Islam claims to be the final and most complete revelation from God, affirming the prophets who came before Muhammad and acknowledging the Scriptures they brought—the Torah (Tawrat), the Psalms (Zabur), and the Gospel (Injil). Yet this affirmation is only alleged, because at the same time Islam insists that Jews and Christians corrupted these earlier Scriptures, so they no longer reflect their original form. In other words, Islam both affirms the Bible and denies it.
This logical contradiction is what scholars and apologists refer to as the Islamic Dilemma: How can Islam simultaneously affirm and reject the same books? How can a religion that depends on the authority of prior revelations also declare them invalid?
This chapter examines the internal inconsistencies of Islamic claims, particularly as they pertain to revelation, history, and the land of Israel. Thus showing that the very foundations of Islamic theology collapse under scrutiny and that the biblical narrative remains theologically and historically intact.
1. The Quran’s Affirmation of the Bible
In Surah 10, Allah allegedly tells Muhammad:
If you are in doubt about what we have revealed to you, then ask those who have been reading the Book before you.
(Surah 10:94)
This demonstrates that Muhammad assumed the Bible was accessible and authoritative in the 7th century. Thus, the Bible is true.
The Quran makes several other clear affirmations regarding the Bible. It speaks of it as previous revelations from the same God who sent Muhammad:
He has revealed to you the Book in truth, confirming what was before it, and He revealed the Torah and the Gospel.
(Surah 3:3)
We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Torah that had come before him, and We gave him the Gospel. Let the People of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed therein. And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed—then it is those who are the defiantly disobedient.
(Surah 5:46-47)
However, the Quran goes even further, claiming authority over the Bible itself:
We have revealed to you ˹O Prophet˺ [Muhammad] this Book [Quran] with the truth, as a confirmation of previous Scriptures and a supreme authority on them
(Surah 5:48)
The Circular Reasoning fallacy (or “Begging the Question”) occurs here because the Quran asserts itself as the supreme authority over the Bible — while offering no external evidence or independent verification, rather than its own claim. In other words, the only evidence offered for the Quran’s superiority is the Quran’s own claim to superiority. That would be like me declaring myself the Messiah simply because I said so — a classic example of circular reasoning.
2. The Quran’s Contradiction: The Corruption Claim
As Islamic theology evolved, especially through the Hadith and Tafsir, a new charge emerged: that Jews and Christians had tampered with their Scriptures in order to hide the supposed predictions of Muhammad and Islam. Yet this claim collapses under scrutiny. How could Christians scattered across the globe—most of whom had never even heard the name Muhammad—have conspired to alter the very same biblical texts that matched those preserved in the Middle East? Still, the Quran itself echoes this accusation. In Surah 2:75–79, it charges Jews and Christians with twisting the words of Scripture after understanding them.
The contradiction is clear: if the Torah and Gospel were already corrupted by the time of Muhammad, why does the Quran affirm them? And why tell Jews and Christians that the Bible points to Muhammad?
The Islamic Dilemma undermines the entire Islamic legitimacy and the claim of continuity with prior revelation. Islam needs the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament to establish Muhammad’s legitimacy as the final prophet of God, yet also must discredit them when their content clearly contradicts Muhammad’s authority and legitimacy.
If Islam claims to honor the biblical prophets and affirm their message — including Jesus and the New Testament — then it finds itself in direct conflict with the very message it claims to affirm because Jesus wasn’t a prophet among many. Christ declared unequivocally: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6). That’s not a vague metaphor — it’s an exclusive claim that directly contradicts Muhammad’s claim for superior authority.
Likewise, the New Testament ends with a warning that reinforces this finality: “If anyone adds to these words, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.” (Revelation 22:18). Yet the Quran is exactly that — a forbidden addition.
3. The Bible Contradicts Islam
If the Bible is genuine and faithfully preserved, it stands in direct contradiction to the Quran. Scripture makes clear that God’s covenant flows through Isaac and Jacob — not Ishmael — and that Israel is chosen with an everlasting promise tied to the land. It also proclaims Jesus as the divine Son of God and the culmination of God’s redemptive plan. The Quran, however, denies both Jesus’ divinity and Israel’s covenant, insisting instead that Jews and Christians corrupted their Scriptures. But here lies the dilemma: if the Bible is authentic, Islam’s claim unravels, for the two stories cannot both be true. Yet if the Bible has truly been corrupted, then Christianity would indeed collapse — but so would Islam, for the Quran itself leans upon the authority of the very Scriptures it accuses of being altered.
So if Islam accepts the authority of Jesus and the New Testament, while simultaneously denying their core claims, it ends up in a self-defeating position — affirming what it must reject and rejecting what it claims to affirm. This isn’t merely a theological tension; it’s a contradiction at the root.
In other words,
- If the Bible is true, then the Quran isn’t.
- If the Bible isn’t true, then the Quran also isn’t.
4. How Muslims Attempt to Resolve the Islamic Dilemma
Mohammed Hijab is an Islamic scholar, apologist, and popular YouTube influencer best known for his debates and defense of Islam. Today, he is arguably the most recognizable face of Islamic apologetics.
In a 2025 video, Hijab attempted to refute the Islamic Dilemma:
From the corrupted versions of the Bible — and we don’t even believe in the Bible — but say, for the sake of argument, the corrupted version of the Tawrat [Torah] and the corrupted version of the Injil [Gospel of Jesus]… The Quran mentions the books of the Christians and the books of the Jews as having been ‘thrown behind their backs.’ It’s obviously a figure of speech, but this verse means they have lost the books — they have not been able to preserve them. That’s what it means.
(Mohammad Hijab)
The Quran never mentions the word Bible, yet it explicitly names the Torah (Tawrat)—universally recognized by Jews as the Hebrew Scriptures—and the Gospel (Injil), unmistakably pointing to the New Testament. But suppose, for the sake of argument, that these Scriptures were not corrupted, but—as Hijab insists—somehow vanished into thin air. That very suggestion only magnifies the contradiction at the core of the Quran’s claim: affirming Scriptures that, by its own logic, no longer exist.
According to the Quran, Allah gave the Injil to Jesus himself. Let’s call this original, divine revelation Injil-1. Centuries later, in Muhammad’s time, the Quran commands Christians to “judge by what Allah has revealed in the Injil” (Surah 5:47). Let’s call this Injil-2 (assuming Injil-1 was lost by then).
Here’s the problem: in the 7th century, there was no separate, standalone book called “Injil” circulating among Christians in Arabia. What Christians had — and still have — are the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. So if the Injil Muhammad refers to — Injil-2 — isn’t the four Gospels (Injil-1), then what and where is this secret Injil-2?
You can’t just dismiss the Bible as “not the original” and walk away. The Quran clearly commands Christians to judge by a text they already had in their possession. If that Bible “had already been lost,” as Hijab claims, then what Bible did Muhammad point to? Hijab’s odd claim doesn’t solve anything — it merely piles on more contradictions and raises even deeper problems.
On the other hand, if the Bible wasn’t “lost” and is what the Quran means by “Injil,” then the Quran is still wrong, because the Gospels directly contradict the Quran on essential theological points — including the divinity of Jesus, the crucifixion, and salvation through Christ. Similarly, the Tawrat (Torah) stands in direct opposition to the Islamic claim that Ishmael was the chosen son and that the Land belongs to Muslims, as, according to the Hebrew Scriptures, it is Isaac who is chosen, and the covenant — including the Land — was given to his descendants through Jacob (Israel).
If, as other Muslims claim, the Injil in Muhammad’s day was a mixture of divine and “corrupt” human content, why does the Quran still refer to it simply as the Injil, with no warnings, no qualifiers? Why does Surah 5:47 command Christians to judge by it — not to reject it (fully or in part), not to doubt it, but to live by it?
Even more striking is Surah 5:46, where the Injil is described as containing “guidance and light.” Not that it used to contain guidance and light — it says it does. And in Surah 5:66–68, the Quran goes even further, declaring that the People of the Book “have no ground to stand on unless they uphold the Torah, the Injil, and what has been revealed to them from their Lord.”
This is not a warning. It’s an endorsement. In the beginning, Muhammad first affirmed the value and authority of the very scriptures that he later insisted were corrupted. It gives no distinction between the so-called “original” Injil and the Gospels Christians possessed then and today. It never says, “This version is corrupt” or “That part is a forgery.” Allah, supposedly all-wise and all-knowing, is completely silent on how to distinguish true from false scripture. It’s a textbook example of cherry-picking: clinging to whatever sounds useful for the Islamic narrative while conveniently discarding anything that challenges Islam by labeling it “corrupt.”
So we’re left with two troubling possibilities:
- Either Allah wasn’t aware that the Bible had been corrupted — which undermines His omniscience.
- Or Allah failed to clearly warn anyone about the “corrupted” parts — which undermines His clarity and justice.
To sum up: If the Bible is true, then its teachings directly contradict the Quran — so both cannot be right. But if the Bible is false or corrupted, then the Quran also loses its credibility, because it claims to both confirm and build upon the earlier Jewish and Christian scriptures. In other words, Islam depends on the authority of previous scriptures while also contradicting them, creating a dilemma it cannot logically resolve. Either way, the Quran defeats itself. That’s the Islamic Dilemma.
5. Historical and Textual Integrity of the Bible
Islamic claims of biblical corruption are not supported by any real evidence. On the contrary, archaeological discoveries have confirmed the astonishing preservation of the biblical text.
Dead Sea Scrolls: Unearthed between 1947 and 1956 in the caves of Qumran, the Dead Sea Scrolls — dating from about 250 BC to 70 AD — include fragments from nearly every book of the Hebrew Bible (with the sole exception of Esther) as well as a complete scroll of Isaiah. What is astonishing is this: across two millennia, the text had remained intact, a powerful testimony to the faithful preservation of Scripture.
The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaᵃ) is over 1,000 years older than the next oldest Hebrew manuscripts, yet it is nearly identical to the Masoretic Text used today. This discovery definitively proves that the Hebrew Scriptures were transmitted with extreme accuracy long before the advent of Islam:
The Dead Sea Scrolls have demonstrated that the Jewish scribes have faithfully copied biblical texts for centuries.
(F.F. Bruce)
New Testament Manuscripts: For the New Testament, the manuscript tradition is even more abundant. The Rylands Library Papyrus P52, dated to around 125 AD, contains verses from John 18 and shows no signs of theological tampering. Thousands of other manuscripts — ranging from fragments to complete books — confirm the stability of the New Testament text:
There is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such a wealth of good textual attestation as the New Testament.
(Bruce M. Metzger)
In short, the Bible wasn’t altered or lost — it was meticulously preserved across centuries, copied and protected by both Jewish and Christian communities.
6. Islam and the Appropriation of Sacred History
The Quran frequently references biblical figures — Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, and Jesus — but always reinterprets their stories in ways that strip them of Jewish and Christian identity, theology, and history. Abraham is called a “Muslim” (Surah 3:67), despite living over 2,000 years before Islam existed. Jesus is presented as a Muslim prophet who preached Islam (Surah 61:6).
This retroactive Islamization of biblical figures is a theological appropriation meant to assert Islam’s superiority over Judaism and Christianity. As scholar Gabriel Said Reynolds notes:
The Qur’an appropriates biblical characters but redefines them to support its own narrative.
(Gabriel Said Reynolds)
The redefinition of Abrahamic history is not only theological — it has political consequences. Islam, using Quranic reinterpretations, justify violence against Jews, asserting that Jews are occupiers of Muslim land. This is why the Islamic Republic of Iran and groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad so often cite religious texts in support of their goal to “free Palestine” from any Jewish or Christian influence.
Conclusion: Truth Cannot Contradict Itself
The Islamic Dilemma is not a minor theological error — it is a structural flaw. Islam cannot affirm the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament while simultaneously denying their content. It cannot claim Abraham and reject Isaac. It cannot declare the Bible both divine and corrupted without collapsing into contradiction.
The evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient manuscripts, archaeology, and history confirms the integrity of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. These same Scriptures affirm Israel’s claim to the land — not as a political accident, but as a fulfillment of divine promise.
Truth does not contradict itself. The God who revealed Himself through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob does not change His mind or forget His promises (Numbers 23:19). The covenant still stands. The Scriptures still speak. And no revisionist theology can erase what God has declared.
This was an excerpt from my upcoming book “The Elephant in the Middle East: The Hidden Theological Context of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.“
