The third article of Faith by Sahar-ul-Nisa Haroon
Belief in the scriptures revealed by God is the third article of the Islamic faith. These books were revealed by God to his messengers who then passed them onto their people. The Words were revealed so that mankind could be guided. God reveals himself through these scriptures and explains the purpose of human creation.
Scriptures provide a complete code of conduct for all humanity. The reasons why God revealed these scriptures are manifold. Through these scriptures we learn what religion is, what our obligations toward other human fellows are, how disputes and differences between followers in matters of religious belief and practice or in matters of social practice could be settled. They are meant to keep the religion safe from corruption and deterioration and they serve as a proof against human beings and we are not allowed to oppose or overstep them.
Revelations were given to guide the people to the right path of God. The Quran refers to the books revealed to Abrahim, Moses, David, Jesus and Muhammad. These include:
(a) Scriptures of Ibrahim ‘And this is in the former Scriptures, the Scriptures of Ibraheem and Moosa‘ (87:18-19)
(b) The Tawrah “Verily, we did send down the Tawrah (to Moosa). Therein was guidance and light.” (5:44)
(c) The Zaboor “…and unto Dawood, We gave the Zaboor.” (17:55)
(d) Injeel “Then, We sent after them, Our messengers, & We sent Eesa son of Maryam, & gave him the Injeel….” (57:27)
Today the Quran is the only authentic and complete book of God. All the books which were revealed before the Quran do not exist in their original form now. They are lost or corrupted or concealed. As a true Muslim one should believe that there was the original revelation of all the previous books (revealed before Qur’an) and they have been changed e.g Thalmud – invented after the time of Prophet Musa (pbuh) and Gospel/Testaments – invented after Prophet Eesa (pbuh).
There are some verses of Qur’an which prove that there were some changes in the previous books revealed. “Do you (faithful believers) covet that they will believe in your religion despite of the fact that a party of them (Jewish rabbis) used to hear the word Allah (the Tawrah), then they used to change it knowingly after they understood it?” (2:75)
“Among those who are Jews, there are some who displace words from (their) right places and say:” “We hear your word (O Muhammad) and disobey.“(4:46)
“And from those who call themselves Christians, We took their covenant, but they have abandoned a good part of the Message that was sent to them… (5:14)”
One of the renowned Islamic scholar, Ibn al Qayyim has given five kinds of Tahreef (change) in the previous books:
- Part of the text was lost
- Additions were put in
- Incorrect translation
- Meaning : incorrect ‘tafseer or interpretation happened
- Words and phrases were submitted with others
Scholars have also given their different opinions about them:
Imam Bukhari and others say that the Tawrah is mostly the same and includes a very little change. Ibn Hazm said that all these scriptures are absolutely changed and we don’t have any previous book left (Al-Fasl,2:4-5) Ibn Taymiah (RA) gave opinion that there would be at least one original copy of each revealed scriptures somewhere in the world.
The reason why all these books except Quran are corrupted and distorted is that when over a period of time the original teachings of these books became distorted or lost, God made it necessary to send another message to set the record straight and confirm His teachings.
Qur’an was the final revelation God sent to mankind. It is meant to remain as an undistorted and uncorrupt book on earth till the Day of Judgment. We have to believe that the Qur’an is the word of Allah, which was revealed to the Prophet (pbuh). It is the last revelation by Allah (Swt). It was delivered to us completely and protected from additions and subtractions.
Qur’an has a miraculous nature. It is a challenge for mankind to create even a single verse like it (Al-Quran 2:23). Qur’an is a book which directly touches our soul. The language used in the Quran is very lucid as it was used in the language of the common people. It is the only book which is very much easy to learn and memorize “And we have indeed made the Qur’an an easy to understand and remember: then is there any that will receive admonition (54:17).”
Quran is a complete guide it is sent as a blessing onto us. Allah himself has said that whoever follows its teachings and leads his life according to the rules and instructions mentioned in Quran will be successful both in this world and hereafter.
(The author is a research scholar at the Aligarh Muslim University. This is the third part of a series of writings on Islam. You can also send your contributions to [email protected])
