The Perfect Qur'an?

The Qur’an states the greatest argument to determine whether it is from God is to produce a Surah that has superior literary qualities or is as beautiful as the Qur’an.

“And if ye are in doubt concerning that which We reveal unto Our slave (Muhammad), then produce a surah of the like thereof …” -Surah 2:23

“And this Qur’an is not such as could ever be invented … Then bring a surah like unto it …” -Surah 10:37-38

This is a strange argument to determine if some literary work is from God. There are many works that are considered excellent, so should we then declare them divine? With the same logic, since no one can write a play such as Romeo & Juliet like Shakespeare or compose music like Mozart, should we claim it came from God? No one would agree with this kind of logic. But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and take up the Qur’an’s challenge and see if we can produce anything as beautiful as the Qur’an.

“Say: O disbelievers! I worship not that which ye worship; Nor worship ye that which I worship. And I shall not worship that which ye worship. Nor will ye worship that which I worship. Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion.” -Surah 109

Now we are to read this Surah and claim that it is humanly impossible to produce anything in comparison, which proves that it is from God. Let’s look at two Bible readings and compare. 

“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” -1 Cor 13:2-8

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away. You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? -Mat 5:38-46

Surah 2:23 says that if I doubt the Qur’an is divine, I am to judge. So it’s my opinion and judgement that needs to be convinced that the Qur’an is divine; I’m not to just be told and to believe. Muslims will then say if we would read the Qur’an in Arabic, then we would believe it is from God. Muslims imply that either we just have to trust them without evidence, or we have to spend years mastering Arabic and then we will comprehend its beauty and divinity. This reasoning is irrational. If Islam is the religion of all people, why would the main evidence of Islam only work in one language, a language that most people don’t speak? 1

A book cannot be judged by how poetic it is or by eloquence of speech. It must be judged on its principles, teachings and content. The Qur’an is composed illogically; the layout is not chronological. It starts with the largest Surah and ends with the shortest. It switches back and forth between the Meccan and Medinan Surahs, and even some Surahs are intermixed with Medina and Mecca revelations. The Qur’an cannot even be understood without the hadith. The Qur’an is confusing, leaping from one thought to another, often with no context. Muslim Scholar Ali Dashti quotes, “All students of the Qur’an wonder why the editors did not use natural and logical method of ordering by date of revelation.”

The Qur’an’s claim that it is divine is problematic.

The Qur’an, written in the 7th century, is full of stories that are borrowed. Some are even taken word for word from earlier Jewish, Christian, Buddhist and Zoroastrian fables and myths. Muhammad was accused many times of borrowing false stories.

“We have heard this (before): if we wished, we could say (words) like these: these are nothing but tales of the ancients.” -Surah 8:31

“When thou readest unto him Our revelations, saith: (Mere) fables of the men of old.” -Surah 83:13

People recognized that these stories were just nonsense and had been spreading for years. Because Muhammad was illiterate, we find exactly what you would expect from an oral culture. He couldn’t tell the difference between truth and error. Muhammad was sharing the floating knowledge, with a mixture of fables and beliefs of the community. The Qur’an says he was known as “the Ear.”

“Among them are men who molest the Prophet and say, ‘He is (all) ear’ ...” -Surah 9:61

Al-Julas ibn Suwayd said: “We will say whatever we wish to say and when we go to him he will believe whatever we tell him, for Muhammad is nothing but a hearer” -Wahidi - Asbab Al-Nuzul by Al-Wahidi 9:61-62

He would repeat whatever he heard! If what Muhammad said can be traced to fables, we have good reason to doubt he was getting his revelations from God. Some examples are:

• The story of Abraham being delivered from fire in the Qur’an 21:51-71 is a mistranslation of a Jewish Scribe in the Targum of Jonathan-ben-Uzziah.

• Satan’s refusal to worship Adam recorded in Qur’an 2:34 & 17:61 is found in the Jewish 2nd century Talmud.

• The story of baby Jesus talking from the cradle in Qur’an 19:29-33 is found in the Arabic Infancy Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is a 2nd century fable from Egypt.

• The story of Solomon, his Hoopoe bird and Queen Sheba in Qur’an 27:17-44 is copied from the fable in the second Targum of Esther written in the 4th or 5th century.

Muhammad also confuses Mary the mother of Jesus as Moses’ sister. This is a huge error, considering Moses existed 1,400 years before Jesus!

“They said: ‘O Mary! truly an amazing thing hast thou brought! O sister of Aaron! Thy father was not a man of evil, nor thy mother a woman unchaste!’” -Surah 19:27-28. Why is the Qur’an saying Mary is the sister of Aaron!? Aaron is Moses’ brother! Christians even confronted Muhammad on this error, as recorded in the hadith.

Sahih Muslim, the Hadith related by Mughirah ibn Shu’bah, #5326, says: “When I came to Najran, they (the Christians of Najran) asked me: You read ‘Sister of Harun’, (i.e. Mary), in the Qur’an, whereas Moses was born well before Jesus. When I came back to Allah’s Messenger I asked him about that, and he said: ‘The (people of the old age) used to give names (to their persons) after the names of Apostles and pious persons who had gone before them.’”

Muhammad didn’t know the difference between Miriam, who was Aaron’s sister, and Mary, who was Jesus’ mother. Again because of Muhammad’s illiteracy and how he confused and mixed stories he heard, he would get major facts wrong that no prophet would ever make. Muhammad tried to cover his mistake by saying people used to nickname themselves after holy people, but clearly this idiom wasn’t recognized by the Christians. Besides if this was part of their culture, why is there no example to prove this in the Bible or Qur’an? This proves he lied to cover his mistake. 

Almost everything Muhammad said can be found in apocryphal Jewish, Christian and Pagan sources. Please examine “The Original Sources of the Qur’an” by Clair Tisdale. whitehorsemedia.com/docs/the_original_sources_of_the_quran.pdf

Here’s another problem. The Qur’an, claiming to be eternal in Surah 85:21-22, has hundreds of foreign words, this is admitted by Muslim scholars. Al-Suyuti, in his book ‘The Perfection in Qur’an Sciences’ says, “there are 275 non-Arabic words in the Qur’an, and those words can’t be connected by any means to the Arabic language.”

The Islamic Encyclopedia (part 26, pg 8222-82223) says, ”the annotators found no embarrassment to commit that there are many non-Arabic words intruded into the Qur’an text from languages as: Hebrew ... Coptic, Greek, and Syrian.” fatherzakaria.net/books/qaf/pdf/46-Episode.pdf

The Qur’an we have today cannot exist without the foreign words that are in it! But this contradicts the Qur’an, which says it is pure Arabic “while this is Arabic, pure and clear.” -Surah 16:103

Here are a few examples of foreign words in the Qur’an:

Syriac: The word “Qur’an” is not Arabic. It comes from the Syriac word “qiryani”, which means recitation. “Allah” also is not originally Arabic; it is a direct parallel of the Syriac word “alaha”.

Hebrew: The word “zakat” has roots in Hebrew and means a tax for money.

Greek: “Iblis” is not Arabic but rather is a corruption of the Greek word “diablos”. 2

To investigate the foreign words of the Qur’an, please read “The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur’an” by Arthur Jeffery.

If Arabic is the eternal language, why are all the previous original Bible manuscripts in Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic? If the Qur’an is eternal, that means the Arabic language is the first language created by God. But it’s proven that Arabic has borrowed many words from other languages as stated by Suyuti!

The Qur’an refutes itself by saying Arabic is the eternal language. How can a language be eternal yet borrow from other languages? The only answer is that Arabic isn’t eternal and that the Qur’an was made up of borrowed fables and words by Muhammad, proving that Muhammad was a false prophet and the Qur’an is not divine.

Dear Muslim, it is foolish to bet your soul on the Qur’an without investigating if it has the truth to save your soul. Please search the Bible; the Qur’an says it is a guidance and a light “... We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Law that had come before him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidance and light ...” -Surah 5:46. Why believe the Bible is corrupt when the Qur’an says you can trust it and that God’s words are unchangeable? “... None can change His words …” -Surah 6:115.

Being unbiased, read the Bible and determine who has the words of eternal life. Your soul depends on it.