DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Bible Text or Interpretation Corrupted/Altered

**ARKLqAZ6** · 11-25-2011, 06:58 AM

Salam Alaikum,

I am curious about this matter for a while now what is the classical Islamic approach to the Judeo-Christian scriptures the Torah Tanakh and the Bible has the actual text manuscript etc been tempered with and has it been changed and corrupted or is it their interpretation of the text and are there Ahadeeth or Classical commentaries regarding this matter information would be much appreciated.

There are few different things to tak einto account when dealing with the Bible from an Islamic standpoint.

First, the Tanakh/Torah/old testement and the New testement are two entirely different books. The Torah has less corruption then the Nt, but we only know this because the Quran verifies a lot of the OT. If you read the Ot and compare it to the Quran, the basic jist of the stories are the same - its usually minor details that are different. Its these details and minor stories that are not verified by the Quran or hadeeth that are possible corruptions. For these extras found in the OT we have actually instructed by Rasoolullah

on how to approach them - Abu Hurairah r.a. says that the Jews used to read the Torah in Hebrew and interpret it in Arabic for Muslims, whereupon the Prophet s.a.w. instructed: “Don’t endorse the statements of the people of scripture nor reject them”
(Sahih Bukhari, Kitab Al-Tafsir, Hadith No. 4485)

This is because we do not know what is true and what is false, and it is better to not comment on something, then to call something false, when in reality it is true. Amir Al-Mu’mineen Fil Hadith, Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani (RA) explains the issue in light of what Imam Al-Shafi’e (RA) said:
“It is a known fact that the Prophet

does not allow false reporting. In this light the Prophet’s hadith about Israelites sources means that the information which do not appear false could be narrated.”
(Al-Dhahabi, Muhammad Hussain, Al-Tafsir wal Mufassirun, vol. 1, pg. 17)

There are Tafsir swhere Israeliyyat sources are used, when used that are usually realated from 1 of 4 people:
1. Abdullah Bin Salam

- a Jewish rabbi and scholar before converting to Islam, several verses of Quran were revealed in his honor incluiding Al-Ahqaf 46:10 nd Al-Ra’d 13:430 (Sahih Bukhari, Kitab Manaqib Al-Ansar, hadith No. 3812 and Al-Tabari Jami’ Al-Bayan, Darul Kutub al-Ilmiyyah, Beirut, vol. 7, pg. 409)

2. Ka’b Al-Ahbar (RA) - embraced Islam during the Khilafat of Umar

from Judaism and is sourced by Imam Muslim, Imam Abi Daud, Imam Al-Tirmidhi and Imam Al-Nasai whjo all accept his reports as authentic

3. Wahb Bin Munabbih (ra) - His father embraced Islam during the life of rasoolullah

, but never met him. Imam Bukhari, Imam Muslim, Imam Al-Nasai, Imam Al-Tiridhi and Imam Abi Daud have a
ll used him as a reliable source

4. Ibn Juraij (RA) - He comes from a Christian family and was a freed slave of the Umayyah tribe of the Quraisy. He was considered an authority on Judeo-Christian traditions in the period of the tabi’een.

The New Testement is a whole different story - Thsi book is not the Injeel that Allah refers to, rather, it is, at best, a second hand commentary on the Injeel. The book that was revealed to Jesus

is lost, no one knows when it was lost or who had it last, all we can do is speculate. The book we know as the New Terstement of Jesus Christ is actually a collection of writtings of men. Now christians content that these men were definately the Apostles, but if we apply the same criteria for grading hadeeth to the authenticity of the Bible, then the majority of books in the NT would be considered Da'if (weak) at best, if not fabricated all together. The NT existed in one form or another during the lifetime of Rasoolullah

, so we have to apply the same criteria to it as we do the Tanakh and say simply that anything from the NT that does not contradict the Quran can be related, anything aside from that is the work of man. The Quran refers to the apostles as Hawariyoon, and speaks highly of them (this does not include Paul, who never met jesus

), so we can not directly attribute any works to them which contain Shirk, however, as a misguided people, christians may have misinterpreted and applied literal meanings to some of the Apostles esoteric writtings, much like many sufi authors have been portrayed as Mushirks for their writtings.

11-25-2011, 06:58 AM	#3
ARKLqAZ6 Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 479 Senior Member	Salam Alaikum, I am curious about this matter for a while now what is the classical Islamic approach to the Judeo-Christian scriptures the Torah Tanakh and the Bible has the actual text manuscript etc been tempered with and has it been changed and corrupted or is it their interpretation of the text and are there Ahadeeth or Classical commentaries regarding this matter information would be much appreciated. There are few different things to tak einto account when dealing with the Bible from an Islamic standpoint. First, the Tanakh/Torah/old testement and the New testement are two entirely different books. The Torah has less corruption then the Nt, but we only know this because the Quran verifies a lot of the OT. If you read the Ot and compare it to the Quran, the basic jist of the stories are the same - its usually minor details that are different. Its these details and minor stories that are not verified by the Quran or hadeeth that are possible corruptions. For these extras found in the OT we have actually instructed by Rasoolullah on how to approach them - Abu Hurairah r.a. says that the Jews used to read the Torah in Hebrew and interpret it in Arabic for Muslims, whereupon the Prophet s.a.w. instructed: “Don’t endorse the statements of the people of scripture nor reject them” (Sahih Bukhari, Kitab Al-Tafsir, Hadith No. 4485) This is because we do not know what is true and what is false, and it is better to not comment on something, then to call something false, when in reality it is true. Amir Al-Mu’mineen Fil Hadith, Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani (RA) explains the issue in light of what Imam Al-Shafi’e (RA) said: “It is a known fact that the Prophet does not allow false reporting. In this light the Prophet’s hadith about Israelites sources means that the information which do not appear false could be narrated.” (Al-Dhahabi, Muhammad Hussain, Al-Tafsir wal Mufassirun, vol. 1, pg. 17) There are Tafsir swhere Israeliyyat sources are used, when used that are usually realated from 1 of 4 people: 1. Abdullah Bin Salam - a Jewish rabbi and scholar before converting to Islam, several verses of Quran were revealed in his honor incluiding Al-Ahqaf 46:10 nd Al-Ra’d 13:430 (Sahih Bukhari, Kitab Manaqib Al-Ansar, hadith No. 3812 and Al-Tabari Jami’ Al-Bayan, Darul Kutub al-Ilmiyyah, Beirut, vol. 7, pg. 409) 2. Ka’b Al-Ahbar (RA) - embraced Islam during the Khilafat of Umar from Judaism and is sourced by Imam Muslim, Imam Abi Daud, Imam Al-Tirmidhi and Imam Al-Nasai whjo all accept his reports as authentic 3. Wahb Bin Munabbih (ra) - His father embraced Islam during the life of rasoolullah , but never met him. Imam Bukhari, Imam Muslim, Imam Al-Nasai, Imam Al-Tiridhi and Imam Abi Daud have a ll used him as a reliable source 4. Ibn Juraij (RA) - He comes from a Christian family and was a freed slave of the Umayyah tribe of the Quraisy. He was considered an authority on Judeo-Christian traditions in the period of the tabi’een. The New Testement is a whole different story - Thsi book is not the Injeel that Allah refers to, rather, it is, at best, a second hand commentary on the Injeel. The book that was revealed to Jesus is lost, no one knows when it was lost or who had it last, all we can do is speculate. The book we know as the New Terstement of Jesus Christ is actually a collection of writtings of men. Now christians content that these men were definately the Apostles, but if we apply the same criteria for grading hadeeth to the authenticity of the Bible, then the majority of books in the NT would be considered Da'if (weak) at best, if not fabricated all together. The NT existed in one form or another during the lifetime of Rasoolullah , so we have to apply the same criteria to it as we do the Tanakh and say simply that anything from the NT that does not contradict the Quran can be related, anything aside from that is the work of man. The Quran refers to the apostles as Hawariyoon, and speaks highly of them (this does not include Paul, who never met jesus ), so we can not directly attribute any works to them which contain Shirk, however, as a misguided people, christians may have misinterpreted and applied literal meanings to some of the Apostles esoteric writtings, much like many sufi authors have been portrayed as Mushirks for their writtings.
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