Saturday, November 20, 2010

The Six Lies of Islam, Part Six: Is the Qur'an a True Revelation?



As we have learned so far, Islam is a religion based on lies. It is a lie that Islam is a religion of peace, as untold amounts of blood has been shed in the name of Allah. “Wait a second,” you may ask, “isn’t Christian history just as bloody as Islam’s?” That’s a fair question, and it must be answered by the founders of the two religions. Mohammad encouraged his followers to kill, rape, and pillage those who did not convert to Islam. Not only did he teach this, but he was actively involved in these horrid actions. On the other hand, Jesus taught his disciples to love their enemies. He taught them that His kingdom was not to be spread by the sword. This leads me to ask, which of the two founders’ followers are consistently or inconsistently following the teachings and examples of the religions’ founders?

Also Islam is not a religion of love, as Judaism and Christianity are. I say this because Jesus, the founder of Christianity, said that the two greatest laws of Judaism are to love God with all your heart, mind and soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Islam has no such law.

We have learned that Allah is nothing more than the ancient Arab moon god Al-Ilah, the chief deity of the ancient Arab pantheon. Archeology has demonstrated that the worship of the moon god (in various names) was quite common in the ancient Middle East. Further, the Qur’an makes no effort to describe who Allah is, which indicates that the pre-Muslim Arabs already knew who he was. We know this because Allah is a contraction of Al-Ilah, and based on the fact that people who lived prior to Islam’s genesis had Allah in their names (Abdullah, was Mohammad’s father; his name means “servant of Allah”).

In our last post, we learned that Mohammad was not a true prophet of God. This we know based on the many spurious prophecies he made that have been recorded in the Qur’an and the Hadiths (Islamic collections of traditional teachings, similar to the Mishnah or Talmud in Judaism). Further, we noted that not only was Mohammad a false prophet, but that he was a child molester. He married Aisha when she was six years old, and consummated the marriage when she was nine (Mohammad was 51 and 54 when these despicable acts took place).

The Qur’an’s Quirky Math

Now, we will look at the Quran in order to determine whether or not it is a true revelation from God. Muslims believe that the Qur’an is a perfect, inerrant, and God given book. This is a very substantial claim, and must be investigated. When a person does this, however, one finds that the Qur’an contains some very serious errors. One of which is found almost immediately in the Qur’an with Surah four.

According to Yusef Ali’s English translation we find the following, which lays out the many of the inheritance laws which were supposedly revealed by Allah to Mohammad:

"Allah (thus) directs you as regards your children's (inheritance): to the male, a portion equal to that of two females: if only daughters, two or more, their share is two-thirds of the inheritance; if only one, her share is a half. For parents, a sixth share of the inheritance to each, if the deceased left children; if no children, and the parents are the (only) heirs, the mother has a third; if the deceased left brothers (or sisters) the mother has a sixth. (The distribution in all cases is) after the payment of legacies and debts. Ye know not whether your parents or your children are nearest to you in benefit. These are settled portions ordained by Allah: and Allah is All-Knowing, All-wise." (4:11)

"In what your wives leave, your share is a half, if they leave no child; but if they leave a child, ye get a fourth; after payment of legacies and debts. In what ye leave, their share is a fourth, if ye leave no child; but if ye leave a child, they get an eighth; after payment of legacies and debts. If the man or woman whose inheritance is in question, has left neither ascendants nor descendants, but has left a brother or a sister, each one of the two gets a sixth; but if more than two, they share in a third; after payment of legacies and debts; so that no loss is caused (to any one). Thus is it ordained by Allah; and Allah is All- Knowing, Most Forbearing." (4:12)

The problem with this Arabic algebra is that is doesn’t add up. If a man dies and leaves behind two daughters, his wife, and widowed mother the inheritance is divided as follows: The two daughters get two-thirds, the wife gets one-eighth, and the widowed mother gets one-sixth. If we add up the fractions, 16/24ths (daughters’), 3/24ths (wife) and 4/24ths (mother) we get 23/24ths! There is no information where the last 1/24th goes!

Even more interesting is what if the man left four daughters, two parents and a wife? The shares would be divided as follows: The daughters get two-thirds, the parents get one-third, and the wife gets one-eighth. This adds up to nine-eighths! Where did the wife’s share magically appear from? It is clear that the Qur’an contains errors, and as such can not be proclaimed as inerrant.

The Qur’an’s “Perfect” Arabic

There is a claim among Muslims that the Arabic in found within the text of the Qur’an is absolutely pure. This is pointed to as evidence that the Quran was given directly from Allah. This statement is understood n the sense that the Qur’an was written in the Qurayshi dialect of Arabic (the dialect of Mecca and its surroundings) and as such is free from any foreign influences. It is also understood that the language in the Qur’an would be perfect in its grammar and poeticity. The primary Muslim proof text for this statement is Surah 16:103, “We know indeed that they say, ‘It is a man that teaches him.’ The tongue of him they wickedly point to is notably foreign, while this is Arabic, pure and clear" (16:103, Yusuf Ali translation).

It has been demonstrated, however, that the there are a large number of words used in the Qur’an that are derived from Syriac, the liturgical language of the Eastern Christian churches around the time of Mohammad, and even used today. This Syriac influence can be traced back to Mohammad’s time in the Arab caravans prior to becoming the prophet of Allah. Further there are a number of Syriac religious terms that are found in the Qur’an. Not only are Syriac religious terms found in the Qur’an, but non-religious words that are uncommon in Arabic but very common in Syriac. In addition to Syriac, the Qur’anic vocabulary consists of words from Ethiopic, Persian, and Greek. (A. Mingana, "Syraic Influence on the Style of the Koran", Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 11 (1927))

Further, Anis Shorrosh, a Palestinian Christian and native speaker of Arabic, has detailed a number of foreign words (excluding foreign names) which exist in the Qur’anic text. Shorrosh points out that the foreign words have perfectly interchangeable Arabic words that could have been used (A. Shorrosh, Islam Revealed: A Christian Arab's View of Islam).

It is clear, from both Western and Arab scholars alike, that there is a great number of foreign words in a Qur’an that was allegedly revealed in perfect Arabic. It is important to note that these are not words that entered into Arabic prior to Mohammad’s birth and thus became a part of the Arabic vocabulary. Instead the existence of these words indicates that Mohammad was influenced by outside vocabulary and used this vocabulary when composing the Qur’an. It is interesting to note that the languages mentioned above had strong economic, cultural, religious and military influence in the Arab peninsula. Therefore it would be surprising that Mohammad would not be influenced by them (especially based on the Christian and Jewish stories related in the Qur’an).

Lastly, it is a known fact that there are places within the Qur’an that the Arabic is imperfect. Rafiqul-Haqq and Newton have demonstrated that there are errors in the Arabic grammar contained within the Qur’an and have provided corrected readings based on accepted rules of Classical Arabic grammar.

In review, Muslims claim that the Qur’an contains no errors. As we have demonstrated, Surah 4 has errors. Therefore the Qur’an is not inerrant, and the Muslims claim to divine authorship must be rejected. Secondly, Muslims claim that the Arabic is free of all foreign influence. As we have seen this is not the case. Lastly, Muslims claim that the Arabic contained within the Qur’an is grammatically perfect. It has been demonstrated that this is not the case.

It is clear form the above examination, which is not exhaustive in the least, that the Muslim claim of Qur’anic inerrancy and perfect must be dismissed as fantasy. Rather than believe the lie that the Qur’an as a true revelation of God, it must be considered the religious rants of an illiterate Arabic trader who suffered from epileptic seizures during which he claimed to hear voices, and simply recited what he heard from the voices in his head.

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