Important Qur'an Doctrines that are often overlooked

The Qur'an says the Bible is the Word of God.
It was intact in Muhammad's day, and Muhammad was obliged to believe it.
Surah 4:136, 150, 151: Moslems who do not believe the Bible are apostate.


Among the many verses in the Qur'an that teach that both testaments of the Bible were in existence and uncorrupted in the time of Muhammad, and they were the Word of God that cannot be changed, are the following:

Surahs: 2, verses 40,41,44,53,63,63,78,83,85,89,91,97,101,109, 113,121,136,146,176,177,213.

3, verses 3, 7 ("The whole Book/Scripture is from our Lord"),19,20,23,64,65,70, 71,72,79,81,84,98,99,100,113,184,186,187,199.

4, verses 44,47,51,54,127, (Muhammad was obliged to follow the Bible's teachings about orphans and widows), 131,136,150-154,159,163,171.

5, verses 5,15,19,43 (Jews have their own Law in their possession), 44-48, 57,59,65,66,68,69,77,110,123.

6, verses 20,89-92 (Christians have the Gospel in their possession), 114-115 (None can change God's words), 154-157 "follow the Book (= the Bible) and be righteous".

7, verses 145,154,157,169,170; 9:29,111 Allah is bound by the Torah (Old Testament) and the Gospel (New Testament).

10, verses 37,64,94 (ask those who read the Scriptures), 95,96.

11, verses 17,110; 13:36, 16:43,44; 17:2,4,19; 19:12,41,51; 20:77,80,133.

21:7 (If you don't know, ask those who possess the Message/Reminder = Jewish Scripture, i.e. the Old Testament), 48,105.

22:17; 23:49; 25:35; 27:40,48; 28:43,52; 29:27,46 (We believe . . . in what came down to you), 47,49.

32:23,24; 33:26; 35:25,31,32; 37:117; 40:53,54; 41:45; 42:14; 45:16; 46:12,30; 48:29; 53:36; 57:16,25,29; 59:2,11; 61:6; 62:5; 87:18,19; 98:1,4,6.
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Summary: According to the Qur'an, anyone who believes the Qur'an but not the Bible is a disbeliever awaiting a shameful doom.
Let's think clearly about this: Nowhere in the Bible are Jews and Christians told to believe the Qur'an, but in multiple places in the Qur'an, some listed above, Muslims are told to believe the Bible. Don't let Muslim "apologists" tell you that the Bible has been corrupted; when they do so, they show they have not submitted themselves to what is said plainly in the Qur'an, inventing instead ingenious twistings to try to get around the clear statements of the Qur'an on the inspiraton, preservation, and continuing authority of God's Word as found in the Bible.
Problem: Anyone claiming to be a Muslim and not obeying this is condemned, by the Qur'an, to a shameful doom. Modern Muslims do not submit themselves to the Qur'an on this matter, and thus, according to the Qur'an, they are apostate and doomed for Hell.
Solution: Look to the Injil (Gospel), as the Qur'an instructs you to do, and see what Jesus says about Himself in Matthew 11:28-30 and John 8:58, 10:14-18, and 11:25-27.



Qur'anic Verses that originated in folk-lore and legend


In Surah 25:5, Muhammad's contemporaries accuse him of taking stories from others.

Legend of the Companions of the Cave, 18:18-25 (The Cave). This comes from 2 Syriac homilies of Jacob of Sirac in the late 6th century.

Legend of Alexander the Great. Surah 18, starting at v. 84. There is little doubt that "Dhul-Qarneyn" in this verse is Alexander the Great. The story is taken from an early work, "A Christian Legend Concerning Alexander." E. W. Budge translated it into English.

Satan and Adam. This legend is found in 2:30,34; 7:11-18; 15:28-44, 17:61-65; 18:50; 20:116-117, 38:71-85. It comes from "The Life of Adam and Eve," the current Latin text of which dates to AD 400, but it may have originated as early as AD 100.

Abraham is delivered from a fire started by Nimrod. Numerous passages: 2:260; 6:74-83; 19:42-49; 26:69-81; 29:15-16; 30:52-72; 43:26-27; 60:4. This is from the Jewish Midrash Rabbah from around the 5th century.

Solomon and The Queen of Sheba. 27:17-44. This is from the Jewish Targum of Esther, the exact story, of the early 7th century.

Mary pregnant with Jesus. 19:22-26. Story is found in "The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew," dated to the first quarter of the 7th century.

Jesus makes clay into a bird. 5:110. A late Christian legend.

Jesus speaking in His crib. 19:29-30. Comes from the Arabic "Gospel of the Infancy of the Saviour," 5th to 6th century.

Jesus creates birds out of dust. 3:49 and 5:109-110. Comes from the Arabic "Gospel of the Infancy of the Saviour," 5th to 6th century.

Summary: Muhammad heard these legends from Jewish and Christian sources and did not know that they were, for the most part, fairly recent fabrications. He recited them as if they were true, and they became a part of the Qur'an.



Scientific and historical blunders in the Qur'an


2:233: Children to be suckled for two years. Also 31:14 & 46:16 (30 months), 65:12.

2:249-251. Confusion of Biblical stories of Gideon and Saul.

3:33-38; 19:28; 66:12. The father of the Mary, mother of Jesus is called Imram, a name that does not appear in the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew 1 or Luke 3. But Imram/Amram was the father of Miriam, sister of Aaron and Moses. Muhammad's confusion was because Mary and Miriam are the same name in Arabic.

     Muslim apologists claim that "sister of Aaron" for Mary, mother of Jesus, is meant in some sort of spiritual sense. But the Qur'an tells us what Muhammad meant when he said "sister of Aaron." This is shown by seven verses, in six different surahs, where Aaron is called the brother of Moses--always showing the restrictive or strict sense for "brother" (19:53; 20:30; 23:45; 25:35; 26:38; 28:34,35). The first of these is in the same surah where Miriam/Mary is called the sister of Aaron (19;53,28). Muhammad's error is compounded: not only does the language he uses show that he thought Miriam, true sister of Moses and Aaron, was the same as Miriam/Mariam/Mary, mother of Jesus, but he further demonstrates his misunderstanding by calling Mary, mother of Jesus, the daughter of Imram/Amram, who was the father of Moses, Aaron, and their sister Miriam (Numbers 26:59).

3:41. The Qur'an says that Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, was dumb for 3 days because he did not believe the angel. The Word of God shows it was for 9 months (Luke 1:18-20, 23, 57-64).

4:157 and 5:110 say the Jews did not kill Jesus, contradicting the Word of God in the Gospels (which Muhammad was commanded by Allah to believe). This has led to the modern Muslim myth that Jesus did not really die, but was taken up to heaven and someone else died on His cross. Muhammad, however, changed his story and contradicted himself, because in 19:33, which a jinn gave to Muhammad at a chronologically earlier time, Muhammad recorded that Jesus died. This is consistent with the Injil (Gospel) that Muhammad was commanded to accept and which Allah said had never been corrupted (Surah 4:136, 5:68, 10:64, 29:46, 6:114-115, etc.)

18:86. The sun sets each day in a pool of murky water. Shabir Ali does a ridiculous job trying to explain this to David Wood.

24:36; 28:6,8; 38:29; 39:40. Haman, enemy of Israel in time of Esther (5th century BC), is placed in time of Moses (15th century BC).

28:88. Paradise and all believers will ultimately perish. Is this what Muslims are looking forward to? Christians have a better hope: eternal life with the One who died so that, by accepting His death as payment for their sins, they will live with Him forever.

96:2. People are created out of congealed blood. Science has shown that the human embryo is never congealed blood.

Comments: Despite these obvious errors, Moslem apologists have been making many claims lately about other texts that show the "scientific accuracy" of the Qur'an, claiming that this "accuracy" shows that it is divinely inspired. Click here for a discussion of whether these claims make any sense.



Allah gave the Holy Land to the Jews


4:54. "But We had already given the people of Abraham the Book [the Torah, OT] and Wisdom and conferred upon the a great kingdom." The Holy Land--the land of Israel--is the only place Israel ever had a kingdom.

5:20, 21. "Remember Moses said to his people . . . 'O my people1 Enter the Holy Land which Allah hath assigned unto you . . .'"

7:137. "And we made a people, considered weak (and of no account), inheritors of lands in both East and West . . . The fair promise of thy Lord was fulfilled for the Children of Israel." What lands did Israel ever possess except the land they are in now, Israel?

10:93. "We settled the Children of Israel in a beautiful dwelling-place . . ."

17:104. "And We said thereafter to the Children of Israel, 'Dwell securely in the land (of promise).'" Israel is the land promised to the people of Israel, not to anyone else. In Genesis 13:14-17, God promised the Holy Land to Abraham and Abraham's offspring forever. This oath of God was confirmed to Isaac, not to Ishmael or anyone else, in Genesis 26:2-5. In these verses, God, speaking to Isaac, says, "For to you [Isaac] and your descendants I will give all these lands, and through your offspring [Jesus, not Muhammad] all nations of the earth will be blessed." This is in the Torah that the Qur'an required Muhammad and all Muslims to accept and believe.

Comments: The Qur'an agrees with the Bible: God gave the Holy Land to the descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob and to no one else. Modern people who call themselves "Muslims" set themselves against God by trying to wrest the Holy Land from Israel. They are therefore apostate from true Islam, which is defined as "submission" to the Qur'an and Muhammad in 4:65 and also in 33:36: "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."
   Surah 2:85: "Then is it only a part of the Book (=the Old Testament, as is made clear in the context) that ye believe in, and do ye reject the rest? But what is the reward for those among you who behave like this, but disgrace in this life? -- and on the Day of Judgment they shall be consigned to the most grievous penalty. For Allah is not unmindful of what ye do."

   Allah and Muhammad accepted that the Holy Land was given to the Jewish nation. According to the Qur'an, any Muslim who does not submit fully to what Allah and Muhammad say is on the path to Hell, no matter what his or her leaders, who continually contradict the plain sense of the Qur'an, tell them. Have you had enough of this bondage? Jesus (the real, living Jesus that we know and who is revealed in the Holy Bible, not the not the watered-down "Isa" of the Qur'an) promises freedom to those who trust in Him and believe what He says. See John 8:34-36.
   Genuine Christians seek to bless the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because, in his Holy Word, God promises blessing to those who bless their descendants: Genesis 12:1-3 (original promise to Abraham), 27:29 (Isaac passes the Abrahamic blessing on to Jacob, not Ishmael or Esau).



Male chauvinism. Women are designated as inferior in the Qur'an.


4:3: If a man can marry 4 wives, why can't a woman marry 4 husbands?

4:24 Muslim men can marry women they capture even if the women currently have a husband.

4:34: Muhammad sets forth what Muslim men should do if they suspect disloyalty from one of their wives: "And for those whose insubordination ye fear, admonish, and forsake the bed for them, and hit them." No proof is required; suspicion is sufficient. Men should warn their wife, then deny her conjugal rights (the bed), and then beat her. The last Arabic verb here is quite a strong one. The translations of Dahood, Arberry, and Rodwell render it as "beat," and Pickthall's translation is "scourge them." The same word is used in Surah 47:27, of angels severely beating apostates on their faces and backs.

24:33: Raping of slave girls, or forcing them into prostitution, is OK in Muhammad's religion and forgiven by Allah.

33:50-52; 44:54, 52:20, and 55:56. Men rewarded with sex partners in paradise, not so for women.

55:56, 65:1; Men can divorce their wives, but not vice versa.

2:282; The testimony of a woman is worth 1/2 the testimony of a man. Muhammad is reported to have said (Sahih al-Bukhari 26:58) "This is because of the deficiency of women's mind."

Comments: Contrast the attitude of Muhammad and the Qur'an with Christian principles regarding women. In the Injil (Gospel), Ephesians 5:25: "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it." Colossians 3:19: "Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them."
   But, it could be objected, in the Torah many of God's people, including Abraham, had more than one wife, so there's nothing wrong with Moslem practice in this matter. However, notice the improvement in this matter in God's final revelation, the Injil. First, Jesus re-emphasized the original plan of one man/one woman, when in Mark 10:9, he recited God's plan for mankind as given in Genesis 2:24: "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."
   There was much polygamy in the world in the time of Jesus and the apostles, just as there is much polygamy today in Moslem lands and in lands where idolatry is practiced. It is in lands that have had a Christian background that the liberation of women from the degradation of polygamy has been accomplished. How did this come about?
   God, in His wisdom, did not decree in the Gospel that all polygamy must immediately cease. Had he done so, it would have caused insufferable harm to the women who would have been deprived of all means of support when divorced from their husbands. Instead, God instructed the apostle Paul to make it a rule that church leaders could only have one wife (Titus 1:6). In the course of time, this would lead, in those lands that accepted the teachings of Christ, to the elimination of the unjust practice of polygamy in a way that did not cause sudden and undue hardship for polygamous families that accepted the Gospel. These families could enjoy all the benefits of Christian fellowship and teaching, with the one exception of being leaders in the church that others would look up to as the best examples of family living.
   How regrettable that there are places in the world where women still suffer under the degrading practice of polygamy.



Muhammad was a sinner


33:37. Muhammad lusts after the wife of his adopted son and marries her.

33:50-52. Muhammad can marry as many wives as he wants. Earlier, he was told he could only marry four (4:3).

9:43; Allah has to forgive Muhammad (see Pickthall's translation).

33:37; Muhammad feared the people instead of Allah.

47:19; Muhammad is instructed to ask forgiveness for his sin.

48:2; Allah has to forgive Muhammad of his sins, both past and future.

   Also, it is plain to anyone with any sense that the taking of a wife (Aisha) when she was only nine years old, and the lust for a son-in-law's wife (who obliged by divorcing her so that M. could "marry" her) are not the actions of a virtuous person, or even of a normal person that might be considered half-way decent and respectable. Is it any wonder that women are not treated fairly in Islam?

Summary: Should you trust the words of a man who might covet your wife and then justify himself by saying it was the will of Allah that he take her? Or should you trust instead the only sinless One who has ever lived, according to both the Bible (1 John 3:5) and the Qur'an (19:19)? The sinless, perfect life of Jesus has made him the fitting holy sacrifice for your sins and mine.



Cruelty Promoted in the Qur'an


2:193, 217, 244; 4:24,25,34 (hit, smite any of your wives you suspect of disobedience), 89.

5:33. For those who fight Allah and his messenger--this would include any of us who warn about and are appalled by the cruelty of Muhammad and his religion--the Qur'an commands Moslems to: (1) execute, (2) crucify, or (3) cut off hands and feet from opposite sides.

5:38. Cut off the hands of a thief.

7:74,76,89,104; 8:39; 9:29 (fight the People of the Book--Jews and Christians--until they are subdued and pay jizyah), 41,123

23:6, 24:33. Allah will forgive you if you rape your slave girls.

65:4. Marriage, and divorce, is allowed to Muslim men with pre-pubescent girls. An example of this is Muhammad's marriage to Aisha when Aisha was only nine years old. That 65:4 implies that the men had sex with these pre-pubescent girls is shown by comparison with 33:49. That verse says that the 'Iddah (divorce waiting period) does not apply when the man had no sex with his "wife," but the I'ddah applies to the pre-pubescent girls in 65:4. This means that it is expected that Muslim men had sex with these pre-pubescent little girls. Child abuse, as practiced by Muhammad, is therefore accepted in the Qur'an.

98:6. Christians, Jews, and others who do not accepts Muhammad's religion are "the worst of creatures." The plain implication from this verse is that followers of Muhammad are justified in treating non-Moslems like they would a poisonous snake. Their god says in this verse that he approves mutilating or killing anyone simply because they have a different religion.

Comments: If these verses from the Qur'an make you uncomfortable, do not resist that feeling. It is the Spirit of God appealing to your conscience. The conscience is that part of your spirit that speaks to you when you do something you know is wrong, or when you see someone else promoting what is wrong. The ultimate purpose of your conscience is to teach you about God's moral law, and that you have fallen short of that perfect law.
    The worst thing you can do is to try to suppress what your conscience is telling you: that there is something wrong with a book that promotes what is shown just above, or with someone who claimed to speak for God but who did the things shown in the section above the present one. Suppressing what your conscience is telling you is called "hardening the heart" in the Bible.
    The best thing you can do is to meditate on what your conscience is speaking to you about. If you do this, you will eventually find that you yourself have turned away from what God designed you to be, and you are in need of someone who is absolutely pure to accept you and help you. There is only one person in history who is absolutely pure, the Lord Jesus. He took our sins upon Himself and died as the perfect sacrifice for those sins. Will you accept that sacrifice?