10 THE VERSE OF STONING

With regard to this accusation Muslims may be divided into three classes: those who know that the accusation is utterly false; those who are convinced that it is true; and, lastly, those who do not know whether it is false or true. The first party know the truth; the second ignore it; and the third are driven to the accusation by the inertia of habit. Their ancestors made the accusation, and they simply follow in their steps, irrespective of whether the accusation is well founded or baseless. And it is to the last two parties that we address ourselves, seeing that the first knows the truth, but only disputes for the sake of disputing.

But before proceeding to discuss the question in detail, we will ask our brother Muslims to answer the following questions:—

(1) Was the Bible in the days of Muhammad sound and true?

(2) If it was true (and there is no escape from admitting the fact) was it corrupted after the days of Muhammad?

(3) Can Muslims produce a copy of the Bible whose date can be traced to the days of Muhammad (or farther back) which is different from the present Bible?

(4) Is it conceivable that the Jews and Christians should agree to corrupt the Bible, knowing that they are as widely separated from each other as the two poles?

INTRODUCTION 11

We believe that there is no answer to these questions.

Our object in publishing this book is threefold. We want, first, to prove (though such an axiom hardly needs to be proved) that the Verse of Stoning has been omitted from the Qur'an, not from the Bible, thus turning the accusation against our Muslim friends themselves! secondly, to prove (and again such an axiom need hardly be proved) that the verse does exist in the Taurat; and thirdly, to narrate a story, in connexion with this same Verse of Stoning, which occurred in the days of Muhammad, and which in itself proves that the Taurat was then, and therefore is now, free from any corruption whatsoever.