BibleA Double Standard Exposed:

In Kottayam, at the Trade Center, Shastri Road, on August 22, 2008 Bro. Jerry Thomas gave a two-hour rebuttal session for M.M. Akbar’s wild allegations against the Holy Bible. The following is a translated and adapted excerpt of the part of the rebuttal notes. In this, Bro. Jerry shows that M.M. Akbar’s allegations against the Holy Bible are based on Akbar’s ignorance of his own books or dishonesty after knowing it. Either way, he has to now mend his ways.


Greetings in the Sweet name of my beloved God and Savior Jesus Christ.

I express my gratitude to the Kottayam Local Church for organizing a meeting like this to answer the allegations of M.M. Akbar against the Bible. Two hour is the time that is allotted to me. I intend to cover as much as I can in these two hours.

At the outset I want to point a few things.

First, we had invited M. M Akbar of Niche of Truth for a public debate on either or both of the following topics (1) Jesus or Muhammad: Who is the True Pattern for Humanity? (2) Jesus or Allah: Who is the Universal and Eternal God? Though some of the workers of Niche of Truth, including its all-powerful Cochin Administrator made empty boastings that they would be ready for debate, all our efforts to reach MM Akbar were in vain. MM Akbar seems to be so keen on evading a public debate with me on the issues that he has been speaking for years. But with or without MM Akbar on stage we have to expose his lies against the Holy Bible, and our God LORD Jesus. Therefore we are in this meeting.

Second, many of MM Akbar’s vicious lies against the Holy Bible have already been thoroughly refuted by renowned Christian scholars like James Varghese (I.A.S), Evangelist T Krishnankutty etc. So I will be focusing on answering some of the wild allegations of MM Akbar from his own authoritative books and thus leaving only two options for MM Akbar- leave Islam and prove that he was honest in his arguments against Christianity or continue in Islam and prove that he is dishonest. The choice is his.

Third, what do I mean by authoritative books of Islam? Quran unlike the Holy Bible is not a complete and coherent book. It needs the support of other kinds of books to make it meaningful. Let me illustrate this.

If you ask a Muslim on how to do namaz, he will give you guidelines. You ask him to show all the guidelines from Quran alone. He will be in trouble. Quran is insufficient for Islam.

Another example; if you read Surah 3:31, 33:21, 33:36 or 59:7, you will see that every Muslim has to follow the ‘pattern’ and commandments of Muhammad. To know what kind of pattern Muhammad is, we need his biography, his works and words etc. Do we have that in Quran? Though Allah asked Muslims to follow the pattern of Muhammad, Allah forgot to include the biography, works and words of Muhammad in the Quran.

Remember we have the four Gospels explaining us to the life, work and words of our only pattern LORD Jesus Christ. The Holy Bible is sufficient.

We need the biography of Muhammad which is the Sirahs. Ibn Ishaq’s and Ibn Hisham’s are the two authoritative biographies of Muhammad.

We need the works and words of Muhammad. Those are the Hadiths. Today, we will be primarily using only two of the most authoritative Hadiths – Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.

Quran is not only incomplete in important details; it is in utter mess when it comes to explaining things in an orderly way. One of the authoritative Islamic works in explaining Quran in an orderly way is the History of Al-Tabari. I will be also extensively quoting from Tabari today.

Also, I will be using some of the classical commentaries especially one by Ibn Kathir to explain some of the meanings of the text. These four kinds of works, Sirahs, Hadiths, History of Tabari, and classical Tafsir’s are needed to make any sense of Quran without which Allah’s “last and final and best work” is incomplete, insufficient, incoherent and meaningless. Let me begin with a few of MM Akbar’s allegations against the Holy Bible, the Word of True God – Jehovah.  

Allegation 1: the Holy Bible presents sins of some of the prophets, e.g. the story David and Beersheba (2 Samuel 11:2-17). These are proofs of human corruptions of the Biblical texts. Therefore the Holy Bible is intermingled with word of God and word of man. (Debate: The Divinity of the Bible, Page 47-50 by Dawah Books).

Answer: If MM Akbar is sincere and honest in his charges against the Holy Bible, then he must first reject Quran because Quran too gives the same story.

Quran: Surah 38: 21-24: Has the Story of the Disputants reached thee? Behold, they climbed over the wall of the private chamber; When they entered the presence of David, and he was terrified of them, they said: "Fear not: we are two disputants, one of whom has wronged the other: Decide now between us with truth, and treat us not with injustice, but guide us to the even Path. This man is my brother: He has nine and ninety ewes, and I have (but) one: Yet he says, 'commit her to my care,'

and is (moreover) harsh to me in speech. David) said: "He has undoubtedly wronged thee in demanding thy (single) ewe to be added to his (flock of) ewes: truly many are the partners (in business) who wrong each other: Not so do those who believe and work deeds of righteousness, and how few are they?"…and David gathered that We had tried him: he asked forgiveness of his Lord, fell down, bowing (in prostration), and turned (to Allah in repentance).

Why should David be afraid?  Why David, who was the King and Judge, should repent when two disputants come and tell him their problems. This is another example of Quran being insufficient and incomplete. So we turn to one of the authoritative texts to understand the meaning.

The History of Al-Tabari, Volume 3, The Children of Israel, Page 144-146 tells the complete story.

 

The God inspired him: your forefathers were tried with misfortunes with which you have not been tried. Abraham was tested with the sacrifice of his son, Isaac with the loss of his sight, and Jacob with grief over his son Joseph, You have not been tried with any of that. David said, “O Lord! Test me as you have tested them, and grant me what you have given them.”God inspired him: You are going to be tested, so be on your guard. He waited as long as God wished him to wait, whereupon Satan came to him, taking on the shape of a golden dove. It alighted at his feet while he was standing and praying.

The narrator continued: He reached out his hand to take hold of it, but it flew away. He followed it, but it distanced itself until it alighted in an aperture in the wall. He went to grab it, but it flew from the aperture. He watched to see where it would alight, so he could send after it. He saw a woman bathing herself on the roof, one of the most beautiful women in the form. She happened to turn around, and she saw him. She let down her hair, covering herself with it. That only increased his desire for her.

He asked about her and was told that she had a husband who was absent at such and such a garrison. He sent to the garrison commander an order to send Uriah against such-and such an enemy. He therefore sent him, and the enemy was conquered by him. The commander wrote back to David about the victory and David wrote to him again saying, “send him against such-and-such an enemy who is even stronger than they.” So she him and they again were conquered by him and he wrote to David about the second victory. David wrote to him, “Send him to such-and-such an enemy.” So he sent him, and on the third time, Uriah was slain.

David married Uriah’s wife. When she came to him, and she had been with him only a short time when God sent two angels, in human form who requested admission to his presence. But they found that this as his day of worship, and the guards prevented them from entering. So the two scaled the wall of his private apartment to reach him. He was not aware of their arrival while he was praying, but suddenly the two were sitting in from of him.

He was startled but they said, “Do not be afraid. We are two litigants, one of who has wronged the other, therefore judge aright between us, be not unjust- meaning, do not act wrongfully- and show us the fair way, to just judgment.” David said, “Tell me your story; One of them said, Lo this brother of mine has ninety ewes while I have one ewe. He wants to take my ewe to round out his one hundred. The story continues and they explained him to that it was David who sinned in the case of Beersheba. Then David repented. Similarly sins of other prophets are also mentioned in Quran.

M.M. Akbar should leave Islam: If MM Akbar has an iota of honesty left with him; he should reject Quran by the same standards he applied to the Holy Bible and leave Islam. Maybe honesty is too much to expect from a Dawah preacher.

Remember MM Akbar is not the only Dawah preacher who is making this allegation. Ahmed Deedat, Bro. Imran etc have made similar charges. 

You might be wondering if Quran has the same story, why do these Dawah preachers use the story of David (which God punished unalike in Muhammad’s case where every immorality was approved) to blaspheme the name of only True God.The answer is given in the Holy Bible itself.

2 Samuel 12:13-14 “So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.” When Dawah preachers use David’s story to blaspheme the Holy Name of only True God Jehovah, we know that they are the enemies of the LORD.

 

M.M. Akbar’s Allegation 2: The Holy Bible has ‘scientific mistakes’. For example, the Holy Bible says in Genesis 1 that ‘earth was created before the sun, light was created before the source of light, days and night were there without sun, plants and trees were there without sun, universe was created in six days etc. ( Debate: The Divinity of the Bible, Page 191-200 by Dawah Books)  

 

Answer: If MM Akbar is sincere and honest in his charges against the Holy Bible, then he must first reject Quran because Quran too gives the same story.  

 

Quran:

Surah 7: 54 “Your Guardian-Lord is Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, and is firmly established on the throne (of authority): He draweth the night as a veil o'er the day, each seeking the other in rapid succession: He created the sun, the moon, and the stars, (all) governed by laws under His command. Is it not His to create and to govern? Blessed be Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds!”

Surah 32: 4It is Allah Who has created the heavens and the earth, and all between them, in six days, and is firmly established on the Throne (of Authority): ye have none, besides Him, to protect or intercede (for you): will ye not then receive admonition?”

Surah 57: 4 “He it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, and is moreover firmly established on the Throne (of Authority). He knows what enters within the earth and what comes forth out of it, what comes down from heaven and what mounts up to it. And He is with you wheresoever ye may be. And Allah sees well all that ye do.”For us not to misunderstand it as six periods, Muhammad has explained it as Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Moreover, he clearly explains that trees were created before sun, and days existed before sun too.

Sahih Muslim, Chapter MCLV, The beginning of creation and the creation of Adam, Hadith No. 6707:

"Abu Huraira reported that Allah's Messenger (mpbuh) took hold of my hands and said: Allah the Exalted and Glorious, created the clay on Saturday and He created the mountains on Sunday and He created the trees on Monday and He created the things entailing labour on Tuesday and created light on Wednesday and He caused animals to spread on Thursday and created Adam (pbuh) after 'Asr on Friday; the last creation at the last hour of the hours of Friday, ie. Between afternoon and night.

"The History of al-Tabari, Volume 1- General Introduction and from the Creation to the Flood  pp. 187-193:

 "We have stated before that time is but hours of night and day and that the hours are but traversal by the sun and the moon of the degrees of the sphere. Now then, this being so, there is (also) a sound tradition from the Messenger of God told us by Hannad b. al-Sari, who also said that he read all of the hadith (to Abu Bakr)- Abu Bakr b. `Ayyash- Abu Sa'd al-Baqqal- `Ikrimah- Ibn Abbas: The Jews came to the Prophet and asked him about the creation of the heavens and the earth. He said: God created the earth on Sunday and Monday. He created the mountains and the uses they possess on Tuesday. On Wednesday, He created trees, water, cities and the cultivated barren land. These are four (days). He continued (citing the Qur'an): `Say: Do you really not believe in the One Who created the earth in two days, and set up others like Him? That is the Lord of the worlds. He made it firmly anchored (mountains) above it and blessed it and decreed that it contain the amount of food it provides, (all) in four days, equally for those asking'- for those who ask. On Thursday, He created heaven. On Friday, He created the stars, the sun, the moon, and the angels, until three hours remained. In the first of these three hours He created the terms (of human life), who would live and who would die. In the second, He cast harm upon everything that is useful for mankind. And in the third, (He created) Adam and had him dwell in Paradise. He commanded Iblis to prostrate himself before Adam, and He drove Adam out of Paradise at the end of the hour. When the Jews asked: What then, Muhammad? He said: `Then He sat straight upon the Throne.' The Jews said: You are right, if you had finished, they said, with: Then He rested. Whereupon the Prophet got very angry, and it was revealed: `We have created the heavens and the earth and what is between them in six days, and fatigue did not touch Us. Thus be patient with what you say.'

"Remember M.M Akbar is not the only one who has raised this charge. Dr. Zakir Naik, Shabir Ally, Bro. Imran etc have raised the same charges.

Now to leave on a scientific note- this what Quran says about the creation of man. Man was created from earth (Surah 11:61), from nothing (Surah 19:67), from clay (Surah 32:7), from water (Surah 25:54) and from sperm (Surah 16:4).

 

M.M. Akbar’s Allegation 3: The Holy Bible was human corrupted to show the supremacy of Jewish nation. For example though Ishmael was the son who was sacrificed, Bible says it is Isaac. This could not be as it could not be said about Isaac as the only son.

 

 Answer: If MM Akbar is sincere and honest in his charges against the Holy Bible, then he must first reject Quran because Quran too gives the same story.

 

Quran:

 

Surah 37:101-112 “So We gave him the good news of a boy ready to suffer and forbear. Then, when (the son) reached (the age of) (serious) work with him, he said: "O my son! I see in vision that I offer thee in sacrifice: Now see what is thy view!" (The son) said: "O my father! Do as thou art commanded: thou will find me, if Allah so wills one practicing Patience and Constancy!" So when they had both submitted their wills (to Allah), and he had laid him prostrate on his forehead (for sacrifice), We called out to him "O Abraham! Thou hast already fulfilled the vision!" – thus indeed do We reward those who do right. For this was obviously a trial- And We ransomed him with a momentous sacrifice: And We left (this blessing) for him among generations (to come) in later times: And We left for him among the later folk (the salutation): Peace and salutation to Abraham!" Thus indeed do We reward those who do right. For he was one of our believing Servants. And We gave him the good news of Isaac – a prophet,- one of the Righteous.”Quran which begins the story by saying the good news of a boy itself identifies that boy who was born of good news is Isaac. Never it mentioned that Ishmael got the glad tidings. To confirm it, let us look at one more passage.  

 

Surah 11: 69-71” There came Our messengers to Abraham with glad tidings. They said, "Peace!" He answered, "Peace!" and hastened to entertain them with a roasted calf. But when he saw their hands went not towards the (meal), he felt some mistrust of them, and conceived a fear of them. They said: "Fear not: We have been sent against the people of Lut." And his wife was standing (there), and she laughed: But we gave her glad tidings of Isaac, and after him, of Jacob.

 

Further The History of Al-Tabari, Volume 2, Page 82, 83, 89, Tabari records various early Muslims who believed that it was Isaac who was offered as sacrifice.

Tabari himself believed that it was Isaac as it is recorded in and The History of General Introduction and From the Creation to the Flood, Vol 1, Page 310:

“That ram remained in custody with God until He let it go as Isaac’s ransom.”

 

M. M. Akbar’s Allegation 4: M. M. Akbar quotes The Birth of Messiah, Raymond E Brown and says that historicity of the story of Jesus as recorded in the Bible is questionable.

 

Answer: Raymond E Brown is not an authority for Bible believing Christians. We reject Raymond E Brown.However, we would like to point out that Al Tabari, an authority for Muslims, has recorded the story of Jesus with similar details which M.M. Akbar rejected in his book.Please read The History of Al-Tabari, Volume 4, Ancient Kingdoms, Page 124-125.

I strongly advise M. M. Akbar not repeat blindly what blasphemers like Ramatuallah Al-Kirwani and Deedat has said. They fooled the Muslims. But they cannot fool Christians. If you blindly follow the deceivers like Kirwani, and  Deedat, you will also become a deceiver but not the True worshippers of true God, Jesus Christ.  

 

Note: As mentioned in the abstract, this is only a part of the transcript (translated and adapted) from Bro. Jerry Thomas rebuttal.

 

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