Koran 9:97-99

9:97 The Bedouins are stronger in disbelief and hypocrisy and more likely not to know the limits of what [laws] Allah has revealed to His Messenger.

And Allah is Knowing and Wise.

98 And among the Bedouins are some who consider what they spend as a loss and await for you turns of misfortune.

Upon them will be a misfortune of evil.

And Allah is Hearing and Knowing.

99 But among the Bedouins are some who believe in Allah and the Last Day and consider what they spend as means of nearness to Allah and of [obtaining] invocations of the Messenger.

Unquestionably, it is a means of nearness for them.

Allah will admit them to His mercy.

Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.

Koran 9:97-99

Muhammad spoke about Allah in the third person. This means this passage is not the perfect words of the perfect Qur’an from perfect Allah. Thus, Allah is false, imaginary, and fictional, which means Islamic doctrine and Islam are nonsensical and false.

I wonder who the Islamic messenger to the Bedouins was? Muhammad’s imaginary god supposedly sent out messengers to every nation, yet, the Bedouins only know a little of the theology of Islam and Allah and the other pre-Islamic gods.

It looks like the Bedouins already knew about Allah before Muhammad told them. This is in accord with Islam previously being a polytheist stone worship cult, which the Bedouins at that time were somewhat familiar with. This is confirmed by a story in Tafsir Ibn Kathir 9:97-99:

A Bedouin man sat next to Zayd bin Sawhan while he was speaking to his friends. Zayd had lost his hand during the battle of Nahawand. The Bedouin man said, “By Allah! I like your speech. However, your hand causes me suspicion.”

Zayd said, “Why are you suspicious because of my hand, it is the left hand that is cut?”

The Bedouin man said, “By Allah! I do not know which hand they cut off (for committing theft), is it the right or the left?”

Tafsir Ibn Kathir 9:97-99

Obviously, this verse is inconsequential and gives no real information. All it does is divide the Bedouins into three categories, those opposed to Islam, those who are enemies of Islam and those friendly to Islam. And of course, all those people are long dead now. This is exactly the same as can be done for all peoples since then, some don’t know Islam, some are enemies of Islam and some are friendly to Islam. Note that Allah is unable to mark these people or indicate who they are to Muslims.

So basically those people who give money to Muhammad or Muslims, seem friendly to Muslims and Islam. Thus Muhammad demonstrates that Allah has no power or effect, and so Islam fails yet again, by Muhammad’s incompetence. So the best replacement for this passage is: “”, the empty sentence.