Islamic holy books are the texts which Muslims believe were authored by Allah through various prophets throughout humanity's history. All these books, in Muslim belief, promulgated the code and laws that God ordained for those people.
Muslims believe the Quran to be the final revelation of God to mankind, and a completion and confirmation of previous scriptures.[1] Despite the primacy that Muslims place upon the Quran as God's final word, Islam speaks of respecting all the previous scriptures, and belief in all the revealed books is an article of faith in Islam.
The Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God (Arabic: الله, Allah).[2] The Quran is divided into chapters (surah), which are then divided into verses (ayah). Muslims believe the Quran was verbally revealed by Allah to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel (Jibril),[3][4] gradually over a period of approximately 23 years, when Muhammad was 40, and concluding in 63, the year of his death.[2][5][6] Muslims regard the Quran as the most important miracle of Muhammad, a proof of his prophethood,[7] and the culmination of a series of divine messages that started with the messages revealed to Adam and ended with Muhammad. It is widely regarded as the finest work in classical Arabic literature.[8][9][10][11]
According to the Quran, the Torah was revealed to Moses (Musa)[12] but Muslims argue that the current Torah has suffered corruption over the years, and is no longer reliable.[13] Moses and his brother Aaron (Hārūn) used the Torah to preach the message to the Israelites (Banu Isrā’īl, lit. "Children of Israel").
The Quran mentions the Zabur, often interpreted as being the Book of Psalms,[14] as being the holy scripture revealed to King David (Dawud). Scholars have often understood the Psalms to have been holy songs of praise, and not a book administering law.[15] The current Psalms are still praised by many Muslim scholars,[16][17] but Muslims generally assume that some of the current Psalms were written later and are not divinely revealed.[citation needed]Quran21:105 and Psalm 37:29 are direct counterparts.[18]
The Injil was the holy book revealed to Jesus (Isa), according to the Quran. Although some lay Muslims believe the Injil refers to the entire New Testament, most scholars and Muslims believe that it refers not to the New Testament but to an original Gospel, given to Jesus as the word of Allah.[19] Therefore, according to Muslim belief, the Gospel was the message that Jesus, being divinely inspired, preached to the Children of Israel. The current canonical Gospels, in the belief of Muslim scholars, are not divinely revealed but rather are documents of the life of Jesus, as written by various contemporaries, disciples and companions. These Gospels, in Muslim belief, contain portions of the teachings of Jesus, but neither represent nor contain the original Gospel from Allah, which has been corrupted and/or lost.[20]
Additional scrolls and texts
The Quran also mentions two ancient scrolls and another possible book:
The Scrolls of Moses (Arabic: صُحُفِ مُوسَىٰ, Ṣuḥuf Mūsā), containing some of the revelation of Moses, are understood by Muslims to refer not to the Torah but to revelations aside from the Torah. Some scholars have stated that they could possibly refer to the Book of the Wars of the Lord,[16] a lost text spoken of in the Old Testament or Tanakh in the Book of Numbers.[24] The verse mentioning the "Scriptures" is in Quran 87:18-19 where they are referred to, alongside the Scrolls of Abraham, to have been "Books of Earlier Revelation".
^Alan Jones, The Koran, London 1994, ISBN1842126091, opening page.
"Its outstanding literary merit should also be noted: it is by far, the finest work of Arabic prose in existence."
^Arthur Arberry, The Koran Interpreted, London 1956, ISBN0684825074, p. 191.
"It may be affirmed that within the literature of the Arabs, wide and fecund as it is both in poetry and in elevated prose, there is nothing to compare with it."
^"Torah - Oxford Islamic Studies Online". www.oxfordislamicstudies.com. Retrieved 2018-07-26. Arabic tawrat. Mentioned in the Quran eighteen times as true revelation that preceded the Gospels and the Quran. Confirmed by the Quran (5:46, 61:6), it is described as a source of wisdom (3:48, 5:110) and guidance (5:46). Muslims believe that the Torah, unlike the Quran, has not been preserved in its original, true, and complete form.
