Alpha & Omega Ministries Apologetics Blog
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Response to Sheikh Awal (Part 4)
05/28/2010 - James White
17:45:00 - Category: Islam - Link to this article -
Simple Mistakes, Confused Defenses
05/26/2010 - James White
Last evening a brother pointed me to a comment by Emir Caner posted on Twitter back on the 12th of May. I have included it in the graphic so as to document that it is clearly from Emir Caner, and also to note his re-tweeting of Hussein Wario's article "Desperate Muslims and Ignoramus Christians" as well. This demonstrates Emir Caner is in touch with Hussein Wario. This will be important in what follows. On September 28, 2006, I spent the entirety of the Dividing Line covering all twenty five ayah (verses) in the Qur'an that contain the name of Isa (Jesus). How did I come up with this list? I utilized the Kassas Concordance to the Qur'an, a massive volume keyed to the standard Arabic text of the Qur'an (i.e., what we might call the "Textus Receptus" of the Qur'an, the Uthmanic text). Here is the listing of all uses of Isa in the Qur'an taken from the Kassas Concordance:
It only takes a moment to do the count: 25. That's it. So, back in 2006, we went over all of them on the DL.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I was listening to Emir Caner as found here. At exactly 4:00 of Dr. Caner's presentation he says the following words: "Islam has a lot to say about Jesus Christ. His name is mentioned 93 times in the Qur'an." I immediately recognized that this was an error. If words have meaning, Dr. Caner misspoke. He did not say "Jesus is talked about many places in the Qur'an" or something like this, he said His name, that is Jesus, is mentioned 93 times in the Qur'an. But, it isn't. Now, I had seen secondary sources that greatly inflated this number by including context and references that do not use the name Isa. I knew, for example, that Geoffrey Parrinder in his book, Jesus in the Qur'an, said:
The name Isa occurs twenty-five times in the Qur'an, and the use of other titles in conjunction with this or separately, such as Messiah and Son of Mary, means that Jesus is spoken of some thirty-five times….The bare enumeration of the references to Jesus by one of his names in the Qur'an does not show, of course, the difference between passing allusions and longer narratives in which Jesus is the central figure. (18, 20).
However, prior to this, Parrinder had said, "Three chapters or suras of the Qur'an are named after references to Jesus (3, 5 and 19); he is mentioned in fifteen suras and ninety-three verses" (16). This number had mystified me, as it is a great leap from twenty-five to ninety-three, but Parrinder's examples explain what he is talking about. Notice he says that three suras are named after references to Jesus. Sura 3 is Al Imran. How is Imran relevant to Jesus? Surah 66:12 explains:
And Mary the daughter of 'Imran, who guarded her chastity; and We breathed into (her body) of Our spirit; and she testified to the truth of the words of her Lord and of His Revelations, and was one of the devout (servants).
The Qur'an asserts Mary, Jesus' mother, was the daughter of "Imran." Hence, all references to Imran (and to Mary) are references to Jesus as well. Surah 5 is Al Maida, the "table," which refers to the request of the disciples that Jesus bring down a table from heaven (Surah 5:112-115), hence, this is a reference to Jesus as well. And Surah 19 is named for Mary, His mother. Therefore, the claim (and it seems Parrinder is the source for the widespread use of this number) that there are 93 verses in the Qur'an referring to Jesus should be understood to mean that there are 93 verses that could be interpreted to have something to do with Jesus, Jesus' story, Jesus' mother, Jesus' disciples, Jesus' relatives, etc. I wonder if all references to the Ahl al Injeel (people of the Gospel) have been included as well, given the Injeel is given to Jesus. In any case, the best summary of the assertion found in Parrinder (and repeated below by Jane I. Smith) is "There are about ninety three verses in the Qur'an that could in some form or fashion be connected to Jesus, his story, history, and the view of him promoted by the Qur'an, in a very loose fashion."
Now, I raised this issue in light of many other issues: Dr. Emir Caner converting to Christianity at age twelve (though on the Ankerberg Show Ergun said they converted when they were close to college); the fact that his father had not been his custodial parent since he was five years of age; the incoherent citation methodology he and Ergun had used in their book, referring to "Hadith" as a meaningful reference mechanism (similar to quoting "Bible 3:16" as if that has meaning), etc. All of this was in the context of asking, "Why is Emir Caner considered an expert on Islam? Does converting from a religion when you are twelve give you sufficient ground to be viewed as an expert in that religion later in life?" I specifically had the Parrinder reference in mind, which is where I had first encountered the number "93" used in such a fashion. This is why I speculated on the use of "secondary sources" in Emir Caner's comments.
Now, it would be easy to argue that Dr. Emir Caner simply misspoke. "I didn't mean His name is used 93 times, of course, I know it only appears 25 times. I meant the wider idea of all possible references, allusions, etc." That would make sense to me. However, taken together with the other issues just noted, it does raise serious questions concerning Emir Caner's familiarity with primary sources relating to the study of Islam. It would have been easy to grant a mere misstatement, had Emir Caner not chosen to defend his statement.
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17:03:11 - Category: Islam - Link to this article -
Response to Sheikh Awal (Part 3)
05/25/2010 - James White
21:31:53 - Category: Islam - Link to this article -
Continuation of My Response to Sheikh Awal (Part 2)
05/21/2010 - James White
15:00:00 - Category: Islam - Link to this article -
Jerald Dirks, the Deen Show, and the Prologue of John
05/17/2010 - James White
(Fixed the audio: YouTube and iMovie HD do not like each other, evidently, so I have to take a second very time consuming step to fix the problem. Hopefully this upload will work!)
22:00:00 - Category: Islam - Link to this article -
Hussein Wario and the Cultural Chasm
05/14/2010 - James White
Hussein Wario is a former Muslim. He has decided to take up not so much a defense of the Caners (he has, so far, only defended minor points---he has so far mainly ignored the legal documentation that has been provided and the issues that data raises) but to use the "attack the messenger" methodology of argumentation. In the process I am really, really hoping that we are seeing a good and educational example of the "cultural chasm." Mr. Wario is not a Westerner in outlook. Sometimes this leads to not only linguistic, but logical problems. Let's look at how this plays out. ...[Click Here to Continue Reading]
06:37:48 - Category: Islam - Link to this article -
The Great Debate Series
05/10/2010 - Micah Burke
The Great Debate Series
June 18th - 21st
The Center for Religious Debate
11338 Ozga Road, Romulus MI 48174
Debates:
$8 Each, $5 Student - For each debate
or
$15 Each, $10 Student - For All Debates
Note: Debates are subject to changes and cancellations. ...
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11:28:41 - Category: Islam - Link to this article -
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