Paulos: The Claim. Part 1.

In all their desperation Christian missionaries have now started to claim that according to the Quran Paul was a prophet of God. Their conclusions are based on conjectures and the misrepresentation of the text of the Quran.

Simply put, there is not a single place in the Quran which even mentions the name “Paul” let alone mentioning him to be a prophet of God. To make such claims the Christian missionaries run to Tafsir Ibn Kathir. They read out the tafsir by Ibn Kathir regarding the 14th ayah (Verse) of the 36th Surah (Chapter) of the Quran.

Verse under Question:

36:14

إِذْ أَرْسَلْنَا إِلَيْهِمُ اثْنَيْنِ فَكَذَّبُوهُمَا فَعَزَّزْنَا بِثَالِثٍ فَقَالُوا إِنَّا إِلَيْكُم مُّرْسَلُونَ When We (first) sent to them two apostles, they rejected them: But We strengthened them with a third: they said, “Truly, we have been sent on a mission to you.”

– [Translation: Abdullah Yusuf Ali]

Christian missionaries say that Ibn Kathir says in his Tafsir of the Quran that this verse refers to Paul of Tarsus and thus Paul (Bulus) is one of the Messengers of God according to Islam. Let’s see whether Ibn Kathir makes such a claim. Ibn Kathir writes: “The names of the first two Messengers were Sham`un and Yuhanna, and the name of the third was Bulus, and the city was Antioch (Antakiyah).” But the question is this Ibn Kathir’s view? No.

This saying is attributed to: Shu`ayb Al-Jaba’i Ibn Kathir is quoting Shu`ayb Al-Jaba’i. Ibn Kathir has also quoted interpretations of different people as well. He says that according to Ibn Ishaq the names of these three are: (i) Sadiq (ii) Saduq (iii) Shalum Note: No Bulus (i.e. Paul) mentioned here. Later on Ibn Kathir in his tafsir refutes this and says that according to the proceeding Quranic verses the people were destroyed.

Historically there is no evidence that the city of Antioch faced such destruction and thus this cannot even be about the city of Antioch