carried as we now have it has been corrupted (muharraf) 1, the
following is the style of argument which has been found most effective.
Christian. When was the Bible corrupted? before Muhammad's time, or after
it?
3. Muslim. Before it.
C. You cannot really mean that, for you are a Muslim, and to assert that the Bible
was corrupted before Muhammad's time is to accuse Muhammad of being a false
teacher, and to state that the Qur'an is untrue and a forgery, which is just what the
idolatrous Arabs in Muhammad's time did.
4. M. How so?
C. Because the Qur'an, which Muhammad claimed to have received from God through the
archangel Gabriel, asserts the authority and genuineness of the Bible which was then in
circulation among the Jews and Christians, and declares that the Qur'an itself was sent
down as being "confirmatory of previous Scripture, and its safeguard 2"
(Surah 3 V., Al Maidah, 52). Now, if the Bible had