Don’t be condescending towards me about not understanding correctly when I responding to this, posted by Muslim Woman:
This seems to imply that Christ would had to have a hand in writing or approving the books of Holy Bible in order for them to be acceptable. So I was merely reminding Muslims that we do not believe that this is the case. Christ did not write a book, nor was He given a book to approve or preach from. It does not make sense to protest that the New Testament is illegitimate because Christ did not see it or write it if you apparently believe (as you are now claiming) that Christ never wrote or was given a book to begin with. Obviously, someone is arguing from false premises. Either you are doing so now, or Mr. Dawud was doing so in the quoted portion that Muslim Woman posted. Take your pick.
Excuse me, but I wasn’t being condescending. It certainly wasn’t my intent at all to talk down to you, and I don’t think I ever could since the quality of your own posting far surpasses my own.
But I stand by my point, which I think makes perfect sense. Let’s start with saying what makes a scripture legitimate in the first place. For Muslims, it has to be firstly revealed by God, and secondly to a Messenger. And lastly, for the text to be relevant today, then it’s necessary that the scripture be preserved. These are three loose criteria that I just came up with for the purpose of explaining this topic–I didn’t find them in a book or something, so if you find error with them, then it’s my fault.
So, there are 5 scriptures that Muslims believe in. The first is the scripture of Abraham. It was (1) revealed by God, (2) to Abraham, but (3) not preserved. There’s practically no trace of it anymore. But Muslims believe in it, because God mentions it. The second scripture is the Torah, which Muslims believe was (1) revealed by God, (2) to Moses, but (3) not preserved. It exists more or less in the Jewish Bible but Muslims don’t consider it to be 100% preserved (in both meaning and language even), although they do believe in it. Thirdly, Muslims believe in the Psalms, revealed by God to David (1+2) but they don’t believe it’s been entirely or perfectly preserved, even though you find it also in the Jewish Bible.
Fourthly, Muslims believe in something called the Injeel, revealed by God to Jesus (1+2), which was not preserved. The best way to explain this is to say that Muslims believe in what Jesus was teaching. The Gospel, you could say. The Gospel which is mentioned in the book of Mark, and in other New Testament books, for instance. It is the message which Jesus was teaching to his followers, and to the children of Israel. That’s what Muslims believe in, even though it wasn’t preserved. (3).
The last book Muslims believe in is the Qur’an, which was (1) revealed by God (2) to Muhammad, and since then has been (3) perfectly preserved, in language and in meaning in the hearts of the Muslims.