Missionary Sam Shamoun from the anti-Islamic website Ansswering-Islam believes he has come up with a contradiction between the Quran, and the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in the hadiths, or as Shamoun calls it, “How Muhammad’s Sunna Trumps the Quran Once Again”.
Shamoun writes:
According to the Quran, every person must face the judgment of Allah in order to give an account and be recompensed for everything s/he has done and earned.
How (will it be) when We gather them together on the Day about which there is no doubt (i.e. the Day of Resurrection). And each person will be paid in full what he has earned? And they will not be dealt with unjustly. S. 3:25 Hilali-Khan
On the Day when every person will be confronted with all the good he has done, and all the evil he has done, he will wish that there were a great distance between him and his evil. And Allah warns you against Himself (His Punishment) and Allah is full of Kindness to the (His) slaves. S. 3:30 Hilali-Khan
“that God may recompense every soul for its earnings; surely God is swift at the reckoning.” S. 14:51 Arberry
And when the written pages of deeds (good and bad) of every person shall be laid open; And when the heaven shall be stripped off and taken away from its place; And when Hell-fire shall be kindled to fierce ablaze. And when Paradise shall be brought near, (Then) every person will know what he has brought (of good and evil). S. 81:10-14 Hilali-Khan – cf. Q. 2:281; 3:161; 6:70; 10:30, 54; 20:15; 39:70; 40:17; 45:22
Indeed as Shamoun rightfully points out, according to the Quran everybody will eventually be presented with their deeds, both their good and bad, after which they shall be judged for all they have done while they were alive.
Shamoun though thinks he has found a contradiction, and he writes:
Muhammad, on the other hand, contradicted these crystal texts from his own scripture sine he told his followers that there will be 70,000 of his followers who will enter paradise without having to face judgment in order to give an account for their actions:
Narrated Ibn ‘Abbas: Allah’s Apostle said, “Nations were displayed before me; one or two prophets would pass by along with a few followers. A prophet would pass by accompanied by nobody. Then a big crowd of people passed in front of me and I asked, ‘Who are they Are they my followers?’ It was said, ‘No. It is Moses and his followers.’ It was said to me, ‘Look at the horizon.’ Behold! There was a multitude of people filling the horizon. Then it was said to me, ‘Look there and there about the stretching sky! Behold! There was a multitude filling the horizon,’ It was said to me, ‘This is your nation out of whom seventy thousand shall enter Paradise without reckoning.’” Then the Prophet entered his house without telling his companions who they (the 70,000) were. So the people started talking about the issue and said, “It is we who have believed in Allah and followed His Apostle; therefore those people are either ourselves or our children who are born m the Islamic era, for we were born in the Pre-lslamic Period of Ignorance.” When the Prophet heard of that, he came out and said. “Those people are those who do not treat themselves with Ruqya, nor do they believe in bad or good omen (from birds etc.) nor do they get themselves branded (Cauterized). But they put their trust (only) in their Lord ” On that ‘Ukasha bin Muhsin said, “Am I one of them, O Allah’s Apostle?” The Prophet said, “Yes.” Then another person got up and said, “Am I one of them?” The Prophet said, “’Ukasha has anticipated you.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 7, Book 71, Number 606)
Narrated Ibn Abbas: Allah’s Apostle said, “Seventy thousand people of my followers will enter Paradise without accounts, and they are those who do not practice Ar-Ruqya and do not see an evil omen in things, and put their trust in their Lord. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 8, Book 76, Number 479)
Now this places Muslims in a dilemma since this means that the Quran is either right, and therefore Muhammad’s sunna is wrong, or the Quran is grossly mistaken.
Shamoun presents two hadiths that quote the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as saying that 70,000 of his followers will enter paradise without accounts, and without a reckoning. According to Shamoun in his own words, this puts Muslims in a ‘dilemma’ and either the Quran is right, or the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is wrong.
In actuality there is no ‘dilemma’ for the Muslims, the only problem here unfortunately is with Mr. Shamoun’s limited thinking, or his use of critical thinking, though in this case you don’t really need to utilize critical thinking.
So how does one address this supposed contradiction? There is no contradiction, that’s the first point that needs to be established. As anyone knows, there is something called the exception to the rule, which is defined as:
Anything excluded from or not in conformance with a general rule, principle, class, etc. (http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-definition/exception%20to%20the%20rule)
The 70,000 Muslims who will have no reckoning are therefore the exception to the general rule that all people will be provided with an account of their deeds. All people will indeed be provided with their reckoning, however from all these people 70,000 will be excluded, as they are the exception to the general ruling, very simple and straightforward.
So much for Shamoun’s ‘dilemma’.
Categories: Islam
The Muslim Debate Initiative 
it is a contradiction the verse says every person it doesn’t say those few who were selected by Muhammad were saved without reckoning but sam shamoun shouldn’t have tried to compare a quranic verse which is more authentic to a hadith
Shamoun and Shamounians seem to lack proper training in basic logics.
It is the phrase “every person” in the Qur’anic passages that make it a general rule. General rules, as is generally known, have exceptions. The exception here is provided in the Hadiths.
The fact that the number of the people that would make it to heaven without reckoning are exception to the general is made clearer by the fact stated in the Hadiths that they must fulfil certain conditions (not believe in omens, not to do “ruqya”, and always trust on God alone) to be able to make it without reckoning or else the general rule applies.
The law of non-contradiction proves that such a general rule and its exception provided in the Hadiths can not be considered as contradictory. If two things/events/circumstances can occur simulteneously then they can not be contradictory.
Due to their well-known nature, Shamounians won’t understand till they are given examples of this from the Bible which they wrongly take to be divine not human. Jesus allegedly says: “For EVERYONE who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7: 8). So, here Jesus allegedly says that EVERY PERSON who asks shall receive, who seeks shall find (also see (Prov. 8:17, Luke 11:8-10) ). But Proverbs 1: 28 says: “Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer. THEY WILL SEEK ME DELIGENTLY BUT WILL NOT FIND ME”. Jesus also allegedly says: “…for many, I tell you, will seek to enter but will not be able” (Luke 13: 24. See also Psalms 18:41, Prov. 1:28, Lev. 3:8, 3:44, Amos 8:12).
In the first set of passages, Jesus and some other past scriptures say that EVERY PERSON that asks shall receive, that seeks shall find. But the the second set of passages, Jesus and some past scriptures show that some that ask shall not receive, that seek shall not find! These must be contradictory according to Shamounians that lack basic logics! As long as both could occur simulteneously, the general term “every person” in the first set of the passages never makes the two statements contradictory! Thus the second set of the passages could well be just an exception to the general rule in the first set of the passages (eventhough the first set of the passages use the word “every person”)!
Contradiction is proved only in two mutually exclusive things or events, in things or events that can not both occur simulteneously. The Bible has thousands of real contradictions. Lets have few examples.
Regarding the death of Aaron, Moses’ brother, in Numbers 33:38 (See also Numbers 20:22-29) the Bible says that “Aaron the priest ascended Mount Hor at the command of the LORD, and died there…”, while in Deuteronomy 10:6 it says that “the Israelites marched to Moserah. Aaron died there and was buried there…” If you take the first passage literally, Aaron died at Mount Hor, but then the second passage cannot be taken literally that says Aaron died and was buried at Moserah. These cannot literally occur simulteneously and thus are contradictory!
The story appears in Genesis 12:10-20 about when Abraham went into Egypt and deceitfully told Pharaoh that Sarah was his sister when in fact Sarah was Abraham’s wife. This story seems to be retold in Genesis 20:1-7 with some significant variations. In the second version, Abraham’s deception takes place in the land of Gerar instead of in Egypt and Abraham deceives King Abimelech instead of Pharaoh. Now we could choose to believe that Abraham pulled the same stunt twice in different places, but the text never indicates that Abraham had done this before, or that Abraham had failed to learn any lessons from his earlier actions. It seems likely that these are two versions of only one event. If so, then if we take one story to be literally true, then the other story cannot be. If we choose, on the other hand, to believe that Abraham lied to two different rulers then we will avoid having contradicting stories, but we would be interpreting the events as being separate even though they appear so similar and there is no acknowledgement that the deception was taking place for a second time.
Such thousands of contradictions, inconsistencies and other errors proved the Bible to be just human like all human books.
it doesn’t matter what the old testament says Jesus is what is right now when Jesus everyone he really means everyone and the old testament verses are speaking about something else
Lol!
You did not realize that:
1. The law of non-contradiction proves that there is no contradiction concerning the general rule in the Qur’anic passages and the exception (based on certain conditions) in the Hadiths under discussion, as explained. Your all-human Bible is not needed to establish this logical fact.
2. I gave out the example of a general statement and its exception not only by citing Jesus’ alleged words against Old Testament passages but Jesus’ alleged words against Jesus’ alleged words (and old Testament words against Old Testament words). You seem so spiritually blind to see!
3. I gave out two instances of real contradictions in the Bible which you conveniently ignored.
Now, let me add few other instances of general statements and their respective exceptions from the Bible with the hope that you may now see.
(A). The Bible says that it is appointed for MEN to die once (Hebrews 9:27). However, there have been countless cases of people who died twice here (before Judgement) (1 Kings 17:22; 2 Kings 8:5, Matthew 27:52, Mark 5:25, John 11:44).
And there were men that ascended to heaven without having to die even once:
“And Eli’jah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Eli’sha saw it and he cried, ‘My father, my father! the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!’And he saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces.” (2 Kings 2:1, 11-12)
“By faith Enoch was taken up so THAT HE SHOULD NOT SEE DEATH; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was attested as having pleased God.” (Hebrews 11:5)
Contradictions or exceptions to general rule?
(B). Jesus allegedly claims that NO MAN ascended to heaven but he alone (John 3:13).
Yet, many MEN ascended to heaven:
“And Eli’jah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Eli’sha saw it and he cried, ‘My father, my father! the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!’And he saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces.” (2 Kings 2:1, 11-12)
“By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death;AND HE WAS NOT FOUND, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was attested as having pleased God.” (Hebrews 11:5)
Paul says:
“I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven– whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into Paradise–” (2 Corinthians 12:1-4)
Exception to general statement or contradiction?
Now, let me give you two additional examples of real contradictions in the Bible:
Prof. Bart D. Ehrman reveals:
“Can Exodus 6:3 be right when it says, quite explicitly, that Yahweh was not known by his name Yahweh to the Patriarchs starting with Abraham in the book of Genesis, when Gen. 4;26 indicates that people were calling upon the “name of Yahweh” long before the Patriarchs, and Gen. 15:6- explicitly says that Abraham believed Yahweh, and that Yahweh says to him “I am Yahweh” and Abraham then addresses him as “Yahweh”? (http://ehrmanblog.org/a-better-kind-of-fundamentalist/ )
Prof. Ehrman also:
“Or – one of my favorites – in the account of the ten plagues that Moses performed against the Egyptians to convince the Pharaoh to “let my people go,” if Exod. 9:6 is right that during the fifth plague “all of the livestock” of the Egyptians were killed, then how can 9:19-20, 25 also be right that shortly afterward, during the seventh plague, the hailstorm killed all of the “livestock” of the Egyptians in the fields? What livestock?” (http://ehrmanblog.org/a-better-kind-of-fundamentalist/ )
Hope that the shackles of bigotry and shamounianism will now be stripped to enable you see the difference between contradictions and general rules/statement and their exceptions.
the bible is not book written by same author and why are you talking about bible when this page is about Quran contradiction it is a contradiction with the hadith the only reason contradictions claim are made against the Quran is because Quran is received and spoke by one person that is believed by Muslims and Quran challenges to look for contradictions the bible doesn’t say this and all the verses about dying only once and other verses saying that some people lived again is right except when god brings back people from the dead and Jesus alone going to heaven John 3:13 and 2 Kings 2:1, 11-12 that’s misunderstood Christians believe old testament saints went to heaven so what Jesus is saying is that he is from heaven and now is more qualified to talk about heaven then the rabbis read John 3:11-13 and bart ehrman is a new testament scholar especially when it comes to the historical Jesus or new testament authentic not a old testament scholar I know Muslims to use him because he was Christian and now agnostic just they use other liberal and atheistic scholars like dale allison,john dominc crossan, raymond e brown ,james tabor and the verses bart ehrman uses Exodus 6:3 and Gen. 4;26 yaweh was used before patriarch but it was only in the time of that name was realised and started becoming common and Exod. 9:6 and 9:19-20 it might have their live stock died but then later they got other live stock from other places
John: “the bible is not book written by same author”
My Response: This won’t justify the contradictions therein. Two human authors writing humanly could well contradict each other while writing on the same event or thing. It only proves that both write just quite humanly.
John:”and why are you talking about bible when this page is about Quran contradiction it is a contradiction with the hadith”
My Response: I just brought in the Bible to show you from the very book you wrongly took to be not human but divine that the alleged contradiction between the Qur’anic passages and the Hadiths are just a case of a general rule and its exception by showing you examples of this also from the very book of yours. I went on to show you actual contradictions from this very book you are indoctrinated to hold to be perfect. This is to help you differentiate between actual contradiction and the case of general rule and its exception.
John: ” the only reason contradictions claim are made against the Quran is because Quran is received and spoke by one person that is believed by Muslims and Quran challenges to look for contradictions the bible doesn’t say this”
Then you should have looked actual contradictions which never exist in the Qur’an and not general statements/rules and their exceptions.And it is remarkable that the Qur’an made this challenge as no human could write a human work and challenge all humans world over of all times to find a real contradiction to prove it human. None succeeded as per as real contradiction is concerned! The fact that the anonymous human authors of the Bible never dared claim this proves that they never thought their all-human works to be perfect, without a contradiction!
John: “all the verses about dying only once and other verses saying that some people lived again is right except when god brings back people from the dead”
My Response: I am glad that now you realize that some verses talk about general rules/statements and others provide exceptions to the general rules/statements.
John: ” so what Jesus is saying is that he is from heaven and now is more qualified to talk about heaven”
My Response: This is not what Jesus says in the passages. This is human interpretation in attempt to circumvent the seeming contradiction.
John: “and bart ehrman is a new testament scholar especially when it comes to the historical Jesus or new testament authentic not a old testament scholar I know Muslims to use him because he was Christian and now agnostic just they use other liberal and atheistic scholars like dale allison,john dominc crossan, raymond e brown ,james tabor”
My Response: Bart is a world-leading Bible scholar who specializes in New Testament. Muslims use him just because he is a scholar in the field. A person’s argument is looked at not his person, Mr. John. Attacking someone’s person or status instead of his argument is a common logical fallacy known as ad Hominem.
And if it is wrong to use non-Christians’ arguments against Christianity, how could it be not equally wrong to use non-Muslims’ arguments against Islam? Or are you operating under double standards which is a fallacy?
John:”the verses bart ehrman uses Exodus 6:3 and Gen. 4;26 yaweh was used before patriarch but it was only in the time of that name was realised and started becoming common”
My Response: This not not what the passage under scrutiny says! It says that Abraham did not know God by his name YHWH when the fact is that the patriarchs knew the name and used it and Abraham knew the name and called God by it!
John: “Exod. 9:6 and 9:19-20 it might have their live stock died but then later they got other live stock from other places”
My Response: No verse ever says this throughout the Bible – this must only be John’s Revised Version (JRV)!!
You can see that in trying to harmonized actual contradictions in the Bible you have to create stories and scenarios from your human imperfect brain totally absent from the Bible and totally unwarranted as per as supposed God’s perfect Word is concerned!
You are yet to respond to the other contradictions I cited.
John: “the bible is not book written by same author”
YOU: This won’t justify the contradictions therein. Two human authors writing humanly could well contradict each other while writing on the same event or thing. It only proves that both write just quite humanly.
No it does because different authors may contradict while one author might not so if there is contradiction in the bible it might be expected
YOU: I just brought in the Bible to show you from the very book you wrongly took to be not human but divine that the alleged contradiction between the Qur’anic passages and the Hadiths are just a case of a general rule and its exception by showing you examples of this also from the very book of yours. I went on to show you actual contradictions from this very book you are indoctrinated to hold to be perfect. This is to help you differentiate between actual contradiction and the case of general rule and its exception.
I don’t claim the bible is divine neither do most Christian it is inspired by god but written by men and your example is not same because this contradiction claim is from the bible while the other is one from Quran and one from hadith
You: Then you should have looked actual contradictions which never exist in the Qur’an and not general statements/rules and their exceptions.And it is remarkable that the Qur’an made this challenge as no human could write a human work and challenge all humans world over of all times to find a real contradiction to prove it human. None succeeded as per as real contradiction is concerned! The fact that the anonymous human authors of the Bible never dared claim this proves that they never thought their all-human works to be perfect, without a contradiction!
I already said that it isn’t good to claim contradiction between hadith and Quran and this is only one contradiction claim made by non Muslim there are also and yes the challenge may have already be done but the Muslim who are believers are the ones to judge who will keep saying the challenge has not been met
You: I am glad that now you realize that some verses talk about general rules/statements and others provide exceptions to the general rules/statements.
Yes maybe but if this was in the text of the Quran inside of in the hadith and Quran then challenged would have been met but here it is still contradiction but not in the Quran
My Response: This is not what Jesus says in the passages. This is human interpretation in attempt to circumvent the seeming contradiction.
Yes but that is what is understood when reading the verse and doing human interpretation is nothing wrong im sure muslims also do this
“and bart ehrman is a new testament scholar especially when it comes to the historical Jesus or new testament authentic not a old testament scholar I know Muslims to use him because he was Christian and now agnostic just they use other liberal and atheistic scholars like dale allison,john dominc crossan, raymond e brown ,james tabor”
You: Bart is a world-leading Bible scholar who specializes in New Testament. Muslims use him just because he is a scholar in the field. A person’s argument is looked at not his person, Mr. John. Attacking someone’s person or status instead of his argument is a common logical fallacy known as ad Hominem.
And if it is wrong to use non-Christians’ arguments against Christianity, how could it be not equally wrong to use non-Muslims’ arguments against Islam? Or are you operating under double standards which is a fallacy?
Yes but not in the old testament and he specialises more on historical Jesus and new testament authentication so if he said something about that it would be good to know and why do you use his arguments for Islam as well that you use for Christianity and what do you mean using non Muslim arguments against Islam? this article speaks on Quran contradiction which author of Quran challenges anyone to find
You: This not not what the passage under scrutiny says! It says that Abraham did not know God by his name YHWH when the fact is that the patriarchs knew the name and used it and Abraham knew the name and called God by it!
Yes but if the patriarch called him Yahweh then it is possible that it was known before him but was not commonly used until them
John: “Exod. 9:6 and 9:19-20 it might have their live stock died but then later they got other live stock from other places”
You: No verse ever says this throughout the Bible – this must only be John’s Revised Version (JRV)!!
Yes but nothing opposes it and this is possible understanding the bible doesn’t mention everything the Egyptian did in their life
You: You are yet to respond to the other contradictions I cited.
yes because they are similar these contradiction claims but different verses
Thanks for realizing that general statements could well have exceptions, as is clearly the case of the Qur’anic passages and the Hadiths ( both being canonical sources of Islam) under discussion.
Thanks for conceding the fact that Biblical authors write actual contradictory statements. This proves the Bible to be just a human book like all other human books.
What I mean by the term “divine” with regards the authorship of the Bible is that you think that it is from God, inspired by God, which is contradicted by the contradictions and other errors it contains.
that is not a response to what I said most of the exception in Christianity are in the bible and I didn’t concede to anything I just tried to explain the contradiction claims and even if have contradiction does not mean the bible is false but if there are quran in contradiction then it would be false