Teach me about contradictions

[paulpablo]

I've got to say I side with the Christian on this issue, especially given something like the bible that is a collection of several different books. "Contradictions" like this may just be due to context and don't actually constitute an error.

I'd just like to say again this is specifically talking about the quran and not the bible.

This is the first instance of it being said in the quran that god does not forgive association, to avoid the argument that the translation is wrong I used every single translation on the noble quran website, it gives 6 different ones.

Sahih International
Indeed, Allah does not forgive association with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills. And he who associates others with Allah has certainly fabricated a tremendous sin.
Muhsin Khan
Verily, Allah forgives not that partners should be set up with him in worship, but He forgives except that (anything else) to whom He pleases, and whoever sets up partners with Allah in worship, he has indeed invented a tremendous sin.
Pickthall
Lo! Allah forgiveth not that a partner should be ascribed unto Him. He forgiveth (all) save that to whom He will. Whoso ascribeth partners to Allah, he hath indeed invented a tremendous sin.
Yusuf Ali
Allah forgiveth not that partners should be set up with Him; but He forgiveth anything else, to whom He pleaseth; to set up partners with Allah is to devise a sin Most heinous indeed.
Shakir
Surely Allah does not forgive that anything should be associated with Him, and forgives what is besides that to whomsoever He pleases; and whoever associates anything with Allah, he devises indeed a great sin.
Dr. Ghali
Surely Allah does not forgive that (anything) should be associated with Him, and He forgives (anything) whatever apart from that for (Literally: to) whomever He decides; and whoever associates (anything) with Allah, then he has readily fabricated a tremendous vice

The second time this is mentioned is here.

Sahih International
Indeed, Allah does not forgive association with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills. And he who associates others with Allah has certainly gone far astray.
Muhsin Khan
Verily! Allah forgives not (the sin of) setting up partners in worship with Him, but He forgives whom he pleases sins other than that, and whoever sets up partners in worship with Allah, has indeed strayed far away.
Pickthall
Lo! Allah pardoneth not that partners should be ascribed unto Him. He pardoneth all save that to whom He will. Whoso ascribeth partners unto Allah hath wandered far astray.
Yusuf Ali
Allah forgiveth not (The sin of) joining other gods with Him; but He forgiveth whom He pleaseth other sins than this: one who joins other gods with Allah, Hath strayed far, far away (from the right).
Shakir
Surely Allah does not forgive that anything should be associated with Him, and He forgives what is besides this to whom He pleases; and whoever associates anything with Allah, he indeed strays off into a remote error.
Dr. Ghali
Surely Allah does not forgive that (anything be) with Him associated; and (anything) whatever, apart from that, He forgives to whomever He decides. And whoever associates (anything) with Allah, then he has readily erred into far error.

Now I don't know that the other verses are actually contradicting this, but I know that Muslims obviously believe god does forgive this sin, because christians and hindus convert to Islam and this has been going on since the beginning of Islam.

The typical Islamic argument I come up against on the website consists of 2 things.

1 The context of the verse in relation to the rest of the quran. There are apparently other verses in which allah says he forgives all sins.

2 The accounts of what Muhammad's followers said about what he said about all sins being forgiven if someone converts to Islam.

Both of these things to me this makes no difference, if I write a letter to Dave and it says

"My name is Paul I do not go to the beach. I dislike the beach verily. I do go to the beach when it's very nice actually."

And then after this letter has been sent to Dave our mutual friends approach Dave and confirm to him that I was indeed on the beach.

All of these things still amount to the fact that the underlined part in bold I wrote is wrong. They don't change that. The context of what I wrote or the accounts of other people don't make what is underlined anymore correct at all. Infact they confirm just how wrong it is. I was at the beach, people saw me at the beach therefore me saying I do not go to the beach is plainly wrong.

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Well as I said there's this verse in the quran.


So finding a contradiction in the quran probably deserves more than a "So what?"

Same point - you may be applying a different meaning to contradiction than the quran is.

Note that this is a general interpretation issue, and not specific to religion. In my first semester of physics, they taught us Newton's laws without qualifiers. In my third semester, we were told they weren't really laws as they break down at high speeds and low masses. No one yelled contradiction! and stomped out of the class. We understood that the teaching in the first semester was appropriate for us at the time. But, by some definitions it was indeed a contradiction.

It's interesting that you say the Muslims I am putting this point across to have a specific meaning for what a contradiction is.

I'm speaking in general. I obviously don't know what these specific people are thinking.

But your teacher probably didn't say anything along the lines of
"newton is god and I am his messenger and if I say anything that has contradictions this proves I am not a messenger for god"
Before he made that statement about newtons laws not really being laws.
Unlike the quran which does do this.