Exposing the Holy Bible to a routine process of revisions, and thereby publishing and selling new editions of the Bible, has become a really prolific source of trade. Each and every European family keeps a copy of the Holy Bible [the Old and New Testaments] in their home, no matter whether the family members believe in it or not. As a matter of fact, most European villagers read no other book than the Holy Bible, which is the only book they know. The cultural level of the European people is not as high as we think it is. Those who live in villages know how to read and write, but they are quite unaware of what is going on in the world. They read only the Holy Bible. Consequently, every new (revised) edition of the Holy Bible is printed in millions of copies and earns its publishers millions of pounds yearly. Then, no other job can yield more profit than does the regular job of revising and publishing the Holy Bible yearly.
In the meantime, the Western periodicals provide a stimulus to the activity with repeated warnings: “There are errors in the Holy Bible.” They contain serious articles written by well-known scientists and theologians which you would read with consternation. An example of them follows:
Now you will say, “How can the Word of Allâhu ta’âlâ be mis-translated? How can the Word of Allâhu ta’âlâ be corrected by human beings? How can the Book of Allâhu ta’âlâ be subjected to a revision? A book that has undergone so many alterations and corrections can never be the Word of Allâhu ta’âlâ.” In fact, if you read the following comments in the introduction to the Anglican Bible revised a second time in 1971, your consternation will reach a zenith. The clerical commission who did the last revision make the following remarks: “... Stylistically, the version of the Holy Bible prepared under the command of King James is extremely perfect. It can be accepted as the highest work of art in the English literature. We regret to say, however, that the book contains such serious errors as should be definitely corrected.”
Only think! An ecclesiastical group make a commission, find a number of SERIOUS errors in a book that has been believed
to be the ‘Word of Allah’ from 1020 [1611 C.E.] to 1391 [1971] in England, and decide that these errors must definitely be put to right! Who on earth would believe that that book is the ‘Word of Allah’? The following is a humorous anecdote told by a person who has held debates with Christian theologians and scientists on the Christian tenets and the Bible and who has proved that they were interpolated. That person relates as follows:
“An article that appeared on the September 8th, 1957 issue of the American periodical AWAKE read as follows: So there are as many as fifty thousand errors in the Holy Bible! Recently, a young man bought a copy of the King James Version of the Holy Bible. He never expected that there would be mistakes in the Holy Bible which he thought was the Word of Allah. A short time later he saw an article with the heading ‘Facts About the Bible’ in the periodical Look, which he had happened to buy. The article said that a clerical commission appointed in 1133 [1720 C.E.] found twenty thousand errors in the Bible that was prepared under the command of King James. He was both surprised and extremely sad. When he talked with his spiritual companions about this matter, they said, to his great amazement, that the existing Bible contained “fifty thousand errors, not twenty thousand.” He almost swooned. Now he asks us: For God’s sake, tell me. Is the Holy Bible which we look on as the Word of God really a book full of mistakes?
“I read the magazine with attention and kept it. Six months ago, one day I was sitting at home, when the door-bell rang. I opened the door and saw a polite young man standing before me. Smiling respectfully, he gave me a cordial greeting, and showed me his I.D. card. It said ‘Jehovah’s Witness’ on his I.D. This appellation was used by a missionary organization. In a dulcet tone, the young missionary said, ‘First of all, we are trying to invite you, and the other educated people who have deviated from the right path, to Christianity, which is the right path. I have brought you books containing some lovely passages from the Torah and the Bible. Let me present them to you. Read them, think over them, and make a decision.’ I invited him in and offered him some coffee. He seemed sure that he had convinced me, at least halfway. After coffee, I asked him, ‘My dear friend, you look on the Torah and the Bible as the Word of Allah, don’t you?’ ‘Definitely,’ was the answer. ‘Then, there are no errors in the Torah and the Bible, are there?’ ‘Impossible,’ he said. Then I
showed him the magazine Awake, and said, ‘This magazine is issued in America. It is written in this magazine that there are fifty thousand errors in the Bible. If the person who had written the article in this magazine were a Muslim, you would be free to believe him or not. Wouldn’t you rather admit the statements written in a magazine issued by your co-religionists?’ Poor man, he was so badly caught unawares, so bewildered. ‘Will you please give me that magazine? I want to read it,’ he requested. He read it, and then read it once again, and again. He blushed with embarrassment. I saw it and tried to suppress my smile. He must have sensed it, so he blushed the more. At last he came up with an answer: ‘Look,’ he said. ‘This magazine was printed in 1957. We are in 1980 now. Twenty-three years’ time is quite a long period. The errors should have been found and put to right by now.’ I pressed the argument seriously, ‘Let’s suppose you’re right. But how many thousands of the fifty thousand errors do you think were corrected? What were the errors corrected? How were they corrected? Could you enlighten me in this respect?’ His head fell down, and admitted, ‘Unfortunately, no. I can’t.’ I added, ‘My dear guest! How could I believe that a book that contains fifty thousand errors and which is changed and corrected every now and then is the Book of Allâhu ta’âlâ? Not a single letter has been added to or excised from the Qur’ân al-kerîm which we believe is the Book of Allâhu ta’âlâ. It does not contain a single mistake. I appreciate your effort to guide me to the right path, yet your guide, the Old and New Testaments, is erroneous, and the path you have chosen is doubtful. How will you explain this paradoxical state?’ The poor man was thoroughly disillusioned and fuddled. He said, ‘Let me go and consult my priestly superiors. I will be back with the answers in a couple of days,’ and disappeared. He never showed up again. I have been waiting ever since. There is no one in sight so far!”
Now let us enlarge on the profusion of the errors, inconsistencies and contradictory statements in the Torah and the Bible:
One point we should like to stress at the outset is that the people who have searched and found the erroneous passages in the Torah and the Bible are mostly the ecclesiastical people. These people have been looking for ways to get out of the contradictory situations they have fallen into. Philips, who published the book entitled ‘The Modern English Version of the
Bible’ in London in 1970, makes the following observation about the Gospel of Matthew:
“There are people who argue that the Gospel attributed to Matthew was not really written by him. Today many ecclesiastical people hold that the so-called Gospel was written by a person shrouded in mystery. That mysterious person took the Gospel of Matthew, changed it as he wished, and added many other statements into it. His style is extremely clear and smooth. In contrast, the style in the original Matthew was more ponderous and its statements contained more reasoning. Matthew passed all the statements he had seen and heard through the sieve of his mind and reason, and wrote them down only after being fully convinced that they were the Word of Allah. The text that we now have in the name of the Gospel of Matthew does not reflect the same circumspection.”
Since the Word of Allah could not be changed continuously, the statements quoted above would suffice to prove that today’s Gospel of Matthew was written by human hands. The Gospel of Matthew was lost, and a new Gospel was written by an undistinguished person. No one knows who that person was.
The four Gospels contained in the New Testament part of the Bible, Matthew excluded, were written by John, by Luke, and by Mark. Of these people, it is only John, [the son of Îsâ’s ‘alaihis-salâm’ maternal aunt], who had seen Îsâ (Jesus) ‘alaihis-salâm’. Yet he wrote his Gospel in Samos after Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ was raised to heaven. Luke and Mark, on the other hand, had never seen Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’. Mark was Peter’s translator. Not only the Gospel of Matthew, but also the Gospel of John was written and changed by someone else. This thesis will be proved on the pages ahead. In short, there are various different narrations concerning the four Gospels. One fact, however, is agreed on by the entire world: that these four Gospels consist of man-made stories wherein discordant accounts are given about the same events, (as you will see further ahead). They are not the Word of Allah. Before embarking on a discourse about the errors in the Holy Bible, i.e. in the Old and New Testaments, we would like to touch upon another aspect of the Torah and the Bible. The following story was told by a person who had held many debates with Christians and who had confuted them:
“One day I requested of my Christian neighbours: ‘Nowadays I have concerned myself with the Holy Bible. I want to read you a
passage from it.’ They were very much pleased about my being interested in the Holy Bible, and rejoiced with the hope that I would ‘attain the right path.’ They rushed to make a circle around me. I gave them a copy of the Holy Bible each and asked them to open the page whereon the thirty-seventh chapter of Isaiah began. I said to them, ‘Now I shall read you this chapter of the Holy Bible. Please follow me and see if I am reading correctly.’ They all began to listen to me with attention, checking my reading the chapter from the Holy Bibles in their hands. The chapter I chose read as follows:
‘And it came to pass, when king Hez-e-ki’ah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.’ (Is: 37-1)
‘And he sent E-li’a-kim, who was over the household, and Sheb’na the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.’ (ibid: 2)
‘And they said unto him, Thus saith Hez-e-ki’ah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.’ (ibid: 3) I read on for a short while.
“As I read, I stopped from time to time, to ask them whether my reading was exactly correct. They answered, ‘Yes. Each word you’ve read is exactly correct.’ Then, all of a sudden, I stopped, and said to them, ‘Now I will tell you something: The passage that you read with me in the books in your hands is the thirty-seventh chapter of Isaiah of the Old Testament [Torah]. On the other hand, the passage I read in this book is the nineteenth chapter of II Kings of the Old Testament. In other words, the two different chapters from the two different books are exactly the same, which means to say that one of them has been plagiarized from the other. I do not know which has been plagiarized from which one. Yet these books, which you look on as holy books, have been stolen from one another. Here is the proof!’ My words raised a commotion. Loud shouts rose: ‘It’s impossible!’ They presently took the Holy Book off my hand, and examined it with attention. When they saw that the nineteenth chapter of the II Kings, which I had read, really was the same as the thirty-seventh chapter of Isaiah, they were agape with astonishment. I said to them, ‘Please do not take exception to what I am going to tell you now: Is plagiarism possible in a book of God? How could I be expected to believe in such books?’ Their heads fell down. Willy-nilly, they
had to admit, though tacitly.”
Now let us quote some vague passages from the Torah and the Bible: “And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.” (Matt: 9-9)
Now, let us think well: Supposing the person who wrote these statements were Matthew himself, why did he relate the incident through a bystander’s mouth instead of speaking for himself? If Matthew himself were the author of the Gospel concerned, he would have said, for instance, “As I was sitting at the receipt of custom, Jesus passed by. He saw me and told me to follow him. So I followed him.” This shows that Matthew is not the author of the Gospel of Matthew.
“FORASMUCH as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,” “Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word;” “It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent The-oph’i-lus,” (Luke: 1-1, 2, 3)
This wording indicates that:
Luke wrote this Gospel at a time when many other people wrote Gospels.
Luke points out that there are no Gospels written by the Apostles themselves. By saying, “Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word;” Luke observes a distinction between the Gospel-writers and the eyewitnesses, i.e. the Apostles.
He does not profess to be a disciple of one of the Apostles. For he does not hope that a document of that sort, i.e. claiming to be an Apostle’s disciple, will win others’ confidence in his book, especially in his time when the country is awash in compositions, writings and booklets ascribed to each of the Apostles. Perhaps he prefers to say that he in person examined the facts from the original source because he thinks this kind of documentation would sound more authentical.
“And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.” (John: 19-35) If John himself had written this verse, he would not have said, “... he
that saw it bare record, and his record is true.”
In short, you see that Matthew, Luke and John wrote not about themselves, but about an unknown, unnamed person. Who is that person? Is he the prophet? Who are the ‘ministers of the word’? Who is the person that ‘arose, and followed him’? Who are the ‘eyewitnesses’? Could there be a religious book so fraught with ambiguities and mysteries? Nor is it known who is the eyewitness, and for whom he testifies!
Now let us exemplify the inconsistencies and the contradictory passages in the Holy Bible:
“So Gad came to David, and told him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? ...” (2 Sam: 24-13)
“So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Choose thee” “Either three years famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. ...” (1 Chr: 21-11, 12)
You see the great difference between the two passages telling about the same event in a book which is claimed to be the Word of Allah. Which one of them shall we believe? Does Allâhu ta’âlâ make two contradictory statements? The discrepancies between the various books in the Holy Bible are so numerous that an account of them would make a huge book. In this text we shall give a few other examples in order to help our readers to develop an idea about the matter:
“And the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew the men of seven hundred chariots of the Syrians, and forty thousand horsemen, and smote Sho’bach the captain of their host, who died there.” (II Sam: 10-18)
“But the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew of the Syrians seven thousand men which fought in chariots, and forty thousand footmen, and killed Sho’phach the captain of the host.” (I Chr: 19-18)
The same battle is related in two different ways in two different places. The number of chariots, which is seven hundred in the former, is multiplied by ten and becomes seven thousand in
the latter. The forty thousand horsemen slain according to one of the books is changed to the same number of footmen in the other!
Since the books contained in the Holy Bible give such inconsistent information, who can believe that they are the Word of Allah? Is Allâhu ta’âlâ, –may He protect us from saying so,– unable to distinguish between footmen or horsemen, or to see the difference between seven hundred and seven thousand, a ten-fold difference? To make statements contradicting one another and then to represent them as the Word of Allâhu ta’âlâ; what an insolent, barefaced slander it is towards Allâhu ta’âlâ!
Let us give some other examples:
The place described in the following passages is the ‘Pond of Sacrifices’ which was built upon Suleymân’s (Solomon) ‘alaihis-salâm’ command in his palace.
“And it was a hand breadth thick, and the brim thereof was wrought like the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies: it contained two thousand baths.” (1 Kings: 7-26) (1 bath=37 litres)
“And thickness of it was an handbreadth, and the brim of it like the work of the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies; and it received and held three thousand baths.” (II Chr: 4-5)
You see, once again there is an immense difference: one thousand baths, i.e. thirty-seven thousand litres! It is obvious that the so-called authors of these books, quite unaware of one another, wrote down whatever occurred to them, did not bother to check them again, thus giving birth to contradictory anecdotes, and then shamelessly called their writings the Word of Allah.
Here is another example:
“And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen; whom he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem.” (II Chr: 9-25)
“And Solomon had forty thousand stalls ...” (1 Kings: 4-26)
You see, the number of the stalls has been multiplied ten-fold.
It may be said, “The differences are mostly numerical. Are numerical differences that important?” Let us answer this with a quotation from Alberts Schweizer, who states, “Even the greatest miracles cannot prove that two multiplied by two is five, or that there are angles on the circumference of a circle. Again, the most stupendous miracles, no matter how many, cannot correct a
deficiency or an error in the heretical creed of a Christian.”
Finally, let us quote some different passages:
It is written in the forty-fourth verse of the twenty-seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew that the two thieves that were crucified with Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ castigated him like the Jews. (Matt: 27-44)
On the other hand it is written in the thirty-ninth and later verses of the twenty-third chapter of the Gospel of Luke that “one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him,” but the other one “rebuked” his companion by saying “Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?”, and that Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ said to him, “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke: 23-39, 40, 43)
The textual differences are obvious.
According to Mark, as Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ stayed among the dead after he had been taken down from the cross, he spoke with his Apostles and then he was raised up to heaven. (Mark: 16-9 to 19) The same account is given in Luke. On the other hand, according to the third verse of the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, which, again, is ascribed to Luke, Hadrat Îsâ stayed among the dead for forty days and then was taken up to heaven. (Acts: 1-3 to 9)
And so the examples go on. As we have stated earlier, this book would be too small for us to write them all. Abdullâh-i-Terjumân, who used to be a priest named Turmeda formerly, and whom we have mentioned in the introduction, gives a few examples of the inconsistencies among the verses of each of the Gospels:
“... and his[1] meal was locusts and wild honey.” (Matt: 3-4)
“For John came neither eating nor drinking, ...” (ibid: 11-18)
The former priest quotes another passage:
“Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.” “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;” “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept rose,” “And came out of the grave after his
---------------------------------
[1] John (Yahyâ ‘alaihis-salâm’)
resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.” (ibid: 27-50, 51, 52, 53) After this quotation, the former priest Anselmo Turmedo, who converted to Islam afterwards, adds: “This passage, which is a mere description of a disastrous event, was plagiarized from an ancient book. This description was written by a Jewish historian upon the capture and destruction of Jerusalem by Titus (Roman empire from 78 to
Let us touch upon another chronological error:
“And Ha’gar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son’s name, which Ha’gar bare, Ish’ma-el.” (Gen: 16-15)
“And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Mo-ri’ah; ...” (ibid: 22-2) Obviously, it seems to have been forgotten that Ibrâhîm (Abraham) ‘alaihis-salâm’ had another son, namely Ismâîl ‘alaihis-salâm’.
Let us leave aside these errors, with which the readers as well may begin to feel annoyance, and delve into the origins of the books contained in the Holy Bible, i.e. in the Old and New Testaments, in which today’s Christians and Jews believe:
The first five books of the Holy Bible are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These five books, or Pentateuch, are called the Torah. They believe that these five books are the Torah revealed to Műsâ (Moses) ‘alaihis-salâm’.
We have already stated some of the comments made on Isaiah. That book is said to have been written by someone else.
The book Judges can be thought to have been written by Ismâ’îl.
Ruth: Author: anonymous.
1 Samuel: Author: anonymous.
2 Samuel: Author: anonymous.
1 Kings: Author: anonymous.
1 Chronicles: Perhaps it was written by a Jewish rabbi and theologian named AZRÂ (Ezra) three hundred and fifty years before Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’.
2 Chronicles: This book, too, may have been written by Azrâ. It is written in Munjid, (an encyclopaedic Arabic dictionary made up of two parts,) that Azrâ means Uzeyr. Yet the author of these books is not Uzeyr ‘alaihis-salâm’ (a prophet), but a Jew named Azrâ.
Ezra: This book was named after its author, Ezra (Azrâ).
Esther: Author: anonymous.
Job: Author: anonymous.
Psalms: It means the chapters of Zebűr, (the Holy Book revealed to Dâwűd (David) ‘alaihis-salâm’. Although it is said to consist of the chapters revealed to Dâwűd ‘alaihis-salâm’, it also contains psalms of the sons of Korah, Asaph, Ethan the Ezrahite, and Solomon (Suleymân ‘alaihis-salâm’).
Jonah: Author: unknown.
Habakkuk: A book written by a person whose identity, origin, genealogy or profession is not known at all.
So we have given you brief information about the origins of the books of the Old Testament.
As for the New Testament; since we have already given information about its authors and the discrepancies in it, we do not think any further details would be necessary.
The Holy Bible contains many other absurd statements. For instance, the repentance which Allâhu ta’âlâ feels for the Flood (Gen: 8-21), Yâ’qűb’s (Jacob) ‘alaihis-salâm’ dream in which he wrestles with Allâhu ta’âlâ and wins (Gen: 32-24 to 27), Lűt’s (Lot) ‘alaihis-salâm’ committing fornication with his daughters (Gen: 19-31 to 36); how foul these lies are should have been realized by Christians also, so that they are gradually taking these passages out of the Holy Bible.
Now let us examine the Holy Bible from a textual point of view to see what it is endeavouring to imbue into mankind:
The passage we shall quote is from Genesis, which tells about the early human beings, the early prophets, the great prophets
such as Âdam, Nűh, and Ibrâhîm ‘alaihimussalawâtu wattaslîmât’. Also, it tells about the earliest Hebrew families and how they were established. It is written as follows in the initial verses of the thirty-eighth chapter, which is about Judah, the forefather of Jews: “And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain A-dul’lam-ite, whose name was Hi’rah.” “And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shu’ah; and he took her, and went in unto her.” “And she conceived, and bare a son; and he called his name Er.” (Gen: 38-1, 2, 3)
Now, please put your hand on your heart, and answer the following questions: What does a religious book teach? A religious book teaches people what they should do and what they should not do. It gives them ideas about this world and the next. It rebukes them for bad behaviour and praises them for good behaviour. It teaches them their duties towards Allâhu ta’âlâ and the behaviour they should observe with one another. It formulates a lifelong policy that should be pursued for a peaceful and happy worldly life. In short, a religious book is a BOOK of MORALS.
Which one of these virtues exists in the passage that you have just read? It is an obscene story of fornication. Anywhere in the world, this passage would be banned on account of its pornographic implications. This book, which Christians and Jews hold sacred, contains quite a number of other similar immoral passages. For instance, as we have cited earlier, it is written in the thirtieth and later verses of the nineteenth chapter of Genesis of the Old Testament that Lűt’s (Lot) ‘alaihis-salâm’ own two daughters made him drunk with wine and committed sexual intercourse with him and had sons. Likewise, it is written in the eleventh chapter of II Samuel of the Old Testament that Dâwud (David) ‘alaihis-salâm’ watched Bath’-she-ba, the wife of U-ri’ah, one of his commanders, in the nude as she was taking a bath, succumbed to her attraction, went into a sexual relation with her, and sent her husband to “the forefront of the hottest battle,” lest he should come back. (II Sam: 11-2 to 17) In today’s European museums there are paintings illustrating David’s watching Bathsheba in the nude and dispatching Uriah to death. In European languages, ‘Uriah’s letter’ means ‘death sentence’ or ‘bad news’, and thus Europeans derive stories of this sort from their books which they call ‘Holy’. What do these books teach
their readers? Men who are tempted to commit fornication with their brothers’ wives, fathers-in-law who make their daughters-in-law pregnant, fathers who commit incest with their daughters, men who seduce their inferiors’ wives and who send them to death.
How appalling! These abominable stories are rejected even by some Christians. A 1977 issue of the magazine Plain Truth contained an article purporting the following warning: “Be extra careful as you teach the Holy Bible to your children! For there are indecent stories of fornication in the Holy Bible. Children that read these stories may develop some abnormalities concerning relations between family members. These indecent stories, which mostly appear in the Old Testament, must be discarded entirely and children must be given a Holy Bible purged from such impurities.” The magazine also adds that “The Holy Bible should definitely be subjected to an analysis. Presently, it encourages young people to immoral indulgences, rather than imbuing them with high moral qualities.” Bernard Shaw, the well-known man of literature, goes to an extreme in this subject. He is of the opinion that “The Torah and the Bible are the most dangerous books of the world. They must be locked in a strong safe lest they should appear again.”
Dr. Stroggie, in his book about the Holy Book, paraphrases from Dr. Parker: “When you read the Holy Bible, you lose your whereabouts among a paraphernalia of inconsistent stories. The Holy Bible embodies a myriad of strange names. Genesis, especially, is more of a genealogical registration book. Who is begotten from who, and how? And nothing else. Why should these things interest me? What do they have to do with worship or with loving Allâhu ta’âlâ? How can one be a good individual? What is the Judgement Day? Who will call us to account, and how? What should be done to be a pious person? There is very little reference to these things. There are mostly legends of various sorts. Before day is defined, night is being described.”
Prof. F.C. Burkitt’s views can be paraphrased as follows from his book ‘Canon of the New Testament’: “There are four different descriptions of Îsâ (Jesus) ‘alaihis-salâm’, one in each of the four Gospels. They are quite different from one another. Those who wrote them did not intend to bring the four Gospels together. Therefore, each of them gives different information without any relation with the others. Some of the writings are like unfinished stories, and others are like passages taken from a well-known
As is pointed out on the five hundred and eighty-second page of the second volume of Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, “Îsâ (Jesus) ‘alaihis-salâm’ did not leave behind him a written work, nor did he command any of his disciples to write literature.” As it is seen, this great encyclopaedia confirms the fact that the four Gospels do not have any religious value, and that they consist of contradictory stories with anonymous authors.
As the European scientists and historians, and even Christian theologians announce that today’s Torahs and Bibles are corrupt books, enemies of religion, who reject spiritual forces and who have been dizzied by the pace of technological change and therefore are quite unconscious of the existence of spiritual knowledge, attack religions on account of the foolish passages in the Torahs and Bibles. Thereby they are trying to find justification for their denying miracles. However, for a Christian and a Muslim alike, the first requirement of piety is believing in miracles. If a person uses his mind as the only gauge to prove matters of îmân (belief), which are beyond mind’s grasp, he may be dragged towards disbelief. A person feels hostility towards something he does not know or cannot understand. One of those wretched people who have fallen into the disastrous state of denying the existence of miracles is Ernest O. Hauser, an American writer of religious books. In an article of his, which was published in 1979, he attacks pious people and even tries to interpret miracles. In order to seduce young brains, he puts forward a few articles written by atheists as corroborative evidence to prove his argument, which can be paraphrased as follows: “It is written as follows in the Gospel of Matthew: ‘And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and broke, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.’ ‘And they did all eat, were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.” ‘And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.’ [Matt: 14-19, 20, 21]
“This is Matthew’s account of the most disputed miracle of Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’.
“A miracle is a preternatural, wonderful event performed by a prophet for the purpose of displaying his capacity and power.
How can we suggest these miracles as a credal tenet to today’s Christians, who have learned the most up-to-date scientific improvements and who have grown up in a knowledgeable environment? On the other hand, it is impossible to take them out of the Gospels. Then, we have to analyse them once again. Our childhood was spent in a setting where we had to listen again and again to the various miracles of Jesus (Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’). Some of them, such as his changing water into wine at a wedding party at Cana; his stopping a horrifying tempest in the sea of Galilee; his curing the blind; his walking on the sea up to his disciples’ boat; his enlivening Luazar from death, were engraved into our brains. Indeed, the Bible is mostly full of miracles. The most lovely parts of all the four Gospels consist of miracles. When Jesus (Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’) went to the Jews, he had to show them miracles so that he could prove his prophethood. For the Jews had challenged him to prove himself by showing them miracles. In fact, more often than not, he had to display miracles to some of his own disciples because they felt doubts about his prophethood. For example, as he and his disciples went out into the sea in a boat, a horrifying tempest broke out, the disciples woke Jesus (Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’), saying, ‘O Lord, save us, or else we will perish!’ Upon this Jesus (Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’) made a sign and the tempest calmed down. This miracle impressed the disciples very deeply, so they went down to Jesus’ feet, apologized, and confirmed him. Then, when they related this story to the other Jews, they, too, admired him, and became Nazarenes. [Matthew: 8]
“The thirty-seventh and thirty-eighth verses of the tenth chapter of the Gospel of John quote Jesus as having said, ‘If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.’ ‘But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.’ (John: 10-37, 38) These miracles had so great an impact on the people that the great Jewish theologian Nicodemus, who had been denying Jesus, visited him one night and, being attracted by the miracles he displayed, he acknowledged, ‘Now I believe in the fact that you have been sent by Allah. For you could not do all these miracles without the help of Allah.’ We know that Jesus (Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ regretted and felt shame that he had to perform these miracles. When he cured a man suffering from leprosy with the touch of his hand, he told the man not to tell others that he had cured him.[1]
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[1] Luke: 5-14
He performed the miracles with a single sign or saying only a few words. According to the Bible, when he exorcised the devil out of a girl, he said to her mother, ‘Go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.’[1] And he said to those people whom he cured, ‘Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.’[2] As a matter of fact, a sign made with the hand or a touch would be enough to accomplish the miracles. These miracles mostly emanated from the compassion that Jesus (Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’) felt for people. One day he saw two blind men on the side of the road. They asked him to help them. He pitied them and touched their eyes with his hands, whereupon they were blessed with seeing again. In fact, the miracle related by Luke shows how merciful Jesus was. He saw ‘a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother.’ He ‘had compassion on her,’ and enlivened her son. (Luke: 7-12, 13, 14, 15) Today, these miracles are rejected by a number of Christians. Many a scientist believes in Jesus but refuses to believe that he could have managed such miracles. It was as early as 1162 [1748 C.E.] when the famous Scotch historian David Hume wrote: ‘Miracle means suspension of the laws of nature. The laws of nature are based on definite and fixed essentials. It is impossible to change them. For this reason, miracles are unbelievable.’
“The most significant of these objections comes from Rudolph Butmann, a contemporary theologian, who argues that ‘It is no longer possible today for a person who utilizes electricity in his home, and who uses radio and television, to believe in the imaginary miracles written in the Gospels.”
“Many experiments have been done with a view to penetrating into the essence of miracles and providing a logical explanation for them. For instance, the event of satiating more than five thousand people with two fish took place, in actual fact, in quite a different manner. Jesus (Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’) and the other Nazarenes went out for a picnic. When it was lunch time everybody took out what they had brought to eat, and Jesus, too, took out the food, two fish and five loaves of bread, that he had brought. So they all sat and ate. As for Jesus’ walking on the sea to the ship aboard which were his disciples; it is entirely an optical illusion. We all know that in foggy weather people walking along the seashore appear as if they were walking on the sea. As for the
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[1] Mark: 7-29
[2] John: 5-8
passing over of the storm; it may be considered that the storm was already passing over when Jesus made a sign, and that it would calm down anyway, even if he had not made a sign. As a matter of fact, all these events are narrated by those who saw them. A person who sees something of this sort may succumb to his emotional predilections, understate or overstate the event, or distort the fact and relate it subjectively. In the meantime, one point should not be forgotten: Today the disputes on the miracles have almost entirely lost their impetus, and very few people, if there are any, believe in the miracles in the Gospels. Recently, a well-known archbishop said, ‘A person can be a true Christian without believing in these miracles as well. For the essence of Christianity is belief in God and compassion for people.’ This means to say that whether or not we read the Bible as a book of tales, and the miracles written in it as fictitious stories, has nothing to do with piety.
“It is noteworthy that Jesus’ miracles have on the one hand announced him throughout the world and on the other hand incurred a multitude of hostilities on him. When the Jewish rabbis received the news that Jesus had cured a sick man in Bethany and enlivened Luazer, they decided to protect themselves ‘against his harm’ by having him killed because his miracles were attracting people towards him and he was ‘gradually identifying himself with God,’ and they betrayed him to the Romans. In the meantime, Jesus was performing his last miracle, putting back in its place the high priest’s servant’s ear that had been ‘smitten off’ by Peter, and thereby he was showing to humanity that ‘one should be merciful even to one’s enemies.’
[According to the book History of the Jews, by a Jewish historian named H. Hirsch Graetz, Jews established an Assembly of the Seventies in order to make it sure that their society would adapt themselves fully to the commandments of the Torah. President of this assembly was called the chief priest. The Jewish rabbis who teach Judaism to the young Jews in schools and who explain the Torah are called scribes. Some of the explanations and commentaries which these people added to the Torah were later integrated into the copies of the Torah that were written afterwards. They are ‘scribes’ mentioned in the Gospels. Another duty they are responsible for is to make Jews follow the Torah.]
“That was the last of Jesus’ miracles. When the Romans caught him and took him to Herod, Herod asked him to display a
miracle. Jesus did not answer. He looked before him in silence.[1] For the mission that God had given him was over. That prophet, who had provided all sorts of help for others, could not help himself now. For he had been sent as a saviour for humanity, not as a saviour for himself! How much pleased God was with that behaviour of his can be assessed from His raising him to heaven.
“The question, ‘Do you believe in miracles?’ have always been repeated. In fact, it is very hard for the present generation to believe in miracles. Let us not forget, however, that belief cannot be explained within the limits of logic. Belief is love and is not in good terms with logic. Men should be given some spiritual rights. How great pleasure we used to take from the stories we listened to when we were children, and how disillusioned we were when we grew up and learned that the talking animals, genies, the magicians and the dwarfs in those stories were not true at all! Let us not dwell too much on miracles. I presume that the most logical person would take pleasure from imagining the descent of Christianity on the earth on its miraculous wings, although it is merely a story.” This is the end of our quotation from Hauser.
This article makes us think. The more errors and mistakes Christians find in the Holy Bible in the course of time, the more sceptical they become about the veracity of its statements, so much so that they reject even its miracles. The British priestly philosophers named David Hume and Rudolph Butmann, two Christians who realized that the Torah and the Bible they had been reading could not be the Word of Allah, expressed their rightful hatred for Christianity and for the copies of the Torah and the Bible in their hands. Meanwhile, overflowing the borders of knowledge and manners, they had the insolence to pronounce imaginary judgements on the miracles stated in the Qur’ân al-kerîm, which is truely the Word of Allah. Reading those unconscionable lines, which are not based on knowledge though they were written in the name of knowledge, young people may drift into the same wrong opinion held by the authors of those lines. To protect the innocent young generation against this danger is, therefore, a cardinal duty for those people who have had it on their conscience to serve humanity. By the same token,
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[1] Here again, the four Gospels give contradictory accounts. Please see Matt: 27-11, 12, 13, 14; Mark: 15-2, 3, 4, 5; Luke: 23-3, 7, 8, 9; and John: 18-33, 34, 35, and so on.
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and for the purpose of blessing ourselves with the approval of Allâhu ta’âlâ by carrying out His command to do favours and charitable deeds, we shall allot the following passage to this end, supporting our argument with citations from the book Mawâhib-i-ladunniyya, written by Ahmad Qastalânî ‘rahmatullâhi ’aleyh’ (d. 923 [1517 C.E.]), a great Islamic sholar.
Mu’jiza[1] (miracle) is a supernatural event that shows that Prophets ‘alaihimus-salawâtu wattaslîmât’ were sent by Allâhu ta’âlâ and that they tell the truth. When a Prophet displays a miracle, he has to challenge others, saying, “Try and do the same if you do not believe! You cannot.” A mu’jiza (miracle) is beyond the normal course of events and the natural laws. For this reason, scientists cannot perform miracles. If the person displaying the marvellous event does not tell others beforehand and challenge them to do the same, then that person is not a Prophet; he is a Walî, and what he has done is called a karâmat. A marvellous event performed by others is called magic. The marvellous things performed by magicians can happen through Prophets ‘alaihimussalawâtu wattaslîmat’ and through Awliyâ ‘rahima-humullâhu ta’âlâ’ as well. An example of this is: When Pharaoh’s magicians changed pieces of thread into snakes, the rod of Műsâ (Moses) ‘alaihis-salâm’ changed into a bigger snake and ate them all. When they saw that their magic was broken and that they could not perform the same miracle, they all believed in Műsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’, and they did not relinquish their belief despite Pharaoh’s threats and oppression. Allâhu ta’âlâ is the creator of all miracles, whether they be the mu’jizas of Prophets ‘alaihimussalawâtu wattaslîmât’ or the karâmats of Awliyâ ‘rahima-humullâhu ta’âlâ’. While He creates the ordinary, natural events that are harmonious with the laws of science through a certain chain of causes, He suspends such causes in creating the miracles. Burhân and âyat are two other terms that can be substituted for mu’jiza. Magic changes the events physically. It cannot change the construction of something. Mu’jiza and karâmat can do both these types of changes.
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[1] When the supernatural event, miracle, takes place through a Prophet it is called a mu’jiza. When it takes place through a Walî, it is called a karâmat. Walî means a pious Muslim whom Allâhu ta’âlâ loves very much. (pl. Awliyâ)
The advent of Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’, some of his qualifications, that he would appear on the Arabian peninsula, and the wonderful events that would take place towards the time of his advent were written in the Torah and the Bible. That they were stated in those Holy Books was a miraculous event, not only for Műsâ (Moses) and Îsâ (Jesus) ‘alaihim-as-salâm’, but also for Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’. Allâhu ta’âlâ blessed each Prophet with miracles (mu’jizas) coextensive with his time and valued highly by the people of his time. As for Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’; in addition to the similitudes of all the miracles given to other Prophets, he was blessed with other miracles. It is written in Mir’ât-i-kâinât that the number of miracles that he displayed during his lifetime was well over three thousand. Eighty-six of these miracles are stated in the fourth division of this chapter, under the heading Miracles of Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’.
Some of the non-Sunnite groups of Muslims, and some religiously ignorant people who pass for scientists, reject the miracles, partly or as a whole. They say that miracles “run counter to our scientific knowledge.” The first thing to do with such people is to help the ones who deny Islam (because they are unaware of it) to know Islam and to guide them to îmân (belief in Islam). Once they have îmân, they will believe in miracles. For the Qur’ân al-kerîm declares that on the day of doom the earth, the heavens, the stars, the living and lifeless beings will change both physically and chemically. A person who believes in all these changes, which are beyond the established knowledge of science, will naturally believe in miracles. We do not say that “Prophets ‘alaihimussalawâtu wattaslîmât’ make mu’jizas and Awliyâ ‘rahima-humullâhu ta’âlâ’ make karâmats.” If we said so, the disbelievers might have the right to protest. We say, “Allâhu ta’âlâ creates mu’jizas through His Prophets ‘alaihimussalawâtu wattaslîmât’, and karâmats through His Awliyâ ‘rahimahumullâhu ta’âlâ.’ ” That means to say that a wise and reasonable person who is aware of the latest scientific improvements and who is cognizant of biological and astronomical events will immediately realize that from the tiniest particle to the entirety of the universe, and from the atom to the sun, all the living and lifeless beings have been created with some calculations and are working in harmony with one another like the various parts of a single machine. He will immediately believe in the fact that an Omniscient and Almighty Being, who
sees all, creates and handles these things as He wills. It is natural to him now that this great Creator can also create mu’jizas and karâmats. As a scientist we say that miracles are a true fact and that Allâhu ta’âlâ, who is their sole Creator, makes His Prophets ‘alaihimussalawâtu wattaslîmât’ perform them. Prophets ‘alaihimussalawâtu wattaslîmât’ cannot perform miracles by themselves or without the permission of Allâhu ta’âlâ. Miracles such as Îsâ’s (Jesus) ‘alaihis-salâm’ curing illnesses and enlivening dead people are miracles created by Allâhu ta’âlâ. This fact is stated in the Qur’ân al-kerîm. On the other hand, Christians, who have been suffering an utter defeat as to the veracity of the Bibles in their hands, are gradually verging on a total denial of all the things stated in these books, which means irreligiousness in the end.
How can poor Christians believe in today’s Holy Bibles? As you have clearly seen so far,
1) The Holy Bible contains very few passages that can be accepted as the Word of Allah.
2) That some of the statements in the Holy Bible are not the Word of Allah manifests itself in that the names of the Prophets who made them are written.
3) Many statements were added to the Holy Bible, and it is not known who made those statements.
4) It is admitted by Christian theologians that many fictitious stories and legends were inserted into the episodes about the Apostles.
5) The events narrated by the Apostles about Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ differ from one another.
6) Some versions of the Bible which contained true Biblical statements, i.e. the Gospel of Barnabas, have been done away with by Christians.
7) The Holy Bible has been exposed to a number of revisions and interpolations by ecclesiastical councils. These revisions are still going on. According to a narration, there are exactly four thousand different Holy Bibles today. Each council alleges that there are very serious errors in the Bible previous to them.
8) Emperors and kings ordered alterations in the Holy Bible, and their orders were carried out.
9) The discourse of the Holy Bible lacks by far the genuineness that should exist in the discourse of the Word of Allah. Some passages of the Old Testament, in especial, as we have exemplified earlier in the text, are too obscene to be read in the presence of children.
10) It is written in European Christian magazines that there are fifty thousand errors in the Holy Bible. Presently Christians are putting forth all their efforts to eliminate the gravest one of these errors, i.e. trinity.
11) It is admitted by Christian theologians that the Holy Bible is not the Word of Allah, but a man-made book.
Our beloved readers! All this time you have been with us in our scrutiny of the Bible. As you will grant, we have been entirely impartial in this critical study. The opinions we have conveyed belong not to Islamic scholars, but to CHRISTIAN THEOLOGIANS. From time to time these people excised the contradictory passages from the various different versions of the Holy Bible. Anyone may buy and study one of the Holy Bibles being sold today. We have written the book, the chapter and the verse of each of the passages we have quoted and cited, and we have carried on long, detailed examinations as to their veracity.
How could one compare a book of that sort with the majestic, eloquent, rhetorical and miraculous masterpiece, the Qur’ân al-kerîm, which has not undergone even an iota of interpolation since the first day its revelation started? All of us should have reached the following conclusion:
The Word of Allah should never be changed. A book that contains wrong, erroneous passages, which is changed by people every now and then, and which it is acknowledged even by priests was written by people, can NEVER be the “Word of Allah.”
What passages of today’s Holy Bibles contain the advice, the guidance, the differentiation between good and bad, the definitions of this world and the next, consolation, etc., which are indispensable in the Book of Allâhu ta’âlâ?
The July 1395 [1975 C.E.] issue of the magazine called Plain Truth contained the following confession: “Let us admit that we are unable to show educated non-Christians a book powerful enough to penetrate into their minds. On the contrary, they point to our Holy Bible and say: You see you have not even come to an
agreement among yourselves. What will you guide us with?”
The following is another account given by the person we have mentioned earlier:
“In 1939 I was working in an institution in the vicinity of an ecclesiastical school in Adams Mission. I was twenty years old. Time and again students from the ecclesiastical school came to the place where I worked and insulted us and scoffed at us by abusing Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ and the Qur’ân al-kerîm with the rudest, the most spiteful and inimical terms. According to their creed, Muslims are the most abhorrent creatures of the world, and the Islamic religion is a heresy. Being an extremely sensitive person, I was very deeply hurt by their denigrations, so much so that I spent sleepless nights. I was unable to answer them. I did not have sufficient knowledge, let alone about Christianity, about Islam, my own religion. Consequently, I decided to embark on a quintessential study of the Holy Bible and the Qur’ân al-kerîm, to increase my awareness about Christianity and Islam, and to read books about the subject. I have been busying myself with these studies for forty years. I received the greatest help in this respect from the Arabic book Izhâr-ul-haqq, which was written in Istanbul by Rahmatullah Efendi of India ‘rahima-hullâhu ta’âlâ’. [This renowned book was printed in Egypt in 1280 [1864 C.E.] and was rendered into various languages, Turkish included. Rahmatullah Efendi passed away in Mekka-i-mukarrama (the blessed city of Mecca), in 1306 (
“In the meantime, I came across a book prepared by a Protestant missionary named Geo G. Harris. Its title read, ‘How To Christianize Muslims’. The priestly author of the book gave the following advice: ‘It is very difficult to Christianize Muslims.
For Muslims are strongly adherent to their conventions and are very obstinate. For Christianizing them, it is necessary to have recourse to the following three methods:
1) Muslims are taught that today’s copies of the Holy Bible, that is, the Torah and the Bible, are not the original Torah and the Bible, and the genuine Bible was defiled and interpolated. Ask them the following questions outright:
a– Do you have a copy of the real Bible and the Torah? If you do, we would like to see it!
b– What differences are there between today’s Holy Bible and the Bible you claim to be true? In what parts are these differences, and how many are there?
c– Were these differences you tell us of made purposely, or are they only textual differences?
d– Here is a copy of the Holy Bible. Show me the passages that were exposed to interpolation.
e– Here is a passage. How would you read it in the original text?
2) Who did the interpolations you claim, and when?
3) Muslims believe that the Holy Bible that we have today is either a similitude of the original copies of the Torah and the Bible or quite a different book written by people. According to Muslims, the Holy Bible that we have today has nothing to do with the Holy Bible revealed to Jesus (Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’). However, they will be taken aback when they are asked the aforenamed questions. For Muslims are mostly uneducated. Their opinion that the Holy Bible is not genuine is only hearsay. Let alone knowing about the books of the Holy Bible, such as the Old Testament and the New Testament, they lack the necessary knowledge about their own religion. A couple of serious questions will suffice to disorient them, and they will not know how to answer you. Then, saying that you are going to give them some information, choose a few attractive passages that you think they will understand easily, and read them with a soft voice, a smiling face, and a sweet language. Give them a few booklets and pamphlets telling about the virtues of Christianity in a clear, understandable language. Never have recourse to coercion to Christianize them. Always give them time to think and then decide. Be sure that you will be able to Christianize them if you act in this manner. At least you can cause
their hearts to begin to doubt.’
“I presume that Muslims who read the books which I published in English about Christianity and today’s Bibles will easily answer Geo G. Harris’s questions written above. It took me exactly twenty years to find the so many errors in today’s copies of the Torah and the Bible and to prove that they are not the Books of Allah. This is not only my personal view; many Christian scientists and theologians are of the same opinion. Yet reading their books and articles requires knowing a foreign language and, even more primarily, finding those books. Most Muslims do not know foreign languages, and then they cannot afford expensive books. For this reason, with a view to offsetting these disadvantages, I have been publishing these booklets of mine over the world, writing them in languages used by Muslims and presenting some of them freely.”
A Christian missionary states as follows:
“Christianization of Muslims is an activity which is cherished both by Catholics and by Protestants. For Muslims are utterly difficult to Christianize. Muslims are more faithful to their conventions than to anything else. However, the following methods have yielded good results.
1– Muslims are mostly poor people. A poor Muslim should be inclined towards Christianity through various techniques, e.g. by giving him plenty of money, presents and goods, or by finding him a job under a Christian’s aegis.
2– Most Muslims are ignorant both religiously and scientifically. Neither of the Holy Bible nor of the Qur’ân al-kerîm do they have knowledge. In perfunctory oblivion, they carry out certain ritual acts dictated to them in the name of worship, without knowing what they mean and without penetrating into the inner nature of worships. Because most of them do not know Arabic and are not aware of the Islamic knowledge, they are quite oblivious to the contents of the Qur’ân al-kerîm and to the subtle knowledge written in the books of Islamic scholars. They recite the few Koranic verses they have memorized without feeling slightest curiosity concerning their meanings. They are especially uninformed about the Holy Bible. Most of their teachers, the so-called Islamic theologians, are not Islamic scholars. They only teach Muslims how to do their acts of worship. They cannot appeal to their souls. Growing up in such
an educational system, Muslims perform their ritual prayers in a manner taught to them, without acquiring any deeper knowledge about Islam and learning the essentials of religion. Their attachment to Islam originates not from knowing the essentials of Islam, but from their firm belief in the tenets they have learned from their parents and teachers.
3– Most Muslims do not know a second language besides their own. Let alone reading books written for or against Christianity, they are not even aware of the existence of such books. Give them books written in their own language and praising Christianity strongly, and let them read those books. Make sure that the language used in the books that you give them be as simple and as clear as they can understand. Books containing complex statements and grandiose ideas will not be useful at all. They will not understand such books and, being bored with them, they will leave them aside. Plain words, simple statements, and expressions that are not boring are essential. Do not forget that the people you are going to deal with are extremely ignorant, and their minds can comprehend only simple statements.
4– Always tell them: ‘Since Christians and Muslims have belief in Allâhu ta’âlâ, then their Rabb (Allah) is the same. Yet Allâhu ta’âlâ accepts Christianity as the true religion. It is an evident fact. Look and see. Christians are the wealthiest, the most civilized, and the happiest people of the world. For Allâhu ta’âlâ has preferred them to Muslims, who are on the wrong way. Whereas the Muslim countries are living in grinding poverty, begging their Christian counterparts for help and suffering the inconveniences of scientific and technical retardation, the Christian countries have already reached the peak of civilization and are still making progress daily. Multitudes of Muslims go to Christian countries to find work there. Christians have ascendancy over Muslims in industry, in knowledge, in science, in trade, and in short, in everything. You see this fact in person. This comes to mean that Allâhu ta’âlâ does not accept the Islamic religion as a true one. Through these facts He demonstrates to you that Islam is a wrong religion. To punish those people who disintegrate themselves from the true religion, Christianity, Allâhu ta’âlâ will always leave them in destitution, detestation, and desolation.’ ”
Those are some of the fibs with which missionaries are trying to mislead and Christianize Muslims. They are very powerful
financially, and they spend most of their money establishing various institutions, such as hospitals, soup-kitchens, schools, gymnasiums, discos, gaming-houses, and brothels in order to seduce and degenerate Muslims.
The contemporary Christian missionary organization called Jehova’s Witnesses was founded for the purpose of beguiling and Christianizing Muslims’ children with sweet, lulling words. These missionaries send brochures, books and pamphlets to the addresses they find in the telephone directory. Smartly dressed pretty girls go from one house to another, delivering these books and pamphlets. On the other hand, the Matba’at-ul-katolikiyya (the Catholic Printhouse), which was inaugurated in Beirut in 1296 [1879 C.E.], printed Holy Bibles in various languages, and also, in 1908, the Arabic lexicon entitled Al-munjid, which has been re-edited and reproduced a number of times ever since. It is stated as follows in the lexicon: “The heretical sect called Jehowa’s Witnesses was established in the United States of America in 1872, by Ch. Taze Russell. This person misinterpreted the Holy Bible, and died in 1334 [1916 C.E.]. Jehovah is the name given to Allâhu ta’âlâ in the Torah.” This Christian book shows that the so-called sect is heretical and the word Jehovah is misused. Fortunately, Muslims do not believe those falsely-adorned and tricky lies. On the contrary, those lies add to their hatred and distrust for Christianity. May hamd-u-thenâ (gratitude and praise) be to Allâhu ta’âlâ, Muslims are not ignorant people as they think. Yes, forty or fifty years before now the number of Muslims who knew a European language or who graduated from a university was not very big. However, there were elementary schools and madrasas in every country, in every city, and even in every village. Science, mathematics and astronomy, as well as religious knowledge, were being taught in these madrasas. Books and curricula preserved from those times prove our statements true. High mathematical knowledge would be necessary to build those mosques and schools, to do the calculations inevitable in the performance of worships such as paying zakât and dividing the inheritance, to do buying and selling properly, and to keep the accounts of companies and pious foundations. Parents raced with one another to send their children to those schools at very early ages. Magnificent and splendid ceremonies were held and feasts were given when the children began to go to school. Souvenirs of such occasions, such as the sequined and gilded clothes worn by the child being sent to school, the ornamented satchel it carried,
the decorated cart on which it rode to school, and the pictures taken during the performance of the mawlid,[1] were kept by the family and gave the child honour and pride throughout its life as signs of the importance and value which its family attached to knowledge and learning. Those who had graduated from the madrasa with a degree were exempted from military service and were appointed to higher positions, which in turn motivated the young people to go to school. Even the village shepherds were surprisingly learned in religious and ethical knowledge. This prosperity lasted until 1255 [1839 C.E.], when the Law of Reformation, which Reshid Pâsha, a freemason who co-operated with the British in their intrigues to demolish Islam, had prepared during his office as the foreign minister, was passed. Today also Muslims have many books teaching the essentials of the Islamic religion. How lucky for us that we have attained the honour of preparing some of them. Our book Could Not Answer and this book, which you are reading presently, have been prepared in a plain style, and the principle of ‘sweet language’, which the Westerners boast having in their books, has been observed in its full sense. All our books contain the judgements and comments made on Christianity and Islam by the greatest scholars of the East and the West. We have translated and published some of these books in European languages. We take pride in the palpable effects of these books, both at home and abroad, all over the world. Letters of appreciation and gratitude which we receive from all the countries of the world make us forget the pains we have taken in preparing these books. Most of the innumerable letters we have received contain acknowledgements such as, “I have learned true Islam from these letters of yours.” We cannot imagine a greater reward. Any Muslim who reads these books will easily give the proper answer to any question he is asked about religions and his knowledge in this subject will command the admiration of anyone talking with him.
There cannot be a single person who will not be infatuated with the charms of the Islamic religion once he has learned its true essence. A Muslim who has read these books of ours will only sneer at the aforesaid fallacious propaganda of missionaries.
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[1] Mawlid means birth. In this context it means the eulogy recited for the honour of Muhammad 'alaihis-salam', especially on certain occasions such as marriage ceremonies, births, circumcision ceremonies, sacred nights, etc.
For their assertion that Christianity brings welfare, riches, abundance and happiness is without foundation. The events of the Middle Ages, when Christianity dominated over the European states, are the historical evidence of the fact that not only is Christianity far from a factor conducive to the social, cultural and economical improvement of a country, it is the sole impediment to progress. The fanatical Christians prevented progress, stigmatized every new scientific or technical discovery as a sin, asserted that man has come to this world only to suffer, annihilated the works belonging to the ancient Greek and Roman scientists, burned and destroyed the works of art surviving from the ancient civilization, and thus turned the earth into a dark heap of ruins. However, after Islam’s appearing and spreading over the world, the works of art belonging to the ancient civilizations were recovered by Muslims, who raked into the ancient scientific knowledge, enriched it with their new discoveries, began to teach them in the Islamic universities they had established, promoted industry and trade, and thus guided humanity to peace and welfare. Because science and medicine were peculiar only to the Muslims, Pope Silvester II received his education in the Andalusian Islamic University, and Sancho, a king of Spain, applied to the Muslim doctors to receive treatment. Muslims were the true composers of Renaissance, which was the commencement of a new era. This fact is admitted by all the conscientious European men of knowledge today.
The best explanation of what Christianity brought to humanity came from the German philosopher Nietsche:
“The Christian pessimism that imbues an ugly and evil world has made the world really ugly and evil.”
As for the second assertion of missionaries, i.e. today’s flourishing Christians versus the poor and destitute people living in Muslim countries; it is true, yet it has nothing to do with religion. Any person with common sense will see that the privations that Muslims have been suffering today cannot be imputed to the great but neglected religion of Muslims, Islam, if not to those people who do not know the essentials of this religion, or who are remiss in practising them though they know them. And also he will see that the scientific improvements that Christians have been enjoying are due not to the Holy Bible, which is the kind of a book you have seen above, but to their own laborious efforts, integrity, and determination, which they have
learned from the Qur’ân al-kerîm[1] and practised by holding fast to its lightsome principles though they do not believe in it. Our religion repeatedly commands to work, to be honest, to have determination, and to learn everything; those who neglect this commandment will no doubt incur the wrath of Allâhu ta’âlâ. In fact, Muslims are lagging behind not because they are not Christians, but because they are not true Muslims.
As you see, the Japanese people are not Christians, but they have surpassed the Germans, in optics, and the Americans, in the automobile technology, owing to the emulative ardour, determination to work, and integrity commanded in the Qur’ân al-kerîm. In 1985, to the amazement of the entire wold, five and a half million cars were made in Japan. The Japanese people are living in welfare. Japan is well ahead of the world in the electronics industry, too. Each of us has a calculator in our homes. I wonder what the mendacious missionaries will say about this? Do all the so many Japanese bicycles, Japanese microscopes, Japanese typewriters, Japanese telescopes and Japanese cameras, which cover the entire world, have anything to do with Christianity?
We shall come back to this subject later and contemplate once again the obligations that a true Muslim has to fulfill today.
Dear readers! You have seen today’s Holy Bible. We have done a brief scan of that book before your eyes. Now the turn comes for the Qur’ân al-kerîm, the Holy Book of our religion. We shall study it together, objectively again. When this study of ours is over, you, too, will see once again in full clarity which book is the true Word of Allah.