How the Quran and the Bible differ and are similar....

This lecture series by Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri on "why we should believe in God" was posted to facebook.

God gave us authority over the earth, but did not give us authority over the heavens, according to the Bible.


Genesis 1:26 KJV

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

اور خدا نے کہا کہ آؤ ہم اپنی صورت پر اور اپنی صورت پر انسان بنائیں اور وہ سمندر کی مچھلیوں اور ہوا کے پرندوں اور مویشیوں اور ساری زمین پر اور ہر قسم کے رینگنے والے جانور پر حکومت کریں ۔


God did not give us dominion over the heavens, but he did give us dominion over all creatures in the sea, the air, and the earth except for one creature: our fellow man. We do not have dominion over each other, nor do we have dominion over the heavens.


When man tries to invade the heavens without going through the way God blessed, he fails. The tower of babel is an example. Men tried to make a tower that reached into the heavens. Man spoke one language at that time. God came down and gave man different languages, so man could not work together on this project, and they quit. And that is why we have different languages today: to slow man down from accomplishing his evil plans.



Seek the truth of God and love “the messenger”? Why not love the other prophets, too? Why not love everyone? Angels are messengers. Should we not love them also? Jesus taught: love one another. He did not demand that people love a specific person, but to love everyone, even our enemies. Jesus walked the earth about 600 years before Muhammad. Why only specify love for one but not the other? That sounds like idolatry: placing a man above God. Muslims might claim that is what Christians do, but Jesus never said we should love him only, but he commanded: love one another. The Bible teaches: we should love the Lord God above all, and love our fellow man as ourselves. It looks like the Quran teaches: seek knowledge of God, and love one messenger. That is a big difference.



What is “Deen”?

The speaker talks about certain teachers that possessed an intellect and could teach others what was in the “holy book”. But anyone is welcome to learn for themselves what is in God's word according to the Bible....


2 Peter 1:20-21 KJV

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

پہلے یہ جان لینا کہ صحیفہ کی کوئی پیشن گوئی کسی نجی تشریح کی نہیں ہے ۔ کیونکہ یہ پیشن گوئی پرانے زمانے میں انسان کی مرضی سے نہیں ہوئی تھی بلکہ خدا کے مقدسوں نے روح القدس کی تحریک سے بات کی تھی ۔


Truth is not hidden as a secret for only certain men to find, but is available to anyone who wants it.


We are not chained to a book (not even the Bible) but are told that anyone who wants to learn from God should pray and ask God a question. This speaker did not say much about praying directly to Allah to ask for wisdom, but directed his listeners primarily to read a specific book. Why not pray and ask God about which book he would like for us to read?


James 1:5 KJV

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

اگر تم میں سے کسی میں عقل کی کمی ہو تو وہ خدا سے مانگے جو سب کو فراخدلی سے عطا کرتا ہے اور خوفزدہ نہیں ہوتا تو وہ اسے دیا جائے گا ۔


We are not chained to a book. We can speak to God and ask him questions, and he will lead us into the truth.



I liked his explanation for: the address of God. He compared God to air.... Air is everywhere so it has no address. God is everywhere, like air.

Where is this man speaking? I keep seeing an audience, but don't see the man speaking among any of those people. Is it a recording?



He spoke a long time about how our brain perceives the world around us through our senses, including our eyes, but we cannot see God. A question he does not answer: Why did God make us like that? Why did God not prove his existence to us? Why does he demand faith without seeing him?

The answer: The original sin requires a test of our free will. If God showed himself openly, we would be forced to believe in him. But he wants us to come to him voluntarily. He wants us to have a living faith, not a dead faith. If he forced us to believe, our faith would be dead, and we would not be free.

Hebrews 11:6 KJV

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

لیکن ایمان کے بغیر اسے خوش کرنا ناممکن ہے: کیونکہ جو خدا کے پاس آتا ہے اسے یقین کرنا چاہئے کہ وہ ہے ، اور یہ کہ وہ ان کا اجر دینے والا ہے جو اسے ڈھونڈتے ہیں ۔

However, we can believe in God by seeing the things he made. There is no way all these things we see are a coincidence.

Romans 1:20 KJV

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

یا دنیا کی تخلیق سے اس کی پوشیدہ چیزیں واضح طور پر دکھائی دیتی ہیں ، جو بنائی گئی چیزوں سے سمجھی جاتی ہیں ، یہاں تک کہ اس کی ابدی طاقت اور خدایت ؛ تاکہ وہ بلا عذر ہوں:


There is no excuse for the unbelievers.


Usually they are invisible, but I have seen angels. Twice when I was sick, an angel visited me briefly as I was waking up. Once it was a vision and the other time it was a dream. But I was healed and I thank God for that. Some people see demons. Some people see fallen angels and think they are “aliens”. We do occasionally see spirits. I think most people would admit that at some point in their life, they saw a "ghost".



Yes, the Antichrist will make war against anything spiritual. He will demand the world instead worship the image of the beast. This is stated in the book of Revelation (written hundreds of years before the Quran). One possibility for how this prophecy will be fulfilled: An image generated by AI speaking to the people of the world.... a man-made god. AI is already better at accessing knowledge than an individual man. Combine that power of knowledge with an animation of a being doing the talking and many people will see that being as a god. AI is powerful, without a doubt. But it can do nothing against the true a and living God. There is more to our existence than knowledge. God created us to love.... and for us to love him.... and to love each other. Love is most powerful. Without love, knowledge is dead information. Knowledge kills if it is not used with love. That is why God told Adam and Eve: You may eat of every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the day you eat of that tree, you shall surely die.


God places no value on recited prayers if that prayer is not sincere.

Mark 7:6 KJV

He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

اس نے ان کو جواب دیا کہ یسعیاہ نے تم منافقین کے بارے میں جس طرح لکھا ہے اچھی پیشن گوئی کی ہے کہ یہ لوگ اپنے ہونٹوں سے میری عزت کرتے ہیں لیکن ان کا دل مجھ سے دور ہے ۔



What harm would it be then to have knowledge of the Bible? The books in the Bible are older than the Quran and have endured from the time of Moses (Musa) until now.



Why would God stop sending prophets? I can think of no good explanation to cause a void of prophets for the past 1,400 years. Why would God no longer give new prophecies for each generation?



God is eternal and infinite. Why would he stop speaking? Did he run out of words?



We? Do Muslims not believe in one God? But “we” means plural or more than one. So how do we reconcile this with Allah being one God?



This could lead people to believe “aliens” (the fallen angels that rebelled against God) are the creators. The true God created everything we see for our salvation. Before the spirits came here into the physical realm, they were blissfully happy in the spiritual realm. As a result of the rebellion against God, He made the universe so that the spirits could take the path of return back to Him.

Those spirits that rejected God and followed his adversary, Lucifer, were dissolved into matter. Everything we see around us is solidified spiritual substance of those original spirits that rebelled against God. God made the spiritual substance into useful forms with each one serving a purpose as part of His eternal plan of salvation. Everything you see was made for our salvation.


John 3:12 KJV

If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

اگر میں نے تم سے زمینی باتیں کہیں ہیں اور تم ان پر ایمان نہیں لاتے تو اگر میں تمہیں آسمانی باتیں بتاؤں تو تم کیسے ایمان لاؤ گے ؟


Isaiah 44:24 KJV

Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;

خداوند تیرا فدیہ دینے والا اور جس نے تجھے رحم سے بنایا یوں فرماتا ہے کہ میں خداوند ہوں جو سب چیزوں کا بنانے والا ہوں ۔ میں اکیلا آسمان پھیلاتا ہوں اور میں نے اکیلے زمین کو پھیلایا ۔


The speaker kept emphasizing how the Quran invites us to seek knowledge. The Bible says that in the end, people would be learning many things, but failing to learn the right things.


2 Timothy 3:7 KJV

Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

ہمیشہ سیکھنا ، اور کبھی بھی سچائی کے علم تک نہیں پہنچ پانا ۔


The speaker challenges us to try to create even 10 chapters like the Quran. But the books of the Bible were written before the Quran. These books are full of wisdom and give prophecies that have come true and continue to come true, and span thousands of years. There is no way that these books were written by regular people. They were inspired by God's spirit. But the speaker in this video is basically saying the same thing about the Quran. Everyone should think critically with a sincere desire for truth and make their own conclusion on which is from God and which is not.


The speaker challenges us to find any contradictions. Does the Quran say marriage is between one man and one woman? How many women can a man have in heaven? Why is adultery a sin if he can have more than one woman? That seems like a contradiction to me: Adultery is a sin, but a man can have more than one wife? How is that not adultery?


The Bible does not say we can have more than one wife. Men have done so, but the Bible does not say that God approves of having multiple wives. He created Adam and gave him one wife: Eve (Hawwa). If God gave the first man one wife, why would the Quran say men are permitted to have more than one wife? Is this not a contradiction?




What scientific claims made by the Quran are of any value to us? We don't need science to be saved. We need love. When men pursue science without love, they make things like the atomic bomb.



Something very similar is said in the older books that existed before the Quran....



I found it in the book of Isaiah, written before the Quran.

Isaiah 44:24 KJV

Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;

خداوند تیرا فدیہ دینے والا اور جس نے تجھے رحم سے بنایا یوں فرماتا ہے کہ میں خداوند ہوں جو سب چیزوں کا بنانے والا ہوں ۔ میں اکیلا آسمان پھیلاتا ہوں اور میں نے اکیلے زمین کو پھیلایا ۔

It is not a detailed scientific description of the formation of man in the womb, but how did the Quran give any more scientific details? Even if it did, how could that knowledge save us from evil?


Science? We need salvation.

The Bible gives prophecies that have come to pass, and are being fulfilled now.

John 13:19 KJV

Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.

اب اس کے آنے سے پہلے میں تم سے کہتا ہوں کہ جب ایسا ہو تو تم یقین کرو کہ میں وہی ہوں ۔

God gives us prophecy to help us believe. Events happen just as he said it would, and when they happen, we will know that he who told us these things is true.

We should believe in God, so that we may be saved. Only the truth can set us free.