The Quran recognises Moses, David and Jesus as Messengers of God. The messages which were sent to mankind through them are known as the Taurat, Zabur and Injil respectively. These should not, however, be confused with the Old and New Testaments.

The Old Testament consists of a number of books written down long after the death of Moses by various priests and scribes. It is classified into three parts: - (a) the Law, (b) the Prophets and (c) the Writings. There also exist other Apocryphal books which are excluded from the officially accepted Old Testament. The original version written in Hebrew no longer exists. Instead we have two versions, one in Greek, known as the Septuagint and the other in Aramaic known as the Vulgate. The Jews also use another set of books known as the Talmud consisting of writings by various Rabbis. These collectively can be called the Jewish Religious Literature.

Taurat refers to the Law as received and transmitted by Moses. Some of this may well be contained in the Jewish Literature, but it is not possible unaided to discriminate between what was revealed to Moses and taught by him and what was added by lesser men and what is true or false, useful or useless, good or bad.

The New Testament consists of:- (a) The four Gospels written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - Mark and Luke were not among the 12 Apostles chosen by Jesus, (b) the Acts of the Apostles written by Luke, (c) Letters mostly by Paul who had never met Jesus but before his conversion persecuted Christians, and (d) the Book of Revelations attributed to John. The Gospels were written long after the death of Jesus and give different versions of his life and teachings that sometimes contradict one another. These are obviously mostly selections and interpretations of what Jesus taught and did. There are also several Apocryphal gospels, letters and other fragments which are excluded from the official New Testament for no good reason. Christians also follow a great amount of literature written by various Church Authorities. All these collectively may be called Christian Religious Literature.

The Injil refers to the teachings of Jesus. These may well be contained in the Christian Literature but it is not possible unaided to determine what was revealed to Jesus and taught by him and what was added by lesser men and what is true or false, useful or useless, good or bad.

The teachings of the Quran contain the following propositions:-

(a) Human beings were made with great potentialities for a purpose.

(b) Human beings function at levels far below their inherent capacities.

(d) These techniques must come from a higher source than man. If they did not then they could not lift man from the state he is in to a higher state.

(e) True Scriptures come from a higher source than man.

(f) These Scriptures cannot be completely understood by unregenerate man, but must be accepted and applied if he is to develop.

(g) Unregenerate man tends to misinterpret and corrupt the Scriptures.

(h) The Truth of the Scriptures, therefore, has to renewed.

(i) This truth has to be restated in a language that can be understood by the people of the new time, place and conditions of life.

(k) The Quran was to be, and is, preserved in its original state.

(l) The Quran discriminates between what is true and false, useful and useless, good and bad relative to the goal of human spiritual regeneration.

(m) The Quran also watches over the previous scriptures in that it discriminates between what is true and false, useful and useless, good or bad in the literature of previous dispensations of religion.

Some Christian missionaries have argued as follows:-

The Quran declares the Bible to be a true revelation of God and demands faith in it. The following verses are quoted to prove this:- 2:40-42,126,136,285; 3:3,71,93; 4:47,136; 5:47-51, 69,71-72; 6:91; 10:37,94; 21:7; 29:45,46; 35:31; 46:11

This, they say, proves that :-

(a) These texts presuppose the availability of the true revelation of God to the people of Muhammad's day. 3:71,93; 10:94; 21:71

(b) A true Muslim is obliged to believe in all the revelations of God. 2:136; 4:136; 29:46

(c) The Quran makes no distinction between God's revelations 2:136

(d) The Quran claims that no one can change the Word of God. 6:34; 10:34

(e) Many Muslim scholars have accepted the text of the Gospels. This includes al-Tabari, al-Ghakhiz, Bukhari, al-Masudi, Ali Husain Bin Sina, al-Ghazzali, Ibn-Khaldun, Sir Sayyed Ahmad Khan, Fakhruddin Razi and so on.

(f) The Prophet (saw) himself accepted the bible as in the following Hadith:-

So, they ask, why do Muslims believe that the Bible is corrupted?

The above story, they say, proves that:-

1. That prophet Muhammad had an authentic copy of the Torah that was widely used in his times. The Jews did not protest that Muhammad's copy was any different than their own. This copy was God's infallible word. There was no corruption in the Scriptures, Allah's inerrant Word.

2. The very fact that he called the Scripture for reference should be an example to every Muslim today.

3. The very fact that the prophet said, "I believed in thee and in Him Who revealed thee" should be an exhortation to all of us to believe in all the Bible, following his example.

It is asserted by Christian missionaries that Muslims ought, therefore, to accept the Christian scriptures and become Christians.

But, it could be argued that if the Quran is true and these Christians accept this, then they should follow the implications of this belief and become Muslims. If they do not believe it then they must also reject the Bible. The third possibility is that they are hypocrites and choose to say or believe whatever they find convenient.

The question that ought to have occurred to them is: Why do these Muslim who accept the Bible remain Muslim. The Prophet may only have wished to judge the people by their own source of values and laws and respected their beliefs.

They also tell us that there are contradictions between the teachings of the Quran and the Bible. This would imply that the Quran contradict itself if it affirms the Bible, and should be rejected for that reason. But if it is, then it cannot be taken for proof of the veracity of the Bible. But if the contradiction is removed by accepting the statements supporting the Bible and rejecting the others, then it is equally possible to do the reverse - to reject the statements affirming the Bible and accepting all the other.

But quite apart from these logical absurdities, there is another way of looking at things. The Quran tells us:-

The Islamic position is, therefore, as follows:-

(a) It is not so much that the text has been corrupted, though additions and subtractions have certainly been made and also mistranslation of the original text. For instance, the verse in the King John Version of the Bible which justifies the Trinity, 1 John 5:7, has been dropped as not genuine from modern translations. The story of the woman about to be stoned for adultery but forgiven by Jesus (John 8:3-11), which is used by some Christians to excuse adultery and fornication has also been discarded.

(b) The Bible has been misinterpreted. For instance, John, Luke and Paul knew very well that the phrase "son of God" had a symbolic meaning, that it referred to those who were led by the Spirit and Word of God and obeyed it (John 1:12-13, Romans 8:14 and Luke 1:35 "The Holy thing that shall be born of thee (Mary) shall be called the son of God". Not "shall be the son of God.") But Christians take this literally and make Jesus into God. The phrase was also used for others besides Jesus - for instance, Adam (Luke 3:38). In the Old Testament we read "I have said: ye are gods and all of you are children of the Most High." Psalms 82:6. But the Jews did not understand this as meaning that they were God.

(c) Many man made doctrines have been added to the religion. This includes the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity and Vicarious Atonement.

(d) Much that is essential to the religion has been ignored. This includes the need to make efforts.

(e) The Quran has replaced the previous scriptures in the sense that it has a new formulation and methodology for the new age and for Muslims. For instance, the symbolism of "son of God" has been replaced because of misunderstandings, by that of "servant of God" and "Messenger of God". This does not imply that the phrase "son of God" understood symbolically is wrong. It does not imply that the methods, rites and religious laws of the past are wrong.

It is this, which creates the disagreement between Islam and Christianity. The Quran and Bible appear to disagree in the minds of those who misinterpret both.

The Christian missionaries have not been honest and have quoted only those things that seemed to support them and ignored other things.

Here is what the Prophet Muhammad said :-

When the Prophet was asked how they should take the Torah and Gospels, he said "Neither believe nor disbelieve."

Whatever was true and required of Muslims to believe and follow is in the Quran. The Quran is a self-consistent system designed for the new times and does not require other Scriptures to either complement its teachings or justify them. This does not, however, mean that these other scriptures may not have some value. Otherwise they would not have been mentioned. A study of them can often deepen an understanding of the Quran, especially when there is a dialogue between faiths. But these other scriptures will have to be interpreted in the Quranic framework, provided, of course, that has been understood correctly and not itself distorted by alien frameworks of thought.

It is not difficult to show that some of the doctrines taught by the Christian Church are contradicted by the teachings of Jesus. He taught the following:-

Where does Jesus say that salvation depends on Jesus being crucified?

Jesus did not do or speak of himself but what God instructed: - John 6:38, 57, 7:16, 8:28, 10:37-38, 12:49

Where does Jesus say he is God and part of a Trinity?

If it is asserted that other verses can be interpreted as implying that Jesus is God, then we must suppose that they contradict the above teachings of Jesus. Either he or the Bible would then be self-contradictory and can be rejected. The third possibility is that things that come from a higher source have been misinterpreted by the lower minds.

Another possible way of resolving the dispute is to point out that the Quran defines "Allah" as Eternal and All-pervasive. Jesus does not fit this definition. The word "Allah" is not used as loosely in the Quran as the word "god" is used in the Old and New Testaments.

The purpose of religion is to facilitate the development of man. As man develops Religion also develops. The Quran tells us that some verses are abrogated by others and that if some verses are forgotten then similar or better ones are revealed. This evolution is seen in the way the consumption of alcohol was first restricted and then forbidden. It can be see as between Hebrewism, Christianity and Islam - the emphasis in the first was on Law, in the second on Love and in Islam on Truth.

There were things which the people of previous dispensations could not understand as we see also from the words of Jesus to his disciples (John 16:12-14). They had to be taught according to what they were able to understand. But a time comes when this must be superceded. This is similar to the way a subject is taught in schools and colleges - the teaching becomes more sophisticated the higher one goes and the more simplistic explanations have to be abandoned.

It is perfectly possible that in the past it was necessary for people to believe that their messenger was a god and that they required his death and resurrection before they would obey objective principles (the Word of God) - The idea of his sacrifice created the required love for him and the required guilt feeling ( not to follow his instructions was to betray him).

But this indirect method was no longer acceptable, especially when this idea degenerated into the belief that belief in the sacrifice itself resulted in salvation without appropriate works.

It is, therefore, correct to state simply this:- That the Islamic doctrine and practices replace the Christian one because the former is more effective and the latter has become relatively obsolete, just as the Christian one replaced the Hebrew one.

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