Today the followers of the two great religions in the world, that is, Islam and Christianity, have two books that are supposed to be "the words of Allahu ta'ala." The holy book of the Christians is the Bible, Kitab-i muqaddas (holy book). This book consists of two main parts: Old Testament, namely the Torah (Tawrat), and the New Testament, the Injils and the pamphlets appended to them. The holy book of the Muslims is the Qur'an al-karim.

We, Muslims, believe that 'Isa (Jesus) ('alaihi 's-salam), who has been deified by the Christians, was a prophet. Since he was a prophet, it was natural for him to be given a book by Allahu ta'ala. That is why there can be no doubt that the real Bible, which was 'Isa's ('alaihi 's-salam) book, was certainly "Allahu ta'ala's word." But, today, the real Bible does not exist. In the book which the Christians have in their hands there are very few words which actually come from the original, true Injil (real Bible). The real Bible was in the Hebrew language. Later this book was translated into the Greek and Latin languages erroneously, and, in the course of time, many additions were made and it was continuously changed. Many Bibles have been written, but the majority of them were rejected. At last, today, there are four Bibles left.

The evidence for this will be seen in future pages. But changes, corrections and explanations in the Bible are still going on. However, in contrast, not a single letter has been changed in the Qur'an al-karim since it was revealed to the beloved Prophet Hadrat Muhammad Mustafah (sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam) that is, it has remained in its pristine origin.

Our words up to here are not the claims of Muslims only. Scientists and theologists from the West have carefully re-examined today's Bible and have proved that it is not "the words of Allahu ta'ala." We should not forget that we shall enter the twenty-first century soon. In a century when science and technology have been developing rapidly, and when even the underdeveloped nations of the world have established universities, it has become impossible to accept any dogma blindly by saying, "I heard it from my father." "I don't know the reason, but my teacher told me." Today's young people have been exploring the origins and reasons for everything and have been refusing the things that are not logical. In Turkey, half a million people sat for the university entrance examinations in 1980. Those young people who have been educated by way of modern science will certainly examine carefully everything which has been taught concerning religion, too. For this reason, today's Western theologists, as you will see in this book, have been uncovering the errors in the Bible. Thus, after reading their publications, we wanted to report to our Muslim brothers the great differences between today's Holy Bible and the Qur'an al-karim once again. While we were preparing this chapter, we made use of an American author named Houser, who has written some books regarding religion.

In addition to this, we studied the book Tuhfat-ul- arib, which describes the errors in the Bible. It was written by Anselmo Turmeda, a well-known Spaniard priest who converted to Islam in 823 [1420]. We also examined the book Pearls of the Bible by S.Merran Muhyiddin Sahib Iqbal of Pakistan and the Turkish book Dhiya-ul-qulub by Ishaq Effendi of Harput, Turkey, who was a professor and a member of an educational council. He died in 1309 (1891). This book was published in 1295 (1878) and contains the author's deep research on the Bible. It was printed by Hakikat kitabevi in Istanbul, in 1407 (1987 A.D.), in the Latin alphabet, and given the name Could Not Answer. Another book written in Turkish by Ishaq Effendi is (See note on page 36.) Shams-ul Haqiqa published in 1278 (1861 A.D.). This book has two-hundred and ninety pages and proves, by means of using absolute proofs, that the Christian's so-called Bible is really a history book that was written later on, while the Qur'an al-karim is the actual word of Allahu ta'ala. Shams-ul Haqiqa is in the Sulaimania library in Istanbul registered under the number 204 in the "Dugumlu Baba" section. Furthermore, a Turkish book, Izah-ul-maram, written by Haji Abdullah Ibn Destan Mustapha Effendi (34) from Bosna (Bosnia), and printed in 1288 (1871 A.D.) at a printing house owned by Yahya Effendi, the sheikh of Mustapha Pasha Tekke, outside Edirnekapi, is registered under the number 771 at the "Nafiz Pasha" section of the Sulaimania library. This book cites many proofs to prove that Christianity is completely corrupt and invalid. But it is the book Idhhar-ul-Haq by Rahmatullah Effendi from India which hurts Christianity the most and indicates that Christianity is not true or based on facts.

On its three hundred and ninetieth page, the Persian book Maqamat-i ahyar says, "Fander, a Protestant priest, was very famous among Christians. A Protestant missionary organization sent him with some distinguished priests to India to propagate Christianity. In Rabi ul-akhir and on the eleventh of Rajab, 1270 [1854 A.D.], in the presence of other scholars and distinguished personalities, these missionary delegates had a scientific debate with Rahmatullah Effendi, the great Islamic scholar from the city of Delhi. At the end of the debate, which lasted quite a long time, Fander and his assistants failed to answer. Four years later, while India was occupied by the British [all her Muslim people, especially the Sultan (the Muslim ruler), and the men of religious authority were harshly tortured by them], Rahmatullah Effendi emigrated to the city of Mecca-i Mukarrama. Later the above mentioned Christian missionary delegation came to Istanbul in 1295 [1878 A.D.], and began to propagate Christianity. The Grand Vizier Hayruddin Pasha invited Rahmatullah Effendi to Istanbul. When the priest met him again, they were confused and did nothing, except to leave Istanbul without answering his questions. Rahmatullah Effendi was given many presents. In addition, the Grand Vizier, Hayruddin Pasha, requested him to write a book in order to explain how he refuted and made the priest a laughing- stock. Upon this request, after writing the Arabic book Idhar-ul-Haq during the time between the 16th of Rajab and the end of Zilhijja, he went back to Mecca again. Hayruddin Pasha had the book Idhar-ul-Haq translated into Turkish, and, subsequently, both books were printed. This book was also translated into several European languages and sent to every foreign country. Newspapers in England stated: 'If this book is widely read, Christianity will suffer greatly.' Sultan Abdulhamid Khan II, (35) the Khalifa of all the Muslims (rahmatullahi alaih), invited Rahmatullah Effendi again during the month of Ramadan, 1304. He entertained him respectfully in his palace and bestowed many gifts upon him. Rahmatullah Effendi passed away in the city of Mecca-i Mukarrama in the month of Ramadan in 1308 [1890 A.D.]."

Moreover, we also examined some Western books concerning the Qur'an al-karim that were written one hundred years ago. Thus, we have concluded that if these two holy books are examined impartially, it will become obvious to everybody, (even to the most inflexible man) no matter what religion he belongs to, which book is Allahu ta'ala's word.

We prepared this book in two parts. In the first part, as we said above, we shall report on the scientific research done on the Qur'an al-karim, the Old Testament (Torah), and the New Testament that is available today.

In the second part of the book, Hadrat Muhammad's (sall-Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam) miracles (mujizas), virtues and beautiful moral characteristics have been explained. We obtained all this information from a Turkish history book entitled Mirat-i Kainat, written by the famous Islamic scholar Nishanci-zada Muhammad Effendi, who was educated during the Ottoman State and died in 1031 (1719). This book of his was published in Istanbul in 1269 (1853).

I hope our dear readers will read this chapter with great interest and make use of the knowledge in it. May Allahu ta'ala bring us all to the right path and keep us on it. Amin!

FOOTNOTES

(34) Abdullah Ibn Destan, passed away in 1303 (1885 A.D.).

(35) AbdulHamid Khan, passed away in 1336 (1918 A.D.).