Based on transcripts of vairous lectures given by Yusuf Estes & Dr. Gary Miller
Introduction by Yusuf Estes -
It should be stated at the outset of this work, that Muslims do not seek to put
down or desecrete the Holy Bible. It is a matter critical matter of faith for
Muslims to believe in the original revelations that came down to Moses, David,
Solomon and Jesus, just as it is is important for Muslims to believe in the
revelation of the Quran that came to Muhammad, peace be upon him. The key word
here however, is "original." As we all know the origin of the Bible is clouded
with centuries of copying, translating and passing down information, now long
lost with only copies of manuscripts remaining to remind us of what once was the
Bible.
Additionally, it should be noted that Muslims do not seek to destroy the
Christians or Jews belief in the Word of God, rather it is an obligation for
Muslims to call to what is right and to halt that which is evil. Certainly,
causing the "People of the Book" (as the Quran refers to Christians and Jews) to
fall into disbelief and leave off any faith in God at all, is the very opposite
of the direction Muslims should take in presenting any comparison between Islam
and what has come down in the past from the Almighty God. We only seek to bring
about more light to the people seeking guidance and pray for all of us to be
successful with our Lord in this life and in the Next life and we ask His
Guidance and Support in doing so, ameen.
THE BIBLE
[Yusuf Estes]
Old Testament
There exists today a number of different versions in the ancient Hebrew language
of the Jewish Book called the Torah [Law] and this is usually referred to in
Christianity as The Old Testament. Naturally, there have been many different
translations to a great number of languages over the centuries and one could not
expect them to be identical in text or meaning. What we have in English today
still remains somewhat similar to large amounts of these older documents.
New Testament
There are also different versions of the Gospel or what is commonly called The
New Testament in the Koine Greek language and Latin and these also have many
translations to even other langugaes. Even amongst the English translations
there are great differences. To mention two very clear differences for example;
the Catholic Bible [c. 325 A.D] contains 73 books in total, while the Protestant
Bible contains only 66 books, and although the newer (Protestant version) was
taken from the Catholic Bible even then these books do not match completely with
each other. There is no common denominator for any of the many different
versions of the Bible.
Dead Sea Scrolls
There have been a number of scrolls and parchments found in places surrounding
what we call the "Holy Land" over the centuries, not the least of which are
those often referred to as the "Dead Sea Scrolls" or as they are known to the
scholars "Wadi Qumran Scrolls." These were discovered in the last century around
1930 and have been proven to be very ancient and could well be older than any
other extant manuscripts. Much of what has been translated from these scrolls is
similar to some of the oldest manuscripts, but there are still very important
differences worthy of note. We would like to recommend some important reading on
this topic at the end of this paper.
THE QURAN
[Yusuf Estes]
Quran Means "Recitation"
The word "Quran" means "that which is recited; or that which is dictated in
memory form." As such, it is not a book, nor is it something that reaches us
only in written form. The documentation in writting about the Quran has been
preserved in museums thoughout the world, including the Topekopi Palace in
Istanbul, Turkey, the museum in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and also in England. Keep
in mind also, the Quran is only considered "Quran" while it is in the recitation
form, not in the written or the book form. The word for what is written and held
in the hand to be read by the eye is called "mus-haf" (meaning script or that
which is written down).
Only One Version - Arabic
There are no different versions of the Quran in the Arabic language, only
different translations and of course, none of these would be considered to hold
the value and authenticity of the original Arabic Recitation. The Quran is
divided up into 30 equal parts, called "Juz'" (parts) in the Arabic language.
These are learned by Muslims from their very early beginnings as children.
Memorized by Millions - Entirely
The important thing to keep in mind about the Quran is the memorization and
transmission of the actual "Rectiation" just as it came to Muhammad, peace be
upon him, from the Angel Gabriel and was learned and memorized by his companions
and they in turn, passed it down to their followers and continued in this way
until we see today, over 10,000,000 (ten million) Muslims who have committed the
entire Quran to memory. This is not a small feat. After all, how many other
works of literary value have been memorized and passed down through so many
generations, in the original language, without a single change in even one
sentence?
Each Muslim Has "Quran" Memorized
All Muslims have memorzied a portion of the Quran in the Arabic language, as
this is an important part of their daily prayers. Many Muslims have memorized
large portions of the Quran from one tenth to one half to all of the entire
Quran, and all in the original Arabic language. It should be noted, there are
over one and a half billion (1,500,000,000) Muslims worldwide and only about 10%
are Arab, all the rest are learing the Quran in Arabic as a second language.
God Speaks in First Person to Mankind in Quran
The Quran contains clear statements from Almighty God (Allah) and it is Him
speaking to all of us in the first person. He tells of us our own creation, the
creation of all that is the universe and what has happened to those before us
and what is to become of us if we do not take heed of the warnings clearly
spelled out in His Revelation. He speaks also to Muhammad, peace be upon him, to
show that Muhammad, peace be upon him, is not making this up himself and even
chastises Muhammad, peace be upon him, for making human assumptions rather than
waiting for revelation in matters (ie.; surah At-Tahreem and surah Abasa).
Quran Mentions Itself
The Quran refers to itself as "The Quran" (The Recitation) and mentions that it
is to all mankind and jinn (another creation of Allah, similar to humans in that
they could make choices as to whether or not they would obey God's Commandments,
and they existed before humans).
Quran Describes God's Nature Exactly
The Quran is clear on who God is and who He is not. There is no room left for
doubt after reading the Quran in the Arabic languge: God is One. He is the only
Creator, Sustainer and Owner of the Universe. He has no partners. He has no
relatives; wives, children or offspring. He is not like His creation and He does
not need it for His existance, while all the time the creation is totally
dependent on Him. His attributes are clearly spelled out as the epitome of each
and every one. He is for instance, the All-Knowing; the All-Hearing; the All-Seeing;
the All-Forgiving; the All- Loving; the All-Merciful; the Only One God. There is
never a contradiction to this found anywhere in the Quran.
Quran Challanges Readers
The Quran makes the clear challange, that if you are in doubt about it - then
bring a book like it. Also, to bring ten chapters like it and then finally, to
bring one single chapter like it. 1,400 years - and no one has been able to
duplicate it's beauty, recitation, miracles and ease of memorization. Another
challange for the unbelievers to consider; "If this (Quran) were from other than
Allah, you would find within it many contradictions." And yet, another challange
offered by Allah in the Quran is for the unbelievers to look around for
evidences. Allah says He will show them His signs within themselves and on the
farthest horizons.
Scientific Miracles in Quran
The scientific miracles of the Quran could not have been understood at that time,
yet today we take for granted the many things included in the revelation of the
Quran. Some include mentioning: The formation of embryo in the womb of the
mother (surah 98); deep seas partitions; waters that do not mix; clouds and how
they make rain and how lightning is caused by ice crystals; formation of the
earth's mountains deep underground; orbits of planets and stars and moons - and
even the mention of space travel (surah 55:33).
- COMPARISON of BIBLE & QURAN-
[Dr. Gary Miller- with Commentary by Yusuf Estes]
Bible is Collection of Writings -
Quran is Recitation From God to Muhammad (p)
Whereas, The Bible is a collection of writings by many different authors, the
Quran is a dictation (or recitation). The speaker in the Quran - in the first
person - is God Almighty (Allah) talking directly to man. In the Bible you have
many men writing about God and you have in some places the word of God speaking
to men and still in other places you have some men simply writing about history
or personal exchanges of information to one another (ex: Epistle of John 3). The
Bible in the English King James Version consists of 66 small books. About 18 of
them begin by saying: This is the revelation God gave to so and so? The rest
make no claim as to their origin. You have for example the beginning of the book
of Jonah which begins by saying: The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of
Elmitaeh saying? quote and then it continues for two or three pages.
Compare this to the beginning of the Book of "Luke" begins by saying: ?In as
much as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things
which have been fulfilled among us, (2) Just as those who from the beginning
were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, (3) It seemed
good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very
first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, (4) That
you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.
We see the author of the Book of "Luke" saying essentially, "Many people have
written about things, it seems fitting for me to do so too.? "Luke" says it
seems to him that as long as others are taking in hand to write something about
it, even though they were eye witnesses to the whole thing, he feels that even
though he was not, he still has "perfect understanding of all things from the
very first."
Therefore this is only a letter from one person to another, neither of whom knew
Jesus, peace be upon him, nor were eyewitnesses to any of what had taken place.
[Y. Estes]
If you compare that to one of the four accounts of the life of Jesus, Luke
begins by saying: ?many people have written about this man, it seems fitting for
me to do so too?. That is all? no claim of saying ? these words were given to me
by God here they are for you it is a revelation?, there is no mention of this.
"Bible" is NOT in the Bible
The Bible does not contain self-reference, that is, the word 'Bible' is not in
the Bible. Nowhere does the Bible talk about itself. Some scriptures are
sometimes pointed to in the Bible, say: Here where it talks about itself, but we
have to look closely. 2nd Timothy 3:16 is the favourite which reads: ?All
scripture is inspired of God? and there are those who would say, here is where
the Bible it talks about itself, it says it is inspired of God, all of it. But
if you read the whole sentence, you read that this was a letter wrote by Paul to
Timothy and the entire sentence says to Timothy: ?Since you were a young man you
have studied the holy scriptures, all scriptures inspired by God? and so on?
When Timothy was a young man the New Testament did not exist, the only thing
that stems he was talking about are scriptures ? which are only a portion of the
Bible - from before that time. It could not have meant the whole Bible.
Bible Curses Church Fathers Who REMOVED Book of Revelations
There is at the end of the Bible a verse which says:
Rev 22:18 "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this
book (Revelations): if anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the
plagues that are written in this book:
19. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, god
shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the
things which are written in this book. [Y. Estes]
?Let anyone who takes away from this book or adds to this book be cursed?. This
to is sometimes pointed to me saying: Here is where it sums itself as a whole.
But look again and you will see that when it says: Let no one change this book,
it is talking about that last book, #66 (or is it #73 in the Catholic Bible?),
the Book of Revelation. It has too, because any reference will tell you that the
Book of Revelation was written before certain other parts of the Bible were
written. It happens today to be stacked at the end, but there are other parts
that came after, so it can not be referring to the entire book.
(Incidentally, according to different manuscripts much older than the King James
Version, there are different words at the end of the Book of Revelation, so how
would we resolve that matter? - Y.E.)
Note: The Book of Revelation was taken out of the Bible several times and then
replaced and then taken out and replaced according to various Church Councils
throughout Church history. Guess the Church Fathers didn't read the curse at the
end of the book?
Whose Word Is It?
It is an extreme position held only by some Christian groups that the Bible ? in
its entirety - cover to cover is the revealed word of God in every word, but
they do a clever thing when they mention this, or make this claim. They will say
that the Bible in its entirety is the word of God; inerrant (no mistakes) in the
original writings.
So if you go to the Bible and point out some mistakes that are in it you are
going to be told: Those mistakes were not there in the original manuscript, they
have crept in so that we see them there today.
They are going on problem in that position. There is a verse in the Bible Isaiah
40:8 which in fact is so well known that some Bibles printed it on the inside
front cover as an introduction and it says : ? The grass weathers, the flower
fades, but the word of our God stands forever?. Here is a claim in the Bible
that the word of God will stand forever, it will not be corrupted, it won't be
lost. So if today you find a mistake in the Bible you have two choices. Either
that promise was false that when God said my word wont fade away, he was
mistaken, or the portion which has the mistake in it was not a part of the word
of God in the first place, because the promise was that it would be safeguarded,
it would not be corrupted.
Are There Mistakes?
I have suggested many times that there are mistakes in the Bible and the
accusation comes back very quickly: Show me one. Well there are hundreds. If you
want to be specific I can mention few. You have for example at 2nd Samuel 10:18
a description of a war fought by David saying that he killed 7000 men and that
he also killed 40000 men on horsebacks. In 1st Chronicles 19 it mentions the
same episode saying that he killed 70000 men and the 40000 men were not on
horsebacks, they were on foot. The point be what is the difference between the
pedestrian and not is very fundamental.
How Did Judas Die?
Matthew 27:5 says that Judas Iscariot when he died he hung himself. Acts 1 says
that, no he jumped off a cliff head first. If you study Logic very soon you will
come in your course to what they call an ?undecidable propositions? or ?meaningless
sentences? or statements that can not be decided because there is no contextual
false. One of the classic examples sited is something called the Effeminites
paradox. This man was Cretan and he said ?Cretans always lie?, now was that
statement true or false? If he was a Cretan and he says that they always lie is
he lying? If he is not lying then he is telling the truth then the Cretans don?t
always lie ! You see it can not be true and it can not be false, the statement
turns back on itself. It is like saying ?What I am telling you right now is a
lie? would you believe that or not? You see the statement has no true content.
It can not be true and it can not be false. If it is true it is always false. If
it is false it is also true.
Well in the Bible at Titus 1:12 the writer is Paul and he is talking about the
Cretans. He says that one of their own men ? a prophet - said ?Cretans always
lie? and he says that what this man says is true. It is a small mistake, but the
point is that it is a human mistake, you don?t find that if you carefully
examine the true content of that statement. It can not be a true statement.
Who is the Author?
Now I come back to the Quran, and as I mentioned the speaker in the Quran is -
in the first person - is God. The book claims throughout that it is the word of
God. It names itself 70 times as the Quran. It talks about its own contents. It
has self-reference. The Quran states in the first Sura after Fatiha that ?This
is the book, there is no doubt in it, it is a guidance for those who are
conscious of God? and so on and so on? It begins that way and continues that way
stressing that. And there is one very amazing statement in the Quran when you
come to the fourth Sura 82nd Ayah which says to those who say Quran is something
else than the word of God. It challenges them saying: ?Have they not considered
the Quran, if it came from someone other than God they will find in it many
mistakes?. Some of you are students, would you dare to hand in a paper after you
completed a research work or something at the bottom you put down there ?You
wont find mistakes in this?. Would you dare to challenge your professor that way?.
Well the Quran does that. It is telling: If you really think you know where this
came from then starts looking for mistakes because you wont find any. Another
interesting thing the Quran does is that it quotes all its critics. There has
never - in hundreds of years - ever been some suggestion as to where that book
came from but that the Quran does not already mention that objection and reply
to it. Many times you will find the Ayah saying something like: Do they say such
and such and so, say to them such and such and so. In every case there is a
reply. More than that the Quran claims that the evidence of its origin is in
itself, and that if you look at this book you will be convinced.
Difference of Authority
So the difference in Christianity and Islam comes down to a difference of
authority and appeal to authority. The Christian wants to appeal to the Bible
and the Muslim wants to appeal to the Quran. You can not stop by saying: This is
true because me book say it is, and somebody else would say something else is
true because my book says differently, you can not stop at that point, and the
Quran does not. The Christians may point to some words that it is recorded Jesus
said and say this proves my point. But the Muslim does not simply open his book
and say: No, no the Quran says this, because the Quran does not simply deny
something the Bible says and say something else instead. The Quran takes the
form of a rebuttal, it is a guidance as the opening says (Huda lil mutakeen). So
that for every suggestion that the Christian may say: My Bible say such and such,
the Quran will not simply say: No that is not true, it will say: Do they say
such and such then ask them such and such. You have for example the Ayah that
compares Jesus and Adam. There are those who may say that Jesus must have been
God (Son of God) because he had no father. He had a woman who was his mother,
but there was no human father. It was God that gave him life, so he must have
been God?s son. The Quran reminds the Christian in one short sentence to
remember Adam - who was his father ? - and in fact, who was his mother ? He did
not have a father either and in fact he did not have a mother, but what does
that make him? So that the likeness of Adam is the likeness of Jesus, they were
nothing and then they became something; that they worship God.
Quran Invites - Not Demands
So that the Quran does not demand belief - the Quran invites belief, and here is
the fundamental difference. It is not simply delivered as: Here is what you are
to believe, but throughout the Quran the statements are always: Have you O man
thought of such and such, have you considered so and so. It is always an
invitation for you to look at the evidence; now what do you believe ?
Special Pleading of the Bible
The citation of the Bible very often takes the form of what is called in
Argumentation: Special Pleading. Special Pleading is when implications are not
consistent. When you take something and you say: Well that must mean this, but
you don?t use the same argument to apply it to something else. To give an
example, I have seen it in publications many times, stating that Jesus must have
been God because he worked miracles. In other hand we know very well that there
is no miracle ever worked by Jesus that is not also recorded in the Old
Testament as worked by one of the prophets. You had amongst others, Elijah, who
is reported to have cured the leper, raise the dead boy to life and to have
multiplied bread for the people to eat - three of the most favourite miracles
cited by Jesus. If the miracles worked by Jesus proved he was God, why don?t
they prove Elijah was God ? This is Special Pleading, if you see what I mean.
The implications are not consistent. If this implies that then in that case it
must also imply the same thing. We have those who would say Jesus was God
because he was taken up in the heaven. But the Bible also says the a certain
Einah did not die he was taken up into the heaven by God. Whether it is true or
not, who knows, but the point is if Jesus being taken up proves he is God, why
does not it prove Einah was God? The same thing happened to him.
Clear Parts & Difficult Parts of Bible
I wrote to a man one time, who wrote a book about Christianity and I had some of
the objections I mentioned to you now. And his reply to me was that I am making
matters difficult to myself, that there are portions in the Bible that are
crystal clear and that there are portions that are difficult, and that my
problem was that I am looking at the difficult part instead of the clear parts.
The problem is that this is an exercise in self deception - why are some parts
clear and some parts difficult? It is because somebody decided what this clearly
means, now that makes this very difficult. To give you an example, John Chapter
14 a certain man said to Jesus: Show us God, and Jesus said: If you have seen me
you have seen God. Now without reading on the Christian will say: See Jesus
claimed to be God, he said if you have seen me you have seen God. If that is
crystal clear then you have a difficult portion when you go back just a few
pages to Chapter 5 when another man came to Jesus and said show us God and he
said you have never seen God you have never heard his voice. Now what did he
mean there if on the other occasion he meant that he was God? Obviously you have
made matters difficult by deciding what the first one meant. If you read on in
Chapter 14 you will see what he went on to say. He was saying the closest you
are going to seeing God are the works you see me doing.
Bible Does Not Claim Jesus Claimed to Be Son of God
It is a fact that the words ?son of God? are not found on the lips of Jesus
anywhere in the first three Gospel accounts, he was always calling himself the
Son of Man. And it is a curious form of reasoning that I have seen so often that
it is established from Bible that he claimed to be God because - look how the
Jews reacted. They will say for example he said such and such and the Jews said
he is blaspheming, he claimed to be God and they tried to stone him. So they
argue that he must have been claiming to be God because look ! - the Jews tried
to kill him. They said that?s what he was claiming. But the interesting thing is
that all the evidence is then built on the fact that a person is saying: I
believed that Jesus was the son of God because the Jews who killed him said that?s
what he used to say ! His enemies used to say that, so he must have said it,
this is what it amounts to. In other hand we have the words of Jesus saying he
would keep the law, the law of Moses and we have the statement in the Bible, why
did the Jews kill him ? Because he broke the law of Moses. Obviously the Jews
misunderstood him, if he promised he would keep the law, but they killed him
because he broke the law, they must have misunderstood him, or lied about him.
Writers of Bible - Out of Context
When I talk about the Bible and quote various verses here and there I am often
accused of putting things out of context, to say you have lifted something out
of what it was talking about and given it a meaning. I don?t want to respond to
the accusation as such, but it doesn?t seem to occur to many people that perhaps
those who wrote portions of the Bible in the first place were guilty of the same
thing. Maybe they ? some of those writers - believed a certain thing and in
order to prove it quoted from their scriptures ? the Old Testament, the Hebrew
writings - quoted out of context to prove their point. There are examples of
that kind of thing. In Matthew 2 it said that a king wanted to kill the young
child Jesus so he with his family went to Egypt, and they stayed there until
that king died, and then they came back.
When the writer of Matthew, whoever he was, because the name Matthew won't be
found in the book of Matthew; when he described this event saying that he came
back out of Egypt, he said: ? This was to fulfil a prophecy which is written?
and then he quotes Hosea Chapter 11 ?Out of Egypt I called my Son?. So he said
because Jesus went to Egypt and then came back out of Egypt and we have this
passage in the Hebrew scriptures ?out of Egypt I called my son? Jesus must have
been the son of God. If you look and see what he was quoting, Hosea 11:1 he
quotes the second half of a complete sentence, the complete sentence reads: ?When
Israel was young I loved him and out of Egypt I called my son?. Israel the
nation was considered as the son of God. Moses was told to go to Pharaoh and say
to him: If you touch that nation of people, you touch my son; warning him,
warning Pharaoh: don?t touch that nation, calling the nation ?the son of God?.
So that this is the only thing talked about in Hosea 11:1. ?Out of Egypt I
called my son? can only refer to the nation of Israel. I mentioned this point
some months ago here in another talk, to which a young lady with us objected
that Israel is a symbolic name for Jesus. You will have a hard time finding that
anywhere in the Bible because it isn?t there. You can take an index of the Bible
and lookup the word ?Israel? everywhere the word occurs and you will find no
where in any place that you can connect the word Israel with Jesus. But never
mind - suppose it is true, read on, the second verse says ?and after that he
kept on worshipping Bal?, because this is what the Israelites were guilty of,
very often they kept falling back into Idol worshipping. So if that ?Israel?
really meant Jesus and it means that Jesus is the son of God that came out of
Egypt they must also mean that Jesus from time to time used to bow down to that
idol Bal. You have to be consistent, and follow through on what it says. So the
point is whoever wrote Matthew and Chapter 2 was trying to prove a point by
quoting something out of context, and he undid himself, because if you follow
through on it, it can not be so.
Quran Has Internal Evidences
Now I can come back to the claim the Quran makes that it has internal evidence
of its origin. There are many many ways that you can look at this. As one
example, if I single out somebody here and say: You know, I know your father -
he is going to doubt that, he has never seen me with his father. He would say,
how does he look like, is he tall short does he wear glasses? and so on, and if
I give him the right answers pretty soon he will get convinced, ?Oh yes, you did
meet him?. If you apply the same kind of thinking when you look at the Quran,
here is a book that says it came from the one who was there when the universe
began. So you should be asking that one: So tell me something that proves it.
Tell me something that shows me you must have been there when the universe was
beginning. You will find in two different Ayahs the statement that all the
creation began from a single point, and from this point it is expanding. In 1978
they gave the Noble prize to two people who proved that thats the case. It is
the big bang origin of the universe. It was determined by the large radio
receivers that they have for the telephone companies which were sensitive enough
to pick up the transmissions from satellites and it kept finding background
noise that they could not account for. Until the only explanation came to be, it
is the left over energy from that original explosion which fits in exactly as
would be predicted by the mathematical calculation of what would be this thing
if the universe began from a single point and exploded outwards. So they
confirmed that, but in 1978. Centuries before that here is the Quran saying the
heavens and the earth in the beginning they were one piece and split and says in
another Ayah : ?of the heavens we are expanding it?.
Quran Has Exact Accuracy
Let me tell you about a personal investigation, it occurred to me that there are
a number of things you can find in the Quran that give evidence to its origin ?
internal evidence. If the Quran is dictated from a perfect individual; it
originates with God, then there should not be any wasted space, it should be
very meaningful. There should be nothing that we don?t need that you can cut off,
and it should not be missing anything. And so that everything in there should
really be there for a specific purpose. And I got to thinking about the Ayah
which I mentioned before, it says, the likeness of Jesus is the likeness of Adam.
It an equation, it uses the Arabic word (mithel), it says Jesus, Adam, equal.
You go to the index of the Quran, you look up the name ISA it is in the Quran 25
times, you lookup the name Adam it is there 25 times. They are equal, through
scattered references but 25 of each. Follow that through and you will find that
in the Quran there are 8 places were an Ayah says something is like something
else, using this (Mithel), you will find in every case and take both sides of it
whatever that word is look it up in the index and it will be lets say 110 times
and lookup the other word and it will be said to be equal to the same 110. That
is quite a project of co-ordination if you try to write a book that way yourself.
So that everywhere you happened to mention that such and such is like such and
such that then you check your index, filing system, or your IBM punch cards or
whatever, to make sure that in this whole book you mentioned them both the same
number of times. But that?s what you will find in the Quran.
Quran Provides Reason
What I am talking about is built on a thing that is called in Logic: Use and
Mention of a Word. When you use a word, you are using its meaning. When you
mention a word, you are talking about the symbol without the meaning. For
example, if I say Toronto is a big city - I used the word Toronto as I meant
this place Toronto is a big city. But if I say to you Toronto has 7 letters, I
am not talking about this place Toronto, I am talking about this word - Toronto.
So, the revelation is above reasoning, but it is not above reason. That is to
say we are more apt not to find in the Quran something that is unreasonable, but
we may find something that we would have never figured out for ourselves.
Unique Word Refers to Itself in Quran
The author of this sentence said if this book came from someone besides God then
you will find in it many Ikhtalafan (inconsistencies). The word Ikhtilaf is
found many times in the Quran. But the word Ikhtalafan is only found once in the
Quran. So there are not many Ikhtilafan in the Quran, there is only one - where
the sentence is mentioned. So you see how things are put together perfectly. It
has been suggested to mankind: Find a mistake. Man could not get hold of a
mistake, and he is very clever, because this sentence could also mean: Find many
Iktilafan and so he quickly goes to the index to see if he can find many of them
and there is only one... Sorry clever person.
[end of Dr. Gary Miller and Yusuf Estes]
Bible And Quran - Originally Both From Allah
Conclusion: Both the Bible and the Quran have come to us by way of Almighty God,
then through His angel Gabriel and then to the prophets, peace be upon them.
However, when the next step comes into play (that of the human beings faithfully
transmitting it on to others and future generations) we find out that Allah has
only perserved His Last and Final Revelation for all times. And He certainly did
not need the humans to do that.
Respect For Holy Books
Muslims should respect the Bible because it does still contain some of the
original teachings of Allah. But there is no need to go to Bible classes or
purchase one to read to try to learn about what our purpose is here in this life.
The Quran makes it clear that Allah has indeed, perfected our "way of life" for
us and has conferred on us His favor and has chosen for us to submit to Him in
Islam.
We would like to suggest to the non-Muslims to consider obtaining a Quran (order
one free through our site if you like) and then investigate for themsleves what
the Quran is really all about and what it might mean to them in their lives.
Final comment from Yusuf Estes:
I would like to state that after years of studying the Bible and then learning
the Arabic language to read the Quran as it was originally recited to Muhammad,
peace be upon him, by the angel Gabriel, I have come to an amazing conclusion.
It seems to me that the Bible and the Quran are most definitely from the exact
same source and they compliment each other very nicely. In fact, it appears that
the Bible does not contradict the Quran, except in the very same places where
the Bible contradicts itself.
ON THE CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM, IN THE FIRST CRUSADE.
-
ON THE CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM, IN THE FIRST CRUSADE.
BY ALMODHAFER ALABIWERDY.
FROM our distended eyeballs flow
A mingled stream of tears and blood;
N...
