Recently Sam Shamoun, a well-known belligerent and provocative Christian missionary at Answering Islam, issued a “challenge” to Muslims to prove that Jesus (peace be upon him) did not claim to be God, as per the Qur’anic statement. His challenge is two-fold :
- (1) Challenging Muslims to show where in the Qur’an Jesus says he is not God or not the Son of God.
and :
- (2) to bring the Aramaic phrase where Jesus disavows his claim to divinity.
It is obvious, however, that his demands are as preposterous as they are stupid. The Qur’an certainly quotes or paraphrases Jesus as saying that he is not God.worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of Allah"? <u>He will say: "Glory to Thee! never could I say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing Thou wouldst indeed have known it. Thou knowest what is in my heart though I know not what is in Thine. For Thou knowest in full all that is hidden. "Never said I to them aught except what Thou didst command me to say to wit
Worship Allah my Lord and your Lord’; and I was a witness over them whilst I dwelt amongst them ; when Thou didst take me up thou wast the Watcher over them and Thou art a Witness to all things.”. So basically the missionary has no case since we have here the statement of Jesus(P) who denies being God. Whether the missionary wants to believe that this is a “fictitious account”, that is not our problem. Our belief is that the portrayal of Jesus(P) in the New Testament is mostly fictitious, but it is not us making silly challenges as the Christian missionary is fond of making !
Furthermore, unlike the Bible, the Qur’an is not a historical document written over the centuries by numerous scribes who were “inspired” and was later compiled into a book. The Qur’an is an Arabic text in nature and has always been in Arabic, therefore there is no need to bring an actual statement. To demand that the words of Jesus(P) be quoted in its original language would be akin to asking an English philosopher to quote the words of Confucius in his original Chinese language to a totally American audience who does not understand Chinese !
However, since Sam Shamoun has brought this needless issue up, we would like to issue a counter-challenge to the veracity of his claims. Perhaps we might be inclined to accept his premise, and even acknowledge that Jesus is indeed “God in the flesh”, as per the Christian belief, if he and his missionary brethren are able to answer the following question :
- Show us where precisely, in Aramaic, does Jesus say that he is God or the Son of God as in “more than a man”?
We are not interested in quotations found in Greek, as it is generally accepted that the language Jesus, peace be upon him, spoke was Aramaic. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to demand the exact Aramaic statements from Jesus, peace be upon him, and word-for-word, in inverted commas.
Furthermore, we demand that this Aramaic quote, assuming if one exists, is one which all New Testament scholars deem authentic and agree upon without question, including all the critical scholars. Moreover, there should be absolutely no controversy whatsover over the interpretation and, of course, the authenticity of this verbatim Aramaic statement.
If the missionary decides to quote something in Greek, or anything the interpretation of which is disputed or the authenticity of which is disputed, he would fail to meet our challenge. We want, we repeat, a verbatim Aramaic quote, the authenticity and interpretation of which is not at all disputed, where Jesus says categorically “I am God” and where he claims to be the “the Son of God”, as in “more than a man”.
And only God knows best.

Comments
22 responses to “A Counter-Challenge to Sam Shamoun and the Christian Missionaries”
Those verses basically speak of Jesus saying that his teaching /words he did not originate from himself, but the Father. They dont make him a deity
1. Jn 14, 9
2. Jn 16, 13 – 15
3. Mt 26, 63 – 65
No problem at all…
Can you bring me the proof that Mohamed is a prophet ?
Esme
OPEN CHALLENGES TO CHRISTIANS
1.Can you bring US the Passage where Jesus says I am God.
2.Can you bring US the verse where Jesus said God is three in One.
3.Can you bring US the verse where Jesus claims to have dual natures i.e. fully man and fully God
Denis Giron is as brainless as they come. I remember his article about the islamic concept of hell and how he believes it is not scientifically sound. For example he says it is impossible for someone to burn forever in hell because the fire will soon run out of fuel or things to burn. If you think i’m making this up then here’s the quote :
“How can eternal fire be any kind of divine punishment that one should fear ? You cannot be burned for eternity. Your body only offers a given and finite amount of fuel for fire. Eventually there will be nothing left to burn.”(Denis Giron)
What a ridiculous argument, Giron seems to forget that hell is the punishment of God and God can do anything. He forgets that muslims believe God is all powerful and can do what he likes, this includes burning people for eternity in hell. God explains in the quran in the following way :
“Those who reject our Signs, We shall soon cast into the Fire : as often as their skins are roasted through, We shall change them for fresh skins, that they may taste the penalty : for Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise.” (Holy Qur’an Surah 4 verse 56)
So basically if you believe in an almighty and powerful God then such punishments are not far fetched or impossible. However, if you’re an athiest then you will believe such punishments to be impossible. Girons whole argument against the islamic concept of hell stands on one belief, the belief that God doesn’t exist. Giron fails to realise that if God truly does exist then such punishments are not impossible at all. I think Mr Giron will find that his arguments will only work the day he proves God doesn’t exist.
Who invented Trinity in the first place — is what baffled us Muslims.
Was it Paul, a Jewish pharisee (?), a heretic (?), an agent-provacteur for the Rome in leading to Jesus being persecuted (but not curcified because Iscariot was the betrayer and he was put on the cross)
Christianity vs Islaam is really about Trinity vs TAWHEED
Muslims, if you are bothered by constant Christian’s harrassing your thoughts and intending to pull you into their folds (like is warned in the Quran that Jews and Christians will not be satisified until you become astray, not necessarily converting to Christian but becoming apostate)
Then please try to stop for a while reading discussions (Internet) where these kuffars tell lies and deceive your mind. Instead, search for videos, audios, etc from the like of Allahyarham Ahmad Deedat, the wonderful speech of Syeikh Khalid Yasin, and mykuliah.com collections.
We need to debunk Christianity the way Ahmad Deedat did it lillahitaala.
This coment is for Denis Giron and Christians that say that it is clear that NT declares Jesus to be god.
Just show me where Jesus say “Iam God Almighty” thats all. Dont go to read assumptions and interpretantions and other meanings. Dont forget that being Jesus god is a the very first and the most basic teaching of Christianity, and i wonder how Jesus failed to make ONE only ONE statement that he is God„,indeed very weird ! and not only that..Just show me where Jesus taught Trinity, the word “RINITY“ever uteerd from the lips of Jesus?? Did Jesus said to the jews that for example…“Jews from now on your God is a triune god ? No!! Jesus said Your God is one God..why didnt he say your God is 3 in 1 or 1 in 3?? Jesus never claimed that he is God.. so we have :
1) Christianity claims that Jesus is God, but Jesus never said that he is God and never teached that
2) Christianity claims that God is Triune, but Jesus never said that God is Triune and never teached that.…..let us accept that Jesus said that He is God(he didnt for sure) and God is Triune(he didnt for sure) then most certainly he faild to teach and elaborate for Christians or the jews in that times about these issues.