Koran 17:85

And they ask you, [O Muhammad], about the soul.

Say, “The soul is of the affair of my Lord. And mankind have not been given of knowledge except a little.”

Koran 17:85

Muhammad, in his Koran, addresses a sentence, verse, or passage to “Anonymous They”, with “they”, “them”, “he”, “your”, “the people”, and so on, without naming them. For more, read Anonymous They.

The Tafsir Ibn Kathir, 17:85 reveals who the “they” are, the Jews of Medina, before their massacre and genocide by Muhammad and his Muslim bandits:

While I was walking with the Prophet on a farm, and he was resting on a palm-leaf stalk, some Jews passed by. Some of them said to the others, “Ask him about the Ruh.”

Some of them said, “What urges you to ask him about that?”

Others said, “Do not ask him, lest he gives you a reply which you do not like.”

But they said, “Ask him.”

So they asked him about the Ruh.

The Prophet kept quiet and did not give them an answer, and I knew that he was receiving revelation, so I stayed where I was.

Tafsir Ibn Kathir, 17:85

Note that Muhammad is “receiving revelation” AFTER the fact, not before. This demonstrates that Muhammad is a false prophet, as most people can give an answer after a question, while only a prophet gives the answer BEFORE the question.

Worse, isn’t the Koran supposedly for all people? So why is this passage addressed to Muhammad and to the dead, massacred Jews of Medina? A people of Muhammad’s time and place, his context, showing this passage is locked to Muhammad, and the Jews of Medina, and not even for all Jews.

Muhammad Allah commands Muhammad to: “Say” or “Recite”. This means that this passage is addressed to Muhammad, not to all people. Thus, this passage can’t be in the perfect words of the perfect Qur’an from perfect Allah. As it is addressed to Muhammad, in his time and place, his context, this also means that this passage is locked to Muhammad’s context and can’t be in the context-free, perfect Qur’an from perfect Allah with all its perfect words. Thus, this passage is part of Muhammad’s recitation, Muhammad’s Koran, which means Islamic doctrine and Islam are incoherent and false, meaning Allah is incoherent, imaginary, fictional, and false.

Worse, Muhammad’s answer shows his own ignorance. Muhammad knows nothing about the “soul” because there’s no soul in Islam, and because Allah is imaginary. This is why Muhammad, pretending to be Allah, gives no answer at all:

The soul is of the affair of my Lord. And mankind have not been given of knowledge except a little.

Muhammad pretending to be Allah, Koran 17:85

Have a look at Wikipedia’s collection of Islamic nonsense about “Rūḥ“. Obviously, it’s incoherent nonsense, showing that Islam is nonsensical about this point. Remember, the “Soul” is in the Torah, these Jews know about it, and Muhammad doesn’t, showing Allah is ignorant and imaginary, and not YHWH/GOD.

Worse, the scholars reveal more about how out of order the Koran is, with this story in Tafsir Ibn Kathir, 17:85:

So the Prophet [Muhammad] told them [Jews of Medina] about that, and they said, “Who told you this?”

He said, “Jibril brought it to me from Allah.”

They said, “By Allah YHWH, no one has told you that except our enemy!”

Then Allah revealed:

Say: “Whoever is an enemy to Jibril (let him die in his fury), for indeed he has brought it (this Qur’an) down to your heart by Allah’s permission, confirming what came before it.”

Tafsir Ibn Kathir, 17:85

That last saying which is about Jibril or “Gabriel”, is obviously from Muhammad, who is unable to get his order of revelation correct, Allah -> Jibril-> Muhammad -> local people, and is, surprisingly, in Koran 2:97:

Say, “Whoever is an enemy to Gabriel – it is [none but] he who has brought the Qur’an down upon your heart, [O Muhammad], by permission of Allah, confirming that which was before it and as guidance and good tidings for the believers.”

Koran 2:97

So, Koran 17:85 is followed by Koran 2:97 and the context is left out, showing how disorganised and messed up the Koran is. Obviously, Muhammad’s recitation is ad hoc nonsense by Muhammad, lies to get people to respect and obey him, and when people are too smart to be deceived, Muhammad flies into a rage, to make people obey him by force.

For more about the Body and Soul in Judaism, see Body and Soul in My Jewish Learning. Especially note the Jewish/Hebrew names that are copied/translated into Islam. The “ruah” in Judaism becomes “Ruh” (the spirit) in the Tafsir Ibn Kathir, 17:85, and “Soul” in the translation of the Koran 17:85. Also see Koran – Soul? and Koran – Spirit of God?

The best replacement for this passage is: “”, the empty sentence.