What Came First – Bible or Quran?

If tomorrow morning, I make a claim that an angel of God had appeared to me in the night and told me to write a new holy book and to call it the final and ultimate scriptures for the whole world, would you accept what I say?

You’d laugh at me. You’d call me delusional.  You might even challenge me to show some form of proof or evidence, that an angel had really appeared to me.  If I cannot offer any evidence, what would you call me? A lunatic and a liar?

But let’s say, you choose to give me the benefit of the doubt, and decide to examine my new book, just to humor me. Then as you start reading my book, you find that it does not agree with the earlier revealed book, the Quran.

Would you accept my claim that my book is the right one and that your book should be rejected? Of course not. I will need to show proof that what I state in my book can be backed up by solid evidence!

What if I explain to you that the reason my scripture differs from the Quran is that it is the Quran that has been corrupted? Would that be ridiculous?  Of course, that does not make sense.

I better be ready to back up every claim in my book that differs from your book.  And not make allegations that the Quran is changed, and therefore my book is true.

In other words, you would not judge your Quran based on what my new book says. Rather, you will judge my book based on what your Quran says!  If my book contradicts the earlier revelation of the Quran, then my book is wrong. As simple as that.

 

The Burden Of Proof

The Quran was written in the 7th century AD by the recitations of a man in the desert who claimed an angelic being visited him.  I’m not saying it didn’t happen. I’m asking, can anyone verify this visitation? Or is it just the claims of one man? There were no witnesses to what actually happened. And Muhammad did no miracles to prove what he was saying, like the prophets of old like Moses or Elijah.

Yet, he revealed a new book, the Quran, that contradicts the earlier revealed scriptures, the Bible.  The Bible was written between 1400 BC & AD 95. By AD 400, hundreds of years before Muhammad, the Bible was already widely distributed throughout the known world at that time in multiple languages. And yet, Muslims claim that it is the Bible that has been corrupted instead of showing proof that what the Quran claims are true. Muhammad himself never claimed that the earlier scriptures were corrupted or lost. In fact, he affirmed and praised them.

You cannot judge the Bible based on what the Quran says. Rather, you have to judge the Quran based on what the Bible says. Since Islam came many centuries after Christianity, Islam has the burden of proof and not Christianity. The Bible tests and judges the Quran. If the Bible and the Quran contradict each other, the Bible must logically be given first place as the older authority. The Quran is the one in error until it proves itself. 

 

 

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