Islamic Apologist – Shabir Ally
How does an Islamic Apologist view the Bible? Well, they’ll say its been corrupted, but how much truth remains? If you quote Paul to an Islamic apologist, they’ll just dismiss it as Paul. However, if you quote Jesus to them, they’ll question whether it’s original to the real Jesus. If you quote John, they’ll simply say it’s late and unreliable. However, if you quote Mark against Islam, that doesn’t hold water either. Islamic apologist Shabir Ally simply says that Paul wrote before Mark and this theology influenced the Gospel writer. This would hold truth for the other Gospels as well. At the same time, people like Ally and others will quote the Gospels to try and prove Islam. The Bible is good enough to prove Islam but not good enough to falsify it.
So how true is the Bible in the eyes of an Islamic apologist? It’s as true as the Quran allows it to be. In Mark 10:45 we read:
For the Son of man also is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a redemption for many.
A Muslim will deny that Jesus can die for sins and that He didn’t even die in the first place. This is found in Mark, the earliest Gospel according to Islamic apologists. The fact that it’s early doesn’t matter. The Islamic apologist will often try to employ higher criticism and liberal Bible scholarship to the Bible to say that certain sayings of Jesus are not authentic such as Mark 10:45.
The Islamic apologist will try to act scholarly at this point and say that he’s siding with Biblical scholarship. Don’t let him get away with this. He’s not siding with scholarship at all because the Islamic apologist views liberal scholarship the same way he views the Bible. Basically, it’s as true as the Quran allows it to be.
The Islamic Jesus is not found in liberal scholarship or in the Bible. Some arguments can be made against certainly doctrinal areas, mainly Christology, but one cannot find the Muslim Jesus. A man who predicted the coming of Muhammad by name, didn’t die on the cross and had followers who called themselves Muslims. It is also worth pointing out that a lot of the liberal scholars that muslims will use in their defence, deny the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ. This is a historical event treasured by both Christians and Muslims. I often point this out to them.
How true is the Bible? How true is Biblical scholarship? How true is the historical record? It’s as true as the Quran allows it to be. Don’t let any apologist tell you otherwise. The words of Jesus in the Gospels that are against Islam are false ultimately because of the Quran, not higher criticism. The average Muslim in a conservative Muslim country will say this, but an apologist who lives in the West will not.
Christians need to point out to them that the words of liberal scholarship are no more important to Islamic apologists than the words of Christ recorded in the Gospels that contradict Islam.
My only conclusion would be to ask Muslims to abandon this anti-Biblical, non-historical faith and book.
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