The "Islamic Dilemma" Is a Joke

Relatively recently, I have seen Christian apologists claim the Holy Quran, the Word of God, "affirms" the Bible and claims it is preserved, which is a situation they call the "Islamic dilemma." I am writing this blog since my philosophy teacher for my current high school semester, who is a Catholic Christian, attempted to tell a classmate inquiring about the "Abrahamic faiths" about this so-called dilemma, with me having to correct her after class hours on this.

The Claim

The claim relies on a misunderstanding of Verse 48 of the fifth chapter of the Quran, Surat al-Ma'idah. The verse is the following:

وَأَنزَلْنَآ إِلَيْكَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ بِٱلْحَقِّ مُصَدِّقًۭا لِّمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ مِنَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ وَمُهَيْمِنًا عَلَيْهِ ۖ فَٱحْكُم بَيْنَهُم بِمَآ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُ ۖ وَلَا تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَآءَهُمْ عَمَّا جَآءَكَ مِنَ ٱلْحَقِّ ۚ لِكُلٍّۢ جَعَلْنَا مِنكُمْ شِرْعَةًۭ وَمِنْهَاجًۭا ۚ وَلَوْ شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ لَجَعَلَكُمْ أُمَّةًۭ وَٰحِدَةًۭ وَلَـٰكِن لِّيَبْلُوَكُمْ فِى مَآ ءَاتَىٰكُمْ ۖ فَٱسْتَبِقُوا۟ ٱلْخَيْرَٰتِ ۚ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ مَرْجِعُكُمْ جَمِيعًۭا فَيُنَبِّئُكُم بِمَا كُنتُمْ فِيهِ تَخْتَلِفُونَ

Translation:

We [i.e. God, using the "royal we"] have revealed to you [i.e. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ] this Book [i.e. the Quran] with the truth, as a confirmation of previous Scriptures [i.e. the Gospel given to Prophet Jesus, peace be upon him, and the Torah given to Prophet Moses, peace be upon him; Scriptures which Muslims hold God sent to previous prophets] and a supreme authority on them. So judge between them by what God has revealed, and do not follow their desires over the truth that has come to you. To each of you We have ordained a code of law and a way of life. If God had willed, He would have made you one community, but His Will is to test you with what He has given [each of] you. So compete with one another in doing good. To God you will all return, then He will inform you [of the truth] regarding your differences.

We see the claim that the Quran supposedly allows the Jews and the Christians to rule by what God has revealed to them, which they presuppose to be the Bible. My teacher also claimed Verses 47 and 68 of Surat al-Ma'idah support her claim. Verse 47 of Surat al-Ma'idah:

وَلْيَحْكُمْ أَهْلُ ٱلْإِنجِيلِ بِمَآ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُ فِيهِ ۚ وَمَن لَّمْ يَحْكُم بِمَآ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُ فَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْفَـٰسِقُونَ

Translation:

So let the people of the Gospel judge by what God has revealed in it. And those who do not judge by what God has revealed are [truly] the rebellious.

Verse 68 of Surat al-Ma'idah:

قُلْ يَـٰٓأَهْلَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ لَسْتُمْ عَلَىٰ شَىْءٍ حَتَّىٰ تُقِيمُوا۟ ٱلتَّوْرَىٰةَ وَٱلْإِنجِيلَ وَمَآ أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكُم مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ ۗ وَلَيَزِيدَنَّ كَثِيرًۭا مِّنْهُم مَّآ أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ مِن رَّبِّكَ طُغْيَـٰنًۭا وَكُفْرًۭا ۖ فَلَا تَأْسَ عَلَى ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلْكَـٰفِرِينَ

Translation:

Say, [O Prophet Muhammad ﷺ,] "O People of the Book (i.e. Jews and Christians)! You have nothing to stand on unless you observe the Torah, the Gospel, and what has been revealed to you from your Lord." And your Lord’s revelation to you [i.e. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ] will only cause many of them to increase in wickedness and disbelief. So do not grieve for the people who disbelieve.

Refutation

In order to fully refute the "Islamic dilemma," I shall pick apart Verse 48 of Surat al-Ma'idah. Christians say it means the Quran "confirms" the past Scriptures. However, the issue is the presupposition that Muslims are unaware that the Quran confirms that past Scriptures have come from God. In fact, as a Muslim, you must believe in six theological concepts, with the third of these concepts being the past Scriptures given by God to past prophets.

Next, we see the Quran proclaims itself as a muhaymin (مهيمن), translated here as a supreme authority, over the past revelations. People who argue the so-called Islamic dilemma usually ignore this part of the verse, which makes it clear that when the Quran and the Judeo-Christian scriptures clash, the Quran is to be held above the Judeo-Christian scriptures, which are outdated and distorted. I do not endorse using Google Translate for translating everything as it frequently makes errors (regardless, I can read Arabic, so I do not need it), but we can see it confirms that being a muhaymin means holding dominance over something:

Muhaymin carries additional meanings, which Muslims fully affirm. I shall quote quran.com's explanation of the verse, which cites many classical Islamic scholars who explain the verse's choice of word for the Quran's role over the Judeo-Christian scriptures:

It is well known that the Quran affirms earlier prophets, revelations, and scriptures, including the Tawrah (Law) given to Moses, and the Injil (Gospel) given to Jesus - peace be upon them. As the final revelation to the final messenger, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the Quran serves as the “guardian” (muhaymin) over all scripture.

Concerning the description of the Quran as “guardian”,  Ibn ‘Atiyyah comments: “The exegetes have used different expressions to capture the meaning of muhaymin. Ibn ʿAbbas said it means ‘witness’. He also said it means ‘entrusted’. Ibn Zayd said its meaning is ‘confirmer’. Al-Hasan b. Abi al-Hasan said it means ‘trustworthy’. Al-Zajjaj mentioned ‘overseer’. The word muhaymin is more specific than these expressions because the one who is muhaymin over something is responsible for it, witnessing its truths, and safeguarding its essence, not allowing anything foreign to enter it. Allah [i.e. God], the Blessed and Exalted, is the Muhaymin over His creations and servants. A guardian is muhaymin over his wards and their wealth, and a ruler is muhaymin over his subjects and their affairs. Allah made the Quran muhaymin over the [previous] books, bearing witness to what is true within them and clarifying the distortions made by those who altered them. Thus, it affirms their truths and falsifies any distortions. Thus it is witness, confirmer, trustee, and guardian.”

The Quran affirms the truthfulness of the divine books revealed before it by upholding the same core message and teachings even though specific rulings may change. Some rulings remain the same while others are abrogated. The Quran also distinguishes the true teachings contained in these scriptures from the false teachings and corruptions of the text. Hence, if they are ever looking at earlier scriptures, Muslims should compare their contents with the Quran to know what to accept and what to reject as a distortion.

Some commentators, such as al-Sam’ani, have stated that the true books of God are the ones whose message is confirmed to be true by the Quran, while those that are at odds with the Quran are not. On this basis, the likes of Paul’s epistles are not recognised as scripture from an Islamic perspective.

Summary

The Quran acts as the “guardian” over previous scriptures by providing the basis to accept or reject the statements found in them after its revelation.

References

• Ibn ‘Atiyyah, al-Muharrar al-Wajiz
• Al-Sam’ani, Tafsir al-Qur’an
• Al-Baghawi, Ma’alim al-Tanzil
• Al-Biqa’i, Nazm al-Durar
• Abu ‘l-Su’ud, Irshad al-‘Aql al-Salim

I should note that my teacher even tried preventing me from quoting exegetic commentaries of the Quran. Exegeses from qualified, knowledgeable commentators are not only valid sources of learning Islam but are in fact necessary for fully understanding the Quran.

Anyways, the summary also deals with Christians claiming the rest of the verse allows them to "judge" by the Bible, as the Quran tells them to judge by what God has revealed to them, not by their desires (which led to the distortion of past Scripture). This applies even more so when one considers the Quran says Jesus was given direct revelation from God, which is not found in the New Testament, which my teacher admitted is simply made up of biographies of Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) and letters from Paul the Apostle; and when one considers even Christians themselves admit the Bible (which is not inherently made up of the past Scriptures from God, even if it may contain traces of them). is corrupted (for example, John 7:53-8:11 is considered pseudopigraphical, which my teacher admitted), which Christians excuse by blaming said corruptions and contradictions on "human error" and that they "do not change the general meaning."

The rest of the verse simply mentions each prophet of God had their own law (with Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ being the only universal one) and that God gives people the choice to worship Him or not since if He truly wanted to, He could strip free will from humans and make them all Muslims. Therefore, I do not need to explain them in too much detail. The other verses my teacher brought up are also explained by the explanation for Verse 48 of Surat al-Ma'idah.

To wrap up this refutation, I will quote Verses 13-19 of Surat al-Ma'idah, which come before all of the Quranic verses cited by my teacher in the same chapter:

فَبِمَا نَقْضِهِم مِّيثَـٰقَهُمْ لَعَنَّـٰهُمْ وَجَعَلْنَا قُلُوبَهُمْ قَـٰسِيَةًۭ ۖ يُحَرِّفُونَ ٱلْكَلِمَ عَن مَّوَاضِعِهِۦ ۙ وَنَسُوا۟ حَظًّۭا مِّمَّا ذُكِّرُوا۟ بِهِۦ ۚ وَلَا تَزَالُ تَطَّلِعُ عَلَىٰ خَآئِنَةٍۢ مِّنْهُمْ إِلَّا قَلِيلًۭا مِّنْهُمْ ۖ فَٱعْفُ عَنْهُمْ وَٱصْفَحْ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ وَمِنَ ٱلَّذِينَ قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّا نَصَـٰرَىٰٓ أَخَذْنَا مِيثَـٰقَهُمْ فَنَسُوا۟ حَظًّۭا مِّمَّا ذُكِّرُوا۟ بِهِۦ فَأَغْرَيْنَا بَيْنَهُمُ ٱلْعَدَاوَةَ وَٱلْبَغْضَآءَ إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ ۚ وَسَوْفَ يُنَبِّئُهُمُ ٱللَّهُ بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَصْنَعُونَ يَـٰٓأَهْلَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ قَدْ جَآءَكُمْ رَسُولُنَا يُبَيِّنُ لَكُمْ كَثِيرًۭا مِّمَّا كُنتُمْ تُخْفُونَ مِنَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ وَيَعْفُوا۟ عَن كَثِيرٍۢ ۚ قَدْ جَآءَكُم مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ نُورٌۭ وَكِتَـٰبٌۭ مُّبِينٌۭ يَهْدِى بِهِ ٱللَّهُ مَنِ ٱتَّبَعَ رِضْوَٰنَهُۥ سُبُلَ ٱلسَّلَـٰمِ وَيُخْرِجُهُم مِّنَ ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورِ بِإِذْنِهِۦ وَيَهْدِيهِمْ إِلَىٰ صِرَٰطٍۢ مُّسْتَقِيمٍۢ لَّقَدْ كَفَرَ ٱلَّذِينَ قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ هُوَ ٱلْمَسِيحُ ٱبْنُ مَرْيَمَ ۚ قُلْ فَمَن يَمْلِكُ مِنَ ٱللَّهِ شَيْـًٔا إِنْ أَرَادَ أَن يُهْلِكَ ٱلْمَسِيحَ ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ وَأُمَّهُۥ وَمَن فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ جَمِيعًۭا ۗ وَلِلَّهِ مُلْكُ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا ۚ يَخْلُقُ مَا يَشَآءُ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ قَدِيرٌۭ وَقَالَتِ ٱلْيَهُودُ وَٱلنَّصَـٰرَىٰ نَحْنُ أَبْنَـٰٓؤُا۟ ٱللَّهِ وَأَحِبَّـٰٓؤُهُۥ ۚ قُلْ فَلِمَ يُعَذِّبُكُم بِذُنُوبِكُم ۖ بَلْ أَنتُم بَشَرٌۭ مِّمَّنْ خَلَقَ ۚ يَغْفِرُ لِمَن يَشَآءُ وَيُعَذِّبُ مَن يَشَآءُ ۚ وَلِلَّهِ مُلْكُ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا ۖ وَإِلَيْهِ ٱلْمَصِيرُ يَـٰٓأَهْلَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ قَدْ جَآءَكُمْ رَسُولُنَا يُبَيِّنُ لَكُمْ عَلَىٰ فَتْرَةٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلرُّسُلِ أَن تَقُولُوا۟ مَا جَآءَنَا مِنۢ بَشِيرٍۢ وَلَا نَذِيرٍۢ ۖ فَقَدْ جَآءَكُم بَشِيرٌۭ وَنَذِيرٌۭ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍۢ قَدِيرٌۭ

Translation:

But, for breaking their covenant, We condemned them and hardened their hearts. They distorted the words of the Scripture and neglected a portion of what they had been commanded to uphold. You [i.e. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ] will always find deceit on their part, except for a few. But pardon them and bear with them. Indeed, God loves the good-doers. And from those who say, "We are Christians," We took their covenant, but they neglected a portion of what they had been commanded to uphold. So We let hostility and enmity arise between them until the Day of Judgment, and soon Allah will inform them of all they have done. O People of the Book! Now Our Messenger [i.e. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ] has come to you, revealing much of what you have hidden of the Scriptures and disregarding much. There certainly has come to you from God a light and a clear Book through which God guides those who seek His pleasure to the ways of peace, brings them out of darkness and into light by His Will, and guides them to the Straight Path. Indeed, those who say, "God is the Messiah, son of Mary [i.e. Prophet Jesus, peace be upon him]," have fallen into disbelief. Say, [O Prophet Muhammad ﷺ] "Who has the power to prevent God if He chose to destroy the Messiah, son of Mary, his mother, and everyone in the world all together?] To God [alone] belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and everything in between. He creates whatever He wills. And God is Most Capable of everything. The Jews and the Christians each say, "We are the children of God and His most beloved!" Say, [O Prophet,] "Why then does He punish you for your sins? No! You are only humans like others of His Own making. He forgives whoever He wills and punishes whoever He wills. To God [alone] belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and everything in between. And to Him is the final return." O People of the Book! Our Messenger has indeed come to you, making things clear to you after an interval between the messengers so you do not say, "There has never come to us a deliverer of good news or a warner." Now there has come to you a deliverer of good news and a warner. And God is Most Capable of everything.

The summary of these verses is that the Jews and the Christians were entrusted with revelations from God, but had distorted their meanings, which God allowed as the messages of previous prophets were only intended for those prophets' peoples at those peoples' times. As a result, God revealed the Quran over a span of 23 years to Muhammad ibn Abdullah ﷺ, via the Archangel Gabriel (peace be upon him). Since the Quran is intended for all peoples of all times, it is the only Scripture which God has protected from corruption, and therefore its prophet, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, is the final prophet of God. Part of Prophet Muhammad's ﷺ job is to correct the distortion found in the Judeo-Christian scriptures, whose people have become disbelievers. This alone refutes the notion that the Quran affirms the Bible's falsehood.

It is also worth nothing that:

1. No Islamic scholar has ever looked at the verses in this blog and thought they affirmed the Bible as true.
2. Christian denominations do not even agree on the amount of books in the Bible. How convenient of Catholics to say the Quran affirms their Bible, Protestants to say the Quran affirms their Bible, etc!

Overall Conclusion

There is nothing in Islam which claims the Bible of today has the Torah and the Gospel of back then, or that the Jews and the Christians should follow the corruption of these distorted texts. If one were to claim otherwise, they would either be ignorant or be deceitful, and they would lack knowledge of Arabic, reliable exegeses, and/or basic reading comprehension.