Is the Quran a Confirmer of the Sacred Writings of the Past? The Watchtower, October 1, 1965

The Watchtower’s second series on this subject begins under the title above, and once again I have tried to translate it as follows.

Some 250–300 million Muslims accept that the Quran, the holy book of Islam, was inspired by God. (This was the figure back in 1965; in the 1990s it was 800 million, and now (2009) it is 1.4 billion.) They also point to verses such as “We have sent down to you the Quran as the truth, confirming the scriptures that came before it and standing as a guardian over them” as proof that it says so. Sura 5:47–49.

Continuing further: “It must be accepted beyond any doubt that God is not a God of confusion but rather of peace and order. As it is written in the Bible as well, so that we may prove God to be true and every man a liar, the revelations he gives must also be in harmony with one another. (1 Corinthians 14:33; Isaiah 1:18; Romans 3:4) We see that this is so from both the Hebrew writings of the Torah and the Greek writings that make up the Christian Gospel. And when we examine them, we see that they are in harmony with one another. (Let them go and explain that to the Jews!) This is the case even though the 39 booklets written in Hebrew (the books the Muslims know as the Torah and the Psalms) were penned by more than 30 different writers on different dates, over a span of time lasting centuries. The Gospel written in Greek, consisting of 27 booklets, is not only in harmony with itself but was also penned in a way that confirms the Hebrew writings.

That is why Jesus, addressing the religious men of his time, confirmed this situation by saying: “You are searching the Scriptures, because you think that by means of them you will have everlasting life; and these are the very ones that bear witness about me.” (John 5:39) It is for this same reason, too, that mention is made of how the apostle Paul praised the Beroeans, who wanted to search the books of the sacred writings of the past and find proof of whether this message told to them was true. The Acts of the Apostles 17:11; 2 Timothy 2:15; 3:15–17.

So through these things we see that these sacred writings composed in Greek and in Hebrew rightly confirm one another. And if the Quran too claims to have been written under God’s inspiration, must we not expect it to be in harmony with the other sacred writings as well? Let us wait and see.”

The introductory reasoning up to this point is splendid. It continues again. The topic of hot air, demagoguery (empty talk), and acrobatics is about to begin.

“Everywhere in the Hebrew writings it is written that God’s personal name is Jehovah, and it holds this name in the highest regard. (Exodus 6:3; 2 Samuel 7:23; Psalm 83:18, etc.) In the same way, Jesus Christ and his disciples also dwell on the importance of this name. (John 17:4, 6; 18:37; Acts 15:14) Even though this name generally does not appear in many translations of the Bible, it is clear that the first Christians used God’s name, Jehovah, in the ancient Greek manuscript of the Septuagint.

How is this in the Quran? Although the name Jehovah appears 6,961 times in the Hebrew writings alone, we search everywhere in the Quran and cannot find it even once. The fact that the name of Jehovah God does not appear in the Quran means it does not confirm the sacred books written in earlier times. The God of the Quran is nameless…” they say in this series.

The answer regarding the subject:

It is certain that Jehovah’s Witnesses use this name almost as if it were a good-luck charm, a talisman, indeed idolizing it in a purely literal sense. The Muslims do the same or a similar thing with the name of Muhammad. Those men will not take the name of Muhammad on their lips without pronouncing a blessing. It is even quite obvious that the writers grow weary of this rule, since instead of “Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam,” meaning “Blessings and peace be upon our Prophet” or “May the peace of God be upon you,” they always write it in abbreviated form as “S.A.V.” Unfortunately, in speech they cannot escape this rule! It seems it was absolutely necessary for them to pin what amounts to a surname onto Muhammad themselves! Neither do Jehovah’s Witnesses do the will of Jehovah, nor do the Muslims do the will of Muhammad. For some reason humanity becomes sick with the urge to hide behind a name, a label, a letter. Rather than exalting the letters, if you value those who spoke those words, then walk in the path they set forth. Jesus spoke a fine word:

Not everyone saying to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. Matthew 7:21

And to those who think that merely by using the same words like a parrot, or by taking refuge behind these words, they will show a hypocritical respect and so be saved, Jesus gives his answer in the continuation of the verse: “I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness.” Matthew 7:23

Let us come to God’s personal name. No one knows for certain how God’s personal name was pronounced. That he has a name is certain, but how it is pronounced is not known for sure. This is because the name was written in Hebrew. And in Hebrew there are no vowels. That is, letters that stand alone as single sounds without a syllable are called vowels. Like A, U, Ö, İ, E, O. In Hebrew there is no such thing. If God’s name appears somewhere, it appears in the form “YHVH.” While speaking or reading, a person inserts those vowels among these letters on his own. That is why even those very famous Jehovah’s Witnesses are forced to acknowledge this situation, saying, “Even though the exact manner of pronouncing this name is not known, we use it this way.”

The Turkish translation of the Holy Scriptures was carried out in the early Ottoman period by a man named Ali Bey, one of the scribes of Sultan Mehmet IV. It is not even all that old. The translation, published in 1827 in Arabic letters, was published again after the language reform, around 1941, in the Latin letters we now use. This too was made by taking directly from Ali Bey’s translation. And there God’s name entered as JEHOVAH. This pronunciation was probably the one most used, since after the 1930s the Witnesses too abandoned the name “Bible Students” and took the name “Jehovah’s Witnesses.” The other Christian churches, however, became angry at the Witnesses’ clinging to this name and organized a policy of opposition with an intense campaign. They publish criticisms meant to cast doubt on this name. They too accept that it is God’s personal name, but they raise the claim that “it is not said that way, but rather this way.” That is, they do it by saying not “Jehovah” but “Yahweh.”

Another fact is that until the Witnesses appeared on the scene, this name had been thoroughly concealed by those Christian churches and by the Papacy, indeed there had been an effort to obliterate it. The Jews are afraid even to take this name on their lips, because it is one of the Ten Commandments.

“You must not take up the name of the LORD your God in a worthless way, for the LORD will not leave the one unpunished who takes up his name in a worthless way,” it says. (Exodus 20:7 and Deuteronomy, or the Repetition of the Law, 5:11)

The Christian world, however, even though it is written in the original Sacred Writings, knowingly removes this name and replaces it with LORD, or God, or Master. Indeed, they have completely removed this name from the new Turkish translation of the Holy Scriptures! For the Witnesses, on the other hand, this name has become a gum they chew. The Muslims object, saying: “As if God could have a name.” Yet the beginning of every Sura, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim—whose meaning many do not know—that is, Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim, means “In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.” Its full Turkish rendering means “In the name of God, the Protecting, the Forgiving.” The Muslims, however, start talking nonsense, saying that God has 99 names. Some show the inside of their palm and say, “Look, these lines mean 99 in Arabic,” and drawing inspiration from that they again go on babbling all sorts of rubbish! God, of course, has many attributes. But a name is one thing and an attribute is another. This difference is taught as early as primary school, and those who did not listen well in their Turkish lessons have forgotten it. Never mind, let us come and refresh it once more.

An attribute describes not a person’s name but his characteristic. For example, “fat Ahmet”—here “fat” is an attribute given to that person. Or “tall Ömer”—again, the word “tall” here is that person’s attribute. We said that God too has many attributes. Forgiving, protecting, exalted, wise, love, the source of might, the almighty, and so on—these are not God’s names but his attributes, and they suit his character. But a name, that is, a personal name, is different from these. Even though that name has a characteristic and a meaning, it is still a name. For example, the name İhsan means “forgive.” That is why the imams say at the end of a prayer, “grant us ihsan, O Lord.” That is, it means grant, gift, give us these things we ask for. In societies like ours, while people value names having meaning, it is also wished that one day this may become that person’s attribute, that is, a characteristic of his. There are children named Hikmet. When the mother and father give this name, they wished that the child would possess wise (learned) qualities. But if the child later becomes a thief and goes to prison, there his attribute becomes “thief” and his name remains Hikmet. That is, he is called “thief Hikmet.” Names may have meanings, but even so, this is not his attribute but that person’s personal name.

After these brief explanations, I can probably now respond to the writing above. The fact that God’s personal name does not appear in the Quran is again presented as a proof that this book cannot be from God. From the beginning to the end of the entire Gospel, neither is this name encountered in the original texts, nor did Jesus use it. I will write out the verses that the Witnesses gave as “proof” above exactly as they stand. All the translations are like this, even in the Witnesses’ own translations it is written exactly as below. For, even though it does not appear in the Gospel, the Witnesses translated every place in the original texts that read “Lord” or “God” as “Jehovah” in the translations they put out! Even if it is not important to me, this is a terrible presumptuousness in God’s name. Who are we, and from where do we get the authority, to change God’s words? Muslims and people of other religions who find such translations also rightly shout at the top of their lungs, “these books have been altered.” And do they think that by doing this they will justify themselves? Besides, who does not know that these alterations are like this? Everyone who researches a little knows. To those who even hope to justify themselves and gain some benefit, people’s trust is being lost all the more. Let them continue; it does not concern us.

Yes, we said, “In the Gospel it is nowhere written, not even once, that Jesus spoke with God, prayed to him, calling him Jehovah, and it does not appear.” Now I was going to write out the verses they will give as proof. They actually gave them from three places. One:

I have glorified (exalted) you upon the earth, having finished the work you have given me to do. And now, O Father, glorify me at your side with the glory that I had alongside you before the world was. I have made your name manifest to the men you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have observed your word. John 17:4–6

The second verse:

Pilate said, “So then, are you a king?” Jesus answered, “You yourself are saying that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is on the side of the truth listens to my voice.” John 18:37

I could not understand what meaning this verse has to do with God’s name! They gave it as proof! Let us say it was a mistake. It happens; every now and then I make them too.

The third verse:

Brothers, listen to me. God for the first time turned his attention to the nations to take out of them a people for his name… The Acts of the Apostles 15:14

These verses I have written above are written exactly like this both in the old translation of the Holy Scriptures where the name Jehovah appears, and in the Witnesses’ own translations. All their proofs on this whole subject amount to nothing more than the words “name,” “for his name” that appear in these two places. In all the Gospels this situation is the same. The translation they call the Septuagint is the Greek translation of the entire Hebrew Holy Scriptures, written in the 3rd–2nd centuries before Jesus. There too the word Jehovah, if it appears, is again written in the Hebrew form, that is, as “YHVH.” Those translations, however, are assumed to contain additions like those the Witnesses made, and so do not enjoy that much interest and reliability. As I said, these are changes that are actually unimportant to me. But I explain it because such things as a dot, a comma, or a name may perhaps be important to those who say “no, this is God’s word, no, it isn’t.”

The most interesting and important matter concerning this name is that in none of his prayers or speeches did Jesus address and call upon God as Jehovah. This is so in all the translations I have known and heard of up to now. Yet the Witnesses use this name in all their prayers and teach that “even the prayers of those who do not use it are not accepted”—and still this is the fact. So if Jesus were living among us now, the Witnesses would surely throw him out of their midst for never using God’s name! According to their own criticism above, this is so. If there is any Witness who can show that Jesus prayed with this name somewhere in the Gospel and can prove the opposite—if this name appears in even the tiniest place—let them prove it. In 20 years they could not prove it to me. That is why, if the Quran is not God’s word, we would have to say the Gospel is not God’s word either. If the places above that merely speak of “your name” are a proof, then in the Quran all the Suras except one begin with “In the name—or with the name—of God, the Forgiving, the Protecting”; in that case, should these places not be counted as far greater proofs that God has a personal name?