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Tuesday 1 May 2018

Bible and Quran - Contradictions (The Original Sin)


In my earlier post on Bible and Quran, I have given an over view of the the Muslims' belief in all earlier prophets before Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the three holy books revealed before the Holy Quran. There I have noted that while the narration of various historical events as mentioned in the earlier three holy books are similar to the same events mentioned in the Holy Quran, there appear to be some contradictions in the manner these have been mentioned. Thus in a series of posts from now, I will try to mention the contradictions between the Holy Bible and Holy Quran, based on the events so mention in the last holy book revealed on the mankind, the Holy Quran.

Prophet Adam (peace be upon him) and Eve and the Original Sin:
Encyclopedia Britannica describes the Original Sin as, 
" Traditionally, the origin has been ascribed to the sin of the first man, Adam, who disobeyed God in eating the forbidden fruit (of knowledge of good and evil) and, in consequence, transmitted his sin and guilt by heredity to his descendants.
The doctrine has its basis in the Bible. Although the human condition (suffering, death, and a universal tendency toward sin) is accounted for by the story of the Fall of Adam in the early chapters of the book of Genesis, the Hebrew Scriptures say nothing about the transmission of hereditary sin to the entire human race. In the Gospels also there are no more than allusions to the notion of the Fall of Man and universal sin. The main scriptural affirmation of the doctrine is found in the writings of St. Paul and particularly in Romans 5:12–19, a difficult passage in which Paul establishes a parallelism between Adam and Christ, stating that whereas sin and death entered the world through Adam, grace and eternal life have come in greater abundance through Christ.
As per Christians, the Satan or the Iblees appeared in front of Eve in the form of a serpent and enticed to eat the forbidden fruit. According to the Genesis story, God rebuked Adam for what he did, but the latter put all the blame on Eve: [The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it] (Genesis 3:12)

When I was in my school days, I started a correspondence course on Bible to know something about it. And when talking of the Original Sin, I was told through the course that due to the sin committed by the Prophet Adam and his wife Eve of eating the forbidden fruit which revealed on to them the humanly desires of lust, the right and wrong (which were not to be among the angels and the duo), they were expelled from the heavens to earth and it from then on the man was to endure the hardships of labour to earn a living and a woman to bear the pain of child birth as a punishment of the sin so committed.

[I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you] (Genesis 3:16)

Now this is as far the Holy Bible goes and the Christians' faith in the original sin which necessitates baptism so that every newly born is cleansed of the sin which he is born with.

In the Holy Quran, while the description of the Prophet Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit as enticed by the Ibless (Satan) is not as elaborate as the Bible, however, there is no mention of the original sin. No sooner did the duo disobeyed the command given to them by their creator, Allah the Almighty, they felt ashamed of their act and asked forgiveness from Allah:
“Then they both ate of that tree, and so their private parts appeared to them, and they began to stick on themselves the leaves from Paradise for their covering.  Thus did Adam disobey his Lord, so he went astray.  Then his Lord chose him, and turned to him with forgiveness and gave him guidance.” (Quran 20:121-122)
The above reference from the Holy Quran clearly shows that through Allah Almighty did not like the act of disobedience from Prophet Adam and Eve, He  forgave them and gave them guidance for their new home, our present world. Thus continuation of the Original Sin as described in the Bible has been contradicted. Even is tis mentioned in the Holy Quran:
“And no bearer of burdens shall bear another’s burden.” (Quran 35:18)
The above reference from the Holy Quran thus negates the notion of the Original Sin as it says that no one carries the burden of one's sins but he who committed it. And if they are forgiven by their creator, Allah the Almighty, then they become as clean and pure like a newly born child. Thus for us Muslims, the Holy Quran clearly tells us the purity of our newly born unlike the notion of children born with the original sin.

May Allah Almighty bless us knowledge and wisdom to interpret the Holy Books in the correct perspective and may not enslave us what has been written in the earlier books for each successive holy book was an update on the previous books as knowledge was passed on th the mankind in bits and pieces, slowly and gradually for us to digest with the new knowledge and wisdom we may have gained since the last revelation.

I will talk of the following two contradictions in my coming posts:
  • Birth of Prophet Isa (peace be upon him) and the concept of Trinity
  • Crucification of Prophet Isa (peace be upon him)
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