MUHAMMAD AND THE BIBLE
by Silas
Two Jewish leaders came to Muhammad
and asked if he believed that the Torah they had in their possession was the
truth from God...
"Rafi
b. Haritha and Sallam b. Mishkam and Malik b. al-Sayf and Rafi b. Huraymila
came to him [Muhammad] and said:
"Do you not allege that you follow the religion of Abraham and
believe in the Torah which we have and testify that it is the truth from
God?" He replied, "Certainly,
..."
The above quote is from Guillaume's "The Life of Muhammad",
which is basically a translation of Ibn Ishaq's "Sirat Rasulallah",
the most authentic extant biography of Muhammad, page 268. [1]
When the Jews confronted him with
the question as to whether or not their Torah was "the truth from
God", Muhammad said, "Certainly".
This dialog
occurred in Yathrib (Medina), around the year 624 A.D.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
OUTLINE
1
THE BIBLE IS TRUE ACCORDING TO ISLAM
A Introduction
B Islamic
sources
C Quran
stating that Bible is true
D Support
from the Hadith
E Support
from the Sira
F Conclusion
2
THE BIBLE IN THE HIJAZ IS BASICALLY THE SAME ONE WE HAVE TODAY
A Introduction
B Historical
Analysis: Formation of the Canon
C Geographical
Analysis: Availability of the Canon
D Conclusion
3
MUSLIM OBJECTIONS
A Questionable
Quranic verses
B Early
Muslims and the charge of corruption
C Why
the charge of corruption today?
D Muslim
Misconceptions
E Conclusion
4
SUMMARY
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PART
1 THE BIBLE IS TRUE ACCORDING TO ISLAM
A. INTRODUCTION
Time and time again, Muhammad
testified to the integrity of the Scriptures of the Jews and Christians. He affirmed and confirmed them as the Word
of God. Since Muslims believe the Quran
to be the Word of God, then it is actually their God - "Allah" -
testifying to the integrity and truthfulness of the Jewish and Christian
Scriptures existing in Muhammad's lifetime.
There are about 12 verses in the
Quran that specifically mention the Gospel.
The Arabic word for Gospel is "Injil". Additionally a large number of other Quranic
verses testify to the truth of the Gospel.
Muhammad, as a self declared prophet, supported those Scriptures because
he believed they were God's word as he believed his Quran was God's word.
In testifying to their integrity
Muhammad unwittingly undercut his own credibility. Muhammad was unaware of the full extent of those Scripture's
teachings and this ignorance allowed him to make contradictory statements
because his words and teachings, i.e. the Quran, contradicted these
Scriptures. Today, we recognize that
God would not send a confused or ignorant man who contradicted himself and His
word.
Many Muslims today say the Bible is
corrupted. But there is nothing in the
Quran that supports this. There is not
one word in the Quran that teaches that the Scriptures of the Jews and
Christians have been perverted by man. Instead,
the opposite is true. The Quran
supports the Bible.
Isn't it interesting that the
Muslims' Quran has nothing to say about the corruption of the Scriptures of the
largest religion on earth? During
Muhammad's time Christian influence was known in Mecca. There were Jewish and Christian settlements
in the Hijaz, and Christianity ringed the Saudi peninsula. Yet not one word is spoken by
"Allah" concerning the Scriptures of their faith and not one word on
the corruption of His previous Word.
The New Testament contains the
stories of Jesus identifying Himself as the Son of God, Jesus predicting His
crucifixion, death, and resurrection, Jesus calling God
"Father". Jesus' teachings
are contradicted by Muhammad in the Quran time and time again. Further, the Quran contradicts even the Old
Testament stories related to such Biblical figures as Gideon, Saul, David, and
Noah. Why didn't Islam's
"Allah" speak up on
corruption if these Scriptures were inaccurate of false? These themes are fundamental, why would the
Muslims' god fail to address their corruption?
If such a corruption had actually
taken place, wouldn't "Allah" have revealed it in the Quran? The Quran is full of vague statements,
misquoted biblical stories, myths from pagan, Jewish, and Christian
backgrounds, yet "Allah" has nothing to say about the corruption of
His previous word. How could such an
omission occur? One has to wonder who
Muhammad's "Allah" really was.
He certainly didn't appear to be the "All Knowing", or at
least, if he knew, he wasn't telling.
Or was it that "Allah"
didn't know because Muhammad didn't know?
Jesus taught that false prophets
would come into the world and mislead many.
There are passages from the Quran,
Hadith, and Sira, that deal with this topic.
I will present and discuss a number of them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
B. ISLAMIC SOURCES
The primary source of Islam is the
Quran. It is considered to be God's
very words. In general Muslims believe
that the angel Gabriel, heard God's words and then repeated them to
Muhammad. Muhammad than spoke what
Gabriel told him as the Quran. I use
several translations in this article.
Primarily N.J. Dawood's [2], Yusef Ali's [3], and Arberry's [4].
The second
most authoritative set of sources in Islam are the "Hadith". Hadith are Muhammad's sayings on particular
issues, or anecdotes mostly related to Muhammad's life. Various Muslim scholars compiled their sets
of Hadith some two to three hundred years after Muhammad's death. In many cases they recorded what people had
told them they had learned from older Muslims, who had learned from earlier
Muslims, who had learned from earlier Muslims, etc. This sequence of transmission is known as an "isnaad"
or chain of transmitters. Memorization and oral transmission were the primary
method used to transmit Hadith from one generation to the next. "Sahih" Hadith are the most "authentic"
Hadith. Muslim scholars use the Hadith
to help establish the "Sunnah" or lifestyle that Muslims are to live
by. These scholars also judge the
validity of the Hadith based upon the reputation of people in the
"isnaad" of the Hadith.
I will quote
primarily from Sahih Bukhari translated by Muhsin Khan [5]. There are several collections up on the
internet.
Another important source of biographical
information about Muhammad and early Islam are the Sira. I quote from Ibn Ishaq's "Sirat
Rasulallah", translated by A. Guillaume as "The Life of
Muhammad", which is regarded as the most authentic extant biography of
Muhammad, and Ibn Sa'd's "Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir", ("Book of
the Major Classes" - biographical information about Muhammad and his
primary companions), translated by S. Moinul Haq [6]. The Sira are not regarded as highly as the Hadith.
NOTES:
1) For many important Quranic passages I
provide quotes from both Yusef Ali's and N.J. Dawood's translations of the
Quran. I think it leads to better
understanding of the Quran to compare several translations if you cannot read
it in Arabic. I have changed some of
Ali's archaic words and spelling. I
have also not quoted some verses in full because the material was not relevant
and for length's sake.
2) Words in [
] type brackets are mine.
3) The term "People of the Book"
refers specifically to Jews or Christians, or both Jews and Christians. At times the Quran is not clear. Various Muslim scholars cannot agree on who
is being addressed in various portions of the Quran.
4) The term "Hijaz" refers to the
center - western part of the Arabian Peninsula. This is where Mecca is and where Muhammad grew up and lived.
5) With their permission, I have borrowed
portions of writings from three other Christian writers: from Dr. William Campbell's book, "The
Quran and the Bible", [7] and from articles written by Sam Shamoun [8],
and from John Gilchrist's book, "The Christian Witness to the Muslim
[9]. Their works can be found at:
http://answering-islam.org
http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/aboutbible.htm
http://answering-islam.org/Campbell/
I copied
their work because I felt that it effectively addressed the issues and there
was no reason for me to re-write what they have already articulated. I have folded their work into sections of
this series of articles.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
C. THE QURAN STATES THAT THE BIBLE IS TRUE
VERSES
SHOWING THE TORAH TO BE TRUE AT THE TIME OF JESUS
To begin with, it must be established
that both the Torah and Gospel existed and were true in Muhammad's time. So, to begin, I will start with Muhammad
saying that when Jesus lived, Jesus testified to the integrity of the Torah,
i.e., the canon of Jewish Scripture.
Ali - Quran
3:48 - 50
48.
"And Allah will teach him the Book and Wisdom the Law and the Gospel.
49.
"And (appoint him) an Apostle to the Children of Israel (with this
message):
I have come to you with a sign from your
Lord ...
50. "(I
have come to you) to attest the Law which was before me and to make
lawful to you part of what was (before)
forbidden to you; I have come to you
with a Sign from your Lord. So fear Allah and obey me.
Dawood -
Quran 3:48 - 50
48. He [Allah] will instruct him [Jesus] in the Scriptures
and in wisdom, in the Torah and in the Gospel
49. and send him forth as an apostle to the
Israelites. He will say: "I bring you a sign from your
Lord". ...
50. "I come to confirm the Torah which
preceded me and to make lawful to you some of the things you are
forbidden. I bring you a sign from your
Lord: therefore fear God and obey
me."
Ali - Quran
5:46, 47
And in their
footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary confirming the law that had come before
him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidance and light and confirmation of
the law that had come before him: a guidance and an admonition to those who
fear Allah.
47. Let the
people of the Gospel Judge by what Allah has revealed therein. If any do fail
to judge by (the light of) what Allah has revealed they are (no better than)
those who rebel.
Dawood -
Quran 5:46, 47
After them
we sent forth Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming the Torah already revealed,
and gave him the Gospel, in which there is guidance and light, corroborating
what as revealed before it in the torah, a guide and admonition to the
righteous.
47. Therefore let those who follow the Gospel
judge according to what God has revealed therein. Evil-doers are those that do not judge according to God's
revelations.
Ali - Quran
61:6
And remember
Jesus the son of Mary said: "O Children of Israel! I am the apostle of
Allah (sent) to you confirming the Law (which came) before me...
Dawood -
Quran 61:6
And of Jesus
the son of Mary, who said to the Israelites:
"I am sent forth to you from God to confirm the Torah already
revealed,..."
SECTION
SUMMARY
The above verses show the Torah was
true during Christ's lifetime (the first century) because Jesus told the Jews
that He was confirming the Law. "I am sent forth to you from God to
confirm the Torah already revealed,..."
There was no word of
"corruption" from Jesus to the Jews concerning their Scripture. There was no word from Jesus on how the
Torah had been perverted. Instead, we find
that Jesus confirming the Torah, i.e. the Jewish books of Scripture. And today, we virtually have the same Jewish
Canon that existed in Jesus' time.
Therefore, Muhammad, in the Quran, stated that the Torah in Christ's
time was the valid Word of God.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
VERSES
SHOWING THAT THE TORAH AND THE GOSPEL WERE TRUE AND UNCHANGED AT THE TIME OF
MUHAMMAD
Now to establish that Muhammad
believed that both the Torah and Gospel that existed in his time were the Word
of God.
Ali - 29:46
And dispute
ye not with the People of the Book, except with means better (then mere
disputation), unless it be with those of them who inflict wrong (and injury);
But say, "We believe in the Revelation which has come down to us and in
that which came down to you; Our God and your God is One...
Dawood -
29:46
Be courteous
when you argue with People of the Book except with those among them who do
evil. Say: "We believe in that which is revealed to us and which was revealed
to you. Our God and your God is one.
Ali - 35:31
That which
We have revealed to you of the Book is the Truth confirming what was (revealed)
before it: for Allah is assuredly with respect to his servants well acquainted
and fully-Observant.
Dawood -
35:31
What We have
revealed to you in the Book is the truth confirming previous Scriptures. God knows and observes His servants.
Ali - 10:37
This Qur'an
is not such as can be produced by other than Allah; on the contrary it is a
confirmation of (revelations) that went before it and a fuller explanation of
the Book wherein there is no doubt from the Lord of the Worlds.
Dawood -
10:37
This Koran
could not have been devised by any but by God.
It confirms what went before it and fully explains the Scriptures. It is beyond doubt from the Lord of the
universe.
Ali - 12:111
There is in
their stories instruction for men endued with understanding. It is not a tale invented but a confirmation
of what went before it a detailed exposition of all things and a Guide and a
Mercy to any such as believe.
Dawood -
12:111
There annals
point a moral to men of understanding.
This is no invented tale but a confirmation of previous Scriptures, an
explanation of all things, a guide and a blessing to true believers.
Ali - 3:3
It is He Who
sent down to thee (step by step) in truth the Book confirming what went before
it; and He sent down Law (Of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus) before this as a
guide to mankind and He sent down the Criterion (of judgment between right and
wrong).
Dawood - 3:3
He has
revealed to you the Book with the Truth, confirming the scriptures which
preceded it; for He has already revealed the Torah and the Gospel for the
guidance of mankind, and the distinction of right and wrong.
Ali - 5:46 -
48
46. And in
their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary confirming the law that had come
before him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidance and light and
confirmation of the law that had come before him: a guidance and an admonition
to those who fear Allah.
47. Let the
people of the Gospel Judge by what Allah has revealed therein. If any do fail
to judge by (the light of) what Allah has revealed they are (no better than)
those who rebel.
48. To thee
We sent the Scripture in truth confirming the scripture that came before it and
guarding it in safety....
Dawood -
5:46 - 48
46. After them we sent forth Jesus, the son of
Mary, confirming the Torah already revealed, and gave him the Gospel, in which
there is guidance and light, corroborating what was revealed before it in the
Torah, a guide and an admonition to the righteous. Therefore let those who follow the Gospel judge according to what
God has revealed therein. Evil doers
are those who do not judge according to God's revelations. And to you we have revealed the Book with
the truth. It confirms the Scriptures
which came before it and stands as a guardian over them.
Ali - 5:66
If only they
had stood fast by the Law the Gospel and all the revelation that was sent to
them from their Lord they would have enjoyed happiness from every side. There is from among them a party on the
right course; but many of them follow a course that is evil.
Dawood -
5:66
If they
observe the Torah and the Gospel and what is revealed to them from their Lord,
they shall enjoy abundance from above and from beneath.
NOTE: The root word of
"confirm", or
"confirming" as used in 10:37, 12:111, 3:3, 5:46, 35:31 in
Quranic Arabic is "Saddaqa".
It means to "confirm, to give credence, to believe, to accept as
true, confirmation, accepting as true, belief, confirming, establishing as
true". When Muhammad used this
word, he meant that he believed that the Bible was the Word of God. Muhammad confirmed the Bible as the Word of
God.
This same root is used in many
places regarding truth. For example,
39:33 "And he who brings the truth, and he
who confirms it - such are the men who do right."
Below are
excerpts from Quranic verses using a conjugation of "Saddaqa". Note how the context of the word is uniform
in definition.
2:41 "that I have sent down, confirming
that which is with you"
2:89 "a Book from God, confirming what was
with them"
2:91 "it is the truth confirming what is
with them"
2:97 "he it was that brought it down upon
they heart by the leave of God, confirming what was before it"
2:101 "when there has come to them a Messenger
from God confirming what was with them"
3:3 "He has sent down upon thee the Book
with the truth, confirming what was before it"
3:39 "God give thee good tidings of John,
who shall confirm"
3:50 "likewise confirming the truth of the
Torah that is before me"
3:81 "then there shall come to you a
Messenger confirming what is with you"
4:47 "believe in what We have sent down, confirming
what is with you"
5:46 "We sent... Jesus son of Mary,
confirming the Torah before him"
5:46 "wherein is guidance and light, and
confirming the Torah before it"
5:48 "We have sent down to thee the Book
with the truth, confirming the Book that was before it"
6:92 "a Book We have sent down, blessed and
confirming that which was before it"
35:31 "that We have revealed to thee of the
Book is the truth, confirming what is before it"
37:52 "are you a confirmer?"
46:12 "this is a Book, confirming in the
Arabic tongue"
46:30 "we have heard a Book that was sent down
after Moses, confirming what was before it"
61:6 "Israel, I am indeed the Messenger of
God to you, confirming the Torah"
It is obvious from the sum of these
verses that Muhammad truly believed the Bible to be God's word. Over and over again, he
"confirmed" the Bible. There
is no mention of a "partial" confirmation. There is no statement that says, "confirms only that which I
agree with". Instead, Muhammad
addressed the Scriptures of the People of the Book and he confirmed its
integrity, truthfulness, and accuracy.
SECTION
SUMMARY
The above verses prove that Muhammad
confirmed the existence and integrity of the Jewish and Christian
Scriptures. "If they observe the
Torah and the Gospel and what is revealed to them from their Lord. "Therefore let those who follow the
Gospel judge according to what God has revealed therein", are two verses
that prove that both the Torah and Gospel that the people of the Book held were
God's word in Muhammad's viewpoint.
Muhammad's Quran testified to the
validity of those Scriptures that existed during his time. He did not speak one word of their
corruption. It was Muhammad's ignorance
of the actual teachings of those Scriptures that allowed him to contradict
their truths.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
VERSES
WHERE MUHAMMAD APPEALS TO THE TORAH AND OR THE GOSPEL.
Ali - 10:94
If you were
in doubt as to what We have revealed unto you then ask those who have been
reading the Book from before you...
Dawood -
10:94
If you doubt
what We have revealed to you [Muhammad], Ask those who have read the Scriptures
before you.
Ali - 16:43,
44
43. And
before thee also the apostles We sent were but men to whom We granted
inspiration: if ye realize this not ask of those who possess the Message.
44. (We sent
them) with Clear Signs and Books of dark prophecies; and We have sent down unto
thee (also) the Message; that thou may explain clearly to men what is sent for
them and that they may give thought.
Dawood -
16:43, 44
The apostles
We sent before you were but men whom we inspired with revelations and with
Scriptures. Ask the People of the Book,
if you know not. To you we have revealed
the Admonition, so that you may proclaim to men what was sent down for them,
and that they may give thought.
Ali - 2:113
The Jews
say: "The Christians have naught (to stand) upon"; and the Christians
say: "The Jews have naught (to stand) upon." Yet they (profess to) study the (same)
Book....
Dawood -
2:113
The Jews say
the Christians are misguided, and the Christians say it is the Jews who are
misguided. Yet they both read the
Scriptures...
Ali - 5:68
68. Say:
"O People of the Book! you have no ground to stand upon unless you stand
fast by the Law the Gospel and all the revelation that has come to you from
your Lord."...
Dawood -
5:68 - 69
Say: "People of the Book, you will attain
nothing until you observe the Torah and the Gospel and that which is revealed
to you from your Lord"...
SECTION
SUMMARY
Again we read that Muhammad
testified to the Christian's and Jew's Scripture's integrity. "People of the Book, you will attain
nothing until you observe the Torah and the Gospel", and "If you
doubt what We have revealed to you, Ask those who have read the Scriptures
before you" show that Muhammad believed that the Jews and Christians had a
book of truth. In fact, "Allah"
goes so far as to urge Muhammad to ask the Jews and Christians about the
validity of his message. Now, if they
were corrupted, God would not instruct Muhammad to ask people who study a
corrupted book about the validity of his message.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONCLUSION
The Quran clearly testifies that the
Scriptures of the People of the Book, i.e., the Old and New Testaments, are the
uncorrupted Word of God. Below is a
review of Muhammad's words in the Quran that present this.
1) 3:50 - "I
come to confirm the Torah which preceded me..."
2) 5:46 - "After
them we sent forth Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming the Torah already revealed
3) 35:31 - "What
We have revealed to you in the Book is the truth confirming previous
Scriptures. God knows and observes His
servants.
4) 5:46 - 48 "After them we sent forth Jesus, the
son of Mary, confirming the Torah already revealed, and gave him the Gospel,
in which there is guidance and light, corroborating what was revealed before it
in the Torah, a guide and an admonition to the righteous. Therefore let those who
follow the Gospel judge according to what God has revealed therein.
5) 5:66 - "If they observe the Torah and
the Gospel..."
6) 10::94 - "If you doubt what We have revealed
to you [Muhammad], Ask those who have read the Scriptures before you."
7) 2:113 - "The
Jews say the Christians are misguided, and the Christians say it is the Jews who are
misguided. Yet they both read the
Scriptures..."
CONFIRM,
CONFIRM, CONFIRM.
CORROBORATING,
JUDGING, OBSERVING ASKING, READING.
Muhammad believed in the truths of
the Bible. But he did not know what the
Bible taught. His ignorance led him to
make statements that displayed his lack of knowledge. His self-contradictions prove he was not a prophet of God.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
D. SUPPORT FROM THE HADITH
There are also several Hadith that
agree with the Quran in supporting the truthfulness of the Bible. Here are a few of those Hadith.
Ibn Abbas on
the corruption of Scripture.
Ibn Abbas was Muhammad's
relative. He was one of a special group
of Muslims known as the "Companions". He is regarded as one of the great scholars in Islamic History.
A traditional statement (Hadith) of
his is presented below. It is taken
from Sahih Bukhari's collection of Hadith, volume 9, as a footnote between 642,
and 643. This note is a comment on the
Quran 4:46 and 85:21, 22
"They
corrupt the word" means "they alter or change its meaning." Yet
no one is able to change even a single word from any Book of God. The meaning
is that they interpret the word wrongly. [... and he continues to speak about
how the Qur'an is preserved ...]
This is the commentary of Abdullah
Ibn Abbas, one of the Sahaba (companions) and Mohammed's cousin. His opinions, because he is a Sahabi
(companion) are held to be above the opinions and commentaries of all other Sheikhs
who are not Sahaba. Since Ibn Abbas'
above reference to "They corrupt the word" quotes part of Sura 4:46,
it is not only a commentary on Sura 85:22, but also on the meaning of the
Quranic charge against the Jews of corrupting the scriptures. This strongly confirms the results of
various investigations of the passages in the Qur'an that speak about the
earlier scriptures and their textual integrity and continuing authority.
Bukhari
4.829
Narrated
'Abdullah bin 'Umar:
The Jews
came to Allah's Apostle and told him that a man and a woman from amongst them
had committed illegal sexual intercourse. Allah's Apostle said to them,
"What do you find in the Torah (old Testament) about the legal punishment
of Ar-Rajm (stoning)?" They replied, (But) we announce their crime and lash
them." Abdullah bin Salam said, "You are telling a lie; Torah
contains the order of Rajm." They brought and opened the Torah and one of
them solaced his hand on the Verse of Rajm and read the verses preceding and
following it. Abdullah bin Salam said to him, "Lift your hand." When
he lifted his hand, the Verse of Rajm was written there. They said,
"Muhammad has told the truth; the Torah has the Verse of Rajm. The Prophet
then gave the order that both of them should be stoned to death. ('Abdullah bin
'Umar said, "I saw the man leaning over the woman to shelter her from the
stones."
The above Hadith confirms that the
Torah existed during Muhammad's time and that he had confidence in it. There was no worry about corruption. Instead, Muhammad chose to use it as a
credible source.
Bukhari 6.12
Narrated Abu
Huraira:
The people
of the Scripture (Jews) used to recite the Torah in Hebrew and they used to
explain it in Arabic to the Muslims. On that Allah's Apostle said, "Do not
believe the people of the Scripture or disbelieve them, but say:-- "We
believe in Allah and what is revealed to us." (2.136)
Here again the Torah was being
recited and taught in Arabic, and in public.
When Muhammad addressed this, he did not say anything about corruption. He had doubts about whether or not the Jews
were being honest in teaching the truth of what they were interpreting.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
E. SUPPORT FROM THE SIRA
As was previously quoted at the
start of this paper, the Sira also provide proof that Muhammad believed that
the Scriptures of the People of the Book were truth from God. This first one was already quoted at the
beginning of this article.
Two Jewish leaders came to Muhammad
and asked if he believed that the Torah they had in their possession was the
truth from God.
"Rafi
b. Haritha and Sallam b. Mishkam and Malik b. al-Sayf and Rafi b. Huraymila
came to him [Muhammad] and said:
"Do you not allege that you follow the religion of Abraham and
believe in the Torah which we have and testify that it is the truth from
God?" He replied, "Certainly,
...
1) There was a controversy concerning the
punishment of two Jews who had committed adultery in Medina. Muhammad was brought into the
controversy. The end result was that
Muhammad ordered the pair to be stoned.
Following his order, an important detail is recorded: (from Ibn Ishaq, page 267)
"Salh b. Kaisan from Nafi
freedman of Abdullah b. Umar from Abdullah b. Umar, told me: When the apostle gave judgment about them he
asked for a Torah. A rabbi sat there
reading it having put his hand over the verse of stoning. Abdullah b. Salam struck the rabbi's hand,
saying, "this, O prophet of God, is the verse of stoning which he refused
to read to you." ............ The
apostle said; "I am the first to
revive the order from God and His book and to practice it." They were duly stoned and Abdullah b. Umar
said, "I was among those that stoned them."
From three sources of Islam, the
Quran, Hadith, and Sira, evidence has been produced that establish that
Muhammad believed the Bible to be the Word of God. There is no word of corruption of these Scriptures, there is only
confirmation that the Bible is God's truth.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
F. CONCLUSION
Documented evidence has been
presented showing all sources of Islam (the Quran, the Hadith, and the Sira)
teach that the Bible is the Word of God.
For a Muslim to deny that the truths that the Bible teaches equates to
denying Muhammad's teachings. Clearly,
Muhammad fully believed the Bible to be God's word.
It now
remains to be established what those Scriptures were.
=================================================================
2
THE BIBLE IN THE HIJAZ IS BASICALLY THE SAME ONE WE HAVE TODAY
2. WHAT SCRIPTURES WERE AVAILABLE IN THE
HIJAZ?
It has already been established that
during Muhammad's lifetime the Jews and Christians in the Hijaz possessed
Scripture that Muhammad considered to be God's word. Since Muhammad testified to its integrity, which Scriptures was
he referring to? And, are those Scriptures
equivalent to what we possess today? If
they are not basically the same, i.e. if they do not teach the same doctrines
that our Bible of today teaches, then Muhammad may be justified for his
remarks.
So, what Scriptures were they and
where did they come from?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
GENERAL
INFORMATION
Concerning
the "Gospel", F. F. Bruce
writes in "The Canon of Scripture" [10], page 124:
"Before the term
"Gospel", (Greek 'evangelion) came to be given to any single one of
the four gospels (or to one of the many other works of the same literary
genre), it meant (1) the good news of the kingdom of God preached by Jesus, (2)
the good news about Jesus preached by his followers after the first Easter and
Pentecost, (3) the written record of the good news current in a particular
locality, (4) the four fold gospel."
Bruce also
notes (p. 129) that:
"The earliest surviving codex
which still contains portions of all four gospels is "P45" in the
Chester Beatty collection, from the early third century [early 200s]. It contains Acts as well as the fourfold
gospel - an exceptional collocation, for in it the early textual history of the
New Testament Acts was more often included in a codex with the catholic
epistles.
NOTES
1) The term
"catholic" epistles refers to the books of James, 1, 2, 3, John, 1
and 2 Peter, and Jude. It does not have
anything to do with the Catholic church.
The word "Catholic" means universal or general.
2) I urge
all readers to get Bruce's book and read it for themselves. The evidence he presents supporting the
integrity of the New Testament is very strong.
This article can only quote portions of his book.
Also important to this discussion
are Paul's writings. Bruce writes on
page 130:
"What is important is
this: from the early second century
[early 100s] onward Paul's letters circulated not singly, but as a
collection."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A. HISTORICAL ANALYSIS
HISTORICAL
INFORMATION ON THE DIFFERENT CANONS OF SCRIPTURE
THE CANONS
OF SCRIPTURE WERE FIXED WELL BEFORE MUHAMMAD
The term "canon" means the
set or collection of books that comprise a Bible. Some church groups had more books than other church groups. For example, the authenticity of the Book of
Revelations was not recognized by all the early churches, so those that did not
recognize it excluded it from their official canon.
Bruce Metzger writes in
"The Canon of the New Testament, its Origin, Development, and
Significance", [11] page 160:,
"By way of summary, [just after
200 A.D.], Tertullian cites all the writings of the New Testament except 2
Peter, James, and 2 and 3 John. .... Tertullian regarded the Scriptures of the
Old Testament as divinely given and he attributed to the four Gospels and the
apostolic Epistles an authority equal to that of the Law and the Prophets. The orally transmitted "rule of
faith" and the written Scriptures were mutually appealed to, and any writing
that did not conform to the rule of faith could not be accepted as
Scripture."
Metzger goes on to write that there
were early established lists of the canon in the West as early as the early
200's. And by the late 300s - early
400s the canon of the New Testament was fixed in the West.
The "Interpreter's Dictionary
of the Bible", [12] pages 529 - , states that the early church father
Origen traveled to different countries and visited the various churches [during
the early 200s]. It records:
"Origen had traveled widely -
to Rome, and in Greece and Asia Minor as well as in Egypt and Palestine - and
had observed both the agreements and the differences among churches of
different regions in their attitude toward the several New Testament writings;
he was well aware that the views of his own church were not identical with
those of other churches everywhere.
Without attempting to lay down a judgment of his own, he makes note of
the practice of the church, classifying the books as "acknowledged"
or "disputed"; besides these, there are a number which are simply
"false". Among the
"acknowledged" he includes the four gospels, the Pauline letters,
(fourteen, including Hebrews, even though he knows that it is not by Paul and
is not accepted everywhere), Acts, 1 John, 1 Peter, and Revelation. ... The books which he most rigorously
excludes are the numerous un-canonical gospels, which he adjudges heretical; in
this area he finds no disagreement among the churches. "The church has four gospels; the
heretics have many [here he gives the titles of some of them]. Four gospels only are approved, out of which
he must bring forth points of teaching under the person of our Lord and Savior
.... We approve nothing else but that
which the Church approves, that is, four gospels only as proper to be
received". (Hom. In Luc. 1). And again he speaks of "the four
gospels which alone are uncontroverted in the
church of God which is spread under heaven." (Euseb. Hist. VI.xxv.4).
END OF QUOTE
What Origen found during the early
200s was the canon of the New Testament was already becoming fixed. It was later that different churches
formally approved their official canons.
Origen found that all of them included the four gospels and Paul's
letters.
The "Interpreter's Dictionary
of the Bible", continues on page 530:
"In the second half of the
fourth century (350 - 400) a number of bishops in different regions of the
Greek church were moved to issue formal lists of the canonical books for the
guidance of their people. Cyril of
Jerusalem lists twenty six of our twenty seven, excluding Revelation; his
contemporary Epiphanius of Constantia in Cyprus includes it with the
other. Gregory of Nazianzus gives the
same list as Cyril. In his thirty ninth
Festal Letter, written in 367, the great Athanasius of Alexandria gives a list
of the "books that are canonized and handed down to us and believed to be
divine"; in this, after the books of the OT, he lists without hesitation
the twenty seven books of our own New Testament canon. All of these mention all seven of the
Catholic letters usually as a formally constituted group; they differ only over
the acceptance of Revelation. ... At
the end of the fourth century, therefore, a considerable part of the Greek
church acknowledged a canon of only twenty two books. A section of the Apostolic Constitutions, however, published in
Syria ca. 400, lists all 27 books except Revelation and adds to them 1 and 2
Clement."
END OF QUOTE
What the above paragraph is saying
is that the basic canon in the Greek world was constituted by the four gospels,
Acts, and Paul's letters. There were
some differences regarding the 6 catholic letters and Revelations. This was done before 400 A.D. By 400, the canon of 27 was established.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
We find a similar situation in the
Eastern Syriac churches.
Bruce Metzger writes in "The
Canon of the New Testament, its Origin, Development, and Significance",
pages 113, 114:
"According to early traditions
and legends embodied in the "Doctrine of Addai (A.D. 400), the earliest
New Testament of the Syriac speaking church consisted of the Gospel, the
Epistles of Paul, and the Book of Acts."
Metzger notes that the
"Gospel" spoken of here is the Diatesseron.
Later, Metzger goes on to write on pages
209 on that the canon is established in the East by 367.
Bruce writes on page 215:
"The earliest New Testament in
the Syriac churches comprised the four gospels (either the Diatesseron or the
separated gospels), Acts, and the Pauline epistles (evidently including the
Pastoral Epistles and Hebrews). From
the early part of the fifth century [early 400s] the common Syriac version, the
Peshitta, included the three major catholic epistles as well."
The "Interpreter's Dictionary of the
Bible", continues on page 531:
"The history of the canon in
the Syriac speaking churches remains obscure until the beginning of the fifth
century and the making of the Peshitta.
Until that time, they used Tatian's Diatesseron almost exclusively in
place of the four gospel collection which had so early become dominant in the
Greek and Latin churches; an Old Syriac version of the four gospels, made about
the end of the second century, survives in two MSS but there is no trace of its
use by Syrian churchmen.
It is not known when the book of
Acts and the Pauline letters were first translated into Syriac, but it must
have been before the end of the third century and may even have been done in
the late second century, by Tatian. At
all events, it is clear that in the fourth century the Syriac canon consisted
of the Diatesseron, Acts, and the Pauline letters. A curious feature is that in Syria the Pauline collection was
enlarge to fifteen letters by the inclusion of the spurious Third Epistle to
the Corinthians, extant only in Armenian, Coptic, and Latin versions. This canon of seventeen books is used by
Ephraem, the great scholar of the church of Edessa and by his contemporary
Afraates; and is given as authoritative in the Doctrine of Addai, a document
composed ca. 370 at Edessa. However, a
Syriac list of ca. 400 puts the four gospels in place of the Diatesseron and
omits III Corinthians; this may be taken as an indication that the Syrian
churches were now moving toward conformity with their Greek neighbors, probably
under the influence of the school of Antioch.
The Peshitta, by far the most
enduring and influential of oriental versions, was made under the direction of
Bishop Rabbula of Edessa in the first quarter of the fifth century (425). It adopted the canon of Antioch: the four "separated" gospels,
Acts, fourteen Pauline letters, and three Catholic letters - James, 1 Peter, and
1 John. The Syrian episcopate now made
a determined and successful effort to end the use of the Diatessaron. Theodoret of Cyrrhus alone collected and
destroyed more than two hundred copies of the Diatessaron in the churches under
his government and replaced them with the four gospels of the Peshitta. The Diatessaron was so thoroughly suppressed
that no copy of it has sever been discovered, apart from a single leaf of
vellum containing a fragment of the Greek text of it.
The Christological controversies of
the fifth century destroyed the unity of the Syrian church and separated it
from the catholic church of the West.
From Edessa eastward through Mesopotamia and Persia it became Nestorian;
in the W. parts of Syria it became Monophysite. The Nestorian churches continued to hold to the original canon
the Peshitta, which was the base also of the oldest Persian and Arabic
versions. For the Monophysites a
revision of the Peshitta was prepared in 508 at the insistence of a bishop
called Philoxenus. This work was based
on good Greek MSS and included the seven Catholic letters and Revelation. Thus the Syrian Monophysites, or Jacobites,
as they are called, adopted the canon that had become established in the
West. In 616, the Philoxenian edition
was further revised by Thomas of Harkel, who retained the same canon. But these revisions never attained the
authority of the Peshitta, and the Syrian churches generally have held fast to
the shorter canon of twenty two books, lacking the four minor Catholic letters
and Revelation.
Except for occasional oddities, no
further developments took place in the canon.
The Ethiopic church added eight books to the established twenty seven -
a collection of decrees called the Synodus, and a series of
"Clementines".
END OF QUOTE
What the above states is that
throughout the Church in the world, East and West the acknowledged canons all
contained the four gospels, Acts, the four large Catholic letters,
Hebrews, and the Pauline letters. This all occurred by 425 A.D. This precedes Muhammad's work by almost 200
years. Muhammad was born in 570 and he began
preaching his religion around 610 A.D.
NOTE: on the Diatessaron: Bruce Metzger writes in "The Canon of
the New Testament, its Origin, Development, and Significance", pages 115,
116
"The Diatessaron supplies proof
that all four Gospels were regarded as authoritative, otherwise it is unlikely
that Tatian would have dared to combine them into one gospel account. At a time when many gospels were competing
for attention, it is certainly significant that Tatian selected just these four
- nor does the presence of an occasional extra-canonical phrase or clause in
the fabric of the Diatessaron neutralize this consideration."
NOTE: on the Peshitta: Metzger writes (op cite) page 219:
"By the beginning of the fifth
century [400], if not slightly earlier, the Syrian church's form of the bible,
the so-called Peshitta, was formed.
This represents for the New Testament an accommodation of the canon of
the Syrians with that of the Greeks.
Third Corinthians was rejected, and, in addition to the fourteen Pauline
Epistles (including Hebrews, following Philemon), the three longer Catholic
Epistles (James, 1 Peter, 1 John) were included. The four shorter Catholic Epistles and the Apocalypse
[Revelations] are absent from the Peshitta Syriac version, and thus the Syrian
canon of the New Testament contained but 22 writings."
Also
NOTE on the
Peshitta:
Yusef Ali, a translator of and
commentator on the Quran writes:
"It is probable that the
Peshitta was the version (or an Arabic form of it) used by the Christians in
Arabia in the time of the prophet. The
final form of the New Testament canon for the West was fixed in the fourth
century A.C. (say, about 367 A.C.) by Athanasius and the Nicene creed."
HISTORICAL
CONCLUSION
By around 400 A.D., the canons of
Scripture were similar throughout the Christian world. Most churches had 27 books in their New
Testament. A few had less than 27, a
few had more. However, they all
contained the four Gospels, Acts, and Paul's letters. This is some 200 years before Muhammad was born.
So, even though there was no major
center of Christianity in Mecca or nearby surrounding areas, there was a
Christian presence there. These
Christians possessed Scriptures with which Muhammad was familiar. And the Scriptures the Christians had were
the same as the Christians to the North, South, East, or West. And, they are the same Scriptures we have
today.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
B. HISTORICAL INFORMATION ON THE AVAILABILITY
OF SCRIPTURES IN THE ARABIAN PENINSULA
GEOGRAPHICAL
ANALYSIS
GENERAL
According to the Hadith there were
actual Arabic translations of the New Testament that had been translated during
the time of Muhammad:
From Bukhari: 4.605:
Narrated
'Aisha: The Prophet returned to Khadija
while his heart was beating rapidly. She took him to Waraqa bin Naufal who was
a Christian convert and used to read the Gospels in Arabic Waraqa asked (the
Prophet),...
From Bukhari: 6.478:
Narrated
Aisha: (the wife of the Prophet) The
commencement (of the Divine Inspiration) to Allah's Apostle was in the form of
true dreams in his sleep, for he never had a dream but it turned out to be true
and clear as the bright daylight......Khadija then took him to Waraqa bin
Naufil, the son of Khadija's paternal uncle. Waraqa had been converted to
Christianity in the Pre-Islamic Period and used to write Arabic and write of
the Gospel in Arabic as much as Allah wished him to write.
Muhammad had
been married to Khadija for fifteen years prior to Muhammad's
death. He therefore had plenty of opportunity to
visit Waraqa (with or without Khadija) for religious discussion.
Richard Bell writes in "The
Origin of Islam in its Christian Environment", [13] page 17:
"This influence of Christianity
upon Arabia came principally from three centres, viz. Syria in the Northwest,
Mesopotamia in the Northeast, and Abyssinia in the West..."
P. Hitti
writes in "Makers of Arab History", [14] page 6:
"and the realization that the
Christians and Jews he [Muhammad] met had a "book" and were more
progressive, more highly developed than his people. Arabia was then ringed by Christian countries. The Christians he met must have been
Syrians, Copts, Abyssinians and even Christianized Arabs on the borders of
Syria and Iraq. They came as merchants,
slaves or visitors. The Jews must have
been native Medinese and Yamanis or foreign traders and slaves."
One Muslim writer, Nabīh Aqel, in
"Tarīkh al-'Arab al-Qadīm", [15] 1983 (Third Edition), Dār al-Fikr,
Beirut, p. 305, detailed some Christian activities in the Hijaz:
"The
big difference between Christianity and Judaism is that Christianity unlike
Judaism didn't have any bases in Hijaz , Christianity was an external source of
enlightenment echoed in Hijaz either by missionary activities form Ethiopia,
Syria and Iraq or from Alheerah's Christian centres; dair Hind al-Kubra [the
order of Hind al-Kubra] - Um Amro al-Mundhir [the order of Um Ammro] - Dair
Hind al-Sugra [the order of Hind al-Sugra]) or from some of the scattered
churches in Bahrain, al-Yamamah and Yemen."
Aqel is stating the Christian
missionaries had gone through the Hijaz, preaching Christ. Certainly, they would have brought their
Bibles with them.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
IN
MUHAMMAD'S HOME TOWN OF MECCA
Mecca was a commercial center. Caravans from various parts of the world
would go there to carry out trade. The
Kaba was also a famed pagan temple.
People from various religions would travel there for religious reasons
such as pilgrimage. Consequently, there
was representation and knowledge from a variety of religions in Mecca during
Muhammad's time.
J.S.
Trimingham in "Christianity Among the Arabs in Pre-Islamic Times",
[16] wrote on page 268:
"The
Meccans were in contact with the Christians of Syria through commercial
relations as well as with the diffused witness of the monks."
And on page
270: "The presence of Christians
in Mecca is better attested, but relates mainly to non-Meccans. Christian Arab merchants operated in Mecca
in association with Meccans and attended the periodical fairs. The Banyu Ghassan was represented and had an
establishment situated in the neighborhood of the Kaba, a privilege granted by
reason of their being hulafa or affiliates of the Qurashi clan of Banu
Asad. Christians from Hira as well as
Syria frequented the place. While
Christian Arab tribes of the peninsula maintained representatives, like the
Banu Ijl of Yamajma and Hira, whose representative Furat ibn Hayyan was halif
to the qurajhshi clan of Sahm.
... among
the slaves of the Meccan merchant class there were Christians. These must have been Syrians, since those
transported across the Red Sea were pagan Kushites or Bantu, for the Christian
Axumites, the ruling class would hardly enslave their own people. Among slaves from Syria mentioned by Ibn
Ishaq was Zaid ibn Haritha, freedman and mentioned and adopted son of
Muhammad. Slaves would naturally retain
their attachment to Christianity since they were excluded from the cults of the
ruling class."
END OF QUOTE
NOTE Zaid's was Muhammad's adopted son, and as
Trimingham stated, slaves kept their attachment to their faiths. Perhaps Muhammad also learned Christian
material from Zaid - his adopted son who lived with him.
On page 84 of Ibn Ishaq, we read
that before Muhammad's self proclamation of prophethood the Kaba needed to be
rebuilt and:
"It happened
that in Mecca there was a Copt who was a carpenter...."
So, even before Muhammad's rise to
power, there was a Christian presence in Mecca.
On page 86, we read that there was
actually a biblical quote in the Kaba....
"Layth
Abu Sulaym alleged that they found a stone in the Kaba forty years before the
prophet's mission, if what they say is true, containing the inscription
"He that soweth good shall reap joy; he that soweth evil shall reap
sorrow; can you do evil and be rewarded with good? Nay, as grapes cannot be gathered from thorns"
Here we even have a record of a
Gospel quote (Matthew 7:16) inscribed on a stone in the Kaba!
We also read about a Jew living in
Mecca in Ibn Sa'd, volume 1, page 186:
"A Jew dwelt at Makkah and sold
commodities..."
Therefore there was a Christians and
Jewish presence in Mecca where Muhammad grew up and lived most of his
life. The Christian was a Copt.
If Muhammad encountered the Coptic
Scriptures, he would encounter what we basically have today.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
NORTH
OF MUHAMMAD
North of Muhammad lay Syria. These states were also bordered on the
South by the minor Arab states of the Ghassan and Hira tribes. Bernard Lewis writes in "The Arabs in History, [17] page 32:
"The two states of Ghassan and
Hira were both Christian, the former Monophysite, the latter Nestorian. Both had a tincture of Aramaic and
Hellenistic culture....The Ghassanids resided in the neighborhood of the Yarmuk
river and were recognized rather than appointed by Byzantium....Though a vassal
of the Persians, it (the Hira state) drew its culture mainly from the West,
from the Christian and Hellenistic civilization of Syria. At first pagan, it was converted to
Nestorian Christianity brought by captives."
Bell writes on pages 18, 19:
"Within the bounds of the Roman
Empire in Syria we may assume that in the course of the fourth, fifth, and
sixth centuries Christianity had become fairly general, and must have extended
to the more or less settled Arabs who dwelt under the protection of the Roman
power. ... In all these ways, from the settled land of Syria, growing ever
more Christian, the knowledge of Christianity must have been continually
percolation to the inhabitants of the desert."
From Ibn Ishaq, page 79, - 81 we
read that when Muhammad was a boy, he traveled with his uncle Abu Talib to
Syria as part of a caravan
"..... When the caravan reached Busra in Syria,
there was a monk there in his cell by the name of Bahira, who was well versed
in the knowledge of Christians....There he (Bahira) gained his knowledge from a
book that was in the cell, so they allege, handed on from generation to
generation.
From the
above we see two things:
1) Muhammad conversed with a Christian who had
Christian books with him. Of course he
could have learned Christian teachings from Bahira.
2) These books though not in the Hijaz,
existed, and the people of the caravans had opportunity to learn of
Christianity from the Christians in Syria.
They too would have disseminated their knowledge back in Mecca.
By Muhammad's time, the Syrian
church was using the Peshitta because the Diatesseron had been destroyed and
removed from use.
Consequently, if Muhammad were to
have encountered Scriptures from the Syrian church, he would encounter what we
basically have today.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
NORTHEAST
OF MUHAMMAD
To the Northeast was Mesopotamia and
Persia. Persia was generally not
Christian, but there were Christian communities living under Persian rule. In Mesopotamia, there was a strong
Christian church.
Bell writes on page 24:
"Be we can safely say that by
the end of the third century there was a flourishing Church at Edessa and that
Christianity had already crossed the Tigris."
As has been already shown, the canon
used by the church offshoots in Mesopotamia and Persia was equivalent to what
the Syrian church used.
If Muhammad encountered the
Scriptures of the Persian churches, he would encounter what we basically have
today.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
SOUTH
OF MUHAMMAD
From "The Life of
Muhammad", pages 14 - 18 the story is told how Christianity began in
Najran. Najran is about 350 miles south
east of Mecca. The story describes how
a Christian preached in Najran, healed the sick, and performed miracles. The whole city converted to Christianity...
"The
people of Najran accepted the religion of Abdullah al Thamir according to the
Gospel and the law which Isa b. Maryam brought."
Later on, the story states that some
20,000 Najran Christians were killed by a king who wanted them to become Jews.
On pages 270, 271 of Ibn Ishaq,
Christians from Najran visit Muhammad.
Ibn Ishaq notes that they were affiliated with the Christians of
Byzantium:
"A
deputation from the Christians of Najran came to the apostle. There were sixty riders, fourteen of them
from their nobles of whom three were in control of affairs.....
Abu Haritha
occupied a position of honor among them and was a great student, so that he had
an excellent knowledge of their religion, and the Christian kings of Byzantium
had honored him and paid him a subsidy and gave him servants, built churches
for him and lavished honors on him, because of his knowledge and zeal for their
religion."......
The relevant point here is that
there was a Christian city in the Saudi peninsula south of Mecca and they were
affiliated with the Byzantines.
Certainly there would be cultural exchanges between the cities since
Mecca was a center of commerce and religions, and many people traveled to and
from there. The Byzantines were primarily
Greeks. Hence, it is logical to believe
that they used the Greek canon of Scripture.
That means they were using what we basically have today as our Bible.
If Muhammad were to encounter the
Najran Scriptures, or Byzantine Scriptures, he would basically encounter what
we have today.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
WEST
OF MUHAMMAD
To the West was Abbysinnia, now
known as Ethiopia. Ethiopia was a
Christian country during Muhammad's time.
During the early years of Muhammad's preaching, he sent his followers
there to avoid persecution from the Meccans.
As has been already shown - the Ethiopian church has a canon similar to
what we have today. They have added
additional letters that do not conflict with other parts of the New Testament.
Concerning Abyssinia, (Ethiopia),
Albert Hourani writes in "A History of the Arab Peoples", [18] page
10,
"One was Ethiopia, an ancient
kingdom with Christianity in its Coptic form as the official religion."
And Bell writes on page 32:
"Fell further connects this
with the Abyssinian legend of the nine saints by whom a revival of Christianity
was brought about, and sets the date about A.D. 480. In any case, the real Christianizing of Abyssinia belongs to
about this period."
If Muhammad were to encounter the
Scriptures of the Ethiopian church, he would encounter what we basically have
today.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
NORTHWEST
OF MUHAMMAD
To the Northwest was Palestine. By 600 A.D., Christianity was well
established there. No additional
comment is needed here.
If Muhammad were to encounter the
Scriptures of the Palestinian church, he would encounter what we basically have
today.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
CONCLUSION
Evidence has been presented that
establishes that the canon of the Scriptures was fixed well before Muhammad and
that the Scriptures that Muhammad encountered are the same as those existing
today. The differences between the
canons were that they had a different number of books, but the books they had
in common were the same. The
differences between canons does not affect the fundamental, primary, intrinsic,
teachings of the Bible. Muhammad
encountered the Bible and he believed it to be God's word.
====================================================================
MUHAMMAD
AND THE BIBLE - PART 3
MUSLIM
OBJECTIONS
A. QUESTIONABLE QURANIC VERSES
There are verses in the Quran that
relate questions to the Scriptures.
Muslims often quote them to prove corruption of the Bible. However, they do not state corruption. They all relate to how the Christians or
Jews misinterpreted or misrepresented the Scripture's meaning. Again, not one word of textual corruption of
those Scriptures is found. Here is a
review of those verses.
1)
Ali - 5:15
15. O People
of the Book! there has come to you Our Apostle revealing to you much that ye
used to hide in the Book and passing over much (that is now unnecessary): ...
Dawood -
5:15
People of
the Book! Our apostle has come to
reveal to you much of what you have hidden of the Scriptures,....
COMMENT
This verse shows that Muhammad
believed the People of the Book to have valid Scriptures. They were "hiding" portions of
truth. Being able to hide something
means you have it in your possession.
However, he stated the People of the Book were not teaching those truths
they possessed. Thus, Muhammad believed
their Scriptures were valid.
2)
Ali - 6:89 -
92
89. These
were the men to whom We gave the Book and authority and prophethood:
if these
(their descendants) reject them behold! We shall entrust their charge to a new
People who reject them not.
90. Those
were the (prophets) who received Allah's guidance: copy the guidance they received; Say: "No reward for this do
I ask of you: this is no less than a Message for the nations."
91. No just
estimate of Allah do they make when they say: "Nothing does Allah send
down to man (by way of revelation)":
Say: "Who then sent down the Book which Moses brought? a light and
guidance to man: but ye make it into (separate) sheets for show while ye
conceal much (of its contents): therein were ye taught that which ye knew not
neither ye nor your fathers." Say:
"Allah (sent it down)": then leave them to plunge in vain discourse
and trifling.
92. And this
is a Book which We have revealed bringing blessings and confirming (the revelations)
which came before it: that thou mayest warn the Mother of Cities and all around
her....
Dawood -
6:89 - 92
On those men
[previous prophets] We bestowed the Scriptures, wisdom, and prophethood. If these are denied by this generation, We
will entrust them to others who will not deny them. Those were the men whom God guided. Follow then their guidance and say: "I demand of you no recompense for this. It is but an admonition to all
mankind." They have no true notion
of God's glory, those that say:
"God has never revealed anything to a mortal." Say:
"Who, then, revealed the Scriptures which Moses brought down, a light
and a guide for mankind? You have
transcribed them on scraps of paper, declaring some and suppressing much,
though now you have been taught what neither your nor your fathers knew
before. Say: "God"! Then
leave them to amuse themselves with foolish chatter. This is a blessed Book which We have revealed, confirming what
came before it, that you may warn the mother city (Mecca) and those that dwell
around her...
COMMENT
Again Muhammad stated that the
people had the Scriptures, but that they "suppressed" much. Again, Muhammad said that his Quran
confirmed the previous Scriptures. Again,
this was not a statement of corruption, it was a statement of suppression of
existing truth in the Bible that they possessed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
3)
Ali - 3:78
78. There is
among them a section who distort the Book with their tongues; (as they read)
you would think it is a part of the Book but it is no part of the Book; and
they say "That is from Allah" but it is not from Allah: it is they
who tell a lie against Allah and (well) they know it!
Dawood -
3:78
And there
are some among them [the People of the Book] who twist their tongues when
quoting the Scriptures, so that you may think that what they say is from the
Scriptures, whereas it is not from the Scriptures. They say, "This is from God", whereas it is not from
God. They knowingly ascribe a falsehood
to God.
COMMENT
Again, Muhammad implicitly testified
to the integrity of the Scriptures in the above passage. What Muhammad criticized is people reading
the valid Scriptures, but deliberately mispronouncing the words (distorting the
word with their tongues). Since the
Arabs were mostly illiterate, they could not read the Scriptures, so the Jews
were free to mislead the Muslims or others as to what the real Word of God actually
said. Here, Muhammad admits those
Scriptures were God's Word, but he states that they were being presented
inaccurately.
4)
Ali - 5:12 -
13
12. Allah
did before time take a Covenant from the Children of Israel and We appointed
twelve captains among them and Allah said: "I am with you: if ye (but)
establish regular prayers practice regular charity believe in My apostles honor
and assist them and loan to Allah a beautiful loan verily I will wipe out from
you your evils and admit you to gardens with rivers flowing beneath; but if any
of you after this resists faith he has truly wandered from the path of
rectitude."
13. But
because of their breach of their Covenant We cursed them and made their hearts
grow hard: they change the words from their (right) places and forget a good
part of the Message that was sent them nor wilt thou cease to find them barring
a few ever bent on (new) deceits: but forgive them and overlook (their
misdeeds): for Allah loves those who are kind.
Dawood -
5:12-13
God made a
covenant with the Israelites and raised among them twelve chieftains. God said:
"I shall be with you. If
you attend to your prayers and render the alms levy; if you believe in My
apostles and assist them and give God a generous loan, I shall forgive you your
sins and admit you to gardens watered by running streams. But he that hereafter denies Me shall stray
from the right path." But because
they broke their covenant We laid on them Our curse and hardened their
hearts. They have tampered with words
out of their context and forgotten much of what they were enjoined. You will ever find them deceitful, except
for a few of them.....
COMMENT
Again
Muhammad testified to the integrity of the Scriptures. He insists that the Jews have tampered with
the "context" of the Scriptures. That means they were existing and had truth for someone to tamper
with and mis-interpret their contexts.
Note that it says they forgot what they were told, it doesn't say they
corrupted the texts.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
5)
Ali - 2:75-
79
75. Can you
(O you men of Faith) entertain the hope that they will believe in you? Seeing that a party of them heard the word
of Allah and perverted it knowingly after they understood it.
76. Behold!
when they meet the men of Faith they say: "We believe" but when they
meet each other in private they say: "Shall you tell them what Allah has
revealed to you that they may engage you in argument about it before your
Lord?" Do ye not understand (their
aim)?
77. Know
they not that Allah knows what they conceal and what they reveal?
78. And
there are among them illiterates who know not the Book but (see therein their
own) desires and they do nothing but conjecture.
79. Then woe
to those who write the Book with their own hands and then say: "This is from Allah" to traffic
with it for a miserable price! Woe to them for what their hands do write and
for the gain they make thereby.
Dawood -
2:75 - 79
Do you [the
Muslims] then hope that they [the people of the Book] will believe in you, when
some of them have already heard the Word of God and knowingly perverted it,
although they understood its meaning?
When they meet the faithful they declare: "We, too, are believers." But when alone they say to each other: "Must you preach to them what God has revealed to you? They will only dispute with you about it in
your Lord's presence. Have you no
sense?" There are illiterate men
among them who, ignorant of the Scriptures, know of nothing but wishful fancies and vague conjecture. Woe to those that write the scriptures with
their own hands and then declare:
"This is from God," in order to gain some paltry end. Woeful shall be their fate, because of what
their hands have written, because of that which they have gained!
COMMENT
Again Muhammad testifies to the
integrity of the actual Scriptures of the People of the Book. However, Muhammad condemns those that
fabricate scriptures to make money.
Note the distinction. Muhammad
does not declare that the already existing Scriptures of the people of the book
are corrupt; he condemns those that make up scriptures.
6)
Ali - 4:46,
47
46. Of the
Jews there are those who displace words from their (right) places and say:
"We hear and we disobey"; and "Hear what is not heard": and
"Ra`ina"; with a twist of their tongues and a slander to faith. If only they had said: "We hear and we
obey"; and "Do hear"; and "Do look at us": it would
have been better for them and more proper; but Allah has cursed them for their
unbelief; and but few of them will believe.
47. O ye
people of the Book! believe in what We have (now) revealed confirming what was
(already) with you ...
Dawood -
4:46, 47
Some Jews take words out of context
and say, "We hear, but disobey.
May you be bereft of hearing!
Raina! Thus distorting the phrase with their tongues and reviling the
true faith. But if they said: "We hear and obey: hear us and Unzurna", it would be
better and more proper for them. God
has cursed them in their unbelief. They
have no faith except a few of them. You
to whom the Scriptures were given!
Believe in that which We have revealed, confirming your own Scriptures
...
COMMENT
Once again, Muhammad confirms the
Scriptures of the Jews and Christians.
In this passage Muhammad criticizes some Jews for taking the truthful
Scripture out of context and mis-pronouncing it. There is no word here of corrupting the Scriptures.
SUMMARY
OF MUSLIM OBJECTIONS
Muslims today object to the Bible
because they know it contradicts the Quran.
However, the Quran teaches that the Bible is God's word. Muslims base their objections upon
misinterpreted Quranic verses, or differences in the Greek manuscripts. However, the differences are minor and do
not affect fundamental Christian doctrine.
If a Muslim were to truly believe
the Quran, he would logically come to the realization that it is a false book
because it testified to the truthfulness of contradictory books.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
B. EARLY MUSLIMS DID NOT CHARGE CORRUPTION
John Gilchrist writes in "The
Christian Witness to the Muslim", page 301, "Even the Muslim
polemicist Ali Tabari wrote a semi-official defense of Islam against the Jews
and the Christians while he was at Baghdad during the reign of the Abbasid
Caliph Mutawakkil (AD 847-861). He at
no time charged them with corrupting their scriptures. Instead he says that the first religious
book in history to name "and the first one which came into existence, is
the Torah, which is in the hands of the People of the Book" (Tabari, The
Book of Religion and Empire, p. 51). He
goes on to say "As to the Gospel which is in the hands of the Christians,
the greater part of it is the history of the Christ, His birth and His
life" (op. cit.). Thus he openly
acknowledged that the authentic Torah and Gospel remained in the hands of the
Jews and the Christians and, in going on to speak of their contents, he
outlined the contents of the Old and New Testaments respectively. His only charge against them was that they
did not always understand or accept the true meaning of their teachings and
often appealed to the Old and New Testaments to make his point."
Gilchrist on
page 302 writes:
"Al-Ghazali, (d. 1111), wrote a
treatise on the Trinity in which he quoted many passages from the Bible,
without ever questioning the trustworthiness of the text. (Chapman, You Go and
Do the Same, p. 53). Speaking of a
leading French scholar's essay on the works of Al-Ghazzali in his annotated
bibliography, Wismer says: "Massignon points out that Al-Ghazali did not
accuse the Christians of altering their texts, but rather of misinterpreting
them" (The Islamic Jesus, p. 165).
By his time some commentators, such as the radical Ibn Hasm, had begun
to argue against the authenticity of the Bible but when Al-Ghazzali himself
endeavored to prove Islam against the two former religions, he never questioned
the genuineness of their respective Scriptures."
Gilchrist
continues on pages 302, 303:
"Even as late as the sixth
century after Muhammad leading commentators still
accepted the
integrity of the Old and New Testaments on the basis of the Qur'an's teaching
about the former Scriptures. Fakhruddin Razi, who died in AD 1209,
"besides affirming categorically that the Biblical text has not been
changed, says that the narratives of the Koran concerning Biblical events are
in perfect harmony with those of the Bible" (Ananikian, "Tahrif or
the Alteration of the Bible According to the Moslems", The Muslim World,
Vol. 14, p. 77).
About a
century ago a leading maulana in India, Moulvie Safdar Ali, became a Christian
and wrote a series of letters to his Muslim relatives explaining why he had
abandoned Islam and become a Christian.
These letters were later published in a volume titled Niaz Namah and in
them he gave attention to the claims of his contemporaries that the Bible has
been corrupted and changed.
He based his argument upon the Qur'an, showing (1)
That the Qur'an declares the Jewish and Christian Scriptures to be the
Word of God and "a Guide to Believers"; (2) Muslims are obliged
to confess their faith in all the Books of the Former Scriptures; (3)
These books were extant in Muhammad's time; (4) The Qur'an nowhere
says these Scriptures were corrupted;
(5) Passages are quoted in proof
from the Qur'an and the Traditions.
(Wherry, The Muslim Controversy, p. 96)"
END OF
GILCHRIST QUOTE
THE
TESTIMONY OF OTHER MUSLIM SCHOLARS
Muhammad
'Abduh (Egypt)
Another example of a Muslim who
agrees that the Bible is not corrupted is the Egyptian scholar, Muhammad
'Abduh. In regards to alleged biblical corruption, he notes that the
"charge of corruption of the Biblical texts makes no sense at all. It
would not have been possible for Jews and Christians everywhere to agree on
changing the text. Even if those in Arabia had done it, the difference between
their book and those. (Jacques Jomier, "Jesus, The Life of the
Messiah", page 216, [19])
----------------------------------------------------------------------
C. THEN WHY THE MUSLIM CHARGE OF CORRUPTION
TODAY?
The Muslims of those early days were
only following the Qur'an which testifies to the authenticity of the
Bible. It only accuses the Jews on a
few occasions of distorting the meaning of words and of concealing truths
contained in their Scripture. It was
much later that Muslim writers claimed that the Qur'an teaches that the Bible
itself has been corrupted.
As Muslims learned more about the
true teachings of the Bible, they realized that both the Quran and the New
Testament cannot be true. One had to be
wrong. The differences were concrete
they couldn't be passed off as mere "misunderstanding" or
"misinterpreting". They also
believed that Jesus spoke the Gospel.
Their dilemma was how can both be true -- indeed both be the Word of God
-- if they completely contradict each other on many fundamental doctrines. They were in a dilemma. Consequently, they choose to attack the
integrity of today's Bible. It was easy
for these so-called Muslim "scholars" to fool their fellow
Muslims. Most Muslims are ignorant of
the Bible, and they don't bother to analyze exactly what their Quran teaches. Instead of addressing exactly what the Quran
teaches, they borrow from the work of others who have attacked the Bible's
credibility and focus on bible criticisms.
Gerhard
Nehls wrote in "Dear Abdallah", [20] page 9:
"The Bible being corrupt was
first promoted by Ibn Khazem (d. 1064 A.D.) as a means of avoiding the obvious
contradictions between the Bible and the Quran. Believing that the Quran could not possibly have been corrupted,
he then assumed that it was the Bible that underwent textual modifications.
This, he felt, must have been the case."
None the less, a quick study of the
Quran shows that the Quran totally supports the integrity of the Scriptures of
the People of the Book. These
Scriptures are knows today as the Bible.
I have asked several Muslims why they refuse to accept the testimony of
the Quran to the Bible. All of their
answer's reasons have been based on Quranic misinterpretations or quotes from
non-Islamic sources. When confronted
with what the Quran explicitly teaches on the Bible, they are unable to answer.
You do not need to be a scholar to
understand what the Quran plainly and amply states: The Scriptures of the People of the Book are the Word of God.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
D. MUSLIM OBJECTIONS & MISCONCEPTIONS
ABOUT THE QURAN AND THE SCRIPTURES OF THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
Many Muslims today have a number of
misunderstandings of what the Quran teaches, and of the Bible's history. I want to address some of the most common
misconceptions or misunderstandings.
Muslim
misconception #1
"The
Quran confirms the Torah of Moses and the Gospel given to Jesus. It never mentions "plural" Gospels
or the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament)".
Response:
The Quran
affirms the Torah that was available at the time of Muhammad, and the Gospel in
usage at that time:
Proof from
the Quran, Sura 7:156-157:
"And I will write down (my
mercy) for those who are righteous and give alms and who believe in our signs;
who follow the apostle, the unlettered prophet, whom they find written in the
Torah and the Gospel THAT IS WITH THEM.
Remark:
This verse states that there is a
prophecy of Muhammad to be found in the Gospel [singular] available during that
time. This destroys the Muslim
contention that the Quran mentions the Gospel given to Jesus, not the gospels
written about him, since the only Gospel in usage at the time of Muhammad were
the same four-fold Gospel accounts contained within our modern-day New
Testaments. Note here that Muhammad
refers to the Book that the Christians had as the "GOSPEL".
Additionally the Gospel of Jesus is
not a book, but the Good News that God sent His Son into the world to atone for
sin and make reconciliation between God and man. Hence, Jesus is the living Gospel sent to the world. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are not four
different gospels, but four different accounts of the one Gospel of God
revealed in the person of Christ. The
New Testament authors, writing under inspiration, give mutually complementary,
not contradictory, material on the life and passion of Christ. This multiple attestation serves the purpose
of fulfilling the requirement of the Mosaic Law that, "by the mouth of two
or three witnesses the matter shall be established." Deuteronomy 19:15
In fact, Muslims believe that God
personally states to Muhammad in 32:23 that he should have no doubt that the
Torah of his time is the very same Torah of Moses. This is solidified by the fact that we have copies of these books
that are both prior to and contemporary with the time of Muhammad, and are
basically identical to what we have today.
Muslim
misconception #2.
"The Quran never alludes to the
Bible, only the revelation originally given to the Prophets, i.e. Moses, David,
Jesus, etc."
Response:
This is another unsubstantiated
assumption. It is presumed that since
the word "Bible" does not appear in the Quran, then what the Judeo -
Christian communities commonly refer to as God's Word is not acceptable to the
Muslims. Yet, if one were to trace the
word Bible back to the Greek, one would discover that the word itself comes
from the term biblia, meaning "books." Hence, in time the collection became classified as the Book due
to the fact that although the Bible consisted of 66 individual writings, the
author was one, the Holy Spirit, having one unifying theme: the advent of God's
Messiah-Deliverer. Not surprisingly, we
find the Quran mentioning the Book (Arabic- al-Kitab) of the Jews and Christians:
Proof from
the Quran - Sura 2:113:
"The Jews say, `The Christians
are not (founded) upon anything.' And the Christians say, `The Jews are not
(founded) upon anything.' And yet THEY READ THE BOOK."
Sura 3:79:
"It is not for a man to whom is
given the Book and wisdom and prophecy that
he should
then say to people, `Be worshippers of me in place of God.' But rather, `Be
true teachers (rabbįnķyķn), since you TEACH the BOOK and you STUDY IT
EARNESTLY."
A Muslim translator of the Quran
into English - Muhammad Asad, understood the phrase "Kitab" to be the
Arabic equivalent of "Bible" and translated the Arabic to mean as
such:
"...
And so We have cast enmity and hatred among the followers of the
Bible..." S. 5:64 (Asad, The
Message of the Qur'an [21], [Dar Al-Andaulus, Gibraltar, rpt. 1994], p. 157)
"If the
followers of the Bible would but attain to [true] faith and God-consciousness,
we should indeed efface their [previous] bad deeds, and indeed bring them into
gardens of bliss;" S. 5:65 (Ibid.)
Therefore the Quran identifies the
existence of an uncorrupted Book which both Jews and Christians study. The only Book in the hands of the Judeo -
Christian community at the time was the Bible as it generally exists today. And the Arabic term used for the Bible is
the very same used in the Quran, al-Kitab al-Muqaddas, the Holy Book. Hence, the Kitab referred to in the Quran is
the very Kitab used by Arab Christians during and after the time of Muhammad.
Second, from the perspective of
Christianity, the term from which the word "Bible" is derived is
found in scripture. The term Bible
stems from the Greek term "biblia" (books). The earliest extra
-biblical usage of the term is found in 2 Clement 14:2 (A.D. 150): "... the books (ta biblia) and the
apostles declare that the church ... has existed from the beginning." "Biblia" is the plural form of the
Greek "biblion", which is itself a diminutive of "biblos".
Third, these terms are used in
Scripture as designations for inspired writings:
"And truly Jesus did many other
signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book (en
to biblio touto)." John 20:30
"For it is written in the Book
(biblo) of Psalms..." Acts 1:20
"Then God turned and gave them
up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets
(en biblo ton propheton)..." Acts 7:42
"For as many as are of the
works of the law are under curse; for it is written, `Cursed is everyone who
does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law (en to
biblio tou nomou), to do them" Galatians 3:10
"For I testify to everyone who
hears the words of the prophecy of this book (tes propheteias tou bibliou): If
anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written
in this book (en tou biblio); and if anyone takes away words of the book of
this prophecy (tou bibliou tes propheteias), God shall take away his part from
the Tree of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in
this book (en to biblio touto)." Rev. 22:18-19
These verses indicate that the terms
from which the word "Bible" is derived is found within sacred
Christian Scripture itself. Hence, the
word used for the Judeo - Christian Scripture is not something that was
arbitrarily decided upon, but something derived from the inspired record.
=====================================================================
MUHAMMAD
AND THE BIBLE - PART 4
MUSLIM
MISCONCEPTIONS CONTINUED
Muslim
misconception #3.
"The
Quran is sent down as the Criterion (al-Furqan) and a guardian over previous
Scripture (muhaiminan `alaihi), indicating that its function is to expose the
corruption of the former text."
Response:
The term, al-Furqan, is used in a
variety of ways. For example it is used
for the revelation given to Moses:
Proof from
the Quran:
Sura 2:53:
"And
remember We gave Moses the Scripture and the Criterion (between right and
wrong): there was a chance for you to be guided aright."
Sura 21:48:
"In the
past We granted to Moses and Aaron the Criterion (for judgment) and a light and
a Message for those who would do right..."
Remark:
This is a strong indication that the
term Criterion does not suggest that a scripture called by this term corrects
and exposes corruption to previous revelation, since there were no scriptures
prior to the one given to Moses. The
term Furqan also appears in Suras 2:185; 8:29,41 and 25:1: "The month of Ramadan is that in which
the Quran was revealed a guidance to men and clear proofs of the guidance and
the Criterion (Furqan)..." 2:185
AND
The Quran is stated to be the clear
proof of the guidance and of the Furqan, implying that the Furqan is something
other than the Quran; at least in this reference.
Proof from
the Quran:
Sura 8:29
"O you who believe, if you keep
your duty to Allah, He will grant you a distinction (Furqan) and do away with
your evils and protect you. And Allah is the Lord of mighty grace."
Remark
This passage promises Muslims that
if they believe and keep duty, Allah would grant them a Furqan. This could not be the Quran since it was
already being given piecemeal to the community through their prophet
Muhammad. "And know that whatever
you acquire in war, a fifth of it is for Allah and for the Messenger and for
the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer, if you believe
in Allah and in that which We revealed to Our servant, on the day of
Discrimination (Furqan), the day on which the two parties met..."
This verse was revealed in connection
to the battle of Badr, where the Muslims met the other party in war on the day
of Furqan. Based on the context itself,
Furqan can only mean victory, i.e. that Allah granted the Muslims victory over
the much larger opposition. This
suggests that the term can and often does mean more than simply a criterion
used in relation to judging right and wrong.
In fact, the term is used to refer to things other than the Quran, and
is therefore not something unique to Islam.
AND
The term Furqan is used as a general
term to describe as a
"discrimination" or warning to all nations.
Proof from
the Quran:
Sura 25:1
"Blessed
is He Who sent down the Discrimination (Furqan) upon His servant that
he might be
a warner to the nations."
Remark:
The revelation that Muhammad
received is the Furqan that is to be used to warn the nations. Yet, in Sura 3:3 all the books of God were
sent as a Furqan: "He has revealed
to thee the Book with truth, confirming that which is before it, and He
revealed the Torah and the Gospel aforetime, a guidance for the people, and He
sent the Criterion (al-Furqan)..."
This passage makes it clear that the Furqan cannot be referring to the
Quran alone, since the two are seen as being distinct. It is precisely this distinction which has
led Muslims scholars to differ on the identity of the Furqan itself, whether it
is the Quran or all the revealed books of God:
OTHER
COMMENTS ON THE WORD "FURQAN".
Muslim scholar Mahmoud M. Ayoub
writes: "The issue that has concerned
commentators in connection with this verse is the mention of the Furqan
(criterion) after that of the Quran and the Torah and the Gospel. The word Furqan is generally used as one of
the names of the Quran... Since the
Quran is mentioned in the previous verse as a revelation preceded by the Torah
and the Gospel, what is the wisdom in mentioning it again? Commentators have offered various answers to
this problem." [Ayoub, The Quran and Its Interpreters, vol. II - The House
of Imran; [22] Albany, N.Y.; State University of New York Press, 1992, p.15]
Some commentators, like
al-Zamakhshari, believe it to be the entire collection of revealed books, or
quite possibly the Psalms of David or the Quran itself: "If you ask what is here intended by
the word Furqan, I answer, It is the entire genre of heavenly books because
they are all a Criterion (Furqan) distinguishing truth from falsehood. It may also mean all the Scriptures
mentioned here. It is as though God
said after mentioning the three Scriptures, `and He sent down that by means of
which truth may be distinguished from error,' meaning either all His
Scriptures, or these three Books in particular. It may also be that God here intended a Fourth Scripture, which
is the Psalms (Zabur), as He says, `and We gave David the Psalms' (Q.
17:55). It may also be that God here
repeated mention of the Quran, denoting its special characteristic of being a
criterion distinguishing between truth and error. This He did after mentioning it by its generic name, by way of
emphasizing its greatness and manifesting its special excellence." [Ibid.,
p.16]
The view that Furqan refers to all
three Scriptures is, according to Razi, "the view of most tafsir
masters," since they "are not only a source of divine guidance, they
are also divine criteria distinguishing between lawful and unlawful acts and
precepts in addition to other sacred laws." [Ibid., p.17]
COMMENTS ON
THE TERM "MUHAIMINAN 'ALAIHI"
It is presumed by Muslims
criticizing the Bible that the Arabic phrase, "guarding it in
safety", refers to the Quran's role as a quality control agent, affirming
that which remains intact and exposing any tampering to the biblical text. However, when the verse is read in
conjunction with the previous passages and within the verse itself, the Quran
is seen as protecting and guarding uncorrupted scriptures; it says absolutely
nothing about exposing textual corruption whatsoever. (cf. Sura 5:43-47,68 -
Ali). In fact, the Quran came as an
Arabic verification of the Bible to the Arabs who were ignorant of the contents
of the Judeo - Christian Scripture:
Sura 35:31:
"That
which We have revealed to you of the Book is the truth, attesting to (the truth
of) that which IS between his (its) hands (the Torah and Gospel)..."
Sura 10:37:
"This
Quran is not such as can be produced by other than God; but it is a
verification of that (the Torah and Gospel) which IS between his (its) hands,
and the explanation of the Book, WHEREIN THERE IS NO DOUBT, from the Lord of
the worlds."
In the preceding passages the Quran
is sent as a confirmation of the Book "in which there is no
doubt." Not once do these verses
state that the Book at the time of Muhammad had been corrupted and needed to be
corrected in any way.
Furthermore, it is the Quran, not
the Bible, that needs to be viewed in light of
previous
Scripture for verification purposes:
Sura 10:94
"And if thou (Muhammad) art in
doubt concerning that which We reveal unto thee, then question those who read
the Scripture (that was) before thee.
Verily the Truth from thy Lord hath come unto thee. So be not thou of the waverers."
Finally, the Quran itself states
that God would make sure that the Bible would be protected from corruption:
"We have, without doubt sent
down THE MESSAGE (Zhikra); And We will assuredly guard it (from
corruption)." [S. 15:9 - Y. Ali]
That this includes the Holy Bible is
made clear in the following citations:
"And before thee We sent none but men, to whom We granted
inspiration: If ye realize this not, ask of those who possess THE MESSAGE
(Zhikri)." [S. 16:43 - Y. Ali]
Muslim
misconception #4.
"The
Torah mentioned in the Quran is not what is known as the "Old
Testament" today.
In context, the word
"Torah" used in Islam refers to the canon of Jewish Scripture. In
both the Holy Bible and the Hadith the word is used in a generic sense to refer
to the Old Testament as a whole.
Proof from
the Hadith of Bukhari 3.335 and the Quran:
Narrated Ata
bin Yasar:
I met Abdullah
bin 'Amr bin Al-'As and asked him, "Tell me about the description of
Allah's Apostle which is mentioned in Torah (i.e. Old Testament.") He
replied, 'Yes. By Allah, he is described in Torah with some of the qualities
attributed to him in the Quran as follows:
"O
Prophet ! We have sent you as a witness (for Allah's True religion) And a giver
of glad tidings (to the faithful believers), And a warner (to the unbelievers)
And guardian of the illiterates. You are My slave and My messenger (i.e.
Apostle). I have named you "Al-Mutawakkil" (who depends upon Allah).
You are neither discourteous, harsh Nor a noisemaker in the markets And you do
not do evil to those Who do evil to you, but you deal With them with
forgiveness and kindness. Allah will not let him (the Prophet) Die till he
makes straight the crooked people by making them say: "None has the right
to be worshipped but Allah," With which will be opened blind eyes And deaf
ears and enveloped
hearts."
The following is from the Torah-Old
Testament, Isaiah 42:1-3,6-7. "You are my servant and my messenger; I have
called you the one who trusts, not harsh or rough, nor loud-voiced in the
streets. He will not repulse evil with evil, but will pardon and forgive, and
God will not take him till He uses him to straighten the crooked creed so that
people may say there is no god but God, and he opens thereby blind eyes, deaf
ears and hardened hearts."
You will not find a single reference
in the Torah of Moses matching the above citation. This proves that at least in this Hadith the word
"Torah" referred to more than the first five books of Moses.
AND FROM THE
NEW TESTAMENT
"Jesus answered them `Has it
not been written in your LAW, I said you are gods?'" John 10:34. Jesus includes Psalm 82:6 as part of the Law
(i.e. Torah). "The crowd spoke up,
`We have heard from the LAW that the Christ will remain forever, so how can you
say, "The Son of Man must be lifted up?" Who is this Son of Man?'" John 12:34
There is no reference in the books
of Moses that indicates Christ will remain forever. The only places you'll find such statements are Psalm 110:1,4 and
Daniel 7:13-14. Hence, the Jews used the term "Law" (Torah) as a
reference for the whole of the Hebrew Bible.
"But this is to fulfill what is
written in their LAW: `They hated me
without reason.'" John 15:25 Jesus
alludes to Psalms 35:19 and 69:4 as part of the Law. In Romans 3:10-19 Paul alludes to Psalms 5:9, 10:7, 36:1, 14:1-3,
51:4, 53:1-3, 59:7-8, 140:3 and Ecclesiastes 7:20 as "the Law". "In the LAW it is written: `Through men of strange tongues and through
the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not
listen to me,' says the Lord." 1 Corinthians 14:21. Paul includes Isaiah 28:11-12 as part of the
Law. This should sufficiently
demonstrate that the term Torah or Law came to be used in a broader sense
referring to the entire Hebrew Bible.
This is precisely what we find in the Hadith as well.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Muslim
misconception #5:
The
"Injil" mentioned in the Quran is not the "Gospels" found
in today's New Testament.
Remark
By the start of the second century
the term "Gospel" was used by the early church to refer to the
fourfold Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Noted scholar, F. F. Bruce explains:
"At a very early date it
appears that the four Gospels were united in one collection. They must have been brought together very
soon after the writing of the Gospel according to John. This fourfold collection was known
originally as `The Gospel' singular, not `The Gospels' in the plural; there was
only one Gospel, narrated in four records, distinguished as `according to Matthew',
`according to Mark', and so on. About
A.D. 115 Ignatius, bishop, of Antioch, refers to `The Gospel' as an
authoritative writing, and as he knew more than one of the four `Gospels' it
may well be that by `The Gospel' sans phrase he means the fourfold collection
which went by that name." (Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They
Reliable? [23] page 23).
Bruce goes on to cite another church
father:
"By the time of Irenaeus, who,
though, a native of Asia Minor, was bishop of
Lyons in
Gaul about A.D. 180, the idea of a fourfold Gospel had become so axiomatic in
the Church at large that he can refer to it as an established and recognized
fact as obvious as the four cardinal points or the four winds: `For as there are four quarters of the world
in which we live, and four universal winds, and as the Church is dispersed over
all the earth, and the gospel is the pillar and base of the Church and the
breath of life, so it is natural that it should have four pillars, breathing
immortality from every quarter and kindling the life of men anew. Whence it is manifest that the Word, the
architect of all things, who sits upon the cherubim and holds all things
together, having been made manifested to men, have given us the gospel in
fourfold form, but held together by one Spirit.'" (Ibid., p. 24)
Therefore, to a Christian living
before or during the time of Muhammad the term `Gospel' meant the fourfold
collection found in our present day Bibles.
Muslim
misconception #6
"There
are many different Bibles, so how can you say yours is the Word of God?"
Response:
There are different Bibles, that are
made up of a different canon of Biblical books.
For example,
there are bibles for the Protestant Church, Roman Catholic Church, Anglican
Church, Greek Orthodox Church, Coptic Church, Ethiopic Church, and Syriac
Church. They contain different number
of books.
However, the books that they differ
on do not include anything that would change any of the doctrines of
Christianity. Whether one accepts the
22 books of the Syriac Church or the 27 of the Protestant and Catholic canon,
one still would get orthodoxy.
For instance, examining the contents
of the 7 different canons would leave one with the following teachings:
The Deity of
Jesus Christ.
The
Incarnation.
The Triunity
of God.
The Divine
Personality of the Holy Spirit.
The Virgin
Birth.
Christ's
Vicarious Atonement.
Christ's
Physical, Bodily Resurrection.
Christ's
Ascension to Heaven.
Christ's
Visible Return to Judge the Living and the Dead.
Justification
by Faith.
Salvation
through Grace.
The list can
go on. Hence, no matter what canon one holds the teaching is the same.
Finally, this point is not the
canon. The point is that our present day Bible accurately reflects the
originals and the Quran agrees that the Holy Bible has remained uncorrupt.
Two variations of this Muslim
objection rests upon early Christian works known as the Diatessaron and
Peshitta. The Diatessaron was basically
a synthesis of the four Gospels. As was
already stated, the fact the Diatessaron used the four Gospels as its primary
source affirms the early and universal acceptance of the canonical Gospels by
friend and foe alike. Also the fact
that orthodox believers used it affirms that it was orthodox in content.
The Peshitta was a Syrian Church
canon. It contained most of the books
our New Testament contains today. The Peshitta represents for the New Testament
an accommodation of the canon of the Syrians with that of the Greeks. Third
Corinthians was rejected, and, in addition to the fourteen Pauline Epistles
including Hebrews, three longer Catholic Epistles - James, 1 Peter, and 1 John,
were included. The four shorter Epistles 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Jude and
Revelations are absent from the Peshitta Syriac version. Thus the Syriac canon of the New Testament
contained but twenty-two writings. For a large part of the Syrian Church this
constituted the closing of the canon, for after the Council of Ephesus (AD 431)
the East Syrians separated themselves as Nestorians from the Great Church.
Even with the differences in the
Peshitta canon, we still have Orthodox Christianity.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Muslim
misconception #7
"There are so many variants in
the Greek manuscripts, how can we know what was really written?"
Response:
There are nearly 25,000 whole or
fragmentary copies of the individual books of the Bible in our possession
today, with some dating back four, six, and even eight centuries before the
compilation of the Quran. Due to the fact that everything was hand-copied,
thousands of variants arose. Yet, textual critics, who are not necessarily
Christians, have carefully examined these variants and have concluded that we
have 98.33% of the original reading, with the 1.67% still remaining intact
within the variants. Hence, we have virtually 100% of the original reading
faithfully preserved via the manuscript copies. Further, the critics have also
established the fact that none of these variants affect any major doctrine,
since most of them are nothing more than misspellings, numerical discrepancies,
and scribal notes which were assumed to be part of the text by later scribes.
An example
of a variant is given here for further clarification:
Y*u hav won
a million llars
Yo ave w*n
mill dollars
You have won
a * dollars
You *
million dollars
A careful examination of these
variants would lead us to the conclusion that the original document read,
"You have won a million dollars." This exemplifies the majority of
the variants found in the Bible, and clearly demonstrates that these in no way
affect any tenet of faith whatsoever.
The Quran itself bears witness to the fact that the Bible we have today
is the uncorrupted Word of God.
Here is a quote from Bruce Metzger, the
foremost scholar on the Greek manuscripts.
When asked "In terms of the multiplicity of manuscripts and the
time gap between the originals and our first copies how does the New Testament
stack up against other well known works of antiquity?"
Metzger
replied:
"Extremely well, we can have
great confidence in the fidelity with which this material has come down to us,
especially compared with any other ancient literary work."...."The
last foundation for ant doubt that the scriptures have come down to us
substantially as they were written has now been removed." [Quoted from "The Case for
Christ", by Lee Strobel, pages 81, 82.]
When Metzger was asked "How
many doctrines of the church are in jeopardy because of variants", he
replied,
"None".
Muslim
misconception #8
"The Quran abrogates the
Bible"
Some Muslims understand and
acknowledge that the Quran testifies to the integrity of the Bible. Consequently, they have to find a way to
justify their rejection of Biblical teachings and still maintain a valid
Quran. Thus, they proclaim that the
Quran "abrogates" or cancels, the Biblical writings. These Muslims quote Sura 2:106 as proof.
Dawood 2:106
"If We
abrogate a verse or cause it to be forgotten, We will replace it by a better
one, or one similar."
However, if there is abrogation it
clearly has its limits, for just five verses after 2:106 the Qur'an asks
Christians and Jews to `bring your proof' (2:111) from their Scriptures. This would be an irrelevant and
contradictory command if it had just taught that their Scripture was
abrogated. In fact, just thirty verses
after 2:106 the Qur'an says that it makes `no distinction between' (2:136)
itself and any of the former Scripture.
The Hadith of Bukhari, volume 6, #
489, says that 2:106 refers to abrogation within the Qur'an itself:
Narrated Ibn Abbas: Umar said,
"Ubai was the best of us in the recitation (of the Qur'an) yet we leave
(out) some of what he recites". Ubai says, "I have taken it from the
mouth of Allah's Apostle and will not leave for anything whatever". But
Allah said: "None of our revelations do we abrogate or cause to be
forgotten but We substitute something better or similar" (Qur'an 2:106). (Bukhari: vol. 6, Hadith
527, p. 489; book LXI)
Therefore, the Quran abrogates
itself. It does not abrogate the Bible.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
E. CONCLUSION
The objections Muslim often raise
have been addressed. Many of these
objections rest more upon their recognition that the Quran contradicts the
Bible, than upon what the Quran actually teaches about the authenticity of the
Bible.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY
Muhammad believed the Scriptures of
the People of the Book, to be God's word.
His words recorded in the Quran testify to this. Those Scriptures existed in the hands of the
Christians and Jews in the Hijaz before and during Muhammad's life. Thus, the Quran clearly teaches that the
Bible is the Word of God. Since
Muhammad testified to the integrity, validity, and authenticity of the Bible, I
conclude that Muhammad was not a prophet of God. Muhammad's teachings are self-contradictory. God did not reveal or inspire those blatant
contradictions found in the Quran.
Muhammad's ignorance allowed him to make contradictory statements. However, his ignorance is no excuse, no
justification, no ground, for people today to continue to follow his error.
Jesus taught that false prophets
would come into the world and mislead people:
Matthew 24:11 "and many
false prophets will appear and deceive many people"
Muhammad was one of those false
prophets and he has misled many.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] "The Life of Muhammad", by A.
Guillaume, published by Oxford, London, page 268, a compilation of the
"Sirat Rasulallah" by Ibn Ishaq (d.782 A. D.).
[2] "The Koran", translated by N. J.
Dawood, published by Penguin, London.
[3] "The Holy Qur'an", translated by
Yusef Ali, published by Amana, Beltsville, Maryland, USA.
[4] "The Koran", translated by A. J.
Arberry, published by Oxford, London.
[5] "Sahih al-Bukhari", translated by
M. Khan, published by Kitab Bhavan, New Delhi, India.
[6] "Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir", (Book
of the Major Classes), by Ibn Sa'd (d. 852 A. D.)
[7] "The Quran and the Bible in the Light
of Science and History, by Dr. William Campbell, published by MER. http://answering-islam.org/Campbell/
[8] Articles by Sam Shamoun can be found at:
http://answering-islam.org/Shamoun/aboutbible.htm
[9] "The Christian Witness to the
Muslim", by John Gilchrist, published by "Jesus to the Muslims".
[10] "The Canon of Scripture", by F. F.
Bruce, published by Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois.
[11] "The Canon of the New Testament, its
Origin, Development, and Significance", by Dr. Bruce Metzger, published by
Clarendon.
[12] "Interpreters Dictionary of the
Bible", published by Abingdon.
[13] "The Origin of Islam in its Christian
Environment", by Richard Bell, published by Frank Cass & Co LTD,
London.
[14] "Makers of Arab History", by P.
Hitti, published by St. Martin's Press, NY.
[15] "Tarīkh al-'Arab al-Qadīm", by
Nabīh Aqel, published by Dār al-Fikr, Beirut.
[16] "Christianity Among the Arabs in
Pre-Islamic Times", by J. S. Trimingham, published by Longman Group
Limited, London.
[17] "The Arabs in History", by Bernard
Lewis, published by Harper and Row, NY.
[18] "A History of the Arab Peoples",
by Albert Hourani, published by
[19] "Jesus, The Life of the Messiah",
by Jacques Jomier, published by C.L.S.,
Madras.
[20] "Dear Abdallah", by Gerhard
Nehls, published by Life Challenge [Africa, SIM International].
[21] "The Message of the Quran", by M.
Asad, published by Dar Al-Andaulus, Gibraltar,
[22] "The Quran and Its Interpreters"
by M. Ayoub, vol. II - The House of Imran; [22] published by Albany, N.Y.;
State University of New York Press, 1992.
[23] "The New Testament Documents: Are They
Reliable?", by F. F. Bruce, published by Intervarsity Press; Downers Grove
Il., rpt. 1992.
bible.htm
Rev A: 3/18/2000
Articles by Silas
Answering Islam Home Page