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necessary to mention any except that referred to in Surah iii. (Al 'Imran), ver. 87, above, where
it is impossible to understand what is said in the verse unless we turn to Gen. xxxii. 22-32, where
we are told how Jacob got the name Israel given him by God, and how after that the children of Jacob
held it unlawful to eat "the sinew of the hip which is upon the hollow of the thigh" (ver.
32).
Besides all this, in the Traditions
(احاديث) there are a few passages in which Muhammad is said to
have used language which is really a quotation from the Bible. Of this we give only one specimen,
but it is the most remarkable of all. In the Mishkat
(مشكوَة
آلمصابيح), p. 487, of the edition of A.H.
1297, in the first chapter of the Book on "The Description of Paradise and Its People", we
find the following Tradition from Abu Hurairah: "The 1 Apostle of God said: 'God
Most High hath said, I have prepared for My servants the righteous what eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither hath it occurred to the heart of humanity.’" There can be no doubt that this
is a distinct quotation from 1 Cor. ii. 9. It is important to notice this, because Muhammad here states that this verse is a
direct utterance of God Most High Himself, whereas many Muslim writers, learned men (and not only
ignorant people), deny that Paul was an apostle and that his Epistles are inspired.
The Bible is generally divided into two volumes: the Old Testament, which contains the sacred
books of the Jewish Canon, composed in Hebrew, with the exception of a few chapters which are in
Aramaic; and the New Testament, composed in Greek. The Jews refuse to accept the New Testament, but
we Christians accept both. Hence Baizawi in his commentary2 on Surah xxix. (Al 'Anqabut),
ver. 46, speaks of us as "the people
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of the two books"
(أهْلُ
آلْكِتَابَيْنِ). But in the Qur'an the Bible is generally referred to as
"The Book"
(الكتاب), though three of its principal parts are also mentioned by name. These
are the Torah, the Zabur, and the Injil. The Jews divide the Old Testament itself into three parts,
the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, as we see in Luke xxiv. 44. This division can be traced back
to about B.C. 130.1 At the present time the Jews term the third part "the
Books"
(ألصٌحُف). But as it begins with the Psalms, it is so styled in the Gospel and in the Qur'an
(ألزْبُور) alike. The Qur'an calls the first part the
Torah (التُورات), which is only the Arabic form of its Hebrew name Torah. Sometimes the whole of the
Old Testament is named by Muslims the Torah, because this part begins the whole volume. The Qur'an
often refers also to the Prophets of the Old Testament, as, for example, in Surah ii. (Al Baqarah),
ver. 130: "Say ye, 'We have believed in God, and in what hath been sent down unto us, and
what hath been sent down unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the Tribes, and what Moses
was given and Jesus, and what the Prophets were given from their Lord.’" The same
words are repeated in Surah iii. (Al 'Imran), ver. 78. Hence it is clear that the Qur'an agrees
with the New Testament in naming as inspired each and all of the three great divisions of the Old
Testament.
Christians often apply the title of "the Gospel" to the whole of the New Testament, as
apparently the Qur'an does. One reason for this is that the New Testament begins with the Four
Gospels. But a still better reason is that the word "Gospel" or "good news"
(الانجيل
أي البشارة) expresses the main purport of the whole book. This is clear from Mark xiii. 10, and very many
other passages.
As it is admitted that the whole of the New Testament was in Muhammad's time circulated very
widely
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