Muslim Scholarship in Comparative Religion RKUD 6220

Topic

The Authenticity of the Bible According to Maulana

M. Rahmatullah Kairanvi in his Book Izharul Huq

Supervision

Assoc. Prof. Kamar Oniah Kamaruzzaman

Presented by

Abu Talib Mohammad Monawer

Dept: Fiqh and Usul al-Fiah

IRK, IIUM

1

Outline

Introduction

Rahmatullah & his Works – Background and Milieu

– Academic Setting and Intellectual Legacy

– An Overview of Ramtullah’s Major Works: Izhar al-Huq:

– Methodology of Kairanvi in Comparative Religion

– Methods of Kairanvi in Izhar ul-Huq:

The Authenticity of the Bible – Books of Bible

– The Books Rejected by the Protestants:

– Common Criteria of Kairanvi for Justifying Authenticity:

– Justification of Bible on the Basis of These Criteria:

– Justification of Bible on the Basis of These Criteria:

– Errors in the Calculation of Israelites’ Number:

– Status of the Books in the Old Testaments:

– The New Testament and Status of the Four Gospels

Conclusion 2

Background and Milieu:

His Name and Genealogy:

• Rahmatullah bin Khalilullah al- Kairanvi al- Hindi al- hanafi al-Uthmani.

• Father - Khalilur Rahman

• Family tree goes back to the third Caliph Uthman RW

Birth and Family Background:

• born in 9March, 1818 BC in Kairana, India during the last years of the Mughal Empire

• Many family members were intellectuals

The Religious Environment:

• committing the sins openly.

• Western cultures were spread VS Muslims and Ulama backwardness and stagnation.

• people assume the Quran and Hadith as puzzles

• understood only by jugglers.

• Fatwa of non-obligation of pilgrimage only for the danger of travelling and indiscipline 3

The Political Situation:

• India was colonized by British.

• Shikh and Mutaha are stimulated against Muslims

• Ulama became victim British company-south

Indian company

• India was divided into - 1: Shikh and Hindu

leaders co-operated 2:weak Muslims leaders

• Christian Missionaries and intellectual war

4

Academic Setting and Intellectual Legacy

His Education:

• Began Islamic education at 6, memorizing the Qur'an at 12. Islamic Shariah and Arabic language from his father.

• moved to Delhi & studied different disciplines

• mathematics and medicine, Persian literature, medicine, engineering

Teaching Life:

• Popularity of expertise & students’ coming

• Working as a Mufti and Shariah teacher,

• founded a religious school in Karianah

• quit teaching & dedicated for writing and refuting missionaries

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His Participation in Rebellion:

• One of the pioneers against british in 1857

• Declared rebillion, encouraged, & led one group of Muslim soldiers in this rebellion

His Efforts in Resistance against Missionaries:

• stopped teaching and dedicated to resist missionaries

• Studied Christianity from its original sources and surpassed the specialists

• wrote books refuting the missionaries

• established training centers for Muslim dayees to train them

• Used to debate the great Christian delegations

• corresponded with the Christian leaders to get admission of Fonder for debate

• nine letters within 17 days to priest Fonder to arrange an open debate between him and Fonder

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Debate with Fonder:

• used arguments from European theologically critical works, and arguments from the Catholic missionaries in India,

• Fonder was unable to respond to this criticism he decided to withdraw from the debate.

Seizing his Property and Migration:

• failure of rebellion in 1857& decision for hanging Muslim leaders, declaration of 1000 against Rahmatullah.

• his property was seized, books was banned

• he migrated secretly to Makkah in 1862 7

His Teaching in Masjid-e-Haram:

• selected to teach in Masjid-e-Haram and

• no fixed method & confined in religious and

Arabic language

• he added some subjects such engineering,

mathematics, debate and astronomy, and

brought necessary books from India

• a historical day- teaching Hujjatullah al-

Baligah in the objectives of Shariah,

Muqaddamah Ibn Khaldun, and separated

between Nahu and Sahrf

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Establishment of the Madrasa Saulatia:

• In 1864, the first school in Makka and Hijaz

• Changed its name to Madrasah Saulatia by the name of donor Saulat al-Nisa in 1873S

• remained the head until his death.

His Tours to Constantinople:

• travelled to Constantinople for 3 times to visit the then day governor as a special quest.

• in 1864, when Fonder became defeated in the debate and slandered against Rahmatullah

• Secondly, in 1299 (hijri), when the British colonist slandered that Rahmatullah tried to rebel the Uthmani regime the governor asked him to meet him.

• Thirdly, in 1304 (hijri), when rahmatullah affected in his eye and became sick

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His Students and Disciples

• King Hosain bin Ali al-Hashemi, founder of Hashemi state in Hejaz

• Skeikh Abdullah Siraz, mufti of Hanafi School,

• sheikh of scholars in Makka and prime minister of Hashemi state in jakwali.

• Sheikh Ahmad al-Din, founder of majharul Ulum Madrashah in Korachi.

• Sheikh Ahmad Abul khair Murdad, teacher of Masjid-e-Haram.

• Amin Mohammad Ali Murdad, Teacher, Khatib of Masjid-e-Harm, and deputy head of the court in makka.

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Intellectual Legacy of Rahmatullah:

• wrote many books in Persian, Urdu, and Arabic

• Izhar al-Huq (this book we are talking about), Izalat al- Shukuk, ‘Ijaz al-‘Yesabi, al-Buruq al-lame’ah, taqlib al-mataen, mu’addil ‘ey’wejaz al-mizan, izalat al-awham, ahsanul ahadith fi ibtal al-taslis, al-bahs al-sarif fi isbat al-nasakh wal tahrif, mi’yar al- tahqiq, tarjuma al-tuhfa al-istha ashariyyah (still remained manuscript), ‘Aadab al-muridin (published in urdu), al-mahbub ila al-qulub (still remained manuscript in Urdu), risalah fi waqti solatil asri (still remained manuscript in Arabic), risalatun fi al-hasri, risalatun fi rafye al-yadain fi al-solat.

His Death:

• at Makkah Friday night in Ramadan 22 in 1308/ 1891.

• Was buried in the cemetery of Makkah near from the grave of Saieda Khadija RW

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An Overview of Ramtullah’s Major Works: Izhar

al-Huq

Background of the Izhar-Ul-Huq:

• the priest Fonder and “Mizan al-Huq”.

• American classical orientalist converted to

Protestantism, craved to get citizenship, Sent to India

as the leader of Christianizers.

• Rahmatullah sent nine letters to him for debate & it

happened 2 times.

• first January, 1854, in Akbarabad , Agra

• regarding the authenticity of the

• Fonder admitted alterations of the Bible in 7/8 places

• Second in April, 1854, in the same city 12

• Debate focus on 5: revelation, alterations, the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the mission of Mohammad PBUH.

• admission of Fonder that the Bible had been altered.

• caused the brutal aggression on the part of the British government against Muslims in India in 1857,

• thousands of renowned Muslim scholars were killed.

• Shaykh Rahmatullah was top listed

• escaped to Makka al-Mukarramah

Sultan’s Request & reason of Writing this Book:

• Fonder had written in Urdu entitled Meezanul Haq

• “Sultan Abdul Aziz Khan invited & requested to write a book on the debate.

• Rahmatullah wrote the Great Debate

• known as The Truth revealed later(IzharulHaqq)”.

Objective of the Book:

• to show that the Bible cannot in any way be considered as a directly revealed book

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Methodology of Kairanvi in Comparative

Religion:

• Offensive position beside defensive stand

• Critical and analytical approaches

• Logical approach in presenting the authenticity

of Islam

• Using other scholars’ opinions

• Using the Original Sources

• Intellectual Fairness

• Expose the errors and loopholes of the

opponents 14

Methods of Kairanvi in Izhar ul-Huq:

• Offensive Method:

• criticizing the evidences, books, beliefs of other religions

• compel them to defend their religion instead of attacking Islam

Differentiation between The Holy Quran and both Torah and Gospel/ Old and New Testaments:

• Deductive method

• Scientific classification and basic introduction

• Strengthening the stand with over substantiation

• Comparative method between Izhar and Mizan

• Attachment with common logics

• Emphasis on 5 fundamental issues between Islam and Christianity

• Exposing the fallacies of Christianity

• Arranging by order

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The Authenticity of the Bible:

The Books of the Bible:

• Bible a Greek word means book

• divided to The Old Testament and The New Testament.

• Old Testament - before Jesus, by the Messiah

• New Testament – written after Jesus

• Both the Testaments are subdivided into 2.

• 1st of the Old Testament authentic by almost 2nd part is doubtful and controversial.

1st divisions of the Old Testament: 38 books

2nd division of the Old Testament: 9 books

1st division of the New Testament: 20 books

• believed to be genuine and authentic by the Christians.

2nd division of the New Testament: 7 books

• doubted and debated by the Christians.

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Review of the Books by the Councils:

• In 325 a great conference of Christian theologians and religious scholars in the city of Nicaea under the order of the Emperor Constantine.

• It was decided that the Epistle of Jude was genuine and believable.

• The rest are declared doubtful.

• in 364 in Liodicia

• added 6 books to the list , The book of Revelations remained out of the list

• In 397 called the Council of Carthage, Augustine. 126 participants including the Great Christian scholar.

• Confirmed two previous Councils and also added 66 books.

• 3 conferences in Trullo, Florence and Trent.

• confirmed the decision of the Council of Carthage. Later all doubtful books among Christians were added to the list.

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The Books Rejected by the Protestants:

• these books remained unchanged until the Protestant Reformation.

• The Protestants declared 7 books were essentially to be rejected.

• Based on six reasons:

• false even in the original Hebrew and Chaldaean languages

• not acknowledged by the as revealed books

• not acknowledged by all the Christians

• not reliable, insufficient to support the doctrines of the faith - Jerome .

• were recited but not in every place- Klaus

• have been tampered with, and changed in particular the Second book of Maccabees- Eusebius .

Common Criteria of rahmatullah for Justifying Authenticity:

• To be revealed through a prophet

• To be conveyed to us precisely in the same order

• To have uninterrupted chain of narrators to prove certainty

• No supposition and conjectures are of avail in the authentication

• Unsupported assertion made by few sects is not accepted

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Justification of Bible on the Basis of These Criteria:

• The Greek Church Catholic and Protestants scholars are unanimous on the falsehood and forge ability of certain books of the Bible. Like: the book of revelation, the Book of Genesis, the Book of Ascension, the Book of Mysteries, the Book of Testament and the Book of Confession which are all ascribed to the Prophet Moses.

• Controversy of Catholics and Protestants regarding the books of Baruch, Tobit, Jude and others.

• The renowned Christian scholars were unable to produce the names of whole chain of the narrators.

• One of the famous missionaries confessed to the absence of authoritative support for these books due to distress and calamities of the Christians in the first three hundred and thirteen years of their history.

• Most of their assertions are based on nothing but presumptions.

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The present Pentateuch is not the book of Moses

Argument-1:

• Not historically known before King Josiah

• found by Hilkiah after Josiah`s ascension by 18 years.

• disappeared again before the invasion of Jerusalem by

Nebuchdnezzar

• rewritten by the Prophet Ezra

• burnt again byAntiochus at the time of his invasion of Jerusalem.

Argument-2:

• rewritten by Jewish scholars.

• 1st& 2nd books of chronicles written by Ezra, Haggai &

Zechariah are mutually contradictory in names and numbers

(unanimity by Christian & jewis scholars)

• E.g. in C7-benjamins sons=3, C8=8, pent.=10

• statement of the 1st book of chronicles is erroneous

• Three prophets made mistakes

• Are not protected 20

Argument-3:

• Contradiction in religious doctrine

• E.g. Pentateuch: son will be accountable for the sin of father

up#

• The book of Ezekiel: neither son nor father shall bear iniquity

of other

Argument-4

• Writing style of Pentateuch is different from the style of the

past age.

• No indication on writing of Moses.

• Rather, proved as someone else's writing.

• E.g. no first person rather third person used for Moses.

– Makes books more respectable and trustworthy

– Carried more weight & value

– Can not be refutable without powerful argument 21

Argument-5

• writings of someone other than prophet.

• Some sentences impossible to be attributed to Moses historically

• Some verses explicit the author can not be existed prior to David

• No argument on adding by other prophets

• No prophet of bible mentioned it as his writings

Argument-6

• Dr. Alexander Guides in an introduction to the Bible: 3 things-

arguments

– Present Pentateuch is not the book of Moses

– Written in Cana 'an or Jerusalem

– Written in the period of Solomon 500 thousand years after Moses &

1000 years before Christ

Argument-7

• Norton-human experience- language changes by passing the time

– No appreciable difference between Pentateuch and old testament

– Luselen-all the books are written in the same one & same period 22

Argument-8

• In the book of Deuteronomy, low of Moses/ Pentateuch was written

in stones

– Reference of the present Pentateuch to these verses is

impossible.

Argument-9

• Writing was not in vogue of Moses' time

– Pentateuch is not written by Moses

– People in past used to scribble on plates cooper, wood and wax

by needles or pointed bones

Argument-10

• The present Pentateuch contains large number of errors

• Number of sons and daughters of Leah is 33= wrong

– Mistake admitted by Horsley=correct=34

• Bastard won’t enter the congregation of the Lord= not correct

– Leads to excluding of David up to Perez from this congregation

• Perez was a illegitimate son of Judah 23

• Errors in the Calculation of Israelites’ Number

• Statement in the book of Numbers implies:

• Total number of Israelites: 25000

• Fighting people: Above 6000 (- men + women + children of the Levi Tribe + all women of the other tribes of the Israelites + young under 20)

• Statement is wrong for five reasons:

Reason1: First Reason: • Total number: 70, period: 215 years, sons of people of Israelites

were killed, daughters were left to live 89 years before liberation.

• If we assume.. Every 25 years = doubled, sons were not killed= not reach 15000.

• So what about if sons were killed?

Reason2: • They were in persecution & hardship of king • Impossible to be killed a large number of people • No sign of resistance and rebellion

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3rd reason:

• The Book of Exodus chapter 12 = how the Israelites had taken with them the cattle herds and flocks, crossed the river in a single night;

• No order of Moses

4th reason: no large camp enough to accommodate this number of people and their and their cattle.

5th Reason: In Deuteronomy 7:22, the number of animals increased to more than the number of Israelites within the period between Israel and Moses= wrong

• Small area cannot populate, ibn khaldun refuted: the gap only three generations, in such period that increase in impossible.

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Status of the Books in the Old Testaments:

First: Author’s name & period is uncertain

Five opinion among the Christian scholars: the Prophet

Joshua himself, Phineas, Eleazer, Samuel, and the Prophet

Jeremiah.

Second: Joshua and Jeremiah are separated by a period of 850

years.

comparison between Joshua 15: 63 and Samuel 5: 6-8, it is =

written before the seventh year of the accession of the Prophet

David to the throne.

Joshua 15; 63 says, “As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of

Jerusalem, the children of Israel could not drive them out; but

the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem

unto this day”.

Samuel (5: 6-8) Jebusites were living in Jerusalem up until the

seventh year of the ascension of David to throne. 26

The Status of the Book of Judges

• 3rd most respected book of the Old Testament.

• Different opinions regarding the author and

period of the book

• Some Christian writers = the book of Phineas,

some other= written by Hezekiah. None of

them was Prophet.

• Some other asserted =written by Ezra.

difference of time between Ezra and Phineas=

not less than 900 years.

• Jews= all assertions are wrong.

• Attribute it to Samuel based on conjecture. 27

The Book of the Ruth

Ruth is a collection of family stories

Some Christians= written by Hezekiah = not a revealed book.

Some other = by Ezra.

All other Christians + the Jews = by Samuel.

The Book of Nehemiah

3 opinions about the writer:

Nehemiah, Ezra, not accepted as a revealed book.

Nehemiah as first person in the first eleven chapters,

3rd person in verse 26 of chapter 12

Darius, the King of Persia was mentioned in verse 22 of the chapter 12 ≠ he lived 100 years after the death of Nehemiah.

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The Book of Job

• 24 opinions regarding its name and period.

• Some scholars of Jews, Christians and Protestant faith insist that Job is a fictitious name and the book of Job is no more than a fiction. The Book of Job is only a tale

• If written by Elihu or by a certain unknown person who was a contemporary of Manasse, = not acceptable as a prophetic and revealed text

The Psalms of David:

• Author: different opinions among Jewish and Christian scholars about the writer, period of compilation, and the name of psalms.

• written by the following authors: the Prophets Moses, David and Solomon; and Asaph, Aeman, Ethan, Jeduthun and the three sons of kore.

• Period of copilation: In devid.; period, some friends of Hezekiah in his period, compiled in different periods.

• Different names: are revealed, called such names by who are not prophet.

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• The Book of Proverbs

• attributed to many persons who are between prophet Solomon and others people like lemuel, Agur.

• variations in linguistic idioms and style, repetition of several verses

• even these were not collected in his period, several of them were collected by Hezekiah as is evident from 25:1:

• “These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, King of Judah, copied out.” This was done 270 years after the death of Solomon. According to majority: it was compiled by many people including Hezekiah, Isaiah and perhaps Ezra.

• The Book of Ecclesiastes

• different opinions : Solomon, Isaiah, Hezekiah, and Zorobabel.

• John, a Christian scholar, and some German scholars : written after the release of the Israelites from Babylon.

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The Book of The Song Of Solomon

• the Prophet Solomon, persons belonging to his time. Dr Kennecott, Theodore, Whiston,

• The Catholic, Ward said it was a foul song and should be excluded from the holy books of the Old Testament, Selmer holds it as a forged and fabricated book.

The Book of Daniel

• The Greek Translation, the Latin translation and all the translations of the Roman Catholics include the Song of Three Children and chapter 13 and 14 of this book.

• The Roman Catholic faith acknowledges this song and the two chapters

• Protestants do not consider it genuine.

The Book of Esther

• Unknown Writer, time.

• Christian scholars = written by scholars in the of Ezra and Simon, by Jehoiachin, the son of Joshua,who had come to Jerusalem after the release from Babylon, St Augustine = by Ezra, by Murdoch and Esther.

The Book of Jeremiah

• Chapter 52 not written by Jeremiah, difference between two versions of in the same verse.

• Two languages: Chaldean language is existed in the verse 11 of chapter 10 , the rest of the chapter is in Hebrew. The commentators have made several conjectures regarding the persons making this insertion.

The Book of Isaiah

• Stalin, a learned German writer, claimed twenty-seven (40-66)chapters of this book are not the writings of Isaiah.

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The New Testament and Status of the Four Gospels:

• All the ancient Christian writers and a great number of modern writers are unanimous: the Gospel of Matthew was originally in the Hebrew language, obscured by distortions of Christians.

• The present Gospel is merely a translation.

• Translator’s name not known. The Christian author of Meezn-ul-Haq only conjectured and said that Matthew might possibly have written it in the Greek language. In view of this fact this translation is not acceptable and is liable to be rejected.

• The Penny Encyclopedia:the Gospel was written in the Hebrew & in the language which was in vogue between Syria and Chaldea in 41 AD.

• Only the Greek translation is available, the present Hebrew version is only a translation of the same Greek version”

• some ancient scholars were suspicious about the last chapter of the Gospel of Mark, and some of them had doubt about some verses of chapter 23 of the Gospel of Luke; and some other scholars were doubtful about the fist two chapters of this Gospel.

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The Inauthenticity of The Gospel Of John

• 1st Argument: Before and after the period of the Prophet Jesus, the style of

writing is similar to the style of the present Muslim writers. But here is

different, John in the third person

• 2nd Argument: a statement proves that the writer of Gospel is not John

• 3rd Argument: In the second century AD when the authorities refused to

accept this Gospel as the book of John, Irenaeus , a disciple of Polycarp the

disciple of John, was living. He did not make any statement to negate those

who refused to accept the book.

• It is not true that did not hear in such important issue, or he heard it and

forgot.

• Because he said that “I listened to these words with great care by the grace

of God and wrote them not only on paper, but also on my heart. For a long

time, I have made it my habit to keep reading them.”

• also unimaginable for fear of his enemies.

• Celsus, who was a pagan scholar of the second century AD, fearlessly

declared that the Christians had distorted their Gospels three or four times

or more. Festus, the chief of the Manichaeans and a scholar publicly

announced in 4th century AD: not by Jesus nor his apostles. 33

• 4th Argument: Stapelin said in his book that the Gospel of John was undoubtedly written by student of scholar in Alexandria.

• 5th Argument: Bertshiender, a great scholar said: whole Gospel & all Epistles of John were definitely not written by him but by some other in the 2nd century A.D.”

• 6th Argument: Grotius, a famous scholar, admitted: gospel usually 20 chapters. The 21th chapter was added after the death of John, by the church of Ephesus.

• 7th Argument: The Allogin, a sect of the Christians in the second century AD, refused Gospel and all writings

• 8th Argument: The fist 11 verses of chapter 8 are not accepted by any of the Christian writers and these verses do not exist in the syriac version.

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• Horne in chapter says: The ancient theologians have confirmed illogical statements and written them down. Subsequent people accepted them just out of respect to them. These false statements thus were communicated from one writer to another. A long period of time has passed, and it has become very difficult to find out the truth.

• 1st & 2nd gospel is written more than 60 AD

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Errors in the calculation of Israelites’ number

Contradictions: 119

Errors: 110

Conclusion

• No acceptable arguments for the authenticity of the Bible

• Rahmatullah was able to prove this truth

• he found out 119 contradictions and 110 errors

• Most of his evidences are supported by Christian and Jewish scholars

• Fonder admitted the alteration in the Bible, but other Christian scholars

• not authentic rather distorted.

• Rahmatullah was very logical and fair in criticism

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