The Bible as a multi-religious text

Islam and the Bible

Islam has its own sacred text, the Qur’an, which was delivered by Angel Jibreel to Prophet Muhammad between 610 and 632 CE as the revealed will of God, collected later in full written form by Caliph Abu Bakr. It is studied, read and learned by heart by Muslims in its original language, Arabic. But Islam is connected with the Bible in three ways.

In the first place it acknowledges the original texts of the Bible to be revealed by Allah (God) even though in their present form they are held to be distorted and incomplete.

Second, Islam respects as prophets a whole line of ‘biblical’ figures, from Prophet Adam and including Idris (Enoch), Nuh (Noah), Ibrahim (Abraham), Ismail (Ishmael), Ishaq (Isaac), Lut (Lot), Yaqub (Jacob), Yusif (Joseph), Ayyub (Job), Musa (Moses), Harum (Aaron), Dhulkifi (Ezekiel), Dawood (David), Sulaiman (Solomon), Ilias (Elijah), Al-gesu (Elisha), Yunus (Jonah), Zakeriyya (Zechariah), Yahya (John) and 'Isa (Jesus). These prophets appear in the Qur’an, which also has significant things to reveal about Miriam (Mary).

Third, the Qur’an describes Jews and Christians as ‘People of the Book’ (e.g. S3.64-80) and recognizes that they share some common ground with Islam, while affirming at the same time that the Qur’an is the complete revelation.