What Changed One Muslim’s Thinking

Sometime ago, I was with an acquaintance of mine, Scotty, who was open air preaching in Newport Beach, California.  Scotty had set up a heckler’s box for his hecklers to stand on, and this particular time, on the box was a Muslim woman.

This woman, who had identified herself as a Muslim and was dressed in the appropriate attire for a Muslim woman, was dialoguing with Scotty. Scotty had tried explaining to her what the gospel is, but she was still rejecting it. Her reason was that in her mind, the Qu’ran is accurate, and the Bible was not.

When she finished talking with Scotty, I walked over and approached her to ask if I could share something with her. She said she only had three minutes, and so I asked her, “If I could prove that the Qu’ran could not have been written by God in three minutes or less, would you be willing to listen?” She told me that I could not do such a thing but agreed to give me the chance.

Now that is a tall order. Can a person prove that God could not have written the Qu’ran in less than three minutes? Well, here is how the conversation went.

I explained to the woman that if God wrote the Qu’ran, it must be one hundred percent accurate and have no errors or contradictions. I asked her, “Is that correct?” and she said, “Yes.”

I asked her, “Can you define for me what the Qu’ran in Surah chapter 4:171; 5:73-74, 116 defines as the Christian trinity?” She accurately explained what the Qu’ran teaches: the trinity is the Father, the mother, and the Son. The Qu’ran teaches that Christians worship Mary as god.

Of course, any Christian knows that this is inaccurate. Surah chapter 5:73-75 then becomes an issue of definition, and according to the law of non-contradiction, something cannot have two different meanings in the same sense and in the same way at the same time. That is what we have here because the Christian definition of the trinity is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, not the mother. Furthermore, no orthodox Christian in history has ever accepted that Mary was part of the trinity.

Therefore, the Qu’ran wrongly defines the concept of the Christian trinity.

I asked her, “If the Christian definition is the Father, the Son, and Spirit, and not the Father, Son, and mother, do you see that it is a definition error” She agreed, “Well yes, that would be.”  I said, “Let me give you one other. In the Qu’ran, does it say that the Bible has been edited, changed, or corrupted in some way?”

“Yes, and that’s why I don’t hold to it.”

I asked if she knew Surah 6:34 and read:

“Rejected were the apostles before thee. With patience and consistency they bore their rejection and their wrongs until their aid did reach them. There is none that can alter the words and decrees of God.  Already hath thou received some accounts of the apostles.”

This passage, which is reaffirmed later in that same Surah (Q 5:115), is very clearly speaking about those previous apostles, referring to the Bible.  Here is the point of error. I said, “You have a problem within your own Qu’ran.  The Qu’ran says right here in the Surah that the Bible cannot be changed, and yet later it says it was changed. Either it can be changed, or it cannot be changed, but the Bible cannot be both unchangeable AND changed in the same way at the same time.”

Again, this is a violation of the law of non-contradiction. In these two ways, I showed her that there are clear contradictions in definitions of terms within the Qu’ran.

Within the three-minute window, she turned to me and said, “You’re right. Can I have your email address so that I can continue corresponding with you?” After giving her my contact information, I explained to her the reason I had walked her through those points of errors.

“You rejected everything,” I said, “that my friend, Scotty told you about what God, Jesus Christ, God Himself, did by dying on a cross on your behalf, dying in your place and paying the penalty for you so that you can have forgiveness of sin. You rejected that because you trusted in the Qu’ran. Now that you know that the Qu’ran could not have been written by God, will you at least give consideration to what Scotty was sharing with you? Will you at least consider what the Bible says? That maybe God did die for you?  He died in your place and paid the penalty of your sin so that you can have forgiveness. God Almighty paid the eternal fine so that you, though you owe God an eternal fine, may be set free. Consider these things.”

Thankfully, she said she would.

In just three minutes, I was able to refute Islam, the trust in the Qu’ran, and explain why the Bible makes sense— because in the Bible, we see forgiveness of sin.

May you know that forgiveness today, and go out, and strive to make today an eternal day for the glory of God.