Quoted
from the "ISLAM REVEALED"
THE
QURAN EXPOSED
THE
QURAN MISQUOTES THE OLD TESTAMENT
Adam
and Eve and Their Two Sons
But (the other's)
mind imposed on him the killing of his brother, so he slew him and became
one of the losers. Then Allah sent a raven scratching up the ground, to
show him how to hide his brother's naked corpse. He said: Woe unto
me! Am I not able to be as this raven and so hide my brother's naked
corpse? And he became repentant. For that cause We decreed
for the Children of Israel that whosoever killeth a human being for
other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he
had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall
be as if he had saved the life of all mankind. Our messengers
came unto them of old with clear proofs (of Allah’s sovereignty)
but afterwards, lo! many of them became prodigals in the earth.
The biblical record is quite
different, omitting the raven and the burial method:
Now Adam knew Eve
his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, "I have gotten a man
from the Lord." Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel.
Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
And in the process
of time It came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the
ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstlings of his flock and
of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He
did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his
countenance fell.
So the Lord said
to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you
do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin
lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.
Now Cain talked
with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field,
that Cain rose against Abel his brother and killed him.
The difference in these
passages between the Quran and the Bible is traced to Pirke Rabbi Eleazer,
as we noted in chapter four.
Adam and Eve, sitting
by the corpse (of Abel) wept not knowing what to do, for they had as yet
no knowledge of burial. A raven coming up, took the dead body of its fellow
(mate), and having scratched up the earth, buried it thus before
their eyes. Adam said, Let us follow the example of the raven, and so taking
up Abel's body buried it at once.
Abraham is considered
the patriarch of both the Jews (through his son Isaac) and the Arabs (through
his son Ishmael). Abraham was called a Hebrew (Genesis 14: 13), and this
term was used ever after to refer to Isaac's children, the Jews.
Since the Muslims
also call Abraham Father, there are several Quranic passages referring
to him. However, the Quran's Abraham is not at all like the Abraham of
the Bible's earlier record.
Abraham in the Quran
Then he reduced
them to fragments, all save the chief of them, that haply they might have
recourse to it. They said: Who hath done this to our gods? Surely
it must be some evil-doer. They said: We heard a youth make mention of
them, who is called Abraham. They said: Then bring him (hither) before
the people's eyes that they may testify. They said: Is it thou who hast
done this to our gods, O Abraham?
He said: But this,
their chief hath done it. So question them, if they can speak. Then gathered
they apart and said: Lo! ye yourselves are the wrongdoers. And they were
utterly confounded, and they said: Well thou knowest that these speak not.
He said: Worship ye then instead of Allah that which cannot profit you
at all nor harm you? Fie on you and all that ye worship instead of Allah!
Have ye then no sense?
They cried: Burn
him and stand by your gods, if ye will be doing.
We said: O fire,
be coolness and peace for Abraham!
Then turned he
to their gods and said: Will ye not eat? What aileth you that ye speak
not?
Then he attacked
them, striking with his right hand. And (his people) came toward him, hastening.
He said: Worship
ye that which ye yourselves do carve when Allah hath created you and what
ye make?
They said: Build
for him a building and fling him in the red-hot fire.
No such record is found
in the Bible. However, Midrash Rabbah, a second-century A.D. Jewish folktale,
features the same story nearly four centuries before it found its way into
the Quran.
Terah (Abraham's
father) used to make idols. A woman carrying in her hand a cup of wheat
flour said (to Abraham), place this (food) before the idols ...one said
I will eat It first, then another said I'11 eat it first. Abraham getting
up took his staff in his hand, and having broken the idols with It ...placed
the staff in the hand of the largest (idol). His father coming up said:
Who has done this?
Abraham said ...
the largest one took the staff and broke them all to pieces. His father
said, why do you tell such a foolish tale? Do these (idols) know anything?
Nimrod said: If you argue with me about things which I am unable to worship
other than fire, into it I will cast you. So let the god you worship deliver
you therefrom. So Abraham went down into the flames and remained
there safe and unhurt.
Abraham
in the Bible
Now Terah lived
seventy years, and beget Abram, Nahor, and Haran. This is the genealogy
of Terah: Terah beget Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran beget Lot. And Haran
died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
Then Abram and Nahor took wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and
the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah
and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
And Terah took
his son Abraham and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law
Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they went out with them from Ur
of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Ca naan; and they came to Haran and
dwelt there.
Abraham's father is wrongly
called Atar in the Quran (Surat al-An'am [Cattle] 6:74). The Bible, however,
which is much earlier than the Quran, names him correctly as Terah (Genesis
11:26).'5
Summary
of Quranic Errors
Concerning
Abraham
Abraham didn't have
two sons, but eight. (Genesis 25:13-15); not two wives, but three. He did
not raise his descendants in the Valley of Mecca, but in Hebron (Genesis
13:6-12), which is called by his name in Arabic to this day, El Khaleel,
The friend of God (Isaiah 41:8). Genesis 11:28-31 tells us that his hometown
was Ur in Chaldea, not Mecca. He wandered through Haran as Genesis 11:31
tells us, not Arabia. He went to Canaan as God instructed him in Genesis
12:4-6, not to Mecca's valley. There is no record that Abraham and Ishmael
went to Arabia and built the Ka'bah in Mecca, although Abraham did spend
several years in Egypt.
In Surat al-Saffat
(Those Who Set the Ranks) 37:100-112, we read of Abraham's sacrifice of
his son. But which son? The Bible states it was Isaac (see Genesis 22),
yet the Quran intimates it was Ishmael.'6 When legends are told and retold,
they do change. The common denominator of the original story was Abraham,
and it was easier to get the story mixed up by oral tradition than by the
written one.
We Arabs have considered Abraham as our earliest father through Hagar and
Ishmael. Historically, however, the first father of the Arabs, according
to Genesis 10:25-30, was Qahtan or Joktan. The names of some of his sons
are reflected in geographical locations in contemporary Arabia, such as
Sheba, Hazarmaveth, Ophir, and Havilah. A third strain came from Abraham's
nephew, Lot, whose two daughters gave birth from incest to the Moabites
and Ammonites (see Genesis 24). A fourth strain came from Jacob's twin
brother, Esau, according to Genesis 36. Finally, and most people forget
this strain, Keturah, Abraham's third wife, gave birth to six sons, who
also became forefathers of more Arab tribes.
The struggle between
Isaac's and Ishmael's descendants for the blessing of Abraham (see Genesis
22:17) continues till this very day. Yet it is neither Isaac nor Ishmael
who were to bless the world, but Messiah Jesus, as Galatians 3:16 affirms:
Now to Abraham and his
Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many,
but as of one, "And to your Seed," who is Christ.
God still promised to bless
Ishmael, too. But his special covenant was established with Isaac, as
Genesis 17:18-19 reveals:
And Abraham said
to God, "Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!"
Then God said:
"No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name
Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant,
and with his descendants after him."
The four promises made
to the Arabs by God through Ishmael have been fulfilled precisely:
"And as for Ishmael,
I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful
and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I
will make him a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac."17
(1) With three-fourths
of the free world's oil reserves, the Arabs believe they are definitely
blessed.
(2) There are 167
million Arabs as of 1987, which fulfills "will multiply him exceedingly."
Ten million Arabs claim Christianity.18
(3) "He shall beget
twelve princes" is fulfilled in that there are almost twice that many countries
claiming to be Arab.19
(4) "I will make him
a great nation" was fulfilled when the Muslim Empire was a reality from
the seventh to the twelfth centuries.
TABLE OF CONTENT