Summit Lecture Series: Divine Scriptures, Prophets & Islam’s Other Near Misses with Nabeel Qureshi

Last updated on: February 10, 2016 at 2:41 pm by Christian Podcast Central

Summit Lecture Series: Divine Scriptures, Prophets & Islam’s Other Near Misses with Nabeel Qureshi 2016-02-10T14:41:20-08:00 Christian Podcast Central

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According to Muslims, you must believe that God revealed scriptures to mankind throughout time. Chapter 5, verse 43 of the Qur’an says:

How come they unto thee for judgment when they have the Torah, wherein Allah hath delivered judgment for them? Yet even after that they turn away. Such folk are not believers.

In other words, the Quran is asking why the Jews are coming to Muhammad for advice, when Allah had already guided them through the Torah. Therefore, the Torah is God’s word that the Jews had with them. Three verses later, in the Qur’an, we read:

“And We caused Jesus, son of Mary, to follow in their footsteps, confirming that which was revealed before him in the Torah and We bestowed on him the Gospel wherein is guidance and a light, confirming that which was revealed before it in the Torah – a guidance and an admonition unto those who ward off evil.” (Surah 5:46)

So, Jesus received the Gospel and Moses received the Torah from God. That’s what the Qur’an teaches.

However, Jesus did not receive any sort of revelation in that sense – a scripture that He, Himself wrote – but that’s what the Muslims believe. However, in this they also believe that the Gospels are the inspired word of God, so they are not too far off the truth in some respects.

…at least this is what is written in part of the Qur’an.

Muslims today believe that over time, these messages (the Gospels) have been changed and corrupted. Qur'an

But, as we consider all this, it’s important to understand what Muslims believe that the Quran is. There are six articles of The Qur’an:

It is the ultimate guidance for Muslims.
It was compiled from 610-632 AD through “progressive revelation”. In other words, unlike the Gospel of Matthew (or other Biblical works), where Matthew sat down and wrote out the Gospel as led by the Holy Spirit, Islam teaches that the Qur’an was revealed in bits and portions. Ultimately, all those bits and portions were gathered together after Muhammad’s death, culminating into the form that we have today.
It was revealed directly from God to the Prophet, Muhammad, through the angel Gabriel. The inspiration is widely believed to be to the letter, from God’s “tablet” of the Qur’an in Heaven (Surah 85:21-22). So, Allah read from his tablet to Gabriel, Gabriel remembered what was told to him and he relayed that information to Muhammad to repeat to his scribes who wrote the words down, since Muhammad himself couldn’t read or write. That is the traditional understanding of how the Qur’an was revealed.

According to WhyIslam.org, “The Qur’an’s message is eternal and universal, transcending our differences in race, color, ethnicity and nationality. It provides guidance on every aspect of human life –from economics and the ethics of trade to marriage, divorce, gender issues, inheritance and parenting.” So, the scope of the Qur’an is all-expansive. The same website claims, in regards to the Qur’an’s preservation, “The Qur’an is unique because it is the only revealed book that exists today in the precise form and content in which it was originally revealed. Furthermore, it was actively recorded during the time the religion was being established.” Yet, when Muhammad was questioned why people should follow the Qur’an, he replied that the Qur’an’s words could not be copied. He said that its words were so beautiful, that no man could produce anything like it. In fact, the Quran offers five challenges which say, “Try to write something like the Qur’an. You will soon find out that it is impossible.” This is the first of several challenges that the Qur’an offers to defend its divine inspiration.

Many Muslims also hold that there is scientific knowledge that was beyond man’s comprehension in the pages of the Qur’an. So, since men could not comprehend this information when it was originally penned – and we did, however understand it later – therefore, it must be God’s word. Some examples of this are the nature of the moon and the sun (Surah 78); the celestial orbits; the expansion of the universe (Surah 51); as well as information pertaining to geology, oceanography, biology, physiology, embryology, and much more. Therefore, since there is so much science included in the Qur’an’s pages – much of which was unknown to Muhammad – it must have come from divine revelation.

All Muslims believe that there will be a day of judgment. They even believe that it will be initiated by the second coming of Jesus Christ. This is just one of several points that Christianity and Islam share. But most importantly, don’t ignore that Muslims believe that the world has objective truths which we can ascertain. Modern relativism or new age post-modern trends have no place in God’s vocabulary. We can investigate history and the world around us and learn truths about it… and these truths all point to Islam.

Christians believe the exact same thing, except that all the world’s truths point to Jesus Christ.

So, it’s very easy to talk with Muslims about their core beliefs. They have a very similar foundation and framework through which they see the world as Christ-followers. They simply come up with different conclusions than what the Bible teaches.

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