CHAPTER 3: DISTORTION OF THE TORAH AND THE GOSPEL
The Christians say: As long as Muhammad is ordered to believe in our books, this proves the authenticity of what we have and the falsity of the accusation that our Bible and books are distorted or changed.
We say: The conclusion you make in this concern and in other sections of the Qur’an is purely false or is part of your habit of mixing between falsehood and truth.
You say that our Messenger (peace be upon him) believes in your books, so if you mean that he believes in the Torah, the Bible and Psalms revealed by Allah to His prophets, this is unquestionable, for it is mentioned in the Qur’an more than once. Allah commands His servants to believe in every Book He has revealed and in every prophet He has sent. Allah, the Exalted, says,
which means, The Messenger (Muhammad, peace be upon him) believes in what has been sent down to him from his Lord, and (so do) the believers. Each one believes in Allah, His Angels, His Books, and His Messengers. They say, ‘We make no distinction between one another of His Messengers…” (Al-Baqarah, 2: 285)
Allah revealed these Books before the Qur’an and then He revealed the Qur’an as a confirmation of the Scriptures before it and as a trustworthy reference to it. Allah, the Exalted, says,
which means, “And We have sent down to you (O Muhammad) the Book (this Qur’an) in truth, confirming the Scripture that came before it and Muhayminan (trustworthy in highness and a witness) over it (old Scriptures)…” (Al-Ma’idah, 5: 48)
By believing in their books, they mean that our Messenger (peace be upon him) believes in their beliefs and laws which they formulated without the permission of Allah and differed from the Islamic laws or differed from the Divine Laws sent by Allah, like believing in: the trinity and hypostases, the unity between the Divine Being and the human being and saying that Christ is God and the Son of God. This is in addition to their denial of what they should adhere to like: believing in Allah and the Last Day (i.e. Day of Judgment), regarding lawful that which Allah has made unlawful like pork etc., and not believing in the religion of truth (i.e. Islam) which was revealed in His Book and brought by His Messenger, instead, they believe in a religion innovated by their religious leaders. Allah, the Exalted, says,
which means, “They (Jews and Christians) took their rabbis and their monks to be their lords besides Allah (by obeying them in things which they made lawful or unlawful according to their own desires without being ordered by Allah), and (they also took as their Lord) Messiah (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary).” (At-Tawbah ; 9: 31)
Christians also mean that Muhammad (peace be upon him) believed in and confirmed such matters in their religion and that he believed in matters not brought by the prophets from Allah, and in that case they are lying manifestly about Muhammad (peace be upon him), for it is an acknowledged fact in this religion that Muhammad (peace be upon him) believed in what the prophets before him brought.
He never believed in what was invented afterwards in Christian or Jewish belief. He never prescribed that they should adhere to their first religion even if it had not been changed. He called all mankind and Jinn to believe in him and in what he had brought and to follow the Book and Wisdom that he was sent with. He judged that all those who refuse to follow the Book revealed to him are disbelievers and stressed the certainty of their eternal torment of the Hereafter and made it obligatory to fight them in this life in order to make this religion for Allah alone and make the word of Allah the highest.
Moreover, the Prophet (peace be upon him) set out to fight them in the year of (the Battle of) Tabuk and all the believers were ready to fight them. He did not excuse any man having the ability to fight to abandon his duty and not to participate in the Battle. Whoever thought that fighting them was not obligatory was regarded as a disbeliever, and if he showed false support to Islam, he was a cursed hypocrite.
The Torah and the Bible that is present nowadays are not those that were presented by the prophets Musa (Moses) and Isa (Jesus) (peace be upon them both). The transmission of the Tawrah was discontinued when Jerusalem was ruined and the Children of Israel were evacuated. It was mentioned that the person who dictated it to them was a man named Azir. Some people claimed he was a prophet but others say that he was not a prophet and that a copy of the Torah had been compared to an old copy found with him. It was also said that a copy was brought from Morocco. But all of these tales do not prove that the words of this Torah are authentic, nor do they disprove the mistakes in some of them, as was the case in other books copied by more than one person.
It is acknowledged by Christians themselves that the Bible in their hands these days, was not written by Christ (peace be upon him) or even dictated directly by Christ to one of his scribes. In fact, it was dictated by Mathew and John, two of the Disciples of Christ, after he (peace be upon him) left this world, for they had accompanied him. It was not known, let alone memorized by many people.
It was also written by Mark and Luke, who had not even seen Christ (peace be upon him). These two books mentioned some of the words of Christ and some of his stories but they certainly do not comprise his exact speech or actions.
It is likely that the transmission of two, three or four persons may contain some mistakes. They committed a previous mistake regarding Christ himself when they confused him with the man who had been crucified.
What we mean here is that Christians do not have a reliable authentic transmission from Christ concerning the exact wordings of the Bible or a reliable transmission for most of their religious laws. This is also applicable to the Jews who also do not have authentic transmissions for the wordings of the Torah or the prophecies of their prophets. On the other hand, Muslims have authentic, clear chains of transmitters for the Qur’an and the Sunnah, which contain facts known to non-specialized as well as specialized people.
We can take the Canon, which is the origin of their religion as an example. There is also their prayer toward the east, the permissibility of eating pork, abandoning circumcision, glorifying the Cross, having pictures in churches, and many other rules which they did not take from Christ and which are not found in the Bibles they have. They all agree that the Canon, which they regard as the origin of their faith and the bases of their belief, does not exist in the Bible nor is it narrated from the Disciples. They agree that those who established it were the people of the first assembly of Emperor Constantine. Three hundred and eighteen people attended this assembly. They contradicted and fought against ‘Abdullah bin Aryus who insisted that Christ was just as the Muslims say he was. This assembly made the Canon the basis of Christianity. This assembly was held more than three hundred years after Christ.
So where are the sections in the Qur’an or the Sunnah which prove that none of the words of past Scriptures, like the Torah, the Bible, Psalms and the prophecies of prophets, were not altered so that the people of the Scripture may say that Muhammad (peace be upon him) denied this allegation in their books?
Muslims have a lot of proof that the people of the Scripture have changed the meaning of the Torah, the Bible, and the Psalms as well as many of the prophecies of their prophets. They have invented a religious law, which was originally brought by Christ or any other prophet. They have invented many unreasonable beliefs like; for example, their claim that all the sons of Adam (i.e. human beings) are prophets and messengers, and that ail were in hell, imprisoned by Satan, because their father Adam ate from the forbidden tree, then they were set free when Christ was crucified.
If anyone reported this claim from some of the prophets, we would have named him a liar, but these words were not even reported from one of the prophets. In fact, it belonged to those who had no credit. They merely took the words of some of their chiefs who were not prophets and who have no characteristics of prophethood.
If we doubt the authenticity of those who reported from the prophets, what is expected regarding that which was not reported from them in the first place?
How can Adam, one of the prophets of Allah, who is the best of Allah’s Creation and certainly better than Satan, be confined in Satan’s prison in Hell because of a sin he committed? Moreover, Ibrahim (Abraham, peace be upon him), the Closest One to the most Beneficent, was not punished because of his disbelieving father. So how can he be punished by Allah and be confined in Satan’s prison for a sin committed by his original father Adam, although he was a prophet?
Nuh (Noah, peace be upon him) stayed with his people one thousand years less fifty, inviting them to worship Allah Alone. Allah drowned all the people of the earth except his followers. How can he be punished in Hell inside the prison of Satan because of Adam’s sin?
As for Musa (Moses) bin ‘Imran, who spoke directly to Allah, whom Allah granted miracles and proof in his hands the like of which were not granted to Christ, he occupies such a lofty dignified status in the sight of Allah that cannot be measured. How can he be confined in the prison of Satan in Hell?
And what is the connection between the crucifixion, which is one of the greatest sins, whether they crucified Christ himself or someone who looked like him, and freeing the prophets from Satan? If Satan did this to all the progeny of Adam, he would be unjust, and Allah is capable of stopping his injustice and of punishing him if he failed to stop.
So why did Allah delay stopping Satan’s injustice until the age of Christ? Allah, the Exalted, is the Guardian and Supporter of the believers. The prophets are those whom Allah made victorious over their enemies and destroyed those who were the soldiers of Satan. How is it that He, the Almighty cannot stop Satan from doing injustice to them after their death and allow the admittance of their souls into Hell? In addition to this, how can Allah permit Satan to harm His servants after their death and after their relief of all obligations, at a time when they are most entitled to receive His Honor and Grace and to be admitted to His promised Paradise? If they say: the Lord, the Exalted and Ever-Majestic, was not able to free them from Satan in spite of His knowledge about Satan’s injustice towards His servants except when He managed to hide Himself and deceive him, this is considered grievous disbelief. They regarded the Lord, Exalted be He, as being disabled after saying that He was unjust. Thus, their claims contain a great deal of contradictions and their ignorance is exposed when they ascribe such characteristics to the Lord. They said that the Lord deceived Satan in order to punish him in a just way, just as Satan deceived Adam by means of the Serpent. So he hid from him so that he would not know that he is the human entity of the Lord. But unlike others, the human entity of the Lord did not commit any sin.
So when Satan wanted to take his soul and imprison him in Hell like those who were before him, and because he did not commit any sin, Satan deserved to finally be punished by Allah and so the progeny of Adam were set free from his confinement.
These claims demonstrate their ignorance concerning Allah, the Almighty. They previously accused Him of being disabled and unjust. Glorified and Exalted be He above (all) that they attribute to Him.
By: Sheikhul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyah
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