Ibn Kathir's fake history of Constantine

The following is based on the writings of the Sunni Muslim "historian" and Quran commentator Ibn Kathir in his commentary on Surah 3:55, found on google books volume 2, page 171 and on, and also on the Qtafsir website  The Tafsir Ibn Kathir will be in black, my words in blue.

And I will make those who follow you superior to those who disbelieve, till the Day of Resurrection

This is what happened. When Allah raised `Isa to heaven, his followers divided into sects and groups. Some of them believed in what Allah sent `Isa as, a servant of Allah, His Messenger, and the son of His female-servant.

The vast majority believed in this, only gnostics might object to the identification of him as "the son of His female-servant." Islam itself divided into sects shortly after Muhammad died, and even more wanted to leave Islam. The early Christians were given death threats for STAYING Christians, the early Muslims were given death threats for LEAVING Islam.

However, some of them went to the extreme over `Isa, believing that he was the son of Allah.

No one objected to this at all. How is this an extreme? People debated what "son of God" meant, no early Christians denied Jesus was the son of God since this was synonymous with "Christ" to them. We see in the 4 Gospel accounts Jesus own apostles and disciples call himself the "son of God," the demons and Satan call him "son of God," and even Jesus Himself refers to Himself as "the son of God." As we see in these verses:

Jesus Christ speaking of Himself (called Isa by Muslims):

Amen, amen I say unto you, that the hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.—John 5:25

John the Baptist (Yahya):

And I saw, and I gave testimony, that this is the Son of God.—John 1:34

Archangel Gabriel (called Jibreel by Muslims):

And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.—Luke 1:35

Disciples/Apostles of Jesus:

“And they that were in the boat came and adored him, saying: Indeed thou art the Son of God.”—Matthew 14:33

Satan:

“And the tempter coming said to him: If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread."--Matthew 4:3

Demons:

What have we to do with thee, Jesus Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?"--Matthew 8:29

Jesus’ Crucifiers (Roman centurions):

Now the centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus, having seen the earthquake, and the things that were done, were sore afraid, saying: Indeed this was the Son of God.—Matthew 27:54

So based on the fact that we have the 4 accounts of the Gospels telling us Jesus is the “Son of God” with Jesus saying so Himself in John 5:25 with that verse have all variants of it reading “son of God” we have no reason to think Jesus is anything besides the son of God! Any Muslim claim of corruption is baseless. Demonstrating ibn Kathir had little to no knowledge of the Gospels and probably derived all his information from ignorant Islamic sources.

Some of them said that `Isa was Allah Himself,

If by “some” he means Jesus’ own apostles, then yes:

Apostle Thomas speaking to Jesus Christ:

Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!—John 20:28

Apostle John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.—John 1:1

St Thomas addressed Christ himself, yet Christ did not object to this identification at all, so either He allowed St Thomas to commit idolatry, or He really is God!

while others said that he was one of a Trinity.

Being the Son of God and God are necessary for the Trinity to be true, since we believe there is only One God and that Jesus is not the Father but born of the Father and the Holy Spirit also is God (and not an angel like Muslims foolishly assume) then for monotheism to be true and for them too all be God Trinitarianism must be true too. Other Christian before Constantine sometimes taught the 3 persons were really one person and that the Son is the Father and the Spirit is also, this too was rejected by our leaders like the Popes 100 before Emperor Constantine gathered the council of Nicea.

Allah mentioned these false creeds in the Qur'an and refuted them.

Reading how they state the creed seriously makes you wonder if “Allah” really knew what he was talking about at all.

The Christians remained like this until the third century CE, when a Greek king called, Constantine, became a Christian for the purpose of destroying Christianity.

4th century actually, and there is no evidence Constantine wanted to destroy Christianity. He did not formally become Christian however until his death bed when he was baptized.

Constantine was either a philosopher, or he was just plain ignorant.

Constantine was a military child, he was educated in Latin and Greek and philosophy, but does receiving some philosophical education make you a philosopher?

Constantine changed the religion of `Isa by adding to it and deleting from it. He established the rituals of Christianity and the so-called Great Trust, which is in fact the Great Treachery.

No clue what this “Great Trust” is. We have references to our rituals before Constantine. All of them can be found in the New Testament, and they are referred to before Constantine’s time in Christian writings.

He also allowed them to eat the meat of swine,

This was ALREADY done by Christians, since Christians do not follow dietary laws like the Jews did since we believe a new Law was established by Christ establishing a New Testament, in fact the New Testament explicitly states this in Colossians 2:16

Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a festival day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbaths—Colossians 2:16

Despite this by being written by St Paul, Muslims must admit at least this was done long before Constantine since St Paul lived in the 1st century.

changed the direction of the prayer that `Isa established to the east,

There is no tradition, no information about Jesus instruction people what direction they are to pray in the Bible, we are to assume He prayed facing the Temple as did all Jews at His time due to Solomon establishing it. The custom of praying facing East was known and established 100 years before Constantine:

our being known to turn to the east in prayer.—Tertullian, Apology, Chapter 16, c. AD 200

Praying facing East was a custom of Churches that were never inside the empire of the Romans like Persia, Ethiopia, and India.  Interesting ibn Kathir does not volunteer where Christians prayed facing before that.

built churches for `Isa, and added ten days to the fast as compensation for a sin that he committed, as claimed.

What fast, which fast? No information about the days added, or the sin! Convenient!

So the religion of `Isa became the religion of Constantine, who built more then twelve thousand churches, temples and monasteries for the Christians as well as the city that bears his name, Constantinople (Istanbul).

Temples were just how Christians referred to their church buildings at times, but ibn Kathir makes them sound different. His 12,000 number seems to be an exaggeration, but I cannot prove it.

Throughout this time, the Christians had the upper hand and dominated the Jews. Allah aided them against the Jews because they used to be closer to the truth than the Jews,

Does this make sense at all? Ibn Kathir says what a terrible person Constantine was for intentionally corrupting Christianity and that many Christians already confessed false creeds that he considers idolatry, yet Allah thinks this idolatry is closer to the truth than the non-idolatrous Jews? Christians did not have the upperhand over the Jews until AFTER Constantine.

even though both groups were and still are disbelievers, may Allah's curse descend on them.

Cursing people is an old Muslim pastime, whereas Christian pray for a person to repent and that God drive them to it, Muslims are prone to curse and damn in prayer.

When Allah sent Muhammad , those who believed in him also believed in Allah, His Angels, Books and Messengers in the correct manner. So they were the true followers of every Prophet who came to earth. They believed in the unlettered Prophet , the Final Messenger and the master of all mankind, who called them to believe in the truth in its entirety. This is why they had more right to every Prophet than his own nation, especially those who claim to follow their Prophet's way and religion, yet change and alter his religion. Furthermore, Allah abrogated all the laws that were sent down to the Prophets with the Law He sent Muhammad with, which consists of the true religion that shall never change or be altered until the commencement of the Last Hour

Muslims are proud of Muhammad’s lack of education, and this lack of education is reflected in the Quran.  Interesting that ibn Kathir accuses modern Christianity of being started by Constantine was may have been “plain ignorant” yet when calling Muhammad “unlettered” he does not refer to him as “plain ignorant” when we have more reason for that. The funny thing about this statement is it talks about Muhammad abrogating what other prophets taught, and Muhammad’s own religion does not change—despite much of the Quran being abrogated by other verses in the Quran and by things Muhammad said.

 Muhammad's religion shall always be dominant and victorious over all other religions. This is why Allah allowed Muslims to conquer the eastern and western parts of the world and the kingdoms of the earth. Furthermore, all countries submitted to them; they demolished Kisra (king of Persia) and destroyed the Czar, ridding them of their treasures and spending these treasures for Allah's sake. All this occurred just as their Prophet told them it would, when he conveyed Allah's statement

Muslims did an excellent job of conquering sparsely populated desert lands taking the Middle East and North Africa. Barely making any headway into Europe, they took Spain for hundreds of years only to lose it in the 15th century completely. They took some of the Balkans like Albania, which is now atheist. For a while Europe controlled much of the Middle East, almost all of Africa (except Ethiopia) and other lands, yet the Muslim religion “shall always be dominant and victorious.” Even in our present times the Muslims completely outnumbered the Israelis in war, yet the Israelis won and took some Muslim land! So much for always being dominant and victorious!

Muhammad vs Witchcraft

According to the Quran, Surah 113--al Falaq (The Daybreak) the Muslim prophet Muhammad is supposed to seek refuge with God "from the evil of the blowers in knots" in Surah 113:4:

وَمِن شَرِّ النَّفَّاثَاتِ فِي الْعُقَدِ--Quran, Surah (al-Falaq) 113:4 

 Sahih International: And from the evil of the blowers in knots

Pickthall: And from the evil of malignant witchcraft, 

Yusuf Ali: From the mischief of those who practise secret arts; 

Shakir: And from the evil of those who blow on knots, 

Muhammad Sarwar: from the evil of those who practice witchcraft 

Mohsin Khan: "And from the evil of the witchcrafts when they blow in the knots,  

Arberry: from the evil of the women who blow on knots,

We see many of these translations translate the "blow on knots" as referring to witchcraft. In fact, on a Muslim commentary website for the Quran Tafsir ibn Kathir under this verse it states:

(And from the evil of the blowers in knots,) Mujahid, `Ikrimah, Al-Hasan, Qatadah and Ad-Dahhak all said, "This means the witches.'' Mujahid said, "When they perform their spells and blow into the knots.''

Then, following on with Tafsir on this verse, it tells about a hadith in Sahih al Bukhari about how Muhammad was the victim of witchcraft while he was a prophet! But rather than reproduce Tafsir on this, which just quotes the hadith (a Sunni one), here is the hadith itself:

Narrated by Aisha:

Magic was worked on Allah's Apostle so that he used to think that he had sexual relations with his wives while he actually had not (Sufyan said: That is the hardest kind of magic as it has such an effect). Then one day he said, "O 'Aisha do you know that Allah has instructed me concerning the matter I asked Him about? Two men came to me and one of them sat near my head and the other sat near my feet. The one near my head asked the other. What is wrong with this man?' The latter replied the is under the effect of magic The first one asked, Who has worked magic on him?' The other replied Labid bin Al-A'sam, a man from Bani Zuraiq who was an ally of the Jews and was a hypocrite.' The first one asked, What material did he use)?' The other replied, 'A comb and the hair stuck to it.' The first one asked, 'Where (is that)?' The other replied. 'In a skin of pollen of a male date palm tree kept under a stone in the well of Dharwan' '' So the Prophet went to that well and took out those things and said "That was the well which was shown to me (in a dream) Its water looked like the infusion of Henna leaves and its date-palm trees looked like the heads of devils." The Prophet added, "Then that thing was taken out' I said (to the Prophet ) "Why do you not treat yourself with Nashra?" He said, "Allah has cured me; I dislike to let evil spread among my people."--Sahih al Bukari Volume 7 [Medicine], Book 71, Number 660

 We see Muhammad's own wife, in fact his favorite one who he married when she was still but a child about 7 that still played with dolls, claimed Muhammad was harmed by magic and was fooled into thinking he had sex with his wives (polygamist, of course) when he did not!  Interestingly, the near by hadith explains what Muhammad should have done to prevent being harmed by magic:

 Narrated by Saud:

The Prophet said, "If somebody takes some 'Ajwa dates every morning, he will not be effected by poison or magic on that day till night." (Another narrator said seven dates).--Volume 7, Book 71, Number 663

 So, we see "God's Apostle" failed to eat his daily dates to prevent witches spells! You'd expect maybe Muhammad would have prescribed a prayer of some sort, but no! Besides, the strangeness of this commentary, and its relationship to Quranic verse and the absurdity of the story of why a wizard/witch/sorcerer would care to make Muhammad think he had sex with his wives, we must ask an even bigger question: How can Muhammad be trusted? If he is supposed to be God's own messenger, apostle and prophet, then why did God allow Muhammad to be fooled by magic? Furthermore, if Muhammad can be fooled by evil people in such a earthly matter, why should be trust him in even greater matters that relate to God and heaven?

Muhammad seems to be at the mercy of evil forces like demons who are the only power behind witchcraft. Whereas, we see no mention of Moses and Aaron being at the mercy of the Egyptian magicians (Exodus 7:22) they encountered in the book of Exodus--in fact they defeated them! Likewise, Jesus when confronted with demons--they cowered in His presence since they knew He was the Christ, the Son of the Living God, for instance:

They cried out, “What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?"--Matthew 8:29

We also see St Paul, whom Muslims generally think very lowly of, in our Christian scriptures relates how when confront with a sorcerer:

they met a magician named Bar-Jesus who was a Jewish false prophet. He was with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who had summoned Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God. But Elymas the magician (for that is what his name means) opposed them in an attempt to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all that is right, full of every sort of deceit and fraud. Will you not stop twisting the straight paths of [the] Lord? Even now the hand of the Lord is upon you. You will be blind, and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately a dark mist fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he came to believe, for he was astonished by the teaching about the Lord.--Acts 13:6-12

We see Paul could deal with magicians and was under God's protection, yet we see no mention of him seeking the aide of dates!

If magicians and demons can fool a man claiming to be a prophet of God about something like sex, why can't he be fooled about other things? And why does he have no protection from deceit of evil?

  

Quran challenge

The Quran Challenge

The strange thing about the Quran is that it constantly has ‘God’ speaking claiming that He is the source of the Quran, whereas the Bible rarely has God having to constantly declare to the reader that He is the ultimate author of the Book. The Quran goes a step further, bragging about itself as a wonderful book insisting no one can make even a single Surah (chapter) like the Quran because it’s so great. We see this in Quran verses like:

Say, "If mankind and the jinn gathered in order to produce the like of this Qur'an, they could not produce the like of it, even if they were to each other assistants."—Quran 17:88

And if you are in doubt about what We have sent down upon Our Servant [Muhammad], then produce a surah the like thereof and call upon your witnesses other than Allah, if you should be truthful.—Quran 2:23

This claim is strange since a number of chapters of the Quran are fairly simple. Such as:

Surah 109

Say, "O disbelievers,

I do not worship what you worship.

Nor are you worshippers of what I worship.

Nor will I be a worshipper of what you worship.

Nor will you be worshippers of what I worship.

For you is your religion, and for me is my religion."

 Surah 109’s pattern is easily reproducible and is only a few lines long! Yet, apparently this is too difficult for us non-Muslims to reproduce!

Surah 108

Indeed, We have granted you, [O Muhammad], al-Kawthar.

So pray to your Lord and sacrifice [to Him alone].

Indeed, your enemy is the one cut off.

Surah 108 is a mere 3 verses long! This surah does not look complicated either! Yet, apparently the person that made the Quran thinks producing 3 lines would be like landing a man on the Sun! If someone handed you this Surah, would you automatically be able to detect its divine origin? Or would you just assume some human wrote it? 

Surah 106

 For the accustomed security of the Quraysh -

Their accustomed security [in] the caravan of winter and summer -

Let them worship the Lord of this House,

Who has fed them, [saving them] from hunger and made them safe, [saving them] from fear.

Its just another short Surah, only a few lines long.

Surah 103

By time,

Indeed, mankind is in loss,

Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and advised each other to truth and advised each other to patience.

 

Another 3 verses that are IMPOSSIBLE to match in style! The Quran does not seem to state explicitly who is the judge of what qualifies as being LIKE the surah is, but it would seem to make most sense that it would be the disbeliever of the Quran, since he is the one that must be convinced. The average Muslim on the other hand would never concede that the unbeliever had made a Surah that sounds like it is in the Quran, because doing so would be an admission that there is nothing divine about the Quran AT ALL. 

Perhaps this "Surah" is like the Surahs of the Quran:

"If there were two valleys full of riches for the son of Adam,

he would long for a third valley,

and nothing would fill the stomach of the son of Adam but dust."

 

Does this sound like it could be a Surah or at least part of one? Why or why not?