Exposing Islam

Part 7 – The Islamic Dilemma on the Torah and Gospel

When the Qur’an’s Own Claims Destroy Islam From Within

Introduction: An Unavoidable Crisis

One of the most devastating arguments against Islam is what’s now widely called “The Islamic Dilemma” — a contradiction so fundamental that once you see it, you can’t unsee it. This isn’t an obscure academic nitpick; it’s an airtight, inescapable problem right at the heart of Islam’s theology.

The dilemma boils down to this: The Qur’an affirms the divine inspiration, preservation, and authority of the Torah and Gospel — yet Islam also claims these scriptures are corrupted. The two claims cannot both be true.

And because the Qur’an’s own authority depends on the authenticity of the earlier revelations it affirms, Islam ends up destroying itself from the inside out.

Section 1 – The Qur’an’s Direct Affirmation of the Torah and Gospel

Muslims often assume that the Qur’an replaces the earlier revelations. But that’s not what the Qur’an itself says. It explicitly endorses the Torah (Tawrat) and Gospel (Injeel) as divine, reliable guidance for their respective audiences.

1. The Torah Given to Moses
Surah 5:44:

“Indeed, We sent down the Torah, in which was guidance and light. The prophets who submitted judged by it for the Jews…”

No room for doubt here — Allah “sent down” the Torah, and it contained “guidance and light.” Not “used to contain” — present tense affirmation.

2. The Gospel Given to Jesus
Surah 5:46:

“And We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming what came before him in the Torah. And We gave him the Gospel, in which was guidance and light and confirming what preceded it of the Torah, as guidance and instruction for the righteous.”

Again — “guidance and light,” not “corrupted and unreliable.”

3. The Command to Judge by the Gospel
Surah 5:47:

“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.”

This is a direct instruction for Christians of Muhammad’s time to use the Gospel they possessed. If it were corrupted, Allah’s command would make no sense.

4. God’s Word Cannot Be Changed
Surah 6:115:

“And the word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and in justice. None can change His words…”

Surah 18:27 repeats it:

“…None can change His words…”

If the Torah and Gospel are God’s words, then by the Qur’an’s own logic, they cannot be corrupted.

Section 2 – The Contradictory Claim of Corruption

Despite this crystal-clear endorsement, Islam’s later theological tradition introduced the doctrine of tahrif — the idea that Jews and Christians corrupted their scriptures. This came in two forms:

Textual Corruption (Tahrif al-Nass): The claim that the actual text was altered.
Interpretive Corruption (Tahrif al-Mana): The claim that the text was misinterpreted.

Modern Muslim apologetics often lean on the second form when cornered, but in popular preaching and debates, the first is far more common.

The problem is that the Qur’an itself never claims the earlier scriptures’ text was corrupted — and in fact, the verses above make that position impossible without contradicting Allah’s own words.

Section 3 – The Logical Structure of the Dilemma

Here’s the airtight syllogism:

Premise 1: The Qur’an says the Torah and Gospel were given by Allah, contain guidance and light, and must be obeyed (5:44–47).
Premise 2: The Qur’an says God’s words cannot be changed (6:115, 18:27).
Premise 3: The Qur’an affirms that the People of the Book still possessed these scriptures in Muhammad’s day (5:43, 5:47).
Premise 4: Modern Islam claims the Torah and Gospel are corrupted.
Conclusion: If the Torah and Gospel are corrupted, the Qur’an is wrong — and therefore not from God. If they are not corrupted, the Qur’an is still wrong because they contradict it. Either way, Islam collapses.

Section 4 – Historical Evidence Against the Corruption Claim

If Muslims want to claim the Torah and Gospel were textually corrupted before Muhammad, they must explain why:

Manuscripts Predating Islam Match Today’s Texts
- Dead Sea Scrolls (c. 200 BC–70 AD) preserve the Old Testament with remarkable fidelity to later copies.
- Codex Sinaiticus (4th century AD) contains the full New Testament — same message, same core teachings.
No Evidence of a Universal Textual Overhaul
Corruption on a scale that removes all Islamic theology from the Bible would require rewriting manuscripts across the known world before the 7th century — yet no such coordinated conspiracy is historically plausible or evidenced.
The Qur’an Treats Those Scriptures as Reliable in Muhammad’s Time
If corruption had already occurred, Allah’s command to “judge by” those scriptures would be misleading or deceitful.

Section 5 – Tafsir Writers and the Tahrif Problem

Classical commentators faced the same problem and tried to get around it:

Ibn Kathir admitted the Torah and Gospel originally came from Allah but claimed Jews and Christians “changed words from their places.”
Al-Tabari often focused on “misinterpretation” rather than wholesale textual change — but even this contradicts the Qur’an’s affirmation that the earlier scriptures were clear guidance.
Later polemicists went full “corruption theory” to avoid having to deal with direct contradictions between the Bible and Qur’an — a move that rewrites Islamic history to protect theology.

Section 6 – Why Modern Muslim Defenses Fail

1. “Corruption Means Only Misinterpretation”
If that were true, why does modern Dawah insist the text itself has been changed? And why does this “misinterpretation” just happen to align perfectly with Christian theology while avoiding Islamic claims?

2. “The Gospel Was a Different Book”
Muslims sometimes claim the Injeel was a lost revelation given to Jesus that is not the New Testament. This fails because:

There’s no historical evidence of such a book.
The Qur’an commands Christians to follow what they already had — not something that had vanished centuries earlier.

3. “Christians Rewrote the Bible After Muhammad”
Impossible — manuscripts predating Islam match the Bible today.

Section 7 – The Theological Suicide

The Qur’an needs the Torah and Gospel for legitimacy. Without them:

Muhammad’s claim to be in the same prophetic line collapses.
Islam loses its continuity with earlier revelation.
The Qur’an’s appeal to previous scriptures as confirmation becomes meaningless.

Yet at the same time, the Qur’an cannot survive agreement with them, because they contradict its core doctrines on the deity of Christ, His death and resurrection, salvation by grace, and the nature of God.

This is the trap: If the earlier scriptures are true, Islam is false. If they are false, the Qur’an is also false for affirming them.

Section 8 – The Qur’an’s Own Test

Surah 4:82 challenges skeptics:

“Do they not reflect upon the Qur’an? If it had been from other than Allah, they would have found much contradiction therein.”

The Islamic Dilemma is not just a contradiction between the Qur’an and other books — it is an internal contradiction between the Qur’an’s words and its theology. By its own standard, it fails.

Section 9 – Conclusion: An Inescapable Verdict

The Islamic Dilemma is a death blow to Islam’s truth claim because it is:

Textually unavoidable — the Qur’an’s affirmations are clear.
Historically verifiable — manuscripts prove continuity.
Logically airtight — both sides of the dilemma destroy Islam.

Muslim scholars have been wrestling with this problem for centuries, but no reinterpretation, no word games, no historical revision can erase the simple fact: The Qur’an affirms the Torah and Gospel while Islam denies them. That contradiction cannot be resolved — and it’s fatal.

Next in series Part 8: Scientific Errors in the Qur’an