52
true. First the erroneous claim:
046.002
“And before it the Book of Musa was a guide:
and this [Qur’an] is a Book verifying (it) in the Arabic language.”
039.027
“We have coined for
man in this Qur’an every kind of parable in order that they may receive admonition. (It is)
a Qur’an in Arabic, without any crookedness (therein).”
041.003
“A Scripture Book, whereof
the verses are explained in detail; a Qur’an in Arabic, for people who have knowledge.”
Then...
041.044
“Had We sent this as a Qur’an (in the language) other than Arabic, they
would have said: ‘Why are not its verses explained in detail? What! (a foreign tongue, a
Book) not in Arabic and (a Messenger) an Arab?’ Say (to them, Muhammad): ‘It is a Guide
to those who believe; and for those who do not believe it, there is a deafness in their ears,
and a blindness in their (eyes)!’” While the purpose of these Qur’an quotes was to
confirm Allah’s Arabic claims, consider the number of words the translators
had to add inside the parenthesis for Allah’s message to make any sense.
The Qur’an’s Arabic assertion is not true. There are many foreign words
or phrases which are employed in the Qur’an. Arthur Jeffrey, in his book For-
eign Vocabulary of the Qur’an devoted 300 pages to this study. One must wonder
why so many foreign words were borrowed, as they refute the Arabic claim
and put doubt on whether “Allah’s language” was sufficient to explain what
Muhammad intended. According to Alphonse Mingana in his Syriac Influence
on the Style of the Qur’an, almost all of the religious terms found in Allah’s
book were derived from Christian Syriac. These include the words Muham-
mad used for: priest, Christ, judgment, scribes, parable, salvation, infidel, sac-
rifice, resurrection, heaven, garden, angel, holy spirit, soul, sign, verse, proof,
God, prayer, fast, sin, pagan, hanif, Muslim, idolatry, Qur’an, faith, creation,
grace, and even the zakat tax. The proper names of Biblical personages found
in the Qur’an are used in their Syriac form rather than Hebrew or Arabic.
These include: Solomon, Pharaoh, Isaac, Ishmael, Israel, Jacob, Noah,
Zachariah, Mary, John, Jonah, and Isa for Yahshua. The words for demons,
the path, disciple, and Muhammad’s first “god,” Ar-Rahman are Persian.
Rahman is a derivative of the Persian name for the Devil.
Adam and Eden are Akkadian words from Mesopotamia. A more correct
term for “Adam” in Arabic would be basharan or insan, meaning “mankind.”
“Eden” should have been janna in Arabic, which means “garden.” Yet the
foreign words were repeated over twenty times. Abraham, sometimes recorded
as Ibrahim, comes from the Assyrian language. The correct Arabic equivalent
is Abu Raheem.
Harut and Marut are Persian names for angels. The Persian “sirat” mean-
ing “the path” was repeated thirty times yet it has an Arabic equivalent, alta-
reeq, which was not used. The Persian “hoor” meaning “disciple” has the
Arabic equivalent, tilmeeth. Guess which one Allah selected?
The Persian word “Jinn” meaning “demon” is used consistently through-
out the Qur’an. Entire surahs are dedicated to Satan’s allies. Yet there is an
Arabic equivalent, Ruh. Going the other way, Islam’s decadent heaven is
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PROP HE T OF DO OM
46
called by the Persian word “firdaus” meaning “the highest or seventh heaven”
rather than the Arabic equivalent, jannah.
Some of the Hebrew words are: heber, Sakinah for Yahweh’s presence,
maoon, taurat, jehannim, and tufan, which means deluge. The Greek word
“Injil,” which means “gospel” was borrowed, even though there is an Arabic
equivalent, bisharah. Iblis, the Qur’anic name for Lucifer or Satan, is not Ara-
bic. It is a corruption of the Greek word Diabolos. Muhammad said that
believing in the “Day of Resurrection” was a third of his message, yet he
chose a Christian Syriac derivative of an Aramaic word, Qiyama, for resur-
rection rather than the Arabic one.
The Qur’an is fixated on stripping the Messiah of his divinity and of the
sacrifice he made to save mankind. You’d think that Allah would at least get
his name right. But Christ’s Qur’anic name, “Isa,” is erroneously applied. Isa
is the Arabic equivalent of Esau, the name for the twin brother of Jacob. The
correct Arabic name for Yahshua would be Yesuwa, yet the “all-knowing”
Allah doesn’t mention it. And this mistake is unlike the erroneous transla-
tions of the Bible. God got his name right in Hebrew; the English translators
erred. Even Arabic speaking Christians in the Middle East use the name
Yesuwa for “Jesus.” Only Muslims use Isa.
By way of recap, we’ve learned that the Qur’an wasn’t, as Allah claims, a
book memorialized on heavenly tablets, but instead was comprised of an
evolving text. The oldest Qur’ans differ from one another and from today’s
version. We discovered that the original written copies were devoid of dia-
critical points, so most words were chosen on the basis of educated guesses.
Their meanings were interpreted two centuries after the Qur’an was revealed
orally. It’s not pure Arabic as Allah claims, as there are a plethora of foreign
words. There are also missing words, wrong words, and meaningless words.
And most important of all, the leading authority of the initial script of the
Qur’an, studying the oldest fragments says: “One out of every five verses is
indecipherable—meaningless in any language.”
Moving on, let’s see if what is left is accurate historically and scientifically.
Allah’s claim, “This Qur’an must be the Word of Allah or they would have found fault in
it” is torn asunder if it contains obvious errors of fact.
A number of online websites were kind enough to chronicle a plethora of
errors, so I have elected to present some of their findings. Let’s start with the
historical blunders. The Qur’an claims that the Samaritans enticed Israel to
make a golden calf when Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments on Mt.
Sinai. Yet the term “Samaritan” hadn’t been coined when the events depicted
in Exodus unfolded. The Samaritan people could not have existed during the
life of Moses as they didn’t become a nation until 800 years later. The city of
Samaria was founded by King Omri in 875
B.C.
and the Samaritans became
a “people” just after the tribes of Israel were dispersed by the Assyrians in the
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IS LAM ’S DARK PAS T
54
seventh century
B.C.
Thus Qur’an 20:85-7, and 95-7 are erroneous.
In surahs 7:124 and 26:49 we find Pharaoh admonishing his sorcerers
because they believed in the superiority of Moses’ power over them. Pharaoh
threatens his magicians with cutting off their hands and feet on opposite sides
(Qur’an 5:33), and then says they will all die on the cross by crucifixion. But
there were no crosses in those days. Crucifixion was first practiced by the
Assyrians in 519
B.C.
under the rule of Darius I. Encyclopedia Britannica
reports: “Crucifixion did not exist any earlier than about 500
B.C.
”Muslim
scholar, Malik Farid, in his translation of the Qur’an, says in footnote 1033,
“Incidentally, the verse shows that even as early as in the time of Moses the punishment
of death by crucifixion was in vogue” Rather than admit the Qur’an contained a
historical blunder, a Muslim rewrote history to bail his god out.
Another interesting historical glitch occurs when Allah erroneously calls
Mary the sister of Aaron in surah 19:28, and the daughter of Imran (the Bib-
lical Amran) in 66:12. While Miriam and Mary are the same name, the first
Miriam, the sister of Aaron and the daughter of Amran, died 1500 years
before Mary, the mother of Yahshua, was born. (18:28; 66:12; 20:25-30)
Hearing Muslims explain away the spectacular coincidence that both Mary
and Miriam had a brother named Aaron and a father named Amram sounds
identical to the way Catholics perform etymological gymnastics to explain
away the fourteen Bible passages that clearly state Mary had other children.
Another difficult passage concerns Haman. In the Qur’an he is a servant
of Pharaoh and built a high tower to ascend up to the God of Moses (surah
28:38; 29:38; 40:25,38). Yet the Babel tower dates 750 years earlier and is
Babylonian, not Egyptian. The name Haman is brought to us by Esther. She
writes about what became Persia 1,100 years after Pharaoh. While Muslim
apologists say it is simply another Haman, the name is not Egyptian, but
uniquely Babylonian.
Surah 17:1 claims Muhammad went to the “farthest mosque” during his
Night’s Journey. Consistent with the Hadith, Muslims believe this was the
either the Jewish Temple or the Dome of the Rock, in Jerusalem. But neither
existed in 620
A.D.
The last Temple was destroyed in 70
A.D.,
and the Dome
of the Rock was not built until 691, 59 years after Muhammad’s death! There
are a host of other chronological breakdowns. One of my favorites is Allah’s
insistence that Nimrod was a contemporary of Abraham.
This ignorance of history and earlier Scripture speaks of a certain isola-
tionism, which one would expect if the stories had been transmitted orally in
an environment distant from that in which they originated. Although Mus-
lims attempt to talk their way out of Mary being called a brother of Aaron,
the misplaced and mistimed tower of Babel, and Samaritans at the time of
Moses, they just throw in the towel without a fight and proclaim world his-
tory wrong when it comes to crucifixion.
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44
As impossible as it is to reconcile these Qur’anic mumblings with the
historical record, the “setting place of the sun” and the tales of Alexander the
Great are more challenging still. Surah 18:86 states, “Until, when he reached the
setting of the sun, he found it set in a spring of murky water: Near it he found a people: We
said: O Dhu al Qarnayn…” The sun does not set in a muddy spring. There are no
extraterrestrials living where the sun goes to bed, and no human—and that
would include Alexander the Great—has ever visited with such creatures.
In the continuing story of the Islamicized version of the Greek conqueror,
we learn that Alexander’s power was given to him by Allah. Muslims con-
tend, as the Hadith confirms, that he was an Islamic prophet. He was even
credited with building an enormous wall of iron and brass between two
mountains, which was tall enough and wide enough to keep an entire army
at bay. Muhammad claimed that a hole was cut in the wall during his lifetime.
Yet it is simple to test these claims because Alexander lived in the full light of
history. We know that he was a great general whose debauchery and drunk-
enness contributed to his untimely death. He was an idolater, actually claiming
to be the son of the Egyptian god Amun. The temple drawing depicting
Alexander worshiping the sun god Amun is still present in Egypt. To say that
he was an Islamic prophet, and that Allah was the agent for his power, is his-
torically inaccurate. And why is there is no evidence anywhere that Alexan-
der built a wall of iron and brass between two mountains, a feat which would
have proven him to be one of the greatest builders and engineers in history?
It’s one thing that the Qur’an has no prophecies—predictions of things that
are to come—but it can’t even get the past right.
Moving from history to science, surahs 16:15; 21:31; 31:10; 78:6; 88:19
tell us that Allah threw down mountains like tent pegs to keep the earth from
shaking. For illiterate men this would sound logical, since mountains are
large and therefore, their weight would seemingly have a stabilizing effect. Yet
the opposite is true. Mountains were built up, not thrown down. Rather than
create stability they are the result of instability. Colliding tectonic plates push
up the earth’s surface forming all non-volcanic mountains.
Surah 16:66 says that cow’s milk comes from between the excrement and
the blood of the cow’s abdomen. That doesn’t make sense, and it isn’t true. In
surah 16:69 we’re told that honey comes out of a bee’s abdomen. That’s not
true either. Then, surah 6:38 claims all animals and flying beings form com-
munities like humans. While some do, most don’t. Take for example spiders,
where in some species the female eats the male after mating. That’s not
exactly a community like ours. Qur’an 25:45 maintains that the sun moves to
create shadows. In other surahs it is shown orbiting and swimming. Even the
moon was said to be effaced and racing the sun.
Other statements make no sense at all. Surah 4:59 states, “Greater surely than
the creation of man is the creation of the heavens and the earth; but most men know it
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48
not.” This implies that greatness is only measured by size. Yet we have learned
that the complexity of life is much greater than the simplicity of all stars and
dirt combined. Surah 65:12 reads, “It is Allah who has created seven heavens and as
many earths.” Where might we find the other six earths? If these refer to the
planets in our solar system, then they are short by two or three depending
upon how one looks at Pluto.
Meteors, and even stars are said to be missiles fired at eavesdropping
Satans and Jinn who seek to listen to the reading of the Qur’an in Heaven
(15:16-8; 37:6-10; 55:33-5; 67:5; 72:6-9 & 86:2-3). Are we to believe that Allah
throws meteors (which are made up of carbon dioxide or iron-nickel) at non-
material devils who listen to heavenly council? Are we to believe that there is
a Jinn convention each time there’s a meteor shower? I don’t think so.
Adlibbing on the Bible, Allah stammers. He claims king Solomon was
taught the speech of birds and the language of ants (27:16-9). In addition to
birds and ants, Jinn were forced to work for Solomon, making him whatever
he pleased, such as palaces, statues, large dishes, and brass fountains (34:11-3).
A malignant jinn was even commissioned to bring the Queen of Sheba’s
throne in the twinkling of an eye (27:38-44).
Following Solomon’s lead,in the 105
th
surah, Allah claims to have used birds
to drop clay pebbles on Abraha’s army. But according to the historical record,
his troops withdrew after smallpox broke out, not because they were dirty.
Qur’an 18:9-25 tells the story of “some youths and a dog who sleep for 309 years
with their eyes open and their ears closed” which is a cleaver trick in itself. The object
was to show Allah’s ability to keep people and dogs without food or water for
as long as he likes. In actuality the whole story was pilfered from a 6
th
century
Syriac Christian manuscript: The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.
In surahs 2:65-6 and 7:163-7, Allah turns people who break the Sabbath
into apes for their disobedience. Darwin must have been confused because he
had it the other way around.
In Qur’an 11:81 and 15:74 the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are turned
upside-down with angelic wings. There are as many errors in the accounting
as there are sentences. We know this because these cities have been unearthed.
The Bible’s account is accurate. The Qur’an’s is not.
Moving on to theological errors, Qur’an 5:116 represents Christians as
worshipping Mary as the third member of the Trinity. The Qur’an says: “Allah
will say, O Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to the people, Make me and my mother idols
beside Allah?” It was not until the seventeenth century—a thousand years after
the Qur’anic revelation—that Alphonsus Liguori, (1696-1787) wrote his
book, The Glories of Mary, in which he hoodwinked Catholics into promoting
Mary to her present-day status. Interestingly, an insignificant and heretical
sect called the Cholloridians held this view, and lived in the Middle East at
the time of the Qur’an’s compilation in the eighth century. While this might
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PROP HE T OF DO OM
Documents you may be interested
Documents you may be interested
