Part Nine
The atheist from Chennai then questioned the validity of Islam in general saying, “Islam existed only 1400 years ago, so why should we follow this message which has obviously been extracted from previous older books of Christianity (2,000 years ago) and Judaism (5,000+ years ago)?” I replied, “According to Muslim belief, Islam did not come into existence 1,400 years ago with Muhammad (pbuh), but with the first human beings. It is the same manual of life given to the father and mother of humankind, and reintroduced whenever people strayed from the message over the generations of human existence. As to the Qur’aan being extracts from Torah and the Gospels, that is one possible interpretation of the similarities. The other interpretation is that due to all of them coming from the same source, there will be shared information. At any rate, higher criticism of the Bible and modern research have revealed that the “Torah” was written by more than one author and contains many contradictions, and the over 5,000 manuscripts of the Gospels have no two manuscripts agreeing on all the details. Furthermore, these manuscripts are in Greek, and Jesus and his disciples spoke Aramaic and the very authors of the Gospels are unknown. On the other hand, the Qur’aan, which has only one version, has withstood all academic scrutiny thereby confirming its originality. Also, the Qur’aan’s many verses containing modern scientific data strongly and clearly point towards its divine origin. So following it instead of the earlier revelations which have become distorted and changed simply makes good sense, if one is to choose a revealed book to follow. Finally, if one were to look historically at what happened to Christianity in terms of following the teachings and practice of Jesus (peace be upon him), it would become very clear that Christianity is a different religion from what Jesus (pbuh) brought and taught. Islam on the other hand, has remained virtually unchanged over the centuries. The way Muslims pray today is the same way that Muhammad (pbuh) taught his followers 1,400 years ago. Likewise, the way Muslims fast, perform pilgrimage, etc. have all remained in their original form. The final revelation of Islam has remained in its original form and will remain that way until the end of this world.”
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