Ahmed Deedat begins Crucifixion or Cruci-fiction with a fiction
Muslims often encourage me to read Ahmed Deedat’s Crucifixion or Cruci-fiction. Deedat, who does not often show hospitality to truth, begins his (in)famous Crucifixion or Cruci-fiction with the triumphal:
Recently, an American historical researcher and mathematician, Michael H. Hart, published a book: “THE 100, THE TOP HUNDRED OR THE GREATEST HUNDRED IN HISTORY.” In his book he gives the names of the 100 “Most Influential Men in History” and his reasons for their positions in his list. Amazingly,he (most probably a Christian) puts Muhummed (peace be upon him) FIRST in his hundred, and with good reasons too. And with equally good reasons he places Jesus Christ (peace be upon him), the man accepted as “Lord” and “Saviour” by nearly all his fellow Americans, number THREE.
Deedat was engaged in wishful thinking with the comment that Michael Hart was “probably a Christian.” Not true. Michael Hart is Jewish.
Upon closer examination, Michael Hart does not support Muslim beliefs about Muhammad and the Quran because Hart also wrote:
Muhammad founded and promulgated one of the world’s great religions, and became an immensely effective political leader….Muhammad, however, was responsible for both the theology of Islam and its main ethical and moral principles…Moreover, he is the author of the Moslem holy scriptures, the Koran, a collection of certain of Muhammad’s insights that he believed had been directly revealed to him by Allah. Most of these utterances were copied more or less faithfully during Muhammad’s lifetime and were collected together in authoritative form not long after his death. The Koran therefore, closely represents Muhammad’s ideas and teachings and to a considerable extent his exact words. 1The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History
Do Muslims believe Muhammad was the author of the Quran? Do Muslims believe Muhammad the founder of Islam?
The significance of Michael Hart’s ranking of Muhammad at #1 is greatly diminished in Hart’s sequel, A View from the Year 3000. It’s a futuristic book, imaginatively written in the year 3000, wherein Michael Hart speculates as to which historical figures will be important 1,000 years from now. Hart ranks Muhammad’s historical importance at #9 explaining:
The prophet Muhammad was the founder of Islam, one of the world’s great religions. Although Islam is of minor importance in today’s world, for roughly fifteen centuries it was a major force in human history, and there were periods during which the Moslems… outnumbered the adherents of any other religion …The results of the relative inflexibility of Islamic thought were profound. In the long run, the Christian world was far better able to adjust to changed circumstances and to adopt new social and political arrangements when needed. It was the Christians who first abolished slavery, and who first granted equal opportunities for women; it was in Christian Europe that modern democracy developed, and it was in the Christian world that modern science and mathematics were created.
Muslims who appeal to Michael Hart or to Deedat’s Crucifixion or Cruci-fiction should be asked what their logic is for quoting him. (In case you were wondering, in View from the Year 3000 Michael Hart ranks Jesus at #8 because he was the founder of Christianity and Paul at #47 because he was the co-founder of Christianity.)
You may also be interested in:
The Quran’s uncertainty about the crucifixion
What every Muslim should know about the Bible
Muhammad’s Proposed Cursing – Mubahala (Quran 3:59-61)
References
