DOUBTING THE KORAN
I met a young Christian named David, and we quickly
became firm friends due to our common morals and devotion. The time
came when I challenged him on the reliability of the Bible, and I
had finally met someone who was equipped to defend his faith.
Ultimately, he challenged me to contrast the history
of the Bible with that of the Koran. It was then that I discovered
there had been so much dispute over the Koran early in its history
that an official edict established one standard Koran and ordered
all the rest destroyed (Sahih Bukhari 6:61:509-510). There was no
occasion for the Bible to have been officially altered throughout
Christendom, but there was certainly occasion for the Koran to have
been modified throughout the House of Islam, and records remain of
old variants that testify to former versions.
While discussing the Bible and the Koran, I also
challenged David on the divine authority of Jesus. He responded to
my points, but he also challenged me to contrast my arguments with a
case for the authority of Muhammad. It was then that I realized my
standards for criticizing the origins of Christianity would raze the
foundations of Islam if I applied them consistently.
Though I doubted the reliability of the Gospels,
written in the lifetime of Jesus’ disciples, the entire edifice of
the Sirah (various
traditional Muslim biographies of Muhammad) rested on accounts from
150-250 years after his death. The earliest account of Muhammad’s
life is only known to us because one devout Muslim preserved it, and
he uses no uncertain words to say that what he received contained
fabrications and false reports (Ibn Hisham, who edited Ibn Ishaq’s Sirah
Rasul Allah).
By contrast, the case for Jesus’ death, deity and
resurrection was very strong, built on early records that were most
coherently explained by orthodox Christian positions. It was through
this contrast that matters became clear.
YOUNG MEN
WHO ZEALOUSLY CHAMPION ISLAM REMIND ME
OF MY
YOUNGER SELF
THE CASE FOR CRUCIFIXION
While still contemplating these issues as a Muslim, I
attended a debate between a Christian called Michael Licona and a
Muslim called Shabir Ally on the topic of Jesus’ resurrection. A
trend in Ally’s thinking emerged through the course of the debate,
and what I saw shook me.
Multiple ancient sources report Jesus’ death by
crucifixion, including Jewish, Gentile, and Christian records. These
reports are so numerous and the surrounding circumstances so clear
that even atheist and agnostic scholars say Jesus’ crucifixion is
among the surest facts of history. But with excessive skepticism,
one can deny anything. Ally advanced the koranic view of Jesus:
that, despite all the reports, Jesus did not die by crucifixion.
But what reason is there to stand by the koranic
claims about Jesus when all the other records disagree? The Koran
was written 600 years after Jesus and 600 miles away. The only
reason to believe the Koran is an a priori faith in Islam. That is
why only Muslim scholars deny Jesus’ death by crucifixion. Ally was
very skeptical with the Christian case but not nearly as critical of
the Islamic perspective. No contrast, just one-sided criticism.
REACHING MUSLIMS TODAY
That was 2004, and I continue to see the same trend
among proselytizing Muslims today: constant criticism of
Christianity in the face of rather uncritical acceptance of Islam. I
see many young men zealously championing Islam, and they remind me
endearingly and dishearteningly of my younger self. I see them as
sincere, honest, devout young men who usually haven’t seen an equal
treatment of these two faiths.
Is there no one to befriend them, as David befriended
me? Is anyone praying for them, as David’s church prayed for me? Is
anyone loving them as Jesus would, with both compassion and truth?
Through dialogue, these young men, precious to God,
might come to see that the Christian view of Jesus is much earlier,
more coherent, and better evidenced than the Muslim view of Jesus.
They might come to see that Islam is built on much
weaker foundations than Christianity. In turn, they
might stop leading people away from Jesus and instead become
evangelists for the gospel. It happened to me, and it can happen to
them. |