Surah Al-Baqarah was easily one of the worst, most tedious reads ever and is a prime example of how (supposedly) no man can produce anything like even a single surah of the Quran. It’s because any self-respecting writer would see what they wrote, burn it, then turn themselves in to a mental hospital or hurl themselves off a bridge rather than live with their shame. It’s confusing, thoughts barely flow in a coherent manner, things are brought up that have the potential to be interesting but are never flushed out or explained, almost everything is based on fear or pride, there are plot holes galore, and death threats.
So.
Many.
Death threats.
Seriously guys, the threat of eternal damnation is mentioned so many times in this chapter alone that it’s obscene. Never have I heard hell mentioned so many times, not even in the Bible. The threat of Allah’s displeasure sending you to hell seems to be Muhammad’s only apologetic for Allah’s existence, but we’ll get to that in another post. For now, let’s just focus on the first 7 verses, particularly 4-5.
1 Alif Lam Mim – I am Allah, the All-Knowing. 2 This is the only perfect Book, wanting in naught, containing nothing doubtful, harmful or destructive, there is no false charge in it. It is a guidance to those who guard against evil; 3 those who believe in the existence of hidden reality, which is beyond the reach of ordinary human perception and cognizance, and who observe the Prayer and spend (on others) out of that which We have provided for them, 4 and who (also) believe in that (Message) which has been revealed to you and in that which had been revealed before you, and who have firm faith in the Hereafter. 5It is they who follow the guidance from their Lord, and it is they alone who are successful in attaining their object in this life and in the Hereafter. 6 As for those who are bent upon denying (the truth), they would not believe, because it is all the same to them whether you warn them or do not warn them. 7 (With the result that) Allah has set a seal upon their hearts and upon their hearing, and on their eyes a covering. And a mighty punishment awaits them.
[Author’s Note: If you’re confused as to who “We” is/are, Allah for some reason refers to himself as “We” throughout the Quran, as well as “I.” Why does Allah do this? I don’t know. Why it goes from Allah’s 1st person POV to a 3rd person POV, I also can’t explain. Just turn your brain off; it’ll be fine.]
It’s interesting that this is what comes directly after the prayer that we read in Al-Fatihah. Instead of just getting into why we should trust Allah, he just introduces himself through Muhammad, tells us what the Quran (supposedly) is, even lying about its contents (because there are plenty of false charges in the Quran; once again, a subject for other posts), and then gives us our first threat of a “mighty punishment” if we don’t believe in Islam, a theme that will continue throughout the rest of the Quran.
However, the verses in particular that I’m focusing on here are verses 4-5, which are highlighted in red. While these may not seem like a problem at first, notice the part in verse 4 that says, “which has been revealed to you and in that which had been revealed before you.” Before, who? Who came before Muhammad?
Well, a lot of people came before Muhammad, with the Biblical patriarchs, prophets, and Jesus being in view here, but other verses can also be interpreted to support the view expressed in the introduction that even characters like Buddha or Krishna could be prophets sent by Allah, so their messages are to be accepted too, but I’ll focus on the Biblical figures. Because of this verse, we get our first look at the Islamic Dilemma, which is the most damning piece of evidence against Islam. The Islamic Dilemma comes from this: the Quran constantly pounds it into our heads that previous Scriptures – mainly the Torah and the Gospels – confirm the teachings of Muhammad, so much so that it seems like Allah is wondering how he can make that any clearer to us derpy dimwits. However, the problem with this is that Muhammad, being an illiterate, 7th century caravan raider was basing his understanding of the Torah and Gospels off of hearsay, much of which seems to have been based on the various heresies (most prominently Gnosticism) that were floating around at the time. If you actually take the time to read through the Bible in context and understand it, you’ll realize that it actually contradicts the Quran constantly. And what this means for the Quran is that if the Torah and Gospels contradict it, then the Quran is false because it relies on them to confirm it.
So, in response to this, the claim made by various sheiks, imams, and dawah guys (Islamic evangelists) is that the Bible was corrupted at some point. However, not only does this statement contradict Allah’s claim that it confirms the Quran and contradicts his teaching that his word can’t be changed (Surah 6:115), but it actually digs them even deeper into the hole. If the Torah and the Gospels were corrupted, they would’ve had to be corrupted very early on (pre-Muhammad/Quran) for archaeologists not to find any inconsistencies between the thousands of manuscripts we have in our possession. What this means is that the Quran would still be false because it would be confirming these supposedly corrupted texts. Either way you look at it, Muhammad and the Quran are backed into a corner with nowhere to run from the logic spears that are bristling menacingly at them.
What this also means for Islam, especially if you take the view that every person who claimed to be a prophet from God was a prophet from Allah, then why is Allah randomly damning people to Hell? If they confirm what the Quran says because they’re teaching the same stuff (supposedly), then why are Islamic terrorist groups operating by the teachings of the Quran killing nonbelievers? Those non-Muslims are just operating on what Allah supposedly told them through a prophet after all. Does Allah have dementia and just forget what he told them before and then contradict himself later? Or is he actually trying to deceive people because making people crispy in hell and listening to their cute little screams is fun? What’s going on here?
Now compare this to the Bible. The Bible is a standalone book that doesn’t rely on outside writings that came before it. It’s a record of the ways that God has moved in history for the good of humanity, proving His statements of who He says He is as He shows us glimpses of His power. Even better, even though it was written over thousands of years of human history, it all fits together like a glove in a coherent, understandable manner. It doesn’t say one thing, then say a different contradictory thing, unlike the Quran.
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 