Salamualaykum respected shaykh, some Christians and these people were sending me this thing, you know how there is a surah or chapter in quran which speaks about how Allah's throne is above the water, they showed me a chapter in bible which was very similar to this Quranic chapter, they are telling me Prophet Muhammad God forbid copied this, can you please refute this? And I then told them it is because old bible has some truth in it then they said regarding my question, the chapter in the bible and Quran were similar in the way they were written as in the sequence of the verses, also with the meaning, so why is it so similar and god wouldn't reveal the same chapter twice? Inshallah you can help me with this. may God increase you with his bountyFeb 14 at 12:56am

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

First, it should be noted that Muslims who lack adequate religious knowledge should beware of exposure to the misconceptions of deviant people if they are not able to refute such misconceptions and false claims. This has been previously underlined in Fataawa 92386 and 220678.

Second, to say that Allaah The Exalted would not reveal something twice is arbitrary, and it amounts to a weak creature meddling in the Creator's business. Allaah The Exalted, says (what means): {Have they not seen that We set upon the land, reducing it from its borders? And Allaah decides; there is no adjuster of His decision. And He is swift in account.} [Quran 13:41] He also says (what means): {He is not questioned about what He does, but they will be questioned.} [Quran 21:23] Would you expect those who say Alllaah has a son to show respect for Allaah?

Third, those Christians are advised to investigate their own Bibles and the distortions and contradictions in them, which the divine revelation that Allaah communicated to ‘Eesa (Jesus) in the original Gospel, are above. It is important that you refer to Fataawa 90449, 30506, and 10326 about the falseness of present-day Christianity and the contradictions in their Bibles. They are advised to address their own problems before attacking the Quran and questioning its authenticity. They are like those whose feet are in the sand and wish to reach the stars. How would they ever be able to achieve that?!

Fourth, their claim that Prophet Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, quoted this verse from their Bible is an unfounded claim that has no evidence to support it. Az-Zarqaani provided powerful and graceful responses in his famous work Manaahil Al-‘Irfaan against those who claim that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, was taught by the Christian monk Baheera. We have adapted some of those responses here as follows:

1. Such claims are not accepted as long as they are not supported by evidence. In other words, they would have to tell us what it was that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, heard from Baheera and when and where that was.

2. Nothing is historically known other than that he traveled to the Levant twice for trade, once in his childhood and a second time as a young man. He did not travel outside Makkah before his Prophethood except these two times and did not go anywhere beyond the marketplace of Busrah on those two occasions. Also, he did not learn from Baheera or anyone else anything about religion. Moreover, it was not hidden from anyone (as his uncle Abu Taalib was with him on the first journey and Maysarah, the servant of Khadeejah, on the second one).

3. It is impossible under any normal circumstances for any person on the face of the earth to be taught and educated and then to have matured in such an unusual manner in his learning and education that he would become the most distinguished teacher in the entire world, even though he was illiterate and did not know how to read or write.

4. The nature of the religion to which the monk Baheera belonged (i.e. Christianity) cannot be the source of the Quran given the distortion and alteration that Christianity was exposed to.

5. If this claim were even partially correct, the people in the lifetime of the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, would have rejoiced over it because they were more eager than anyone to oppose the Prophet Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, by any possible means. Even when they accused him of bringing the Quran from a human being, they never said that he learned it from Baheera because no one would have believed it. They were more eager than anyone to put an end to and hamper his preaching by any means; however, even they were more reasonable and honorable than these deviants.” [Summarized from Manaahil Al-‘Irfaan]

For more information, please refer to Fatwa 136397.

To return to what these people said about the similarities in the language of the different revelations, this does not imply any fault in the Quran but rather confirms that it was revealed by Allaah The Exalted. The Quran attests to the earlier divine scriptures. Allaah The Exalted says (what means): {He has sent down upon you, [O Muhammad], the Book in truth, confirming what was before it. And He revealed the Torah and the Gospel.} [Quran 3:3] It is not surprising, then, that there are similarities between the original parts of the Gospel that have not been distorted or altered and the Quran. This can predominantly be found in the exhortations and the like. ‘Ataa’ ibn Yasaar said, “I met with ‘Abdullaah ibn ‘Amr ibn Al-‘Aas and said to him, 'Tell me about the description of the Messenger of Allaah, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, in the Torah?' He replied, 'Certainly. By Allaah, he, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is mentioned in the Torah with some of his qualities in the Quran: 'O Prophet, We have sent you as a witness, a giver of glad tidings, a warner and guardian of the gentiles. You are My slave and My Messenger. I have named you Al-Mutawakkil ('the one who places trust in Allaah'). He is not discourteous and not harsh and not one who always causes clamor in the markets; he does not respond to an evil deed with an evil deed, but pardons and forgives.” [Al-Bukhari]

Moreover, it was reported on the authority of Umm Salamah : “An-Najaashi (The Negus) said to Ja‘far 'Do you have anything that your Prophet has brought from God?' Ja‘far replied yes, so he said, 'Then read it to me.' Ja‘far read the beginning of Soorah Maryam (Quran 19) which recounts the story of ‘Eesa (Jesus) and his mother Maryam (Mary), may Allaah exalt their mention. On hearing the words of the Quran, An-Najaashi wept until his beard was wet and the bishops wept until their scrolls were wet. He said to the Muslims, 'By God, this and what Moosa brought come from the same niche.' (And he said to the delegation from the Quraysh,) 'Go from here, for, by God, I will never hand them over to you.’” [Ahmad]

Allaah Knows best.