There’s a problem in the Quran that a lot of people have never heard about. It’s called the Islamic Dilemma. It’s not something Christians made up. It comes straight out of what the Quran itself says about the earlier books — the Torah and the Gospel.
Here’s the short version. The Quran tells the Jews and Christians of Muhammad’s day that the books they already have are the real revelation from Allah. It calls them guidance and light. It tells them to judge by those books. At the same time, the Quran turns around and denies the main things those books teach about Yeshua. You can’t have it both ways. That’s the dilemma.
Let me break it down.
The Quran affirms the Torah and the Gospel as real, trustworthy revelation.
The Quran doesn’t treat the earlier Scriptures as lost or already corrupted. It speaks about them as books the people still have in their hands.
Quran 3:3–4 says:
“He has sent down upon you, [O Muhammad], the Book in truth, confirming what was before it. And He revealed the Torah and the Gospel before, as guidance for the people. And He revealed the Criterion. Indeed, those who disbelieve in the verses of Allah will have a severe punishment. And Allah is Exalted in Might, the Owner of Retribution.”
Quran 5:44 says about the Torah:
“Indeed, We sent down the Torah, in which was guidance and light. The prophets who submitted [to Allah] judged by it for the Jews, as did the rabbis and scholars by that with which they were entrusted of the Scripture of Allah, and they were witnesses thereto.”
Quran 5:46–47 says about Yeshua and the Gospel:
“And We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming that which came before him in the Torah; and We gave him the Gospel, in which was guidance and light and confirming that which preceded it of the Torah as guidance and instruction for the righteous. And let the People of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed therein. And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed — then it is those who are the defiantly disobedient.”
Quran 5:68 pushes it further:
“Say, ‘O People of the Scripture, you are [standing] on nothing until you uphold [the law of] the Torah, the Gospel, and what has been revealed to you from your Lord.’”
And if Muhammad himself was unsure, Quran 10:94 told him:
“So if you are in doubt, [O Muhammad], about that which We have revealed to you, then ask those who have been reading the Scripture before you .”
These verses are speaking to people living in the seventh century. The Quran is telling them the books they already possess are from Allah, contain guidance and light, and should be used to judge. That only makes sense if those books were still reliable when Muhammad showed up.
The books the Quran affirms teach things the Quran denies.
We know what the Torah and the Gospel said in Muhammad’s day because we still have them. Manuscripts of the New Testament from centuries before Muhammad show the same message we have today. Yeshua is the Son of God. He was crucified. He rose from the dead. He is worthy of worship.
The Bible says:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” [John 1:1, 14].
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” [John 3:16].
“And Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” [John 20:28].
“Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” [1 Corinthians 15:3–4].
The Quran rejects these things. It says God has no Son (Quran 112:3; 19:35). It says Yeshua was not crucified (Quran 4:157). It says those who say “Allah is the Messiah” have disbelieved (Quran 5:72).
So the same books the Quran calls "guidance and light" and tells people to judge by are the books that teach the opposite of what the Quran teaches about Yeshua.
That leaves only two options.
Option one: The Torah and Gospel that the Jews and Christians had in Muhammad’s day were true and reliable.
If that’s the case, then what they teach about Yeshua is true. He is the Divine Son who died and rose. The Quran contradicts those books. Therefore the Quran is wrong.
Option two: The Torah and Gospel were already corrupted before Muhammad arrived.
If that’s the case, then the Quran is wrong for calling them guidance and light, for telling people to judge by them, and for telling Muhammad to check with the people who were reading them.
Why would Allah affirm corrupted books and command people to follow them?
Either way, the Quran’s own statements about the earlier scriptures create a contradiction. That’s the Islamic Dilemma. It doesn’t start by assuming the Bible is true. It starts with what the Quran itself claims, then follows it to the end.
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