Short answer
Latter-day Saints and Muslims agree on the first half. Both say the message Jesus taught was changed after him. Latter-day Saints call this the Great Apostasy, and say Joseph Smith restored the true church. The Qur'an says Christians "forgot a good part of the message" (5:14). It says God (﷾) restored it through Muhammad (ﷺ), whom Jesus foretold (61:6). So the real question is which restoration holds up. A restoration must itself be kept. The Qur'an was memorised and written down in the Prophet's (ﷺ) lifetime, and it has not changed (15:9). Some of Joseph Smith's revelations were edited after they were first printed. The gold plates were taken back, so no one can check them. A restoration that needs restoring cannot be the last one.
Full explanation
The Great Apostasy and the Restoration
Latter-day Saints teach that after the apostles died, the church Jesus founded fell away from the truth. Joseph Smith said that in 1820 he asked God (﷾) which church to join. He was told he "must join none of them, for they were all wrong", and that "all their creeds were an abomination".
He later said an angel showed him gold plates holding "the fulness of the everlasting Gospel". From them came the Book of Mormon, first printed in 1830. Latter-day Saints believe the true church was restored through him.
Joseph Smith's account of his vision of 1820: he was told he "must join none of them, for they were all wrong", and that "all their creeds were an abomination".
The angel said there was "a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent", holding "the fulness of the everlasting Gospel".
Islam agrees the message was changed
Islam agrees that Jesus' message did not reach later Christians whole. The Qur'an says of those who call themselves Christians: "they forgot a good part of the message that was sent them" (5:14). It also warns: "woe to those who write the Book with their own hands, and then say: 'This is from Allah'" (2:79).
The Bible's own history agrees. Scholars agree that some verses, such as 1 John 5:7, were added by later hands. The Trinity was spelled out in creeds centuries after Jesus.
“From those, too, who call themselves Christians, We did take a covenant, but they forgot a good part of the message that was sent them: so we estranged them, with enmity and hatred between the one and the other, to the day of judgment. And soon will Allah show them what it is they have done.”
“Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands, and then say:"This is from Allah," to traffic with it for miserable price!- Woe to them for what their hands do write, and for the gain they make thereby.”
On 1 John 5:7-8, reports that the words about the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit are absent from every known Greek manuscript except eight late ones, four of which have them written in the margin as a later addition; that no Greek church father quotes them; and that every ancient translation except the Latin lacks them.
The creed opens: "We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible". The council confessed the Son as begotten of the Father, true God of true God, and "of one substance" (homoousios) with the Father, and condemned those who said there was a time when he was not.
The council confessed the Holy Spirit as the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, and who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified.
Islam says who restored it
The Qur'an says God (﷾) restored the message through a prophet Jesus himself foretold. Jesus said: "I am the messenger of Allah (sent) to you ... giving Glad Tidings of a Messenger to come after me, whose name shall be Ahmad" (61:6).
That messenger, Muhammad (ﷺ), brought a Scripture "confirming the scripture that came before it, and guarding it in safety" (5:48). On his last pilgrimage, months before he died, God (﷾) said: "This day have I perfected your religion for you" (5:3).
“And remember, Jesus, the son of Mary, said: "O Children of Israel! I am the messenger of Allah (sent) to you, confirming the Law (which came) before me, and giving Glad Tidings of a Messenger to come after me, whose name shall be Ahmad." But when he came to them with Clear Signs, they said, "this is evident sorcery!"”
“To thee We sent the Scripture in truth, confirming the scripture that came before it, and guarding it in safety: so judge between them by what Allah hath revealed, and follow not their vain desires, diverging from the Truth that hath come to thee. To each among you have we prescribed a law and an open way. If Allah had so willed, He would have made you a single people, but (His plan is) to test you in what He hath given you: so strive as in a race in all virtues. The goal of you all is to Allah; it is He that will show you the truth of the matters in which ye dispute;”
“Forbidden to you (for food) are: dead meat, blood, the flesh of swine, and that on which hath been invoked the name of other than Allah; that which hath been killed by strangling, or by a violent blow, or by a headlong fall, or by being gored to death; that which hath been (partly) eaten by a wild animal; unless ye are able to slaughter it (in due form); that which is sacrificed on stone (altars); (forbidden) also is the division (of meat) by raffling with arrows: that is impiety. This day have those who reject faith given up all hope of your religion: yet fear them not but fear Me. This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion. But if any is forced by hunger, with no inclination to transgression, Allah is indeed Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.”
A Jewish man told Umar ibn al-Khattab that if the verse "This day have I perfected your religion" had been revealed to the Jews, they would have kept that day as a festival. Umar answered that Muslims know exactly when and where it came down: on a Friday, while the Prophet (ﷺ) was standing at Arafat during the pilgrimage.
A restoration must itself be kept
If a message was lost once, its restoration must be guarded, or it will be lost again. So a true restoration should pass a simple test. Is its text kept as it was first given? And can anyone check it today?
The Qur'an makes this promise for itself: "We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption)" (15:9). That promise can be tested, and so can Joseph Smith's restoration.
“We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption).”
The Qur'an has been kept
The Qur'an was recited aloud as it came, memorised by many companions, and written down in the Prophet's (ﷺ) lifetime.
Its oldest pages agree with it. Two leaves held at the University of Birmingham were radiocarbon dated in 2015 to between 568 and 645 CE. That span covers the Prophet's (ﷺ) lifetime. Apart from small points of spelling, their text is the Qur'an as it reads today.
Two parchment leaves carrying parts of Surahs 18 to 20 in early Hijazi script. In 2015 the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit dated the parchment to between 568 and 645 CE, with 95.4 per cent probability, a span that covers the Prophet's (ﷺ) lifetime (c. 570-632). Apart from small points of spelling, the text on the leaves is the text of those surahs as the Qur'an has them today.
“We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption).”
Joseph Smith's revelations were edited
Joseph Smith's revelations were first printed in 1833, in the Book of Commandments. Some were rewritten for the Doctrine and Covenants of 1835. In 1833, a revelation of 1829 said Joseph had a gift to translate, and God (﷾) would "grant him no other gift".
The Doctrine and Covenants now adds: "until my purpose is fulfilled in this". God (﷾) would grant him no other gift "until it is finished". A gift that was closed became a gift that was closed only for a time.
“...and he has a gift to translate the book, and I have commanded him that he shall pretend to no other gift, for I will grant him no other gift.”
Joseph has "a gift to translate the plates", and is commanded to "pretend to no other gift until my purpose is fulfilled in this; for I will grant unto you no other gift until it is finished."
1829: the revelation is given
1833: "I will grant him no other gift"
1835 to today: "no other gift until it is finished"
The plates cannot be checked
Joseph Smith wrote that when his work was done, the angel "called for them, I delivered them up to him". So the source of the Book of Mormon cannot be examined by anyone.
The Church's own essay adds that he dictated the book with a seer stone placed in a hat. The plates "often lay on the table ... wrapped in a small linen table cloth." So even the dictation did not come from reading the plates.
Joseph Smith received the plates on 22 September 1827. When his work was done, "the messenger called for them, I delivered them up to him; and he has them in his charge until this day" (2 May 1838).
The essay says that, according to the accounts, Joseph Smith placed either the interpreters or the seer stone in a hat, pressed his face into the hat, and read the words aloud. It quotes Emma Smith that the plates "often lay on the table without any attempt at concealment, wrapped in a small linen table cloth." It also says that as a young man he "used a seer stone to look for lost objects and buried treasure."
| Question | Joseph Smith | Muhammad (ﷺ) |
|---|---|---|
| Where is the source? | Gold plates, taken back by the angel | The Qur'an, recited and memorised |
| Written down when? | Dictated with a seer stone, 1829 | In the Prophet's (ﷺ) lifetime |
| Has the wording changed? | Yes: some 1833 revelations rewritten in 1835 | No: oldest pages match today's text |
| Can you check it today? | No: the plates are gone | Yes: the text and early manuscripts |
Islam's answer: the restoration that was kept
Latter-day Saints are right that the message needed restoring. The question is which restoration God (﷾) kept. One came with a book memorised and written while its prophet lived, unchanged since. The other came with plates that were taken back, and revelations that were rewritten.
The Qur'an asks to be tested: "Had it been from other Than Allah, they would surely have found therein Much discrepancy" (4:82). Islam invites every Latter-day Saint to test it, and to follow it if it holds.
“Do they not consider the Qur'an (with care)? Had it been from other Than Allah, they would surely have found therein Much discrepancy.”
Two parchment leaves carrying parts of Surahs 18 to 20 in early Hijazi script. In 2015 the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit dated the parchment to between 568 and 645 CE, with 95.4 per cent probability, a span that covers the Prophet's (ﷺ) lifetime (c. 570-632). Apart from small points of spelling, the text on the leaves is the text of those surahs as the Qur'an has them today.
Joseph Smith received the plates on 22 September 1827. When his work was done, "the messenger called for them, I delivered them up to him; and he has them in his charge until this day" (2 May 1838).
“...and he has a gift to translate the book, and I have commanded him that he shall pretend to no other gift, for I will grant him no other gift.”
Perspectives
Latter-day Saint
After the apostles died, the church fell into apostasy. God restored it through Joseph Smith, with the Book of Mormon and new revelations.
The churches of 1820 were all wrong, and their creeds an abomination.
Rebuttal
Islam agrees that the message was changed. But a restoration must itself be kept. The plates were taken back, and the revelations were rewritten after printing.
A living prophet may revise the wording of earlier revelations.
Rebuttal
Then the first printed word was not the final word, and a reader cannot know which wording is God's (﷾). The Prophet (ﷺ) said it was not for him to change the Qur'an, and its text was kept.
The Islamic perspective
The message of Jesus was partly lost. God (﷾) restored it through Muhammad (ﷺ), whom Jesus foretold, and He promised to guard the Qur'an. Its text has been kept.
Christians forgot a good part of the message sent to them.
Jesus foretold a messenger after him named Ahmad.
God (﷾) promised to guard the Qur'an, and its oldest pages match it today.