Faith in Divine Books

“Humankind was one ummah. Then Allah (swt) sent the prophets as bringers of good tidings and warners and sent down with them the Scripture in truth to judge between the people concerning that in which they differed.” ⁸
(The Holy Qur’an)

Divine books are the words of Allah the Almighty and his appeal to people. They are the written versions of His ageless and eternal words, commands, and revelation. The superiority of Allah’s words over other words is similar to Allah’s superiority over His servants. Allah (swt) recognized the human, whom He created as the most valuable creature, as adressee by sending books to them, and guided them during their test of life. He allowed humans to find out the truth, and differentiate between the good and evil.

In the early periods of the history, small books called “sahifa” (page) were revealed to some prophets.

Allah (swt) revealed ten pages to Prophet Adam, fifty pages to Prophet Seth, thirty pages to Prophet Idris, and ten pages to Prophet Ibrahim.

Then, He revealed the four divine books; the Tawrat (Torah) to Prophet Musa (Moses), the Zabur (Psalm) to Prophet Dawud (David), the Injil (Bible/Gospel) to Prophet Isa (Jesus), and finally the Holy Qur’an to Prophet Muhammad (saw). The final divine book which addresses the whole humanity, and will be valid until the Day of Judgment is the Holy Qur’an.

The Muslim believes the existence of all divine books, and that they were revealed by Allah (swt). However, this command applies to the original versions of divine books before they were falsified or changed. Therefore, a Muslim believes in the original versions of the divine pages and books revealed by Allah (swt). They believe that the divine books other than the Holy Qur’an, which are Tawrat, Zabur and Injil, were changed by humans and lost their authenticity.

This belief requires believers to always be sensitive and careful about revelation. When encountered with information from the Tawrat or Injil, one should firstly apply to the Holy Qur’an before deciding if it is true or not. If it does not contradict with the information in the Holy Qur’an and general principles of Islam, then this information might be true. However, it is not possible to assert that the information which contradicts with the principles of the Qur’an and its universal message, has been revealed by Allah (swt).

Humans interfered with the books revealed to them to achieve a little earthly interest. In the past, men of religion presented people their own writings as revelations from Allah, deceived innocent people, and damaged the purity of the divine texts. The Holy Qur’an is the only book of whose text and content have not had a slightest change and come until today, and which will preserve it’s original existence until the Day of Judgment.

Believing in divine books and accepting Qur’an as a divine guide in this context require wholeheartedly believing that it was revealed by Allah as well as living a life in compliance with its judgments. Because the divine books were revealed to be read, understood, and applied to the life.

⁸ Baqarah, 2/213.