Does the Quraan mention the Bible?
The Quraan speaks in numerous places of the Taurat (Law of Moses) and the Injil(Gospel of Jesus). For example in Surat al-Maida 5.68:
Say: “O People of the Book! You have no ground to stand upon unless you stand firm by the Taurat, the Injil and all the revelation that has come to you from your LORD.”
Christians refer to the Taurat and Injil as the Old and New Testaments, the two parts that make up the Bible.
Where does the Bible come from?
According to Surat al-Imran 3:2-4 both the Taurat and Injil have their origin with Allah:
Allah! There is no God but He … He sent down the Taurat and
the Injil … as a guide to mankind.
Have these books been changed or corrupted?
The Quraan states quite categorically that the word of Allah cannot be changed:
There is none that can change the words of Allah. (Surat al-An’naam 6.34)
Furthermore Surat an-Nisaa 4.136 states:
O you who believe! Believe in Allah, and His Messenger … and the scripture which He sent to those before him. Any who denies Allah, His angels, His books [note “books” in the plural] … hath gone far, far astray.
If then, the Taurat and Injil contain the words of Allah, as stated in Surah 3.3, then it is a blasphemy on the part of Muslims to claim that the Bible is a changed or corrupted version of these words.
Muslim scholars try to avoid the inference of blasphemy by claiming that the “original” Taurat and Injil still exist somewhere on earth in their uncorrupted form, but that these books have been “lost”. It is difficult to accept that Allah could be so determined to protect his word against alteration, and then permit them to suffer a much greater indignity, namely that they should be lost altogether.
At the same time, the loss of these books would make it impossible for Muslims to obey the instructions of Surah 4.136 – namely, to believe in “the scripture which He sent to those before” – for what is there to believe in if these scriptures have been lost? Surely it is the content of these books – and not a mere knowledge of their existence – that would prevent Muslims from going far, far astray.
What is meant by a confirmation?
The Quraan is … a confirmation of what went before it
(Surat Yunus 10:37).
The Arabic word تصديق contained in Surah 10.37 is translated into English as “confirm”. This word means “to secure or establish more firmly something which has already been stated or done”.
A confirmation does not need to repeat all the earlier details. For example, an airline ticket can be confirmed with a reference number, since the reservation already contains all the necessary information. If the Quraan is intended (by virtue of Surah 6.92 and 10.37) “to confirm the revelations that came before it”, then the Bible is of very great importance to Muslims, since it contains an earlier and more complete rendition of the message that the Quraan is intended to affirm.
This is immediately evident from the fact that the story of Abraham fills 400 verses of the Bible (see Genesis 12-23), whereas the 100 or so verses of the Quraan dealing with Abraham contains less than one tenth of the information found about him in the Bible.
It is further evident from the fact that the Quraan speaks about concepts such as “al masih” (the Messiah) and “korban” (sacrifice) which the Quraan itself does not explain, and which can only be understood with reference to the Bible.
Every Muslim should therefore read and carefully consider the teachings of the Bible. Why not start with the history of Abraham (Genesis 12-23) or Moses (Exodus 1-40) or Jesus (Luke 1- 24)?