Introduction to the Study of The Holy Quran — Page 57
57 In the same place (11:15) we read: Let those enjoy in whom thou art delighted. Indra, drink Soma for thy strength and gladness. To think that Soma juice will bring power to God or His angels is ridiculous in the extreme. It is not one or two verses which teach superstitions of this kind. Hundreds of such verses can be quoted. We have, in some of them, descriptions of gods crossing the skies, mounted on clouds or on chariots. A large part of the Vedas consists of immoral suggestions. These pertain to matters of sex and are so brazen that we fear quotation would offend the reader’s sense of decency. Sex impulses and sex organs are described with a detail which would be nauseating even in a book of medicine. For these reasons, we can say that though there are parts of the Vedas which point to their origin in divine revelation, there are others which prove that they have suffered from human fabrication. Because of this, the Vedas can no longer be treated as a guide for human conduct. We need, instead, a book free from all such defects. That book is the Quran. Contradictions in the Vedas Like the Bible, the Vedas contain interpolations made by different persons in different periods. No wonder there are many contradictions in their text, and here are some examples: (i) The Vedas raise the question, who made the sun? To this quite different answers are proposed in different parts of the Vedas. In the Rig-Veda (IX, 96:5) we are told that the sun was made by the Soma god. But in the Rig-Veda (VIII, 36:4) we are told the sun was made by the god Indra. The same book teaches one thing in one chapter and quite another in another chapter. It teaches in one chapter that the sun was made by the Soma god, and in another, that it was made by the god Indra. When we turn to the other Vedas the contradiction becomes more and more serious. In the Yajur-Veda (31:12) we read that the sun was made by Brahma from his eye. The Atharva-Veda further contradicts this. In it (XIX, 27:7) we find that all the gods joined together and made the sun. This is different from, and contradicts, all the other accounts. (ii) The Vedas teach that the sun at first was on the earth, it was then taken to the skies. This account may be ridiculous from the point of view of astronomical science; we are concerned only to point out that even this extraordinary statement is couched in very different terms in different parts of the Vedas. In Krishna Yajur-Veda Taittiriya Samhita (7:1) we read that the sun was on the earth and gods then carried it on their backs to the heavens and placed it there.