St John of Damascus Critique of Islam

Webmaster note: The following passage is from Saint Johns monumental work, the Fount of
Knowledge, part two entitled Heresies in Epitome: How They Began and Whence They Drew
Their Origin. It is usually just ited as Heresies. The translators introdution points out that
Fount of Knowledge is one of the most !important single works produed in the "reek patristi
period,#offering as it does an e$tensi%e and luid synthesis of the "reek theologial siene of
the whole period. It is the first great Summa of theology to appear in either the &ast or the West.'
Saint John () *+,- is onsidered one of the great .athers of the /hurh, and his writings hold a
plae of high honor in the /hurh. 0is riti1ue of Islam, or !the heresy of the Ishmaelites,' is
espeially rele%ant for our times.
There is also the superstition of the Ishmaelites whih to this day pre%ails and keeps people in
error, being a forerunner of the 2ntihrist. They are desended from Ishmael, 3who4 was born to
2braham of 2gar, and for this reason they are alled both 2garenes and Ishmaelites. They are
also alled Saraens, whih is deri%ed from Sarras kenoi, or destitute of Sara, beause of what
2gar said to the angel: 5Sara hath sent me away destitute. 3,,4 These used to be idolaters and
worshiped the morning star and 2phrodite, whom in their own language they alled 6hab7r,
whih means great. 38994 2nd so down to the time of 0eralius they were %ery great idolaters.
.rom that time to the present a false prophet named :ohammed has appeared in their midst. This
man, after ha%ing haned upon the ;ld and <ew Testaments and likewise, it seems, ha%ing
on%ersed with an 2rian monk, 38984 de%ised his own heresy. Then, ha%ing insinuated himself
into the good graes of the people by a show of seeming piety, he ga%e out that a ertain book
had been sent down to him from hea%en. 0e had set down some ridiulous ompositions in this
book of his and he ga%e it to them as an objet of %eneration.
0e says that there is one "od, reator of all things, who has neither been begotten nor has
begotten. 389=4 0e says that the /hrist is the Word of "od and 0is Spirit, but a reature and a
ser%ant, and that 0e was begotten, without seed, of :ary the sister of :oses and 2aron. 389>4
.or, he says, the Word and "od and the Spirit entered into :ary and she brought forth Jesus,
who was a prophet and ser%ant of "od. 2nd he says that the Jews wanted to ruify 0im in
%iolation of the law, and that they sei?ed 0is shadow and ruified this. @ut the /hrist 0imself
was not ruified, he says, nor did 0e die, for "od out of 0is lo%e for 0im took 0im to 0imself
into hea%en. 389+4 2nd he says this, that when the /hrist had asended into hea%en "od asked
0im: 5; Jesus, didst thou say: !I am the Son of "od and "od'A 2nd Jesus, he says, answered:
5@e meriful to me, Bord. Thou knowest that I did not say this and that I did not sorn to be thy
ser%ant. @ut sinful men ha%e written that I made this statement, and they ha%e lied about me and
ha%e fallen into error. 2nd "od answered and said to 0im: 5I know that thou didst not say this
word.' 389C4 There are many other e$traordinary and 1uite ridiulous things in this book whih
he boasts was sent down to him from "od. @ut when we ask: 52nd who is there to testify that
"od ga%e him the bookA 2nd whih of the prophets foretold that suh a prophet would rise
upADthey are at a loss. 2nd we remark that :oses reei%ed the Baw on :ount Sinai, with "od
appearing in the sight of all the people in loud, and fire, and darkness, and storm. 2nd we say
that all the Erophets from :oses on down foretold the oming of /hrist and how /hrist "od
(and inarnate Son of "od- was to ome and to be ruified and die and rise again, and how 0e
was to be the judge of the li%ing and dead. Then, when we say: 50ow is it that this prophet of
yours did not ome in the same way, with others bearing witness to himA 2nd how is it that "od
did not in your presene present this man with the book to whih you refer, e%en as 0e ga%e the
Baw to :oses, with the people looking on and the mountain smoking, so that you, too, might
ha%e ertaintyADthey answer that "od does as 0e pleases. 5This, we say, 5We know, but we are
asking how the book ame down to your prophet. Then they reply that the book ame down to
him while he was asleep. Then we jokingly say to them that, as long as he reei%ed the book in
his sleep and did not atually sense the operation, then the popular adage applies to him (whih
runs: Foure spinning me dreams.- 389G4
When we ask again: 50ow is it that when he enjoined us in this book of yours not to do anything
or reei%e anything without witnesses, you did not ask him: !.irst do you show us by witnesses
that you are a prophet and that you ha%e ome from "od, and show us just what Sriptures there
are that testify about you'Dthey are ashamed and remain silent. 3Then we ontinue:4 52lthough
you may not marry a wife without witnesses, or buy, or a1uire propertyH although you neither
reei%e an ass nor possess a beast of burden unwitnessedH and although you do possess both
wi%es and property and asses and so on through witnesses, yet it is only your faith and your
sriptures that you hold unsubstantiated by witnesses. .or he who handed this down to you has
no warranty from any soure, nor is there anyone known who testified about him before he ame.
;n the ontrary, he reei%ed it while he was asleep.
:oreo%er, they all us 0etaeriasts, or 2ssoiators, beause, they say, we introdue an assoiate
with "od by delaring /hrist to the Son of "od and "od. We say to them in rejoinder: 5The
Erophets and the Sriptures ha%e deli%ered this to us, and you, as you persistently maintain,
aept the Erophets. So, if we wrongly delare /hrist to be the Son of "od, it is they who taught
this and handed it on to us. @ut some of them say that it is by misinterpretation that we ha%e
represented the Erophets as saying suh things, while others say that the 0ebrews hated us and
deei%ed us by writing in the name of the Erophets so that we might be lost. 2nd again we say to
them: 52s long as you say that /hrist is the Word of "od and Spirit, why do you ause us of
being 0etaeriastsA .or the word, and the spirit, is inseparable from that in whih it naturally has
e$istene. Therefore, if the Word of "od is in "od, then it is ob%ious that 0e is "od. If, howe%er,
0e is outside of "od, then, aording to you, "od is without word and without spirit.
/onse1uently, by a%oiding the introdution of an assoiate with "od you ha%e mutilated 0im. It
would be far better for you to say that 0e has an assoiate than to mutilate 0im, as if you were
dealing with a stone or a piee of wood or some other inanimate objet. Thus, you speak untruly
when you all us 0etaeriastsH we retort by alling you :utilators of "od.
They furthermore ause us of being idolaters, beause we %enerate the ross, whih they
abominate. 2nd we answer them: 50ow is it, then, that you rub yoursel%es against a stone in your
6aba 389*4 and kiss and embrae itA Then some of them say that 2braham had relations with
2gar upon it, but others say that he tied the amel to it, when he was going to sarifie Isaa.
2nd we answer them: 5Sine Sripture says that the mountain was wooded and had trees from
whih 2braham ut wood for the holoaust and laid it upon Isaa, 389I4 and then he left the asses
behind with the two young men, why talk nonsenseA .or in that plae neither is it thik with trees
nor is there passage for asses. 2nd they are embarrassed, but they still assert that the stone is
2brahams. Then we say: 5Bet it be 2brahams, as you so foolishly say. Then, just beause
2braham had relations with a woman on it or tied a amel to it, you are not ashamed to kiss it,
yet you blame us for %enerating the ross of /hrist by whih the power of the demons and the
deeit of the Je%il was destroyed. This stone that they talk about is a head of that 2phrodite
whom they used to worship and whom they alled 6hab7r. &%en to the present day, traes of the
ar%ing are %isible on it to areful obser%ers.
2s has been related, this :ohammed wrote many ridiulous books, to eah one of whih he set a
title. .or e$ample, there is the book On Woman, 389,4 in whih he plainly makes legal pro%ision
for taking four wi%es and, if it be possible, a thousand onubinesDas many as one an
maintain, besides the four wi%es. 0e also made it legal to put away whihe%er wife one might
wish, and, should one so wish, to take to oneself another in the same way. :ohammed had a
friend named Keid. This man had a beautiful wife with whom :ohammed fell in lo%e. ;ne,
when they were sitting together, :ohammed said: 5;h, by the way, "od has ommanded me to
take your wife. The other answered: 5Fou are an apostle. Jo as "od has told you and take my
wife. LatherDto tell the story o%er from the beginningDhe said to him: 5"od has gi%en me the
ommand that you put away your wife. 2nd he put her away. Then se%eral days later: 5<ow, he
said, 5"od has ommanded me to take her. Then, after he had taken her and ommitted adultery
with her, he made this law: 5Bet him who will put away his wife. 2nd if, after ha%ing put her
away, he should return to her, let another marry her. .or it is not lawful to take her unless she
ha%e been married by another. .urthermore, if a brother puts away his wife, let his brother marry
her, should he so wish. 38894 In the same book he gi%es suh preepts as this: 5Work the land
whih "od hath gi%en thee and beautify it. 2nd do this, and do it in suh a manner' 38884Dnot
to repeat all the obsene things that he did.
Then there is the book of The Camel of od. 388=4 2bout this amel he says that there was a
amel from "od and that she drank the whole ri%er and ould not pass through two mountains,
beause there was not room enough. There were people in that plae, he says, and they used to
drink the water on one day, while the amel would drink it on the ne$t. :oreo%er, by drinking
the water she furnished them with nourishment, beause she supplied them with milk instead of
water. Then, beause these men were e%il, they rose up, he says, and killed the amel. 0owe%er,
she had an offspring, a little amel, whih, he says, when the mother had been done away with,
alled upon "od and "od took it to 0imself. Then we say to them: 5Where did that amel ome
fromA 2nd they say that it was from "od. Then we say: 5Was there another amel oupled with
this oneA 2nd they say: 5<o. 5Then how, we say, 5was it begottenA .or we see that your amel
is without father and without mother and without genealogy, and that the one that begot it
suffered e%il. <either is it e%ident who bred her. 2nd also, this little amel was taken up. So why
did not your prophet, with whom, aording to what you say, "od spoke, find out about the
amelDwhere it gra?ed, and who got milk by milking itA ;r did she possibly, like her mother,
meet with e%il people and get destroyedA ;r did she enter into paradise before you, so that you
might ha%e the ri%er of milk that you so foolishly talk aboutA .or you say that you ha%e three
ri%ers flowing in paradiseDone of water, one of wine, and one of milk. If your forerunner the
amel is outside of paradise, it is ob%ious that she has dried up from hunger and thirst, or that
others ha%e the benefit of her milkDand so your prophet is boasting idly of ha%ing on%ersed
with "od, beause "od did not re%eal to him the mystery of the amel. @ut if she is in paradise,
she is drinking water still, and you for lak of water will dry up in the midst of the paradise of
delight. 2nd if, there being no water, beause the amel will ha%e drunk it all up, you thirst for
wine from the ri%er of wine that is flowing by, you will beome into$iated from drinking pure
wine and ollapse under the influene of the strong drink and fall asleep. Then, suffering from a
hea%y head after sleeping and being sik from the wine, you will miss the pleasures of paradise.
0ow, then, did it not enter into the mind of your prophet that this might happen to you in the
paradise of delightA 0e ne%er had any idea of what the amel is leading to now, yet you did not
e%en ask him, when he held forth to you with his dreams on the subjet of the three ri%ers. We
plainly assure you that this wonderful amel of yours has preeded you into the souls of asses,
where you, too, like beasts are destined to go. 2nd there is the e$terior darkness and e%erlasting
punishment, roaring fire, sleepless worms, and hellish demons.
2gain, in the book of The Ta!le, :ohammed says that the /hrist asked "od for a table and that it
was gi%en 0im. .or "od, he says, said to 0im: 5I ha%e gi%en to thee and thine an inorruptible
table. 388>4
2nd again, in the book of The Heifer, 388+4 he says some other stupid and ridiulous things,
whih, beause of their great number, I think must be passed o%er. 0e made it a law that they be
irumised and the women, too, and he ordered them not to keep the Sabbath and not to be
bapti?ed.
2nd, while he ordered them to eat some of the things forbidden by the Baw, he ordered them to
abstain from others. 0e furthermore absolutely forbade the drinking of wine.
Endnotes
,,. /f. "en. 8G.I. So?omen also says that they were desended from 2gar, but alled themsel%es
desendants of Sara to hide their ser%ile origin (&lesiastial 0istory G.>I, E" G*.8+8=2@-.
899. The 2rabi kabirun means 5great, whether in si?e or in dignity. 0erodotus mentions the
2rabian ult of the 50ea%enly 2phrodite but says that the 2rabs alled her 2lilat (0erodotus
8.8>8-
898. This may be the <estorian monk @ahira ("eorge or Sergius- who met the boy :ohammed
at @ostra in Syria and laimed to reogni?e in him the sign of a prophet.
89=. 6oran, Sura 88=.
89>. Sura 8,H +.8G,.
89+. Sura +.8CG.
89C. Sura C.IlGtf.
89G. The manusripts do not ha%e the adage, but Be1uien suggests this one from Elato.
89*. The 6aba, alled 5The 0ouse of "od, is supposed to ha%e been built by 2braham with the
help of Ismael. It oupies the most sared spot in the :os1ue of :ea. Inorporated in its wall
is the stone here referred to, the famous @lak Stone, whih is ob%iously a reli of the idolatry of
the preMIslam 2rabs.
89I. "en. ==.G.
89,. 6oran, Sura +.
889. /f. Sura ===Cff.
888. Sura =.==>.
88=. <ot in the 6oran.
88>. Sura C.88+,88C.
88+. Sura =.
.rom Writings, by St John of Jamasus, The Fathers of the Church, %ol. >* (Washington, J/:
/atholi Nni%ersity of 2meria Eress, 8,CI-, pp. 8C>M8G9. Eosted =G :arh, =99G.