Why don't the Muslims follow Christ instead of Muhammad?

Against the law of the Saracens

By Fr. Riccoldo da monte di Croce, O.P.
Florence; c. 1243-1320

Chapter 15

Question 6:

Why don't the Muslims follow Christ instead of Muhammad?

Sixth question .

The sixth question is that because the Quran says many magnificent things about Christ and on the other hand some vile things about Muhammad ^[1] , it is complained why the Muslims do not follow Christ rather than Muhammad and the Gospel rather than the Quran? And since “contraries placed side by side are more illuminating” ^[2] , let us see from the opposite side ^[3] and from the other side what the Quran pronounces about both.

(278) For the Quran says that Christ was announced to his mother by an angel and was sanctified by the Holy Spirit and was conceived by the power of God, not by the operation of nature, and was born of a most holy Virgin and purified above all other women . ^[4] But nothing of these is said about Muhammad, but that he was an orphan and a wanderer and was gathered together by God.

(283) Furthermore, he says of Christ that he is the “word of God,” and according to this he could not be ignorant of anything ^[5] . But Muhammad was an uncertain prophet. For he said that he did not know what would become of himself or of his people ^[6] . He himself also said: “I do not know whether I or you are on the right path.” Hence he is reported to have said of his father and mother: “Would that I knew what their work was !” It is also reported that he was bewitched by the Jews, who put many needles in his face and threw him into a well. They also hold in common that the same Muhammad ended his life with poison, namely from the poisoning that a certain Jewish woman gave him in small doses ^[7] .

(292) Likewise, Christ descended from Abraham through Isaac, to whom the promise of blessing and inheritance was made. Muhammad descended through Ishmael, who does not belong to the promise, but of him it was said: "He will be a fierce man, and his hand will be against all," etc. ^[8]

(296) Furthermore, Christ never committed any sin, because the Spirit of God and the Word of God could not err. But Muhammad was an idolater, a murderer, a rapist, a lecher, and liable to many other sins; which, as they say, God spared him.

(299) Likewise, Christ performed astonishing and useful miracles. For, as is stated in the chapter of Elmeyde at the end, Christ enlightened the blind, cleansed the lepers and raised the dead ^[9] . But Muhammad performed no miracles at all, according to the Koran; and if some are said of him, they are either impossible and absurd, such as that he restored the broken moon ^[10] , or useless, such as that the camel spoke, or altogether hidden. For he said that he did many things in secret and at night, which when asked by day he could not show | 215r | ; hence they said to him: "You say that you ascend into heaven to God by night, ascend by day while we see and we will believe" ^[11] . But Christ performed the greatest and most magnificent miracles by day and in the open and before many witnesses, so that his works were open to all.

(310) Furthermore, Christ was a most excellent teacher. For as it is said in the Koran in the chapter Elmeyde , as if in the person of God: «O Christ, remember how I gave you the Holy Spirit that you might speak to men in the cradles and great, and I taught you the book and wisdom, the law of Moses and the gospel» ^[12] . But Mohammed was an ignorant teacher, an idiot, knowing no other language than his own, ignorant even of the interpretation of his law; for he says that «God alone knows the interpretation of the Koran» ^[13] .

(317) Furthermore, Christ, according to the Gospel, was crucified and died and rose again truly and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God. But the Koran says that he did not die but “God took him up” ^[14] . Therefore, both according to the Gospel and according to the Koran and in every event, Christ lives. But Mohammed is completely dead. But a living helper is better than a dead one.

(322) I now leave aside the other singular excellences which the Gospel cites of Christ.

(324) It is therefore strange how the Saracens do not follow Christ rather than Mohammed and the Gospel rather than the Koran. Especially since it is very credible that a better law was given to the world by a better lawgiver, and was better preserved by God, true and uncorrupted, as was shown above in the third chapter, etc.

[1] Cf.Heart19,30-34; 23.50; 43.63;R. ARNALDEZ,Jésus, fils de Marie, prophète de l'Islam,Paris 1980,pp. 121-141; CLS 8, rr. 19-57.

[2] Adagio aristotelico di comune ricorso presso gli scholastici: J. H amesse , Les auctoritates Aristotelis. Un florilège médiéval , Louvain-Paris 1974, p. 267 n° 57, elaborated by Aristotle, Rhetoric III, 17 (1418b 3-4). Nella me desima formulationizione, l'adagio lo si legge anche in St. Bonaventurae , Sermones dominicales , ed. Grottaferrata 1977, pp. 303, 370

[3] e regione : così, senza perplessità di sorta, scrive il codice, e senza traccia d'intervento correttivo dell'autore; e reason edit ed. "Memorie dominicane" 17 (1986) 134 rigo 277, senza giustificazione nelle note. Ma allora bisognerebbe restorere anche il resto del lessema, a favore del formale e ratione, per suppo sto duplice error del copista in una medesima parola; "secondo ragione", translated by G. Rizzardi , Firenze (Nardini Ed.) 1992, p. 167. Se non si volesse acquilere e regione, u na proposa di restauro meno inverosimile potrebb'essere e <li>gione (" a partire dalle istanze della religione "). Per altrinsecus see Uguccione da Pisa [ † 1210 ] , Derivationes II, 38, A 121 § 3: " altrinsecus idest e contrario utrimque". If you have a conto, who, give the successive series of di arguments by opposition.

[4] Cf. Heart 19,17; 3:42-45; ARNALDEZ, Jésus, fils de Marie..., pp. 80-119.

[ 5] Heart 4,171. Pour le Coran (cf. 5,116) Dieu seul is omniscient.

[6] Cor. 46,9; CLS 8, rr. 69-70. Contrarietas alpholica , Paris BN lat. 3394, f. 249r, 9-19: «When some of the prefects had agreed to him, although unwillingly, and a few voluntarily, and had confirmed his authority according to his desire, he instituted that his departure from them in the chapter Elahçuaç: I do not know what will happen to me or to you. Similarly in the chapter Seba, that is, the Predation: I bear witness that God is; you and I wish we were in direction or in patent error. This word is not hidden from them, but they read it in the Koran and in their prayers when they rise at night, they read and pray this elfoquera, that is, their perfect ones, because Muhammad did not know either about his state and that of all the Saracens or what would happen to him after death».

[7] Contrarietas alpholica XI, Paris BN lat. 3394, f. 254v, 8-16: «The Jews, however, by the devil's art in sorcery, threw a waxen face or something like that into a well full of needles, and sent another to extract them from the well, and they extracted all the needles, not without Machometi's pain. (...) How then could sorcery have harmed him? It is still reported that he died from the poisoning which a certain Jew had injected into him in a small amount». JACQUES DE VORAGINE, Op. cit., ch. 181, p. 831.

[8] The paragraph c. 15 lines 292-295, on the Ismaelite descent of Muhammad, is also borrowed (in part summary) from the Contrarietas alpholica , including the biblical quote Gen . 16,12 «Hic erit ferus homo...». Contrarietas c. 10, Paris BN lat. 3394, ff. 255v-256r: «If Muhammad descends through Ishmael through his servant, while Abraham prays to God saying: If only Ishmael would live before you, he will hear the Lord also adding: Twelve leaders will be born. And again: Hic erit ferus homo, his hand against |256r| all, and the hand of all against him. But Christ descended from Abraham, to whom it was said: In your seed shall all nations be blessed, through Isaac to whom the inheritance of the promises is granted, from whom God excludes Ishmael».

[9] Cf. Cor . 5,110 ( tubri'u al-akmaha , «cecos illuminauit» (R); «ceco nato» in A. BAUSANI, Corano , Firenze 1961, p. 87; «tu pus guérir les muets» in BLACHERE, p. 149); Cor . 5,114-115; Contrarietas alpholica X, Paris BN lat. 3394, f. 256r, 12-13: «Christus cecos illuminauit, leprosos mundauit, mortuos suscitauit».

[10] Cf. J. DE VORAGINE, Golden Legend , Ch. 181 (ed. GRAESSE, p. 831).

[11] Cf. CLS 4, rr. 55-59; RAYMOND MARTIN, Explanation of symbols... [1257], ed. JM March, "Yearbook of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans", Barcellona 1908, p. 41, 21-22.

[ 12] Heart 5,110. Transduire fi-1-mabdi wa kablan par "in rocking and big", est une erreur car le wa n'est pas ici une particle de coordination, mais express l'état (al-U1); cf. Blacher, p. 149: "Thou parleras aux Hommes dans ton berceau, somme un vieillard"; Mare de Toledo a, f. 24ra, "in cradle and adult"; Koran, 3, 46.

[13] Contrarietas alpholica VI, Paris BN lat. 3394, f. 245r, 3-5: «But also in the chapter Elameram [3,7] he says of Alchoran: No one knows his exposition except God». CLS 8, rr. 77-78.

[14] Cor. 4,158 ( rafa'ahu Ilahu ilayhi , "Dieu l'a élevé vers lui", BLACHERE, p. 120).