Does the Qur'an Confirm the Bible Christians Read Today?

The Qur’an does not speak of the earlier books as a rumor. It speaks of them as present, readable, and still able to judge.

The question

Muslims and Christians both say God has spoken in a book. They disagree about whether the Bible Jews and Christians were reading in the seventh century, and still read, is the Torah and the Gospel the Qur’an talks about. This page stays with that question. The charge that those books were later corrupted is the next one: Was the Bible corrupted?. What the Qur’an means by the Gospel as a book is What is the Injil?.

What Muslims say

The strongest Muslim reading is not careless. It says the Qur’an confirms the Torah as God gave it to Moses and the Gospel as God gave it to Jesus, and that the books in churches and synagogues today are not those originals. On this account, “confirming what was before it” means confirming the true revelation, not signing the Bible on a Christian’s shelf. Where the Bible now says something the Qur’an denies, the Bible is the book that was changed. Qur’an 5:48 is then read as making the Qur’an the standard over whatever came before.

That is a real position. It should be answered from the Qur’an’s own sentences about the books people had, not from a summary of “what Islam thinks about the Bible.”

What the Qur’an says

The translation below is Saheeh International. Square brackets are in that translation. They are the translators’ explanations, not extra Arabic words.

Qur’an 3:3–4 (1) says God sent down the Qur’an “confirming what was before it,” and that he had already revealed the Torah and the Gospel “as guidance for the people.”

He has sent down upon you, [O Muḥammad], the Book in truth, confirming what was before it. And He revealed the Torah and the Gospel [4] Before, as guidance for the people. And He revealed the Criterion [i.e., the Qur’ān].

The Saheeh International text prints verse 3 and the start of verse 4 as one sentence: the Torah and the Gospel were revealed before, as guidance. The confirmation is of “what was before it,” and the earlier books are named.

Qur’an 2:41 tells its hearers to believe in what has been sent down, “confirming that which is [already] with you.” Qur’an 2:89 says a book came from God “confirming that which was with them,” and that they recognized it. Qur’an 4:47 addresses “you who were given the Scripture” and calls the new revelation something “confirming that which is with you.”

And believe in what I have sent down confirming that which is [already] with you, and be not the first to disbelieve in it.

And when there came to them a Book [i.e., the Qur’ān] from Allāh confirming that which was with them - although before they used to pray for victory against those who disbelieved - but [then] when there came to them that which they recognized, they disbelieved in it; so the curse of Allāh will be upon the disbelievers.

“With you” and “with them” are present. The book is in the community’s possession. The complaint in 2:89 is that they recognized it and then refused it, not that they no longer had anything to recognize it by.

Qur’an 5:43 asks how people come to Muhammad for judgment “while they have the Torah, in which is the judgement of Allāh.” Qur’an 5:44 says the Torah was sent down with guidance and light, and that prophets, rabbis, and scholars judged by it.

But how is it that they come to you for judgement while they have the Torah, in which is the judgement of Allāh? Then they turn away, [even] after that; but those are not [in fact] believers.

Indeed, We sent down the Torah, in which was guidance and light. The prophets who submitted [to Allāh] judged by it for the Jews, as did the rabbis and scholars by that with which they were entrusted of the Scripture of Allāh, and they were witnesses thereto. So do not fear the people but fear Me, and do not exchange My verses for a small price [i.e., worldly gain]. And whoever does not judge by what Allāh has revealed - then it is those who are the disbelievers.

The verse says they have the Torah, and that God’s judgment is in it. It also warns against selling verses for a small price. That is a charge of bad dealing with a text they hold, which is not the same sentence as “the text is gone.”

Qur’an 5:46 says Jesus confirmed “that which came before him in the Torah,” and that he was given the Gospel, “in which was guidance and light,” confirming the Torah before it. Qur’an 5:47 then gives an order to the people who have that Gospel:

And let the People of the Gospel judge by what Allāh has revealed therein. And whoever does not judge by what Allāh has revealed - then it is those who are the defiantly disobedient.

An order to judge by what is in the Gospel assumes a Gospel they can open. Qur’an 5:66 and Qur’an 5:68 say the same thing in the form of a rebuke. If they had upheld the Torah, the Gospel, and what was revealed from their Lord, it would have gone well with them. The People of the Scripture are “on nothing” until they uphold the Torah, the Gospel, and what has been revealed from their Lord.

Say, “O People of the Scripture, you are [standing] on nothing until you uphold [the law of] the Torah, the Gospel, and what has been revealed to you from your Lord [i.e., the Qur’ān].”

Qur’an 5:48 is the verse most often used to limit all of the above. It says the Qur’an confirms “that which preceded it of the Scripture and as a criterion over it.”

And We have revealed to you, [O Muḥammad], the Book [i.e., the Qur’ān] in truth, confirming that which preceded it of the Scripture and as a criterion over it. So judge between them by what Allāh has revealed and do not follow their inclinations away from what has come to you of the truth.

A criterion over a book is still a criterion over that book. The verse tells Muhammad to judge by what God has revealed and not to follow the inclinations of the people he is judging. It does not say the Scripture he is confirming was missing, or that its wording had already been replaced.

Qur’an 10:94 is as direct as the Qur’an gets about who can be asked:

So if you are in doubt, [O Muḥammad], about that which We have revealed to you, then ask those who have been reading the Scripture before you. The truth has certainly come to you from your Lord, so never be among the doubters.

Qur’an 16:43 says the same in a shorter form: “ask the people of the message [i.e., former scriptures] if you do not know.” The people to ask are people who have been reading the earlier Scripture. A lost book cannot be read, and it cannot settle a doubt.

What the reports add

Sunan Abi Dawud 4449 (2) is the report in which Jewish men ask Muhammad for a judgment and he asks for the Torah. The English on sunnah.com reads:

Narrated Abdullah Ibn Umar: A group of Jews came and invited the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) to Quff. So he visited them in their school. They said: AbulQasim, one of our men has committed fornication with a woman; so pronounce judgment upon them. They placed a cushion for the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) who sat on it and said: Bring the Torah. It was then brought. He then withdrew the cushion from beneath him and placed the Torah on it saying: I believed in thee and in Him Who revealed thee. He then said: Bring me one who is learned among you. Then a young man was brought. The transmitter then mentioned the rest of the tradition of stoning similar to the one transmitted by Malik from Nafi’(No. 4431).

The report says a Torah was brought, set on the cushion, and believed. The numbering on sunnah.com is 4449. Older citations sometimes use a different number for the same report.

Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 2653 (3) has Muhammad answer a worry that knowledge will disappear even though people recite the Qur’an:

The Tawrah and Injil are with the Jews and Christians, but what do they avail of them?

The complaint is not that the books are absent. It is that having them has not produced obedience. Sahih al-Bukhari 7362 (4), in Muhammad Muhsin Khan’s translation, describes the same community reading that book aloud:

The people of the Book used to read the Torah in Hebrew and then explain it in Arabic to the Muslims. Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said (to the Muslims). “Do not believe the people of the Book, nor disbelieve them, but say, ‘We believe in Allah and whatever is revealed to us, and whatever is revealed to you.’ “

They were reading the Torah in Hebrew and explaining it in Arabic. Muhammad’s instruction is caution about their explanation, not a statement that the Hebrew text had ceased to exist. Believe God and what he has revealed, he says, and do not take a teacher’s gloss as the last word. That is close to what a Christian says when a sermon drifts from the passage.

A Christian response

Put the sentences in one place. The Torah is with them, and God’s judgment is in it. The People of the Gospel are told to judge by what God revealed in the Gospel. The People of the Scripture are on nothing until they uphold the Torah and the Gospel. If there is doubt, ask the people who have been reading the Scripture. Jews and Christians have the Torah and the Injil, and the question is what they do with them. A Torah is brought into the room and treated as revealed.

Those sentences are about books in use in Muhammad’s lifetime, among the Jews and Christians he was addressing. They are a poor fit for the claim that the Torah and the Gospel had already been replaced by something else, so that “confirmation” only reaches a book no one can produce. Christians do not say the copies of that century were letter-perfect in every manuscript. They say the books were the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms, the four Gospels, and the apostolic writings the church was already reading, and that those are the books the church still reads. Matthew 5:17 (5) is Jesus, in the Gospel Christians mean, saying he did not come to destroy the Law or the Prophets but to fulfil them.

Qur’an 5:48 can be granted its force without emptying the other verses. A later word can claim to stand over an earlier word as a criterion. It cannot, at the same time, tell people to judge by a book and to consult its readers, and also mean that the book was no longer there. If the Torah in their hands did not contain God’s judgment, Qur’an 5:43 is addressing a situation that was not real. If the Gospel in their hands was not the Gospel to judge by, Qur’an 5:47 is an order with no object.

The Christian claim is the one the Qur’an’s wording most naturally supports: the earlier books, as the People of the Book possessed them, were still God’s Scripture, still to be upheld, and still a place to take a question. Where the Qur’an and those books then disagree, about the cross, about who Jesus is, about what “Son” means, the disagreement is real. It is not solved by saying the Bible on the table was never the book the Qur’an named. The pages on Jesus in the Qur’an and the Gospels, the crucifixion, and the Son start from that disagreement instead of moving the Bible out of reach.

Common objections

“Confirming” only means confirming what is true in the Bible, and the Qur’an decides which part. Qur’an 5:48 does call the Qur’an a criterion over the Scripture before it. The same surah still says the Torah they have contains God’s judgment, and still tells the People of the Gospel to judge by the Gospel. A criterion that sorts true sentences from false ones is a later claim about a book you possess. It is not a report that the book was swapped for another book before anyone could read it.

The Bible we have contradicts the Qur’an, so it cannot be the book the Qur’an confirms. That is the argument in a circle if the only reason for calling the Bible corrupt is that it disagrees. The Qur’an tells Christians to judge by the Gospel they have. Christians who do that find a crucified and risen Lord, and a Son, not a denial of both. The honest conclusion is that the two books do not teach the same thing about Jesus. See the resurrection of Jesus for the Christian claim, and the Qur’an’s own wording on the cross in the article linked above.

God promised to guard only the Qur’an, in Qur’an 15:9. That verse is discussed on the tahrif page, next to the verses that say no one can alter God’s words. It does not rewrite “ask those who have been reading the Scripture before you.”

The Gospel in these verses is a lost Injil, not Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. That is the Injil article. The short form is that Qur’an 5:47 is spoken to the People of the Gospel as people who can judge by what is in it.

Keep reading

• Was the Bible corrupted?
• What is the Injil?
• Jesus in the Qur’an and the Gospels
• Did Jesus die on the cross?