Chapter Seven
Historical
Errors of the Qur'an
Historical errors are so many in the
Qur'an that we cannot cover them all, but we will be content to
point out some very obvious examples:
The
Crucifixion of Christ
The Qur'an explicitly denies that Jesus
was crucified. It claims that the Jews became so confused that
they crucified somebody else instead who had the likeness of
Christ. It is recorded in the Qur'an 4:15,
"They slew him not nor crucified but
it appeared so unto them."
In his commentary on this verse al-Baydawi
said (p. 135),
"A group of Jews cursed Christ and his
mother. He invoked evil on them and, may He be exalted,
turned them into monkeys and swine. The Jews gathered
together to kill him, but God, may He be exalted, informed
him (Jesus) that He was going to lift him up to heaven.
Thus, (Jesus) said to his companions, `Who would like to
have my likeness cast on him and be killed and crucified,
then enter the paradise?' One of them volunteered (to do so)
and God cast on him Christ's likeness. He was then arrested,
crucified and killed. It is also said that (the crucified
one) was a traitor who went with the mob to guide them to
Christ (he meant Judas), thus God cast on him the likeness
of Jesus and he was arrested, crucified and killed."
Al- Baydawi is not the only one who
records these mystical stories, but all Muslim scholars who
attempt to interpret the above verse, plainly state that Jesus
was not crucified. The Qur'an has ignored not only the records
of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and the rest of the New
Testament, but also all the other chroniclers. It ignores the
history of the Roman Empire which documented that a Jewish man
by the name of Jesus was crucified during the time of Pilate the
Pontius, the Roman Governor who gave way to the demands of the
chief priests of the Jews.
It is well known that Christ's trial took
place in front of the chief priests and the Roman Governor. It
is also common knowledge that the arrested man did not
remonstrate and say, "I am not Christ, I am Judas who wanted to
betray Him and give Him away to you." All Jesus' words on the
cross denote that He was Christ, especially His statement,
"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Luke
23:34).
Jesus Himself told His disciples that He
must be delivered to the chief priests and be crucified, then He
would rise from the dead on the third day. Christ Himself
foretold that and the crucifixion was fulfilled according to the
many prophecies recorded in the Old Testament which predicted
His crucifixion centuries before. Christ came to accomplish
God's plan for man's salvation.
Therefore, it is not reasonable that six
hundred years after Christ's crucifixion, a man should appear
and declare to the world (ignoring all the historical evidence)
that the one who was crucified was not Christ. This is similar
to a man who comes hundreds of years from now to tell us that
the one who was assassinated in the twentieth century was not
Martin Luther King (or John F. Kennedy or Zia al-Haqq) but
rather someone else who looked like him. Of course, nobody would
believe him, even if he claimed that the angel Gabriel (or the
thunder angel) revealed it to him.
The Virgin
Mary
In many places, the Qur'an mentions Mary
as the sister of Moses and Aaron and the daughter of Imran. The
Qur'an has confused Jesus' mother with Aaron's sister because
both of them carry the same name, though there are several
centuries between them. The Qur'an indicates that Mary (Christ's
mother) had a brother whose name was Aaron (chapter 19:28) and a
father whose name is Imran (chapter 66:12). Their mother was
called "the wife of Imran" (chapter 3:35) which eliminates any
doubt that it confuses Mary, mother of Jesus, with Mary, sister
of Aaron.
Muslim scholars acknowledge what happened
and they are confused and fail in their desperate attempts to
justify this grave error. Their contradictory interpretations
fail to help them to find a solution to this dilemma. Let us
examine these interpretations to see these conflicting views.
In the context of his comment on the
Qur'anic statement that Mary is Aaron's sister (which is
recorded in chapter 19:28), al-Baydawi (p. 405) said,
"Oh, sister of Aaron (the prophet).
And she was an offspring of some of those who were with him
who belonged to the same class of brotherhood. It was also
said that she was one of Aaron's descendants though there
were a thousand years between them. It was said too, that he
(Aaron) was a righteous or a wicked man who lived during
their time (time of Mary). They likened her to him to
ridicule her or to insult her."
Yet Baydawi's statement is repealed by the
Qur'an because the Qur'an did not refer to a moral relationship
but stressed the literal meaning. If the Qur'an had meant to
elevate Mary to the same level of Aaron, the prophet, or to the
status of a daughter of Imran, why then did it mention that her
mother was the wife of Imran as it is recorded in chapter 3:35?
It is very obvious that the matter was either confused in the
mind of Muhammad or of Gabriel, the angel! It is not acceptable
that the Qur'an intended to say that Mary enjoys the same status
as a sister of Aaron and a daughter of Imran. Therefore it is
impossible to treat Mary (the mother of Jesus) as if she were
the sister of Aaron and Moses.
The contemporary scholar who translated
the Qur'an which was authorized by the Saudi authorities said
(in the introduction of page 47 of chapter of the Family of
Imran),
"Al Imran takes its title from v. 32,
where `the family of Imran' (the father of Moses) occurs as
a generic name for all the Hebrew prophets from Moses to
John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. This with the mention of
the mother of Mary as `the wife of Imran' (v. 34) and the
words `sister of Aaron' addressed to Mary (XIX.28) have
given rise to a charge of anachronism. Some say that the
prophet confused Mary, the mother of Jesus, with Mary, the
sister of Moses. Most Muslims believe (on the authority
of the Qur'an) that the grandfather of Jesus Christ was
named `Imran' which may also have been the name of the
father of Moses. In Surah XIX 28 where Mary is addressed as
`sister of Aaron', they hold the ancestral sense to be the
more probable, while denying that there is any reason to
suppose that the virgin Mary had not a brother named Aaron."
Thus, they fail to explain to us why the
Qur'an said that the mother of Mary was the wife of Imran,
especially if the Qur'an intended (as they say) to show the
moral relationship only. It is an obvious historical mistake, my
dear reader, because Mary had no brother named Aaron.
Alexander the
Great
It is amazing to see the Qur'an talking
about Alexander the Great as if he were a righteous man and a
teacher, though it is well-known that the Greek, Alexander, was
idolatrous and claimed to be the son of Amun, the God of Egypt.
If the reader wonders where it is recorded in the Qur'an that
Alexander was a righteous man, we would refer him to the chapter
of the Cave 18:83-98 where we encounter sixteen verses which
talk about this military general. These verses explicitly say
that God assisted him, guided him and removed all obstacles from
his way in order that he could accomplish his plans and fulfill
his desires. They indicate that Alexander was the one who
reached the place of the sunset and found it set down in a well
of water and mud. They claim that he encountered some people and
God gave him the option to torment them, to kill them or to take
them captive, call them to the faith and to lead them in a
straight path.
These comments are expressed by all the
scholars without any exception (refer to Baydawi, p. 399,
al-Jalalan, p. 251, al-Tabari, p. 339, al-Zamakhshari, part 2 of
al-Kash-shaf, p. 743). If we do not refer to these great
expounders of the Qur'an to whom, then, shall we refer? The
Greek Alexander was not a righteous servant of God as the Qur'an
said, but he was a licentious, belligerent, idolatrous man. He
did not have any relationship with God and God never asked him
to guide people and to teach them the faith.
Other
Historical Errors
Does the reader believe that Abraham did
not offer Isaac, but Ishmael, as a sacrifice? This is
what all Muslim scholars say. Do you know that the Qur'an claims
that Haman was pharaoh's prime minister even though Haman
lived in Babylon one thousand years later? Yet the Qur'an says
so. The Qur'an says that the one who picked Moses from the river
was not his sister but his mother (28:6-8), and that a
Samaritan was the one who molded the golden calf for the
children of Israel and misguided them, and the golden calf
was lowing (refer to chapter 20:85-88) though it is
well-known that Samaria was not in existence at that time. The
Samaritans came after the Babylonian exile. How could one of
them have made the golden calf for the people of Israel?
Concerning the birth of Christ, the Qur'an
teaches that the Virgin Mary gave birth to him under the shade
of a palm tree and not in a manger of sheep (refer to
Mary 19:23). The Qur'an ignores all the documented historical
evidence available to all people across the ages and brings
us new discoveries!
The Qur'an claims (Chapter 2:125-127) that
Abraham and Ishmael, his son, are the ones who built The Ka'ba
in Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The late Dr. Taha Husayn (the most
famous professor of Arabic literature in Egypt) acknowledges
that the information recorded in the Qur'an pertaining to the
construction of Ka'ba at the hand of Abraham and Ishmael is not
historically documented. He said:
"The case of this episode is very
obvious because it is of recent date and came into vogue
just before the rise of Islam. Islam exploited it for
religious reasons" (quoted in Mizan al-Islam by Anwar
al-Jundi, p. 170).
This declaration invoked the rage of the Muslim scholars
against him. The former president of Tunisia did the same thing
when he stated that the Qur'an contains mythical stories. Muslim
scholars revolted against him and threatened to kill him because
these are Muhammad's orders - kill anybody who insults the
Qur'an. So what could Taha Husayn or Abu Ruqayba [better known
in the West as Bourgiba] (or we) do if the Qur'an rejects the
most scientifically documented historical stories? Are we
supposed to shut up our mouth and close our minds lest we be
killed?
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