
Reason 6 of 10
Errors the Quran says it cannot have
The Quran says a book from anyone but God would be full of incongruity. It calls Mary the sister of Aaron, puts Haman in Pharaoh's court, places a Samaritan at Sinai, sends a traveller to where the sun sets in a muddy spring, and describes a Trinity no Christian has ever believed.
Mary, sister of Aaron, daughter of Imran
The Quran calls Mary the mother of Jesus sister of Aaron and daughter of 'Imran. In the Torah, Amram (Imran) was the father of Aaron, Moses and their sister Miriam, about 1,400 years before Jesus. In Arabic and Hebrew, Mary and Miriam are the same name.
يَٰٓأُخْتَ هَٰرُونَ مَا كَانَ أَبُوكِ ٱمْرَأَ سَوْءٍ وَمَا كَانَتْ أُمُّكِ بَغِيًّا 28
28O sister of Aaron! Thy father was not a wicked man nor was thy mother a harlot.
Quran 19:28 (Pickthall) · context
وَمَرْيَمَ ٱبْنَتَ عِمْرَٰنَ ٱلَّتِىٓ أَحْصَنَتْ فَرْجَهَا فَنَفَخْنَا فِيهِ مِن رُّوحِنَا وَصَدَّقَتْ بِكَلِمَٰتِ رَبِّهَا وَكُتُبِهِۦ وَكَانَتْ مِنَ ٱلْقَٰنِتِينَ 12
12And Mary, daughter of 'Imran, whose body was chaste, therefor We breathed therein something of Our Spirit. And she put faith in the words of her Lord and His scriptures, and was of the obedient.
Quran 66:12 (Pickthall) · context
إِذْ قَالَتِ ٱمْرَأَتُ عِمْرَٰنَ رَبِّ إِنِّى نَذَرْتُ لَكَ مَا فِى بَطْنِى مُحَرَّرًا فَتَقَبَّلْ مِنِّىٓ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْعَلِيمُ 35 فَلَمَّا وَضَعَتْهَا قَالَتْ رَبِّ إِنِّى وَضَعْتُهَآ أُنثَىٰ وَٱللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا وَضَعَتْ وَلَيْسَ ٱلذَّكَرُ كَٱلْأُنثَىٰ وَإِنِّى سَمَّيْتُهَا مَرْيَمَ وَإِنِّىٓ أُعِيذُهَا بِكَ وَذُرِّيَّتَهَا مِنَ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنِ ٱلرَّجِيمِ 36
35(Remember) when the wife of 'Imran said: My Lord! I have vowed unto Thee that which is in my belly as a consecrated (offering). Accept it from me. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Hearer, the Knower! 36And when she was delivered she said: My Lord! Lo! I am delivered of a female - Allah knew best of what she was delivered - the male is not as the female; and lo! I have named her Mary, and lo! I crave Thy protection for her and for her offspring from Satan the outcast.
Quran 3:35-36 (Pickthall) · context
20Amram took Jochebed his father’s sister to himself as wife; and she bore him Aaron and Moses. The years of the life of Amram were one hundred thirty-seven years.
Exodus 6:20 (WEB) · context
59The name of Amram’s wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt. She bore to Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister.
Numbers 26:59 (WEB) · context
Sahih Muslim 2135 Summary, not a quotation
Christians of Najran ask about sister of Aaron; the Prophet answers that people used to name their children after earlier prophets and righteous people.
Read the full text on sunnah.comHaman and the tower
In the Quran Pharaoh orders Haman to bake bricks and build a tower to reach the God of Moses. In the Bible Haman is an official of the Persian king Ahasuerus, about a thousand years after Moses, and the tower of baked brick reaching to heaven is Babel.
وَنُمَكِّنَ لَهُمْ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَنُرِىَ فِرْعَوْنَ وَهَٰمَٰنَ وَجُنُودَهُمَا مِنْهُم مَّا كَانُوا۟ يَحْذَرُونَ 6
6And to establish them in the earth, and to show Pharaoh and Haman and their hosts that which they feared from them.
Quran 28:6 (Pickthall) · context
وَقَالَ فِرْعَوْنُ يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلْمَلَأُ مَا عَلِمْتُ لَكُم مِّنْ إِلَٰهٍ غَيْرِى فَأَوْقِدْ لِى يَٰهَٰمَٰنُ عَلَى ٱلطِّينِ فَٱجْعَل لِّى صَرْحًا لَّعَلِّىٓ أَطَّلِعُ إِلَىٰٓ إِلَٰهِ مُوسَىٰ وَإِنِّى لَأَظُنُّهُۥ مِنَ ٱلْكَٰذِبِينَ 38
38And Pharaoh said: O chiefs! I know not that ye have a god other than me, so kindle for me (a fire), O Haman, to bake the mud; and set up for me a lofty tower in order that I may survey the god of Moses; and lo! I deem him of the liars.
Quran 28:38 (Pickthall) · context
وَقَالَ فِرْعَوْنُ يَٰهَٰمَٰنُ ٱبْنِ لِى صَرْحًا لَّعَلِّىٓ أَبْلُغُ ٱلْأَسْبَٰبَ 36 أَسْبَٰبَ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ فَأَطَّلِعَ إِلَىٰٓ إِلَٰهِ مُوسَىٰ وَإِنِّى لَأَظُنُّهُۥ كَٰذِبًا وَكَذَٰلِكَ زُيِّنَ لِفِرْعَوْنَ سُوٓءُ عَمَلِهِۦ وَصُدَّ عَنِ ٱلسَّبِيلِ وَمَا كَيْدُ فِرْعَوْنَ إِلَّا فِى تَبَابٍ 37
36And Pharaoh said: O Haman! Build for me a tower that haply I may reach the roads, 37The roads of the heavens, and may look upon the god of Moses, though verily I think him a liar. Thus was the evil that he did made fairseeming unto Pharaoh, and he was debarred from the (right) way. The plot of Pharaoh ended but in ruin.
Quran 40:36-37 (Pickthall) · context
1After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes who were with him.
Esther 3:1 (WEB) · context
3They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. 4They said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth.”
Genesis 11:3-4 (WEB) · context
A Samaritan at Sinai
The Quran says As-Samiri misled Israel into making the golden calf while Moses was on the mountain. Samaria was founded by King Omri centuries after Moses; there were no Samaritans at Sinai. In Exodus it is Aaron who makes the calf.
قَالَ فَإِنَّا قَدْ فَتَنَّا قَوْمَكَ مِنۢ بَعْدِكَ وَأَضَلَّهُمُ ٱلسَّامِرِىُّ 85
85He said: Lo! We have tried thy folk in thine absence, and As-Samiri hath misled them.
Quran 20:85 (Pickthall) · context
قَالُوا۟ مَآ أَخْلَفْنَا مَوْعِدَكَ بِمَلْكِنَا وَلَٰكِنَّا حُمِّلْنَآ أَوْزَارًا مِّن زِينَةِ ٱلْقَوْمِ فَقَذَفْنَٰهَا فَكَذَٰلِكَ أَلْقَى ٱلسَّامِرِىُّ 87 فَأَخْرَجَ لَهُمْ عِجْلًا جَسَدًا لَّهُۥ خُوَارٌ فَقَالُوا۟ هَٰذَآ إِلَٰهُكُمْ وَإِلَٰهُ مُوسَىٰ فَنَسِىَ 88
87They said: We broke not tryst with thee of our own will, but we were laden with burdens of ornaments of the folk, then cast them (in the fire), for thus As-Samiri proposed. 88Then he produced for them a calf, of saffron hue, which gave forth a lowing sound. And they cried: This is your god and the god of Moses, but he hath forgotten.
Quran 20:87-88 (Pickthall) · context
قَالَ فَمَا خَطْبُكَ يَٰسَٰمِرِىُّ 95
95(Moses) said: And what hast thou to say, O Samiri?
Quran 20:95 (Pickthall) · context
24He bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver; and he built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, Samaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill.
1 Kings 16:24 (WEB) · context
1When the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.” 2Aaron said to them, “Take off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3All the people took off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4He received what they handed him, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molded calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
Exodus 32:1-4 (WEB) · context
Dhu'l-Qarneyn and the muddy spring
The Quran's Dhu'l-Qarneyn (the two-horned one) travels to the setting-place of the sun and finds it setting in a muddy spring. Classical commentators widely identified him with Alexander the Great, and the story closely parallels the Syriac Alexander Legend, composed around AD 629-636, a few years before the Quran was finalised (Kevin van Bladel, 2008).
83They will ask thee of Dhu'l-Qarneyn. Say: I shall recite unto you a remembrance of him. 84Lo! We made him strong in the land and gave him unto every thing a road. 85And he followed a road 86Till, when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring, and found a people thereabout. We said: O Dhu'l-Qarneyn! Either punish or show them kindness.
Quran 18:83-86 (Pickthall) · context
Stories from second-century legends
Several Quran stories about Jesus and Mary match later Christian legends rather than the Gospels: Jesus making birds from clay (Infancy Gospel of Thomas 2, second century), Mary raised in the Temple and fed there under Zechariah's care (Protoevangelium of James 8, about AD 150), and the palm tree bending to feed Mary (Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew 20, a later Latin text drawing on older traditions). The church never treated these legends as Scripture.
وَرَسُولًا إِلَىٰ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ أَنِّى قَدْ جِئْتُكُم بِـَٔايَةٍ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ أَنِّىٓ أَخْلُقُ لَكُم مِّنَ ٱلطِّينِ كَهَيْـَٔةِ ٱلطَّيْرِ فَأَنفُخُ فِيهِ فَيَكُونُ طَيْرًۢا بِإِذْنِ ٱللَّهِ وَأُبْرِئُ ٱلْأَكْمَهَ وَٱلْأَبْرَصَ وَأُحْىِ ٱلْمَوْتَىٰ بِإِذْنِ ٱللَّهِ وَأُنَبِّئُكُم بِمَا تَأْكُلُونَ وَمَا تَدَّخِرُونَ فِى بُيُوتِكُمْ إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَـَٔايَةً لَّكُمْ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ 49
49And will make him a messenger unto the Children of Israel, (saying): Lo! I come unto you with a sign from your Lord. Lo! I fashion for you out of clay the likeness of a bird, and I breathe into it and it is a bird, by Allah's leave. I heal him who was born blind, and the leper, and I raise the dead, by Allah's leave. And I announce unto you what ye eat and what ye store up in your houses. Lo! herein verily is a portent for you, if ye are to be believers.
Quran 3:49 (Pickthall) · context
فَتَقَبَّلَهَا رَبُّهَا بِقَبُولٍ حَسَنٍ وَأَنۢبَتَهَا نَبَاتًا حَسَنًا وَكَفَّلَهَا زَكَرِيَّا كُلَّمَا دَخَلَ عَلَيْهَا زَكَرِيَّا ٱلْمِحْرَابَ وَجَدَ عِندَهَا رِزْقًا قَالَ يَٰمَرْيَمُ أَنَّىٰ لَكِ هَٰذَا قَالَتْ هُوَ مِنْ عِندِ ٱللَّهِ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَرْزُقُ مَن يَشَآءُ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ 37
37And her Lord accepted her with full acceptance and vouchsafed to her a goodly growth; and made Zachariah her guardian. Whenever Zachariah went into the sanctuary where she was, he found that she had food. He said: O Mary! Whence cometh unto thee this (food)? She answered: It is from Allah. Allah giveth without stint to whom He will.
Quran 3:37 (Pickthall) · context
23And the pangs of childbirth drove her unto the trunk of the palm-tree. She said: Oh, would that I had died ere this and had become a thing of naught, forgotten! 24Then (one) cried unto her from below her, saying: Grieve not! Thy Lord hath placed a rivulet beneath thee, 25And shake the trunk of the palm-tree toward thee, thou wilt cause ripe dates to fall upon thee. 26So eat and drink and be consoled. And if thou meetest any mortal, say: Lo! I have vowed a fast unto the Beneficent, and may not speak this day to any mortal.
Quran 19:23-26 (Pickthall) · context
The Trinity the Quran rejects is not the Christian Trinity
The Quran condemns those who say God is the third of three, imagines Jesus being asked whether he told people to take him and his mother as two gods, and asks how God could have a child without a consort. No Christian creed has ever included Mary in the Godhead or taught that God had a son by a wife. The Christian faith is one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with the Son eternally begotten, not made.
لَّقَدْ كَفَرَ ٱلَّذِينَ قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ ثَالِثُ ثَلَٰثَةٍ وَمَا مِنْ إِلَٰهٍ إِلَّآ إِلَٰهٌ وَٰحِدٌ وَإِن لَّمْ يَنتَهُوا۟ عَمَّا يَقُولُونَ لَيَمَسَّنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ مِنْهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ 73
73They surely disbelieve who say: Lo! Allah is the third of three; when there is no Allah save the One Allah. If they desist not from so saying a painful doom will fall on those of them who disbelieve.
Quran 5:73 (Pickthall) · context
وَإِذْ قَالَ ٱللَّهُ يَٰعِيسَى ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ ءَأَنتَ قُلْتَ لِلنَّاسِ ٱتَّخِذُونِى وَأُمِّىَ إِلَٰهَيْنِ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ قَالَ سُبْحَٰنَكَ مَا يَكُونُ لِىٓ أَنْ أَقُولَ مَا لَيْسَ لِى بِحَقٍّ إِن كُنتُ قُلْتُهُۥ فَقَدْ عَلِمْتَهُۥ تَعْلَمُ مَا فِى نَفْسِى وَلَآ أَعْلَمُ مَا فِى نَفْسِكَ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ عَلَّٰمُ ٱلْغُيُوبِ 116
116And when Allah saith: O Jesus, son of Mary! Didst thou say unto mankind: Take me and my mother for two gods beside Allah? he saith: Be glorified! It was not mine to utter that to which I had no right. If I used to say it, then Thou knewest it. Thou knowest what is in my mind, and I know not what is in Thy Mind. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Knower of Things Hidden?
Quran 5:116 (Pickthall) · context
بَدِيعُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ أَنَّىٰ يَكُونُ لَهُۥ وَلَدٌ وَلَمْ تَكُن لَّهُۥ صَٰحِبَةٌ وَخَلَقَ كُلَّ شَىْءٍ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍ عَلِيمٌ 101
101The Originator of the heavens and the earth! How can He have a child, when there is for Him no consort, when He created all things and is Aware of all things?
Quran 6:101 (Pickthall) · context
19Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Matthew 28:19 (WEB) · context
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that has been made.
John 1:1-3 (WEB) · context
4Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one.
Deuteronomy 6:4 (WEB) · context
What Muslims answer
Muslim answers: sister of Aaron means a descendant or namesake (the Sahih Muslim report above); Haman was an Egyptian title or official (some cite a hieroglyphic name read as Hmn-h); Samiri is a personal name, not a demonym; the muddy spring describes what Dhu'l-Qarneyn saw, and he may be Cyrus rather than Alexander; and the Quran rebukes a Christian sect (such as the Collyridians, who venerated Mary) rather than mainstream doctrine.
Why that answer fails
Each answer is possible on its own; together they are a pattern of special pleading that is never needed for the Biblical text these stories borrow from. Egyptologists do not accept the Haman hieroglyph reading. The Collyridians are known only from a single fourth-century description by Epiphanius of Salamis, and the Quran addresses Christians in general, not a lost sect.
Where scholars disagree
- The identity of Dhu'l-Qarneyn (Alexander, Cyrus or another) is disputed among Muslim scholars.
- The dating of the Syriac Alexander Legend (AD 629-636) and its direction of influence are discussed in the literature; van Bladel argues for a Syriac source used in Q 18.
Sources
- Earliest source The Quran, Pickthall translation: 3:35-37, 3:49, 4:82, 5:73, 5:116, 6:101, 18:83-86, 19:23-28, 20:85-95, 28:6, 28:38, 40:36-37, 66:12.
- Sahih Muslim 2135 (sunnah.com numbering).
- Kevin van Bladel, "The Alexander Legend in the Qur'an 18:83-102", in G. S. Reynolds (ed.), The Qur'an in Its Historical Context (Routledge, 2008).
- Infancy Gospel of Thomas 2; Protoevangelium of James 7-8; Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew 20 (standard editions, e.g. J. K. Elliott, The Apocryphal New Testament, Oxford, 1993).
- Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion 79 (on the Collyridians).