211- The Holy Qur’an and other Revealed Books (Series: Inviting Reflections).

Musnad of Ahmad b. Hambal mentions an eye-catching hadith that the Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said Allah sent 124,000 prophets for guidance of the mankind and out of them, 315 were given books and suhuf (pl. of sahifah) i.e. the Holy Scripture. (Please See: Musnad: Ahmad bin Humbal, Hadith # 22288). Out of these books, the experts claim that the oldest extant piece has been ascribed to the Holy Prophet Idrees (A.S.) consisting of a few lines on moral teachings. This piece of revelation is recovered from the Dead Sea Scrolls. Then, of course, in the chronological order, some extant lines of revelation containing moral teachings, are ascribed to the Holy Prophet Noah (A.S). There is no Ummah of Holy Prophet Noah (A.S.) which is extant to this date, however, there is a small religious faction, namely: Sa‘adiyyat in Iraq in its area called: Sulaymaniyyah, who claims to be the follower of the Prophet Noah A.S. More so, amongst Zoroastrians religion, one-tenth of Avesta of Zoroastrians is also available in which, at one occasion, while addressing the people, Zoroaster informs them that he has not completed the religion. He further says that a prophet will come near to the Day of Judgement to complete the religion and his name will be “Mercy for the Universe”: رحمة للعالمين---one of the names of Muhammad, peace be upon him, given by Allah in al-Qur’an al-Karim. (Please See: Muhammad Hamidullah Dr. Khutubat e Bahawalpur, pp. 1-16). If Hinduism is explored, then 4 Vedas and 18 Puranas (Old Scriptures) are found in India. In these religious scriptures of Hindus: Vedas and Puranas, particularly in Purana of Vishnu, there are explicit prognostic prefiguration regarding the advent of the Last Messenger Muhammad, peace be upon him. (Ibid. pp. 1-5). 

Respecting people of the scripture and out of aforesaid 315 revealed books/scriptures; four major books are discussed in their chronological order: -

1-   Torah: التوراة

Torah, which is part of the Old Testament is a Hebrew name that means ‘The Law’ was revealed unto the Holy Prophet Moses (A.S.). It derives its name from a chapter in it, entitled: The Law. Biblical scholarship believes that the Moses was given both written and oral laws at the Mount Sana, however, they do not claim that it is the same Torah which was handed over to Moses A.S. (Ibid, pp. 4-6), as it contains a good deal of details of the events which took place after death of the Holy Prophet Moses A.S. There are few events which took place after six hundred years of the death of Moses A.S. have also been mentioned in Torah, which itself is an explicit proof that this book is adulterated. At least three times Torah was burnt and vanished from the face of the earth by Babylonians tirade and Roman onslaughts. Once after the destruction of the First Temple, it was revived after a lap of 100 years based by the biblical prophet Ezra (‘Uzair) who revived it during the Babylonian exile. This purification of the Torah and its teachings were again adulterated by the Jewish clergy and as a matter of historical fact, this time Jesus A.S. was sent on to the Jewish nation to put these children of Israel back on the track and the children of Israel again defied him.

2-   Zabūr: الزُبُورْ  

The word Zubur means a book, and its plural is: زُبُر  (books); and, the Holy Qur’an has also employed this word, in plural form for the revealed books/scriptures many times in its various contexts. For example, a verse of Surah Shu‘ra’ reads:  

   ."وَإِنَّهُ لَفِي زُبُرِ الْأَوَّلِينَ"

 (Without a doubt it is (announced) in the scriptures of former peoples). Surah: 26, Verse: 196

This book attributed to the Holy Prophet Dawud A.S. (King David). The book is not extant in its eternity except Psalms in the Holy Bible neither is there any claim that the Psalms are the same as they were revealed unto the Holy Prophet Dawud (A.S.). However, in Christianity, these Psalms are a perpetual part of Sunday rituals in the Churches. (In the Holy Bible’s Commentary written by Mathew Henry, the Psalms have been discussed in vol 2. The Church Foundation, Raiwind Road, Lahore have published Urdu Translation of the 2nd volume in 2016).

3-   Injīl: الإنْجِيْل  

The word Injil (Bible) in the Arabic language means ‘Good News’ and is known as the second part of the Christian Biblical Canon ‘the New Testament’ in the biblical world, the first part being the Old Testament. There is no historical evidence that prophet Jesus (A.S.) made any arrangements to record the message of Allah, revealed unto him. The earliest known Injil (Codex Sinaiticus) is attributed to Codex Sinaiticus. There are two hypotheses that whether the Aramaic Bible is the earliest or the Greek bible. The Aramaic Injil is not extant now and is famously known as “Q’ bible. However, the only Greek translations are available from the Aramaic version.

The priests of Germany, probably perusing the Muslims’ claim that the Holy Qur’an is unadulterated and safe from corruption. In the beginning of last century, they decided to collect the available Greek translations and collate them in order to find the discrepancies and differences in various versions. There were more than two hundred thousand textual differences and 1/7 were important. (Please See: M. Hamidullah Dr. Khutubat e Bahawalpur, pp. 14-16). However, since the 4th century, out of many Gospels, Christianity has adopted 27 books and declared the Gospels of John, Marks, Luke and Mathew as authentic, though the historians differ about the time of their compilation. In 1993 C.E. The Jesus Seminar (a Christian organization of the United States of America) managed to publish ‘The Five Gospels – The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus’, including the Gospel of Thomas. This work was published by Macmillan Publishers from New York with a critical study of the texts of the Gospels with concluding remarks by the Jesus Seminar that: “Eighty-two per cent of the words ascribed to Jesus [A.S.] in the gospels were not actually spoken by him”. (Please See: The Five Gospels, Introduction, p. 5). How the Gospels were so named? The editors of the Five Gospels hold in a very distinct way:

“All the Gospels originally circulated anonymously. Authoritative names were later assigned to them by unknown figures in the early church. In most cases, the names are guesses or perhaps the result of pious wishes”. (Ibid. p. 20).

It is also interesting to note that the canon version of the Holy Bible was issued by the Roman Church in 325 A.D. at the First Council of Nicaea and, for the first time, to believe in Trinity was declared mandatory for all Christians. In 381 A.D First Council of Constantinople, Christianity was doctrinally adopted by the church and also as a state religion by the Roman Empire. (Pease See: Council of Constantinople, Encyclopedia Britannica, May 20, 2016).

4-   Al-Qur'an al-Karim: القُرآن الكريم

It means a book which is widely read. It was written in the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, presented to him for approval; and, memorized by many of his companions R.A.

The Arabic word surah: سُوْرَة   and ayah:  آيَة has been employed by the Holy Qur’an to denote a chapter and a verse respectively in various contexts. There are 114 surahs (chapters) and 6666 ayat (verses) in the Qur’an. The Qur’anic texts published in the Sub-Continent are usually comprised of 6236 verses, but the number of words, alphabets and vowel signs are the same. The only difference, among scholars of the Qur’anic Readings (reading styles القِرَاءَآت), is about the stopping (pauses between verses) after completion of a verse. The stopping after verse is called waqf pl. auqaf. It should be noted that the difference in auqaf does not change the meanings of the text of the Holy Qur’an.

In the last century, the Munich University, Germany established an institute for Qur’anic studies [Qur'anic Archive] and collected 42000 copies of the Qur'an, scribed (hand written) or printed in 1400 years, and after collation of the available copies of the Qur'an no textual difference was found. The first director of this German institute was a known orientalist: Prof. Bergstrasser (1888-1933 CE) who was a Professor of Semitic Languages in the University of Munich. The third director of the institute visited Paris University in 1933 CE and met Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah there; and reported that during collation of 42000 copies of the Qur’an, no textual difference was found, and the report is still available in the library of the Munich University. However, in some copies if one word is missing that mistake has not been repeated in other copies. This is obvious that such mistakes are done by the copyists and it cannot be regarded as textual difference. (Please See:  M. Hamidullah Dr. Khutubat e Bahawalpur, pp. 14-16). 

      Allah says about al-Qur’an al-Karim:

                                                                       ."إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَزَّلْنَا ٱلذِّكْرَ وَإِنَّا لَهُ لَحفِظُوْن"

We have, without doubt, sent down the message; and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption). Surah: Al-Hijr, Verse: 9

Surely Allah has saved and preserved this book from adulteration and  corruption.