A person who reads the Bible just to say that they have read it will not learn anything. Likewise, we can expect the same with the Quran.
I attempted to read the Bible at the age of twelve but gave it away as a boring book that just listed genealogies. I did not get to read about the flood of Noah. Moreover, I was reading the King James Version and I found this a turn off, period.
Some eight years later, the second time I began to read the Bible, I read a paraphrased version called The Living Bible. This time I was able to read everything up to, and including, the book of Job. My impression was the Creator was the judge of the Earth and a God of justice. After that I met Lord Jesus Christ, having sought God to show Him to me. Then, after having met Lord Jesus, the Bible came alive and I read the book of Matthew (Chapter 1 to chapter 17:13) some twenty times for some reason. It was as if I was lead to do this.
When I read the Quran, I was about twenty-six. I found the Quran to be uninspired, repetitive, boring and a very trying read. Muslims I spoke to told me that this was because I was reading an English translation; whereas, in the Arabic, the Quran is inspirational. I tried reading another English version but gave up very quickly. Later on, as part of a comparative religion course I had to read extracts from the Quran. Since then I have read various passages to see what the Quran actually states, when people have given me cause to do so.
When having read some of the Bible twice and I was still bereft of knowing the truth of what I read, I decided to seek the resurrected Jesus. However, upon reading the Bible after I became a Christian, I discovered that it had become very meaningful and contained disguised truths about the Creator’s plan for mankind.
Unless any other book impresses me in the same way as the Bible does now, it would not register as divinely inspired as far as I am concerned. When I read the Quran, there was nothing there that registered as being inspired by God. The same when reading other texts that I have read—the exception being some of Matthew Henry’s Commentary On The Whole Bible.
A person who is genuinely seeking the truth will question everything. The Quran says that we are to honor the prophets and believe in One God. These prophets are those in the Bible. The Old Testament of the Bible says that God has a Son. The New Testament states that those who deny the Son of God do not know the Father (1 John 2:23).
If anyone were to read both the Quran and the Bible, the logical conclusion would be that if the Quran says that we are to believe the prophets, this is what we have to do. Therefore, if the Bible says that God has a Son who has to be acknowledged in order to know the Father, following the current line of logic, this is what we ought to do. Moreover, not to see whether the Son has risen from the dead would be unscientific and evidence of a lack of genuineness in one’s quest for the truth.
From the Quran Tafsir Ibn Kathir website [1] that discusses the idea of whether Allah Honored Some Prophets Above Others we read:
Allah states that He has honored some Prophets to others. For instance, Allah said,﴿وَلَقَدْ فَضَّلْنَا بَعْضَ النَّبِيِّينَ عَلَى بَعْضٍ وَءَاتَيْنَا دَاوُودَ زَبُورًا﴾(And indeed, We have preferred some of the Prophets above others, and to Dawud We gave the Zabur (Psalms)) ﴿17:55﴾.In the Ayah above, Allah said,﴿تِلْكَ الرُّسُلُ فَضَّلْنَا بَعْضَهُمْ عَلَى بَعْضٍ مِّنْهُمْ مَّن كَلَّمَ اللَّهُ﴾(Those Messengers! We preferred some of them to others; to some of them Allah spoke (directly)) meaning, Musa and Muhammad , and also Adam according to a Hadith recorded in Sahih Ibn Hibban from Abu Dharr.﴿وَرَفَعَ بَعْضَهُمْ دَرَجَـتٍ﴾(Others He raised to degrees (of honor)) as is evident in the Hadith about the Isra' journey, when the Messenger of Allah saw the Prophets in the various heavens according to their rank with Allah.If somebody asks about the collective meaning of this Ayah and the Hadith that the Two Sahihs collected from Abu Hurayrah which states, "Once, a Muslim man and a Jew had an argument and the Jew said, `No, by Him Who gave Musa superiority over all human beings!' Hearing him, the Muslim man raised his hand and slapped the Jew on his face and said, `Over Muhammad too, O evil one!' The Jew went to the Prophet and complained to him and the Prophet said,«لَا تُفَضِّلُونِي عَلَى الْأَنْبِيَاءِ، فَإِنَّ النَّاسَ يَصْعَقُونَ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ فَأَكُونُ أَوَّلَ مَنْ يُفِيقُ، فَأَجِدُ مُوسَى بَاطِشًا بِقَائِمَةِ الْعَرْشِ، فَلَا أَدْرِي أَفَاقَ قَبْلِي أَمْ جُوزِيَ بِصَعْقَةِ الطُّورِ؟ فَلَا تُفَضِّلُونِي عَلَى الْأَنْبِيَاء»(Don't give me superiority above the Prophets, for the people will become unconscious on the Day of Resurrection, and I will be the first to be resurrected to see Musa holding on to the pillar of Allah's Throne. I will not know whether the unconsciousness Musa suffered on the Day of the Trumpet sufficed for him, or if he got up before me. So, do not give me superiority above the Prophets.) In another narration, the Prophet said, (Do not give superiority to some Prophets above others.)The answer to this question is that this Hadith prohibits preferring some Prophets above others in cases of dispute and argument, such as the incident mentioned in the Hadith. The Hadith indicates that it is not up to creation to decide which Prophet is better, for this is Allah's decision. The creation is only required to submit to, obey and believe in Allah's decision.
Essentially, what the Quran Tafsir Ibn Kathir website tells us is that what each prophet has stated, especially, Moses and David, is on a par with Muhammad. But when we read what the Bible states and then seek out God to show us the truth because we do not want to be deceived, we have to acknowledge David had two Lords.
- The Lord says to my lord: “Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool.” (Psalm 110:1)
This has to make us think how can the Prophet say that there are two Lords when God is One. Unless, of course, the Heavenly Father has a Son. This issue was raised by Jesus in the Gospels.
- But he said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is David’s son? For David himself says in the Book of Psalms, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I make thy enemies a stool for thy feet.’ David thus calls him Lord; so how is he his son?” (Luke 20:41–44)
Could a Christian, who knows Lord Jesus Christ (as I do), change his or her views? Impossible. Could a non-Christian have their eyes opened to accept the Bible? Mine were. Could a person who does not know Lord Jesus Christ read both the Bible and Quran and become a Muslim and denounce the Bible as a forgery? Certainly.
What we want to believe, we will believe. However, if we are genuinely seeking the truth, we will question everything to see whether it will hold up under scrutiny and not permit preferential bias or a closed mind to rule our thinking.
The reality is nobody asked to be born into this world. Nobody asked to be born just to die. Nobody (unless they possess eternal life) has any answers to how a life governed by death can be meaningful? It is the sign of insanity to even try. So the only way we can find the truth is to go straight to the source of Life.
Footnotes
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