The Bible and Islam

Debunking the Christian Evangelicals (Re: David Wood)

Muhammad (SAWS) only spoke what he was instructed by God.

He didn’t speak of his own accord, but what Allah told him, verbatim if it were Quran.

For example, when he says, “O sister of Aaron”, the Jews addressing the mother of Jesus, AS, Maryam (Mary), note something important;

Firstly, the Quran calls the mother of Jesus, AS, Maryam, not Maria.

The Christian says that Muhammad thought Maryam was Maria. Obviously the Qur’an insists that Allah is relating the story of Jesus’ birth, etc. Maryam, (Mary, not Maria is the mother of Jesus). Why would Muhammad say Maryam, instead of Maria – just because Allah told him to? Muslims also learned by the story that Maryam was the mother of Jesus, so it was not a mistake when he says Maryam. It is not the story of Aaron or Moses’ sister. Also, the story of Moses, AS, also appears in the Qur’an, as many other stories of former Prophets, AS. Maria is not mentioned in the Quran, also many more women’s names mentioned in the bible, are not mentioned in the Qur’an, Mary Magdelin (sp) Elizabeth, etc.

Muhammad mixed up the names and the stories?

In fact, we know that Muhammad had married a Christian Copt, or she had a son by Muhammad, SAWS, and her name was Maria (Al Copt).He knew the difference between Maryam and Maria. He knows the names of Christians as well as Jews. And the name Maryam, of course was a Jewish (Hebrew) name. Muhammad knew this name and as well, knew the story of Maryam the way he was taught by God.

Next, we can see that “sister of Aaron” is actually a common expression, just as many other expressions. Therefore, Sister of Aaron doesn’t mean that the mother of Jesus had a brother Aaron, but that she is from the family of Aaron, or a descendant of Aaron. Ahmed Deedat explained this to Muslims and Christians in some of his exegesis over 25 years ago.

The Christians cannot try to fool the Muslims, but they do unfortunately fool many ignorant Christians who don’t understand the language (diction or expressions) of their own Bible.

“Sister of Aaron”, as “Son of God”, “Children of God”, etc. are all idiomatic.

For example, the famous “son of God” to denote Jesus, also is in the plural form in the Bible, “Sons of God”, therefore there are many sons of God, not only Jesus, AS. One only has to read the Bible for evidence. It is not a metaphor, either. To say some of these expressions are just metaphors is saying that they are only similar to “son of God” or “sister of Aaron” and not actual “son of God” or “sister of Aaron”. Even when the Bible calls Jesus “son of God”, it does not mean ‘like a son’, but it is idiomatic, therefore much less confusing that an actual ‘comparison’. Idiomatic expressions are not like metaphors; idioms are often phrases which are commonly used by people of a certain time or place. Jesus therefore, becomes a “son of God” in the sense that he was a “man of God”; he worshipped God and was a holy person and called others to the worship of God. He never said “I am God” or “worship me”.

Of course, Christians do not know their own Bible, or other religious scriptures, for the most part. Therefore we shouldn’t be at all surprised that the evangelical Christian says that he knows nothing about the practice of referring to people by their ancestors. And they certainly do not know the Qur’an.

He pretends that Jews or Christians didn’t used to do that, whereas we know that if Allah said it in the Qur’an then it must have been done, likewise, the Christians and Jews changed their own books, and we would not be surprised if some things are lost. Also, not everyone is able to research these points well, so it’s possible that there is evidence of this practice in ancient scriptures, but that we cannot access it, such as the manuscripts at the Library of Congress, etc.

The possibility also exists, that when the scriptures were put into Greek from the original Aramaic and Hebrew that many phrases were wrongly translated or dropped. I can’t say I know what happened. I don’t believe this person can do any better than I can, based on his level of ignorance and his tendency to exaggerate. I also am at a slight disadvantage, because I do not have a copy of the Bible, or Old or New Testaments.

David Wood asserts that such expressions are not found elsewhere in the Qur’an - whether such were/were not extensively discussed by the early Muslims is beside the point; if the language were such that these kinds of expressions were common then they probably wouldn’t have discussed the usage so much, being well aware of what these would mean. But in fact, brother David is probably well aware that such expressions are used on occasion, either appearing in the Quran or in hadiths and other common usage recorded by the early Muslims (in the traditions and/or Prophetic hadiths e.g. "may your hands be dusted" and "may my father and mother be sacrificed for you", may seem strange to us).The Companions asked for clarification only, not because they didn’t understand what such expressions meant in the context of the Quranic stories (read on for why); they asked the Prophet, SAWS, for clarification on the point which the Christians (after they had heard the description (sister of Aaron)asked about. It could be that the companions might have wondered whether Maryam had a brother called Aaron in addition to it being an idiomatic expression.) That people would’ve used names of some of their predecessors is not at all inconceivable, but (again) this is a moot point; We (don’t) know that Maryam didn’t have a brother, but the Companions of Muhammad had never heard the story told before, it was (narrated for them) to illustrate some of the former people’s history and the illustrious story of ‘Ali Imran. The Qur’anic story of Maryam and Jesus, AS, is different in significant ways from the Biblical story. The Holy Ghost doesn’t come over her; there is no explanation as to how she conceives Jesus, AS, except that Jesus is the word of God. (Add reference; “Allah says to a thing, be and it is”.)

And, it seems more likely that the ancient Jews would have used idiomatic expressions the way that Muslims did because both use a Semitic language; rather than to assume that they would address a woman, not by her familiar name, or a family name, but by her relationship to her brother. Muslims and Arabs did not generally call a female by her relationship to her brother, but would have used her father’s name E.g. Fatimah bint Muhammad or Khadijah bint Al Khuwailid. There is even likelihood that a person could be called after his/her mother, if she were from a prestigious family or connected to one E.g. a woman might have a title bestowed upon her, like “Halima S’aadia”, RA, a woman who had breastfed the Prophet Muhammad, or Aisha ‘As-Siddiq’, the daughter of Abu Bakr ‘As-Siddiq’ (As-Siddiq means ‘the truth teller, or supporter of truth) had the same title as her father because they were both easy to embrace Islam or a great support for the Prophet, pbuh.

As for the fact that Muhammad, SAWS, explained the verse to the Companions after some Christians mentioned that Aaron was a prophet long before Maryam’s time, this is what often happened when a question about a verse came up, e.g. Muhammad would receive further revelation (in the form of an explanation; we call this tafseer Qur’an) The revelation of the explanation would be “wahi” also, but not part of the Qur’an (a form of revelation which was further explanation of the verse; Muhammad would not have known about the Mother of Jesus (nor about Aaron, the brother of Moses, AS) until what Allah would make clear to him.) As soon as the Christians disputed about the verse, Muhammad was able to give them a fit response because Allah explained His words to Muhammad. That is again, an alternate meaning of “wahi”.

Aisha’s forgetfulness:

When Aisha, RA, remains silent, after Ka’ab’s explanation, then she is deferring the matter and the explanation of the verse to him, e.g. “sister of Aaron” was explained by Muhammad, and she had either forgotten, or had never heard the explanation.

The fact that she calls Ka’ab a liar is inconsequential; also she once told that Omar Al-Khattab, RA, had been mistaken (about the meaning of a verse) but had not called him a liar, due to her experience with him as very reliable, and knew he had not lied. It was about the punishment of the dead due to the wailing of the relatives over him. She said, they would not be punished, whereas Omar had said they would be punished, and she told the people who questioned her about the hadith, (tradition) that Omar had made a mistake in his explanation. It could also be that Omar meant those people who are pleased that others should cry over them at funerals, would be punished if they had asked the women or hired ‘professional wailers’ or women to cry over them at their funerals (which had been a custom of the pre Islamic Arabs) God knows best. (At the time, Omar had already died; it is true people would sometimes misinterpret verses out of forgetfulness (rather than deceitfulness). Aisha was one of the most reliable exegeses; this doesn’t mean she never erred and we don’t say that. Muslims always speak well of the companions and other early Muslims; there are cases when they erred, or even fought each other. That is not unusual considering that human nature allows for normal frictions, disputes and problems occasionally. As if the Christians didn’t have similar experiences in the past, or also in the present).

Aisha however remained silent when Ka’ab explained that Moses was 600 years before Maryam, or Jesus, AS. Therefore she only did as the Prophet Muhammad, used to do, when he didn’t object he would remain silent, so that they could continue to say what they had said, and he didn’t object unless it was necessary to object - in other words, in this instance, Aisha was acknowledging that Ka’ab was right. Again, Allah knows best. There are other instances when Umar as well disagreed with what Ka’ab had said - this doesn’t mean that he was always wrong and that others were always correct.

Aisha, had once in another hadith mentioned that the prophet Yaqoob (Jacob) who was blind, was the father of Yusuf (Joseph) but because of her unfamiliarity with the verses (or due to her stressful situation) referred to him only as “the father of Yusuf” and not Prophet Jacob, AS. This  suggests either one of two things, that she had temporarily forgotten or didn’t know the name Yaqoob (Jacob) or that she preferred to call him “the father of Yusuf”, which is not any less likely, in my humble opinion. As a human being, it is possible she could have forgotten. This was when she had been sent to her father’s home, during the trial that the hypocrites caused for her, when they accused her of adultery. She said then, “I say as the father of Yusuf said, ‘Allah’s help is sought against that which they assert’”.

The non-Muslim believes that Aisha (RA) was led into error by the Quran, when really she has just forgotten or doesn’t know. Also, Muhammad did tell us what “sister of Aaron” means when he was asked about it. That is how he used to answer any questions about the verses. It is not at all strange and was in fact how the Muslims learned the exegesis of the Qur’an from him, through “wahi”. The explanations were presented matter- of- factly, because he didn’t invent these explanations, they were told to him by Allah the All-Knowing, All Aware.

Then the non-Muslim fundamentalist, or evangelical, says that “the father of Moses, Aaron and Miriam” (sister of theirs) was Imran. This of course is not the same explanation for why Muslims often refer to the family of Imran, which is mentioned in a Chapter of the Qur’an by name, i.e. Chapter 3 is titled, “‘Ali Imran”. In fact, ‘Ali Imran is the blessed family of Maryam, Jesus, AS, as well as his cousin, Prophet Yahya, AS, (John the Baptist) and his parents, (Zachariya, AS, and his wife). Imran in the Quran is a famous person, whereas the Bible has other names which it presents, including Imran, the father of Moses and Aaron, their sister Mariam, as well as names which are not significant, women who have little to do with the story of Jesus, AS, pop up in the bible, such as Elizabeth. Many biblical characters are not related to the mission of Jesus, nor do they have to do with the mission or story of important figures, such as the former prophets; one wonders why they are even ever mentioned. The biblical narrative often has superfluous mention of such people who had little or no relevance to the life of "Jesus of Nazareth", and one wonders if many of them even really existed.

He goes on to quote Ch: 3 V: 35-36:

“Behold! When the wife of Imran said, ‘My Lord, indeed I have pledged to You what is in my womb, consecrated [for Your service], so accept this from me.”

When we read, verse 33, below, it clearly shows that the “wife of Imran”, means that her husband is from “the family of Imran”; in other words, her relation to the family (by a marriage tie) makes her “the wife of Imran”. It is another of the Arabic expressions (which this Christian, glibly tries to explain away as a mistake, while he is ignorant of the Arabic language and use of idioms (not a “metaphor” as he says, but an “idiomatic expression”). Muslims know her to be the wife of Zachariah, and not the wife of a person by the name of Imran. So this is another of David the evangelical’s moot points. He is clearly the one in error. See immediately, the proof;

CH: 3 V: 33:

“Indeed, Allah chose Adam and Noah, and the family of Abraham and the family of ‘Imran over the worlds.”

Another thing which we don’t know is whether Zachariah’s wife is also his near cousin, and possibly would also be from the family of Imran, or a near descendant of Imran, but it doesn’t matter anyway. She is called “the wife of Imran” because of marriage relationship. It means that in either case, she is not actually married to a man whose name is Imran.

This is why Allah very clearly tells us, (as the non-Arabs should note) “Verily, this is an Arabic Qur’an”; this is why it is imperative that Arab scholars explain the verses not ignorant people - neither non-Arabs nor others who don’t know the meaning of the Arabic expressions commonly in usage at the time of the early prophets, or at the time of Muhammad. Either way, it is not for ignorant or foolish folks to give others explanations of their own book, when they don’t even read Arabic and have not asked anyone who speaks Arabic or understands the ancient Arabic. It is not only brother David Wood that falls into error in this way when “studying” the Qur’an, even Ayaan Hirsi Ali, or Nonie Darwish are equally fallible and have done similar explanations of verses in the Quran. I express my complete dislike of such falsifying or incorrect “interpretations” of Qur’an. David Wood calls this “silly”. Well, he is the one who is confused about the “metaphors” - he says this over and over again. The Qur’an claimed to be clear, he says, but he thinks it isn’t. But it’s proven on this point that the Qur’an is clear. There is no error, except in David Wood’s analysis (So much for being a native speaker of the language, eh?) This shows again, quite well, that it isn’t only enough to speak a language and to be able to read at a grade 6 or 7 level, or even high school level. One must “read to understand” and not “understand to read”. He is clearly “interpreting” the way that he wants to, not giving the listener what is really meant. David Wood calls these “confusing” metaphors (sic), but to Muslims during the time of Muhammad, these expressions contained the most natural meanings, that these women, Mary, as the “daughter of Imran”, and Zachariya’s wife, as the “wife of Imran” were to the Arabs easily understood e.g. women with family ties to the family of Imran (by marriage) or they were themselves descendants of Imran.

It was the Christians who were confused then (when they asked Muhammad, SAWS) as they are now, because in the bible Mary (AS) was a different person from any (actual) direct daughter of Imran (who lived as David W. points out (and I’ll take his word for it) 1,000 years before Maryam. Zachariya’s wife would also have come after the person “Imran” (whom David mentions) who lived 1,000 years before she did.

I hope readers would be so kind as to share this writing, so that others will become aware of the common ways in which Allah’s words are being twisted by these kinds of people of ignorance and followers of misguidance. I thank any who would oblige me, in advance and I pray for you; May Allah guide you and I ask Him for His guidance, and may He have mercy on those people, and I ask Him for His mercy, too. He is the most Praiseworthy, most Merciful.