By Albert Afeso Akanbi
If you miss any of the first 3 series in this debate, please read them using the links below
In the last four weeks, we have looked at the divine authorship claims of both the Holy Bible and the Koran. In conclusion, we shall be asking the Muslim apologists a few questions which we humbly hope they would honestly oblige us.
Surah 7:158 described Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) as “al-nabi al-ummi” i.e “the unlearned prophet”. Muslims are generally unashamed to say their prophet was an illiterate because it would imply that as an unlearned man, he had no hand in the formulation of the Koran, thereby giving it divine legitimacy.
The record however tells us that even if the prophet was acclaimed to be an illiterate, he was an astute businessman, so trusted that his first wife Khadija employed his services in her businesses. It is almost certain that a man like that would have relied heavily on the use of his mind, and as a well-travelled trader, he would have seen countless religious monuments across his routes and heard many religious stories as well.
Experts say that there were stories in circulation in Arabia, especially those told by pagan Arabians and heretic Byzantine Christians who fled the persecutions of Europe at that time, which we have seen from evidence that found their way into the Koran.
For example, in Surah 54:50 we read that the universe was created in a twinkling of an eye, in 41: 9 we read that it was created in two days, then in verse 10 and 12 we read that the ‘seven heavens’ were created in two days. It appears that after these assertions, the author of the Koran came across the Biblical story of creation and that is why in Surah 10:3 and 32:4 we read that creation happened in 6 days.
It appears that after all these stories; the compliers of the Koran bonded all these different accounts of creation together, leaving us with all these varying stories and leaving the apologists of today the task of trying to make sense of its all.
Surah 32:5, tells us a day to Allah is ‘a thousand years of your reckoning’. Then few Surahs later, in chapter 70:4 we are told that a day to Allah is 50,000 years!
Regarding Jesus Christ, Surah 3:55 say ‘surely, I will… raise thee to myself…’ That was Allah speaking of Isa -Jesus. Confirming this, Surah 19:33 says ‘…the peace of God… shall be upon me on the day that I would die, and on the day I will be raised from the dead’ that was Jesus speaking of his own death in a manner that did not suggest he was speaking of coming to die in some far distant future as some apologists want us to believe today.
Despite this glaring and self-explanatory statements, Surah 4:157-158 tells us that Jesus did not die but that ‘…it only seemeth so in their eyes…’, i.e the Jews that killed him. Confused, some Muslims have tried to explain that Jesus would indeed come back in some distant future to taste death, but do the above words of the Koranic Jesus appear like one speaking about some future death? If so, why can’t we just get a clear verse that say so?
Everyone who crossed paths with Jesus Christ, friends and foes alike, all acknowledged his Sonship to God. And this fact is clearly recorded in all known history. However, over 600 after Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) appeared and exclaimed “…how can Allah have a son when he has no wife…?” In other words, the Koran is telling us that the only way to have a son is through a wife! Yet, the same Koran tells us when Mary raised the same objection by asking how she could bear a child when no man had touched her; the Angel Gabriel said nothing was impossible for Allah to do. Yet the Prophet of Islam is telling us that what the same Koran says was possible with God was not anymore.
Here, Christians say, lays the Islamic dilemma. They say the Muslims clearly do not understand, like their misunderstanding of other Christian doctrines, the concept of the Sonship of Jesus Christ to God.
Surah 19:30 tells us Jesus preached Islam even as an infant, and we are told that Jesus preached the same message as prophet Mohammad (PBUH). Yet, from records, we know that the lives of both figures are irreconcilable opposites.
From one being a celibate to the other marrying more women than is permitted in his own religion, from one never lifting a sword to the other taking part in several wars-whether they were defensive wars or not, killing is killing, and so on, we see traits that put the two figures apart. How could they have preached the same message?
The Koran tells us Jesus Christ was an unsuccessful Islamic prophet, the question is, how could Allah who promised to protect Jesus’ message, protect him and his followers till the day of judgment allow his message to be corrupted? Even if it were true, why did Allah have to wait over 600 years to correct this corruption by revealing the Koran?
We are told that it was Allah that made it appear Jesus was crucified when in truth he had substituted a strange man for Jesus to be killed, and Surah 61: 14 tells us it was him who helped those who believe, question is, why kill an innocent man in the place of Jesus, and if it was Allah that made it appear to the Jews that they killed Jesus, why blame his disciples and Christians for believing so, and could he not be accused of being behind the distortion and by extension the so called corruption of the Bible?
If as we have seen, the Koran says the Holy Bible was given as guidance to mankind, that Jesus was born of a virgin, that he is the Spirit and Word of God, the messiah and so on, and yet we are told by the same Koran that his message was corrupted, of what importance then is all the uniqueness of the Koranic Jesus if Allah knew he would turn out an unsuccessful preacher of Islam in the end?
Christian clerics say there is deliberate denial of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ because of its implication to the Islamic theology. And this is the crux of the matter, because the Holy Bible itself says “…this is the anti-Christ, he who denies the Father and the Son…” 1 John 2:22.
Could Jesus have died without the crucifixion as was foretold? Jesus himself told us countless times in the Holy Bible that he came solely to die for the sins of man. Yet, even though the Koran denies this, from Islamists like late Ahmed Deedat to the Ahmadiya Muslims of India, we have seen various interpretations of what happened to Jesus on that first Easter night in Palestine some 2000+ years ago.
From overwhelming evidence, we know the story about Jesus not dying on the cross was borrowed from the Gospel of Barnabas written by one strange figure just immediately after the first century, a man who many experts believe to be a former Roman Catholic turns Muslim. As I pointed out in Part II, Muslims love his work so much that many Islamic authorities have had countless copies printed, especially in Pakistan.
Another reason Muslims deny the death of Christ according to some apologists is because they think it is a tragedy and an indictment on God to allow his prophet to die at the hand of sinners. Yet as I pointed out in one of my articles, the cross is not a tragedy. It is not an ending. It is not a symbol of death. It is victory; it is a beginning and symbol of the newness of life for the Christians and for all who believe. Jesus went to it willingly, knowing the implication for himself and mankind.
In any case, we are told that many of God’s messengers were ridiculed while many more were put to death, so why believe a prophet of God cannot get killed?
Then Surah 4:48 tells us that the sin of shirk, i.e worshiping any other god but Allah, is an unforgivable sin. Yet Surah 39:53 tells us that Allah forgives all sins. Does all sins include shirk? In fact, we are told that Abraham committed the sin of shirk, yet apologists say the father of Islam is Abraham, why so?
Surah 17:86 and 16:101 tells us respectively that Allah’s words can be nullified according to the Islamic Doctrine of Abrogation, even though we are told elsewhere in the same Koran that his words can never be changed.
We are told that Muslims, Christians and Jews are all worshipers of one and the same God and so will all be together in paradise , but in 3:85 we read that ‘…whoso desireth other than Islam as a religion…shall be …lost…’
Today, apologists tell us that Adam was the first Muslim even though Surah 6:14 and 163 tells us categorically that Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) was the very first to surrender to Allah and thus became the first Muslim.
Finally, on the most important question about the fate of man, Surah 8:29 tells us Allah will appoint man a criterion to judge between right and wrong even though the same Koran tells us man has no choice in the matter as Allah will decide what he wills. While Surah 7:8-9 tells us that going to heaven is determined by weighing a man’s deed on a scale, we read in other verses that Allah forgives whoever he wills and that one’s going to Paradise is purely on Allah’s decision.
Koran categorically and emphatically forbids worshiping objects as an ‘abomination’ and ‘Satan’s handiwork’ but we see what today’s Muslims do with the Kaaba, Mecca, where they travel miles, across the Atlantic, bow facing it in prayers and kissing the stone which historically was an object of pagan worship in pre-Islamic Arabia before Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) was born. I can go on and on.
And yet the apologists want us to believe the book was dictated from a Mother Book that has existed eternally in heaven? I rest my case…
Editors note:
This is the final part of this debate.
Thanks to all of you who participated and contributed with wisdom.
Threats geared towards other commentators or the writer will be removed.
You are free to express your opinion without threatening others. Thank you as you do.
About the author: Albert Afeso Akanbi is a Novelist, Researcher, Columnist and Humanitarian. He lives in Abuja, FCT, Nigeria.
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