Answering Islam - A Christian-Muslim dialog

Another Dawagandist Testifies to the Incorruptibility of the Holy Bible!

Sam Shamoun

Muslim dawagandist Jalal Abualrub doesn’t try to mask his hate and venom towards the Holy Bible and the Christian faith, as any reading or viewing of his materials or lectures easily confirms. He is constantly attacking the inspired Scriptures by accusing them of textual corruption and for containing stories which he deems to be highly immoral and violent. And yet at the same time, Abualrub won’t hesitate to appeal to and quote from the Holy Bible in order to prove that Muhammad was prophesied in the previous Scriptures and that his conception of God is consistent with the message of the prophets that came before him.

As an example of his tirade against the Holy Bible, Abualrub posted an article by an author whose view of the previous Scriptures he wholeheartedly accepts and endorses:

2 – THE QURAN WILL ALWAYS BE PROTECTED FROM CHANGE AND ALTERATIONS, for Allah said, what translated means,

“Verily We: It is We Who have sent down the revelation and surely, We will guard it (from corruption).” [15:9].

The previous Books, such as the Torah and the Gospel, were changed and altered by the Jews and Christians. (Characteristics of the Quran, by Aboo Fatimah, Monday, 29 November 1999)

Here is where the problem lies for this Christophobe. When he and his followers are not paying close attention, they make certain assertions that end up proving the exact opposite of what they intend to convey. Take, for instance, what the same author above wrote elsewhere in his article:

1 – THE GLORIOUS QURAN IS CLEAR, TRUTHFUL, CORRECT AND ACCURATE IN THE ACCOUNTS THAT IT DETAILS AND IS FAIR AND JUST IN ITS RULINGS,

“And the Word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and in justice. None can change His Words.” [6:115]. (Aboo Fatimah, Characteristics of the Quran; bold emphasis ours)

Note the author’s appeal to Q. 6:115 to prove the incorruptibility of the Quran. The writer is assuming that since the Quran is Allah’s word, and since none of Allah’s words can ever be changed, this means that the Quran can therefore never be changed or corrupted.

This isn’t the only Quranic text which speaks of the unchanging nature of Allah’s words:

Verily, (many) Messengers were denied before you (O Muhammad), but with patience they bore the denial, and they were hurt, till Our Help reached them, and none can alter the Words (Decisions) of Allah. Surely there has reached you the information (news) about the Messengers (before you). S. 6:34 Hilali-Khan

For them are glad tidings, in the life of the present world (i.e. righteous dream seen by the person himself or shown to others), and in the Hereafter. No change can there be in the Words of Allah, this is indeed the supreme success. S. 10:64 Hilali-Khan

And recite what has been revealed to you (O Muhammad) of the Book (the Qur'an) of your Lord (i.e. recite it, understand and follow its teachings and act on its orders and preach it to men). None can change His Words, and none will you find as a refuge other than Him. S. 18:27 Hilali-Khan

This is where Abualrub runs into a bit of a dilemma, since in his own published works he candidly admits that the Torah and the Gospel are the Words of Allah. For instance, check out the following quotation:

The two Islamic Kalimat are also mentioned in one statement in various instances in the Qur’an, such as (Say (O Muhammad): "O mankind! Verily, I am sent to you all as the Messenger of Allah - to Whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. La ilaha illa Huwa (none has the right to be worshipped but He). It is He Who gives life and causes death. So believe in Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad), the Prophet who can neither read nor write (Muhammad) who believes in Allah AND HIS WORDS (This Qur'an, THE TAURAT (TORAH) AND THE INJEEL (GOSPEL), and follow him so that you may be guided."} (7:158) (Muslim-Christian Dialogue: Islamic Monotheism vs. Trinity, by Jalal Abualrub, edited by Alaa Mencke [Madinah Publishers and Distributors, First edition 2012], p. 40; capital emphasis ours)

And here is what he wrote elsewhere:

{Say (O Muhammad): "O mankind! Verily, I am sent to you all as the Messenger of Allah – to Whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. La ilaha illa Huwa (none has the right to be worshipped but He); It is He Who gives life and causes death. So believe in Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad), the Prophet who can neither read nor write (i.e. Muhammad) who believes in Allah and His Words20, and follow him so that you may be guided."} (7:158) (Muhammad The Prophte of Mercy: Muhammad’s Role in Islam, by Jalal Abualrub, edited by Alaa Mencke [Madinah Publishers and Distributors, First edition 2007], p. 27)

20 [Allah’s Words:  The Qur'an, THE TAURAT (TORAH), THE INJEEL (GOSPEL), AND ALL OTHER DIVINE BOOKS HE REVEALED TO HIS MESSENGERS; also Allah's Word: "Be!" – and he was, i.e. 'Isa (Jesus) son of Maryam (Mary).] (Ibid.; capital emphasis ours)

Seeing that the Torah, the Gospel and all the rest of the inspired Books are the very Words of God (or Allah) then it could not have been possible for them to be changed. Rather, these divinely revealed Scriptures would have remained intact, remained as they were originally revealed, and would have therefore been in existence during the time these Quranic passages were composed. This is precisely what the verse that immediately precedes the one quoted by Abualrub teaches: 

“Those who follow the Messenger, the Prophet who can neither read nor write (i.e. Muhammad) whom they find written WITH THEM in the Taurat (Torah) (Deut, xviii, 15) and the Injeel (Gospel) (John xiv, 16)…” S. 7:157 Hilali-Khan

Not only does this verse explicitly assert that the Torah and the Gospel were in the possession of the Jews and Christians at the time of Muhammad, the translators even go as far as to identify these Scriptures for us. According to them, the Torah encompasses or includes the book of Deuteronomy, whereas the Gospel refers specifically to John’s Gospel. Interestingly, these scholars are not the only ones to identify John’s Gospel as the Gospel revealed to the Lord Jesus, since the oldest extant biography on Muhammad’s life does likewise:

“Among the things which have reached me about what Jesus the Son of Mary stated in the Gospel which he received from God for the followers of the Gospel, in applying a term to describe the apostle of God, is the following. It is extracted FROM WHAT JOHN THE APOSTLE SET DOWN FOR THEM WHEN HE WROTE THE GOSPEL FOR THEM FROM THE TESTAMENT OF JESUS SON OF MARY: ‘He that hateth me hateth the Lord. And if I had not done in their presence works which none other before me did, they had not sin: but from now they are puffed up with pride and think that they will overcome me and also the Lord. But the word that is in the law must be fulfilled, "They hated me without a cause" (i.e. without reason). But when the Comforter has come whom God will send to you from the Lord's presence, and the spirit of truth which will have gone forth from the Lord's presence he (shall bear) witness of me and ye also, because ye have been with me from the beginning. I have spoken unto you about this that ye should not be in doubt.’

“The Munahhemana (God bless and preserve him!) in Syriac is Muhammad; in Greek he is the paraclete. (The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah, with introduction and notes by Alfred Guillaume [Oxford University Press, Karachi, Tenth impression 1995], pp. 103-104; bold and capital emphasis ours)

Ibn Ishaq quotes John 15:23-16:1 since he believed that John’s Gospel is the written record of what God revealed to the Lord Jesus! He never once suggests that this particular Gospel is corrupt or unreliable.

This places Abualrub and his fellow salafi dawagandists in a major dilemma, as the following syllogism shows:

A. The words of Allah can never be changed.

B. The Torah, the Gospel and the rest of the divinely inspired Books are the Words of Allah.

C. Therefore, these Books can never be changed and must be in existence even till now.

D. Since these Scriptures were entrusted to the Jews and Christians, not to Muslims, this means that these sacred writings must still be in their possessions till this day.

E. However, the only Scriptures that the Jews and Christians have ever possessed are the Books contained in the Holy Bible, such as Deuteronomy and the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

F. Therefore, these Biblical Books must be the incorruptible and unchanging Words of Allah. There is simply no way around this.

Abualrub is fully aware of the problem this poses for his beliefs since Muhammad contradicted the core, essential doctrines taught in these inspired Scriptures. This is why he has to convince himself and others that these are not the original writings which Allah revealed to the Jews and Christians.

However, to argue that these Biblical Books are not the original revelations which Allah sent down suggests that those original writings have been lost. Yet if they have been lost then this means that Quran is wrong for saying that Allah’s words can never be changed since they surely can be, and have been changed according to dawagandists like Abualrub. This would therefore mean that Allah either lied, since he had no intention of ever preserving his words, or that he is impotent since he tried to preserve them to the best of his ability, but wasn’t able to do so in spite of all his efforts.

Either way, Abualrub is faced with a major dilemma and the only way out for him is to turn his back on Muhammad by condemning him as a false prophet, which he certainly was, and embrace Jesus as his risen Lord and Savior.

 

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