To illustrate this point, let us take the example of the Bible, which, as a book of revelation was the forerunner of the Qur'an.

Initially, the Bible was the word of God, but in later years it suffered from human interpolations, with the result that many internal contradictions began to sully its pages. A case in point is the genealogy of the Messiah, which has been given in several places in that part of the Bible known as the Injil, or New Testament. The Gospel according to Matthew begins with this abridged genealogy: "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matt. 1:1).

The genealogy of Christ is then given in detail, beginning with Abraham and ending with Joseph who, according to the New Testament was "the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus" (Matt. 1: 16).

When the reader turns to the Gospel according to Mark he finds these words: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Mark. 1:1).

According to one chapter of the New Testament, Jesus was the son of a person named Joseph, while another chapter of this very New Testament says he was the son of God.

Undoubtedly, in its original form, the Injil was the Word of God and free of all inconsistencies. It was only in later years, that human beings made additions of their own, introducing contradictions into a formerly consistent text. The Christian Church has evolved yet another extraordinary contradiction in order to explain away this discrepancy in its sacred book. The description given of Joseph in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1984 edition) is as follows: 'Christ's earthly father, the Virgin Mary's husband.'