What are the Holy Scriptures of the Muslims?

Muslims currently have the Qur'an as their Holy Scripture. It consists of Laws, History, Science, Math, Geography, and everything the Human being needs to survive this World. While the Qur'an is the only scirpture Muslims have, it is not the only on they believe in. A Muslim must believe in the Scriptures of God, including those revealed before the Qur'an. One must believe these as believers are those who;

"...believe in that which has been revealed to you and that which was revealed before you and they are sure of the hereafter." Surrat ul Baqarrah, 2.04(The above Arabic Script.)

So, one must believe in what was sent to Muhammad and what was sent before him. Because Islaam is not a new religion, all Muslims are required to believe in the Message's history; people, texts, places, etc. Of course, the early books, like the early messages brought by early prophets, kept getting lost. Hence, God's many Messengers. Such Messengers went to communities who forgot and disregarded the message and brought to them a newer version of what was lost. Of course, the new message from God dealt with the current problems of that nation. Many times, such problems were that they lost their holy scriptures. For example, the Israelites, were oppressed by many people. Many times, when a nation came to oppress them, they destroyed their scriptures and holy places. When a thing like that happened, God would send, yet another, messenger who would bring the continous message for the faith. They all preached the same message with different afterfact details; Worship none but God. So, God sent a final Prophet, Muhammad, to mankind. And, unlike any other time before, God sent a Messenger to ALL the Nations instead of sending him to one community, as was the case with the early Messengers. For such a message to not be lost, God makes a promise to Mankind;

"Indeed, We sent down the Reminder and We will guard it" Surrat ul 'Hijjr, 15.9

This was fulfilled when God made the Muslims to memorize the Qur'an. From East to the West, all Muslims have since its revelation memorized the Qur'an in their heart. The first thing a Muslim child does is to memorize the Qur'an. At first, Muslims are not concerned with 'understanding' the Qur'an but memorizing it, in order to preserve it for the next generation. Understanding it, though primary, became a secondary to Muslims all over the World. Thus, while 99% of the Muslims did not understand the whole Qur'an, 99% of them memorized it. Because Qur'an was revealed in classical and most pure `Arabic, most `Arabs do not even understand it, until they learn to understand its language. Most non-Muslims and most non-Arab Muslims think that the Qur'an is so easy for the `Arabs. No, the Qur'an is easy because it was revealed in a language which was accessable, not only to `Arabs but to all mankind, not because they(`Arabs) understand everything in the Qur'an.

How many scriptures are Muslims required to believe in?

While Islaam relates the story of many Messengers, Islaam mentions only four books by name; Taurat(Torah,) Zubur(Pslams,) Injiil(Gospel,) and the Qur'an(Koran.) The Torah is the Law, the Pslams is the Glorification, the Gospel is the Good News, and the Qur'an is the Reading, respectively. They are sent as follows;

Torah: Revealed to Moses and Aaron and the Messengers after them(NOTE: the book of Psalms was given to David, but this book was not a law -- but a glorification to God. All other books of "LAW" sent to Israelites are called Torah,) as God says;

"Surely, We sent down the Torah, wherein is guidance and light; by its laws the Jews have been judged by the Prophets who surrendered themselves to God, the Rabbis and the Doctors of Law, because they were entrusted the protection of God's book and were witnesses thereto" Surrat ul Maa'idah, 5.44

Therefore, the Torah is not one 'book' as many people think it to be. In Judaism, the Torah has two parts; The five books of Moses and the Whole Torah. Its believed that while Moses was sent with a portion of it, Moses saw the whole Torah during his 40 nights with God. Therefore, Judaism teaches that nothing in the Prophets or Writting can contradict Moses' part of the Torah. The book sent to Moses is never mentioned by name in the Qur'an. It has been mentioned in attributes, but not by name.

Psalms: Given to David. While David was a Prophet of Israel and judged with the Torah, God exalted him with the 'Book of Blessing' known as Pslams, full of Glorification to God. In the Qur'an, God relates;

"And your LORD best knows those who are in the Heavens and the Earth; and certainly We have favored some of the Prophets to others, and to David We gave the Pslams." Surrat ul Bani Isra'el, 17.55

The favoring that God talks about is the fact that not any "known" messenger was given a book of all blessing, as David was. But, to each Prophet, God gave him something special and unique. So, we hope people don't idolize David or any other Prophets against their will by thinking they were 'better' than other Prophets. Anyway, the Psalms was so beautiful that mountains and the birds sang with David in praise of his LORD.

Gospel: Revealed to the Messiah, Jesus, Son of Mary;

"And we gave him the Gospel, wherein is guidance and light and confirming the Torah before it, as a guidance and an admonition to the God-fearing" surrat ul Maa'idah, 5.46

The Gospel is Good News. It is called that because it was the liberation of Israel off the restrictions God had put upon them(Israel had to live up to 613 very strange laws which were very hard to maintain;)

"And to make lawful to you certain things that, before, were forbidden to you" Surrat ul 'ala `Imraan, 3.50

Qur'an: Revealed to Muhammad;

"We narrate to you the best of narratives, by Our revealing to you this Qur'an, though before this you were certainly one of those who did not know." Surrat ul Yusuf, 12.3

The Qur'an means the Recitation. The reason it's called that is because when people do Tajweed(slow reading) on Qur'an, it is so beautiful your heart moves. Wheather you know `Arabic or not, if you hear it, it is a music to the heart. Many early Muslims had converted only after hearing the Qur'an by accident.

To Muslims, God says the following;

"Say: We believe in God, and that which has been sent down to us, and sent down to Abraham and Ishmael, Isaac and Jacob, and the Patriachs, and in that which was given to Moses and Jesus, and the prophets, of their Lord; we make no division between any of them." Surrat ul Baqarah, 2.136

That is Islaam, the Message of God - The same Message sent to all Believers over the times. We accept all of them.

Are the past Scriptures corrupted?

The books mentioned above(except the Qur'an) have been corrupted. However, the messages still lies in there. God mentions of Torah, Pslams and Gospel because they are the only ones good enough for believers to follow. Yes, they still have corruption in them(Jewish Rabbis had to write the Jewish Bible from memory so many times. Of course, as humans who were not messengers of God, they made mistakes which God did not correct.)

Why only the Qur'an?

Many people ask the question; Why only the Qur'an? Could not God protect His other Scriptures? The answer is, the Qur'an is the final testament. And the reason God said He would protect the Qur'an was because of that. Of course, one can choose not to believe that, however, the real reason is that we really don't need another holy book anymore because we have evolved far enough to clone each other and visit other dimensions!

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