The Qur’an
What the Qur’an says about the Bible
The Qur’an speaks of the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel as revelations from God, and calls itself their confirmation. It also says some people changed or twisted scripture. This topic sets out what the Qur’an actually says, how Christians use those verses, and the simple rule Muslims follow when they read a verse of the Bible.
1The question
What does the Qur’an say about the earlier scriptures, and how should Muslims read the Bible?
2What Christians believe
Christians point out that the Qur’an honours the Torah and the Gospel, calls itself a confirmation of them (3:3), tells the People of the Gospel to judge by what God revealed in it (5:47), and even tells the Prophet ﷺ to ask those who read the earlier scripture if he is in doubt (10:94). From this they argue that the Bible of the seventh century, which is the Bible we have today, must have been trustworthy. This argument is sometimes called the “Islamic dilemma”.
Christians also ask Muslims to read the Bible on its own terms, as one story. They argue that accepting the verses that agree with the Qur’an and rejecting the rest is picking and choosing, and that a verse cannot be understood apart from the whole, including the cross and the resurrection.
3What the texts say
The Law given to Moses
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.
David’s words from God
The Spirit of the LORD spake by me, and his word was in my tongue.
The gospel Jesus preached
Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
A prophet’s warning about scribes
How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.
Testing what is read
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
4What scholars say
Gordon Nickel (Narratives of Tampering in the Earliest Commentaries on the Qur’an, 2011) shows that early Muslim commentators mostly spoke of the earlier scriptures being concealed, misread or twisted in meaning. Later writers, such as Ibn Hazm in the eleventh century, argued more strongly that the text itself had been changed.
Ibn Taymiyya (died 1328), in The Correct Answer to Those Who Changed the Religion of Christ, held that some of the text had been changed and much of it misinterpreted, while much of what God revealed remained. Ibn Kathir, in the introduction to his commentary, divides reports taken from the People of the Book into three kinds: those the Qur’an confirms, which are accepted; those it contradicts, which are rejected; and the rest, about which Muslims neither affirm nor deny.
Camilla Adang (Muslim Writers on Judaism and the Hebrew Bible, 1996) traces how Muslim scholars from the ninth to the eleventh centuries read the Hebrew Bible, from those who quoted it as evidence for the Prophet ﷺ to those who argued its text was corrupted. Scholars agree that the Qur’an both honours the earlier scriptures and accuses some of their keepers of twisting them, and that Muslims have debated how far those changes went.
5The Islamic perspective
The Qur’an confirms the earlier scriptures, calls itself “a watcher over” them, warns of those who twisted scripture with their tongues, and even tells the Prophet ﷺ to ask those who read the earlier scripture if he is in doubt:
He hath revealed unto thee (Muhammad) the Scripture with truth, confirming that which was (revealed) before it, even as He revealed the Torah and the Gospel.
And unto thee have We revealed the Scripture with the truth, confirming whatever Scripture was before it, and a watcher over it. So judge between them by that which Allah hath revealed, and follow not their desires away from the truth which hath come unto thee. For each We have appointed a divine law and a traced-out way. Had Allah willed He could have made you one community. But that He may try you by that which He hath given you (He hath made you as ye are). So vie one with another in good works. Unto Allah ye will all return, and He will then inform you of that wherein ye differ.
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;
And lo! there is a party of them who distort the Scripture with their tongues, that ye may think that what they say is from the Scripture, when it is not from the Scripture. And they say: It is from Allah, when it is not from Allah; and they speak a lie concerning Allah knowingly.
And if thou (Muhammad) art in doubt concerning that which We reveal unto thee, then question those who read the Scripture (that was) before thee. Verily the Truth from thy Lord hath come unto thee. So be not thou of the waverers.
Muslims believe God gave the Torah to Moses, the Psalms to David and the Gospel to Jesus, and that the Bible contains much of these revelations alongside later human writing. The Prophet ﷺ gave a simple rule: do not believe the People of the Book, and do not disbelieve them (Sahih al-Bukhari 4485). So Muslims confirm what agrees with the Qur’an, correct what contradicts it, and wait on the rest, treating the Bible with respect and care.
6Objections and responses
“If the Qur’an tells the Prophet ﷺ to ask those who read the scripture (10:94), the scripture must have been reliable.”
Response: The verse tells him to ask about what was revealed before him, the message the earlier prophets brought, not to adopt every line of every book. Muslims hold that the core message, the oneness of God and the coming of a final prophet, still stands in the Bible, and that is what the People of the Book could confirm.
“If the Torah and the Gospel were God’s revelations, God would have protected them.”
Response: The Qur’an promises that God himself will guard the final revelation (15:9). It does not make the same promise for the earlier books, which were left in the care of their communities. That is why a final, protected revelation was needed.
“Accepting only the verses that agree with the Qur’an is cherry-picking.”
Response: Every reader uses a standard. Christians read the Old Testament through the New; Muslims read the earlier scriptures through the final one. Muslims also accept verses that do not suit every argument, such as the virgin birth and Jesus as the Messiah, and they quote the Bible because it is the common ground on which an honest conversation can happen.
7Conclusion
Both sides agree that the Qur’an honours the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel as revelation, that it also speaks of scripture being twisted, and that the Bible should be read carefully and tested. Christians see the Qur’an’s praise as endorsing the Bible they have, and ask that it be read as a whole. Muslims read it with respect and with the Qur’an as the final standard: confirming what agrees, correcting what contradicts, and waiting on the rest.
Read Qur’an 5:44–48 as one passage, then Jeremiah 8:8–9, and sort the claims of a Bible passage you know well into the three groups.
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Related topics
Sources
- Bible, King James Version:Exodus 24:122 Samuel 23:2Mark 1:14Jeremiah 8:81 Thessalonians 5:21Acts 17:11
- Qur’an, translated by M. Pickthall:Qur’an 3:3Qur’an 5:48Qur’an 4:163Qur’an 3:78Qur’an 10:94
- Gordon Nickel, Narratives of Tampering in the Earliest Commentaries on the Qur’an (2011)
- Ibn Taymiyya, The Correct Answer to Those Who Changed the Religion of Christ
- Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Qur’an al-Azim, introduction
- Camilla Adang, Muslim Writers on Judaism and the Hebrew Bible (1996)
- Sahih al-Bukhari 4485