Does the Qur'an replace the Bible?

God. There is only one true God and His name is Allah. Allah is all - seeing, all ‑ knowing and all ‑ powerful. Angels. The chief angel is Gabriel, who is said to have appeared to Mohammed. There is also a fallen angel named Shaitan (from the Hebrew "Satan"), as well as the followers of Shaitan, the jinns (demons). Scripture. Muslims believe in four God‑inspired books: the Torah of Moses (what Christians call the Pentateuch), the Zabur (Psalms of David), the Injil (Gospel) of Jesus, and the Qur'an. But, because Muslims believe that Jews and Christians corrupted their Scriptures, the Qur'an is Allah's final word to mankind. It supersedes and overrules all previous writings. Mohammed. The Qur'an lists 28 prophets of Allah. These include Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jonah and Jesus. To the Muslim, the last and greatest prophet is Mohammed. The end times. On the "last day," the dead will be resurrected. Allah will be the judge, and each person will be sent to heaven or hell. Heaven is a place of sensual pleasure. Hell is for those who oppose Allah and his prophet Mohammed. Predestination. God has determined what He pleases, and no one can change what He has decreed (also known as kismet, the doctrine of fate). From this doctrine comes the most common Islamic phrase, "If it is Allah's Will."

There are two other forms of infidelity; but these stand apart by themselves. Delusions both infidel and idolatrous, viz., Mohammedanism and Mormonism. Infidel, for each arose in countries where Christianity had been preached, and where the truth was wholly or partially denied. Idolatrous, for each exalted a man and gave him the homage due only to Christ. But Mahomet and J. Smith stole largely from the Bible, as appears from their respective books, the Koran, and the book of Mormon. Both books pretend to be a further revelation, and completely supplant the Bible, as if it were imperfect. Neither denies it to have come from God; but, owing to its incompleteness and mistakes, a fresh communication from God was needed to develop the truth and clear it from all error, which the founder of Mormonism in his professed creed attributes to the interpolations of scribes. But he does not seek to correct the Koran; this would be very like Satan casting out Satan. Nay, it is God's Book that is set aside, His truth is denied; and this denial, whatever extravagancies and wickedness accompany it, makes these delusions infidel.

The Qur'an, or Koran, called the Recitation, is the Mohammedan's great book. It urges moral response on the part of man as created by Allah, foretells the day of judgment, and depicts the tortures of the damned, and the seductiveness of a very sensual paradise for the believer. With increasing fervour Mohammed stated that he received the very words of God, ipsissima verba, through the agency of the Angel Gabriel. It teaches that salvation depends on our good deeds outweighing our bad deeds. The reading of and the hearing the Koran read is considered productive of great good. Its recitation is supposed to expiate sin. It is claimed that Mohammed is the last and greatest of the prophets, that he superseded Christ, and abrogated the four Gospels (Arabic, Injil). It is taught that Mohammed intercedes with God on behalf of his followers, and that out of Divine mercy, and consideration for the prayers of the prophet, Allah will grant forgiveness of sins.

The Mohammedans trace their descent from Abraham through Hagar's son, Ishmael (Genesis 16). Their great book is the Qur'an or Koran, for which the most extreme verbal, divine inspiration is claimed. In it Jesus is acknowledged to be a great prophet of God, but inferior to Mohammed. They hold that our Lord was born of a virgin, and that He was the promised Messiah. They affirm that as the Koran superseded the Holy Scriptures, so Mohammed superseded our Lord. Mohammed made the most ridiculous claims for himself, saying, "I was a prophet when Adam was still between clay and water." He claimed that God said to him, "Had it not been for thee, I had not have created the world." The Koran contains outstanding inaccuracies, such as the confusing of Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, with the virgin Mary; and depicting Haman, chief nobleman at the court of Ahasuerus, King of Persia, as a minister of Pharaoh, King of Egypt. Dr. S. M. Zwemer says, "The Koran has many historical errors, contains monstrous fables, teaches a false cosmogony and is full of superstition."

As to his creed, if it can be said that he had any, it was copied partly from the Old and New Testaments and from various other sources. Of the Lord Jesus he says, "The Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, is only an apostle of God . . . . God is only one God. Far be it from His glory that He should have a son." "Infidels now are they who say, God is the Messiah, son of Mary." "God is one; God the eternal; he begetteth not, neither is He begotten; neither is there any One like Him." He may have learnt this from the Arianism of the professing Christians he had met with.

His followers claim for the Koran that it is the latest revelation of the mind of God, and that it had been penned under the immediate inspiration of God. The quotations above given settle at once and without dispute that it in no way came from God. It may have � as scholars declare it has � some sublime passages; but anything that denies the divinity of Christ, cannot be from God.

Another important question is as to God. It sounds reverent to say, "There is only one God," "God is one," "God the eternal," etc.; but is this God they speak of the only true God revealed to us in the scripture? It is not. God is LIGHT, and the Koran is thorough darkness, and in no way reveals the true God, nor the way that a guilty man can approach and be accepted by God. Again, God is LOVE, and the Koran breathes of hatred and vengeance. God is HOLY, but the Koran sanctions lust and impurity. And besides all this, it joins with the declaration of the oneness of God, that Mahomet is His prophet; and as we have seen, he could not possibly have been a prophet of God.

The Qur'an is the sacred scripture of Islam. About four‑fifths the length of the New Testament, it includes 114 surabs, or chapters. While the ideas are all credited to God, Mohammed dictated parts of the

Qur'an, while the rest came from the writings of disciples who remembered his oral teachings after he died.' Much of the Qur'an jumps from one time and place to another, lacking a narrative unity. Muslims claim, nonetheless, that it is copied from an original in Arabic, which is in heaven.

As a result, it is unlikely that Mohammed's opportunities to learn about "the one true God" came in great part from anyone who really understood the Bible. Even a Muslim writer like Caesar Farah admits that Mohammed's narration of scriptural events shows he "could not have ... had an educated knowledge of the sacred texts." It is no wonder that Mohammed developed theologically flawed ideas, which he later expressed when developing the Qur'an (also called Koran).

HOW THE QUR'AN CONTRADICTS THE BIBLE

The Bible has had an important influence on the teachings of Islam. For instance, the Muslim proudly traces his ancestry to Ishmael, a son of Abraham. Muslim beliefs about the nature of God, the resurrection of the body and judgment are roughly similar to the teachings of the Bible. But there are some striking differences. Following are some of the Muslim ideas that contradict what is taught in the Bible.

For Muslims, God is one, period. The Qur'an explicitly attacks the Christian teaching on the Trinity, saying that anyone who ascribes "partners" to God is committing the sin of shirk (blasphemy). This prohibition is explicitly directed against the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and the teaching that Jesus is God. Many Muslims are also erroneously taught that Christians are really tri‑theists who believe in God the Father, Mary the mother and Jesus the Son. This grotesque caricature of the Trinity is a complete misrepresentation of what biblical Christians believe and what the Bible teaches.

Muslims also teach that Allah is transcendent (all‑powerful) and relatively impersonal. Of the 99 names ascribed to God in Islam, "Father" is omitted (to avoid the idea of the Father and the Son). This is in stark contrast to the Bible and to Jesus' own teaching, which says that God is our personal heavenly Father. (Compare passages on God's greatness, such as Ps. 77:10‑15 and Isa. 43:13, with passages on God's love, such as Dent. 7:8; jet. 313; Eph. 2:4; 1 John 3: 1; 4:7.) While one of the 99 Muslim names for God is "the Merciful," He is not viewed primarily as a dispenser of love and grace but more as a righteous judge to whom the Muslim must give account."

The Qur'an denies that Jesus is the Son of God, although it describes the virgin birth in a passage similar to Luke 1:26‑38 (see Surah 3:45‑47). The Qur'an calls Jesus a prophet, equal to Abraham, Jonah and others; but places Him in rank far below Mohammed. Surah 4:171 says that "Jesus ... was only a messenger of Allah.... Far is it removed from His transcendent majesty that He should have a son."

Mohammed totally ignored what the New Testament says about Jesus' divinity (see, for example, Matt. 8:29; 17:5; John 1:1‑5; 8:58; 10:30; 14:9; 20:28, Col. 1:15‑17; 2:9). instead of admitting that verses like these exist, Muslims claim Christians have changed the Bible.

The only really new and startling article in the religion of Islam was the divine mission of Mahomet as the apostle and prophet of God. But in these fair appearances the craft of Satan is most manifest. Such simple and elementary religious principles would do violence to none, but deceive many. History clearly proves that his opinions changed with his success, and that his violence and intolerance increased with his power, until it became a religion of the sword, of rapine, and of sensuality. "He is a gentle preacher," says Milman, "until he has unsheathed his sword." The sword once unsheathed is the remorseless argument. At one time we find the broad principle of Eastern toleration explicitly avowed: diversity of religion is ascribed to the direct ordinance, and all share in the equal favour, of God. But the Koran gradually recants all these gentler sentences, and assumes the language of insulting superiority or undisguised aversion. But, although the Koran has many points of resemblance both to Judaism and Christianity, it is thought that Mahomet was not acquainted with either the Old or the New Testament — that he rather drew his materials from Talmudical legends, from spurious Gospels, and other heretical writings, mixed with the old traditions of Arabia.