THE FAITHFUL PEOPLE OF THE BOOK: The Qur’an teaches that there are faithful Christians and Jews (People of the Book):
Not all of them are alike: Of the People of the Book are a portion that stand (for the right); they rehearse the Signs of Allah all night long, and they prostrate themselves in adoration. They believe in Allah and the Last Day; they enjoin what is right, and forbid what is wrong; and they hasten (in emulation) in (all) good works: They are in the ranks of the righteous. Of the good that they do, nothing will be rejected of them; for Allah knoweth well those that do right.
Nearest among them in love to the Believers wilt thou find those who say, “We are Christians”: Because amongst these are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant.
According to the Qur’an, the faithful Christians and Jews did not do what the unfaithful did; they obeyed their scriptures and worshipped Allah. What about their scriptures? Does the Qur’an consider the scripture of the Jews and Christians to have been corrupted by the actions of the Unfaithful? Or has it been preserved by the Faithful? Does the Qur’an consider that only part of their scripture now contains truth? As mentioned above, nowhere does the Qur’an accuse the People of the Book of textual corruption of the Previous Scriptures (the Bible) but it repeatedly accuses them of not following its message, thus showing its continued validity. The implication of all this is that the Qur’an assumes (and rightly so) that the scriptures of the People of the Book are unchanged and reliable, having guidance and light.
In our next lesson, we will check one more source to find out if the earlier revelations have been changed or not. We have looked thoroughly at what the Qur’an has said and have seen that it commends the Bible as the authentic, unchanged Word of Allah—in our next study we will also see what the early Islamic scholars had to say on this very same topic.
THE FAITHFUL PEOPLE OF THE BOOK: The Qur’an teaches that there are faithful Christians and Jews (People of the Book):
Not all of them are alike: Of the People of the Book are a portion that stand (for the right); they rehearse the Signs of Allah all night long, and they prostrate themselves in adoration. They believe in Allah and the Last Day; they enjoin what is right, and forbid what is wrong; and they hasten (in emulation) in (all) good works: They are in the ranks of the righteous. Of the good that they do, nothing will be rejected of them; for Allah knoweth well those that do right.
Nearest among them in love to the Believers wilt thou find those who say, “We are Christians”: Because amongst these are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant.
According to the Qur’an, the faithful Christians and Jews did not do what the unfaithful did; they obeyed their scriptures and worshipped Allah. What about their scriptures? Does the Qur’an consider the scripture of the Jews and Christians to have been corrupted by the actions of the Unfaithful? Or has it been preserved by the Faithful? Does the Qur’an consider that only part of their scripture now contains truth? As mentioned above, nowhere does the Qur’an accuse the People of the Book of textual corruption of the Previous Scriptures (the Bible) but it repeatedly accuses them of not following its message, thus showing its continued validity. The implication of all this is that the Qur’an assumes (and rightly so) that the scriptures of the People of the Book are unchanged and reliable, having guidance and light.
In our next lesson, we will check one more source to find out if the earlier revelations have been changed or not. We have looked thoroughly at what the Qur’an has said and have seen that it commends the Bible as the authentic, unchanged Word of Allah—in our next study we will also see what the early Islamic scholars had to say on this very same topic.