The Quran claims to be a holy scripture which is unequivocally clear and a guide to all mankind. These passages of Quranic scripture indicate this:

According to Allah, there is no room for ambiguous verses in the Quran, and he states that the Quran is even easy to understand:

According to the Quran, itself, the book is easy to understand and is in clear language. Hence, if Allah wants to communicate a message to mankind he would able to do so without any form of ambiguity while specifying “Who, what, when, and where” is being discussed without the need for any human explanation or interpretation. Therefore when we read the Quran it should immediately be understood and the message it gives is clear cut without ambiguity. The Quran issues this challenge:

Turning to the Quran we find many contradictions, incomplete and incoherent statements attributed to God himself. One contradiction which shows that the Quran is incomplete and incoherent can be seen here:

These Quranic verses explicitly show that Muhammad was the first to submit to the will of “Allah” hence, he is the first Muslim as the Quran attested to above. In Arabic “Muslim” literally means “one who submits” or “surrenders”. The word “Islam” means submission and it derives from the root “S.L.M”. In Surah 6:14, the Arabic word “aslama and its meaning is given here:

In other passages the form of the Arabic root “S.L.M” is rendered as either “aslama or almuslimeena. Aslama’s verbal noun is Islam. What we have above are Quranic verses claiming that Muhammad was the “first to submit to Allah” or “the first Muslim”. However the Quranic passages above clearly contradict this passage:

Here we find Moses as the “first of all the believers”, not Muhammad. Muslims may respond by claiming that Moses was the first of “these particular” people however the Quran only says “I am the first of the believers”, which is vague at best. Even if Moses was the first of these particular believers it still doesn’t answer the enigma posed by Muhammad claiming to be the “first to submit” to Allah. Also if I say "I am the first of my family to go to college", it clearly means that I am the first of my entire family and than none before me went to college. The same would hold true with both Muhammad and Moses in this instance. Since Islam holds Moses to be a prophet then we must conclude that he attained his prophethood despite “NOT BEING A MUSLIM” or not submitting to Allah.

In the Quran, we clearly have Moses claiming “to be the first of believers” which is a contradiction because others like Abraham proceeded him as an “alleged believer” in Allah. Since the Quran claims to be “clear proof” (Clear means without any ambiguity) what we find is Moses contradicting both Muhammad and Allah saying “he is the first of believers”. Something as clear as this doesn’t need explanation. What’s even worse is the Quran claims that others before Muhammad were Muslims:

In Surah 3, Abraham is called a “Muslim” and “hanif” by Allah but this contradicts the fact that Muhammad was the first of all the believers to submit to Allah. The contradictions don’t stop here for Jesus disciples were also considered Muslims by the Quran:

Now if Jesus’ disciples were Muslims then Muhammad can’t be the first to submit to the will of Allah since the disciples would have already accomplished this task 600 years before his birth. Were these Muslims not submitting to the will of God? This is what we would have to conclude if we accept the Quranic verses where Muhammad claimed to be “the first Muslim” or “the first to submit” to Allah. The contradictions don’t stop here for there are even more people “submitting” before Muhammad came upon the scene:

In this passage, the “people of the book” or “Jews and Christians” were considered Muslims following the way of Allah. As you can see, “submitting” and “Muslim” are synonymous terms as well as their cognate “Islam”. If the “people of the book” were Muslims then Muhammad couldn’t be the first “Muslim” as the Quran claims. What is even worse is that the Quran further contradicts itself by saying that Abraham was neither a Jew nor Christian but a Muslim:

This passage clearly demonstrates the difference between being a Muslim and the latter, Jews and Christians by prescribing Abraham as a “hanif”, or in Islamic terms, one who adheres to a strict form of monotheism which believes in God being only one person in a sense. Now if Jews, Christians including Jesus disciples are “Muslims” according to the Quran, then how can the Quran differentiate them from “Muslim” in the case of Abraham? Logically we would already know that Abraham wouldn’t be a follower of Judaism or come into the knowledge of knowing Jesus personally yet but why call him a Muslim to differentiate him from Jews and Christians (which implies that they aren’t the same) and then contradict this by saying that the “people of the book” were Muslims?

The contradictions get even worse and the Quran even shows the religion of the Jews and Christians were different compared to the religion of Abraham which is supposed to be Islam:

According to the Quran, the religion of Abraham was different from the Jews and Christians. Later Muhammad claims that he and his followers adhered to the religion of Abraham, who was neither a Jew nor Christian. This brings up further problems for two of the prophets mentioned in this passage were actually Jewish! Moses, a Hebrew (technically a Jew) was the founder of Judaism, the Jewish religion itself while Jesus was obviously a Jew who adhered to the Mosaic covenant and even claimed that this Judaic was fulfilled in him. Let’s illustrate this Quranic problem here with this formal logic example:

If Abraham is not a Jew or Christian THEN he is a Muslim (This is what the Quran is saying)

Contrapositive is:

If Abraham is a Jew or Christian THEN he is not a Muslim (This is also what the Quran is saying logic wise)

Conclusion: This means that a Jew or Christian according to the passages of the Quran in one place CAN’T BE A MUSLIM, which is different as illustrated with Abraham.

Now if we take the example of Jesus here, whom the Quran uses as a follower of the religion of Abraham notice this contradiction:

If Jesus is not a Jew or Christian THEN he is a Muslim (This is what the Quran is saying)

Contrapositive is:

If Jesus is a Jew or Christian THEN he is not a Muslim (This is also what the Quran is saying logic wise)

How can Jesus be a Muslim, when the Quran explicitly says that the religion of Abraham is different from those of the Jews, WHOM JESUS WAS? Muslims may try to counter and say that “Jesus was a Muslim” and those who came after him started Christianity but this doesn’t resolve the problem with the Torah which is the foundational scripture of Judaism, making any follower of its principles, a Jew. Even the Quran differentiates the Jewish and Christian scriptures from the Quran.

What is even more contradictory is that in Surah 2:136, the Quran claims concerning the prophet:

If there is no distinction among the prophets then why does the Quran contradict itself by distinguishing Abraham from the Jews and Christians, calling him a “Hanif” or Muslim? Yet, this book turns around and then claim that “the people of the book” were Muslims. Even if we assume that the sole purpose to show that Abraham, wasn’t apart of the Jewish or Christian faith, this still contradicts other parts of the Quran which claim that no distinction is to be made among any of the prophets! Nor does it answer the absurdity of Muhammad being the “first Muslim”, when others were said to have submitted to Allah in Islam.

Notice here that Islam is synonymous with being “the religion of Abraham”. This means that Jews and Christians aren’t following the religion of Abraham which we’ve shown is differentiated from both these groups. But yet these non-followers of the religion of Abraham were still called Muslims, even though Islam is supposed to be the religion of Abraham! Other evidence proving that the Jews and Christians are different from the Islamic religion can be seen here:

This passage shows us that Christians are closest to Muslims, (they aren’t Muslim) and the most vehement of mankind are the Jews. Now if Jews and Christians are Muslims according to Surah 28:52-53 then why is the Quran contradicting itself by differentiating them from Muslims here? According to the Quran, a Jew or a Christian isn’t even supposed to stress in their religion (to others).

If they followed the religion of Abraham was actually Muslims then there would be no need for the Quran to say this. It is obvious that the Quran looks on the previous religions as not being the same as Islam in this passage.

Even more embarrassing is the fact that the Quran describes “Jewish” prophets as followers of Abraham, even though it contradicts itself in other areas differentiating the religions of the people of the book:

As you can see, Isaac, Jacob, Jesus, David and Solomon were all Jewish and based on the logic presented by the Quran, they wouldn’t be Muslims or followers of Abraham! If the religion of Abraham excludes the “people of the book’s religions” then the Quran contradicts itself by saying that these Jewish prophets were Muslim. If “Muslim” includes the “People of the book” then the situation with Abraham would cause a contradiction since the Quran is differentiating the prophets though it says that it doesn’t. And no matter what stance you take, all of this contradicts “Muhammad” being the first to submit or being the “first Muslim”.

Some Muslim may try to counter this by saying that Muhammad was the “first of a particular group of Muslims” to submit to Allah and that he wasn’t the first Muslim in light of the obvious discrepancies presented above but this would be reading an assumption into the text itself which isn’t there. Even if we assume or “beg the question” that this is the true it still doesn’t answer the rest of the contradictions. In order to answer these contradictions Muslims will have to resort to “begging the question” and reading interpolations back into the text of their holy book. The Hadith presents even more problems for Muhammad says that every child is born a Muslim:

According to Muhammad everybody is born a Muslim, which contradicts his own revelation, the Quran while having some of their parents to convert them to Christianity or Judaism. Notice how Christianity and Judaism aren’t the same religion as Islam. Hence, to be a Muslim in some places in the Quran is to be something other than a Jew or Christian. Not only is this a glaring contradiction it shows that the Quran isn’t a clear guide to all mankind as it would have you to believe.

Not only does Muhammad “not know what will happen to him” he doesn’t even remember contradicting himself his earlier saying:

So in one instance he is the first Muslim the next instance he isn’t the first of “apostles” who ironically were all Muslim! If Muslims claim that the Quran isn’t contradicting itself here and that others were Muslims in a general sense, then how come Allah the guide to all mankind didn’t just clearly state it this way? Allah and Muhammad clearly thought of the other prophets as being Muslims while contradicting themselves in claiming that Muhammad was the first to “submit to Allah”. Clear reading of the Quran leaves an obvious contradiction to the reader. Knowing this some Muslim scholars have attempted to explain away this problem:

Muslim scholars like Faruq Sherif are notorious at assuming that “Muslim” would apply to those who precede Muhammad. This entire explanation "begs the question" for we must assume that what Muhammad is teaching is in accordance to what Abraham believed during the Patriarch period. It is typical for Muslims to try and read everything in light of Islam to cover up the blunders found in their holy book. Historical studies of the beliefs of Abraham from both the Bible and Near Eastern history shows that he didn’t believe in the same religious teachings like Muhammad. Abraham didn’t perform the 5 pillars of Islam for example. This explanation by Sherif is one of the many attempts to justify the reinterpretation of history presented by the Quran.

Therefore to avoid this contradiction Muslims have to resort to “beginning the question” a major logical fallacy by assuming before proving that those who came before Muhammad adhered to this message of monotheism as taught by the Quran. Logically the Quran is in gross error and to call others before Muhammad, Muslims, is totally wrong. Even relying on the usage of the word “submission” doesn’t help the Islamic cause for the Torah nor Gospels used this word in the concept and manner as it is found in the Quran to describe believers of God. In the OT and NT all you will see are the words “Jews” and “Christians”. In this instance, in order to prove the Quranic usage of "Muslim" as accurate we must assume already that it is accurate and we can then arrive at the conclusion of it being accurate. It is obvious that the Quran is a book of contradictions which require fantastical explanations and logically flawed explanations to save it from its embarrassing errors. God bless all.

Quennel Gale at queball20@yahoo.com

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