Home > Surah 42 - The Consultation
This surah is from the middle Meccan period. It was sent to a pagan audience to explain that Muhammad was not starting a new cult, but was a restorer of a single, primordial religion shared by the giants of the biblical tradition.
It lists Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad in a single breath, claiming they were all ordained with the exact same Din (Religion). If the religion is the same, then the core doctrines and major themes should be the same, but they are not!
Surah 42:13:
He hath ordained for you that religion which He commended unto Noah, and that which We inspire in thee (Muhammad), and that which We commended unto Abraham and Moses and Jesus, saying: Establish the religion, and be not divided therein.
The verse claims the religion of Jesus (’Īsā) is the same as the religion of Muhammad.
In the Gospel, the "Religion of Jesus" is centered on the New Covenant, the Atonement, and the Fatherhood of God. In the Quran, these are denied.
If Religion A (Gospel) and Religion B (Quran) have fundamentally different foundations, they cannot be the "same religion" ordained by the same God.
For Surah 42:13 to be true, the "Religion of Jesus" must have been Islam. But we have the historical record of what Jesus taught. By calling them the same, the Quran is either validating the New Testament or making a historically unsupportable claim.
The command is to "Establish" (Aqīmū) the religion.
To "establish" something means to keep it standing as it is. It does not mean "abrogate" or "cancel."
If Muhammad came to "abrogate" the laws of Moses or the theology of Jesus, he is not "establishing" their religion; he is replacing it.
This verse implies that the Tawrah (Torah) and Injil (Gospel) are the very things that must be "established." If they are the same as the Quran, then the Bible is the authoritative source for what that "One Religion" looks like.
The verse commands: "Be not divided therein."
Islam claims that Jews and Christians "divided" and went astray, which is why the Quran was sent.
However, the Quran’s arrival created the ultimate division. It claimed to be the same as the previous books while contradicting their core tenets, forcing a choice between the Bible and the Quran.
If God’s goal was "no division," sending a new book that contradicts the "Imam" (the Torah, per Surah 46:12) is the most divisive act possible. This suggests the "division" mentioned in the verse refers to the People of the Book failing to follow their own scriptures—scriptures that the Quran here confirms as the "Ordained Religion."
Surah 42:13 says that the religion of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad is the 'same religion.'
If it is the same religion, it must have the same core. The religion of Moses and Jesus is built on sacrifice, blood atonement, and the Covenant.
The Quran denies the sacrifice of Jesus and the Fatherhood of God. How can it be the 'same religion' if the foundations are opposites?
The verse tells you to 'Establish' the religion of Moses and Jesus. Christians are doing exactly that by following the Torah and the Gospel. Muslims are NOT.
Either the religion of the former prophets is NOT what is in the Bible (which makes the Quran's appeal to them as witnesses useless), or it IS what is in the Bible (which proves the Quran's theology is a departure).
If you are commanded not to be divided from their religion, why are you following a Book that divides you from the Gospel of Jesus? The Quran's theology of Jesus is a 180-degree turn from the "established" Gospel of the 7th century.