Why Does the Qur’an Refer to the Torah and Injil as Still Valid in Muhammad’s Time?

Qur’anic Affirmation vs. Islamic Denial: The Theological Contradiction That Shatters Continuity

🚩 The Core Problem

Islam claims that the Torah (Tawrat) and Gospel (Injil) were originally revealed by God but later corrupted by Jews and Christians.

But the Qur’an itself repeatedly refers to the Torah and Gospel as accessible and authoritative during the time of Muhammad in the 7th century.

Surah 5:46-47 (Al-Ma'idah):
“We sent after them Jesus, son of Mary, confirming the Torah that had come before him; and We gave him the Gospel... So let the people of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed therein. And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed — then it is those who are defiantly disobedient.”

This raises an explosive question:

If the Torah and Gospel were lost or corrupted before Muhammad, why does the Qur’an speak as if they still exist and still contain truth?

📚 Qur’an’s Direct Affirmation of Previous Scriptures

The Qur’an repeatedly affirms the previous scriptures as valid and from God:

✅ Clear Verses:

Surah 3:3: “He has sent down upon you the Book in truth, confirming what was before it. And He revealed the Torah and the Gospel.”
Surah 5:44: “Indeed, We sent down the Torah, in which was guidance and light.”
Surah 5:47: “Let the people of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed therein…”
Surah 10:94: “If you are in doubt… ask those who have been reading the Book before you.”

These are not past tense dismissals. They are present-tense directives.

The Qur’an is telling Jews and Christians to judge by their scriptures — not by a corrupted or missing memory, but by an existing, available, divine text.

⚖️ The Law of Identity: What the Qur’an Affirms

If the Qur’an says “the Gospel” and means “a no-longer-existing, completely different book,” then that’s a semantic fraud.
The Law of Identity (A = A) demands that:

If the Gospel given to Jesus = the Gospel in Christian possession, then Muslims cannot claim textual corruption.
If the Qur’an refers to a real, present Injil, it must be what the Christians possessed in the 7th century.

But that Injil is, historically and factually, the New Testament — the same one Christians have today.

You cannot tell people to judge by a book — if that book was already lost or falsified.

🧨 The Contradiction Within Islamic Claims

Islamic theology later evolved to claim that:

The Torah and Gospel were textually corrupted,
Only fragments of truth remain,
The Qur’an supersedes and replaces them.

But the Qur’an itself never says this.

There is no verse in the Qur’an that explicitly says the Injil or Torah were textually altered or lost.

The only verse often misquoted is Surah 2:79, which says:

“Woe to those who write the book with their own hands and say, ‘This is from Allah.’”

But this verse does not say the Torah or Gospel were corrupted. It condemns specific forgeries — not the entire text.

Even prominent classical Muslim scholars like Al-Tabari, Al-Razi, and Ibn Kathir acknowledged this — they interpreted 2:79 as about some individuals, not a blanket corruption of entire scriptures.

🔍 The Historical Evidence

By the 7th century, the full text of the Bible was in widespread circulation across the Eastern Roman Empire, Africa, and even parts of Arabia.

Arabic-speaking Christians had access to the Gospels.
Aramaic, Greek, Syriac, and Coptic manuscripts were used in liturgy.
Muhammad’s interactions with Christian monks (e.g., Bahira) and Jews confirm he had exposure to these texts.

So when the Qur’an says “let the People of the Gospel judge by it,” it must refer to these available texts.

That is the inescapable conclusion.

🔄 The Quranic Trap

Here’s the fatal loop:

The Qur’an affirms the Torah and Gospel as divine.
The Qur’an commands Jews and Christians to follow their books.
The Qur’an never says they were corrupted or lost.
Yet Islamic theology must deny those books because their teachings contradict the Qur’an.

This is a self-defeating system.

You cannot say:
“Follow your scripture, but it’s false.”

That’s incoherent.

🚨 The Theological Collapse

The Qur’an’s logic collapses under scrutiny:

If the Torah and Gospel existed in Muhammad’s time, and were trustworthy, then Islam contradicts them.
If they were corrupted, then why did Allah affirm them and tell people to judge by them?
If they were partially true, then which parts — and how can Muslims know — without circular reasoning or blind trust in later tafsir?

Islamic theology attempts to patch this contradiction with:

Appeals to hadith (which contradict the Qur’an),
Generalizations about “distortion” (tahrif), usually without clear definition,
Post-Qur’anic polemics to reject Jewish and Christian claims after the fact.

But none of that fixes the Qur’an’s own words.

🧠 A Clear Conclusion

The Qur’an unambiguously affirms the Torah and Gospel as:

Divine,
Present,
Trustworthy,
Binding on Jews and Christians.

It even implies continuity between those scriptures and Muhammad’s message.

Yet when that continuity fails — because Christian and Jewish scriptures clearly contradict Islam — Muslim theology rewrites the Qur’an’s implications.

That is not revelation. That is retrofitting theology to survive contradiction.

📌 Final Verdict

Islam cannot have it both ways.
Either:

The Torah and Gospel were preserved → Muhammad contradicts them → Islam is false,
OR
The Torah and Gospel were corrupted → the Qur’an is wrong to affirm them → Islam is internally incoherent.

No amount of interpretive gymnastics can escape this dilemma.

The Qur’an spoke with clarity.
Post-Qur’anic theology introduced confusion.

And that confusion exposes the fatal contradiction at the heart of Islam.

Islam Imploding

Saturday, May 31, 2025