Apostle of Doom

Journal

The Islamic dilemma and the letters of Paul

The Islamic dilemma says the Qurʾān confirms a Gospel that either refutes it or was corrupted. The Injīl it confirms was given to ʿĪsā ibn Maryam; the book the argument puts in its place is a canon in which Paul has the largest share.

The Islamic dilemma is a short argument with a long reach. Christian apologists such as James White and David Wood have pressed it in debates and videos for years: the Qurʾān says it confirms the Torah and the Gospel, so either those books survive and refute the Qurʾān, or they were corrupted and the Qurʾān praised corrupted books. This page answers the Islamic dilemma from the one place it never looks, the role of Paul. The Gospel the Qurʾān names was given to ʿĪsā ibn Maryam. The book the Islamic dilemma puts in its place is a canon in which Paul has the largest share.

What the Islamic dilemma claims #

Stated fairly, the Islamic dilemma runs in three steps. The Qurʾān speaks well of the Tawrāh and the Injīl and tells the Christians of the Prophet’s day ﷺ to judge by what God revealed in the Injīl. The Bible those Christians held is, in substance, the Bible held today. That Bible teaches the cross, the divinity of ʿĪsā and salvation through his blood, which the Qurʾān denies. If the books are sound, the Islamic dilemma says, the Qurʾān contradicts its own witnesses; if they are unsound, it vouched for books it should have rejected.

Its defenders present the Islamic dilemma as a trap with no third door. Muslim scholars answer it by asking what the Qurʾān means by “Injīl”, by reading the word muhaymin in al-Māʾidah 5:48, by separating a change of meaning from a change of wording, and by asking what the People of the Gospel were told to judge by. Each of these answers is summarised below, and The Injil’s full treatment of the Islamic dilemma works through them step by step. This site adds one question the Islamic dilemma passes over: whose words fill the book it calls the Gospel?

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The Islamic dilemma and the Injīl of the Qurʾān #

The Qurʾān describes the Injīl as a book God sent down, beside the Torah.

نَزَّلَ عَلَيۡكَ ٱلۡكِتَـٰبَ بِٱلۡحَقِّ مُصَدِّقًا لِّمَا بَيۡنَ يَدَيۡهِ وَأَنزَلَ ٱلتَّوۡرَىٰةَ وَٱلۡإِنجِيلَ

“He has sent down upon you, [O Muḥammad], the Book in truth, confirming what was before it. And He revealed the Torah and the Gospel.”1

It also says to whom it was given, which is the detail the Islamic dilemma leaves out.

وَقَفَّيۡنَا عَلَىٰٓ ءَاثَـٰرِهِم بِعِيسَى ٱبۡنِ مَرۡيَمَ مُصَدِّقًا لِّمَا بَيۡنَ يَدَيۡهِ مِنَ ٱلتَّوۡرَىٰةِ ۖ وَءَاتَيۡنَـٰهُ ٱلۡإِنجِيلَ فِيهِ هُدًى وَنُورٌ

“And We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming that which came before him in the Torah; and We gave him the Gospel, in which was guidance and light.”2

The Injīl, then, is a revelation given to ʿĪsā ibn Maryam, as the Torah was given to Mūsā. Even Mark remembers that he came “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God” and saying “repent ye, and believe the gospel”, long before any book about him was written.3 The Islamic dilemma quietly replaces that preached gospel with a library of twenty-seven books: four accounts of ʿĪsā written by others in Greek, decades later; Luke’s history of the early church; and thirteen letters in Paul’s name. No church ever claimed these books were sent down to ʿĪsā. Ibn Ḥazm said so in the eleventh century: Christians «لَا يدعونَ أَن الأناجيل منزلَة من عِنْد الله على الْمَسِيح», “do not claim that the gospels were sent down from God upon al-Masīḥ”; they call them four histories written by four known men.4 On this point the Islamic dilemma rests on a premise Christians themselves do not hold.

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Paul’s gospel and the Islamic dilemma #

When this site speaks of Paul himself, it relies on the seven letters scholars accept as his: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and Philemon. They are the oldest writings in the New Testament, older than any gospel, and the Islamic dilemma cannot set them aside. In them Paul says where his gospel came from, and it was not from the disciples of ʿĪsā.

11Γνωρίζω γὰρ ὑμῖν, ἀδελφοί, τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τὸ εὐαγγελισθὲν ὑπʼ ἐμοῦ ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν κατὰ ἄνθρωπον· 12οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐγὼ παρὰ ἀνθρώπου παρέλαβον αὐτό, οὔτε ἐδιδάχθην, ἀλλὰ διʼ ἀποκαλύψεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ.

11But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. 12For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.5

He calls it “my gospel”, by which “God shall judge the secrets of men”.6 He warns the Galatians against “another gospel” preached by rivals.7 So the Islamic dilemma has a problem inside the New Testament itself: Paul sets his own gospel, received by private revelation, against the gospel of others. The account is set out in Was Paul an apostle? A self-appointed one and The Jerusalem Council. A Muslim who answers the Islamic dilemma by saying that the Injīl of ʿĪsā is not the gospel of Paul only repeats the line Paul drew himself.

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How the Islamic dilemma assumes the canon #

The second horn of the Islamic dilemma, that the Qurʾān endorsed “the Bible”, treats the New Testament as one book, and here the Islamic dilemma begins to fail. The church gathered its books over three centuries, and Paul’s letters were among the first read as scripture: a letter written in Peter’s name already sets “all his epistles” beside “the other scriptures”.8

The doctrines the Islamic dilemma sets against the Qurʾān are, above all, Paul’s. Salvation by the blood of the cross, the end of the Law as the way of righteousness and a Lord known by revelation are argued in Romans and Galatians, which Paul wrote. The church built on all thirteen letters, and on Hebrews too, a letter long added to his that this site never counts as Paul’s. Ibn Ḥazm saw where the chain led: all that Christians transmit goes back to «بولس ومارقش ولوقا», “Paul, Mark and Luke”.9 The Islamic dilemma therefore asks the Qurʾān to answer for Paul, whom it never names and never confirms.

Seen this way, the Islamic dilemma asks you to accept a canon first and argue second. The longer case is in The Injīl and the letters and The Qurʾān as witness.

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Muhaymin: the Qurʾān as judge over the Islamic dilemma #

The verse most often cited for the Islamic dilemma is also the verse that answers it.

وَأَنزَلۡنَآ إِلَيۡكَ ٱلۡكِتَـٰبَ بِٱلۡحَقِّ مُصَدِّقًا لِّمَا بَيۡنَ يَدَيۡهِ مِنَ ٱلۡكِتَـٰبِ وَمُهَيۡمِنًا عَلَيۡهِ

“And We have revealed to you, [O Muḥammad], the Book in truth, confirming that which preceded it of the Scripture and as a criterion over it.”10

For the Islamic dilemma the key word is muhaymin. Al-Ṭabarī explains it as a witness and trustee: the Qurʾān came «مصدّقًا للكتب قبله، وشهيدًا عليها أنها حق من عند الله، أمينًا عليها، حافظا لها», “confirming the books before it, a witness over them that they are truth from God, a trustee over them and a guardian of them”.11 Ibn Kathīr gathers the early readings and concludes that the Qurʾān is «أمين وشاهد وحاكم على كل كتاب قبله», “a trustee, a witness and a judge over every book before it”.12

A judge does not confirm everything set before it, and the Islamic dilemma forgets this. What agrees with the Qurʾān is confirmed; what departs from it is judged. The Islamic dilemma misreads “confirm” as a seal on every page of a Christian codex. Al-Ṭabarī records from Ibn Jurayj that when the People of the Book report something from their book, it is believed if it is in the Qurʾān and rejected if it is not.13 Lailatulqadar explains what confirming and muhaymin mean for the Night on which the Qurʾān came down, and Best of Islam gives the plain Muslim answer for readers new to the debate.

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Taḥrīf: meaning, wording and the Islamic dilemma #

The Qurʾān says some “distort words from their [proper] places”, and that others “write the ‘scripture’ with their own hands, then say, ‘This is from Allāh.’”14 In reply to the Islamic dilemma, scholars distinguish taḥrīf al-maʿnā, twisting the meaning, from taḥrīf al-lafẓ, altering the text. Ibn Kathīr gives both. He reports from Ibn ʿAbbās, via al-Bukhārī, that they «يتأولونه على غير تأويله», “interpret it otherwise than its true interpretation”. Then, on Wahb ibn Munabbih’s claim that the Torah and Gospel were not changed, he says that the books in their hands have without doubt suffered “alteration, distortion, addition and loss”, while the books of God as God gave them are preserved.15

That distinction removes the second horn of the Islamic dilemma. Against the Islamic dilemma, the Qurʾān confirms the revelation given to the prophets. Later writings bound into the same volume stand under its judgment, and Paul’s letters are the clearest case: Paul claimed a gospel of his own.

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The People of the Gospel and the Islamic dilemma #

وَلۡيَحۡكُمۡ أَهۡلُ ٱلۡإِنجِيلِ بِمَآ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُ فِيهِ

“And let the People of the Gospel judge by what Allāh has revealed therein.”16

Al-Ṭabarī reads this as God’s order to the People of the Injīl «أن يحكموا بما أنزل الله فيه من أحكامه», “to judge by the rulings God sent down in it”.17 The measure is what God revealed, wherever it survives in their hands. Al-Māʾidah 5:68 says the same: they stand “on nothing” until they uphold “the Torah, the Gospel, and what has been revealed to you from your Lord”.18 To uphold what ʿĪsā brought, which the Islamic dilemma never asks about, is to keep the Law he kept and worship the one God he worshipped. Paul’s letters set those aside, so the verse the Islamic dilemma quotes cuts against Paul.

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“Ask those who read the Scripture” #

فَإِن كُنتَ فِى شَكٍّ مِّمَّآ أَنزَلۡنَآ إِلَيۡكَ فَسۡـَٔلِ ٱلَّذِينَ يَقۡرَءُونَ ٱلۡكِتَـٰبَ مِن قَبۡلِكَ

“So if you are in doubt, [O Muḥammad], about that which We have revealed to you, then ask those who have been reading the Scripture before you.”19

Those who press the Islamic dilemma often read this as sending the Prophet ﷺ to the Bible for proof. Al-Ṭabarī names the people meant: readers of the Torah and the Injīl “such as ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām”, truthful men who believed. From Saʿīd ibn Jubayr and al-Ḥasan he reports: «لم يشك النبي ﷺ ولم يسأل», “the Prophet did not doubt and did not ask”.20 The verse points to believing witnesses and gives the Islamic dilemma nothing to stand on.

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Why the Islamic dilemma fails on Paul’s account #

Put together, the answers close each door of the Islamic dilemma. The Injīl the Qurʾān confirms is the revelation given to ʿĪsā ibn Maryam, and the New Testament came later. The Qurʾān is muhaymin: it confirms what agrees with it and judges what does not. The People of the Gospel were told to judge by what God revealed. And the doctrines the Islamic dilemma sets against the Qurʾān come mainly from Paul, who said he received his gospel from no man.

The Islamic dilemma is strongest when its hearers forget who wrote most of the New Testament. Place Paul where he stands, a later voice with a gospel of his own, and the Qurʾān’s confirmation of the Injīl and its rejection of Paul’s doctrine sit together without contradiction. The Islamic dilemma, answered on Paul’s ground, becomes a question about Paul. That case is made in full in The Verdict.

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  1. Sūrah Āl ʿImrān 3:3. Qurʾānic verses are rendered after Saheeh International. ↩
  2. Sūrah al-Māʾidah 5:46. ↩
  3. Mark 1:14–15 (KJV). ↩
  4. Ibn Ḥazm, al-Fiṣal fī al-Milal wa al-Ahwāʾ wa al-Niḥal (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī), vol. 2, p. 2, https://shamela.ws/book/6521/159. ↩
  5. Galatians 1:11–12 (KJV; Greek from the SBLGNT). ↩
  6. Romans 2:16 (KJV). ↩
  7. Galatians 1:6 (KJV). On the seven letters and the rest, see Two Pauls. ↩
  8. 2 Peter 3:16 (KJV). ↩
  9. Ibn Ḥazm, al-Fiṣal fī al-Milal wa al-Ahwāʾ wa al-Niḥal (Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī), vol. 2, p. 4, https://shamela.ws/book/6521/161. ↩
  10. Sūrah al-Māʾidah 5:48. ↩
  11. al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān ʿan Taʾwīl Āy al-Qurʾān, ed. Maḥmūd Muḥammad Shākir (Dār al-Tarbiyah wa al-Turāth), vol. 10, p. 377, on 5:48, https://shamela.ws/book/43/5643. ↩
  12. Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, ed. Sāmī al-Salāmah (Dār Ṭaybah, 2nd ed., 1999), vol. 3, p. 128, on 5:48, https://shamela.ws/book/8473/1393. ↩
  13. al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān ʿan Taʾwīl Āy al-Qurʾān, ed. Maḥmūd Muḥammad Shākir (Dār al-Tarbiyah wa al-Turāth), vol. 10, p. 378, no. 12106, https://shamela.ws/book/43/5644. ↩
  14. Sūrah al-Nisāʾ 4:46; Sūrah al-Baqarah 2:79. ↩
  15. Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, ed. Sāmī al-Salāmah (Dār Ṭaybah, 2nd ed., 1999), vol. 2, p. 65, on 3:78, https://shamela.ws/book/8473/848. ↩
  16. Sūrah al-Māʾidah 5:47. ↩
  17. al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān ʿan Taʾwīl Āy al-Qurʾān, ed. Maḥmūd Muḥammad Shākir (Dār al-Tarbiyah wa al-Turāth), vol. 10, p. 374, on 5:47, https://shamela.ws/book/43/5640. ↩
  18. Sūrah al-Māʾidah 5:68. ↩
  19. Sūrah Yūnus 10:94. ↩
  20. al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān ʿan Taʾwīl Āy al-Qurʾān, ed. Maḥmūd Muḥammad Shākir (Dār al-Tarbiyah wa al-Turāth), vol. 15, pp. 201–202, on 10:94, https://shamela.ws/book/43/8358 and https://shamela.ws/book/43/8359. ↩