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
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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:
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“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 theother 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
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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.”
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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.”
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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!
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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:
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It is written in the forty-fourth verse of the twenty-seventh
chapter of the Gospel of Matthew that the two thieves that werecrucified 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 Actsof 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 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,
---------------------------------
[1] John (Yahyâ ‘alaihis-salâm’)
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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 81 C.E.). We see the passage in Matthew now, which means that
it was inserted into Matthew afterwards by an anonymous person.” And this, in its
turn, proves once again that the argument that “the Gospel of Matthew is not
the Gospel written by Matthew himself” is true, and reminds of the anonymous
author of the Gospel of Matthew with all the so many accessions.
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.
2 Kings: Author: anonymous.
1 Chronicles: Perhaps it was
written by a Jewish rabbi andtheologian named AZRÂ (Ezra) three hundred and
fifty years
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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
greatprophets 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
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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.
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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 book.”
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
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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 ofÎsâ ‘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.
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Our
childhood was spent in a setting where we had to listenagain 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] 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.’[2] And he said to those
people whom he cured,
---------------------------------
[1] Luke: 5-14
[2] Mark: 7-29
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‘Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.’[1] 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 actualfact, 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 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
---------------------------------
[1] John: 5-8
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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]
---------------------------------
[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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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, 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.
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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.
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
---------------------------------
[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)
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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
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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.
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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 isacknowledged even by priests was written by people, canNEVER 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
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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
(1889 C.E.), when he was seventy-five years old.] After some time, the truth
shone like the sun before my eyes. I now knew everything, including the
details. From then on the would-be priests were given the answers they
deserved, and they left, agape, and their eyes downcast. Instead of answering
them in their kind by using abusive terms, I obeyed the command of Allâhu ta’âlâ and spoke to them in a very
dulcet tone. So diligently had I studied the Holy Bible, and so undeniable were
the errors I had carefully picked out, that their desperate and futile
fumblings for an answer were drowned in their consternation at my knowing the
Holy Bible better than they did. At last they began to respect me.
“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
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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
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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
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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
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(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 an
---------------------------------
[1] Mawlid means birth. In this context
it means the eulogy recited for the honour of Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’,
especially on certain occasions such as marriage ceremonies, births,
circumcision ceremonies, sacred nights, etc
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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. 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
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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
---------------------------------
[1] or from the few Christians who
examined the Qur’ân
al-kerîm or the works of
Islamic scholars, who, it goes without saying, had an education based on the Qur’ân al-kerîm and wrote their books in the light
of the Qur’ân
al-kerîm.
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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.
Revelations to Prophets were hundred and four Messages,
Four of which were Books, and a hundred
are called Pages.
Zebűr[1] He gave to Dâwűd,[2] and to Műsâ[3] was revealed the Torah;
Afterwards Jebrâîl[4] took the Injîl[5] to Îsâ,[6] wallah.[7]
Then He brought the Qur’ân to Habîbullah,[8] when required,
Completing it in twenty-three years;
then Revelation expired.
---------------------------------
[1] The Holy Book revealed to Dâwűd
(David) ‘alaihis-salâm’
[2] The Prophet
David ‘alaihis-salâm’.
[3] The Prophet Moses ‘alaihis-salâm’.
[4] The Archangel Gabriel
‘alaihis-salâm’.
[5] The original Bible.
[6] The Prophet Jesus ‘alaihis-salâm’.
[7] I swear in the name of Allah.
[8] The Beloved of Allah, i.e. Muhammad
‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wasallam’.
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I believe in that Prophets are innocent and sinless,
Pure, trustworthy, loyal in conveying
Allah’s commandments.
From treason, sinning, idiocy, lying, giving up secrets
Were free and far all Prophets, this is
exceptionless.
Some scholars said: it is wâjib[1] to know Prophets’ names,
Allah, in Qur’ân, gives us twenty-eight
of their names.
Hadrat Âdam is the first of all Prophets;
The last is Muhammad Rasűlullah, the
highest of Prophets.
Between the two, Prophets that came are some myriad;
None but Allah knows how many in such a
long period.
The Messengers’ canons with their death will not expire;
Compared with all the angels, the
Prophets are higher.
Our Prophet’s dispensation is valid forever;
With his canon will Allah judge all in
the Hereafter.
Whatever communicated to us the Darling of Allah,
I accept as such, in submission to Word
of Allah.
---------------------------------
[1] Open commandments in the Qur’ân al-kerîm are called farz (or fard). When it is not understood from the Qur’ân al-kerîm whether a certain thing is farz or not, it is termed wâjib.
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