Corruption of Previous Scriptures: Difference between revisions

Does this verse alone prove the corruption of previous scriptures? Let us examine what the Qur'an<ref>All verses are from Shakir's translation.</ref> really says about the Taurat and Injil; and examine {{Quran|2|79}} in its own context, as well as against the aforementioned verses to see if the belief of physical scriptural corruption is valid.

We will start by looking at verses of the Qur'an that talk about the corruption of the previous scriptures

Evidently, the Qur'an charges that the Jews and Christian's corrupted their scriptures; but only in their oral recitations. Qur'an 2:77 charges that the Jews deliberately "keep secret" parts of their Taurat from the people who do not know the Jewish scriptures. If the physical scriptures have been corrupted, how would the Jews know what was supposed to be in it? Is it that there are 'original' Taurat's still in existence, accessibly by an elite clerical class? These Jews are supposedly literate people because they 'knew what their book said but hid it behind their backs.' Were they keeping the information from the illiterate people (like Muhammad)? This would fit with the Qur'an's charge that the Jews 'distorted the book with their tongues.'

The Jews 'altered the words from their places' and 'forgot a good part of the message'; this also does not speak to physical scriptural corruption, but (alleged) corruption in their recitations to those who did not know the Jewish scriptures. Consider the claims made in Qur'an 5:15. it alleges that Muhammad 'made clear' what the Jews had 'concealed'; Muhammad also made clear that which they had 'passed over.' If the actual text was corrupt, how could the Jews have 'passed over' it? Surely if the physical corruption claim is true, the Qur'an should be using words like "the parts that the Jews removed from their books" or "the parts which have been omitted."

==What does the Qur'an confirm?==

Next we will look at what the Qur'an claims to confirm and verify:

The Qur'an claims to be the continuation of the message from Allah. We note in the verses above that it claims to confirm the message in the previous books that the ''Jews and Christians have with them''.

Some Muslims claim that parts of it are Allah's book and parts are not; if the physical scriptures were corrupted, Allah would not say he "verifies that which you have" he would have said that he "verifies ''parts'' of which you have" and then indicate that the texts are no longer intact. The only conclusions we can draw from these statements of Allah, are that:   

(a) The Jews were literate - they knew their scriptures; they 'threw the book of Allah behind their backs as if they knew nothing." How could they know the book of Allah if it was corrupted?<BR>

(b) That The Jews and Christians both had intact (alleged) revelations from Allah when the Qur'an was revealed. Since we have manuscripts that pre-date Muhammad's time, that are the same as the Bible we have today, then we can conclude that the scriptures that we have today are the same as they were in Muhammad's time.  

==Was Allah referring to both the Taurat and Injil?==

We have thus far, given a lot of examples where the Jews were mentioned specifically, or just 'people of the book'. Was Allah referring to the previous scriptures (and corruption) as being just the Taurat, or does he include the Injil?

Confirmed in the above Qur'an verses is the fact that Allah claims to have revealed both the Taurat (to Musa) and Injil (to Isa). Qur'an 5:47 confirms also that the Injil was intact during Muhammad's time, when it says "and the followers of the Injeel should have judged by what Allah revealed in it". This shows, that, in order to judge Muhammad's truthfulness on his prophetic claim, the Christians should have gone to the Injil which they ''had with them'' in order to 'confirm' his claim. Allah is inferring that their scripture, as well as that of the Jews, is uncorrupted.  

Many apologists accuse critics of taking the Qur'an 'out of context', however ,in the case of {{Quran|2|79}}, it is the apologist  ''need'' to take it out of context in order to 'prove' that the Qur'an says the 'previous scriptures' were physically corrupted. Here it is in context:

So if we were to look at verse 2:79 which is given to us by some as evidence, then it would appear that the Qur'an does charge some (unknown) people with writing a book without knowledge and claiming it is a revelation from Allah. However if we look at the preceding verse, we note that it says that the people who do this are ''illiterate''. This means that have not read Allah's previous revelations.

====Are the Jews and Christians the illiterate?====

The only verse that slightly resembles Qur'an 2:78-79 is 3:79. However it charges that the Jews knew what their scriptures said, but corrupted it ''with their tongues''.  How are the Jews and Christians supposed to know that the Qur'an verifies their books if they cannot read their own books? Why would Jews hide the book behind their backs if they did not know what it said?

*Allah was originally a pagan moon god; thus these verses could mean that pagans were writing scripture and claiming it was from Allah "The God".

==Conclusion==

On review of the evidence, we have learned thus far:

#We know that Allah is 'verifying' both the Taurat and Injil; telling Christians and Jews to check their specific scriptures to 'judge by what Allah has revealed.'

#Qur'an 2:79 when read in context clearly states that the ''illiterate'' people were writing the book 'with their own hands' and claiming it was from Allah. Since we know the people of the Book were literate, these verses are not referring to them.

Consider the evidence: The Qur'an never says the physical scriptures of the previous revelations are corrupt (since we have precluded 2:79). If the previous scriptures are not corrupt, what do we do if the Qur'an contradicts the message of the Bible? Let's see what the Qur'an tells you to do:

'''Therefore Qur'an 2:79 is not referring to the previous scriptures'''