A Great Idea for Shabir Ally, Reza Aslan, or Mustafa Akyol

A book by Mustafa Akyol

I suppose this idea could be entertained by any Islamic scholar or apologist when you think about it.  Over the last several decades Islamic scholars and apologists have been reading not just our scriptures, but our Biblical scholarship.  They’ve used this material to attack the Christian faith and try to prove Islamic doctrine.  I actually have a suggestion that these Muslims might be interested in.

To a certain extent Muslims have an interest in what the Christian scriptures say.  Although a Christian may read the Quran, we don’t have a theological dog in the fight since Muhammad is not a figure relating to our faith.  A Muslim on the other hand believes that Jesus is a prophet sent by God and the New Testament is the earliest source for the life of Jesus.

Here’s what I suggest to my Muslims friends, apologists, and scholars.  I would like to see a Muslim commentary on the New Testament.  Now I know Muslims are busy and a commentary for the whole NT might be too much but why not one book?  Perhaps the Gospel of Matthew?  While most lay Muslims will just probably write the document off as corrupted, apologists and scholars believe that important truths remain in the pages of the NT.

Now, a Muslim commentary on the Gospel of Matthew might seem odd for these people because they believe that only certain parts are authentic.  However, this can easily go in the commentary.  Certain verses such at the last supper could be written off as later additions due to Quranic authority or certain liberal views of Biblical scholarship.

Now which book?  I have been suggesting Matthew since it contains figures that the Muslims admire.  Jesus, Mary, and the apostles, all of whom are Muslims according to their tradition.  However any of the NT books would suffice.  I know that the Muslims aren’t fond of the apostle Paul but they don’t need to make a commentary on one of his letters.  However, there is no reason why they couldn’t pick Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, or even Acts.  Mustafa Akyol in his book about Jesus has a great admiration for the book of James.  Many options are available.

Now, I understand that Muslim scholars probably wouldn’t want to spend their time and probably years of research doing a commentary on a book that they don’t believe is inspired.  Most Muslims don’t write commentaries on the Quran, why would they do one on a Biblical book that only contains partial truths?  I’ll admit that this is a reasonable objection.  Why waste precious time on this when we’re only given a finite amount of time?  I concede that I don’t have an answer for this.

When Muslims quote the Bible to Christians, they only quote the parts where the text could possibly refute His deity or soteriology.  I’d be interested in hearing what they think of all of His preaching on subjects like sin, obedience, faith, marriage and many other topics.  Perhaps the money for the project could be crowd funded on Patreon?  You’ve got to admit, it’s a clever idea.