Islamic Teachings — 1 October 1965 Watchtower

Here, on certain subjects, the Quran is taken up as proof, while at other times an attempt is made to refute the Quran in the light of the teachings of the Islamic world. For example, once again with the support of the Quran’s own teaching, the German 1 October 1965 Watchtower publication writes that Islam does not accept the sin-offering. On this matter it has not given a single verse from the Quran as proof. There is no such verse anyway—I know that too—but there is no verse to the contrary either. Again, just as the Quran is not a copy of the Gospel, neither is it a copy of the Torah, as I have said many times. When the prophets wrote down the revelations they received, they did not carry out the task of copying one book onto another place. Each of them wrote down whatever revelation he had received.

Let us come to the knowledge that Jesus gave his body as a ransom for the sin of all humanity. Just as the Jews, who had possessed the Law for fifteen hundred years, did not understand that the Messiah could be a sin-offering, (John 6:32-71) was the Quran supposed to explain all over again, to that ignorant, idol-worshiping community that knew nothing, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and his office of King and Priest after the order of Melchizedek! (Hebrews chapter 7) Who would have understood this? And besides, why was the Gospel written? Is the Quran a book that flings the Gospel away and throws it out, or, quite the opposite, a book that defends that book from beginning to end? Sure 3:45-59; 4:171-172; 5:47 and 66-68, 110-117. These verses are only in the first five suras, roughly the ones I found right away. The whole Quran gives an explanation in line with these verses. And again, in one of them it is written thus:

Say: “O People of the Book! Unless you carry out the ordinances of the Torah, the Gospel, and what has been sent down to you from your God, you have nothing to stand upon.” …Maide, sure 5:68.

If the Islamic world threw these books away because of the deeds and teachings of those who say “I am a Christian,” that is their own ignorance. In the same way, throwing away the Quran by looking at Muslims stems from the same ignorance. Likewise, throwing away the Torah by looking at the Jews cannot be hard to do. But however much these communities we have named appointed themselves the representatives of these books, they resemble kings who place the crown upon their own heads themselves. In their deeds and practices, and especially in their teachings, they are very, very far from the content of this book. If there are worthy ones among them, those too are only individual persons. In fact, all these bloodsuckers make their living through the advertising they do about those individual persons. Such ones they burn and kill while they are alive, and then afterward they build shrines for them!

And besides, does the Christian world throw stones at Islam as though it has itself understood so well “that Jesus was sacrificed as a ransom and savior for all humanity in place of Adam’s sin”? If the churches, the Papacy, the Witnesses, and all the sects and orders that pass for Christian had understood this, would they present themselves as saviors? Are these not the ones who say, “Unless you go through us, you cannot be saved,” the ones who, if need be, shout at the top of their voices from door to door in the streets, “God is using only us on the earth”? Whereas Jesus speaks of there being only one mediator, that is, one intermediary, between God and men, and the Gospels clearly write that he himself is that one and that God gave him this rank. Let us read it from its place.

For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men.

namely, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all. This is what is to be witnessed to at its own particular times. 1 Timothy 2:5-6

If those who have possessed the Gospel for two thousand years have not understood this, who would have understood it when the same things were written in the Quran? And besides, does the Quran forbid these books to those who wish to understand? How illogical people become when they insist on taking a side. The types some people call “blind fanatics” must be this kind of person.

In the following paragraph the Witnesses touch upon Noah’s children. It is stated: “In the Quran it is written that during the Flood one of Noah’s sons did not enter the ark. But such information is not in the Holy Scriptures.”

True, there are many more details in the Quran that are not in the Holy Scriptures. When we read the Holy Scriptures, the situation is the same. There too are many details that are not in the Quran, and even events that never appear in the Quran at all. One is a book of 1,400 pages, the other of 300 pages. One was written by some 40 writers over 1,500 years, while the Quran was revealed to one person over about 20 years. Are such differences not normal? To believe only in the book of Isaiah, Ezekiel, or the Psalms from within the Torah, and to seek all truths only within them, and, without believing the books of the remaining other prophets, to measure them by comparison with the others—that, in my opinion, is unwise conduct. Throughout the whole Holy Scriptures, some names and events are never mentioned when they were first written down, while the detail on that subject is written much later by another prophet. For example, when we read the book of 2 Peter, Peter speaks of a truth that is very hard to understand in that form in the Torah.

For instance, a prophet is mentioned, named Balaam. The event takes place in the time of the prophet Moses, after coming out of Egypt. The king of Moab summons this prophet to curse the people of Israel. When we read the whole of this subject in the Torah, we do not come across the prophet doing anything that was far from God. But he did. Both Jesus Christ says this in John’s book of Revelation, and the apostle Peter writes it. The way the events of that time unfolded also proves that it could have been so. For the Israelites kill him in war, and they surely do this knowing something. In the event referred to, although the prophet each time said not what the king wished but what God said, in the end he gave that grieved king of Moab a devilish idea. He said, “If you want these people to be destroyed, for God to abandon them, send your daughters to them, let them commit fornication with them and worship idols, and then God will abandon them.” And indeed it happens so, and God strikes and punishes tens of thousands of people. (Numbers 25:1-3 and 9) And the one who gave this satanic advice is God’s prophet! Affected by the king’s pleadings toward him and his treating him very well, the prophet thinks that by giving him such counsel he is helping him. For comparison, look at 2 Peter 2:15-16 together with the book of Numbers, chapters 22 through 24, Revelation 2:14; Jude 11. But this truth I have written, as I said, never appears in the Torah. It is only centuries later that the Gospel sheds light on this subject. Surely Israel knows this detail even if by word of mouth; but for us to know it merely by reading from the books of Moses (the first five books of the Torah) is impossible.

I too have at times fallen into that prophet’s mistake. So as not to hurt the person before me, solely for the purpose of pleasing that person, I have done things that God does not like. I do not know whether I was pleasing that person, but God was surely not pleased. My friends from the army came to mind. When I went into the army, I had read the Holy Scriptures only once. I had helped them in their search for women during their weekend leaves. I myself would do nothing, but I was helping them! When I returned to the barracks in the evening, my conscience troubled me very much. In fact nothing had happened, but even so what I did was not right. I myself would not do it, but I was aiding others to do it! To be sensitive in these matters requires faith, love, a very well-trained conscience, wisdom, and therefore knowledge. Because if these feelings are used wrongly, then it is also very easy to become a slave to a harsh, uncomprehending righteousness and to be like a fanatic Witness, or a Muslim, or the Jews who killed Jesus, or some other kind of religious extremist. Or, quite the opposite, as in the event of the prophet Balaam, when one looks at history, very corrupt deeds have also come out of the thought of how to please others. Neither the one is right nor the other. I myself beg God very much to have the ability to discern these things, and especially we should all beg him to help us in every matter.

Yet another similar subject appears in Paul’s second letter to Timothy, at 3:8. The names meant by Jannes and Jambres do not appear in Exodus 7:11. These names appear only in the Gospel, and that only once. Does this make the Gospel a fabricated book? There are many more examples like this and similar to it in the book of Kings and Chronicles as well. Indeed, those who do not understand all this, or do not want to understand, deny it by saying, “These books are false and have been altered.” In reality they too have the same mindset and viewpoint as the Christianity, the Witnesses, that criticizes the Quran; the difference is only in a change of color and label.

Let us come to that extra son of Noah, not appearing in the Holy Scriptures but mentioned in the Quran. In the Holy Scriptures there are also proofs appearing in other places about Noah and about his sons. Those too always speak of only three sons of Noah. (Genesis 5:32; 6:10; 10:1) So who is this fourth son that appears in the Quran?

In the Quran, concerning the wives of Noah and Lot, it says: “They were not good.” Let us again read this from its place:

Allah sets forth, as an example to the unbelievers, the wife of Noah and the wife of Lot. They were under two of Our righteous servants; yet they betrayed them. So these two availed them nothing against Allah. And it was said to them: “Enter the Fire, together with those who enter it.” Sure 66:10

This explanation in the Quran appears in the Holy Scriptures very slightly, only concerning Lot’s wife. And there too, when Lot’s wife ought not to have looked behind her, she did not heed the angel’s word, looked behind her, and became a pillar of salt. People with a superficial faith think, and can indeed believe, that this is that woman’s only offense. (Genesis 19:17-26) Just like the prophet Balaam whom Moses killed in war. With only the knowledge of the Torah, one could even draw the meaning that that man was killed during the war just like that, by accident, unknowingly. Likewise, there is no detailed explanation in the Holy Scriptures that Noah’s wife was wicked and that he had another son. In fact it gives no information about his wife anywhere. So, because it did not go into such detail, must one of these two books be absurd and false? It may be that in the Holy Scriptures too, in some places the details are not gone into, while in other places there is detailed information. On this very matter it is enough to read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John from the Gospel. Each of these apostles wrote by looking at the same events from a different angle, in a separate style of narration, and going into different details.

There is no place in the explanations made in the Quran about Noah’s son where one could say, “No, this is impossible, it cannot be.” If in the Quran God gave us such a hint about Noah’s wife, why should that child, whom Noah supposed to be his own, not have come from someone else by means of fornication? Because the Quran writes that they betrayed. Indeed, Noah, out of the pain he felt at that son not entering the ark, pleads: “O my Lord, did You not promise to save all my family?” And God answers him, saying: “O Noah, he was truly not of your family; he did not do righteous work.” We do not know whether God gives Noah any further information. (Sura Hud 11:37-48). In the light of these verses, I cannot think of any explanation other than making this interpretation. It fits the verses and is also very logical. It cannot be called impossible, because in our time children born of such illegitimate relationships have become more natural things than eating bread and cheese. And even if the world in Noah’s time was no worse than our present world, given the means they had, they were not so very different either. (Genesis 6:5-7) Some may say, “If that is so, why did God not kill that woman?” Just as God does not now kill every person who commits fornication, He did not kill then either. And let us not forget that after the Flood no human being remained on earth except Noah and his family. A total of eight persons. And besides, by that would Noah have been punished, or his wife? Moreover, with the Flood of Noah God is not bringing an eternal end to all wickedness. The condition of being sinful and the wicked race of humanity continue after that too. If God, knowing this, forgave Noah’s wife and did not kill her, why should we regard this situation with an eye that cannot comprehend it? The wife of the prophet Job was also a foolish, faithless, and sinful person, and God did not kill her either. On the contrary, the records state that “after Job recovered from his illness, he had many children by that woman, and they lived happily together.” (Job 2:7-10 and 42:10-16) Why could all these things not be so? According to the Witnesses, they cannot. Of course they cannot, if they write one verse and hide the others. There is no objectivity, so how could there be?