Critiquing Islam 2.0

The Islamic Dilemma

When the Quran Affirms What Muslims Deny

What happens when a religion’s holiest book contradicts its core doctrine? You get the Islamic dilemma — a theological house of cards built on a foundational contradiction that exposes the entire system to collapse under its own claims.

While many Muslims assert that the Torah and the Gospel have been “corrupted”, the Quran repeatedly affirms the authority, authenticity, and divine origin of those very scriptures. So which is it? Did God preserve His word? Or did Muslims invent a doctrine that denies their own revelation?

Let’s examine the hard texts — and the harder consequences.

🔍 The Central Quranic Claim

The Quran makes a bold assertion about divine revelation:

“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, confirming that which preceded it of the Torah.”
— Surah 5:46

This verse clearly states that the Torah was valid at the time of Jesus, and the Gospel confirmed it. But it doesn’t stop there.

“Let the People of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed therein. And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed – then it is those who are the defiantly disobedient.”
— Surah 5:47

Wait — let the People of the Gospel judge by it? According to Muslims today, the Gospel was corrupted. Yet the Quran is commanding people (at Muhammad’s time, centuries after Jesus) to use it. Why would Allah direct Christians to judge by a corrupted book?

🔁 The Quran Claims the Books Were Still Intact

Let’s drive the point home.

“Say, O People of the Book, you are on nothing until you uphold the Torah, the Gospel, and what has been revealed to you from your Lord.”
— Surah 5:68

Again — the Quran doesn’t tell Christians and Jews to abandon their scriptures. It repeatedly tells them to return to them. If those books were corrupted, then this would be divine misguidance. The only way out of this contradiction is to admit: they weren’t corrupted at that time.

💣 The Fatal Contradiction

This creates a theological implosion:

The Quran affirms the Torah and the Gospel as valid, uncorrupted revelations still in use during Muhammad’s life.
Islamic doctrine today claims those books were altered or falsified.
Therefore, either:
- The Quran is wrong (and not divine), or
- Modern Islamic theology is wrong (and contradicts the Quran).

There is no third option.

🧱 When the Foundation Crumbles, So Does the Structure

Islamic theology rests on the idea that Islam is a continuation — and correction — of the Judeo-Christian scriptures. But if those scriptures weren’t corrupted, then there’s nothing to correct.

Even worse, if Muhammad’s Quran confirms books that Christians and Jews still had, then either:

Those books are still legitimate (and Islam is redundant), or
The Quran affirmed corrupted texts (and is therefore invalid).

It’s a lose-lose scenario.

📜 History Doesn’t Save the Apologist

Muslim apologists often say:

“We mean the originals were divine — but the current Bible is corrupted!”

But let’s apply logic:

Surah 10:94 tells Muhammad to “ask those who have been reading the Scripture before you” if he’s in doubt.
Surah 4:136 commands Muslims to believe in the scriptures sent before.
No manuscript evidence supports a radical post-Quranic corruption theory. We have pre-Islamic biblical manuscripts — like the Dead Sea Scrolls (1st c. BCE) and Codex Sinaiticus (4th c. CE) — that match today’s texts with remarkable accuracy.

There is zero historical basis for a mass corruption conspiracy post-Jesus but pre-Muhammad. And more damning: the Quran shows no awareness of any corruption.

🧠 The Quran’s Own Test Fails

“Do they not consider the Qur’an? Had it been from other than Allah, they would have found within it much contradiction.”
— Surah 4:82

Ironically, this verse becomes a trap.

The Quran claims God’s Word cannot be changed (Surah 6:115, 18:27).
It says the Torah and Gospel are His Word.
It affirms they were intact at Muhammad’s time.
Yet Muslims now say they were changed.

That’s a blatant contradiction.

🤯 Conclusion: A Religion at War With Its Own Scripture

Islam claims to confirm the scriptures before it. But it also claims to supersede and correct them. This is like affirming the integrity of a house while insisting it must be demolished.

Muslims are caught in an impossible position:

If the Bible is valid, Islam is invalid.
If the Bible is corrupted, the Quran lied.
Either way, the claim of a flawless, final revelation falls apart.

This is the Islamic dilemma — one so deep, no amount of tafsir can rescue it.