Shining God's Light on the Koran

This article is part of an on-going series contrasting the Judeo-Christian Bible with the Koran on a variety of topics. Previous articles include: "Was Abraham a Jew or a Christian?", Idolatry 101, 102, 103, Oneness, Unbelievers, God's Character, The Resurrection, The Proclamation, The Judgment, The Creation of Man, The Creation of Woman, and The Fall of Man: Part 1-The Command, Part 2 – The Disobedience, Part 3 – The Consequence, Part 4 – Its Ramification, Right Dividing (Interpreting) the Word – Part I, Part II Part III, Mortality versus Immortality, Worship, Adam or Jesus?, God Begat a Son, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection and Does God Love the Wicked?

Misquoting Scripture, Deliberate Deception

When quoting someone it is good to get the quote correct or the meaning of the original statement will be misunderstood. In the Koran there is a quote of Psalm 37:29. Compare the two, one is the original passage found in the Bible, and the quote of that verse as found in the Koran.

THE KORANIC AND BIBLICAL ACCOUNTS

The writers of the Koran take credit for writing Psalms but misquote it when quoting it.

“We wrote in the Psalms after the Torah was revealed: ‘The righteous among My servants shall inherit the earth.’ That is an admonition to those who serve US.” (Koran p 233,234 par 21:105, 21:106)

“The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever.” (Psalm 37:29)

COMMENTARY

The terms “earth” and “land” are synonyms so there is no problem with interchanging those terms. However, “Among My servants,’” is not in the original text of the book of Psalms and is therefore an addition to the text. This violates a basic principle in Proverbs, “Every word of God is pure: … Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” (Proverbs 30:5a, 6) The phrase was inserted into the Koranic passage to coerce service from followers of the god of the Koran as revealed through the leaders of Islam. This would include Muhammad and those who succeeded him. The Koran admits this in stating, “That is an admonition to those who serve US.”

The Holy Bible in Psalm 37:29, on the other hand, is calling for the people to be righteous rather than engage in wickedness. It is not coercing service to religious leaders. The term, “The righteous among My servants,” implies there are unrighteous servants of the god of the Koran as well as righteous. This deception can be compared with how the serpent deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden.

The serpent said to Eve, “Yea, hath God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Genesis 3:1) Compare this with what God actually said, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:16,17) Notice that God says of every tree they may freely eat except one, which is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan through the serpent puts it in the negative when he says, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden.” This makes God look stingy while his original statement was gracious and generous. While the two statements are similar they are not the same. The serpent handled God’s word deceitfully. This set up Eve for the full blown lie, “You shall not surely die (Genesis 3:4).” Eve relied on her own understanding, instead of simply obeying God she ate of the forbidden fruit. That day she died, which means that she became separated from God, losing her fellowship with God.

Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not on your own understanding.” Are you trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ or leaning on your own understanding? You can invite Jesus into your heart today. A sample payer is, “Lord Jesus Christ forgive me of my sin and come into my heart.”