A Clear and Objective Mistake in the Quran

Thesis: Surah 5:18 Contains a Clear and Objective Mistake in the Quran

For some reason, people love responding to arguments without actually reading them. If you’re not going to actually read through the argument or not address the points brought up, just save yourself and myself some time and don’t bother responding and have a lovely day.

With that being said, here is the verse in question:

Surah 5:18:

“But the Jews and the Christians say, "We are the children of Allāh and His beloved." Say, "Then why does He punish you for your sins?" Rather, you are human beings from among those He has created. He forgives whom He wills, and He punishes whom He wills. And to Allāh belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them, and to Him is the [final] destination.”

This verse is very interesting, because it makes multiple mistakes all at once:

1. Assuming Jews and Christians mean they think they are not humans when they call themselves “children of God”
2. Making an argument with a blatant logical fallacy (non-sequitur)
3. Refuting its own (fallacious) argument immediately after without realizing it
4. Confirming the Torah and Gospel and Psalms “with” them (which calls them “children of God” dozens of times) while simultaneously contradicting those same texts.

Elaboration:

1. Assuming the Jews and Christians meant literal children of God by saying “you are only human”

You don’t have to be an expert on religion to know Jews and Christians don’t claim to be the LITERAL physical children of God. Yet the Quran says “you are not the children of God, you are only humans” as if they ever claimed anything different about their humanity… the Jews and Christians know that they are humans. The Jews and Christians don’t claim to be NOT human, when they say they are the “sons” or “children” of God. In fact, simply reading the relevant verses below explicitly say it’s a metaphorical sonship, as they “became” sons after being born. But supposedly all-knowing Allah thinks that when they claim to be the children of God they are claiming to not be human.

It would be like me saying “Mohammed calls himself the Messenger of Allah, but he is only human!” That would prove to you that I have no idea what I’m talking, about nor do I understand what the Quran means when it calls him “Messenger of Allah”, nor do I understand what Muslims abroad actually believe.

Just as saying this would prove I’m not divine or all knowing, this same statement proves the author of the Quran is not all-knowing, therefore the Quran is false.

(If you ask my opinion, what I think happened that led to this verse’s revelation is Mohammed heard Christians call Jesus “THE Son of God” and also heard them call themselves “children of God” and he did not understand there’s a difference when they say “a son of God” vs “THE Son of God”. Which, again, shows Mohammed doesn’t understand what Christians and Jews actually believe bifold, but I digress.)

2. Saying that if they really were children of God, then God would not punish them for their sins

This is probably the most interesting part to me, because Allah just straight up commits a logical fallacy. It is a non-sequitur to ask why God punishes them if they are indeed his children, as if to say that if they were the children of God, God would necessarily not punish them for their sins. That does not follow at all. A person could be a child of God and still be punished for their sins, those two facts have no bearing on each other. Whether or not you are punished for something doesn’t determine who your father is. In fact, every good Father WOULD punish their children when they do wrong, lest they raise horrible people and be an unjust Father. Whether you are punished for your sins or not has no bearing on if you are actually the child of God. In fact, in point 3 we will see how the Quran answers its own objection and doesn’t realize it. Not to mention, this would imply if they were actually the children of Allah, Allah would NOT punish them for their sins, meaning Allah is an unjust judge who would let many evils go unpunished because of a nepotistic preference for his children. That would demonstrate Allah is just as corrupt as human government officials who give their family members pardons simply because they are family.

If the Quran was the result of an all-knowing Allah, he would know not to make such bad arguments, and how much this verse would make him look bad to someone who understands what a coherent line of reasoning is. He would know what a non-sequitur is. The fact that anyone who has taken an introductory course on logic or philosophy (or anyone who even thinks critically about this for a second, for that matter) would know more about proper argumentation than Allah shows the Quran is not actually divine speech of an all knowing deity. By committing a logical fallacy, the Quran has demonstrated itself as illogical, therefore it is false.

3. Asking why God would punish his children as a defeater, and then literally stating God punishes and forgives whom he wills, refuting its own objection without realizing it.

On top of asking why Allah punishes the Jews and Christians if they are indeed his children, the Quran says right afterwards “Allah punishes whom he wills and he forgives whom he wills”. That literally answers the Quran’s own objection and the author doesn’t even realize it.

If Allah punishes whom he wills, then he very well could punish his children, because he is sovereign and can do whatever he wants. That means Allah punishing the Jews and Christians is a complete non-issue by the Qurans own standards…

It would be like me asking “why do Muslims say Mohammed is a Messenger of Allah when Surah 48:2 says Allah has forgiven him of his past and future sins? Allah forgives and punishes whom he wills!” Not only would this completely misunderstand what Islam teaches about the sins of prophets by presenting sinning as some contradiction to being a Messenger, but it literally answers its own objection right after. Allah forgives and punishes whom he wills. So even by my own theology, the punishment is a non-issue because Allah does whatever he wants.

(The verse mentioned is 48:2: “Indeed, We have given you, [O Muḥammad], a clear conquest 2. That Allāh may forgive for you what preceded of your sin [i.e., errors] and what will follow and complete His favor upon you and guide you to a straight path”)

By unintentionally refuting its own (fallacious) argument, the Quran shows it is not from Allah. It is quite literally a double blunder

4. Denouncing the Jews and Christians for calling themselves “children of God and his beloved” while simultaneously affirming the Torah and Gospel and Psalms that is “with them” which calls them such multiple times.

The Quran clearly “confirms” that Torah and Gospel that is “with” the Jews and Christians and tells them to judge by it in multiple verses: “let the people of the Book (the Jews and Christians) judge by what Allah has revealed therein”, 5:68: “O people of the Book! You stand on nothing unless you stand on the Torah, the Gospel, and what has been revealed to you from your Lord”, 2:41: “and (you Jews and Christians) believe in what I have sent down, confirming that which is WITH you, and be not the first to disbelieve it”.

The trouble is we have thousands of manuscripts of the Torah and Gospel and Psalms before, during, and after the time of Mohammed. Take for example Codex Sianaticus circa 325 AD, or the Peshitta Bible, the Syriac translation of the Torah and Gospel that would have been present in seventh century Arabia. In ALL of them, every single extant manuscript that is either a full copy or contains the relevant passages, Jews and Christians are called children of God by God himself as well as by countless prophets. There is not a SINGLE existing copy of the Torah or Gospel or Psalms that deny or don’t contain references to there being “children” of God. In fact, the term “son of God” is used up to 40 times across the Gospel, the phrase “sons of God” is used multiple times in the Torah and Psalms (which the Quran also confirms, as the Zabur). Psalm 2:7 for example says “You are my son: today I have become your Father”. Psalm 89:26-27 says: “He will call out to me: ‘You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Savior’. And I will appoint him to be my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth”. Genesis 6:2 says: “The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives which they chose”. The phrase “son of God” or “sons of God” can refer to believing individuals, the nation of Israel as a whole, or even angels depending on the context.

The Quran in Surah 2:85 tells Jews if they only believe in parts of the Torah that Allah will send them to hell. But even if we blatantly ignored that and granted for arguments sake the Quran is only “generally” confirming the Torah and Gospel and Psalms, that still doesn’t matter because the idea of there being “children of God” is CONSTANTLY said in affirmation all throughout the texts. You can’t “generally confirm” something you have to constantly contradict and deny. You can’t “generally confirm” a text while denying one of the most massive and concurrent themes and ideas that’s constantly reiterated. The Quran “generally” affirming the previous scriptures which say they are children of God while denying they are children of God would be like me saying I “generally” confirm the Quran that is “with” Muslims while denying Mohammed is a Prophet. A statement like that would go beyond mere contradiction and go straight into absurdity.

Conclusion:

This verse presents a clear and objective error in the Quran that makes multiple mistakes in both history and logical argumentation. This is unacceptable for a text that claims to be the divine word of an all-knowing God. The most likely explanation is that this text is from a seventh century uneducated human author who didn’t understand logical fallacies nor what Christians and Jews actually believe, nor had read their actual scriptures.

Thank you for reading and have a nice day!