Does Quran supersede all other previous scriptures? 5/8
A Series of 8 questions – Do Muslims resist the following questions?
A Series of 8 questions – Do Muslims resist the following questions?
A few among us pander to the donors and funders and are afraid of answering what they believe. By the way that is the case with people of pulpits in all religions, however the majority of Muslims, like any other majority believe and practice live and let live. I have received a few affirmations from different faith leaders about the commonality of the issue.
The questions were presented to me and I have responded to them and inviting others to express their opinion. You are welcome to refute, reject, differ or add to it, but know that there are different takes to the issue and different expression. Quraan 49:13 says he has created us to be unique, so that we can make an effort to know each other.
Mike Ghouse
World Muslim Congress
A few responses:
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Mike Ghouse
Quraan as we Muslims believe is the capstone, the final touch to co-existence; it is a book of guidance with a belief in one abstract God as opposed to privately owned multiple Gods in conflicts with each other. It is an inclusive and a comprehensive document for all to be had.
If we own it exclusively, then we take away its universality, and if we denigrate other scriptures we take away its comprehensiveness and completeness. Quraan has everything one needs to know to lead a peaceful life and peaceful societies, just as other books have everything one can understand to live a peaceful life as well.
The issue is ownership – do you own it? If you do, then others don’t as ownership is exclusive. Does God give you the authority to shove it down others throats? There isn’t any compulsion in what one believes (2:256).
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Iftekhar Hai
Ans: No, the Quran clarifies errors made in different scriptures as it was translated or interpreted. 95% of the message of other scriptures is the same as Quran.
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Muhammad Irtaza
The Quran does not “supercede” the previous scriptures. It is the “guardian over them” or in Arabic “muhayminan alayhi” –
[5:48] Then we revealed to you this scripture, truthfully, confirming previous scriptures, and “muhayminan alayhi”. You shall rule among them in accordance with GOD’s revelations, and do not follow their wishes if they differ from the truth that came to you. For each of you, we have decreed laws and different rites. Had GOD willed, He could have made you one congregation. But He thus puts you to the test through the revelations He has given each of you. You shall compete in righteousness. To GOD is your final destiny – all of you – then He will inform you of everything you had disputed.
The above understanding can be derived from many verses of the Quran. For example:
[5:66] If only they would uphold the Torah and the Gospel, and what is sent down to them herein from their Lord, they would be showered with blessings from above them and from beneath their feet. Some of them are righteous, but many of them are evildoers.
A true Jew will accept the message of the Quran and believe in Jesus as the Messiah.
[3:45] The angels said, “O Mary, GOD gives you good news: a Word from Him whose name is `The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary. He will be prominent in this life and in the Hereafter, and one of those closest to Me.’
A true Christian will accept the message of the Quran and consider Jesus as the Messenger of God.
[2:87] We gave Moses the scripture, and subsequent to him we sent other messengers, and we gave Jesus, son of Mary, profound miracles and supported him with the Holy Spirit. Is it not a fact that every time a messenger went to you with anything you disliked, your ego caused you to be arrogant? Some of them you rejected, and some of them you killed.
A true Muslim will accept the message of the Quran and will not differentiate between Mohammad and any other messengers of God:
[2:136] Say, “We believe in GOD, and in what was sent down to us, and in what was sent down to Abraham, Ismail, Isaac, Jacob, and the Patriarchs; and in what was given to Moses and Jesus, and all the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction among any of them. To Him alone we are submitters.”
Thank you and may God guide me,
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Dr. Iffat Khan
Yes, The Quran embodies and confirms the essence of the truth found in all the ORIGINAL revelations from God to human beings, throughout their existence, and states ‘Nothing is said to you that was not said to the apostles before you’ 41:43. The teachings in the Quran are generally addressesd to ‘you who believe/have faith’ though particular revelations apply to the Qureish and the tribes in the region. Chapter 3:3 states ‘It is God who sent down to you, in truth, the Book confirming what went before it’.
This quote from the Quran is all encompassing where it states in 10: 37 ‘this Quran is not such as can be produced by other than God; on the contrary it is a confirmation of that which went before it, and a fuller explanation of the Book-wherein there is no doubt- from the Lord of the worlds.
The need for a final revelation in the form of the Quran was, simply put, 36: 46. ‘Not a sign comes to them from their Lord, but they turn away from it’ Homo ‘arrogans’, stubbornly persisted in wrongdoing and disbelief, derided and slew prophets, scorned their teachings, and corrupted the words of God to suit their purpose, and kept reverting to polytheism. They pitted themselves against their Creator forgetting their creation from a lowly sperm-drop! 36:77,78.
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