Muhammad: The Torah’s Upholder & Defender
- samshmn
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The following verse poses a major problem for Muslims:
Have you not considered those (Jews) who are given a portion of the Book? They are invited to the Book of Allah that it might decide between them, then a part of them turn back and they withdraw. S. 3:23 Shakir
According to the Muslim expositors, the Book which the Jews were being called to was the Torah in their possession. All emphasis is mine.
Chastising the People of the Book for Not Referring to the Book of Allah for Judgment
Allah criticizes the Jews and Christians who claim to follow their Books, the Tawrah and the Injil, because when they are called to refer to these Books where Allah commanded them to follow Muhammad, they turn away with aversion. This censure and criticism from Allah was all because of their defiance and rejection. (Tafsir Ibn Kathir: http://m.qtafsir.com/Surah-Aal-e-Imran/Chastising-the-People-of-the-B---)
Have you not seen those who were given a portion a share of the Book the Torah being called to the Book of God yud‘awna ‘being called’ is a circumstantial qualifier that it might decide between them and then a party of them turned away opposed? to the acceptance of its rulings. This was revealed concerning the Jews two of them fornicated and they the Jews asked the Prophet s to adjudicate the case. He ruled that they be stoned but they the Jews refused to do so. When the Torah was brought and consulted the same verdict was found and so the two were stoned but they the Jews became wrathful. (Tafsir al-Jalalayn: https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=3&tAyahNo=23&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2)
(Hast thou not seen how those who have received a portion of the Scripture…) [3:23]. There is a difference of opinion about this verse’s occasion of revelation. Al-Suddi said: “When the Prophet called the Jews to embrace Islam, al-Nu‘man ibn Awfa said to him: ‘Come, O Muhammad, and let the rabbis judge between us’. He said: ‘Let the Scripture of Allah be judge between us’. They said: ‘No! Let the rabbis judge’. And so Allah, exalted is He, revealed this verse”. On the other hand, Sa‘id ibn Jubayr and ‘Ikrimah reported that Ibn ‘Abbas said: “The Messenger of Allah entered in on a group of Jews in a Jewish place of study and called them to Allah. Nu‘aym ibn ‘Amr and al-Harith ibn Zayd said to him: ‘O Muhammad, which religion are you on?’ He said: ‘The religion of Abraham’. They said: ‘But Abraham was a Jew’. The Messenger of Allah said: ‘In that case, let us go to the Torah and let it judge between us’. They refused. And Allah, exalted is He, revealed this verse”. Said al-Kalbi: “This was revealed about those who committed fornication in Khaybar and the Jews who asked the Prophet about the legal punishment of fornication”. The elaboration on this will come in Surah al-Ma’idah, Allah, exalted is He, willing”. ('Alī ibn Ahmad al-Wahidi, Asbab al-Nuzul: https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=86&tSoraNo=3&tAyahNo=23&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2)
This proves that Muhammad taught that the revelations, which God had given the Jews and Christians had not been corrupted, but were preserved and still extant during his time.
The following hadith furnishes additional corroboration that Muhammad actually believed in and affirmed the veracity and preservation of the Torah:
40 Prescribed Punishments (Kitab Al-Hudud)
(26) Chapter: The stoning of the two jews
Narrated Abdullah Ibn Umar:
A group of Jews came and invited the Messenger of Allah to Quff. So he visited them in their school. They said: AbulQasim, one of our men has committed fornication with a woman; so pronounce judgment upon them. They placed a cushion for the Messenger of Allah who sat on it and said: Bring the Torah. It was then brought. He then withdrew the cushion from beneath him and placed the Torah on it saying: I believed in thee and in Him Who revealed thee. He then said: Bring me one who is learned among you. Then a young man was brought. The transmitter then mentioned the rest of the tradition of stoning similar to the one transmitted by Malik from Nafi' (No. 4431).
Grade: Hasan (Al-Albani)
Reference: Sunan Abi Dawud 4449
In-book reference: Book 40, Hadith 99
English translation: Book 39, Hadith 4434 (sunnah.com: https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4449)
In fact, one of the premiere students of Ibn Taymiyyah, the darling and hero of Salafi Muslims, noted that Muslim scholars used this very hadith to prove that the Torah has not been corrupted:
On the other side, another party of hadith and fiqh scholars said: these changes took place during its interpretation and not during the process of its revelation. This is the view OF ABI ABDULLAH MUHAMMAD BIN ISHMAEL AL-BUKHARI who said in his hadith collection:
NO ONE CAN CORRUPT THE TEXT BY REMOVING ANY OF ALLAH’S WORDS FROM HIS BOOKS, but they corrupted it by misinterpreting it.
Al-Razi ALSO AGREES WITH THIS OPINION. In his commentary he said:
There is a difference of opinions regarding this matter among some of the respectable scholars. Some of these scholars said: the manuscript copies of the Torah were distributed everywhere and no one knows the exact number of these copies except Allah. It is impossible to have a conspiracy to change or alter the word of God in all of these copies without missing any copy. Such a conspiracy will not be logical or possible. And when Allah told his messenger (Muhammad) to ask the Jews to bring their Torah and read it concerning the stoning command they were not able to change this command from their copies, that is why they covered up the stoning verse while they were reading it to the prophet. It was then when Abdullah Ibn Salam requested that they remove their hand so that the verse became clear. If they have changed or altered the Torah then this verse would have been one of the important verses to be altered by the Jews.
Also, whenever the prophet would ask them (the Jews) concerning the prophecies about him in the Torah they were not able to remove them either, and they would respond by stating that they are not about him and they are still waiting for the prophet in their Torah.
Abu Dawood narrated in his collection that Ibn Umar said:
A group of Jewish people invited the messenger of Allah to a house. When he came, they asked him: O Abu Qassim, one of our men committed adultery with a woman, what is your judgment against him? So they placed a pillow and asked the messenger of Allah to set on it. Then the messenger of Allah proceeded to say: BRING ME THE TORAH. When they brought it, he removed the pillow from underneath him AND PLACED THE TORAH ON IT and said: I BELIEVE IN YOU AND IN THE ONE WHO REVEALED YOU, then said: bring me one of you who have the most knowledge. So they brought him a young man who told him the story of the stoning.
The scholars said: If the Torah was corrupted HE WOULD NOT HAVE PLACED IT ON THE PILLOW AND HE WOULD NOT HAVE SAID: I believe in you and in the one who revealed you.
This group of scholars also said: Allah said:
“And the word of your Lord has been accomplished truly and justly; there is none who can change His words, and He is the Hearing, the Knowing.” (Q. 6:115)
And the Torah is Allah’s word. (Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, Ighathat Al Lahfan, Volume 2, p. 351)
It is interesting that these same scholars also appealed to Q. 6:115, which teaches that no one can ever corrupt the words of Allah, to prove that the Torah cannot be corrupted.
So much for the Muslim claim that the Jewish and Christians scriptures have not been preserved!
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