IN PROGRESS AND CORRECTION 2008-9
Stephen Lambden (Ohio
University).
Polemical refutations of pre‑Islamic
religions, their scriptures and their religious doctrines
Abū
Muhammad al‑Qāsim b. Ibrāhīm al‑Ḥasanī (d.246/860)
The Zaydite Imam and theologian Abū
Muhammad al‑Qāsim b. Ibrāhīm al‑Ḥasanī (d.246/860) authored in Egypt
around 210/825 a Radd `alā al‑Na®ārā (Refutations of the Christains)
that has been said to be the "first survivng anti‑Christian polemic"
(Thomas, 1992:33). Issues surrounding God’s transcendent uniqueness, Jesus’
humanity are the falsity of the Trinity are paramount. The Sonship of Jesus
is rejected in the light of qur’ānic texts. .
Abū
`Isā b. Warrāq (d. )
The Shī`īte inclined
scholar Abū
`Isā b. Warrāq (d. ) wrote multiple sometimes lengthy words aganist
Jews, Zoroastrians and Chrstian (Ibn Nadīm, Fihrist, 216). Among
them an extant, sustained extant attack on the Trinity entitled Kitāb
al‑radd `alā al‑thalāth firaq min al‑Naṣārā (The Book Against the
Trinity ) (tr. Thomas, 1992). A refutation of
Abū
`Isā‘s anti‑trinitarian
work was written by the Jacobite Christian philosopher Yaḥyā’
b.`Adī (d. 363/974), one of the students of al‑Farābī.
Abū Yūsuf Ya`qūb b. Isḥāq
al‑Kindī (d. c. 250/864)
The contemporary of Ibn Warrāq, the early Arab philosopher Abū Yūsuf Ya`qūb b. Isḥāq
al‑Kindī (d.c. 250/864) also wrote a refutation of the Trinity which has
survived.
`Alī ibn Rabbān al‑Ṭabarī (d. 241‑2/855),
`Alī ibn Rabbān al‑ÿabarī (d. 241‑2/855), a Christian convert to Islam,
wrote a Radd `alā al‑Na®ārā (Refutations of the Christains,
c.227/842 ) in order to explain his becoming a Muslim. He saw Christian
teachings as inconsistent and inadequate, especially in the light of how the
Jesus of the Gospels differs from the Christ of Christian trinitarianism and
the creeds (Khalifa and Keutsch 1959; Thomas 1992:32). In his Kitáb al‑dín
wa'l‑dawla (`Book of Religion and Empire’ c. 241/855) he discusses
biblical prophecies of Christ about Muhammad. A version of John 14:26 is
cited and applied to the Founder of Islam. The "all things" to be taught by
the Paraclete (14:26b) is the revelation of the Qur'án. As the Paraclete,
Muhammad, unlike the disciples or other Christians, taught new truths to
mankind. On the light of John14:26 applied to Muhammad the Paraclete al‑ÿabarī
found a gematric correspondence between the word abjad value (= 430) of the
word Fāraqlī and the phrases, "Muhammad, son of `Abd Allāh, the
Prophet who guideth aright" and "Muhammad, the Beloved, Goodly, Messenger"
is reckoned a unique proof.
5
The polymathic
fountainhead of adab associated works al‑Jāḥiz
(d. 255/869) also wrote a al‑Radd `alā al‑Nasārā (Refutations of the
Christians). Therein he speaks disparargingly of the four Evangelists and
the reliability of the Gospels:
They [the
Christians] have received their religion from four persons: In their opinion
two of them, namely John and Matthew, were immediate disciples
[min al-ḥawāriyyīn]
[whereas the other] two Mark and Luke were converts [min al-mustajībīn].
With regard to these four there is no certainty that they did not make
mistakes or forget, or lie of set purpose or make an agreement and a pact
among themselves with regard to [certain] matters and a pact with regard to
the sharing out of leading positions [al-ri'āsa] and the handing-over by
each of them to his associate of the part which was stipulated... (tr.
Pines, 1967:180 fn. 10).
Muhammad
ibn. al‑Tayyib al‑Bāqillānī (d.403/1023)
The Ash`arite theologian Muhammad b. al‑Tayyib al‑Bāqillānī (d.403/1023)
wrote separate refutations of Jews, Christian, Zoroastruians (Dualists and
Magians), Brahmins, Astrologers and Corporalists (mujassimah). In
his Tamh īd fī’l‑radd li’l‑mulḥida..
(Guide to
the Confuting the various Heretics and Unbelievers) he devoted considerable
space to Islamic theological issues surrounding the Calipahte as well as to
the major Abrahamic religions and their alleged limitations. In this work,
as Baron put it he "calmly but decisively attacked the doctrines of
Zoroastrains, Brahmins, Christians, Jews and even astrologers" (Baron, SRHJ
5:84).
`Abd
al‑Jabbār (d. 41?/
1035)
The
aforementioned theologian `Abd al‑Jabbār (d. 41?/ 1035) in addition to his
work establishing the prophethood of Muhammad (<‑‑) also wrote a Radd al‑Na®rānī
in refutation of Christianity. He again dealt with this and related aspects
of the Abrahamic religions in his laregly extant twently part "comprehensive
exposition of Mu`tazilite kalām", al‑Mujhnī fī
abwāb al‑tawḥīd
wa’l‑`adl
(The of
the gates of the Divine Unity and Justice) (Madelung, EIr 1:116f).
`Alī ibn Aḥmad
Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456 /1064).
See :http://www.hurqalya.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/BIBLIOGRAPHY-HYP/014-DIALOGUE%20AND%20DISPUTATION/0-IBN%20HAZM.htm
The prolific Andalucian
Muslim theologian and jurist, the ultimately Ẓāhirī literalist writer `Alī ibn
Aḥmad
Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456 /1064) authored the weighty Fiṣāl fī’l‑milāl.. (Differentiation
of the [Religious] Communities) which has been descibed as an "encyclopedia
of religious knowledge, concerning the diffferent religions which had, or
formerly had, any connection with Islam" (Arnaldez, EI2 III:795).
Most attention is paid in this work of Ibn Hazm, however, to an analysis of
the Torah and other Jewish texts with a view to highlighting their "errors"
and "distortions" as well as to similar limitations allegedly present in
the to him obviously not divinely revealed NT (Pulcini, 1998:10‑11).
Several of Ibn Hazm’s other works are also polemical refutations of
pre‑Islamic religions; including his Radd `alā al‑. Ibn Naghrila a Jew
of Granada Also
I¥ḥār
tabdīl al‑yahūd wa’l‑nasārā
(Exposition on the Alternation [of the Torah and Gospel] by the Jews and
the Christians) According to Pulcini, Ibn Hazm’s numerous Arabic biblical
quotations which sometimes differ significantly from the Masoretic text and
the Greek LXX are derived from a complete Christian produced Arabic Bible
fundamentally based upon a Latin Vorlage (source document) (Pulcini,
185). The critical writings of Ibn Hazm had and continue to have a very
negative effect upon the Islamic assesment of Judaeo Christian scripture and
tradition.
[Pseudo‑] Ghazālī, `Abd
al-Hamid (
).
Possibly Pseudo‑Ghazālī
(? So Lazarus‑Yafeh, 187?) is the polemical al‑Radd al‑jamīl li‑ilāhiyyat
`Īsā' bi‑®arih al‑Injīl ("The Beautiful Refutations of the Divinty of
Jesus as clearly upheld in the Gospel"), ed Chidiac, 1939.
Chidiac, P.R. (ed.)
Wilms, Franz-Elmer.
Ibn Taymiyya, Ahmad ibn `Abd al-Ḥalim
ibn `Abd al-Salam (671-728 AH = 1263-1328
CE)
-
Kitāb Iqtiḍā'
aṣ-ṣirāt al-mustaqīm mukhālafat aṣḥāb al-jaḥīm.
ed. `Asam al-Din Sayyid al-Ṣaba'iti. Cairo: Dar al-HXXXX. 1412/1992 (ADDpp.).
-
Ibn Taimaya's Struggle Against
Popular Religion With an Annotated Translation of His Kitāb Iqtiḍā'
aṣ-ṣirāt al-mustaqīm mukhālafat aṣḥāb al-jaḥīm by Muhammed U. Memon.
Mouton, The Hague-Paris: De Gruyter, 1976. ISBN = 9027975914
-
al-Jawab al-Ṣaḥīḥ li man baddala
dīn al-masīḥ. 4 vols in 2 . Cairo: 1322/1905. A polemical response to
anti-Islamic Christian polemic containing denunciations of Jewish and
Christian heresy.
-
-
al-Jawāb al-ṣaḥīḥ li-man
baddala dīn al-Masīḥ / li-Shaykh al-Islām Aḥmad ibn Taymīyah; taḥqīq
Majdī Qāsim. 4 vols. Jiddah : Tawzī` Maktabat al-Balad al-Amīn,
1414/1993.
-
-
-
A Muslim Theologian's Response to
Christianity, Ibn Taymiyya's al-Jawab al-Sahih, edited and translated by
Thomas F. Mitchel., S.J. Delmar, New York: Caravan Books, 1984.
(465pp.).
*
Morabia, Alfred.
al‑Qarāfī (d. ADD /1285)
A refutation of Christianity entitled al‑Ajwiba al‑fakhira `an al‑as`ila
al‑fājira which also contains many extracts from the Jewish debates.
Ibn Qayyim al‑Jawziyya, Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr (691-751
AH = d. 751/1350 CE)
Ibn Qayyim al‑Jawziyya (d. 751/1350) also wrote a refutation of Jews and
Christians entitled Hidāyat al‑ḥayāra
fī awjibat al‑yahūd wa’l‑nasārā
(Guidance
for the Perplexed, namely issues associated with the Jews and the
Christians) which apparently borrows freely from Ibn Taymiyya and
incorporates material about Jewish legend from Samau`al al‑Maghribī
(d.c.570/1175) the "convert" who expressed Muslim polemic against the Jews
in his Ifḥām
al‑Yahūd.
(`Silencing of the Jews’). Here Ibn Qayyim attempts to prove from the long cited
prophetic Hebrew phrase bi‑me‑od me‑od ("exceedingly"= abjad 92 =
abjad Muhammad) in Gen. 17:20 means more than (Ar.) jiddan
jiddan ("very much") as the Jews contended. Rather, he argues that by
virtue of the preposition ADD (bi‑), the sense of
making great through Muhammad is meant (see Perlmann, 1940:111).
-
Hidāyat al‑ḥayāra
fī awjibat al‑yahūd wa al‑nasārā
(Guidance for the Perplexed, namely issues associated with the Jews
and the Christians)
-
Hidayat al-hayarah fi ajwibat al-Yahud
wa al-Nasarah. Dr. Ahmad Hijazi al-Saqqā, Cairo : al-Maktabat al-Qayimah,
1398+9/ 1977-8 (365pp.).
-
Hidāyat al-hayārah min al-Yahud
wa-al-Nasārah, ed. Muhammad ‘Ali Abu al-‘Abbās Cairo :
Maktabat al-Qur'ān. 1408/1989 (239pp.).
-
Hidāyat al-hayārá fī ajwibat
al-Yahūd wa'l-Naṣārá. ed. Muhammad Ahmad al-Hajj . Damascus : Dar al-Qalam
+ Beirut : al-Dar al-Shaamiyya, 1996.
-
Hidayat al-ḥayarā fī
ajwibat al-Yahud wa-al-Naṣarā. Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyah.
Beirut : Dar al-Kutub al-`Ilmiyya, 1994.
In his Izhar al-ḥaqq al-Kairanawi
cited this work when he wrote: [Check this]:
"The author of Hidayat al-hayara fi
ajwibat al-yahud wa'l-naṣara (Hidayatiïl-Hayara fi ajwibatu'l-Yahud
wa'l-Nasara) said quite explicitly:
The present Torah (Pentateuch) owned
by the Jews is much distorted and defective, a fact known to every biblical
reader. The Biblical scholars, themselves, are certain and sure of the fact
that the original Torah which was revealed to Moses was genuine and totally
free from the present distortions and corruptions. There was no corruption
present in the Evangel which was originally revealed to Christ and which
could not have included the event of the crucifixion of Christ, or other
events like his resurrection three days after his death. These are, in fact,
additions inserted by their elders and have nothing whatever to do with
divine Truth."
He further said: 227 [228]
Several Islamic scholars have
laboriously pointed out hundreds of specific examples and passages showing
contradictions, incompatibilities and differences in the so-called Canonical
Gospels. It is only to avoid an unnecessary elongated discussion that we
refrain from presenting more examples.
The first two parts of this book
should be more than enough to prove the truth of this claim.
`Uthman ibn Ibrāhīm al‑Nābulusī (d.
/ )
`Uthman ibn Ibrāhīm al‑Nābulusī (d.
/ ) wrote his Drawing the Sword of Ambition to Humiliate the
Communities Proctected (Dhimma) in 638/1240 in `Ayyūbid Egypt. He
gives most space
to an attack upon the Coptic Christians of Egypt. (Sadan in Sharon ed.
1986:367f).
5 See
Tabarí (Tabary), 141. I cannot, by the usual abjad reckoning, make
these phrases numerologically equivalent to Fāraqlīt (= 430) ‑‑
though they come very close (433 and 431 respectively). Montgomery
Watt has it that Tabari (despite 1 John 2:1) specialized the title
Paraclete to Muhammad: "the Messiah [Jesus] was never called Fáraqlít,
but Muammad was called by this name." (cited Montgomery Watt,
1990:47).
