 14:16 where Jesus predicts the coming “Comforter” (Gr. = Paraclete). In surah 61:6 Jesus is said to “announce an apostle that shall come after me, whose name shall be Ahmed.” The word “Ahmed” in Arabic is Pariclytos and refers to Muhammad. Therefore, the Paraclete of John 14:16 is also believed to be Muhammad.
However, there are several reasons this can’t refer to Muhammad. First, though Paraclete and Pariclytos may sound the same, they have two different meanings. Paraclete is a combination of the two Greek words para = ‘alongside’, and ecclesia = ‘called out ones’. But Pariclytos is an Arabic word that means ‘praised one’. The word “Pariclytos” is not even found in any one of the many thousands of Biblical manuscripts. Second, Jesus promised that the Paraclete would be given to the apostles (Jn.14:16), would be sent in Jesus’ name (vs.26), would be “in” them (vs.17), that they would “know him” (vs.17), that he would “not speak of his own authority” (Jn.16:13), but “glorify” Jesus (vs.14). He would abide with them “forever” (John 14:16), and would come in “not many days” (Acts 1:5). But Muhammad was not with the apostles, was not “in” them, was not sent in Jesus’ name, was not known by the apostles, did not glorify Jesus, and often did speak of his own authority (surah 33:40). He did not abide with the apostles and came in many days – nearly 600 years – after the apostles.
The Holy Spirit (the Paraclete), however, fulfilled each one of these prophecies. On the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was given to the apostles just as Jesus promised. He was sent in Jesus’ name, was in the apostles, was known by the apostles, did not speak of his own, but glorified Jesus. He was with the apostles forever, and came in not many days – about 50 days – after the promise was given (see Acts 1-2).
The Compilation of the Koran – About a year after Muhammad’s death, a self-proclaimed Arabian prophet named Musailama was at war with the Muslims. This is known as the Battle of Yamamah (A.D. 633). The Koran had not yet been compiled into one volume by then. And since many of the Muslims who knew Mohammad’s sayings by heart were dying in battle, it was feared that the Koran would be lost forever. As recorded in the Hadith, “Umar has come to me [Abu Bakr] and said, ‘Casualties are heavy among the Quarra [reciters] of the Koran on the day of the battle of Yamamah, and I am afraid that more heavy casualties may take place among the Quarra on the battlefields, whereby a large part of the Koran may be lost. Therefore, I suggest you…order that the Koran be collected’…Umar kept urging me to accept his proposal till Allah opened my chest for it” (Suhih of Bukhari, vol.6, 477-478). Thus the first Koran was collected by Zayd ibn Thabit by orders of Umar into this one volume. However, years later under the reign of Uthman, the third Muslim Caliph (A.D. 650), different unauthorized versions of the Koran began to emerge, such as the Medinan, Meccan, Basra, Kufa, and Damascus. Zayd, compiler of the first Koran, was again ordered to revise an official version – the Medinan Codex – and have all other versions burned (Al-Bukhari, vol.6, 478-479). It is this version that has been the basis for all modern Korans. However, it’s unlikely that neither the original Koran, nor the Medinan Codex still exists today.
Today the Koran is composed of 114 surahs. The last 86 surahs are the Meccan passages; they portray Mohammad as a peaceful prophet in Mecca. The first 28 surahs are the Medinana passages; they were revealed to Mohammad while he was an aggressive political figure of Medina, which explains his change of attitude toward the Jews and Christians in the early parts of the Koran.
Its Origin – The Koran claims not to have human origins (surah 26:210; see also 10:37). Rather, its origin is said to be from heaven. “Nay, this is a Glorious Koran, (Inscribed) in A Tablet Preserved [in heaven]!” (Surah 85:21-22). The Ma’tazilites were Muslim theologians who taught that the Koran was created, not eternal. However, their position was defeated by orthodox Islam. In fact, Caliph Al-Mutawakkil (A.D. 850) declared the death penalty to anyone who taught that the Koran was created. For Muslims the Koran is the eternal speech of God, yet not identical to God, existing from all eternity. Even as their own Islamic authority Abu Hanifa has said, the Koran “is not God, but still is inseparable from God…he who says that the Word of God is created in an infidel.” And professor of Islam, Yusuf K Ibish said, “If you want to compare it [the Koran] to anything in Christianity, you must compare it with Christ himself. Christ was the expression of the Divine [Will] among men” (The Muslim Lives by the Quran, by Yusuf K. Ibish).
However, if the Koran is the eternal speech of God that is inseparable from God, yet not identical to God Himself, then the logical conclusion to follow is that Islam affirms not only the same kind of plurality in unity that Christians claim for the Trinity, but that Christ (being the eternal “expression of the Divine Will”) is the same Person as the Divine Will.
Its perspective of who God is – There are ninety-nine names given to God in the Koran, such as al-Jami, the Gatherer (surah 3:9); al-Hasib, the Accounter (surah 4:6); and ar-Raqib, the Watcher (surah 5:117). The names given to God in the Koran are descriptions of His actions rather than His character. However, according to the teachings of the Koran, God’s actions are not necessarily rooted in His unchanging nature. As Fazlur Rahman, professor of Islam has said, the Koran “is no treatise about God and His nature.” And neither does the Koran provide any knowledge of God’s nature. The highest duty of a Muslim is to submit to God’s will rather than to know God’s nature and character and be conformed to it. Therefore, the Koran teaches that Allah is an unknown God.
Since the unchangeable nature of God is not taught in the Koran, Islam has a nominalistic view of ethics. God may decide to love, but since love is not God’s nature, He doesn’t have to love. In fact, the Koran teaches that “If you do love Allah, follow me: Allah will love you and forgive you your sins…but if they turn back, Allah does not love those who reject Faith” (surah 3:31-32; 2:190).
Not only does the Koran teach that God is unknowable and arbitrary about ethics, but also that He wills all that is, both good and evil. “He whom Allah guides, – he is on the right path: whom He rejects from His guidance, – such are the persons who perish” (surah 36:7-10). The Sahih of Al-Muslim (Islamic traditions) states “one may perform the works of the people of Paradise…but then what is written for him overtakes him, and begins to perform the works of the people of Hell.” Islamic theologian Al-Ghazali writes, “He willeth the unbelief of the unbeliever…All that we do is by His will: what He willeth not does not come to pass.” If this is true, then all the evils that occur in the world including rape, murder, homosexuality, etc. would be an approved act of God, since God is the One that willeth theses things to pass. And if there’s no unchangeable nature to which God’s actions must correspond to, then we have no basis for calling God good. But if we call God good only because He causes good things, then by Islam’s own standard we could also call God evil and faithless, since He causes evil and the unbelief of the unbeliever (surah 7:178-179). The Bible, on the other hand, teaches that all people are given freedom to know God and become conformed to His nature, as was the case with Moses (Ex. 33:13), King Solomon (1 Chron. 28:9), Daniel (Dan. 11:32), Jesus (Jn. 8:55; 17:25), his followers (vs.3), and the apostle Paul (Phil. 3:10). What they desired to know was the unchangeable nature and character of God – the foundation of ethics – and become conformed to it (2 Cor. 3:18). And since God’s nature is unchangeable (Ps. 102:25-27; Mal. 3:6), and since love is God’s nature (1 Jn. 4:16), then God’s love for the entire world never changes. He can be called good because He is good, not merely because He does good things.
Doctrines that Christians believe
God is not three Gods in one God. He is not three Persons in one Person; neither is He three natures in one nature, nor three Persons with three Wills. Rather, the Bible teaches that God is three Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) unified in one divine nature and will. The Father is God (“for the Father seeketh such to worship Him” – John 4:23; He is “God , even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” – 2 Cor. 1:3). The Son is God (“the Word [Jesus] was God”) – John 1:1; I [Jesus] am Alpha and Omega” – Rev. 1:8, 11; 22:13, but the “Alpha and Omega” of Rev. 21:4-6 is God. And since there can only be one Alpha and Omega, then the Bible
Reads:
113
Pages:
135
Published:
Oct 2023
Throughout human history, various ideologies have been developed and propagated with the aim of improving the well-being and condition of humanity. These ideo...
Formats: PDF, Epub, Kindle, TXT
Reads:
109
Pages:
243
Published:
Feb 2021
Philosophy of law; Political philosophy; Constitutional law
Formats: PDF, Epub, Kindle, TXT
Reads:
363
Pages:
318
Published:
Feb 2019
A brief reflection on the role of Agni,the Vedic God of Fire
Formats: PDF
Reads:
664
Pages:
96
Published:
Apr 2017
Philosophical essays from Thales to contemporary thinkers.
Formats: PDF, Epub, Kindle