Contradictions In The Qur’an

It is important to remember that the only source of Islam is Muhammad. No one else can validate what he said, and no one else received any revelation from Allah.

There is no claim in the Bible that it was given all at once. We know that it was given by different people over a long period of time. There are some 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament.

The problem in the Qur’an is that it contradicts itself. Here are two different verses out of the Qur’an that claim it was given all at once:

Surah 2:185 – Ramadan is the month in which we sent down the Qur’an to be a guide to mankind.

Surah 44:1-7 – By the manifest book [the Qur’an], we sent it down on a blessed night in the month of Ramadan.

Here we have two verses that very clearly teach that the Qur’an was given all at once in the month of Ramadan. This poses a major problem because Muhammad claims that he got different revelation when he was in Mecca from what he received some 10 years later in Medina. Surah 102 says the older verses were abrogated (superseded) by the later verses.

Surah 17:105-106 says:

We sent down the Qur’an in truth, and in truth it is descended. We sent thee but to give glad tidings to sinners. It is a Qur’an which we have divided into parts in order that thou might site it to men at intervals. We have revealed it by stages.

Surah 24:32 – And those who disbelieve say, why is not the Qur’an revealed to him all at once? Thus that we may strengthen your hearts thereby, and we have revealed it to you gradually in stages.

The Qur’an says that it was given to Muhammad during the month of Ramadan in one night, and verses that say it was given in stagers over time. It is hard to believe that all 4 of these verses are true.

We must ask if the Qur’an or the Sunna give an explanation for these contradictions. There is nothing that clarifies this problem. Today there are Muslim scholars who try to explain it away by saying that Allah gave revelation from the higher heaven to the lower heaven. They say it was revealed in one night from the higher heaven to the lower heaven. It was held in the lower heaven, and the angel gave it to Muhammad gradually over time.

When we have such a great contradiction, it leads us to believe that it is all false. This is the only reasonable conclusion because surly Allah would know how he revealed his word. If he can’t get this right, how can we trust him for anything else. Muhammad, himself, supported the fact that it was given in pieces.

Concerning the changing of Allah’s precepts by abrogation, the change was quite great. They went from the peaceful verses of Mecca to the verses of the sword from Medina. They went from, “there is no compulsion in religion,” to there is compulsion by the sword. The later verses say the Muhammad must subdue all the unbelievers by force if necessary.

The contradictions in the Qur’an are a major flaw. They can only lead to one conclusion, and that is the revelations received by Muhammad were not from God. When we remember that Muhammad, himself, thought he was demon possessed, it strengthens the conclusion that these revelations did not come from God.

Manuscript Evidence

It is amazing how God preserved the Bible over thousands of years. We have more than 5,000 ancient copies of the Bible. This includes both the Old Testament and the New Testament. More than 95% of these manuscripts are in agreement. Let’s compare this with the Qur’an.

We do not have the actual original autographs that were penned by the prophets and apostles. We do have a multitude of manuscripts that were copied from the originals. They fall into several families with some variations. In the Old Testament there were professional scribes charged with the coping of the Scriptures. They were exceptionally careful in the handling of God’s Word. For example, when they came to the name of God they would take a bath to cleans themselves and take a new pen before writing it down. They were so afraid of profaning God’s name that they would use substitutes.

The Dead Sea Scrolls prove the accuracy of the coping process by the Jewish scribes. The Essenes fled into the area of the Dead Sea. It happens that this area has a perfect climate for preserving the ancient manuscripts. They sealed the scrolls in clay jars for their preservation.

They were discovered by a shepherd boy who threw a stone into a cave and heard something break. The hill sides in the area are full of caves. It was found that these ancient copies of the Old Testament were the same as those from which our King James Bible were translated even though they were nearly 1,000 years older.