The Islamic Dilemma: A Game-Changer for Conversations with Muslims
The Muslim Claim
“Hi, my name is Farjat* and I am from Libya. I am a Muslim and our holy Qur’an has the words of God which have never been changed. Your Bible has been changed, and that is why God had to reveal the holy Qur’an. It’s nice to meet you.”
These were the first words of introduction from a young woman who came to my English (ESOL) class several years ago. While I have never heard anyone raise this challenge quite so quickly, it has always been—and continues to be—the first objection to Christianity that Muslims raise. Regardless of the country I’m in, the person’s education level, or the unique background of the individual, a corrupted Gospel[1] is the Muslim argument given to explain why Islam is true and Christianity is false.
Of course, the evidence amassed over the past few thousand years indicates otherwise, but who wants to bore their Muslim friends with vast quantities of erudite information on the proven reliability of ancient transmission through the careful study of textual criticism utilizing such documents as the Dead Sea Scrolls and early New Testament manuscripts to demonstrate the remarkably accurate preservation of the Bible through the millennia?
Fortunately, there is an easier and far more effective way to respond to Muslims that not only invalidates their claim that our Scriptures have been changed, but also calls into question the reliability of the Qur’an at the same time.
My Argument
The crux of the argument is this: The Qur’an affirms the inspiration, authority, and preservation of the gospels;[2] yet the Qur’an also contradicts the gospels on major theological and historical points. Therefore, the Qur’an cannot be reliable.
The remainder of this article will attempt to provide support and clarification for this argument.
The Inspiration and Authority of the Gospel
According to the Qur’an, the Gospel is the trustworthy, reliable revelation of God given as a guidance for mankind (Qur’an 3:3-4). These Scriptures from God were available and trustworthy when the Qur’an was revealed in the 7th century A.D., and those who had access to them were repeatedly told to obey them, judge by them, submit to their teaching, and stand fast upon them. In other words, according to the Qur’an, the gospels are the inspired and authoritative words of God.
Qur’an 5:47 says, “And let the People of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed therein. And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed - then it is those who are the defiantly disobedient.”
Qur’an 5:68 says, “Say, "O People of the Scripture, you are [standing] on nothing until you uphold [the law of] the Torah, the Gospel, and what has been revealed to you from your Lord.” (See also 6:114; 3:3-4).
The Preservation of the Gospel
If the gospels were trustworthy in the 600s AD, then they are certainly trustworthy today because our extant manuscripts pre-date the Qur’an by centuries. But perhaps even more significant for Muslims is that the Qur’an states that no one can change the words of Allah.[3]
Qur’an 6:115 says, “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. (See also 18:27).
If the gospels are the words of God, and no one can change God’s words, then the gospels must also have been perfectly preserved by God. Otherwise, the Qur’an is wrong.
Then Why Reveal the Qur’an?
The thoughtful reader (or listener) may ask, “If the Qur’an affirms the inspiration, preservation, and authority of the gospels, then what was the intended purpose of the Qur’an?” The answer is that the Qur’an was revealed to the Arabs in and around Mecca so that they would have the Scriptures in their own language. It was a book intended to confirm what God had already revealed to the Jews in the Torah and to the Christians in the Gospel so that the Arab people would have no excuse on the Day of Judgment (Qur’an 6:155-157; 42:7).
Qur’an 3:3 says, “He has sent down upon you, [O Muhammad], the Book in truth, confirming what was before it. And He revealed the Torah and the Gospel.”
Qur’an 6:92 says, “And this is a Book which We have sent down, blessed and confirming what was before it, that you may warn the Mother of Cities and those around it. Those who believe in the Hereafter believe in it, and they are maintaining their prayers.” (See also 2:89; 5:48; 10:37; 35:31; 46:12; 46:30).
The Islamic Dilemma
What we see here is that the Qur’an teaches the inspiration, authority, and preservation of the gospels. The Qur’an was intended as an Arabic version of the message of truth found in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, but this presents a huge problem for Muslims because the Qur’an contradicts the Christian Scriptures on essential doctrines. Most notably, the Qur’an teaches that Jesus was not God incarnate, he did not die on a cross, and he was not raised from the dead (Qur’an 4:157; 5:116).
Here’s the dilemma for Muslims: If the gospels are not trustworthy, then the Qur’an is false because it teaches that the gospels are the inspired, perfectly-preserved, authoritative words of God. But if the gospels are trustworthy, then the Qur’an is false because it teaches contradictory, mutually-exclusive facts about key issues. Either way, the Qur’an is false.
This, of course, is a huge problem for Muslims. The validity of Islam rests upon the reliability of the Qur’an, just as Christianity rests upon the truth of the divinity, death, and resurrection of Jesus. If the Qur’an is unreliable, then Islam is a false religion.
Why the Claim of Corruption?
The Qur’an does contain several verses that indicate the Christian and Jewish Scriptures were misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misused around the time of Muhammad. That, of course, is not surprising, as the Christian Scriptures continue to be twisted and abused even by popular pastors today. This, however, does not mean that the Scriptures we have today are no longer trustworthy.
The most commonly cited Qur’an verse used to claim the corruption of the gospels is 2:79, which says, “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.”
Another example comes from Qur’an 3:71, which says, “O People of the Scripture, why do you confuse the truth with falsehood and conceal the truth while you know [it]?”
While these verses and others (2:75; 4:46; 5:13; 3:187) do teach that people falsified the Scriptures for money and concealed the truth even though they knew it, there is not a single verse in the Qur’an that teaches the Christian Scriptures have been permanently corrupted, their message lost to history.
So why do Muslims make this claim? First, most Muslims do not read their Scriptures in a language they understand. The claim of the corrupted Gospel is a common myth that, like many others, has been told to Muslims by their leaders and blindly believed.
Second, as Muslims and Christians have begun to interact more in recent times, Muslims have realized that the Qur’an is not a book that confirms what is taught in the Christian Scriptures after all. There must be some reason that their “confirming book” is contradictory on essentials of the faith. It has been a convenient and heretofore largely unchallenged solution to claim that the Bible must have been corrupted.
A Better Way Forward
There are really two lines of argument here. First, by showing our Muslim friends that the Qur’an teaches the inspiration, authority, and preservation of the Bible, we can put an end to the false claim that our Scriptures have been changed. Second, by showing that the Qur’an contradicts our Scriptures on major issues after having affirmed them, we can turn the tables and make a case for the unreliability of the Qur’an.
Whether we use one or both arguments, this offers a game-changer for conversations with Muslims the world over, ending the silencing of Christians by means of a false claim that the Bible has been hopelessly corrupted, and potentially leading to more thoughtful discussions about evidence and truth.
*The name has been changed out of respect and privacy
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[1] The Qur’an uses the term Gospel to refer to the Christian Scriptures. Muslims who have interacted with Christians understand the term Gospel, or Injeel in Arabic, to refer to the gospel accounts found in the New Testament. The argument that follows works regardless of how these terms are defined since the essentials of the Christian faith are found in the gospel accounts.
[2] The same argument can be made using the Torah. I’m focusing on the gospels for the sake of brevity.
[3] Allah is the Arabic word for God. Arabic-speaking Christians and Muslims alike use the term Allah to refer to God.
