"No God But One" - Session 5 Recap

On Tuesday May 2nd, 2017 we met for our fifth and final session to study Nabeel's book No God But One. We started off by reviewing quizzes, awarding the quiz leader with a prize, and examining the central truth claims of Islam - that Muhammad is a prophet of God or that the Quran is the Word of God.

The class was recorded and the video is available here. A written recap summary of the session is provided below.

We ended up wrapping up the study this week and will not meet next week. This concludes our study of Christianity and Islam. Thanks to everyone who participated and/or supported the study in any way!

Stay connected to keep up on the next study that will be offered!

Quizzes

Since I decided to shorten our study by one week, we weren't able to do an comprehensive final quiz nor score this week's quiz. Instead we just went over the quiz together. Then the person with the highest overall quiz score was awarded with two new shiny books! Jon (aka "Yankees") received The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus and New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?. Both of which were the focus of last year's studies (here and here, respectively). Congrats to Jon!

Is Muhammad a Prophet of God?

Next we turned to an examination of the central truth claims of Islam. The case for Islam is hinged on either showing that Muhammad is a prophet of God or that the Quran is the word of God.

Regarding the prophethood of Muhammad, we looked at 3 arguments commonly offered by Muslims.

1. Muhammad’s life and character testified that he was a prophet
2. Muhammad was prophesied in the bible
3. Muhammad had God-given insight into science

Before we look at each, we need to understand the logic. We are trying to look at this as a neutral investigator. So we want to ask ourselves if these evidences would convince us that Muhammad is a prophet of God. Was Muhammad's life so amazing that it can only be explained by him being a prophet? Similarly, are the biblical prophesies so clear and the scientific insight so astonishing that it can only be explained by Muhammad being a prophet?

Muhammad's Life and Character

The narrative of Muhammad given by most Muslims is that Muhammad was a humble orphan who eventually became a respected merchant, preached monotheism to the surrounding pagans in Mecca, championed the cause for widows, orphans, the poor, and was continually persecuted.

While Muhammad truly did many good things, we do need to look at the counter evidence. For instance, Muhammad's entry into prophethood was atypical compared to other biblical prophets. Muhammad's initial reaction after his first revelation was to consider suicide and he was supposedly violently wrestled by a divine being until he submitted to be a prophet and recite. He enthusiastically embraced warfare, the intensity increasing as he grew older. He was exceptionally harsh with his enemies (e.g. ordering enemies to be assassinated in their sleep, branding an enemies eyes with heated iron, decimating enemy troops and taking the women and children as slaves, and killing men and women for writing poetry critical of Muhammad). Much more counterevidence can be offered but the point is, the evidence for Muhammad's prophethood from an overwhelmingly virtuous life and character is far from clear.

Regardless of how one views Muhammad on balance, this is not a good test to prove prophethood. Even if we agreed that Muhammad was an overall "good" guy, this doesn't necessarily make him a prophet. There are many "good" men who we would not, therefore, consider to be prophets of God. In the end, this test is flawed and, still, the evidence mixed.

Muhammad in the Bible

The Quran (7.157) says that Muhammad is prophesied in the Bible. We looked at 2 Bible verses that Muslims use to show that Muhammad was prophesied. Detueronomy 18:18-19 is supposedly speaking about a prophet that Muslims say is Muhammad. John 16:12-14 mentions a prophet, the Spirit of truth, who is coming to complete Jesus' message - Muslims say this is Muhammad.

However, as we look more closely at the verses, it is clear that Muhammad is being read into the verses and not intended by the original authors. Deuteronomy 18 speaks about a prophet from "among their brethren", referring to a man of Israel (as defined a chapter earlier in Deuteronomy 17:5) and not Muhammad being from the Ishmaelites. In John 16, the prophet is the parakletos who is defined a few chapters earlier (John 14:26) as being the Holy Spirirt who the disciples already knew. They never met Muhammad so it cannot refer to him. Overall, the supposed prophesies about Muhammad are far from clear and easily dismissed given their proper context.

Miraculous Scientific Knowledge

Muhammad, via the Quran, supposedly mentions insight into scientific knowledge that could only be explained as miraculous. In the Quran, 23.12-14 mentions the development of an embryo in stages and 78.6-7 describes mountains as "pegs" indicating they have roots. Muslims will say that these are scientific truths that no mere 7th century man could have known without miraculous insight.

But, this line of argument normally fails for three possible reasons: (1) the verses are being made to say things they did not asset; (2) the science was actually well-known before Muhammad's day; or (3) the science is simply false. Regarding embryo development, this was documented by numerous persons years before Muhammad. Regarding the mountains, they don't create stability in the earth and plus mountains having roots was mentioned before Muhammad.

All of this needs to also be weighed in light of the false science asserted in the Quran such as sperm being produced between a man's backbone and ribs (86.7), the sun setting into a pool of murky water (18.86), stars being the same thing as meteorites (67.5), and more. Overall, there is no clear miraculous scientific knowledge by Muhammad to show him to be a prophet.

Muhammad's Prophethood - Conclusion

A final note about the challenge of investigating Muhammad historically needs to be stated. Due to the questionable documents that exist, almost nothing about the historical Muhammad can be known with certainty. In response to all this, Nabeel was faced with a dilemma: either trust the historical sources of Muhammad’s life and find a man he would never want to follow as a prophet, or question the sources and have no reason to consider him a prophet. Either way he concluded that he could not, based on the evidence, that Muhammad was a prophet of God.

This means that the last hope for demonstrating Islam's truth is in the Quran being the Word of God.

Is the Quran the Word of God?

Five arguments are commonly put forth by Muslims to prove that the Quran is the Word of God.

1. Literary Excellence: The Quran is so beautiful beyond compare that it must be the Word of God.
2. Fulfilled Prophecies: The Quran predicts future events that can only be explained by it being the Word of God.
3. Miraculous Scientific Knowledge: The Quran contains scientific information that is so advanced it can only be miraculous and thus the Word of God.
4. Mathematic Marvels: The Quran has remarkable mathematic patterns that can only be explained by it being the Word of God.
5. Perfect Preservation: Every dot and tittle of the Quran has been perfectly preserved and so it must be the Word of God.

Before even examining the evidence for each statement, the logic of the tests appears faulty (like those for the prophethood of Muhammad). Even if no other book is as beautiful as the Quran, or it has neat mathematic patterns, or has been perfectly preserved, this doesn't necessarily imply that it is a divine book.

The test of Literary Excellence is fundamentally flawed because it is a subjective test based solely on a person's personal preference. The Perfect Preservation test is flawed because, for example, I can write something down and it may be perfectly preserved for 100 years, that doesn't mean that my writing is therefore the Word of God.

Regarding Mathematic Marvels, the analysis that identified a unique number of words (e.g. "day" supposedly appear 365 times, "month" appearing 12 times, etc.) is known to have some fudged counting. Additionally the supposed pattern of 19 (e.g. total chapters divisible by 19, 19 words in the first revelation, etc.) is not unique. Mathematic patterns can be found everywhere.

The same can be said about the Fulfilled Prophecies. A prophecy can be read into all sorts of literature. Generally, the problem with supposed prophecies is that they are taken out of context and are too vague to be convincing. This is also true of the Miraculous Scientific Knowledge. Words are taken out of context and modern science is mistakenly read into the text.

Much more can be said to deflate these arguments for the Quran such that, at the end of the day, the evidence is far from overwhelming to convince a neutral investigator that it is the Word of God. Nabeel found that arguments for Muhammad and the Quran did not vindicate his faith, they needed to be vindicated by faith.

The obstacles in front of Nabeel about the truth of Islam were removed and he had to face the
evidence for Christianity. Further still, he came to know the triune God who is eternal love, more beautiful than life itself. Ultimately, Nabeel came to yield his life to Christ, no matter the cost.

Thanks and More to Come

With that we concluded our study of "No God But One." Thank you to everyone who participated in the class and/or attended the event with Nabeel. If there are any questions about this study or more please don't hesitate to ask (rfgreaterbaltimore@gmail.com).

Over the summer I will be teaching this material to the Mt. Zion UMC Sunday School (exact dates, TBD). Then, in the coming fall we will offer another apologetics-oriented study. The exact topic has yet to be decided. If you have any suggestions for topics to study, please let me know! Also, if you want to check out info from the previous studies, check out the Group Studies page on the website.