THE REFUTATION OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE MOHAMMEDANS BY THE MONK JOHN OF DAMASCUS

There is also the faith of the Ishmaelites, which is the forerunner of the Antichrist, which is still strengthening, misleading the people. It comes from Ishmael, born by Abraham from Hagar, therefore [its adherents] are called Hagarites and Ishmaelites. The Saracens same (Σαρακνούς) call from "Σάρρασ κένους" because the angel said to Hagar: "Σάρρα κενήν με ἀπέλυσεν" ("Sarah let me go empty").

They served idols and worshipped the morning star and Aphrodite, which in their language they called Khabar, which means "great".

And so, until the time of Heraclius, the Saracens clearly served idols; from his time until now, they had a false prophet, called Muhammad (Μάμεδ), who accidentally got acquainted with the Old and New Testaments, they say, communicated with an Arian monk in a similar way, [after which] composed his own heresy. Under the pretext of turning the people to seeming worship of God, he spreads a rumor that a scripture has been sent down to him from heaven from God. Having written some laughable provisions in his book, he handed it over to them for veneration.

[In this book] he says that the one God is the creator of everything, He did not give birth and was not born (Quran 112.3). He says that Christ is the Word of God and His Spirit (Qur'an 4.171), a creation and a slave, and that he was born without seed from Mary (Qur'an 19.19–22), the sister of Moses and Aaron (Qur'an 19.28). For, he says, the Word of God and the Spirit entered into Mary and she gave birth to Jesus, the prophet and the servant of God; and that the lawless Jews wanted to crucify Him and, seizing Him, crucified His shadow, but Christ himself, he says, was not crucified and did not die (Quran 4.157). For God took Him to heaven because He loved Him. And [Muhammad] says that when Christ ascended to heaven, God asked him, saying: Jesus, did You say that "I am the Son of God and God?" and Jesus answered, he says, "Be merciful to Me, Lord! You know that I have not spoken, and I am not ashamed to be Your slave. But the criminal people wrote that I said this word and lied about Me, and they are in error." And God answered Him, He says, "I know that You did not say this word" (Quran 5.116–117).

And inventing many other things worthy of laughter in his book, [Muhammad] boasts that it was sent to him from God. We're talking: "And who is a witness that God gave him the Scripture, or which of the prophets predicted that such a prophet would arise?". And when they get confused, we say that Moses received the Law when God appeared on Mount Sinai in front of all the people in cloud and fire, darkness and smoke, and that all the prophets, from Moses onwards, predicted the coming of Christ and that Christ God and the Son of God would come He who is incarnate and will be crucified will die and rise again, and that He will be the Judge of the living and the dead.

And tell them: "Why did not your prophet come in such a way that others would testify about him, and [why] did not God give the law to Moses in front of the whole people, as he did to Moses with a smoking mountain in front of all the people, and gave him the Scripture, as you say, so that you also would have confidence [in him]?". They answer that God does what He wants.

Let's say we know this too, but we ask, how did the Scripture descend to your prophet? And they answer that the Scripture descended upon him from above, while he was sleeping. And then we will tell them such a joke: "Since, as you say, he accepted the Scripture sleepily and did not feel the action, then a folk proverb was fulfilled on him...".

When we ask again: "Why, when he orders you in your scripture not to do anything and not to receive without witnesses, did you not ask him: first confirm yourself through witnesses that you are a prophet, that you came from God and what scriptures testify about you?" – ashamed, they are silent.

Then we legitimately tell them: "Since you are not allowed to marry, sell, or acquire without witnesses, and since you yourself do not receive an ass or cattle without witnesses, you also receive wives, property, donkeys, and so on with witnesses, but only faith and scripture without witnesses; for the one who gave this Scripture has not been confirmed to you from any side, and not only is there no one who would testify about him, but even [himself] he received the Scripture in a dream."

They call us Etheriasts (ἑταιριαστάς) because, they say, we add another to God, saying that Christ is the Son of God and God. We will tell them that the prophets and the Scripture have conveyed this: you, as you strongly assert, accept the prophets. So, if we say badly that Christ is the Son of God, then they taught us this and passed it on to us. And some of them [to this] say that we attribute this to the prophets, allegorically interpreting them, while others say that the Jews, hating us, misled us, as if writing [it] in the name of the prophets, so that we would perish.

Again we say to them: if you say that Christ is the Word of God and the Spirit, then why do you condemn us as Etheriasts, because the word and the spirit are inseparable from the one in whom they exist? So, if His word exists in God, it is obvious that he is God. If it exists outside of God, then God, in your opinion, is wordless and soulless. Thus, avoiding giving God another, you killed Him. For it would be better to tell you that He has another, than to kill Him or present [Him] as a stone, or a log, or something else from insensitive [objects]. Thus, you falsely call us Etheriasts, while we rightly call you God-killers.

They condemn us as idolaters because we worship the cross, which they abhor. And we'll tell them: "Why do you touch the stone that is in your Kaaba and kiss it, hugging it?". And some of them say [in response to this] that Abraham copulated with Hagar on it; others that here he tied a camel, intending to sacrifice Isaac. And [then] we will answer them: "The Scripture says that the mountain was wooded and [covered] with trees, from which, having made a bundle, Abraham laid it on Isaac (Gen. 22,6), and that he left the donkeys with the servants (Gen. 22,5). So, where do you get [your] nonsense from? After all, there is no wooded thicket there, nor donkeys pass through?". They are ashamed, but nevertheless they still say that this is the stone of Abraham. And then we will say to them: "Let [this stone], as you say, be [the stone] of Abraham; so, embracing it just because Abraham copulated with a woman on it, or because he tied a camel to it, you are not ashamed, but you condemn us that we worship the cross Christ, through whom the power of demons and the wanderings of the devil were destroyed?". The same thing they call a stone is the head of Aphrodite, which they worshipped, calling her Swag. The carved shadow [of the head] is still visible on this stone for those who see perfectly.

This Muhammad, as has already been said, having composed many absurd fables, gave each of them a name, for example, the scripture "Woman", in which it is legally established to openly take four wives and, if anyone can, thousands [concubines], as many as the hand holds, in a lower position, unlike four wives. But for what reason Muhammad established to let go, if you want, any [of the wives], and take the other, if you wish: Muhammad had a companion named Zeid. He had a beautiful wife, whom Muhammad fell in love with. And so, as they were sitting, Mohammed said: "Oh so-and-so! God ordered me to take your wife." He replied: "You are a messenger, do as God told you: take my wife." It's better that we tell [this story] from the very beginning: [Muhammad] told him: "God commanded me [to tell you] to let your wife go." He let go. And after a few days [Muhammad] said, "God has ordered me to take her for myself." Then he took and committed adultery with her, and established this law: whoever wants to let his wife go. If, after the divorce, he turns to her again, then let the other marry her. For it is impossible to take her back unless another [first] marries her. In the same Scripture [Muhammad] commands the following: "Cultivate the land that God has given you, and cultivate it and do so and so" (Qur'an 2.223), [we use this], so as not to say, like him, any obscenity.

There is also a scripture "The Camel of God", about which he says that she was a camel from God, and drank a whole river, and could not pass between two mountains because there was not enough space. So, he says, there was a people in that place, and one day this people drank water, and the next day a camel. After drinking water, [the camel] fed them, giving milk instead of water. So, he says, those men arose, being vicious, and killed a camel; and she had a child, a little camel, who, it is said, when the mother was killed, cried out to God, and took her [God] to Himself. [To this] we will say to them: "Where did this camel come from?". They say it's from God. And we will say: "Did another camel copulate with her?". They say, "No." Then where, we ask, did she give birth? For we see that your camel without a father and without a mother and without a pedigree, having given birth, suffered evil. But even the one who copulated [with her] does not show up, and the little camel is taken to heaven, how is it that your prophet, with whom, as you claim, God spoke, did not find out about the camel where she grazes and who nursed her with milk? Or maybe she herself, as a mother, got caught by evil people and was killed? Or has she entered paradise as your forerunner and from her will be for you the milky river that you are talking about? For you say that three rivers flow for you in paradise: water, wine and milk (see: Quran 47.15). If your forerunner, the camel, is outside of paradise, it is obvious that she has dried up from hunger and thirst, or others use her milk and your prophet falsely talks nonsense, as if he talked with God, because even the secret of the camel was not revealed to him. If she is in paradise, then she drinks water again, and you suffer from lack of water in the midst of heavenly pleasures. If you desire wine from a flowing river, then, having drunk it unmixed with water (for the camel has drunk everything), through intemperance in drinking you become inflamed, become drunk and sleep. Suffering from a headache and a hangover from wine after sleep, [involuntarily] you forget about the pleasures of paradise.

So, why did your prophet not think about [this] happening to you in the paradise of pleasure, and did not think about the camel, where she is now? But you did not ask him [about this] when he announced to you about the three rivers, deceiving you with a story about dreams. We announce to you clearly that your amazing camel entered the souls of donkeys before you, where you will live as cattle-like. There is outer darkness and endless punishment, a humming fire, a worm that never sleeps and hellish demons.

Muhammad also says in the scripture "Meal" that Christ asked God for a meal, and it was given to him. For God, he says, told Him: I have given You and those with You an incorruptible meal (Quran 5.112–115).

He also composed the scripture "Cow" and some other sayings worthy of laughter, which, because of their multitude, I think should be omitted. He established that Saracens and their wives should be circumcised, and ordered them not to observe Sabbaths and not to be baptized, one of the things allowed in the law is, and to abstain from the other; he absolutely forbade wine drinking.

- St. John of Damascus. About a hundred heresies in brief. Chapter 100.