So they say that Bible is worse than Quran

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Oct 9, 2016 at 02:05

Dear Dr Pipes,

Your reader haq ahmad from India was on a roll. He presented long graphic details of the sex life of Prophet Muhammad and his young wife Aisha. With each detail his argument went as follows: Prophet's behavior was right and even if it was wrong, certain other behaviors described in Bible were worse and so the prophet is the greatest.

These honest and sincere Muslims must understand a simple thing. Religious books are old and almost all religious books of all religions describe things that do not appear right by modern standards. Caste system might have been justified in the past, it does not stand to reason today. Slavery described in Bible may have been OK in those days but it does not appear acceptable today. Most religions have resolved this discrepancy by appreciating that while the scripture is frozen in time, we have evolved. So what was said at that time neither need to be attacked furiously nor needs to be accepted without questioning.

Unfortunately, Prophet Muhammad made a severe mistake himself. He froze his book for all time to come and instructed his followers to never challenge it. This, unfortunately, became a terrible combination. Muslims now have to defend the behavior of the Prophet at every cost. They cannot take Muhammad's instructions in spirit. They must follow them in letter to the last letter.

Prophet Muhammad lived about 1400 years ago. By all accounts, he was a human. Can any one of us imagine what the world would look like in the year 3416? We do not even know whether it will exist in that many years. Muhammad was in no better shape. If he had any clue that his book will last till 2016, he world have granted human beings some more freedom. Just one Hadith endorsed by Aisha indicating that Muhammad asked his followers to use their best judgment and occasionally disobay the scripture would have resolved the problem. But we cannot blame Muhammad for not knowing that we will still be reading his book fourteen hundred years later.

My effort is to bring reason to Islam. Hope this helps.

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