Fact a Day: April 26th

The Facts on Islam (Harvest House, rev. 1998), p. 29

Does the Koran contain contradictory teachings?

The Koran claims that it contains no contradictions. In Sura 4:84 Allah challenges men, “Will they not ponder on the Koran? If it had not come from Allah, they could have surely found in it many contradictions.”* Since Allah claims not to contradict himself, then everything that has purportedly “come down from him” (the Bible, the Koran) must be in agreement. Thus, the Muslim must believe in the doctrinal unity among the books of Allah—the Bible as originally given and the Koran. But we have just seen they conflict; further the Koran contains contradictions within its own pages. In Sura 11 the Koran teaches that one of Noah’s sons didn’t go into the ark and thus “Noah’s son was drowned” in the Flood.* The Koran itself seems to contradict this statement in Sura 21 where it declares that “we saved him [Noah] and all his kinsfolk from the great calamity.”* According to the Bible, all of Noah’s sons are delivered (Gen. 6, 7) and the genealogies are provided.

The Koran also has conflicting accounts of Muhammad’s original call to be a prophet in Sura 53:2-18; 81:19-24 vs. Sura 16:102; 26:192-94 vs. Sura 15:18; 2:97.

Sura 41:9-12 teaches it took God eight days to create the world, whereas Sura 7:51, 10:3 and 11:6 teach it took God six days. In “A Scientific Examination of the Koran,” chapter 10 of The Islamic Invasion, Robert Morey lists many other contradictions.