2. Thinking about the Revelation of God

These texts make it quite clear that at the time when the Qur’an was written down, there was no suggestion anywhere about a possible corruption or unreliability of the Bible. Anyone propagating such falsehood or fabrication, will not only contradict the Qur’an, but will also have to provide an answer to questions like: WHO changed or corrupted the Bible? WHEN was the Bible corrupted? WHERE is the original, or evidence that shows that there was such an original? So far I have not heard an answer to these.

 

If the Bible was corrupted before or at the time of Muhammad, the Qur’an would hardly have spoken of the Bible as the Word of God. Had the Bible been changed or corrupted afterwards, the many existing old manuscripts that predate Muhammad by hundreds of years, would give abundant proof that no changes had sneaked in. Besides, we have just read from the Qur’an that the Bible is God’s Word. We should add, also from the Qur’an, that “no man can change the words of God” (Surah 6:34 and 10:64). We do have to ask what Muslim critics of the Bible are trying to achieve by this deception.

 

Some Muslims reason that the Qur’an does state that the Bible was distorted. They quote:

 

“Ye People of the Book Why do ye clothe truth with falsehood, and conceal the truth, while ye have knowledge?” (Surah Al-Imran 3:71).

“There is among them a section who distort the Book with their tongues: (as they read) you would think it is part of the Book, but it is not part of the Book.” (Surah Al-Imran 78).

 

These passages say nothing more than that the Bible, rendered by the Jews of Medina in public, as the context suggests, was distorted with their tongues, not with their pens. Else the Qur’an would not suggest that Muslims should ask the People of the Book, Jews and Christians, about the content of the Bible:

 

“Ask of those who possess the Message”.  (Surah al-Anbiyāa, 21:7).

 

We may well ask, why so many Muslims believe that the Bible was corrupted, when history, archaeology and the Qur’an deny this? The answer seems to be rather intriguing.