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Since the resurrection of Jesus is the main proof for his claims in regard to his deity, many have tried to disprove this account by pointing to contradictions in it. Since Muslims deny the crucifixion they obviously also have to deny the resurrection. One of the favorite items on the list of Bible contradictions, presented by atheists and Muslims alike, is therefore that in the Gospel according to Mark, chapter 16 [also Matthew 28], the women encounter at the grave on Jesus a man [angel] which is read to mean one and only one angel, while according to Luke, chapter 24 [also John 20], it is explicitely stated that they encountered two angels. I am not concerned about atheists here, but it is most interesting to see that these Muslims do not know their own Qur'an since otherwise they wouldn't make so much noise about things like this. There are (at least) two passages in the Qur'an relating the announciation of Jesus' birth to Mary.
How many angels came to Mary? One or three or more? [Correct me if the word for "angel" is in the dual, but if it is plural then there have to be at least three.] Why does Mary only seek refuge from one of the angels as she only addresses one in Sura 19:18? Were the others not like men and threatening to her? Incidentally, this problem in the Qur'an is much harder to resolve for Muslims than the Biblical one for Christians, since in the Qur'an Mary addresses this one angel and it is clear she only speaks to one angel which would be strange if there are three or more around her. In the Bible the angels are not directly addressed by the women. Hence nothing establishes that there is only one. Mark and Matthew might have only mentioned the one who is prominent and who is the one talking while Luke and John make clear there were actually two of them. After meeting the President and Vice-President on the street somewhere, I might come home and only say, I saw the President today. Nothing in such a statement precludes that I also met the second in command and maybe more people too. I am happy to accept this same explanation for the Qur'an, but it is less convincing than for the Bible. One would have to explain why Mary twice addresses only one of them and also does not fear the other angels.
Response by Misha'al Al-Kadhi follows below.
Muslim Responses by
Randy
Desmond
There is an assumption that the author of the contradiction makes which I can not verify. That assumption is that 3:42-45 and 19:17-18 are the same occasion. Is it not reasonable that Mary (may God be pleased with her) was informed of what was to happen more than once? Keep in mind assumptions which do not contradict the Qur'an and allow an uncontradictory solution, like the one I am entertaining with respect to the number of times Mary was informed angelic beings, may not be the actual truth (and I am not saying that Mary was told this information once, twice, or many times), but nevertheless those assumptions which illustrate that a contradiction has not been proven are just as valid as assumptions which lead to contradictions. Therefore, the contradiction has not been proven at all, and with that I leave it with the following: God knows best how many times Mary was told this information and who told her. So according to the criteria of proving a contradiction, the contradiction author's argument fails. If the reader is wondering what the criteria of proof of contradiction is, see my response to this web site's page on "Heavens or Earth, Which was created first?" In that response I detail how to determine whether or not a proposed contradiction has proven its point.
We observe that even the responding party is uncomfortable with his own proposed solution. I don't have much more to add. I don't have to prove contradictions in the Qur'an. I leave it to the reader to judge how credible the suggestion of multiple announcements is. After all, this would indicate the lack of belief on the part of Mary to the first announcement. Read the whole passage and observe that both times Mary reacts to the announcement of the son with the same question of "How can this be, having never been with a man". Can we really believe she would have forgotten such a momentous encounter with angelic messenger(s) and the explanation given then to the very same question? Misha'al Al-Kadhi gave another response which was incredibly verbose (more than a dozen pages) ... maybe in the hope that the reader would be so overawed by his "scholarship" just because of the mere volume of it? Maybe he hoped nobody would read to the end and realize the crucial flaws in his argument? Anyway, I tortured myself, and here is the essence of it as well as the rebuttal. His full argument is available at this site. Mr. Al-Kadhi's arguments are indented.
This is wrong already in the English or French just as well as in the Arabic. Because in Arabic when using the "royal we" it takes a plural *verb*, but never a plural *noun*. That is exactly as in English, and it was Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who announced the birth of a granddaughter by saying: "We are a grandmother," but she did not and could NEVER say "We are grandmothers". And it is the same in Arabic. Only the verb can be plural, not the noun. In the above text the noun is plural: "angels".
Wrong again because:
(Quote translated from "Student reference in the Arabic language" by Raajee al Asmar, Beirut 1995 pg 381) "Majaz mursal" is a type of the latter. "If there is no similarity between the new word and the referent (original word), it's called "majaz mursal". An example would be: I have drunk one glass". There is no similarity between the glass and what is in it; we drink what is in it not the glass itself (example also found in the above quoted text). I cannot see how the above falls under this heading. Continuing where we left off:
In the orginal Arabic text of the Qur'an it is clear that the "He" refers to God. At-Tabri in his coment on this verse 3:47 says: "Allah said to her "Even so; Allah createth what he willeth" But even if it should refer to one angel here (against the witness of at-Tabari), then it only means that his particular answer to Mary's question was spoken by only one angel, and the others might have been silent. Plural nouns still can't be interpreted to be singular.
We notice here that prophet Abraham (pbuh) is described as a "nation." Does this mean that he is literally a few hundred thousand people? No. This is an Qur'anic term of exaltation and elevation for Abraham above all humans such that he is higher in regard and reward with God than an entire nation of mortals. In the same manner, the status of the angel Gabriel with God is of a similar stature among the angels. There are many other similar constructs in the Arabic language, many of which are applied to angel Gabriel in more than one location in the Qur'an to set him apart from all other angels.... I found this a lot these days Muslims use Yusuf Ali's translation when they like what he says and they ignore it when it when they don't like it. If we look at Ali's translation of this verse, we see that he says: Sura 16:120 - "Abraham was indeed a model..." Galal as-Suyuti in his comment on this vers says: "Umaa" _which Al Kadhi translates as nation - means "Imaman",i.e. a model/example/leader.
So why doesn't the Qur'an say then: "We sent unto her our spirits"? Since elsewhere the singular word malaak (angel) becomes malaa'ika (angels)? The one with the highest honor among the angels is left in the singular? Furthermore, it does only say "Spirit" and not "Holy Spirit".
... etc. etc. without end ... and without substance ... It should be clear by now that Mr. Al-Kadhi knows more about skillful propaganda than he knows Arabic. No we don't say "I sent THEM (him).." in Arabic. I wish he could find for me one single example of someone saying "we sent our ambassadors" when he means one man. This is a propaganda trick and plain false. "Bring your proof if you are truthful." is the charge of the Qur'an to you. I have heard statements made by Arab leaders or even individuals using the pronoun "WE" for just themselves. I have heard individuals addressing leaders, religious people, or even government employees, with "YOU" (in the plural form, like "Sie" in German or "Vouz" in French), or with words like "your majesty" or "excellency" in the plural form. But I never heard anybody using the third pronoun in the plural form even if the third person was a king or president. Arabs may address a president or anybody by the word "Hadratoukom", "Seyadatoukom", Jalalatoukom" ... but when mentioning those people as a third person, it is never said, "Hadratouhom, "Seyadatouhom", or Jalalatouhom", but in the singular third person form, i.e. "Hadratouhou", "Seyadatouhou" or "Jalalatouhou", regardless of the importance of that third person. The use of the plural form when talking about the angel in 3:42 & 45 does not make any sense unless the Qur'an really means that there were more than one angel speaking with Mary. The Verse 47 in Sura 3 uses the verb "Kala' in the singular form refering to one angel. And my Arab friend who wrote up this rebuttal, concludes:
My conclusion: The difficulty remains. I still think it is relatively weak in comparison to some of the others on this site, but it is nevertheless real. The response by Mr. Al-Kadhi though is worth pondering well since it shows what amount of false propaganda some people are ready to produce in order to defend the indefensible and to deceive those whom they think cannot see through their schemes. The rebuttal fraud was worse then the difficulty we started out with. It certainly would have deserved an entry in the "Dictionary of Misinformation" by Tom Burnam, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1975.
Last edited: April 9, 1997 |
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