nice try but no cigar

Submitted by Oliver (United States), Nov 11, 2007 at 03:12

Rayes,

I offered to compare the teachings of Jesus to mohammad - to which you replied that the recorded teachings of Christianity are corrupted and failed to accept my offer. This is a very easy claim to make - but it seems to me that if we were to compare the extant teachings of Jesus to those of mohammad the 'superiority' of islam over Christianity would become - oh - so much more apparent. What say we give it a try?? Please?? Pretty please??? With honey on top????

Or we can try another approach - how about comparing the Creation Stories found in the Hebrew Torah to those found in the quran. If there are significant differences between these two books we can at least agree that one of them is incorrect - but if there are significant inconsistancies amoung the stories in a specific book then that book must be considered to be a corrupted even a fraudulent document. I own English translations of the quran by Maulana Muhammad Ali, Ahmed Ali, Yusuf Ali, Pickthal, Shakir and The Nobel Quran (a translation paid for and approved by the Saudis and distributed widely in the USA). If you have 'better' translations - bring them forward for observation.

Now as to the identity of the true almighty God of all creation - this God identified Himself (by Name) to the Hebrews when He gave them His holy laws at Mt. Sinai, through Moses, after they had left bondage in Egypt. The Name He gave to Moses to tell to the Hebrews was not allah - not in any way, fashion or form - He gave Moses a real Name not a descriptive title. That Name is so holy to the Hebrews that to this day they do not speak it and at times they would not even write it. (I have been priviledged to see some of the fragments of the 'Dead Sea Scrolls' and in a few of them the Name of God is represented by . . . . 4 dots). Tell me, if the Almighty desired to have such a personal relationship with the Hebrew people that he would share His particular Name with them, why is it that the god of mohammad did not do the same with the muslims?

The God of the Hebrews is a holy God and requires holy behavior of those who worship Him, He communicated His holy requirements through the Mosaic Law. Besides demanding exclusive worship to Himself (as in islam), He also commands: a) do not commit murder, b) do not commit adultery, c) do not steal, d) do not lie, and e) do not covet anything that belongs to another. If a prophet were to commit, cause to commit or even condone such behavior then that person's (prophethood, prophetship) prophetical office is questionable. Will you compare the teachings of Moses & Jesus to mohammad on these points??

Speaking of the 'Dead Sea Scrolls' - many (not all) of these items have been dated to 100 - 200 years before the birth of Jesus. When they are compared to today's Masoretic Text of the Hebrew holy writ there are only slight and insignificant differences - the Hebrew 'bible' is very well preserved and is in no provable way corrupted. There are literally tens of thousands of whole copies and fragments of the documents contained in the Christian holy writ, the New Testament, dating back to 100- 200 years after the birth of Jesus. Modern techniques of 'textual criticism' credit these documents to be 99.9% accurate to the originals. What we can know of the teachings of Jesus is very accurate and in no wise corrupted. I do not doubt you when you say the quran of today is an accurate representation of the teachings of mohammad. I also concurr with you that the Sira and Haditha must be used to lend a contextual basis to the quran.

So - how about it - why don't we have a battle of the books of GOD???

OH - one other thing - you forgot to mention the sixth and most outrageous 'pillar' of islam - it is in fact not a pillar but the actual foundation on which the pillars stand - JIHAD. It is prescribed for all muslims to wage jihad on all unbelievers until the religion of allah is the one and only religion. You can't deny it.

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