Why the Need of a New Scripture?

Question

I have several follow-up questions that I would like to ask, but I will keep this to only two, and I hope that it is okay to ask two now (plus a couple of administrative questions).

Followup question #1. I was very pleased to read the following in your response:

... 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.

That gives us wonderful common ground which I sincerely appreciate. I have read some of the Quran, have the text of it on my computer, and occasionally do searches in it, as in the Bible, as I have great faith in the Bible and have studied it very intently for more than 30 years. In Deuteronomy 4:2, I recall the following:

"Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish [ought] from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. (Deutronomy 4:2

Given this specific instruction from the Lord God, and knowing that God is perfect, and that being perfect, He never changes nor has any need to change, how can it be possible that He would have ever added any laws that would supersede and/or contradict those He originally instituted and established? When you speak of the Qu'ran superseding the Bible, it is difficult to comprehend how it could be true and valid that God should supersede Himself.

Followup question #2. As I have tried to understand the core difference(s) between belief that centers in the Word of God in the Bible and my very limited understanding of Islam, I have attempted to write a brief statement to summarize my understanding of what seems to be the most distinguishing difference. Please tell me if the following two short paragraphs comprise a fair and accurate statement:

"Islam or Mohammedanism is a religion that had its beginning sometime around 622 A.D. when a man named Mohammed began to formulate a detailed array of rules to govern every aspect of life. Mohammed taught that all of the rules and laws that he outlined must be followed religiously in order to attain eternal life in paradise.

"One of the core beliefs of Islam is that the teachings of Mohammed as written in the Qu'ran (Koran) are considered Islamic law (called the Sharia). For Muslims, there is no distinction between religious law and secular or civil law. The Sharia sets forth rules over every aspect of life, including family relations, inheritance, taxation, purification, and prayer. Islam requires that Sharia law is to be followed as far as any secular governments permits."

Please advise if there is anything inaccurate in the above two paragraphs.

Response

I am glad you liked my response and find it useful. For the first part of your question, I would say that I interpret the verse that you have quoted as an instruction from God to the man. God is instructing those who received this scripture that they should not add, remove or change anything from the scripture that has been given to them by the prophet.

"Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish [ought] from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you." (Deutronomy 4:2)

Matthew Henry writes the following in his commentary of this verse:

"He charges them to preserve the divine law pure and entire among them, v. 2. Keep it pure, and do not add to it; keep it entire, and do not diminish from it.

and later continues on to say,

The Jews understand it as prohibiting the alteration of the text or letter of the law, even in the least jot or tittle; and to their great care and exactness herein we are very much indebted, under God, for the purity and integrity of the Hebrew code.

I do not believe that this verse is necessarily promising the adherents of the Bible that their book has been protected by the Almighty. In my previous response I have alluded to the following:

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.

As a result, I believe that while the commandments of God to the humans were to keep the original intact and not to add, remove and change anything therefrom, in reality that was not upheld as it should have been. Consequently, it was because of such a need to revive His religion that God chose to send more messengers that made the required effort.

In addition, I would also like to say that even though God being perfect can send a perfect law once and for all, however, there has not been any such claim from God in the previous scriptures. We should keep in mind that laws have been sent for man, and there were certain circumstances under which laws were sent by God to different nations. It is not a weakness of God, rather a weakness of man that God sent the law tailored according to his circumstances. However, until God claims that He has sent the final law in its final form, we cannot ascertain whether a given law was perfect for all times to come.

If we look at other biblical passages, such as Deutronomy 18:18, it seems that God, even at the time of revelation of Bible, informed the believers that there shall follow more prophets who must be accepted by those who believe in the Bible. Prophet Moses (pbuh) has said in the book of Deutronomy:

The LORD said to me: "What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account." (Deutronomy 18:17-19)

What needs to be ascertained then is that if someone has claimed to be this prophet as foretold by Moses (pbuh), is he really a prophet or not. In case one establishes that there really has been a prophet of God that has followed Moses (pbuh) then it becomes incumbent upon a true Biblical follower to accept him. However, if one is not convinced of the prophet hood of the claimant, then they must continue to look for a prophet as that is something that has been promised by God. If they find new information on the subject, it must not be blindly rejected rather carefully scrutinized to understand whether the claimant of prophet hood is a true prophet or not. The most important aspect of such a struggle is that one's loyalty must lie with God and not with their set of beliefs. We should not believe in Bible or Quran or any book for that matter, just because we do so, rather we should believe in these scriptures because of our love for God and our fear of His wrath if we do not obey His law. Our belief in a book, law or religion should only be after us having ascertained that it really is the religion intended for us by God. Our emotions, personal biases and other human weaknesses should not stop us from accepting the truth, whether it be with us or against us.

Needless to say, in my opinion, this prophet that has been mentioned in the Bible happened to be Muhammad (pbuh) who fulfilled this prophecy of prophet Moses (pbuh). It is in this spirit that I say that Quran has been sent as a succession to Bible and the biblical commandment - "if anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account" - requires that Quran, which is accepted by Muslims as the Word of God, must be accepted over Bible especially where they contradict by those who believe in Muhammad (pbuh)'s prophet hood.

For the second part of your question, I think that it misses some of the core aspects of Islam that I have tried to outline. I may not be able to summarize Islam in a paragraph or two, but I will like to make the following points from a Muslim's perspective:

Muslims believe in One God and in Muhammad (pbuh) as His messenger and the last prophet. Muslims do believe in the previous prophets as well and treat all the prophets equally as required by Islam.
Quran is the Word of God revealed to Muhammad (pbuh) and it would be unfair to say that it is just a set of laws conceived by Muhammad (pbuh). Since Islam is a religion revealed by God, it is the same as those revealed by Him to the previous prophets and was revived once again, for the last time through Muhammad (pbuh).
The Shariah law is a combination of Quran as well as the practical aspects of the laws contained in it. Those practical implications are explained by Muhammad (pbuh) and are referred to as his Sunnah (literal meaning 'treaded path').
In general, while Islam provides a set of laws for individual life, it also entails directives for the collectivity which must be implemented in an Islamic state. However, in the absence of an Islamic state, the individual laws must still be followed and adhered to whereas the state laws may not, and in some cases cannot, be implemented.