Conclusion
The Textual History of the Qur'an and the Bible
Chapters
« The Genealogy of Jesus Christ
We can only draw one conclusion from all that has been said. Deedat has failed to discredit the Bible as the Word of God. Like Joommal before him, he has only exposed himself as an unworthy critic of the Christian scriptures.
Furthermore it is sad to see the negative spirit and attitude that pervades every page of his booklet. Nowhere is there any effort to treat the contents of the Bible objectively. Not once is a good word said for it and it amazes us that any one could read through the Bible and write a treatise on it that is purely critical. From first page to last the reader is confronted with a spirit of excessive prejudice, one truly unworthy of a self-acclaimed "scholar of the Bible".
On page 41 of his booklet he urges his readers to obtain a free Bible from our fellowship. I decided one day to visit one of the many Muslims who had, in consequence, written to us for a Bible and found that this young man had followed Deedat's advice on the same page to mark all the alleged contradictions and pornographic passages in coloured ink. He wasted no time in finding the texts he was looking for, which Deedat had vainly promised him would "confute and confuse any missionary or Bible scholar" (Is the Bible God's Word?, p. 41) who happened to come his way. Apart from these texts the young man, however, had made no effort to read the Bible or find out what it actually taught.
We had hoped that the spirit of the Crusades was buried by now but it appears that certain Muslim authors are determined to revive it in the hearts of the Muslim youth of today. Surely any sincere Muslim will agree that such an approach to the Bible is thoroughly questionable. What profit can be gained by perusing a book with no other purpose than to find fault with it? What sort of mentality is this that motivates men to seek nothing but supposed errors in a book before they have even read a word of it? Well did a Christian author say of the Bible:
It is thus a wondrous Word that God has given to man. Its depth and beauty will largely be missed by those who read with only an eye to criticize. (Young, Thy Word is Truth, p. 138)
I have often been heartened to receive letters from Muslims requesting Bibles which show a very deep measure of respect for it and have also been encouraged to discover that there are other Muslim authors in the world who take a different approach to our Holy Book. The Islamic Foundation, a wellknown Muslim organisation which has published many books on Islam, has adopted a far more mature and respectable attitude to the Bible. It encourages all Muslims to do likewise and has this to say of the Christian faith in one of its publications:
The importance of need for a Muslim to study Christianity requires no emphasis ... While Islam is being studied by many Christian students, few Muslims have taken the study of Christianity as a serious task ... The situation in which Muslims find themselves today demands that they study Christianity ... Certainly the best approach to study Christianity is to consult its own source materials and analyze the thoughts and presentations of its adherents, instead of indulging in cheap polemics as regrettably some Muslim writers have done in the past. (Ahmad Von Denffer, General and Introductory Books on Christianity, p. 4)
What sound words of wisdom these are! Unfortunately, as we have seen, it is not only some Muslim writers of the past who have indulged in cheap harangue against the Bible. It is still going on today through the likes of Deedat and Joommal. We can only endorse the sentiments in the quotation we have given and must say to our Muslim readers that they will obtain nothing but a thoroughly distorted view of Christianity from booklets such as the one we have refuted in this publication.
As the wiser Muslim has said, the best way for Muslims to gain a true understanding of the Christian faith is to obtain books written by Christians who truly believe in it. This quote is well worthy of the consideration of all sincere Muslims:
There is no reason why those established in their faith should not read the Bible. This line may be taken with those who aver their strong faith in Islam. Possession of the Qur'an need not debar the Moslem from making acquaintance with scriptures of such unique historical, moral and instructive importance for all men as the Bible. Many Moslems having at first, through ignorance, rejected the Bible, later on learning its true contents have reckoned it their priceless treasure. (Harris, How to Lead Moslems to Christ, p. l7)
We shall willingly supply a free Bible to any Muslim who will read it openly with a genuine desire to discover what it really teaches, who will not deface it in any way as Deedat recommends by colouring in its texts (Is the Bible God's Word?, p. 41), and who will show it the same respect that he would like Christians to show to the Qur'an. Those who share Deedat's prejudices, however, should not bother to open a Bible until they have changed their attitude towards it. They are like those of whom the Qur'an speaks when it says their likeness is as the likeness of the ass carrying books (Quran 62.5). As the donkey is unaware of the value of the load on its back, so such men are ignorant of the spiritual treasure they have taken into their unwashed hands.
May God Almighty, in his great mercy and love, grant that we may all come to the knowledge of his holy truth - and that we may be willing to seek it wherever it may be found. May all Muslims who have the immense privilege of possessing a Bible discover its glorious truths and radiant beauty by reading it openly with a sincere desire to know and understand its teachings and guidance.