The Muhammadan Fraud That Was Ahmed Deedat: Which Bible?

The late Ahmed Deedat is viewed by Muslims as one of the greatest debaters against Christianity and a supposed Muslim scholar of the Bible. One of his main objections against the authority and authenticity of the Holy Bible had to with varying canons found among Protestant and Roman Catholic editions of God’s inspired Scriptures. Here is what he wrote:

THE CATHOLIC BIBLE

Holding the “Douay” Roman Catholic Version of the Bible aloft in my hand, I ask, “Do YOU accept THIS Bible as the Word of God?” For reasons best known to themselves, the Catholic Truth Society have published their Version of the Bible in a very short, stumpy form. This Version is a very odd proportion of the numerous Versions in the market today. The Christian questioner is taken aback. “What Bible is that?” he asks. “Why, I thought you said that there was only ONE Bible!” I remind him. “Y-e-s,” he murmurs hesitantly, “but what Version is that?” “Why, would that make any difference?” I enquire. Of course it does, and the professional preacher knows that it does. He is only bluffing with his “ONE Bible” claim.

The Roman Catholic Bible was published at Rheims in1 582, from Jerome’s Latin Vulgate and reproduced at Douay in1 609. As such the RCV(Roman Catholic Version) is the oldest Version that one can still buy today.

Despite its antiquity, the whole of the Protestant world, including the “cults”* condemn the RCV because it contains seven extra”books” which they contemptuously refer to as the “apocrypha” i.e. of DOUBTFUL AUTHORITY. Not with standing the dire warning contained in the Apocalypse, which is the last book in the RCV (renamed as “Revelation” by the Protestants), it is “revealed”:

“… If any man shall add to these things (or delete) God shall add unto him the plagues written in this Book.” (Revelation 22:18-19)

But who cares! They do not really believe! The Protestants have bravely expunged seven whole books from their Book of God! The outcasts are:

The Book of Judith

The Book of Tobias

The Book of Baruch

The Buck [sic] of Esther, etc.

*This disparaging title is given by the orthodox to Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Seventh DayAdventists and a thousand other sects and denominations with whom they do not see eye to eye. (Deedat, Is The Bible God’s Word?, p. 6 https://islamhouse.com/en/books/273072/)

Arguments such as these illustrate why Deedat was a charlatan who wasn’t an educated student of comparative religion, let alone a scholar.

Muslims are to take seriously the repeated assertion of the Quran that it was “sent down” to confirm the very Scriptures that the Jews had in their possession at the time of Muhammad. They must also pay heed to the oft-repeated claim of their scripture that Allah preferred the Jews, or more specifically the children of Israel, above all beings:

O Children of Israel! Remember My favour wherewith I favoured you, and fulfil your (part of the) covenant, I shall fulfil My (part of the) covenant, and fear Me. And believe in that which I reveal, confirming that which ye POSSESS ALREADY (of the Scripture), and be not first to disbelieve therein, and part not with My revelations for a trifling price, and keep your duty unto Me. Confound not truth with falsehood, nor knowingly conceal the truth. Establish worship, pay the poor-due, and bow your heads with those who bow (in worship). Enjoin ye righteousness upon mankind while ye yourselves forget (to practise it)? And ye are readers of the Scripture! Have ye then no sense?… O Children of Israel! Remember My favour wherewith I favoured you and how I preferred you to (all) creatures. S. 2:40-44, 47 Pickthall

And when there came to them (the Jews), a Book (this Qur’an) from Allah confirming what IS WITH THEM [the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)], although aforetime they had invoked Allah (for coming of Muhammad Peace be upon him) in order to gain victory over those who disbelieved, then when there came to them that which they had recognised, they disbelieved in it. So let the Curse of Allah be on the disbelievers. S. 2:89 Hilali-Khan

And when it is said to them (the Jews), “Believe in what Allah has sent down,” they say, “We believe in what was sent down to us.” And they disbelieve in that which came after it, while it is the truth confirming what IS WITH THEM. Say (O Muhammad to them): “Why then have you killed the Prophets of Allah aforetime, if you indeed have been believers?” S. 2:91 Hilali-Khan

Those unto whom We have given the Scripture, who read it with the right reading, those believe in it. And whoso disbelieveth in it, those are they who are the losers. O Children of Israel! Remember My favour wherewith I favoured you and how I preferred you to (all) creatures. S. 2:121-122 Pickthall

Of the Jews there are those who displace words from their (right) places, and say: “We hear and we disobey”; and “Hear what is not Heard”; and “Ra’ina”; with a twist of their tongues and a slander to Faith. If only they had said: “What hear and we obey”; and “Do hear”; and “Do look at us”; it would have been better for them, and more proper; but God hath cursed them for their Unbelief; and but few of them will believe. O ye People of the Book! believe in what We have (now) revealed, confirming what was (already) WITH YOU, before We change the face and fame of some (of you) beyond all recognition, and turn them hindwards, or curse them as We cursed the Sabbath-breakers, for the decision of God Must be carried out. S. 4:46-47 Yusuf Ali

The Quran further attests that Allah entrusted the Book, which includes the revelation of Moses, and the prophethood to the Israelites:

We gave Moses the Book, and made it a Guide to the Children of Israel, (commanding): “Take not other than Me as Disposer of (your) affairs.” S. 17:2 Y. Ali

And we gave Moses the Book for Israel’s guidance. S. 23:49 Rodwell

And Lot believed him, and said: Lo! I am a fugitive unto my Lord. Lo! He, only He, is the Mighty, the Wise. And We bestowed on him Isaac and Jacob, and We established the prophethood and the Scripture among his seed, and We gave him his reward in the world, and lo! in the Hereafter he verily is among the righteous. S. 29:26-27 Pickthall

We did indeed aforetime give the Book to Moses: be not then in doubt of its reaching (thee): and We made it a guide to the Children of Israel. And We appointed, from among them, leaders, giving guidance under Our command, so long as they persevered with patience and continued to have faith in Our Signs. S. 32:23-24 Y. Ali

We did aforetime give Moses the (Book of) Guidance, and We gave the book in inheritance to the Children of Israel, – A Guide and a Message to men of Understanding. S. 40:53-54 Y. Ali

and We delivered the Children of Israel from the humbling chastisement, from Pharaoh; surely he was a high One, of the prodigals; and We chose them, out of a knowledge, above all beings, and gave them signs wherein there was a manifest trial. S. 44:30-33 Arberry

Indeed, We gave the Children of Israel the Book, the Judgment, and the Prophethood, and We provided them with good things, and We preferred them above all beings. S. 45:16 Arberry

And We sent Noah and Abraham, and established in their line Prophethood and Revelation: and some of them were on right guidance. But many of them became rebellious transgressors. Then, in their wake, We followed them up with (others of) Our apostles: We sent after them Jesus the son of Mary, and bestowed on him the Gospel; and We ordained in the hearts of those who followed him Compassion and Mercy. But the Monasticism which they invented for themselves, We did not prescribe for them: (We commanded) only the seeking for the Good Pleasure of God; but that they did not foster as they should have done. Yet We bestowed, on those among them who believed, their (due) reward, but many of them are rebellious transgressors. S. 57:26-27 Y. Ali

On top of this, the Islamic scripture exhorts Muslims to ask the Israelites concerning their revelations and sacred history:

Ask of the Children of Israel how many a clear revelation We gave them! He who altereth the grace of Allah after it hath come unto him (for him), lo! Allah is severe in punishment. S. 2:211 Pickthall

And verily We gave unto Moses nine tokens, clear proofs (of Allah’s Sovereignty). Do but ask the Children of Israel how he came unto them, then Pharaoh said unto him: Lo! I deem thee one bewitched, O Moses. S. 17:101 Pickthall

The foregoing shows that Muslims are to consult the Jews when it comes to the canon of the Hebrew Scriptures. And since the books that Deedat referred to are all part of the Jewish apocryphal writings, not Christian, this means that, instead of asking Catholics or Protestants about the canonicity of these writings, the Muslims need to enquire of the Jews. Once they do so, they will discover that the Jews at the time of Muhammad and till this very day never accepted these apocryphal books of the Roman Catholic Old Testament, commonly referred to as the deutero-canonical writings, as a part of the Scripture which God entrusted to their care.

In other words, Muslims must agree with the Protestant rejection of these extra books and acknowledge only the 39 OT books of the Protestant Bible since these are the only inspired writings that the Jews acknowledge as the very revelations of God.

So much for Deedat’s arguments.

Time, now, to turn the tables (https://answeringislamblog.wordpress.com/2020/02/12/the-muhammadan-fraud-that-was-ahmed-deedat-which-quran/). 

Further Reading

Are The Jewish Apocrypha Inspired Scripture? Pt. 1 (https://answeringislam.net/authors/shamoun/apocrypha1.html)

The Quran’s Confirmation of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures (https://answeringislamblog.wordpress.com/2019/03/09/the-qurans-confirmation-of-the-judeo-christian-scriptures-2/)

Does the Quran confirm the Bible and the Canonical Gospels? (https://answeringislamblog.wordpress.com/2018/07/22/does-the-quran-confirm-the-bible-and-the-canonical-gospels/)

Part 1: The Quran and the Bible (http://answeringislam.net/Campbell/s2c1.html)

Part 2: The Hadith and the Sunna (http://answeringislam.net/Campbell/s2c2.html)

What the Quran says about the Bible (http://answeringislam.net/Quran/Bible/index.html)

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