The Acclaimed Writings of Truth

By Adam Paul Ishmael

This book is dedicated to explaining the Qur'an and the Bible in their true form regarding the subjects outlined. It allows both these books to say what it states when it comes to these subjects. The purpose is not to elevate one book over the other but to enrich the understanding of both books to the laymen from a layman. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stratton Press
• Release date: May 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781648953118

Adam Paul Ishmael

Although the author is known to have a profession of his own, he is very devout in understanding both the Koran and the Bible. He has read and understood both of them purely, as a layman. He has had no known religious university education but has taken both books as guides in his life. He thought it necessary to bring their teachings relating to certain subjects to light and lay their teachings side by side to enrich all that read this book. It is not his intent to place one book above the other but will let the reader draw his or her own conclusions.

Book preview

Prologue

Religion has claimed its form of the mantle of truth for thousands of years. Countries sought to conquer other countries to impose, and enforce, their religious belief systems of truth. Religion has been used as a cloak against others for ill designs and material and monetary gains. Religion has been a sword used to invade lands at peace, slaughter and enslave their inhabitants, and take whatever the land had of value by military conquest.

England, one country, resisted and won a war against Spain when Spain declared war on England to overthrow its monarchy and to force England back under the control of the pope in Rome. Spain’s war against England at that time had the pope’s blessing.

There was, too, the Muslim and later the European conquest of Africa. In some cases, the religion of the invaders brought close to extinction entire tribal civilizations, and the civilizations that did not want to be slaves to these invaders or convert to their religions—Islam or Christianity—were in some cases just killed off. Sadly, the misuse of the teachings of Islam and then Christianity pitted Arabs and Europeans against the continent of Africa. Africans were made (or forced) to disavow the cultural achievements and institutions that had benefited both them and the world around them. They were to consider them of no value. Any achievements obtained (cultural or otherwise) after the conversion to either of these religions were considered the achievement of the conquerors and not the Africans. This was an attempt to make all African contributions, no matter how great, of little or no worth. As a result, Africans, through the misguidance of enforced religion, were stripped of value, considered less than human, and in need of saving via either Islam or Christianity, imposed upon them by their conqueror. Asia and America suffered a similar fate.

With the Muslim conquests, many Asian and African tribes came under an Islamic government. Some prospered; others suffered.

Then there were the Crusades where both Muslims and Christians (mostly from Europe) fought over Jerusalem, which remained under Muslim control until the end of World War I. There were at least nine crusades fought against Muslim political and military control over Jerusalem by Christendom of Europe.

There were other religious wars all over the world, in India, China, and even in the Americas, all for one purpose: to force the conquered to accept the conqueror’s religious form of truth.

Above all this, Jesus’s planned execution and subsequent death were for proclaiming truth. Yet he did not force the truth he proclaimed on anyone. Furthermore, his religion was not the god of him, for he served only one god, Jehovah, in righteousness. In other words, God was the god of him.

This book outlays the clear and truthful writings in the Qur’ān and Bible to underscore the misguidedness of religion as a whole. This book’s intention is to explain these subjects in appropriate detail but relies heavily on these writings. This book is only a reference on the subjects discussed and explained in the stated writings from the Qur’ān and the Bible.

What is truth?

These words were spoken by the Roman governor Pilate to Jesus over two thousand years ago before he handed Jesus over to be put to death.

Preface

Many are in a confused state as to what is truth. Many claim that either the Qur’ān or Bible is the basis for truth, and sadly, there are many who wickedly and murderously claim all be it falsely to carry the message from these writings in the name of God, as they believe him to be favoring their religious efforts.

I don’t take one side or the other in this book. I leave that as a personal matter. I write this book as a neutral observer. I don’t consider myself a messenger, prophet, or apostle. It is not my intent to favor either or pit the Qur’ān and Bible against each other. I’m only, to the best of my knowledge, pointing out as a layman scriptural differences between the Qur’ān and the Bible on the subjects chosen. The reader will have sufficient knowledge of both and is free to draw his or her own conclusions.

In regard to references, for the Qur’ān, I’ve chosen to use The Holy Qur’an, Text, Translation, and Commentary (by Abdullah Yusuf Ali) as the reference in this book as I found it very easy to read and understand. I would recommend the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (printed by Jehovah’s Witnesses, you can get an electronic copy at JW.org) as a good one to use; in my opinion, it is the most accurate Bible in the world today. The reader is free, however, to use his own personal Qur’ān or Bible.

Furthermore, I ask those who read this book to do so with an open mind and not resort to presumptions, accusations, or to slandering even me, the author. As a reminder, the Qur’ān warns against slandering anyone according to the passages Sûrat [9] Al-Tarbah, 9:79; Sûrat [24] Al-Nur, 24:23; and Sūrah [68] Al-Qalam. And note this beautiful quote in the Qur’ān:

All who obey Allah and the Messenger are in the company of those on whom is the grace of Allah—of the prophets (who teach), the sincere (lovers of Truth), the witnesses (who testify), and the righteous (who do good). Ah! What a beautiful fellowship!

—Sūrah [4] A Nisā’, 4:69

In addition, the Bible is against slander as well and notes that there will be slanderous persons in the last days. These persons would slander to their own detriment, of course. (1 Tim. 3:11; 2 Tim. 3:3)

It is better to read, understand, and be enlightened than to assume and remain ignorant!

The Birth of Islam

Muhammad, known as Al-Amin (the trustworthy), was born to parents Abdullah and Aminah in 570 CE. He was of the tribe of Quraysh. Sadly, his parents died and left him an orphan by the time he was six years old. As a young boy, he lived with nomadic tribes. He never learned to read or write. He became a merchant to the caravan trades that went to Syria and Yemen. He became responsible for the commercial success of Mecca.

He married Khadijah, his first wife, and had four daughters (Zainab, Umme Kulsum, Ruqayyah, and Fatimah) and two sons by her. However, his sons died while they were still very young. As a result, he adopted a freed slave boy, Zayd, because he had no male heir at that time.

In 610 CE, it is believed that while he was retiring in the hills around Mecca in Saudi Arabia, he saw the angel Gabriel. Muslims believe that the passages of the Qur’an were revealed to Muhammad by God and were presented by the angel Gabriel.

Many times, between 610 CE and his death on June 8, 632 CE, Muhammad lived in Mecca preaching to the people and imploring them to abandon the belief in many gods and to worship one god. He started this preaching campaign in about 613 CE. Because of his preaching, some converted and became Muslims, bowing to Allah’s will and to the religion of Islam, which calls for submission to Allah’s will. Many of these early followers of Muhammad were poor or former slaves.

The Meccan authorities believed that Muhammad was uprooting their social order by preaching about one god, discouraging the worshipping of many gods,1 and speaking against the corruption and inequality of their society. The Meccan authorities saw him as poisoning the minds of their slaves and the poor with his new form of religion. Finally, the Meccan authorities started to persecute Muhammad and his followers. As a result, many of them migrated to Abyssinia (part of the Aksumite Empire that encompassed modern-day Eritrea and Northern Ethiopia) in about 615 CE. From 616 to 619 CE, Muhammad’s clan, the Banu Hashim, were boycotted by his own Quraysh tribe.

In about 622 CE, Muhammad, his relatives, and Muslims migrated back to the city of Medina (the Hijra). It was in Medina where Muhammad established his political and religious authority and established a state in accordance to a set of Islamic principles. He also formulated a constitution (or charter) for Medina with rights and responsibilities for Muslims, Jews, Christians, and pagan communities within the city of Medina.

This constitution had many benefits. It first established Medina as a sacred place void of violence and weapons. It also allowed for the security of Medina, and of women and children living there. It allowed for religious freedoms for all who were not Muslims. It allowed for a process for encouraging stable tribal relations within Medina. It allowed for the establishment of a judicial system and allowed for the setting up of a tax system for supporting the community in time of conflict.

All the tribes living in the city of Medina signed an agreement to defend this city from all external threats and to live in harmony with each other.

Starting in 624 CE, the Muslims had two battles against the Quraysh (Meccan) forces. The first was the Battle of Badr,2 fought on Tuesday, March 13, 624 CE. It resulted in the Muslims scoring a victory and expelling Jewish tribes (the Banu Qainuka’a and later the Banu Nadhir after the Battle of Uhud) from Medina after it was discovered that they did not hold up to their part of the agreement in defending Medina.

Then later, there was the Battle of Uhud fought on Saturday, March 23, 625 CE, at the valley located in front of Mount Uhud. The Quraysh allowed the women on the battlefield to taunt the manhood and to sexually entice the Muslims to distract them from fighting effectively or not at all. The Quraysh (called the army of the idolaters) defeated the Muslims, and Muhammad was slightly wounded and bleeding from the face and head. However, this battle was indecisive because the Quraysh did not kill Muhammad and finish off the Muslims and Islam along with it.

However, from March to April of 627 CE, the Arab tribes in the rest of Arabia formed a confederation. When Muhammad and the city of Medina heard of this, they rushed to fortify the city. They worked to slow down the advancement of the Arab armies by digging a trench on the north side of the city, which was at that time the weakest area exposed to attacks. They also dug a dry moat around the city and fortified its buildings within.

During the Battle of the Trench,3 the Arab forces advanced but were stopped due to the defensive measures around Medina including the installation of the trench. The Arabs besieged Medina in the hope that the Muslims within would surrender. The Arabs were intent on finishing off Islam completely to preserve their customs of idol worship, including their corrupt economic and political system of that time.

Abu Sufyan, the Quraysh chieftain, had organized this Arab campaign, but the warrior of his army was Amr ibn Abd Wudd, the most feared of the pagan warriors of Arabia.

After a few days, Amr ibn Abd Wudd decided to capture Medina himself. One day, while scoping around Medina, he and three other Meccan knights found an area where the trench was not too wide. They were able to clear the trench by jumping over it with their horses.

Once Amr was inside the perimeter of Medina, without any resistance, he advanced into the Muslim camp and challenged the Muslims inside to come out and fight against him in the Arabian tradition of duels. Amr’s first two challenges went unanswered. Amr ibn Abd Wudd challenged a third time and called the Muslims cowards. However, one Muslim, Alī ibn Abi Talib, was not a coward and was not afraid of him. Muhammad hesitated to allow him to fight, but as no one else would step up to do so, Muhammad gave him permission.

Alī had a set of principles, which he applied in his life. These principles were,

He asked his opponent (Amr) to flee idolatry and accept Islam.

If he did not want to accept Islam, he would ask him to agree to leave the battlefield and not fight.

If he would not agree to the first two, he permitted him (Amr) to strike first.

Amr ibn Abd Wudd accepted only the third principle and struck Alī with his heavy and massive sword, which cut through Ali’s shield, the helmet, and turban, making a deep gash in his forehead. Then Alī struck a counterblow that cut this formidable warrior of Arabia in two.

After Amr was killed, the three knights in his entourage turned and fled on their horses in retreat. Alī did not pursue them. It was one of his principles not to pursue a fleeing enemy since he wished his life spared.

The death of Amr ibn Abd Wudd broke the back of the Maccan offensive against Medina and against Islam and destroyed their morale. After this, Abu Sufyan was forced to raise the siege and to call for his army to retreat from Medina. Medina again survived another potential onslaught.

During the siege of Medina, the Qurayza Jews of Medina were massacred in the spring of 627 CE. Some of the reasons given were the Jews did not follow up on their promise to protect Medina when it came under attack; and the Muslims feared that when the time came again to defend Medina, the Jews were likely to stand on the side of the Arabs and attack them rather than defend them. After this battle, in 628 CE, the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah was made between Mecca and the Muslims to allow Muslims the peaceful pilgrimage to Mecca and to peacefully coexist with the Quraysh. Alī wrote up, what would be called, the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah with the Quraysh in 628 CE per Muhammad’s direction. This treaty called for a truce between Muslims and the Quraysh tribe for ten years. After the signing of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, many more people converted to Islam.

However, the Quraysh (Meccans) broke the treaty in 630 CE.4 Muhammad eventually conquered Mecca5 in 630 CE. Muhammad had asked Alī to assure him that the conquest would be bloodless. This was done by not allowing the victorious Muslims to take revenge on the Meccans who surrendered. Alī ensured that this command of Muhammad was followed fully.

By 631 CE, Islam was gaining acceptance in many parts of Arabia. Sadly, before his death, his efforts to secure Islam took a toll on his health. Muhammad suffered from very debilitating headaches and, possibly, fainting spells. Yet by 629 CE, Muhammad was victorious in his conquest of Mecca, and by the time of his death in 632 CE, at sixty-two years of age (some say that he was sixty-three years of age), he had practically united all the tribes of Arabia into Islam in the belief in one God, the God of Abraham.

The Islamic faith had survived another onslaught of exterminations by Arabic tribes and became a formidable religious entity. Islam was a religion that had no choice but to fight heroically for its own survival and existence. The fact that Muhammad was able to unite all the Arabic tribes into believing in and serving one God, the God of Abraham, was surely a heroic feat.

Initially, Muslims like the Jews of Arabia faced Jerusalem to pray. However, when the Jews who lived in Medina at the time resisted the Muslim’s religion, refused political cooperation with them, and did not accept Muhammad’s prophetic claims, Muhammad and Muslims shifted the center of prayer to Mecca in around 624 CE.

In the end, it is fair to say that Muhammad