Consensus of the Salafs on the distortion of the Bible

* On the authority of Muadh ibn Jabal, may Allah be pleased with him, who said that he came to Ash-Sham and saw the Christians prostrating to their bishops and patriarchs. He said: Why do you do this? They said: This was the greeting of the prophets before us. I said: We are more deserving of doing this to our prophet. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: They lied about their prophets just as they distorted their book. Allah, the Almighty, has replaced it with something better than that: peace, the greeting of the people of Paradise. (Narrated by Ahmad in his Musnad “Musnad Al-Kufiyyin” No. 18591).

* Ibn Jarir and Ibn Abi Hatim narrated on the authority of Ibn Abbas who said: Rafi’, Salam ibn Mishkam, and Malik ibn Al-Saif came and said: O Muhammad, do you not claim that you follow the religion and faith of Abraham and believe in what we have? He said: Yes, but you have innovated and denied what was in it, and concealed what you were commanded to make clear to the people. So God Almighty revealed: {Say, "O People of the Scripture, you are not upon anything until you uphold the Torah and the Gospel and what has been revealed to you from your Lord. And what has been revealed to you from your Lord will surely increase many of them in transgression and disbelief. So do not grieve over the disbelieving people."} Al-Ma'idah 68. (Asbab al-Nuzul by al-Suyuti and al-Wahidi, p. 169. The hadith is not without a weakness due to the presence of Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ansari in its chain of transmission, who is unknown. However, the hadith has a corroborating witness that strengthens it, as al-Qurtubi mentioned in his interpretation on the authority of Ibn Abbas as well (3/158-159).

“Innovated something” means invented it. In Islamic law, innovation is something that is newly introduced into the religion and has no basis. This is a clear indication from him, may God bless him and grant him peace, that verbal and semantic distortion occurred in the books of the People of the Book.

As for “denial,” its definition according to linguists is: “denying something out of spite and hatred, while knowing it.” This is in complete agreement with the opinions of Christian scholars that the writers of the books are the ones who intentionally made mistakes, and yet they claim the authenticity of the Holy Book. This is one of the miracles of the words of God bless him and grant him peace.

* On the authority of Abu Hurairah, may God be pleased with him, who said: “The People of the Book used to read the Torah in Hebrew and explain it to the people of Islam in Arabic. The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: ‘Do not believe the People of the Book and do not disbelieve them, but say: “We believe in God and in what was revealed to us” (verse).” (Narrated by Al-Bukhari in his Sahih in the book “Al-I’tisam bi Al-Kitab wa Al-Sunnah” No. (6814) and in the book “Al-Tawhid” No. (6987) and he is the only one who narrated it.)

* Al-Bukhari narrated in the book “The Virtues of the Qur’an” on the authority of Anas bin Malik, may God be pleased with him: (That Hudhayfah bin Al-Yaman came to Uthman while he was fighting the people of Ash-Sham in the conquest of Armenia and Azerbaijan with the people of Iraq. Hudhayfah was alarmed by their differences in recitation, so Hudhayfah said to Uthman: O Commander of the Faithful, save this nation before they differ in the Book as the Jews and Christians differed) (Narrated by Al-Bukhari, No. (4604), and Al-Tirmidhi in “Tafsir Al-Qur’an” No. (3029)) This was in the presence of most of the Companions, may God be pleased with them, which means that they knew with certainty from what they derived from the words of their Lord and their understanding of the Sunnah of their Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, that the Jews and Christians had distorted their books and differed after that, accusing each other of disbelief.

* Al-Bukhari mentioned in the introduction to the book “Al-I’tisam bil-Kitab” in his Sahih the statement of Mu’awiyah, may Allah be pleased with him, regarding Ka’b al-Ahbar as follows: (He was one of the most truthful of these narrators who narrate to the People of the Book, and we would still attribute lies to him). This means that Ka’b al-Ahbar would sometimes make mistakes in what he said because their books were distorted and changed. So the lie was attributed to him for this reason, not because he was a liar, because he was considered by the Companions to be one of the best rabbis. So his statement: (And we would still attribute lies to him...) clearly indicates that the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, knew that the books of the Jews and Christians were distorted.

* Al-Bukhari narrated in the Book of Testimonies on the authority of Abdullah bin Utbah that Abdullah bin Abbas said: (O group of Muslims, how do you ask the People of the Book about anything while the Book of God that He revealed to His Prophet - may God bless him and grant him peace - is the most recent of God’s news?! You read it fresh and untouched, and God Almighty has told you that the People of the Book have changed the Book of God and altered it and written the Book with their own hands and said, “It is from God,” in order to exchange it for a small price) (Al-Bukhari narrated it in the Book of Testimonies, No. 2488).

Ibn Abbas said in his interpretation of the words of God Almighty: {So woe to those who write the Scripture with their own hands and then say, “This is from God,” in order to exchange it for a small price. So woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for what they earn.} (Al-Baqarah 79): “The verse was revealed about the polytheists and the People of the Book” (Tafsir Ibn Kathir 1/144).

* Mujahid, may God have mercy on him, said in his interpretation of the words of God Almighty: {So woe to those who write the Scripture with their own hands and then say, “This is from God,” in order to exchange it for a small price. Woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for what they earn.} (Al-Baqarah 79) He said: “These are the ones who knew that it was from God, then they distorted it” (Tafsir Al-Tabari 1/423). They are the People of the Book, as you learned previously from the words of Ibn Abbas .

* Imam Al-Shawkani, may Allah have mercy on him, said in his interpretation of the same previous verse: (And writing is well-known, and what is meant is: that they write the distorted book and do not explain it or deny it to its doer. And his saying: “with their hands” is an emphasis because writing can only be done by hand, so it is like his saying: “nor a bird that flies with its wings” and his saying: “they say with their mouths” and Ibn Siraj said: it is a metaphor that it is from their own initiative without it being revealed to them. And in it is that it has been indicated that it is from their own initiative by his saying: “they write the book” so attributing the writing to them indicates that. And purchasing: substitution, and we have already discussed it, and it was described as little because it is fleeting and there is no reward in it, or because it is forbidden and no blessing is permissible through it, so these scribes were not satisfied with distortion or writing for that distortion until they called out in gatherings that it is from Allah, so that they could achieve this small goal and insignificant compensation through these repeated sins. And his saying: “from what They earn. It was said: from bribery and the like, and it was said: from sins. The woe was repeated to make things more severe for them and to magnify their actions and to expose their secrets. (Fath al-Qadir 1/105).

* Imam al-Baydawi said in his interpretation of the statement of Allah the Most High: “They distort words from their [proper] usages” (al-Ma’idah 41): (That is, they distort them from the usages in which Allah placed them, either verbally: by neglecting them or changing their usage, or in meaning: by interpreting them in a way other than what is intended and applying them in a way other than their intended context.) (Tafsir al-Baydawi 1/266).

* Imam Al-Tabari, may God have mercy on him, said in his interpretation of the words of God Almighty: {So because they broke their covenant, We cursed them and made their hearts hard. They distort words from their [proper] usages and have forgotten a portion of that of which they were reminded. And you will not cease to uncover treachery on their part, except for a few of them. So pardon them and overlook. Indeed, God loves the doers of good.} Al-Ma’idah 13: {And We made the hearts of those who broke Our covenants from among the Children of Israel hard, with goodness removed from them and success removed from them, so they will not believe.} And they are not guided, for Allah, the Almighty, has removed success and faith from their hearts. They distort the words of their Lord that He sent down to their Prophet Moses, peace be upon him, which is the Torah, and they change it and write with their own hands other than what Allah, the Almighty, the Almighty, sent down to their Prophet. Then they say to the ignorant people: This is the word of Allah that He sent down to His Prophet Moses, peace be upon him, and the Torah that He revealed to him. This is from the description of the generations that came after Moses from the Jews, some of whom lived during the time of our Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. However, Allah, the Almighty, included them among those about whom the story began, from among those who lived during the time of Moses, since they were from their descendants and followed their method of lying about Allah, slandering Him, and breaking the covenants that He took from them in the Torah. (Tafsir al-Tabari 4/496)

* Imam Al-Qurtubi said in his interpretation of the words of God Almighty: {And of those who said, “We are Christians,” We took their covenant, but they forgot a portion of that of which they were reminded. So We stirred up among them enmity and hatred until the Day of Resurrection. And God will inform them about what they used to do.} Al-Ma’idah 14: (That is, those who claimed that they were Christians and did not do what they were commanded to do and made that terror and distortion into disbelief in Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace) (Tafsir Al-Qurtubi 3/78).

* The scholar Ibn Kathir said in his interpretation of the words of Allah the Most High: {So if you are in doubt about what 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.} Yunus 94: (This is to confirm for the nation and inform them that the description of their Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is found in the previous books in the hands of the People of the Book, as Allah the Most High said: {Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find written in what they have of the Torah and the Gospel.} Al-A’raf 157. Then with this knowledge that they know of Their books, as they know their sons, wear it, distort it, and change it, and they do not believe in it, although the proof is established against them (Tafsir Ibn Kathir 4/175).

And he, may God have mercy on him, said: (And more than one person mentioned that the Gospel was transmitted from him (i.e. from Christ) by four: Luke, Matthew, Mark, and John, and between the four Gospels there is much variation in each copy and many additions and omissions in relation to the other..... And they differed in transmitting the Gospels according to four sayings between additions and omissions and distortion and change) (Stories of the Prophets, pp. 573-574).

* Imam Al-Qurtubi Al-Andalusi, may God have mercy on him, said in his book “Al-I’lam bi ma fi Din Al-Nasara min Al-Fasad wa Al-Awham” the following: (The book in the hands of the Christians, which they call the Gospel, is not the Gospel about which God said on the tongue of His Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace: {And He sent down the Torah and the Gospel * Before, as guidance for mankind} Al-Imran 3-4. And he said in another place: (It has become clear from this research that the alleged Gospel was not transmitted by continuous transmission, and no evidence has been established for the infallibility of its transmitters. Therefore, it is permissible for its transmitters to make mistakes and forgetfulness, so no knowledge of anything from it is obtained, nor is there a preponderance of suspicion, so it is not paid attention to, nor is it relied upon in arguing against it. This is sufficient to reject it and demonstrate the acceptance of its distortion and the lack of trust in its content. However, we still refer to places in it where the weakness of its transmitters and the occurrence of mistakes in its transmission become clear) then he quoted The mentioned places, he said: (It has been concluded from this correct research that the Torah and the Gospel cannot be trusted, so it is not correct to use them as evidence because they are not mutawatir and are subject to change. We have provided evidence for some of what has occurred in them of that. If something like that is permissible in these two books, despite them being the most famous of what they have and their greatest pillars and the basis of their religion, then what do you think of other books that they use as evidence that are not as famous as them and are not attributed to God as they are? Based on this, it is more deserving of not being mutawatir and of accepting distortion than them) (Izhar al-Haqq, pp. 135-136).

* The scholar Abu Ubaidah Al-Khazraji said in his letter to the priest Hanna Maqar Al-Issawi after explaining to him the contradiction between the Gospels and the errors and falsehoods they contain: (I will limit myself to this from the incoherence of your Gospels and what they contain of errors and falsehoods. Whoever reads your books (meaning the books of the Old Testament) and your Gospels will find in them wonders that will lead him to believe that your laws, rulings and sayings have been divided like the people of Sheba, and that you do not adhere to a doctrine. This is not strange, for your Gospels are nothing but stories, histories, and the words of priests, disciples and others, so much so that I swear by God, besides whom there is no god, that the history of Al-Tabari is more authentically transmitted than the Gospel, and the wise person relies on it more, even though history, according to us, cannot be used as a basis for anything religious, but rather it is jokes in gatherings) (The Clamps of the Crosses and the Springs of the Gardens of Faith, p. 149). * The scholar Shihab al-Din al- Qarafi

al-Maliki said regarding the Old Testament Torah: (We say: The Torah has definitely been altered, as was previously explained, regarding what it contains of attributing to the prophets, peace be upon them, and especially the servants of God, immorality, fornication, and drinking alcohol, and what comes from the lowest of the low, to the point that they call these stories impurities, despite the evidence of the infallibility of the prophets, so it is certain that this Torah is not authentic) (The Luxurious Answers to the Immoral Questions, p. 164).

He said regarding the Gospels: (We dispute with them that what is in their hands - of the books - is divine, rather it is altered and changed to the utmost weakness and frailty, and the weakness of the preservation, narration, and chain of transmission is such that none of it can be trusted) (The previous source, p. 32).

* Sheikh Al-Islam and Defender of the Religion, the learned and struggling scholar Ahmad Ibn Taymiyyah, may God have mercy on him, said in his book, the likes of which have never been written, “The Correct Answer to Those Who Changed the Religion of Christ”: (They [the Christians] claimed that Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, believed in all the words of the books they have. The majority of Muslims deny this, and say that some of their words have been changed, just as many of their meanings have been changed) (The Correct Answer 1/214).

And he said in another place: (And what is meant here is that the Christians do not have a continuous transmission from Christ in the words of these Gospels, nor a continuous transmission or a single transmission of most of what they follow of the laws, nor do they and the Jews have a continuous transmission in the words of the Torah and the prophecies of the prophets as the Muslims have a continuous transmission in the Qur’an and in the apparent laws known to the general public and the elite. This is like the trust which is the basis of their religion, and their prayer towards the East, and the permissibility of pork, and the abandonment of circumcision, and the veneration of the cross, and the adoption of images in churches, and other than that of their laws, it is not transmitted from Christ, nor is it mentioned in the Gospels which they transmit from him. And they agree that the trust which they made the basis of their religion and the foundation of their belief is not found in the words of the Gospels, nor is it transmitted from the apostles. And they agree that those who established it were the people of the first council who were with Constantine, which was attended by three hundred and eighteen, and they disagreed with Abdullah bin Arius, who made Christ a servant of God as the Muslims say, and they established this Trust, and this council was held after Christ for a long period of more than three hundred years) (The Correct Answer 1/313).

* The great scholar Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, said in his book (Guidance for the Perplexed in the Answers of the Jews and Christians): (And their saying, “The versions of the Torah are in agreement in the East and the West of the Earth” is an obvious lie. This Torah in the hands of the Christians contradicts the Torah in the hands of the Jews, and the one in the hands of the Samaritans contradicts this and that, and these versions of the Gospels contradict and contradict each other. So their claim that the versions of the Torah and the Gospel are in agreement in the East and the West is a lie and fabrication that they spread among the likeness of cattle, and that this Torah in the hands of the Jews contains additions, distortions and omissions that are not hidden from those who are firmly grounded in knowledge, and they know with certainty that this is not in the Torah that Allah revealed to Moses, and that these Gospels in the hands of the Christians contain additions, distortions and omissions that are not hidden from those who are firmly grounded in knowledge, and they know with certainty that this is not in the Gospel that Allah revealed to the Messiah) ( Guidance for the Perplexed, pp. 106-107. He, may God have mercy on him, explained the types of distortion that occurred in the books of the People of the Book in all its forms (verbal and semantic) (see Guidance for the Perplexed, pp. 109-114).

* The eminent historian Al-Maqrizi said: (The Jews claim that their Torah is far from confusion, and the Christians claim that the Torah of the Seventy in their hands has not been distorted or changed, and the Jews say otherwise, and the Samaritans say that their Torah is the truth and everything else is false. And their differences do not remove doubt, but rather strengthen the clamor for it. And this same difference is also among the Christians in the Gospel. That is because it has four copies among the Christians collected in one Qur’an, one of which is Matthew, the second is Mark, the third is Luke, and the fourth is John. Each of these four wrote a Gospel according to his call in his country. And they differ greatly, even in the characteristics of Christ, peace be upon him, and the days of his call and the time of the crucifixion, according to their claim, and in his lineage as well. And this difference is not tolerated. And with this, each of the followers of Marcion and the followers of Ibn Wisan has a Gospel that contradicts some of these Gospels. And the followers of Mani have a separate Gospel that contradicts what he is upon. Christians from beginning to end, and they claim that it is the correct one, and that everything else is false. They also have a gospel called the Gospel of the Seventy, which is attributed to Talmas, and the Christians and others deny it. If the matter is one of disagreement among the People of the Book, as you have seen, and analogy and opinion have no role in distinguishing the truth of that from its falsehood, then it is impossible for them to determine the truth of that, and no reliance should be placed on any of their statements about it (Izhar al-Haqq, p. 136).

* Imam Ibn Hazm, may God have mercy on him, said in “Al-Fasl fi al-Milal” (2/13): (We do not need to bother with proof that the Gospels and all the books of the Christians are not from God Almighty nor from Christ, peace be upon him, as we needed to do with the Torah and the books attributed to the prophets, peace be upon them, that are with the Jews, because the majority of the Jews claim that the Torah that they have is revealed from God Almighty to Moses, peace be upon him, so we need to establish proof of the invalidity of their claim in that. As for the Christians, they have spared us all this trouble, because they do not claim that the Gospels were revealed from God to Christ, nor that Christ brought them to them. Rather, all of them, from the first to the last, Aristotelian, Melkite, Nestorian, Jacobite, Maronite, and Bolqanite, do not differ that they are four histories written by four men known to them at different times.)

* Imam Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, may God have mercy on him, said in his interpretation of the words of God Almighty: {It is not for a human being that God should give him the Scripture and wisdom and prophethood and then he should say to the people, "Be servants to me instead of God." But be devout scholars of the Book because you have been taught the Scripture and because you have been studying it.} (Al-Imran 79): (Know that when God Almighty explained that the habit of the People of the Book is to distort and change, He followed it with what indicates that among the things they distorted was their claim that Jesus, peace be upon him, claimed divinity) (Al-Tafsir al-Kabir 2/109).

* The scholar Abu al-Baqa al-Hashemi said: (We show - with the help of Allah - in this chapter of the contradiction and conflict of the Gospel of the Christians, its falsehood and its incoherence, and the clash of some of it with others, which is attested to by those who have read it: that it is not the true Gospel revealed from Allah, and that most of it is the sayings of the narrators and their stories, and that its transmitters corrupted it and mixed it with their stories, and attached to it matters that were not heard from Christ or his companions, such as what they narrated of the image of the crucifixion and killing and the blackening of the sun and the change in the color of the moon and the splitting of the temple, and these are matters that only happened according to the Christians after Christ, so how can they be made part of the Gospel, and were not heard from Christ? The true Gospel is what Christ spoke, and if that is the case, then trust in this Gospel has been breached, and reassurance in its transmission has been lost) (Shame on the Letter of the Torah and the Gospel? p. 141).

* Imam Sulayman ibn Abd al-Qawi al-Tawfi al-Hanbali said in his response to a Christian who wrote a book in which he attacked Islam: (I saw this Christian relying in his attack on Islam on the Torah and the Gospel in the hands of the Jews and Christians, and on the books of the early prophets: such as the prophecy of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and the twelve prophets, and the Psalms of David, and the like... And know that these books are not among those that can be used as evidence against us, because they are distorted and changed in our view. Yes, the change did not come to all of them, rather it entered them as a whole. For this reason our Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, said: “If the People of the Book tell you something, do not believe them and do not disbelieve them...” The hadith, forbidding us from believing them is that what they told us was definitely distorted, and disbelieving them was for fear that it was not distorted) (Al-Intisaraat al-Islamiyyah 1/229-232).

May God have mercy on him, he explained in his manuscript “Commentaries on the Gospel” that none of these Gospels in the hands of the Christians are the Gospel revealed to Jesus, peace be upon him, and that these Gospels differed in addition, subtraction, and narration of meaning.

* Imam al-Juwayni - may God have mercy on him - said in his book “Shifa al-Ghaleel fi Bayan ma Waqa’a fi al-Torah wa al-Injil min al-Tabdil” pp. 30-31, the following: (The Torah that is in the hands of the Jews now is the Torah that Ezra al-Warraq wrote after their strife with Nebuchadnezzar.... This copy was written by Ezra five hundred and forty-five years before the mission of Christ, peace be upon him. There were no Christians on the face of the earth. Then, the change is possible because knowledge is not related to limiting the copies of the Torah scattered throughout the regions of the earth as mentioned, and because it is not dependent on the obedience of each individual from the two groups, and because its copies are not in the hands of the Jews and Christians. Because it did not reach the hands of the Christians except after it was changed. So, the one who did that is one.... So the change from him is possible, because of his keenness to continue his leadership (i.e. Ezra) and the lack of saying that he is infallible: because it prevents him from committing minor and major sins). He also said on p. 39: (As for the owners of the Gospels: So the conversation with them is in our hands, and God will help them. As for their grave error and their lack of caution in what they transmitted: there is no hope for the wise to correct it. The reason that caused them to fall into error in what they transmitted: their neglect of what must be taken seriously during times like these, in which change and forgetfulness occur, because of what is heard.

* The Sheikh of the Mujahideen, the scholar “Rahmatullah bin Khalil Al-Hindi” said in his enjoyable book “Izhar Al-Haqq”: (As we said, the original Torah and the original Gospel were lost before the mission of Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, and what is now present is like two books of biography collected from the correct and false narrations, and we do not say that they were present in their originality until the time of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, and then distortion occurred in them, and the words of Paul, assuming the authenticity of the attribution to him, are also not acceptable to us because we believe that he is one of the liars who appeared in the first generation, even if he was sacred to the people of the Trinity, so we do not buy his words for a grain, and the remaining disciples after the ascension of Jesus, peace be upon him, to heaven, we believe in their righteousness and we do not believe in their prophethood, and their words, in our view, are like the words of the righteous mujtahids, and are subject to error, and the loss of the continuous chain of transmission to the end of the second century and the loss of the original Hebrew Gospel of Matthew and the survival of its translation, the name of whose author is also unknown until now, and then distortion occurred in it, became reasons for the removal of security from their words, as for Luke and Mark, they are not from The two disciples, and it has not been proven with evidence that they were also inspired, and the Torah for us is what was revealed to Moses, peace be upon him, and the Gospel for us is what was revealed to Jesus, peace be upon him, as God Almighty said: {And We had certainly given Moses} (Al-Baqarah 87). That is, the Torah, and God Almighty said about Jesus, peace be upon him: {And We gave him the Gospel} Al-Maidah 46, and it is mentioned in Surah Al-Baqarah 136 and Al-Imran 84: {And that which was given to Moses and Jesus} meaning the Torah and the Gospel. As for these histories and letters that exist now, they are not the Torah and the Gospel mentioned in the Qur’an, so it is not obligatory to accept them, rather their ruling and the ruling of all the books of the Old Testament is the following: “Every narration of its narrations, if the Qur’an confirms it, is acceptable, and if the Qur’an denies it, it is rejected, and if the Qur’an is silent about confirmation and denial, then we are silent about it, so we neither confirm nor deny” (Izhar Al-Haqq, p. 133).

* The late great professor “Muhammad Farid Wajdi” said: (And among the sensory evidence of distortion is that the Torah circulated among the Christians differs from the Torah circulated among the Jews) (The Truth of Faith, p. 78).

* Imam “Muhammad Abu Zahra” may God have mercy on him said in his book ( Lectures on Christianity: (These four Gospels were not dictated by Christ, nor were they revealed to him by divine inspiration, but were written after him), and he said in another place: (The Church was not satisfied with choosing these four Gospels, but wanted people to accept them because they believed in their authenticity, and rejected the others, and she achieved what she wanted, so these Gospels became the only ones to be considered, without others) (Lectures on Christianity, p. 38).

* Imam Muhammad Rashid Rida, may God have mercy on him, said: (Some Muslims believe the Christian advocates and their debaters in their claim that these Gospels have been preserved with them from the time of Christ until now, and that they are accepted by all their sects and known to others, so no two people differed about them, but whoever reads their historical and religious books knows that this claim is false) (The Doctrine of the Crucifixion and Redemption, p. 31).

And he, may God have mercy on him, said: (These Gospels are an incomplete history of Christ, and they are contradictory and conflicting, and their origin and history are unknown. Rather, there was disagreement among them regarding their authors and the languages ​​in which they were composed. We have explained in the interpretation of the first Surah of Al Imran the truth of the Gospel of Christ and the fact that these books contained only a little of it, just as the biography of the Prophet among us contains a little of the Qur’an and the hadith.This little bit of the Gospel has been subject to contradiction and distortion (A Warning Cry from the Advocates of Christianization, p. 95).

* The scholar Muhammad Abdullah Daraz said in his great book “Al-Naba’ Al-Azeem”: (…and with this double care that God sent into the souls of the Muhammadan nation, following the example of its Prophet, the Qur’an remained preserved in a secure safe, fulfilling the promise of God who undertook to preserve it, as He says: {Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur’an and indeed, We will be its guardian} (Al-Hijr 9). And it was not affected by what happened to the previous books of distortion, alteration, and interruption of the chain of transmission, as God did not undertake to preserve them, but rather entrusted them to the preservation of people, as God Almighty said: {And the rabbis and the scholars, because of what they were entrusted with of the Book of God} (Al-Ma’idah 44). That is, because of what they were asked to preserve) (Al-Naba’ Al-Azeem, p. 42).

* The great scholar, "Ahmed Hussein Deedat" may Allah have mercy on him, said when he was asked: Can a person deny that if Allah had preserved His word in the past for the Torah and other books and the Holy Bible, can he deny that He is able to preserve them always?
The scholar Deedat said: (What I have been emphasizing all night is that the books were not preserved. And with your question you insist on the same issue. The books were not preserved... The truth of the matter is that they are not the word of Allah, and the books have been distorted) (The Great Debate "Is the Bible the Word of Allah?" between Ahmed Deedat and Jimmy Swaggart, p. 36).

* The scholar, Dr. "Muhammad bin Muhammad Abu Shabah" said about the books of the Holy Bible: (... They did not have the definitive, reliable textual confirmation that the Noble Qur’an has, and from here it was easy to distort and change the Torah and the Bible by the rabbis, monks and priests) (Introduction to the Study of the Holy Qur’an, pp. 389, 390).

* The scholar Abu al-Hasan al-Nadwi said: (The heavenly scriptures that preceded the Qur’an are still subject to distortion, alteration, loss and destruction... This has been proven historically, and has been transmitted and acknowledged by the nations and sects to which these scriptures were revealed. The scriptures of the Old Testament were clearly targeted for destruction, burning and extermination, and by agreement of Jewish historians three times in history... As for the matter of the four Gospels called the New Testament, their matter is stranger than the scriptures of the Old Testament, as their writing and their authors are surrounded by much ambiguity, confusion and disorder, and between them and the Lord Christ, peace and blessings be upon him, there is a deep and wide gap... There is no continuous chain of transmission from our time to their writers, nor from their writers to our Lord Jesus, son of Mary... Then there is internal evidence of clear historical errors, clear contradictions, and impossible matters that reason denies, and attributing things to God that are not befitting of His majesty and perfection, and do not agree with His attributes that the heavenly religions and sound minds have agreed upon, and there are objections to... The honored prophets of God, and their accusation of actions and morals that the average person would be above, and other numerous clear evidences that indicate the interpolation, addition, and change in the books of the Old and New Testaments, which are collectively called the Bible (Prophecy and the Prophets in the Light of the Qur’an, pp. 125-129).

* The scholar Dr. Muhammad Wasfi said: (Whoever reads the four Gospels cannot say that they were written by Christ in any way... nor can he say that they were dictated by him... because there is absolutely no need to say that a letter sent by someone to his friend, telling him a story he heard or news that reached him through narration, is inspired or written by someone else or dictated by him, because it is clear that they were written by him). And he says in another place: (As for the distortion in the old Gospels, it is definitely proven, and I will suffice with proving it from what I mentioned about the difference in the four Gospels in what they narrate about Christ... As for the distortion in the modern Gospels, it is definitely proven in the Gospels printed today in our hands, for the Holy Bible printed by the Catholics differs from the Holy Bible printed by the Protestants in a fundamental difference that affects their basic beliefs and important issues in their teachings) (Christ and the Trinity, pp. 32, 37).

* Sheikh “Sayyid Sabiq” may God have mercy on him said: (As for the Torah that is currently in circulation, it was written by more than one writer, and in different times, and it has been distorted.... The Gospel that was revealed to Jesus, peace be upon him, is like the Torah that was revealed to Moses. Both are the words of God, and in them is guidance and light, except that the Gospel has been affected by the same distortion that affected the Torah) (Islamic Beliefs, pp. 145-146).

* Sheikh "Mohamed Metwally Al-Shaarawy" said in his thoughts on faith about the Holy Quran: (The Almighty's saying: {This is the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those conscious of Allah} Al-Baqarah 2, ... God Almighty draws our attention to that book which is a method for man on earth, after He, the Most High, made clear to us, without leaving room for doubt, that the book was sent down from Him, and that it corrects the previous books such as the Torah and the Gospel, which God entrusted to mankind, but they distorted and changed them, and this distortion nullified the mission of the divine method with regard to these books, so the book came that was not distorted or changed, to remain a method for Allah, until the Day of Resurrection. The first thing that this book brought was the ultimate faith, that there is no god but Allah, the One, the Unique... and Allah Almighty says: {Alif, Lam, Meem. Allah - there is no god but He, the Ever-Living The Self-Sustaining. He has sent down to you, [O Muhammad], the Book in truth, confirming what was before it. And He sent down the Torah and the Gospel. (Al Imran 1-3). Thus we know that the Book was sent down to confirm to us that God is One and Unique, with no partner, and that the Qur’an includes everything that the heavenly laws contained, from the Torah and the Gospel, and other books. (Khawatir Al Shaarawy 1/109).

* Sheikh Muhammad al-Ghazali, may God have mercy on him, said: (This Old Testament is a strange book, or a collection of strange chapters, full of stories, visions, and turbulent histories, examples of which we have presented above. It seems that in order to be a believer, you must accept myths... There are many comments by unknown writers, which were inserted into the original and then considered part of it, and they became, although they were made by people, divine revelation, despite their contradiction with reason and what was transmitted... The fate of the Gospel was not better than the fate of the Torah, but perhaps it was worse! After Jesus, peace be upon him, disappeared, the pages of the book that was revealed to him disappeared with him, and no one has found a trace of them to this day) (A Warner’s Cry from the Proponents of Christianity, pp. 67, 90, 93).

* The scholar Abu Al-A’la Al-Mawdudi said: “These books whose names we have been told, none of the scrolls of Abraham exist. As for the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospel, even though they are still with the Jews and Christians, they have distorted them a lot, changed their words from their places, deleted from them, and added to them many opinions from themselves, so that the Jews and Christians themselves admit today that they do not have those original books that were revealed to Moses, David, and Jesus, peace be upon them, but rather they have in their hands translations of them that have remained the same for centuries, subject to change, alteration, addition, and subtraction” (Principles of Islam, p. 99).

* The scholar Ibn Uthaymeen, may Allah have mercy on him, said: (We believe that Allah, the Most High, sent down to His Messengers books as proof for the worlds and a path for the worlds, teaching them wisdom and purifying them. We believe that Allah, the Most High, sent down a book with every Messenger, as Allah, the Most High, says: {Indeed, We sent Our Messengers with clear proofs and sent down with them the Scripture and the Balance that mankind may maintain justice.} [Al-Hadid: 25] - And we know from these books:

1- The Torah: which Allah, the Most High, sent down to Moses, peace be upon him, and it is the greatest book of the Children of Israel: {Indeed, We sent down the Torah, in which was guidance and light. The prophets who submitted [to Allah] judged by it.} {To those who are Jews, and the rabbis and the priests, because of what they have been entrusted with of the Book of Allah.}
Al-Ma’idah 44. 2- The Gospel: which Allah the Almighty revealed to Jesus, peace be upon him, and it confirms the Torah and completes it. {And We followed up in their footsteps with Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming what was before him of the Torah. And We gave him the Gospel, in which was guidance and light and confirming what was before it of the Torah and a guidance and instruction for the righteous.} Al-Ma’idah 46. {And that I may make lawful to you some of what was forbidden to you} Al Imran 50
3- The Psalms: which God gave to David, peace be upon him.
4- The scrolls of Abraham and Moses, peace be upon them.
5- The Great Qur’an: which God revealed to His Prophet Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets {As guidance for mankind and clear proofs of guidance and criterion} Al Baqarah 185. So God abrogated all previous books with it and guaranteed to protect it from the tampering of tamperers and the deviation of distorters {Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur’an and indeed, We will be its guardian} Al Hijr 9. Because it will remain an argument against all creation until the Day of Resurrection.
As for the previous books, they are temporary and will end with the revelation of what abrogates them and clarifies what distortion and change occurred in them. For this reason, they were not infallible, as distortion, additions, and subtractions occurred in them. {Among the Jews are those who distort words from their [proper] usages.} ​​An-Nisaa’ 46, {So woe to those who write the Scripture with their own hands and then say, “This is from Allah,” in order to exchange it for a small price. Woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for what they earn.} Al-Baqarah 79, {Say, “Who sent down the Book?”} That which Moses brought as a light and guidance for mankind. You make it into sheets, revealing some and concealing much. And you have been taught that which you did not know, you and your fathers. Say, “Allah.” Then leave them in their confusion, playing. {Al-An`am 91} {And indeed, among them is a party who distort the Scripture with their tongues so that you may think it is from the Scripture, but it is not from the Scripture. And they say, “It is from Allah,” but it is not from Allah.} Allah, and they say a lie about Allah while they know it. (Al Imran 78) {O People of the Scripture, there has come to you Our Messenger making clear to you much of what you used to conceal of the Scripture [until His saying] Indeed, they have disbelieved who say, “Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary.”} (Al-Ma’idah: 15-17) (The Creed of the People of the Sunnah and the Community, pp. 16, 17).

(And he was asked, may Allah have mercy on him: Is it permissible for a Muslim to acquire the Bible in order to know the words of Allah to His servant and Messenger Jesus, peace and blessings be upon him?

He replied, may Allah have mercy on him: It is not permissible to acquire any of the books that came before the Qur’an, whether the Bible, the Torah, or anything else, for two reasons:

The first reason: Everything that was beneficial in them, Allah, the Most High, has explained it in the Noble Qur’an.
The second reason: The Qur’an contains what suffices in place of all these books, as Allah, the Most High, says: {He has sent down to you, [O Muhammad], the Book in truth, confirming what was before it} [Aal ‘Imran 3]. And His saying: {And We have sent down to you, [O Muhammad], the Book in truth, confirming what was before it of the Scripture and as a criterion over it. So judge between them by what Allah has sent down} [Aal ‘Imran 3]. {Al-Ma’idah 48. For what is in the previous books of goodness is found in the Qur’an.
As for the questioner’s statement that he wants to know the words of Allah to His servant and messenger Jesus, then what is beneficial to us has been narrated in the Qur’an, so there is no need to search for anything else. Also, the existing Gospel is distorted, and the evidence for that is that it is four Gospels that contradict each other and is not one Gospel, so it cannot be relied upon.
As for the seeker of knowledge who has knowledge that enables him to distinguish truth from falsehood, there is nothing wrong with him knowing it in order to refute what is false in it and establish proof against those who embrace it.} (Fatawa al-Aqeedah, p. 598)

* His Eminence, the scholar Abdullah bin Al-Jibreen, may Allah protect him, was asked: (Does the meaning of the words of Allah the Almighty: {And We followed up after them with Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming what was before him of the Torah, and We gave him the Gospel, in which was guidance and light and confirming what was before him of the Torah, and guidance and instruction for the righteous.} Al-Ma’idah 46. That Jesus, peace be upon him, came to complete the call of Moses, peace be upon him? And what do you say about those who say that the Gospel is not distorted according to the text of the words of Allah the Almighty: {And We gave him the Gospel, in which was guidance and light.} And what is the meaning of {and confirming what was before him of the Torah, and guidance and instruction for the righteous.} {In his hands from the Torah}?

He replied, may Allah protect him and preserve him: There is no doubt that the call of all the messengers agreed on the basis of religion, which is monotheism and sincere worship of Allah Almighty, and this is the meaning of the saying of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: “We, the community of prophets, are children of one mother and one father, meaning we agree in belief despite the existence of differences in the laws. Despite that, every prophet believes in the prophets and messengers who came before him, so His statement: {And We followed up after them with Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming what was before him of the Torah, and We gave him the Gospel} indicates that Jesus believes in the knowledge in the Torah and acts upon it and urges its application and rules according to what is in it.
There is no doubt that he was given the Gospel, which contains guidance and light and includes rulings that were not mentioned in the Torah. That is why God Almighty said about it: {And that I may make lawful to you some of what was forbidden to you} (Al Imran 50) - so He mentioned that He permitted them some of what was forbidden in the Law of Moses as a way of making things easier.

There is no doubt that the Gospel that was revealed to Jesus contains guidance and light, but after Jesus was taken up, they differed about it, and for this reason the Gospels became numerous (such as the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of John, etc.) and there is a difference between them as is seen. God Almighty only mentioned one book, so their multiplicity after Jesus is evidence of their being changed and distorted. As for the original, it is what God mentioned in His saying: {In it is guidance and light}. As for these Gospels, they have been changed and distorted from the revealed Book that was revealed confirming the Torah before it and explaining what was in it. And God knows best. (Fatawa and Rulings on the Prophet of God Jesus, peace be upon him, pp. 34, 35).

* The Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was asked the following:

Q: What is the ruling on reading the Gospel?

Praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon His Messenger, his family and companions.

A: The previous divine books have been subject to much distortion, addition and subtraction, as Allah has mentioned. It is not permissible for a Muslim to read or review them unless he is well-grounded in knowledge and wants to clarify the distortions and contradictions that have been mentioned in them.
And Allah is the Grantor of success, and may peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family and companions.

(The second question of Fatwa No. 8852 – Fatwas of the Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Iftaa’ 3/311)

* Sheikh Abu Bakr Al-Jaza’iri said in the context of his talk about the Holy Quran: (Allah has promised to preserve it until He raises it to Him, as He, the Most High, says: {Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur’an and indeed, We will be its guardian.} [Al-Hijr: 9] So the Lord, the Blessed and Exalted, preserved it by providing for it trustworthy men who preserved it in their hearts and their lines, so that the hand of time and the hand of the enemy were not able to add a letter to it or subtract a letter from it, unlike other books, especially the Torah, which was all lost in the Babylonian invasion of the Kingdom of the Children of Israel by Nebuchadnezzar, and it was not found until later. Then, as soon as it was collected, and God knows best about the correctness of what was collected in it, the worshippers of materialism took control of it and distorted and changed it according to their interests and whims. As for the Gospel, it is sufficient to indicate that it was not preserved that today there are five Gospels after it was one Gospel on the day of its revelation (which is the Gospel of Matthew Mark, Luke, John and Barnabas, the last of which is the most correct and was hidden from the fourth century to the seventeenth century AD) (The Believer’s Creed, p. 155).

* Dr. Muhammad Amara, may God protect him, said: (It is not right to make the Holy Book an argument against the Qur’an and a reference for it.. because it is proven even in the studies conducted by many Jewish and Christian scholars that this Holy Book has been rewritten and distorted.. and its translations have been subject to changes and misprints) (The Facts of Islam in Confronting the Doubts of Skeptics, p. 285).

* His Eminence Dr. Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, was asked the following:

God Almighty has undertaken to preserve the Holy Qur’an, so why has He not undertaken to preserve the other holy books even though their source is one, which is God Almighty?

His Eminence replied: (The Almighty said: {Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur’an and indeed, We will be its guardian.} [Al-Hijr: 9]. The Holy Qur’an is the word of Allah Almighty revealed to our Master Muhammad, may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him and his family, so that he may worship with it and challenge with the shortest Surah of it. The Holy Qur’an is the heavenly constitution that is valid for all times and places, in which Allah has collected the stories of the predecessors. Allah the Almighty said: {We relate to you the best of stories in what We have revealed to you of this Qur’an, although before it you were among the unaware.} [Yusuf: 3]. And Allah the Almighty said: {Indeed, this Qur’an relates to the Children of Israel {Most of those about whom they differ are those who disbelieve. And indeed, it is guidance and mercy for the believers.} An-Naml 76-77. Allah Almighty preserved the Holy Quran over the previous heavenly books because it is the final book that includes all the previous books, because every prophet was sent to his people in particular, and our master the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace, was sent to all people, and he gathered more than one prophet in different places and at the same time, such as our master Abraham, peace be upon him, and our master Lot, peace be upon him. So the book - like the scrolls of Abraham and Moses, the Gospel of Jesus, and the Psalms of David - was revealed to a group of people and not to others, but the Quran came for all people, Arabs and others, those who were in the time of the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and those who come after him until the Day of Judgment, so it was worthy of being preserved over all the other books.

In addition, Allah Almighty willed in His wisdom to test the predecessors by their preservation of their books and not distorting or changing them, but they did not remain steadfast and did not fulfill except for a few of those whom Allah guided. So Allah Almighty preserved this eternal book for this blessed nation and undertook to preserve it as an honor to them and to show their status with Him Almighty. He, glory be to Him, raises up whomever He wills and lowers whomever He wills. There is no one who can question His judgment or repel His grace. And Allah, glory be to Him, knows best. (Al-Azhar Magazine - Issue of Rajab 1426 AH - August 2005 AD, pp. 1160, 1161).



Quoted from: “Then they say, ‘This is from Allah!’” pp. 263-279.