Answering Islam Email Dialogs

Topic: Making a whole Website to disprove the Islamic Religion

Received: 24 November 2004

Subject: BIBLE & QUR'AN

hello Many Muslims may become angered when reading your website, but I have not. I simply find it amusing that you have gone to the effort of making a WHOLE WEBSITE to disprove the Islamic religion. Is there some jealousy there? Your page that tries so hard to convince people that Islam is incorrect scientifically raises some interest. The Qur'an doesnt refer to seven earths it is actually referring to seven UNIVERSES, which humans still have no knowledge of. As for other skepticism about the moon and the water things, metaphors are often used in any religion or belief system to explain things more simply, or to give information to minds that are not ready to hear literal truths yet. If you lived in the 300's and someone mentioned a 'particle accelerator' to you, what would YOU think. Otherwise your 'proofs' about the inauthenticity of the Qur'an are, in my opinion, either unresearched or fabricated. One more thing. If I wanted to disprove CHRISTIANTY do you KNOW how many things I could get you with? This assault on Islam is coming from people whose own SCHOLARS admit that there are 50,000 mistakes in the Bible. I've read the quran from many ages (I had the priveledge to actually study one from the time of the ottoman empire) and the only thing that changes is the handwriting. You on this site seem to be very opposed yo our Jihad policies which allow us to defend ourself from attack. I got something to say about that. At least we aren't hypocrites who run around robbing and enlslaving the world through violence, then preaching a peaceful religion. I advise you not to continue operating this website, because maybe one day a Muslim will make a website disproving CHRISTIANITY, and woe be to you all if THAT happens cuz you have almost nothing left from the original message of Christ.

Allah yhdeekum, ...

Our answer:

Dear ...,

Hello to you as well. Thank you for your e-mail. You bring up a few interesting subjects. Firstly, with regard to your disapproval of our website, I trust that you also equally disapprove of the numerous Islamic websites that have been created with a similar purpose except with regards to Christianity? Surely you would also disapprove of men like Ahmed Deedat whose entire careers were spent belittling other faiths? Or could there be a middle ground? Is there room for inter-faith dialogue that shows respect while still expressing what we believe? That is what our purpose is here. We attempt to clarify misperceptions and defend a genuine faith in Jesus and respectfully explain why we do not believe that Islam or the Qur'an can provide a true relationship with God or forgiveness of sins. Surely you would allow us to express our beliefs freely within the marketplace of ideas just as freely as your fellow Muslims do on numerous websites all over the internet - would you not? Secondly, if you feel as though we have written anything on the site that is "unresearched or fabricated", then kindly point out such errors and we will gladly consider them.

Okay.... Now with regard to the Qur'an and the Bible. You claim that "there are 50,000 mistakes in the Bible" and yet you feel as though the Qur'an has no such problems (except for changes in handwriting styles.) Am I understanding you correctly? First, with regard to the "50,000 mistakes" in the Bible, this is a great misconception. Unfortunately it is perpetuated among many who have listened to men like Ahmed Deedat. Think of how many ancient manuscripts and manuscript portions of the Bible are preserved in museums around the world today. Tens of thousands! Scholars are able to lay these manuscripts side by side to see where the scribes have made any scribal errors. For instance, missing a letter or misspelling a word etc. After laying ten manuscripts side by side and seeing that one of them possesses a scribal error, it is easy to assess exactly what the original said. This is the type of "mistake" that Mr. Deedat attempts to pass off as if the scribal error has actually reached today's codices and into the Bibles that we read. Do you see the trickery there?

The Bible that we possess today is beyond question the single most reliable book in all the world. Nothing comes close to it. Including the Qur'an. You mention that you have had the privilege of studying from a Qur'an from the time of the Ottoman Empire. That's wonderful. You know, interestingly enough, I posses a copy of the so-called Uthmani Mushaf. There are very few copies in the world. The original is in Uzbekistan. It is said to be the oldest existing Qur'an. You know there is far more than mere handwriting differences between it and today's Qur'ans. There are places where entire words have been added or taken away. There are thousands of variances between it and any modern Qur'an as it does not contain any diacritical marks at all. If you are interested in discussing this issue further and are open to learning the truth about such issues, I would be happy to discuss further these issues with you.

Until then, I would encourage and challenge you to do at least two things.

First, I challenge you to pray to God and ask Him if Jesus is truly the Savior of the world who died on a cross as a substitutionary sacrifice for your sins. Tell God that if Jesus indeed is the Savior that He sent into the world that you will become of follower of God through Jesus, but if not, then you will continue to submit to Allah through Islam. Ask God to help you see the true path. If your heart is sincere when you pray this, then God will open your eyes and help you to discover the truth.

Secondly, I would also challenge you to read through a very good book which discusses the central message of the prophets and how you can be made righteous before God. The book outlines God's eternal plan for mankind as found in the Scriptures. It will give you much understanding. The book is free in English and Arabic for download on your computer or your can order your own copy. Here are the addresses:

Thanks again for your e-mail, ..., and God Bless You!

Lazarus

Webmaster's note: I find it interesting that this reader sees no problem in using Deedat's arguments (arguments from a man who made it his life mission to attack the Bible), but objects that we critique Islam in addition to defending the Bible! Muslims have had websites attacking Christianity long before Christians had websites critiquing Islam. That is the very reason this Answering-Islam site was founded. We can certainly provide a list of such Muslim websites. In any case, Deedat's booklet is found here: http://jamaat.net/bible/Bible4-6.html, and here are our two answers to this particular attack:

It is always dangerous to parrot someone else's arguments without checking whether or not they are actually true.

Regarding corruptions, deletions, and variants in the Qur'an, differences between old Qur'ans compared with new editions, and differences between current editions from various parts of the world, ... our section, The Text of the Qur'an, provides ample evidence for anyone who really wants to scrutinize the facts for himself.

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