Understanding Islam XXXIII: A Strange, Redacted, Illogical Qur’an, Part 1

One of my largest proofs that the Qur’an and therefore Islam is in error and contradictory is not in any particular verse but encompasses the entire Qur’an as a holistic whole. It is the claims that Islam makes about the Qur’an as a whole that are illogical. In the end my apologetic against the Qur’an (ironically and literally) comes down to an issue of semantics. Although semantics in most situations is petty stuff, when it comes to the revealed word or supposed revelation of a god, it becomes critical. It is critical because it is solely through words that the Islamic god chose to reveal himself to the Muslim. [[This in contrast to Christianity and the true God who chose to reveal himself through His Word and His Son in what is called Special Revelation (which Islam denies)]]. I digress….on with the post.

The Arabic word Qur'an is derived from the root qara'a, which means “to read” or “to recite.” This was the command which the angel Gabriel supposedly asked Muhammad three times to do when he confronted him in July or August 610 A.D. in the Hira cave, situated three miles north-east of Mecca (Mishkat IV p.354). According to Muslims the Qur'an is the final revelation from Allah. In Arabic the Qur'an is also referred to as Al-Kitab (the book), Al-furqan (the distinction), Al-mas'haf (the scroll), and Al-dhikr (the warning), as well as other names. Islam will claim the Qur'an is an exact word-for-word copy of God's final revelation, which is on the original tablets that have always existed in heaven. The original language of the Qur’an in Heaven is therefore Arabic. This of course begs the question: How can an eternal document that has always existed exist in a derivative form of other Semitic languages? Tablets which I might add have never been created but in actuality are divine and transcendent.

Therefore that which is divine in Islam is therefore limited to a finite language which clearly draws on preexisting Semitic norms of language. People always ask me to prove the contradictions of the Islamic belief system. Well, here’s another one to chew on. It is logically and chronologically untenable to support this Islamic claim about the Qur’an and the Arabic language needing to be the only language used to write the Qur’an (due to its supposed divine nature). Muslims continue to believe that the exact Arabic words which we find in the Qur'an are those which exist eternally on the original stone tablets, in heaven since eternity past. This, according to them, makes the Qur'an of ultimate importance as it derives from the “Mother of books” (Dura 43:3-4). This claim is clearly untenable and easily proven false as I do below.

Islam makes a claim to the “pure” nature of the Arabic that the Qur’an is written in hence the need to only translate it in Arabic. Arthur Jeffery, in his book Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur’an gathered some 300 pages documenting over one-hundred (non-Arabic) words, many of which had to have been used in pre-Qur'anic Arabic (Jeffery 1938, p79). One must wonder why these words were borrowed, as it puts doubt on whether “Allah's language” was sufficient enough to explain and reveal all that Allah had intended.

Some of these words in the Qur’an? Egyptian words: Pharaoh, in the Qur'an 84 times. Acadian words: Adam and Eden which are repeated 24 times. Assyrian words: Abraham. The correct Arabic equivalent would be Abu Raheem. Persian words: Haroot and Maroot are Persian names for angels. Sirat meaning “the path” has the Arabic equivalent, Altareeq. Hoor meaning “disciple” has the Arabic equivalent, Tilmeeth. Jinn meaning “good or evil demons” has the Arabic equivalent, Ruh. Firdaus meaning “the highest or seventh heaven" has the Arabic equivalent, Jannah. Hebrew words: Heber, Sakinah, Maoon, Taurat, Jehannim, Tufan (deluge) are all Hebrew. Greek words: Injil, which means “gospel” was borrowed, yet it has the Arabic equivalent Bisharah. Iblis is not Arabic, but a corruption of the Greek word Diabolos …and the list goes on.