Gospel in Islam

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Injil (Arabic: إنجيل, alternative spellings: Ingil or Injeel) is the Arabic name for the Gospel of Jesus (Isa). This Injil is described by the Quran as one of the four Islamic holy books which was revealed by God, the others being the Zabur (possibly the Psalms), the Tawrat (the Torah), and the Quran itself.

The word Injil is also used in the Hadith and early Muslim documents to refer to both a book and revelations made by God to Jesus.

Etymology

The Arabic word Injil (إنجيل) as found in Islamic texts, and now used also by Muslim non-Arabs and Arab non-Muslims, is derived from the Syriac Aramaic word awongaleeyoon (ܐܘܢܓܠܝܘܢ) found in the Peshitta (Syriac translation of the Bible),^[1] which in turn derives from the Greek word euangelion (Εὐαγγέλιον)^[2] of the originally Greek language New Testament, where it means "good news" (from Greek "Εὐ αγγέλιον"; Old English "gōdspel"; Modern English "gospel", or "evangel" as an archaism, cf. e.g. Spanish "evangelio") The word Injil occurs twelve times in the Quran.^[3]

Identification

Muslim scholars have resisted identifying the Injil with the New Testament Gospels. Some have suggested the Injil may be the Gospel of Barnabas or Gospel of Thomas.^[4] Some see the Christian Gospels as interpretations of the original Injil as revealed to Jesus. More commonly, Muslim scholars have argued that the Injil refers to a revelation now lost or hopelessly corrupted due to added interpolations by Gospel authors. For example, Abdullah Yusuf Ali wrote:

The Injil (Greek, Evangel equals Gospel) spoken of by the Qur'an is not the New Testament. It is not the four Gospels now received as canonical. It is the single Gospel which, Islam teaches, was revealed to Jesus, and which he taught. Fragments of it survive in the received canonical Gospels and in some others, of which traces survive (e.g., the Gospel of Childhood or the Nativity, the Gospel of St. Barnabas, etc.)."^[5]

Several verses in the Quran have been understood by some non-Muslim scholars to be problematic to this view, such as:

Then in the footsteps of the prophets, We sent Jesus, son of Mary, confirming the Torah revealed before him. And We gave him the Gospel containing guidance and light and confirming what was revealed in the Torah—a guide and a lesson to the God-fearing. So let the people of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed in it. And those who do not judge by what Allah has revealed are ˹truly˺ the rebellious.

While Muslim scholars interpret this verse as God warning the Christians not to enforce the law contrary to the law sent by God,^[6] other scholars see it as affirming the preservation of the New Testament Gospels:

Thus if the Qu'ran speaks against certain Christians, it speaks in support of the Gospel, and moreover assumes that the valid Christian revelation is still at hand in its day.^[7]

Gabriel Said Reynolds also argued in his research that several words used in the verses that indicate distortion were meant for interpretation of the Gospel, instead of alteration.^[8]

Nature

Regardless of scholarly disagreement, Muslims commonly believe that Injil refers to a true Gospel, bestowed upon Jesus by God. Many Muslims believe that the Injil was revealed by God to Jesus in a manner comparable to the way the Quran was revealed to Muhammad; as presumed from passages in the Quran stating the gospel was a received message, such as (tr. Pickthall):

Then We caused Our messengers to follow in their footsteps; and We caused Jesus, son of Mary, to follow, and gave him the Gospel, and placed compassion and mercy in the hearts of those who followed him."

—Quran 57:27^[9]

Muslims reject the view that Jesus or any other person wrote the Injil, instead crediting its authorship to God. Many Muslim scholars continue to believe that the Biblical Gospel has undergone alteration, that the words and the meaning of the words have been distorted, with some passages suppressed and others added. A key Islamic principle of oneness (Tawhid) and wholeness of God's divinity means that in their view it is impossible for Jesus to be God incarnate or the Son of God, and claims to the contrary within the Biblical Gospels must be due to later additions. Nevertheless, the Bible has been used by Muslims as a historical source.^[10] It is said in the Quran (interpretation of the meaning):

Do you ˹believers still˺ expect them to be true to you, though a group of them would hear the word of Allah then knowingly corrupt it after understanding it?

—Quran 2:75^[11]

So woe to those who distort the Scripture with their own hands then say, “This is from Allah”—seeking a fleeting gain! So woe to them for what their hands have written, and woe to them for what they have earned.

—Quran 2:79^[12]

Those who say, “Allah is one in a Trinity,” have certainly fallen into disbelief. There is only One God. If they do not stop saying this, those who disbelieve among them will be afflicted with a painful punishment.

—Quran 5:73^[13]

According to a hadith collected by al-Bukhari:

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.' "

See also

• Biblical and Quranic narratives
• Christianity and Islam
• Islamic holy books
• Islamic view of the Christian Bible
• List of Christian terms in Arabic
• Scrolls of Abraham

References

External links

• A discussion of the Injil and some other scriptures

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