Holy Books in Islam (AQA GCSE Religious Studies A (8062))

The Torah & The Scrolls of Ibrahim

The Authority of other Holy Books

• Islam was not viewed as a new religion in Arabia, or to the world, but was the perfection of previous revelations sent by Allah

  • Islam was considered the perfection because the holy book the Qur’an is considered to be the unaltered word of Allah

• The Qur’an has complete authority and is seen as the perfect word of God as revealed to Muhammad (pbuh)

• The Torah, Psalms and Gospels are also holy books, which are mentioned in the Qur’an but they are believed to contain some errors and do not have the same authority

• Some scholars believe these earlier books to be ‘lost’ and no longer existing in any form

The holy books of Islam

The Torah (Tawrat)

• The Tawrat is the Arabic word for the Torah, which are the revelations given to Musa (Moses) by Allah on Mount Sinai

• It is mentioned 18 times in the Qur’an. Muslims believe that the revelation was given directly to Musa, rather than through Angel Jibril

• The book was written in Hebrew, which he gave to the Jews

• Some Muslims believe that The Tawrat does not exist in its original language or its original text

  • It was put together by the followers of Moses a long time after his death

  • The compilers changed the text, so some is the Word of Allah and some is human addition

• Despite concerns over changes to the text, the Qur’an refers to the Tawrat as ‘guidance and light’, revealed by Allah, and is clearly very important

• The Qur’an says that it contains the ‘judgement of Allah’ (Quran 5: 43)

• The Tawrat also contains the Ten Commandments which are the basic rules for religious life

• Muhammad’s (pbuh) nightly prayers reinforce the importance of the early scripture

  • In the prayer he puts his life in Allah’s hands (the creator and lord of everything, the source of the Tawrat, the Gospels and the Qur’an) and asked for protection from Shaytan

• The Qur’an also seems to suggest that the Torah was not only taught by Musa, but by all prophets and priests

The Scrolls of Ibrahim

• Very little is actually known about the Scrolls of Ibrahim (often called Suhuf)

• This account is said to have been written in Hebrew and is referred to in the Qur’an, but is now lost

• These are thought to be the oldest scriptures within Islam, which were revealed to Ibrahim

• Ibrahim is termed ‘the upright one’, always faithful to Allah

• The revelations were said to have been received by Ibrahim on the first day of Ramadan and contained parable like stories about worship, reflections and building a livelihood

• The scrolls were written on parchment but perished over time. It is generally agreed that they were not ‘a book’, rather they were individual revelations

The Psalms & The Gospels

The Psalms

• The Zabur (Psalms) of Dawud (David) are a collection of prayers to Allah (some refer to them as poems)

• Dawud was a great king, whose people were God-fearing and righteous

• In Surah 4:163 it says, ‘We gave Dawud the Zabur’

• They contain lessons of guidance for the people and he recited them in song version

• A fragment of an Arabic translation of Psalm 78 from the second century CE was found in Damascus, Syria

• One important message in the Zabur is the idea of the Masih (Messiah)

• The Masih was to be a symbol of hope for the future in a world where many had failed to obey Allah’s commands

• Isa also referred to what had been said about the Masih in the Gospel of Luke, ‘Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms (Zabur)’

• Isa taught in a way which allowed people to understand the scriptures. For Muslims, Isa was the Messiah and will return

The Gospels

• The message in the Injil (Gospels) was revealed by Allah to Isa (Jesus) but was lost and are distorted

• Muslims highly respect Isa because there are revelations in the Qur’an about him

• There are some things about Isa (Jesus) that Christians and Muslims agree on but there are some distinct differences

  • Muslims believe that Isa was born of a virgin mother

  • They believe that he was the Masih (Messiah)

  • Like Christians, Muslims believe that the Gospels relate to ‘good news’ about Isa (Jesus) written by his disciples

  • However, Muslims believe that he was not the son of Allah (as Allah can have no partners) but he was a follower of Allah

  • They believe that Isa was not crucified. In fact he did not die, rather he ascended to heaven

  • Muslims believe that he did not die to save sins (Allah is all compassionate, so He will forgive sins, so this sacrifice would have been unnecessary)

  • Muslims believe that the gospels in their current form contain mistakes because they were written by disciples many years after the death of Isa

• Muslims believe that the Injil prophecies the coming of the prophet Muhammad (pbuh)

• Although the Psalms and Gospels are important holy books in Islam, they are not the direct word of Allah and contain errors and are corrupted