Category Archives: Rebuttals

Refutation: Proving Original Sin from the Quran

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

The pseudo ex-Muslim and Islamophobe, Chessie Williams has authored a piece, portraying his absolute ignorance of both Islamic and Christian theologies. I personally apologize on his behalf for the time anyone has wasted on reading his article. With that in mind, let’s begin to analyse what he’s said and what reality would prefer to have us believe:

“..Adam forgot and his offspring forgot, Adam made a mistake and his offspring made mistakes”. Hadeeth in  At-Tirmidhi also in Tafsir Ibn Kathir

This is what he begins with, and I’m very sure that what he’s attempting to portray cannot be made extant from this quotation. All this hadith is saying, is that Adam {as} made mistakes and his offspring (mankind) also made mistakes, this is part of the human nature which Allaah further explains through His Prophet {saw}:

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “I swear by Him in whose hand is my soul, if you were a people who did not commit sin, Allah would take you away and replace you with a people who would sin and then seek Allah’s forgiveness so He could forgive them.” [Sahīh Muslim (2687)]

Therefore it is in this regard, that Adam’s {as} sinning and his offspring’s sinning, is allowed (these acts against God’s commands) because it has a purpose and that purpose is for Allaah to forgive them of their sins. This then puts Chessie’s quote into context, the hadith does not mean because Adam {as} sinned, that we would all sin, but that Adam’s {as} sinning is part of why God created us, and that sinning is what God expects of us humans, so that we may seek forgiveness from Him. Therefore Adam’s {as} sinning is not permanent upon him, as that would mean forgiveness was never an option, yet we can logically derive the view that sinning presupposes forgiveness through the Hadith in Sahih al Muslim. He then goes on to make a series of incoherent and unintelligible statements:

Islam claims that Allah forgave Adam of the sin of eating from the tree(in the middle of the Garden), there is no original Sin, everyone is born sinless on the natural inclination of Islam, and Sin is purely individualist(No concept of Adam being mankind’s Federal head). Allah doesn’t allow anyone to carry the burden of another persons Sin(certainly not Adams).

Perhaps it would be rash of me to point this out, but I am perturbed by the ignorance that Chessie Williams is spewing. To begin with, indeed God is just, He does not place a burden upon a person where it is not due, He is Ar Rahman, Ar Rahim, (Most Loving, Most Caring) and it is in this light that Islamic theology accepts that each human enters this world sinless, they have not yet had the chance to sin before birth and by entering the world, they now have a medium to exercise their freewill, wherein that can choose to obey or disobey. It is absolutely unjust and irrational to think that God would cast a being with sin before they’ve yet had the chance to do so. Perhaps this is the unjust God which Chessie believes in, but this is not the nature of the God which Islam allows us to have faith in.

Secondly it is absurd to think that because Adam {as} sinned that we all have inherited his sin, if that is the case, should we also not inherit his good? Where is the original good deed in Christianity? Rather, it is a faith which looks to devalue the human ability, whereas we as Muslims accept the reality that we are adults, we do live and function in this world and therefore we accept the responsibility for the consequences of our actions. Perhaps it is ideal for Chessie and his zealot Christian brethren to have a fanciful belief that they are not responsible for their actions, but this is petulant and inane. Adam {as} sinning does not negate him from being the first man or the first human on the earth as Chessie would have us believe. In fact the Bible agrees with Islam in that no one person bears the sin of another:

The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him. – Ezekiel 18:20

as well as…

Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin. – Deuteronomy 24:16

Therefore we ask that Chessie takes responsibility for his actions and comes to his own, that he is indeed an adult. Even if you assume it’s a nonsensical Islamic belief, he cannot and should not ignore the commands of His Lord from within the Bible. If that is the case, then indeed his faith is as fraudulent as they come. Chessie then provides a short chronological list of the events that led to Adam {as} being removed from Jannah. He ends this list with a presupposed contradiction:

But what happens after that is the source of contradiction.
5 Allah orders Adam to get down from Jannah to earth, and from then on the following consequences take place:
A. He is enemies with Iblis.
B. Suffers death, sickness, and disease
C His children in turn suffer death, sickness, and disease
D. Man is subject to continual sinning, when before Adams Sin there was no Sin in man
E. Man is subject to being led astray from their pure fitrah and now risks going to hell
F. The world it seas, land and inhabitants have to now suffer because of Adams Sin.
“Corruption has appeared in the land and the sea on account of what the hands of men have wrought, that He may make them taste a part of that which they have done, so that they may return.[30.42] Ar-rum .

Forgive his appalling grammar, it took me a while to fully comprehend what his point was, I do understand that he’s under a lot of stress after being unable to defend himself from his own misgivings, but that does not excuse him from taking sometime to be considerate and accept that people would actually read what he writes.

The Qur’an answers all of his claims in one ayah, before Adam {as} sinned, God said in the Qur’an why He was creating Adam {as} and that He knew what Adam {as} would do on the earth:

وَإِذْ قَالَ رَ‌بُّكَ لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ إِنِّي جَاعِلٌ فِي الْأَرْ‌ضِ خَلِيفَةً ۖ قَالُوا أَتَجْعَلُ فِيهَا مَنْ يُفْسِدُ فِيهَا وَيَسْفِكُ الدِّمَاءَ وَنَحْنُ نُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِكَ وَنُقَدِّسُ لَكَ ۖ قَالَ إِنِّي أَعْلَمُ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
Remember, when your Lord said to the angels: “I have to place a trustee on the earth,” they said: “Will You place one there who would create disorder and shed blood, while we intone Your litanies and sanctify Your name?” And God said: “I know what you do not know.” – Qur’an : Suratul Baqarah (2) : 30.

Therefore, Adam {as} was created to be placed on earth and God knew Adam {as} would sin. The sinning of mankind isn’t due to Adam {as} sinning, but the nature of mankind, according to the ayah, is that mankind’s feeble nature would allow them to sin as it is allowed by God. Also, Adam {as} being sent to the earth was the purpose of his creation as we read from the Ayah above. In this regard, the Qur’an clearly refutes Chessie, Adam {as} was created to live on the earth, this was part of God’s plan (Qadr) as we read from the Ayah and that God created Adam {as} knowing that Adam {as} and his progeny would do evil on the earth, as God granted them the freewill to do so.

Whereas in Islam, Adam {as} being sent to the earth and God allowing him and his progeny to live here was God’s plan, in Christianity it was a mistake, and therefore this is why Christians have to create excuses for mankind being sent to earth and doing evil:

The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. – Genesis 6:6

Recall, above we read that Chessie’s concept of God is one who creates man with sin, so God from the on start has condemned men, then God places men on earth due to a mistake which He did not foresee and therefore God regretted that He placed mankind on earth because this was not what God intended. This therefore brings us to two conclusions:

(1) Islam holds the belief that Adam {as} had freewill and was created with it, God created Adam {as} and his progeny to live on earth, knowing they would sin. This was all His plan.

(2) Christianity holds the belief that Adam’s {as} progeny are born with sin, God was not all knowing and did not foresee the evil His creation would do and therefore God made a mistake (He regretted) sending men to live on earth, it was not His plan.

Chessie then proceeds to demolish his own arguments further by making the following statement:

If Adam was truly forgiven then his state should have reverted back to what it was prior to his Sin, but instead as demonstrated(from the Quran) everything changed including the very nature of Mankind, and how he related to His creator.

Chessie, I advise you to actually read the Qur’an, let us recall once more why Adam {as} was created:

وَإِذْ قَالَ رَ‌بُّكَ لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ إِنِّي جَاعِلٌ فِي الْأَرْ‌ضِ خَلِيفَةً ۖ قَالُوا أَتَجْعَلُ فِيهَا مَنْ يُفْسِدُ فِيهَا وَيَسْفِكُ الدِّمَاءَ وَنَحْنُ نُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِكَ وَنُقَدِّسُ لَكَ ۖ قَالَ إِنِّي أَعْلَمُ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
Remember, when your Lord said to the angels: “I have to place a trustee on the earth,” they said: “Will You place one there who would create disorder and shed blood, while we intone Your litanies and sanctify Your name?” And God said: “I know what you do not know.” – Qur’an : Suratul Baqarah (2) : 30.

Adam {as} was created to be sent to have his abode be earth (temporarily), until Yawmul Qiyamah (the Day of Judgement). This was God’s plan, because God is All Knowing and He Himself has said, “I know what you do not know”. Indeed, Chessie has not read the Qur’an therefore he could not have come to this understanding. Ignorance is bliss for Chessie as it allows him to pervert his understanding of Islam, one would think that a self claimant to being highly educated in Islam would know what the 30th verse of the second chapter says, but alas, we find fools everywhere, Chessie is by no means any exception. As the famous Latin saying goes….”damnant quod non intelligunt“, they condemn what they do not understand.

He then tries to portray Adam {as} as being devoid of God’s mercy, that Adam {as} is incapable of having a good relationship with His Lord:

We know from narrations that Sin cause’s one to be banned from having direct relational communion with God…

Yet, the ayat he references deals with the Day of Judgement:

“Nay! Surely, they (evil doers) will be veiled from seeing their Lord that Day” al-Mutafiffoon 83:15

Yet, God in the Qur’an refutes Chessie’s claim again, God praises Adam {as} and lauds him as one who has received God’s grace and mercy:

Thereafter Adam received certain words from his Lord, and He turned towards him; truly He turns, and is All-compassionate.- Qur’an 2:37.

To summarize, Adam {as} being sent to the earth was one of his purposes for being created and his allowance of freewill to do good or cause evil was determined by Allaah, it was not an unexpected surprise which caused God to have a panic attack and have subsequent regret and grievances as Genesis 6:6 would lead us to believe. God willing, Chessie  Williams does read this and in doing so, does learn to read the first 30 verses of the second chapter of the Qur’an.

wa Allaahu Alam.
[and God knows best.]

 

Response: Why I Love Jesus But Reject Islam

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

The popular anti-Semite, James White whose infamous incoherent rants against Islam which are taught by undereducated and abusive friends has collaborated on a video to display his poor workmanship and lack of intellectualism when it comes to Islamic doctrine. While he spends most of his time attacking Arabo-Islamic thought, he also spends a lot of time thinking of new ways to embarrass himself when it comes to displaying his knowledge of Islam or for that matter, recently Calvinism as well. One brother did a really wonderful response to his petulant video, “Why I Love Jesus but Reject Islam”, which you can view below:

 

Hopefully, James White can someday become the academic he falsely promotes himself as, and with that in mind, then he may actually be able to discuss Islam with Muslims.

wa Allaahu Alam.
[and God knows best.]

Nigerian Pastor Running from Debate

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

Another ally of Sam Shamoun [pictured below], Isang Udo-Akagha, is well known for challenging Muslims to debates. His activities include writing insulting notes on Facebook, posting pictures of himself on all groups and mocking Muslims. He likes to parade himself as a “friend of Muslims”, yet his rhetoric is childish, he simply goes to AI’s website, copy pastes whatever he can find and gives it to his congregation. For sometime now, a brother had approached Mr. Isang Udo-Akagha with a debate proposal and the supposed leader of the “Love a Muslim Ministry”, has refused to come forward and accept, yet he persists on insulting Islam and Muslims. We can see him here below:

We can see his really spiteful behaviour, although he claims to be “friendly” in this recent Facebook posting by the “Evangelist for Muslims”:

Here he is, insulting the Prophet Muhammad {saw}, by claiming because Aisha {ra} narrated that he was sick, yet the very next hadith and the first hadith of that book fully clarifies the statement of our mother, Aisha {ra}:

Narrated ‘Aisha {ra}: (the wife of the Prophet) Allah’s Apostle {saw} said, “No calamity befalls a Muslim but that Allah expiates some of his sins because of it, even though it were the prick he receives from a thorn.” – Sahih al Bukhari : Book 70 (Patients) : 544.

Narrated ‘Abdullah {ra}: I visited the Prophet {saw} during his ailments and he was suffering from a high fever. I said, “You have a high fever. Is it because you will have a double reward for it?” He said, “Yes, for no Muslim is afflicted with any harm but that Allah will remove his sins as the leaves of a tree fall down.” – Sahih al Bukhari : Book 70 (Patients) : 550.

Therefore if the Pastor was so kind a to actually read the ahadith before condemning our Prophet {saw}, he would have retracted his insult. Clearly he is not a friend of Muslims, but a blind follower of hatred and ignorance. The hadith actually shows how merciful Allaah was to Muhammad {saw}, his illnesses were a means of bringing him closer to Allaah and rewarding the Messenger! If only the Pastor had read before he quoted!

What is worse is that for sometime, Br. Shoaib has been challenged the Pastor, which is a bit funny, as the Pastor keeps running:

again, he repeated the challenge:

The challenge still stands, if Pastor Isang Udo-Akagha can stop running away from challenges, while boasting he is a friend of Muslims by insulting their Prophet {saw}, then we’re set to go! Pastor, I hope you read this and I hope you can one day be an adult, apologize for your insults, your ignorance and your cowardice. Your hate mongering helps no one and only fuels the fire of discord among Adam’s {as} children.

wa Allaahu Alam.
[and God knows best.]

Two Faced Sam Shamoun

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

It’s very much wide known that Sam Shamoun of the AI team is a very abusive person. His demeanor is deplorable as his usual means of expressing himself is through hateful and spiteful comments. A video has been released that essentially in a few seconds really demonstrates his lack of public decorum  and his hypocritical behaviour. In this video we see him actually rushing to embrace Br. Shabir Ally, while when he has left the company of the brother and is recording, he makes some very abusive and insulting statements:

[Warning: Video has music during the introduction.]

wa Allaahu Alam.
[and God knows best.]

Refutation: God’s Grace or Self Righteous Suicide ?

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

It is beyond fanciful and absurd, self delusional rhetoric to assume that the fundamental difference between Islam and Christianity, is sin. Rather there are many facets of theological disagreement, beyond law, but dealing with the very nature of God. Therefore when Chessie L. Edwards makes a statement like this:

The difference between Christianity and Islam boils down to the issue of Sin

It only leaves much to be desired. Either Chessie Edwards has to overly simplify and generalize our faiths differences to negotiate his ignorance on these matters or he simply was being lazy. He then proceeds to summarize what he assumes Islam teaches about getting into paradise:

Islam says if you strive hard, be really religious and become a Muhsin(A good doer) upon Ihsan(The highest level of Islamic spirituality) you can purify your own heart and earn yourself a place in this Garden.

The premise of freewill which God has created us with, allows us humans to choose whether to do good or to commit sin. If it is, that God did not want us to have this choice, then we would either only sin or only do good, then we would not have been created with the ability of freewill. What Chessie is trying to imply is that we cannot by ourselves do good, or that we will never be able to do enough good to gain heaven on our own merit. To an extent this is true, we cannot rely on our own acts to get us into heaven because as humans we often err without reason. However that does not indicate that God did not give us a solution.

One of God’s attributes is to be Ar Rahman (The Most Merciful), with that in mind His mercy is as such that He is oft forgiving and most forgiving. One way we can seek to gain paradise is through God’s mercy and that relates to our sincerity in our repentance for our sins. We read this in both the Bible and the Qur’an:

Qur’aan 25:71
And whosoever repents and does righteous good deeds, then verily, he repents towards Allâh with true repentance.

Qur’aan 28:67
But any that (in this life) had repented, believed, and worked righteousness, will have hopes to be among those who achieve salvation.

Qur’aan 3:89
Except for those that repent (even) after that and make amends: for verily Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

Qur’aan 7:153
But those who do wrong but repent thereafter and (truly) believe― verily Thy Lord is thereafter Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

Qur’aan 20:82
Surely I am the Most-Forgiving for him who repents and believes and acts righteously, then follows the right path.

2 Chronicles 32:26
Then Hezekiah repented of the pride of his heart, as did the people of Jerusalem; therefore the LORD’s wrath did not come on them during the days of Hezekiah.

Job 34:33
Should God then reward you on your terms, when you refuse to repent? You must decide, not I; so tell me what you know.

Job 36:10
He makes them listen to correction and commands them to repent of their evil.

Isaiah 30:15
This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.

Matthew 3:8
Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.

Matthew 4:17
From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Mark 6:12
They went out and preached that people should repent.

Luke 5:32
I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Luke 15:10
In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

and both the Bible and the Qur’aan have many more of these quotes. There is a common theme that we can derive from the above quotations. Believe (have faith), do good works and repent for whatever sins you have. Therefore, it is in this regard, that we can accept that Islam and Christianity agree on a plan for salvation. The problem however, has come with those people who have deviated from the true religion of the Christ. Instead of obeying his words of belief in God, doing good works and repenting, they rather believe in him as a God, and seek repentance through his alleged death, both things he himself never mentions in the New Testament.

What is most ironic however, is the hypocritical view of Chessie, this is what he has to say if someone rejects Islam:

As for the vast majority of everyone else they will have to take God’s wrath upon themselves by being burned in hell until they atone for their Sins. How long a person stays in the fire and how much wrath they take is all up to the will of God..it could be 50 years or it could be 50,000 years.

Yet, this is also true for Christianity. A person who rejects the Christ as a God is deemed a sinner and therefore will suffer eternal perdition( torture/ punishment in hell):

2 Peter 3:7
But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

After having said this, is Chessie denying that God will punish disbelievers and therefore that’s why he mentions the punishment as endorsed by Islam, or is he trying to paint Islam as being barbaric because disbelievers are punished? I am asking because as displayed above, even his own faith endorses the position of eternal punishment for disbelievers. Even the acts of believers are rejected according to the Bible:

Matthew 7:21
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Whereas the Qur’aan says:

Surah 99:1-8
When the earth with be trembled with its quake, and the earth will bring forth its burdens, And man will say, “What has happened to it?” That day it will describe all its happenings, Because its Lord will have so commanded it. That day the people will come back (from the place of reckoning) in different groups, so that they may be shown (the fruits of) their deeds. So, whoever does any good act (even) to the weight of a particle will see it. And whoever does evil (even) to the weight of a particle will see it.

Whether it be a smile or a thought, essentially, in Islam, any moment not spent in sin, is a moment earned in good acts/ deeds. This is the mercy and glory of God’s love for mankind:

Narrated Anas (may God be pleased with him): The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, “My Lord says, ‘If My slave comes nearer to me for a span, I go nearer to him for a cubit; and if he comes nearer to Me for a cubit, I go nearer to him for the span of outstretched arms; and if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running.’ “ – Sahih al Bukari : Book 93 : Hadith 627.

On the other hand however, as Chessie, has correctly stated, the standard that God holds man to is very low. While Islam acknowledges that mankind are sinners, it also accepts that mankind also does good, however, let’s see what Christianity says about mankind according to Chessie:

Christianity on the other hand says man is totally depraved and a natural born habitual Sinner. God’s standard’s of obedience is that you never disobey Him not even once.. which mankind no matter how hard it tries can ever accomplish.

Christianity according to Chessie Edwards, is a faith that holds men to be incapable bumbling idiots, that couldn’t do good if they wanted to, as in his terms, he’s said, “totally depraved”, i.e. completely morally corrupt and perverted. This is a contradiction however, if mankind was completely morally corrupt, then that would mean that we had no freewill. Following my aforementioned assertion on freewill, we can gather that Chessie believes we don’t necessarily have freewill because we can only sin and err, i.e. do evil. With that in mind, then he must accept that God created us without freewill, otherwise, he has to retract his absurd statement and accept that we do have a choice and that we are capable of doing good. Hence it is why we see God forgiving men in the Bible and accepting their repentance:

Isaiah 30:15
This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.

It isn’t unusual to find Mr. Edwards contradicting his own scripture, but the lengths he goes, in consort with his frequency is quite alarming to say the least. I also must ask of him to prove his second statement, that the Bible commands that you not disobey God once, or else you earn eternal damnation. He continues to disparage his being, by insulting his very position as human:

Every human being know matter how religious or spiritual they are will always fall and Sin sooner or later. Sinners rightfully deserve God’s wrath because God has decreed so, but again weak imperfect humans could never stand under His wrath, Hell is not temporarily it’s eternal you never get out.

I agree that we will all sin sooner or later, whether out of mistake or vice, disobedience is inevitable. However Chessie acts as if God is devoid of mercy and as if God’s only attribute is that of wrath and vengeance.  This is not the case, for when God revealed the Tawrah to the Children of Israel, not only did He reveal guidelines, He also revealed punishments and along those punishments, further means of expiation for those sins. Fasting, sacrifice, all means of removing sin. Therefore the very premise that Chessie is asserting, that God will take wrath upon a person for his very being, or because he has committed one sin, is contradicted by the teachings of the scripture. He then goes on to demonstrate what I will call stark ignorance:

As hopeless as that sounds and man’s ability to save himself is hopeless.. out of God’s Love and  Mercy He provided a substitute so that anyone who’s has complete Faith in it can be saved. God provided the promised Messiah; God the only perfect one come to the world to live the life of a perfect Muhsin that you are too weak to accomplish and to take the wrath you are to frail to stand under.

He instead preaches that God places His wrath only on one person and we should accept that God’s mercy was to place our sins and the consequential wrath, upon another person. Yet, this contradicts the understanding of God’s mercy. Why would God, who judges each person individually, punish someone else for our inequities. This is neither fair nor just. Quite unlike God’s justice.  What is further more alarming, is the belief that Chessie still has to repent according to the Bible for his sins.

My question is this, if belief that Jesus died for your sins, earns you salvation (i.e. freedom from sin and the punishment of sin), then which Christian can claim to be sinless and which Christian can claim that he needs not repent? Can Chessie Edwards measure up to those claims?

Definitely no, as he said himself, man is totally depraved, therefore his concept of “salvation” is merely a fanciful though, an appeal to wishful thinking, fallacious and non-sensical. May God guide those who believe in such fairy tales.

 وَلَا تَهِنُوا وَلَا تَحْزَنُوا وَأَنتُمُ الْأَعْلَوْنَ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ
So do not lose heart or be grieved, for you will surely prevail if you are believers. – Qur’aan : Al i Imran (3) : 139.

wa Allaah Alam.
[and God knows best.]

James White’s Ignorance of Calvinist Teachings Regarding the Crucifxion

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

It was sad to see a display of monumental incompetence from James White while discussing the Crucifixion of Jesus. His complete and total loss of composure and vile attitude was indeed shocking to say the least. However, when I quoted the Geneva Study Bible, a classic in Calvinist Exegesis on the Bible, his rejection of such a work really led me to question his purpose of trying to seriously engage me in discussion. The importance of John Calvin’s contribution to the Geneva Bible is extant:

“The Geneva Bible is the Bible with marginal notes authored by John Calvin, John Know and Miles Coverdale, and many other leaders of the Reformation. The Geneva Bible was the predominant English translation during the period in which the English and Scottish Reformations gained great impetus. Iain Murray, in his classic work on revival and the interpretation of prophecy, The Puritan Hope, notes, “…the two groups in England and Scotland developed along parallel lines, like two streams originating at one fountain. The foundation was no so much Geneva, as the Bible which the exiles newly translated and issued with many marginal notes… it was read in every Presbyterian and Puritan home in both realms”……. The greatest distinction of the Geneva Bible, however, is the extensive collection of marginal notes that it contains. Prominent Reformation leaders such as John Calvin, John Know and Miles Coverdale, William Whittingham, Theodore Beza, and Anthony Gilby wrote the majority of these notes in order to explain and interpret the scriptures. The notes comprise nearly 300,000 words, or nearly one-third the length of the Bible itself, and they are justifiably considered the most complete source of Protestant religious thought available.” – 1599 Geneva Bible Notes, Introduction, L. L. Brown Publishing.

In my questioning of the crucifixion of Jesus, I referred to Matthew 27:46 which reads:

About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

My point being, has Jesus according to his alleged own words, disbelieved in the plan (predestination) of God, which in itself is a Calvinist tenet or has he uttered words of blasphemy? I stated this and then for an addendum, included the words of the Geneva Study Bible, which reads:

27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou o forsaken me?

(o) That is, in this misery: And this crying out is a natural part of his humanity, which, even though it was void of sin, still felt the wrath of God, the wrath which is due to our sins.

In my message to James White, I indicated that Jesus was feeling the wrath of God, thus Jesus spoke words of abandonment/ disbelief:

James, after having read this, then sent a really interesting response. I was under the impression that he knew what the GSB (Geneva Study Bible) was, after all, he is a self claimant to being highly learned and a proponent of John Calvin’s theological teachings. However, whether out of pure ignorance or perhaps arrogance, he accused me of not properly understanding Jesus’ words. Yet the claim that Jesus spoke such words of disdain against God because of the pain of God’s wrath, did not originate from me, but from what is the most authentic Protestant Reformation source on Christian Bible Theology that has ever existed. This was his response:

It’s quite amusing to see Christian “scholarship” refuting their own scholar’s teachings. Here it is, James White, the illustrious Islamophobe, condemning his own source of Christian Theology. Sir, I greatly applaud you on your accusation against me, for it does not bother me in the least, but what it has done is significantly displayed your ignorance of your own teachings. It is in that light, you’ve demonstrated that you are not an authority on your religion, and for that matter on Islam as well, no matter how much you quote from an online Greek version of the Bible, that will never make you a scholar. Hopefully, after having written this, I pray that it does come to your attention and that I do hope that you one day, do actually commit to reading John Calvin’s words and the words/ works of other Protestant Reformists.

wa Allaahu Alam.
[and God knows best.]

 

Exposing James White’s Deceit and Ignorance of Islamic Scripture

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

In a recent twitter exchange with James White, I found him proposing such an absurd view of Islamic ‘aqidah that I simply had to write an article to correct his misinformation. In the field of academia, we try our best to uphold certain standards, however Alpha and Omega Ministries as missionary zealots don’t have to appeal to this high standard of intellectualism. So what exactly is James’ problem this time around? Let’s see:

In essence, James White is appealing to the fallacious argument of appeal to ad ignorantium. Summarily, he’s trying to expound the concept that Muslims believe in a self contradicting tenet. This being, that in Islam, while we believe God’s word cannot become corrupted, we also believe that “God’s word” did come corrupt. For example, we say the Qur’an is the word of Allaah and therefore it cannot be changed or corrupted, yet in the same voice, supposedly we claim that the Injil and Tawrah, which are also the words of Allaah, have been altered. The terms which James is trying to use are, Tahrif ul Lafzi (corruption of written words) and Tahrif ul M’anavi (corruption of meaning).

What James White and his missionary zealot friends try to assert is that Muslims have not only a contradicting belief, but because of this belief it is the Qur’an which is wrong and the Bible is the true word of God.

Introduction:
The Islamic belief is that God protects His revelations from becoming corrupt, altered and interfered with. In this regard, we do not hold the belief that God’s words can succumb to corruption, alteration and human interference. The Qur’an substantiates this claim:

إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا الذِّكْرَ‌ وَإِنَّا لَهُ لَحَافِظُونَ
Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur’an and indeed, We will be its guardian. – Qur’aan : 15 : 9.

Therefore we must correct James’ assertion that we believe God’s words can be corrupted by man, the Qur’an is clear that God would not allow this. It is the belief of all Muslims and if one did not know this belief (you now kn0w) that it is impermissible for a Muslim to believe that God’s words can become corrupted. With that in mind what about the verses in the Qur’an which mention the corruption of the previous scriptures such as the Injil, Tawrah and Zabur?

Corruption of God’s Words:
There are many verses in the Qur’an which indicate to us that God’s wahy (revelation) has been skewered by the hands of man, both literal words changes and contextual alterations (interpretations):

يُحَرِّ‌فُونَ الْكَلِمَ عَنْ مَوَاضِعِهِ ۙ وَنَسُوا حَظًّا مِمَّا ذُكِّرُ‌وا بِهِ ۚ وَلَا تَزَالُ تَطَّلِعُ عَلَىٰ خَائِنَةٍ مِنْهُمْ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا مِنْهُمْ ۖ فَاعْفُ عَنْهُمْ وَاصْفَحْ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّـهَ يُحِبُّ الْمُحْسِنِي
They distort words from their [proper] usages and have forgotten a portion of that of which they were reminded. And you will still observe deceit among them, except a few of them. But pardon them and overlook [their misdeeds]. Indeed, Allah loves the doers of good. – Qur’an : 5 : 13.

وَإِنَّ مِنْهُمْ لَفَرِ‌يقًا يَلْوُونَ أَلْسِنَتَهُمْ بِالْكِتَابِ لِتَحْسَبُوهُ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَمَا هُوَ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَيَقُولُونَ هُوَ مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّـهِ وَمَا هُوَ مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّـهِ وَيَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّـهِ الْكَذِبَ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ
And indeed, there is among them a party who alter the Scripture with their tongues so you may think it is from the Scripture, but it is not from the Scripture. And they say, “This is from Allah,” but it is not from Allah. And they speak untruth about Allah while they know. – Qur’an : 3 : 78.

مِنَ الَّذِينَ هَادُوا يُحَرِّ‌فُونَ الْكَلِمَ عَنْ مَوَاضِعِهِ وَيَقُولُونَ سَمِعْنَا وَعَصَيْنَا وَاسْمَعْ غَيْرَ‌ مُسْمَعٍ وَرَ‌اعِنَا لَيًّا بِأَلْسِنَتِهِمْ وَطَعْنًا فِي الدِّينِ ۚ وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ قَالُوا سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا وَاسْمَعْ وَانْظُرْ‌نَا لَكَانَ خَيْرً‌ا لَهُمْ وَأَقْوَمَ وَلَـٰكِنْ لَعَنَهُمُ اللَّـهُ بِكُفْرِ‌هِمْ فَلَا يُؤْمِنُونَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا
Among the Jews are those who distort words from their [proper] usages and say, “We hear and disobey” and “Hear but be not heard” and “Ra’ina,” twisting their tongues and defaming the religion. And if they had said [instead], “We hear and obey” and “Wait for us [to understand],” it would have been better for them and more suitable. But Allah has cursed them for their disbelief, so they believe not, except for a few. – Qur’an : 4 : 46.

We seemingly have arrived at a theological impasse. On one end, we read above that God would protect His revelations and now we’re reading that God’s revelations were altered by men, corrupted, their meanings and letters distorted. Yet, before we jump to conclusions, we have to analyse what we have attained so far:

(1) God’s words cannot become corrupted.
(2) God’s words did become corrupted.

There seems to be a clear disconnect here. Something’s missing from this puzzle and we know what it is. Context. Did God’s word in itself become corrupted? And this is a question we must take seriously into consideration. What we see from the above verses is that there are two cases for God’s word apparently becoming corrupted:

(1) Interpretative alterations.
(2) Textual alterations.

With this in mind, let’s examine both cases.

Corruption of Scripture: Interpretative Alterations:
It is true as we read from the Qur’aan: 5:13, 4:46, 3:78 that God’s revelations were reinterpreted. These interpretations followed the folly desires of men, in some areas to abrogate God’s law to suit material wants and desires, for power, even for illicit pleasures:

Their gist is that the Jews were habitually used to issuing religious edicts as desired by the people, either for the benefit of relatives or to satisfy their greed for money, property, influence, and recognition. This had become a common custom particularly in matters involving punishments that they would, if the crime was committed by an influential person, change the severe punishment of the Torah into an ordinary one. It is this behaviour, part of theirs which has been described in the first verse (41) in the following words: يُحَرِّ‌فُونَ الْكَلِمَ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَوَاضِعِهِ (They displace the words after their having been placed properly).

Now the people who were used to making the severe punishments of the Torah easy for their clients by changing them saw an opportunity for themselves whereby they could take such shady matters to the Holy Prophet {saw} and make him their judge or arbitrator. The dual advantage they saw in it was that they would reap the benefits of all easy and light rules of Islamic law, while at the same time, they would not have to commit the crime of altering the Torah. But, here too, they had their crookedness at work as they would hold on to their decision of taking their case to him until such time that they succeeded in finding out beforehand through some source or ruse as to the actual verdict which would be delivered in their case when presented. Then, if they found this verdict matching their wishes, they would make him their arbitrator and have him decide their case. If it happened to be contrary to their wishses, they would leave it at that.- Tafsir Maar’iful Qur’aan : Mufti Rafi Uthmani, pages 164- 165.

However, God did guard the message (risalah) of the revelations (wahy). God sent messengers, prophets to correct the wrong interpretations by these pseudo religious scholars:

إِذْ أَرْ‌سَلْنَا إِلَيْهِمُ اثْنَيْنِ فَكَذَّبُوهُمَا فَعَزَّزْنَا بِثَالِثٍ فَقَالُوا إِنَّا إِلَيْكُمْ مُرْ‌سَلُونَ
When We sent to them two but they denied them, so We strengthened them with a third, and they said, “Indeed, we are messengers to you.” – Qur’an : Suratul Yasin (36) : 14.

In fact, the New Testament, confirms that Messengers were sent to the people who tried to alter His message through new interpretations:

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. – Bible : Matthew (23) : 37.

So as we can see, the Qur’an is correct, God did protect the meaning of His message, until newer revelation was sent. For example the Qur’an abrogates the Injil as the Injil abrogated the Tawrah, and if the case arose where persons were distorting the meaning of a scripture or Prophet’s message, we read that God sent apostles, messengers, Prophets in some instances to correct the people (see 36:14 above).

Corruption of Scripture: Textual Alterations:
However, now we’ve arrived at the crux of the matter, textual corruption. As Muslims we assert that God’s message is preserved by God (as seen above, contextually), but what about textually? We read earlier that God protects His message in totality, that is, textually and contextually (meanings, interpretations). However as Muslims, we also do say that we do not believe in the Old Testaments of the Jews and Christians nor do we believe in the New Testaments of the Christians as being valid, because we assert they are not the words of God. Since they are not the words of God, they can indeed become corrupted and God did not promise to guard the works of man, but only His words.

For example, in the case of the Old Testament, where missionary zealots such as Sam Shamoun and James White try to propose, that their Torah is the Torah from Allaah, we have to correct that appeal to ignorance. The Qur’an does not say that the Old Testament is the word of God, in fact, we read above (5:13) where the Qur’an calls the Torah/ Old Testament of the Jews and Christians as being interpolations from the tongues and minds of men. It is in this regard that the Islamic belief is not that God’s word was corrupted, but that people wrote words and then claimed them to be God’s:

فَوَيْلٌ لِلَّذِينَ يَكْتُبُونَ الْكِتَابَ بِأَيْدِيهِمْ ثُمَّ يَقُولُونَ هَـٰذَا مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّـهِ لِيَشْتَرُ‌وا بِهِ ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا ۖ فَوَيْلٌ لَهُمْ مِمَّا كَتَبَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَوَيْلٌ لَهُمْ مِمَّا يَكْسِبُونَ
So woe to those who write the “scripture” with their own hands, then say, “This is from Allah,” in order to exchange it for a small price. Woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for what they earn.  – Qur’an : Suratul Baqarah (2) : 79.

With that being said, we must come to the understanding that when the Qur’an says that the message became corrupted, that is textually, it refers to those who put aside God’s revelation and in its stead, replaced the void with their own sayings, beliefs and propaganda. One example is of the Christian New Testament. The Qur’an says that a scripture (Injil) was given to Jesus (Issa, may God be pleased with him):

وَقَفَّيْنَا عَلَىٰ آثَارِ‌هِمْ بِعِيسَى ابْنِ مَرْ‌يَمَ مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ مِنَ التَّوْرَ‌اةِ ۖ وَآتَيْنَاهُ الْإِنْجِيلَ فِيهِ هُدًى وَنُورٌ‌ وَمُصَدِّقًا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ مِنَ التَّوْرَ‌اةِ وَهُدًى وَمَوْعِظَةً لِلْمُتَّقِي
And We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming that which came before him in the Torah; and We gave him the Gospel, in which was guidance and light and confirming that which preceded it of the Torah as guidance and instruction for the righteous. – Qur’an : 5: 46.

However Christians by themselves prove the Islamic belief of textual corruption as displayed above:

(1) Muslims believe that Jesus (Issa, may God be pleased with him) was given a revelation by God called the Injil.
(2) Christians believe that inspired scripture about Jesus originated with the apostles of Christ.

Therefore the Christian argument in reality disproves itself. They have now failed on two fronts. Firstly, the premise that Muslims contradict themselves when they say the Bible is corrupted is proven false as we do not believe the Bible is the word of God. We don’t believe it is the word of God for namely two reasons:

(1) Christians assert it’s from the apostles and not from the Prophet Jesus (may God be pleased with him).
(2) Christians assert the revelation (wahy) isn’t revelation verbatim from God, which is what Muslims believe, but that the Bible is an inspired word from God, through the words of men.

Secondly, since they have made significant distinctions with what the Muslim concept of revelation is and what their scripture is actually comprised of, then they have shown that the Bible (New Testament) is not the Injil and as it follows, the Injil is not the Bible.

Conclusion:
Therefore, we must come to a logical conclusion. When missionary zealots such as Sam Shamoun and James White, along with their propganda team at AI, state that the Qur’an is wrong for saying the Bible is corrupted because Muslims believe the word of God can’t be corrupted, we must educate them. It is in this light, that our response should be, as such:

  • Muslims believe the word of God cannot be corrupted.
  • We believe the Bible is corrupted because it is not the word of God.

We do not believe it is the word of God because:

  • Christians do not believe the Bible is the verbatim word of God, but inspired ideas from God through the words of men.

In conclusion:

  • Therefore the Bible is corrupted because it is not the word of God and as such Muslims do not believe in it.

What was wrong with James White’s missionary belief, is that they think the Bible is the word of God and therefore we should accept this belief and as a consequence adhere to it, however as displayed above they don’t believe in the kind of scripture we do, they make a clear distinction between the Injil which we believe God revealed to Isa (Jesus, may God be pleased with him), while they believe in a scripture inspired by God, worded by the minds of men, which manifested after Jesus had walked the earth.

May God guide those who appeal to the fallacy of ad ignorantium.

See more:
Inspired Incoherencies: The Corruption of the Bible.

wa Allaahu Alam.
[and God knows best.]

The Dishonesty and Abhorrent Behaviour of James White

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

As of late, James White, known for intellectual dishonesty:

 

and his hate tirade against Islam by promoting the beliefs of his friends who abuse and insult Muslims:

Has been tweeting me, which anyone can view here. Unfortunately, this article does not edify the great talents of such a person revered in Christian circles, what you are about to see are messages from a man who berates, degrades and spams others, while refusing to engage in honest and academic discourse. Our journey begins with James White when after being tagged in a few of my tweets, decided to discuss this tweet, which he sent me:

What is most surprising is that James White displayed to me some of the most ridiculous and disrespectful public decorum from any academic that I have ever been privy to. The tweets below are to be read bottom – up for chronological order, what one can see is that I replied to his tweet about the video and within 3 minutes, I was forced to respond to his change of topic, where he began to speak of an earlier tweet aligning him with his ally in bigotry, Sam Shamoun.

In fact, I am publicly apologizing on behalf of James White because of the intellectual suicide that he had to portray towards his followers. His zealot provoked response besides changing the topic to Sam Shamoun, was to quote for me, the verse in Greek which I was referring to in Galations. I find it abhorrent, that his response to my rebuttal of his video is to simply quote my reference. To put it into a layman’s perspective, let’s assume for a moment I send a video to James about apples. He says he disagrees, he prefers oranges, in response, I send him a picture of an apple. Me, sending him a picture of an apple neither forwards or benefits the discussion, but what it does and quite well, is to divert the topic at hand and thus giving him an option to say, “Yes I responded”. When in fact he hasn’t responded to the claim but merely created an excuse to digress.

I wonder what his response would have been, had I decided to simply reply to his messages with ayats from the Qur’aan? This is what we refer to as missionary self defense, instead of pursuing a discussion, the missionary defaults into “self preach mode”. Essentially, don’t expect a logical, rational or sincere response, their only goal at this point is to throw scripture in the hopes that it inspires you to accept their point of view. Clearly this didn’t work, so he decided to attack a straw man, by completely dropping the discussion and reverting to attacking me for associating him with Sam Shamoun’s aides:

From this tweet onwards, he refuses to respond to my continuing discussion on the video he sent me, I attempted many times to divert him from his emotional tirade, to no avail. Apparently he has a problem being associated with Sam Shamoun’s friends, even more so, to the extent he’s willing to abandon a discussion he started on the justice of God, which I did remind him of numerous times:

As you can see, I made it abundantly clear I wanted to finish our initial discussion on the link which he sent, however, this led him to spamming me again, leading to him arguing about his friendships. I really am disappointed in Christian academia, if James White that is, does indeed represent the best of Christian intellectualism. Not only was his behaviour petulant and disrespectful, he neglected to discuss the topic which he offered to engage me in and what was most shocking was his decision to talk about friends rather than God. I suppose he appeals to his own level of intellectualism, which from the discourse seems to be of the kindergarten level, playground chat, arguing about friends. If I wanted to fight about my friends, I would have gone to a friend, rather I like an adult decided to accept James’ challenge for an academic discourse and well he decided friends mattered more.

The next tweet he sends after me reminding him above (“Silliness? You tweeted a video, did you not? Asked me to discuss and instead you changed the topic to an unsavory tweet”), was that decided he didn’t want to continue talking about Jesus or about his friends. Rather he abandoned discussion all together:

In conclusion, I expected better from a man who holds himself in such high esteem, I disagree with his poor ethics and his later insults (shown below).

As a Muslim, I was personally quite elated to have experienced, the self prophesied, leading “Christian Apologetic” fleeing after two tweets about his erratic and inconsistent emotional tirades about friendships. It indeed did please me to see that while James White wants to talk about “friends” as young children do, I was more happy to see the response which was projected unto this website by what I suppose are his twitter followers. We’ve had a spike in traffic due to the twitter discussion, with many comments being posted on some of this site’s articles. I’d like to thank James White for demonstrating pseudo intellectualism, poor academic skills and horrendous public decorum, his actions only served to better the Islamic community and sad to say disparage his own character.

wa Allaahu Alam.
[and God knows best.]

Refutation: The Quran’s inaccurate description of the Trinity

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

Chessie Edwards love appealing to Sam Shamoun, he doesn’t have room to think for himself, his entire website is literally a text form for the long winded and ignorant speeches that Sam gives on ABN Sat. Almost every other argument he presents is verbatim from the mouth of Sam with the addition of, “I’m an Ex-Muslim”, as if that phrase adds any additional validity to his inane claims. Neither Sam nor Chessie are well educated in Christian theological history, at best they are internet scholars, if Google or Wikipedia ever goes offline we won’t be able to hear a single new argument. To be quite honest, none of Sam’s arguments are new either, just read a few of William Muir’s books or Abraham Geiger’s works or some of Raymond Lull’s writings against Islam and you’ve pretty much heard all the missionary rants. Most missionaries enjoy stating that the Qur’aan got the trinity wrong. Let’s refute this claim and in doing so, refute Sam as well.

The Qur’aan says:

And [beware the Day] when Allah will say, “O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people, ‘Take me and my mother as deities besides Allah?'” He will say, “Exalted are You! It was not for me to say that to which I have no right. If I had said it, You would have known it. You know what is within myself, and I do not know what is within Yourself. Indeed, it is You who is Knower of the unseen.

Christians assert that they don’t take Mary as a God, therefore the Qur’aans claim is wrong. However a simple but substantial and formidable refutation to this is to prove one of two cases:

(1) To show atleast one Christian aligned sect which engaged in Mary worship or took Mary as a God.
(2) To show where a majority of Christian sects worship Mary or took Mary as a God.

The premise the Qur’aan operates under, or the modus operandi, the operational term, deities, i.e. Gods [إِلَـٰهَيْنِ]. In Islamic theology, to take something or someone as a God, beside Allaah is termed Shirk. There are many ways to commit Shirk, it can be through worship, through seeking intercession, by praying to someone beside God, or even attributing God’s attributes to anything other than God. For example if God is All Knowing, but I say that Mary is all knowing, then in this case I would have committed shirk. With this in mind, can I demonstrate anywhere in Christian theology where Shirk [associating God’s attributes to Mary] occurs?

Proving: (1) To show atleast one Christian aligned sect which engaged in Mary worship or took Mary as a God.

The Catholic Encyclopedia states, “The existence of the obscure sect of the Collyridians, whom St. Epiphanius (d. 403) denounces for their sacrificial offering of cakes to Mary, may fairly be held to prove that even before the Council of Ephesus there was a popular veneration for the Virgin Mother which threatened to run extravagant lengths.” This by itself proves my first premise, that there was a group of Christians, the Collyridians of whom engaged in rampant worship of Mary. As famous Catholic speaker Patrick Madrid as defined them:

The heresy of the Collyridians was very simple: They worshiped Mary.

Whether or not Sam Shamoun or Chessie Edwards considers the Collyridians as Christian does not matter. They are seen as a heretical Christian sect and as such, their worship of Mary complies with the Qur’aanic claim.

Proving: (2) To show where a majority of Christian sects worship Mary or took Mary as a God.

What’s unknown to most missionary zealots is the clear cut Mary worship involved in today’s prominent Christian sects, i.e. Catholicism and Protestantism. It might seem odd, or unclear to most Christians, but the focal point of Christendom revolves around sin. In this light, we have to recall the Immaculate Conception, this refers to the conception of Mary. For Jesus to have been born sinless, he had to be rid of the original sin and to be born free of the original sin, you cannot be born through the womb of a woman. However this problem is solved in Christian theology by God granting Mary a special mercy or blessing, where she is pure and sinless and thus does not carry on the original sin to her child, Jesus.

However, the early Christian church in inventing the idea of the Immaculate Conception, attributed God like features to Mary:

The salutation of the angel Gabriel — chaire kecharitomene, Hail, full of grace (Luke 1:28) indicates a unique abundance of grace, a supernatural, godlike state of soul, which finds its explanation only in the Immaculate Conception of Mary. But the term kecharitomene (full of grace) serves only as an illustration, not as a proof of the dogma.

Her state is unique, supernatural and godlike. This, coming from the Catholic Encyclopedia, as evidence from the Bible of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. Yet, from the Bible, they are implying her soul is like the “soul of God”, they are in essence comparing her to God or attributing to her, God like features. This constitutes Shirk, thus proving point (2). Yet it does not end there, the polytheistic quotes continue:

she was created in a condition more sublime and glorious than all other natures. – Theodorus of Jerusalem in Mansi, XII, 1140.

To St. Ephraem she was as innocent as Eve before her fall, a virgin most estranged from every stain of sin, more holy than the Seraphim, the sealed fountain of the Holy Ghost, the pure seed of God, ever in body and in mind intact and immaculate. – Carmina Nisibena.

Conclusion:

Seeing as both points are proven above, then the claim that the Qur’aan asserts, that of Mary being taken as a God in Christendom has been proven valid and to be truthful. Sam’s biggest claim to refute the Qur’aanic statement was that Mary had been attributed to the Trinity, yet this was not the Qur’aanic assertion, the Qur’aanic statement had to do with Mary being taken as a God. Since the claim has been proven true, it rests upon Sam Shamoun to either publicly correct himself for his doctrinal error or as I expect, for him to deny the evidences and ignore this refutation.

wa Allaahu Alam.
[and God knows best.]

Refutation: The Quran’s View of the Holy Bible Revisited Pt. 2

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

Continuing from part one, let’s see what other faulty arguments against Islam that Sam’s invented this week:

The second problem with Williams’ appeal to Asad’s perversion of Q. 5:48 is that it ignores the immediate context of the passage which explains what is meant by the Quran coming to confirm and safeguard the Scriptures before it. Here is the immediate context, once again, in order to help the readers follow along with our exegesis:

This is a very shocking opening statement, what is bothersome about this is that Sam clearly displays intellectual fraud, anyone who has ever done a class in hermeneutics, literature, communication studies, academic writing would have you know that each and every translation from an original language to another is an interpretation based upon the methodology and understanding of the original text by the translator. However Sam decides that the translation he disagrees with is a perversion, that however as seen in part one, does not help his case as even that translation, which he appeals to confirms what Asad’s translation says.

I have to ask a direct question to Sam Shamoun, under what pretenses are you certified to do an exegesis of the Qur’aan? What have you formally studied under Ulum al Qur’aan? May we have your degree? Your Ijaza? Some form of academic approval to do Qur’aanic exegesis? Perhaps you can demonstrate for us your skill in Arabic, I’m sure you know very well classical Arabic and Arabic etymology. With that in mind, may we also know what form of certification you have to do exegesis of the Bible? It would be our pleasure for you to make public your certification, otherwise Sam Shamoun is not qualified to do such things, and as such his work is not an exegesis, rather it’s what we term eisegesis.

eisegesis – The interpretation of a word or passage by reading into it one’s own ideas.

Eisegesis is what uneducated laymen do to scripture. Eisegesis is the anti-thesis to exegesis. Ironically he has appealed to exegetical fallacies in part one, three of which I highlighted, namely:

(1) The Word Fallacy.
(2) The Reading Between the Lines Fallacy.
(3) The Fallacy of Appeal to Authority.

You can find these fallacies through various books, however I prefer to use Exegetical Fallacies: Common Mistakes Every Student of the Bible Must Avoid – Professor William D. Barrick. Sam goes on to reference Qur’aan Surah 5, Ayat 43 – 45, I however am using a translation variant from his, as it’s suited for modern English readers as translated by a scholar of Ulum al Qur’aan, Mufti Taq Uthmani [db]:

How do they ask you to judge while the Torah is with them, having the ruling of Allaah? Still, they turn away, after all that. They are no believers. Surely We have sent down the Torah, in which there was guidance and light by which the prophets, who submitted themselves to Allaah , used to judge for the Jews, and (so did) the men of Allaah and the men of knowledge, because they were ordained to protect the Book of Allaah, and they stood guard over it. So, (O Jews of today), do not fear people. Fear Me, and do not take a paltry price for My verses. Those who do not judge according to what Allaah has sent down are the disbelievers. We prescribed for them therein: A life for a life, an eye for an eye, a nose for a nose, an ear for an ear and a tooth for a tooth; and for wounds, an equal retaliation. Then, if one forgives it, that will be expiation for him. Those who do not judge according to what Allaah has sent down, they are the unjust.

Notice, I’ve highlighted the areas Sam has also highlighted. He’s desperately trying to draw the conclusion that there was no need for the Qur’aan’s revelation or Muhammad’s {saw} judgement  because the Qur’aan is saying that the Torah was still the modus operandi of the day when it come to judicial implementation. This however is a fanciful generalization. Refer to the Qur’aanic quotation above, it clearly states that the Torah which the Jews had contained a ruling from Allaah and it goes on to explicitly state what that ruling was: An eye for an eye…..etc, hence the Qur’aan is rebuking the Jews for knowing what the ruling of Allaah was, while they neglected to implement it. Hence why the Qur’aan states:

So, (O Jews of today), do not fear people. Fear Me, and do not take a paltry price for My verses. Those who do not judge according to what Allaah has sent down are the disbelievers.

The following excerpt explains the verses before the above ayat:

Their gist is that the Jews were habitually used to issuing religious edicts as desired by the people, either for the benefit of relatives or to satisfy their greed for money, property, influence, and recognition. This had become a common custom particularly in matters involving punishments that they would, if the crime was committed by an influential person, change the severe punishment of the Torah into an ordinary one. It is this behaviour, part of theirs which has been described in the first verse (41) in the following words: يُحَرِّ‌فُونَ الْكَلِمَ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَوَاضِعِهِ (They displace the words after their having been placed properly).

Now the people who were used to making the severe punishments of the Torah easy for their clients by changing them saw an opportunity for themselves whereby they could take such shady matters to the Holy Prophet {saw} and make him their judge or arbitrator. The dual advantage they saw in it was that they would reap the benefits of all easy and light rules of Islamic law, while at the same time, they would not have to commit the crime of altering the Torah. But, here too, they had their crookedness at work as they would hold on to their decision of taking their case to him until such time that they succeeded in finding out beforehand through some source or ruse as to the actual verdict which would be delivered in their case when presented. Then, if they found this verdict matching their wishes, they would make him their arbitrator and have him decide their case. If it happened to be contrary to their wishses, they would leave it at that.- Tafsir Maar’iful Qur’aan : Mufti Rafi Uthmani, pages 164- 165.

This presents the precedence for verse 44 and onwards:

By saying:  إِنَّا أَنْزَلْنَا التَّوْرَ‌اةَ فِيهَا هُدًى وَنُورٌ‌ (Surely We have sent down the Torah, having guidance and light therein), the hint given is that the abrogation of the Shari’ah of Torah at that point of time is not because of any shortcoming of the Torah itself but it has been done rather because of the need to change injunctions with the change of time. Otherwise the Torah too is a Book revealed by the same Revealer.

After that is was said: that is,  ۚ يَحْكُمُ بِهَا النَّبِيُّونَ الَّذِينَ أَسْلَمُوا  “We had revealed the Torah so that, until its Shari’ah has not been abrogated, all incoming prophets and their deputies, the men of Allaah and the Ulama shall all decide and rule in accordance with this Torah making it the working law of their time“. After that, it was said لِلَّذِينَ هَادُوا وَالرَّ‌بَّانِيُّونَ وَالْأَحْبَارُ‌ بِمَا اسْتُحْفِظُوا مِنْ كِتَابِ اللَّـهِ وَكَانُوا عَلَيْهِ شُهَدَاءَ (because they were entrusted with the protection of the Book of Allaah and they stood guard over it). It means that these prophets and their two kinds of deputies, the Ulama and the Masha’ikh (Men of Knowledge and Men of Allaah) were responsible for enforcing the laws of the Torah because Almighty Allaah had entrusted them with the protection of the Torah and they had given up the pledge that they would guard it.

Up to this point, the text was referring to the Torah as Divine Scripture and guidance and light which was enforced and guarded by the Prophets, and their deputies among guides and scholars. Then, the focus turns on to the contemporary Jews who have been censured for not having guarded the Torah as their elders did. They acted crookedly when they started changing its injunctions, for example, the glad tidings of the coming of the Last among Prophets, Muhammad al Mustafa, may the peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him, was mentioned clearly in the Torah and the Jews were asked to believe in him. But, rather than believe in him as required, they became hostile to him. Also given here is the reason what prompted them to do so. It was love for power and love for money. They knew that the Holy Prophet {saw} was a true prophet of Allaah but they balked at the thought of following him because they were taken as leaders among their people, common Jews who followed them. Now if they were to embrace Islam, they will turn into common Muslim individuals. Gone will be their pivotal position for power play. Other than this, they had almost made it a profession that they would bend and alter the provisions of the Torah to provide officially endorsed conveniences for influential people against payment of bribes. The contemporary Jews were warned about this practise in the following words:

فَلَا تَخْشَوُا النَّاسَ وَاخْشَوْنِ وَلَا تَشْتَرُ‌وا بِآيَاتِي ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا ۚ وَمَنْ لَمْ يَحْكُمْ بِمَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّـهُ فَأُولَـٰئِكَ هُمُ الْكَافِرُ‌ونَ
(So, do not fear people, fear Me. And do not take a paltry price for My verses).

It means that they should not fear that their people will stop following them or turn against them and they they should not alter the Divine commands for the sake of insignificant worldly gains for it would ruin them both materially and spiritually because:

وَمَنْ لَمْ يَحْكُمْ بِمَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّـهُ فَأُولَـٰئِكَ هُمُ الْكَافِرُ‌ونَ
(And whoever does not judge by what Allaah has sent down, then, they are the disbelievers.)

In the second verse after that (45), there is a description of the injunctions of Qisas (Even Retaliation) with a particular reference stressing that, “We had revealed these injunctions on the Torah”. The words of the text are:

وَكَتَبْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ فِيهَا أَنَّ النَّفْسَ بِالنَّفْسِ وَالْعَيْنَ بِالْعَيْنِ وَالْأَنْفَ بِالْأَنْفِ وَالْأُذُنَ بِالْأُذُنِ وَالسِّنَّ بِالسِّنِّ وَالْجُرُ‌وحَ قِصَاصٌ
(And We ordained for them therein a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a nose for a nose, an ear for an ear, a tooth for a tooth, and for wounds is legal retribution.) Tafsir Maar’iful Qur’aan : Mufti Rafi Uthmani, pages  177 -180

Finally, to sum the entire context of the verses from 41 to 48, we read:

In the fifth (48) and sixth (49) verse, the address is to the Holy Prophet {saw} saying that to him Allaah has revealed the Qur’aan which confirms the Torah and Injil, Books previous to it, and is their custodian as well. This is because, after the people of the Torah altered the Torah and the people of the Injil made changes in the Injil, it was the Qur’aan alone which turned out to be the kind of overseer and protector which exposed the alterations made by them, lit up the truth and reality in their proper perspective. Even today, the true teachings of the Torah and Injil still survive through the Qur’aan while those who inherited them and those who claim to follow them have disfigured them to the extant that it has become impossible to distinguish truth from untruth. Towards the end of the verse, the Holy Prophet {saw} has been given the same instruction as was given to the people of the Torah and the people of the Injil, that is, all orders and judgments given by him should be accordng to injunctions revealed by Allaah, and that he should see through the ploy of these people who intend to have him decide matters according to their wishes and take his guard against their evil plans. – Tafsir Maar’iful Qur’aan : Mufti Rafi Uthmani, page 181.

As properly demonstrate above by an exegete, we can conclude the following:

(1) The Qur’aan confirms the Torah and Injil which are from Allaah.
(2) Allaah does not recognize the rulings of the Jews which are not based on His law.
(3) The Qur’aan although confirming what was revealed makes it clear that,
(4) It was revealed because the Shari’ah (laws) of the Torah were altered by the Jews and
(5) Altered by the Christians in the Injil, therefore:
(6) It makes it clear that the only rule of law to be accepted by Allaah is:
(7) By the Qur’aan and Muhammad {saw}.

The ruling which Allaah validates that is from Him is the ruling if Qisas given in ayat 44 (Equal Retribution), it is not validating the entire Bible. In fact, Sam’s quotation helps further prove this, but first, let’s examine this statement of his:

Here we not only have Muhammad judging the Jews according to their own copy of the Torah we also find him praising it by testifying that he believes in it and the God who revealed it! This clearly is not the actions of a man who thought that the Holy Bible was corrupted.

Note how he over exaggerates what Muhammad {saw} is doing. What exactly do the Hadith and Qur’aanic ayat speak of which Allaah had revealed? The law of Qisas (equal retribution – an eye for an eye…. etc), Muhammad {saw} was testifying that he believed in the law of Qisas which Allaah had revealed and protected. That is the only logical conclusion one can come to after reading the various exegeses on the matter in light of the Qur’aan and Hadith Sharh (commentary). To reaffirm this, let’s take one more look at the ayats in question,:

So do not fear the people but fear Me, and do not exchange My verses (بِآيَاتِي) for a small price. And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed – then it is those who are the disbelievers. And We ordained for them therein a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a nose for a nose, an ear for an ear, a tooth for a tooth, and for wounds is legal retribution. But whoever gives [up his right as] charity, it is an expiation for him. And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed – then it is those who are the wrongdoers. – Qur’aan : Suratul Ma’ida (5) : 44 – 45.

Clearly the ayat speaks for itself, it is referring to these verses as it uses the term, بِآيَاتِي (verses) in ayat 44. Therefore for Sam’s argument to be valid, the ayat would have had to use the word كتب (book), however as one can see for themselves, it does not use that term. Shamoun then seeks to abuse even the most basic tenets of Islam:

On the other side, another party of hadith and fiqh scholars said: these changes took place during its interpretation and not during the process of its revelation. This is the view of Abi Abdullah Muhammad bin Ishmael Al-Bukhari who said in his hadith collection:

“No one can corrupt the text by removing any of Allah’s words from his Books, but they corrupted it by misinterpreting it.”

Al-Razi also agrees with this opinion. In his commentary he said:

“There is a difference of opinions regarding this matter among some of the respectable scholars. Some of these scholars said: the manuscript copies of the Torah were distributed everywhere and no one knows the exact number of these copies except Allah. It is impossible to have a conspiracy to change or alter the word of God in all of these copies without missing any copy. Such a conspiracy will not be logical or possible. And when Allah told his messenger (Muhammad) to ask the Jews to bring their Torah and read it concerning the stoning command they were not able to change this command from their copies, that is why they covered up the stoning verse while they were reading it to the prophet. It was then when Abdullah Ibn Salam requested that they remove their hand so that the verse became clear. If they have changed or altered the Torah then this verse would have been one of the important verses to be altered by the Jews.

“Also, whenever the prophet would ask them (the Jews) concerning the prophecies about him in the Torah they were not able to remove them either, and they would respond by stating that they are not about him and they are still waiting for the prophet in their Torah.”

The problem with Sam Shamoun is that he believes Muslims think that God’s word (Kalamullah) can become corrupted. However this only displays his ignorance as this is not an Islamic belief. We do not believe that God’s word can become corrupted. Sure someone can make scribal errors or forget a verse, those are human errors, but God preserves His revelations in a myriad of ways, while one scribe may make an error, the scribal overseer would notice that mistake, or another scribe would point it out under proof reading, in the case of recitation, a hafiz (Qur’aanic memorizer) would correct the incorrectly recited ayat. However, God’s “word” can become corrupted in another way:

(1) Interpretation (eisegesis), as what Sam is doing, or
(2) By ignoring/ hiding God’s word, writing your own “revelation” and claiming it to be from God:

فَوَيْلٌ لِلَّذِينَ يَكْتُبُونَ الْكِتَابَ بِأَيْدِيهِمْ ثُمَّ يَقُولُونَ هَـٰذَا مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّـهِ لِيَشْتَرُ‌وا بِهِ ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا ۖ فَوَيْلٌ لَهُمْ مِمَّا كَتَبَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَوَيْلٌ لَهُمْ مِمَّا يَكْسِبُونَ
(So woe to those who write the “scripture” with their own hands, then say, “This is from Allah,” in order to exchange it for a small price. Woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for what they earn.) – Qur’aan : Suratul Baqarah (2) : 79.

So the corruption of God’s word that most Muslims refer to when speaking of Biblical corruption, is away from the revelation of Allaah and towards men’s words claiming to be God’s. This is what we Muslims mean, so when Ibn Qayyim {rh} says this:

And the Torah is Allah’s word. (Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, Ighathat Al Lahfan, Volume 2, p. 351)

and the Qur’aan says this:

“And the word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and in justice. None can alter His words, and He is the Hearing, the Knowing.” – Qur’aan Surat al An’am (6) : 115.

These statements are being said in relation to Qur’aan Suratul Baqarah (2), Ayat 79, that people cannot change the word of God, but that they can hide God’s word and claim their self authored writing as revelation from God. We can see one example of that here:

If anyone thinks they are a prophet or otherwise gifted by the Spirit, let them acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command. – Bible : 1 Corinthians (14) : 37.

Here, Paul is self prophesying that his writing is God’s word (God’s command), this is a bit of circular thinking on behalf of Paul as he doesn’t have any authority to say his writing is now God’s command, no verse from the Old Testament refers to Paul as the one who would write God’s command. Ironic as it is, he should have taken his own advice:

Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. – Bible : 1 Corinthians (8) : 2.

Or as demonstrated by the author of the Gospel of Luke, where the author’s intent was to document Jesus’ worldly ministry but somehow Christians made it into an inerrant scripture:

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.- Bible : Luke (1) : 1 – 4.

One moment this is an account for a person by the name of Theophilus, the next Christians are assuming it’s the word of God, inspired and inerrant. Therefore in this regard, this is what Muslims refer to as corruption of God’s word. People write documents and the masses are led to believe it’s from God. God’s word didn’t change, but people’s belief in a word of God changed. However things turned for a worse in Sam’s article, as he attempted to use, what I assume is logic statements:

A. No one is able to change the words of God.

B. The Torah (and by extension the Gospel and the rest of the Scriptures) is (are) God’s Word(s).

C. Therefore, no individual can ever change or corrupt the text of the Torah (or the other Scriptures for that matter).

That’s what we believe Sam, no one can change God’s word. To make it a bit more extant, God’s word is an attribute of God, just as you would have Al Alim (All Knowing) and Ar Rahman (Most Merciful), in this light Kalamullah (The Word of Allaah) cannot be altered as God does not change, He is, Al Awwal (The First – Alpha) and Al Akhir (The Last – Omega). This must be a new lesson for Sam as he clearly displays his ignorance of Islamic ‘aqidah. Continuing to examine his argument, we read:

Here is what that passage actually says:

And [likewise,] from those who say, “Behold, we are Christians.” We have accepted a solemn pledge: and they, too, have forgotten much of what they had been told to bear in mind – wherefore We have given rise among them to enmity and hatred, [to last] until Resurrection Day: and in time God will cause them to understand what they have contrived.

Now notice the contradiction between William’s interpretation of this text with the following verse that appears a little later in the same surah:

And We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus son of Mary, confirming the Torah before him and We gave to him the Gospel, wherein is guidance and light, and confirming the Torah before it, as a guidance and an admonition unto the godfearing. So let the People of the Gospel judge according to what God has sent down therein. Whosoever judges not according to what God has sent down — they are the ungodly. S. 5:46-47 Arberry

Let’s correct Sam’s misleading statements here, in this instance he’s appealing to a post hoc argument. Essentially, he does not take the verses into their contextual order, thereby purposely misleading himself and the audience at large. To begin with, the ayats he quotes above are from verse 14 and then he skips all the way to verses 46 and 47. Between those ayat there are 32/ 33 verses. He’s jumped 33 verses, to link two different statements to develop an entirely new understanding. This surely is academic dishonesty, for an example of what he’s done, let’s look at this Biblical example:

Looking at his disciples, he [Jesus] said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”

and then he says:

“How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers!” – Bible, Luke 6, Luke 21.

That sounds wrong doesn’t it? Well that’s because, just as Sam, I deliberately removed those statements from their places of context, joined them together and the argument being presented from such an act is highly fraudulent, and this is what Sam has done to the Qur’aan. Moving on, the verse which Br. Paul Williams has referenced is verse 14:

And from those who say, “We are Christians” We took their covenant; but they forgot a portion of that of which they were reminded. So We caused among them animosity and hatred until the Day of Resurrection. And Allah is going to inform them about what they used to do.- Qur’aan : Surat al Ma’ida (5) : 14.

In its context, this admits that Christians, who at the time of Muhammad {saw} profess such statements, were sent a Prophet in the manner of Muhammad {saw}, the very next ayat demonstrates this:

O People of the Scripture, there has come to you Our Messenger making clear to you much of what you used to conceal of the Scripture and overlooking much. There has come to you from Allah a light and a clear Book. – Qur’aan : Surat al Ma’ida (5) : 15.

Later on in the Surah however, it refers to the time when Isa (Jesus – may God be pleased with him) was alive. Referring to two completely different times:

And We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming that which came before him in the Torah; and We gave him the Gospel, in which was guidance and light and confirming that which preceded it of the Torah as guidance and instruction for the righteous. – Qur’aan : Surah (5) : 46.

His argument is based on verses referencing two completely different times. This only goes on to display his incompetence and dishonesty. How shallow, can you go?

Fortunately we are in a position to know what the Torah which Jesus came to confirm looked like. As a result of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, along with Jesus’ extensive use of the OT Scriptures as documented in the Canonical Gospels, we know that the Scriptures that he was reading and confirming to be from God are the very same Books that we have today. This simply provides further evidence that Muhammad actually believed that the Torah has not been corrupted since he claimed that Jesus himself was sent to confirm the authority of the same Scriptures that he himself had access to.

The problem with Sam’s argument is that he cannot be consistent. On one end he professes the Dead Sea Scrolls are scripture, however the Christian New Testament is based loosely on a mixture of the Masoretic Text, Qumran Scrolls and Septuagint Manuscripts. Unless he can provide for us a single Christian Bible which uses the entirety of the Qumran / Dead Sea Scrolls, he’s essentially jumped the gun. Sam’s logic is described as such:

(A) Jesus lived at the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
(B) Therefore he used the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Well, it’s rather simple to challenge that. If he used the Dead Sea Scrolls:

(1) Did he live among the Essenes in Qumran? If so, give a source.
(2) Did he consider their codex to be canonical, because I don’t see the Book of War in the (Jewish/ Christian) Old Testament.
(3) Why would the early Church prefer the Septuagint over the Masoretic text which is closer to the Dead Sea Scrolls in language and content?
(4) Following the logic of (A) [implies] => (B) can we say that Jesus also used the Samaritan Scrolls which existed at the same time?
(5) Why did he have to use the Dead Sea Scrolls, why not the Scrolls from (4) or perhaps the Oral Tradition of the Pharisees?

His argument doesn’t follow proper logic, just because it may have existed within the era of Jesus, does not mean that he used it, as not a single Patristic source claims that Jesus used the Scrolls of the Essenes and if Sam has evidence of Jesus using the scrolls of the Essenes (Dead Sea Scrolls), then please, give it to the world, we’re waiting. In fact, to the contrary we have Christian scholars declaring the codex and canon of the Essenes to have contained pseudepigrapha books:

The Essene canon contained some of the Pseudepigrapha which they claimed to be divine. Most of these writings were midrash on canonized books and logically therefore would not be Scripture. For if the Pseudepigrapha contained a copy of a canonical book as well as commentary on it, why would it not negate the original canonical book, because the Pseudepigrapha with its inspired commentary would be much more valuable? In addition, “If they were conscious of being inspired, why did they not have the confidence to use their own names?”Even the quote in Jude 14 of 1 Enoch 1:9 does not require that 1 Enoch is Scripture. To quote what is true in Scripture is different than saying that what is quoted is Scripture. Even Paul quoted a pagan poet in Acts 17:28, yet he certainly did not regard it as Scripture but as simply true. – The Content and Extent of the Old Testament, by Wayne Stiles.

Seemingly reeling from a bout of inanity, Sam then desperately tries to attack the Qur’aan ina  last ditch attempt to manifest some form of compensation for failing to argue against Br. Paul’s statements:

Lastly, what makes William’s distortion of the Quranic witness to the authenticity of the Holy Bible rather remarkable is that the Quran testifies to its own textual corruption!

(Of just such wrath) as We sent down on those who divided (Scripture into arbitrary parts), – (So also on such) AS HAVE MADE THE QUR’AN INTO SHREDS (as they please). S. 15:90-91 Y. Ali

Here is how another version translates this text:

As We sent down (Our curse and disagreement) on those who divided (the Scripture out of their own whims into equal parts and thus mutilated the integrity of its Surahs)—those who made Al-Quran into (thirty or sixty equal) parts (on the basis of the thickness of volume, completely disregarding the subject matter and the divisions sanctioned by the Divine Author). Dr. Kamal Omar

This ayat has nothing to do with textual corruption of the Qur’aan, whether during the lifetime of Muhammad {saw} or otherwise. This is why Sam’s eisegesis has led him to many false conclusions and his word study fallacy really is not helping the situation. Neither the ayat (verse) or Dr. Kamal’s translation speak about textual corruption, but Dr. Kamal does explain what the verse means:

completely disregarding the subject matter and the divisions sanctioned by the Divine Author

There were people who were disregarding what Allaah had said in the Qur’aan, and they were dividing it into their own understandings as Dr. Kamal clearly indicates. A word for word reproduction for what Sam is doing. The very Qur’aanic ayat he is trying to use to disparage the sacredness of the Qur’aan, backfires and in great irony, describes what he’s trying to do. Glory be to God. Let’s now try to seek the proper understand of this ayat:

(Who have made the Qur’an into parts.) Some have said that Al-Mutaqasimin refers to the Quraysh, that the Qur’an means this Qur’an (as opposed to the Scriptures of the People of the Book), and that “made it into parts” referred to what `Ata’ said that some of them said that he (the Prophet ) was a sorcerer, some said he was crazy, or a soothsayer. These various allegations were the parts. This opinion was also reported from Ad-Dahhak and others. Muhammad bin Ishaq reported from Ibn `Abbas that Al-Walid bin Al-Mughirah – holding a noble position among the people – rallied a group of Quraysh behind him when Al-Mawsim (the time for pilgrims to meet in Makkah for Hajj) had come. He said to them, “O people of Quraysh! The time of Al-Mawsim has come, and delegations of Arabs will come to you during this time. They will have heard some things about this companion of yours (meaning the Prophet ), so agree on one opinion, let there be no contradicting or denials of each other’s sayings”. They said, “And you, O Abu `Abd Shams, give us an opinion and we will say that.” He said, “No, you make the suggestions and I will listen.” They said, “We say he is a soothsayer.” He said, “He is not a soothsayer.” They said, “We say he is crazy.” He said, “He is not crazy.” They said, “We say he is a poet.” He said, “He is not a poet.” They said, “We say he is a sorcerer.” He said, “He is not a sorcerer.” They said, “So what should we say” He said, “By Allah, what he says is as palatable ﴿to the average person﴾ as something sweet, so you cannot say anything against it without it being obviously false. – Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Qur’aan Surah 15 : Ayat 90 -91.

To now conclude with a brief summary, we recall:

(1) The Qur’aan came to confirm that Shari’ah of the Torah (from Allaah) and Injil (from Allaah), see 5:44 to 5:49.
(2) The Qur’aan which was revealed to Muhammad {saw} admonishes the Jews for ignoring the law of Qisas (Equal Retribution). (5:44)
(3) The Qur’aan which was revealed to Muhammad {saw} came to confirm the law of Qisas (which Muhammad {saw} testified was from God and which he testified in the corrupted Torah of the Jews). (5:44 – 45)
(4) Isa (Jesus – may God be pleased with him) confirmed the Injil (Gospel) giving to him by God, not that of Mark, Matthew, Luke or John which came with Pope Siricius’ Canon in 397 AD [after the failed vote of 393 AD]. (5: 46)
(5) The Qur’aan confirmed what God revealed and admonished the Jews and Christians for corruption of scripture (2:79, 5:14).
(6) It is in this context, that it is Allaah who has established the lawmaking to be based on the Qur’aan and Sunnah of Muhammad {saw}. (5:48)

As such, the Qur’aan as given by Allaah and as received to us through the Messenger, Muhammad {saw} clearly has demonstrated the errors of the Christians and Jews with respect to their scriptures and its corruption while enforcing the sanctity of the Qur’aan as being the source of hukm (law making) for Jews, Christians and Muslims.

This now places Shamoun in a dilemma. If Shamoun continues to believe that the Bible has not been corrupted then he has to conclude that his own article proves him to be wrong, and therefore a farce of an attempt to attack Islam. Yet if he agrees with himself that the Bible is the uncorrupt Word of God then Shamoun must again accept the fact that Paul was a false apostle since the latter contradicted the essential core doctrines taught within the self inspired pages of his own falsification of scripture, i.e. the condition Paul lays for himself in 1 Corinthians 8:2.

With that said, we now end our discussion with the following advice to Sam Shamoun: Read. Inwardly digest. Learn. and at some point, be Intellectually Responsible and avoid Inane and Petulant Deceits.

“He grants wisdom to whom He pleases; and he to whom wisdom is granted receives a benefit overflowing; but none will grasp the message but men of understanding” – [Al Qur’an 2:269]

wa Allaahu Alam.
[and God knows best.]

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