Bible in Islam

8/8/2019 Bible in Islam

1/39

THEBIBLE IN

BEING

,ISLAM

A Study of the Place and Value of the Bible in Islam

IlY ' rHE

REV. WILLIAM GOLDSACKAUTHOR OP THE Qua'AN (N ISL,UI . 'CKR18T JH ISLAM'.

'THE 'l'RADITIONS IN ISL""M', GOD IN IS LAM I, MUHAMMAD IN IJLM.t '.

THE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETYFOR INDIA

MADRAS, ALLAHABAD, CALCtJTTA, RANGOON, COLOMBO.1922


2/39

CHAPTBR

CONTENTSPAGE

1. MUHAMMAU'S KNOWLllUGE 01 ' TH E BIBLE 1I! . MUHAMMAD'S 'ATTITUUE TOWARDS TH E

BIBLE 6Ill. MODERN CHARGES OF C0RRUPTION' BASED

ON TH E gUR'AN 11IV. MODERN CHARGES OF CORRlJPTION BASED

ON TilE BIl3LE 24V, MODERN CHARGES OF ABROGATION 43

VI. BIllLE DO.CTRINE IN ISLAM 52VlJ, IJIllLE HISTORY IN ISI.AM .. . '" 66


3/39

ITHE BIBLE IN ISLAMCHAPTER I

~ l U I ; l t \ M M A D ' S KNOWLEDGE OF THE B ll3 LENo one who reads the Qur'an with attention can fai l to bestruck with i ts many r e f e r e n c ~ s to the Jewish and ChristianScriptures, No less than one hundred >.nd thirty such refer-ences may be traced, and these, tOKether with many similarallusions in the traditions and com.nentaries of the Qur'an.furnish us wilh the materi,,1 for a study of Ihe place andinfluence of the Bible in I slam.

That MuI,Hunmad was lar llely inl luel lced by Jewish andChristian teaching can scarcely be doubted. His relationswith the Jews and Christians .vere, at times, of the closestdescription, and his a llus ions to them in t he Qur'an make itclear that he placed them in "category entirely distinct fromthe heathen Arabs. They were par excelle"ce the 'Peopleof the Book,' and, as the custod ians of a divine revelatiou,were spared the choice of Islam or tile sword, whichwas t he on ly alternative imposed upon the worsh ippers ofidols.

Mul),unmad's attitude towards the Jews varied during thecourse of his career, Soon after his arrivallo Madina wefind him entering i nto a defensive alliance with certain Jewishtribes, and he even adopted Jerusalem' as his Qibla, or placetowards which prayer was to be made, in order to conci liateand win the Jews. When lIM,e hopes failed, however , andthe Children of Israel continned to cl ing obs tina le ly to their


4/39

1 Surato'I-f04i'ida Iv) 8' ..

ancienl [ailh, he denounced them in unmeasured terms, andIhercafler his att itude towards them was one of uncompro misinll hos ti li ty. Before this breach came, however, a perusalof the Qur'an makes it evident that Mul)ammad was on termso[ the closest intimacy with certain Jews. ,His references toJewish history, and his long and ofl.relleated recitals of thestories of the Patr iarchs and their times could only have beenlearned from members o[ the Hebrew race, Indeed theQur'an itsell bears witness to the charge tbat was constantlylevelled at him that he was ' ta ugh t ' t hese ' stories of theancients' by certain unoamed people.

I f Mul)ammad was indebted to the Jews for Biblicalaccounts of the Patriarchs, he was s ti ll more indebted to themfor the uncanonical, and often grossly unhistorical stories ofthe Talmud which figure so largely in the Qur't\.nic narratives.The re ade r must r efe r to the "uthor's The Origins 0/ t 1 Q"r'dn for a detailed examination of the resemblances betweenthe Talmud and the Qur 'an ; it must sufl ice to s ta te here tha tany unprejudiced study of those resemblances can leave nodouht as to their reason and origin.Mul;1ammad's relationships with the Christians of ,\rabia

were, on the whole, character ized by fee lings of c lose rintimacy and friendship than tbose whiclt subsisted betweenhim and the Jews. At one t ime those relationships were ofsuch a cordial nature that the Prophet was led to excla im,, Thou shalt certainly find those to be nearest in affect ion tothem (the believers) who say" Weare Christians ", This be cause some of them are priests and monks, and because theyare free from pride.' IMui}ammad's Christian concubine Mary, it is clear from

the Qur'an, exercised acommanding influence over him, andwas nearly the cause of a permanent estrangement between

32 . TH E BlllL.E IN ISL.AM

M U I l A M ~ I . ~ D ' S KNOWLEDGE OF THE BIBL.Etile Prophet and his wi ves. Front MahUlle learnt much of the G . I ry, therefore , he couldh b OSlle story lind of th.at 10'11 f " : .IC h , ~ i \ l w a y s spake so highly. J. 0Kbad'Ja , the firs ( and favourite wife of the P ,also well acquainted with Chrost,anity and her rophewt,. wasqa we lre t Id b Ib H ' COUSin ara-, ' 0 Y 11 ishal1l, actual ly became a ehr' .I rOI11 the COmmentators Ilf the Qur'un we I Ist.an.Mul,latnulad was in the habit of l i s t ' h earn thatJewish aod Ch . t S. eOlng to t e r eading of thens I i \n cnptl1res TtlQur'anic passage 'The . '. 11S, commentiug Qn theh. (M I ' Y say, ven ly a c ert ai n man teachetb1m u ..ommad) , ; the Irreat Muslil11 e.egete Ea."t\.. .. 1\1 WI says

~ \ ')!'?- J.:.,; , "".;4J1 c:J!I r'lc .. JI l o b . ' ' .J J) Ls ' . ' . . . _ .. I '.I' ').. c : J ~. J - j c:J , '-Hoi'-")" 1 ~ ; J 1 0 : ) 1 ) ..! 6:::..u "';"t-J) I . ' I .,, . , . 0:)"''''''' "=olil..v l............... I k ' I , ~ . . . . ~ . , """' . j4!. r'-, 4,i1: dJlBy th e person referred to is meant lahar ' G kf ' t . b n, a ree slaveo m" nu'l-I.Ia


5/39

. ' Ibn 'Abbas records that when the Prophet a,ked allYquestion of the .. People of the Book", they suppressed thematter, and in place of i t told b im somethi ng else, and wentaway let ting him think that they had told fiim. what he asked:

Mul)3mmad probably never himself read tbe Bible. In-deed some Muslims affirm that he could not read; but this i!>doubtful. There ar e not a few wellauthenticated instancesrecorded botb in the Traditions and in the standard biographiesof the Prophet of b is both reading and writing, His knowledge of the Bible, however, was probably gained fromhearsay only, He certainly had ample opportunities of thu!>learning the s tories of the Old and New Testaments.

We have already remarked that Mu!;Iammad learned mallY' I'a lmudic fab les from thc Jews. These he seems to haveloolknowledge rof the Bible, a nd to s ugge st a r easonab le explanation or' the many h i ~ t o r i c a l . e r r o r s of tbe Qur'an,.Mu1)ammad's contact with heret ical forms of Chris tian;ty.was further responsible for bis mis taken v iews of cer ta in

C h r i ~ t i a n doctr ines. For eXRlllple, some of the heretical

4 . THE BIIlLE IN ISLAMMUHAMMAD'S KNOWLEDGE OF TH E BIBLE 5

t s : : t ~ of Christians inhabiting parts of Arabia in the time ofI rophet bad earned the adoration of the Virgi t he n g t h ~ that the Prophet mistakenly ima ined n 0 sueChnshan doctrine of th T' . . g that thosisting of Father Son aend r v ' ~ l t y coMncelved of a Trinity con, orgm ;.ry and th" .cUlt. he. c o m b a ~ s in the fOllOWing word;: ' W h ~ ~ ; : ' : ~ ~say, a lesus, Son of M h ' . 5.. T k . ary, as t thou saId unto manknda e me and my m th I ,W . 0 er as two Gods, beside God .. ? '. hatever may be said, however as totherwise of the Prophet's knowledg: of t : tbe acc.uracy or1ewish and Ch . t' Sc ' e contents .of the.. . . ns Ian "ptures, there can be n dhIS vIews regarding their o ~ i g i n and value H'o oubt as toances regarding tbem are full and explicit ' E IS maDy utteralways the Scriptures of tho Old and N 'T verywhere andMul)alllmad a diviDe revelation medi ew estameDts are foragency of God's h I ated to men through the.and honoured, I n ~ : ~ : ~ ~ o ~ i t : , a ~ d , as sucb, to be reveredto ascertain, somewhat in detailg ~ ~ ~ : : I 1 l W a e d , s h a ~ 1 endeavourmg tho' 5 . ' . s VIews regardtowards ~ cnptures, and the attitude which he adoptedem.


6/39

CHAPTER IIMUl;IAMMAD'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE B li lLEONE of the first things which a rre st s tbe at tent ion of. t hecareful reader of the Qur'an is the great reverence withwb'ich Mul.lammad invariably spoke of tbe Bible. Tb ..divine o ~ i g i n of the Taurat, Zabur and Inill is again andagain acknowledged, and those books are ever spoken of interms of highest praise. Thus they are variously termed'The \ "'ord of God', 'The Book of God', ' A Guide and aMercy', A Light and Direction to Men', ' The Testimony ofGod ' Guidance and Light', and soon. Their inspiration, theProphet declared, was exactly of the same kind as theinspiration of the Qur'an itself. Thus we read, 'Verily we haverevealed to thee as we revealed to Noah and the Prophets afterhim and as we revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and haac, .and Jacob and the tribes and Jesus and Job and Jonah andAaron and Solomon.' 1In anotber passage Mul;tamOlad warns men against makingany invidious distinctions between tbe Qur'{lO and thoseScriptures which preceded it. Thus we read, Say ye, webelieve in God, and that whicb hath been sent down to us,and that which hath been sent down to Abrabam and Ishmaeland Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and that which hathbeen given to Moses and to 1.esus, and tbat which was givento the Prophets from thei r Lord . No difference do we makeGod . ed"between any of them; and to are we resign .

MUHAMMAD'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE BIBLE 7Not only did Mul;tammad speak of the Bible in terms ofdeepest reverence, but he everywbere t reat ed it as, trust-.

worthy, and as ' lirbt and guidance' for tbe people of.his OWQday, no less than for those whn bad prec=ded bim. Tbushe.is recorded in the Qur'an as appealing to the Tauratto settlecertain controversies regarding food wbicb bad arisen he,tween him and the Jews, One such ins ta nc e' is recorded inthese words, Bring ye then the Taur't and read it, if yebe men of t ru th .' 1 . ' , ' ,

On another occasion a discussion arose as to the 'plIDishment to be meted out to certain Jews wbo had been foundguilty of adultery. Then, the Tradition proceeds,i ~ t J l . j " " ; ~ ~ L. r ' illl J-o .lJ1 J,-o; rP JLU

r'!"}l""U,'JThe Apostle of God said to them, .. Wllat do you fiad .illthe Taunit in tbe matter of stoning (adulterers) .. l ' Tho'Taur,;,t was then brought, and MuJ)ammad. g a ~ e j l t d g e m ~ n taccording to the law laid down in that book. " .'These incidents throw a flood of light. uwn the Bible of

Mul)ammad's day . They show tha t he, at any rate, knew ofno 'corruption'" for they reveal him as willing to.ablde . b ~ tbe arbitrament of the Tau"'t in his discussions with the Jews.Further, they sbow that he knew nothing o f any doctrineoEabrogat ion; for he recognized the Law of Moses as ~ t i l lbinding on his Jewish contemporaries,

The Jewish and Christian Scriptures are a8ain and againreferred to in the. Qur 'an as 'Light and guidance' , . Thatbeing so, one is not surprised to find the Prophet advising hisfollowers to seek the advice and teaching of tbe ' peopleof 1110. _." .. II, S U f a t u ' l ~ B a q l \ r a (ii) 136. J Sural.' Ali 'IInrA" (iii) 9


7/39

8 THE BIBLE IN ISLAM MUHAMMAD'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE BIBLE 9Book' when in rel igious doubt , Such advice is significanl,and shows, as no o ther language cou ld ; the estimation inwhich the Prophet of Islam held the Bib le , .;Tbe passage relerred to is as fol lows: ' None have we sent before thee butmen inspired, ask .01 those who have t he Books of Monit ion,if ye know it not.' 1 .Th e Ja la la in expla in the term 'those wbo have the Booksof Monition' as the learned men of tbeTaurat and InjU ' .;whilst'Abbas also says i t means ' the People of the Tauratand I nj il ', Fu rt her comment is needless.

Muhammad's estimate of the Bible may also be gatberedlrom tile fact that heclearly taugbt tbe observance of the Oldand New Testaments by the Jews and Chris tians 01 his dl\Y,Several passages indicating this are to be folind in the Qur'ao;Thus, l or example , in Siiratu'l-Ma'ida (v) 72 we read,. ' 0People of the Book, y e have no ground to stand on, un t,l yeobserve the Taurat and the Injn and .tbat which hath beensen t down to you from your Lord: 'Another passage wbich clearly d e ~ o n s t r a t e s tbat th,e B i b ~ e

was neither corrupted nor abrogated IS tbe followmg: And mtbe lootsteps of the Prophet s caused we Jesus, t he son ofMary, to folloW, confirming t he T au ra t which was belorehim. And we gave him the InjU with i ts guidance and !lght ,confirmatory of its preceding Taurat i a guidance andwarniog to those who fear God; and that the people 01 theInjil may judge according to what God hath sent downtherein.' Here the Injl! is relerred 10 as a God-given guide,not, be it noted, to be superseded by the Qur'an, bu t a touchstone by which the Christian contemporaries 01 M u ~ a m m a dwere to judge between right and wrong, t ruth and error.Moreover, those who would not so use the Injn weredenounced as sinners in the sight of God, for the passage

continues thus, ' And whoso will not judge b wbat God bathsent down-such are the perverse.' 1Yet ano ther passage ioculca ting the observance of tbe

precepts 01 the Bible is the' lollowing, And if t bey ( tbePeople o f the Book) observe the Taurat and the InjU andwhat hat h been sent down to them from their Lord, theyshall surely have their fill of good things from above them,and from beneath the ir fee t. ' I

The t hree passages quo ted above leave no room for doubta. to the Prophet's view 01 t he Bible. We l ind him, not atthe beginning of his career, but several years alter his flightto Madinn, inculcating, in language void of all ambiguity, theobservl\nce 01 the O ld and New Testaments by the Jews andChristian. of his time. They were to observe them and to. ,Judge by them; they were Krounded on nothing, that is, theirwhole rel igious profession was vain and futile, unless theyobeyed the divine laws as given by Moses and Jesus; whilstfor those who did obey, the divine approval and blessing arepromised. Could language demonstrate more clearly tbe fac tthat in the judgement of Mul.>ammad the Bible extant in histime was neither corrupted nor abrogated.

Mul)ammad, it is true, in his d iscuss ions with the Jews,often accused tbem of false exeges is 01 their Scriptures, ofquoting passages out o f th eir "on te xl , or of hiding the tr uth .This the lal le r sti ll do when arguing with Christians concerning the claims of Jesus t he Messiah. A misunde rs tand ing ofsuch passages of the Qur'an has led some Jl10dern Muslims toimagine that Mul:>ammad accused the Jews of wil ful corrup.tion 01 the Taurat. A careful study of ., 'ch passages,however, will make it abundantly clear that such was not the.case. Had the Jews acted as al leged by these Muslims theProphet could never have used the language we have already

1Suralu'n.Nal;l1 (",vi) 44; J Suratu'l-Ma'ida (r ) 49, 50, I Ibid., 69.


8/39

. THE Il1BLE IN ISLAhI10h I re ',n the next chap ter, toW po! l e t e r e o , Ihquoted, e pro, h 'oci- ' passages 0 t I t, ' d la'l some 01 t e pn .... ,examme \n e I b to . prove the corruphon, posed y someQur'an wh.ch are sup , that not corrup.. 'n be found 10 every case ,of the Bible, I t WI t'on 01 the meaning, in, ' I t t but corrup \

tion 01 the actua ex " ' n t ha t was in tended by theother words lalse exegesIs, IS aProphet.

.CHAPTER III.. j

MODERN CHARGES OF CORRUPTION BASED, ,ON THE QUR'ANTHE wort! usually employed by Muslims to denote corruption'of the Scriptures is the Arabic word tal,nif: The late Sir Sye"Al;1mad Khan thus, defines ' the word. ' Emam Fakhru'dDinRazf s ay s in his commentary that the word tal)rlf means tochange, to alter , to turliaside anything from its truth. This.meaning i. of general application; but whenever the term isused in relation to Sacred Scriptures, it is, in common accepta.tion, understood to imply a wilful corruption of the word ofGod from its true and original purport and inten!.'. C o ~ r u p .lion, i t may be added, is generally spoken of as of two I9Pds,ta(,ri/i/al!ii, or corruption of the actua l text , aod ta(.r(f;ma'..awi, orcorruption of the meaniJig b}" false exegesis.'ilis on the applicatfon of these two terms that the whole contro'versy with regard to the allegCd corruption of the Jewish and.Christian Scriptures turns, Mul,lammad himself, together withmost of the early commentators of the Qur 'an, charged th...Jews with ta(,rij.ima'riawi only. They accused them with:altering the meaning of their Scr iptures by false ioterpreta'tion, or by suppressing the trutb when questioned as to the'teacbing of the Taurat all cer ta in matters . Many modern,Muslims, on the other hand, in their endeavour tb justify their;rejection of the Bible, affirm that the actual text of the Bible'has been deliberately tatllpered with by both Jews andChristians, They declare that prophecies'relating to tbe

t Mal,oUlrd.n COIff",elltary 0/ tll# Holy l I i b / ~ . vol. i. p. M.


9/39

d ba ve been excised from' and many,cominS of Mu1}amma d" 't f Chris t bave been interpassalles which t e a ~ h the l IVIOl : rOto bolster up this theory,polated into t he B ib le . n b e ' totally at variance withh previously 5 own, ISwhich, as we ave h' f the Qur'an witb regard tothe whole tenor of the teaC lOgO , M ~ = " e s in theI rofess til find certalO "..,...-.. ,the Bible , these peop e p b ged with actual falsifi-b k ' h'ch t he Jews are c ar kformer 00 InWI" I t il l now be our tasf h t t their SCrtptures, w 0cation 0

0t e tex 0, e shall have no difficulty in show109

to examme these, and w ; 0 f the meaning only wasthat, in every case, falsification 0intended by the Prophet, Q r'lin most f ; ~ u e n t I Y quoted in

One of the verses of the u t' of the Bible readst of the charge of textual corrup Ion ,supperthus': ~ " .. ~ " .. "":.. .~ \ d ' r'.,;J'

I 'Dukba r i says'They shift th e wor ds from their paces.on this': ' ' , ,"",_ I:aAJ t"OJ ,).1 u , I , .,;}>..y. . , ; , . ~.d\\ --...>S "" " ..,.,'-'= ~ . ; . . IJ"T"". , .dJ G'; ' ; A i , ~ ~ i J , ; ~ ....6],oJ)" loS) ' .1'''1'

, , b t there is no one who could, They shift, that IS remove, BU k f God but they shift,, I word from any 00 0 0 ' ,remove a sIng e '. Th 5 ed himself expresses hiS'h 't s meanlOg. e Y Ithat IS c ange I d ' 'F the clause whic'\ fol ows., . these war s. rom umature OplDlon I for ot what tbey were admonished ;them, namely, they 0 g , they changed the meaning andit is seen that the me'lnmg IS, h t they changed the actualpurport of the words; not t awords: ', ha f shift ing words from their places is madeA s,mllar c rge a ,, h J s J I t is there wrtt ten,agalOst t e ew .

TH E DIBLE IN ISLAM12

1 Si,nuu'l-M:\'ida (v) 14. I TIl/s/", p. 67 . ISuratp'o-Nid' (iv) 46.

, '

CHARGES 01 ' CORRUPTION BASED ON Till! QUR'AN 13:.( , . . . . " ~ , , , . . . . .. . lo ..... C. _"" .. . 1 " ......"" "",Iii!, ~ I , . . . d ' F J1 . , ; j ~ I , , , ~ . . . , . ! ~

c... . " . . _ " _ ,,_ . . . . . It .. ". . .. ( , . . " _' c. .. . ."... . _L : f ~ 1 ~ j , . \ " I " ! ~ i o _ I l . ! - l l ~ ~ , ~ - . . . ; ~ i : ~ 1 u..-,'Among the Jews are t ho se who d is pl ac e t he words and

say, " \Ve have hearn, and we have not obeyed, Hear thou,but as one that heareth not; and look at us," perplexing withtheir tongues, and wounding the faith by their revilings:A reference to the s tandard commentar ies o f the Qur'an

will make it abundantly clear that this verse, like it . predecessor, contains no proof whatever of the verbal corruption o f t beJewish Scriptures, On the contrary, it is sbown tbat the'words' spoken of are the words of Mul}ammad \ Fo rexample, the ]alRlain, in the ir famous commentary of theQur'an, teU us tha t, in order to ridicule Mul,lammad, some ofthe Jews used to alter certain salutat ions current among the'people, Thus they used to come to the Prophet, and insteadof saying d l 'UI ' Peace be on thee, ' they used to say,

l'l_JI 'May disaster overtake thee.' Thus they' perplexed with their tongues.' Imam Fakhru'd-Din R


10/39

THE GtllLE IN ISLAM. l ' .nds used 10 address. the Prophet by th.e'ng ,n t1elf .m. , d dmeadn lR ... . . 'For this reason the Muslims were comman ewar a Ina. '.no t to use the word Rli 'inu. ' ,J:Iusatn say.s" " .: '

"- 'i ( \ . \ ~ l , ~ j '!'j .i ~ J. \ . i c ~ '>)t!,..s ...J. ......' c::Y" - , T -" , r -, \a1 \. ltr .L_, 4lJ\ ...;.. . . : ; . ) ~ .:I' 4 . ~ : , ' ~ " : ' c- )

j . j- .. , .. ' ( ,JJU.".I...,'"\..;.i c!.'t:- ~ . f .,ct' GT V".. )) ... " , hi" n of the word fl, 'ina, The Jew< lengthenmg t e etter a, .. 0 r shepherd "j nced i t ra'ina,' that 15, ou '(look on u< pronoU addressed t he Prophet of God, on whomIn J -'" ~ ))\

'0 my beloved, t hy enemies the Jews'are'changing thyword< from thei r places.' " I h t. k f the commentators ,tiS c ea r t aFrom these remar so B'hl hthe vefrse q U o t : ~ : ~ : e : ~ : ~ ~ o a ~ e ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ : t : ~ ~ : d ~ f s t ~ th'e ; e w a s ~ .no re erence f M h d ' a st"kIDgractice of twist ing the words 0 , U, amma, ' ,p . f h 't h which some ignorant Mushms falll11ustratlon 0 t e ease wa ,into error regarding, the teaching o! t ~ Qur an, d by theAnother pasSage of the Qur'an IS often quotesame people. . ' ." # # ,,#

, , # (, # ". Co ..

~ j ; ' ; , , ~ n ; ' i ~ ~ ..~ t J!j .,;1.=". .' . " . . #


11/39

1b Abbas said that a band of the Helpers ( A n ~ a r ) asked. n of the Jews as to what was in ~ b Taurat concern-a company h be the peace anding the coming of the Prophet, on w. otp . .blessing of God, and concerning c e r t ~ 1 O commands, but .theyconceale


12/39

, 'Abdu'U"b bin Qa'if, 'Adi bin Zaid and A1.l;Iaritha bin 'Aufspoke together thus: .. Come, let us in the morning believe

verse of s toning :' Then the Propbet of God, on whom bethe peace and blessing of God, commanded that they sbouldboth be stoned, and tbey were so.'

This Tradition affords an interesting example of the way inwhich the J'ews uSed to conceal' the Word of God ; and it' incidental ly gives the l ie to those wh?'say ,the" word provesthe corruption of the tex t of the Bible.Yet another verse of the Qur'an I is sometimes quoted tosupport tbe charge of corruption of tbe Taurtt. I t runs thus,

, 0 P e o p l ~ of the Book, why clothe ye the t ru th with falsehood? Why wittingly hide the truth?' 'The great b iographer of the Prophet, Ibn Hisham," hasrecorded for us the occasion of the 'sending down' of thisverse, and, in doing so, has entirely refuted the opinion ofthose who affirm tbat i t t eaches the ' cor rup tion of the Bible.

He writes as follows:"";,e . : . J ) l : . , . l ~ ~ . . , ~ , ...i.!-w do .ul J\ji , ~ l . , . . > I , .j&. Jjl ~ ; l ' } w1.06 & : I ~ r.w ~ , ~ ' ~ p .....\j.(J\ Ja,l 4 ~ ' . f ' 1111 Jj\j ~ , d- &:IffY;

&:I,.,oW ~ 1 ..; . ~ \ . , ; , . o l ~ , ~ \ f ~ J - " I l l : ) ~ r

CHARCES OF CORRUPTION BASED ON TilE gUR'AN . 19in what has been sent down on Mubammad and his companions, and let us disbelieve i t in'the evening in order tbatwe may confuse the ir religion for them, and th at they mayact as we act, and turn back from their religion." Thensent down the Glorious God concerning them the words,.. 0 People of the Book, why clothe ye the truth with false.hood? Why wittingly hide the truth" 1'From these words of Ib n Hisham it is clear that thepassage under discussion has no, reference whatever to theBible. I t refers to cer ta in lying Jews who, , in o rder to leadthe Muslims from the ir faith, pre tended in the morning tobelieve in Mul}ammad and the Qur'an, 'biding' the trutb ofthe matter, and clothing' with falsehood tbeir real inten .tions, but openly disavowing their belief in him in the evening.Another verse 1 is sometimes quoted to prove the cor.'ruption of the Taurat. I t is as fol lows:

' " ; " ~ \ ~ ; ; " : : ~ '";"'1'7''1 ~ ; i L . : J l ~ ; i ; ~ ) i ~ i ~ l . . -c. C. _,_#_ c." _,.to, , , , , _ to . . . .~ I . : J ~ i" L.., ~ i" & : I j ~ , ' " ; " ~ I ,III l . ,, And some truly are there who torture the Scriptures withthe ir tongues, in o rder that ye may suppose it to be fromtbe Scripture; ye t it is not f rom the Scr ip ture, Tbey say,.. It is from God"; ye t it is not from God.' One would haveIhougbt that a car eful reading of this passage would alonebave been sufficient to convince tbe mos t prejud iced thatthe re is here no charge of changing tbe writte:l words of tbeTaunit, The torturing' or twisting with the tong,"obviously refers to verbal alterat ions made when reading orreciting the Scripture, This is freely admit ted by Sir Syed

THE BIBLE IN ISLAM18

1Suratu Ali 'lmd.n (iii) 71. " !;jid\u'r-Rul. I Sur.lu Ali ' h n r ~ n (iii) 78,


13/39

20 ' rHE BIBI.E IN ISLAM',I wbere ,be writes: Tbis verse'sbows tba t the

~ : ~ ~ ~ r ~ : : d e r s were in tbe habitb0: S t U ~ : ~ : U ~ : ~ s : : ~ ~ : h : ~their own for t ho se 'of tbe text, u 1 , ,rin ...itb the written't.xt Itself.there was any tampe , g Ib'Abbas in, his' comment onThe famous commentator nthis passage says: , '

,"" " I I , ,I oLil _I ...... --i.).(JI.ill1 J.c I : J ~ ) A ! ,('i!v.J oJ . . . , . , ~ o...rt:' , \ :1"--: r J " ', 'd ' d tb know that what they Tbey speak lies agamst Go ,an ey ,

say is n ot in their'Book.' .. ' . . ' , 'theIb ' 'Abbas make; it cl ea r that certain Jews were In,n , d' f the Taurat certa,nhabit of falsely adding to their r e mh

g oS' k ,wbich lay openh hich were Dot m t e 0 0 ,words or p rases w k ' I clear that' whatever 'altera.before them, He t hus ma es I 'I ' of the, tion took place was made in the verbal repell ton :Scripture, and not in the written text I t s e l f ~ n theThe] alalain also state the same m, thelf comment 0passal(e. Their words are,

They change it from i ts place in reading:' 1 d1 be ' well to quote here the vJewsof the eamet may ,'th. ber"e we pass on toth r of the Tajs'r.,.nurr.,.Man ur or' 'au a He writes tbus : consideration of the next passage. ".. JJ.oJI ,'I ' 1J\ ; 1:1-' ~ > , . j t'l. 101-' 1:1-1, ) " do. r.:(.': ( 1 " ' ; ~ ~ . J 1111 \ ~ ) I L....= ~ , , : i \ , J ~ ; J 1 1 : J '.,.r--' r-- J- , r . ' , -'1' \ ~ , ,., L ' . ~ ( . , ''6 ~ ' Ji.,UJ1, ~ r - ~ .l< \ : I " J'> 'I 1 ~ ' , And clothe not the truth with falsehood, and hide not tbetruth when ye know i t. '

1 Suralu')Uaqara. (li) 42.


14/39

, , t1-"..' ;)1} ' ) ~ ' , ; e U ; o : . i ' ; r ~ 1,;1=. ~ U - do'i ~ . j d!\i.S:> lilS: 1,0..,;) ~ , I J : , . ..ISi .J\L ~ , U l \ o : . i ' ~ \ j J.! \ ~ ..:JIJ ) J' i l ~ l ,

, II is related: from Ibn 'Abbas tbatthey were altering thetext of the Taurat and lnjn, bu t in the opinion of schola rsthis was impossible, ,because those S c r ! p t ~ r e s . ~ w e r e , g e n e r a \ l yknown and widely circulated, having been handed down f ~ R mgeneration to generation, so that such (alteration) in them wasimpossible; rather they were hiding th.e'meaning.'

I Comm.,,'ar, oflh. Hol,Bibl., p. 86.

COinmenting on this verse Sir Syed Al:imad KIllin 1 says:We are taught by thecommentaryof Emam Fakhru'"d.Dln

Ritzl that this verse was thus explained :In'tlie Old and NewTestaments the predictions referring to the' advent of theProphet Mul)ammad are of veiled meaniog,: and not to beuilderstood without the exercise of p r o f o u n d ; ' t ~ o u g h f andjudgment, and by the help of explanation: ,Now the Je\vswere always denying the rightful interpretation of these' prophecies, and busied themselves in captious 'and: unprofilabledisputations, and in s tr iving by overs trained arguments andillogical reasoning to explain away their ' t rue 'meaning. I twas then that this ayat was sent down from heaven enjoiningthem not to adulterate truth with falsehood,' so '",s to mis leadpeople by the doubts' they cast upon th . ' true sense ' of thedisputed passages of Scripture. This extract' d e ~ o n s t r a t e s thefact which is sought to be establ ished tbaLputting a falsemeaning /0 words is all that is charged again.ttheJews; andnot that they were guilty of mutilating thll wrilt:en,text,' ' .The following com'ment from AIRlizi's famous cbmmentary

AI-Kabir will indicate the general view or'that scholar withregard to this important subject . He writes as. follows:

22 THE BIBLE IN ISLAM . CHARGES OF CORRUPTION BASED ON THE gUR'AN 23From what has been writ ten above it has heen clearly

p r o v ~ that no charge of wilfully corrupting the aclual text of the Bible was ever made in the Qur'lin against the Jews.The only ch.arge made was that of al te ri ng the meaning byfalse .exegesls, o r of hiding tbe truth by the concealment ofc e r ~ a l O passages. Witb regard tg the Chris tians, Ihere is nota smgle passage in the whole Qur'lin which charges thef o l l o ~ e r s of Jesus even with tal,lrif-i-ma'nawi. This is a pointthat IS so,:"etlmes lost sight of, and one to which we herecallthe attentIOn of the Muslim' reader; for even if it could beshown that certain Jews of Madlna had a lt ered tbe ir copiesof the Taunit-a thing impossible of proof, as we haveshown-yet who would judge it possible that all the Jews ofthe whole world had col laborated together to make the samealter.allons 10 t h ~ 1 C copies I Such a presumption supposes in.credible credulity on the par t of those wbo suggest it. More.over, a"ummg that the Jews did exc i; e from the ir copies oftbe Taurat certain. prophecies conceroing the coming ofM U l : i a ~ m a d , bow IS It that th03e prophecies are not found inthe copIes held by the Chr is ti ans? I t is well known thatthere has always existed tbe bit te rest enmity between JdCh' e an nshans, so t ~ a t collusion be tween them in such a

m a t ~ e r as the corrupt ion of the Scriptures was absolutely im.poSSible. The inference i . clear: no such corruption basever taken place.


15/39

CHAPTER IVMODERN CHARGES OF CORRUPTION BASED

ON THE BIBLE 'THOSE Musl ims who profess to be lieve that the Bible bas'been corrupted by Jews and Christians not only go to theQur'an for their so.called proofs, but .they furtber. b ~ s y themselves in t ry ing to cul l f rom the JeWIsh and Chrlstlan Scnptures illustrations to prove tbeir charges. .. It is our purposein tbis chapter 'to dea l with some of these, and to show , thatsuch a method of attack involves the use.of a two-edgedweapon, which is as likely to injure the user as the oneattacked.I t is obviously impossible, in the limitsof one small volume,to deal serati", with all the, passages of the Bible which hav.ebeen Quoted by various Muslim writers in order to prove ~ h e l rpet tbeme; we propose, rather, to examine a ~ e specimenpassages illustrative of the various metbods ,:"hlch have beenemployed ib attacking the integri ty of tbe Bible; ~ n It Willt be difficult to show tba t, i f exact ly tbe same pnnclples be: ~ p l i e d to the Qur'an, the lat te r book would l ikewise have tobe abando'hed by all honest Muslims. . 'One of t he f avourite methods of tbose who Imagme th.atthe Bible bas been deliberately corrupted by Jews and Chns'tians is to Quote-the various readings to befound in the ancientmanuscripts of the Bible, or to compare the Autborized andHevisedVersions olthe English Bible, and then,with a shout oftriumph declare their contention proven. It is necessary hereto once 'again call the reader's attention to Sir Syed Al}mad'sdefini tion of the word ta/:lrl' as a w ilful corruption of t he

CHARGES OF CORRUPTION IlASED ON THI! BIBLE 25word of God from its true and original purport and intent.'Now i t is obvious that a wilful' corruption of any word orlentence of Scripture must be done with a purpose. It isimpossible to imagine men changing a word here or a wordthere in the scripture narrative just for tbe sake of changing;yet very many of the words pointed out by Muslim cri ti cs ofthe Bib le a s existing in various r ead ings are just words oftbis class. They may bave been copyists' errors, or they maybave been explanatory glosses which inadvertently crept,intothe text; but whatever they were, the re is noth ing in them tosugffest deliberate falsification. These so-called' corruptions'make no difference whatever to 11 singl" doctrine of the Bible,and in most cases no possible object can be conceived for'which they would have been made.

1 the Bible is to be rejected because of the presence of~ u c h var ious readings, then the Qur'an must be rejec ted forprecisely similar reaEons; for the Qur"n ' itself containsbundreds of similar various readings. The reader should referto the author's The Our'",. in lsi"", for a detailed description of the compilation and subsequen t recension of theQur"n; suffice it to s ta te here that, after its compi:ation hythe orders of the [{hallfa Abu Bakr, a great number of errorsrapidly crept into tho reading and recitation of that book.until the KhalHa Ulhman was forced to the drastic expedient of writing out one copy of the Qur 'an ';,.nd then burningall the rest' The absence of vowel points, however, cootinuedto be a fruit ful source of trouble, and soon led again to endlessdiversity ir. the readinK and interpretat ion of the Qur'an.Jalalu'd.Din AsSy6ti tel is us that five copies were made of ''Ulhman's recension aod sent to the cit ies of Mecca, Madlna,Damascus, Ba!}ra, and Kufa, where, some time in the secondcentury of the Hijra. seven noted' Readers' acquired recognition for seven differing ways of reading the Qur 'an. Each ofthese readers, again, is known by two Reporters '. The .


16/39

names of Ihese Reade rs a re Nan of Madlna, Ibn:Kathlr ofMecca, Abu 'Amr of B a ~ r a . Ibn 'Amr of Damascus, ' ~ i mof KUfa. I:lamza ofKUfa, and AI.Kisa'l of KUla. > 'Many b:>oks containing collections of the :various readings

of the Qur'an have been compiled by Muslim,scbolars,' Tnemost famous is the Taidlr of AIDana. This'scholar notonly mentions the various readings of the different " Readers'referred to above. but also gives the names of the readers'through whom each of the seven obtained, his ' information.AIRllzi in his commentary gives the critical r easons thatmay be urged in favour of or against the' different readings.It wil l be seen. therefore , that the Qur'an; equally with allother ancient books. contains various readings' ;"and all whohave a. the opening chapter of 'the Quran. afterwhich. we trus t, we shal l hea r no more from Muslim controversialists of the various readings of the Bible.From t he famous Tajs{,uI.Baiejawi' we learn that the

reading 1:J!..lJ\ ('Y-, I.:JJ\.. in verse 3 is tbe ! e a d , i ~ g .of . A ~ '!1and AIKisa' j and Ya'quh. , ,wbilst the other readershave and t h latter is preferable as b e i ~ g ~ l l e ' reading ~ the people of Mecca and Madlna. The reader will not failto note tha t, in spite of Bai


17/39

CHAnGES OF CORRUPTION BASED ON THE B IB LE 2 would be impossible in 'h f0 cnso 0 the QurO


18/39

I Suralu' .h.Shu'ad (xxvi) 82.

...

CHARGBS OJ' CORRUPTIO:-/ BASED ON THB BIBLB 3J. ~ .. ' ' - I l l c.,.101 , = , ~ l ", " I';';' J-[i ~ i .'...210'; ., ' - -; - -. ...,-- ..fr,.. ~ . 1 '

" ; ' ~ \ i ~ u J1';"; jt i ~ ~ J.,;. . -

And Moses smote him with h' Ii"This is a work of Satan ' f ISh stand slew him, Said he,'1 d ' or e IS an enemlS ea er." He said U0 my, a manifes th "my Lord I ha 'Own urt: (orgive me " f 1 've sinned to mineDavid's sin of a d u l t e r ~ is referr d ' _and in v, 2.. his r e p e n t l \ D c ~ a d e to 10 Suratu Sfld (xxxviii)as follows: n prayer for pardon is recorded

~ 0 j ; l ~ 1 ; ; ;; f i i . : ~, So he 'asked pardon of h' L dhimself and repented.' IS o r , and fell dawn and bowed, In the same chapter 501001011 is ' 'hiS prayer for pardon is rec d d ' descnbed as a sinner. andor e m these words: '

, ' And he said .. T, ruly I have loved habove the remembrance of In t e"love of earthly goodsreturned (to us) in ' y Lord ' " Afterwards bepardon me ". ' pemtence, He said, .. 0 my LordThe illustrations gi\'en ab 'the Q ,. ave are suffi 'ur an, eq uall y with the Bibl ~ I e n t to prove thatweak and erring men h e, depIcts the Prophets as, , w o ~ ~ ~ 1 k .SIns, Yet because the Bibl as ed pardon for theire cun lams such teach ing it is

I SuratuI.Q. . . . (x "'J t '-r-1 XVIlI .5, 16.

THB BIBLE IN ISLAM0

OJWho, 1 hope, wi ll forgive me my sins in tbe day of reckoning.' I Some of tbe sins referred to, such as falsehood, areclearly mentioned in o ther places of the Q u r ' ~ n and in theTraditions.

Of Moses it is written in the Q u r ' ~ n tbat he killed anEgyptian,

fulminating against th e Bible, quotes a number of Biblicalpassages in which, the sins of Lot, Jacob, Aaron, Dav,id,Solomon and o thers are mentioned, and then with n little~ e m b l a n c e of indignation asks whe ther such ,pa ss ages can, possibly be portions of the real :raurat a;'d JujU; for, heproceeds, 'Acco rd ing to the Qur'an it is prov,ed that theverses referred to are false and corrupted.' r,., ,c':'

Unfortunately for these persons and their l6gic the Qur'anitself contains exactly similar teaching, 'and the sins of not afew of the Prophets are clearly m e n t i ~ n e d 'tb;rein ! ' Tbisbeing so, it is difficult to see how, on their,reasoninK, Muslims


19/39

derided as ' corrupted' and unworthy of acceptance. Surely.in view of what we have written above. it is" t ime suchwriting ceased. If this is t he best Muslim c o n t r o v e r s i a l i ~ t shave to offer, it 'makes a sorry exhibit ion...not only of 10 'consistency. bu t of utter insincerity; for the ,men who writethus must know perfect ly ' well that the Qur'an . is open toprecisely the same charges. The fact is. the ':ancient ~ r o -phets were men of l ike passions with ounie lves. a lld the Blbl.ehas faithfully recorded both their successes and failures, theirvi rtues and their vices. .Another method adopted by some Muslim c o n t r o v e r s i a l i ~ t sin order to disparage the Bible and throw doubt on Itsint eg ri ty is to sel ec t var ious passages of . lhe B i ~ l e relati?gto the same event. and then pre tend to discover contradiCtions' in the different narratives. The fourfold Gospelnarrati ve of the life of Christ affords a happy huntinggroundfor such men, who spare no pains to show. 'with muchpretended indignation, tbat the v a r i o u ~ verbal disagreementsmanifest prove Ihe corruption of the Bible., Now when theseso-called 'contradictions' are carefully examined_ it will begenerally found that the difficulty is no d i f f i c ~ l t y . at all, bu t. entirely due to the crass ignorance of the objec to r. MorelS k' dover as we shal l show in these pages. exact ly the same lDof d'ifficuliy may be met with over and over ,again in thep.'\ges of the Qur'an. '. ' ," .As an inslance of the kind of thing referred to we mightmention an article which appeared in the Muslim Review.a Muhammadan. or rather Qadiani. journal published atW o k i ~ g . England. The writer of tbe article .in questionbased his attack on the var ia tions in the Gospe l narrabvesof tbe inscr iption which was placed over , the ~ r o s s on whichJesuS was crucified. As is wellimown. tbere .exists a verbaldisagreement in the r ecords of tbe E v a n g e h ~ t s . Thus. St .Matthew tells us t ba t t he accusation was wntten. ThiS IS

32 THE DIBLK IN ISLAMCHARGES OF GORRUPTION BASED ON THE BIBLE 33

Jesus, t!,e King of the Jews,' whilst St , Mark qao te s mor "bIlefly. The King of the Jews.' St . Luke writes, 'This is ', the King of t,he Jews,' wbilst in St . John's Gospel the wordsar e given as Jesus of Nazareth. the King of the Jews '.

Now If we app ly Si r Syed Ahmad's definit ion of tal;>rif tothese passages. we shall at once see how impossible i t is tobeheve that the differences pointed out were deliberatelymade. In other words. according to the great fouader ofAligarh College. tbe passages in question afford no illustrationof t a ~ r i f at all. On t he o the r hand. any honest attempt tounderstand these passages will make i t indubitably clear thatthe wIl ters were simply quoting the substance of what waswIllten. and not the exact words. Moreover, we are told bySt. John that the inscr ip ti on was writtenin Hebrew andLatin. and Greek. and it is not impossible that such verbalv a I l a l l o n ~ exi st ed in the original writings. However. theexp lana tion g iven above is ample for any fair-minded man .and those who would lind in such verbal disagreementsreason for distrusting the Bible , would do well to rememberthallhe Qur'an i s full of examples of exact ly the same kind ofverbal disagreement. Therefore , if such men are consistentthey must rejec t the Qur'an. no less than the Bible.

A n o l ~ e r passage often quoted by Muslims to prove thec o ~ r U P t l o n ,of the Bible is St. Matthew, xxvii . 9. It is therewntten: Then was fulfilled that which was spoken byJ.eremy the Prophet . saying. and they took the thi rty pieces ofSilver. the price of him that was valued. whom they of thechildren of I srae l did value ; and gave th em for the potter'sfield as the Lord appointed me.' '

It i s pointed out by the critics that tbe words here attributed to Jeremy tbe Prophet are not to be fOUDd ia t he Bookcalled by his name, but in the Book of Zecbariab. Eventhere t here is no verbal agreement with the words quoted byMatthew. and so. argue these c lever gentlemea, tbe Bible is

3


20/39

'34 . TH E DlULE IN ISLAM

, Tbe Whole colloquy between God and M 'for quotation in full here but tb , o s e s IS too longwe have quoted are sU/lic;enl fore, openlDg seDtences which~ u c h verbal disagreements exist ~ n U \ : e u r p o s ~ . 5,0 ~ o n g asIDconsistent and foolish fo M I" Qur An, It IS bothr us Ims to quote th 'accounts of the resurrect ion f Ch" e vaflOUSo fiSt as found in the four

CHARGES OF CORRUpr ION BA.ED ON THE BIBLE 351n the tentb verse of Suratu Ta' H ' ( ) ,h II xx we are' told that~ d : : s s ~ s e ~ saw the. b u m i n ~ ' bush in the wilderness, he

N I hiS people m certam words. Again in Suratu'n.am, verse 7 the "dM ,same IDCI ent is recorded ' I d'asps' 5 h . , -IDC U mg: ,peec to hiS people; but we lind striking' discrpanc'es ID the two accounts. We give them . , eso that the reader can see for bimself h . 'd Shlde?y SIde,pancies ' are. ow WI e t ose discre-

SUJlATU'N-NAML.Wb.n MOM. said to bi . laml').. [h Y.. ave perceiv.ed a fire: 1 will

b r ~ n g you tidiDgs from it" or willbrang you a blazing brand, tbatyo may warm you".'

SURATU'N-NAWL. And when he came to it hwas called to .. 0 M -- '"1 I ' ....;MiI", von 'Iam God, tb . mighty. tbe wi. . .

Throw dOViD DOW thy staff ....

SURATU r. H .'Hath tb . bis to ry o( MollC.reached (hee? When be saw a fireand laid to his (amily .. T-- .(h _ .y yeere) (or I have perceived a 6re :haply [ may bring YOU a braDd(rom it, or find at the fire agUide to.'Then the nar ra tive continues i brecord of the words of God dd n oth chapters with aI a ressed to Mo halter approached the Ii W. ses w en thereo e glve tbe two '.parallel columns so that the d llaSSaIl'es Inh ' rea er may c1earl .'t e verbal disagreements wh' h . b yappreclateIC eXist etween them.

SURATU r. H .And WbeD he came to it, he

was called to, .. 0 M os el I verHyI am thy Lord; tb".lor. pulloff thy shoes, for thOD art in thel:Ioly valley of Towa" I, .

Com"",,,'ary of 'h . Hoi;, Bibl., \'01. ii , p, 32.

. ' corrupted. Now if the reader will bear ih mind what was'written above regarding the fourfold quotation of the inscrip:tionon the cross, he wil l' be prepa red' to' see tha t Mat thew,here, is only giving: the substance of tbe p r ~ p b e c y , and is'making no a ttempt to quote it l iterally. . ....

The Book of Jeremiab, it is well known; was' placed firstin the Jewish collection of the ProphetiCal' books of theHebrew Bible, and, for tha t reason, often gave i ts name tothe whole collection; just as in common speech the word'Taurat , because of its posit ion at the beginning of the OldTestament, is often applied to the whole of tbat book, though,strictly speaking, the title only belongs to tbe Books.of Moses.For confirmation of this the reader is refen 'ed to Sir SyedAhmad's book,I in which he wri te s: 'Al though the termTaurat is st rict ly applied to tbe Books of Moses, yet, in theuse of Muslims the term sometimes . igni lies the aook ofMoses, and sometimes i t is used for al l the Books of the OldTestament.'Now he might well quote a passage"fram' any of the.Propbets as being' writ ten in tbe Taur6. t,' ' y ~ t who would'convict him of error 1 Similarly, when Matthew 'uSes the tennJeremy for the whole coHection of the Prophetical Books ofthe Old Testament; it is futile to contend tbat he did not knowwhat he was writing about, or that later persons "corrupted'the words originaHy written by bim, The pS.ssage before usaffords an exceHent illustration of the, danger of criticising'without full knowledge.

We now give two or three illustrations, out of scores whichmight be qtloted, to show that the Qur'An'contains exactly'thesame kind of verbal disagreement taken.objection to by some'Muslim critics of tbe Holy Bible, '.' .


21/39

36 TilE BIBLE IN ISLAM CHARGES OF CORRUPTION BASED ON THE BIBLE 37Gospels, and try to p rov e /rom their, verbal. disagreements.that the Gospels have been' corrupted ,

I t may be of i nt erest to note the, rep.IY of ~ o s e s a;recorded in various places in th e Qur lin, . We give belotwo varyinf( accounts,l

I t will be noticed that in Suratu Ta l:Ia Moses is represent-ed as begging . lor Aaron to be sent wit I, him a helper;whil st in Suratu'sh.Shu'ara he seeks to have Aaron sent. t d f b,'nl as be feared capital punIshment for thei l lS to a ,. ., d

d h h the Qur 'l in in another place, has recoruemur er w Ie I .against him, Here we have, not merely the. ~ ; m e 6 t o r y toldin diITerent words, but we have an entirely different story,differing materially as to questions of fact,.. What have th eMuslim critics of the Bible got to say to thiS 1. , .

Another illustration of verbal disagreement 1D the Q ur IiDlcnarratives may be found in the words of God said to havebeen addressed to our first parents in ~ h .Garden of Eden.W 'v e below thr ee distinct, and dIffering, records fromthr:: 'difTerent chapters of th e Qur'an dealing w it h t hi s one

I S uralu T' I;U (u ) and Suratu'.hSbu'.r' (uvi).

speech of God, and leave the reader to draw his ownconclusions,

We could.uote scores of illustrations from the Qur'an simi-la r to those given above . to show that that book con ta ins pre -cisely the same kind of verbal dis.agreement a s t ha t so loudlydenounced in the Bible. When it is remembered that themen loudest in th.se denunciations ar e men who p re te nd torome meMure of education, and who must know perfectlywell that the Qur'an is full of such verbal disagreements an ddiscrepancies , the hypocrisy of the whole proceeding becomesselfevident, I f these men are sincere in their opinions',then let them, at least, be con si st en t, a nd r ej ec t t he Qur'an

SUUTU TA HA(XX.)

, He said, "Get yeall down booee. theODe of you an e oemy10 tbe o ~ o r . And ifguidance sball cometo ' ~ froafme, wbOlO.ball follow my gnid.aace shall Dot err,aDd shall Dot bewretcbed; bUI whosoturoeth away Irom mymODitioD, bis truly.ball be ure ofmisery: and we will....mbl. him (witbolhers) on tb . day ofresurrection. bUnd ",'

SURA1"U 'LA'WAF(VII.)

He laId, .. G et yedown, the OQe at youan enemy to tbe otber;and there .ball be foryou in the eartb adwelling-place and aprovision (or a seasoo," He said.. . Onit shall ye live, and 00it shall ye die, andtram it l'lhall ye betaken forlh ". '

SUIl:ATU'L-BAQ.\RA(II. )

'And we said. "Gatye down, tho ono oryou an en emy to tbe-otber; and there sballbe (or you io the eartb dwelling-place anda provision (or a sea-son, . , , Get ye downIrom it all together.and i( guidance shalleomo to you Irom me,whoso .hnll follow my8uidance, on tbem.hall come DO (ear.D.ither .hall they b.grieved, /lui theywho shall not believe,and treat our signs as'a lhood., Ih . . . . .ballbe inmates 01 tbe 6re :in it shall they remainfor ever",'

\

SURATU'SH-SHU'AU'He (Mosea) said', "M y Lord, i ".ooth 1 fear I. .t tbey'treat me . . a

l iar; and my breast, is straitened.aDd 1 am .Iow of .peech, Send,tberefore, to.Aaron, ,For tbey bana charge. a g a i D , ~ me, & J 1 . ~ . 1 ( l .Vle6t they put me to d;eatb .

SUUTU T" HA. He (Moses) said, "0 my Lord I

enlarge my breast for me, andmake my work easy (or me, and100[0 the knot of my tODluO thatIbey may understand .my.peecb,aDd g ive me a coonsel lor Crolpamong my family, Aaron mybrother. By him gird up my loins.aDd make him B colleague in mywork. that we may praise theeoften and olten remember thee.For thou regardellt us" ..


22/39

38 THE BIBLE IN ISLAMas 'well as the Bible, Fo r ourselves, we are' not concernedto,expJain the many apparent contradictions of, the Qur'an,but so far as verbal discrepancies occur in the Bible tbeygive us no cause for disbelief , The narrative of one Evangel-i st oft en supplements that of another , oft en 'amplifies the'brief recital of a predecessor or makes clear the ambiguitiesto wbich such brevity sometimes leads; but ' this is nottal,1rif, and i t in no way affects the general trustworthiness'of tbe Gospel record. More often than not, tbe .substance;and not the a ~ t u a l words, of propbecies of tbe Old Testament,or of speeches of the New, is a ll tbat is quoted by th e Gospelwriters. To say that tbe .Bible is corrupted ', ' because ofthe absence of literal verba l agr eemen t in sucJi 'cases, andye t t accept the Qur'an as it stands, is to s t r a i ~ .at a gnatand swallow a camel.Ignorance of tbe Bible and of 1ewish customs is often.' .responsible for hasty cbarges of corruption: ' made agains'tthat book. Thus the author of the book Rciddi 'Chris/ial',mentioned above , (and of course his many ~ o p y i ~ t s ) quotesSt. Mark ii. 26 to the effeCt tha t David e n t e r ~ d t h ~ house ofGod and ate the shewb read in the time of Abiathar th eHighpriest '. This is wrong, say the critics, because wel ea rn from I Samuel xxi. that Ahimelech was 'them High-priest.

Now this objection,like many others of tbe class' of writerref er red to, is based upon a false assumption, namely thattbere could only be one 1ewish High.priest 'a t the .sametime. A reference to the Gospel o f Luke ,' however,wouldbave t aught tbem that there were sometimes" two: High'priests. The words of tbe Gospel are , In the fifteentli 'year: iof tbe reign of Tiberias Cresar . . . , Anna s and "Caiaphasbeing the high pr iests, the word of God came 'unto John. 'S imilar ly , a fur ther reference to I Samuel x1!iii, 6-9 wouldhave shown them tbat Abiathar, as stated by 51. Mark', was

CHARGES 01 ' CORRUI'TlON BASED ON THE 81 I 39o .R .~ I s o a Higb:priest at the t ime referred : to. . T!lus we r ead,And DaVId knew that Saul secretly practised. 'mischiefagalDst h,m; and he said to Abiathar the priest "Bring

luther, the ephod ".' This Abiathar was H i g h - p ~ e s t . u n t i l "D a v I ~ s d ~ a t h , when tbe latter's son, Solomon, deposed bimfor hIS mIsdeeds, Thus we read , And unto. Abiatbar t h ..pnest said the king, .. Get thee to Anathotb, u ~ t o thine own.~ e 1 d s . for thou ar t wortby of death; but I.will not at tbislime pu t thee to deatb, because thou bar es t the ar k 'o f tb aLord God before David my father, and because thou hast'been afflicted in al l wherein my father wasaffi ic t.ed," SO"Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the Lord ,.that he might fulfil the word of the Lord whicb he s p a k ~concernmg the house of Eli in Sbiloh , ' 1In tbe book Raddi C/lrisli"" another' corruption' of theBible i thus. proved. I n S t, Matthew's Gospel.it is said that'.

1es1.s, . w ~ l k 1 D g by the sea of Galilee,' called his first disciples,and saId, Follow me, and I will make you to. become fishersof men,' whereas in 51. Luke's Gospel it is said that this call .took place on the shores of the ' Lake of Genesareth', Thisconstitutes one of the famous contradictions: '. of the BibleSO eagerly seized upon by the writer, . . 'T,hat men of such colossal ignorance should s i ~ ' down,to. .

. ~ f 1 t I C I Z e the Bible almost passes bel ie f; for every ScboolbOy.mows that the body of water in question was respectivelycalled the Sea of Gali lee, the Sea of. Tiberias and the Sea, orL a k e ~ of Genesareth,' Even in the Qur'an tbe chief city ofArab,,, IS 111 one place called Uakka and in another Makka,but who would condemn the Qur'an on tbat account?Yel,another passage of the Bible J excites the deris ion ofthese lIItellectuals, It is tb er e written, At that time 1esu's

I I Kings ii. 26-7. t Chapter iv. 18-22.;\ St. Matthew xii . 1.


23/39

He who approaches it out of need (that is, hunger) withouttaking away what he can carry, is free from b lame ; but he

went on the sabba th day through the corn; and his discipleswere an bungered, and began to p luck the ears'of'cornand toeat.' This innxent-looking' passage' afl'ords' .a "basis forcharges of trespass and theft committed witbtbe"knowledl{eand consent of Je sus, and as such a presilmptionconflictswith the Muslim theory of t be sinlessness. of tb e Prophets, thepassage is forthwith pronounced an interpolation,-:" .'This objection, al{ain, is due solely to the' ignorance of theobjector, for a reference to the Law of Mosil s"mak. ,s itperfectly clear that in thus plucking the' ears' o f corn the 'disciples of Jesus were act ing' in strict confon:nity'witb tbatlaw and the well-established custom' of the 'Jews'based uponit: This will be seen from the following quotation' from tbe

Taunit: 'When thou come;t into thy neighbour's vineyard,then thou mayest eat grapes t hy fill at thine own'pleasure;but thou shalt not put any in thy vessel. Wlien tbou comesti nto the s tandinK corn. of thy neighbour, then thou mayes!p luck the ears with thine hand; but thou shalt'not move a, d' , Isickle unto thy neighbour s stan mg corn.Strangely enough this teaching of the Bible.. which.is sos trongly objec ted to by ignorant Muslims, i s mat ched by

exa ctly s imilar teach ing in I sl am i tsel f! Thus we findMuhammad, when asked for a ruling with regard to fruith a n ~ i n g on the trees, replying as follows:

~ THE BIBLE IN 'ISLAM

, , ~ ~ ( , # .. # (,. C. Ie. .... .. to ..~ i . . . r-i' b. . . . , ~ L i y\ . . , I . r

.. _t' .. A ._ lo.t. c. _ c. ..~ , A - J \ , i...l} ,,;> . r ,

CHARGES 01 ' CORRUPTION DASED ON THE BIB I.I! .. 1who takes away some o! it is under obligat ion to pay doubleits price, and is l iable to punishment: IIn the same way the Prophet allowed anyone to milk a


24/39

42 TH E BIBLE IN ISLAM

1 D e u t e r o n ~ m y UY . .5-6.

C H ~ P T E R V.MODERN CHARGES OF ABROGATION. ' - ,VIE havesbown. in a previous cbapter. that 'Mul)ammad not:.only acknowledged the Bible to be the uncorrupted word of '

God, bufhe ol so u rged upon the Jews and Cbristians of h isday the duty of obeying its precepts, He himself , we haveseen, decided cer ta in controversies concerning food and thepunishment o f adu lt ere rs by a re fe rence to the Tauni t, thus.aITording clear and convincing proof that no ahrogation of theJewish Scriptures had takeu place as a result of his preachingof the Qur'un, Yet, despite these facts, there are not wantingMuslims who, des pa iri ng of p rov ing the co rrupt ion of the- 'Bible, strive to justify their rejection of i ts teachings by urgingthat it has been abroRatccl. \Vhen pressed fo r re as ons forthis ext raordinary repudiat ion of the teaching o( theirProphet, they refer us to three verses of the Qur'an which,they allege. prove that the Bib le has been abrogated by thelaller book, ' .-It will now be mlr duty to examine these pas sages in the

light tbrown upon them by the standard ,Mul;lammadan com.m e n ~ t o r s of tbe Qur'an; ~ n d w e shall have no difficulty: in ..showing that this charge, like that of cor rupt ion " is withoutthe slightest foundation,The Ii"t of the three passage" which are supposed to teachthe abrogat ion of the Bib le by the QUI'"n is Suratu'nNal;ll(xvi) 101, where we read, And when we change one versefor another, and God knoweth : ' ~ s t ,what He revealeth. theysay, .. Thou ar t only a fabricator ", Nay, but most of them


25/39

THE BIBLE IN' ISLAMh a ~ e no knowledge.' A reference to the standard commentariesof the Qur'an will show that this passage has no referencewhatever to the Bible. On the contrary, it r efer s solely tothe Qur 'an, and to the abrogation of certain Qur'lInic precepts,by later ones. Thus in the Ta/sim'I.Jaltflain we read,}i-o \.::-il ~ r-' l;'lc .dJI.}o ; ~ ", I IJJU...:IjoJl . l ~ i ; ' < : J ~ ! : 1 ~ ; 1 S 1 J.i . . : J ~ . ; ; . ' ~ . , A j - . , J I ~

~ iJJli,.'They, that is the infidels, said to the Propbet, on whom be

the peace and blessing of God, .. Thou ar t o.nly, a forger, thou ,speakest (these thing,;) from thyself." But most of them donot know the truth 01 the Qur'an and the benefi t of abrogation: I t is clear from these words of the lallilain, that theQur'anic abrogation of one command by anotber ,called fortbthe derisive taunts of the unbelievers that tbe Prophet himselfwas the author of the new legislation. y" '

Both in the Tafsiru'lQddari (vol. ii, p.. ~ ~ ) and theTa/sir Mad,;'ihi' I.Qur'all (p. 280)exactly thesame explanationis given. The famous exegete Qao;li Baio;lawi is even moreexplicit il1 hi S comment upon the passage.. He writes asfollows:

They, that is the infidel, said, .. Thou ar t only a forger,,ascribing thy words to God. Thou commandes t s omething, and aflerwards (orbiddest i t: " Qao;li Baio;lliwi heremakes it perfectly clear tba! tbe passage refers to the commands of the Qur 'an, and has nothing whatever to do withthe Taur"l and Inil!'

MODERN CHARGES OF ABROGATIONAnother passage often quoted to prove the abrogation of theBible is the 100th verse of Suratu'l-Baqara. I t runs as

fol lows: Whalever vt'rse we may annul or cause to forget,we will bring a better or it s like.'. This verse, li ke the onepreviously examined, has reference to the Qur'an and not to'the Bible. A few quotations from the standard commentariesof the Qur'an will make tbis clear.In the Tajs(rll'I.Jalcilai", for example, we read,11'--'1 ;A. T J , . o . ~ 1:11 J,lU, ~ . j ;\ASJI Lc.J,

t...i.i J}i T Li.: ~ ' ; A 4 rr-II And wben the unbelievers taunted (Mul)ammad) concerningabrogation, and said, .. Verily Mul)ammad commands hiscompanions acer ta in tbing to-day and forbids it to.morrow,"t hen came down the words, Whatever verse we may annul :With regard to the words, 'Cause thee to forget, ' tbe sam ..commentators say,

' ~ h a t is, ~ i l l cause thee (0 , Mul)ammad) to forget iI, andWill blot .t out of thy heart.' From these words of thelalalain it is c lear tha t tbe words of the passage underdiscussion refer, not to the Taurat or I n j,l, but to the wordsof MuJ,lammad himself. God would abrogate, and, in certaincases, cause Mul)ammad to forget, what had previously beenr evealed to him, The whole matter, as explained by thelaWain, is perfectly easy of comprehension. Mul)ammadfreqnently had reason to reverse certain commands and prohibitions wbich he had laid upon his fo llowers witb regard toJ i"ad, the Qibla and so on. These cganges called down uponhim tho lIdlcule of the unbelievers in the words quoted by thelalalain. In reply it is stated that God would bring a better


26/39

46 THE B IBLE I N ISLAM MODERN CHARGES OF ABROGATION 47verse than the one abrogated, This is the unanimous view 1 (Tbis verse) came downwhen the polytbeists or the Jews said,... Do ye not see Mul;lammad, becommands .a certain thing tobis followers,. and afterwards forbids tbem it':aC:d commandsthe very opposite," .

In the Taj.iru'/Qddari, p. 26, it is said t b a ~ the passage"means,

elf( .J.) . . . . .:! ' IIIT} ..::.Jt.!T ~ , . " ~ j t r f t-. . ..J. llI,i'6 V'oJ ...- ~ .:! ' ~ i '-IJ" , , / t;"'l.o' n' for. ,."..,'1.. . .J. .,),i'6 ,oJ ;,1 "-l.oJf t,...i.. ~ l .. '6 ' - I j ~ ..:.s:11 ..,"L.....; .:! ' u-.MA.J1 ~ l,.i c . . - ~ ),1 . .. l.!S )}..

>-!,)fi u}> Whatever verse we abrogate from tbe Qur 'an, we will bringa better than such abrogated verse; as, for example , the co:nmand for one Muslim war rior to fight ten infidels was abrogated, and the command' given for one Musl iof, .warrior tofight (only) two infidels; and as, forexample, the'changing ofthe Qibla from Jerusalem to the Ka'aba (at MecCa).'

I Tal.fr. p. 22.

In tbe Tajsiru'rRa..ft, p. 114, it is said tbat the wordsnlenn,.J. ..j!r elT} .:! ' IlI,liT ,."


27/39

48 THE BIBLE IN ISLAM MODERN CHARGES OF ABROGATION 49From the comments of t he great M u ~ a m m a d ! , - n scholars

quoted above it is clear that the verse under discussion refersexplicitly and solely to the Qur'an. I t has no refe.rence-whatever to the, B i ~ l e . There is no p a s s ~ g ~ a n y ~ l j e r e \n the-whole Qur'an which teaches that t he Bib le has been abro-gat ed by the Qur'an; but Muslim scholars sta,te that no lessthan 225 different passages of the Qur'an h a v e , b e e ~ a b r o g ~ t e dby later passages of that book. Yet Muslims still c o n . t 1 D u ~to read the whole Qur'an, including tbese abrogated portions,bence, even if it could be shown that the comm,ands of theBible had been abrogated, that would be no excuse forMuslim neglect to read .that Book, which)s: ~ d m i t t e d l y adivine revelation. I t would sti ll remain an histprical recordof unique value and importance. . " ..Before we leave this subject it might be well to ?II the reader 's attention to one other passage of the Qur'an in which thesubject of abrogat ion is mentioned. 1 I t reads as , follows: We have not sent any apostle or propbet before tbee, butwhen he recited, Satan injected some desire; but God shal labrogate that which Satan had suggested.' !n,this ~ s s a g eabrogation is said to take effect on those portions of Scnpturewhich were of Satanic origin, and in illustration of thepassage, the Muslim commen tat or s tell a s trange story ofMuhammad being deceived by Satan into u u e r i ~ . g ; ~ l a s p h e m y ,for 'which he afterwards grieved sorely ~ n ~ i l consoled byGod by the revelation of this verse, We give. be low thecomment of the famous exegete, Qar,li Bai


28/39

50 THE l lI BLE IN ISLAM

) ....)) .,;,oJ ..,llll,.ul, r'1,)1 . . . , . ~ k il ~ \ J IAbros"tion only happens in c . .prohibitions_never with f t ,on;echon w,th commands and" .."licitly, as it does tl acb- s. f. therefore, the InjU states. . , .a t t e Lord Je u Chhfe upon the cross . s s Tlst offered His. as a n atonement f o r dagal ll on the third d . h sm, an rose aliveay t t eu such a hO .never be abrogated It ,1 I n , s toncal fact Can. WI a ways be t hand rOse al(ain. rue t at J e s u ~ died\Ve have seen that the Q '.- .Bib 'e has been abrogated . 'ru,r ani conta,ns no hint that the. . ' . Ie alter Scr t .. .e,,,h,,,t


29/39

lllllLK DOCTlIINB IN ISLAy 53

CHAPTER VIBIBLE DOCTRINE IN ISLAM"

IN the previous chapt er s we have e s t a b l i ~ h e d ~ h ! l : fact thatthe Christian Scriptures have been nei ther , c o ~ ~ p t e d Qorabrogated. They are sti ll , today, as they w ~ r " in the timeof Mu\:1ammad. ' g u i d a ~ c e and I igbt : 'complete: to whal-ever is excellent, and an explanation of every Cluestion, anda direction and a mercy.' They are still: an, ildm,onItioll totbe pious,' alld, as such, will be read andjollowed, by al lwho seek the h ighest good. How f ar , we ,now, proceed to,enquire , do the teacbing's of the Bible find, ~ n f i r m a t i o nand corroboration in Islam I To what extent does a study,of the Qur'an support its repeated claim to c onfirm ' the,preceding Scriptures?

Ti lE BIBLICAL DOCTRtNE OF Goo The Bible teaches that there i s one living. and tr ue God"everlasting, without body, p ~ r t s or passions, of i ~ n i t e power,wisdom and goodness; the Maker and P r e s e r v e r ' o h i ~ l t h i n ! ( svisible and invisible. So far Is lam may be said to be incomplete agreement. It is when we come to consider th ..fIIod. of the divine existence that t he f irs t apparent cleavagein doctrine takes place. The Bible reveals this one and onlyGod as manifested in a t rini ty of personal existences of onesubstanr-e, power and eternity: the Father, Son and HolySpirit. Thus the eternal nature of God is seen to haverelation within itself. There three eternally harmonious willsare seen to coex is t in mutua l love and uni ty , so that within

the u ~ i t y of the Godhead there exists a 't ri 'ni ty of persons,somewhat as in the lInity of human personallty tbere existsa t rini ty of mind, 'soul 'and spirit. Yet as ' t he human personal ity is one , not three , so in Christian theOlogy tbis triuneGod is uniquely and' absolutely one. Tbisgreat mystery ofthe Holy Trinity is a revea led t ru th , con tained in that Bibleof which Mu!}ammad spoke so'highly, and which be taughtmen to reverence and fo llow; it is, therefore, of the utmos timportance to ask, What was Mu!}ammad's' attitude towardsthis fundamental t rut h of Christianity? what has Islam tosay concerning this triune expression of t he Div ine nature?Before answering t his Question, however , Jet us once morei terate and emphasise that the


30/39

THE BIBLE IN [SLAM IHnLE DOCTIHNF. It ' ISLAM 55tbis s u p ~ s e d Trinity. Thus we find him saying,' Theysurely are infidels who say .. God is the third of three"; forthere is no God but one God." And' again. ' ,And whenGod shall say, .. a J esus . son of Mary, bas t t hou said untomankind, take me and my mother as two Gods bes idesGod"?"

Mul)ammad is here i n v o l v ~ d in a double error. First, inthinking that the Chris tian doctr ine of the Trinity involves arecognition of three Gods; and secondly, in' imagining thatthat Trinity consisted of Father, Son and the Virgin Mary.Nor was Mul!ammad alone in this misconceptionof Christiantruth, for we find the great Muslim commentators of theQur'un, the jalalain, g iv ing expression to. similar views.Thus In commenting on the passage quoted above they sa)'.

~ , " " J J ~ J I , '..1.J..>I,:I- i:u.; AJI.,)l'Verily God is the third of three. He is one o'them, theother two consist ing of Jesus and his mother. ' '

\Ve need scarcely point out that no Christ ian sect has everheld such a mons trous doctri ne . Con trover si es there haveb ~ e n concerning the nature of God , bu t t he U n d a m i m ~ 1 truthof the nnity of God has always been held by orthodox Christians in all ages and in all eount.ries.\"!e now put it to theMuslim reader as to whether a Qur'an which errs so egregi-ously on a simple matter of fac t concern ing Chr is ti an belie fis worthy of acceptance as a guide in those deeper mattersaffecting our eternal welfare. I f Mul!ammad was unaware ofthe true nature of the Chr is ti an doctr ine o f God, wbat valuecan we put on his other utterances when he attempts to pointout the way to God ?

I t has sometimes been ignorantly contended that the doct rine of the Trinity is an after-thought; that it finds no place

I Silralu'!Moi'jda (v) 76. Ibid" 119,

in the e a r l i e ~ t Christian conception of God. But no one can'read the New Testament with attention without seeing thateverywhere, side by side with an iterated insistence upon theessential unity of God, the re is at least an equal insistenceupon the Deity of 1esus and of t he Holy Spirit. The greatcommand of Jesus Himself to pr each the Gospe l in all th "world was accompanied by explicit instructions to baptize thenew converts ' into the name (not names) of the Fatber, andof the Son and of the Holy Ghost.' The doxologies appended to some of the letters of the Apostle Paul poin t in thesame direction, when he craves for his convert s in the samebr ea th The grace of the Lord 1esus Christ, and the love. ofGod, and the communion of th e Hol y Ghos t. ' Then, again,the ancient liturgies of the Christian Church afford conclusiv"proof tha t the doctr ine of a triune nature within the God.head was an intltgral part of early Christian faith. Thus anancient IiturKY of the Church of Alexandria, adopted aboutthe year A.D. 200 teaches the people to ,respond, Onealone is ho ly : t he Father, Onr. alolle i ' holy: the Son, aile_alone is holy: t he Spi ri t. ' It i. recorded that when thevenerable Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, who was born inA.D. 69 and was himself a disciple of the Apostle 10hn, gavehis life for the faith, he closed his prayer at the stake in th"sewords: ' Fo r this and for all things I praise Thee, I bless Tbee,I glorify Thee, tOKether with the eternal and heavenly Jesus,Th y beloved SOli, with Whom to Thee and tbe Holy Ghostbe glory both now and to all succeeding ages, Amen.'There is also striking testimony to the fact that the doctrineor the Trinity was held by the early Christian Church in thewritillJ.{s of the famous author and satirist Lucian, who wasborn in t he year A.D. 125. In his Pililo!>alris the Christian is 'made to confess' The exalted God . . . Son of the Father,Spirit proceeding from the Father, One of three , and three ofOne.' These 11Iotations suffice to show that from the very


31/39

56 . :THE 'BIBLE IN ISLAM., IHBLE DOCTRINE IN ISLA", 57days of Chrisl Himself the Christian Church held: the doctrineof -One God in three Persons. Far from i t being at development of later ages, it finds its foundat ion , i ~ , : t h e ..Scripturesthemselves. .

I t is merely begging tbe question for M u 9 l i ~ s , to say theydo not understand the Trinity, and therefore cannot, believe it.o Who can understand.the mystery of tbe resulTection at thelast day l' Yet multitudes believe it. Thereate many thingsin the Qur'an which Muslims do not understand, bu t which,nevertheless, they accept on the sole testimony of that book.Thus, commenting on tbe verse of the Qur'an which refer s t oGod's sitlinR on tbe t hrone, t he Tafs{rtl'r.Raufi says, the~ e r 8 e is,.j-,I l . : ; . . ! .... ) , I . r . - l , ~ ~ I : J ~ I ..- ~ l ~ 4 ! l . : . l . .

V' " I,i-_l . , s t ~ , ~ " l:i.i4- 'oft All...A..U L . To V"T

o One of the Mutashabihat, or hidden passages of theQur'an. We believe it, but only God knows its reality. AsHe is unknowable, so His sitting 011 t he throne is beyondcomprehension:Christians humbly accept the mystery of tbeTrinity on

the sole authority of Holy Scripture. Tbey realize that tbefinite can never fully comprehend the inf in ite ; for to under stand God would be to be God. Muslims would'. be wise toadopt the same attitude. They already believe in the resur.r ec ti on and future' j udg" ;e ll t on the s o I ~ autbority of whatthey believe to be revelation; then why not accept the testi .'mony of God's Holy Word. with respect to His Person.'

J See further in C l l r i ~ 1 in J , ' d ~ n . p. 16 eI uq . and God- in [sld_. p. 3" seq.

THI> BIDLICAL D')CTRIl


32/39

58 'THE BIBLE IN ISLAM BIBLE,DOCTRINE IN ISLA",his oath in the court of the Jewish high, priest, the latterasked Him sayinR'. 'Art thou the Cbrist; the son of theBlessed I ' And Jesus answered and said, ', I am. a nd ye shallsee the Son of man s il ti ng on the r ight hand"of power andcominR" in the c louds of heaven.' J It was" indeed, the constant complaint of His enemies the Jews that 'H e said alsothat God was His Father, makinR' Himself equal with God."One of the prayers of Jesus recorded in the Injn contains aclear reference to His pre exi st ence , in these words, Andnow, 0 Father, R'lorify thou me with thine own sel f with theg lory which I had with thee before the world was. ' 3How far , we now proceed to ask, does tbe Qur 'An confirm'

this view of the Messiah's person? What bas Mul)ammad tosay concerninR" the Divine sonship of the Lord Jesus Chr is t asr evealed to us in the lnjil? A study of the Qur'an re"ealsthe (ac t lhat Mul.mmmnd knows nothing whatever about it.'Vhat he does do, a g ~ i n and again, in the pages of the Qur'an.is to combat an imaginary doctrine of 'physical sonshipinvolving gross ideas of a carnal generation,' such as wasne"er held or taught by Christians at any period of the'Church's history. For Mu\tammad. the sonship of Chr is tinvol ved a grossly physica l view of H is relation to God theFather, carrying with it the blasphemous suggestion ofcarnal intercourse. Thus we find him saying, In 'ignorancethey have ascribed to Him sons and daughters. Glorr-be toHim' and hi!!"h let Him be exalted above that which theyattribute to Him. Sole Maker of the heavens and of theearth, how, when He hath no consort , should He ha"e ason? . fThe reader" ill sca rcely need to be reminded how very far

this l (rotes 'lue view of the sonship of Christ i s removed Irom

the spiritualdoctrine revealed in the Bible and briefly expound.ed above. This idea of a carnal sonship is as reJM!l1ant tothe Christian as the Muslim, and it has no place, ,and never

has had a place, ill Christian theology. It was Mul;Jammad'smisfortuue that he never had expounded to him the orthodoxdOdrine o( the sonship of Christ. The hea th en Arabsattrihuted daughters to God; and when Mu\tammad heardthe title Son ' given to the Messiah, he seems to haveassumed tha t that sonship was equally carnal with Ihltrelationships posited by the idolatrous Arabs between theSupreme and their inferior deities, In face of such a seriouserror on the part of Mul)ammad as to a general malter of(ac l, how, we ask, is he to be trusted when he undertakes toteach us the fundamentals of rclil(ion 1

THE DOCTRINE Of' T il E DI;ATB 01 ' CHRISTAnother b'''al t loctrine of Christianity is that the Lord

Jesns Chr is t died upon the c ross in order to make atonementfor the sins of the world. He Himself said, 'The Son ofman came not to be ministered nnto, but to minister, andto give his life a ransom (or many. ' J Not only is th e d ea thof Jesus related in circumstantial detail io the Injil, but itis a lso fore told in the Old Testament Scriptures of th e J ews.These lalter, it is well known, refused to acknowledge Jesusas the ir promised Messiah; yet th ei r Scr ip tu re s c le arl yprophecy His death. For example, the prophet Isaiah (ore-told the death of Chr is t in these startling words, He wascut ofT out of the land of the living, for the t tansgression ofmy people was he stricken; and he made his grave with thewicked and with the rich in his death." The prophetDavid, also. wrote o( the Messiah, 'The assembly of thewicketl have inclosed me ; they pierced my hands and my

I Mark : '(i\ '. 61-2., J "id. xvii. .5. :i John v. 18. Suratu/An"m (villOQ.I. J Matthew u . 28. I Isaiah Hil. 8-9.

,


33/39

THE 'BIBLE IN ISLAld,l" BIBLE DOCTRINE IN ISLAM 61feet. I may tell all my' bones; they look' and' stare: uponme. Theoy' par t' my 'garments amonl(; them/and cast lotsupon my vesture.' I This remarkable prophecy was complete.ly fulfilled when ]esu5 was killed, not by tlie']ewish methodof stoninK, but by cruci fixion, the methOd of capitalpunishment employed by the'Romans.

I t should be remembered, further, that the ,',life and deathof ]e;us a re par t of Roman history,'having taken'place undera Roman Governor, and haviog the attestation ' of historicalr ecords . Under these circum,tance, we are not surpr ised tofind by a reference to the h is to ry of tbose , t imes wonder fulcorroboration of ,the Biblical accounts of 'tbe death of Christ.For example, the celebrated Roman historian, Tacitus, whowas born about A.D. 55, in his his tory of tbe Roman Empirefrom A.D. 14 to 68 speaks of the Christians tbus: 'Theycalled t hem Chr is ti ans. ' Chr is t, f rom whom tbe name waRgiven, had been put, to death in the reign of ,Tiberius by theProcurator Pontius Pilate." Another famous author ofthose t imes was the Greek writer, Lucian, who"writing of theChristians, says, I They, in s oo th , s ti ll wo rs hi p t ha t g re atlIlan who was cruci fied in Palestine because be introducedinlo the world this new religion.' Other non-Christianhi,torians might be quoted, but the te;timonies.given aboveare sufficient to show that when the Inj il relates; the death ofJesu; on the cro:;s, it is r ela ting, not only the fulfilment ofprophecy, bat a well-established fact of history.Once again , we ask, what has Islam to say with rtgard to

this great central truth of Christianity? How does Mut>ammadrefer to it in the p a ~ e s of the Qur'iin? As is well known toall students of the Qur'an, that book, ins read ,of ' confirming;tbe testimony of t he Bibl e with regard to the death of Christ,asserts that He did not die, but was taken up alive to heaven.

The words of the Qur'an are these, Fo r their sayiDg, " Verilywe have slain the Messinh, Jesus tbe son of Mary, an apostleof God." Yet they slew him not , and tbey crucified him not.but they had only his likene ss.' 1 We have bere, surely, at o u c h - ~ t o n e with which to test the value o f the Qur'4nictestimony. On the one side we find the great prophets whopreceded the Messiah prophesying his dea th . and in tbe Injllwe have the clear testimony of a number of eye-witnesses.some of whom laid down the ir lives for their ' faitb. Closelyfollowing them we have the'valuable, independent testimonyof non-Christian historians-all affirming that J esu s wascrucified; whilsr on the other side we have Mu!;lammad, wholived s e v e r a ~ centuries later, denying Ihal Jesus died, andaffirming that He was taken up alive into heaven I Surely nounprejudiced reader will have ar y difficulty in choosing whomto believe.As we have befo re remarked, Mul)ammad probably never

read the Bible himself. I t is possible ihat be had metheretical followers of Manr, who said that Jesus had not died ;and he lOay have thought thnt their opinions represented thereaching of the Bible. Be that as i t may,.when the Qur'an isconvicted of such hopeless error on a simple mailer of historicfact, who will be found wi lling to r isk his eternal salvation byfollowing its t each ings concerning the fo rgiveness of s insThis latter ,nbject we now proceed to briefly discuss.

TH E DOCTRINE OF TilE FORGIVENESS OF SINSThe Bible teaches that through the atoning death of C h r i ~ t whereby full and complete satisfaction has been made for sin ,

the guilty, but repentant, sinner may 'obtain full and unconditional pardon, thereby secur ing reconci liat ion with God andacceptance into His heavenly kingdom. The cross is thus

I Psa lm x xi I. 1 6 -1 8 . 2 Ao oals x\'. 4. 1 S(lralu'n.NisA' (ivJ 158.

fi2 THE BIBLE IN ISLAM' HUlLE. DOCTRINE IN ISLAM 63


34/39

seen to be the supreme 'manifestation of.Divine. love. . God gave,' in the language of Scripture, Hi; onlybegotteu Son,to be the propitialion for our sins, and not for ours only, butalso for the sins of the .whole world.' (I John ii. 2.) ThusGod met the fall with" gift of redemption immeasurably greatand wonderful. This gif t is available for all who will forsakesin and yield themselves to the sovereignty of Jesus in a spi ri tof whole-hearted surrender to His will. .Th e Bible picturesGod a s One Who' willeth that a ll men should be s aved andcome to the knowledge of the truth," as 'not willing thatany should perish, but that all should come to .repentance.' The Scriptures represent Him as saying,.' I have no pleasurein the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn frolll hisway and l ive. ' 3 Thus God is revealed as a loving Fatheryc:wlInl-( over His erring children, and longing for them toaccept His invitation to return to the Father's home. Thatinvitation is extended to all, and ' whosoever will ' .may , takethe w at er of life freely." This, then, is tbe,.Divine plan:provision for forgiveness and reconciliation with.God, togetherwith an i nv it at ion to all to repent and accept .. tbe profferedgif t in Christ.Yet there is ano th er and awful alternative. and the Biblespeaks in solemn warning of another way which leadeth nntodestruction. This, too, is a matter of human choice, for theBible l


35/39

65'N o mischanc e chanc et h e it he r on 'e ar th or in your ownpersons, but ere wo cr ea te d them , it was in the book.' I sOllle are predestined for he,wen 'n d others for hell. And sowe rcac.1,

Il. .e . _. _ .. c. . c . . . . . . _ ..... ..Co .... _ ..'.,.... ' is I\... JIi I - y '' is t ..J Jw ~ 1 . J J I . : . . . i 1 o . ; . L. J,.j \:II_.(,. _ .. _. - .. .... .. ' . . . . .. . . . . . . .c. "; Co . . . .

~ : I ""J1 J..lS " . \... J \:Ils \... ..,.. ' is; . ;oUll '.,.. ist JIi

.. . ~ . ~ ~ ~ (,..... _# "'-_ Co .,. IIJ= , r) l I )IM, u J.s , .,. ; ~ i l l !> u.i-..:. J.s .J. . . , .. ". (,.. .. L _) o l - ~ , J ~ ,

, Silratu's-Sajda (uxii) 0 .

5

t Silratu'J-A'rM (\'ii) 180.

Many, moreove r, o f the Jinn and men have we created forhell.' I The reason for this is given in another Qur'Anicp a s s a ~ e , where we read,

- " - " . . . . . , , - .. ---~ I ~ L i J l , ~ ~ l l : l ~' l lad we pleased, we had cer ta in ly g iven to every soul itsguidance. Bu t true shall be the word which hath gone forthfrom me- I will surely / il l hell with J in n an d men together."\Ve ask the Muslim reader to compare th is terrible picturewith Ihe Kracious invitations of t he Bibl e. elln it for a

mumenl he helicvctl th.u both arc froll1 that ~ s u p r e m e Beingwhom we cal l the AliMerciful? Are we to believe that GodHimself is the Autho r o f Sin! That the piety of the piousand the infidelity of the wicked are a li ke o rd ai ned by Him JDoes the 111 nslim reader of this little book really believe, canhe really believe, that this Ishimic doc tr ine of fate is a reveJat ion f rom God the AIl Merciful? We ap pe al to everyMuslilll r ea de r o f t he se lines not to let pre jndice blind his"ye,. \Ve appeal to him to consider the gracious invi tat ionof Jes,I'_ 'Come nnto me, all ye ih at lab our a nd ar e heavyJadell, and I wiIJ give you rest.'

SuratD'IQamar (liv) '2-3.- S 6 r a t u ' n N ~ 1 (aYi) 9 ',1 SUTalU'\'I;!.did (Ivii) 22,, M i . h k d t u I M a ~ d b i h , Kitdbu'j.f",d".

.. # .. c... (,._ .... __ (,. _ " ...w.., ,l.. , ".. 1:1"" '";To ) 1:1""

, He (God) cauSeth whom He will 'to err, and' whom He willHe guidetb.' This leads logically to the further doctrine that

'Verily everything have we created by decree; 'and everythingthat they do isin the books; every {action) .. :bOth sma ll andgreat, is written down." This is somewhat amplified in theTraditions where Mul}ammad teaches that

, Verily the first thing which God created was .the pen, AndHe s aid to it, Write. It said, What shall I' .write) He said;,Write down the divine decrees. So it w ro te down all thatwas and all that will be to eternity.' 3

This decree of God emb ra ce s a ll t he acts of men , I{cxxI orbad; hence some are led astray, whilst o the rs a re guide


36/39

CHAPTER VIIBIBLE HISTORY IN I S L A ~

EVERY reader of the Qur'an knows th at i t contains lenglhyaod repe at ed re fe rence s to Bible history, A very l argeamount of space i ode ed is g iven in the Qur'an .to the storiesof the ear ly Patriarchs; whilst Moses, David, Solomon ando the rs a re also frequently menti oned. Now if. the Qur'an'confirms,' as it c la ims to do, the Old and New TestamentScr iptures, then it is obvious that Qur'anic references to t hegreat men mentioned in those books will agree with theaccoull ts found in the Taullit and Injil. Far f rom this beingthe case, however , we shall show that Mul:Iammad again andagain fal ls into ser ious error with reg ard to those whom hementions, Two principal reasons may b e a ss ig ne d for t h e ~ emistakes on the part of Mul:Iammad. In tbe f irs t place, wehave direct evidence f rom Islamic sources that Mul:Iamllladwas in the hab it o f asking the Jews c o n c e m i ~ g their Faith,alld that, ill reply, the crafty sons of Israel often deliberatelymislc J.i.) . , ) J.; I);"" ' J "r .>I) .41 ' . J " ~ 'So;, Ibn'Abbas said that, when t he Prophet asked any questionof t he people of t he Book , t hey s uppre ss ed the matter , and,

in place of it , told him somethill lt e lse, and Weilt away lettinghill, thi llk that t hey had t"ld hill l whllt he asked them:Here, then, we have a sufficient explanation of the fact tbatmany of t he Jewisb st ori es repe at ed in t be Qur'an do notagree with the inspired records of the Taurat and Injil.

Another undoubted r eason for the h istor ical e rror s of theQur'an is the fact that the Jews of Arabia in the time ofMul.lammad had largely superseded the study of t be Tauratby t',at of the Talmud. This lat te r was a collection oftraditional folk-lore and Rabbinical speculation concerningalmost every conceivable topic. Apocryphal stories o f t beancientPatnarchs and t radi ti onal comment s and glosses ofthe ancient Scriptures made up a large portion o f theTalmud, which, rather than the Taurat, was the book mosts tudied in the schools and recited Oll public occasions. Little'wonder, then, that Mul:Iarnmad, as he listened to its unhistorical lellends, should ha"e imagined t hem to be t he v ery wordsof Scripture, and so was led to incorporate them in hisQur'an. This is the view of no less a s chol ar t han S ir AmirIAIi, who a dmits J that Mul,lammad h orrowed (rom thefleetillg f ancies of Zoroast ri an ism, Sabeanism and theTalmudic Jew.' These borrowed 'fancies' no doubt contributed not a l it tl e to t he many historical errors o f t he Qur'an.In auother place the same Muslim writer, speaking ofsimilar Traditions current amongst the Christians of Arabiain the t ime of Mul.lammad, makes the fol lowing significantadmission :-' Before the advent of Mul:Iammad, all t hes etraditions, based on' fact t hough ti nged by the colou rings o fimagination, must ha ve become f.rmly imbedded in the convictions of the people, and formed essential parts of tbefolk .l ore o f the count ry . Mul!,1nunad, the re fore , whenprollluigating his faith and his laws, found these Traditions

) T / Spirit oj [.dd"" p. 235.

68 THE BIllLE IN ISLAM BIllLE HISTO

Bible in Islam

Documents