What about Islam? What about the Quran? How do you know Muslims aren't right, and you're not heading to their Hell? You've probably heard these questions from skeptics, haven't you? It's often a reaction to Pascal's Wager. For those who aren't familiar, Pascal's Wager is a weak argument some Christians use, claiming that if unbelievers are right, no one will know, but if Christians are right, unbelievers will lose big time. The problem with this argument is that Christianity isn't the only religion claiming to be the only way to God—so, what about Islam?
Islam is unique in that it strictly teaches that it is the only way, and those who reject it will go to Hell. In this post, I aim to demonstrate that Islam is a self-refuting religion that has to borrow from Judeo-Christian Scriptures to make its case. Notice that I won’t be using the promotion of violence in the Quran or Hadith against Islam, as is common in Christian and non-Christian opposition. Using violence in an apologetic context is an example of the argumentum ad baculum fallacy. Simply because a religion promotes violence doesn’t mean it’s false. Disliking something doesn’t make it untrue; concluding that it is, is a non-sequitur.
Before continuing, let's address the question: "Is Allah the same God that Jews and Christians worship?" This is a tricky question, and the answer isn’t as clear-cut as many would want. A short answer is yes, Allah is the same God. "Allah" is simply the Arabic term for God, even used by Arab Christians. However, what about the famous Islamic saying, often seen on flags like those of ISIS or Saudi Arabia, "There is no God but Allah"? There is indeed a more generic Arabic term for "God," "Elah," used in this oath. I personally believe "Allah" is a specific name rather than just a generic word for God, derived from Aramaic, the language from which modern Arabic comes. Historical and archaeological evidence suggests that Allah was the chief deity worshiped by the Meccan pantheists before the advent of Islam.
To cut to the point, if we dig too deep, we might say that no, Allah is not the same God as worshipped by Jews and Christians, nor is it a generic term for God in Arabic. I believe Arab Christians may have been misled by their language on this matter. But setting aside these complexities, we can agree that Allah of the Quran claims to be the same God that Jews and Christians worship. Therefore, it's logical to assume that Muslims "think" they worship the same Abrahamic God. However, even if they do worship the same God, it doesn’t mean they are saved, because according to the Gospel, worship alone doesn't save us from sin. True worship is a privilege that brings us into God’s presence, but that’s a separate issue.
Now, any rational person would agree that if Allah of the Quran claims to be the same God worshipped by Jews and Christians, the Quran should align with both the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. The reason for this is simple: new revelations fulfill old ones. In Christianity, the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, also known as the Tanakh. Christianity doesn’t claim that the Hebrew Bible has been corrupted or changed, as this would undermine Christianity itself. Instead, Christians use the Hebrew Bible to prove that the Gospel fulfills what was promised in the Old Testament and is a new revelation from God.
The question is: does Islam follow the same logic? The answer is no, it does not. The teachings in the Quran contain contradictions to both the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, so much so that Muslims claim the Bible has been corrupted. This claim violates basic logic and common sense and undermines Islam and the Quran, proving to any rational person that Islam is self-refuting.
It gets more interesting. The Quran includes verses that affirm the inspiration, preservation, and authority of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures. Allah commands Muhammad to let Christians judge the Quran by the Gospel, and in one place, Allah even tells Muhammad to ask the "People of the Book" (Jews and Christians) if he doubts the new revelations. This is shocking and raises the question: how can there be over a billion Muslims in the world? The answer is simple: most Muslims haven’t even read their own book, let alone the Bible. Unfortunately, the same is true for many Christians. People are often blindly following the crowd. But what about the leaders of Islam? The ones who study these issues and still promote the Quran? How can they not see this contradiction? The answer is cognitive dissonance—people would rather stick with their beliefs than think critically.
One might object, asking, “What about you? Don’t you see contradictions in the Bible? Isn’t the God of the Old Testament different from the God of the New Testament?” These objections would be valid if Christians claimed the Hebrew Bible had been corrupted and then picked and chose passages to support the New Testament, as Muslim apologists do with the Bible. But that’s not what Christians claim. For every alleged contradiction in the Bible, whether in the Old or New Testament, there’s at least one explanation; you just need to research it. People who raise objections like these haven’t studied the issues. They are following the crowd, just like many Muslims.
To recap, the Quran affirms the inspiration, preservation, and authority of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures. Yet it contradicts those Scriptures on fundamental doctrines like Jesus' death, resurrection, and deity. By affirming Scriptures that contradict Islam, the Quran self-destructs. I recommend watching a video by David Wood, called The Islamic Dilemma. Google it and it should come up!
