IAHAR UL-HAQ: Part 4

 
IAHAR UL-HAQ: Part 4
Chapter One: The Holy QUR’AN
Chapter Two: Christians Objections To The Holy QUR’AN
Chapter Three: Authenticity of The Holy Traditions (HADITH)

 
Chapter One
THE HOLY QUR’AN
The Only True Container of the Word of God
If you are in doubt of what we have revealed to our servant, produce one chapter comparable to it. Call upon your helpers, beside God, if you are Truthful.189[1]

= From First Divine Quality of the Quran To the Twelfth Divine Quality of the Quran - Predictions
= Conclusions
= The Gradual Nature of the Qur’anic Revelation.
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 Section One
The Miraculous Diction and Style of the Qur’an
There are innumerable aspects of the Qur’anic revelation that explicitly or implicitly bring out the miraculous character of the Qur’an. I will confine myself to the description of only twelve such aspects out of many. 190[2] I will not speak of qualities like its full consciousness of every aspect of a subject when speaking on a particular theme and the moderation and considerateness of its speech.

Whether the passage concerned is one of hope or of threat, of reward or of punishment, its speech is always balanced and never over-emotive. This quality is not found in human speech as human expression is always affected by the state of mind of the speaker. When he is unhappy, he shows it in his speech, not showing concern for others who might deserve praise or kindness. Talking of one thing, he does not think and speak of its opposite. For instance when describing the creation, he does not speak of the Hereafter. When he is angry, he often shows it without measuring the amount of anger that is appropriate. 191[3]

First Divine Quality: The Eloquence of the Qur’an
The Holy Qur’an maintains throughout the highest possible standard of rhetoric in its speech, to the extent that it is literally impossible to find its parallel in human works. The rules of rhetoric demand that the words chosen for expression should be so exact in conveying the message that they should not express too much or too little for the occasion. The more a description embodies this quality, and the more appropriate the words are to the situation, the more eloquent it is said to be. The Holy Qur’an fulfills all the requirements of rhetoric to the highest standard. We give some examples to prove our claim.

First Argument
Human eloquence, 192[4] whether from Arabs or non-Arabs, usually concerns the physical phenomena that are closely associated with those people.

For instance, the Arabs are considered to be great orators and eloquent in the description of camels, horses, swords and women. Poets, linguists and other writers acquire dexterity and proficiency in some particular field simply because poets and writers of all times have been writing and adding subtleties to the subject, providing food for thought for subsequent writers to open new avenues in it.

However, the Holy Qur’an does not fit this pattern, owing nothing to precedent and being replete with astonishing and unparalleled examples of eloquence that were unanimously acknowledged by all the Arabs.
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Second Argument
It is our usual experience that when poets and writers of literature try to adorn their language with eloquent expressions they do not remain truthful. Anyone trying to be absolutely true in conveying his message can do so only at the cost of eloquence. It is therefore said that untruth is a main element of a good poetry. The famous poets Labid ibn Rabi’ah and Hassan ibn Thabit could not maintain the high standard of their poetry after embracing Islam. Their pre-Islamic poetry is more forceful and elegant than their post-Islamic compositions.

The Holy Qur’an presents miraculous examples of eloquence in spite of being absolutely true in all it says.

Third Argument
Good poetry is considered elegant and beautiful because some of its verses are of a high standard of eloquence. Each and every verse of that poetry is rarely all of the same standard. The Holy Qur’an, however, from beginning to end, is such an example of unabated beauty, elegance and eloquence that human beings of all times have been unable to produce even a small piece of equal standard. Take for example the Surah Yusuf, 193[5] every word of which is a perfect specimen of beauty and eloquence.

Fourth Argument
Any writer or poet, when he relates the same event more than once, does not manage in the repeated account to be as elegant and beautiful as he was the first time. The Holy Qur’an repeats versions of the same event, and of descriptions of the creation and the end of the world, and of the injunctions and the attributes of God. Each description is different in style and in size, but every one is of so high a standard that one cannot be preferred to another.

Fifth Argument
The Qur’an talks of many things like obligatory rituals, legal pro- hibitions, instigation to virtue, repudiation of worldly desires, and preparation for the
Hereafter and other similar themes. The description of these things does not lend itself to elegance and beauty and any poet trying to compose poetry on practical injunctions of this kind would be hard put to produce a passage of literary merit. The Holy Qur’an deals with all these subjects with a high standard of eloquence.

Sixth Argument
The eloquence of every poet is confined to a particular subject and when the same poet speaks on other subjects his beauty of expression and his proficiency is distinctly circumscribed. Imru’l-Qais, the famous Arab poet, is known for his description of wine, women and horses.
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No other poet is as eloquent on this subject. Nabigha is known for his description of fear and awful events, Zuhayr for hope and so on.194[6]

The Holy Qur’an, on the other hand, talks on all kinds of subjects with great force of eloquence, beauty and elegance, and is found to be miraculously eloquent in each description.

Seventh Argument
Diversion from one subject to another which in turn has many branches usually makes it impossible for an author to maintain flow and continuity with the same grandeur and majesty and his language usually loses its height of eloquence. The Holy Qur’an is full of such diversions, frequently jumping from one event to another, but miraculously it maintains the same flow and continuity with all the other subjects under discussion.

Eighth Argument Another distinct feature of the Qur’anic diction is that it encloses a vast range of meaning in a surprisingly small number of words without losing its charm and majesty in the least. Surah Sad’s opening verses are a good example of this.

The Holy Qur’an here describes a large number of subjects in very few verses, including a description of the unbelievers of Makka, their rejection of the Holy Prophet, admonitions to them with reference to historical events of previous people, their distrust and astonishment at the revelation of the Qur’an, a description of their envious nature, threats and instigations, the teaching of patience and a description of events related to the Prophets David, Solomon, Job, Abraham and Jacob. All these diverse subjects been dealt with a force and eloquence that is unique to the Qur’an.

Ninth Argument
Majesty and sweetness, elegance and beauty are counteracting qualities that are rarely found together in a single work. These two opposite qualities are seen divinely combined together throughout the Qur’an in a way unknown to human genius. This again is a strong argument for the miraculous eloquence of the Qur’anic diction, which is absolutely absent from human writings.195[7]

Tenth Argument
The language of the Qur’an contains all possible kinds of eloquence, metaphor, similes, comparisons, transitions, inversions etc., but at the same time it is free of any hint of verbiage like false exaggeration, hyperbolical statements
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and all other defects of falsehood and of the use of strange words etc. Human writing does not usually combine all the aspects of eloquence in one work.

People have tried in vain to accommodate all these qualities. The Holy Qur’an, however, does so superlatively.

These ten arguments are enough to prove the claim that Qur’anic language and its intonation are so sublime that they cannot be measured by human genius. The more one is acquainted with the Arabic language, the more he will find the words of the Qur’an burning into his heart, and its thought breathing into his soul. 196[8]

The Second Divine Quality of the Qur’an
The second quality of the Qur’an that makes it a living miracle is its unique structure and internal arrangement, and, above all, the sub- limity of its thought and contents. The accumulation of all the linguistic perfections in the Holy Qur’an has been a permanent source of astonishment to the great writers, philosophers and the linguists of the world.

This acknowledged supremity of the Qur’an saves it from any accusation of being no more than a collection of thoughts and ideas borrowed from others and serves the purpose of making it so prominent and so distinct from ordinary human writings that the Qur’an by itself is enough argument to prove its divine provenance and its being a living miracle of the Holy Prophet.

The Arabs were arrogant regarding their command over the Arabic language and harboured initially great enmity against the Prophet and his teachings. The perfection of the Qur’anic eloquence did not allow them to find any imperfection in it. On the contrary, they were forced to admit that the language of Qur’an was comparable neither with the poetry of the poets nor the oratory of the orators. They were astonished at its matchless eloquence.

Sometimes they declared it to be magic and sometimes they said that it was something that had been taken from a previous people. They often tried to stop people hearing it by making a noise when the Prophet recited it. They found themselves helpless against the inexpressible attraction of the Qur’anic language.

It is unimaginable that the Arabs who were known to be the masters of the Arabic language would not have met the simple challenge of the Qur’an to produce the like of its smaIlest surah197[9], rather than wage war against the Prophet of Islam and lose the best of their heroes in the fighting as well as sacrificing much of their property and possessions, if they had been able to do so. They heard this Qur’anic challenge many times through the prophet.
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He cried aloud in their face:
Bring then a surah like unto it, and call (to your aid) any one you can, beside God, if it be ye speak the truth. 198[10]

The Qur’an repeats this challenge in another surah in these words:
And if ye are in doubt, as to what we have revealed to our servant, then produce a surah, like there unto; and call your witnesses and helpers (to your aid) besides God, if you are true. But if ye cannot, and of surety ye cannot, then fear the fire, whose fuel is men and stones. 199[11]

Again this challenge was thrown at them with full force:
Say, if the whole of mankind and jinn were together to produce the like of this Qur’an, they would not be able to produce the like thereof, even if they backed up each other. 200[12]

The fact that they preferred to fight wars against him and sacrifice their lives is enough to prove that they acknowledged the miraculous eloquence of the Qur’an and it found impossible to produce any passage comparable to the Qur’an.

There is a report that Walid ibn Mughirah, the nephew of Abu Jahl, burst into tears when he heard the Qur’an recited. Abu Jahl came to him and admonished him.

He replied:
I swear by God, none of you is as conversant and acquainted with poetry as I am and I declare that the words of Muhammad have nothing to do with poetry. 201[13]

History has recorded that once at the time of Hajj the same Walid gathered together the dignitaries of the tribe of Quraysh of Makka and suggested that they should agree on what to say to the pilgrims if they enquired about Muhammad.

Some of them said, “We could say that he is a soothsayer.” Walid said, “By God, he is not, as is evident from his speech.” Others suggested that he should be called insane. Walid swore by God that he had no trace of insanity. They suggested that he should be called a poet. Walid again rejected the suggestion saying that they were all fully conversant with poetic speech and he would never be accepted as a poet. The Quraysh then said, “We shall tell them that he is a sorcerer.”
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Walid said that they knew that he could not be a sorcerer because his speech was far from sorcery and that the only thing that could be said about him was that the magic of his speech had separated sons from their fathers, brothers from brothers and wives from their husbands. After this meeting they posted themselves on the roads of Makka and prevented the pilgrims from listening to the Holy Prophet.

It is also reported that ’Utbah 202[14] came to the Holy Prophet and discussed with him the opposition of the Quraysh with regard to the Holy Qur’an.

The Holy Prophet recited the opening verses of Surah 41. He had recited only thirteen verses when ’Utbah, overcome, requested the Prophet not to recite any more of it and hid his face with his two hands.

Another report has said that as the Holy Prophet recited the Qur’anic verses to ’Utbah, he felt so restless that could not sit straight and leant back on his hands until the Holy Prophet recited a verse of prostration and prostrated before Allah. ’Utbah returned to his house in a state of emotional excitement, hid himself from the people until some Quraysh went to him. ’Utbah said to them, ”By God! Muhammad recited verses the like of which I never heard in my life. I was completely lost and could not answer him anything.”

According to a report, the Companion of the Prophct, Abu Dharr, said that he had not seen a poet greater than his brother Anis who had defeated twelve poets in a contest in pre-Islamic days. Once, when he returned from Makka, they asked him the opinion of the Makkans concerning the Holy Prophet. He said that they accused him of being a poet, a soothsayer, and a sorcerer.

Then he said that he was fully conversant with the speech of soothsayers and sorcerers and found the words of the Prophet in no way comparable to them. He was neither a poet nor a sorcerer and soothsayer for all of them were liars whereas his words were the truth.

We find in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim that Jabir ibn Mut’im 203[15] reported that he heard the Holy Prophet reciting Surah al- Tur in his prayer of Maghrib (just after sunset).

When he recited this verse:
Were they created of nothing, or were they themselves the Creators? Or did they create the heavens and the earth, Nay, they have no belief. Or are the treasures of thy Lord with them, Or are they the managers (of affairs)? Jabir said that he found his heart craving for Islam.
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The Third Divine Quality of the Qur’an: the Predictions The Holy Qur’an gives many predictions related to future events.

All the Qur’anic predictions turned out to be absolutely true. We give a few specific examples of such predictions.

First Prediction
The Holy Qur’an says:
Ye shall enter the Sacred Mosque (Masjid Al-Haram), if Allah wills, secure, heads shaved, hair cut short, and without fear. 204[16]

This passage from Sura Al-Fath (the Victory), from which this passage is quoted, was revealed before the treaty of Hudaibiyah in the sixth year of Hijrah.

In it the Muslims are promised by Allah that they will soon enter the Sacred Mosque of Makka victoriously. Under the prevailing circumstances this was unimaginable. The Muslims captured Makka in the 8th year of Hijrah and entered the Sacred Mosque together with the Holy Prophet exactly as was predicted by the Qur’an, some having shaved their heads and some having cut short their hair.

Second Prediction
The Holy Qur’an says:
Allah has promised to those among you who believe, and do good deeds, that He will surely grant them in the land inheritance of power as He granted it to those before them; that He will establish in authority their religion which He has chosen for them. And that He will change (their state) after fear to one of security and peace. They will worship Me (alone) and not associate aught with Me. 205[17]

This Qur’anic verse promises that the Muslims will be made the true viceregents of God and that Allah will grant them and their faith strength and power. The state of fear in which they were would be changed to peace and security. This Qur’anic prediction foretelling Muslim domination did not take long to prove its accuracy.

Let us see how, in surprisingly a short period, this Qur’anic pre- diction and divine promise was fulfilled.

The whole of Arabian peninsula was brought under the Holy Prophet’s domination in his own life and some of the people of Hijr and some rulers of Syria agreed to pay jizyah (a minority tax) to the Holy Prophet.
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In the time of the first caliph of Islam, Abu Bakr, the boundaries of Islamic domination were greatly widened. The Muslims captured some cities of Persia, and some of the cities of Syria such as Bosra and Damascus.

Then came the second Caliph, ’Umar, who changed history by his faith in the truth of Islam, defeating the world powers of that time. He conquered the whole of the ancient Persian empire and a large part of the Eastern Roman Empire.

In the time of the third Caliph, ’Uthman, the Islamic domination was further expanded. Islamic forces conquered Spain in the West, and part of China in the East. It took only 20 years for the Muslims to have complete control of all these countries which constituted the majority of the known world, thus abundantly fulfilling the Qur’anic prediction. Islam dominated over all other religions of the world and was the major world power of that time.

Third Prediction
The Holy Qur’an declares:
It is He who has sent His Messenger with guidance, and the religion of truth, to make it triumphant over all religions. 206[18]

We have discussed under the second prediction that Islam, the religion of truth, triumphed over the other religions of the world and the perfection of this domination of Islam over the world will be witnessed by the world in the future. 207[19]

Fourth Prediction
The Holy Qur’an says:
Allah was well pleased with the believers when they swore fealty to you under the tree. He knew what was in their hearts. So He sent down tranquility upon them and rewarded them with a victory (very) near. And many gains (spoils) that they would take. And mighty is Allah and Wise. Allah has promised you rich booty which you will take.
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And He has given you these beforehand, and He has restrained the hands of men from you, so that it may be a sign for the believers and that He may guide you to a straight path. And other gains which are not in your power. And Allah has encompassed: and Allah has power over all things. 208[20]

The victory promised in this verse is the conquest of Khaybar and the ’many gains’ promised are the spoils and booty of Khaybar and Hijr; similarly the promise of ”other gains” are the booties and spoils to be taken from the conquest of Persia and Rome. All the promises and predictions made in this verse came true exactly as they were foretold.

Fifth Prediction
The Qur’an says:
And other blessings which you desire: help from Allah, and a near victory. 209[21]

The promise of near victory contained in this verse is, according to some, the conquest of Makka and, according to others, the conquest of Persia and Rome. The prediction, however, is true whatever the case since Makka, Persia and Rome were all conquered.

Sixth Prediction
The Holy Qur’an says:
When comes the help of Allah and viictory, and you see people enter Allah’s religion in multitudes. 210[22]

In this verse the promised victory is the victory of Makka. Correct reports place its revelation prior to the conquest of Makka. Besides ’idha’ (when) in Arabic is used for future tense and not for the past tense. Groups of people from Ta’if and Makka came in multitudes to embrace Islam as was predicted by the Holy Qur’an.

Seventh Prediction:
We find in the Holy Qur’an:
Say to those who deny faith, soon you will be vanquished. 211[23]

This came about exactly as warned by the Holy Qur’an. The unbelievers were all dominated.
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Eighth Prediction
The Holy Qur’an says:
(Remember) When Allah promised you one of the two (enemy) parties, that it should be yours, you wished that the one unarmed should be yours, but Allah wanted to establish the truth by his word, and to cut off the roots of the unbelievers. 212[24]

This is a reference to the battle of Badr and the two parties referred to in this verse are the trade caravan that was returning from Syria and the other that had come from Makka, and the unarmed party was the trade caravan back from Syria. This also happened exactly as was predicted.

Ninth Prediction The Holy Qur’an says to the Prophet:
We are enough to sustain you against those who mock. 213[25]

When the above verse was revealed to the Prophet, he told his Companions that Allah would protect them against the ill intentions of the idolaters of Makka who were always persecuting him and his Companions. Allah fulfilled this promise.

Tenth Prediction
The Holy Qur’an declares:
The Roman Empire has been defeated, in a land close by; but they, (even) after this defeat, will gain victory in a few years. Allah’s is the command, in the past and in the future. On that day shall the believers rejoice, with the help of Allah,. He helps whom He wills. And He is Mighty and the most merciful. (It is) the promise of Allah. Allah never departs from His promise: but most men understand not. They crave for the outer (things in the) life of this world, but of the Hereafter they are heedless. 214[26]
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This surah was revealed in Makka when Persia defeated the Romans. The Persians were Magians by faith while the the Romans were Christians. The idolaters of Makka were pleased with this news and argued with the Muslims that they and the Christians claimed to be the People of the Book while the Magians and Makkans were without the Book. As the Christians of the Roman Empire were defeated by the Persians, the Muslims would, likewise, be defeated by the Makkans. The Holy Qur’an, itself, refuted’ their assumption in the above verse and predicted the victory of the Romans.

Abu Bakr Siddiq, the devoted friend and companion of the Holy Prophet, told the Makkan idolaters that the Romans would gain victory over the Persians in a few years. Ubayy Ibn Khalaf accused him of making a false claim. It was decided that a specific period be fixed for the confirmation of this prediction. Both of them offered ten camels to be given to the winner and a period of three years was fixed.

Abu Bakr told the Holy Prophet of this and the Holy Prophet said that the prediction contained the word bid’a (a few) which signifies a period from three years to nine years, and suggested that he should increase the number of years by adding to the number of camels. Abu Bakr went to Ubayy and it was decided that a hundred camels would be given by each of them and the period of nine years was fixed.

Ubayy died when he was returning from the battle of Uhud in 3 AH. Exactly seven years after this event the Byzantines gained a great victory over Persia, as was predicted by the Holy Qur’an. Abu Bakr, having won his wager, received hundred camels from Ubayy’s heirs. The Holy Prophet said that the camels received by him should be given away in charity.

These are just a few of many such predictions in the Holy Qur’an all of which have been fulfilled precisely as foretold

The Fourth Divine Quality of the Qur’an: Knowledge of Past Events
The fourth miraculous quality of the Qur’an lies in its description of past events. The Holy Prophet was unlettered and did not know how to read or write.

He had no teachers nor did he ever keep company with scholars. On the contrary, he was brought up among illiterate idol worshippers, devoid of any knowledge of the scriptures. The Holy Prophet remained among these people throughout his life, except for two trading journeys to Syria which were too short to admit any possibility of his having acquired knowledge from anyone there.

There are many past events that the Holy Qur’an describes differently from other sources. This difference is deliberate and intentional, as can be seen in the Qur’anic reference to the ‘crucifixion’. The Holy Qur’an avoids details that were to be proved untrue in the accounts of previous books, such as the Pentateuch and the Gospels.
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Our claim is supported by the following Qur’anic verse:
Verily this Qur’an does explain to the Children of Israel most of the things about which they disagree.

The Fifth Divine Quality of the Qur’an
One of the miraculous qualities of the Qur’an is that it unveiled and disclosed all the ill intentions of the hypocrites of Madina. They used to conspire against Islam and the Muslims in their secret meetings. All their decisions and secret plans were made known to the Holy Prophet through divine revelation. He used to inform the Muslims of the intentions of the hypocrites. All such expositions of the Holy Prophet were found to be true.

Similarly the Holy Qur’an exposed the ill intentions of the con- temporary Jews.

The Sixth Divine Quality of the Qur’an
The Holy Qur’an contains branches of knowledge that were not in vogue in Arabia at its time of revelation and with which the Prophet himself was totally unacquainted. These include inductive and deductive logic with regard to religious doctrines, exhortation, matters relating to the Hereafter and other things.

In fact there are two kinds of sciences, the religious sciences and the other sciences. The religious sciences are obviously higher in value than the other sciences. They include the knowledge of metaphysical realities like knowledge about the Creator of the universe and His attributes, knowledge of His Prophets, angels and knowledge of the Hereafter. The branch of knowledge covering all these aspects of religion is called ‘ilmu’l- ‘aqa’id (the science of beliefs). Then comes the knowledge of the practical injunctions, that is, the law. This science is known as fiqh (jurisprudence). The science of fiqh in Islam is a great science.

All the jurisprudents of Islam have derived their law from the Qur’an. Then comes the science related to the purification of the inner self which is called tasawwuf.

The Holy Qur’an gives simple and practical guidance on all the above branches of knowledge, and this is unique to the Qur’an as compared with other revelations of past peoples. This demonstrates that the Qur’an is a collection of all the sciences. In addition it is a collection of rational arguments, and refutes all heretical ideas with reason and logic.

The Holy Qur’an provides humanity with perfect guidance in the fields of morality, ethics, religion, politics, culture, and economics.

The Seventh Divine Quality of the Qur’an
The Holy Qur’an, in spite of being a copious and voluminous book, is absolutely free of any contradiction, inconsistency or incompatibility which would not possible for any human work of this size. No other book in the world can claim to be so free from all defects as the Qur’an. This distinct feature of the Qur’an is in itself an argument of its being divine.
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The Qur’an itself invites people towards this incomparable feature in these words:
Will they not ponder on the Qur’an? Had it been from other than God they could have surely found in it many contradictions. 215[27]

There is no doubt that a text like the Qur’an having all these divine features cannot but be from Allah, the All-Knowing, who has knowledge of the unknown future as well as the past and present.

The Eighth Divine Quality: the Eternality of the Qur’an
The Holy Qur’an rightly claims to be the only divine revelation that is everlasting, preserving its originality and genuineness beyond all reasonable doubts. This living miracle of the Holy Prophet is unique in that it continued beyond his death unlike the miracles of the previous Prophets that lasted only as long as they lived. The texts of other Prophets and their signs all disappeared with them and no trace of them can now be found in the world. The Holy Qur’an made a simple challenge to humanity to produce the like of it or any of its parts.

Centuries have passed and it remains as incomparable today as it was on the day it was revealed and will remain so up to the Day of Judgement.

According to this Qur’anic challenge, every individual surah of the Holy Qur’an, indeed any part equal to its smallest surah, is in itself a separate miracle making the Qur’an a collection of nearly two thousand separate miracles.

The Ninth Divine Quality of the Holy Qur’an
Those who have recited the Holy Qur’an in Arabic are fully acquainted with its strange quality of involving the reciter and with the entrancing influence of its melody. The more you recite it the more you are charmed by it. This strange phenomenon is experienced by all who recite the Qur’an regularly

The Tenth Divine Quality of the Holy Qur’an
Another divine feature of the Holy Qur’an is that it combines in itself the claim and its arguments both at the same time. That is to say, its divine eloquence provides the proof of its divinity while its meanings convey the divine message of obligations and prohibitions. This applies to all its contents. It presents arguments for what is being said at the same time as it says it.
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The Eleventh Divine Quality of the Holy Qur’an
Another distinct divine feature of the Holy Qur’an is its capability of being memorised, even by those who do not know the Arabic language.

The Qur’an refers to this feature in this verse:
We have made the Qur’an easy to remember. 216[28]

This divine feature of the Holy Qur’an is frequently demonstrated throughout the world by those young boys who have memorised the whole of it.

They can recite the whole of the Qur’an by heart. Millions of such hafiz’s (preservers of the Qur’an) are always present in the world and they can recite the whole of the Qur’anic text with absolute accuracy from memory alone. They memorize not only the text but also its annotations and pronunciation exactly corresponding with the way the Prophet conveyed it.

The few people in the Christian world who memorize the Bible or even just the Gospels are seldom able to do so with such miraculous accuracy. This feature alone is so obviously an argument for the divine nature of the Qur’an that it cannot be overlooked easily.

The Twelfth Divine Quality of the Holy Qur’an
Another inherent divine feature of the Holy Qur’an is the awe and fearfulness that enters into the hearts of its listeners. It is even more strange that this sensual experience of awe is equally felt by those who do not understand its meanings. There are many examples recorded by history that people were so moved by listening to the Qur’an when they heard it for the first time that they converted to Islam simply by listening to it. 217[29]

It has been reported that a Christian passed by a Muslim who was reciting the Holy Qur’an. Listening to the Qur’an, the Christian was so struck and moved that he burst into tears. He was asked why he was he weeping. He said, ”I do not know, but as soon as I heard the word of God I felt greatly frightened and my heart filled with tears.”

Qadi Noorullah Shostri wrote in his commentary on the Holy Qur’an that when the great scholar Ali Al-Qaushji set out for Greece, a Jewish scholar came to him to discuss about the truth of Islam. He had a long debate with him on different aspects of Islam. He did not accept any of the arguments forwarded by Ali Al-Qaushji.

This debate lasted for one month with no definite result. One morning when Ali Al-Qaushji was busy reciting the Holy Qur’an on the roof of his house, the Jew came to him. Though Ali Al-Qaushji did not have a good voice, as soon as the Jew listened to the Holy Qur’an, he felt his heart fill with fear and the Qur’anic influence found its way through to his heart.
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He came to Ali Al-Qaushji and asked him to convert him to Islam. Ali asked him of this sudden change. He said, “In spite of your bad voice the Qur’an captured my heart and I felt sure that it was the word of God.”

The above examples clearly show the miraculous character of the Holy Qur’an.

Conclusions
To conclude this section we must recapitulate that it is part of divine custom that the Prophets are usually given miracles in those fields that are popular among the people of that age. The superhuman demonstrations in that particular field make people believe in the truth of the Prophet and his access to divine power.

Sorcery and magic were common in the time of Moses. As soon as Pharaoh’s magicians saw Moses’ staff transforming into a living serpent and devouring their illusory snakes they instantly believed in Moses as being the Prophet of God and straightaway embraced his faith.

Similarly in the time of the Prophet Jesus the science of medicine was a common practice. The people had acquired perfection in it. When the experts of medicine watched Jesus healing the lepers and reviving the dead, they instantly knew through their experience that such things were beyond the access of the science of medicine, and believed that it could be nothing but a miracle of Jesus.

The same holds true with the Holy Prophet Muhammad. He was sent to the Arabs who arrogantly claimed to be the best elocutionists of the world. They invested all their effort to achieve perfection in elocution and used to challenge others in public contests. They had great pride in their linguistic achievements.

The famous seven poems 218[30] were hung in the House of Allah, the Ka’ba, as a constant challenge. They presented a practical challenge to the Arabs in general to produce a piece similar to them by whoever claimed eloquence. As soon as they heard the Qur’an they knew from their experience that it was far beyond the limits of humanly conceivable perfection. They instantly realized that such superhuman eloquence could not exist in a human work.

The Gradual Nature of the Qur’anic Revelation
The Holy Qur’an was not revealed all at once. It came in pieces gradually over a period of almost 23 years. There are many reasons for this gradualness.

(1) Had it been revealed all at once, it might have been difficult for the Holy Prophet to retain the voluminous text of the Qur’an as a whole, particularly given the fact that he was unlettered.
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(2) Had the whole of the Qur’anic text come in written form, it might have obviated the interest and necessity of memorising it. The short passages, as they were revealed, were memorised more easily. In addition, it established a valuable tradition among the Muslims of memorising the Qur’anic text verbatim.

(3) It would have been very difficult, if not impossible, for the Arabs to follow all the injunctions of the Qur’anic law at once. In this case, gradualness was more practical and wise and facilitated the practical realisation of these injunctions.

One of the Companions of the Holy Prophet reported that it was divine consideration for them that they were obligated by the Qur’an gradually. Otherwise it would have been difficult for them to embrace Islam. He said, “In the beginning, the Holy Prophet invited us to tawhid (pure monotheism) only. After we had accepted and imbibed its tender and sweet essence, then, very gradually and practically we were asked to follow various Qur’anic injunctions until the whole law was completed.

(4) This gradual revelation necessitated the frequent visitation of the Archangel Gabriel to the Holy Prophet which was obviously a source of great strength to him, enabling him to carry on his mission with certitude, and to bear the hardships of prophethood with fortitude.

(5) The small pieces of the Qur’anic revelation, claiming to possess miraculous eloquence, provided opponents with more time to meet the challenge to produce a text equal to the smallest surah of the Qur’an. Their complete lack of success and the inability of the Arabs to accomplish it is again an argument for the divine nature of its eloquence.

(6) The Qur’anic revelation provided guidance to the Muslims according to the changing circumstances, and responded to the objections raised by opponents.

This helped increase their understanding and nourished their certitude as they came to realise the truth of the Qur’anic predictions and divinely revealed knowledge of the unknown future.

(7) Being a messenger of Allah is the highest of all honours. The Archangel Gabriel enjoyed this honour by carrying the divine word to the Holy Prophet for a great period which would not have been possible had it been revealed all-at-once.
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Repetitions in the Qur’anic Text
The Qur’anic revelation contains repeated descriptions, especially concerning tawhid (the unity of God), the Resurrection and the lives of the earlier Prophets. This repetition is unique to the Qur’anic revelation. These repetitions do certainly show divine wisdom to the readers. The Arabs were generally idolaters, totally ignorant of monotheism and the Day of Judgment, etc. Similarly some of the non-Arab nations like the Indians and Chinese were also idolworshippers.

The people of the revealed religions like the Jews and the Christians had corrupted their original revelations, specially the truth with regard to the principles of faith like the unity of God, the Resurrection and the missions of the earlier Prophets. The Holy Qur’an repeatedly describes these things using a variety of styles to attract attention.

The events of the earlier Prophets were described in repeated passages always using a different style, demonstrating divine eloquence in each instance. This has eliminated any possible claim that the presence of superhuman eloquence in its text was incidental. This linguistic perfection is demonstrated repeatedly in variegated styles.

Besides this, the Holy Prophet sometimes felt depressed in the face of the antagonistic activities of his opponents. A short passage of the Qur’an would then be revealed describing an event in the life of a certain Prophet relevant to the situation in which the Holy Prophet found himself. This had a highly consoling effect on him.

The Holy Qur’an attests to cause and resolution separately in the following two verses:
We know that you are vexed by what they say. 219[31]

For the consolation of the Holy Prophet, the Holy Qur’an has:
And all that we relate to you of the accounts of the (earlier)

Messengers is (meant) to put courage into your heart, and through this the truth is revealed to you, along with exhortation and admonition for the believers. 220[32]
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The same applies to the believers who were teased and vexed by the unbelievers. The repeated consolation of newly revealed passages gave them heart to bear their sufferings.
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1Holy Qur’an 2:23.
1[2] In the beginning of this section we should note that the author has devoted it mostly to demonstrating the astounding and miraculous eloquence of the Qur’an, the majesty and elegance of its style, the incomparable excellence of its language. All these marvels of Qur’anic diction and style can only really be measured and appreciated by those who read it in its original language. It is difficult to translate any book written in any language. Much more so with the Qur’an whose miraculous language simply defies translation. The meaning of the words can be conveyed in part, but their charm, beauty and elegance cannot. The Holy Qur’an rightly claims to be a living miracle of the Holy Prophet. Its miraculous quality resides partly in its style which is so perfect and lofty that, “....neither men nor Jinn could produce a single chapter to compare with its briefest verse,” and partly in its contents and guidance. According to Eduard Montet, “The
Coran.... its grandeur of form is so sublime that no translation into any language can allow it to be properly appreciated.” Therefore, if readers fail to appreciate what our author is demonstrating in this section, this is due to the fact that even the best translation cannot transmit the beauty of the lan- guage. I am translating it because forms an integral part of the book. (Raazi)
1[3] The author is referring to the unparalleled quality of the Qur’anic language which at such occasions chooses words that are appropriate and exact for its subject and also in its implications for other occasions. (Raazi)
1[4] Rhetoric, Balaghah in Arabic, signifies use of language that is eloquent as well as appropriate for both the people and subject addressed. The use of high-flown and difficult words for the ignorant, and inelegant and simplistic expression for a learned audience is against rhetoric.
1[5] Surah Yusuf, the twelfth chapter of the Qur’an which describes the life of the Prophet Joseph. (Raazi)
1[6] .Similarly in English literature Wordsworth is known for the description of nature, Keats for human sentiments etc. (Raazi)
1[7] . The best example of this is the Surah Takwir of the Qur’an, that is Surah 81, where all the above qualities can be seen side by side in each verse.
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[8] It was this miraculous quality of the Qur’an that made many Arab idolaters embrace Islam as soon as they heard its words.
226[9] Qur’an 10:38.
227[10] Qur’an 10 :38
228[11] Qur’an 2: 23, 24
229[12] . Qur’an 17:88.
230[13]Al-Hakim and al-Bayhaqi from Ibn ’Abbas in Al-Khasa’is al-Kubra vol. l. page 113
231[14] ’Utbah ibn Rabi’ah was one of the chiefs of the Quraysh, and was held as great authority on Arabic literature.
232[15]. Jabir ibn Mut’im, a famous Companion of the Prophet (peace be on him). (Raazi)
1[16] Qur’an 48:28
233[17] . Qur’an 24:55.
[18]Qur’an 9:32.
234[19] That is after the descent of the Prophet Jesus in the last age
235[20] Qur’an 48:18-21.
236[21] Qur’an 61:13
237[22] Qur’an 110:1-
238[23] Qur’an 3:12.
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239[24] . Qur’an 8:7.
240[25]Qur’an 15:95.
241[26] Qur’an 30:1-7. It refers to the remarkable defeat of the Eastern Roman Empire under Heraclius. It was not merely an isolated defea. The Eastern Roman Empire lost most of her Asiatic territory. The defeat “in a land close by” must refer to Syria and Palestine. Jerusalem was captured shortly before this surah was revealed in 614-615 AD.
242[27] Qur`an 4: 82.
243[28] Qu’ran 55:22.
244[29] 1. The second caliph ’Umar came out of his home with a sword in his hand, say- ing, “I will kill Muhammad today.” On his way, being informed that his sister had accepted Islam, he became mad with anger and went to her home where a Muslim companion was reciting the Qur’an to her. ’Umar listened to it, was so moved by it that his eyes filled with tears. He went to the Prophet and accepted Islam. (Raazi)
245[30] . The book containing these phenomenal literary poems is entitled Al-Mu’allaqat al-Sab’ah, the Seven Hangings. Zozni said that they were hung in the Ka’ba’ as a challenge to the Arabs. They are, in fact, excellent specimens of elo- quence.
246[31]Qur’an 15:97
247[32] Qur`an 11:20.
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Chapter Two
CHRISTIAN OBJECTIONS TO THE HOLY QUR’AN
First Objection.
Second Objection.
Third Objection.
Fourth Objection.
Fifth Objection.

There are many objections raised by Christian scholars against various aspects of the Holy Qur’an. A review of such objections and their answers is our main object in this section.

First Objection
Abominable Description in the Bible.
Intolerable Belief of the Roman Catholics.
Sanctification of the Cross.

The first objection frequently raised by Christian scholars is related to the transcendence of the eloquent language of the Holy Qur’an. Their contention in this respect consists mainly of the following points. Firstly that it is not acceptable to claim that its eloquence really surpassed all human genius and that no such text can be produced by human effort.

Secondly that even if this claim of the Muslims is accepted, it still only provides a defective argument for its being miraculous, because, in that case, it could only be recognised as a miracle by those few who have acquired the highest standard of proficiency and skill in the Arabic language.

And this would further mean that books written in Latin and Greek, which have the highest standard of eloquence, should also be accepted as revealed, as well as implying that all kinds of false and abject works could claim to be miraculous simply on the strength of being composed in supremely eloquent language.
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We should here remind ourselves that in the previous section we have produced undeniable arguments to establish the transcendent quality of the Qur’anic language. Given those specific criteria, any objection to the miraculous eloquence of the Holy Qur’an is not valid unless a parallel description of equal eloquence is produced by other claimants to meet the Qur’anic challenge quoted by us in the first section.

They are, however, justified in saying that only a few linguists could apprehend the miraculous quality of its eloquence, but this is of no help to them as this miraculous feature of the Holy Qur’an aimed exactly at that. That is to say, the Holy Qur’an challenged those few Arab linguists who had great pride in their eloquence.

They were not only overawed by its eloquence but also admitted their Inability to contest it because, through their perfect elocution, they instantly recognized its super-human eloquence. The common people have found out about this quality through these scholars. Thus the miraculous eloquence of the Holy Qur’an has become known by all. The argument, therefore, is not defective, as it achieved its goal by making the Arabs accept that it was the word of God.

Moreover, the Muslims do not claim that the eloquence of the Holy Qur’an is the only thing that makes it a miracle. What they rightly claim is, that its eloquence is one of the many miraculous features of the Holy Qur’an and that the Holy Qur’an is one among many other miracles of the Holy Prophet. The miraculous nature of the Holy Qur’an is so widely acknowledged that it has not been refuted by anyone in these 1280 years. 248[1] The following statement of Abu Musa Muzdar, 249[2] a leader of the Mu’tazilites, who said that it was possible for a human being to produce something equal to the Qur’an, is unacceptable and rejected.

It is generally known that Abu Musa had become mentally disordered due to his excessive involvement in spiritual exercises. He made many delirious statements. For example, he said, “God has the power of making false statements and acting with cruelty towards the people. He would be God, but a cruel and lying God.” May Allah forbid.

He also said:
Anyone who associates with kings is an infidel. He cannot be an heir to anyone and no one can be his heir.

As for their contention that books written in other languages possessing the highest degree of eloquence should also be considered as miracles, this contention is not well-founded as no book in any language has been prove to have achieved the super-human quality of eloquence that is possessed by the Holy Qur’an.
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The authors of such books never claimed them to be prophetic marvels. However, anyone making any such claim would be required to prove its transcendent quality of eloquence with effective arguments and specific examples.

11.Similarly one of the great Apostles, who is said to be a great thief, who is also supposed to have performed prophetic miracles, and who, according to the Christians, is superior to the prophet Moses and others, 267[20] sold out his faith for only thirty pieces of silver. That is to say he betrayed his lord, the Messiah, and conspired against him with the Jews and got him arrested and crucified. 268[21]

12. The high priest, Caiaphas, who is considered by the Evangelist, John, to be a Prophet, 269[22] issuedthe death sentence against his God, Christ, believed in him and yet insulted him. 270[23]

The above virulent imputations against the Prophets of God speak Themselves of their falsity. We, however, express our absolute negation of these mythical allegations and totally disassociate ourselves from such sacrilegious beliefs which are both irrational and ridiculous.

Besides, the claim by some Christian scholars to the effect that certain books of other languages demonstrate a standard of eloquence equal to that of the Qur’an, is not acceptable on the ground that those languages are not their first languages. They themselves are not capable of defining the standard of eloquence of other languages, as no one can claim to be as conversant with a foreign language as someone whose mother tongue that language is.

This is not only the case with Arabic; it is equally true for all the languages of the world, be they Greek, Latin or Hebrew. Every language has its own particular structure, grammar and idiom, which usually is radically different from any other language.

Acquiring any degree of knowledge in a foreign language is not enough to make the claim that one has mastered it in all respects.

Under the orders of Pope Urban VIII, the Archbishop of Syria called a meeting of priests, cardinals and scholars and masters of the Hebrew, Greek and the Arabic languages for the purpose of revising and correcting the Arabic translation of the Bible that was full of errors and missing many important passages. The members of this council took great pains in rectifying the errors of this translation.

After great labour and all possible efforts, they prepared a version in 1625. In spite of all their effort, this translation still contained many errors and defects. The revising members of this council wrote an apologetic introduction to it. We reproduce below their apology in their exact words: 250[3]

You will find many things in this copy deviating from the general rules of grammar. For example, masculine gender in place of feminine, singular replaced by plural and plural in place of a dual.251[4] Similarly there are unusual applications of the signs of accentuation, emphasis and phonetics. Sometimes additional words have been used in place of a phonetic mark. The main reason of our being ungrammatical is the simplicity of the language of the Christians.

The Christians have formulated a special language. The prophets, the apostles, and their elders took liberties with languages such as Latin, Greek and Hebrew, because it was never the will of the Holy Ghost to confine the words of God within the narrow boundaries of normal grammatical complexities.

The Holy Ghost, therefore, revealed the secrets of God without effusion and eloquence.

The English are particularly prone to arrogance when they acquire even a little knowledge of a particular subject or a slight proficiency in another language.
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An example of this vanity and self-complacency with regard to many sciences and subjects is pointed out below.

The famous traveller, Abu Talib Khan, wrote a book of his travels recording his observations regarding the people of various countries. He described the people of England in detail discussing their virtues as well as their defects. The following passage is reproduced from his Persian book: 252[5]

The eighth defect of the English people is their deceitful attitude towards the sciences and languages of other countries. They are easy prey to self-conceit. They start writing books on subjects of which they have only elementary knowledge, or in languages which they suppose they have mastered without having any real proficiency in them. They publish their works with a great complacency equal only to their ignorance.

It was through the Greek and the French people that I first came to know this characteristic of the English. I did not believe them fully until I read some of their Persian writings and found it out for myself.

Their last contention, that abject and false statements described in the most eloquent words should also be considered as miracles, has nothing to do with the Holy Qur’an since it is absolutely free from any such thing. The Holy Qur’an deals with the following twenty- seven subjects and every single one of its verses can be subsumed under one or another of them.
1.Attributes of the infinity and perfection of Allah like His self- existence, eternality, His infinite power and wisdom, His infinite mercy and love, His infinite justice and truth, His holiness, majesty, sovereignty, infinity and unity, His being omnipotent, omniscient, all knowing, all-hearing, all powerful and His being the Creator of the universe.

2.His being free of all imperfections, like accidental existence, mutability, ignorance and impotence etc.

3.Invitations to pure monotheism, prohibition from associating partners to Him, the trinity being a kind of association.

4.Historical passages related to the people of the past and accounts of certain Prophets.

5.Freedom of the Prophets from idolatry, infidelity and association.

6.Appreciation and praise of those who believed in their Prophets.
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7.Admonitions and exhortations to those who disbelieved and denied their Prophets.

8.Invitation to believe in all the Prophets in general, and in the Prophet Jesus in particular.

9.The promise and prediction that the believers shall ultimately triumph over the unbelievers.

10.Descriptions regarding the Day of Judgement and accounts of reward and punishment on that day.

11.Descriptions of the blessings of Paradise and torture of the fires of Hell along with related details.

12.Descriptions of impermanence and mortality of this worldly life.

13.Descriptions of the eternality of the Hereafter and the permanence and immortality of its blessings.

14.Enjoining the good and prohibiting of the bad.

15.Injunctions with regard to family life.

16.Guidance for the political and social spheres of human life.

17.Exhortations for the love of Allah and of those who love Him.

18.The description of the ways and means through which man can attain closeness to his Lord, Allah.

19.Premonitions and prohibitions against the company of evildoers.

20.Importance of sincerity of intention in the performance of all rituals and acts of worship.

21.Warnings against insincerity, ostentation and pursuit of false reputation.

22.Warnings against malefaction and malevolence.

23.Preaching of the moral and ethical behaviour appropriate to the occasion.

24.Approbation and encouragement of benefaction and other moral qualities like patience, modesty, generosity and bravery.
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25.Disapprobation of unethical and immoral acts like vanity, meanness, rage, indignation and cruelty.

26.Teaching of abstinence from evil and the necessity of taqwa (active fear of Allah).

27.Exhortation to the remembrance and worship of Allah. 253[6] It is clear that all the above subjects are undoubtedly valuable and noble. Not one of them could be considered to be abject or unneeded.

Abominable Descriptions in the Bible
In contrast with the ideal and impeccable subjects dealt with by the Holy Qur’an, we find a large number of indecent, shameful and vile descriptions in the Bible. Some examples would not be out of place here.
1. A Prophet is reported to have committed fornication with his daughters. 254 [7]

2. A Prophet is reckoned to have committed adultery with another man’s wife. 255[8]

3. A Prophet indulged in cow worship. 256[9]

4. One of the Prophets abandoned his faith and took to idolatery and built temples for idols. 257[10]

5. One of the Prophets wrongly attributed his own false statement to God, and described another Prophet and brought down the wrath of God upon him. 258[11]

6. The Prophets David, Solomon and even Jesus were the descendants of illegitimate ancestors.That is, the progeny of Pharez, the son of Judah. 259[12]

7. The son of a great Prophet, who was the ”son of God” and father of the Prophets, committed fornication with his father’s wife. 260[13]
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8. Another son 261[14] of the same Prophet similarly committed fornication with his son’s wife. Besides this, the said Prophet, in spite of being aware of their fornication, did not punish them. At the time of his death he only imprecated 262[15] against the elder son while prayed for and blessed 263[16] the other.

9. Another great Prophet, the “younger son of God,” committed fornication with the wife of his friend and did not punish his son for committing fornication with his sister.

10. The Prophet, John the Baptist, who is witnessed by Jesus to be the greatest of all born of women (though the ”least in the kingdom of God is greater than he”) 264[17] did not recognise the second person of his God for as long as thirty years, 265[18] until this second God became the follower of his servant, and so long as he did not perform baptism, and until the third God had descended on him in the form of a dove. When John saw this third one descending on the second God like a dove, he came to remember the word of God that the same will be his Lord, the creator of the heavens and the earth. 266[19]

Intolerable Beliefs of the Roman Catholics
The major sect of the Christians, the Roman Catholics, still give scredence to some dogmas that are obnoxious and at total variance with human reason.

The number of Roman Catholics, as reported by some priests, is two hundred million. 271[24] Many shameful and abominable beliefs are still a part of their faith.
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For example:
1. According to a recently expressed opinion of the Christians, Mary’s mother also conceived her without any sexual union with her husband.

2. Mary is the mother of God in the real sense of the word.

3. If all the priests in the world were to perform the sacrament of Eucharist at the same time, according to the Catholics, the millions of pieces of bread would be transubstantiated into an equal number of Christs, all fully human and fully divine at the same time and born of Mary.

4. This single piece of bread, when cut into any number of pieces, is instantly transformed into an equal number of Christs. 272[25] The physically observed process of the wheat’s progress from its growth to being baked into the form of bread does not preclude its divinity, as physical senses have no say in these matters according to the Catholic faith.

5. Making idols, and worshipping them is an essential part of their faith. 273[26]

6. No salvation of a Christian is possible without having true faith in the Pope with no consideration as to his impiety, dishonesty and immoral conduct. 274[27]

7. The Pope is considered to be infallible and pure of all errors.

8. There is always a great treasure of wealth in the Temple of Rome owned and managed by the Pope. Among many other sources of money is the money paid to him by the people for absolution of their sins for which the Pope is supposed to have special powers. That is to say, the Pope has all the powers of forgiveness and absolution of sins, and he gives this forgiveness for a considerable amount of money. 275[28]
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9. The Pope has absolute power to change the laws of the faith. He can permit any act that was previously prohibited.

The Protestant teacher, Michael Meshaka, said in his Arabic book, Ajwabatu’l Injileen ’ala abatil Attaqlidin:
Now it should be noted that they permit matrimonial relations with blood relations prohibited by the Holy Scriptures. They receive large amounts of money for permitting this, at their own discretion, an act that was prohibited by the sacred books and by the blessed compilers of the gospels. For example, permission for an uncle’s marriage (paternal or maternal) with his niece, for marriage with one’s brother’s wife who is the mother of one’s brother’s children.

There are many additional prohibitions that they have imposed, and many dispensations that they have disallowed people without any religious arguments.

He further says:
There are many eatables that were prohibited by them, and later on were permitted again. Eating of meat has been allowed by them during fasting, that was strictly considered prohibited for centuries.

He also said in his book entitled Thirteen Epistles on page 88 of the second epistle:
The French Cardinal Zabadella said that the Pope enjoys absolute power to permit any prohibition. He is greater than God.

We seek refuge with Allah from such blasphemies and proclaim that Allah is pure of all their imputations.

10. According to the Catholic creed, good souls remain in Purgatory 276[29] suffering the torments of the fires of Hell, until the Pope grants acquittal to them. Similarly priests are authorised to grant such deliverance of the dead from Purgatory, against payment of a certain amount of money, through their suffrages. 277[30]

11. Catholics can obtain certificates of salvation from the Pope and his deputies for payment. It is strange that the people do not demand acknowledgement of the dead, confirming their salvation, from the Pope who is believed to be “greater than God”. He should be able, through his divine powers, to get attestations from the dead that they have attained eternal salvation.
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Since the Papal powers are increased day by day through the blessings of the Holy Ghost, indulgences were invented by Leo X 278[31] and were sold to the people by him and his clergymen.

These documents contained the following words:
May our Lord Jesus Christ take pity upon and pardon thee, by the virtue of his sanctified love. By the power accorded to me by the Saints Peter and Paul, chief of the apostles, I absolve thee of thy sins whenever they are committed, and thy faults and transgressions and even the unremitted sins forgiven by the Pope. As far as the power in the hands of the Church of Rome can contend, I remit the miseries reserved for thee in the purgatories. And I will lead you towards the mysteries of the Holy Church, and its unity and purity and innocence possessed by thee at thine baptism.

The gates of Hell shall be closed to thee on thine death and those of Paradise shall be opened. If thou will not die at present, the indulgence will remain operative till your death. In the names of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Written by Firtilium, agent.

12 They claim that the Hell is a space in cubic form situated in the centre of the earth having sides of 200 miles in length.

13 The Pope makes the sign of the cross on his shoes while other people do it on their faces. Perhaps his shoes are more sanctified than the cross and the faces of the people..

Sanctification of the Cross
Christians in general hold the wood of the cross in great reverence, and prostrate in worship before the paintings or image of the Godhead, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, as well as making prostrations of reverence to the images of their saints.

There can be any of the following reasons for consecrating the wood of the cross: because it had a physical contact with, or was touched by, the body of Christ at the time of crucifixion; or because it became a means for their atonement, or the blood of Christ flowed over it. Now if it is for the first reason, all the donkeys of the world should be held holier than the cross, as Christ used to ride on the back of donkeys and mules. They had more physical contact with the body of Christ and, contrary to the cross, they served the purpose of providing comfort to him. It was a donkey that carried Christ to the temple of Jerusalem.

Besides, being animate, the donkey is closely associated with man as opposed to the wood of the cross which is inanimate.

As for the second reason, Judas Iscariot deserves more reverence and sanctification as it was through his betrayal that Jesus was arrested and then crucified by the Jews.
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Without his betrayal, atonement through the death of Christ would not have been possible. He, therefore, is the first and main cause of eternal salvation. If the sanctity of the cross is related to the third reason, the thorns that were put on the head of the Christ on the form of a crown 279[32] deserve more reverence and respect, as they too were coloured with the blood of Christ.

We are unable to see any reason why only the cross is held in such great respect and reverence. Maybe it is another riddle like the trinity. The most abhorrent and abominable thing is the act of worshipping the image of the Father-God. We have already discussed with undeniable arguments that God Almighty is absolutely beyond the possibility of any similitude being made of Him.

Visualization of Him is a physical impossibility. No human being can ever see Him. Is there any one to claim the ability to make an image bearing any degree of similarity to Him? Besides, it would be more logical for them to worship every human being as they are created in the image of God according to the Torah. 280[33]

It is strange that the Pope prostrates himself before images made of stones, and humiliates and insults his human fellow beings by extending his feet to be kissed by them. We fail to see any difference between the Catholics and the idolaters of India.

The Pope as Final Authority
The Pope is supposed to be the final authority on the interpretation of the texts of the Holy Books. This belief must have been added at a later period, otherwise Augustine and John Chrysostom could have not written their exegetical works, since they were not popes and did not seek permission from the popes of their time for writing their works. Their works enjoyed great popularity among the Christians and in the Church of their time.

Bishops and deacons were not allowed to marry. They, therefore, usually did the works that were not entrusted to married people. Some of the Christian theologians have strictly criticised this contention of the popes. I reproduce below some of their criticisms from the Arabic book Thalatha Ashara Risalah, (The Thirteen Epistles).

Saint Bernard said in song no. 66:
They have completely abolished the noble institution of marriage, and legitimate sexual relations have been abandoned. Instead they have turned their bedrooms into a place of fornication. They commit adultery with young boys, mothers, sisters. They have filled the Church with corruption.
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The Bishop Pelage Bolagius of Portugal (1300) said:
It would have been much better if the Church authorities in general, and the people of the Church of Spain in particular, had not taken the oath of purity and chastity, because the number of children of the people of this area is only a little more than the illegitimate sons of the priests and bishops of the country.

John Sattzbourg, a bishop of the fifteenth century, observed:
“I have seen rarely any priests and bishops who do not habitually have frequent intercourse with women. Nunneries have been turned into cells of prostitution.”

In the presence of their deep involvemcnt in drinking liquor their purity and chastity remains out of question, as long as they are youthful and young. Perhaps one of the reasons that they do not believe in the Holy Qur’an is that it does not contain any of these obscene and absurd assertions. As for their objections with regard to some Qur’anic passages related to Paradise and Hell, we will discus this under the third objection.
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281[1] Now, in 1988, the number of years passed from the beginning of the Qur’anic revelation has been 1410 years. (Raazi
282[2] . ’Isa ibn Sabih Abu Musa Muzdar who died in 226 AH, was an insane person- ality. He was maniacally rigid in his belief in the accidentality of the Holy Qur’an. Any one believing in the self-existence of the Holy Qur’an was an infidel in his eyes. Once, the governor of Kufa asked his opinion about the people living on the earth and he said that all of them were infidels. The
governor said to him that the Holy Qur’an describes Paradise as being greater than the heavens and the earth. Did he think that he and his followers alone would live in paradise? He had no answer. (Shahristani vol.l page 94). (Taqi)
283[3] . Our author has reproduced it exactly in their words in the Arabic, but, as a translator of the Urdu edited version, I have rendered it into English from the Urdu reproduction of the original. (Raazi)
284[4] The Arabic has a unique system of numbers. Singular for one, dual for two and plural for any subseqent number. (Raazi)
285[5] I have translated it from the Urdu edited version. (Raazi)
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286[6] . Examples of the above subjects can be seen in the following Qur’anic verses according to the order given above. 1-1. 2-6. 3-3. 4-37. 5-4. 6-2. 7-4. 8-6. 9-23. 10-68. 11-46. 12-29. 13-6. 14-5. 15-4. 16-9. 17-3. 18-49. 19-4. 20-48. 21-49. 22-16. 23-3. 24-24.
287[7] Genesis 19:33. The Prophet Lot is imputed with this act.
288[8] II Samuel 11:2-5 describes the prophet David as having done this act.
289[9] Aaron is accused of this in Exodus 32:2-6.
290[10] The Prophet Solomon in I Kings, 11:2-13.
291[11]See I Kings 13:11-29 for details.
292[12] It is described in Matthew 1:3 and Genesis 38 that Judah committed fornica- tion with his daughter-in-law who gave birth to Pharez.
293[13] This great prophet is Jacob. His elder son was Reuben. Genesis 29:32 and 35:23
294[14]This other son is Judah as described by Genesis 38:18.
[47] Genesis 49:10, “The Septre shall not depart from Judah-0and under him shall the gathering of people be”.
295[16]Genesis 49:4 says, ”Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wen- test up to thy father’s bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.”
296[17] This is a reference to Matthew 11:11: ”He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
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297[18]This refers to John 1:32-34: “And John bare record saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.”
298[19] In fact, it is understood from Matthew 11:2 that John did not recognise him even on that occasion. During his imprisonment, he sent his disciples to ask him if he was the same that was to come or if they should wait for another one.
299[20] Matthew 26:14-47, Mark, 14:10-43, Luke 22:3-47, John 13:26, 18:2.
300[21] The famous Christian theologian De Quincy justified this act of Judas Iscariot by saying that he did not betray the Christ for any personal interest, but for making Christ manifest his powers of salvation. In this way he acquired salvation himself and redeemed the whole of Christendom through the death of Christ. (Britannica-Judah Iscariot). Apart from being illogical, this justification is contrary to vivid descriptions of the Bible. For example Luke 22:3 has said, “Then entered Satan into Judas, sur- named Iscariot.” The same statement is contained in John 13:27, and 6:70. The Acts 1:18 says: “Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity.”
301[22] John 11:51.
302[23] Matthew 26:65, Mark 14:63, Luke 22:71
303[24] According to later records, the number of the Roman Catholics in the world exceeds 400 million, to be exact it is 550357000 as reported by Britannica 1957 page 424.
304[25]The Eucharist has been the most debated question among Christian theologians. It was institutionalised by St Thomas Aquinas (1227 - 1274). He stated in his book Summa The ologica that every single piece of the bread turns into a perfect Christ. (Britannica-Eucharist vo1.8, p.797.)
305[26] Izalatu-Shakuk page 26 vol.l. quoted by Sale’s translation of the Holy Qur’an. Even today it is common in all churches that large paintings of Jesus and Mary are hung and worshipped by the Christians.
306[27] The Catholics believe that the Pope is Vicar of Peter the Apostle. He enjoys all the powers once possessed by Peter and all the holy attributes ascribed to him in the gospels are owned by him.
For instance, in John 21:16. “Feed my sheep”, and in Matthew 16:18, “I will give unto thee (Peter) keys of the kingdom of heaven”. Misuse of these powers by the popes is the most sinister and obnoxious part of the history of Christian Church.
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1[28] . The priest Khurshid Alam has written in The History of the Roman Church, “The trade in certificates of forgiveness was a common practice in the Church. The people were delivered of their sins by paying money to the Bishop.” (pagc 142. 1961. Lahore)
1[29] Purgatory literally means a cleanser or purifier, used by the Christians for the Hell, as they believe that the fire of Hell purifies the human souls.
1[30] Suffrages is the word used for prayers that are meant to purify the man from his sins.
1[31]. Pope Leo X was elected in 1513 and died in 1521. (Britannica), C.P.S. Clarke has written in his history of the Church, quoting Kidd, that the instant the Bishop heard the sound of the coins dropped in the box by the people for indulgence, the dead person was considered delivered from Hell.
1[32] This refers to Matthew 27:29 which says: ”And when they had plaited a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand.” (Taqi). The thorns deserve to be holier and more sanctified because they had physical contact with the head of Christ which is the most respected part of the human body and is the seat of wisdom and reason. (Raazi)
1[33] Genesis 1:26.
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SECOND OBJECTION
Contradictions Between The Quran And The Bible.
First Discrepancy To Twenty-Fifth Discrepancy.

The Qur’anic opposition to the Bible, as expressed by the Christian theologians, is categorized as follows:
1. The Qur’an abrogates a number of injunctions contained in the Bible.

2. The Qur’an fails to mention some events that are described in the Old and New Testaments.

3. Some events described by the Holy Qur’an are different from the descriptions given in the Bible.

There are no grounds for denying the truth of the Holy Qur’an on the basis of the above three types of Qur’anic opposition to the Bible. Firstly, abrogation is not unique to the Qur’an. We have cited specific examples of the presence of abrogation in the laws prior to the Qur’an. The presence of abrogation in any revelation is not contrary to reason. We have already seen that the law of the Prophet Jesus abrogated all but nine injunctions of the Torah including the Ten Commandments.

Secondly, there are many events described by the New Testament that do not exist in the Old Testament. It would be quite in order to reproduce some examples of such events. The following thirteen events out of a large number of them should sufficiently prove our claim. The Old Testament cannot be disbelieved only on these grounds.

1.We read in the Epistle of Jude in verse 9:
Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

No trace of the dispute of Michael with the devil mentioned above is found in any book of the Old Testament.

2.The same epistle contains in verses 14-15 the following statement:
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgement upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

The above statement made by Enoch is also not found in any of the books of the Old Testament.
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3.We find the following description in Hebrews 12:21:
And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. 312[1]

The event to which the above statement has referred is described in chapter 19 of the Book of Exodus. The above sentence of the Prophet Moses can be found neither in Exodus nor in any other book of the Old Testament.

4.II Timothy 3:8 contains the following statement:
Now as Jannes and Jambers withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth.

The dispute referred to in the above passage is described in chapter 7 of the Book of Exodus. The names Jannes and Jambers can be found neither in any chapter of Exodus nor in any other book of the Old Testament.

5. I Corinthians 15:6 says:
After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

The number of five hundred people having seen Christ 313[2] after his resurrection cannot be found in any of the Gospels, nor even in the book of Acts, in spite of Luke’s fondness of describing such events.

6.The book of Acts 20:35 says:
And to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

The above statement of the prophet Jesus cannot be traced in any of the four gospels.

7.The genealogical description of Matthew in the first chapter contains names after Zorobabel 314[3] that are not found in any book of the Old Testament.

8.We find the following event described in the book of Acts 7:23- 28: And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.
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And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not. And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren: why do ye wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?

This event also appears in the Book of Exodus but we find that there are many additional things mentioned in Acts which do not appear in the following description of the book of Exodus, which goes:
And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? 315[4]

9.The Epistle of Jude verse 6 says:
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day.

10.The same statement also appears in the Second Epistle of Peter 2:4:
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of dark- ness, to be reserved unto judgement.

The above statements attributed to Jude and Peter do not exist in any book of the Old Testament. In fact it seems to be a false statement, because the imprisoned angels referred to in this statement are, it seems, devils while they too are not in everlasting chains of imprisonment. This is evident from chapter 1 of the Book of Job, Mark 1:12, I Peter 5:8 316[5] and many other similar verses.
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11.Psalm 105:18 says, with regard to the imprisonment of the prophet Joseph:
Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron. Genesis also describes this event in chapter 39, but there he is not reported as being chained and laid in irons which was not always necessary for a prisoner.

12.The Book of Hosea 12:4 has:
Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept and made supplication unto him.

Genesis describes the above event of Jacob’s wrestling with the angel in chapter 32, but it does not speak of his weeping and making supplication to him.

13.The four gospels briefly describe Paradise, Hell, the Day of Judgement and the rewards and punishments of the Hereafter, but in contrast to this we do not find any of these things in the five books of the Pentateuch. The obedient are promised worldly rewards and the disobedient threatened with only worldly punishments. 317[6] This proves that the fact that such descriptions or events are described in later books and not mentioned in former books, does not necessarily prove the falsehood of the later books.

Otherwise it would demand that the gospels be declared false since they contain material from the past that does not exist in any book of the Old Testament. It is not therefore necessary for a later book to cover all past events. For examples, the names of all the descendants of Adam, Seth and Jonah and their accounts are not mentioned in the Torah.

The commentary of D’Oyly and Richard Mant contains the following comments on II King 14:25:
The name of the Prophet Jonah is not found mentioned anywhere except in this verse and in the famous message to the people of Nineveh. There is no mention in any book of any prophecy of Jonah with regard to Jeroboam’s invasion of Syria.

This is not because we have lost many books of the prophets, but simply because the prophets did not speak of many events that took place.

Our claim is sufficiently affirmed by the above statement. Similarly the Gospel of John 20:30 says:
And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.

John 21:25 also has:
And there are many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.
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Apart from being a metaphorical exaggeration the above statement testifies to the fact that all the events of Jesus’ life could not be recorded in the books.

Thirdly, their objection that, regarding many events, the Qur’anic description is different from the one in the Bible is not valid because a profusion of such differences is also present within the books of the Old Testament, and similarly some of the Gospels differ concerning many events from the others; and also the New Testament differs from the Old Testament. Though we have produced specific examples of this at the beginning of this book, it is quite in order to cite some more examples of such differences here to eliminate any possible misunderstanding Created by the above objections.

It goes without saying that the three basic versions of the Pentateuch, that is, the Hebrew, the Greek and the Samaritan are also different from each other in the same way. A further prolongation of this exposition by producing more examples of such discrepancies is necessary in view of their relevance to the present subject.

First Discrepancy To Twenty-Fifth Discrepancy.
First Discrepancy
The period from Adam to the Flood of Noah is described differently in all the three versions.
1.The Hebrew version: 1656 years
2.The Greek version: 2262 years
3.The Samaritan version 1307 years

Second Discrepancy
The period from the Flood to the birth of the prophet Abraham is described as follows in the above three versions.
1 The Hebrew version: 292 years
2. The Greek version: 1072 years
3. The Samaritan version 942 years
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Third Discrepancy
Arphaxad and Shelah are described by the Greek version as being separated by only one generation from Canaan who is not mentioned in the Hebrew and Samaritan versions. Similarly I Chronicles318[7] and the history of Josephus do not mention the name of Canaan. It may be noted that Luke has followed the Greek version and has added the name of Canaan in the genealogy of Jesus. This requires that the Christians should believe the truth of the Greek 319[8] version and reject the other two as being false in order to save the Gospel of Luke from containing a falsehood.

Fourth Discrepancy
The appointed place of the temple, as described by the Hebrew version, is mount Ebal, while according to the Samaritan version it is mount Gerezim. We have discussed this in great detail earlier and so no more comments are needed here.

Fifth Discrepancy
The period from Adam to Christ is differently described by the different versions.
1. The Hebrew version: 4004 years
2. The Greek version: 5872 years
3. The Samaritan version 4700 years:

The following statement conceming this is found in the first vol- ume of Henry and Scott’s commentary:
Hales having made corrections to the errors found in the history of Josephus and in the Greek version has concluded as follows: the period from the beginning of the creation to the birth of Christ is 5411 years, while the period from the Flood to the birth of the Christ comes to 3155 years.

Charles Rogers has presented in his book a comparison of various English translations, providing us with no less than fifty-five conflicting statements from the historians with regard to the period from the Creation to the birth of Christ.
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Names                           Years
1. Marianus Scotus: 320[9] 4192
2. Larntios Codemus: 4141
3. Thoms Lithet. 4103
4. Michaelus Mastlinus 4079
5. G.Baptist Rickulus 4062
6. Jacob Salianus 4053
7. Henry Kus pemdens 321[10] 4051
8. William Link 4041
9. Erasmus Reinholt 4021
10. Jacobus Kipalus 4005
11. Archbishop Ussher 4003
12. Dionicius Petavius 3983
13. Bishop Burke (Book) 3974
14. Kirogian 3971
15. Ellius Rusnileus 3970
16. Johnias Cleverius 3968
17. Christanis Logomentenas 3966
18. Philip Malla Nagtuj 3964
19. Jacobin Lins 3963
20. Alphonso Salmeron 3958
21. Johi Liker322[11] 394
385
22. Matthews Burundius 3927
23. Andrians Hull 3836
24. The Jewish view 3760
25. The Christian view 4004

None of the above statements seems to be the same as any other. This great variety of views on the matter is highly confusing. The main reason for the great inconsistency found in historical descriptions is the indifferent and neglectful attitude of the historians towards the systematic preservation of their history. It makes it absolutely impossible for anyone now to arrive at the correct number of years from Adam to Christ.

Charles Roger has admitted that the number of years estimated by the ancient historians are based on nothing but their conjectures and inferences from defective documentation. Moreover we find that the period commonly acknowledgcd by the Jews is different from the common belief of the Christians.

Now resuming our course of discussion, we should state that the deliberate opposition of the Qur’an to any or some descriptions of the Bible, especially in the presence of such a profusion of contradictions and inconsistencies, is certainly no reason to cast doubt on the Qur’anic revelation.

We must repeat our claim that the elders of the Christians included in their books erroneous, and sometimes unbelievable, material that seemed to suit their whims at the time. This is why the periods described by the Bible are not considered to have any historical value.

The great scholar Taqiuddin al-Maqrizi quoted Ibn Hazm in the first volume of his book:
We Muslims do not believe in any definite number of years. Those who have claimed it to be around seven thousand years, have claimed something about which we find no indication made by the Holy Prophet in his traditions. We believe that the definite period of the creation of the universe is known to none but Allah. Allah, our Lord, says in the Holy Qur’an: 323[12]
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I did not make them witness to the creation of the heavens and the earth, nor to their own creation.
The Holy Prophet said that in comparison with the past people we are not more than a single white fibre on the body of a white ox, or a black fibre on the body of a white ox. The above and all other circumstantial evidence point to the fact that the definite period since the Creation is known to none but Allah.

Sixth Discrepancy
In addition to the ten commandments of Moses an eleventh commandment is present in the Samaritan version which does not exist in the Hebrew version.Seventh Discrepancy Genesis 4:8 of the Hebrew version has And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field...

The same statement appears differently in the Greek and Samaritan version in these words: Cain spoke to his brother Abel, let us go to the field; and it came to pass when they were in the field. The theologians have preferred the Greek and the Samaritan versions.

Eighth Discrepancy
Genesis 7:17 of the Hebrew version says, “And the flood was forty days upon the earth.” The Greek version has, “The flood was forty days and nights upon the earth.” The Greek version is obviously correct.

Ninth Discrepancy
Genesis 29:8 of the Hebrew version contains: Until all the flocks be gathered together. The Greek and the Samaritan versions and the Arabic translation of Houbigant and Kennicott contain a different statement: Until all the herdsmen gather together.

Tenth Discrepancy
Genesis 35:22 of the Hebrew version says:
That Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine: and Israel heard it.
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The Greek version has:
He went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine and Israel heard it and he fell low in his estimation. The Greek version seems to be correct.

Eleventh Discrepancy
The Greek version of Genesis 44:5 has this sentence: Why did you steal my measures? This sentence does not exist in the Hebrew. version. The Greek text is correct.

Twelfth Discrepancy
The Hebrew version of Genesis 50:25 says: And ye shall carry up my bones from hence. 324[13]

The Greek and Samaritan versions have:
Ye shall carry up my bones from hence with you. 325[14]

Thirteenth Discrepancy
The Greek version of the Book of Exodus contains the following statement at 2:22:
Second time she bore a son and called his name Eleazer and said, For this reason that the Lord of my father assisted me and protected me from the sword of Pharaoh.

The verse is not found in the Hebrew text. 326[15]The Greek version seems to be correct as the Arabic translators have included it in their translation.

Fourteenth Discrepancy
The Hebrew version of Exodus 6:20 says: And she 327[16] bare him Aaron and Moses.
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The Greek and Samaritan versions have:
And she bare him Aaron and Moses and their sister Miriam. The Greek and Samaritan versions are correct. 328[17]

Fifteenth Discrepancy
The Book of Numbers in the Greek version contains the following verse at 10:6: And on the third sound the western camp, and on the fourth the northern camps shall be raised for a march. 329[18] The above verse is also not found in the Hebrew version, and the Greek version is correct.

Sixteenth Discrepancy
The Book of Numbers in the Samaritan version contains the following passage between verses 10 and 11 of chapter 10:
The Lord our God spake unto Moses, ye have dwelt long enough in this mount, turn you and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites and unto all places nigh thereunto in the plain, in the hills and in the vales, and unto the south; and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites. Behold, I have given the land to you, go and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.

The above passage does not exist in the Hebrew version. Horsley said in his commentary, vol. 1, page 161:
The description that is found in Numbers between verses 10 and 11 of the Samaritan version can be found in Deuteronomy 1:6,7 and 8.330[19] It was discovered in the time of Procobius.
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Seventeenth Discrepancy
We find the following verses in Deuteronomy 10:6-8 of the Hebrew version:
And the children of Israel took their journey from Beeroth of the children of Jaakan to Mosera: there Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar, his son ministered in the priest’s office in his stead. From thence they journeyed unto Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbath, a land of rivers and waters. At that time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, unto this day.

The above passage is different from the description of Numbers 33:30-42, where the route of their journey is described very differently. It is there described as follows: And they departed from Hashmonah, and encamped at Moseroth.

And they departed from Moseroth and pitched in Bene-jaakan. And they removed from Bene-jaakan and encamped at Hor-hagidgad. And they went from Hor-hagidgad and pitched in Jotbathah. And they removed from Jothathah and encamped at Ebronah. And they departed from Ebronah and encamped at Ezion-gaber. And they removed from Ezion-gaber, and pitched in the wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh. And they removed ’from Kadesh and pitched in mount Hor, in the edge of the land of Edom.

And Aaron the priest went up into mount Hor at the commandment of the Lord, and died there, in the fortieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the first day of the fifth month. And Aaron was a hundred and twenty and three years old when he died in mount Hor.

And king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the children of Israel. And they departed from Mount Hor, and pitched in Zalmonah. And they departed from Zalmonah and pitched in Punon.

Adam Clarke quoted a long passage by Kennicott under his comments on the tenth chapter of Deuteronomy in the first volume of his book on pages 779 and 780. The sum and substance of what he says is that the Samaritan text in this respect is correct while the text of the Hebrew version is erroneous. He also concluded that four verses, that is from 6 to 9, are strange and irrelevant at this place.

Their exclusion from the text does not in any way lessen the text. The copier seems to have inserted these verses here by mistake. Further he suggested that this proposition should not be rejected in a hurry. 331[20] He said that these verses originally belonged to the second chapter of Deuteronomy. We may add here that the sentence which is found at the end of versc 8 is enough evidence of the fact that these verses are a later addition. 332[21]
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Eighteenth Discrepancy
Deuteronomy 32:5 in the Hebrew version contains:
They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children; they are a perverse and crooked generation.

This verse appears differently in the Greek and Samaritan versions. It reads:
They have corrupted themselves, it was not proper for them: they are children illegitimate and with spot.

Henry and Scott’s commentary remarks that this version seems to be closer to the original. Horsley says on page 215 of vol. 1 of his commentary:
This verse should be read according to the Greek and Samaritan versions. 333[2
Contrary to the above, the translations of Houbigant and Kennicott and the Arabic translations have distorted this verse. The Arabic translations of 1844 and 1848 contain this verse in these words:
Take measures against them. They are distinct from the children of evil. O perverse and crooked generation! 334[23]

Nineteenth Discrepancy
The Hebrew version of the Book of Genesis 20:2 has:
And Abraham said of Sarah, his wife, She is my sister: And Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

According to the commentary of Henry and Scott, the above verse appears in the Greek version in the following words:
And he said of his wife Sarah, she is my sister; for he was afraid to call her his wife, fearing lest the citizens might kill him for her; for, Abimelech, king of Palestine sent his men and took Sarah.

The sentence, “...he was afraid to call her his wife fearing lest the citizens might kill him for her,” is not present in the Hebrew version.
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Twentieth Discrepancy
Genesis 30:36 in the Samaritan version contains:
The messenger of the Lord cried, Jacob, he replied, Yes, I am here; the messenger said, Raise up thy eyes and behold the goats and sheep going to she-goats and ewes. Again they are white spotted, and moteley. For what Laban has done to you, is witnessed by you. I am the God of Beth-el, in where you erected the stone and poured oil and took a vow. The above passage is not found in the Hebrew version.

Twenty-first Discrepancy
The following description, found after the first sentence of Exodus 11:3 of the Samaritan version, is not found in the Hebrew version:
And Moses told Pharaoh, The Lord said, Israel is my first-born. I said to you release my children that they may worship me, you refused to set them free. Know that I will kill your first-born son.

Twenty-second Discrepancy
The Book of Numbers, 24:7 in the Hebrew version has: 335[24]
He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted.

The Greek version contains this description in these words:
And a man will be born of him who will govern many tribes, his kingdom shall be greater than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. 336[25]

Twenty-third Discrepancy
Leviticus 9:21 in the Hebrew version contains: As Moses commanded. The Greek and Samaritan versions have the following words instead: As the Lord commanded Moses.
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Twenty-fourth Discrepancy
The Book of Numbers 26:10 in the Hebrew’ version has:
And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died, what time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men: and they became a sign.

The Samaritan version contains:
And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died, what time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men, and they became a sign. 337[26]

The commentary of Henry and Scott have said 1hat the above verse is closely related to the context and is in accordance with Psalm No. 106:17.

Twenty-fifth Discrepancy
The celebrated Christian theologian Leclerc divided all the differences found between the Hebrew and the Samaritan versions into six categories:
(1) The passages of the Samaritan version that are more correct than the Hebrew version. There are eleven such passages.

(2) The passages in the Hebrew version that seem to be more correct by their context. Such differences are seven.

(3) The passages of the Samaritan version that contain later additions which are thirteen.

(4) The passages of the Samaritan version that have been distorted which are seventeen.

(5) The passages of the Samaritan version which look more reasonable than the Hebrew version are ten.

(6) The passages that are defective in the Samaritan version are two.
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The references to all the above passages are as follows according to the numbers given above
(1) GENESIS: 4:2, 7:3, 19:19, 20:2, 23:16, 34:14, 49:10,11, 50:26. (9) EXODUS: 1:2, 4:2 (2)

(2) GENESIS: 31:49, 35:17,35, 41:34,37,41, 47:3 (6) DEUTERONOMY: 32:5 (1)

(3) GENESIS: 29:15, 30:36, 14:16 (3) EXODUS: 7:18, 8:23, 9:5, 21:20, 22:5, 23:10, 32:9 (7) LEVITICUS: 1:10, 17:4 (2) DEUTERONOMY: 5:21 (1)

(4) GENESIS: 2:2, 4:10, 9:5, 10:19, 11:21, 18:3, 19:12, 20:16 24:55, 35:7, 36:6, 41:50 (13) EXODUS: 1:5, 13:6, 15:5 (3) NUMBERS: 22:36 (1)

(5) GENESIS: 8:5, 31:11, 9:19, 34:37, 4:39, 25:43 (6) EXODUS: 40:12, 17:14 (2) NUMBERS: 14:4 (1) DEUTERONOMY: 16:20 (1) (6) GENESIS: 14:25, 16:20 (2)

The renowned scholar Home says in vol. 2 of his commentary printed in 1822:
The renowned theologian Leclerc, with the greatest pain and labour, has sorted out the differences of the Hebrew and Samaritan versions, and has concluded that the Samaritan version is comparatively more correct. Such differences between the Hebrew and the Samaritan versions are not limited to the sixty pointed out by Leclerc.
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There are many more such dissimilarities found in the two versions. Leclerc has confined himself to the differences that were of serious nature. If we add twenty-four of the twenty-five discrepancies cited above to the sixty discovered by Leclerc, the total number of discrepancies comes to eighty-four. This is not counting all the differences and discrepancies that exist between the Hebrew and the Latin versions of the Pentateuch; and also those found between many other books of the Old Testament.

The above sufficiently proves our point that the objection raised by the Christians against the truth of the Qur’anic revelation based on Qur’anic disagreement with some of the descriptions of the Old and the New Testaments is not valid and does not serve the intended purpose. This refers to the oral communication of Moses with God on Mount Sinai described in Exodus.
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338[2] This refers to the event of Christ’s resurrection after the ’crucifixion’. There is no mention of five hundred people having seen him, only eleven people are reported by the gospels to have seen him. R.A. Knox has admitted that Paul has erroneously counted separately every time he was seen by James and Peter.
36. See Matthew 1:13-16.
339[4] . Exodus 2:11-14.
340[5] “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” 5:8. The freedom of the devil is obviously known from this statement. There are many more similar statements showing the freedom of the devils.
341[6]For example Exodus 23:22 says, “But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies and an adversary unto thine adversaries.” Similarly Leviticus 26:15-16 has said.”if ...ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: ....I will even appoint over you terror, consumption and the burning ague.” Also see for obedience: Exodus 19:5, Leviticus 26:3, Deut. 4:8. etc.
342[7] ”And Arphaxad begat Shelah.” I Chronicles 1:18.
343[8] All quotations from Greek and Samaritan versions have been reproduced from the old English translation. (Raazi)
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344[9]All the spellings of the proper names have been reproduced from the English translation of the Gujrati version of Izharul Haqq. (Raazi)
345[10] . The spelling of all the above names as given in the English translation of the Gujrati version mostly seem to be different from what can be understood through the transliteration of the Urdu version. For instance this name, as given by transliteration should be something like “Henry
Kospondanus” (Raazi)
346[11] It may be notified that in the absence of the original book it is always almost impossible to obtain the correct spelling of proper names. The names may be very different in spelling from the one given in both, the text and the margin. (Raazi)
347[12] Qur’an 18:51. Even up to 1988 modern scientific resources have been completely unable to provide a definite estimate in this regard. (Raazi)
348[13]This was said by the prophet Joseph to his brethren just before his death. (Raazi)
349[14]I do not see any discrepancy in the above two statements except that the latter statement has additional phrase ’with you’. (Raazi
350[15]Verse 22 of the Hebrew version ends with the following statement: ”And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have a stranger in a strange land. (Taqi)
351[16]That is, Amran’s wife Jochebed
352[17] I Chronicles 6:3 agrees with the latter versions. It says: “And the children of Amran; Aaron, and Moses, and Miriam.”
353[18]We have reproduced the above verse from the English translation of the Gujrati version. (Raazi)
354[19] The description in Deuteronomy 1:6 starts with the words: ”The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb.” These words evidently indicate that the injunction contained in subsequent verses had been revealed much earlier in Horeb. It should, therefore have been present in the book of Numbers. This implies that the Samaritan version is correct.
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355[20] There is a footnote under verse 10:7 of Deuteronomy in the Catholic Bible (Knox version 1963 London) page 157 which reads, “Verses 6-7 seem to be not taken from some record of the wanderings which is perhaps put in here to illustrate 9:20 above.”
1[21]This verse contains the words “unto this day” which also indicate that it verse is a later addition.
356[22]The present translations of the Hebrew version, however, have been made in accordance with the Greek and the Samaritan texts.
357[23] I have reproduced the above English passage from the English translation of the Gujrati version of Izharul Haqq. (Raazi)
358[24] I have quoted this passage from the English translation of Izharul Haqq since
359[25] the Samaritan version is not available to me. I am not certain of the faithful reproduction of this passage. (Raazi) 1.
The Catholic Bible (Knox version) gives yet a different version of this verse. It says, “Like a bucket brimming over the well, see how their posterity spreads from one river frontier to the next!
The King that rules over them shall rival Agag himself, and take away his kingdom from him.” Numbers 24:7 (Raazi).
360[26]The King James version has this passage in accordance with the Samaritan version. Our author might have quoted it from the Hebrew version having a different text. Now both the passages are identical. (Raazi).
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THIRD OBJECTION
Guidance and Misguidance from Allah.
The Blessings of Paradise.
The Christian Concept of Paradise.

The third objection often raised by Christians against the truth of the Holy Qur’an is centred around three concepts contained in the Holy Qur’an. The first is the Qur’anic claim that Allah is not only the Creator of guidance but that misguidance is also created by Him. The second is the fact that the Holy Qur’an contains descriptions of Paradise which include the presence of houris, rivers and buildings. The third is that the Holy Qur’an contains the commandment to wage war (jihad) against the disbelievers.

Their main contention with regard to these things is that the word of God should be free from such unseemly concepts. This objection is considered by them to be the most convincing argument against the divine nature of the Qur’an.

There is hardly any book written by the Christians on the subject that does not contain their strange elaborations on this aspect of the Holy Qur’an. We should, therefore, examine the validity of the above objection with regard to each of the above three aspects separately.

Guidance and Misguidance from Allah
One of the many answers to this aspect of the objection is that the holy books of the Christians also say the same thing in many places. According to this view the presence of such passages in them should be an argument against their being the word of God. We reproduce below some specific examples of such passages from their books

(1) Exodus 4:21 says:
And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thy hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.

(2) Exodus 7:3 also contains:
And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

(3) The same book contains the following in 10:1:
And the Lord said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the hearts of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him.
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(4) Exodus 10:20 says:
But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the Children of Israel go.

(5) Also verse 27 of the same chapter has:
But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go.

(6) Exodus 11:10 has:
And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh: and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land.

(7) Deuteronomy 29:4 says:
Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.

(8) Isaiah 6:10 contains
Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their hearts... and convert, and be healed.

(9) Epistle to the Romans 11:8 says:
God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear; unto this day.

(10) The Gospel of John, chapter 12, 361[1]says:
Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted.

The above quotes from the Pentateuch, the book of Isaiah and the New Testament are explicit in implying that God blinded the eyes, stamped the ears and hardened the hearts of the Israelites so that they might not be converted to the truth and should not be healed from their disease of perversion. They are therefore unable to see the truth, to hear it or to understand it.
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The following Qur’anic description is in no way different from what we have read above: God hath set a seal (stamped) on their hearts and on their hearing, and on their eyes is a veil; And for them is great pun- ishment. 362[2]

(11) The Arabic translations of Isaiah printed 1671, 1831 and 1844 contain the following at 63:17:
O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance. 363[3] The Book of Ezekiel contains the following statement at 14:9: And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. The book of Ezekiel ascribes the act of deceiving and the Book of Isaiah attributes the act of misguiding to God.

(13) I Kings 22:19-23 contains the following passage:
“And he364[4] said, Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him.

And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee.

It is not difficult to see that the above description gives us to believe that God sits on His throne meeting with the host of heaven to seek their counsel for deceiving and misguiding people, then a lying spirit is deputed to misguide them.

(14) The Second Epistle to Thessalonians 2:11-12 says:
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. The above statement of Paul is unambiguous in implying that God deludes people to prevent them from believing in truth.
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 (15) The Gospel of Matthew 365[5] reports Jesus as saying the following after his crying woe to the unrepentant cities: I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.

(16) The book of Isaiah 45:7 says:
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.

(17) The Lamentations of Jeremiah 3:38 contains:
Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good? The above question implies nothing if not that God is the creator of both good and evil.

(18) The book of Micah 1:12 contains:
But evil came down from the Lord unto the gate of Jerusalem. The above is plain affirmation to the fact that just as God is the creator of good, so He is the creator of evil.

(19) The Epistle to the Romans 8:29 has:
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

(20) Also we read in 9:11-21 of the same Epistle:
(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election might stand, not of works but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
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So then it is not of him that willeth, not of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, 0 man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour?

The above statement of Paul is a clear affirmation of the belief in destiny and also an explicit indication that guidance and misguidance are both from God.

The following statement of the Prophet Isaiah, 45:9:
Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou or thy work, He hath no hands? 366[6]

It was on the basis of such verses that Luther, the founder of the Protestant faith, was conspicuously inclined towards belief in the predestination of human fate. There are many statements of Luther that bring out his views on this concept. We produce two such statements from the Catholic Herald vol. 9 page 277: Man and horse have been created alike. They obey their rider. If God rides man he obeys His commands and if Satan rides him he goes the way he is commanded by Satan. He does not possess free will to choose between the two riders, both the riders are always striving to get hold of him.

The following statement has also appeared in the Catholic Herald:
Whenever you find a commandment in the holy books to do a certain act, be sure that this book is not asking you to do it, because you are not capable of doing it of your own will.
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The famous Catholic priest Thomas Inglis said in his book Mira’atus Sidk printed 1851 on page 33:
Their early ecclesiastics taught them the following absurd dogmas:
(1) God is the Creator of sin.
(2) Man has no power or free will to abstain from sins.
(3) It is not possible to observe the Ten Commandments.
(4) Sins, no matter how great and grave, do not demean a man in the eyes of God.
(5) Only belief in God is enough for eternal salvation, because it is only on the basis of belief that man will be awarded or punished. This doctrine is very comforting and useful.

Luther, the father of the Reformation said:
Only believe and you will be redeemed. There is no necessity to bear the hardships of good acts like fasting, abstinence from sins, and humility of confession, be sure that without them and only for your true faith in Christ, you shall certainly get salvation equal to the salvation of Christ. No matter if you get involved in fornication and murder a thousand times a day, you are destined to reach salvation only for your true belief. I repeat only your belief will get you redeemed.

The above is enough to show that the first contention of the Protestants that the divinity of the Holy Qur’an was dubious because it attributed the creation of evil to God is totally irrational and against reason. The creation of evil does not in any way require the evilness of the Creator, just as the creation of white and black does not mean that the Creator has to be black or white. The creation of Satan by God is a part of His divine wisdom; the same wisdom is present in the creation of evil.

Similarly God has created evil desires, jealousy and other negative forces in human nature, although it was in His eternal knowledge that negative forces would produce negative results. Everything created, good or bad, therefore, owes its existence to God.

The Blessings of Paradise
As for their second point of contention regarding the presence of palaces, damsels and other material delights in Paradise, this too is not a valid objection.

In any case the Muslims do not claim that the blessings and delights of Paradise are only physical, as is very often misstated by the Protestant theologians, but the Muslims believe - and this belief is strongly supported by Qur’anic verses and other authentic arguments - that the blessings and pleasures of Paradise are both, physical and spiritual, the latter being stronger and more prominent than the former.
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The Holy Qur’an says: 367[7]
Allah has promised to the believers, men and women, gardens under which rivers flow, in which they shall dwell forever; and beautiful mansions in the Gardens of Eden, but the greatest bliss is the pleasure of Allah. That is the supreme felicity.

The “pleasure of Allah” in the above verse has been described as being the greatest of all the blessings of Paradise, qualitatively as well as quantitively.

That is to say, this spiritual blessing of having the pleasure of Allah exceeds all the physical delights such as mansions, gardens and damsels… etc.

The same is alsa indicated by the last phrase, “That is the supreme felicity.” Man has been created of two elements: spirit and matter. The supreme felicity of man or his ultimate success lies in the achievement of both physical and spiritual delights. He cannot be said to have achieved his ultimate salvation if he is denied either of the two felicities.

The Christian Concept of Paradise
It has already been elucidated earlier 368[8] that to the Muslims the Evangel strictly means the book that was originally revealed to the Prophet Jesus. Now if any of the statements of Jesus is found to be in contradiction with any Qur’anic injunction, effort should be made to explain away the discrepancy. According to the Christian scriptures, the comparison of the dwellers of Paradise with the angels does not negate their eating and drinking there.

Have they not read in Genesis chapter 18 that the angels who visited Abraham were presented with “dressed calf, butter and milk, which they did eat”? 369[9] Similarly the angels who appeared to Lot ate the bread and other food that Lot prepared for them, which is clearly written in chapter 19 of the book of Genesis.

It is surprising that the Christians believe in the physical resurrection of human beings on the Day of Judgment and yet insist on denying physical delights for them in Paradise! It would have been less objectionable if they totally denied the resurrection of man as did the associators of Arabia, or believed only in spiritual resurrection as was believed by the followers of Aristotle.

Physical attributes, like eating and drinking, are ascribed to God by the Christians because they believe that Jesus was God incarnate.
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On the other hand we are made to understand that Jesus was not as abstinent and ascetic as was John the Baptist. Christ’s opponents even accuse him of being, “gluttonous and winebibber”, 370[10] though we Muslims totally deny this accusation and firmly believe that he was totally free from such defects.

We unhesitatingly claim that the Prophet Jesus was purely human. Now, when physical pleasures like eating and drinking could not pre- vent him experiencing spiritual delights and as he enjoyed the spiritual blessings more than the physical ones in this life, so the physical pleasures in Paradise will not deprive people of their spiritual delights.

In fact, the Protestant claim that there will be no physical pleasure in Paradise is clearly denied by innumerable statements appearing in the Bible. We produce a few examples of such statements below: And the Lord God commanded the man (Adam) saying, Of every tree of the Garden thou mayest freely eat.” 371[11]

This clearly indicates that there are many trees in Paradise bearing fruit to eat. In this context they contend that Adam’s Paradise was on the earth while the Paradise of the Hereafter is in the heavens and that the former was different from the latter. Firstly, their claim of Adam’s Paradise being on earth is not supported by any statement of their sacred books; secondly, if we assume it to be true, they have no argument to support that this Paradise was different from the one in heavens. On the contrary the Gospels make us believe that there will be physical pleasures in the Paradise of the Hereafter.

The Prophet Jesus is reported to have said itto his apostles:
But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom. 372[12]

Also see Mark 14:25, Luke 22:18. Similarly we read the following under the description of the Hereafter in Luke 13:29:
And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.

It is on the basis of such statements that the ancient Christians believed in both physical and spiritual pleasures in Paradise.
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Saint Augustine also said that he liked the opinion that Paradise consisted of physical as well as spiritual pleasures. Saint Thomas Aquinas has also refuted those who deny physical pleasures in Paradise. The third contention with regard to Jihad (Religious War) will be discussed later in this book. This is regarded by the Christians as their strongest point against the Holy Prophet and we intend to discuss it in depth.
373[1]John 12:39-40.
374[2] Qur’an 2:7
375[3]The King James Version is identical to the Arabic, I have quoted the above verse from it. (Raazi).
376[4] That is, Micaiah
377[5] Matt: 11:25-26.
378[6] Our author has so far produced 21 specific examples to prove that God is the creator of evil also, and that guidance and misguidance are both from God. The Bible is replete with such statements. For more of such statements see Jeremiah 30:6, Romans 28:1, II Timothy 8:3, Titus 1:16, II Corinthians 5:13.
379[7] Qur’an 9:72.
380[8] Before proceeding further into this discussion it should be remembered that the Christians totally deny physical blessings and pleasures in Paradise. They believe only in spiritual delights in Paradise for which they seek justifying arguments from some verses of the Bible.
1[9] The Qur’an also describes the event of the angels appearing to the Prophet Ibrahim with the difference that it clearly states that the angels did not even touch the dressed calf prepared by the Prophet Ibrahim (See chapter 51 of the Holy Qur’an). Our author is answering the Christians according to their own belief.
381[10] Matthew 11:19
382[11] Genesis 2:16.
383[12] Matt. 26:29
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Fourth Objection
Another objection which is often forwarded by Christians against the divine origin of the Holy Qur’an is that the Holy Qur’an, according to them, does not speak of the motives and requirements of the human spirit.

There are only two things that can be said to be the motives and requirements of the human spirit. Firm belief and good deeds. The Holy Qur’an is full of descriptions with regard to the above spiritual desires and requirements. Elaborate descriptions are found in almost all the chapters of the Holy Qur’an.

The absence of other things that are assumed by the Protestants to be the motives and requirements of the spirit does not prove any defect in the Holy Qur’an. The Bible and Qur’an are not considered to be defective for not preventing people from eating meat, something which is considered by the Hindu Pandits to be against the motives and requirerrients of the human spirit, because, in their opinion, slaughtering animals only for eating and physical pleasure is not liked by the spirit. According to Hindu theologians such an act cannot have divine sanction. They contend that any book containing such ideas cannot be the word of God.

Fifth Objection
The fifth objection raised by the Christians against the Holy Qur’an is that certain passages of the Holy Qur’an disagree with certain others. For example the following verses of the Holy Qur’an are said to contradict those verses that proclaim the doctrine of jihad.

(1) “There is no compulsion in religion.” 384[1]
(2) “Your duty is only to warn them; you are not their keeper.” 385[2]
(3) “Say, Obey Allah and obey His messenger. If you turn away, he is still
bound to bear his burden, and you are bound to bear your own burden. If you
obey him you shall be on the right Path. The duty of the messenger is nothing but to convey the message clearly.” 386[3]
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They claim that the above verses are contradictory to the verses that enjoin the duty of jihad (war) against the disbelievers.

Similarly, it is claimed by the Christians that the Holy Qur’an speaks in some places of Jesus as being purely human and the Messenger of God while other verses speak of his being superior to human beings.

For example at one place the Holy Qur’an says:
Al Masih Isa (Jesus), the son of Mariam, was no more than Allah’s messenger and His word which He cast of Mariam: a spirit from Him. 387[4]

The following verse is cited, as contradicting the above verse:
And Mary the daughter of Imran, who guarded her chastity and we breathed into (her body) of our spirit. 388[5]

The above two objections are forwarded by the Christians with great force. As far as the first objection is concemed, the verses quoted above denying compulsion etc. are verses that were revealed prior to the verses of jihad. They were abrogated by the later verses that enjoined jihad. Abrogation, as we have discussed earlier in detail, is not in any way a discrepancy or contradiction.

Otherwise it would require that all the abrogated injunctions of the Pentateuch and the Gospels be considered as real contradictions. It may be added here that the verse 2:256 is not included in the abrogated verses. 389[6]

The answer to the second objection has already been discussed in this book where we proved that the above verses do not and cannot imply that Jesus, the son of Mary, does not belong to mankind or that he was superior to human beings. This kind of deduction from these verses is nothing but sheer ignorance.

We are surprised to note how they ignore the plain contradictions present in their own books of which we have cited so many specific examples earlier in this book. 390[7]
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391[1] Qur’an 2:256.
392[2] Qur’an 88:21.
393[3] Qur’an 24:54.
394[4]Qur’an 4:171
395[5]. Qur’an 66:12
396[6] 3. This verse has nothing to do with the verses of jihad and it is not in any way against those verses as will be shown later in its proper context.
1[7]Their objections with regard to these verses are so imbecile and ungrounded that it does not require any serious consideration. Students of the Qur’an will have no difficulty in realising the poverty of reason behind them. (Raazi)

 
Chapter Three
The Authenticity of the Holy Traditions (Hadith)
The Status of Oral Tradition in the Bible
The Gospels and Oral Tradition
What Protestant Scholars say
A Historical View of the Hadeeth Collections.

We intend to discuss in this section the authenticity of the Holy traditions that are included in Sihah (the six collections of the Traditions that are proved to be Sahih or authenticated).
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The Status of Oral Tradition in the Bible
Oral tradition was held in high esteem by the People of the Book, both Jews and Christians, of all times. It was held by them to be as authentic and reliable as the written law. The Jews give even more reverence to oral tradition than they do to their written law. The Catholics hold both of them as equal in status while the Protestants disbelieve and deny oral tradition like the Sadducees, a Jewish sect.

The Protestants deny it because they have to deny it, otherwise it would be quite difficult for them to prove their innovations in Christianity. In spite of this, the Protestants too find themselves in grave need of oral tradition on certain occasions, which is evident from the examples found in their sacred books, and which will shortly be made clear.

The Talmud and the Mishnah
Adam Clarke said in the introduction to the Book of Ezra in his commentary printed in 1751 that the Hebrew canon was of two kinds: the written canon which was called Torah and the other which was unwritten and called the oral tradition. This oral tradition was transmitted orally by the ancients to later generations.

They claim that both of these canons were revealed by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. The Pentateuch reached them by means of writing while the other was handed down to them orally through the generations. The Jews believe that both of them are equal in status, preferring, in fact, oral tradition to the written law of Moses, the Torah. They think that written law is often more complicated than the oral tradition, and it cannot be made the basis of faith without the oral traditions.

These traditions, in their opinion, are simpler and clearer and elucidate the written canon. This is why Jews disregard any commentary that is found to be in disagreement with the oral tradition. It is commonly believed by the Jews that the covenant, that the Children of Israel were made to enter into, was for the oral law and not for the Torah. 397[1]

Through this claim they have disregarded the written law and the oral tradition was given the status of being the source of their faith. Similarly the Roman Catholics also chose the same path and defined and explained the word of God through oral traditions, with no consideration of its being against many verses of the word of God. In the time of Jesus, they had gone so far that.
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He rebuked them for distorting the word of God, saying:
Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. 398[2] They also transgressed God’s covenant and made the oral tradition superior to the written law. It is stated in their books that the sayings of their elders are dearer to them than the words of the Pentateuch. Some words of the Torah are good hut some others are absurd and useless while all the sayings of their elders are desirable and praiseworthy, far better even than the sayings of the Prophets.

The Jewish writings also say that the written law is like water, while the traditions contained by the Talmud and Mishnah are like aromatic herbs. Also their writings state that the written law is like salt while the Talmud and Mishnah are like pepper. There are many other similar expressions preferring the oral tradition to the written canon. The word of God is defined and understood by them through oral traditions. The written law is regarded by them as a dead body and the oral tradition to them is like the soul in the body.

This oral tradition is supported by them with the argument, that at the time the Torah was revealed by God to Moses, God also elucidated the text of the Torah to Moses, and commanded him to write down the Torah and to remember the explanation without putting it into writing. He was also commanded to convey this elucidation orally to the people, so that it could be transmitted orally from generation to generation. They use the term “written canon” for the Torah and “oral canon” for the tradition. The judgments and religious decrees which are in accordance with the oral tradition are termed as ”the canon of Moses”.

They also claim that just as the Torah was revealed to Moses in forty days, being a direct dialogue between God and Moses, the oral tradition was also revealed to him in the same way. He brought both of them from Mount Sinai and conveyed them to the Israelites. It is stated that on his return from Mount Sinai, Moses first called Aaron to his tent and taught him the written canon then he taught him the oral tradition that was the elucidation of the Torah given to him by God.

After acquiring the knowledge, Aaron came and sat at the right-hand side of Moses. Then came the two sons of Aaron, Eleazar and Ithamar. They were also taught the canons in the same way and after learning them they got up and one of them sat at the left hand of Moses and the other at the right hand of Aaron.

Then came seventy elders. They also learnt the canons and then they took their seats in the tent. They were followed by some other people who were intent upon leaming the canons. The Moses stood up and Aaron recited what had been imparted to him and then got up, then Eleazer and Ithamar also recited the canops and so did the others who had learnt them. In this way everyone who was present heard it four times and remembered it well.

On their return people communicated the written iaw through writing and its elucidation was conveyed orally to the Israelites. In this way the canons were handed down to other generations. The number of the written commandments in the Torah was six hundred and thirteen which were later divided into parts.
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They also claim that Moses gathered them into a great assembly in the eleventh month of the fortieth year after their exodus from Egypt, in which he also informed them of his death, and commanded them to learn any part of the Law they had forgotten. He also invited people to satisfy their doubts, if any, with regard to any commandment or statements of the Law.

Thereafter he remained busy teaching the Torah until his death (that is, from the first day of the eleventh month up to the sixth day of the twelfth month). He taught both of them, the written and the unwritten canon. He also prepared thirteen copies of the written law in his own hand and gave one copy to each tribe so that it might remain safe through the generations. One copy of this law was also given to the children of Levi for preservation in the temple. The verbal traditions were conveyed to Joshua. Then on the seventh day of this month he climbed up Mount Nebo where he died.

After his death Joshua communicated the verbal traditions to the elders of the Israelites, they, in turn passed them to the Prophets. Every Prophet conveyed it to his people, until Jeremiah handed it down to Baruch who passed it to Ezra, and Ezra communicated it to the scholars of whom Simon the just was last.

Simon handed it down to Antigonus who gave it to Jose, the son of Johanan. He passed it to Jose, the son of Joezer. He conveyed it to Nathan the Aurelite and Joshua, the son of Berechiah. These two passed it to Joshua’s son Judah and Simon son of Shetah. They passed it to Shemaiah and Abtalion, these two to Hillel, and he to his son Simon.

This Simon is supposed to be the one who took Jesus in his arms when Mary had brought him to the temple after her confinement. This Simon then passed it to his son Gamaliel. He is the one from whom Paul leamt it. Then he passed it to Simon, who in turn passed it to Rabbi Judah haNasi. This Judah then collected them into a book which he called the Mishnah.

Adam Clarke has observed that the Jews hold this book in great reverence and believe that its contents are divine and a revelation from God, revealed to Moses along with the Torah. It is also established that the teaching of this book has been a common practice among the Jews right from the time it came into existence.

Scholars and great theologians have written commentaries on this book, two of which occupy pride of place with them. The first exegetical work was written in Jerusalem in the third century AD, while the second commentary was written in Babylon around the beginning of the sixth century AD. Both of them are named “Gemara” i.e. the Perfection.

They believe that the two commentaries have fully elucidated the text of the Mishnah. These two commentaries and the text of the Mishnah together are called the Talmud. To distinguish between the two commentaries, one is called the Palestinian or Jerusalem Talmud and the other the Babylonian Talmud.
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The complete teachings and instructions of modern Judaism are contained by these two books, which are separate and distinct from the books of the Prophets. Since the Jerusalem Talmud is comparatively more complicated, the Babylonian Talmud is more commonly read and followed.

Horne said in chapter 7 of the second volume of his commentary printed in 1822 that the Mishnah is a book comprising the Jewish traditions and commentary on the texts of the sacred books. They believe that these traditions were also given by God to Moses along with the Torah. Moses passed them down to Aaron.

From Aaron they were communicated to Joshua and Eleazer and other elders and then they were handed down from generation to generation until they found their way to Simon. This Simon was the same who took Jesus in his arms. He gave it to Gamaliel who passed them to Juda haNasi. With great pain and labour he took about forty years to collect them in the form of a book in the second century. Since that time it has been in vogue among the Jews. This book is very often more venerated than the written Law itself.

He further added that there are two commqntaries on the Mishnah both of which are known as Gemara, one of them being the Jerusalem Gemara, supposed by some scholars to have been written in Jerusalem in the third century, and according to Father Insoue in the fifth century, while the other is known as the Babylonian Gemara written in Babylon in the sixth century. This Gemara is full of fabulous legends and stories, but it is more respected by the Jews than the other.

 It is more emphatically taught and followed by them. They turn to it with great certitude to seek guidance when they find themselves in trouble. The name ’Gemara’ signifies Perfection. They think that this book is the perfection of the Torah, and that it is not possible for any other commentary to be better than this, and it satisfies all possible demands of the faith. When the Jerusalem Gemara is added to the text together they are called the Jerusalem Talmud. 399[3]

The above sufficiently proves the following four points:
1) Verbal tradition is venerated among the Jews as much as the Pentateuch; rather they sometimes prefer the oral tradition to the Torah. They believe that the oral tradition is like the spirit while the written law is like the body. This being the status of the Pentateuch, one can guess the status of other books among them.

(2) Secondly, we understand from the above that the oral tradition was first collected and written by Judah ha-Nasi in the second century, implying that for 1700 years it was conveyed through human memory. During this period the Jews had to undergo the great calamities of their history.

That is to say, the invasions of Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus and Titus all belong to this period. It is already known historically that the sacred books were destroyed and the continuity of the traditions was badly affected as we discussed earlier in this book. Despite all that, they are still held in more veneration than the Pentateuch.
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 (3) Thirdly these oral traditions have been reported from generation to generation by single reporters. For example Gamaliel I and II and Simon I, II and III. They were not even Prophets according to the Jews, and were the worst kind of infidels and deniers of Christ as claimed by the Christians. These traditions, though transmitted through single reporters, are supposed to be the basis of their faith, while according to the Islamic science of traditions, any tradition transmitted through a single reporter termed as Khabar al-Wahid is not allowed to be used as a source of any article of faith.

(4) Fourthly, we understand that the Babylonian Gemara was written in the sixth century, and according to Home “this collection of absurd legends and stories” remained purely in the form of oral tradition for two thousand years, being transmitted through the generations purely by memory.

Eusebius, whose historical work is considered authentic equally by the Catholics and the Protestants, said in chapter 9 of the second volume of his book printed in 1848 under the description of Jacob:
In writing about Jacob, Clement cited an anecdote in book seven that is worth remembering. Clement reported this from the oral tradition that was transmitted to him from his forefathers.

He also cited a statement of Irenaeus on page 123 of the third chapter of his third book:
The council of Ephesus, erected by Paul and in which the apostle John stayed until the rule of Trajan, is a strong wit- ness to the traditions of the apostles.
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He cited the following statement of Clement on the same page:
Attend to the tradition of the disciple John which is beyond doubt and true and has been preserved orally throughout He again said on page 124 of chapter 24 of the third book: The number of Christ’s disciples, like his apostles, is twelve, then there are seventy Prophets, and many others who were not ignorant of the events referred to (that is, the events recorded by the evangelists), but out of them only John and Matthew have included them. It is known through oral traditions that their inclusion of these events was out of necessity.

On page 132 of chapter 28 of his third book he again says:
Irenaeus has included a story in his third book which is worth recording. He received this story from Polycarp through oral tradition.

Again he says on page 147, chapter 5 of the fourth book:
I have not read about the bishops of Jerusalem in any book but it is established through oral tradition that they stayed there for some time.

He also says on page 138 of chapter 36 of the third book:
We came to know through oral tradition that Ignatius, being a Christian, was carried to Greece to be offered to carnivorous animals. He was conveyed under army protcction. The people of all the churches that were on his way sought strength through his sermons and admonishments. He preached to them against the heresy that was common in that time and told them to hold firmly to the oral tradition. He wrote down the oral tradition for preservation and stamped it with his name.

Again he says on page 142, chapter 39 of his third book:
Papias said in the introduction to his work, “I write for your benefit all the things that I received from the elders which I preserved after thorough inquiry into their authenticity, so that my testimony may be an additional proof of their truth. Usually I do not like to accept the tradition from those who frequently relate absurd stories. I have received the tradition only from those who know nothing except what has been reported truthfully from our Lord. Whenever I met any of the disciples of the elders, I necessarily asked them what had been said by Andrew, Peter, Philip, Thomas, Jacob, Matthew or any other disciple of our Lord because I was benefited more by oral tradition than by the sacred books.

Further he said in chapter 8 of his fourth book on page 151:
Hegesippus is a renowned name among Church historians. I have cited many passages from his books that he reported from the disciples through oral tradition. This author collected, in five books, laws of the disciples transmitted to him through oral tradition.
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In chapter 14, page 158 of the same book he reported a statement of Irenaeus about Polycarp:
Polycarp has always preached the doctrines that he received orally from the disciples or from the Church.

Again on page 201, chapter 6 of book 5 he said, listing the bishops of Rome:
This chain of bishops extends up to Bishop Antherus, who is nineteenth in this sequence. We received it through reliable and true sources from the disciples, transmitted to us through oral tradition.

He again cites the statement of Clement on page 206, chapter 8 of the fifth book:
I have not written these books to project myself or to show off my knowledge, rather, it is in consideration of my old age and to correct my shortcomings.

I have collected them as elaboration of the texts. They may be considered as commentary on the inspired books. Among those who raised me to this high position and greatness and placed me among the truthful and the blessed was Janicus of Greece and another was in Magna Graecia. Some others were from the East, while one was from Syria, one was a Hebrew from Palestine, and the master that I reached last was in Egypt living an ascetic life. He was superior to all the other teachers.

I did not feel like seeing other masters after him, as no teacher better than him existed on earth. These elders had preserved the traditions orally communicated from Paul, James, and John through the generations.

He also reports the following statement of Irenaeus on page 219, chapter 20, of the fifth book:
By the grace of God I have listened to those traditions attentively and imprinted them on my memory instead of writing them on paper. For a long period it has been my practice to recite them faithfully for the sake of preserving them.

Again on page 222, chapter 24 of the fifth book he said:
Bishop Polycrates wrote an oral tradition in his epistle to the church of Rome and to Victor. This tradition was transmitted to him orally.
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He also said on page 226, chapter 25 of the fifth book:
The Bishops of Palestine like Narcotius, Theophilius and Cassius, and bishops Ptolemy and Clarus and other bishops that accompanied them presented many things with regard to the tradition related to the Passover, transmitted to them orally from the disciples through generations. All of them wrote at the end of the book that the copies of this book be sent to all churches, so that the book might help the churches save the renegades.

He again said on page 246, chapter 13 of the sixth book under the account of Clement of Alexandria, who was the follower of the disciples of Christ:
Africanus wrote a booklet which still exists in which he tried to explain away the inconsistencies found in the genealogical descriptions given by Matthew and Luke through the oral traditions received by him from his forefathers.

The above seventeen statements sufficiently prove that the ancient Christians had great trust in oral tradition. John Milner, who was a Catholic, said in the tenth letter of his book printed in Derby:
I have already said that the basis of the Catholic faith is not only the written word of God. The word of God is general, written or not written. That is to say, the sacred books and the oral tradition as interpreted by Catholic Church.

Further in the same letter he says:
Irenaeus observed in part three and chapter five of his book that simplest way for the seekers of the truth is to search for the oral traditions of the apostles and preach them in the world.

Again in the same letter he says:
Irenaeus said in part one chapter three of his book that in spite of the difference of people’s languages, the essence and reality of the traditions is always the same at all places. The teachings and doctrines of the Church of Germany are not different from the teachings of the Churches of France, Spain, the East, Egypt and Libya.

Further he said in the same letter:
Irenaeus observed in chapter two of part three of his book, “Prolixity does not allow me to give a detailed account of all the Churches. Catholicism, however, will be considered as the standard faith which is the oldest of all and the most popular, and was founded by Peter and Paul. All the other Churches also follow it, because all the oral traditions reported by the disciples through generations are preserved in Catholic Church.
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The same letter also contains the following:
Even if we take it as granted for a moment that the disciples left no writing after them, we are bound to follow the doctrines transmitted to us through oral traditions of the disciples who handed them down to the people to be conveyed to the Church. There are the traditions that are followed by the illiterate people who believed in Christ without the help of ink and letters.

Again he said in the same letter:
Tertullian said on pages 36 and 37 of his book written by him against the heretics: it is usual for heretics to derive their arguments only from the sacred books, and claim that nothing else other than the sacred books can provide the basis for faith. They deceive people through this approach. We, therefore, insist that they should not be allowed to seek their arguments from the sacred books.

Because through this kind of approach we cannot expect any good other than racking our brains. It is therefore wrong to rely on the sacred books, as no definite conclusion can be achieved through them, anything derived from them will be defective. Besides, the correct approach demands that first it should be decided to whom these books should be attributed? We must know about the books that decide our being Christians as to who transmitted them to whom and when? Because the truth of the evangels and the doctrines of Christianity are found only in the form of oral traditions.

Again in the same letter he said:
Origen said that it was not proper to rely on the people who cite from the sacred books and say that the word of God is before you to read and probe into, or that we should believe in something else other than communicated to us by the Church through consistent oral tradition.

Further in the same letter he said:
Basilides said that there are many Christian doctrines preserved by the Church and often presented in sermons. Some of them have been borrowed from the sacred books, while others are based on oral tradition. Both of them are equal in value. There can be no objection against this from anyone having a little knowledge of Christian faith.

Further he said in the same letter:
Epiphanius said in his book written against the heretics that it was necessary to rely on the oral tradition as the sacred books do not contain everything.
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He also said in the same letter:
Under his comments on II Thessalonians 2:14, John Chrysostom said, “This proves that the disciples did not convey to us everything through writing, but they had transmitted to us many things orally. Both are of equal value. It is therefore our opinion that the tradition of the Church is only the basis of faith. When we find anything proved by oral tradition, we need not seek anything else to prove it.

Further he says in the same letter:
Augustine, favouring a man baptised by heretics, said that although no written authority could be presented in its favour, it should be noted that this custom was started through oral tradition. Because there are many things that are acknowledged by the Church as being suggested by the disciples, though they are not in writing.

He also said in the same letter:
The bishop Vincentius observed that heretics should explain the sacred books according to the general tradition of the Church.

The above statements sufficiently prove that the oral traditions are considered to be the basis of faith by the Catholics as well as by the ancients.

We find the following statement on page 63 of volume 3 of the Catholic Herald:
Rabbi Dosi cited many observations to prove that the text of the sacred books cannot be comprehended without the help of oral tradition.

The elders of the Catholics have followed it in all times. Tertullian said that it was necessary to follow the Churches founded by the disciples for understanding the teachings of Christ. They transmit. ted them to the Churches through oral tradition.

The above statements are enough to establish that the traditions are more respected by the Jews than the Torah. Similarly it is confirmed that all the ancient Christians like Clement, Irenaeus, Hegesippus, Polycarp, Polycrates, Arksius, Theophilus, Cassius, Clarus, Alexandrius, Africanus, Tertullian, Origen, Basilides, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, Augustine and bishop Vincentius attached great respect to the oral traditions. Ignatius insisted before his death on holding fast to the oral traditions.

Similarly Clement wrote in his history of the elders:
They memorised the true traditions that were transmitted through generations from Peter, James, John and Paul.
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Epiphanius observed that he benefitted more from the oral traditions than the sacred books. We have already cited the opinions of Irenaeus, Origen and Tertullian etc. to establish that the oral traditions and the sacred books are held by them to be equal in value. Basilides declared that the doctrines derived by oral tradition have a value equal to that derived by the sacred books. He said that the oral tradition was the basis of Christian faith.

Augustine also confirms that there are many doctrines that are acknowledged by the Church as being ordained by the disciples while they are not found in any texts. It is therefore not justified to reject all the traditions. The Gospels themselves uphold oral tradition.