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We are, then, warranted in assuming that the terms which are in the Corân
applied to the Jewish Scriptures generally, as "the Book," "the
Scriptures," &c.
الكتاب - الذكر - الذين أوتوا نصيباً من الكتاب
mean the Old Testament as it stood, and was
acknowledged by the Jews to be their divine book, in the time of Mahomet. The
word,
التوراة
the Tourât, was sometimes used in this wide sense, and sometimes
as signifying only the Pentateuch, or the Five books of Moses. So the term
الزبور
"the Psalms," is confined to the Psalms of David.
In a similar manner, the Scriptures of the Christians, spoken of in the
Corân under the general name
الأنجيل
Injîl, "Evangel," or Gospel, must be
held to refer to the entire Scripture in common use as a divinely-inspired book
amongst the Christians,that is, to the whole New Testament; which, according
to the Corân, was received by Jesus from God, and taught (as we must on this
understanding suppose) by him to his disciples.
These inferences are necessarily deducible from the absolute and unqualified
manner in which Mahomet refers to the Scriptures as believed in by the Jews and
Christians, and as current amongst them.
A belief in the whole Scriptures, Jewish and Christian, is frequently
required, and those who "believe in apart, and disbelieve in a part,"
are over and again threatened with condign punishment. See Arts.
LXIII and CII.
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TESTIMONY TO THE HOLY SCRIPTURES |
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III.THE CORÂN ATTESTS THE INSPIRATION OF THE JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES.
The Divine origin of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, as thus extant and
in common use in his day, is throughout the Corân unconditionally attested by
Mahomet, in such reiterated and stereotyped phrases, as
مصدقاً لما بين يديه
&c. Indeed the very
object of the Corân is in many places stated to be the attestation of the
Scripture revealed aforetime. Thus in a supposed Revelation which is quoted as
having been made of old, the prophet that is to arise (Mahomet) is described
chiefly as one who would attest the foregoing Scripture,
ثم جاءكم رسول مصدق لما معكم
Art. CXIII. So also the chief mark by which the Genii, who had been listening
to the Corân, described it to their fellows, was that it attested the
antecedent Revelation: Art. XVII.
A plenary inspiration is constantly ascribed to the whole of these sacred
books. They have been "sent down," or "revealed,"
نزل
;God
revealed the Scripture in "truth," or "with truth,"
أنزل كتاباً بالحق
; it
has been "given" by God,
أوتي
;the prophets who delivered it were
"inspired,"
وحي
It is repeatedly said, in praise of the Corân (for which the highest degree
of inspiration is claimed), that the inspiration of Mahomet is the same in
kind as that of the former prophets;Arts. XXII., LX., CIII., and CX.
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