Hi, I have some questions regarding the Qur’an relating to the Bible (after reading some information off of a website~) as well as doing some research/thinking on my own.
The Qur’an says:
"(He) sent down to you the Scripture in truth . . . and (He) sent down the Torah and the Gospel" (Surah 3.3).
Now regarding the above verse is it not true that Muslims believe that Jesus was taken up to heaven that he did not die on the cross and all of the rest of the story? Since they do believe those things then, how can the Scripture be in truth as the Qur’an states? Furthermore the Qur’an says: 4:157-158. “They said in boast, We killed Christ Jesus the Son of Mary, the Apostle of Allah, but they killed Him not, nor crucified Him, but so it was made to appear to them...” Again, if the Scripture is the truth…why is Christ’s death denied in Islam? His death is not only in the New Testament but the Old Testament as well – which are the stories recorded in the Torah – the same religious book the Qur’an says is the truth.
Also it says that:
“We sent down the Torah” (Surah 5.47) and, going on to speak of Jesus, it says “We sent him the Gospel” (Surah 5.49).
Now my 1st question is: Who is Mohammad referring to as “We?” I thought God was a singular entity?
Additionally referring to the above verse, the website I was looking at had some very interesting information as it said:
“According to the Qur'an the former Scriptures were books sent down to Moses and Jesus. Now any Muslim reading the Bible for the first time will not fail to notice immediately that the Jewish and Christian Scriptures do not take this form at all but, in both cases, the Scripture takes the form of a series of books written by a variety of authors as their own works. The concept of inspiration in both the Old and New Testaments is the same - "All scripture is inspired by God" (2 Timothy 3.16), and "no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God" (2 Peter 1.21) - but it is vastly different to the Qur'anic concept which sees the revelation of scripture as coming purely from God alone to his prophets and imposes this concept on the former revelations.”
What is the response to the stated?
By the way, if you’d like to view the site it can be found here:
http://answering-islam.org.uk/Gilchrist/Vol2/7a.html
As a final note, Mohammad/Islam states that it respects all prophets that the old books (Torah Bible) are truth…why then are the prophecies of the prophets OF THOSE SAME BOOKS discarded?
I would be interested to hearing a response from a Muslim regarding these questions. Thanks.
[/b]