Was Muhammad sent to all people?

Our Muslim friends say that their message is for all people, that their Quran was meant to be universal, but is this really true? If we focus in on the Quran, that answer seems to be no! The Quran was sent to a specific people group and in Arabic specifically so that they receive a revelation in a language they understand. In fact, the hadith teaches it was revealed in seven Arabic dialects (which we would more correctly call "textual variants") to make sure the original recipients of the revelation, the Quraish, could understand it.

This is a far cry what we see today, with Muslims being required to pray and memorize the Quran in Arabic, a language that they don't typically understand. Was this the original purpose of sending the message in Arabic?

Quran Was only sent to Arabs in Arabic, so that They Might Understand

If the Quran was meant for all people, why was it sent down in the obscure language of Arabic?

“Thus We have sent it down, being a command in Arabic. And if you follow their desires, after the knowledge that has come to you, there shall be neither a friend for you against Allah, nor a savior.“  Quran 13:37, Usmani

Why does it have to be in Arabic?  The answer apparently is so that the people that spoke Arabic so that Allah would send a message that the people would understand:

“We have sent it down, as an Arabic Qur’an, so that you may understand.” Quran 12:2, Usmani

“By the manifest Book, We have made it an Arabic Qur’ān, so that you may understand.”  Quran 43:2-3, Usmani

But this doesn't really make sense. Is Arabic a universal language?  Only about 16% of Muslims speak Arabic.  Who is able to understand (in another translation “learn wisdom”) without knowing Arabic?   For, the Quran was meant to be sent down in Arabic, in order to make the revelation clear:

“And in this way We have sent it down to you as an Arabic Qur’ān, and have detailed in it some warnings in various ways, so that they may fear, or it may produce a lesson for them.”  Quran 20:113, Usmani

For whom will such a revelation be clear?  Only for the Arabs.  

Muhammad was Sent only to the Arabs

Muhammad was sent to his own people.  Muhammad was specifically sent as a warner to the town of Mecca and the towns around it:

“This is indeed a Blessed Book We have sent down, confirming what was (revealed) before it, so that you may warn the town which is the Mother of All Towns, (i.e. Makkah) and those around it. …” Quran 6:92a, Usmani

According to the Quran, Allah’s messengers are ALWAYS sent to speak the language of their people:

“We did not send any messenger but (speaking) in the language of his people, so that he might clearly convey the message to them. So, Allah lets go astray whom He wills and lets find guidance whom He wills. ...”  Quran 14:4a, Usmani

For clear conveyance of the message, Muhammad was sent to his own people from his people.  That is, according to the Quran, the messenger to the Arabs had to be from the people of the Arabs.  So Muhammad was the messenger only for the Arabs.

Was Muhammad Really Sent to All People?

These verses create a clear contradiction to the common Muslim narrative that Muhammad’s message is universal.  But is this narrative even true?

In the following verses, Muhammad is purportedly “a mercy for all creatures” and he was sent to all mankind:

“And We have sent you (O Muhammad SAW) not but as a mercy for the 'Alamin (mankind, jinns and all that exists).”  Quran 21:107, Muhsin Khan

“We did not send you (O prophet,) but to the entire mankind, as a bearer of good news and as a warner, but most people do not know.” Quran 34:28, Usmani

There are many verses, e.g. Quran 4:79, where it says in the Quran translations that Muhammad is a messenger to all mankind.  In Quran 34:28 the term “lilnnāsi” (لِلنَّاسِ) for mankind also translates to “for people”.  It is translated this way by Usmani, Hareem and Khattab in 4:79.   Similarly, “l-nāsu” (لِلنَّاسِ) that has been translated “mankind” in 7:158 and many other verses, literally translates to “the people”.  This term may only be referring to the people of Mecca.

The Quran Was Revealed to be Easy to Understand, If You Read Arabic!

Allah has provided the Quran in different Arabic dialects or “ahruf” (the meaning of this term is unclear; it may be closer to “textual variants” and not actually dialects).  This was to make reciting it easy on the people receiving the Quran (i.e. Muhammad’s people, the Arabs) to recite and understand it.  In fact, after the requests of Muhammad, Allah permitted the Quran to be recited in seven textual variants:

“Ubayy b. Ka'b reported that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was near the tank of Banu Ghifar that Gabriel came to him and said:

Allah has commanded you to recite to your people the Qur'an in one dialect. Upon this he said: I ask from Allah pardon and forgiveness. My people are not capable of doing it. He then came for the second time and said: Allah has commanded you that you should recite the Qur'an to your people in two dialects. Upon this he (the Holy prophet) again said: I seek pardon and forgiveness from Allah, my people would not be able to do so. He (Gabriel) came for the third time and said: Allah has commanded you to recite the Qur'an to your people in three dialects. Upon this he said: I ask pardon and forgiveness from Allah. My people would not be able to do it. He then came to him for the fourth time and said: Allah has commanded you to recite the Qur'an to your people in seven dialects, and in whichever dialect they would recite, they would be right.”  Sahih Muslim 821 a

Islam today expects Muslims to read the Quran and pray in Arabic.  How can Allah expect this of Muslims today while at the same time making pains to ensure that the Quran was easy to understand for its original recipients?  If Allah revealed the Quran in seven different Quraishi dialects, why couldn’t he reveal the Quran in, for example, just one Indonesians language?

Islam gives no coherent teaching on why Muslims have to pray/read scriptures in Arabic.  By contrast, the message of the Bible and communicable in any language, was intended to be communicated in different languages (c.f. Pentecost) and shared with all nations (Matthew 28:19, Mark 16:15).

(The original message was taken from the Christian Prince talk “Is the Quran the book of contradiction or perfection? #1 Islam is universal or local?”  More information on this topic is at answering-islam.org: https://www.answering-islam.org/Quran/Incoherence/messenger_language.html)

Jesus is The First and The Last

 

A central question in discussions with Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons and Muslims is whether Jesus is God.  Here is some evidence that he is.

JESUS IS THE FIRST AND THE LAST

In the book of Isaiah, Yahweh/Jehovah says he is "the First and the Last":

Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel

and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:

“I AM THE FIRST and I AM THE LAST;

besides me there is no god. 

Isaiah 44:6

Christ says the same of himself:

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am THE FIRST and THE LAST, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. 

Revelation 1:17-18

(See also Revelation 2:8, 22:12-16.)

The person here speaking is Jesus. The speaker say he was dead and is alive forevermore.  Now, though some have been raised from the dead, Jesus is the ONLY ONE who was raised and is alive FOREVERMORE.  

Another way we know it is Jesus talking here, is in Revelation 1:12-16.  Here, as John turns around to see who is speaking, he sees the "Son of Man".  Jesus identifies as the Son of Man all throughout the gospels. E.g. in Mark 13:26 and Mark 14:62, where Jesus identifies as the one spoken of in Daniel 7:13-14.

(Note: God's name is not "Jehovah God" as the Jehovah's Witnesses like to insist but Yahweh.  "Jehovah" is an imperfect anglicization.)

THERE IS ONLY ONE "FIRST AND THE LAST"

Since "the First and the Last" is the LORD himself, there is only one such being.   God does not share his glory with anybody:

I am the Lord; that is my name;

MY GLORY I GIVE TO NO OTHER,

nor my praise to carved idols. 

Isaiah 42:8

If Jesus is this "First and the Last", he can be no other than God himself.  

THE FIRST AND THE LAST IS CREATOR

Some claim that Jesus is only the first of creation.  Is it possible for the term "the First and the Last" in Revelation 1 to refer to a creation?   No.  The term means that none is formed before Him nor none exist after Him:

“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,

“and my servant whom I have chosen,

that you may know and believe me

and understand that I am he.

BEFORE ME NO GOD WAS FORMED,

NORE SHALL THERE BE ANY AFTER ME.

11 I, I am the Lord,

and besides me there is no savior. 

Isaiah 43:10-11

Isaiah 41:4 explains further who "the First and the Last" is:

Who has performed and done this,

calling the generations from the beginning?

I, the Lord, THE FIRST,

and with THE LAST; I am he. 

Isaiah 41:4

The LORD called the first of generations, and he will be there until the last of generations.  He must have pre-existed the first of generations in order to be able to call them.  

Nowhere in scripture is the title bearer of "the First and the Last" a creation.  Instead, the title bearer is uncreated.  He is the creator, the being who created the heavens and the earth:

“Listen to me, O Jacob,

and Israel, whom I called!

I am he; I AM THE FIRST,

and I AM THE LAST.

13 My hand LAID THE FOUNDATION OF THE EARTH,

and my right hand SPREAD OUT THE HEAVENS;

when I call to them,

they stand forth together. 

Isaiah 48:12-13

Sometimes in the Bible, demons or angels are referred to as gods.  E.g. Satan is the god of this world.  The above verses make it clear that we are talking about not a god but God the creator.

JESUS IS MIGHTY GOD AND ETERNAL FATHER

In the famous prophecy of Jesus' birth, Isaiah 9:6 uses the Hebrew El Gibor for Mighty God.  Is this the Almighty God, or just a mighty God?:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, MIGHTY GOD, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 

Isaiah 9:6

That the term Mighty God refers to Yahweh is seen in the next chapter of Isaiah.  Here it says Yahweh is the Mighty God, using the same term El Gibor in the Hebrew.  That the one that a remnant of Israel will lean on is the one that they will return to:

In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on THE LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the MIGHTY GOD. 

Isaiah 10:20-21

"Eternal Father" is a divine title; it is a reference to our Eternal Father.  Wonderful Counsellor is another divine title in Isaiah 9:6, for only God is called Wonderful.

JESUS IS GOD REVEALED

God revealed himself in the Old Testament through theophanies.   

Now, 1 Timothy 1:17 says God is invisible.   John 4:24 says that God is Spirit; spirit is invisible.  Exodus 33:20 says you cannot see God and live.  But God has revealed himself to man in a human way.  Examples:

• Genesis 17:1 says God showed himself to Abraham.  
• Genesis 18:1 says Yahweh appeared to Abraham, as three men (c.f. Genesis 18:1-4).  Jacob bowed before them and referred to them as My Lord ("Adon" in the Hebrew).
• In Genesis 32:24, God wrestled with Jacob as a man.  
• In Genesis 32:30, Jacob saw God face-to-face.
• In Exodus 34, Yahweh came down in the cloud.  

The most significant theophany is Jesus.  In John 1:18 it says, "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known".

JESUS IS THE "I AM"

Jesus declared himself as God, in a way that was very clear to the Jews.

In John 8:56, "Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. HE SAW IT AND WAS GLAD." Abraham saw Jesus.  In John 8:58, Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM" (in the Greek, "eigo eimi"), identifying himself in the way God revealed himself in Exodus 3:13-14.  Jesus identified himself as God title "I am" and the Jews went to stone him.  

(Jehovah's Witnesses might not see the clear identification as God here. Their New World Translation obscures it; it says instead "I Will Become What I Choose to Become".)

IS THE FATHER GREATER THAN THE SON?

In John 5:22-23, 27, the Father judges no-one but has given all judgment to the Son.  A Jehovah's Witness might say that since the Father had the authority originally, he is greater.  The Father IS greater than the Son, though not in essence but in rank or position.  

This point can be illustrated by the example of marriage.  Here, husband and wife are equal in value and essence.  However in 1 Corinthians 11:3 and Ephesians 5:23, the husband is the head of the wife.  In a Christian marriage, one is leader, the other a follower.  One has greater authority in a Christian marriage.  The Father is equal in essence to the Son but greater in authority.

TRINITY IS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT: THE WORD OF THE LORD

John 1:1 has been famously mis-translated in the Jehovah's Witness New World translation.  Their translation does not say "the Word was God" but "the Word was a God".  The indefinite article "a" has been artificially added.  The Greek here says "theos en ho logos" (literally, God was the Word).  This can even be seen in the Interlinear on the Jehovah's Witnesses website HERE.  

Jesus is identified as the Word in John 1:14.

The Word or Logos is not a Greek New Testament innovation.  All over the Old Testament, the word of the Lord is mentioned.  It refers to Yahweh.  In Genesis 15:1-3, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision.  (That is, Abram saw the word of the LORD.)  In verses 4-7, the word of the LORD identifies as the LORD.  The word of the Lord and the Lord are used interchangeably.  Other examples:

• 1 Samuel 3:1-7, the word of the Lord was revealed to Samuel; the word of the Lord not yet revealed to Him before this time
• 1 Samuel 3:10, the Lord came and stood in front of Samuel
• 1 Samuel 3:21, "The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word."
• In 2 Samuel 12:9, "Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes?".
• In 1 Kings 13:9, "For I was commanded by the word of the Lord".
• In Jeremiah 1:4-7, "The word of the Lord came to him".  
• In Jeremiah 1:9, "the Lord reached out his hand and touched [Jeremiah's] mouth".
• In the same chapter, "The word of the Lord came to me" is mentioned twice (in Jeremiah 1:11,13).

The Word becoming flesh is such an important theophany.  It is an appearing of Yahweh as God the Son, our Savior who bled for us.

(The above teaching is based on this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJPxuEXvkmk)

Harut and Marut: Good Angels or Really Bad?

Harut and Marut in Their Forever Well (1703)

Do you think black magic is good?  In the Quran, two angels, Hārūt and Mārūt, used to teach black magic, to people in Babylon. They would teach magic spells intended to break up peoples' marriages.  The angels learned this magic from devils:

They followed what the devils used to recite in the reign of Sulaimān (Solomon); and it was not Sulaimān who became an infidel, but the devils did become infidels, teaching people magic, and what had been sent down to the two angels, Hārūt and Mārūt, in Babylon. And these two did not teach anyone without first having said (to him), “We are but a trial, so do not go infidel.” Then, they used to learn from them that with which they could cause separation between a man and his wife. But they were not to bring harm through it to anyone without the will of Allah. They used to learn what harmed them and did no good to them; and they certainly knew that he who buys it has no share in the Hereafter. And, indeed, vile is the thing for which they sold themselves away. If only they knew!

Quran 2:102, Usmani 

According to the Quran, these beings were angels [1]. Angels in Islam are beings who act in total obedience to Allah. They have no free will:

O you who believe, save yourselves and your families from a fire, the fuel of which is human beings and stones, appointed on which are angels, stern and severe, who do not disobey Allah in what He orders them, and do whatever they are ordered to do. Quran 66:6

Of the type of magic, Tafsir al Qurtubi says that, “People learned from the angels how to separate a man and his wife”.  The teaching of black magic was apparently meant to be a "test":

… They taught not any man without them saying by way of counsel ‘We are but a temptation a trial from God for people so that He may test them when they are taught it whoever learns it is a disbeliever but whoever renounces it he is a believer; do not disbelieve’ by learning it; if this person refused and insisted on learning it they would teach him. 

Tafsif al-Jalalayn on Quran 2:102

This Quran story has serious problems with it. In Islam, sorcery is serious sin.  Tafsir Ibn Kathir on 2:102 says that learning magic is kufr (unbelief), citing this authentic hadith that Abu Bakr Al-Bazzar recorded from `Abdullah:

Whoever came to a soothsayer or a sorcerer and believed in what he said, will have disbelieved in what Allah revealed to Muhammad.

Sahih al-Bukhari 6857, Book 86, Hadith 79 classes sorcery as one of the “seven great destructive sins”.  Practicing magic was punished with death:

Yahya related to me from Malik from Muhammad ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Sad ibn Zurara that he had heard that Hafsa, the wife of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, killed one of her slave-girls who had used sorcery against her. She was a mudabbara. Hafsa gave the order, and she was killed. …

Book 43, Hadith 14 

The two angels were leading people into disbelief by tempting them into using black magic.  By learning black magic, people would become unbelievers. This is a bad look for Allah’s angels.

Ibn Kathir tries to cover for the Quran here. It claim that the angels didn't actually teach the magic.  The angels instead instructed prospective magicians to go to a separate place where the magic was being taught, by Satan.  But the Quran does not say this. 

It makes no sense for good angels to teach black magic. Is it good to teach others how to sin, how to do evil, how to disobey God? (For all sin is disobedience to God.) Is it good to teach someone how to rob a bank? No.

Hārūt and Mārūt's "test" was leading people astray. These angels were not good. They were at best "fallen angels". Another word for such creatures is demons. The Quran's angels are demons.

In the true scriptures, angels bring blessings and peace. When the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary, he said, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God." (Luke 1:30). To Mary, this angel says:

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Luke 1:31-33

The angels revealed the Son of God, the one who would reign forever, even one who would "save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).

Muslim friends, come something better. In the true scriptures, it is written that "there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents" (Luke 15:10). Come to a God whose angels do not lead people astray. Come to a God whose angels rejoice when sinner turn to Him. Come to Jesus.

[1] In commentary Tafsif al Jalalayn of Quran 2:102, one account claims that these were merely men, but another account say they were angels. Tafsir al Qurtubi specifically says the claim that the sorcerers refer to "two kings" is weak. 

King Solomon: A Likely Story?

King Solomon and his Djinn

Let me tell you for a moment a story about my grandfather:

My grandfather had a field of workers.  One thing that grandpa loved to do was lean on his staff and watch over his workers as they worked in the field.  Sadly, one day while grandpa was leaning on his staff, he died.  

Grandpa died in an unlikely way.  Instead of falling over, he died fixed in a standing position leaning on his staff.  Because of this unlikely pose, his workers failed to notice that he died.  Days passed.  Grandpa’s body started to decompose and smell bad.  Yet nobody noticed.  Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months.  Still, nobody noticed.

Seeing grandpa still leaning on his staff, his workers kept working in the field.  Day and night, they kept working.  Frantically so.  No one would even take a break.  It was a torment for the workers.  

One day, a termite started eating through his staff.  Finally, after a year of grandpa’s dead corpse being propped up by his staff, the staff broke and the corpse fell to the ground.  

Grandpa's workers immediately noticed that grandpa was gone.  They could finally stop working and end their painful torment.  Had only they learned of his passing earlier, they would certainly have not suffered like this.

What do you think of this story?  I have to tell you something. This is not actually a story about my grandfather. This is a story about King Solomon.  The workers aren’t ordinary workers. They are djinn (i.e. genies). Solomon had apparently enslaved them, having had forced them to do his bidding using the magical ring that he wore.  

This story is in the Quran:

Then, when We decreed (Solomon's) death, nothing showed them of his death except a little work of the earth, which kept (slowly) gnawing at his staff: so when he fell down, the Jinns saw plainly that if they had known the unseen, they would not have tarried in the humiliating Penalty (of their Task). Quran 34:14, Yusuf Ali

The Islamic commentary of Tafsir Jalalayn on Quran 34:14 supplies the details to the story:

And when We decreed for him, for Solomon, death, in other words, [when] he died — he remained supported against his staff an entire year, while the jinn continued to toil in hard labour as was customary, unaware of his death, until [finally] when a termite ate through his staff, he fell to the ground [and was seen to be] dead — nothing indicated to them that he had died except a termite (al-ard is the verbal noun from uridat al-khashaba, passive verbal form, in other words, ‘it [the piece of wood] was eaten away by a termite [al-arada]’) that gnawed away at his staff (read minsa’atahu or minsātahu, replacing the hamza with an alif, meaning a ‘staff’, so called because [when describing it one would say] yunsa’u bihā, to mean it is used to repel or drive away [creatures]’). And when he fell down, dead, the jinn realised, it became apparent to them, that (an, is softened, in other words, annahum) had they known the Unseen — comprising what was hidden from them in the way of Solomon being dead — they would not have continued in the humiliating chastisement, [in] that hard labour of theirs, [in which they continued] as they supposed him to be alive, ... Tafsir al-Jalalayn on 34:14

These details are corroborated by Islamic commentary of Tafsir Ibn Kathir on 34:14.

Could you really believe that, for about a year, no-one noticed that Solomon had died standing? None of his family members or servants or Solomon's officials? No-one in Solomon's kingdom noticed? Do you think that no one approached King Solomon to speak with him? If the Quran were the words of God, do you think it would contain such a folk tale?

This story is not in the Bible. In fact, the Bible has nothing to do with magic rings, magic staffs, armies of birds, angels who teaching black magic, or talking ants. All of these made it into the Quran, though. Please Muslim friends, come to the Bible. Come and read about what is real. The real Jesus, of whom it is said:

Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life." John 6:68

Noah and the Lion that Sneezed out Cats

 

The story of Noah’s Ark is in the Quran.  As in the Biblical version of the story, Noah takes a pair of each species on board the Ark to prepare for a largescale flood:

And when Our command came and the oven burst ˹with water˺, We said ˹to Noah˺, “Take into the Ark a pair from every species along with your family—except those against whom the decree ˹to drown˺ has already been passed—and those who believe.” But none believed with him except for a few. Quran 11:40,  Clear Quran

(In Islam, Noah is called Nuh.)  In al-islam.org from Hayat Al-Qulub, Vol. 1, Stories of the Prophet, is a story about Noah’s Ark.  This story didn’t make it to the Bible.

In the story, Allah helps out with a rat problem that developed on the Ark:

In the ship, there were a lot of rats. Allah revealed to Nuh to pat the lion. The lion sneezed and two cats, a male and a female emerged from its nasal openings. They attacked the rats and reduced their number.

So Noah pats a sick lion, and the lion sneezes out a pair of cats.  These cats then went to clean up the Ark's rat problem. 

This story is not spurious; it is affirmed in the Arabic version of Ibn Kathir on Quran 11:40.  Here, it says that Allah gave the lion a fever (or some type of sickness) to pacify the lion, so that the cattle could feel safe around the lion and not be eaten:

تَطْمَئِنّ الْمَوَاشِي وَمَعَهَا الْأَسَد ؟ فَسَلَّطَ اللَّه عَلَيْهِ الْحُمَّى فَكَانَتْ أَوَّل حُمَّى نَزَلَتْ فِي الْأَرْض ثُمَّ

Are the cattle calm and the lion with them? Then God placed a fever on him [the lion], and it was the first fever that occurred on the earth. (Google Translate)

So on the ark, Allah does a world first: He creates the first ever fever.  Now next, Ibn Kathir says that the rats in the ark were eating all the food:

شَكَوْا الْفَأْرَة فَقَالُوا الْفُوَيْسِقَة تُفْسِد عَلَيْنَا طَعَامنَا

They complained about the mouse, and they said that the foisika spoils our food. (Google Translate)

So Allah has the lion sneeze out the cats to go after the rodents:

وَ مَتَاعنَا فَأَوْحَى اللَّه إِلَى الْأَسَد فَعَطَسَ فَخَرَجَتْ الْهِرَّ

And our enjoyment, then God revealed to the lion, so he sneezed, and the cat went out. (Google Translate)

This is affirmation of the story in Hayat Al-Qulub, which is obviously folktale.  

Back in Hayat Al-Qulub, the folktale-like story on the Ark continues.  The elephant sneezes, and two pigs came out of its nostrils:

“Then Nuh patted that elephant with his blessed hand. It sneezed and at these two pigs, a male and a female came out of the two nasal openings because of which the facial matter was eliminated.”

Is it not obvious from these examples that early Islamic scholar were not able to distinguish truth from folktale?  If you are Muslim, can you really trust what you hear from your scholars?

Allah Teaches Infanticide

 

The Quran speaks of several characters that never made it to the Bible.  One of these is Al Khidr.   In the Quran Al Khidr is a respected servant of Allah and he has some lessons to teach us.  But one of his lessons is quite disconcerting. 

Al Khidr means “Mr. Green”.  Apparently, according to the stories, he is called Mr. Green, because every time he sits on dry grass, the grass becomes green.  He was said to have existed in the time of Noah, attended the funerals of Aaron and Moses, and, if you can believe it, also the funeral of Muhammad!  The same guy apparently lived over a thousand years, because he is said to have drunk from the “fountain of youth”.  In Islam, Moses thought al Khidr was the most knowledgeable person of his time.

Al Khidr was apparently a good servant who had been taught knowledge of Allah.  Though not explicitly named in the Quran, some Qurans identify him in parentheses:

"And they found a servant from among Our servants [i.e., al-Khiḍr] to whom We had given mercy from Us and had taught him from Us a [certain] knowledge." Quran 18:65, Saheeh Intl

Now Al Khidr did a very evil thing:

"Then they both proceeded, till they met a boy, and he (Khidr) killed him. Mûsâ (Moses) said: "Have you killed an innocent person who had killed none? Verily, you have committed a thing Nukr (a great Munkar - prohibited, evil, dreadful thing)!" " Quran 18:74, Hilali-Khan

Moses rightfully reacts. “You have killed an innocent person!”  Al Khidr responds:

              (Khidr) said: "Did I not tell you that you can have no patience with me?" Quran 18:75

Al Khidr eventually explains.  It was a lesson for Moses.  The parents were believers, and that he feared that the boy would lead the parents into sin and disbelief:

"And as for the boy, his parents were believers, and we feared lest he should oppress them by rebellion and disbelief." Quran 18:80

However, the boy had committed no sin!  He was the son of a family of believers.  By the Islamic principle of Fitrah, he would have been a Muslim too.  But al Khidr feared future sin from the boy.  He thought the boy would be a troublemaker, so he killed him.  They boy was punished for a crime before committing any crime.  Many Muslims believe in fate and that you cannot change your fated destiny.  But to the rest of us, Allah slaughtered an innocent child.

Muslims might claim otherwise.  They might try reframing it as Allah killing someone who wanted to be evil.  But in Quran 18:80, it clearly says the reason for killing the boy, which was fear.  We see this in many of the English translations:

              "We feared that he would pressure them into defiance and disbelief." The Clear Quran

              "We feared he would overwhelm them with transgression and denial." Soliman Bridges

              "fearing he would trouble them through wickedness and disbelief,"  Abdul Hareem

"So I feared that if he grew up, he would cause them to disbelieve in Allah" Abridged Explanation of the Quran

Also, every single time the Arabic word is used in the Quran, it is rendered fear (see Corpus Quran here).  Al Khidr murdered the son out of fear.

Finishing the story, Allah plans to provide the parents a replacement son:

"So we desired that their Lord would give them in exchange (a son) better in purity (of conduct) and closer in affection. Quran 18:81, Yusuf Ali

The slaying by Al Khidr was very brutal.  From Tafsiral-Jalalayn on Q.18:74:

So they set off after leaving the ship making their way on foot until when they met a boy who had not yet reached puberty playing with other boys among whom his face was the fairest — and he al-Khidr slew him by slitting his throat with a knife while he lay down or by tearing his head off with his hand or by smashing his head against a wall all of which are different opinions the coordinating fā’ of fa-qatalahu ‘and he slew him’ is used here because it indicates that the slaying took place after the encounter; the response to idhā ‘when’ is the following statement qāla … — he Moses said to him ‘Have you slain an innocent soul that is a pure one that had not reached the age of legal responsibility a variant reading for zākiya has zakiyya one slain not in retaliation for another soul? in other words one that has not slain any soul. Verily you have committed an dreadful thing’ read nukran or nukuran that is to say an abomination.

This Tafsir here testifies that the boy was under the age of legal responsibility. 

By contrast, the Bible entrusts parents to raise their children up in righteousness:

 "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." Proverbs 22:6, NIV

The Bible does not instruct us to "kill the child if you fear rebellion".  Instead, parents are taught to train a child and help steer the path they take in life.  Good parenting helps mold a child and can save them from a lifetime of wrong decisions.

The al Khidr story only makes sense in a fatalistic world where free will does not exist.  In this world, there is nothing the parents could have done to instruct the boy to be good, for his fate had been pre-determined by Allah.  Islam presents a depressing world view.  

The truth is, God presents us with choices.  God calls us, and those he calls he provides the choice to either follow him or turn away from him:

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12, ESV

Jesus is calling you to follow him today.  Won't you open the Bible and learn more?