Bible and the Qur'an

by Masood, Steven

• ISBN13: 9781850783695
• ISBN10: 1850783691
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-04-01
• Publisher: Stl Distribution North Amer

Summary

Steven Masood aims to reduce unnecessary conflict and misunderstanding between Christians and Muslims by discussing areas of common interest regarding each other's holy writings. He deals with differences frequently raised, using methods of scriptural criticism acceptable to both faiths and applying the same critical standards to both the Bible and the Qur'an. After establishing the integrity of these holy writings, he aims to encourage readers to progress to the message the Scriptures reveal; what they say about God, about prophecy and the hereafter. Why is God so interested in us and our eternal salvation? Masood's well-written and researched contribution to the Christian/Muslim dialogue will be well received by believers and students of either or both faiths. He gives scholarly insight and perspective to divergent and convergent aspects of the two sets of Scriptures, dealing at length with errors in copying and translation and analysing many specific objections of critical Muslims towards the Judaeo-Christian writings. He deals sensitively and impartially with common assumptions, allegations and untruths propagated by both Christians and Muslims, contributing to a better understanding of the revelation of God and its application

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	xi
Preface and acknowledgements	xiii
Introduction	xv
The Scriptures: the traditional views	1	(16)
The Bible	1	(2)
The Qur'an	3	(2)
The Islamic and Christian views of revelation	5	(4)
God's revelation in action	9	(2)
The traditional view of the compilation of the Scriptures	11	(3)
Recension of the Qur'an and the Bible	14	(2)
Conclusion	16	(1)
Evidence of reliability (1)	17	(24)
The text of the Qur'an	18	(7)
Available sources for the Qur'an	25	(2)
The compilation under Abu Bakr	27	(3)
The Uthmanic recension	30	(2)
Early codices of the Qur'an	32	(3)
The Ummayad and Abbasid period	35	(5)
Conclusion	40	(1)
Evidence of reliability (2)	41	(25)
The text of the Old Testament	41	(3)
The lists of Old Testament books	44	(1)
Translations of the Old Testament	45	(1)
The evidence for the New Testament	46	(16)
The testimonies of Jesus and the apostles	62	(2)
So where do we stand?	64	(1)
Conclusion	64	(2)
The Qur'anic testimony	66	(16)
The Tawrat	67	(1)
The Zabur	68	(1)
The Injil	68	(1)
The theory of corruption	69	(2)
Charges against the People of the Book	71	(2)
The Qur'anic words	73	(2)
The opinion of some prominent Muslims	75	(2)
Differing views	77	(3)
Conclusion	80	(2)
Errors and contradictions?	82	(42)
Historical errors in the Bible	83	(2)
Examples of Qur'anic historical errors	85	(1)
Numerical discrepancies in the Bible	86	(4)
Variants of the biblical text	90	(1)
Missing and omitted verses	91	(7)
Lost portions of the Bible	98	(1)
Contradiction within the text	99	(5)
The Qur'anic contradictions	104	(2)
The status of men of God	106	(3)
Incompatible narratives	109	(5)
Objections against the style and expression	114	(2)
The human elements and errors in Scriptures	116	(3)
Contradictions between versions	119	(2)
Corruption in translation	121	(1)
Conclusion	122	(2)
Are these truly the Scriptures?	124	(23)
Is the Bible unknown to the Qur'an?	125	(1)
The single Injil and Torah	126	(3)
Several narratives of the Gospel?	129	(3)
One Gospel?	132	(2)
The original language of the Gospel	134	(2)
The spread of the Pauline Gospel	136	(2)
Isnad, a chain of transmission	138	(3)
Asatir ul awalin, stories of times gone by	141	(1)
Pagan origins	142	(2)
Calamities	144	(2)
Conclusion	146	(1)
Questions concerning the Gospel of Barnabas	147	(23)
Background of this gospel	149	(2)
The content of this gospel	151	(1)
The message of this gospel	152	(1)
The writer of this gospel	153	(3)
Evidence from history	156	(1)
Evidence from Muslim history	157	(2)
Evidence from the document	159	(4)
The Gospel of Barnabas in conflict with Islam	163	(3)
Ahmadiyya in Islam and this gospel	166	(3)
Conclusion	169	(1)
The inimitability of the Scriptures	170	(25)
The challenge of the Qur'an	171	(1)
Contextual background	172	(4)
Style and diction: a proof of inspiration	176	(1)
The difference between the Qur'an and non-Qur'anic texts	176	(3)
Inimitability in accurate information and teaching	179	(2)
Belief by conviction or fear	181	(2)
Meeting the challenge	183	(9)
The Ijaz al-Qur'an	192	(2)
Conclusion	194	(1)
The supremacy of the Scriptures	195	(11)
Al-Naskh Wa al-Mansukh: The theory of abrogation	196	(1)
The substitution of one revelation for another	197	(3)
Confirmation, not abrogation	200	(2)
The Qur'an: the final testament?	202	(1)
One religion?	203	(1)
Answers to everything?	204	(1)
Conclusion	205	(1)
Epilogue	206	(5)
A recapitulation	206	(3)
Points to ponder	209	(2)
Appendix	211	(3)
Glossary	214	(6)
Bibliography	220