Answers to Alleged Contradictions in the Qur'an

A Christian missionary web-site contains a list of what are claimed to be internal contradictions in the Qur’an. The list contains forty-nine numbered items authored by Jochen Katz. Readers may access this list at www.answering-islam.org. Here is a reply to each item of Katz’s list. We will see that not a single item on the list is a genuine contradiction in the Qur’an. On some items Katz simply misunderstood the Qur’an. Sometimes he has taken verses out of context to support that misunderstanding. Often he simply did not exercise the thought necessary to distinguish between a real contradiction and a resolvable difference.

In preparation for this response I have benefitted from reading the responses offered by Ishak Mermerci, Misha’al Al-Kadhi, Randy Desmond, and Khalid.

Mr. Katz's purpose

Katz’s purpose in listing these claimed contradictions is to get Muslims to stop claiming that the Qur’an is superior to the Bible. In his response to Randy Desmond, Katz wrote:

"There are a number of questions in regard to the Bible for which I do not know a fully satisfactory answer. And I will admit that I don’t know, should you ask me one of these. But I hate the pretence of having answers if there are none. And I hate the often pridefully displayed and claimed superiority of the Qur’an over the Bible. If these contradictions pages help Muslims to become more humble and realistic and especially stop claiming the corruption of the Bible because they have found a few difficult passages, then the goal of this page has been reached."