The Quran on Jesus Christ — The Watchtower, 1 October 1965

The idea treated here is a subject we have all heard of and know about: Jesus Christ, and whether or not he is the Son of God. This subject is an eternal quarrel between Muslims and Christians. For that reason, rather than all of their proofs and comparisons, I will deal with what the Quran writes on this subject. Whether or not it is in harmony with the Holy Scriptures, you decide once again. Here it is also worth pointing out this: as far as I know, among Christians, the only sect or religion that does not worship Jesus Christ as God is the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Again, a critic, in a letter he sent me, wrote that “there are others as well”; that is true, but I do not know them. Even though they are Christians, their understanding on this matter rests on the Holy Scriptures and, without knowing it, on the Quran. This was also the first subject I looked at with the greatest importance during my years of contact with the Witnesses. In fact, it was for this reason that I felt sympathy for them. If they too had defended worshiping Jesus, I would perhaps never have wanted to see them again. One has to make this distinction with the Witnesses. As they say, “strike the brave man, but also give him his due” — that is how it must be.

Christians place an extremely high value on Jesus Christ being the Son of God. So much so that they even worship Jesus. As I said, this is no joke; they really do worship Jesus as God, and indeed as Almighty God. In truth this is a dreadful thing. For we read both in the Torah that God is “one, and that there is no being like Him, that He is one without equal or likeness,” and we see that Jesus Christ always gave this glory to God. (Deuteronomy 6:4 and 5:7-8; John 5:19; 12:49-50; Matthew 22:36-38) On this subject, however, this time there are very fine explanations written by the Witnesses. For they saw this truth in the Holy Scriptures and fell into a great division with the Catholic and Protestant churches. I believe that this is the greatest problem between the Witnesses and all the rest of the Christian world. They do not worship Jesus as God. For this reason the Witnesses frequently take up this subject of the “three Gods” (Father–Son–Holy Spirit) and of whether or not Jesus Christ is God, and they treat these matters in their publications. As I said, on this subject, as far as I knew, I had supposed the Witnesses to be the only ones holding the Christian faith who see it this way. For that reason, explaining this subject to the Witnesses is easier than explaining it to a community belonging to another Christian religion.

In the Quran, however, it repeatedly says that just as “God has no son,” so “God has no daughter either.” (Sura 53:21) Again, in response to the Christians’ near-worshipful devotion shown even to Jesus’ mother Mary; it says, God has taken neither a wife nor a son. (Sura Al-Jinn, 72:3) Again, the clearest verses are written thus:

Now ask them: has God daughters, while they have sons?

Or did We create the angels female, and were they witnesses to it?

When they say such things, it is their own invention: “God has begotten”; and they are truly liars. Sura As-Saffat; 37:149-153. You can find several other parallel verses on this subject in the Quran at sura 43:16-81; 23:91; 5:116; 6:100; 10:68; 9:31; 39:4.

So it turns out that in reality God opposes not only sonship, but also—according to the understandings that arise from an absurd obsession of people—the notion that He has daughters, that He begot a son, and so on. Such teachings, and most of all this filth, come from the papacy of the Catholic world that calls itself Christian. They made God have children through a male-female relationship, and planted this belief right down into the hidden consciousness of people. This is one of the Quran’s greatest warnings against the Christianity of that time, and in our own day their beliefs have not changed either.

When God made Himself known to people, He used comparisons. Sometimes He likened Himself to a master, sometimes to a king, sometimes to a governor; and to show His nearness and love to us, He sometimes likened Himself to a Father. (Malachi 1:6-8; 1 Samuel 8:7) And in fact the word Father in the dictionary means: “the one who gives rise to existence.” All the living creatures that dwell on all the earth and in the heavens exist and have come to exist thanks to God. For this reason, even by the dictionary meaning, God is the Father of them all. Is it not God Himself, after all, who set down this principle, this rule? The multiplication of people, becoming mother and father—whose ordering is it? Or could God not have made it possible to multiply people in the fields like the seeds of vegetables and fruits? Why did God establish this order of reproduction through sexual union, and children being dependent on and bound to a mother and father? In this way, while bringing people closer to one another, at the same time they experience both the feelings of being a child and, later, of having children of their own and becoming mother and father. Why all this? What is meant is that one may grasp what it means for a mother and father to bring something into the world, what responsibility and love mean. I believe God established this order of His so that we might come to know Him and understand Him better. In our childhood, in the feelings and events toward our mother and father that we held—and even could never accept—there comes a day when we find ourselves as mothers and fathers within the same, or similar, events. Then we understand them better, and in that harsh business of passing judgment, we begin to move away from accusation. At one time we were ruled, later we rule our own children. Through many more experiences we acquire understanding and wisdom in our lives. This may not hold for everyone. But these are generally the feelings everyone feels. Some try to kill this feeling within themselves, others bring it out and act on it. While we adopt and keep alive the things we find valuable, we also destroy—before they even come out into the open—the things that to us are worthless. All of this forms our personality. Now whether this personality is good or bad, in the end God will certainly decide. By learning from His words, we too can more or less foresee in advance how our own personality will be judged.

In the Quran there are so many passages about the Christians making Jesus into God under the name of sonship that one is at a loss which one to write down. For example, in Sura Al-Ma’ida there is this statement:

God said: “O Jesus, son of Mary! Did you say to people: ‘Take me and my mother as two gods besides God’?” He answered: “You are exalted. I would never say a word that is not my right to say. If I had said it, You would know it. You know what is in my soul. But I cannot know what is in Your thought. It is You alone who know all hidden things. I told them only what You commanded me: ‘Worship God, my Lord and your Lord’… Sura 5:116-117

Are there verses supporting these verses in the Gospel as well? Let us read:

“I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God,” says Jesus in John 20:17. Is it logical for someone who is himself Almighty God to speak these words? With these words Jesus says that his own God, that of his disciples, and indeed of all people, is the same and one. God too, when He created man, said: “Come, let us make man in our likeness.” By this He meant Himself and all the angels He had created. Now that likeness is not that each of them is Almighty God like Him, but rather that God gave the qualities He possesses to the angels and to man as well. As the Witnesses also teach, these are God’s own qualities that He possesses, such as justice, wisdom, love, and power. With all these qualities God is moreover holy. His being holy is also God’s greatest quality. He gave this quality to man as well. In Leviticus 11:44-45 God says: “Be holy, for I am holy.” Even so, no one is holy as God is. (1 Samuel 2:2) And with these words God did not say: “You will all be a God equal in value to Me, just like Me”!

I must make one more small explanation. Words such as Allah, deity, God, Lord are not necessarily titles of Almighty God alone. For example, God gave these titles to angels and to the prophets who speak God’s word as well. Psalms 82:6; John 10:30-38; and on this subject, in one of the finest, most understandable and clear verses in the Gospel, in 1 Corinthians 8:5 to 7, God’s apostle Paul says thus:

“For even though there are those called gods, whether in heaven or on earth—just as there are many gods and many lords—yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things are, and we are in Him; and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and we are through him. But not all people have this knowledge” is what he writes. Note also that he emphasizes that Almighty God, who has no equal or likeness, is one. What is mentioned in the Quran: “their taking Jesus, Mary, their priests, and their rabbis as gods, forsaking God,” is truly a fine warning precisely for the Christian world. (Sura At-Tawba, 9:31) The titles deity, Lord, God do exist, but by them Almighty God alone is not meant; nor can the glory that must be given to Almighty God be given to them. For us God is one, and He has no equal or likeness.

For example, “teacher” is a rank, a title. There are many teachers, but each has a separate personality and name. Likewise, when God created the heavenly creatures, it would not be wrong to characterize those beings as deities. The prophets also say that this is so. But they are never unequaled like the One who created them. For this reason, because God is the God of all these deities, He has a special name belonging to Him alone. In the Turkish Holy Scriptures this appears as Jehovah. (Exodus 6:2-3; Isaiah 42:8) Whether it is pronounced Jehovah or Yahweh, I do not know. One thing I do know is that God is distinct by this name from all the other deities He created. Another matter I do not know is the reason why God no longer uses this name of His, especially in either the Gospel or the Quran. On this subject Raymond Franz offers an explanation: “God, by fulfilling His purpose upon humanity through Jesus Christ, completed the task belonging to this name.” Could that be? I again say, “I do not know.” There is a single Almighty God who created everything or gave rise to their being created. This God, whom no one has seen but who has spoken, is not a hidden, unknown, mysterious secret.

This subject I am trying to explain may seem absurd to Muslims and Christians. However much I try to explain it with proofs, you can find the best explanation in the Holy Scriptures, the Gospel, and the Quran. Please, when reading these books, make the effort to read without remaining under the influence of the teachings that Muslims or Christians have held until now. If we oppose something, let us ask ourselves the reason for it. When I too first came to the Gospel portion of the Holy Scriptures, the anger I felt toward Jesus Christ was indescribable. It was as though I were like the Jews of that time. Even though I knew how the book ended, I was taking the side of the Jews who sought to kill Jesus. It is like watching a film all the way to the end and then, on watching it again, expecting a different outcome. I said to myself: “Even though I know and believe that God sent Jesus, if God gave all these powers to Jesus, who am I to be angry at him?” One day—it was a day when I could no longer overcome this anger of mine—I put the book down and said to myself: “This is no way to read this book.” Either I would accept and come to know God as He introduced Himself in His own words, or I had to give all of this up. Was I going to approach God’s truths with anger? And where did this anger of mine come from anyway? I stopped and thought. This was an anger that the practices of Muslims, Jews, and Christians had, over the years, injected into our brains, into our subconscious, against Jesus. We were not even aware of it. The same holds for Christians as well. In them there is the same hatred toward Muslims and Jews. From their own point of view, their reasons too may seem justified. However uninterested in religion a person is, however irreligious, he has certainly been influenced by the society in which he was raised. It is certain that this hatred cannot be from God. While I said I would break chains like these, by nearly believing in the Jehovah’s Witnesses I very nearly reached out my hands to another chain. For this reason, I do not even want to listen at all to people who belong to a religion themselves while running down the Witnesses or other religions. Not a single word of theirs even seems trustworthy to me. This is just like party or team loyalty. Whichever of them you are inside, it means you are the same. None of them is from God. I write it plainly again: none of them is from God. If someone says to me: “Are you the only one who is from God,” my answer is: “Just as I have told no one to ‘tag along after me,’ I do not say ‘I am the truest one.’ Least of all can I ever show the madness—so common above all among the Witnesses—of saying: ‘You cannot be saved without me.’” Yet all religions operate with these slogans. Because they make these claims, I say none of them can be from God. Their false humble airs no longer fool anyone. Their real practices and deeds are already plain for all to see. We are all one and we are brothers. No one has the right to exalt himself over anyone else and swell up in God’s name. God does not grant this right. If you make yourselves slaves to such people, what am I to say! At the first opportunity, break those chains; I would say the time has come and even passed. Do this, for your own sake and perhaps for the salvation of those you love—but do it, by all means.

Let us come now to the absurdity of the questions of whether Jesus is Almighty God, whether there are three Gods! Again, in one place, in his prayer before his death, Jesus:

“O Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will, but as You will,” he prayed says the Gospel in Matthew 26:39. If Jesus too is Almighty God, would God pray to God saying “let Your will be done”?! The proofs are, in fact, plain for all to see. But once Christianity was accepted as a religion by the Roman Empire in the third century, from then on they began to go astray like this. For what purpose, after all, is the Quran revealed? God does this to warn all three of these communities.

The first reason is the Jews.

This is the community that God chose, the offspring of Abraham, from whom most of the prophets came; and in short, God has never been seen to concern Himself so closely with any other nation. As for a savior, that too has been awaited from the beginning, that is, from Adam. After Adam’s sin, God also says clearly in the Quran:

We said: “Go down from here, all of you. Then guidance will surely come to you from Me. Whoever follows My guidance, there is no fear for them; nor shall they grieve.” Sura Al-Baqara, 2:38, and again Sura Ta-Ha, 20:123. As for this guide, there is no clear verse or proof that it is Muhammad or any other prophet. Apart from Jesus Christ, neither Muhammad nor any other prophet said “I am he,” that is, the guide, the savior, or “I am the Messiah.” But the Quran gives Jesus a place that no other prophet possesses. Again, according to the Quran, the only one who was raised, lifted up to God’s side, and continues to live there is Jesus, and he himself is the Messiah. (Sura 3:55; 19:33; 4:158)

Later, although there are many prophecies about this guide, this shower of the way, or savior, Moses before his death said: “The Lord will raise up from among you a prophet like me.” (Deuteronomy 18:15) They say that this person is Jesus Christ, in the Gospel, in Acts 3:22-26. Did the Jews believe this? No, they denied that Jesus was the savior, or the Messiah, exactly like the Muslims. The Muslims do not deny that Jesus is the “Messiah”; it is that they do not know what Messiah means! And when they learn it, like the Jews they deny its meaning. They cannot understand that God, so that there might be salvation for the sins of humanity, sent a sacrifice as a ransom for Adam’s sin. To them this is a very absurd thing. (1 Corinthians 2:14) The Jews held these feelings, and still hold them. The Muslims, however—because of the Quran—cannot deny Jesus entirely like the Jews, but by saying “the Holy Scriptures were altered,” they resort to another form of denial.

This word Messiah, or the expectation of the Messiah, is very important. Muslims know its meaning only as wiping the head during the ritual prayer, stroking the hair with the hand during ablution. And so that they need not perform ablution, need not wash their feet before each prayer, they call the leather shoes they wear over their feet “mesh” (wiping). On this subject they know not much more. The Quran, however, continually speaks of Jesus as the Messiah, and the ones who best know its meaning are the Jews. For they are still in an expectation of a Messiah. Some in our day even believe in the Kurds’ leader Öcalan as the Messiah! My own sister holds this shameful belief. She made it up herself, and the only one who believes it is she herself! While even Öcalan says no such thing, they strive to make her believe it too. Like Hasan Mezarcı, they will have people say he is not of sound mind, so that he may get out of prison. Whether or not he is of sound mind, I do not know, but it is certain that with that mind he took on his role in the slaughter of so many innocent people. Are there no madmen on the earth? But to release dangerous madmen freely onto the streets is no work of reason. And humanity awaits the Messiah as a savior, not as a massacrer, a heroin dealer, a mafia organization that peddles prostitutes. And certainly not as one who sets off bombs here and there at random and then, in the name of people who die at random, says “we will advertise salvation and make our name heard.” They await the true Messiah, who in his life never had any bodily illness; whereas Jesus Christ will not come again in the body. Apo, meanwhile, is constantly calling for the doctor! What kind of business is this! And Jesus will come not as one who backs the Kurds alone, but to separate all of humanity—of whatever nation, people, or race—the good from the bad.

Our subject was about “an answer to the Jews”. If we were to tell them, “The Messiah has come, he awaits you on Imralı!”, so many false Messiahs have come—which one are they to believe? The true Messiah who came, they did not accept anyway. Only, take note, for some reason in our days everyone who wants to make a name for himself in every marketplace does it by saying he is the “Messiah”. The Muslim, the Christian, the fire-worshiper alike, always emphasizes that he is the Messiah. Yet even if he is false, would one not expect a Muslim, when he goes mad, to say I am Muhammad? Or is it not far more reasonable for an Alevi Kurd, when he goes mad, to say “I am His Excellency Ali”? No, but for some reason these are all Messiahs! Not in vain did Jesus speak about the signs of the last days:

Jesus said, “See that you are not misled. Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he’ and ‘The time has drawn near.’ Do not go after them. (Luke 21:8)

Let us come now to the real subject and to the true meaning of the Messiah. In Israel, kings and priests were anointed before beginning their office. This was done by pouring upon that person’s head an oil prepared from fragrant, special spices. (1 Samuel 10:1 and 16:13; Leviticus 4:3; 2 Kings 9:3.) Whether priest or king, this had to be done before beginning office. This command—symbolically, so that there might be a sign upon the head—had been given by God. This act, done by human hands, is called “anointing.” Jesus Christ, however, was anointed not by human hand, but by the spirit of God. (Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:9-10; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:30-34; Sura Al-Ma’ida, 5:110). Jesus’ appointment by God as king and also as High Priest is very finely told in the Gospel, in the book of Hebrews, in the places from chapter 7 to chapter 11. To understand the meanings of these better, it is essential to read the Holy Scriptures in their entirety. Again, in short, God chooses Jesus Christ to be both king and priest over everything. In one verse this is explained thus:

For it was fitting that we should have such a High Priest—holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens… The main point of what we are saying is this: We have such a High Priest, who has sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, a minister of the holy place and of the true Tent, which was set up not by man but by the Lord. Hebrews 7:26 and 8:1

The above verses show that Jesus possesses these qualities. Again, nowhere in either the Quran or the Holy Scriptures is any human being except Jesus Christ spoken of as “sinless”. Muslims look with anger upon the verses that show Muhammad too was a sinner. They want to see a Muhammad whom they have idolized not according to God’s truths but by yielding to their feelings. They despise the Christians’ worship of Jesus, but with their sly attitudes and behavior they go after the desires they have invented in their hearts, as though worshiping Muhammad. What Jesus said about the Jews is a word that applies exactly to the Muslims as well:

“Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you had believed in Moses, you would have believed in me too; for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” John 5:45-47

Jesus spoke these words to the Jews of that time. As for today’s Muslims, when reading those verses, please read putting Muhammad’s name in place of Moses; then you will better understand what is meant. What difference is there between Muslims and Jews, between Jews and Christians, between Christians and Muslims? In my view, none at all. Is a difference of knowledge and label a difference? What use is it, if one does not apply it? In that case, one who knows nothing at all should, in my view, be considered more acceptable. At least he may perhaps have an excuse.

We may close this subject of Judaism briefly like this. The Quran bears witness concerning the Messiah whom the Jews still await, and says, “that Messiah in whom you did not believe was Jesus.” Sura 5:15; 27:76; 2:62; 2:111; 2:113; 5:41-47.

The second reason is the Christians.

The message the Quran gives to Christianity is short and very clear. It warns: “You did not believe in Jesus as you should have, and not content with idolizing him, you also invented the notion that he is a third God.” It says: “You loaded onto your backs practices that God did not command, did not tell you to do, and you smeared these all over your faces.” For example: priesthood and nunhood, the ban on marriage, self-flagellation—that is, self-punishment—the doctrine of the trinity, and so on. On this subject I will write one or two of the most important general verses.

Those who say “God is the Messiah, the son of Mary” are surely unbelievers. Yet the Messiah had said: “O children of Israel, serve God, my God and your God” ...

Those who say “God is the third of three” have also become unbelievers. Yet there is no god but one God. (Sura Al-Ma’ida, 5:72-73) Several verses parallel to these are in the Gospel as well: John 12:49; 20:17; Luke 22:42. As a Christian holding the correct understanding on this subject, as I said, I can point to the Witnesses alone. In line with the Holy Scriptures in their hands, they have seen that there are not three Gods. So it turns out that seeing this and understanding it is not so hard. As for me, I am still amazed at how they saw it! In any case, again, look what the Quran says to these communities:

Neither the Messiah nor the angels nearest to God disdain to be servants of God… Sura An-Nisa, 4:172

There is a verse that also clearly writes in the Gospel that Jesus Christ is a servant of God. There the apostle Peter says this about Jesus Christ:

God raised up His Servant and sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways. (Acts 3:26) Here he clearly speaks of Jesus too as being a servant of God. For some reason Christians never consider the absurdity of one who is God being a servant to another God. If we return again to the subject of sonship, this characterization as son is not a title given to Jesus alone. Although it is certain that Jesus Christ has an utterly distinct, special place before God, the Holy Scriptures speak of all the angels in the heavens as sons of God. (Job 1:6; 2:1; Genesis 6:2) These verses have been translated in the New Translation of the Holy Scriptures as “divine beings”! But in the original Hebrew-written Holy Scriptures a footnote has been given that they are the “Sons of God.” In the old translation it clearly reads, “sons of God.” Apart from all this, by saying to all the Israelites, “You are the sons of the Lord your God,” God, out of His love, deems people—even sinful people—worthy of this title. (Deuteronomy 14:1) The prophets too, with this knowledge and faith, prayed to God and therefore drew near to Him calling Him “Father.” (Isaiah 63:16; 64:8; 1 Corinthians 8:6; John 3:7-10)

Do not suppose that Christians are so very knowledgeable on these matters either. However ignorant the Muslim is on these matters, the Christian is just as ignorant—and that even though they hold in their hands those richly filled Holy Scriptures. Those who are full of knowledge, however, have gone astray, remained under the influence of the church, and have been unable to free themselves from its dogmas. (Dogma: the unchangeable fundamental teachings accepted by the Christian Catholic world. For example, the teaching of “three Gods” is one of their dogmas.) The ordinary populace has no interest at all in reading or investigating these books. At one time, though, they were read, investigated, and even memorized by those people. But although these persons pay their dues to the church every month, because of the disappointments they experienced from those religious ones and because of their own inclinations to sin, they have taken offense at God and abandoned Him entirely. Except on certain occasions, most do not even set foot in the church. And that generally serves the purpose of either a wedding or a funeral.

Do not expect to find in the things I write here all the information related to it. My writings here can be only a beginning for every investigator. My aim is not to write here the explanation of the entire Holy Scriptures and the Quran. Moreover, if you expect me to explain every single verse mentioned there, in my view that would be unfair. How am I to give you all my knowledge on this subject in one book? And in an understandable form at that! This is not possible. At least for me, for now, this is how it is. I say again, please investigate for yourselves, pray, you are personally responsible for yourselves. Rather than immediately believing either what is written here or others who give some teaching, you yourselves, personally, must investigate. Those who grow weary and are lazy will receive their recompense. For them the situation will be much harder. I also know that knowledge alone will not save a person. Without knowledge, however, it is very difficult for us to be saved—indeed, apart from very rare exceptions, it may even be impossible. Knowledge serves in a way as a means to open the door of salvation. Whether one enters through that door or not is something belonging to each person. If, in opening this door of salvation, knowledge is like a key, a means, an instrument, then the one who has no knowledge at all will have no such thing in his hand, in his mind, or in his heart. (Matthew 25:1-13) Our God is very merciful, but let us not see ourselves as pleasure-loving clever ones and God as one full of a weakness for mercy. Our God can, when necessary, also be a God who takes vengeance and does not have pity; this is something that depends on us. Please open and read those places in the 1st chapter of the Proverbs of Solomon, from 22 to 33; the end of those who hate knowledge is written there. Later, under other subjects, I will write these verses as well.

The Christian world, however, hating knowledge and the imparting of knowledge, stoned those who read the Holy Scriptures, hung that book around people’s necks and burned them alive, declared the translators sons of death. They hated nearly every kind of knowledge and everyone who wished to acquire knowledge. And it is to Christians who are like this that people say “what need was there for a warning like the Quran”! And this is done by looking at the Muslim world! Whatever you are, they are the same. However much you apply those books you carry in your hands, they apply them just as much. Just as you, in the Middle Ages and still, hated—and still hate—the knowledge that contains the truths, they are in this state because they hate it likewise.

The third reason is the Arabs and everyone without faith.

The Quran’s most important third reason for warning is the Arabs, and indeed the ignorant Arabs of that time. Granted, did the coming of the Quran make those people that much better? For that time, yes, but later they all became corrupted again from time to time. When we look at history, we see that there was good for the nations that applied the words in the Quran with faith. Just as every nation that strayed from God and became corrupted was in time destroyed, so it was for them too. As with the examples we saw in the history of Israel—which was once ruler of the world—so now too God permits such nations only with patience. And rather than occupying ourselves with the question of whether the Arabs became good or bad with the coming of the Quran, when we look at the world that possesses these Holy Books (Torah–Gospel–Quran), it is clearly plain that a general dreadfulness exists. In every matter there is already fraud, injustice, war, plunder, greed, hatred, malice, and terror. When states commit terror it is called war, and this is called “righteousness, valor, love of country, and heroism”! And when necessary, for their own interests, these same states raise up their own private terrorists with their money, their weapons, their everything. Moreover, those who fight against that terror turn the places they enter under the name of “we will bring liberation, democracy” into hell! I remembered the Vietnam War, which I constantly heard about in the news in my childhood! The fraud, the secrecy, the plunders, the murders, the massacres of those at the top, the schemes they turn that are always to the harm of humanity—who does not know of them by now? The common desires of them all are money, gluttony, pleasure, lust, laziness, and pride; in their pursuit they devour, trample, crush, and tear one another apart. It is not in vain that God likens these nations to beasts in the Holy Writings. (Daniel chapter 7 and Revelation chapter 13) What these states, governments, organizations, administrations do, only beasts can do. Now if we—these states, nations, peoples, tribes, and we as single individuals—have become this corrupted, let us not seek the blame for it in the Quran, nor in the Gospel, nor in the Torah. If there is any ugliness, we must seek it in ourselves. Even Israel, though it received so much attention from God, what became of it? In the Holy Scriptures it says “they always acted disgracefully.” Please again open and read from its place those parts in the book of 2 Kings, from 17:7 to 18.

Let us come to the Quran’s warnings. To that community—which buried baby girls alive in the ground and worshiped idols—God sends a message of warning by means of the prophet and the Quran. The Quran speaks of there being a God who created everything and that He is one God, and of other books and prophets that had come before as well. While it speaks of the hope of resurrection to come in the future, of eternal paradise and eternal happy life, it also states that there will be a bitter day of judgment for the wicked. Rather than individual verses about these, to present the whole Quran as proof is, in my view, an indisputable fact. Still, a few verses: Sura 6:19; 10:37-39; 7:2; 3:3; 2:2; 10:57; 10:48; 16:64; 16:101. If we also write out some from their places:

Say: “The Holy Spirit has brought it down from your God as truth, to make firm the faith of those who believe, and as guidance and glad tidings to the Muslims (those who believe).” Sura An-Nahl, 16:102

Praise be to God, who sent down the Book to His servant and placed in it no crookedness—as a warner giving notice of a severe punishment, and to bring glad tidings to the believers who do good works that they will attain fine rewards… Sura Al-Kahf, 18:1-2

Asia, and consequently Arabia, was not, in the time of the first Christians, a region that had been preached to and worked over like Europe. God did not permit the apostles of that time to do so. (Acts 16:6) The later coming of Muhammad and the Quran shows us God’s purpose that was to come in the future. Concerning this purpose God had made a promise to Abraham. There God said this to Abraham:

As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him, and I will make him fruitful (productive), and I will multiply him exceedingly; he shall become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. Genesis 17:20

Christians virtually hate Ishmael, Abraham’s son. Even in their films Ishmael has dark hair, is hairy and swarthy; in films about Isaac and Jesus, they always cast blond, blue-eyed ones in those roles. To them, the blond, fair-colored race resembling themselves is the superior race, while the swarthy race is a lower, base, evil race. It is not God they worship but always demons. This is the spirit that Europeans and Americans want to give to the imaginations of their societies and to the subconscious of their peoples, and that is natural. In medieval Europe, too, when the Ottomans and the Arabs fighting on horseback held the upper hand, then, exactly the opposite, in the eyes of those societies these fair, cheese-pale-colored people looked very small. If dwarves had been the rulers of the world, then too, I believe, they would have made Jesus and Moses dwarves in their films and imaginations. If the black race had ruled the world, then too Jesus, Moses, and His Excellency Abraham would surely have been shown as pitch-black Africans. Human psychology—let us say it is normal, but a foolish normality. Such brainless partisanship in people, the belittling of those unlike themselves, those not of their own kind, has always sprung from the passion to exalt themselves at all costs.

God, however, does not say about Ishmael, “I will curse him”; on the contrary, He says, “behold, I have blessed him.” And in Genesis 21:13:

“I will also make a nation of the son of the slave woman, because he is your offspring,” and by saying this God is not “flattering” Abraham. For Abraham later has four more sons, that is, six in total—besides Ishmael and Isaac, four more. (Genesis 25:1-4) God does not give a promise of blessing to all of them as Abraham’s children. He does this only concerning Isaac and Ishmael. If there is any difference, it is that the savior, that is, the Messiah, would come from the offspring of Isaac. In fact, if you look at the comparison, when God makes the promise about Ishmael, by saying “the son of the slave woman too,” this word “too” means someone who possesses the same things. That is, God plainly means, regarding the promise He gave to Isaac, that by a comparison Ishmael too will become such a similar nation. Again, let us not compare Israel with the Arabs letter for letter here. God shows that in reality He gathered all His attention upon Israel until the Messiah came. (Galatians 3:16 and 19) For this reason, so that it might be an example to all the nations of the world, He had His concern for Israel put into writing. Otherwise, contrary to what the Jews, the Witnesses, the Christians, or the Muslims suppose, God has never, in any age, favored a particular nation, community, or race and left the other people He created loose and ownerless. God is not a God who belongs to the monopoly of only one nation, religion, or race. There are many nations, religions, sects, and organizations that wish to be in this delusion. Indeed, I would speak more correctly if I said all of them are like this. For this reason they want to introduce God to people that way. That is, like the old Jews. They want to say: “We alone are holy and only we will be saved. You are sons of death, abominable people.” To such goose-headed, self-satisfied communities, religions, nations, peoples, races—and again to the Israelites of that time who themselves thought this way—Jesus says these things:

Again I tell you the truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three years and six months and a terrible famine came upon the whole land.

Yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but rather to a widow in Zarephath, in the region of Sidon.

And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha. Yet none of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian was cleansed.”

When they heard these words, all those in the synagogue were enraged to fury.

They rose up and drove Jesus out of the city. They took him to the brow of the hill on which the city was built, to throw him down from the cliff. Luke 4:24-29

By this message, does Jesus not show that God gives importance not to the label, but to people who are personally valuable? Of whatever nation, people, or race they may be.

God always keeps the promise He gives. But we must also pay attention to the promise that is given. I will now explain what I mean. Some of God’s promises are conditional, while some are unconditional. For example, God, by saying to David: “If your sons walk in My ways and keep My laws, they will always stand before Me,” sets a condition. (1 Kings 2:1-4) That is a condition of remaining faithful to Him; but the promise He gave to Abraham concerning Isaac and Ishmael is unconditional. That is, God, who promised Abraham a savior, that savior would come from that offspring however evil, corrupt, and far from God the offspring of Abraham’s son Isaac might be. For Ishmael the situation was the same. This is what I wanted to explain by saying, “some promises are not conditional.” (Genesis chapter 17, verses 5-8 and 15-21)

For all these reasons God gives Muhammad the office of prophethood—that is, to one from Arabia, of the offspring of Ishmael. This subject is one that many cannot easily understand from the Quran alone, but for those who know all the Holy Books, they are proofs resting on seeing how God’s word came to pass. I will write the sentences related to this subject selected from within certain verses.

This day I have perfected your religion for you and completed My favor upon you. Sura Al-Ma’ida, 5:3

With these words God emphasizes that something has been completed, namely a promise that was given. Yes, and He had given this promise to Abraham concerning Ishmael. Again, continuing, on this subject the Quran writes thus:

And when Abraham and Ishmael were raising the foundations of the House (the Kaaba), they prayed: “Our God, accept what we have done. You are the All-Knowing, the All-Hearing.”

“O our God! Make us both submissive to You. And from our offspring raise up a nation that submits to You. Show us our ways of worship: accept our repentance. For You are the Acceptor of repentance and the Merciful.”

“O our God! Send among them a messenger who will recite Your verses to them, teach them the Book and wisdom, and purify them. Truly You are the Mighty, the Possessor of Wisdom. Sura Al-Baqara, 2:127-129.

With these verses God emphasizes, in a way, that this prayer was fulfilled. By granting the wishes of both Abraham and his son Ishmael, and concerning that House whose foundations they raised, God shows that He heard their prayers. That place with the black covering, in the present-day Kaaba, which the Muslims visit, is that house which Abraham and Ishmael built. The details of these matters are not in the Holy Scriptures. There is almost an impression as though Abraham drove out Ishmael and Hagar, and afterward they never saw one another again. This too is so thanks to the mistaken teachings under whose influence we have remained. It is not the message of the Holy Scriptures. Whereas when Abraham grew old and died, Ishmael came and together with his brother Isaac they buried their father. (Genesis 25:8-10) So it turns out there was close communication between them. They saw one another and had news of one another as well—and that within the possibilities of that time, even though they dwelt at distances of hundreds of kilometers apart. On this subject I will give verses from both books. About Ishmael: Genesis 16:10; 17:20; 21:13 and 18. Sura 2:133; 3:84; 4:163; 19:54; 38:48; 21:85. These verses introduce Ishmael as both a prophet and a good person. These are truths that run completely counter to the education given by the Christian world and the Jews. If God had had no plan concerning Ishmael, then at the time he was driven out, ought He not to have left them to fend for themselves, indeed abandoned them to death? But no, He does not, and He repeats His word to Abraham to Ishmael’s mother Hagar as well. And that repeatedly. Genesis 16:10-12 and 21:14-21. Here there is an interesting verse about Ishmael. For these verses are ones that draw much antipathy from Christians and Jews. There it says exactly this about Ishmael:

God was with the boy, and he grew; and he dwelt in the wilderness, and as he grew he became an archer. Genesis 21:20

There is a verse similar to this written about the childhood of Jesus Christ as well. There:

The child kept growing and becoming strong and being filled with wisdom; and God’s favor was upon him. Luke 2:40

Do these words refer to people who have earned God’s curse? Or, on the contrary, to those who have earned His blessing? These are truths against the false, extra-scriptural teachings of the Christians. The Muslims, however, with the tale they invented of Ishmael in place of Isaac, tell it confusing Isaac and Ishmael with each other. Indeed, the humbug of the Feast of Sacrifice is a custom very similar to the Christians’ celebrating Easter with eggs and rabbits on the day of Jesus Christ’s death. This Easter, with its eggs and rabbits, has nothing to do with Jesus’ death; just as Ishmael has nothing to do with the sacrificial offering and the Feast of Sacrifice the Muslims teach. In the Quran there is, word for word, no definite name as to who is to be sacrificed. But there is no verse that would contradict the Holy Scriptures. Perhaps this subject is not that detailed. But it writes only truths; there is nothing false or wrong. If the Islamic world will later stray into humbug, this does not stem from any deficient or excessive information in the Quran. If they doubt, let them bring the Torah and read it. Then they would have information about who is to be sacrificed. And this command is given not by me but by God in the Quran.

…Say: “If you are truthful people, bring the Torah and read it.” Sura Al-Imran, 3:93. And what did the Muslims do? Do they suppose that by saying “these books were altered,” they have escaped the truths? The Quran does not say about these books that “they were altered”; on the contrary, it says: “If you are truthful people, bring them and read them.” Parallel verses: sura 40:53-54; 4:47; 3:99. Finally, a verse of warning belonging to these three groups—Muslim, Christian, and Jew:

When it is said to them, “Believe in what God has sent down,” they say, “We believe in what was sent down to us,” and they disregard what came after it. Yet this is a truth confirming what is in their hands. Say to them: “If you were believers, why then did you kill God’s prophets before this?” Sura Al-Baqara, 2:91

Say: “We believe in God, and in what has been sent down to us, and in what was sent down to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and his sons, and in what was revealed, and in what was sent to Moses and Jesus, and to all the prophets from their God. We make no distinction among any of them. We are the ones who submit to Him.” Sura Al-Baqara, 2:136

Please tell me: though these words are written in the Quran, which Muslim carries out the last words I have underlined, applies them and believes them wholeheartedly? I have not yet seen one. Either the Quran is talking nonsense or the Muslims are! What is logical is the faithlessness and nonsense of the Muslim world. If they both say they believe in the Quran and yet do not comply with what is written there, what, in your view, is that to be called?

Above we have counted three religious communities. The Jews, the Christians, and the Arabs—who were formerly without faith in God and would become Muslim. The Quran is a book in keeping with God’s justice and expressing His purpose, because from the beginning, from Adam, a savior Messiah was always spoken of. It was said, “He will come, he will come.” (Genesis 49:9-10; Deuteronomy 18:15 and its parallel verse, John 5:46; Psalms 22:16-18, 30:2-3, 40:6-7, 110:1 and again its parallel verse Matthew 22:42-46; Luke 20:42-43; Proverbs of Solomon 8:22-36; Isaiah chapter 7:14 and the whole of chapter 53; Daniel 2:44, 9:24-26; Micah 5:2; Zechariah 12:10; Hosea 11:1) and many other prophecies like these said that Jesus, that is, the Messiah, would come, and they were put into writing in the books. All of these are found in the books that are the Jews’ holy scripture, which the Muslims know as the Torah and the Psalms. That awaited savior Messiah came, and the Gospel confirmed this, but the Jews did not believe. Later a man came forth from a place having nothing to do with Judaism and declared that he was a prophet of God. This man spoke of the Messiah too, and brought illuminating information confirming that this Messiah was Jesus. This man I speak of is Muhammad, and the information he brought was written in the Quran. I ask you: what clearer and plainer witness or proofs than these should God have used?

God approached people with so many proofs, and if people twisted all of these and did not want to understand, what are we to say! They made these Books into their own party buildings, turned them into football teams. This place is yours, that place is mine, it was said. They split apart, divided into tens of thousands of pieces. They devoured one another, and still devour. Slyly, with these books, putting forward God’s name, they ruled millions and billions through their own filthy, disgusting, ugly, selfish, self-interested feelings full of envy. And we, being donkeys, went after them in herds. And we still go. Whom did we defend? For whom did we fight? For what did we die, or kill and destroy? Whose lawyer are we being? The one we set out to defend—is it God, then? Does God have need of a lawyer, a huckster, of being defended! And least of all by those who are His enemies in their deeds—no, none at all, nor can there be. Or do we suppose God too to be a bandit like ourselves? At one time God spoke these fitting words to the people He called “my people”:

Yet you trust in worthless, deceptive words.

“Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal (an idol), and go after other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before Me in the temple that bears My name, doing all these abominations, and say, ‘We are safe’? Has this temple that bears My name become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I Myself have seen it,” declares the LORD. Jeremiah 7:8-11