The following was authored by the late Christian theologian and apologist Dr. Labib Mikhail. I post it here for the benefit of the readers.
The First Test Is The Test Of True Source Of Inspiration
The Bible is the absolute standard in this area. When God called Moses to be the founder of Judaism he spoke to him directly:
And to Moses Allah spoke direct
(Surat Al-Nisa 4:164).
There are many instances mentioned in the Torah where it is said, “The Lord spoke to Moses.” Thirty-five times we read in the book of Leviticus “And the Lord spoke to Moses.” The line of communication never stopped between God and Moses, since he was called to be a prophet, and in every move Moses followed God’s directions.
God confirmed His call to Moses with miracles. When Moses erected the tabernacle of meeting, and Aaron offered the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering, we read how God demonstrated His glory to authenticate Moses’ prophethood:
And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting, and came out and blessed the people. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people, and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces (Leviticus 9:23, 24 NKJ).
Now we come to Muhammad. His call came by the spirit who met him at the cave of Mount Hira, squeezed him so tightly that he thought he would die, and left him in great distress of mind. Then the spirit left him with no revelations for a period of time.
Muhammad suffered greatly every time he received a revelation from that spirit.
Al-Imam (cleric) Al-Bukhary quoted Aisha, Muhammad’s wife, when she said:
Harith Ibn Hesham asked the messenger of Allah: “Messenger of Allah, how do you receive the revelation?’ “Sometimes it comes to me like a ringing bell, and this is the hardest. When he leaves me I remember what he said” Muhammad answered. Then he continued, “Sometimes the angel appears to me as a man, he speaks to me and I remember what he said.” Aisha said, “I saw him when revelation comes down to him, sweat covers his forehead in the very cold day.”
Imam Ahmad cited Abdallah Ibn Omar, who asked Muhammad, “Do you feel the revelation?” “I hear ringing, then I stay silent. Every time the spirit came with revelation I thought I would die,” Muhammad answered.
Ibn Saad quoted Aisha when she said:
When revelation comes down to Muhammad, he submerged his head in water, his face turns pale, he feels that he is very cold and he sweats with large drops of sweating (Al-Helal Magazine, December 1970, page 73).
Allah did not speak to Muhammad directly, only the spirit of unknown origin did.
Moreover, when Muhammad entered Makkah victoriously, and cast out all of the idols from the Kaaba, God did not reveal His glory there as he revealed it in the Tabernacle of Meeting. No sign of God’s presence was felt in the Kaaba.
Ibn Hesham recorded that the prophet stood there to display the Muslims’ armies with all their banners. Abu-Sufian the Amowite and Al-Abaas, the prophet’s uncle, stood to watch the parade.
“The Kingdom of your nephew Muhammad became so great today” Abu-Sufian said to Al-Abaas. “It is the prophethood, not the Kingship, Abu-Sufian,” Al-Abaas “As to prophethood, I still have my reservations concerning it,” Abu-Sufian answered (Islamic Caliphate, page 103).
There were great doubts in the hearts of many in Arabia concerning Muhammad’s prophethood. Some of the contents of the Quran declare that it was not inspired by God. Read the following verse:
Also mention in the book Idris: He was a man of truth [and sincerity], and a prophet. And we raised him to lofty station (Surat Maryam 19:56, 57).
Ahmad Bahgat recorded on page 164 of his book, The Prophets of Allah:
Legends say that Idris is Osiris the hero of the ancient Egyptian legend.
Idris is the Arabic pronunciation of Osiris. The Reader’s Digest Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary defines “Osiris” on page 1203:
The ancient Egyptian god of the underworld. In Egyptian mythology the god who was ruler and judge in the underworld and the brother and consort of Isis. He is identified with the Nile, and his annual death and resurrection symbolized the self-renewing vitality and fertility of nature.
The Quran declares that Idris, or Osiris, who was the ancient Egyptian god of the underworld, is:
… a man of truth [and sincerity], and a prophet. And We [Allah] raised him to lofty station (Surat Maryam 19:56, 57).
Amazing!!
Is Osiris the god of the underworld, or a prophet? With such an error, could the Quran be the inspired word of the true God?
Another person was mentioned in the Quran and commentators have no idea who he was. His name is Zul-Kifl and he is mentioned in Surat Al-Anbiyaa 21:85, 86:
And remember Ismail, Idris, and Zul-Kifl, all [men] of constancy and patience.
Who is Zul-Kifl? Nobody knows! That is contrary to what is written in the Bible:
For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope (Romans 15:4 NKJ).
But the Quran recorded things with no benefit for its readers.
The Story of Joseph in the Quran is Distorted
We have to remember that Christianity is the extension of Judaism and is founded on the Old Testament. The stories of the Old Testament are referred to but are not repeated in the New Testament because together they are one book “The Bible.” The New Testament is a continuation of the Old Testament.
The Quran, however, is not the extension of the Bible and is not consistent with the Bible. Therefore, Islam cannot not be accepted as God’s final religion for mankind. The Quran repeats the biblical stories of Abraham, Moses, Joseph, Jesus and others and it does so with significant distortion. We see this clearly from the conflicting story of Joseph in the Bible and the Quran.
In the Bible we read how Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph to lie with her, and how Joseph refused to commit such a gross sin. The biblical story describes a young man who felt the presence of God with him who, by the grace of God, refused to lie with his master’s wife. The two conflicting stories are recorded on these pages for the reader to discern which one is true inspiration.
The Bible story:
Now it came to pass after these things that his master’s wife cast longing eyes on Joseph and she said, “Lie with me.” But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand. There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
So it was, as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he did not heed her, to lie with her or to be with her. But it happened about this time, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was inside, that she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside, and so it was, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and fled outside, that she called to the men of her house and spoke to them, saying, “See, he has brought in to us a Hebrew to mock us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. And it happened, when he heard that I lifted my voice and cried out, that he left his garment with me, and fled and went outside.”
So she kept his garment with her until his master came home. Then she spoke to him with words like these, saying, “The Hebrew servant whom you brought to us came in to me to mock me; so it happened, as I lifted my voice and cried out, that he left his garment with me and fled outside.”
So it was, when his master heard the words which his wife spoke to him, saying, “Your servant did to me after this manner,” that his anger was aroused.
Then Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were confined. And he was there in the prison
(Genesis 39:7-20 NKJ).
Now, the distorted story in the Quran:
Ladies, said in the city: “The wife of the [great] Aziz is seeking to seduce her slave. Truly hath he inspired her with violent love: we see she is evidently going astray.
When she heard of their malicious talk, she sent for them and prepared a banquet for them: she gave each of them a knife: and she said [to Joseph], “Come out before them.” When they saw him, they did extol him, and [in their amazement] cut their hands: they said, “Allah preserve us! no mortal is this! This is none other than a noble angel!”
She said: “There before you is the man about whom ye did blame me! I did seek to seduce him from His [true] self but he did firmly save himself guiltless!… And now, if he doth not my bidding, he shall certainly be cast into prison, and [what is more] be of the company of the vilest!” (Surat Yusuf 12:30-32).
Another distortion concerns life in the eternal state. Jesus said:
For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven (Matthew 22:30)
The Quran declares:
As to the Righteous, they will be in gardens, and in happiness. They will recline [with ease] upon couches arranged in ranks, and We shall wed them to maidens with beautiful big and lustrous eyes (Surat Al-Tur 52:17, 20).
Other examples of the distorted biblical stories written in the Quran are the story of Noah (Surat Al-Ankabut 29:14, Surat Al-Tahrim 66:10); and the story of Abraham where the Quran says that he was ordered to sacrifice Ishmael, not Isaac (Surat Al-Saffat 37:100-107).
These distorted stories and teachings are far from being God’s inspired word.
Any discerning reader has the right to question the source of the Quran’s revelations.
2. THE CHALLENGE OFFERED BY THE Quran
The Second Test if the Challenge Given by the Quran in Mankind and Jinn to Produce the Like of the Quran
This test is set by the Quran itself in the following verse:
Say: “If the whole of mankind and Jinn were to gather together to produce the like of his Quran they could not produce the like thereof, even if they backed up each other with help and support” (Surat Al-Isra 17:88).
This challenge was met. In the age of Jhailia before Muhammad there were men who produced the like of the Quran.
Before he became a prophet, Muhammad heard Qus Ibn Saedah Al-Ayadi, who died in the year 600 A.D., speaking in the Okas Market and admired him very much. Abu-Bakr who memorized what Qus Ibn Saedh said, used to repeat his speeches to Muhammad. His Arabic speech was similar to the Quran and many of his words were mentioned in the Quran.
The poet Omaia Ibn Abi Al-salat, who died in the year 624 A.D., mentioned in his poetry Gabriel and Michael, whom Muhammad mentioned in his Quran. The poet Al-Haseen Iban Hamam, who died in the year 611 A.D., mentioned in his poetry the scales by which the deeds of men will be weighted in the day of judgment. The same wording was mentioned in the Quran in Surat Al-Araf 28.9.
The poets Antara Al-Abasi (who died in 610 A.D.), Waraka Ibn Nafal (who died in 592 A.D.) and Lubaid (who died in 671 A.D.) all wrote poetry similar to the Quran. The poet Roba Ibn Al-Ajaj wrote something every similar to Surat Al-Fil (Islamic Caliphate, pages 60-71).
Now ho about the jinn? Were they able to produce the like of the Quran? The answer is: certainly.
The Quran includes Surat Al-Jinn. It is surat number 72. In the surat, a company of Jinn listened to the Quran:
They said: “We have really heard a wonderful recital! It gives guidance to the right and we have believed therein: we shall not join [in worship] any [gods] with our Lord (Surat Al-Jinn 72:1, 2).
The rest of Surat Al-Jinn recorded the words of the jinn as if they were the words of Allah. The style of the jinn is very similar to the style of the Quran. The Quran declares that the jinn are evil creatures associated with satan:
Iblis [satan] he was one of the jinn, and he broke the command of his lord (Surat Al-Kahf 18:50).
The jinn were able to produce the like of the Quran and in fact, they produced one whole chapter of the Quran and this is why it is called “Surat Al-Jinn.” In that surat the jinn told Muhammad, “Amongst us are some who are Muslims (literal translation) (Surat Al-Jinn 72:14).
Ahmad Bahgat in his book Prophets of Allah, page 386, quoted Abdallah Ibn Massoud who said:
The Messenger of Allah said to his followers, “Everyone of you is escorted by a jinni and an angel.” “Even you, messenger of Allah?” they asked. “Even me, Muhammad answered, but Allah helped me and he was converted to Islam, since that time he does not order me to do good.
Here we have to ask, since Muhammad was escorted by a jinni, what kind of suggestions did the jinni give to Muhammad before the jinni became a Muslim?
The challenge of the Quran was met by poets and jinn to assure us that the Quran is not the word of God.
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