Belief in Scriptures

Belief in the Sacred Texts

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

Description: Why God revealed His message in the form of scriptures, and a brief description of the two of the Scriptures of God: the Bible, and the Qur'an.


Belief in the scriptures revealed by God is the third article of Islamic faith.

Among the four main reasons for the revelation of scriptures:

(1) The scripture revealed to a prophet is a point of reference to learn the religion and obligations towards God and fellow human beings. God reveals Himself and explains the purpose of human creation through revealed scriptures.

(2) By referring to it, 'disputes and differences between its followers in matter of religious belief and practice or in matters of social practice could be settled.

(3) The scriptures are meant to keep the religion safe from corruption and deterioration, at least for some time after the death of the prophet. At the present time, the Qur'an revealed to our Prophet Muhammad, may the blessing and mercy of God be upon him, is the only scripture to remain safe from corruption.

(4) It is God’s proof against human beings. They are not allowed to oppose or overstep it.

A Muslim firmly believes that divinely revealed books were actually revealed by the Compassionate God to His prophets to guide mankind. The Qur'an is not the only spoken Word of God, but God also spoke to prophets before Prophet Muhammad.

“…and to Moses God spoke directly.” (Ani-Nisaa', 4:164)

God describes true believers are those who:

“…believe in what has been sent down to you (Muhammad) and what has been sent down before you…” (Al-Baqarah', 2:4)

The most important and central message of all scriptures was to worship God and God alone.

“And we sent never a prophet before you except that we revealed to him, saying, ‘there is no God but I, so worship Me.’” (Al-Anbiyaa', 21:25)

Islam is more inclusive in the holy revelations it affirms than any other heavenly religion in its present form.

Muslims uphold and respect the following scriptures:

(i) The Qur'an itself, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.

(ii) The Torah (Tawrat in Arabic) revealed to the Prophet Moses (different from the Old Testament read today).

(iii) The Gospel (Injeel in Arabic) revealed to Prophet Jesus (different from the New Testament read in churches today).

(iv) The Psalms (Zabur in Arabic) of David.

(v) The Scrolls (Suhuf in Arabic) of Moses and Abraham.

Third, Muslims believe whatever is true in them and has neither been altered or deliberately misconstrued.

Fourth, Islam affirms that God revealed the Qur'an as a witness over the previous scriptures and confirmation of them, because He says therein:

“And We have sent down to you (O Muhammad) the Book (the Quran) in truth, confirming the scripture that came before it and trustworthy in highness and a witness over it (the collection of old scriptures)…” (Al-Maidah, 5:48)

Meaning the Qur'an confirms whatever is true in previous scriptures and rejects whatever alterations and changes human hands have made to them.

Original Scriptures and the Bible

We must distinguish between two matters: the original Torah, Gospel, and Psalms and the present day Bible. The originals were God’s revelation, but the present day Bible does not have the exact original scripture.

No divine scripture exists today in the original language it was revealed in, except the Quran. The Bible was not revealed in English. Different books of today’s Bible are at best tertiary translations and different versions exist. These multiple translations were done by people whose knowledge, skill, or honesty is not known. As a result, some bibles are larger than others and have contradictions and internal inconsistencies! No originals exist. The Qur'an, on the other hand, is the only scripture in existence today in its original language and words. Not one letter of the Qur'an has been changed since its revelation. It is internally consistent with no contradictions. It is today as it was revealed 1400 years ago, transmitted by a rock-solid tradition of memorization and writing. Unlike other sacred texts, the entire Qur'an has been memorized by almost every Islamic scholar and hundreds of thousands of ordinary Muslims, generation after generation!

The previous scriptures essentially consist of:

(i) Stories of man’s creation and earlier nations, prophesies of what was to come like signs before the Judgment Day, appearance of new prophets, and other news.

The stories, prophecies, and news in the Bible read in churches and synagogues today are partly true and partly false. These books consist of some translated fragments of the original scripture revealed by God, words of some prophets, mixed with explanations of scholars, errors of scribes, and outright malicious insertions and deletions. Qur'an, the final and trustworthy scripture, helps us sort out fact from fiction. For a Muslim, it is the criterion to judge the truth from the falsehood in these stories. For example, the Bible still contains some clear passages pointing to God’s unity.[1] Also, some prophecies regarding the Prophet Muhammad are found in the Bible as well.[2] Yet, there are passages, even whole books, almost entirely recognized to be forgeries and the handiwork of men.[3]

(ii) Law and rulings, the allowed and prohibited, like the Law of Moses.

If we were to assume the law, that is the lawful and the prohibited, contained in the previous books did not suffer corruption, the Qur'an still abrogates those rulings, it cancels the old law which was suitable for its time and is no longer applicable today. For example, the old laws pertaining to diet, ritual prayer, fasting, inheritance, marriage and divorce have been cancelled (or, in many cases, reaffirmed) by the Islamic Law.

The Holy Qur'an

The Qur'an is different from other scriptures in the following respects:

(1) The Qur'an is miraculous and inimitable. Nothing similar to it can be produced by human beings.

(2) After the Qur'an, no more scriptures will be revealed by God. Just as the Prophet Muhammad is the last prophet, the Qur'an is the last scripture.

(3) God has taken it upon Himself to protect the Qur'an from alteration, to safeguard it from corruption, and to preserve it from distortion. On the other hand, previous scriptures suffered alteration and distortion and do not remain in their originally revealed form.

(4) The Qur'an, for one, confirms early scriptures and, for another, is a trustworthy witness over them.

(5) The Qur'an abrogates them, meaning it cancels the rulings of the previous scriptures and renders them inapplicable. The Law of the old scriptures is no longer applicable; the previous rulings have been abrogated with the new Law of Islam.

[Excerpted from IslamReligion.com, Published on 16 Jan 2006 ]

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Footnotes:

[1] For example the declaration of Moses: “Hear, O Israel The Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4) and the announcement of Jesus: “...The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord.” (Mark 12:29).

[2] Refer to (Deuteronomy 18:18), (Deuteronomy 33:1-2), (Isaiah 28:11), (Isaiah 42:1-13), (Habakkuk 3:3), (John 16:13), (John 1:19-21), (Matthew 21:42-43), and more.

[3] For example, refer to books of the Apocrypha.


© IslamReligion.com

Al-Qur'an, Abrogation, and Islam

Al-Qur'an, Abrogation, and Islam 

Ahmad Saad

Question: Assalamu’ alaikum! Recently I read your answer about abrogation in the Qur’ān , and there is a point that I couldn't understand. I was always under the impression that abrogation mentioned in the Qur’ān  referred to the Qur’ān 's supremacy over older scriptures, and I understood that because older scriptures were particular to their regions while the Qur’ān  was meant for all mankind. The point about alcohol did not bother me, because none of the statements about alcohol in the Qur’ān invalidates the others. I always read verse 85 of Surah Al `Imran to mean “And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him; and in the hereafter, he will be one of the losers." Please clarify this point for me.

In the Name of Allāh, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allāh, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

Let's focus first on the nature of abrogation, since we always think that abrogation means cancellation. In the first instance with the revelation of Al-Qur’ān, it means an abrogation, total cancellation or amendment of the previous scriptures. But as far as in the context of the Qur’ān and other particular verses it would mean as an amendments, revocation or progression in setting up legal rulings.

As it had been indicated in one of my previous answers on this topic, people may not be ready yet to receive a full and final ruling on an issue; and therefore Allāh Almighty, out of His mercy, trains them little by little and introduces them to the ruling in a gradual way.

It is undoubtedly the Qur’ān itself is an abrogation of all previous scriptures. This statement is true when we take the word "abrogation" to refer to the above-mentioned two meanings: cancellation and amendment.

When the Qur’ān was revealed, it declared its cancellation of many of the previous ruling details that were suitable for the previous messages because they were limited to certain regions and certain people. For instance, the Torah established that people who wanted to repent from a sin was to end their life as a way of showing total repentance to Allāh. When the Qur’ān  was revealed, it declared that repentance can be achieved without people taking their own life, but rather by doing the following: quitting the evil deed, feeling remorse over it, resolving never to repeat it, and — if the sin involved harming other people — making suitable amends for them.

Of course this last approach better suits the universality of the message of the Qur’ān  and better copes with the real nature of human beings who would fall into sins every now and then.

Besides, it shows that the message of the Qur’ān is the message of balance. The Qur’ān has kept certain rulings that were originally revealed by Allāh to previous believing nations because such rulings are still suitable for application, like the "eye for eye, tooth for tooth" ruling. However, the Qur’ān gives some amendments there as it acknowledges the fact that wronged people may forgive the ones who harmed them; and in such cases, people should accept this. In this way, Islam promotes a peaceful society.

With that said, we can simply realize the fact that the Noble Qur’ān itself constitutes an abrogation, in either meaning of previous scriptures, by means of cancellation sometimes and amendment some other times.

Of course, this proves the Qur’ān’s position as the final revelation from Allāh and the last testament, so to say, sent to show humankind the way to their Lord. Allāh Almighty says what means:

“And unto you have We revealed the Scripture with the truth, confirming whatever scripture was before it, and a watcher over it.” [Al-Ma'idah, 5:48]

This brings us to the verse you referred to:

“And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him; and in the hereafter, he will be one of the losers." [Al-`Imran, 3:85]

The verse, as it appears in the Arabic text, refers clearly to Islam as a religion. This cannot be understood as referring just as "submission", because submission is one of the aspects of the religion of Islam but not all of them.

In fact, the word "Islam" comes from the Arabic root s-l-m, and from these three letters, we can deduce three words with three meanings that correlate to each other: submission, purity, and peace. The Islamic meaning of the word "Islam" comprises all three aspects; that is, the word "Islam" means submitting oneself to the will of Allāh and worshipping Him purely without associating anyone with Him, therefore reaching the level of peace and harmony in this life and in the hereafter.

Bearing this in mind, we find that we cannot limit the word "Islam" to mean mere submission, because anyone can submit themselves to their idol or god. Christians submit themselves to Jesus; lovers submit themselves to their beloved ones, and so on.

Allāh tells us about this fact:

“Yet of mankind are some who take unto themselves (objects of worship which they set as) rivals to Allāh, loving them with a love like (that which is the due) of Allāh (only).” [Al-Baqarah 2:165]

Therefore, the word mentioned in verse 85 of Surat Al-`Imran refers to Islam as a religion, not just something we submit to. We need to understand it as meaning the following: Any religion sought other than Islam will not be accepted. This becomes more understandable when we bear in mind that Islam is the religion of all prophets from Adam to Muhammad (Sallallāhu `Alayhi Wa Sallam) .All of them came with the same message and for the same mission: to guide people to the way of their Creator.

The core of that message is to bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship except Allāh. This is what we actually mean when we say that Islam is the religion of all messengers and prophets. Yes, the details of each ruling sent with each prophet particular to his time differed, but the core of the message and the main religion, which is Islam, is the same. This becomes clear when we understand the following words of Prophet Muhammad (Sallallāhu `Alayhi Wa Sallam):

"And prophets are consanguine brothers; their religion is one and their mothers are many" [Al-Bukhari]

This means that they came with the same religion — Islam — at different periods of time (expressed by the word "mothers").

In light of this, we can understand that Allāh Almighty says that any path sought other than Islam, which encompasses complete monotheism and total acceptance of all prophets from Adam to Muhammad, will not be accepted. Rather, we have to accept all messengers and purely worship Allāh as the only Lord.

Therefore any change in the core of the message or any humanly fabricated version falsely ascribed to Allāh and claimed to be true is totally rejected and never accepted by Allāh Almighty.

[Excerpted with modifications from Islam Online, Asked about Islam, published 5 April 2007]