The Qur’an

Torah, Psalms and Gospel in the Qur’an

The Qur’an names three earlier scriptures: the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel. When it uses these names, is it talking about the Bible as Christians and Jews have it, or about something else?

1The question

What does the Qur’an mean by the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel?

2What Christians believe

Christians answer that the Qur’an is speaking of the books Jews and Christians actually had in seventh-century Arabia: the Torah as the five books of Moses, the Psalms, and the Gospels. When the Qur’an praises these scriptures, they argue, it praises the Bible.

They note that Arabic-speaking Christians used the word Injil for the Gospel book read in their churches.

3What the texts say

Moses receives and writes the Law

And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.
Exodus 24:12 · KJVRead in context →
And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and unto all the elders of Israel.
Deuteronomy 31:9 · KJVRead in context →

David speaks God’s word

The Spirit of the LORD spake by me, and his word was in my tongue.
2 Samuel 23:2 · KJVRead in context →

Jesus preaches the gospel

Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
Mark 1:14 · KJVRead in context →
And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
Mark 1:15 · KJVRead in context →

4What scholars say

Sidney H. Griffith (The Bible in Arabic, 2013) argues that there was probably no written Arabic translation of the Bible before Islam, and that the Qur’an engages with biblical stories as they were known and retold orally.

Gordon Nickel (Narratives of Tampering in the Earliest Commentaries on the Qur’an, 2011) shows that early Muslim commentators discussed what the Qur’an means by the earlier scriptures, and how they had been changed or misread.

Scholars agree that the Qur’an speaks of these scriptures as revelations given to Moses, David and Jesus.

5The Islamic perspective

The Qur’an speaks of each scripture as something God gave to a prophet:

Lo! We inspire thee as We inspired Noah and the prophets after him, as We inspired Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and Jesus and Job and Jonah and Aaron and Solomon, and as We imparted unto David the Psalms;
Qur’an 4:163 · PickthallRead in context →
And thy Lord is Best Aware of all who are in the heavens and the earth. And we preferred some of the prophets above others, and unto David We gave the Psalms.
Qur’an 17:55 · PickthallRead in context →
And We caused Jesus, son of Mary, to follow in their footsteps, confirming that which was (revealed) before him in the Torah, and We bestowed on him the Gospel wherein is guidance and a light, confirming that which was (revealed) before it in the Torah - a guidance and an admonition unto those who ward off (evil).
Qur’an 5:46 · PickthallRead in context →

Muslims understand the Torah as the revelation given to Moses, the Psalms as that given to David, and the Gospel as that given to Jesus. The books of the Bible contain much of these revelations, alongside history, letters and other writings by later authors.

6Objections and responses

“Arabic-speaking Christians called their Gospel book the Injil, so that is what the Qur’an means.”

Response: The Qur’an says God “bestowed on him the Gospel” (5:46): a revelation given to Jesus, as the Torah was given to Moses. The four Gospels are accounts written about Jesus by others. The Qur’an uses the name for the message, not for later books about the messenger.

“The Torah is the five books of Moses.”

Response: The five books include the death and burial of Moses (Deuteronomy 34:5–6) and the remark that no prophet like him had arisen since (34:10), which someone wrote after his time. Muslims see the five books as preserving much of the revelation given to Moses, within a larger collection.

7Conclusion

Both sides agree that the Qur’an honours the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel as scripture given by God. Christians identify them with the Bible as it is. Muslims identify them with the revelations given to Moses, David and Jesus, which the Bible contains in part.

Read Exodus 24:12, 2 Samuel 23:2 and Mark 1:14–15, then Qur’an 4:163 and 5:46.

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