IN THE NAME OF GOD, MOST GRACIOUS, EVER MERCIFUL
Front page Question/Answers   My Philosophy Ask a Question  
RELATED ARTICLES
Why the Need of a New Scripture?
 

Which Parts of Bible Are Accepted

 

Question

Which if any parts of the Bible are accepted in Islam?

Some Muslims have told me that Muslims are instructed to not read or even touch any part of the Bible. Is that true?

In some references, I have read that the Bible is not prohibited from being read, but that the Qu'ran is considered by Muslims to be superior in every respect to the Bible, and that the teachings of the Qu'ran supersede everything in the Bible.

Other Muslim sources have told me that the Qu'ran itself makes reference to the Torah and other parts of the Bible in a positive way. What is true?

Response

Before I answer your question, I will like to explain the link between the prophets and the books of God all the way to Muhammad (pbuh), the last prophet, and Quran, the book containing the word of God revealed to him.

The religion of God, from the time of Adam (pbuh) all the way to Muhammad (pbuh) has really been the same and so were their teachings, and the books brought forth by each of them. However, it seems that over time, corruption kept creeping into those religions and their respective scriptures. Thus, God kept sending prophets time and again to come and fix the distorted parts. The last prophet in the chain of these prophets was Muhammad (pbuh) who gave religious teachings to this world such that they have been preserved in their original form and are available to us.

Given this information, it becomes evident that Bible and the other books revealed previously are considered to have been revealed by God and Muslims are required to believe in those books to be such. However, since every time a prophet succeeded the previous ones, he removed all the human corruption from the previous books, the chain leading all the way to Quran which is accepted by Muslims as the final book containing the law of God.

Quran's first addressees, therefore, were from among the people who believed in the previous scriptures, specifically the Old and the New Testaments. One often finds that Quran makes a direct address to Jews and Christians and then continues on to discuss various issues related to them. One also finds that when Quran mentioned to Jews and Christians various issues from their history, they were fully aware of the intricate details of such incidents and had no difficulty in comprehending the message of Quran for this reason.

Consequently, the following can be said about Islamic beliefs with regards to the previous books:

  1. It is accepted that the previous books were divinely revealed and are accepted and respected so by Muslims.
  2. Since all the previous scriptures have been succeeded by Quran, the God's final law is entailed in His lastly revealed Book and that is from where the Islamic law would be derived. If there is a contradiction between Bible and Quran, because of this particular reason the Quranic ruling prevails.
  3. Since Quran directly addressed Jews and Christians, carried on discussion on some of the incidents that were very well-known to them, made references to Bible in its address of many issues, it becomes important not only to understand Jewish and Christian history but also to understand Bible in order to grasp Quranic understanding better.

Therefore, in my opinion both of your following statements are correct:

In some references, I have read that the Bible is not prohibited from being read, but that the Qu'ran is considered by Muslims to be superior in every respect to the Bible, and that the teachings of the Qu'ran supersede everything in the Bible.
Other Muslim sources have told me that the Qu'ran itself makes reference to the Torah and other parts of the Bible in a positive way.

As for the following statement of yours:

Some Muslims have told me that Muslims are instructed to not read or even touch any part of the Bible.

It seems that the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) may have stopped some of his companions from reading and understanding the Bible during his time. The most plausible explanation for such a directive seems to be that it was a temporal order to his companions since he wanted them to spend their time in memorizing and preserving the Quran so it was kept in its original form. In addition, learning and understanding the Quran was perhaps far more important for them at that point than Bible because Quran had superseded the previous revelations and brought forth a new law. Understanding this new revelation was of paramount importance in cleansing the souls of those individuals and eventually forming a state on Islamic law where its principles could be practically demonstrated.

As a result, I would disagree with the opinion that Muslims should not study the Bible and other previous scriptures.