PART I, CHAPTER 13 (= I-13-0-0)

SOURCES FOR THIS BOOK - "1000+ MISTAKES IN THE QURAN"

(PART I, CHAPTERS 1 - 14 = SOME SPECIAL ASPECTS OF ISLAM AS TOLD IN THE QURAN - THE HOLY BOOK OF MUHAMMAD, MUSLIMS, ISLAM, AND ALLAH.)

Comments in this book numbered by 3 numbers (included 00 or 0) a few places followed by one small letter = clear cases. Comments numbered by 00 or 0 followed by 1, 2 or 3 letters (big or small) = likely cases.

“The Holy Qur’an”, translated to English by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. If nothing else is said, all quotations from the Quran are from this translation, the 2000 edition from Wordsworth Classics, printed with permission from Islamic Propagation Centre, Islamic Vision, 434 Coventry Road, Birmingham, B10 OUG, UK. Mr. A. Yusuf Ali is reckoned by Islam to be one of the top 3 translators of the Quran to English, if not THE best. The book is cheap in paperback, and anybody can read it and control if our quotations are correct. And look for the mistakes or other things if they want. The book is marked by the fact that the translator is a believing Muslim – sometimes his translations are on the positive side leaning towards orthodoxy more than towards the literal meaning of the texts. But the problem is not too big - - - and there hardly is anyone that is better.
“The Message of the Quran”, with extensive comments by Muhammad Asad. This is not the perfect sample of perfect translations or comments. Muhammad Asad (born Leopold Weiss in Poland in 1900) obviously has much knowledge, but as obviously wants to back up Islam, and also as obviously has some (though not enough – or he is “twisting” his facts) knowledge about other things, and goes out of his way – often far out of his way - to adjust the scientific facts to the Quran and Islam, or explain the Quran and Islam in such ways that its claims and statements perhaps fits the facts. Hypocrisy also is too frequent. To tell the truth our copy has many ballpoint pen marks like “wrong”, “dishonest?”, “fast talk”, “rubbish”, etc. But all the same Islam has few better books adressing ordinary people.
Most Islamic books about the religion do not hold real scientific standard.This one is of the better ones after all, and a staple one and highly recommended by Muslims, plus that all its “colouring” without exception is pro-Islam, so that no Muslim can say we mainly use anti-Muslim sources. And there is so much that is wrong or peculiar or “special” in the Quran, that we can afford to use a book that is strongly pro-Islam – there are plenty all the same. And also we can show how facts sometimes are twisted in such debates.

NB: Before this edition of our book was ready for the net, we were made aware of that “The Message of the Quran” had come in new edition in English. We got hold of it, and have used it to some extent. It must be remarked that Mr. Asad as far as we know is dead. All the same the book is revised – but by people with less integrity and more religion than Mr. Asad. The old edition – well, you could not relay on everything, and his conclusions often was coloured by wishful thinking and orthodoxy. The new edition has reached a level of orthodoxy, where you had better check the facts from other sources – and compare the translations of the Quran with more reliable ones. (Like A. Yusuf Ali - after all he is more reliable - or Pikthall or Shakir).
“The Meaning of the Quran”, by Abdullah Yusuf Ali - the same as the translator of "our" Quran. But in this book he is less scientist and more orthodox Muslim. Too many of his tales and conclusions are marked by how Islam wants it to be, not how things are. He also here has a bit of a “normal” Islamic tendency: He “explains” fragments of a complex fact seemingly in a logical way – though often basing himself on undocumented claims and statements instead of on solid facts, and also he makes conclusions that are logically invalid (both of which are common from Muslims in debates) – and then “solve” the point - - - and omits to place it in the big picture, because then everybody at once see it is wrong. F. ex. explaining the 7 heavens with that it means the full universe - - - without touching the fact that the Quran clearly tells the stars are fastened to the lowest of the heavens, and f. ex. that all stars thus have to be at the same distance from us, that the Quran tells that stars are used as shooting stars to chase away bad spirits – to use a star for a shooting star, is so far away from reality that it is not even worth a comment – and that the moon is between the heavens = on the other side of the stars, and thus the stars are below the moon.
All the same we use the book, simply because it has been impossible to find really honest scientific Islamic books about the Quran, and we wanted to use mainly Islamic sources, to avoid the easy way out for Muslims – and others – “you are just quoting Muslim-haters”. This is a much used excuse even though it does not matter if the fact comes from here or there – after all what counts is: “Are the facts true?” And after all this is one of the better books.
“Ahadits” (Hadiths) after Sahih Al-Bukhari. There are 6 collections of Hadiths that are especially revered in Islam. Of these Al-Bukhari and Muslim are reckoned to be the most reliable, with Al-Bukhari as the very best. Hadiths are short stories about what Muhammad and some of his co-workers said and did. But they were collected some 200 years after his death, and it is easy to prove that lots of them are made up, and few are possible to prove definitely to be correct. All the same the Hadiths is the main source for Islam and for Muslims for knowledge about Muhammad and his religion, after the Quran.
“Ahadits” (Hadiths) after Sahih Imam Muslim. See the point above. – Imam Muslim is reckoned to be a good no. 2 in quality.
“The Life of Muhammad”, by Muhammad Ibn Ishaq. This is reckoned by science and by Muslims to be the first and the most reliable biography made over Muhammad in the old times - though many Muslims want to reduce him, because he also tells about some of Muhammad's black sides and deeds (even though Ibn Hisham as mentioned below, tells he removed the darkest points - Muhammad clearly had more dark sides and/or deeds which are deleted from history). Ibn Ishaq was from a Jewish family that had become Muslims. He had lived for a long time in Medina, and had picked up much about Muhammad there. He in addition was very learned, and there is reason to believe he had extensive and to a large degree relatively correct information about Muhammad and his co-operators and followers. It was written around 750 AD at the court of the caliph in Bagdad – and at the caliph’s orders. One copy ended with a learned man named Ibn Hisham. He removed some parts that Muslims might find offensive (which means some dark information about Muhammad), but saved the rest, and in addition made a lot of comments, which also happened to be saved for the future. This was around 900 AD.
We also have used different other books (but very little) f. ex. Serge Trifcovic: “The Sword of Islam”, Ibn Warraq “Why I am not a Muslim”, a little from Internet, and when it comes to science, also some books and scientific magazines like “New Scientist”, “Scientific American”, “Nature”, and some others.
The absolutely main source: The Quran itself, in Abdullah Yusuf Ali's translation, and when we refer to comments, they mainly are from “The Message of the Quran” and “The Meaning of the Quran” – the other sources are used only infrequently. When it comes to scientific facts that are not well known, “New Scientist” is most frequently used.

NB: If you find any mistakes anywhere, please inform us. If it is a real mistake, it will be corrected.

NB, NB, NB:

1. Read first the 2 small chapters "Some Essentials for how the Quran is to be read and understood" (VII-10-1) and "The Quran is to be understood literally if nothing else is indicated" (VII-10-2).

2. http://www.1000mistakes.com is blocked by many Muslim authorities. To debate with persons in such areas, cut and paste what you want from the pages and send it under titles different from http://www.1000mistakes.com.

3. http://www.1000mistakes.com is one of 9 pages which Muslim organisetions warned especially against in 2008 and 2009 - it could make especially procelytes lose their belief in Islam; correct and "down-to-the-earth" information works. In this connection it is worth noting that in the "warning" http://www.1000mistakes.com was one of 3 which neither was accused of bringing wrong facts, nor of being a hate page.

4. Comment 141 (to verse 6/149) in “The Message of the Quran” (see point 5) explains (translated from Swedish) about Allah's claimed omniscience vs. man's claimed free will:

“With other words: The real connection between Allah’s knowledge about the future (and consequently about the unavoidable in what is to happen in the future*) on one side and man’s relatively (!!*) free will on the other – two statements that seems to contradict each other – lies outside what is possible for humans to understand, but as both statement are made from Allah (in the Quran*) both must be true”. Unbelievable. Blind belief is the only correct and intelligent way of life, even in the face of the utterly impossible!!

5. And an afterthought: In the book “The Message of the Quran”, certified by Al-Azhar Al-Sharif Islamic Research Academy in Cairo (one of the 2-3 top universities in the Muslim world on such subjects) in a letter dated 27. Dec. 1998, it is admitted rather reluctantly that there are no proofs for Allah, and that it is not possible to prove him. An additonal point here is that if there is no proof for Allah and impossible to prove him, automatically there also is no proof for, and impossible to prove Muhammad's claimed connection to a god. And if there is no Allah and/or no connection between Muhammad and a god, what then is Islam?

6. Further: All the mistakes, contradictions, etc. in that book prove 100% that the Quran is not made by an omniscient god - no god makes such and so many mistakes, etc. If then Islam is a made up religion, what then about all the Muslims who have been prohibitted from looking for a real religion (if such one exists)? And where will they in case wake up after living and practising such an inhuman war religion like Islam is according to the Quran (and to Hadiths), if there is a second life somewhere? - Hell or Paradise?

7. NB and PS: No matter how sure you are about something, if it is not proved, it is not knowledge, only belief or strong belief, and can be wrong. Only what is proved or possible to prove is knowledge.

(As http://www.1000mistakes.com is blocked in many Muslim areas - which shows they are afraid of it and lack arguments (if they had real arguments for http://www.1000mistakes.com is wrong, blocking was unneccessary) - "cut and paste" whatever you want from it and send if you want to inform or to debate there. Remember to omit the name http://www.1000mistakes.com).

PS: If we are blocked centrally - f. ex. by spam (there is too much at times already from unfriendly sources) we will reopen with new address somewhere else, and announce the new address om f. ex. http://www.topix.com/forum/religion/islam. Also if your comments to us do not reach us, any comments posted on the thread "What is it with http://www.1000mistakes.com ?" (or make a page containing "1000 mistakes" in the title yourself if you want) on that forum will be read by us - it is a big international debate page.