A concise AnswerThe main doctrinal difference between Muslims and Christians is that:
- Most Christians worship Jesus as God, or as His son while Muslims believe that Jesus (also called Isa) is a prophet and messiah but is not God.
- Muslims do not accept the Christian belief in Jesus crucification. Muslims believe that Jesus was raised bodily by God, the Creator, to the Heavens and that his resemblance was put on another man who was crucified.
- Muslims believe that The Bible texts had been altered and reflected beliefs that Jesus did not preach and did not call for.
Accordingly, as Prophet Muhammad is the Muslims leader and preacher, they don't believe in him or his prophecy. Also, they don't believe in the Quran (the Muslims holy book that was revealed by God to prophet Muhammad). This Christian disbelief is per the saying in Isa:8:20: "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."
However, some Christians who seek the truth, believe in the prophecy of Muhammad and believe in Quran. About those, Quran says (meaning English translation):
".... You will find the nearest in love to Muslims those who say "we are Christians'. That is because amongst them are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world and they are not arrogant. And when they listen to the Quran revelation received by the Messenger (Muhammad), you see their eyes overflowing with tears because of the truth they have recognized. They say ' O Lord! we believe; so write us down among the witnesses. And why should we not believe in Allah (God) and in that which has come to us of the truth (Islamic Monotheism)? and we wish our Lord admit us in Paradise along with righteous people (prophet Muhammad and his followers). So because of what they said, Allah (God) rewarded them Gardens under which rivers flow in Paradise where they abide forever. Such is the reward of the good-doers. But those who disbelieved (Quran God revelation and Muhammad prophecy) they shall be the dwellers of the Hell"[Quran, chapter 5, verses 82-86]
In the meantime some of those Christians had remained as Christians to avoid troubles that may happen if they convert to Islam and others converted to Islam.
Quran says also in this regards (Meaning English translation):
" There are, certainly, among the People of the Book (Jewish and Christians) those who believe in Allah (God), in the revelation to you (Quran), and in the revelation to them (Torah and Bible), bowing in humility to Allah (God): they do not sell the verses of God for a little price, for them is a reward with their Lord"(Quran, chapter 3, verse 199)
God Also explains in Quran that he caused the different nations with different beliefs only for them to compete in doing good deeds to bring them closer to God, but not to stay in conflict. Quran says:
"... If Allah had willed, He would have made you one nation (one belief), but that may test you in what He has given you; so compete in good deeds; then God will inform you about that in which you used to differ"(Quran, chapter 5, verse 48)
In conclusion, different beliefs and different faiths are something only between people and their God but they are all called to live in peace and love and to cooperate for the benefit of mankind and the universe.
regarding the second part of the question: where did he get the Quran from?
The answer is:
The Quran is God revelations to Prophet Mohamed (peace upon him). These revelations of Quran by God to Prophet Mohamed was through the Angel Gabriel and started in year 610 AD when prophet Mohamed was in Mecca (Makkah) and was by then 40 years old. The revelations continued since then and was completed by year 632 AD (year of death of the prophet).
The long period for full revelation of the Quran (around 22 years) allowed the Quran to be fully memorized and documented by many Muslims. It was recited in the mosque (Masjid) by prophet Muhammad during the daily five prayers without single letter change. Many Muslims since then until now are memorizing Quran fully without single letter difference. This explains why Quran remains by God will, and will remain by God will, without single letter change.
For those who are seeking the truth and are interested in the proofs behind Quran revelation by God and that Quran is not a human written text, they can refer to the related question below: Did Muhammad write the Quran? for more information.
Also, they can visit the website of the British Museum and see photos of early written verses of the holy Quran since early Islamic era, and how the written words are the same as the Quran present in our hands today.
Moreover, the 1st Book in which the Holy Quran was written is preserved in Egypt, and if you write "rare Quran manuscript" on EBay you'll find pieces of many Quran books of different eras present there for sale, also have the same content as we have nowadays.
Please visit the related links for more detail.
AnswerChristians do not believe in Muhammad because he is not chosen by God. See Romans Chapter 9. The Quran and the Bible '''do not''' agree with each other. Muslims believe that Jesus was only a prophet. 1 John 2:22 "Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son."
AnswerProphet Muhammad (PBUH) IS the chosen prophet of God Almighty who is prophesied in both Gospel and Torah. The reason Christians don't believe him is because their scripture is corrupted and changed by their scholars. Muslims do believe that the words of God, revealed to his prophets, Moses and Jesus in both OLD and NEW Testaments, mentioned Prophet's Muhammad's characters and shape, and the place where he would be prophecised, and ordered them to follow him when his time comes.
AnswerMuslims believe that Muhammad is the last prophet sent by God after Jesus. and Quran is a holy book that revealed the word of God, for mankind till eternity.
Where did Muhammad get the QuranAnswerThe most correct answer to this claim is unknown. Most Quranic experts attribute the Qur'an in its form today to post-7th Century alterations. The consensus is,
"independent scholars studying the Qur'an and Hadith, have concluded that the Islamic scripture was not revealed to just one man, but was a compilation of later redactions and editions formulated by a group of men, over the course of a few hundred years. The Qur'an which we read today is not that which was in existence in the mid-seventh century, but is a product of the eighth and ninth centuries. It was not conceived in Mecca or Medina, but in Baghdad."Hint:It doesn't make sense that many people can come up with one scripture one at a time, coz if the Quran is so unique, this is the biggest evidence that it was driven from one source, revealed on one person, that's to say; God's words revealed to his last prophet, Muhammad, may peace be upon him.
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Because the origins of Islam and the Qur'an are dubious. This is the opinion of renowned scholars and professors of Islam, history, Arabic and many other fields. Among them - Dr. John Wansbrough, American historian who taught at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies; Professor Joseph Schacht, professor of Arabic and Islam at Columbia University in New York and a leading Western scholar of Islamic law; Dr. Patricia Crone, a scholar, author and historiographer of early Islamic history working at the Institute for Advance Study; R. Stephen Humphreys, professor of history and Islamic studies at the University of
California at Santa Barbara; and Professor Andrew Rippin, professor of history and specialist in Islamic studies at the University of Victoria, B.C.,
Canada"Almost universally, independent scholars studying the Qur'an and Hadith, have concluded that the Islamic scripture was not revealed to just one man, but was a compilation of later redactions and editions formulated by a group of men, over the course of a few hundred years. The Qur'an which we read today is not that which was in existence in the mid-seventh century, but is a product of the eighth and ninth centuries. It was not conceived in Mecca or Medina, but in Baghdad. It was then and there that Islam took on its identity and became a religion. Consequently, the formative stage of Islam was not within the lifetime of Muhammad but evolved over a period of 300 years."Hint:Here, the all names mentioned do not include one name of an Arabic Islamic scholar, all are western scholars, and those can't reveal the truth as long as they don't speak Arabic as their 1st language, so it is necessary that they wont be able to get the full understanding of what the Arabs themselves spent years to study and understand, which is the meaning of Quranic verses and the miracles revealed in them.
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Gerd Puin on Qur'anic IntegrityGerd Puin, a German scholar and the world's foremost authority on Qur'anic paleography, the study and scholarly interpretation of ancient manuscripts. He is a specialist in Arabic calligraphy:
"My idea is that the Koran is a kind of cocktail of texts that were not all understood even at the time of Muhammad. Many of them may even be a hundred years older than Islam itself. Even within the Islamic traditions there is a huge body of contradictory information, including a significant Christian substrate; one can derive a whole Islamic anti-history from them if one wants. The Qur'an claims for itself that it is 'mubeen,' or clear, but if you look at it, you will notice that every fifth sentence or so simply doesn't make sense. Many Muslims will tell you otherwise, of course, but the fact is that a fifth of the Qur'anic text is just incomprehensible. This is what has caused the traditional anxiety regarding translation. If the Qur'an is not comprehensible, if it can't even be understood in Arabic, then it's not translatable into any language. That is why Muslims are afraid. Since the Qur'an claims repeatedly to be clear but is not-there is an obvious and serious contradiction. Something else must be going on."Hint:Here is another misunderstanding, if the Quranic verses were present long before Prophet Muhammad lived, then why didn't anybody before him bring them up?
And from where can an illiterate man get such "difficult to understand words, as claimed here"? and if so, why did he come up with such revelations in his late 40s not during his early youthful years?, and what did he gain from all of this but suffer and hunger, and loss of his dearest relatives? what would make him bear all that?
Concerning the meanings of the verses, if these verses are not really a miracle, there meanings would have been revealed all at once, then they wouldn't be suitable for every time and any place. Here is the miracle, that you can get the meaning that meets the requirements of your present time without corruption of the original verse, hence, an illiterate man can understand it like a Quranic scholar, and those who lived in the early 1400 years would understand it like people of nowadays would, and this is the problem of translation of meaning, it can't reach that point. only those who study Arabic can understand this issue.
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Imperfect Qur'anAnother reason why the Qur'an fails the criteria as the word of a perfect God is because of the imperfections within the Qur'an. The Qur'an is riddled with literary contradictions, scientific errors and historical errors.
Plagiarism in Muhammad's TimeThe Qur'an tells us that Muhammad's critics caught him plagiarising traditions, folklore and Jewish and Christian scripture. Examples:
"We have heard this (before): if we wished, we could say (words) like these: these are nothing but tales of the ancients" (8:31). "Such things have been promised to us and to our fathers before! They are nothing but tales of the ancients!" (23:83)"Hint:But the Quran also tells that no one can get one chapter of it, no matter how great help can he attain, other than God:
"And if you (Arab pagans, Jews, and Christians) are in doubt concerning that which We have sent down (i.e. the Qur'ân) to Our slave (Muhammad Peace be upon him ), then produce a Sûrah (chapter) of the like thereof and call your witnesses (supporters and helpers) besides Allâh, if you are truthful.But if you do it not, and you can never do it, then fear the Fire (Hell) whose fuel is men and stones, prepared for the disbelievers." 1:23-24So, they really said they can say like this -as other nations said to their prophets- but they really can't, didn't and won't.
Zoroastrians TraditionsIn regard to the Islamic versions of heaven, 'paradise', plagiarism from non-Abrahamic beliefs is also evident. "None of this, of course, can be found in the Jewish or Christian Scriptures, but it is in the writings of the Zoroastrians of Persia, who were a considerable presence in the areas around the Persian Empire before the advent of Islam. According to historian W. St. Clair Tisdall, who did pioneering work on these questions in his monograph "The Sources of Islam," which he later expanded into a book, and in his other writings,
"the books of the Zoroastrians and Hindus... bear the most extraordinary likeness to what we find in the Koran and Hadith. Thus in Paradise we are told of 'houris having fine black eyes,' and again of 'houris with large black eyes, resembling pearls hidden in their shells.'... The name houry too is derived from an Avesta or Pehlavi Source, as well as jinn for genii, and bihisht (Paradise), signifying in Avestic 'the better land.' We also have very similar tales in the old Hindu writings, of heavenly regions with their boys and girls resembling the houris and ghilman of the Koran.""
Source: The Truth About Muhammad by Robert Spencer (2006)
Hint:That doesn't make the Quran not word of God, it is well known that God sent Prophets to all humankind in every time era, that is, all God's Prophets call for the same noble goal, and gain their information from the same source, and tho Quran came to sum up all these.
Also, there are similarities between the Holy Quran and old and new Testaments, which doesn't mean it is a collection of them, but it adds to the evidence that the source is one.
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Different Qur'ans in Muhammad's Time
Islamic sources tell us that Muhammad's followers would argue because Muhammad provided contradicting versions of the Qur'an. A notable example appears in BuKhari's Hadith:
"Umar bin Khattab [the second Caliph] said, 'I heard Hisham bin Hakim bin Hizam reciting Surat Al-Furqan ["Al-Furqan," the title of the 25th surah, has no meaning in any language.] during the lifetime of Allah's Apostle. I listened to his recitation and noticed that he recited it in several ways which Allah's Apostle had not taught me. So I was on the point of attacking him in the prayer, but I waited till he finished, and then I seized him by the collar. "Who taught you this Surah which I have heard you reciting?" He replied, "Allah's Apostle taught it to me." I said, "You are lying. Allah's Apostle taught me in a different way this very Surah which I have heard you reciting." So I led him to Muhammad. "O Allah's Apostle! I heard this person reciting Surat-al-Furqan in a way that you did not teach me." The Prophet said, "Hisham, recite!" So he recited in the same way as I heard him recite it before. On that Allah's Apostle said, "It was revealed to be recited in this way." Then the Prophet said, "Recite, Umar!" So I recited it as he had taught me. Allah's Apostle said, "It was revealed to be recited in this way, too." He added, "The Qur'an has been revealed to be recited in several different ways, so recite of it that which is easier for you."(Bukhari:V6B61N561)
Hint:This, too can be understood only by Arabic speakers; since Arabs in different parts of the world dont speak Arabic with the same jargon. Just like English, which includes many jargons even within the same country.
So different Quranic recitations, are just like British English and American English, same words, same meaning, but different jargon.
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Devoid of ContextThe Qur'an in itself as a source for anything is devoid of context and thus arbitrary. Being devoid of context and any understanding, how can it be understood as the word of God?
"We do not have material in the Qur'an to compose a biography of Muhammad because the book is a disjointed discourse, a pastiche [imitation, parody] of divine monologues that can be assembled into a homily [lecture, sermon] or perhaps a catechism [snippets of dogma] but that reveals little or nothing about the life of Muhammad and his contemporaries.... The Qur'an give us no assurance that its words and sentiments are likely to be authentic in the light of the context they were delivered and in the manner of their transmission. There are no clues as to when or where or why these particular words were being uttered.... The Qur'an is of no use whatsoever as an independent source for reconstructing the life of Muhammad. The Qur'an is not terribly useful even for reconstructing the Meccan milieu much less the life of the man who uttered its words; it is a text without context.""Is the Qur'an the Word of God?" A debate between on the Qur'an hosted at Trinity College, Cambridge and Dr Jamal Badawi in 1995
Hint:
The message of the Holy Quran is for the human in any place, in any time, not a historical record of the lives of People of Makkah, nor People of Al Madinah, nor even recording the life of Prophet Muhammad, coz if so, it would have been then a biography!
And whoever wishes to know the history of that time era, it's enough for him to look into the Islamic history, which was written with great rate of honesty, and great efforts were spent in checking the correctness of it.
Important to note that the Quran was not revealed at once, but part by part, according to circumstances and need, so, many verses are really linked to an occasion that needed the particular verse, but with the retaining of being applicable in all time eras.
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Because anyone can claim to be a ProphetAnd what is the proof of a true Prophet? The fulfillment of the prophecies, agree?
How many prophecies of Muhammed are there in the Quran? And what percentage of Muhammed's prophecies came true?
AnswerThe same reason why Muslims don't believe in Jesus (As god). Because if Muslims believe in Jesus, there won't be Islam today. all its followers will be Christians.
On the question "where did he get the Quran from?". Answer; from the same source that Jesus and Moses get their books from.