Koran 3:118-120

3:118 O you who have believed, do not take as intimates those other than yourselves, for they will not spare you [any] ruin. They wish you would have hardship. Hatred has already appeared from their mouths, and what their breasts conceal is greater. We have certainly made clear to you the signs, if you will use reason.

119 Here you are loving them but they are not loving you, while you believe in the Scripture – all of it. And when they meet you, they say, “We believe.”

But when they are alone, they bite their fingertips at you in rage.

Say, “Die in your rage. Indeed, Allah is Knowing of that within the breasts.”

120 If good touches you, it distresses them; but if harm strikes you, they rejoice at it. And if you are patient and fear Allah, their plot will not harm you at all. Indeed, Allah is encompassing of what they do.

Koran 3:118-120

Muhammad, ad nauseam: “who have believed”. Read, O you who have believed.

Muhammad speaks about Allah in the third person. This passage isn’t the perfect words of the perfect Qur’an from perfect Allah.

Note the quotes from groups of people. These shouldn’t be in the perfect words of the perfect Qur’an from perfect Allah. Instead, these quotes come from the imagination of Muhammad, who’s whining about people who betray him by not really believing in him.

Muhammad commands himself to “Say”. This command is obviously disobeyed by Muhammad. As the command is for Muhammad, not us, everyone should disobey this command, as we’re not Muhammad.

Muhammad thinks that the plots of others won’t affect him. This is an error by Muhammad, as Muhammad has already admitted that the plots of others have had evil consequences on him, and worse, the plot to expose Muhammad as a false prophet worked, and eventually cost the false prophet Muhammad his life.

Muhammad contradicts himself: “do not take as intimates those other than yourselves”, and gets confused. Note that Muslim men according to Islam are allowed to take non-Muslim women as wives who are closer than friends, they are “intimates”. So, who do you obey Islamic doctrine and Islam or Muhammad?

But worse, the scholars of Tafsir Ibn Kathir, 3:118 seem to claim that “intimates” means hypocrites, Muslims who don’t believe exactly as you do. Not unbelievers, not unbelieving wives. See for yourself the evil that the Tafsir claims about hypocritical Muslims:

The hypocrites try their very best to confuse, oppose and harm the believers any way they can, and by using any wicked, evil means at their disposal. They wish the very worst and difficult conditions for the believers.

Tafsir Ibn Kathir, 3:118

Perhaps the Tafsir is warning Muslims of one sect about Muslims in another sect, most of whom habitually war against each other, confuse each other, oppose and harm each other, use wicked and evil means against each other and curse each other with worse and difficult conditions for each other. Muslims of various sects have been doing this to each other since Muhammad died 1400 years ago.

Muhammad gets confused: “while you believe in the Scripture”. The people of the scripture, Jews, Sabaeans and Christians, believe in YHWH, something else for the Sabaeans, and God/Jesus. This can’t be referring to Muhammad’s Koran, because it wasn’t created until after Muhammad’s death and can’t be referring to Muslims, as they don’t believe in Torah, Bible or other holy “scripture”, even though they are told to, in Koran. Note that the Tafsir claims that Muslims believe in the first, second and third books, which is an obvious error, proven a lie by every Muslim’s shahada. Believing in books is an obvious example of idolatry, placing a book above a god. The Jews, Christians and Sabaeans do not do this. The Sabeans don’t even have a scripture. Thus, the Tafsir seems confused.

Muhammad’s several mistakes, confusion and false prophecy show that the best replacement for this passage is: “” the empty sentence.