The Qur'an
Challenge You
- Prophet Muhammad Is Allah's Messenger -
The real certainty about the
truthfulness of the Qur'an is evident in the confidence which is prevalent
throughout it; and this confidence comes from a different approach -
"Exhausting the Alternatives." In essence, the Qur'an states,
"This book is a divine revelation; if you do not believe that, then what
is it ?" In other words, the reader is challenged to come up with some
other explanation. Here is a book made of paper and ink. Where did it come from
? It says it is a divine revelation; if it is not, then what is its source ?
The interesting fact is that no one has with an explanation that works. In
fact, all alternatives have been exhausted. As has been well established by
non-Muslims, these alternatives basically are reduces to two mutually exclusive
schools of thought, insisting on one or the other. On one hand, there exists a
large group of people who have researched the Qur'an for hundreds of years and
who claim, "One thing we know for sure - that man, Muhammad, thought he
was a prophet. He was crazy !" They are convinced that Muhammad (SAW) was
fooled somehow. Then on the other hand, there is another group which alleges,
"Because of this evidence, one thing we know for sure is that that man,
Muhammad, was a liar !" Ironically, these two groups never seem to get
together without contradicting. In fact, many references on Islam usually claim
both theories. They start out by saying that Muhammad (SAW) was crazy and then
end by saying that he was a liar. They never seem to realize that he could not
have been both !
For example, if one is deluded and
really thinks that he is a prophet, then he does not sit up late at night
planning, "How will I fool the people tomorrow so that they think I am a
prophet ?" He truly believes that he is a prophet, and he trusts that the
answer will be given to him by revelation. As a matter of fact, a great deal of
the Qur'an came in answer to questions. Someone would ask Muhammad (SAW) a
question, and the revelation would come with the answer to it. Certainly, if
one is crazy and believes that an angel put words in his ear, then when someone
asks him a question, he thinks that the angel will give him the answer. Because
he is crazy, he really thinks that. He does not tell someone to wait a short
while and then run to his friends and ask them, "Does anyone know the
answer ?" This type of behavior is characteristic of one who does not
believe that he is a prophet. What the non-Muslims refuse to accept is that you
cannot have it both ways. One can be deluded, or he can be a liar. He can be
either one or neither, but he certainly cannot be both ! The emphasis is on the
fact that they are unquestionably mutually exclusive personal traits.
The following scenario is a good example of the kind of circle that non-Muslims
go around in constantly. If you ask one of them, "What is the origin of
the Qur'an ?" He tells you that it originated from the mind of a man who
was crazy. Then you ask him, "If it came from his head, then where did he
get the information contained in it ? Certainly the Qur'an mentions many things
with which the Arabs were not familiar." So in order to explain the fact
which you bring him, he changes his position and says, "Well, maybe he was
not crazy. Maybe some foreigner brought him the information. So he lied and
told people that he was a prophet." At this point then you have to ask
him, "If Muhammad was a liar, then where did he get his confidence ? Why
did he behave as though he really thought he was a prophet ?" Finally
backed into a corner, like a cat he quickly lashes out with the first response
that comes to his mind. Forgetting that he has already exhausted that
possibility, he claims, "Well, maybe he wasn't a liar. He was probably
crazy and really thought that he was a prophet." And thus he begins the
futile circle again.
As has already been mentioned, there
is much information contained in the Qur'an whose source cannot be attributed
to anyone other than Allah. For example, who told Muhammad about the wall of Dhul-Qarnayn
- a place hundreds of miles to the north ? Who told him about embryology ? When
people assemble facts such as these, if they are not willing to attribute their
existence to a divine source, they automatically resort to the assumption
someone brought Muhammad the information and that he used it to fool the
people. However, this theory can easily be disproved with one simple question:
"If Muhammad was a liar, where did he get his confidence ? Why did he tell
some people out right to their face what others could never say ?" Such
confidence depends completely upon being convinced that one has a true divine
revelation.
For example, the Prophet (SAW) had
an uncle by the name of Abu Lahab. This man hated Islam to such an extent that
he used to follow the Prophet around in order to discredit him. If Abu Lahab
saw the Prophet (SAW) speaking to a stranger, he would wait until they parted
and then would go to the stranger and ask him, "What did he tell you ? Did
he say, 'Black.'? Well, it's white. Did he say, 'Morning.'? Well, it's
night." He faithfully said the exact opposite of whatever he heard
Muhammad (SAW) and the Muslims say. However, about ten years before Abu Lahab
died, a little chapter in the Qur'an was revealed to him. It distinctly stated
that he would go to the Fire (i.e., Hell). In other words, it affirmed that he
would never become a Muslim and would therefore be condemned forever. For ten
years all Abu Lahab had to do was say, "I heard that it has been revealed
to Muhammad that I will never change - that I will never become a Muslim and
will enter the Hellfire. Well I want to become a Muslim now. How do you like
that ? What do you think of your divine revelation now ?" But he never did
that. And yet, that is exactly the kind of behavior one would have expected
from him since he always sought to contradict Islam. In essence, Muhammad (SAW)
said, "You hate me and you want to finish me ? Here, say these words, and
I am finished. Come on, say them !" But Abu Lahab never said them. Ten
years ! And in all that time he never accepted Islam or even became sympathetic
to the Islamic cause. How could Muhammad possibly have known for sure that Abu
Lahab would fulfill the Qur’an revelation if he (i.e., Muhammad) was not truly
the messenger of Allah ? How could he possibly have been so confident as to
give someone 10 years to discredit his claim of Prophethood ? The only answer
is that he was Allah's messenger; for in order to put forth suck a risky
challenge, one has to be entirely convinced that he has a divine
revelation.
Another example of the confidence
which Muhammad (SAW) had in his own Prophethood and consequently in the divine
protection of himself and his message is when he left Makkah and hid in a cave
with Abu Bakr during their emigration to Madeenah. The two clearly saw people
coming to kill them, and Abu Bakr was afraid. Certainly, if Muhammad (SAW) was
a liar, a forger and one who was trying to fool the people into believing that
he was a prophet, one would have expected him to say in such a circumstance to
his friend, "Hey, Abu Bakr, see if you can find a back way out of this
cave." Or "Squat down in that corner over there and keep quiet."
Yet, in fact, what he said to Abu Bakr clearly illustrated his confidence. He
told him, "Relax ! Allah is with us, and Allah will save us !"
Now, if one knows that he is fooling
the people, where does one get this kind of attitude ? In fact, such a frame of
mind is not characteristic of a liar or a forger at all. So, as has been
previously mentioned, the non-Muslims go around and around in a circle,
searching for a way out - some way to explain the findings in the Qur'an
without attributing them to their proper source. On one hand, they tell you on
Monday, Wednesday and Friday, "The man was a liar," and on the other
hand, on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday they tell you, "He was
crazy." What they refuse to accept is that one cannot have it both ways;
yet they refuse to accept is that one cannot have it both ways; yet they need
both excuses to explain the information in the Qur'an.
By Gary
Miller