Injil
Encyclopedia
The Injil is the Arabic name for the original Gospel of Jesus
, and one of the four Islamic Holy Books
the Qur'an
records as revealed by God
, the others being the Zabur
, Tawrat
and Qur'an
. The word Injil is derived from the Greek
word (euangelion) and means 'good news'. Muslims believe this original Gospel
to have been corrupted
over time. They believe that the current Canonical Gospels of Saint Matthew
, Saint Mark
, Saint Luke
and Saint John
and lost Gospels, such as that of Saint Peter
, contain fragments of Jesus' message but the majority of the original teaching has been corrupted.
belief
, was a scripture authored by Jesus
, the Muslim
belief
is that the author of the Injil was not Jesus but God
, who inspired Jesus and revealed this scripture. Muslims believe that Jesus, who had memorized the revelation, then taught it to all his disciples
.
and refers to the Book of revelation given to the Prophet Jesus. God taught Jesus both the Law and Gospel. Muslim scholars generally agree that Injil refers to the true Gospel, bestowed upon Jesus by God. The word Injil is used in the Qur'an, the Hadith
and early Muslim documents to refer specifically to the revelations made by God to Jesus. Muslims reject that Jesus or any other person wrote the Injil, instead crediting its authorship to God
. Many Muslim scholars believe that the Gospel has undergone alteration
, that the words and the meaning of the words have been distorted, with some passages suppressed and others added. The Islamic principle of the oneness and wholeness of God
's divinity means that in their view it is impossible for Jesus to be God
incarnate
or the Son of God
, and that the worship of Jesus by Christians is due to later additions. The Qur'an says of the Gospel:
The Qur'an further describes the followers of the Gospel, that is the Christian
s, in a highly positive allegory, saying:
that is the same Bible
used by other Christians worldwide, but sometimes refer to it as Injil. The first four books of the New Testament in Arabic are named Injil-Al-Mattius, Injil-Al-Markus, Injil-Al-Lukas, and Injil-Al-Yohannah. In addition, the canon of the book itself is called Kitab-Al-Muqaddas, which means "sacred book" or "Holy Bible."
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, and one of the four Islamic Holy Books
Islamic holy books
Islamic holy books are the texts which Muslims believe were dictated by God to various Islamic prophets throughout the history of mankind. All these books, in Muslim belief, promulgated the code and laws of Islam. Muslims believe the Qur'an, the final holy scripture, was sent because all the...
the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
records as revealed by God
Allah
Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...
, the others being the Zabur
Zabur
Zabur is, according to Islam, the holy book of Dawud , one of the holy books revealed by God before the Qur'an, alongside others such as the Tawrat of Musa and the Injil of Isa ....
, Tawrat
Tawrat
Tawrat is the Arabic word for the Torah. Muslims believe it was a holy book of Islam given by Allah to Musa . The Hebrew word for their scripture, the Torah means instructions, that is why Tawrat does not refer to the entire Tanakh or Old Testament...
and Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
. The word Injil is derived from the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
word (euangelion) and means 'good news'. Muslims believe this original Gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
to have been corrupted
Tahrif
Taḥrīf is an Arabic term used by Muslims with regard to irreparable alterations Islamic tradition claims Jews and Christians have made to Biblical manuscripts, specifically those that make up the Tawrat , Zabur and Injil .Traditional Muslim scholars, based on Qur'anic and other traditions, maintain...
over time. They believe that the current Canonical Gospels of Saint Matthew
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
, Saint Mark
Gospel of Mark
The Gospel According to Mark , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Mark or simply Mark, is the second book of the New Testament. This canonical account of the life of Jesus of Nazareth is one of the three synoptic gospels. It was thought to be an epitome, which accounts for its place as the second...
, Saint Luke
Gospel of Luke
The Gospel According to Luke , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Luke or simply Luke, is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from the events of his birth to his Ascension.The...
and Saint John
Gospel of John
The Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
and lost Gospels, such as that of Saint Peter
Gospel of Peter
The Gospel According to Peter , commonly called the Gospel of Peter, is one of the non-Canonical gospels which were rejected by the Church Fathers and the Catholic Church's synods of Carthage and Rome, which established the New Testament canon, as apocryphal...
, contain fragments of Jesus' message but the majority of the original teaching has been corrupted.
Authorship
One frequent confusion is the authorship of the Injil. Although many Western scholars believe that the Injil, in MuslimMuslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
belief
Belief
Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true.-Belief, knowledge and epistemology:The terms belief and knowledge are used differently in philosophy....
, was a scripture authored by Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, the Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
belief
Belief
Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true.-Belief, knowledge and epistemology:The terms belief and knowledge are used differently in philosophy....
is that the author of the Injil was not Jesus but God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
, who inspired Jesus and revealed this scripture. Muslims believe that Jesus, who had memorized the revelation, then taught it to all his disciples
Disciples of Jesus in Islam
In Islam, it is believed, as in Christianity, that Jesus had disciples . According to Muslim belief, the disciples of Jesus were Muslims and they themselves testified to being Muslims and the pure monotheism of Jesus was corrupted by later people who introduced the concept of the trinity...
.
In the Qur'an
The word Injil occurs twelve times in the Qur'anQur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
and refers to the Book of revelation given to the Prophet Jesus. God taught Jesus both the Law and Gospel. Muslim scholars generally agree that Injil refers to the true Gospel, bestowed upon Jesus by God. The word Injil is used in the Qur'an, the Hadith
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
and early Muslim documents to refer specifically to the revelations made by God to Jesus. Muslims reject that Jesus or any other person wrote the Injil, instead crediting its authorship to God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
. Many Muslim scholars believe that the Gospel has undergone alteration
Tahrif
Taḥrīf is an Arabic term used by Muslims with regard to irreparable alterations Islamic tradition claims Jews and Christians have made to Biblical manuscripts, specifically those that make up the Tawrat , Zabur and Injil .Traditional Muslim scholars, based on Qur'anic and other traditions, maintain...
, that the words and the meaning of the words have been distorted, with some passages suppressed and others added. The Islamic principle of the oneness and wholeness of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
's divinity means that in their view it is impossible for Jesus to be God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
incarnate
Incarnation (Christianity)
The Incarnation in traditional Christianity is the belief that Jesus Christ the second person of the Trinity, also known as God the Son or the Logos , "became flesh" by being conceived in the womb of a woman, the Virgin Mary, also known as the Theotokos .The Incarnation is a fundamental theological...
or the Son of God
Son of God
"Son of God" is a phrase which according to most Christian denominations, Trinitarian in belief, refers to the relationship between Jesus and God, specifically as "God the Son"...
, and that the worship of Jesus by Christians is due to later additions. The Qur'an says of the Gospel:
"And We sent in their footsteps Jesus, son of Mary, authenticating what was present with him of the Torah. And We gave him the Gospel, in it was a guidance and a light, and authenticating what was present with him of the Torah, and a guidance and a lesson for the righteous."
The Qur'an further describes the followers of the Gospel, that is the Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s, in a highly positive allegory, saying:
"Muhammad is the messenger of God, and those who are with him are severe against the rejecters, but merciful between themselves. You see them kneeling and prostrating, they seek the blessings and approval of God. Their distinction is in their faces, as a result of prostrating. Such is their example in the Torah. And their example in the Gospel is like a plant which shoots out and becomes strong and thick and it stands straight on its trunk, pleasing to the farmers. That He may enrage the rejecters with them. God promises those among them who believe and do good works a forgiveness and a great reward."
Arab-Christian Injil
Arab Christians use an Arabic BibleBible translations
The Bible has been translated into many languages from the biblical languages of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Indeed, the full Bible has been translated into over 450 languages, although sections of the Bible have been translated into over 2,000 languages....
that is the same Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
used by other Christians worldwide, but sometimes refer to it as Injil. The first four books of the New Testament in Arabic are named Injil-Al-Mattius, Injil-Al-Markus, Injil-Al-Lukas, and Injil-Al-Yohannah. In addition, the canon of the book itself is called Kitab-Al-Muqaddas, which means "sacred book" or "Holy Bible."
See also
- Gospels
- Biblical narratives and the Qur'anBiblical narratives and the Qur'anThe Qur'an, the central religious text of Islam, contains references to over fifty people and events also found in the Bible. While the stories told in each book are generally comparable in most respects, important differences sometimes emerge....
- Christianity and Islam
- Islamic view of the BibleIslamic view of the BibleIn Islam, the Bible is held to reflect true unfolding revelation from God; but revelation which had been corrupted or distorted ; which necessitated the giving of the Qur'an to the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, to correct this deviation....
- List of Christian terms in Arabic
- Islamic view of JesusIslamic view of JesusIn Islam, Jesus is considered to be a Messenger of God and the Masih who was sent to guide the Children of Israel with a new scripture, the Injīl or Gospel. The belief in Jesus is required in Islam, and a requirement of being a Muslim. The Qur'an mentions Jesus twenty-five times, more often, by...
- Suhuf Ibrahim
- ZaburZaburZabur is, according to Islam, the holy book of Dawud , one of the holy books revealed by God before the Qur'an, alongside others such as the Tawrat of Musa and the Injil of Isa ....
- TawratTawratTawrat is the Arabic word for the Torah. Muslims believe it was a holy book of Islam given by Allah to Musa . The Hebrew word for their scripture, the Torah means instructions, that is why Tawrat does not refer to the entire Tanakh or Old Testament...
- Qur'anQur'anThe Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
- Islamic holy booksIslamic holy booksIslamic holy books are the texts which Muslims believe were dictated by God to various Islamic prophets throughout the history of mankind. All these books, in Muslim belief, promulgated the code and laws of Islam. Muslims believe the Qur'an, the final holy scripture, was sent because all the...
External links
- A discussion of the Injil and some other scriptures A non-Muslim site (site is Christian; see articles and other links from its Main Page).
- An additional Islamic view from Ummah.net. A Muslim site.