TERM 2 - tawheed ii - CLASS 3
FAITH IN THE BOOKS OF ALLAH
Faith in Divine Scripture
Believing in the Books that Allah revealed to His Messengers and prophets is another of the cornerstones of faith. As Muhammad ﷺ received the Qur'an from Allah, all the messengers who preceded him also received their Divine revelation.
From the Qur'an, we know the names of a number of those books, though there are others which we don't know about. Those which Allah had told us about are:
1. The Torah Revealed to Moses
(Verily, We did send down the Torah (to Moses), therein was guidance and light, by which the Prophets, who submitted themselves to Allah's Will judged the Jews. And the Rabbis and the priests for to them was entrusted the protection of Allah's Book, and they were witnesses thereto) ' AI-Ma'idah - Aayah 44.
2. The Bible Revealed to Jesus
(And in their footsteps, We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Torah that had come before him, and We gave him the Injeel (Gospel); in which was guidance and light and confirmation of the Torah that had come before him a guidance and an admonition for AI-Muttageen (the pious) At-Ma'idah - Aayah 46.
3. The Psalms Revealed to David
and to David We gave the Zabur (Psalms). Al-Israa - Aayah 55.
4. The Scriptures Revealed to Abraham and Moses
(Or is he not informed of what is in the Pages (Scriptures) of Moses, and of Abraham who fulfilled all that (which Allah ordered him to do or convey), that no burdened person (with sin) shall bear the burden of another, and that man can have nothing but what he does (good or bad), and that his deeds will be seen, then he will be recompensed with the fullest and the best recompense; and that to your Lord is the End) An-Najm - Al Aayaat 36-42.
(Indeed whosoever purifies himself shall achieve success, and remembers the Name of his Lord and prays. Nay, you prefer the life of this world; although the Hereafter is better and more lasting. ` Verily! this is in the former Scriptures, the Scriptures of Abraham and Moses) Al A'laa - Al-Aayaat 14-19.
Though Allah did not inform us of the names of the books revealed to all the other messengers, He did tell us that each prophet carried the Divine message to his people.
(Mankind was one community, and Allah sent Prophets with glad tidings and warnings; and with them He sent the Book of truth, to judge between people in matters wherein they differed) Al-Baqarah - Aayah 213.
We must believe in those unnamed books in general. However, it is not permissible to attribute any scripture to Allah if it was not named in the Qur'an.
We must also believe that those books contained the message of Truth, Light and Guidance; the Tawheed of Allah in His lordship, worship, names and attributes. Anything incorporated in them which contradicts those aspects has been added by man, it is no more than human trespass. Allah says about the Torah:
(Verily, We sent down the Torah (to Moses), therein was guidance and light) Al-Ma'idah - Aayah 44.
And about the Gospel:
(And in their footsteps, We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Torah that had come before him, and We gave him the Gospel in which was guidance and light, and confirmation of the Torah that came before it, a guidance and an admonition for Al-Muttaqeen (the pious)) A1-Ma'idah - Aayah 46.
5- The Qur'an - Last of Divine Revelation
Allah, Glorious and Exalted is He, has distinguished the Qur'an with unique characteristics which set it apart from all its predecessors.
1. It contains a distillation of divine teachings
It verifies and supports the message contained in the previous scriptures: Tawheed of Allah and worship and obedience to Him. It brings together all the good and excellent features scattered between the other books. Furthermore, it serves as a sensor and verifier of its predecessors, asserting the Truth they contained and exposing the alterations and falsehoods effected upon them. Allah says:
(And We have sent down to you (0 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) AI-Ma'idah - Aayah 48.
The Qur'an gives mankind general laws that encompass everything it requires for achieving happiness in this life and in the Hereafter. It abrogates all the practical legislation specific to past nations and reaffirms the final, eternal laws that are suited for every place and age.
2. The Qur'an is the only divine scripture that Allah has undertaken to preserve
(Verily, It is We Who have sent down the Dhikr (the Qur'an); and surely, We will guard it (from corruption)) Al-Hijr - Aayah 9.
This distinction stems from the fact that Allah has revealed the Qur'an to the Prophet ﷺ for mankind, and not to any specific nation as was the case with previous revelation. For this reason, Allah () has guarded it from any corruption. In it, Allah has contained all His teachings to mankind, and it will remain the basis upon which they will be judged until the Day of Resurrection.
The previous scriptures, on the other hand, were each addressed to a specific nation. So, although they shared the common religious basis, they also contained laws and judgments relating to certain peoples and applicable only to certain historical periods. Allah says:
'(To each among you, We have prescribed a Law and a clear way) Al-Madiah Aayah 48.
That was why Allah had not undertaken to preserve any of them for eternity as He did with the Qur'an. Indeed, in His final Book (the Qur'an), Allah informs us of the alterations and tampering that had afflicted the previous nations.
Allah says about the Jews, who tampered with the Torah:
(Do you (faithful believers) covet that they will believe in your religion in spite of the fact that a party of them (Jewish Rabbis) used to hear the Word of Allah, then they used to change it knowingly after they understood it?) Al-Baqarah - Aayah 75.
(Among those who are Jews, there are some who displace words from their (right) places)An-Nisa' - Aayah 46.
And He (SWT) says of the Christians who tampered with the Bible:
(And from those who call themselves Christians, We took their Covenant, but they have forgotten a good part of the Messenger that was sent to them. So We planted amongst them enmity and hatred till the Day of Judgement, and Allah will inform them of what they used to do. 0 people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians)! Now has come to you Our Messenger (Muhammad), explaining to you much of that which you used to hide from the Scripture, and passing over much (leaving out without explaining). Indeed, there has come to you from Allah a light (Prophet Muhammad) and a plain Book (this Qur'an) Al-Ma'idah -Aayah 14-15.
The Qur'an also mentions the false beliefs adopted by the Jews and Christians who believed that Ezra and Jesus, respectively, were sons of the Almighty.
(And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah, and the Christians say: Messiah is the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouths; they imitate the saying of the disbelievers of old. Allah's curse be on them, how they are deluded away from the Truth) At-Tawba - Aayah 30.
The Qur'an corrects those deviations, and confirms that Allah, Glorious and Exalted is He, is above fatherhood. Allah () says:
(Say (0 Muhammad): He is Allah, the One; Allah AsSamad, He begets not, nor was He begotten; and there is none co-equal or comparable unto Him) Surat Al-Ikhlaas.
The Qur'an establishes that all the messengers were human beings whom Allah had distinguished with revelations, and with the characteristics that prepare - them to receive His teachings and communicate them to their fellow human beings. Allah says, talking to Muhammad ﷺ:
(Say: (0 Muhammad): "I am only a man like you. It has been inspired to me that your God is One God) A1-Kahaf- Aayah 110.
The Qur'an exposes those falsehoods and gives us the correct beliefs about Jesus and Mary:
`The Messiah (Jesus), son of Mary, was no more than a Messenger; many were the Messengers that passed away before him. His mother was a Siddiqah (she believed in Allah and His Books). They both used to eat their food Look how Allah makes His Signs clear to them, yet look how they are deluded away from the truths' Al-Ma'dah - Aayah 75.
The incontestable truth is that, with the exception of the Qur'an, there exists no book today that can be attributed to Allah. In addition to the Qur'anic verses attesting to the corruption of previous revelations, there is ample concrete evidence of this fact.
a) The original text of the Divine scriptures that preceded the Qur'an have been lost. What remains of them , are the accounts of various people. The Qur'an, on the other hand, is preserved intact, just as it was communicated by the angel Jibreel to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and by him to his companions.
b) Those scriptures as they exist today are a combination of the words of Allah with the writings of mere mortals: commentaries, historical narrative, biographies of the prophets and their apostles and the inferences of religious scholars. In them, the word of Allah is indistinguishable from man's additions. The Qur'an remains the pure word of Allah, unmixed with the sayings of the Prophet ﷺ, his companions or anyone else. Abul Wafa Ali bnu Aqeel said: "To be certain that the Qur'an did not originate from the Prophet ﷺ, but was revealed to him, all you need do is compare the words and literary style of the Ahaadeeth with Quran. It is known that human's speech resembles, and the Prophet said nothing which resembles the Qur'an in any ways. He added: "It is one of the miracles of the Qur'an that no one can relate a single verse from it to anything that had been said before. Man's words, on the other hand, are always founded on previous writings and teachings. People say for example that Al-Mutanabee imitated Al-Buhturee".
c) None of those books should be attributed to the Messengers with whom they are associated. Such claims have no historical basis. The book known as the Old Testament, or Torah, for example, was written centuries after Moses's death. Muhammad Farid Wajdi quotes Larouse encyclopaedia: "Modern analytical methods, especially German criticism, after exhaustive anthropological, historical and linguistic research, confirmed that the Torah was not written by Moses. Rather, it is the work of successive, anonymous Rabbis who derived it from verbal traditions originating before the fall of Babylon. Some scientists have gone as far as asserting that the five books (as far) do not contain all the Israelite traditions, but include fables, codes and symbols"
The Qur'an is the only book that is proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, to be entirely communicated by the Messenger to whom it was revealed, Muhammad ﷺ. It has been handed down from generation to generation, from the time of its revelation to this very day, in an intact state, with all its words, its structure and pronunciations unaltered in any way. Today, there is no doubt that the Qur'an that we recite is identical to that revealed to the Prophet ﷺ
d) More proof of tampering with those books is evident from the fact that there exist several versions of them which vary in their wording and concepts.
e) They contain corrupt beliefs and false ideas about the Creator, Glorious and Exalted is He, and about His Messengers. One finds in them the comparison of Allah to man, the denigration of some Prophets in a way that impugns their honour and challenges their immunity.
In the light of the evidence of their corruption, believing in 'those books is to believe that they were originally revealed by Allah to His Messengers and had the same purpose as the Qur'an. Moreover, we believe that they no longer contain the words of Allah, except for what concurs with the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. As for the Qur'an, we should believe that it is purely the word of Allah, that it contains the Truth, that every letter in it is preserved by Allah, that we must follow its commands, avoid its prohibitions, believe its accounts and reject anything which contradicts it.
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