So, I Read the Quran - Christian Analysis

A Christian analysis of Islam's sacred text

As a Christian, perhaps nothing bothers me more than when I am lectured on the Bible by people who I know have never read it. Typically what happens, is that I will open my mouth (or write something online) in an attempt to speak the truth of God’s word towards some cultural issue. If I am addressing some sin, people will begin to tell me that I am not a true Christian, that I don’t understand God’s word because the Bible says I need to be loving and nonjudgemental. Now, 9 times out of 10 the person who responds in this way has never read the Bible for themselves, and so for them to lecture me on what it means to be a Christian is beyond infuriating- but, in a spirit of Christian charity I try to let this pass by and continue speaking the truth in love.

Islam remains one of the fastest growing religions in the world, and the Islamic population in America is on the rise. This is very much a fact, and there are a number of different responses to this. Some of our more liberal, globalist types welcome this growing population, as it symbolizes (to them) progress away from America’s supposedly evil white Christian heritage. Others, look at this rising demographic with fear- they learned on television that Muslims are violent and that all they want to do is destroy western society as we know it. The Christian person is to look at a growing Islamic population not with joy, nor fear- but rather we are to see that our mission field is only growing. Sure, we can have discussions about the political and cultural issues involved, we can talk about protecting our borders and no one should feel shamed for doing so. My point simply, is that as Christians with an enthroned Savior and a Great Commission, our responsibility (yes, responsibility) towards the Muslim people is to labor diligently, with prayer and by the grace of God, to bring them to a saving knowledge of the One True Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Islam is one of the world’s most successful false religions. Christians believe that Muslims, who die as Muslims, because of the fact that they do not possess Jesus Christ as their substitutionary sacrifice and intercessor will die in their sins. We believe that this means for them eternal separation from God and His blessings, and everlasting torment. And so, it is our responsibility as Christians to be prepared to contend for the true faith, and the true religion with the Muslim.

And hence, my decision to read the Quran. I know that I can’t stand being lectured about my faith by those who have never read the Bible, and so how can I, in good conscience, seek to reach out and disciple Muslims if I won’t take the time to learn about what they believe? And how can I try and discuss the Quran with a Muslim if I have never read it? I am a Christian, which means I must obey Christ’s command to do to others what I would like for them to do to me.

What is our goal in this article?

Our goal in this article is not to give an in-depth, detailed breakdown and discussion of all of Islamic theology, nor the Quran. The reality is that, just like within Christianity, there are different schools of theology and Qur'anic interpretation within Islam, and so to completely break it all down would require much more time (and, admittedly, knowledge) than I have. My goal in this article is also not to necessarily provide a refutation of the Quran. While the differences between my faith and the teaching of the Quran will (obviously) come up, and therefore I will inevitably offer critique towards the book, it is not my goal to (at least here) refute the Quran. My goal, stated positively, is to provide my own analysis of the document, seeking to come to an understanding of what it is that it means, and how I, as a Christian, respond to its teachings. The thing we will focus on most is what the Quran teaches concerning Jesus.

If any Muslims should come across this article and wish to respond to some of my analysis- you, friend, are encouraged to leave me a message, and it would be my great joy to dialogue further.

Going in

I did not go into reading the Quran blind, that is to say that I did not crack open the spine without first doing some preparatory work. I wanted to at least get a taste of what I should expect, some things I should be looking out for, and any relevant information I needed to be able to comprehend what I was reading. And so, I purchased Dr. James White’s book What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qur’an to help me as I got ready to read the book for myself. I am very thankful for this, not just because of Dr. White’s discussion and commentary, but also because on pages 52-53 he provides somewhat of a chronological chart for reading the Quran. Probably the very first thing that will strike the Christian reader when he gets out a translation of the Quran for himself is that the Surah’s are not arranged in order of how you would read them. For the most part, they are ordered by length- with the lengthier ones at the beginning (2, 3, 4…) and the shorter ones nearer to the end.

As far as the translation and printed edition I read, I purchased The Study Quran published by HarperOne (all quotations of the Quran in this article are from this source). While my actual reading stuck mostly to the Qur’anic text itself, the study notes provided (much like any study Bible) did help as I occasionally consulted them to make sure I understood what I was reading.

First impressions

The very first thing I think Christians should know (other than the correct order to read in) is that the Quran is not simply “the Muslim Bible”. While the Quran is Islam’s sacred text, and Muslims believe it came from God, and that is all similar to what we believe about the Bible, other than that they are very different books. For example, the Bible isn’t necessarily a book, but is a library of multiple different books, by multiple different authors, over a long period of time- there is an essential unity that binds it all together, but it is technically multiple different writings. The Quran differs greatly in this regard. Islamic tradition holds that the Quran was dictated to Muhammed by the angel Gabriel over the course of 22 years. And while the Bible, for Christians, is one complete whole special revelation from God which is our sole infallible authority in regards to doctrine and practice, the Quran makes no such claims of itself. On the contrary, the Quran expressly denies this. The Quran continually states that it does not exist on its own, but that it confirms what came before. Well, of what that came before?

Perhaps surprising to some Christians, the Quran holds itself out to be the fulfillment of the Torah (Law) and the Gospel.

Surah 35:31, “And that which We have revealed unto thee from the Book is the truth, confirming what came before it.”

Surah 10:37, “This Quran could not have been fabricated [by anyone] apart from God; rather, it is a confirmation of that which came before it, and an elaboration of the Book in which there is no doubt, from the Lord of the worlds”.

Surah 3:3, He sent down the Book upon thee in truth, confirming what was before it, and He sent down the Torah and the Gospel”

I, myself, counted at least 50 times in the Quran where the Bible was referenced. And to be clear, I do not mean 50 times where Biblical events, stories or people were referenced (if you removed all of these from the Quran I don’t think there would be hardly anything left) but I mean specifically references to the Bible as a book (some of these texts will be examined in another heading).

We could say that the Quran is demonstrating inconsistency in any place where it contradicts the Bible. Now, Muslims today will say that while the Torah and the Gospel were originally sent by Allah, that they were corrupted overtime but there is no meaningful evidence of purposeful corruption in any of our ancient and best manuscripts.

What does the Quran teach?

One of the interesting things about the history of the Quran is that when Muhammed first received it (again, this is Islam’s own understanding) it was not immediately written down, but actually memorized and verbally recited by certain individuals. Now, this gets us into questions about the reliability of the text, for sure, but the reason I here mention this is because, upon reading the Quran, this almost makes sense to me. I don’t mean that it makes sense, as in if I wanted to preserve a document, I would teach people to memorize it rather than write it down, but this makes sense to me in that the Quran seems like something people would memorize. If you’re a Christian, and you wanted to memorize certain Bible verses you would likely repeat those verses over and over again until you had it memorized. Repetition is key to memorization. Well, the Quran repeats itself. I probably read 5 or 6 different retellings of Moses casting his staff before Pharoah, and it turning into a serpent. The advantage that this has, is that while (unlike the Bible) the Quran does not contain long, didactic doctrinal passages, you can still get a clear sense of a few things that it is absolutely certain of. In no particular order, some key things repeated throughout the Quran are:

• There is only one true God, Allah.

• Allah is the creator of all things, and he is in total, sovereign control over all.

• Allah is merciful and forgiving.

• You shall not “ascribe partners unto Allah” (this will be discussed more below).

• The Torah, the Gospel and the Quran were sent down by Allah.

• Muhammed is Allah’s prophet and is to be believed.

• There is a day of resurrection, and a day of judgement.

Honestly, if we were to identify the Quran’s central and defining belief, it is monotheism. As far as theology is concerned, there is perhaps nothing that the Quran emphasizes more than the total and unequivocal uniqueness of Allah. He alone is the creator, he alone is sovereign and there is no other god besides him.

Surah 112, “Say, ‘He, God, is One, God, the Eternally Sufficient unto Himself. He begets not; nor was He begotten. And none is like unto Him.”

Surah 3:2, “God, there is no god but He, the Living, the Self-subsisting.”

Ironically, this one central tenet of monotheism is something that Jews, Christians and Muslims all agree upon- however, I think we find that the Quran actually misunderstands what Christians believe on this central issue.

Jesus and the Quran

Probably the key point of contention we Christians are going to have with the Quran is its teaching about the man named Jesus. This must be said, and it will sound harsh to any Muslim readers, but if you are reading this article it is only because you are seeking to hear a Christian perspective, and I would not do you the disservice of lying or sugarcoating. The Quran’s teaching about Jesus is simply blasphemous.

While the Quran agrees with the Bible on several things about Jesus, that He was a true prophet, that He was born of the virgin Mary, that He was the Messiah etc. the failure of the Quran is that it stops short of affirming Christ’s central identity, which is His deity and relationship to the Father as the eternal and divine Son.

We are going to look at a few sections here (with some key points emboldened), and then follow up with some discussion:

Surah 4:171, “O People of the Book! Do not exaggerate in your religion, nor utter anything concerning God save the truth. Verily the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of God, and His Word, which He committed to Mary, and a Spirit from Him. So believe in God and His messengers, and say not ‘Three.’ Refrain! It is better for you. God is only one God.

Surah 5:72-75, “They certainly disbelieve, those who say, ‘Truly God is the Messiah, son of Mary.’ But the Messiah said, ‘O Children of Israel! Worship God my Lord and your Lord.’ Surely whosoever ascribes partners unto God, God has forbidden him the Garden, and his refuge shall be the Fire. And the wrongdoers shall have no helpers. They certainly disbelieve, those who say, ‘Truly God is the third of three,’ while there is no god save the one God. If they refrain not from what they say, a painful punishment will befall those among them who disbelieved. Will they not turn to God in repentance and seek His forgiveness? And God is Forgiving, Merciful. The Messiah, son of Mary, was naught but a messenger- messengers have passed away before him. And his mother was truthful. Both of them ate food. Behold how We make the signs clear unto them; yet behold how they are perverted!”

Surah 5:116-117, “And when God said, ‘O Jesus son of Mary! Didst thou say unto mankind, ‘Take me and my mother as gods apart from God?’’ He said, ‘Glory be to thee! It is not for me to utter that to which I have no right. Had I said it, Thou wouldst surely have known it. Thou knowest what is in my self and I know not what is in Thy Self. Truly it is Thou Who knowest best the things unseen. I said not to them save that which Thou didst command me: ‘Worship God, my Lord and your Lord.’’

The one consistent theme throughout these passages is the doctrine of monotheism, which, we’ve already identified as a key teaching of the Quran, and a doctrine that is shared by Jews and Christians as well.

How then are we to understand, for example, the admonition in Surah 4:171 to “Say not three!” Well, contextually, this seems to be teaching us not to say that there are three Gods, as the text goes on to say, “God is only one God”. What is the problem with this? Well, if Surah 4:171 is seeking to address the Christian doctrine of the Trinity (which it seems to be) there is a major issue here, and that is that the author of the Quran did not understand the doctrine of the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity is not that there are three Gods. Christians, dating all the way back to the earliest creeds of the church, are monotheists. We only believe in one God! Tritheism is the belief that there are three Gods, and Christians identify tritheism as a damnable heresy!

This same problem is seen in Surah 5:73 where we read, “They certainly disbelieve, those who say, ‘Truly God is the third of three,’ while there is no god save the one God.” Is the Christian doctrine of the Trinity that God is one God amongst three? Of course not! The Christian understanding of the Trinity is as follows: there is only one true God, existing in one eternal, undivided essence. This one true God exists in three distinct, co-equal and co-eternal Persons; namely, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Therefore, when the Quran goes on to make assertions, such as in Surah 5:72 that the Messiah is not God, it does so on faulty premises- when we say that the Messiah, Jesus, is God we do not do so in a way that is contrary to monotheism.

In Surah 5:75 there is the, seemingly odd, assertion that both Jesus and Mary “ate food”. I put it in bold font above so that you would notice it, but let’s stop and wonder why that would be. Well, the context of that text is refuting the idea that “God is the Messiah”¹ , and so the most likely reason for this statement would be to say that if the Messiah ate food, that means he is a man- and if he is a man that he can’t be God. Of course, the Christian response to this is that Jesus is a man, but He is also God- He is the Godman, one Person with two natures. But notice, the Quran also includes the fact that Mary ate food. Now, if the reason it is mentioned that Jesus ate food is to refute the idea that he is God, then this assertion about Mary must be there for the same reason…

And so, what was most shocking to me as I began to learn about Islam, is that the Quran seems to have the idea that we believe the Trinity is “God, Messiah (Jesus) and Mary”. Surah 5:116, “Didst thou say unto mankind, ‘Take me and my mother as gods apart from God?’” This is a clear and obvious misunderstanding of what Christians have historically believed, and so I would ask any of my Muslim readers: if the Quran is the divine word of Allah, why does Allah get basic information wrong? A presupposition that I carry as a Christian, is that the Bible is God’s divine and inspired word, and therefore will be without error. If I saw an error in the Bible, this would be quite troubling to me, but no such errors exist- there may be things I don’t fully understand, or that I am not sure about, but never do I read the Bible and encounter something that is this blatantly false. I would suggest that the Quran’s failure to understand basic, historical information about what Christians believe is an indication that this book is not from God. The Quran describes Allah as wise, full of knowledge and power- well a God such as the one described by the Quran would be able to identify what other religious groups believe, even if its refuting them.

Ascribing partners unto God

In an above heading, I said that one of the Quran’s central teaching is that man shall not ascribe partners unto God. This is something that is littered throughout the Quran. It is repeated more times than almost anything else, and it is even contained in the portion from Surah 5 quoted above. Well, what does it mean? The idea is connecting any created thing, or person to God in terms of worship. In addition to addressing Christianity, the Quran repeatedly condemns the pagan idolatry that was common in Muhammed’s day- and so when any pagan idolater ascribed some created thing, some idol, unto God this would fall under the category of shirk. Now the consistent teaching of the Quran is that Allah is exceedingly merciful and forgiving, but there is one sin that he will not forgive, which is shirk.

Surah 4:48, “Truly God forgives not that any partner be ascribed unto Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whomsoever He will, for whosoever ascribes partners unto God has surely fabricated a tremendous sin.”

Surah 4:116, “Truly God forgives not that any partner be ascribe unto Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whomsoever He will. Whosoever ascribes partners unto God has surely gone far astray.”

Now, it would seem to me that this, taken on its own, would be an area where Christians and Muslims would agree, and yet this is actually the number one thing keeping Muslims from accepting who Jesus is. You see, Muslims believe that Christians are committing the unforgiveable sin of shirk (see above quotations). Many Muslims believe that when we direct worship towards Jesus, that we are ascribing a partner unto God. Now, given the definition of the Trinity provided above, Christians do not believe that Jesus is created. Take, for example, the classic Christological text from John 1:1-3 (ESV):

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

This text makes it clear that any and all created things were made through the Logos (the Word), which is a title of Jesus. Since all things were made through Jesus, that then means He Himself is not created. In His incarnation, Jesus takes upon Himself a fleshly body, but the Christian position remains that the Person of the Son, whom we worship, is not created. It would seem to me that this is another area where the Quran attempts to rebuke Christianity, and yet shows a misunderstanding of it.

In Conclusion

There remains a multitude of other things we could have looked at, of course. I have decided that the main thing I wanted to focus upon is the Person of Jesus Christ. Christ is the cornerstone of the Christian faith, and the Quran places Jesus in a special position as well, but it falls far short of the truth. I suppose that in our conversations with Muslims, we could show them where the Quran, in places like Surah 3:3 confirm our Scriptures, and then seek to present them the true Jesus from the true word of the living God.

My final conclusion that I would like to make about the Quran, is that it exists in a very fascinating place in literary history. I do not believe it is from God. I do believe that Muhammed received genuine spiritual revelations, of some kind. It seems to me that the most unlikely conclusion a person could come to, concerning Muhammed and the Quran, that it is just a bunch of stuff he made up to gain power, or whatever secularists say. I suppose that could be the case, but sadly I think that there were darker spiritual forces involved. It seems to me that the Quran’s main goal was to refute any and all other religions, one such religion it seeks to refute is Christianity. Refuting Christianity is central to the Quran’s teaching. The ironic thing, as I’ve pointed out above, is that the Quran’s author did not understand Christianity. Had Muhammed come into contact with Biblically literate, intelligent Christians prior to his revelations, the past 1,500 years of history might have looked very different.

1. Just a footnote, while the statement “God is the Messiah” technically accords with Christian doctrine, Christians have not historically expressed the belief in the deity of Christ in this way, which further suggests that the Quran’s author had limited interaction with Christians.