Against the law of the Saracens
By Fr. Riccoldo da monte di Croce, O.P.
Florence; c. 1243-1320
Chapter 3
That
the Koran
is not attested
by any scripture, and that the Saracens are bound to accept the
authority of the law of Moses and the Gospel
[1]
,
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Thirdly, it should be known that the Koran is not the law of God. For neither the Old Testament nor the Gospel attest to it, both of which the Koran [2] testifies to being truly the law of God. But Muhammad himself “commends himself,” he himself bears witness to himself. |
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(8) For we find that the law of God is a certain continuous chain, made by the same craftsman, so that one link is connected to and corresponds to another, and one prophet prophesies and mentions another, and all the others prophesied about Christ. If, then, the law of the Saracens were the law of God, and the call to that law was not a perversion but a conversion - as they say -, how could it have escaped all the other prophets that none of them had said anything about it? Yet we do not find that Moses or any of the prophets or Christ himself said anything about Mohammed or about his law, except when he spoke about the need to beware of false prophets [3] . |
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(16) Christ also said that "the law and the prophets were until John," so that the world might know that no general prophet would come after him . [4] But Muhammad says that he is a general prophet , [5] and that he himself is a prophet we do not know. We do know, however, alas! that there has never been a deceiver in the world whom so many men and so many peoples followed in so short a time . [6] |
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(22) To this the Saracens respond, saying that Moses and other prophets prophesied about Mohammed [7] . But Christ prophesied about him more expressly than all because he also mentioned his name, whence he said to the children of Israel: «I bring you good news of a messenger of God who will come after me, and his name will be Mohammed » [8] . | 189r | But they say that the Jews corrupted the law of Moses and the prophets, and the Christians corrupted the gospel, and that nothing remains of the truth of the law and the gospel except what is in the Koran [9] . |
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(29) But that this cannot stand, I will first prove by their Koran. For it is said in the chapter of Jonah : "If you are in doubt about what We have revealed to you, ask those who have read the book before you." Now those who have read the book before the Saracens are the Jews and Christians, who received the Pentateuch and the Gospel, as Mohammed explains. Therefore Mohammed tells the Saracens to ask Christians and Jews about doubts. But how could Mohammed send them to bear false witness if he is a truthful prophet, as they say? [10] |
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(37) Therefore, the books of the Jews and Christians were not corrupted in the time of Mohammed. Nor can they say that they were corrupted afterwards. For it is said in the chapter Elhagar , which is interpreted as stone: "We, I say, have caused the remembrance of God to descend in the person of God, and we will preserve it." The law of Moses and the gospel are called "remembrance" among them. Therefore, God has always preserved the testimony of his scriptures among his faithful before Mohammed, and will preserve it afterwards [11] . |
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(44) Furthermore, in the chapter Elmayde , which is interpreted as the table, it is said that the judge is [=his?] Ebazoene said to Muhammad, when the Jews sought justice and judgment from him, and he answered: "If they come to you, judge between them justly, for God loves those who do justice. And how can they ask you for justice, since they have the old testament in which is the justice of God?" [12] . |
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(49) Furthermore, such corruption and change in Scripture could not have been general and manifest, because then other nations would have known it; nor could it have been particular and hidden, because then some manuscripts would have remained intact and uncorrupted . [13] But in every language and in every province the law and the gospel are found written in the same way . [14] |
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(54) Furthermore, the four gospels were not written at the same time, nor in the same place, nor in the same language, nor by the same writer; but Matthew wrote the gospel in Hebrew in Judea, John in Greek in Asia, Luke in Greek in Achaia, and Mark in Latin in Italy. And their translation was made into Latin by Jerome and others before the times of Mahomet, and copies remained in all languages. Therefore they could not | 189v | have been altered by some forgers without being clearly known [15] . |
[1] Cf. Contrarietas alpholica III, Paris BN lat. 3394, f. 204r 12-15: «Chapter three. That Muhammad does not attest to either the old testament or the new or a miracle ».
[2]
alchoranus:
cosi al nominative; alchoranus in the first line, always in thenominative
form, the prevailing form. Le Coran
teste la vérité d'une Torah et d'une Evangile dont on ne possesde plus les
originalaux. Cf. MUHAMMAD ABDU, Tafsîr al-Manâr , Le Caire, 1972, II, p.
128; J. JOMIER, Le commentaire coranique du Manar , Paris, 1954, p. 124;
Un regard moderne sur le Coran avec le Dr. Kamal Hussein ,in "Mélanges de
l'Institut Dominicain d'Études orientales du Caire"
12
(1974) 49-64.
[3] Contrarietas alpholica VIII, Paris BN lat. 3394, f. 241r 21 - 241v 4: «Sacred Scripture has therefore been preserved unblemished, which neither in the Old Testament makes mention of Muhammad except where it follows about the pseudoprophets, nor in the Gospel except where it says: Beware of false prophets who come to you in lambs' skins [Matt. 7,15]».
[4] Cf. Pietro il Venerabile († 1156), Book against the sect or heresy of the Saracens , ed. J. Kritzeck , Peter the Venerable... , Princeton 1964, pp. 284-286; J.-P. TORRELL, La notion de prophétie et la méthode apologétique dans le Contra Saracenos de Pierre le Vénérable , «Studia Monastica» 18 (1975) 257-282.
[5] Cf. Cor . 34,28; 7,157-158; Contrarietas alpholica VIII, f. 248v, 2-3; 9-11: «And again in the chapter Seba: We have not sent you except to the universality of the nations (...). You now say that you have been sent to the universality of the nations, of whom it is certain that even you cannot understand them». CLS 6, 16 ; L. GARDET,L'Islam, Religion..., Paris 1967,pp. 72-74.
[6] Cf. Peter the Venerable, Summa... , ed. Kritzeck ,p. 210
[7] Cf. Heart 26,197; 2.42; 3,81 (le Paese des Prophetes). R. ARNALDEZ, Le Coran, guide de lecture , Paris 1983, pp. 93-128.
[ 8] Heart 61.6 (Ahmad = " praised "); al-Tabarî declares that Bahîrâ connaissait Muhammad pour avoir trouvé l'annonce de sa venne dans les livres chrétiens non-adulterés qu'il possédait (Encycl. de l'Islam, 2aed.,"Bahîrâ", p. 950).
[9]
Cf.
Heart5,13.
R. ARNALDEZ, Le
Coran, guide de lecture
, Paris 1983, pp. 19-20
Encycl. de l'Islam ,
2 a
ed., "Indjil"; J. JOMIER,
Les grands thèmes du Coran
, Paris, 1978, p. 9; L. GARDET,
Connaître l'Islam ,
Paris, 1958, p. 23.
Sul problema della
falsificazione delle Scritture: J.-M. GAUDEUL - R. GASPAR,
Texts de 1a Tradition
m
usulmane concernant le "tahrîf" (falsification) des Ecriture
, "Islamochristiana" 6 (1980) 61-104; L. DI MATTEO,
Il "tahrîf" o alterazione della Bibbia secondo i
m
usulmani ,
"Bessarione" 38 (1922) 64-111, 223-260.
[10] Cf. Cor . 16,43; 10,37; 35,31; 46,12, 30; 6,42,92; 2, 91, 95; 3,2; 4,47: RAYMOND MARTIN, Explanatio simboli apostolorum [1257], ed. JM March, «Anuari de l'Institut d'Estudis Catalans», Barcelona 1908, p. 454/22-29: «That the true law and the Gospel are incorruptible can be shown by the Koran; where in the chapter of Jonah it was said to Muhammad according to his own saying: If you are in doubt about what we have sent upon you, ask those who read the book before you. But let it be clear that God, or Gabriel, who, as he himself says, spoke to him, did not say to himself that he should ask the forgers, but the truthful, who read the book according to the truth, not according to the change that introduces falsity. Hence it is shown by this that the books of the Gospel and the Law were uncorrupted; because those who read the book before he himself existed were true Jews and Christians, from whom, according to the commandment of the Lord, he was to seek the truth.
[11] Cf. RAYMOND MARTIN, Explanatio simboli .., p. 454/39-42: «Also in chap. Hygr [15,9] he introduces God speaking to himself: We have been sent down [ thus ] as a memorial and we are its guardians. But he calls the law and the Gospel the memorial of God, as the Saracens say. Which since God himself guards, is not corrupt; otherwise God would not be a faithful guardian, which is far from it».
[12] Contrarietas alpholica III, Paris BN lat. 3394, f. 240v, 8-15: «But we will prove the contrary because the book of the Bible, that is, the Old Testament and the Gospel, was not corrupted before Muhammad, since he imagines that God says to him that if anyone doubts about his diet, he sends him to the book of both Testaments, as it is said in the Koran in the chapter on Jonah thus [10,94]: "if he is in doubt about what we have sent down to you, ask them who read the book before you". For how can he doubt about God, or call God a liar, sending false testimonies?». Ib ., III, f. 241r, 9-16: «Therefore according to the word of Mahomet, the law was not corrupted before his time, but neither after, as it says in the Koran in the chapter elhagar, which is interpreted stone: "We, I say, have sent down the remembrance of God in the person of God, and we will keep it" [15,9]. The law and the Gospel are called remembrance among them. Therefore God always testifies to his faithful with his scripture and has kept it before Mahomet and will keep it incorruptible after". Ib ., lines 4-9: «Also when he says, in the chapter elmaiede, that is, the table, that his judge Ebazoheite, he said to Mahomet how the Jews sought justice and judgment from him, and he answered: "If he comes to you, judge between them justly, because God loves those who do justice. And how can they ask you for justice since they have the old testament in which is the righteousness of God?" [5, 42b-43a]. RAYMOND MARTIN, Explanatio simboli .., p. 454/30-38: «Also, in the month of the month, when the Jews asked for a judge from Ebihoreyra, whom Muhammad had appointed as judge, to judge between men, and he said to them: I will not play among you until I ask Muhammad, and he went to Muhammad and asked him, Muhammad answered and said: God sent upon me in the matter of the Jews, and said: If they come to you, judge between them or turn away from them, and if you turn away from them, they will not harm you in anything. And if you judge between them, judge justly; for God loves those who judge justly. And when they come to your judgment, both with them is the law and in it is the judgment of God. And behold, here Muhammad testified, that in his time there was a law among the Jews, in which was the judgment of God. Whence it is clear from this that it had remained uncorrupted; for if it had been corrupted, it would not contain the true judgment of God.»
[13] Cf. Contrarietas alpholica III, Paris BN lat. 3394, f. 241r, 19-20: «And if some codex remained intact, or was publicly open».
[14] Where the Gospels were written and in what language , add. another hand, margin. d .
[15] Cf. EUSEBE OF CESAREE, Histoire ecclesiastique II, 15, 1, trans. Rufinus (ed. SCHWARTZ - T. MOMMSEN, in «Christichen Schriftseller» 9/1, Leipzig 1903, p. 141, 11). S. JEROME, Praefatio in quatuor Evangelia ad Damasum (PL 29, 557-62); Novum Testamentum (PL 29, 573-914). RAYMOND MARTIN, Explanatio simboli.., p. 454/15-16: «Furthermore, if the Koran or one book grammatically, which is in one language, cannot be corrupted; how could the Gospel, which was written in different languages, be universally corrupted?».