Quran refers to Torah & Gospel

QURAN COMMENTARY 1/5

There exists a common misconception about the Torah (Taurat) and Gospel (Injil).

The people generally take the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) for the Torah, and the Gospels (the first four books of the New Testament) for the Injil. The misconception creates doubts about Revelation itself and a question arises, "Are these books really the Word of God? And does the Holy Quran really confirm all their contents"? As a matter of fact, the Torah, which the Quran confirms, is not the Pentateuch but is contained in it, and the Injil is not "the four Gospels" but is wider than these books.

Tafsir Maududi

QURAN COMMENTARY 2/5

Allah Almighty has sent Scriptures such as the Torah and the Injil, and His prophets in earlier times.

And this was they all professed and this was they all brought as the message. When the Quran came, it simply confirmed their truth. It did not present any new claim which could pose problems for people in its understanding or acceptance.

Ma'ariful Quran. Ashraf Ali Thanavi

QURAN COMMENTARY 3/5

The Law of Moses (Torah) was intended only for the children of Israel, and was never meant to have universal validity.

Both the Torah and the Gospel were included in the revelation (al-kitab) vouchsafed to Jesus. Although the Torah was an earlier revelation, it is described as "imparted to Jesus" because his own prophetic mission was based on the Law of Moses, which was only confirmed, and not abrogated, by the Gospel (cf. Matthew v, 17-19).

Jesus himself had stressed, his message was based on the Law of Moses, and was not meant to displace the latter.

It is to be borne in mind that the Gospel (Injil) frequently mentioned in the Quran is not identical with what is known today as the Four Gospels, but refers to an original, since lost, revelation bestowed upon Jesus and known to his contemporaries under its Greek name of Evangelion ("Good Tiding"), on which the Arabicized form Injil is based. It was probably the source from which the Synoptic Gospels derived much of their material and some of the teachings attributed to Jesus. (see Quran 5:14).

Message of Quran. Muhammad Asad

QURAN COMMENTARY 4/5

The Old and New Testaments found with the Jews and Christians today contain between them some of the revelations sent to Moses and Jesus.

The Torah and the Gospel found in the days of the Apostle of Allāh were the same Pentateuch and the same four Gospels that are known to us today; and the Quran verifies the same scriptures that were in existence then and have continued to our days. But this verification is partial, not total. There are many Quranic verses that speak of omission and alteration in these two scriptures.

The Quran insists on naming the book of Jesus as Injil (Gospel, in singular) sent from Allah. The Gospel means 'good news' and it was a single book revealed to Jesus. But Allah has not given any detail on the Injil as to how it was revealed, contrary to what He has done regarding the Torah and the Quran.

Gospels attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were admittedly written and composed long after Jesus. These existed before the revelation of the Quran, and were well-known at that time. These two factors - the use of singular, Gospel, and the declaration that it was sent down from Allah - clearly show the Quranic belief that there was a Gospel, revealed to Jesus that was later altered and deleted.

Jesus explained the Torah giving it the meaning intended by Allah, pointing out the interpolations and alterations made by the Jews, and clarifying the religious matters in which they had differed.

When the Quran mentions the Torah, it refers to the revelation which Allah sent down to Moses inscribed on the tablets when he was on Mount Sinai.

As for the books with the Jews, they themselves admit a big vaccum and void, a large gap, in its chain of narrators between the reigns of Nebuchadnezzer, King of Babylon, and Cyrus, King of Persia. Nevertheless, the Quran confirms the Torah with the Jews in the days of Muhammad was not al-together different from the original Torah - although it had been altered and interpolated to a great extent. The Quran also shows the Law was only in the Torah; the Gospel did not bring any new law, except that it abrogated some rules of the Torah.

Al-Mizan Tafsir. Allameh Tabatabaee

QURAN COMMENTARY 5/5

Torah is not identical with the first five books of the Old Testament even though those books form a part of the Torah. Likewise, the Injil is not identical with the four Gospels of the New Testament.

How Torah was constructed

The fact is that the Torah, in the Quranic usage, signifies the revelations made to Moses , in about forty years, from the time he was appointed a Prophet until his death. These include the Ten Commandments', which were handed over to him inscribed on stone tablets. Moses took down the rest of the revealed injunctions and handed over one copy to each of the twelve tribes of Israel, and one copy to the Levites for safe keeping. It is this book which was known as the Torah and it existed until the first destruction of Jerusalem. The copy entrusted to the Levites was put beside the Ark of the Covenant along with the Commandment tablets, and the Israelites knew it as the Torah. The Jews, however, neglected the Book: during the reign of Josiah the King of Judah the Temple of Solomon was under repair and the high priest, Hilkiah, chanced to find the Book lying in the construction area. He gave it to the King's secretary, Shaphan, who in turn took it to the King as if it were a strange find (see 2 Kings 22: 8-13).

Destruction of Torah

Hence, when the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar, conquered Jerusalem and razed it and the Temple of Solomon to the ground, the Israelites lost for ever the few original copies of the Torah which they possessed, and which they had consigned to obscurity. At the time of Ezra the priest, some Israelites returned from captivity in Babylon, and when Jerusalem was rebuilt the entire history of Israel, which now comprises the first seventeen books of the Old Testament, was recorded by Ezra with the assistance of some other elders of the community. Four of these books, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, consist of a biographical narrative of Moses. In this biography those verses of the Torah available to Ezra and the other elders are also recorded and in the contexts in which they were revealed. The present Torah, therefore, comprises those fragments of the original book which are interspersed throughout the biography of Moses (composed in the manner described above).

Wherever authors and editors of the Bible have added anything of their own accord, by way of either elaboration or elucidation, it has become very difficult for an ordinary reader to distinguish the original from the explanatory additions. Those with insight into Divine Scripture, however, do have the capacity to distinguish between the original revealed fragments and the later, human interpolations. It is these scattered fragments of the original revealed Book which the Quran terms as the Torah, and it is these which it confirms. When these fragments are compared with the Quran, there is no difference between the two as regards the fundamental teachings. Whatever differences exist relate to legal matters and are of secondary importance. Even today a careful reader can appreciate that the Torah and the Quran have sprung from one and the same Divine source.

Was the Injil preserved?

Likewise, Injil signifies the inspired orations and utterances of Jesus, which he delivered during the last two or three years of his life in his capacity as a Prophet. There are no certain means by which we can definitively establish whether or not his statements were recorded during his lifetime. It is possible that some people took notes of them and that some followers committed them to memory. After a period of time, however, several treatises on the life of Jesus were written. The authors of these treatises recorded, in connection with the biographical account, those sayings of his which they had received from the previous generation of co-religionists, in the form of either oral traditions or written notes about events in his life.

As a result the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are not identical with the Injil. Rather, the Injil consists of those statements by Jesus which form part of these Gospels. Unfortunately we have no means of distinguishing the fragments of the original Injil from the pieces written by the authors themselves.

Towards Understanding Quran. Islamic Foundation