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As has already been mentioned, there is much information
contained in the Qur’an whose source cannot be attributed to anyone other than
Allah. For example, who told Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) about
the wall of Dhul Qarnayn—a
place hundreds of miles to the north? Who told him about embryology? When people
assemble facts such as these, if they are not willing to attribute their
existence to a divine source, they automatically resort to the assumption
someone brought Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) the information and
that he used it to fool the people. However, this theory can easily be disproved
with one simple question: “If Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was a
liar, where did he get his confidence? Why did he tell some people outright to
their face what others could never say?” Such confidence depends completely
upon being convinced that one has a true, divine revelation.
A
Revelation: Abu Lahab
Prophet
Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) had an uncle by the name of Abu
Lahab. This man hated Islam to such an extent that he used to follow the Prophet
around in order to discredit him. If Abu Lahab saw the Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him) speaking to a stranger, he would wait until they parted
and he would go to the stranger and ask him, “What did he tell you? Did he
say, ‘Black?’ Well, it’s white. Did he say ‘morning?’ Well, it’s
night.” He faithfully said the exact opposite of whatever he heard Muhammad
(peace and blessings be upon him) and the Muslims say.
However,
about ten years before Abu Lahab died, a little chapter in the Qur’an (Surat
Al-Masad, 111) was revealed about him. It distinctly stated that he would go to
the fire (Hell). In other words, it affirmed that he would never become a Muslim
and would, therefore, be condemned forever. For ten years, all Abu Lahab had to
do was say, “I heard that it has been revealed to Muhammad that I will never
change—that I will never become a Muslim and will enter the Hellfire. Well, I
want to become Muslim now. How do you like that? What do you think of your
divine revelation now?” But he never did that. And yet, that is exactly the
kind of behavior one would have expected from him, since he always sought to
contradict Islam.
In
essence, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “You hate me and you
want to finish me? Here, say these words and I am finished. Come on, say
them!” But Abu Lahab never said them. Ten years! And in all that time he never
accepted Islam or even became sympathetic to the Islamic cause.
How
could Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) have possibly known for sure
that Abu Lahab would fulfill the Qur’anic revelation if he (Muhammad) was not
truly the messenger of Allah? How could he possibly have been so confident as to
give someone 10 years to discredit his claim of Prophethood? The only answer is
that he was Allah’s messenger; for in order to put forth such a risky
challenge, one has to be entirely convinced that one has a divine revelation.
The
Flight
Another
example of the confidence which Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) had
in his own Prophethood and, consequently, in the divine protection of himself
and his message, was when he left Makkah and hid in a cave with Abu Bakr (may
Allah be pleased with him) during their emigration from Makkah to Madinah. The
two clearly saw people coming to kill them, Abu Bakr was afraid. Certainly, if
Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was a liar, a forger, and one who was
trying to fool the people into believing that he was a prophet, one would have
expected him to say in such a circumstance to his friend, “Hey, Abu Bakr, see
if you can find a back way out of this cave.” Or, “Squat down in that corner
over there and keep quiet.” Yet, in fact, what he said to Abu Bakr clearly
illustrated his confidence. He told him, “Relax! Allah is with us and Allah
will save us!” Now, if one knows that one is fooling the people, where does
one get this kind of attitude? In fact, such a frame of mind is not
characteristic of a liar or a forger at all.
So,
as has been previously mentioned, the non-Muslims go around and around in a
circle, searching for a way out—some way to explain the findings in the
Qur’an without attributing them to their proper source. On one hand, they tell
you on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday that “the man was a liar,” and on the
other hand, on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday they tell you that “he was
crazy.” What they refuse to accept is that one cannot have it both ways; yet
they need both theories, both excuses to explain the information in the
Qur’an.
An Encounter with a Minister
About
seven years ago, I had a minister over to my home. In the particular room that
we were sitting in, there was a Qur’an on the table, face down, and so the
minister was not aware of which book it was. In the midst of a discussion, I
pointed to the Qur’an and said, “I have confidence in that book.” Looking
at the Qur’an but not knowing which book it was, he replied, “Well, I tell
you, if that book is not the Bible, it was written by a man!” In response to
his statement, I said, “Let me tell you something about what is in that
book.” And in just three to four minutes, I related to him a few things
contained in the Qur’an. After just those three or four minutes, he completely
changed his position and declared, “You are right.
A
man did not write that book, the Devil wrote it!” Indeed,
possessing such an attitude is very unfortunate, for many reasons. For one
thing, it is a very quick and cheap excuse. It is an instant exit out of an
uncomfortable situation.
As
a matter of fact, there is a famous story in the Bible that mentions how one
day, some of the Jews were witnesses when Jesus (peace and blessings be upon
him) raised a man from the dead. The man had been dead for four days, yet when
Jesus arrived, he simply said, “Get up!” and the man arose and walked away.
At such a sight, some of the Jews who were watching said disbelievingly, “This
is the Devil. The Devil helped him!” Now this story is rehearsed very often in
churches all over the world, and people cry big tears over it, saying, “Oh, if
I had been there, I would not have been as stupid as the Jews!” Yet,
ironically, these people do exactly what the Jews did when in just three minutes
you show them only a small part of the Qur’an and all they can say is, “Oh,
the Devil did it. The devil wrote that book!” Because they are truly backed
into a corner and have no other viable answer, they resort to the quickest and
cheapest excuse available.
*
Excerpted with some modifications from The
Amazing Qur’an, here cited from:
http://www.ymofmd.com/books/amazing_quran.htm#apro1
**
Dr. Gary Miller is a Canadian former Christian theologian and minister who converted to Islam. He now works on spreading and preaching Islam to the world.
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