I proceed from where I previously left off: The Quran’s Manifold Blunders Pt. 1.

FABLES AND INCONSISTENCIES

Inconsistencies

Throughout the Quran and Hadith we find fables reported as actual historical events and allegations brought up against prophets that would seem unbefitting to their characters. The latter part is interesting due to the fact that Muslims constantly attack the Bible for portraying prophets in a bad light. Muslims are often offended to read stories which attribute horrible sins to prophets (i.e., David’s act of adultery, Lot committing incest etc.), while failing to mention the fact that both the Quran and Hadiths do likewise. A brief listing of some of the Prophets and their sins will be presented:

Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve were the first sinners, disobeying God by eating from the forbidden tree which caused them to be expelled from Paradise (S. 2:35-36; 7:19-25).

In spite of this, Adam and Eve were also the first to associate equals with God, making them associators (mushrikun), a sin utterly detestable to God:

“It was He who created you from a single being. From that being He created his mate, so that he might find comfort in her. And when he had lain with her, she conceived, and for a time her burden was light. She carried it with ease, but when it grew heavy, they both cried to God their Lord: ‘Grant us a goodly child and we will be truly thankful.’ Yet when He had granted them a goodly child, they set up other gods besides Him in return for what he gave them. Exalted be God above their idols!” S. 7:189-90 N. J. Dawood

According to Islamic expositors these verses are referring to the time when Adam and Eve listened to Satan’s interjections who, appearing in the form of a man, deceived the two into naming their first son Abd al-Harth, “the slave of Al- Harth,” Satan’s angelic name. After losing their first three sons, named Abdallah, Ubaidallah and Abd al-Rahman, they decided to name their fourth son Abd al-Harth, who lived. Thus, they succumbed to Satan’s wishes, disobeying the command of the true God to stay away from him (1: pt. 5, pp. 130-31; citing Ibn Abbas and Al-Tabari).

Abraham

The Quran and Hadiths accuse Abraham of being an idolater, deceiver and having doubts regarding God’s ability to raise the dead:

“So also did we show Abraham the power and the laws of the heavens and the earth, that he might (with understanding) have certitude. When the night covered him over, he saw a star: He said, ‘This is my Lord.’  But when it set, He said: ‘ I love not those that set.’ When he saw the moon rising in splendour, he said,’ Is this my Lord?’ But when it set, he said: ‘Unless my Lord guide me, I shall surely be among those who go astray.’ When he saw the sun rising in splendour, he said, ‘This is my Lord; this is the greatest (of all).’ But when the sun set, he said ‘O my people! I am indeed free from your (guilt) of giving partners to God.’” S. 6:75-78

(Note: To avoid charging Abraham with shirk (the association of partners with God which in Islam is unforgiveable [cf. Q. 2:22; 4:48, 116; 6:83-88; 39:65]), Muslims state that this occurred prior to Abraham’s knowledge of the true God. This explanation is refuted by these same passages since the last verse records Abraham’s statement that he will not associate partners with God anymore, thereby presupposing Abraham’s prior knowledge of the true God.)

“Behold! Abraham said: ‘My Lord! show me how thou givest life to the dead.’ He said, ‘Dost thou not then believe?’ He said ‘Yea! but to satisfy my own heart!’…” S. 2:260

It is for this reason that Muhammad would say:

“We are more liable to be in doubt than Ibrahim (Abraham) when he said, ‘My Lord! show me how you give life to the dead.’  He (Allah) said: ‘Do you not believe?’ He Ibrahim (Abraham) said: ‘Yes, (I believe) but to be stronger in faith.’” (Bukhari, Vol. 4, Number 591 https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3372)

Narrated Abu Huraira: “Ibrahim (Abraham) did not tell lies except on three occasions. Twice for the sake of Allah when he said, ‘I am sick,’ and he said, ‘(I have not done this but) the big idol has done it.’ The (third was) that while Ibrahim (Abraham) and Sarah (his wife) were going (on a journey) they passed by (the territory of) a tyrant from amongst the tyrants.  Someone said to the tyrant,’ This man [i.e., Abraham] is accompanied by a very charming lady.’ So, he sent for Ibrahim, and asked him about Sarah saying, ‘Who is this lady? ‘ Ibrahim said, ‘She is my sister’…” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol. 4, Number 578 https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3358)

Imam Zain-ud-Din explains the nature of the first two lies:

“The idolaters invited Abraham to join them in their celebration outside the city, but he refused, claiming that he was sick. When he was left alone, he came to their idols and broke them into pieces. When the idolaters questioned him, he claimed that he had not destroyed their idols but the chief idol had, which Ibrahim left undisturbed and on whose shoulder he had put an axe to lay the accusation on it.” (2: p. 665, fn. 1)

Joseph

The Quran accuses Joseph of lusting after the wife of Potiphar (named Aziz):

“And (with passion) did she desire him, and he would have desired her, but that he saw the evidence of his Lord: thus (did We order) that We might turn away from him all evil and shameful deeds; for he was of Our servants, sincere and purified.” S. 12:24

The Holy Bible on the other hand denies the idea that Joseph had lust in his heart, rejecting the maiden’s advances by saying:

“Lo, having me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my hand; he is not greater in this house than I am; nor has kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife; how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?’” Gen. 39:8, 9

Job

Job is accused of punishing his wife with a band of grass. What makes it more astonishing is that the command to do so came from God himself:

“And finally We told him: Now take in thy hand a small bunch of grass, and strike therewith, and thou wilt not break thine oath!…” S. 38:44

The late Muslim scholar Muhammad Asad in his Quranic translation notes that,

“… according to the classic Quran–commentators, Job swore that, if God would restore him to health, he would punish her (his wife’s) blasphemy with a hundred stripes. But when he did recover, he bitterly regretted his hasty wrath, for he realized that his wife’s blasphemy had been an outcome of her love and pity for him; and thereupon he was told in a revelation that he could fulfill his vow in a symbolic manner by striking her once ‘with a bunch of grass containing a hundred blades or more.’” (3: p. 700, fn. 41)

Whether God told Job to hit his wife once or a hundred times is not the issue, but the fact that a merciful God would actually condone domestic violence is something which to the Christian is both an insult and an attack on the holiness of God, since the Bible portrays the Lord as a God who deals fairly with all his creatures, making no distinction between male or female, Jew or Greek (cf. Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11).

David

Another example of stories attributing sins to prophets is the story of David and the two litigants:

“And yet, has the story of the litigants come within thy kin…? As they came upon David, and he shrank back in fear from them, they said: ‘Fear not (we are but) two litigants.  One of us has wronged the other.. Behold, this is my brother he has ninety-nine ewes, whereas I have only one ewe and yet he said, ‘Make her over to me’, and forcibly prevailed against me in this our dispute.’

“Said David: ‘ He has certainly wronged thee by demanding that thy ewe be added to his ewes!… and suddenly David understood that We tried him: and so he asked his Sustainer to forgive him his sin, and fell down in prostration, and turned unto him in repentance; and thereupon We forgave him that sin…” S. 38:21-25

This story is very similar to the Biblical account of Nathan’s address to David where he too used an analogy of a rich man taking away the ewe of another in order to slaughter it for the rich man’s guest. This story was told to expose David’s sin who, like the rich man, had everything he could ask for and yet still took Bathsheba, the only wife of Uriah the Hittite, into his bed, impregnating her and committing adultery.

On top of this, David had Uriah killed to cover up this shame from the eyes of God and the Lord sent Nathan to rebuke David of his sin. After having his sin exposed, David cried out to Nathan and said, “‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ Nathan replied,’ The Lord has taken away your sin’” (2 Sam. 12:1-14).

The Muslims have consistently attacked this biblical passage as offensive and an insult to the prophethood and character of David, while failing to realize that the Quran itself bears witness to the truthfulness of this account.

Muhammad Asad’s footnote is noteworthy:

“The story which, according to the oldest sources at our disposal, is alluded to in verses 21-26 affects the question as to whether God’s elects, the prophets – all of whom were endowed, like David, with wisdom and sagacity in judgement – could or could not ever commit a sin. In other words, whether they, too, were originally subject to the weaknesses inherent in human nature as such or were a priori endowed with an essential purity of character which rendered each of them ‘incapable of sinning’ (masum).

“In the form in which it has been handed down from the earliest authorities (including, according to Tabari and Baghawi, companions like Abd Allah ibn Abbas and Anas ibn Malik, as well as several of the most prominent of their immediate successors), the story contradicts the doctrine – somewhat arbitrarily developed by Muslim theologians in the course of the centuries – that prophets cannot sin by virtue of their nature, and tends to show that their purity and subsequent sinlessness is a result of inner struggles and trials, and thus, represents in each case a moral achievement rather than an inborn quality.” (3: pp. 696-97, fn. 22)

In other words, there is no Quranic support for the sinlessness of the prophets since the Quran confirms, rather than denies, that the prophets were men who also succumbed to sinful passions and desires like everyone else.

Asad continues to say in regards to this Quranic narration:

“As narrated in some detail by Tabari and other early commentators, David fell in love with a beautiful woman whom he accidentally observed from his roof terrace. Upon inquiring, he was told that she was the wife of one of his officers, named Uriah. Impelled by his passion, David ordered his field-commander to place Uriah in a particularly exposed battle position, where he would be certain to be killed; and as soon as his order was fulfilled and Uriah died, David married the widow (who subsequently became the mother of Solomon). This story agrees more or less with the Old Testament, which gives the woman’s name as Bathsheba (2 Samuel xi), barring the biblical allegation that David committed adultery with her before Uriah’s death… an allegation which has always been rejected by Muslims as highly offensive and slanderous…” (Ibid., fn. 22)

Regardless of whether David killed Uriah before or after his act of adultery, this fact is certain; the earliest Quranic expositors believed that David did sleep with Bathsheba and that Uriah was murdered at the orders of David.

(It should be pointed out that according to the Bible David was already guilty of committing adultery in the eyes of God since he had lusted for her in his heart and according to Christ, Bathsheba was still married to Uriah regardless of death [cf. Mt. 5:27-28, 31-32].)

Finally, we find it interesting to state that the Quran itself bears witness that Muhammad, whom Muslims claim was perfect, was a sinner in need of forgiveness. A brief listing of verses affirms this point (S. 40:55; 47:19; 48:1-2; 80:1-11).

More Inconsistencies

Certain verses of the Quran contain statements which are inconsistent with historical places and events. For instance, the Quran mentions Abraham being thrown into fire due to his refusal to acknowledge the deities of the land and of the king. God then proceeded to cool the fire down so that Abraham came out from the blaze unharmed (cf. S. 21:51-70).

It is not Abraham’s passage into the fire that is at question, but it is the identity of the king who tossed Abraham into the blaze that concerns us:

“… traditionally the fire incident is referred to a king called Nimrud… if Nimrud ‘s capital was in Assyria, near Ninevah (site near modern Mosul), we may suppose either that the king ‘s rule extended over the whole of Mesopotamia, or that Abraham wandered north through Babylonia to Assyria.” (4: p. 837, fn. 2725)

“In Arab tradition there is the story of Abraham. Nimrud tries to burn him to death, but on account of Abraham’s faith the fire became a means of safety for Abraham… Can we localize Nimrud? If local tradition can be relied upon, the king must have ruled over the tract which includes the modern Nimrud, on the Tigris, about twenty miles south of Mosul. This is the site of the Assyrian ruins of great interest, but the rise of Assyria as an empire was of course much later than the time of Abraham. The Assyrian city Kalakh (Calah), and archaeological excavations carried out there have yielded valuable results, which are however irrelevant for our commentary.” (Ibid., pp. 533, 1714, ff. 1565, 6055)

Nimrud, king of Babel/Assyria (i.e., Shinar /Sumer) whom Ali is alluding to lived centuries before Abraham, making it impossible for them to be contemporaries. This fact is confirmed by both the Holy Bible and secular history (cf. Gen. 10:6-12, 11:10-26).

Another example of this type deals with the idols that were worshipped at the time of Noah:

“And they (the people of Noah’s day) said to each other, ‘Abandon not your gods: abandon neither Wa’dd nor Suwa, neither Yaquth nor Yauq, nor Nasr…’” S. 71:23

The problem primarily arises with the names given to the idols of Noah’s time. These are the names of the idols worshiped at the time of Muhammad in Mecca, nearly three thousand years later! How is it possible for Noah’s people to worship Arabic deities with Arabic titles several thousands years before these idols ever came into existence? The Muslims’ attempts to reconcile this obvious anachronism have failed so far.

Also according to the Quran, Moses and the Israelites were to wait for the Gentile prophet (or the prophet of the Gentiles) to come, bringing salvation:

”And Moses chose seventy of his people for Our place of meeting: when they were seized with violent quaking, he prayed: ‘O my Lord! if it had been Thy will Thou couldst have destroyed, long before, both them and me: wouldst Thou destroy us for the deeds of the foolish ones among us? This is no more than Thy trial: by it Thou causest whom Thou wilt to stray, and Thou leadest whom Thou wilt into the right path. Thou art our Protector: so forgive us and give us Thy mercy; for Thou art the best of those who forgive. And ordain for us that which is good, in this life and in the hereafter: for we have turned unto Thee.’

“He said: with My punishment I visit whom I will but My mercy extendeth to all things… That mercy I shall ordain for those who do right, and practice regular charity, and those who believe in Our signs. Those who follow the Apostle, the unlettered Prophet, whom they (i.e., Israelites) find mentioned in their own (scriptures)- in the Law and the Gospel; for he commands them what is just and forbids them what is evil; he allows them as lawful what is good (and pure) and prohibits them from what is bad (and impure); he releases them from the yokes that are upon them. So it is those who believe in him, honor him, help him and follow the light, which is sent down with him, it is they who will prosper.’” S. 7:155-157

The obvious anachronism of the passage is the statement that the Israelites at the time of Moses were to await the coming of the Prophet of the Gentiles for guidance and salvation, whose advent was foretold in the Law and the Gospel. The question must be asked as to how it could have been possible for the Israelites to know of any prophecies of the Apostle to come within the pages of the Gospel, when the Gospel itself had not been revealed until fifteen hundred years after Moses and the Exodus?

The argument that the passage is referring to the descendants of the Israelites who were to receive the Gospel from Jesus Christ also fails to reconcile this anachronism due to the fact that the Israelites by and large have rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, the Gospels that have been handed down to us from the Apostles of Christ are devoid of any references to Muhammad whatsoever.

It should also be noted that Muhammad and Islam have been a constant threat and burden to both Jews and Christians alike. In a Hadith, Muhammad is reported to have said:

“Allah’s messenger (Muhammad) has commanded: Fight against the Jews and kill them. Pursue them until even a stone would say: Moslem, there is a Jew hiding himself behind me; kill him, kill him quickly.” (5: p. 7)

Are we to believe that this is the salvation that God promised Israel would eventually come to them; the idea that the God of Moses would send an Apostle to slaughter them? Far from it!

Fuel for the Fire

The last inconsistency that we present before concluding this study is this passage from S. 21:98:

“Surely you and what you worship besides Allah are fuel of Hell; to it you will come.” M. Muhammad Ali

At the surface level, there would seem to be no problem whatsoever with this verse until one realizes what the people of Mecca and the surrounding Arabian towns were worshiping. Astral worship was in vogue during that period as was Christianity and Judaism.

Notice that the verse states quite clearly that all which is worshiped, i.e., the sun, the moon, the stars, Uzair (i.e., Ezra whom the Jews worshiped as the son of God according to S. 9:30), Mary and Jesus will be cast into Hell-fire, an idea which is both foolish and blasphemous.

Fables

Throughout the pages of the Quran, we find fables reported as actual historical events, and stories pertaining to prophets and nations that border on myth and superstition. Here are a few examples:

Israelites turned into apes and swine

“And well ye know those amongst you who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath: We said to them: ‘Be ye apes, despised and rejected.’” S. 2:65 – cf. S. 7:166

“Say: ‘Shall I point out to you something much worse than this, (as judged) by the treatment it received from God? Those who incurred the curse of God and His wrath, those of whom some He transformed into apes and swine.’” S. 5:60

According to these verses, a group of Israelites were transformed into apes and swine as a result of disobedience to God’s commandments, i.e., the transgression of the Sabbath.

That this story is nothing more than an old Jewish fairytale is even admitted by A. Yusuf Ali:

“… there must have been a Jewish tradition about a whole fishing community in a seaside town, which persisted in breaking the Sabbath and were turned into apes.” (4: p. 34, fn. 79)

Mt. Sinai’s covering over Israel

“When We shook the mount over them, as if it had been a canopy, and they thought it was going to fall on them (We said): ‘Hold firmly to what We have given you, and bring ever to remembrance what is therein: Perchance ye may fear God.’” S. 7:171

“And remember We took your covenant and raised above you (the towering height) of mount (Sinai): (Saying): ‘Hold firmly to what We have given you and bring ever to remembrance what is therein: Perchance ye may fear God.’” S. 2:63 – see also S. 4:154

The idea that God would actually raise a mountain above the Israelites in order to put fear in their hearts is incredulous to say the least.

Islam’s Al-Khazin states:

“Historians have said that when the children of Israel refused to receive the statutes of Torah (the Law of Moses), because of the burden of the commandments, Allah sent Gabriel who raised a huge mountain until it became like a canopy above their heads. Looking at it, they bowed down in worship. Everyone bowed down on his left cheek and eyebrow and began to look with his right eye at the mountain for fear it would fall on them. The Jews, therefore, worship only on the left side of their faces.” (1: pt. 5, p. 129)

One should compare this tale with the Biblical account and read for themselves what actually took place (cf. Exodus 20:18).

Solomonic Fables

The Quran reports many fantastic details on the life of Solomon. For instance, Solomon was given power over the winds, had jinn (immaterial beings) and demons working underneath his supervision (S. 21:81-82; 38:36-38), spoke to ants and birds as one speaks to a friend, with the animals speaking back to him (S. 27:17-44), and had a lifeless body put upon his throne, forcing him to repent of his sins (S. 38:34-35)!

Muhammad Asad was forced to admit to the mythical origins of these Quranic stories:

“In this as well as in several other passages relating to Solomon, the Quran alludes to the many poetic legends which were associated with his name since early antiquity and had become part and parcel of Judeo-Christian and Arabian lore long before the advent of Islam… these legendary accounts of Solomon’s wisdom and magic powers had acquired a cultural reality of their own and were, therefore, eminently suited to serve as a medium for the parabolic exposition of certain ethical truths with which this book is concerned: and so, without denying or confirming their mythical character, the Quran uses them as a foil for the idea that God is the ultimate source of all human power and glory, and that all achievements of human ingenuity, even though they may border on the miraculous, are but an expression of his transcendental creativity.” (3: p. 498, fn. 77)

Asad’s other notes are even more interesting. For example, he indicates that the idea that Solomon spoke to an ant and his threatening to kill the hoopoe in S. 27:17-22 must not be taken in the literal sense:

“In this instance with the ants Solomon evidently refers to his own understanding and admiration of nature as well as to his loving compassion for the humblest of God’s creatures, as a great divine blessing: and this is the Quranic moral of the legendary story of the ant.” (Ibid., p. 579, fn. 18)

Resurrection Fables

The Quran recounts tales of people who were put to death for hundreds of years, only to be brought back to life once more:

“Or take the similitude of one who passed by a hamlet, all in ruins to its roofs. He said: ‘Oh! how shall God bring it ever to life, after this its death?’ But God caused him to die for a hundred years; then raised him up again. He said: ‘How long didst thou tarry thus?’ He said: ‘(perhaps) a day or part of a day.’ “He said: ‘Nay, thou hast tarried thus a hundred years; but look at thy food and thy drink they show no signs of age; and look at thy donkey; and that We may make of thee a Sign unto the people, look further at the bones, how We bring them together and clothe them with flesh.’ When this was shown clearly to him, he said: ‘I know that God hath power over all things.’” S. 2:259

Not only was the man, who according to Islamic tradition was Ezra (Uzair), resurrected but also his food, drink and donkey were preserved for one hundred years as well.

Another fantastic tale found in the Quran is the story of the sleepers of the cave who, upon fleeing persecution, ran into a cave with their dog where they fell asleep for over three hundred years (S. 18:9-22).

Even more incredulous is the Quranic teaching that Allah put thousands of Israelites to death and then proceeded to raise them back to life:

“Didst thou not turn thy vision to those who abandoned their homes, though they were thousands (in number), for fear of death? God said to them: ‘ Die’; then He restored them to life.  For God is full of bounty to mankind, but most of them are ungrateful.” S. 2:243

“And remember ye said: ‘ O Moses! we shall never believe in thee until we see God manifestly, but ye were dazed with thunder and lighting even as ye looked on. Then We raised you up after your death; ye had the chance to be grateful.” S. 2:55-56

Although it is true that to see God in his essential glory means instantaneous death (Ex. 33:20), what the Israelites saw was a veiled manifestation of God in a cloud of thunder and fire which caused them to drop in fear and trembling. They did not die (cf. Ex. 19:9-24, 20:18-2, 24:15-18; Dt. 5:22-30). 

That this tale finds its roots partly in the Jewish oral tradition, e.g., the Talmud (a collection of uninspired writings containing many myths), is admitted by A Yusuf Ali:

“We have hitherto had instances from the Jewish traditional Taurat (or Pentateuch). Now we have some instances from Jewish traditions in the Talmud, a body of exposition in the Jewish theological schools. They are based on the Jewish scriptures, but add many marvelous details and homilies.” (4: p. 30, fn. 70)

Hence, we have discovered that the Quran and Traditions do contain factual errors contrary to the widely held belief amongst Muslims that Islam’s holy book is devoid of any contradictions or mistakes.
           
What Muslims must now do to prove the Quran’s inerrancy is to give positive evidence form history, archaeology, and science to refute the arguments presented within this study. In most instances, Muslims respond by committing what is known in logic as the fallacy of equivocation. What this basically means is that the Muslim response is to attack the Bible by presenting, in this case, source material from pagan civilizations prior to the writing of the Bible that contain stories which are similar in nature, i.e., the Babylonian flood and Creation epoch and the Code of Hammurabbi. 

This is an erroneous argument due to the simple fact that the biblical view of inspiration is different from the Muslim view.  The Bible was written by over forty different authors and over a fifteen hundred year period, whereas the Quran was written by one man over a twenty three year period.

According to Scripture, holy men of God were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write the Bible within the context of the times, using the literary style of that period.

The discovery of similar stories or events within the tales of the pagan civilizations does not destroy the Bible’s authority but actually reinforces it.

That these nations also had stories of the flood and codes to govern oneself confirms the trustworthiness of the biblical events due to the fact that the other civilizations knew that these events had taken place and proceeded to adopt them within their tradition.  Furthermore, the similarities between the Mosaic law and Hammurabi’s codes or other documents, vindicate Mosaic authorship and the fifteenth century B.C. date, since the literary style does not fit in any other time period. 

This then sounds the death-knell on the documentary hypothesis theory, the idea that the Pentateuch is a post-exile editorial patchwork.

Yet the Quran denies any human source whatsoever, stating that God Almighty sent it down from heaven above (S. 25:4-6). To find even one fable of the ancients recorded within the pages of the Quran would destroy Islam’s foundation completely. This is clear from one Muslim writer’s statement in response to S. 25:4-6:

“Apparently this is a weighty argument. For there can be no greater proof of the fraud of prophethood than to specify its source. But it looks strange that no argument has been put forward to refute this charge except a mere denial, as if to say, ‘Your charge is an impudent lie: you are cruel and unjust to bring such a false charge against our messenger; for the Quran is the word of Allah who knows all secrets of the heaven and the earth.’” (6: vol. 3, pp. 178-179) 

That the source has been specified is clear to anyone who reads this study, proving that the Quran is not the word of God.

To conclude, we must say that the Holy Bible has better and superior manuscript, historical, archaeological and scientific evidence than the Quran, making it more reliable than any other religious book. Hence, before Muslims try to attack the Bible’s credibility, they should first attempt to prove why we should believe in their religious text’s inspiration and veracity.

It’s time to proceed to the appendices: The Quran’s Manifold Blunders: Appendices.

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