Muslim Apologetics

Transcript Muslim Apologetics

Kevin Harris: Dr. Craig, from time to time we get some questions at ReasonableFaith.org on world religions – Muslims, the Hindu faith, and so on. We have some questions on Islam here that we thought you could address. Basically, this listener writes that he is engaged with a Muslim and the Muslim is using his own apologetics against him. He is having a difficult time answering them. This brings up a question here, and the question is along the lines of “everybody has their own apologetics.” Everybody is an apologist for something in a sense. While it is mostly related to the Christian faith historically, perhaps our Muslim friends have kind of taken a cue from us in defending their faith as well.

Dr. Craig: I think that is true. On the contemporary scene, Muslim apologists have definitely been influenced by Christian thinkers. I know this is the case because I’ve talked to them. Shabir Ally, a Canadian Muslim apologist who is the head of the Dawah Centre which is an apologetics ministry for Islam out of Toronto, has said, “I have listened to all of your tapes. I use your kalam cosmological argument all the time in my debates with atheists.” So these folks have definitely taken a cue from what Christian thinkers are doing.

Kevin Harris: Absolutely. In fact, I’ve heard some atheist debaters actually use your very language and your techniques in their debates with theists.

Dr. Craig: Goodness, that is really unfortunate. [laughter]

Kevin Harris: Not in any significant sense. Just in saying things like “I’m presenting a cumulative case” and some things like that. But methodology aside, we are still going to try to get to the content. It is still going to be “is what you are defending true?” and “are there persuasive reasons for it?” First off, this Muslim asks, “How can you believe in a God that would incarnate and have a Son when God is just strictly one?” He is monotheistic. It seems to be that the tact here is to reduce the Christian’s view to an absurdity by saying, “How can you believe such an absurdity as the eternal God being able to incarnate?”

Dr. Craig: I think that the Muslim regards this as blasphemous. This is the central sin according to Islam – to associate anything with God. God, on Islamic theology, is without a peer. Therefore, to say that God could have a Son is blasphemous because it associates something else with God. Unfortunately, I think that Islam has largely misunderstood the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. According to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, it is not as though we are associating some thing that is not God with God as his equal. Rather, the claim is that God himself is tri-personal. Instead of one center of self-consciousness and will, in God there are three centers of self-consciousness and will. So God is three persons. He is tri-personal. The incarnation is that one of those persons assumed (or took on) a human nature in additional to his divine nature. Now, in so doing, he did not subtract any of the properties of the divine nature. He didn’t give up omnipotence, or necessity, or eternality, or moral perfection. [1]  But he took on, in addition to those divine properties that he has, a set of human properties, typically associated with a human body. So the second person of the Trinity, whom we call Jesus, had two natures in the incarnation. He had a divine nature which is fully God, and then he had a human nature which is fully human. The doctrine of the incarnation is therefore not that God somehow turned himself into a human being. That would indeed be absurd. But it is simply that God, the second person of the Trinity, in addition to the divine nature he has eternally had, took on a human nature in addition to that. And I see nothing logically incoherent or blasphemous about that. In fact, if God is omnipotent, as Islam affirms, then why couldn’t God do this?

Kevin Harris: The second line of argument that the writer’s Muslim friend says is that one of the evidences for the authenticity of the Qur’an is that Muhammad was illiterate and therefore could not have written a work like the noble Qur’an.

Dr. Craig: We don’t really know that Muhammad was, in fact, illiterate. As a merchant, he probably had to do transactions, he probably had to engage in record keeping, and so forth. In any case, we don’t really know that the Qur’an was written exclusively by Muhammad. The earliest biography of Muhammad comes about a century and a half after his death. A good many scholars think that the Qur’an is, in fact, a compilation of both early and late traditions that postdate Muhammad’s death. So we have no real grounds for knowing either that he was illiterate or that, in fact, he did write the Qur’an as it stands today. So this is just a typical kind of Islamic or Muslim line that Muslims are taught. This is the standard apologetic – that the Qur’an itself is unparalleled in its beauty and elegance, and no human being could reproduce it, and no illiterate man could have written it. But, in fact, there really isn’t any basis for thinking that he was illiterate or that he did write it all.

Kevin Harris: I think calling something beautiful and flowing and well written is not a good apologetic defense in that so many works are that are not obviously divine or considered to be inspired. Yet they are beautiful and they have prose.

Dr. Craig: Yeah, I don’t think this is really a good argument at all but it has just been ingrained into Muslims. They have been taught this. They have been told this. Even Muslims who can’t read Arabic because they are not from Arab countries and can’t even read the Qur’an have been told this. In fact, I remember reading a comment by Gerd Puin who is an Islamist, German scholar. He says that fully 20% of the Qur’an is simply unintelligible. That the reason it cannot be translated is because we don’t even know what it means. This is in ancient Arabic from the 7^th century. It is often difficult to know what the text originally said because it does get corrupted as its copied despite what Muslims say about this. And he would say that 20% of the Qur’an is just unintelligible. Well, that kind of evacuates this argument based upon the impossibility of its being written by Muhammad of any, I think, persuasive power.

Kevin Harris: The next apologetic that this Muslim offers to our friend here is that the Qur’an condemns Muhammad himself. So that lends to the authenticity of Muhammad’s sincerity while writing it. This seems to take a page out of Christian apologetics in saying the disciples were cowards. It just tells it exactly the way it is, and that lends to its authenticity.

Dr. Craig: This is called the criterion of embarrassment in New Testament studies or historical Jesus studies. And I think that it is valid when you apply it to that. But I don’t think anybody is claiming that Muhammad didn’t really believe these things or that he was insincere. So I guess I don’t see this as establishing anything of any significance –those passages in the Qur’an that would put Muhammad in a bad light or minimize him.

Kevin Harris: Say that his sins needed to be forgiven.

Dr. Craig: Right. Right. That would minimize him. I don’t see that that proves anything other than just as the writer said – his sincerity. [2]

Kevin Harris: Certainly, one could be humble and write about himself in a deprecating way.

Dr. Craig: Yeah. Right.

Kevin Harris: An attempt at humility.

Dr. Craig: Sure.

Kevin Harris: Next line of argument would be that there are prophecies that the Qur’an has that have been fulfilled that is demonstrating it. I don’t know of any examples here and they weren’t offered in this letter.

Dr. Craig: The prophecies that I am typically aware of is the claim that the life of Muhammad fulfills prophecies that were made earlier – like in the Gospels, that Jesus’ prophesy of another Comforter who will come – referring to the Holy Spirit – that this really means Muhammad. This is just based on mis-exegesis of these texts, misinterpretations. There is no grounds for thinking these were prophecies about Muhammad and his life or of Islam. I am not aware of any predictions in the Qur’an itself that have been verified or fulfilled.

Kevin Harris: Let me ask you about some tactics with our Muslim friends, and that is do you think that if we could emphasize what you did at the beginning of this broadcast that we both believe – Muslims and Christians believe – that there is only one God, that that may soften their ear and knock some defenses down to where they will listen further?

Dr. Craig: I would hope so. I think we need to try and find as much common ground with them as we can. I remember talking to one Muslim who was astounded to find out that I believed in the existence of angels. He said, “My heart is pounding as I talk to you.” He was so thrilled to think that I, as a Christian, would also believe that there are angels of God. So I thought, gosh, to me it seemed like a trivial point, but for him it was common ground. So we should try to find, I think, these areas where we can that we both believe that there is one God, and that he is omnipotent, and omniscience, and wholly good, and that there will be a judgment day that people will be held accountable for their sins, and so forth. There is a lot of commonality along with the error in Islam.

Kevin Harris: Would it be productive to perhaps point out that there was a misunderstanding of the Trinity at the time of the writing of the Qur’an. I know that that sends dispersions upon the writing of the Qur’an and the accuracy, theologically, of Muhammad. But there was a misunderstanding. They thought it – what? - included Mary?

Dr. Craig: Yes, there are passages in the Qur’an where God says to Jesus, “Jesus, did you ever say ‘Worship me and my mother as gods?’” And Jesus says, “Far be it from me to say such a thing. I only told them what you told me – worship God, the one true God.” Here Muhammad evidently thought that the Trinity was composed of God the Father, Mary, and Jesus, their offspring, which is a blasphemous doctrine that any Christian would reject. So, of course Muhammad was right in regarding this as a horrible doctrine that he would reject because we would, too. I think we need to share that with Muslims to help them understand what we really do believe. That, in fact, we don’t believe anything like this misconstruction of the doctrine of the Trinity that is condemned rightly in the Qur’an.

Kevin Harris: I have to tell you what happened to me, Dr. Craig. I was invited by a Muslim into a voice chat room where you can go in and type text and you can also talk on a mic when it is your turn. So I did go in and I rather relished the opportunity to share the Lord. Let me offer this warning right now. There has been at least one case from this very chat room where a person was tracked down and physically attacked.

Dr. Craig: Oh, my.

Kevin Harris: Because of a skirmish that broke out in the chat room. So while my anonymity was pretty intact, it can be rather intimidating nonetheless. So I went into the room. I knew that it was not going to be fair or anything like that but, you know, I often try to plant some seeds. I went in and this is what the administrator of the room said: “I want you to read the first few verses of the Song of Solomon. Will you do that for us? And I want everyone who is mostly Muslims in the room (in fact, they were from the Mideast). I want you to listen.” And I said, “Certainly, I will.” And I began to read:

And immediately they turned my mic off and the administrator came back on – I guess by will the administrator can do that – and he says, “Does everyone hear the filth of these Scriptures. And they claim this is the word of God. Can everyone hear filthiness here? I would like to ask you this now.” [3]

Dr. Craig: I’ll bet privately all of these Muslim men went out and read that afterward! [laughter]

Kevin Harris: I hope they did! So they said, “Let me ask you a question – do you believe that Jesus was both God and man?” They gave me my mic back and I said, “First of all, let me comment on Song of Solomon. This is a celebration of human love, and I think it is very appropriate, and there is nothing dirty or nasty about this.” He turned my mic off and said, “Answer my question. Was Jesus both man and God? You’ve already offended all the ladies in the room. Answer my question. Was Jesus both God and man?” And I said, “Yes.” And I began to try to break down the doctrine of the hypostatic union. They cut my mic again and said, “Ladies and gentleman, this Christian believes that God went to the toilet. Because if Jesus was a man, then he went to the toilet.” And all of a sudden in text it came out, “Kick him out. Kick him out. Kick him out.” And they kicked me out of the room.

Dr. Craig: Gosh.

Kevin Harris: Well, I expected that, Bill, but it showed a sensitivity to a sexuality, human love, and so forth, in the Song of Songs of all things, and such a repulsion of going to the bathroom.

Dr. Craig: Yes, right. That is unclean.

Kevin Harris: And how could Jesus, being God, have done that? So do you see the barrier?

Dr. Craig: Yeah, they’re huge barriers, aren’t they? To try to reach people like that. Though I must say I am surprised about the Song of Solomon. Albeit this is an erotic love poem, nevertheless, as you say it is perfectly appropriate between a man and his wife for this sort of erotic love to be expressed. I would think that Muslims who pride themselves on being masculine and virile and so forth would like the Song of Solomon. They are very proud that Muhammad had all these wives and was able to satisfy them all. They see nothing wrong with him taking this young girl that he did to be one of his wives. So I am puzzled at that. Though the one about the toilet you can understand the revulsion with something that was unclean, and that they would not want to associate anything like God with that. But there is just a closed mindedness there to understanding the difference between the humanity of Christ and the deity of Christ.

Kevin Harris: It is also taking a low view of the body. I don’t think our digestive system is a curse necessarily. I know the Fall affects us but God designed us a certain way. Why take such a low . . . that’s kind of crazy.

Dr. Craig: Well, I think again it has to do with cultural perceptions of what is clean and unclean. In some of these countries, for example, you would never shake hands or touch someone’s left hand because this is the hand they would use to wipe themselves with after defecating. So this would just be regarded as repulsive. And the idea this could be associated with God would be anathema to folks like that. So these are big, big cultural barriers to surmount. This isn’t an intellectual objection, is it? These are just emotional hot buttons that this person was pressing.

Kevin Harris: So the emotional hot buttons can often be a real barrier to truth, and sometimes we have to get down to an emotional level it seems to try to get around it.

Dr. Craig: Probably. People like this aren’t going to be persuaded, probably, by rational argumentation. They are going to be persuaded by your taking an interest in them personally, becoming their friend, and really caring about them as people, and beginning to break down those kinds of barriers. It is in cases like this that I think real friendship evangelism probably is the best route to go. [4]