Restless Pilgrim

The Qur’an speaks about Allah helping the followers of Jesus and keeping them “uppermost”, but this presents a dilemma since, historically, this has to refer to Trinitarian Christians… which is a very strange thing for Allah to support. If it wasn’t Trinitarian Christians, who exactly has remained “uppermost” since the time of Christ?

O believers! Stand up for Allah, as Jesus, son of Mary, asked the disciples, “Who will stand up with me for Allah?” The disciples replied, “We will stand up for Allah.” Then a group from the Children of Israel believed while another disbelieved. We then supported the believers against their enemies, so they prevailed. – 61:14

˹Remember˺ when Allah said, “O Jesus! I will take you and raise you up to Myself. I will deliver you from those who disbelieve, and elevate your followers above the disbelievers until the Day of Judgment. Then to Me you will ˹all˺ return, and I will settle all your disputes. – 3:55

I was recently having a discussion online with a Muslim and he said “The Qur’an even tells you exactly how to disprove it if you’re in doubt of its authenticity, so if no one has disproved it in 1440 years, and you can’t disprove it”. Here he was referring to the Qur’anic challenge to “produce a chapter like it”, as evidence that the Qur’an is of divine origin. 

I have to say, this challenge is bizarre for a number of reasons… 

Firstly, the challenge is rather light on details! Do we have to produce it in Arabic? What does it mean to be “like” the Qur’an? What objective criteria can we use to measure it? How do we know when the test has been fulfilled?

Secondly, entire websites devoted to poetry in the Qur’anic style. Why do these fail the test?

Thirdly, it’s just an odd argument. Even if I couldn’t produce something like the Qur’an, it doesn’t mean it’s divine. I can’t produce a Beethoven Symphony or a Shakespeare sonnet either!  Even if Muhammad was the only person in history to produce something like the Qur’an, I still don’t see why that would demonstrate it’s divine. Alternative explanations would be that Muhammad was uniquely skilled, or you could even suggest that it comes from a nefarious spiritual source.

Personally, I think the poetry of Kahlil Gibran greatly superior to the Qur’an, both in terms of beauty and wisdom. The English is great and I’m sure the original Arabic is as well. 

This video pretty much sums up the most common misconceptions I’ve found about Qur’anic preservation among Muslims – the Birmingham Manuscripts being a complete Qur’an, the different manuscript traditions, assuming that the Qur’an memorized today is the same as the “original” etc.

From Sentinel Apologetics…

The Quran makes mention of 32 people, and all of them are defined as “prophets” without distinguishing between them. Among these names there are only 6 people that can NOT be clearly identified in the Bible. Nevertheless, the remaining 26 people come mostly from the Pentateuch. Thus, here’s a list statistically aligned from most referred in the Quran:

• Jesus (130 times)
• Moses (130 times)
• Abraham (69 times)
• Mary (11 times by name and 34 times as “mother” of Jesus)
• Noah (43 times)
• Adam (25 times)
• Lot (25 times)
• Aaron (20 times)
• Isaac (17 times)
• Solomon (17 times)
• David (16 times)
• Jacob (16 times)
• Ishmael (12 times)
• Jonah (4 times; the Arabic form Yūnus is taken from the LXX form Iōnas rather than the Hebrew Yōnāh)
• Job (4 times)
• Elijah (2 times)
• Elisha (1 time)
• Saul (1 time; Surah 2:247-249 is erroneously fused with Gideon’s story from Judges 7:4-7)
• Joseph (mentioned only as the name for Surah 12)
• John the Baptist
• Zechariah. – Shu‘ayb (Jethro)
• Idris (Enoch)
• Hūd (Eber)
• Dhū ’l-Kifl (Ezekiel)
• Luqmān (a figure whose origin is in Nubia, Sudan, or Ethiopia)
• Ṣāliḥ (believed to have prophesied to the Arabian tribe of Thamūd)
• Al-Khadir (one of the cave dwellers in Surah 18)
• Dhū ’l -Qarnayn (Alexander the Great).

You’ll often hear Muslims say that the Qur’an is the message for all mankind. However, the Qur’anic data doesn’t back this up…

P1. Every nation has been sent a messenger (16:36, 10:47 and 35:24)… despite the historical record not being able to substantiate this.

P2. Messengers are sent in the language of his people (14:4).

P3. Muhammad was the first person sent to warn the Arabs (36:6, 34:44 and 32:3)… despite Abraham and Ishmael supposedly having established the Kaaba generations before.

C. Muhammad was sent to those living in and around Mecca (42:7) to give them a warning in Arabic so that it would be clear to them (41:3, 43:3, 44:58, 26:195-196).  

The Qur’an says that the Jews and Christians are to follow their own Scriptures (5:43, 5:68). Rather than having to trust what Christians and Jews *say* about their Greek and Hebrew Scriptures, the Qur’an is sent confirming it in *Arabic* (46:12), a revelation in their own tongue (41:44, 6:155-157).   

In Qur’an 10:16 you have the simplest and clearest textual variation, between the Hafs and Qunbul:

If Allah had willed, I would not have recited it to you, He would not have made it known to you… (Hafs)

vs

If Allah had willed, I would not have recited it to you, He would have made it known to you… (Qunbul)

Tafsir al-Jalalayn points out this textual variation, saying:

Say ‘If God had willed I would not have recited it to you nor would He have made it known to you nor would He have made you aware of it the lā of wa-lā adrākum is for negation and is a supplement to what preceded; a variant reading has the lām sc. la-adrākum ‘He would have made it known to you’ as the response to the conditional law ‘if’ in other words He would have made it known to you by the tongue of someone other than myself. For I have already dwelt among you a whole lifetime of forty years before this Qur’ān not relating to you anything of the sort so will you not understand?’ that this Qur’ān is not from myself?