Are their Obscenities in the Bible?

Why are there twisted stories about the Prophets’ sins in the Bible?

Because of the way Islam has traditionally viewed prophets, Muslims normally have a really hard time with a few passages in the Bible that show major sins in prophets’ lives, such as with Abraham pretending his wife was his sister, Lot getting drunk and unknowingly sleeping with his daughters, or David committing adultery with Bathsheba and murdering her husband.

These are truly terrible sins, and it is important to remember that those who accept the truth of the Bible also strongly believe these are disgusting, wrong actions. For a Muslim to understand these passages, the key is to realize that prophets were not sent to be a sinless examples, but rather God used their failures to teach humanity important lessons about our human need for repentance.

Most Muslims wrongly believe that prophets were sinless, but this is the opposite of what even the Qur’an teaches. In fact, most of the major sins of the prophets are also mentioned in the Qur’an and Hadith. According to the Qur’an, under Satan’s influence the Prophet Moses wrongly murdered a man ( 28:15), the Prophet Jonah sinned by fleeing God ( 37:139-148). Likewise, Bukhari repeats the story of Abraham lie about Sarah as fact ( 4.55.578), and the best Islamic commentators repeat the story of David & Uriah’s wife ( here). Even Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) had to ask forgiveness from Allah for his sins ( 40:55; 48:1,2). These were not simply mistakes but sins. In other words, the Qur’an & traditions admit these stories.

The only exception is with ‘Isa al-Masih, whom both the Qur’an and Bible describe as sinless, a flawless example to humanity.

In summary, we can look to ‘Isa al-Masih alone as a perfect example of righteousness, but we can also learn from the other prophets how they turned back to God in repentance when they failed, and we can imitate not their sins but their humble repentance.

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