When we ask our Muslim friends why they believe in Islam, we hear some fascinating claims about Muhammad and the Koran.
However, a careful examination of the facts shows that these claims are based on myths that have been propagated by misleading Islamic preachers and apologists. Here are the top ten myths that Muslims believe about Islam, Muhammad, and the Koran.
Myth #10, The Qur’an contains miraculous scientific insights.
Given the prestige of science in the modern world, it is not surprising that Muslim apologists like Ahmed Deedat and Zakir Naik, who will say practically anything to convince people that Islam is true, tell their listeners that science supports the Koran.
In reality, the Koran is a scientific catastrophe. The Qur’an states that:
- The sun sets on a muddy puddle.
- That semen forms between the spine and the ribs.
- That the Earth is flat.
- That there are seven lands.
- That the sun orbits the Earth.
- That human embryos are blood clots.
- That the sky would fall on the Earth if Allah did not hold it.
- That the stars are missiles that Allah uses to shoot the demons that try to sneak into the sky.
Students be sure to share these dazzling ideas in your science classes. Your teachers will be amazed.
Myth #9 – The Qur’an is a literary miracle
The Qur’an repeatedly claims to possess a supernatural eloquence that human beings cannot imitate. Muslim preachers and apologists take the claims of the Koran for granted and insist that only God could write something as beautiful and perfect as the Koran.
In reality, the Qur’an is a poorly written, confusing, disorganized, and incoherent mess. As the Iranian scholar Ali Dashti wrote in his 23-year-old book.
“The Qur’an contains sentences that are incomplete and not fully intelligible without the help of commentaries, foreign words, unknown Arabic words, and words used with a meaning other than normal, adjectives and verbs inflected without observing gender and number concord. Illogically and ungrammatically applied pronouns, which sometimes have no reference or predicates, and rhyming passages are often far from the subjects. These and similar aberrations in language have made room for critics who deny the eloquence of the Qur’an.”
The only miracle here is that anyone sees the Qur’an as a literary miracle.
Myth #8: Muhammad was without sin.
Muslims are taught that Muhammad was the greatest man who ever lived. Tragically, his desire to shower his prophet with praise has led to an unprecedented amount of exaggeration, forcing many Muslims to claim that Muhammad had no sin.
Actually, Muhammad sinned as if he were a sport. Even if we ignore the things he did, we would consider him evil: having sex with a nine-year-old girl, breaking an oath to his wives, torturing a man for money, etc.
Even if we ignore all this, the most reliable sources in Islam admit that Muhammad was a sinner.
In the Qur’an, Allah commands Muhammad to ask for forgiveness for his sin and tells him that he “will forgive his sins of the past and future.”
In Sahih Al-Bukhari, Muhammad declares: “By Allah, I seek forgiveness from Allah and turn to him. In regret more than 70 times a day.”
Did Muhammad need to repent more than 70 times a day?
That’s like every 20 minutes, even without sleep. If Mohammed slept eight or nine hours a day but he still had to repent 70 times a day, he would have to repent every twelve or fifteen minutes.
What was he doing?
And more importantly, who was he doing it to?
Myth #7: Islam is anti-slavery.
Muslim preachers typically modify and adapt the message of Islam to fit the beliefs and values of their listeners. Thus, acknowledging the racial tensions in the United States in the 1960s and seeking to win more black converts, these preachers assured their listeners that Islam is anti-slavery. In reality, Mohammed bought, owned, sold, and traded black African slaves.
We read about a “black slave of the Messenger of Allah” in Sahih Al-Bukhari.
We read about Muhammad’s “black slave named Anjasha” in Sahih Al-Bukhari.
We read about the “black slave of Mohammed who was called Mid’am” in Sunan an-Nasai.
We read about Muhammad using black slaves as a form of currency in Sunan an-Nasai.
Muhammad gave a man two blacks for an Arab slave. Muslim sources described this as “Sale of animals for animals of different quantity or quality.
In supplies from the afterlife. Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya lists 28 of Muhammad’s male slaves and twelve of his female slaves. It is quite amazing that a man who was so vehemently opposed to slavery in the minds of Muslims had at least 40 slaves.
And let’s not forget that Muhammad, a man the Koran calls a beautiful behavior pattern, would have sex with his female slaves. Interestingly, Muslim preachers never mention any of this in their Dawa unless of course they are preaching to men who want to have sex slaves one day. So preachers are suddenly itching to tell the truth.
Myth #6: The Qur’an contains no contradictions.
Just as Muslim preachers insist that Muhammad was perfect, they also insist that the Koran is perfect, completely free of contradictions. In reality, the Qur’an contradicts itself on almost every issue it addresses.
For example: what did Allah create first the heavens or the earth? According to Sura 2, verse 29, the Earth was created first, then the heavens. According to Sura 79, verses 27 to 30, the heavens were created first and then the Earth.
How long did it take Allah to create the universe? According to Sura 7, verse 54, it took six days. According to Sura 41, verses 9 to 12, it took eight days.
Of what is man created? Sura 96, verse 2 says that man was created from a clot of blood. Sura 21, verse 30 says that man was created from water. Surah 16 verse 4 says that man was created from a small seed. Sura 15, verse 26 says that man was created from clay and mud. Sura 3, verse 59 says that man was created from dust. Sura 11, verse 61 says that man was created from the Earth. And yet Sura 19, verse 67 says that man was created from absolutely nothing.
Since the Qur’an is supposedly the eternal discourse of Allah, one would think that eternity would be enough time for Allah to clarify the history of it.
Myth #5: Islam is a religion of peace.
After every terrorist attack carried out in the name of Allah, Muslim spokesmen are paraded through all the major news networks and given endless platforms to assure viewers that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. In reality, Muhammad taught his followers to promote peace and tolerance only when it was convenient, that is, when the Muslim community is surrounded by a more powerful enemy. So when the Muslim community was small, Muhammad promoted peace and tolerance, and the revelations he received promoted peace and tolerance.
But as soon as Islam became the most powerful force in Arabia, the message suddenly changed to fight against those who do not believe in Allah. In Sahih Muslim, Muhammad proclaims: “I have been ordered to fight against the people until they testify that there is no God but Allah, that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah and that they establish prayer and pay Zakat”.
Christians and Jews were given three options: Convert to Islam. Pay Jizyah, (that’s tribute money to acknowledge your inferior status) or be executed.
The polytheists were not so lucky. They only had two options, Convert or die.
Anyone who abandoned Islam would also be executed, as Muhammad stated in Sunan an-Nasai 4067: Whoever changes his religion, kill him. Islam commands its followers to violently subjugate the entire world.
If you call that a religion of peace, I can only conclude that the world you live in is the Upside Down World.
Myth #4: Islam is pure monotheism.
One of the biggest selling points of Islam is that it is the religion of strict monotheism, completely free from pagan influences.
In reality, Islam is saturated with pagan teachings and practices.
You can only become a Muslim by reciting the Shahada in which you profess your allegiance not only to Allah but also to a man: Muhammad. Although the word Islam means submission, the Qur’an states that a person can only submit to Allah if he completely submits to Muhammad. Muslims even speak directly to Muhammad during their daily prayers, saying, “Peace be with you, O prophet.” The Qur’an goes so far as to state that Allah sends his prayers to Muhammad. Whatever that means, Muslims bow to a cubical shrine called the Kaaba when they worship.
Even though the Kaaba was a center of pagan worship in pre-Islamic Arabia, Muslims who are physically and financially able must visit the Kaaba at least once in their lifetime. As part of their pilgrimage, they walk around the Kaaba seven times, which was a pre-Islamic pagan practice meant to honor the seven planetary deities that pagans believed orbited the Earth. Muslims also make an effort to kiss the black stone, a pagan rock (in the shape of a vagina) which, according to Muhammad, is actually a sentient entity that will intercede on behalf of Muslims on judgment day.
Allah is not the only eternal being in Islam. Allah’s speech, which we know as the Qur’an, is also eternal. Like the Black Stone, the Qur’an is a conscious agent, and will one day appear in the form of a pale man who will intercede on behalf of the Muslims on the day of judgment. Besides the eternal Qur’an, the Spirit of Allah is eternal and the Spirit is another conscious agent appearing in the form of a man. So, we have the eternal Allah, the conscious word of him that speaks eternally and the conscious spirit of him that breathes eternally.
If I didn’t know better, which I don’t, I’d say this is a bad copy of the Trinity doctrine. But Islam rejects the doctrine of the Trinity, which means that Islam simply has three eternal conscious entities and is therefore polytheistic. When we combine this with the blatant worship of man and pagan stone-kissing in Islam, we can see that no prophet in history has been more successful in spreading paganism than Muhammad.
Myth #3: Islam promotes women’s rights.
As we have already seen, Muslim preachers modify and adapt the message of Islam to fit the beliefs and values of their listeners.
Therefore, when they preach in Western nations that promote equal rights for men and women, they insist that Islam also promotes equal rights for men and women, and even that Muhammad was a feminist.
In reality, no ideology in history has had a more devastating impact on women than Islam.
According to Islam, women are stupid and immoral by nature (Sahih Muslim 142). Husbands can subdue their rebellious wives (Quran 4:34). Men can rape their female captives and female slaves (Quran 23:0-6; 70:22-30). Men can hire prostitutes (Sahih al-Bukhari 5075); men can marry prepubescent girls (Quran 65:4). The majority of the inhabitants of hell (Sahih al-Bukhari 1052), according to Mohammed, are women.
Given that ideas have consequences, it should come as no surprise that studies have repeatedly revealed a correlation between the spread of Islam and discrimination against women.
For example, the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Gender Gap Index, which ranks countries based on the magnitude of the economic gap, the education gap, the health gap, and the political gap between men and women, shows that nine of the ten worst countries in the world for women are Muslim-majority countries. Similarly, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s 2019 Gender and Social Institutions Index, which ranks countries based on levels of discrimination against women, found that ten of the twelve worst countries in the world for women or countries with a Muslim majority.
Of course, there is one place where the spread of Islam has improved the status of women, the Land of Fantasy.
Myth #2: Islam is spreading rapidly due to conversions.
When all other arguments for Islam fail, your Muslim friend will surely proclaim, “But Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world! Why would so many people convert to Islam if it wasn’t true? The rapid growth argument makes two major errors:
First, it assumes that an ideology must be true and that many people adopt it, and this is patently absurd.
Second, he assumes that the rapid growth of Islam is due to conversions.
In reality, the rapid growth of Islam is primarily the result of high Muslim birth rates. Even the Pew Research Report that Muslims cite to show that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world lists the main reason for its growth: “Muslims have more children than members of other religious groups.”
Why do Muslims have more children than members of other religious groups?
Well, as we saw in our response to Myth #3, Muhammad had an extraordinarily low view of women.
Due to the influence of Muhammad, in many parts of the Muslim world there are not many career options for women and the education of girls is frowned upon. So girls get married at a young age (not because it’s their choice, but because that’s the way it is), and their husbands start getting them pregnant. When a woman in America or Britain is having her first child, many Muslim women of the same age are having her fifth or sixth child.
Thus, if Muslim preachers accurately stated the rapid growth argument, it would go something like this: Islam is spreading rapidly because it turns many girls into baby-making machines who have nothing to do in life but spread Islam with their bellies.
Therefore, Islam must be true.
Perhaps we should not call this the rapid growth argument. Instead, we should call it the “Fast Reproduction Argument“.
Myth #1: The Qur’an has been perfectly preserved.
Virtually any Muslim you ever talk to will tell you that the Qur’an has been perfectly preserved, letter for letter, from the time it was revealed to Muhammad. Many Muslims will attribute this perfect preservation to the miraculous protection of Allah, who put the seal of approval on it in the Qur’an protecting it from corruption.
In reality, the Qur’an was changed numerous times, even during the lifetime of Muhammad’s companions. According to Muhammad’s companion Abu Musa (Sahih Muslim 2286), entire chapters of the Qur’an were lost because Muslims did not recite them enough. Muhammad’s companion Ubayy Ibn Kab said that Surah 33 is missing more than 200 verses. Some verses of the Qur’an even disappeared due to a farm animal. Sunan Ibn Majah 1944: It was narrated that Aisha said: “The verse of stoning, breastfeeding and adulthood was revealed ten times, and the paper was with me under the pillow. When Allah’s messenger died, we were worried about him dying, and a tame sheep came in and ate it.” As a general rule, if your God can’t protect your book from a sheep, you probably shouldn’t brag about a miraculous preservation.
But the problems did not end there. The best reciters of Muhammad couldn’t even agree on which chapters were supposed to be in the Koran. Caliph Uthman had to burn countless manuscripts of the Koran to cover up all the differences. And even today Muslims in different parts of the world use different Qur’ans, not different translations, different Arabic versions of the Qur’an.
If there is a miracle here, it is that the Qur’an has all the hallmarks of a book that has been repeatedly changed, and yet never changed.
So those are the top ten myths Muslims believe about Islam.
These myths have long been propagated by misleading preachers and apologists. Unfortunately for them, with the rise of the internet, there has never been a better time to shatter these myths and shatter them.
Generations before ours were able to witness some spectacular changes. Our generation will get to witness the collapse of Islam.
On the contact page, let me know three things. One, do you agree with my list and especially my choice of myth number one? Two, can you think of any myths that should have been on this list but aren’t? And three, what other top ten lists would you like to see this year?