Module review

The Quran affirms the Torah and Injil and tells the People of the Gospel to judge by what Allah revealed in it (5:47), asks why the Jews come to Muhammad when they have the Torah 'in which is the judgment of Allah' (5:43), tells Muhammad to ask those who read the earlier Scripture (10:94), and says no one can change Allah's words (6:115). If those Scriptures were reliable in the seventh century, they contradict the Quran on the cross, the resurrection and Jesus' sonship; if they were corrupt, the Quran commanded people to judge by a corrupt book. Muslims reply that the true Injil was lost, that 'confirming' means confirming the original, that a variant reading of 5:47 is a purpose clause, and that the Quran is the muhaymin over earlier books (5:48). But the most widely recited reading (Hafs) is a command, the Quran never says the Injil was lost, and Christians in Muhammad's day had the same Gospels found in Codex Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, more than two centuries earlier. Islamic sources themselves describe the Quran's textual history: Uthman's standardisation and burning of other copies (Bukhari 4987), the seven ahruf, the qira'at, the non-Uthmanic lower text of the Sana'a palimpsest, and verses described as abrogated in recitation (Muslim 1452; Bukhari 6829). The point is not that the Quran is hopelessly corrupt but that both books have textual histories, and the New Testament's many uncontrolled manuscripts let us check its text openly.

• Accurate Quran references for the dilemma (e.g. 5:47, 5:43, 10:94, 6:115)
• States the dilemma's two horns clearly
• Represents Muslim replies fairly (lost Injil, musaddiq, variant reading, muhaymin)
• Accurate account of the Quran's textual history from Islamic sources
• Avoids double standards and stays respectful

Begin by agreeing that God is one (Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 12:29) and that three gods would be blasphemy; Christians are monotheists. The Quran rejects saying Allah is 'the third of three' (5:73), pictures Jesus and his mother taken as two gods besides Allah (5:116), and rejects a son through a consort (6:101), which looks like a Father-Mother-Son triad that Christians also reject. The Trinity confesses one God, one divine being, eternally existing as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit: one 'what' and three 'whos', so it is not a contradiction. Tawhid holds that God is one being and one person; the question is what kind of oneness is true. The Quran calls Allah al-Wadud, the Loving (85:14), so ask whom a single-person God loved before creation; in the Trinity the Father loved the Son before the foundation of the world (John 17:24), so God is love in himself. Sunni theology's eternal, uncreated speech of Allah already admits an eternal distinction within God, pointing towards the eternal Word who was with God and was God (John 1:1, 14). 'Son' is not biological but speaks of shared nature and relationship. Ask these as questions, and invite your friend to read John's Gospel.

• Affirms monotheism and rejects three gods
• Shows the Quran's description (5:73; 5:116; 6:101) differs from the Trinity
• Defines Trinity accurately (one being, three persons)
• Compares kinds of oneness, using love (85:14; John 17:24) or eternal speech
• Explains 'Son of God' as non-biological, gently and invitingly

Deuteronomy 18:15 says the prophet will come 'from among you, from your brothers', and the book uses 'brothers' for fellow Israelites, as in 17:15 for the king and 18:2 for the other tribes. Deuteronomy 34:10 looks back from the close of the Torah: none like Moses had arisen yet, which keeps the promise open for a future prophet from Israel rather than moving it to another nation. Verses 10-12 also mark Moses by face-to-face knowledge of God and public signs and wonders; the Quran says Muhammad was not given signs on demand (17:90-93), and while Muslims point to the Quran as his sign (29:50-51), the Gospels report public signs by Jesus. The New Testament applies the passage to Jesus (Acts 3:22-26). In John 14-16 Jesus names the Helper as the Holy Spirit (14:26), the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot see and who dwells in the disciples and stays with them forever (14:16-17), who came at Pentecost and glorifies Jesus (16:14). No Greek manuscript reads periklytos. The Gospel of Barnabas, which does name Muhammad, is a late medieval work.

• 'Brothers' means Israelites (18:15; 17:15; 18:2)
• Correct reading of 34:10-12
• Signs point to Jesus; Acts 3:22-26
• Paraclete is the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17, 26; 16:14)
• No manuscript reads periklytos; Barnabas is late

Affirm what is true: Islam stresses Allah's mercy (39:53), and a hadith in Bukhari says no one enters Paradise by deeds alone without Allah's mercy, so Islam is not merely a works religion. Yet deeds are weighed on the scales (7:8-9), Muslims are taught to live between hope and fear, and the Quran has Muhammad say, 'I do not know what will be done with me or with you' (46:9; compare Bukhari 1243). Mercy without atonement also raises a question: how can a just God simply overlook sin? Explain that Christian assurance is not confidence in ourselves but in Christ: he bore our sin so that God is 'just and the justifier' of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26), and he rose from the dead. We are saved by grace through faith, not works, so no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9), and that is why John writes so that believers 'may know' they have eternal life (1 John 5:13). Grace is not licence; good works are the fruit of salvation, not its root (Romans 6:1-2). Call your friend, gently, to repent and believe (Mark 1:15), and invite them to read a Gospel together.

• Represents Islamic mercy and the scales fairly with references
• Uses 46:9 or Bukhari 1243 accurately on assurance
• Explains justice and mercy meeting at the cross (Romans 3:26)
• Shows assurance rests on Christ, so it is humble, not arrogant
• Clear call to repent and believe, warmly expressed