Five times the Quran reveals its ignorance of the true Abrahamic religions.
A. The story of “Talut” (i.e. Saul)
The following account of Saul is given by the author of the Quran, Surah 2:249–251
“When Saul marched forth with his army, he cautioned: “Allah will test you with a river. So whoever drinks ˹his fill˺ from it is not with me, and whoever does not taste it — except a sip from the hollow of his hands — is definitely with me.” They all drank ˹their fill˺ except for a few! When he and the ˹remaining˺ faithful with him crossed the river, they said, “Now we are no match for Goliath and his warriors.” But those ˹believers˺ who were certain they would meet Allah reasoned, “How many times has a small force vanquished a mighty army by the Will of Allah! And Allah is ˹always˺ with the steadfast.”
When they advanced to face Goliath and his warriors, they prayed, “Our Lord! Shower us with perseverance, make our steps firm, and give us victory over the disbelieving people.”
So they defeated them by Allah’s Will, and David killed Goliath. And Allah blessed David with kingship and wisdom and taught him what He willed. Had Allah not repelled a group of people by ˹the might of˺ another, corruption would have dominated the earth, but Allah is Gracious to all.
Anybody familiar with the Biblical account of this story would already have spotted that the author has no clue what he is talking about. The story of God deciding who would be in an army by how they drink water from the river happened in the days of Gideon’s war with the Midianites hence preceding Saul by hundreds of years.
Secondly, Gideon did not have to face Goliath and his army. Even Saul did not march an army against Goliath. He was scared to fight the Philistines because of Goliath. David pops up from absolutely nowhere within the story and kills Goliath. The Quran sounds like this happened in the context of a battle but in fact David killed Goliath in a one on one challenge, it was only after this defeat that Israel clashed swords with the Philistines.
The story quickly jumps to Allah blessing David with kingship and wisdom. Why? It literally just told us five verses ago that Allah appointed Saul king. Why did Allah have a quick change of heart and appoint David? No idea according to the Quranic paradigm! What is the name of Goliath’s people?
The Quran mixes up the story of Gideon with the story of Saul. It also gets the context within which Goliath was killed wrong. It does not even know the name of the prophet who made Saul king,
“Have you not seen those chiefs of the Children of Israel after Moses? They said to one of their prophets, “Appoint for us a king…”
(Surah 2:245)
And again,
“Their prophet told them, “Allah has appointed Saul to be your king.” They protested”
(Surah 2:247)
B. Story of Joseph
The story of Joseph in Surah 12 displays another instance of the Quran’s ignorance of Biblical texts,
“˹Remember˺ when they said ˹to one another˺, “Surely Joseph and his brother ˹Benjamin˺ are more beloved to our father than we, even though we are a group of so many. Indeed, our father is clearly mistaken.
Kill Joseph or cast him out to some ˹distant˺ land so that our father’s attention will be only ours, then after that you may ˹repent and˺ become righteous people!”
One of them said, “Do not kill Joseph. But if you must do something, throw him into the bottom of a well so perhaps he may be picked up by some travellers.”
(Surah 12:8–10)
Two things stand out at this point. First, at no point in the Biblical texts do the brothers plot to kill Joseph until he came to them in the fields. The Quran however flips this plotting and makes it precede Joseph’s visit to the fields.
Secondly, much like the “one of the prophets” who announced Saul as king, “One of them” said not to kill Joseph but rather throw him into a well. What is the name of this brother? Not given.
“They said, “O our father! Why do you not trust us with Joseph, although we truly wish him well?
Send him out with us tomorrow so that he may enjoy himself and play. And we will really watch over him.”
(12:11–12)
In the Quran, it is the brothers who tell Jacob to let Joseph go with them into the field. In the Biblical texts, the brothers were out in the field and Jacob sends Joseph out to check on them.
They ˹later˺ sold him for a cheap price, just a few silver coins — only wanting to get rid of him
(12:20)
How much exactly was he sold for? “a few silver coins”. How much? Not stated
The story goes on but the point here is the lack of details in this story. It sounds, not like revelation from an all knowing God, but like someone with an average memory recounting a story that they have heard. The lack of specifics detract from any claim that this is divine revelation while its contradiction of Biblical texts speaks to its inauthenticity, more on this later.
C. Mariam and Mary
The Quran tells us that the family of Imran was chosen by Allah,
Indeed, Allah chose Adam, Noah, the family of Abraham, and the family of ’Imrân above all people ˹of their time˺.
(Surah 3:33)
It further lets us know what happened with Imran’s wife,
“˹Remember˺ when the wife of ’Imrân said, “My Lord! I dedicate what is in my womb entirely to Your service,1 so accept it from me. You ˹alone˺ are truly the All-Hearing, All-Knowing.”
So her Lord accepted her graciously and blessed her with a pleasant upbringing — entrusting her to the care of Zachariah. Whenever Zachariah visited her in the sanctuary, he found her supplied with provisions. He exclaimed, “O Mary! Where did this come from?” She replied, “It is from Allah. Surely Allah provides for whoever He wills without limit.”
(3:35,37)
In another place, Mary is called the sister of Aaron,
“O sister of Aaron! Your father was not an indecent man, nor was your mother unchaste.”
(Surah 19:28)
And in another place, she is called the daughter of Imran,
“˹There is˺ also ˹the example of˺ Mary, the daughter of ’Imrân, who guarded her chastity, so We breathed into her ˹womb˺ through Our angel ˹Gabriel˺”
(Surah 66:12)
Putting all of this together, Mary is the daughter of Imran who happens to be the father of Aaron and Moses (Imran is supposedly Amram who is the father of Moses and Aaron in the Bible). In another place she is called the sister of Aaron. In Surah 3:35,37 cited above as well as its subsequent context in the Quran, the story of Mary the mother of Jesus is plagiarized from the protoevangelium of James, an apocryphal gospel.
The apocryphal gospel talks about people casting lots using a rod for who would be the husband to the virgin Mary and how Mary was supernaturally fed in the temple. However even according to that gospel, the name of Mary’s father is Jehoiakim not Imran.
It would appear the author here has very clearly mixed up Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary the sister of Moses. Remember Mary is an anglicized version of “Miriam”, which is the Hebrew name of Moses’ sister. So from the perspective of the Quran’s author, he would have heard Christians talking about “Miriam” mother of Jesus and Jews talking about “Miriam” sister of Moses and Aaron, it is a mistake easily made to then conflate the two.
There have been several interesting attempts by Islamic scholarship to duck tape this blatant error. Some have said “Sister of Aaron” is a title for righteous women. Problem is there is no other place in history we have heard any Jew call a righteous woman a “sister of Aaron” and there were a number of righteous women in the Old Testament that could have been called that. Deborah was not called that, Abigail wife of Nabal was not called that, the prophetess Hannah was not called that, Huldah the prophetess was not called that, the virtuous woman of Proverbs 31 was not called that. So what is the authority for this assertion?
Some have also said, the term just means she is a descendant of Aaron. However, it calls her “SISTER” of not “DAUGHTER” of Aaron. This denotes a sibling relationship and siblings are not descendants of each other. Even if we were to grant this interpretation, Mary was a descendant of David from the tribe of Judah not from Levi, which was the tribe of Aaron.
Again, our Muslim friends have also said it was common practice to call people by the name of their great prophets. If this is the case, why was she not called the sister of Moses? Moses is mentioned more than any other person in the Quran, way more than any other prophet. Why was she called by Aaron rather than Moses? Is Moses not much greater than Aaron?
The most obvious and straightforward explanation is that the author is ignorant of Biblical text and could not differentiate between both Miriams or Marys.
D. Moses, Pharaoh and Haman
The Quran states,
“Indeed, We sent Moses with Our signs and compelling proof
to Pharaoh, Hamân, and Korah. But they responded: “Magician! Total liar!”
(Surah 40:23–24)
And again,
“Pharaoh declared, “O chiefs! I know of no other god for you but myself. So bake bricks out of clay for me, O Hamân, and build a high tower so I may look at the God of Moses, although I am sure he is a liar.”
(Surah 28:38)
Multiple layers of ignorance here. To being with, the Quran makes Moses a contemporary of Haman.
Haman comes thousands of years later as an adversary to the Jews in the book of Esther. The Quran however, time travels and pulls Haman into the timeline of Moses.
As if that is enough, the Pharaoh is made a contemporary of Haman. So contemporary in fact that Haman becomes his architect. Again, both could not possibly have met. Pharaoh would have been long dead before Haman came into the picture. For context Haman comes after Moses, Joshua, all the judges, Samson, Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon, Josiah, Nebuchadnezzar and even Daniel!
To then further illustrate the Biblical illiteracy going on here, Haman is ordered to build a tower for Pharoah to see Moses’ God. Now in this instance, all of Pharaoh, Moses and Haman are transported back in time and inserted into the story of the tower of babel which was before Abraham!
E. Moses and a Samaritan
The final one that would be mentioned here is a Samaritan being around in the time of Moses,
“Allah responded, “We have indeed tested your people in your absence, and the Sâmiri has led them astray.”
So Moses returned to his people, furious and sorrowful. He said, “O my people! Had your Lord not made you a good promise? Has my absence been too long for you? Or have you wished for wrath from your Lord to befall you, so you broke your promise to me?”
They argued, “We did not break our promise to you of our own free will, but we were made to carry the burden of the people’s ˹golden˺ jewellery, then we threw it ˹into the fire˺, and so did the Sâmiri.”
(Surah 20:85–87)
Samiri here refers to a Samaritan.
The Samaritans however did not come into existence until after Israel was split into two and the Northern half went into exile. This was literally thousands of years after Moses.
Somehow, a Samaritan was around when Israel was still in the wilderness and helped to lead the people into idolatry.
Other honourable mentions include:
- The Quran having no idea what the Trinity is (see my article “Oh you who believe when a Muslim mocks the trinity, say…)
- The Quran citing the Talmud as divine revelation in Surah 5:32
- The Quran saying Jews believe Ezra is the son of God (Surah 9:30)
- Allah helping Christianity spread (Surah 3:55) when Christian belief is an unforgivable sin in Islam
- The Quran affirming the gospel and the Torah
- The Quran saying an unlettered prophet to come after is written down in the gospel (Surah 7:157)
- “Ahmed” being prophesied in the former scriptures (Surah 61:6)
Now, the argument could be that well, maybe the Bible is just wrong on these things and the Quran is correcting it. Well, two problems with that,
First, Muhammad is very far from the facts he purports to testify about. The Bible has a, to borrow an Islamic concept, “chain of narration” within itself where the books affirm each other and build on each other taking it for granted that the other books are indeed true historical records then we have the New Testament which affirms the Old Testament books and takes it for granted that those are not only true historical accounts but divinely inspired scriptures then one guy comes thousands and thousands of years after the Old Testament and hundreds of years after the gospels and wants to tell us how things really happened? So we have scores of witnesses against this one guy Muhammad and yet our Muslim friends think we are weird for not trusting the late and sole witness of Muhammad over earlier sources and what is well established history from a Judeo-Christian perspective?
Secondly, the Quran affirms the Inspiration, preservation and authority of the Judeo-Christian scriptures. In fact Allah tells Muhammad,
“If you ˹O Prophet˺ are in doubt about ˹these stories˺ that We have revealed to you, then ask those who read the Scripture before you…”
(Surah 10:94)
So the Quran sets up the Bible as the standard by which to judge it so if it contradicts the Bible, the logical inference is not that it is correcting the Bible but rather that it is not an authentic revelation. The lack of specificity, the assumption that the audience is already familiar with these stories as well as the mixing and matching of unrelated stories that we have examined further attests to this. The Quran is not the word of God, it is the rambling of a guy who had heard multiple stories without really understanding them. The use of “One of their prophets”, “Some amount of silver”, “One of them” shows the limitation in memory of whoever wrote the Quran. Hence his original hearers constantly accused him of telling fables and stories told by the ancients.
In conclusion, the Quran already uses the Bible as a backdrop. The reader of the Quran needs to go to the Bible to know Samuel is the prophet who announced Saul as king, to know Joseph was sold for 20 pieces of silver and that it was Judah who suggested throwing Joseph in the well and that David was anointed king because Saul disobeyed God. However, it is not just answers to questions like this the Bible holds, it also holds the answer to key questions like, “Who is Jesus Christ?” and “What must I do to be saved?”
I urge our Muslim friends to go to the original stories in the Bible and abandon the fanfiction the Quran offers.
