Suppose that someone claims that one of the apostles said so and so about something that Jesus (pbuh) might have said and did, can any Christian scholar then provide a chain of narration which traces precisely how this narration was transmitted from the person who finally wrote it down all the way up to the person who heard either what the said apostle said or what Jesus (pbuh) himself said?
It is simply not possible for any Christian scholar to do this because no such chain of narrations exists for the sayings of Jesus (pbuh) nor that of his disciples.
And in Judaism, isnad only started to be used during the Talmudic period i.e. 200-500 CE and it could indeed be that this method of authentication by isnad was introduced by the Jews who reverted to Islam.
Dear Hamba2han, maybe I simply don’t understand well what you mean with “providing a chain of narration which traces precisely HOW this narration was transmitted from the person who finally wrote it down ALL THE WAY up to the person who heard either what the said apostle said or what Jesus (pbuh) himself said?”
Do you mean to say that, for instance, A would quote the prophet Muhammad as saying this and this, and then say he got that from B, who got that from C, who got that from D, and D from E, E from F, F from G, G from H, H from I, I from J, and so forth, and the last one of the series would have heard it himself from the prophet, is this how it works?
Say, there must not have been too much trust among Muhammad’s discples and potential successors, or was there? I am merely telling the first impression I get from this. Why would someone really trusting in Allah have to take SO MUCH care and precautions, if Allah’s messages were to prevail?
As for the Fathers of the Church, when they quoted from the Old and the New Testament, they probably mentioned the book, or the gospel, or the epistle where the quote came from.
As for the canon of the New Testament, I am sure that the Church, which already bore the name Catholic then (Ignatius of Antioch already used such expression in his epistles, and he died in 107 A.D.!!), took the time to carefully study the books, so as to keep some, delete others. You seem to know Allah so well, isn’t there some things you still don’t know about Him? God revealed Himself, but we don’t pretend to know Him completely, since He is a Mystery. We don’t pretend to tell Him how to do things, even though some among us would indeed question His ways…
Also, how are you so sure that what is said to be Allah’s own words in the Koran really are His? For instance, how can God ask us to slain the infidels when in the Bible He says: Thou shalt not kill! (Ex. 20 and Deut.5). The Ten Commandments are still to be obeyed for as long as the present world is, aren’t they?
Still, there is a spiritual way to “slain the infidel”, that is the infidel in you: you get rid of your sins and of your sinful inclinations, and you live according to Allah’s will. Then you truly have slained the infidel in you, haven’t you, since you are not infidel any more…