Friday, January 5, 2018

Summary of the book "Izharul Haqq" by Shaykh Rahmat-Allaah al-Hindi

This book, internationally recognized as one of the most authoritative and objective studies of the Bible, was originally written in Arabic under the title Izharul-Haq (Truth Revealed) by the distinguished 19th century Indian scholar,Rahmatullah Kairanvi, and appeared in 1864. The book was subsequently translated into Urdu, and then from Urdu into English by Mohammad Wali Raazi.Rahmatullah Kairanvi wrote the book in response to the Christian offensive against Islam during the British rule in India, and specifically to counter sive attack made by the Rev. C. C. P. Fonder. Rev. Fonder had written a book in Urdu entitled Meezanul Haq, the open intention of which was to create doubts into the minds of the Muslims about the authenticity of the Qur’an and Islam. Kairanvi’s intention in his book was first of all to show that the Bible cannot in any way be considered as a directly revealed book. He does this very effectively by means of his voluminous and authoritative knowledge of the Jewish and Christian scriptures. He demonstrates beyond doubt that the Books of the Old and New Testaments have been altered, almost beyond recognition, from their original forms. The work is even more notable in the light of subsequent Jewish and Christian scholarship and the various discoveries that have since been made in this field which all bear out the truth of Kairanvi’s thesis. Shaikh Amed Deedad, the famous South African orator was inspired by this book.

Review of the Books by the Councils

Council of Nicaea (325) examined and defined status of books – Epistle of Jude was genuine and believable.
Council of Laodicea (364): Confirmed authenticity of Epistle of Jude, The book of Esther, The Epistle Of James, The Second Epistle of Peter, The Second and Third Epistles of John, The Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews. Book of Revelations remained out of list.
Council of Carthage (397): Added the Book of the Songs of Solomon, The Book of Tobit, The Book of Baruch, Ecclesiastics, The First and Second Books of Maccabees to the divine books.

The Books Rejected By the Protestants

The Book of Baruch, The Book of Tobit, The Letter of Jude, The song of Solomon, Ecclesiastics, The First and Second Books of Maccabees.

The Present Pentateuch Is Not the Book of Moses

1. The existence of the Torah, Pentateuch, is not historically known before King Josiah (d 609 BCE). This book along with its copies were again destroyed and burnt by Antiochus (215-164 BCE) at the time of his invasion of Jerusalem.
2. The Pentateuch is very different in style, we do not find even a single place to indicate that the author of this book was Moses. In order to separate the statements which he thought were the statements of God and Moses, he prefixed them with the phrases, “God says” or “Moses said”. The third person has been used for Moses in every place. Had it been the book of Moses, he would have used the first person for himself. At least there would have been one place where we could find Moses speaking in the first person.
3. The present Pentateuch includes within its chapters some statements which are historically impossible to attribute to Moses, e.g. death of Moses.
4. The present Pentateuch contains a large number of errors while the words of the Prophet Moses must have been free of this defect. Eg: “A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord, even to his tenth generation shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 23:2). On the basis of this statement the Prophet David and all his ancestors up to Perez would be excluded from the congregation of the Lord because Perez was an illegitimate son of Judah.

Biblical text: Are they revealed?

Luke’s writing is not inspired is evident from the dedication of his Gospel to Theophilus.
Irenaeus said that Luke conveyed to us the things which he learnt from the apostles.
Jerome said that Luke does not depend only on Paul, who was never in the physical company of Christ. Luke also acquired the knowledge of the Evangel from other apostles as well.
According to Beausobre and L'Enfant (a preface to the French Version of the New Testament, published 1718) an expert of the original language will easily recognize the differences of idiom and expression in the gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John and the epistles of Paul. If, however, the Holy Ghost had truly inspired the words to them, this would have not happened. The style and expression of all the gospels would have been identical. Besides, there have been many events the description of which does not require inspiration. For example, they write of many events which they saw with their own eyes or heard from reliable observers.

Statements Regarding the Authenticity of the Bible

Adam Clarke said on page 369 of vol. 5 of his commentary: It is customary that the number of the writers on the lives of great men has always been large. The same is true of Jesus and the Apostles; that is to say the number of narrators of their lives is also great but many of the statements they make are erroneous. They used to write fictional events as if they were facts. They also made mistakes, deliberate or accidental, in other descriptions, especially the historians of the land where Luke wrote his Gospel. For this reason the Holy Spirit imparted appropriate knowledge to Luke so that the faithful might know the true accounts.
In his Epistle to the Galatians Paul said: I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel; which is not another but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ (Gal.1:5,6). The above statement of Paul brings out three important facts, firstly that there was a gospel called the Gospel of Christ in the time of apostles; secondly that there was another gospel that was different and contrary to the Gospel of Christ; and thirdly that there were some people who wanted to distort and change the Gospel of Christ, even in the time of Paul, not to speak of subsequent periods when there was nothing left of this Gospel but its name. Adam Clarke under his comments on the above verse said in vol. 6 of his commentary: It is established that many minor gospels had become common in the early centuries of Christianity. The abundance of such false and incorrect accounts led Luke to write his Gospel. We read about more than seventy such gospels. Some parts of these gospels are still in existence and available. Many such gospels were collected and published in three volumes by Fabricius. Some describe the obligatory nature of the laws of Moses, the validity of circumcision and imperativeness of the Gospel. The above implies that many spurious gospels were present before the compilation of the Gospel of Luke and Paul’s letter to Galatians. It also proves that Paul referred to a properly compiled Gospel and not to the meanings that he had conceived in his mind, as sometimes is contended by the Protestants.
The fact that a gospel called the Gospel of Christ existed in the time of the Apostles is certainly true and was also testified to by Eichhorn and many other German scholars.

The Eloquence of the Qur’an

The Holy Qur’an maintains throughout the highest possible standard of rhetoric in its speech, to the extent that it is literally impossible to find its parallel in human works.
Human eloquence, whether from Arabs or non-Arabs, usually concerns the physical phenomena that are closely associated with those people. For instance, the Arabs are considered to be great orators and eloquent in the description of camels, horses, swords and women. However, the Holy Qur’an does not fit this pattern, owing nothing to precedent and being replete with astonishing and unparalleled examples of eloquence that were unanimously acknowledged by all the Arabs.
It is our usual experience that when poets and writers of literature try to adorn their language with eloquent expressions they do not remain truthful. The Holy Qur’an presents miraculous examples of eloquence in spite of being absolutely true in all it says.
Any writer or poet, when he relates the same event more than once, does not manage in the repeated account to be as elegant and beautiful as he was the first time. The Holy Qur’an repeats versions of the same event, and of descriptions of the creation and the end of the world, and of the injunctions and the attributes of God. Each description is different in style and in size, but everyone is of so high a standard that one cannot be preferred to another.
The Qur’an talks of many things like obligatory rituals, legal prohibitions, instigation to virtue, repudiation of worldly desires, and preparation for the Hereafter and other similar themes. The description of these things does not lend itself to elegance and beauty and any poet trying to compose poetry on practical injunctions of this kind would be hard put to produce a passage of literary merit. The Holy Qur’an deals with all these subjects with a high standard of eloquence.
The eloquence of every poet is confined to a particular subject and when the same poet speaks on other subjects his beauty of expression and his proficiency is distinctly circumscribed. Imru’l-Qais, the famous Arab poet, is known for his description of wine, women and horses. No other poet is as eloquent on this subject. Nabigha is known for his description of fear and awful events, Zuhayr for hope and so on. The Holy Qur’an, on the other hand, talks on all kinds of subjects with great force of eloquence, beauty and elegance, and is found to be miraculously eloquent in each description.
Diversion from one subject to another which in turn has many branches usually makes it impossible for an author to maintain flow and continuity with the same grandeur and majesty and his language usually loses its height of eloquence. The Holy Qur’an is full of such diversions.
Another distinct feature of the Qur’anic diction is that it encloses a vast range of meaning in a surprisingly small number of words without losing its charm and majesty in the least.  Surah Sad’s opening verses are a good example of this.
Majesty and sweetness, elegance and beauty are counteracting qualities that are rarely found together in a single work. These two opposite qualities are seen divinely combined together throughout the Qur’an in a way unknown to human genius.

Divine Quality of the Qur’an

The second quality of the Qur’an that makes it a living miracle is its unique structure and internal arrangement, and, above all, the sublimity of its thought and contents.
Arabs were forced to admit that the language of Qur’an was comparable neither with the poetry of the poets nor the oratory of the orators.
It is unimaginable that the Arabs who were known to be the masters of the Arabic language would not have met the simple challenge of the Qur’an.
Walid ibn Mughirah, the nephew of Abu Jahl, burst into tears when he heard the Qur’an recited. Abu Jahl came to him and admonished him. He replied: I swear by God, none of you is as conversant and acquainted with poetry as I am and I declare that the words of Muhammad have nothing to do with poetry.
Once at the time of Hajj the same Walid gathered together the dignitaries of the tribe of Quraysh of Makka and suggested that they should agree on what to say to the pilgrims if they enquired about Muhammad.
According to a report, the Companion of the Prophct, Abu Dharr, said that he had not seen a poet greater than his brother Anis who had defeated twelve poets in a contest in pre-Islamic days. Once, when he returned from Makka, they asked him the opinion of the Makkans concerning the Holy Prophet. He said that they accused him of being a poet, a soothsayer, and a sorcerer. Then he said that he was fully conversant with the speech of soothsayers and sorcerers and found the words of the Prophet in no way comparable to them. He was neither a poet nor a sorcerer and soothsayer for all of them were liars whereas his words were the truth.

Predictions

Conquest of Macca was foretold two years ago on 6AH, in Qur’an 48:28
In Qur’an 24:55, it is foretold that Allah will grand the Muslims land inheritance of power, The whole of Arabian peninsula was brought under the Holy Prophet’s domination in his own life. Islamic forces conquered Spain in the West, and part of China in the East in just 20 years.
Conquest of Khaybar was promised in Qur’an 48:18-21.
The Holy Qur’an declares: The Roman Empire has been defeated, in a land close by; but they, (even) after this defeat, will gain victory in a few years. Allah’s is the command, in the past and in the future. On that day shall the believers rejoice, with the help of Allah. He helps whom He wills. And He is Mighty and the most merciful. (It is) the promise of Allah. Allah never departs from His promise: but most men understand not. They crave for the outer (things in the) life of this world, but of the Hereafter they are heedless. (Qur’an 30:1-7.). This surah was revealed in Makka when Persia defeated the Romans. The Persians were Magicians by faith while the the Romans were Christians. The idolaters of Makka were pleased with this news and argued with the Muslims that they and the Christians claimed to be the People of the Book while the Magicians and Makkans were without the Book. As the Christians of the Roman Empire were defeated by the Persians, the Muslims would, likewise, be defeated by the Makkans. The Holy Qur’an, itself, refuted’ their assumption in the above verse and predicted the victory of the Romans. Abu Bakr Siddiq, the devoted friend and companion of the Holy Prophet, told the Makkan idolaters that the Romans would gain victory over the Persians in a few years. Ubayy Ibn Khalaf accused him of making a false claim. It was decided that a specific period be fixed for the confirmation of this prediction. Both of them offered ten camels to be given to the winner and a period of three years was fixed. Abu Bakr told the Holy Prophet of this and the Holy Prophet said that the prediction contained the word bid’a (a few) which signifies a period from three years to nine years, and suggested that he should increase the number of years by adding to the number of camels. Abu Bakr went to Ubayy and it was decided that a hundred camels would be given by each of them and the period of nine years was fixed. Ubayy died when he was returning from the battle of Uhud in 3 AH. Exactly seven years after this event the Byzantines gained a great victory over Persia, as was predicted by the Holy Qur’an. Abu Bakr, having won his wager, received hundred camels from Ubayy’s heirs. The Holy Prophet said that the camels received by him should be given away in charity.

Knowledge of Past Events

He had no teachers nor did he ever keep company with scholars. On the contrary, he was brought up among illiterate idol worshippers, devoid of any knowledge of the scriptures. The Holy Prophet remained among these people throughout his life, except for two trading journeys to Syria which were too short to admit any possibility of his having acquired knowledge from anyone there.
Unveiled and disclosed all the ill intentions of the hypocrites of Madina
Qur'an unveiled and disclosed all the ill intentions of the hypocrites of Madina. They used to conspire against Islam and the Muslims in their secret meetings. All their decisions and secret plans were made known to the Holy Prophet through divine revelation. He used to inform the Muslims of the intentions of the hypocrites. All such expositions of the Holy Prophet were found to be true.
The Holy Qur’an, in spite of being a copious and voluminous book, is absolutely free of any contradiction, inconsistency or incompatibility which would not possible for any human work of this size.
The Holy Qur’an rightly claims to be the only divine revelation that is everlasting, preserving its originality and genuineness beyond all reasonable doubts. The texts of other Prophets and their signs all disappeared with them and no trace of them can now be found in the world.
Another distinct divine feature of the Holy Qur’an is its capability of being memorized, even by those who do not know the Arabic language. The Qur’an refers to this feature in this verse: "We have made the Qur’an easy to remember" (Qu’ran 55:22).

Christian Objections

1. If eloquence of Qur'an really surpassed all human genius books written in Latin and Greek, which have the highest standard of eloquence, should also be accepted as revealed!
Miraculous eloquence of the Holy Qur’an is not valid unless a parallel description of equal eloquence is produced by other claimants to meet the Qur’anic challenge.
Muslims do not claim that the eloquence of the Holy Qur’an is the only thing that makes it a miracle.

No book in any language has been proved to have achieved the super-human quality of eloquence that is possessed by the Holy Qur’an.

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