Global Torah Change Conspiracy Theory It has been argued by
Islam, and other religious and secular institutions, that the Torah is
a corrupted and now irrelevant text. Lets look at this misconception
closely and discover that this claim is really a conspiracy against
God's people.
First, a great presentation:
Narrated Abu Huraira:
Allah's Apostle said, "My
similitude in comparison with the other prophets before me, is that of
a man who has built a house nicely and beautifully, except for a place
of one brick in a corner. The people go about it and wonder
at its beauty, but say: 'Would that this brick be put in its
place!' So I am that brick, and I am the last of the Prophets."
— (Book #56, Hadith #735)
Occam’s razor principle:
Occam's razor principle generally recommends when faced with competing
hypotheses that are equal in other respects, selecting the one that
makes the fewest new assumptions.
The majority of Muslim sources, as we will see in a minute,
indicate that the Torah supposedly was changed only during or after
Muhammad’s time. This is a very serious accusation! We must deal with
it circumspectly, using facts and logic, not emotions and assumptions.
As Christians, we have an answer to our potential problem with the
Biblical text.
Global Torah Change Conspiracy: After Muhammad
Here is a response that illustrates a common argument dismissing the
Torah as the Word of God:
I want to make it clear from the beginning what Muslims actually
believe. We believe that Muhammad (peace be upon him) was predicted in
the original Torah and Gospel revealed to Moses and Jesus (peace be
upon them both) respectively. Some of these prophecies happened to
remain preserved and found their way into the Bible, which also
contains much falsehood according to Islamic teachings.
Ibn Abbaas said in his commentary on Surah 2:79: (Therefore woe) severe
punishment, and it is said this means: a valley
in Hell (be unto those who write the Scripture with their hands) change
the description and traits of Muhammad (pbuh) in the Book (and then
say, " This is) in the Book that has come (from Allah " , that they may
purchase) through changing and altering it (a small gain therewith) a
small gain in terms of means of subsistence and surplus of property.
(Woe unto them) theirs is a severe punishment (for what their hands
have written) have altered (and woe unto them) and theirs is a severe
punishment (for what they earn thereby) of unlawful earnings and
bribes. (Ibn Abbaas, Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn 'Abbâs,
Commentary
on Surah 2:79, Source)
Early Qur'anic commentator Muqatil bin Sulaiman says in his
commentary on Surah 2, Verse 79:
The
leaders of the Jews in Medina erased the descriptions and traits of
Muhammad peace be upon him from the Torah, and they wrote other traits
and descriptions (Source)
Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandi (d. 373 A.H.), the well known Hanafi scholar
in his commentary of the Qur'an known as Bahr al-'Ulum on Surah 2,
verse 79 quotes Az-Zajjaj as saying:
The
leaders of the Jews erased the traits and descriptions of the
Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, then they wrote things besides his
traits and descriptions.
Imam ar-Razi said:
As
for the third evidence it is with reference to what is maintained in
the Torah and gospels concerning the Prophethood of Muhammad. The
objection to this evidence (on the Jewish and Christian side) is
whether you (Muslims) say that the description of Muhammad was written
in these books in detail; namely that Allah Almighty, made manifest
that he shall come in the coming years and in such and such country, a
person whose description shall be such and such, and so know you that
he is my messenger. On the one hand; or they say: 'No, but rather Allah
has merely referred to him briefly, without specification due to time,
place or personality.' And so if you hold on to the first claim it
false and faulty: (O, you Muslims.)" (Fakhar ad-Din ar-Razi,
Muhassal
Afkar Al-Mutaqadimin Wal Mut'akhrin (Cairo, Maktabat al-Kuliyyat
al-Azhariyya) p. 211 and Fakhr ar-Razi, Mafatih Al-Ghayb, Cairo, Dar
al-Ghad al-'Arabi, 1412 A.H. 1991 A.D. vol.3, pp.186 f, vol.9, 233,
cited here)
Thus, it is not a surprise for a Muslim to find that the predictions of
Muhammad (peace be upon him) are vague and some how isolated from the
context of the entire Bible. The reason for this is because there is
also falsehood in the Bible, which would distort the truth.
Thus, the Muslim is not required in any way to prove that Muhammad
(peace be upon him) is clearly predicted in the Bible by taking all the
verses in the Bible into consideration. This is simply the Muslim
position regardless of one likes it or not.
I found this "Muhammad in the Bible" argument to be effective with the
Jews and Christians of the Prophet Muhammad's time since many of them
still knew the true teachings of the Torah and Gospel despite its
textual corruption. These people are not here today and that is why I
personally do not use the "Muhammad in the Bible" argument.
However, one thing that I do want to show in this article is that it cannot be proven from the
Bible that Muhammad is not the one whom the
Torah and Gospel predicted to come. Despite all the
falsehood that
I believe is in the Torah and Gospels today, I would still argue that
it cannot be proven that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is clearly not
predicted at all.
WHAT?
Lets take a detailed look at what Zawadi is arguing here.
The leaders of the Jews in Medina erased
the descriptions and
traits of Muhammad(peace be upon him) from
the Torah, and they wrote
other traits and descriptions.
Zawadi observes that "it is also possible that parts of the true Torah
and Injeel [Gospel] existed until the 7th century
[during
Muhammad's time] and are not found in
the Bible today".
Yet the very scriptures of Islam paint a different picture:
And if thou (Muhammad) art
in doubt concerning that which We reveal
unto thee, then question those who
read [present tense] the Scripture (that was) before
thee. (10:94 Pickthall)
O children of Israel! call to mind My favor which I bestowed on you and
be faithful to (your) covenant with Me, …And believe in what I have
revealed, verifying that which is with you, and be not the first to
deny it, …What! do you enjoin men to be good and neglect your own souls
while you read the Book; have you then no sense?
The
apostle asked the Jews what had induced them to abandon of stoning
for adultery, when it was prescribed
in the Torah. …Then all agreed to
resort to scourging, and both the memory and practice of stoning died
out.
Then the apostle of Allah said, 'I was the first to revive the command
of Allah, His scripture, and
obedience to it.’
... That (mercy) I shall ordain for those who do right, and practice
regular charity, and those who believe in Our signs;-
"Those who follow the apostle, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find
mentioned in their own (scriptures),- in the law and the Gospel;-
for
he commands them what is just and forbids them what is evil;
Say: O followers of the Book! you follow
no good till you keep up the
Taurat and the Injeel and that which is revealed to you from
your Lord;
and surely that which has been revealed to you from your Lord shall
make many of them increase in inordinacy and unbelief; grieve not
therefore for the unbelieving people. Surely those who believe and
those who are Jews and the Sabians and the Christians whoever believes
in Allah and the last day and does good-- they shall have no fear nor
shall they grieve.
Then woe to those who write the Book
with their own hands, and then
say:"This is from Allah," to traffic with it for miserable price!- Woe
to them for what their hands do write, and for the gain they make
thereby.
Of those who are Jews (there are those who) alter words from their
places and say: We have heard and we disobey and: Hear, may you
not be
made to hear! and: Raina, distorting (the word) with their tongues and
taunting about religion; and if they had said (instead): We have heard
and we obey, and hearken, and unzurna it would have been better for
them and more upright; but Allah has cursed them on account of their
unbelief, so they do not believe but a little, you who have been given
the Book! believe that which We have revealed, verifying what you have,
before We alter faces then turn them on their backs, or curse them as
We cursed the violators of the Sabbath, and the command of Allah shall
be executed.
The Bani Israel wrote a
book, they followed it and left the
Torah.
(This hadith was
reported in Tabarani's Al Mu'jam Al
Awsat and was authenticated by Sheikh Nasr Al Deen Al Albani
in his Silsila Al Ahaadeeth Al Saheeha, hadith no. 2832.)
The Bani Israel as a long time passed and their hearts became
hardened, they invented a book
from themselves. It took over their
hearts and their tongues.
(This hadith was
reported in Al
Bayhaqi'sShu'b Al Eemaan, Volume 2, no.439. Sheikh Nasr Al Deen Al
Albani has authenticated this hadith in his Silsila Al Ahaadeeth
Al Saheeha, hadith no. 2694.)
Abdullah bin 'Abbas said: How can you ask the people of the Scriptures
about anything… Allah has told you that the people of the Scriptures have changed some of
Allah's Books and distorted it and wrote something
with their own hands.
These scriptures illustrate contradictory statements from the Qur’an:
In Sura 2(79) and 3
it possibly say that Christians and
Jews rewrite
the Torah, but in Sura 2 (40-44), 5,7, 10 and 21 Allah stated that there
is nothing wrong with the Torah what was in the possession of
the Jews
in Medina during time of Muhammad.
Please note that Sura 5 was “revealed” to Muhammad much later that Sura
2 and 3 and therefore could fall under the very important doctrine of
Abrogation. I believe that it is the most important and less understood
doctrine and in order to lean about Islam we should learn this doctrine
first.
Based on these texts we can conclude that in the days of Muhammad, the
Torah and Gospel were intact, but are claimed to have been later
corrupted by Jews and Christians. As Abdullah bin Abbas stated.
Therefore… Torah was unchanged before year 622 AD according to the
Quran.
THE 7TH
CENTURY
Muslims insist that some parts of the Torah in connection with the
future coming of Muhammad had been removed in the 7th
century AD.
Let's go back in time to the village of Al Yathrib in the year of
Hijra,
622. Muhammad had just arrived. Jews had been living in this region for
many years at this point. They had synagogues, and each synagogue had a
copy of the Torah.
Let us follow this Muslim theory and apply logic to it in order to
find out what could happened if the Torah presumably was be changed
after
or during Muhammad’s life. THE TECHNICAL ASPECT
Here is a possible scenario of this event:
»
After having encountered Muhammad and finding his arrival mentioned in
the Torah, the Jews nevertheless did not accept him as a prophet and
decided to delete this description from all the scrolls of the Torah
they possessed.
» Supposedly, all three
tribes of Jews erased these references. Since
many Jews had been expelled and dispersed to other countries, they also
brought altered copies of the Torah into Khaybar and Syria.
» At that point they would
have convinced other Jews to modify their
scrolls of the Torah so as to match their altered versions. Suppose
they had all agreed and all the scrolls had to be rewritten, (because
it is not possible just to scratch off a couple of verses or an entire
paragraph, it is necessary to rewrite scroll completely. Torah scrolls
are written on one, continuous piece of parchment). Usually it would
take about one year of hard labor to write out, by hand, just one copy
of the Torah.
TECHNICAL SPECS
º Banu Qaynuqa (one Jewish tribe) was expelled in 624 AD
º Banu Nadir (another Jewish tribe) was expelled in 625 AD
º Banu Qurayza (a third Jewish tribe) was invaded in Feb/March 627 AD
º The Battle of Khaybar, May/June 628 AD
º Torah presumably rewritten by 625 AD.
Let's choose the earliest date of expulsion of the Banu Quyanuqa tribe
in 624 AD. Let's presume that the Torah was already rewritten by 625
AD. Just one Torah scroll takes about
one year to complete.
These Jews would then have had to travel up to Syria and have
assimilated with the local Jewish communities. We could deduce that
they had also initiated the “Massive Torah Change” or MTC, in the same
year, 625 AD. This MTC must be
carried on slowly throughout all
synagogues in Syria and the Middle East, and eventually the
entire
Jewish communities found in Europe and Africa. Next would be to
move into and change the Torahs of
Jewish communities from Spain to
Egypt to Persia and beyond.
REASON WITHIN REASON
Without the internet, e-mails, or other modern methods of
intercommunication, it would have
been a very, very slow process. This would have entailed a
massive amount of work, done by
many scribes in every Jewish community from Spain on the west and Egypt
on the south, to Persia on the east and beyond. Additionally, these
Jews would have to come with an astounding
and blasphemous statement:
change the Torah. For people who did not know Muhammad, his
teachings
or anything about the man, what
possible argument could these Jews have
mustered in order to convince other tribes to commit one of the worst
forms of blasphemy against God?
Can you tell me if this is realistically possible or not?
But let us continue with the Muslim's logic…
It was not enough to change all Torahs in Jewish possessions;
Christians would have to be doing the same with their Bibles, which
contain the Torah.
CHRISTIAN BIBLES
Christians who were living at the time of Muhammad were rivals of the
Jews so they had their own Bibles with the Torah comprising the first
part of it.
Here are few of Ancient Christian Bibles:
Please bear in mind that somehow a group of Jews would have to approach
all Christians (or their leaders) and have convinced all of them to
change EVERY copy of the Torah found in the Latin Vulgate, the
Syriac
Peshitta, the Coptic, the Sahidic, the Bohairic, the Alexandrian
Septuagint (which was actually completed before the birth of Christ),
and all the Byzantine texts. This would have been a MASSIVE
undertaking! Many Christians were at odds with each other in the
7th
Century AD. The Jews would have to be able to convince some Christian
leaders or groups, and they must have been able to convince the rest of
the vast Christian world all the way from western Arabia to Britain.
And this change would have taken
place everywhere simultaneously!
Otherwise we would have still in our possession a “Correct” Torah with
Muhammad’s name in it.
All these changes MUST have been done after 625 AD and completed no
earlier than 725 AD in order to fulfill that supposition. That kind of
“conspiracy” would have required a massive
exchange of correspondence
including letters and messages across Jewish and Christians communities
from India to Spain and Britain and yet we have not even one
single
document, letter or thought, about this HUGE task that had to be done.
Do you think that every Christian and every Jew on the planet agreed
with GTCC theory and changed their Torah scrolls and their Bibles? And
no one ever rebelled and defended the True Torah and True Bible and try
at least to hide one uncorrupted copy for us to discover later? Or
leave at least one letter mentioning such a HUGE event? Do you
think
that these Christians and Jews after becoming Muslims by acknowledging
Muhammad as a prophet of God would not speak about such a conspiracy
and warn others to abstain from changing Bibles and Torahs?
Logically speaking we must find a lot of materials concerning this
conspiracy, but yet there no revert who spoke about it!
There exists many letters and chronicles from these centuries but
nothing at all in reference to this vast conspiracy to alter the Torah.
Not only are Jewish and Christian sources absolutely silent about it,
but also…Muslim sources. Then Muslims also are considered to be part of
this Global Torah Change Conspiracy (GTCC). Correct? A MATTER OF FACT
History preserved for us many letters and documents describing in
details every “schism” among Christian patriarchs and bishops.
We know all shameful quarrels among many Christians sects, wars between
Byzantine Empire against Monophysites of North Africa and Levant in
the 5th and 6th
century, Iconoclast event in 8th century when many nuns and
priests as well as peasants were killed by Byzantine army trying to
defend Icons in Orthodox Churches. It lasted for two centuries.
We know
from contemporary sources a lot of awful details of atrocities,
committed by Catholic Crusaders in the name of Christ. I am sure that
all of you know about the Inquisition. Many Christians wish that these
events had never happened, but they are historical facts, no one will
dear deny them. We have huge amount of written documents covering all
what happened during these centuries from Christian, Jewish and Muslims
historians… But no letter, no thought was ever found what would support
even remotely Global Torah Change Conspiracy… Isn't that interesting?
While I ask my Muslim
friends to think about logical answer to this
technical issue of the GTCC theory they are so eager to defend they
have no answer. Lets look at another aspect of the GTCC theory and how
it has been disproven.
ANOTHER TEXTUAL ASPECT
Even if this could really have been achieved, there remains another
huge problem with the Muslim theory of Torah corruption, as it is
stated:
The leaders of the Jews in
Medina erased the descriptions and
traits of Muhammad(peace be upon him) from the Torah, and they wrote
other traits and descriptions.
All the Christian texts mentioned here are available for investigation
to researchers today, either in parts or entire works in physical
manuscripts whose ages have been dated accurately.
I will only mention few of them…
TECHNICAL SPECS:
CHRISTIAN BIBLES
º Coptic Bible
º Latin Vulgate
º Syriac Peshitta
º Armenian Bible
º Byzantine texts
º Hebrew Scriptures
As you can see, these manuscripts are
dated mainly 4th and 5th century AD
and we have them in our possession today. Ancient copy
of Coptic Bible Latin Vulgate: Late 4th-century translation
The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin
translation of
the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was
commissioned by Pope Damascus I in 382 to make a revision of
the old Latin translations. By the 13th
century, this revision had
come to be called the version vulgata, that is, the "commonly used
translation", and ultimately it became the definitive and
officially promulgated Latin version of the Bible in the Roman
Catholic Church.
An ancient
copy of Old Latin Text Syriac Peshitta: 2nd
century AD
The Old Testament of the Peshitta was translated
into Syriac from the Hebrew, probably in the 2nd
century
AD.
F. Crawford Burkitt concluded that the translation of the Old
Testament was probably the work of Jews, of whom there was a colony
in Edessa about the commencement of the Christian
era. The older view was that the translators were Christians,
and that the work was done late in the 1st
century or early in the 2nd.
The Old Testament known to the early Syrian church was the genesis of
the modern Palestinian Jews' text. It contained the same number of
books but it arranged them in a different order.
An ancient
copy of Syriac Peshitta Text Armenian Bible: Early 5th
century translation
(This version, now in
use in the Armenian Church, was completed about 434.)
The Armenian Bible is due to Saint Mesrob's early 5th
century translation. The first monument of Armenian literature is the
version of the Holy Scriptures. Isaac, says Moses of Chorene, made a
translation of the Bible from the Syriac text about 411. This work must
have been considered imperfect, for soon afterwards John of Egheghiatz
and Joseph of Baghin were sent to Edessa to translate the Scriptures.
They journeyed as far as Constantinople, and brought back with them
authentic copies of the Greek text. With the help of other copies
obtained from Alexandria the Bible was translated again from the Greek
according to the text of
the Septuagint and Origen's Hexapla.
Byzantium
Texts: Fourth century
After the fourth century, different types of text were popular in the
East, but the Byzantine text "almost wholly displaced the rest.“The
Byzantine text-type has by far the largest number of surviving
manuscripts. There are at least 522 manuscripts in the Institute for
New Testament Textual Research in Münster, Germany.
Ancient
Byzantine manuscripts
Here is just partial list of ancient manuscripts available for the
public at large to inspect.
•Codex Boreelianus
•Codex Alexandrinus
•Codex Ephraemi
•Codex Washingtonianus
•Codex Guelferbytanus B
•Codex Basilensis
•Codex Seidelianus
•Codex Angelicus
•Codex Mosquensis
•Codex Macedoniensis
•Codex Koridethi
•Codex Vaticanus
TECHNICAL SPECS:
JEWISH SCRIPTURES Alexandrian
Septuagint: First centuries BC
The Septuagint, the ancient (first centuries BC) Alexandrian
translation of Jewish scriptures into Koine Greek, later separated into
the Hebrew Bible and Biblical Apocrypha by Protestants, exists in
various manuscript versions.
Jewish
Scriptures; Dead Sea Scrolls: 250 BC to 68 AD
Dating from around 250 BC to 68 AD, the scrolls include about 207
biblical manuscripts representing nearly all of the books in the Hebrew
Bible (Christian Old Testament) except the book of Esther.
Approximately 900 scrolls were discovered.
CLEAR AND VISIBLE TRUTH
It is abundantly evident that the afore-mentioned manuscripts are dated
well before birth of Muhammad. It would have been absolutely impossible
for Jews and Christians in the 7th and 8th centuries to have
changed
the Torah by erasing all references and all description of
Muhammad from these manuscripts, unless they could have used a
time machine. You may disagree with me, I understand that, but I think
that they did not have one in their
possession during Muhammad’s era,
nor does one exist today.
In addition, all these Christian manuscripts are virtually the same in
comparison with modern texts found in our Bibles. They
differentiate
among themselves in certain words and verses, but the stories remain
identical and consistent in their descriptions.
Therefore, ancient manuscripts are in virtual agreement with themselves
and with our Bibles as well.
TECHNICAL SPECS:
EARLY CHURCH FATHERS WRITINGS FROM THE 1ST, 2ND
AND 3RD CENTURIES
Even if had no manuscript of the New Testament survived till our days, we could reconstruct it
entirely except 11 verses using quotations
taken from letters being written by so called "early Church fathers."
º Clement (Rome)-96 AD
º Ignatius (Antioch)-35-110 AD
º Polycarp (Smyrna) – 69-155 AD
º Irenaeus (Lyons) – 200 AD
º Clement (Alexandria) – 157-216 AD
º Origen (Alexandria) – 185-254 AD
º Athanasius (Alexandria) – 293-373 AD
º Macrina the Younger (Cappadocia) -324-379AD
We have in our possession many volumes of writings – letters by these
men. As I said entire our New Testament could be reproduced by using
their quotations. Strangely none of
them contains any description of
Muhammad or his name.
Nevertheless, Muslim sources insist that name of Muhammad was in the
Torah and the Gospel in 7th century AD:
The leaders of the Jews in Medina erased the descriptions and
traits of Muhammad(peace be upon him) from the Torah, and they wrote
other traits and descriptions.
Zawadi observes that "it is also
possible that parts of the true Torah
and Injeel [Gospel] existed until the 7th century [during
Muhammad's time] and are not found in the Bible today".
There was a Muslim who declared confidently that the Torah and the
Gospel had been changed. Ibn Khazem, who was born in Cordoba and died
in 1064 AD, made the claim that the Bible (the Gospel, in this
particular case) had been corrupted. Let us carefully examine his
reasoning, it will help us to identify the source of Global Torah
Change Conspiracy Theory. This is what he said:
IBN-KHAZEM
In his defense of Islam against Christians, Ibn-Khazem came up against
the contradictions between the Qur'an and the Gospels. One obvious
example was the Qur'anical text `They slew him not and they crucified
him not' (Sura 4:156). "Since the Qur'an must be true," Ibn-
Khazem
argued, "it must be the conflicting
Gospel texts that are false. But
Muhammad tells us to respect the Gospel. Therefore, the present text
must have been falsified by the Christians... The Christians lost the
revealed Gospel except for a few traits which Allah has left intact as
argument against them."
It looks as if it was approximately 400 years after the death of
Muhammad when the Global Torah Change
Conspiracy (GTCC) was conceived!
It is clear that Ibn-Khazem erroneously concluded that Christians must
have falsified their Gospel simply
because the Qur’an and the Gospel
are in disagreement with each other.
But Muhammad told Muslims to respect the Gospel. Therefore according to
Ibn-Khazem, the Gospel as it existed during the days of Muhammad
should have been intact and unchanged until sometime afterward.
I bet he never thought about these logical and historical problems that
such a conclusion could bring.
TWOLOGICAL AND ONEHISTORICALPROBLEM
Jews from Al Yathrib eventually convinced all other Jews in the known
world to rewrite their Torahs.
In order to complete the job, they must have convinced all Christians
to apply the same changes to their Bibles (the Torah section).
Jewish, Christians and Muslims sources MUST have some kind of evidence
to this conspiracy.
Khazem must have never heard about the existence of ancient manuscripts.
Christian
manuscripts = the Truth from God » NO corrupted
manuscripts, » NO letters of reference,
» NO personal
testimonies, » NO correspondence
indicating a conspiracy.
If this was the case, we would have to conclude that all those ancient
Christian manuscripts MUST have contained the Truth from God,
well-preserved before the first corruption or alteration was ever made
in connection with Muhammad in 7th
century AD.
However, we can’t find any
manuscripts,
letters of reference, personal
testimonies, or correspondence pointing to such a conspiracy. I
should
say, absolutely nothing even vaguely referring to Muhammad ever
appeared in all these ancient scrolls and manuscripts.
How now we justify GTCC theory? We have one more option:
THE 250 BC CLAIM
The date of alleged change of the Torah might have occurred from the
year 624 AD to around rather than about 250 BC, in order to be at least
in agreement with the undeniable historical facts. Can this date be
substantiated?
Let us read Muslim sources:
Adbullah bin Sallam:
O Jews, fear Allah and accept what He has sent you. For by Allah you
know that he is the apostle of God. You
will find him described in your
Torah and even named. I testify that he is the apostle of God, I
believe in him, I hold him to be true, and I acknowledge him.
Obviously if Muhammad is in a present tense Torah according to the
Quran, those changes could not have been made 850 years earlier.
A few more examples:
Ibn Hisham, Seera Rasool Allah:
While the apostle was in Mecca some twenty Christians came to him from
Abyssinia when they heard news of him…
When they heard the Quran their eyes flowed
with tears, and they accepted God's (Or, `his call'.) call, believed in
him, and declared him truth.
They recognized in him the things
which had been said of him in their
scriptures.
Narrated by Al Fultaan ibn A'asim:
Muhammad said: Do you bear witness that I am the Messenger of Allah? He
said: No. The Prophet peace be upon him said: Do you read the Torah? He
replied back: Yes. Then the
Prophet peace be upon him asked: and the Gospel? The man
replied: Yes. The Prophet
peace be upon him then asked: The
Qur'an? The man
replied back: No. ... Then the
Prophet peace be
upon him pulled the man and asked: Don't
you find me in the Torah and
Gospel?
We have clear evidence form the Quran itself disproving the 250 BC
corruption theory.
FACTS ON TOP OF FACTS
There are some other discrepancies that we can located in the Quran
that contradict the unchanged Torah and Gospels:
Narrated by Al Fultaan ibn A'asim:
The man replied back and said: We
find someone who is similar to you
and your Ummah (community) and from
the place where you were brought up
and we were hoping that you would be
from amongst us. When you rose up
(as a Prophet) we were afraid that it would be you. However, we looked
and saw that it wasn't you. The Prophet peace be upon him replied back
asking: Why is that? The man said: From
him will be 70,000 of his
followers from his community who will have no judgment passed on them
nor punishment but you have a simple number of men following
you. The
Prophet peace be upon him replied back: By He Whose Hand my soul lies
it is me and it is
referring to my Ummah (community). And they are more
than 70 thousand, 70 thousand, 70 thousand.
(This hadith has
been
declared authentic by Sheikh Albani in Saheeh Al Muwaarid, page or
hadith no. 1765)
Note how the man informed
the Prophet (peace be upon him) that one of
the signs of the Prophet to come according to the Torah or Gospel is
that the Prophet will have 70,000 followers who will enter paradise
with no judgment passed on them.
Where do we see this great
event in today's Torah or Gospel? It is nowhere, thus
indicating that it has been removed from the text,
which in turn implies textual corruption.
Muslims are correct, our Torah or Gospel do not mention 70,000
followers of Muhammad or of anyone else for that matter, but there are
mentioned in…
The Prophet said,…
"The people were displayed in front of me.. And then I looked and saw a
large multitude of people, so I asked Gabriel, "Are these people my
followers?' He said, 'No, but look towards the horizon.' I looked and
saw a very large multitude of people. Gabriel said. 'Those are your
followers, and those are seventy
thousand (persons) in front of them
who will neither have any reckoning of their accounts nor will receive
any punishment.' I asked, 'Why?...
Interesting, is not it, here is a source of information about
mysterious 70, 000 Muslims – an “angel” showing to Muhammad in a dream
and explaining to him… for the first time. Muhammad never before this
heard about it. He asked a question. In another Hadith Muhammad
speaking before Muslims and relaying that info to them:
Narrated Sahl bin Sa'd:
The Prophet said, "Seventy-thousand or seven-hundred thousand of my
followers (the narrator is in doubt as to the correct number) will
enter Paradise holding each other till the first and the last of them
enter Paradise at the same time, and their faces will have a glitter
like that of the moon at night when it is full."
Now, according to the Hadith where a non-Muslim tells Muhammad about
70,000 of his followers; this information must be preserved in the
Torah in the days of Muhammad. Wherefore we can come to a reasonable
conclusion.
A REASONABLE CONCLUSION
The Torah could not have been changed BEFORE the year 622 AD!
And Islam has even more problems; a contradictory statement from other
Muslim source:
Narrated by Sa'eed ibn Juabair:
Ibn Abbaas said: The kings after
the time of Jesus the son of Mary peace be upon him substituted the
Torah and Gospel and there used to be amongst them believers who
were
reading the Torah. It was said to the kings: We do not find an
insult greater than the insult of those that read "And those who do not
rule by what Allah has revealed, they are disbelievers" and their
recitation of these similar kind of verses which they shame us with in
our daily activities. So tell them to read just as what we read
and let
them believe just as we believe.' So the king summoned them and
gathered them together. He proposed either death to them or that
they leave the recitation of the Torah and Gospel except what
they
substitute in place of it.
[(Sunan
Al Nisaa'i, hadith no.
5305), Sheikh Nasr Al Deen Al Albani authenticated this narration
in Sunan Al Nisaa'i, hadith no. 5400]
Is not it interesting how Qur’an and Muslims call Jesus a “son of a
woman” while the Bible and Jesus himself called him “the Son of man”
And the name of Jesus in Hebrew is sounds like Yeshua, and in proper
Arabic -Yasua, but the Qur’an and all Muslims called him by a strange
name Essa (Isa) – sounds like a name of Esau, brother of Jacob? But
that's another rabbit hole altogether.
Let us read Muslim explanation of Sunan Al Nisaa'i, hadith no. 5305.
Here we see that Ibn Abbaas talks about how the kings of the past used
to force people to switch to their corrupted version of the scriptures.
Clearly indicating that their scriptures contained writings, which were
false, thus the scriptures that the masses were using were textually
corrupted. Since the kings forced the people to switch to their
scriptures or had them killed, this meant that the true uncorrupted
scriptures became lost or possibly remained safe with a very few number
of people, but it seems clear that the corrupted copies were
distributed more widely.
First of all, Ibn Abbaas suddenly became a scholar in ancient Torah…
and Muslims rely on his statements.
Secondly, we have a clear scriptural contradiction:
1. Some Muslim sources tells us with confidence that Jews and
Christians changed their Torahs AFTER meeting with Muhammad but this
particular Muslim source tells us that Torah and Gospel was changed
long before Muhammad was ever born, but some times after the birth of
Jesus.
2. The last
statement by Ibn Abbas we conclude that Torah and Gospel
was changed in parts where they condemn evil style of living of unnamed
kings (strangely coming together and together addressing to unnamed
group of Christians and Jews) but other Muslim sources tells us that
the Torah was changed ONLY in connection with the name of Muhammad.
3. As we could
clearly see from Today’s Torah and the Bible, all
righteous rebukes by God are still intact and in fact condemning not
only certain kings in the past but many people even today in our
society. So, what was changed? If 10 Commandments are still in our
modern Torah, why did these mysterious kings not remove them? Or maybe
Ibn Abbaas thought that it was 12 Commandments or 14 and only 10 were
left in the “corrupted” Torah? Can Ibn Abbaas statement could be
supported by evidence rather just by his words which contradicts other
Muslim scholars?
4. As you know,
most of Jewish people do not believe that Jesus was the
Messiah. The Old Testament has many predictions about coming of Messiah
which we apply to Christ, especially Isaiah
53, Book of Daniel 9, etc.
Jewish people in synagogues are not reading this chapter of Isaiah,
they do not study Daniel 9.
But they do not dare to
take these very
inconvenient chapters from THEIR Tanah (Torah). They try simply to
avoid them or misinterpreted them. But never to destroy them, simply
because they believe that the entire Tanah is from God. Please tell me,
why they decided to change Tanah in connection with Muhammad, but kept
everything about Jesus intact, so we can easily find Him on the pages
of their Scrolls? It is a very big inconsistency on their behalf.
Ancient manuscripts do not
contain any mention of: » 70,000 followers » Arabia as his birthplace
All Ancient
manuscripts, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint,
Christian Bibles, and Early Church Fathers writings make no mention of
Muhammad either by description or by name, or of his 70,000 followers
or Arabia as his birthplace. Therefore, Muslims need to shift back in
time their claim that the Torah would have been changed in 624 AD,
to a
new time period as early as 250 BC. But in doing so, they would render
the statement by Adbullah bin Sallam and Hadith Al Fultaan ibn A'asim,
how can it be said politely, unreliable.
Neither Jesus, nor His disciples, nor early Christians believed the
Torah was unreliable.
We will never find any statement
uttered by Jesus, his disciples or any
early Christians that the Torah was unreliable.
It makes the Global Torah Change
Conspiracy (GTCC) all the more
illogical.
CHRISTIAN AUTHORS AGREE —
BIBLES AGREE
No Christian author up to the 7th century
ever accused the Jews of
corrupting their Torah, and the Christian Bibles from that time period
are in agreement with their Jewish counterparts, that is, the scrolls
of the Tanakh.
So, we can make a simple conclusion based on these facts: » No ancient scrolls
mention Muhammad » Since Muslim sources
allege that the Torah had been corrupted only
during or after the 7th century AD, why do
none of the ancient scrolls
of the Torah in Hebrew, Greek, Armenian, Georgian, Syriac, Latin and
Coptic languages found in Jewish and Christian possession all across
the known world, predating the birth of Muhammad, make mention at all
of Muhammad, either by name or by description? » Where did Abdullah bin
Sallam see any mention
of Muhammad in the Torah? Where in the Bible is the reference to the
70,000 followers of Muhammad? We do not have these references in our
modern-day Bibles and these Bibles are virtually identical to all known
ancient manuscripts.
The Torah could never have
been changed in the 7th century!
GOD CONTRADICTS HIS OWN
WORD?
There is another claim made that Jews predicted the coming of Muhammad
and preemptively removed his name from the Torah. Who could have had
the foreknowledge to remove references to Muhammad hundreds of years
BEFORE he became a prophet?
Does that make any sense? Or are we just walking down longer and wider
roads of insanity?
In order to conduct the fraud of GTCC of such global proportions (such
as removing part or parts of the Torah from ALL Jewish scrolls across
the Europe and Asia, and from ALL Christian Bibles in different
languages) it would be virtually impossible to do now and even more
impossible in the 7th century AD, and
certainly not even 250 BC.
Massive change before the 2nd century BC in
ALL Torahs EVERYWHERE
BUT the Qur’an, the Hadith and Sira speak of an uncorrupted Torah.
CONTRADICTION!
These kinds of MASSIVE changes EVERYWHERE in EVERY Torah had to be
enacted no later than the 2nd century BC;
therefore no Jew and no
Christian for almost 800 years before Islam was created would have had
a reliable Torah in their hands.
Yet the Qur’an, the Hadith and Sira clearly speak of an uncorrupted
Torah being in Jewish and Christian possession even in Al Yathrib in
the 7th century AD.
Is there historical
evidence of any such change?
Can any Muslim produce even some tiny historical evidence equal to that
which can be found contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Septuagint,
the Syriac, the Coptic, the Armenian, the Byzantium and other ancient
Bibles in order to prove that it was indeed some OTHER Torah in
circulation?
There is no
such ancient document!
There is not any single ancient scroll with that kind of description.
There is NO mention of the existence of such a Gospel among any
historical documents dated prior to the birth of Muhammad .
As a matter of fact, we have many so called “Apocrypha Gospels” dated
200-300 AD.
NONE of them have any description of 70,000 Muslims or Muhammad
himself.
“Apocrypha Gospels” dated 200-300 AD.
1. NONE have any
description of 70,000 Muslims or Muhammad himself. Isn’t that strange?
2. A change to the Torah in 250BC necessitates the unreliability
of the Hadith and Sria Rasool Allah
If the date of the alleged corruption of the Torah supposedly happened
in 250 BC, rather than in 624 AD, then the Hadith and Sira Rasool
Allah would have to be declared as unreliable.
As I understand, it can’t be done.
Therefore there is only one possible logical explanation remaining:
3. Two different copies must have existed simultaneously in 250 BC
Somehow at least two different copies of the Torah must have
simultaneously existed in 250 BC. One would have contained a complete
description of Muhammad, the other would not. Not only the Torah, but
parallel Gospels as well would have had to contain a description
referring to the 70,000 Muslims and the Torah with the name of
Muhammad in it.
Let us look into this option… 250 BC
In order for this third option to have legitimate and logical right to
exist, we must make an assumption that must have been TWO Torahs in 250
BC.
The “Common Torah” = the Dead Sea Scrolls
Let’s call the Torah found in the Dead Sea Scrolls – the “Common
Torah”.
The “Muslim Torah” = the second Torah
We’ll call the second Torah with the name Muhammad in it –the “Muslim Torah”.
The “Changed
Muslim Torah” = an altered “Muslim Torah”
As we saw historically, the “Common Torah”
had not being changed during
2,260 years and survived completely intact in the pages of our modern
Bibles. This fact leave us with only option:
The “Muslim
Torah” supposedly was in the possession of Jews in Al
Yathrib during the time of Muhammad. This “Muslim Torah” would have to
be the one that supposedly changed. Let’s call this new Torah- the
“Changed
Muslim Torah”.
As a matter of fact, if we will trust Sira Rasool Allah, we must
conclude that even Christians from Abyssinia had in their possession
the Gospel with description of Muhammad.
Here is a chart 3 Torahs supposedly being in existence from 250 BC
until
today.
» 250 BC Common Torah —
250 BC Muslim Torah » 400-500 AD Common Torah
— 622 AD Changed Muslim Torah » 10/25/2011 Common Torah
— 10/25/2011 Changed Muslim Torah
“Muslim Torah”
contains name of Muhammad and 70,000 Muslims
Abdullah Bin Sallam and Christians have a “Muslim Torah”
Ibn Khazem has a “Changed Muslim
Torah”
All Christians since the 11th century have only a “Changed Muslim
Torah”
Then we could say that Abdullah Bin Sallam read the name of
Muhammad written in the “Muslim Torah”,
and Christians also
read about the 70,000 Muslims in the same Torah or Gospel, but Ibn
Khazem had the “Changed Muslim Torah” and Bin Abbas also referred to it
(Volume 9, Book 93, Number 614).
Also, ALL Muslims since the 11th century absolutely and confidently
claim to Jews and Christians that they have in their possession the
“Changed
Muslim Torah”.
They say to me straightforwardly: “Your Torah had been changed!”.
Correct?
So, according to modern Muslims, we now have a “Changed Muslim
Torah”
in our era.
But in reality, Christians and Jews have only the “Common Torah”
Here it is on the chart. Our “Common Torah” that appears in modern
Bibles is virtually identical to the ancient Torah scrolls found in the
Dead Sea Scrolls 250 years before the birth of Christ and 820 years
before the birth of Muhammad. And it is identical in Christians
Ancient Bibles in 4th to 6th
century AD as well.
Today’s Torah has remained virtually unchanged for over 2,260 years
The Torah that we have today has never been changed over the past 2,260
years!
We do not have other one!
We never did!
"Changed
Muslim Torah” = unsubstantiated
“Common Torah”
= proven authentic
Muslims unwillingly agree with this statement by saying that we have
now the “Changed
Muslim Torah”, but textual, historical and
archeological facts prove that we really have only the “Common Torah”.
The “Common
Torah” readily available
“Changed
Muslim Torah” does not exist
We are referring to the same Torah, but simply using different names…
So, the facts tell us that we have in our possession today, the “Common Torah”
and nobody has the “Changed Muslim
Torah” in his/her possession,
as of and up until today.
Therefore, we do not have in our possession the “Changed Muslim
Torah”,
we have only the “Common Torah”.
So, what is there to say about the “Changed Muslim
Torah”? There is no
evidence and no proof for this particular Torah to exist anywhere on
this planet during any century! All what Christians and Jews had
in 7th century was a Common Torah, not a
Changed Muslim Torah!
“Changed
Muslim Torah” never existed
And if this is true, then the “Changed Muslim
Torah” never existed in
the first place!
Now we could replace this unreliable name of the “Changed Muslim
Torah”
with a reliable one – the “Common Torah”!
And if this is true, there would be nothing to change in the “Common
Torah” before Muhammad was ever born! The “Common Torah” has never been
changed in 2,260 years of its existence. Because there is no such book
as the “Changed
Muslim Torah” there is also no evidence and no proof to
support the existence of the “Muslim Torah”.
And if this is true, then the so-called “Muslim Torah”
never existed in
the first place! Its existence simply defies all logic.
Muhammad had in his hands the same Torah as is available today
For all these years, Jews and Christians had only the “Common Torah”
and that was the one that Muhammad held in his hands!
Why do modern Muslims agree with Ibn Abbaas and Ibn Khazem, but
disagree with Muhammad? Why Modern Muslims do not follow
Muhammad and teaching of the Qur’an? And why they are going against
historical, archaeological facts and against a simple logic?
It is impossible to defend such claim of the Torah being corrupted at
ANY time in history!
Therefore, using facts and logic we could put aside the third option as
also unreliable.
GOSPEL OF BARNABAS? FRAUDULENT!
In order to fill the blank, someone produced the so-called “Gospel of
Barnabas”, a very interesting document!
I highly recommend everyone to read it. You will have a good time, I
assure you! Especially in part of circumcision and creation of dog and
Adam.
By the way, the name of Muhammad appeared 17 times in this so-called
“gospel”. This “gospel” denounced the written Torah as a work of
Rabbis, called Ishmael not Isaac the promised seed etc. This “gospel”
is so Muslim in a contrast with every other Gospels and even the
Apocrypha, that even it is not correct to talk about it seriously.
Its existence simply proves that certain Muslims were so desperate to
justify the existence of the GTCC and could not find any support in
ancient manuscripts and in modern Torahs and Bibles, so they committed
simple fraud by writing such a “Gospel”.
Unsubstantiated in any
court of law!
How can such an outlandish claim still be insisted upon? Does
this make any sense? If such an accusation were brought to a court of
law they who will do it would lose, trying to defend this theory!
While I ask my Muslim friends to think about logical answer to this
question, I will continue.
THE BIG PROBLEM
Prerequisite: The Torah and entire Old Testament must be true
Therefore: Christianity
and the New Testament are true
In order for Christianity and the New Testament to be true, it is a
prerequisite that the Torah and the entire Old Testament be considered
true.
Since Christianity claims to be the subsequent and complete revelation
from the same God of the Old Testament, it must be supported by the Old
Testament. In the same way that the second floor of a two-storey
building must totally rely on the first floor as its support.
If Muhammad said that Islam is a further and complete revelation from
the same God, then Islam absolutely must rely on the Torah, the Old
Testament and New Testament, as if they were three parts of the same
structure. The third floor of the building would be Islam, with the
roof, being totally supported by the building’s foundation and its two
lower floors.
Allah and Muhammad never said that all previous Scriptures must be
disregarded.
All three must make sense together, and be logical in its entirety.
Let’s read again what Muhammad said:
Narrated Abu Huraira:
Allah's Apostle said, "My similitude in
comparison with the other prophets before me, is that of a man who has
built a house nicely and beautifully,
except for a place of
one brick in a corner. The people go about it and
wonder at
its beauty, but say: 'Would that this brick be put in its
place!' So I am that brick,
and I am the last of the Prophets."
…built a house nicely and beautifully
…except for the place of one brick in a corner
…I am that brick
As Muhammad clearly stated, he did not come to build a new
house/religion, he simply is the last “brick” among many in the already
NICELY AND BEAUTIFULLY build house.
Muhammad here endorses Jewish and Christian Scriptures and Religions as
standing True in his own days. And he completely relied on its support.
His claim made sense only if he was indeed the last in the line of
biblical prophets… but.
ANOTHER MUSLIM PARADOX:
In order for the Qur’an to be the true book from God in the eyes of
modern Muslims such as all of you, it demands to consider the Torah,
the Old Testament and the New Testament ALL to be wrong!
Is the Torah, Old Testament, and the New Testament erroneous? Yet Islam
confidently asserts that we all believe in one God, as it is
written in the Qur’an:
We believe in that which
hath been revealed unto us and revealed unto
you; our Allah and your Allah is One!
The modern Muslim “Global Torah Change Conspiracy” undermines the very
words of Muhammad himself in the Hadith and words of Allah in the
Qur’an.
DOES THIS MAKE LOGICAL
SENSE?
The facts contradict the “Global Torah Change” conspiracy
This “Global Torah Change Conspiracy” theory can’t be proven because
simple logic, historical facts, textual facts and archeological facts
contradict it.
It has no common sense to support it!
What is the possible explanation for this paradox?
Occam’s razor principle
Occam's razor principle, which generally recommends, when faced with
competing hypotheses that are equal in other respects, selecting the
one that makes the fewest new assumptions.
Do you remember the question at the beginning of this presentation,
“Could the Global Torah Change Conspiracy Theory be the only correct
one, or could it be that the Jews and Christians have never corrupted
their Torahs and this theory is therefore false?”
Which one of these two conflicting ideas have “the fewest new
assumptions”, according to Occam’s razor principle? The GTCC? Or an
unchanged Torah?
I think that in order for the GTCC to be correct, we need to bring in
many assumptions to support it. But these assumptions are not even
supported by historical, textual, archeological facts and simple logic.
They have many problems within themselves. To the contrary, to prove
that the Torah had never been changed, all we need is to bring all the
facts mentioned above and they will absolutely, undeniably support our
claim that Torah has never been changed. In this case there are no
unreliable assumptions.
Therefore, the GTCC has no “legs” to stand on, as a legitimate
theory. It remains only a wishful fantasy.
GTCC IS A WISHFUL FANTASY
I strongly suggest to you, my Muslim friends, to consider it very
seriously.
Do not try to defend false theory, do not try to justify wrong
position, do not support fantasy, do not reject logic and common sense,
but
simply look into all the historical and scriptural facts in order to
make the only one logical and correct decision, because hellfire in the
hereafter is very real and we, as Christians, do not want any of you,
our dear Muslim friends, to dwell in it for eternity.
If you really consider the following four questions you will find that
they are impossible to answer without the Living Word Jesus Christ and
the truth found in our unchanged Torah and Gospels. They are:
1. How could ALL Christians and ALL
Jews have simultaneously changed
their Torahs? 2. Why do all
ancient manuscripts which predate the birth of Muhammad
not mention his name anywhere? 3. Why are ALL
Muslims absolutely sure that we have changed the Torah
in 7th century, but in reality we have the
same Torah as all the
ancient manuscripts? 4. Why does Islam
claim to be “the last religion”, but rules two prior
religions, Judaism and Christianity, to be condemned to hell?
May you come to glorify Jesus
Christ in your life, Alex