The Torah Test
Also called the Islamic Dilemma. Start where a Muslim already stands, the Torah, and walk from it to the cross.
This is one conversation, learned in order. Part 1 tests the claims Islam needs the Torah to support. Part 2 rebuilds from the same Torah to the gospel, so the person has somewhere to go. Go slowly, read the passages together, and ask more than you tell.
Part 1: The Torah test
1. Was the Torah changed, and when?
Ask
Do you believe the Torah was changed? Before Muhammad, or after? Can I show you what the Qur'an says about the Torah?
Read together
The point
The Qur'an treats the Torah the Jews had in Muhammad's day as God's revelation: it sends them to judge by it, tells Muhammad to ask those who read it, and in the hadith Muhammad checks a ruling against it. Our copies match texts far older than Muhammad, including the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Qur'an even describes prophets and rabbis keeping and judging by the Torah right up to Jesus (5:44; 19:12).
They'll say
It was corrupted before Muhammad, or only its meaning was twisted. The real Injil was lost.
You can answer
Then the Qur'an sent people to a corrupt book. And if only the meaning was twisted, the text we read is sound. Either way, ask for evidence of the change other than disagreement with the Qur'an.
Practise in the Study Hub
D23 When the Qur'an says no one can change God's words, it means the Qur'an, not your Bible. The Qur'an confirms the Bible's general message and corrects where it was changed. · D27 The Qur'an honours the Injil God gave Jesus, not your New Testament. The Gospels were written decades later by other people, and Paul never met Jesus. · D07 We don't need history. We know the Qur'an is true because Muhammad is a prophet, so what it says about Jesus is true.
2. Same author? The story of Joseph
Ask
Can we read the same scene in both books and you tell me whether it sounds like one author?
Read together
The point
In Genesis, Jacob sees the bloodied robe, believes Joseph is dead, and refuses comfort. In the Qur'an, Jacob sees through his sons at once. One scene, opposite outcomes, and Genesis read this way centuries before Muhammad.
They'll say
The Qur'an corrects the Torah's altered version; a prophet wouldn't be fooled.
You can answer
Then when was it altered? The Greek translation from before Christ already reads like Genesis today, and the Qur'an says it confirms the Torah that came before it.
Practise in the Study Hub
D35 The Qur'an tells Joseph's story correctly. Jacob was a prophet; of course he saw through his sons' lie about the bloody shirt. Genesis got it wrong because it was changed.
3. Abraham, Ishmael and Mecca
Ask
Can I show you where the Torah says Hagar and Ishmael went, and how old Ishmael was then?
Read together
The point
The hadith has a nursing Ishmael left at an empty Mecca. Genesis has a teenage Ishmael in the wilderness near Beersheba, growing up in Paran, which Numbers places at Kadesh, south of Canaan. Genesis is silent about Mecca rather than denying it, but it locates them far from there.
They'll say
Paran is the mountains around Mecca, and the Bible simply leaves out Abraham's journey.
You can answer
The Torah itself places Paran at Kadesh. What evidence for the Mecca account exists outside sources written two thousand years later?
Practise in the Study Hub
D36 Abraham and Ishmael built the Kaaba in Mecca. The Qur'an says so (2:127), and Hagar ran between Safa and Marwa there, where Zamzam sprang up.
4. Ishmael's line and the covenant
Ask
God blessed Ishmael and made him a great nation; I agree. Can we read what Genesis says about the covenant itself?
Read together
The point
Ishmael is blessed, and some of his descendants, like Kedar, were Arabian tribes. But the covenant is established with Isaac, and the specific line from Ishmael to Mecca and Muhammad is uncertain even by Muslim genealogists' own account.
They'll say
The Arabs are Ishmael's children, and the promise to make him a great nation is fulfilled in Islam.
You can answer
Grant the blessing. Descent from Abraham never made anyone a prophet; the covenant line is Isaac's (17:21).
Practise in the Study Hub
D37 Muhammad descends from Ishmael, son of Abraham. God promised to make Ishmael a great nation, and that promise is fulfilled in the Arabs and the final Prophet.
5. Was Muhammad's call like Moses'?
Ask
Can we compare the two calls, the burning bush and the cave of Hira, side by side?
Read together
The point
God himself spoke to Moses and gave him signs to prove his call. At Hira an angel seized Muhammad, he feared for himself, and by the Qur'an's own account he was given no signs. Both men were afraid, so the difference isn't fear; it's who spoke and what confirmed it.
They'll say
God reveals in different ways, and a Christian scholar, Waraqa, recognised the same angel.
You can answer
Waraqa's remark is one man's opinion in a hadith. Deuteronomy 18 gives the test of a prophet like Moses; what confirmed Muhammad's call?
Practise in the Study Hub
D38 Waraqa, a Christian who knew the scriptures, recognised that the angel who came to Muhammad was the same one God sent to Moses. Muhammad's call was like Moses' call. · D15 Muhammad is like Moses: both got revelation at 40, both brought a law, had wives and children, and led their people in war. Jesus did none of that, and he can't be God's mouthpiece if he's God. · D34 Yes, the Prophet was affected by magic for a while, but prophets are human. It touched his body, not the revelation, and Allah cured him with the last two surahs. Satan afflicted Job and Paul too.
6. When they say 'it's clearly corrupted'
Ask
That's a big claim. Do you think it changed by accident, or on purpose?
Read together
The point
Copying slips can't rewrite whole stories, and a deliberate change needs a motive; none of the usual motives (hiding prophecies, politics, embarrassment, doctrine) fits Joseph's story. A vague charge can't be tested; ask for who, when and why.
They'll say
Qur'an 2:79 says people wrote scripture with their own hands for gain.
You can answer
Granted as a general charge. Which passage, changed when, by whom, and what did they gain by changing whether Jacob believed his sons?
Practise in the Study Hub
D39 Look how different the Torah's stories are from the Qur'an's. That just proves the Torah was corrupted. · D35 The Qur'an tells Joseph's story correctly. Jacob was a prophet; of course he saw through his sons' lie about the bloody shirt. Genesis got it wrong because it was changed.
Part 2: From the Torah to the cross
7. Sin brought death
Ask
In the Torah, what changed for the whole human race when Adam and Eve sinned?
Read together
The point
God warned that disobedience would bring death, and after the fall death and toil come to everyone. Sin isn't only a list of bad deeds to outweigh; it's a broken relationship we're born into.
They'll say
Each person carries only their own sin; Adam repented and was forgiven.
You can answer
Repentance restores a relationship, but the Torah shows consequences remain: death reaches everyone, including the righteous. What will deal with death itself?
Practise in the Study Hub
D08 Adam and Eve hadn't eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, so they couldn't know disobeying was wrong. God punished them for something they didn't know.
8. God covers sin through a death
Ask
When Adam and Eve were ashamed, how did God cover them?
Read together
The point
From the first garments of skin to the Day of Atonement, the Torah teaches that sin is covered by a life given in place of the guilty: 'the life of the flesh is in the blood… it is the blood that makes atonement.'
They'll say
God forgives whoever repents; he doesn't need blood. Animal sacrifice was only for Israel.
You can answer
God is merciful, and the Torah still built the whole system of forgiveness on substitution. The animals pointed forward; they couldn't finally take away sin.
Practise in the Study Hub
D12 Islam shows God's mercy better. You repent, God forgives. Nobody else has to suffer for it. · D09 Ezekiel 18:20 says the son won't bear the father's sin. Each person pays for their own sin, so someone dying for everyone else is unjust.
9. God already appears in the Torah
Ask
In Genesis, did God ever come to people in a form they could see and talk with?
Read together
The point
God walks in the garden, eats with Abraham, wrestles with Jacob ('I have seen God face to face'), and speaks from the bush as the angel of the LORD. God coming near in visible form isn't a Christian invention; the Torah already shows it.
They'll say
These were angels or figures of speech; God would never take a created form.
You can answer
Jacob names the place 'face of God' and Moses hides his face 'afraid to look at God'. The Torah itself presents these as God.
Practise in the Study Hub
D01 Jesus never said 'I am God, worship me.' · D05 The Trinity isn't in the Bible. Jesus never taught it.
10. The servant who dies for others
Ask
Can we read Isaiah 53 together, and you tell me who it describes?
Read together
The point
An innocent servant is pierced for others' sins, made a guilt offering, and then lives on, in a text the Dead Sea Scrolls show is centuries older than Jesus.
They'll say
It's about Israel, or about a prophet who suffered but wasn't killed.
You can answer
The servant is innocent and suffers for 'my people'; the prophets never call the nation innocent. Who else fits?
Practise in the Study Hub
A30 Christians just read Jesus back into the Old Testament. Those verses were about other things. · D06 Jesus never predicted he'd die and rise. The disciples didn't expect it, so the predictions were made up later.
11. The good news
Ask
If the Torah shows that sin brings death, that God covers sin by a sacrifice, and promises a servant who dies for others, would you like to hear how Jesus fits that?
Read together
The point
We've all broken God's law; the wages of sin is death; Christ died for us while we were still sinners; and whoever confesses Jesus as Lord and believes God raised him will be saved. Offer it, then leave room for questions and keep the friendship.
They'll say
God doesn't need a sacrifice, and Jesus wasn't crucified.
You can answer
The crucifixion is among the best-attested facts of ancient history, and everything we've read in the Torah prepares for it. Keep listening, keep praying, and keep meeting.
Practise in the Study Hub
D32 You're quoting 46:9 out of context. Surah 48 says Allah forgave all of the Prophet's sins, past and future, and the hadith promise him paradise. · D29 Your religion says a serial killer who accepts Jesus goes to heaven, while a good Muslim who prays and fasts all his life goes to hell. How is that just? · D33 You Christians say our God is a false god, even a demon. So do you think we should even be allowed to worship?