"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of Grace and Truth"

Submitted by Lactantius Jr. (United Kingdom), Dec 16, 2006 at 11:58

To Sohail

Previously you have said, "I stand by the Torah because it doesn't say that they are trinity." http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/68044 and now you say the New Testament "contradicts" the Old Testament, producing Numbers 23:19 to "prove" your claim. Your claim self-destructs Sohail. You say you "stand by the Torah," and as a Muslim, so you should, because in Surah 3:3, Allah claims that he authored it.

Let's say Numbers was written down ~3,000 years before the compilation of the Qur'an, and accept that the Qur'an was revealed by Allah, who said his word cannot contain error and cannot change. Allah is said to preserve the Qur'an Sura 15:9; 85:21-22; and the words of Allah are said to be unalterable:-

"there is none that can alter the words and decrees of Allah

Sura 6:34

and:-

"----------none can change his words-----------"

Sura 18:27

Using the Qur'an therefore to "prove" Numbers 23:19, you can accept it with confidence Sohail, as the unchanged, unchangeable word of Allah, and for a detailed, in depth exegesis ("an explanation or critical interpretation of the text") by Sam Shamoun, I recommend his online papers

"How can Jesus be God when the Hebrew Bible says God is not a man? Cf. Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Hosea 11:9."

http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/q_god_not_man.htm

"God warns people in Psalm 146:3 from trusting in a son of man for help. According to the NT Jesus is the Son of Man cf. Mark 2:28. Therefore, how can Christians trust him as their Savior when the OT tells believers not to trust in such a person?"

http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/q_son_of_man.htm

"Son of Man" was Jesus' favourite self-chosen description, occurring over 80 times on His lips in the 4 Gospels, Jesus clearly associating Himself with the Son of Man of Daniel 7:13 and we have the clearest possible descriptions in the New testament Scriptures that "God went public" ~2,000 years ago when He paid us a visit as His Incarnate Son of God, Son of Man, The Lord Jesus Christ.

You ask "How could God be a man," and I assume Sohail, that as a Muslim you believe Allah to be omnipotent, could he therefore do such a thing, and if not, why not??

Your claim that the New Testament of the Bible "contradicts" the Old Testament is not only false, but potentially very damaging to the Qur'an, claiming as it does that Allah authored the Bible, but also when your claim of the Bible's internal contradiction is applied to the Qur'an, it has profoundly damaging effects for the Qur'an.

Muslim authorities admit that Muhammad was at one time inspired by Satan to put some verses into the Qur'an. Some time later, upon receiving further revelation from Jibril, that those verses were not from Allah, but interjected by Satan, they were removed again. The Qur'an reports about it in Surah 22:52

"Never sent We a messenger or a prophet before thee but when He recited (the message) Satan proposed (opposition) in respect of that which he recited thereof. But Allah abolisheth that which Satan proposeth. Then Allah establisheth His revelations. Allah is Knower, Wise;"

This means Satan was able to interfere with Muhammad's recitation, and create some ayat in praise of the idols al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat, see Surah 53:19-20, calling them "al-Gharaniq al-ula", "the high birds". He later annulled this (see Asbab al-Nuzul by al-Wahidi; chapter on why Sura al-Hajj was revealed).

It seems that Satan was able to inspire some verses and nobody realized it, until Allah pointed it out by giving further revelation. This means in particular: there was no "inferior language" in those verses which came from Satan, in comparison to those which supposedly came from Allah, because Muhammad didn't realize it at the time.

The Qur'an states:

"And if you all are in doubt about what I have revealed to My servant, bring a single surah like it, and call your witnesses besides Allah if you are truthful." Surah 2:23

and specifically includes the jinn in the challenge:

"Say: ‘If all mankind and the jinn would come together to produce the like of this Qur'an, they could not produce its like even though they exerted all and their strength in aiding one another.'" Surah 17:88

According to the Qur'an, Satan is one of the jinn, and we learn that he gave revelation which Muhammad recited as being divine Qur'an. This revelation was sufficiently "like it" because Muhammad himself was not able to recognize that those verses were from Satan instead of from Allah. He was not able to distinguish those verses from the rest of the Qur'an based on their language. Instead, he needed another revelation from Allah to be informed about the falsehood of the former.

This incident has several implications Sohail. The challenge of the Qur'an to "bring a surah like it" was actually met by those satanic verses in Muhammad's own time, which in turn leads to the possibility that the rest of the Qur'an is not from Allah either.

It would be an easy matter to provide you with a long list of contradictions in the Qur'an Sohail, and I will readily do so if you want to tackle them, but before doing that, please let me have your carefully considered response to the "challenge" of Surah 2:23 and it being met by Satan, with Muhammad reciting his words, being unable to distinguish between them and Allah's words, the "satanic verses" at one time being included in the Qur'an, before being removed later, when Allah supposedly pointed out to Muhammad through Jibril, that they weren't his words.

With kind regards and best wishes

Lactantius Jr.

and in those lovely words of the Aaronic blessing from Numbers 6:24-26 "May the Lord bless you and protect you.May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you His favour and give you His peace.'

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