I come to the finale in this series: A Coptic Convert Exposes Muhammad Pt. 4.
CONTRADICTIONS GALORE
As I stated previously, Ibn Raja’s knowledge and mastery of the Islamic sources are simply amazing. This will be further confirmed here by his awareness of all the irreconcilable contradictions within the Quran and hadith literature. The following quotes are taken from David Bertaina’s book Būluṣ ibn Rajāʾ The Fatimid Egyptian Convert Who Shaped Christian Views of Islam, pp. 213-241, 285-291, and 307-309. All will be emphasis mine.
Chapter 18
[135] On the Qurʾan’s contradiction; some verses contradict each other.
[136] He said to them in many places in the Qurʾan: “We have indeed created the Heavens and the earth.” So he started with the creation of Heaven before the earth. If he didn’t say anything more specific about the creation of the Heavens and the earth, then this sentence would have many ways to fully inflect it, regarding the words’ and languages’ meanings. Either he created the earth before Heaven or he created Heaven before the earth or he created the two of them at the same time and as one word. But he said something else so his mistake became clear. He said in sura “The Snatchers”: “Are you a more difficult creation or is Heaven? He built it. He raised its roof and He fashioned it. He darkened its night and He brought forth its morning light. After that He spread the earth.”292 So he clarified for them that God created Heaven, then He created the earth after it. Then he said after that in sura “Ḥāʾ Mīm Prostration” what contradicts that. He said: “Say: Do you indeed [disbelieve] in the one who created the earth in two days and attribute equals to Him? That is the Lord of the worlds. He placed on it firm mountains above it, and He blessed it and decreed for it its sustenance in four days equally for those who ask. Then He went up to Heaven while it was smoke. He said to it and to the earth, ‘Come willingly or by coercion’. They said, ‘We have come willingly’.”293 So this verse contradicts the one that came before [in my example]. Then he said in sura “The Cow”: “He is the one who created for you all of [that which] is on the earth. Then He went up to Heaven, and made them into seven Heavens.”294 He also started with the earth’s creation in this sura. He said in sura “Qāf”: “We did indeed create the Heavens and earth and what is between them in six days, while no tiredness touched Us.”295 How strange is this! He is saying in another place that God created Heaven before the earth, with one remark contradicting the other. Verses are contradicted by [another] verse.
[137296] He said in sura “The Heights”: “We will surely question those to whom it was sent, and We will surely question the messengers.”297 He said in surat “al-Ḥijr”: “So by your Lord, We will surely question all of them about what they were doing.”298 So these two verses show that questions [regarding judgment] are inevitable for all creation, including a prophet, and those who fear [God], and unbelievers. Then he contradicted that, when he said in sura “Certainly the Believers have succeeded”: “When the horn is blown, there will be no relationship between them that day, nor will they ask about one another.”299 He said in sura “The Family of ʿImrān”: “Those who exchange God’s covenant and their oaths for a small price will have no share in the hereafter, and God will not speak to them or look at them on the Day of Resurrection, nor will he purify them.”300 What does this statement have to do with his words: “So by your Lord, we will surely question all of them about what they were doing,” meaning the believers and the unbelievers. This is an inconsistency and a contradiction; a verse contradicted with another.301
[138] He said in sura “Mary”: “Every one of you will come to it. It is your Lord’s inevitable decree” – meaning Gehenna – “then we will save those who feared God [and leave] the wrongdoers on their knees within it.”302 This verse shows that for all creatures it is inevitable that they will bow before Gehenna and see it. He saves those who are God-fearing and he leaves the wrongdoers in it for a while. In addition to that, they have a well-known hadith from their prophet that said: “It is inevitable that all creatures will bow to Gehenna, from an angel close [to God] to a prophet sent with a message. Even if someone on the Day [of Resurrection] has done the righteous works of seventy prophets, he should still think that he will not be saved from the fire of Gehenna.”303 Then he contradicted that when he said at the end of sura “The Prophets”: “[For] the ones who have received the best outcome from Us; those ones are far removed from [Gehenna]. They will not hear its sound.”304 What does this remark have to do with his statement, “Every one of you will come to [Gehenna]. It is your Lord’s inevitable decree”? He alleges that these are God’s words to him, and that God said to him: “Every one of you will come to it” – meaning him, and his companions, and all creatures. In addition to that is the hadith which we have already mentioned. What a great difference between these words and his statement: “Those ones are far removed from [Gehenna]. They will not hear its slightest sound.” This is a contradiction and an inconsistency; one verse contradicts another verse, and the consensus, and what is clear.
[139] He said in sura “The Cow”: “Remember when we said to the angels, ‘Bow before Adam’. So they bowed, except for Iblīs.305 He refused and became arrogant.”306 He repeated that in many places in the Qurʾan. That demonstrates that Iblīs was one of the angels. That is accepted as true by all people without a doubt. There is no disagreement that he was an angel. But he contradicted that and he disagreed with the consensus and what is clear. For he said in sura “The Cave”: “[Remember] when we said to the angels, ‘Bow to Adam’. They bowed except for Iblīs. He was from the jinn and disobeyed his Lord’s command.”307 That Iblīs would be from the jinn is clearly impossible to everyone. Rather, Iblīs was among the angels and among their greatest noble ones. Suppose Iblīs was from the jinn, and he was not among the angels, and God commanded the angels to bow to Adam – according to your impossible claim – so therefore all of the angels bowed and Iblīs did not bow. There was no blame in his refusing to bow, since he was not an angel. If he bowed with the angels, he would have been a sinner doing something other than what he was commanded. Because, God commanded the angels to bow and they did so while Iblīs was not commanded to bow, since he was not from the angels. You have ascribed injustice to God for his anger against Iblīs, because we do not see what necessitates his anger as you say. This is a contradiction and an inconsistency; one verse contradicts another verse.
[140] He said in sura “The Bees”: “God commands justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression.”308 Then he contradicted this remark when he said in sura “The People of Israel”: “When We want to destroy a city, We command its prosperous”309 – meaning its nobles and those who possess wealth – “to act sinfully within it. So the verdict is confirmed upon it, and We destroy it completely,” so they came to an end. He says in one place that God commanded justice and charity. He says in [another] place that God made a command to act sinfully. Many of the Qurʾan’s leading scholars vehemently denied this verse, because the verse guides him to a different meaning. Namely, [they] read it: “When We want to destroy his city, We give authority to its prosperous ones,” derived from the word for an emir. It means: “When We want to destroy his city, We bring authority to its kings. If they became emirs and were unjust in their emirate, then We would destroy them and We would make them perish.” Only one person made this reading, and no one else, and no one agreed with him about this verse. He said in sura “The Heights”: “When they commit a sinful act, they say: ‘We found our fathers doing it, and God commanded us to do it’. Say: ‘God does not command sinful acts. Do you say about God that which you do not know?’”310 A verse is contradicted with the hadith and those who listen and reason.
[141] He said in sura “The Moon”: “The Hour has come near and the moon has split.”311 The commentators agreed about this verse that one night he was sitting with his companions, and he looked at the moon and its circular shape was divided. His companions said to him: “Muḥammad, show us a sign that we might be amazed by it.” So he looked up to the sky and he pointed at the moon with his index and middle finger. Then he said to it: “Split, moon.” Then it split in two, so one half fell upon Abū Qubays Mountain and another part [fell] upon the Red Mountain.312 These are two mountains in Mecca and Mecca is between them in the middle. However, the two of them were named “the interior of Mecca.” When they saw the moon had fallen from the sky upon the two mountains, they were amazed at that.313 He mentioned that in the Qurʾan; he said: “The Hour has come near and the moon has split.”314
[142] This is one of the greatest lies and untruths. If that were true, then it would not have been hidden from all creatures, not from the Christians and the Jews and the rest of the religious groups. Rather, if that were the case, then people would have mentioned it in their books and that which is clear in [Muḥammad’s] biography. In addition, that would have been famous for everyone who is devoted to knowledge of the stars and [their] orbits, and especially the Hindus and the Sabians who are the masters of this science. But we have not seen even one of those [groups] mention it. It was not communicated in the reports that any of your opponents converted to Islam when that happened. Since a number of gullible and ignorant people had converted to Islam without him showing them a sign, then it should seem to require that many people would have converted to Islam at that time. But we don’t see that, and no poet mentioned that in verses of praise or ridicule. This is a lie and impossible and the statement is refuted.
[143] Another proof testifying that it is a lie and impossible is what al-Ḥasan ibn Rashīq al-ʿAskarī315 reported to me [from] Abū Bishr al-Dūlābī316 from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Shaybānī al-Nasāʾī317 from Qutayba ibn Saʿīd,318 [from] Mālik,319 from Hishām ibn ʿUrwa320 from his father321 that he said: “I asked Ibn ʿAbbās322 and I said to him: ‘Tell me about this moon and how big it is’. So he said: ‘I heard Muḥammad say that this moon was eighteen times as big as the entire world’.”323 Think about it, my brother – may God help you – this impossibility has no truth to it. They allege that the moon was eighteen times as long as the whole world. They allege that it fell between two [mountains] – upon Abū Qubays Mountain and the Red Mountain, and they are in Mecca. How can these two mountains encompass this great moon which is eighteen times as big as the whole world? If they reflect on this, then [this argument] would be convincing for them. One verse [of the Qurʾan] is contradicted by the hadith and logical analogy.
[144] He said in sura “The Cow”: “How can you not believe in God when you were dead and He brought you to life; then He will cause you to die, then He will bring you back to life.”324 These words say that God created all people from the children of Adam and that He caused them to die and He brought them back to life, and this is among its best words, there is no doubt about it.325 But a hadith emerged that contradicted this verse. It was what Sufyān al-Thawrī326 reported from Hishām ibn ʿUrwa327 from his father,328 from ʿĀʾisha that she said: I heard Muḥammad say: “Every one of the children of Adam, when he dies, two angels will come to him at the hour when people finish burying him and go away from him. The name of one of them is Munkar and the other one is Nakīr.329 They will seize the dead by the beard and if she was a woman, seize [her] by her bangs. They seat them while wearing the shroud. God will give his soul back to him so he will live just as he used to. The two of them will say to him: ‘Who is your Lord and who is your prophet and what is your religion?’ So if he says: ‘God is my Lord and Muḥammad is my prophet and Islam is my religion’, the two of them will open a window at his head which leads to Paradise. The two of them will say to him: ‘Smell the fragrance of the living Paradise and its breeze and enjoy its food and drink and pleasant things until the Day of Resurrection’. And if he said to the two of them: ‘I don’t recognize them or what you are saying and I don’t know’, then they will strike him, which will send that one down [the length of] seven earths. Then the two of them will bring him up and open [a window] at his head which leads to Hell. They will say to him: ‘You will remain in this state until the day – the Day of Resurrection’.”
[145] These are impossible words, and it contradicts the Qurʾan, because he said: “You were dead and He brought you to life; then he will cause you to die, then he will bring you back to life.”330 He only mentioned one death in the Qurʾan, nothing else. He said in this hadith that we reported that he lives after his death in order to be questioned by the two angels. Then he dies another death, then he lives on the Day of Resurrection. He said in sura “The Smoke”: “They will not taste death except for the first death.”331 He should have said: “Except the first two deaths.” This is a contradiction from his statement and an inconsistency.332
[146] Stranger than that is his statement that the two angels open a window at the head of the dead which leads to Paradise. They say to him: “Smell the fragrance of Paradise and its breeze and enjoy its food and drink and pleasant things until the Day of Resurrection.” According to reason and logic, how can he open a window on earth connected to Paradise when you don’t know Paradise’s location? You can’t find a place for it. Because he said to you in the Qurʾan in sura “The Family of ʿImrān”: “Paradise [is] as wide as the Heavens and earth.”333 So how can it be either on earth or in Heaven? If the seven Heavens334 are its width, then what about [its] length? How can a dead [man], who is a discarded corpse after his bones have decomposed and been burned,335 be able to eat and drink and smell and enjoy pleasant things? What does he smell when his two nasal passages become pus and his eyes are drooped and his joints are disconnected and he becomes clay? How can people eat and drink in their tombs? If that were the case, then they are not dead. If you say that the spirit eats in Paradise and drinks and enjoys things, then that would be better for your lies. How can you say that, when he said to you in sura “The Family of ʿImrān”: “Do not think of those who have been killed in the way of God are dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision, rejoicing in what God has bestowed upon them of His favor.”336 So he taught you that the bodies of the martyrs will eat with their Lord and receive provision, and that your dead who are on earth will [not] eat and drink in their tombs.
[147] He made it lawful for you in the Qurʾan to wear whatever adornments you would like and eat delicious things. He said in sura “The Heights”: “Say: Who has forbidden God’s adornment which he has produced for his servants and the delicious things of provision?”337 He commanded you to fast a month each year. He permitted for you to eat during [Ramaḍān] from sunset to sunrise. A group of you in the school of al-Aʿmash338 say they think that a fasting person can eat until the imam finishes the morning prayer. If a man were to eat at the morning prayer and at sunset, then what is left for fasting? What does God gain in this worship? However, God commanded the people to fast in order to be rewarded after severe thirst and hunger, in order to perfect the reward and recompense for them. Your companion [Muḥammad] commanded you to have breakfast and dinner while fasting and he assured you about that. He encouraged you to have the evening meal even saying to you: “Eat the evening meal, even if it is a part of a date.”339
[148] Then he commanded you to have sex during fasting and he encouraged you to do that. He said in sura “The Cow”: “It has been permitted for you the night preceding fasting to go to your wives [for sex]. They are clothing for you and you are clothing for them. God knows that you used to deceive yourselves, so He accepted your repentance and forgave you.”340 Then Muḥammad said further: “have sex with them and seek that which God has written for you.”341 And he – Muḥammad – assures and says to make sure not to leave them in the month of Ramaḍān. Then he said to you that in Paradise you will have sex with wide-eyed virgins.342 He mentioned that in sura “Yāʾ Sīn” when he says: “The companions of Paradise, that Day, will be busy in their rejoicing.”343 Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī344 was asked and it was said to him: “What makes them busy that day?” He said: “Sexual intercourse.” It was reported from him further that he said: “The length of the clitoris of the virgins is a sizable distance. God lengthened the penis of every one of them on the Day of Resurrection so that its length would be so sizable that he is not able to hold it. Then God would employ seventy Christians and Jews to carry his penis.”345 If its length is sizable, then God should employ the people of his own religion to carry it, since they have more right to be employed than Christians and Jews. Such minds that would accept this are worldly minds. How ridiculous! In which book did he find this, and which prophet before him mentioned that to his community like him! He alleges that he is the best of the prophets so that his works are an example. Which prophet would permit that for his community like him? He alleges that he is the best of the prophets and their most favored.
[149] If we mentioned the works of earlier prophets and the accounts of their struggles in worship and what they required of themselves, including sorrows and hardship in this world, and its delight, then it would take me a long time. It was reported about John the son of Zechariah – and he is the best of the prophets and their own final one – that he did not marry any woman during his life nor did he eat bread and his food was only what came from the earth – not including grass – until he met God.346 He called him “The Child” in the commentary on the Qurʾan. [Muḥammad] did not take even one of those prophets as an example in his actions. Besides that, he commanded you to eat the good things of this world. He commanded [you to eat] breakfast and dinner while fasting and he commanded you to have sex during [Ramaḍān]. He urged you to have sex with your wives during it. Despite that, he considers this month more important than the rest of the months. For he said to you that in it is a night called the “Night of Power”: “It is greater than a thousand months, and the angels and the Spirit were revealed during it.”347 So he should have revered this month by abstaining from sex in it. He should have urged you to exert yourself in worship and he should not have urged you to eat and have sex. He did not revere the month under any circumstances, not in [eating] food nor in drink nor in having sex.
[150] And he said to you that while you are in the tombs you will eat and in Heaven you will eat and that you will have sex in Paradise. Suppose that when you have sex, you get your wife pregnant and she would give birth. I wish I knew if you could have sex with those virgins in Paradise, but what about your wives who are with you in this world? If they attain Paradise who will have sex with them? But, by my life, the Qurʾan did not explain anything whatsoever about having sex with them in Paradise. It did not say to you that you would have sex with [your wives] and it did not mention that you would only have sex with virgins with dark eyes. If your wives were the ones in Paradise and they did not have someone to have sex with them, then a great pleasure would be taken away from them, since all of the pleasures would be for you in having sex. Because it was reported that he said: “Most endearing to me in your world are three [things]: women, fragrances, and [God] made prayer the apple of my eye.”348 So he listed women first, because for him that was the greatest pleasure. He listed fragrances second, and he placed prayer last among all of these, although for you, prayer is the pillar of the religion. He made it what someone would use to get closer to God. Then shouldn’t he place that above women and fragrances?
[151] And this argument, were I to finish it, would require a number of justifications which would take a long time to explain. Such minds that do not use this common sense are feeble minds. As for me, I would prefer not to mention anything about this ignorance. I don’t want whoever reads this book of mine among our Christian brothers to listen to that. Rather, I have clarified their blindness and their ignorance, and I have made that demonstrable by [the assistance of] God. One verse is contradicted by the hadith and by insight.
[152] He said in “They ask you” in sura “The Heights”: “They ask you about the Hour, when will it arrive? Say: ‘Its knowledge is only with my Lord, none will reveal its time except him’”349 – meaning the time it comes. He also said in sura “Luqmān”: “God has knowledge of the Hour.”350 Then it was reported about [Muḥammad] in the book of Abū Maʿmar351 that he said: “One hundred years from now not a soul will remain upon the surface of the earth.”352 Not one of his companions doubted that the resurrection would be in one hundred years. This is impossible and has no truth to it, because we have passed four hundred years and people increase more than ever.353 This is an inconsistency and a contradiction; one verse contradicted by another verse.
[153] He said in sura “The Light”: “And marry the unmarried among you and the righteous among your male slaves and female slaves. If they are poor, God will enrich them from his favor.”354 He commanded them not to abstain from marriage for fear of poverty. Whoever among them was poor should marry and seek a means of living. He asks God for God to enrich him from his favor. Then he said immediately after this verse – contradicting the first verse – “Let them who do not obtain the means of marriage, abstain from sex until God enriches them from his favor.”355 So he commanded them not to marry while poor. No one should go for it unless he is serious and has the means. How can this prohibition be reconciled with the first recommendation? This is an inconsistency and a contradiction; some verses contradict each other and logical analogy.
[154] [He said] in sura “The Cattle”: “Whoever comes [at the Hour] with a good work, then he will have ten times its like [to his credit].”356 Then he contradicted that in sura “Sheba” when he said: “For them there will be the double reward for what they did, and they will be safe in the upper chambers [of Paradise].”357 How is this remark like the first one? This is a contradiction and an inconsistency; some verses contradict another verse and logical analogy.
[155] He said in sura “The Cow”: “And Abraham instructed his sons and Jacob, [saying]: ‘My sons, God has chosen for you this religion, so do not die except while you are Muslims’.”358 In addition, he said in this sura: “Or were you witnesses when death approached Jacob, when he said to his sons, ‘What will you worship after me?’ They said: ‘We will worship your God and the God of your fathers, Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac – one God. We are Muslims (to him)’.”359 He said in “The Family of ʿImrān”: “Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he was a Gentile Muslim. He was not one of the polytheists.”360 He said in sura “The Pilgrimage”: “[It is] the religion of your father, Abraham. He named you ‘Muslims’ before [in former Scriptures].”361 He said in sura “The Table”: “[Remember] when I revealed to the disciples: ‘Believe in me and in my messenger [Jesus]’. They said: ‘We have believed, so bear witness that we are Muslims’.”362 So he taught them that the disciples [of Jesus Christ] were Muslims. In the Qurʾan there are many examples like this so there is no point in repeating all of it. He taught them that all of the prophets and the angels and the messengers [and] whoever came before among the martyrs and righteous and our Lord Christ and the disciples, every one of them was a Muslim.363 Then he contradicted that and he made a liar of himself in his statement when he said in sura “The Cattle”: “Say: I have been commanded to be the first who became Muslim.”364 So he said in the first remark that whoever came before him preceded him into Islam. Yet he said in this place that he was the first to enter Islam. This is a contradiction and an inconsistency.
[156] It should be the case that if the prophets who came before him were Muslims, and then he came later with what they had brought, then he should have followed their methods and their ways. We don’t see him take even one thing as an example which they had done. Moses used to observe the Sabbath, and your companion did not observe it. The Torah forbids the eating of many types of cattle. Your prophet has commanded in the Qurʾan to eat all kinds of creatures and other things. He only forbade for you blood and carrion and pork flesh and whatever is slaughtered without [invoking] God. Didn’t you hear his words in sura “The Cattle”: “Say: I do not find within that which was revealed to me [anything] forbidden to one who would eat it unless it is carrion or blood or pork flesh – it is impure – or it is [slaughtered in] disobedience, without [invoking] God.”365 So this verse permits you to eat all things, except for what the Qurʾan forbids you, such as strangled animals, beaten animals, fallen animals, and animals that died fighting, and what lions eat.
[157] But this is different from what is in the Torah. If Moses came to the people of Israel with Islam, then your prophet should have used the actions of the Muslims who came before him as an example, and permit what they permitted and forbid what they forbade. We don’t see him acting like they did or anything of it. So now, he deviates from all of the prophets, and he brought laws different than theirs, and traditions that did not conform with their traditions. Don’t you hear his statement in sura “The Table”: “To each of you we prescribed a law and a method”?366
[158] So he has now made his statement a lie that all of the prophets [and] the people were Muslims. He claimed about Moses and his people in sura “Jonah” that they were Muslims. He said: “Moses said: ‘My people, if you have believed in God, then rely upon Him, if you would be Muslims’.”367 His statement suggested that Moses’ people were Muslims. Then he contradicted that and he claimed that they were Jews in sura “The Heights.”368 That was when he said: “And Moses chose from his people seventy men for Our appointment. And when the earthquake seized them, he said: ‘My Lord, if You had willed, You could have destroyed them before, as well as me. Would You destroy us for what the foolish among us have done? This is only Your trial by which You send astray whom You will and guide whom You will. You are our Protector, so forgive us and have mercy upon us; You are the best of forgivers. Decree for us in this world what is good and in the Hereafter; indeed, we have turned toward You’,”369 – this means “to become Jews.”370 This is the way that all of the commentators interpreted it: al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī,371 Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn,372 and Abū al-ʿĀliya al-Riyāḥī,373 and al-Badīʿ ibn al-Yusr,374 and Mujāhid,375 and ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ,376 and ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Khurāsānī,377 and ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār.378 So he was inconsistent in his statement about the companions of Moses when he said in one place that they were Muslims, and he said in another place that they were Jews. He said in another place that he was the first to submit to Islam. This is an inconsistency; one verse is contradicted by the hadith and logical analogy.
[159] He said to them in the Qurʾan that God said to him: “Muḥammad, say: ‘I seek refuge in the Lord of daybreak, from the evil of that which he created, and from the evil of darkness when it settles, and from the evil of those who blow in knots’,”379 and they are the sorcerers.380 So he was commanded to seek refuge from sorcerers. Then you reported about him that the Jews did sorcery on him. They put a bewitchment on him at the well of Dhū Arwan, until he saw in a dream [the angels Michael and Gabriel] telling him that he was bewitched and they showed him where his bewitchment was located. So he sent ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib to that well in which the Jews put his bewitchment. So he took an image out of it that looked like Muḥammad pricked full of needles. Every time ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib would take out one of the deeply set needles, Muḥammad found the pain reduced. When ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib finished taking out the needles, Muḥammad stood up as if he had been freed from a deathly illness.381
[160] Then you reported about him that he died while bewitched, or it is said that he was poisoned by a Jewish woman, and that she poisoned him in a vein named the aorta. The poison reached his heart and he died.382 How can it happen as you say, that sorcery would work on God’s messenger? Sorcery is indeed an act of demons and he says in the Qurʾan: “Falsehood cannot approach it, from before it nor from behind it.”383 Adding to that is his statement that God put His hand between his shoulders, yet sorcery, which is the work of demons, would work on him! How can you allege he has God’s protection and His strength? Adding to that is your report that when he awoke or went to bed, he would have seventy kinds of angels with him protecting and guarding him.384 We cannot find all of this truthful; rather, we found the truth of its falsehood. God is more exalted than placing His hand upon something or guarding something or commanding the angels to preserve something, and sorcery, which is the work of demons, would work on it. This is an inconsistency and a contradiction.
292 Q 79:27–30.
293 Q 41:9–11.
294 Q 2:29.
295 Q 50:38.
296 The main point of the argument here is to claim that in some verses the judged will be able to speak and in other passages that they will not be able to speak on Judgment Day. The Latin translation provides several examples prior to the beginning of this section, quoting Q 77:35–36; 39:31, 23:65, and 37:27. Then it joins the Arabic text at this point.
297 Q 7:6.
298 Q 15:92–93.
299 Q 23:101.
300 Q 3:77.
301 There is a large section in the Latin translation (9.4–9.8) that is not in the Arabic manuscript. For this material, see Burman, Religious Polemic, 308–315. To summarize: 9.4: a criticism of fasting during Ramaḍān (Q 5:97); 9.5: a criticism of comparing God to the firmament of the sea (Q 31:31); 9.6: a criticism of the concept that there are hours and day and night in heaven (Q 19:62; 11:107); 9.7: a criticism of the concept that spiritual angels were to worship the physical (and thus inferior) Adam (Q 7:11, 7:37–38); 9.8: a criticism of Muslims for mistakenly believing that Christians worship Mary as part of the Trinity (Q 5:116) and worship their priests and monks as gods (Q 9:31). Given the fact that these passages are found in the Latin translation and also addressed by Riccoldo da Monte di Croce (d. 1320) in his work Contra legem Sarracenorum, these sections were undoubtedly part of the original Arabic text.
302 Q 19:71–72.
303 This hadith seems to echo the punishment threat in Q 9:80 that even if one asks for forgiveness seventy times it will not necessarily be given to them on the Day of Resurrection. While Ibn Rajāʾ seems to quote from a Shīʿī source he was reading, I have not located its origin. A similar Shīʿī hadith notes that even if a man has accomplished the work of seventy prophets, then his work still may not be sufficient to survive judgment because of the severity of what happens on the Day of Resurrection.
304 Q 21:101–102.
305 Iblīs is a name given to the Devil, and is a transliteration from Ethiopic via the Greek diabolos.
306 Q 2:34.
307 Q 18:50.
308 Q 16:90.
309 Q 17:16.
310 Q 7:28.
311 Q 54:1.
312 Abū Qubays is a mountain in Mecca located nearby the Kaʿba and was also said to have been the location for the origin of the Black Stone. The Red Mountain is located on the opposite side, according to Ibn Rajāʾ, who had visited Mecca on pilgrimage.
313 On the moon splitting hadith, see Juynboll, ECH, 483–484. See also al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 6:327–328 (Book 65, #4864–4868); and Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 7:201–203 (Book 50, #7071–7079).
314 Q 54:1.
315 On al-Ḥasan ibn Rashīq al-ʿAskarī, see Sezgin, GAS, 201–202.
316 On Abū Bishr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥammād al-Dūlābī, see See Sezgin, GAS, 172; EI2, 8:516.
317 On Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Shaybānī al-Nasāʾī, see Sezgin, GAS, 167–169. 318 Qutayba ibn Saʿīd al-Shāmī (d. 854) is mentioned as a hadith teacher for al-Nasāʾī; Sezgin, GAS, 167; EI2, 7:691.
319 On Mālik ibn Anas, see Sezgin, GAS, 457–464.
320 Hishām ibn ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr (d. 763); Sezgin, GAS, 88–89.
321 ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr (d. 712) was Hishām’s father; Sezgin, GAS, 278–279.
322 ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-ʿAbbās (d. 686); EI2, 1:40.
323 Ibn Rajāʾ is certainly quoting a hadith from a written source, but I have not identified its origin.
324 Q 2:28.
325 This passage is an allusion to Psalm 104:29–30.
326 Sufyān al-Thawrī (d. 778); Sezgin, GAS, 518–519; EI2, 9:770.
327 Hishām ibn ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr (d. 763); Sezgin, GAS, 88–89.
328 ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr (d. 712); Sezgin, GAS, 278–279.
329 These two angels, known as the “Denied” and the “Denier” are tasked with questioning the souls of the departed after death. During this intermediate state between death and the final resurrection and judgment (barzakh), the angels question the dead and the believers are sent to the pleasures of heaven and the unbelievers receive the punishment of hell, as explained by Ibn Rajāʾ. These traditions are found in the hadith collections, such as al-Tirmidhī, Jāmiʿ at-Tirmidhī, 2:443–444 (Book 8, #1071). See also Juynboll, ECH, 459 and “Munkar wa-Nakīr,”EI2, 7:576–577.
330 Q 2:28.
331 Q 44:56.
332 The argument is somewhat different in Ibn Qutayba, Taʾwīl Mushkil al-Qurʾān, 22. In this passage, the critic asks how can he exclude people who died in this world from their stay in Heaven.
333 Q 3:133.
334 Medieval Christians and Muslims both believed in the existence of seven heavens, e.g., Q 41:12. Paul mentions being caught up to the third heaven in 2Corinthians 12:2–4.
335 The word is unclear in the Arabic text but “burned” appears in the Latin translation.
336 Q 3:169–170.
337 Q 7:32.
338 Sulayman ibn Mihrān al-Aʿmash (d. 765); ei2, 1:431.
339 On the origin of this hadith, (“So save yourself from the Fire even with half a date”), see al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 9:365 (Book 97, #7512); and Juynboll, ECH, 109, 498.
340 Q 2:187.
341 Q 2:187.
342 These wide-eyed virgins of Paradise are the “houris” referenced in Q 44:54, 52:20, 55:72, and 56:22.
343 Q 36:55.
344 On al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 728), see Sezgin, GAS, 591–594; EI2 3:247–248.
345 This legend is not found in the canonical editions of the hadith but was most likely the product of an interpretation of Q 2:187 attributed to al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī. There is little reason to doubt that Ibn Rajāʾ is drawing from an Islamic source as other Christian apologists referenced this report as a carnal description of heaven.
346 The phrase means “until he died.”
347 Q 97:3–4.
348 The hadith is attributed to ʿĀʾisha as: “Most endearing to me in this world are women and perfume, but my solace lies in prayer.” For more on its appearances in Islamic sources, see Juynboll, ECH, 75.
349 Q 7:187.
350 Q 31:34.
351 On Abū ʿUbayda Maʿmar ibn al-Muthannā (d. 824), see EI2, 1:158.
352 For more on this hadith, see Juynboll, ECH, 28; and al-Tirmidhī, Jāmiʿ at-Tirmidhī, 4:299– 300 (Book 31, #2250–2251).
353 According to the Hijra calendar, 400 AH began in August 1009. This reference to four hundred years since the life of Muḥammad therefore suggests that Ibn Rajāʾ composed his work ca. 1009–1012 under the reign of the Fatimid caliph al-Ḥākim (d. 1021).
354 Q 24:32.
355 Q 24:32.
356 Q 6:160.
357 Q 34:37.
358 Q 2:132.
359 Q 2:133.
360 Q 3:67.
361 Q 22:78.
362 Q 5:111.
363 As a response to critiques, medieval Muslims interpreted the Qurʾan to indicate that all pre-Islamic biblical figures were Muslims or righteous Gentiles (ḥunafāʾ).
364 Q 6:14. 365 Q 6:145.
366 Q 5:48.
367 Q 10:84.
368 Q 7.
369 Q 7:155–156.
370 Ibn Rajāʾ contends that the Qurʾan recalls how Moses and the Israelites repented and asked God for forgiveness, and that in this context the Arabic words hudnā ilayka means that they turned to Judaism, and did not become Muslims, as suggested in other passages.
371 Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 728); Sezgin, GAS, 591–594; EI2 3:247–248.
372 Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn (d. 728); Sezgin, gas, 633.
373 Abū al-ʿĀliya al-Riyāḥī (d. 708); Sezgin, GAS, 34; EI2, 1:104.
374 al-Badīʿ ibn al-Yusr (d. 712).
375 Abū al-Ḥajjāj Mujāhid ibn Jabr (d. 722) of Mecca was known for his use of Christian and Jewish sources for his commentary. See Sezgin, GAS, 29.
376 Abū Muḥammad ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ (d. ca. 732); Sezgin, GAS, 31; EI2, 1:730.
377 ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Muslim al-Khurāsānī (d. ca. 753/7); Sezgin, GAS, 33.
378 ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār al-Hilālī (d. 722); EI2, 4:369.
379 Q 113:1–4.
380 The interpretation of these people as sorcerers is confirmed in the commentary tradition such as in the analysis of Q 113:4 by al-Ṭabarī, Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī, 24:749–751.
381 This legend is found in a number of early Muslim commentaries on Q 113 and the hadith collections. See Juynboll, ECH, 198–200. According to Burman, Religious Polemic, 337: “The kernel of the story is that a Jew named Lubīd ibn al-Aʿṣām (or his daughters) once bewitched (saḥara) Muḥammad in a manner very similar to the one described here – including the use of needles and a well – and for this reason God revealed these two sūrahs, the reciting of which cured Muḥammad.”
382 For this account see al-Ṭabarī, The History of al-Ṭabarī, 8:124: “The Messenger of God said during the illness from which he died – the mother of Bishr b. al-Barāʾ had come in to visit him – ‘Umm Bishr, at this very moment I feel my aorta being severed because of the food I ate with your son at Khaybar’. The Muslims believed that in addition to the honor of prophethood that God had granted him the Messenger of God died a martyr.”
383 Q 41:42. Ibn Rajāʾ interprets this passage not in reference to scripture, as it appears, but to Muḥammad – falsehood cannot approach him from the front or back.
384 See Q 8:9: “When you appealed to your Lord for help, He answered you: ‘I will aid you with a thousand angels in a file’.” The canonical hadith and commentaries make the claim he was watched over by an angel in reference to Q 111. They also mention seventy thousand angels watching over the sick due to prayer. See Juynboll, ECH, 55.
Chapter 29475
[220] On verses contradicting others and the hadith.
[221] He said to them in sura “The Cow”: “They ask you about alcohol and gambling. Say: ‘In them is great sin, yet [some] benefits for the people’.”476 The word “gambling,” in their view, [refers to] “betting.” He said that alcohol is beneficial to people for diseases that afflict them, such as for treatments that they had no choice but to add wine to them. However, what is the point of gambling, that he gave you some license in it? How does gambling benefit bodies for medicine and treatments, such as alcohol’s benefit? This is stupidity and lack of discernment in one who would make gambling’s benefit equivalent to alcohol’s benefit.
[222] He said in sura “The Heights”: “Say: My Lord has indeed forbidden immoralities – what is apparent of them and what is concealed – and sin.”477 He taught them in his statement about alcohol and gambling that they are a sin and sin is forbidden. He said in sura “The Table”: “Rather, alcohol, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone altars, and divining arrows are defilement from Satan’s work, so avoid it.”478 So he taught them in what came prior in this sura that it is forbidden and he commanded them to avoid it.
[223] Then he said to them in sura “The Bees” what contradicts all of this. It is his statement: “And from the fruits of the palm trees and grapevines, you shall take an intoxicant and good provision.”479 So he praised alcohol to them in this sura and presented it as a good thing for them. He commanded them to make use of it because he said “you shall take” and this is a command. After he commanded them, then he said “an intoxicant and good provision.” But this contradicted what preceded about forbidding it for them. He said in sura “The Cattle” what proves to them that it is not forbidden, when he says: “Say: I do not find within that which was revealed to me [anything] forbidden to one who would eat it, unless it is carrion or blood or pork flesh – it is impure – or it is [slaughtered in] disobedience, without [invoking] God.”480 So he taught them that its taste was clearly permissible for the people, except for blood and carrion and pork flesh and whatever was sacrificed to something other than God [i.e., idol sacrifices]. [The term] “tasting,” in their view, includes eating and drinking. So he prohibited it for them in [some] places, and he permitted it for them in [other] places. This is a contradiction and a disagreement with that.
[224] You reported from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd that he said: “I was with Muḥammad during some of his travels and the time of prayer came. He commanded me to bring him something to cleanse with. So I said: ‘Is alcohol [acceptable]?’ He replied: ‘Alcohol is good and water is pure’. So he used it to cleanse for prayer. Then I said to him: ‘What do you say about drinking it, God’s Messenger?’ He replied: ‘It is permitted and allowed; there is no problem with it, unless [drinking] leads you to mixing [with women] and reprehensible deeds’.”481
[225] You report from your prophet that he abluted and prayed with it. As for your ignorant ones, if one of them spills wine upon his clothing, it is not permitted for him to pray in it, until he would soak it with water.482 The most ignorant among them are not convinced by that demonstration or examining it in detail. They did not act according to the Qurʾan, nor in taking their prophet as an example in using [alcohol] to cleanse for prayer. Not all Muslims forbid alcohol. But Abū Ḥanīfa – and his name is al-Nuʿmān ibn Thābit483 – and he is the jurist of the Iraqi people, he did not forbid that as long as its drinker did not become drunk from it.484 As for drunkenness, it is forbidden according to him. This ruling is considered trustworthy and closer to hitting the mark than his opponents’ opinion.
[226] Following him about his ruling is Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan,485 and Abū Yūsuf al-Qādī,486 and Shurāḥbīl ibn Abī Yaman,487 and Sufyān al-Thawrī,488 and Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna,489 and Yaḥyā ibn Aktham al-Qāḍī,490 and Ḥammād ibn [Abī] Sulaymān,491 and al-Aʿmash,492 and Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind,493 and the rest of the Iraqi people, and whoever agrees with their rulings. It was reported from another source that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb used to drink [alcohol] and he condoned whoever permitted its drinking using the verse which was mentioned in sura “The Bee”494 and the verse which is in sura “The Cattle.”495 The hadith and the previously mentioned [examples] were contradicted by what came after it, which was his statement: “Do not come to prayer when you are drunk until you know what you are saying.”496 This is a contradiction and an inconsistency, a verse is contradicted by logical analogy
475 This chapter is about alcohol and gambling in the Qurʾan and contends that Muslims apply inconsistent legal rulings regarding alcohol consumption. The fact that alcohol was being consumed by Muslims is assumed by Q 4:43 that forbids praying while drunk.
476 Q 2:219.
477 Q 7:33.
478 Q 5:90.
479 Q 16:67.
480 Q 6:145.
481 The source of this account, except for the final statement of permissibility for wine, is found in Ibn Mājah, Sunan Ibn Mâjah, 1:306–307 (Book 1, #384–385). There are other hadith accounts that wine can be mixed with water for ablutions prior to prayer. See for instance the examples in Abū Dāwūd, Sunan Abu Dawud, 1:71–72 (Book 1, Chapter 42 “Wuḍūʾ using al-Nabīdh,” #84, 86).
482 The rule that a Muslim should not pray in clothing that has been dirtied comes from a number of hadith accounts.
483 On Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān ibn Thābit (d. 767), the founder of the Ḥanafī school, see Sezgin, GAS, 409–419; EI2, 1:123.
484 According to the Ḥanīfī school, alcohol derived from grapes or dates was forbidden. However, alcohol from other sources such as honey, barley, wheat, or millet would be acceptable since they are not khamr or nabīdh. Even wine (nabīdh) was permitted for medical necessity. Clearly this understanding was exercised at the time at which Ibn Rajāʾ was writing and continues to be a point of dispute even today among Muslims. See “Khamr,” EI2 4:994–996.
485 Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī (d. 805); Sezgin, GAS, 421–433.
486 Abū Yūsuf al-Qādī (d. 798); Sezgin, GAS, 419–421.
487 Shurāḥbīl ibn Abī Yaman (d. 741); Sezgin, GAS, 279.
488 On Sufyān al-Thawrī, see Sezgin, GAS, 518–519; EI2, 9:770.
489 On Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna, see Sezgin, GAS, 96; EI2, 9:772.
490 On Yaḥyā ibn Aktham al-Qādī (d. 857), see Wafik Nasry,“Abū Qurrah, al-Maʾmūn and Yaḥyā ibn al-Aktham,” Parole de l’Orient 32 (2007): 285–290.
491 Ḥammād ibn Abī Sulaymān (d. 738); Sezgin, GAS, 404–405.
492 Sulaymān ibn Mihrān al-Asadī al-Aʿmash (d. 765); ei2, 1:431. 493 Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind (d. 754/5 or 756/7); EI2, 1:104. 494 Q 16:67.
495 Q 6:145.
496 Q 4:43.
[An Addition]
[251] “Verses contradicted by other verses” was found at the end of that [work].
[252] He said in sura “Mary” – and it [begins] “kāf, haʾ, yāʾ, ʿayn, ṣād” – “When He decrees a matter, He only says to it, ‘Be’, and it is.”514 Then they came up with its opposite; they said: “God has set a seal upon their hearts.”515 In addition: “We have placed over their hearts coverings, lest they understand it.”516 Their claim is that they only worship him and between [this statement and] his setting a seal upon their hearts, there is a great inconsistency. In addition, “They say: God has taken a son. Exalted is He! Rather, to Him belongs whatever is in the Heavens and the earth. All are devoutly obedient to Him.”517 Then they came up with what contradicted that, since they said they strayed from their way: “Perish the man; how unbelieving is he.”518 So where did the straying and the unbelief come from, if all of them were devoutly obedient to Him? Verses are contradicted by other verses.
[253] They said: “And the soul and He who proportioned it, and inspired it to its wickedness and its righteousness,” in sura “The Sun.”519 In addition: “Whoever God guides – he is the guided; and whoever He sends astray – it is those who are the losers.”520 In addition: “Whoever God sends astray – there is no guide for him. And He leaves them in their transgression, wandering blindly.”521 In addition: “He guides whoever He wills and He leads astray whoever He wills.”522 In addition: “And if We had willed, We could have given every soul its guidance, but the word from Me will come into effect, [that]I will surely fill Gehenna with jinn and people all together.”523 So this tells that He is the one who inspired them to wickedness and righteousness, and He is the one who leads them astray and He is the one who guides and that if He [only] wants, then He guides.
[254] Praise is due to Him, glory forever, Amen.
The Exposer’s Book in Truth and its testimony is finished and completed. Many thanks be to God, the possessor of might and power, forever and ever unto the ages of ages. Amen, Amen, Amen.
514 Q 19:35.
515 Q 2:7.
516 Q 18:57.
517 Q 2:116.
518 Q 80:17.
519 Q 91:7–8.
520 Q 7:178. 521 Q 7:186.
522 Q 35:8; however, this citation reverses the phrasing of Q 35:8.
523 Q 32:13.
FURTHER READING
Logical Consistency (no contradictions within the Qur’an).
A LIST OF QURAN CONTRADICTIONS, PT. 2
QURANIC ERRORS AND SHIRK GALORE!
THE CONTRADICTIONS OF SUNN ISLAM’S SAHIH NARRATIONS
The Sirah and Ahadith: The Foundation of the Quran
The Manifold Contradictions of the Quran
A Quran Blunder: The Days and Order of Creation
Allah’s Violation of His Own Teachings Pt. 1
Does Allah command to do evil?
Quran Inconsistency: Does Allah sanction and permit lust or not?
Will people stay in Hell forever, or not?
QURAN ONLY DILEMMA: HOW MANY PATHS TO PARADISE?
To Intercede or Not To Intercede? – That is the Question!
How the Islamic Doctrine of Intercession undermines Allah’s Omniscience
The Problem of Abrogation in the Quran
Abolishing what Satan proposes? — A Fresh Look at the Reason for Abrogation in the Quran
Answering Islam Blog 