SAMPLES OF İMPROPER SENTENCES ABOUT PROPHETS

ACCORDING TO

THE STANDARDS OF QUR’AN

OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT

part : 4

SAMPLES OF IMPROPER SENTENCES ABOUT PROPHETS

• About Adam and Eve: “They were not ashamed” [1]

“... The man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.”[2]

• About Noah: “He became drunk”

“Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. He drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he lay uncovered in his tent…”[3]

• About Abraham: “He introduced his wife as his sister” [4]

“When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, ‘I know well that you are a woman beautiful in appearance; and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, “This is his wife”; then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared on your account.”[5] … Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said to him, ‘What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought such great guilt on me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that ought not to be done.’ And Abimelech said to Abraham, ‘what were you thinking of, that you did this thing?’ Abraham said, ‘I did it because I thought, there is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife. Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father[6] but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. [7]

• About Lot: “Both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father” [8]

“Now Lot went up out of Zoar and settled in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar; so he lived in a cave with his two daughters. And the firstborn said to the younger, ‘Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the world. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring through our father.’ So they made their father drink wine that night; and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she rose. On the next day, the firstborn said to the younger, ‘Look, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring through our father.’ So they made their father drink wine that night also; and the younger rose, and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she rose. Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. …”[9]

• About Ishmael: “Simile of wild ox”

“Now you have conceived and shall bear a son; you shall call him Ishmael... He shall be a wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; and he shall live at odds with all his kin.”[10] “For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and the other by a free woman. One, the child of the slave, was born according to the flesh; the other, the child of the free woman, was born through the promise.”... Now you, my friends, are children of the promise, like Isaac. But just as at that time the child who was born according to the flesh persecuted the child who was born according to the Spirit[11],  so it is now also. But what does the scripture say? ‘Drive out the slave and her child; for the child of the slave will not share the inheritance with the child of the free woman.’ So then, friends, we are children, not of the slave but of the free woman.”[12]

• About Isaac: “He introduced his wife as his sister”

“So Isaac settled in Gerar. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, ‘She is my sister’; for he was afraid to say, ‘My wife,’ thinking, ‘or else the men of the place might kill me for the sake of Rebekah, because she is attractive in appearance.’ When Isaac had been there a long time, King Abimelech of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw him fondling his wife Rebekah. So Abimelech called for Isaac, and said, ‘So she is your wife! Why then did you say, “She is my sister”?’ Isaac said to him, ‘Because I thought I might die because of her.’ Abimelech said, ‘What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.’”[13]

• About Jacob: “He cheated”

“Then Rebekah took the best garments of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob; and she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck[14]. Then she handed the savoury food, and the bread that she had prepared, to her son Jacob. So he went in to his father, and said, ‘My father’; and he said, ‘Here I am; who are you, my son?’ Jacob said to his father, ‘I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.”[15]…. Then Isaac said to Jacob, ‘Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.’ So Jacob went up to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, ‘The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.’ He did not recognize him … so he blessed him. … As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau came in from his hunting. … And he said to his father, ‘Let my father sit up and eat of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.’ … But he said, ‘Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.’…”[16]

• “He bowed himself to the ground seven times”

“Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two maids. He put the maids with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. He himself went on ahead of them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near his brother…”[17]

• About Judah, the son of  Jacob: “He slept with his daughter-in-law”

“But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord[18], and the Lord put him to death. Then Judah said to Onan, ‘Go in to your brother’s wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her; raise up offspring for your brother.’ But since Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, he spilled his semen on the ground whenever he went in to his brother’s wife, so that he would not give offspring to his brother. What he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also. Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, ‘Remain a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up’… In course of time the wife of Judah, Shua’s daughter, died … Tamar put off her widow’s garments, put on a veil, wrapped herself up, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. She saw that Shelah was grown up, yet she had not been given to him in marriage. When Judah saw her … said, ‘Come, let me come in to you’, for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, ‘What will you give me, that you may come in to me?’ He answered, ‘I will send you a kid from the flock.’ And she said, ‘Only if you give me a pledge, until you send it.’ He said, ‘What pledge shall I give you?’ She replied, ‘Your signet and your cord, and the staff that is in your hand.’ So he gave them to her, and went in to her, and she conceived by him. Then she got up and went away, and taking off her veil she put on the garments of her widowhood. … When Judah sent … to recover the pledge from the woman, he could not find her… About three months later Judah was told, ‘Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the whore; moreover she is pregnant as a result of whoredom.’ And Judah said, ‘Bring her out, and let her be burned.’ As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, ‘It was the owner of these who made me pregnant.’ And she said, ‘Take note, please, whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.’ Then Judah acknowledged them and said, ‘She is more in the right than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.’... When the time of her delivery came, there were twins[19]  in her womb. [20]

• About Aaron: “He cast an image of a calf as a God”

“Aaron said to them, ‘Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.’ So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, formed it in a mould, and cast an image of a calf[21];  and they said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, ‘Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.’”[22]

• About Joshua: “He collaborated with a prostitute”

“Then Joshua son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, ‘Go, view the land, especially Jericho.’ So they went, and entered the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and spent the night there. [23] … On the seventh day they rose early, at dawn, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, ‘Shout! For the Lord has given you the city. The city and all that is in it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers we sent.”

• About David: “He made the husband killed to get his wife”

“It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, ‘This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. So David sent messengers to fetch her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. [24] (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, ‘I am pregnant. ’So David sent word to Joab, ‘Send me Uriah the Hittite.’ And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, ‘Go down to your house, and wash your feet.’ Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. When they told David, ‘Uriah did not go down to his house’, David said to Uriah, ‘You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?’ Uriah said to David, ‘The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.’ Then David said to Uriah, ‘Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.’ So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day, David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk; ... In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, ‘Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.’ As Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant warriors. The men of the city came out and fought with Joab; and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite was killed as well. … When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him. When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son.”[25]

• The Lord says David: “I will take your wives ... and give them to your neighbour”

“Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, …Thus says: I will raise up trouble against you from within your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbour, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this very sun. For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’”[26]

• About David: “He pretended to be mad”

“David … was very much afraid of King Achish of Gath. So he changed his behaviour before them; he pretended to be mad when in their presence. He scratched marks on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle run down his beard. Achish said to his servants, ‘Look, you see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me? 15Do I lack madmen that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”[27]

• About David: “He is cold, to warm him…”

“King David was old and advanced in years; and although they covered him with clothes, he could not get warm. So his servants said to him, ‘Let a young virgin be sought for my lord the king, and let her wait on the king, and be his attendant; let her lie in your bosom, so that my lord the king may be warm.’ So they searched for a beautiful girl throughout all the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king. The girl was very beautiful. She became the king’s attendant and served him, but the king did not know her sexually.” [28]

·        About Solomon: “He worshipped pagans” [29]

“King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the Israelites, ‘You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you; for they will surely incline your heart to follow their gods;’ Solomon clung to these in love. Among his wives were seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines[30]; and his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon followed Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites …”[31]

·          “About Jesus: “His first sign: After scolding his mother the changed water became wine”

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? [32] My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ Now standing there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, ‘Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.’ So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew) … Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. [33]

·         About Jesus: Son of God[34]

“...Then the high priest said to him, ‘I put you under oath before the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.’ Jesus said to him, ‘You have said so...”[35]

·         About Jesus: He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being

“Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. [36] He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…”[37]The Son Is Superior to Angels

·         Jesus curses the tree

“On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ [38]  And his disciples heard it. [39]

·         Paul describes Jesus as “cursed”

 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law[40] by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’.”[41]

Yusuf Ulucan

Translation: H. Neslihan Demiriz

[1] In New Translation “they haven’t known what it shame” expression is used. And in Qur’an [A¢raf (7): 22] it is mentioned that “when they tasted of the tree, their private parts became apparent to them, and they began to fasten together over themselves from the leaves of Paradise.”

[2] Genesis: 2 / 15

[3]Genesis : 9 / 20 – 21

[4]There isn’t any information about the fact that Abraham introduced his wife Sarah as his sister in Qur’an. In only one of the 6 reliable hadith books which are the second source of Islam (Bukhari) mentions this incidence. And some of the historical books show this sentence as evidence. However, some of the important Muslim scholars like Ibn al-Jawzi (Abn Aljawaz) were sceptical about the sentences both in Islamic and Christian sources thinking why Abraham introduced his wife as his sister.   

[5]Genesis: 12/12 – 13

[6]In Old Testament “father’s wife’s daughter” and “sister from the father” are listed among the women with whom one cannot marry. (Look: Leviticus: 18 / 9)

[7]Genesis : 20 / 9 – 12

[8]Lot’s being accused of perversity despite the fact that he struggled with perversity in all life and this fact’s taking place in the Book of Moses are among the subjects that upset Muslim.

[9]Genesis: 19 / 30 – 36

[10]Genesis: 16 / 11 – 12

[11] Ishmael didn’t do any evil to any human and especially to Isaac. It seems that the authors of Old and New Testament even regarded the birth of Ishmael as an insult to human.

[12]Galatians: 4 / 22 – 23, 28 / 31

[13] Genesis: 26 / 6 – 11

[14] It is totally incomprehensible why Jacob wore Esau’s clothes to deceive Isaac who is already blind.

[15] “Blessing of the Firstborn son” is an important practice in Old Testament literature. Although Jacob and Esau are twins as Esau was born earlier he is the one to be blessed. (Detailed explanations and contradictions take place in the “Same Subjects Different Expressions” part of this study.)

[16] Genesis: 27 / 1 – 46 (abridged)

[17] Genesis : 33 / 1 – 3

[18]The mistake Er did or why he is wicked in the sight of Lord is not explained. 

[19]One of the twins born from this sister-in-law and father-in-law relationship is Perez who is believed to be the ancestor of David, Solomon and Jesus according to the genealogy in Matthew (1/1 – 16) and Luke (3/23) The Bibles. 

[20] Genesis: 38/7 – 28 (abridged).

[21] According to the narration of Qur’an the calf was casted by Samiri and Aaron protested this and warned the people but they didn’t listen to him (Taha (20): 85 – 97)

[22] Exodus: 32 / 2 – 5

[23] Joshua: 2 / 1, 6/15 – 17

[24] There isn’t any information in Qur’an about this incident of David. However, some of the glossators correlate the adversaries who climbed over the wall of [his] prayer chamber [Sad (38): 21 – 24] with the above-mentioned one. In the same surah the judgment for two brothers, one of which has ninety-nine ewes and the other has only one ewe, is mentioned and the fact that afterwards David asks forgiveness is emphasized. Maududi wanted to look into the mistake of David which is told allusively in Qur’an (Tafhim-ul-Qur’an,. In brief Qur’an interpreters summarize the position of Davis as follows: after the death of his wife David might want to marry again but he didn’t attempt to kill someone to marry his wife. (Look: Hamidullah, Sacred Qur’an the fifth footnote the 21^st ayah of Sad, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Innocence of Prophets)

[25] 2 Samuel: 11/2 – 27 (abridged). The child who was born from Bat, the wife of Uraih, died on the seventh day and then Solomon was born.

[26]2  Samuel: 12 / 9 – 12

[27] 1 Samuel: 21 / 12 – 15

[28] 1 Kings: 1 / 1 – 4)

[29] With the expression “…It was not Solomon who disbelieved…” in Qur’an, Baqarah (2):102, it is strictly emphasized that Solomon didn’t deny at all.

[30]It is wondered what people who disagree with the rare and personal polygamy cases say about this exaggerated number of wives.

[31] 1 Kings: 11 / 1 – 5

[32] As it is known someone’s calling his/her mother as “woman” is a sign of anger and reprehension.

[33] John: 2 / 1 – 11 (abridged).

[34] In Qur’an, Maryam (19): 30 with the expression of Jesus it is declared that “he is the servant of Allah”. Similarly, in the expression of Isaiah the fact that Jesus is created as a servant is underlined. (Matthew: 12 / 18)

[35] Matthew: 26 / 63 – 64

[36]The expression of “through whom he also created the worlds” is interpreted as “Jesus was working as a foreman while God was creating the world” by the publications of Jehovah's Witnesses such as Watchtower (2002/April).

[37]Hebrews: 1 / 1 – 5

[38] It is contrary that Jesus who turned a lot of water into wine in a wedding did not make the tree bear fruit.

[39]Mark: 11 / 12 – 13, 20 – 21

[40] Paul who describes the law (Old Testament according to the Christians) as cursed, describes Jesus as cursed according to the Old Testament (Deuteronomy: 21/23).

[41]Galatians: 3/13

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