This book is a translation of one of the most massive refutations to Christian Missionaries written by one of the most formidable scholars of Islam. In his original book--Aljawaab AlSaheeh--Ibn Tayymiya wrote an encyclopedia of Islam and questions and answers to Christianity. The original book of Ibn Tayymiya comes in 7 volumes, 6 books plus 1 book as an index. Each of the 6 volumes comes in 400-500 pages of text, fully loaded with rich information on Islam, Christianity, extinct Islamic sects which were attracted to Christianity, ONE WHOLE volume which includes Bible Prophecies that mention Prophet Mohammad, exposing the miracles performed Christian priests (e.g., the statue of Mary [peace be upon her] appearing on Churches, the Spear of God, how a Christian priest can order a palm tree to sink inside the earth allowing the priest to sit on top of it, and then it rises, and much much more), logical thoughts on the Trinity, the Sonship of Jesus (peace be upon him), the miracles he performed, and lots of other issues. As said, it's a huge encyclopedia.Unfortunately, the translator didn't do justice when he did his translation. It's enough to note that he expunged the 7 volumes into one single book half the size of one of the original volumes (That's after we ignore the unnecessary bibliographies, notes, and so on). I was waiting for a skilled Muslim to translate this book, but sadly, no Muslim or a team of Muslims have taken the effort to translate this wonderful book. However, that doesn't mean that the Christian translator didn't do a good job. He did a fair job, but he ignored lots of proofs that Ibn Tayymmiya provided about the Prophet Mohammad and the authority of the Islamic sources. Of course, anyone who is familiar with the Christian propaganda against Islam, can expect such attempts. And that's why I expected to see Aljawaab Al-Saheeh translated by concerned Muslims.
The translator mentioned the humorous story behind the making of this book. To encourage the reader of this review, I'll mention the story. Basically, at the time of Ibn Tayymiya, a Melikite (A past Christian sect, which is closer to Catholicism of today) bishop wrote a 26-page pamphlet with high hopes to convert the Muslims. He imagined that he met a group of Christians who were coming from the Muslim's land, and he asked them some questions, and they answered back. This imaginary dialogue made his 26-page pamphlet.
The Muslim scholars who received this pamphlet were disturbed. At that time, the Crusades were beginning, and the Muslims in Syria were well aware of the breeze which preceded the terrors in Andalusia. Basically, these missionary efforts used to take place to divide the Muslims and the Christians living among the Muslims, this way, some kind of disorder will take place, they would take advantage of this division, the crusaders will storm the Muslims in a bloody war.
Before Ibn Tayymiya took the confrontation, he was aware of the refutations that the notable scholar, Imaam Abu Al-Waleeb Al-Baaji and Ibn Hazm went through to reply to the Christian attacks in Andalusia. And when the 26-page pamphlet was distributed, besides Ibn Tayymiya, Al-Ghazali wrote his reply: Al-Radd Al-Jameel. And Al-Quraafi wrote his reply: Al-Ajwiba Al-Fakhira (The Unique Replies). But Ibn Tayymiya (as usual), locked himself up, and wrote his reply in a 7 volume book!
The book teaches the Muslim, and the neutral reader how to think when studying Christianity. The proofs which are presented might be outdated for the Protestant Christian, simply because Protestantism was not born when Ibn Tayymiya wrote his book. However, the book is certainly a mind booster in its logical arguments compared to its scriptural arguments. For example, when Ibn Tayymiya compares the Quran as a miracle and the miracles of Jesus (Note, the translator does not include any proofs that Ibn Tayymiya discussed about the authenticity of the Islamic sources), he writes, "They say that Prophet Jesus (p) healed the blind. Okay, other honorable prophets healed the blind as well, not only that, but didn't the staff of Moses (p) turn into a snake--with, most probably, two eyes on the top of its head?"
And he talks about Jesus being God, and the Son of God, and he says, "How can he be the Creator and the son of Himself? How can he be a messenger from himself? Is it logical to say that 'My father is sitting over there, and He is me?' or 'I was sent my God, who is myself?'" He talks about the fallacy of dividing the attributes from the essence, and he comments on the claim that Jesus is the Word and God Himself: "Their book says [and he quotes] that in the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then, they claim that this word is Jesus. We say that this is illogical. If Prophet Jesus (p) was the Word, then how did this word come to be? Is it logical to think that a word can exist all by itself without someone previously writing it or uttering it?"
Unlike the Greek and the Roman logicians, the Muslim thinkers offer the problems they see in Christianity without denying the existence of God. In all their replies to Christianity, their content always portrays Jesus as an honorable prophet, they write about him with love, they respect him, his disciples, his mother, and their followers, without degrading them, but they also present sever and problematic questions to the Christian doctrines which were placed by the Churches of the past and which are embraced by most fanatic Christians of today.
The book is certainly a must read. However, those who can read Arabic, should not disregard the original book which was written in Arabic. It comes in a better quality, much much much more information (7 volumes), and half the price.
