Islam, because it claims the Torah is true while contradicting it [1], cannot be true, yet that does not mean that the Quran teaches everything some might ascribe to it. For instance, from what I have read, the Quran does not actually prescribe that women wear burkas, although many might think that burkas are prescribed in the Quran itself (I still want to look into this more though). Another thing that the Quran might not teach is eternal conscious torment, meaning it might actually concur with the Bible's teachings on annihilationism [2]. I need to read more of the Quran to be certain, yet people can always be reminded to not represent a worldview as teaching what it does not hold to. I read some of Surah 4 today, scanning for verses about hell, and I wanted to highlight some of my findings.
Surah 4:29-30--"You who believe, do not wrongfully consume each other's wealth but trade by mutual consent. Do not kill each other, for God is merciful to you. If any of you does these things, out of hostility and injustice, We shall make him suffer Fire: that is easy for God."
Surah 4:138--"[Prophet], tell such hypocrites that an agonizing torment awaits them."
Nothing in these verses inherently suggests eternal conscious torment; both of them are consistent with either eternal conscious torment or annihilationism. This means that they do not themselves contradict a type of Islamic annihilationist theology. The direct teaching that sinners will suffer agonizing torment in hell does not necessarily mean that they will suffer agonizing torment endlessly. But what about verses like Surah 4:156? While this verse may seem to promote something closer to eternal conscious torment, logic reveals it is compatible with annihilationism and, again, that it does not necessarily teach that unsaved sinners will suffer forever in hell.
Surah 4:56--"We shall send those who reject Our revelations to the Fire. When their skins have burned away, We shall replace them with new ones so that they may continue to feel the pain: God has the power to decide."
Although the verse refers to God replacing burned skin with new skin to prolong the sinners' torment, nothing in this verse by necessity teaches a kind of eternal conscious torment. The verse does say that God will replace skins consumed by hellfire, but, as logic demonstrates, this might mean only that God will replace the skins once, or that God will replace them a certain other number of times. The text never specifies if this entails an infinite number of replacements, a finite number of replacements, or how many replacements it signifies if the number is finite. Indeed, the clarification at the end of the verse--that God "has the power to decide"--might refer to God having the power to decide to release an unsaved person from his or her torment into annihilation.
I am not saying that I know yet if the Quran teaches either annihilationism or eternal conscious torment. It certainly teaches, like the Bible does, that there is a hell and that God will send unsaved sinners there, but it might also teach annihilationism, just like the Bible does. But I do know, as someone who was taught a lot of shit extra-Biblical theology by Christians growing up, that the Bible does not at all teach many of the ideas I have seen ascribed to it, and the Quran (while certainly false) might also be misrepresented to and by some Muslims and Christians alike, whatever their intentions.
[1]. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2018/03/quranic-punishment-surah-538.html
[2]. See here:
A. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-justice-of-annihilationism.html
B. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-truth-of-annihilationism.html
C. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-destruction-of-soul.html
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