Learning Christianity in Five Minutes

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5 responses to “Learning Christianity in Five Minutes”

1. 

   Laila Rasheed

   December 24, 2012

   THE COSMIC JOKE

   YOU DON’T NEED TO KNOW ARABIC TO REALIZE THAT THE QURAN IS A “COSMIC” JOKE

   SO THIS IS ALLAH’S PERFECT BOOK?

   “The Qur’an escapes from the hearts of men faster than a runaway camel.”

   Islam provides only one prime source of information on Muhammad and the formation of Islam written within two centuries of the time he lived and it was conceived. Ishaq’s Sira, or Biography, stands alone—a singular and tenuous thread connecting us to a very troubled man and time. Over the next two hundred years, other Hadith Collections were compiled by the likes of Tabari, Bukhari, and Muslim.
   Their assemblages of oral reports, or Traditions, were said to have been inspired by Allah. They purport to convey Muhammad’s words and example. They also explain the Qur’an—a book so deficient in context and chronology, it can only be understood when seen through the eyes of the Sunnah writers. Their message is all that Muslims have. Together, the Sunnah and Qur’an are Islam.

   But you don’t have to dig very deep to find the truth. Even a cursory reading of the Qur’an is sufficient to prove that it is a fraud. There is no way the creator of the universe wrote a book devoid of context, without chronology or intelligent transitions. Such a creative spirit wouldn’t need to plagiarize. He would know history and science and thus wouldn’t have made such a fool of himself. The God who created man wouldn’t deceive him or lead him to hell as Allah does. Nor would he order men to terrorize, mutilate, rob, enslave, and slaughter the followers of other Scriptures he claims he revealed, wiping them out to the last. One doesn’t need a scholastic review of the Qur’anic text to disprove its veracity. It destroys itself quite nicely.

   Tradition tells us that Muhammad had not foreseen his death, and so he had made no preparations for gathering his revelations. He left it up to his followers to sift through the conflicting versions. That’s astonishing. Islam’s lone “prophet” left his Qur’an as vapor, sound waves that had long since faded.

   Bragging one day, Muhammad called his surahs a miracle:

   Bukhari:V6B61N504 “Muhammad said, ‘Every Prophet was given miracles because of which people believed. But what I have been given is Divine Inspiration which Allah has revealed to me. So I hope that my followers will outnumber the followers of the other Prophets.’”
   If the Qur’an was his only “miracle,” why would he leave it in such horrid condition? I believe the answer is clear. Muhammad knew his recitals had been nothing more than a figment of his less-than-admirable imagination, situational scriptures designed to satiate his cravings. Preserving these recitals would only serve to incriminate him, as this Hadith suggests.

   Muslim: C24B20N4609 “The Messenger said: ‘Do not take the Qur’an on a journey with you, for I am afraid lest it would fall into the hands of the enemy.’ Ayyub, one of the narrators in the chain of transmitters, said: ‘The enemy may seize it and may quarrel with you over it.’”
   A number of Bukhari Hadith suggest that Muhammad’s companions tried to remember what they could of what he had said, but there was a problem. Like today, those who knew the Qur’an were militants. So Abu Bakr feared that large portions would be forgotten. The best Muslims were dying on the battlefield subduing fellow Arabs. In one battle alone, most of the Qur’an’s most knowledgeable reciters were lost, and many Qur’anic passages along with them.

   Bukhari:V6B60N201 “Zaid bin Thabit, the Ansari said, ‘Abu Bakr sent for me after the (heavy) casualties among the warriors (of the battle) of Yamama (where a great number of Muhammad’s Companions were killed). Umar was present with Bakr. “The people have suffered heavy casualties at Yamama, and I am afraid that there will be more casualties among those who can recite the Qur’an on other battlefields. A large part of the Qur’an may be lost unless you collect it.” I replied to Umar, “How can I do something which Allah’s Apostle has not done?” Umar kept on pressing, trying to persuade me to accept his proposal.’ Zaid bin Thabit added, ‘Umar was sitting with Abu Bakr and was speaking (to) me. “You are a wise young man and we do not suspect you of telling lies or of forgetfulness. You used to write the Divine Inspiration for Allah’s Apostle. Therefore, look for the Qur’an and collect it (in one manuscript).” By Allah, if Abu Bakr had ordered me to shift one of the mountains (from its place) it would have been easier for me than the collection of the Qur’an. I said to both of them, “How dare you do a thing which the Prophet has not done?”
   Zaid declared that collecting the Qur’an’s surahs would be an impossible task. He said that it would be easier to move mountains than to turn Muhammad’s string of oral recitals into a book. The reason for this rather troubling statement is obvious: Zaid’s search for Qur’anic passages forced him to rely upon carvings on the leg or thigh bones of dead animals, as well as palm leaves, skins, mats, stones, and bark. But for the most part, he found nothing better than the fleeting memories of the prophet’s Companions, many of whom were dead or dying. In other words, the Qur’an, like the Hadith, is all hearsay.
   There were no Muslims who had memorized the entire Qur’an, otherwise the collection would have been a simple task. Had there been individuals who knew the Qur’an, Zaid would only have had to write down what they dictated. Instead, Zaid was overwhelmed by the assignment, and was forced to “search” for the passages from men who believed that they had memorized certain segments and then compare what he heard to the recollection of others. Therefore, even the official Islamic view of things, the one recorded in their scripture, is hardly reassuring.
   Worse still, the Muslim chosen for this impossible task was the one in the best position to plagiarize the Torah and Talmud. Moreover, it’s obvious he did. Remember:

   Tabari VII:167 “In this year, the Prophet commanded Zayd bin Thabit to study the Book of the Jews, saying, ‘I fear that they may change my Book.’”
   the worse it gets.

   Bukhari:V6B61N511 “Zaid bin Thabit said, ‘I started searching for the Qur’an till I found the last two Verses of Surat At-Tauba with Abi but I could not find them with anyone other than him. They were: ‘Verily there has come to you an Apostle from amongst yourselves.’” [9:128]

   This is incriminating. The 9th surah was the second to last revealed. If only one person could remember it, there is no chance those revealed twenty-five years earlier were retained. Furthermore, this Tradition contradicts the most highly touted Islamic mantra: Most Muslims contend Uthman, not Bakr, ordered the collection of the Qur’an a decade later. And who knows what version they finally committed to paper, if in fact they ever did?

   Bukhari:V6B61N513: “Allah’s Apostle said, ‘Gabriel [whom Muhammad said had 600 wings] recited the Qur’an to me in one way. Then I requested him and continued asking him to recite it in other ways, and he recited it in several ways till he ultimately recited it in seven different ways.’”

   So there were at least seven Qur’ans.
   THE QU’RAN CHALLENGE!
   • In Bukhari’s Hadith we find a sea of disturbing and contradictory claims regarding the compilation of Allah’s book. There were differing versions, even in Muhammad’s day:

   Then Abdallah came to him, and he learned what was altered and abrogated.” This is reasonably clear. The Hadith says that portions of the Qur’an were conflicting, changed, and cancelled.

   WHY QURAN WAS WRITTEN DOWN
   • Ibn Abi Dawud, Kitab al-Masahif—Many (of the passages) of the Qur’an that were sent down were known by those who died on the day of Yamama . . . but they were not known (by those who) survived them, nor were they written down, nor had Abu Bakr, Umar or Uthman (by that time) collected the Qur’an, nor were they found with even one (person) after them.

   THE REMAINDER QURAN
   Abu Bakr decided that it was time to gather what remained of the Qur’an in order to prevent more from being lost, and he appointed Zaid ibn Thabit to this task. After Zaid completed his codex around 634 AD, it remained in Abu Bakr’s possession until his death, when it was passed on to Caliph Umar. When Umar died, it was given to Hafsa, a widow of Muhammad. (For a fuller account see Sahih al-Bukhari 4986.)

   THE “PERFECT” QURAN IS MISSING
   When Ibn Umar—son of the second Muslim caliph—heard people declaring that they knew the entire Qur’an, he said to them: “Let none of you say, ‘I have learned the whole of the Koran,’ for how does he know what the whole of it is, when much of it has disappeared? Let him rather say, ‘I have learned what is extant thereof’” (Abu Ubaid, Kitab Fada’il-al-Qur’an).

   UTHMAN’S QURAN
   During Caliph Uthman’s reign, approximately 19 years after the death of Muhammad, disputes arose concerning the correct recitation of the Qur’an. Uthman ordered that Hafsa’s copy of the Qur’an, along with all known textual materials, should be gathered together so that an official version might be compiled. Zaid ibn Thabit, Abdullah bin Az-Zubair, Sa’id bin Al-As, and Abdur-Rahman bin Harith worked diligently to construct a revised text of the Qur’an.

   Bukhari:V4B56N709 “Uthman called Zaid, Abdallah, Said, and Abd-Rahman. They wrote the manuscripts of the Qur’an in the form of a book in several copies. Uthman said to the three Quraishi persons, ‘If you differ with Zaid bin Thabit on any point of the Qur’an, then write it in the language of the Quraysh, as the Qur’an was revealed in their language.’ So they acted accordingly.”

   Because there was such confusion, Uthman ordered competing versions to be burned. But by destroying the evidence, he destroyed the Qur’an’s credibility. Now all Muslims have is wishful thinking.
   WHO BURNT THE FIRST QURANS?
   When it was finished, “Uthman sent to every Muslim province one copy of what they had copied, and ordered that all the other Qur’anic materials, whether written in fragmentary manuscripts or whole copies, be burnt” (Sahih al-Bukhari 4987). The Qur’an we have today is descended from the Uthmanic codex.

   ZAID’S QURAN REJECTED
   Muhammad once told his followers to “Learn the recitation of the Qur’an from four: from Abdullah bin Masud—he started with him—Salim, the freed slave of Abu Hudhaifa, Mu’adh bin Jabal and Ubai bin Ka’b” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3808). Interestingly, Ibn Masud (first on Muhammad’s list) held that the Qur’an should only have 111 chapters (today’s version has 114 chapters), and that chapters 1, 113, and 114 shouldn’t have been included in the Qur’an.

   FLAWED QURAN
   Due to these disputes among Muhammad’s hand-picked reciters, Muslims are faced with a dilemma. If Muslims say that the Qur’an we have today has been perfectly preserved, they must say that Muhammad was horrible at choosing scholars, since he selected men who disagreed with today’s text. If, on the other hand, Muslims say that their prophet would know whom to pick regarding Islam’s holiest book, they must conclude that the Qur’an we have today is flawed!

   2 CHAPTERS MISSING FROM THE “PERFECT” QURAN
   One of Muhammad’s companions, Abu Musa, supported this claim when he said that the early Muslims forgot two surahs (chapters) due to laziness:
   Sahih Muslim 2286

   THE PART THE GOAT EAT

   Aisha also tells us that individual verses of the Qur’an disappeared, sometimes in very interesting ways:
   Sunan ibn Majah 1944—It was narrated that Aishah said: “The Verse of stoning and of breastfeeding an adult ten times was revealed, and the paper was with me under my pillow. When the Messenger of Allah died, we were preoccupied with his death, and a tame sheep/goat came in and ate it.”
   The verses on stoning and breastfeeding an adult not in the Qur’an today.

   MISSING PASSAGES
   We know further that large sections of certain chapters came up missing. For instance, Muhammad’s wife Aisha said that roughly two-thirds of Surah 33 was lost:
   Abu Ubaid, Kitab Fada’il-al-Qur’an—A’isha . . . said, “Surat al-Ahzab (xxxiii) used to be recited in the time of the Prophet with two hundred verses, but when Uthman wrote out the codices he was unable to procure more of it than there is in it today [i.e. 73 verses].”

   • Sahih al-Bukhari 5005—Umar said, “Ubayy was the best of us in the recitation (of the Qur’an), yet we leave some of what he recites.” Ubayy says, “I have taken it from the mouth of Allah’s Messenger and will not leave it for anything whatever.”
   •
   • But Ibn Masud wasn’t the only one of Muhammad’s trusted teachers who disagreed with Zaid’s Qur’an. Ubayy ibn Ka’b was Muhammad’s best reciter and one of the only Muslims to collect the materials of the Qur’an during Muhammad’s lifetime. Yet Ibn Ka’b believed that Zaid’s Qur’an was missing two chapters! Later Muslims were therefore forced to reject some of Ibn Ka’b’s recitation:
   •
   • Ibn Masud advised Muslims to reject Zaid’s Qur’an and to keep their own versions—even to hide them so that they wouldn’t be confiscated by the government! He said:
   Jami at-Tirmidhi 3104—“O you Muslim people! Avoid copying the Mushaf and recitation of this man. By Allah! When I accepted Islam he was but in the loins of a disbelieving man”—meaning Zaid bin Thabit—and it was regarding this that Abdullah bin Mas’ud said: “O people of Al-Iraq! Keep the Musahif that are with you, and conceal them.”

   • Because of this (along with hundreds of other textual differences), Ibn Masud went so far as to call the final edition of the Qur’an a deception! He said, “The people have been guilty of deceit in the reading of the Qur’an. I like it better to read according to the recitation of him [i.e. Muhammad] whom I love more than that of Zayd Ibn Thabit” (Ibn Sa’d, Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir, Vol. 2, p. 444).

   THE BOOK FROM HELL:
   DEMONS LOVE LISTENING TO THE QURAN

   And Allaah revealed other aayahs in a separate soorah, where He says:
   “Say (O Muhammad): “It has been revealed to me that a group (from three to ten in number) of jinn listened (to this Qur’aan). They said: ‘Verily, we have heard a wonderful Recitation (this Qur’aan)!” [al-Jinn 72:1]

   MUHAMMAD HAD A DEVIL COMPANION WHO BECAME A MUSLIM

   Even the Prophet had a shaytaan with him, his constant companion (qareen) from among the jinn, in the hadeeth which says that the Prophet said:
   “There is no one among you but he has with him a constant companion (qareen) from among the jinn and a constant companion from among the angels.” They said, “You too, O Messenger of Allaah?” He said, “Me too, but Allaah has helped me against him (the devil-companion) and he has become Muslim.”

   The Koran is a book of myths, fables and fairy tales.
   Do your research! The Qur’an is a revised counterfeit of 6th century polytheism, composed of previously existing pagan beliefs, practices and fairy tales.

   For example: The Koran says men were turned into apes because they broke the Sabbath. This was a popular legend in Muhammad’s day (Suras 2:65; 7:163-166).

   The Quran repeats fanciful Arabian fables as if they were true.
   “Arabic legends about the fabulous jinns fill its pages” (G.G. Pfander, Balance of Truth, pp. 283).

   “The story of the she-camel who leapt out of a rock and became a prophet was known long before Muhammad” (Suras 7:73-77,85; 91:14; 54:29).
   The story of an entire village of people who were turned into apes because they broke the sabbath by fishing was a popular legend in Muhammad’s day (Suras 2:65; 7:163-166).
   The gushing 12 springs story found in Sura 2:60 comes from pre-Islamic legends.

   In what is called the “Rip Van Winkle” story, seven men and their animals slept for 309 years in a cave and then woke up perfectly fine (Sura 18:9-26)! This legend is found in Greek and Christian fables as well as Arabian lore.

   The fable of the pieces of four dead, cut-up birds getting up and flying was well known in Muhammad’s time (Sura 2:260).

   It is also clear that Muhammad used such pre-Islamic literature as the Saba Moallaqat of Imra’ul Cays in his composition of Suras 21:96; 29:31,46; 37:59; 54:1, and 93:1.

   Many of the stories in the Quran come from the Jewish Talmud, the Midrash, and many apocryphal works.

   This was pointed out by Abraham Geiger in 1833, and further documented by another Jewish scholar, Dr. Abraham Katsh, of New York University, in 1954 (The Concise Dictionary of Islam, p. 229; Jomier, The Bible and the Quran — Henry Regency Co., Chicago, 1959, 59ff; Sell, Studies, pp. 163ff.; Guillaume, Islam, p. 13).

   The source of Sura 3:35-37 is the fanciful book called The Protevangelion’s James the Lesser.
   The source of Sura 87:19 is the Testament of Abraham.
   The source of Sura 27:17-44 is the Second Targum of Esther.

   The fantastic tale that God made a man “die for a hundred years” with no ill effects on his food, drink, or donkey was a Jewish fable (Sura 2:259ff.).

   The idea that Moses was resurrected and other material came from the Jewish Talmud (Sura 2:55, 56, 67).

   The story in Sura 5:30,31 can also be found in pre-Islamic works from Pirke Rabbi Eleazer, the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziah and the Targum of Jerusalem.

   The tale of Abraham being delivered from Nimrod’s fire came from the Midrash Rabbah (see Suras 21:51-71; 29:16, 17; 37:97,98). It must be also pointed out that Nimrod and Abraham did not live at the same time.

   Muhammad was always mixing people together in the Quran who did not live at the same time.

   The non-biblical details of the visit of the Queen of Sheba (Saba) in Sura 27:20-44 came from the Second Targum of the Book of Esther.

   The source of Sura 2:102 is no doubt the Midrash Yalkut (chapter 44).

   The story found in Sura 7:171 of God lifting up Mount Sinai and holding it over the heads of the Jews as a threat to squash them if they rejected the law came from the Jewish book Abodah Sarah.

   The making of the golden calf in the wilderness, in which the image jumped out of the fire fully formed and actually mooed (Suras 7:148; 20:88), came from Pirke Rabbi Eleazer.

   The seven heavens and hells described in the Quran came from the Zohar and the Hagigah.

   Muhammad utilized the Testament of Abraham to teach that a scale or balance will be used on the day of judgment to weigh good and bad deeds in order to determine whether one goes to heaven or hell (Suras 42:17; 101:6-9).

   Reply
2. 

   tariq

   September 5, 2008

   Denis,

   There are a few issues with your response, let me explain the biggest one:
   The time of writing down of the Quran was in the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Different companions of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) owned various parts of the written revelation. Also the Quran was MEMORIZED in its entirety during the time of the prophet by many people. When it was compiled during the caliphate of Uthman (RA) less than 30 years after the death of the Prophet (SAW), a committee of memorisers (Hafiz) of the Quran was formed (under the chairmanship of the scribe of the Prophet (SW)- Zaid (RA), who used to write down the Quran when it was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (SAW)), then those who had pieces of the revelation were called in, and after cross verification from all these sources, the Quran was compiled. No other religion has preserved revelation from God as Islam has!

   This is the essential difference (missed by many Christians) between what is the strength of Islam and the weakness of other religions. Islam has a strong “CHAIN of NARRATION” for every document. No other religion on the face of the earth has such a verification process. We KNOW who each of the people were in that committee which compiled the Qur’an, we know their antecedents and their lifestyles. We know the opinions of their contemporaries about them, they lived their lives in the full light of history to be verified by posterity.

   The same is true for the Hadith (sayings and actions of the Holy Prophet (SAW)). When Imam Bukhari wrote his famous treatise on Hadith (it was not the first by any means), and when he quotes a saying from the Prophet (SAW), there is a chain of narrators of each saying right upto the Prophet (SAW)… “So-and-so heard from so-and-so heard from so-and-so that the Holy Prophet (SAW) said… “. We know who each of these people in the chain were, we know if they really met the people they claimed to have narrated from, we know if they were truthful or not, we know if they were forgetful or not, we know who were their teachers and we know what their contemporaries and teachers thought of them.

   All this is made possible by the science of “Asma-war-Rijaal”, and thousands of scholars over hundreds of years dedicated their lives to this science. They painstakingly compiled biographies of each and every narrator of the Hadith and analyzed and debated them under a microscope, leaving out no detail of their life. The lives of 500,000 narrators were compiled this way. And all for verifying what ONE man, our beloved Prophet (may peace and blessings of Allah (SWT) be upon him) had said or did. The masters of Hadith travelled thousands of miles to collect one saying and to verify one chain of narration from him.

   In contrast now lets take Christianity, do we know who Mark was? Do we know who taught him about Isa – Jesus (PBUH)? Do we know anything about his character or truthfulness or piety or his forgetfulness and grasp of reality? Wait, do we even know his last name? No! And is this what we are supposed to base our ultimate salvation on?

   Index of Abbreviations-
   SAW- Sallallahu ‘alayhi wa-sallam: Peace and blessings of Allah (SWT) be upon him
   PBUH – Peace be upon Him

   I apologize if I hurt someone’s feelings with this, but the issue is larger than our feelings, it is salvation itself.

   Peace
   Your brother in humanity,
   Tariq

   Reply
3. 

   Bassam Zawadi

   February 18, 2008

   that khalid yasin speech left 22 australians converting to islam http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6RllPp4Etc&feature=related

   Reply
4. 

   Musa

   December 5, 2007

   Assalamu ‘alaykum

   I send to you two little debates about Jesus and his alleged divinity

   http://www.dailymotion.com/ivoula/video/x3ns2s_is-jesus-god_news

   http://www.dailymotion.com/ivoula/video/x3nr3s_jesus-the-church-and-salvation_events

   I think, it’s interesting

   Reply
5. 

   Denis Giron

   November 7, 2007

   This struck me as being exceedingly hard to take seriously.

   For example, one premise of his argument seems to be that if a book was compiled 40 or more years after the time of Jesus, then that book is not a reliable text. Was not the traditional date for the composition for the Qur’an (significantly) more than 40 years after the time of Jesus? Would Mr. Yasin be willing to admit that this is a poor argument? Or would he prefer to merely special plead on behalf of the Qur’an?

   What is this bit about last names? Does every man on the planet even today, in the 21st century, have a first and last name? And what is that bit about all the Church Fathers agreeing that, perhaps, these were just pen name, because no man would only put his first name and “according to”? I am very confident that Mr. Yasin would not be able to list even one Church Father who stated such, unless he drastically altered the meaning of “Church Father”.

   And what serious authority, whether or Christian or not, actually believes that Paul authored all the books from Acts to the end of the New Testament? I cannot think of a single scholar, whether Christian or secular, who believes that Paul authored either of the two epistles attributed to Peter, the three epistles attributed to John, the epistles attributed to James, the epistle attributed to Jude, much less the Apocalypse attributed to John.

   He seems intent on setting up a dichotomy between what Jesus said, and what is said about Jesus in the New Testament. What is his methodology for separating the two? And, as he went through the litany of things those authors said about Jesus, why did he not include the virgin birth? Does the same sort of insinuated reasoning not apply?

   In short, and with all due respect to Mr. Yasin, I found this video to be filled with quite a few errors and instances of poor reasoning.

   Reply