How the Quran Is the Final Solution to Disunity?

By Marieh Khoshdouz

God has sent many Prophets to guide the mankind. According to the Islamic narrations (Ahadith) the
number of them rises to 124,000 prophets. One Muslim is required to believe in all of them; otherwise he
can’t be considered a Muslim. However, this is not the case in the two other Abrahamic religions. Judaism
doesn’t recognize Jesus as the awaited Messiah or the prophet and Christianity doesn’t recognize
Muhammad (PBUH) as a true Prophet and a Messenger of God.1 Surprisingly, all these prophets were
divinely designated and inspired by one God. Due to this fact, having the earlier revelations being re-written
and represented in a new theological agenda is typical in the history of these religions.

In regard to this, the best example is the Quran, which talks with the Aramaic translation of the Gospel and
re-articulates and revisions its language and context. The Quran and the Gospel share the same motifs,
metaphors and expressions in many cases. For instance, the Quran like the Gospel uses the common motif of
“Hardened hearts” for condemning Jews by saying: “Then your hearts were hardened after that; so it is as
stone or even harder…(Q 2:74)”. Just like the Gospel, the Quran uses the key as a metaphor of authority;
Like: “He posses the keys of the heaven and the earth (Q 23:38)”. The expression of “Lord of the Heavens
and the Earth” in the Gospel is also mentioned frequently in the Quran by describing the sovereignty of God.
When the Quran condemns those who hoard gold and silver and don’t spend in the way of God it re-
articulates the same words by which the Gospel condemns the scribes and Pharisees for devouring the
household of widows. The Gospel and the Quran even determine the destiny of earth in the same way, when
the Quran at the end of Chapter Prophets (Anbiya) says: “And we have written in the Psalms (Zabur), after
the scriptures that the earth will be inherited by righteous servants (Q 21: 105)”. Although this verse is in
dialogue with the Psalms that state: “but the humble/poor shall inherit the land”, it is most in line with the
Gospel which says: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5)”.2

Linguistically, many words that have been mentioned in both the Quran and the Aramaic translation of the
Gospel are relatively similar. For instance, the word malkuta in the Gospel means “kingdom, sovereignty or
reign” is mentioned in the Quran as malakut twice. There is no doubt that the Arabic word malakut is
derived from the Aramaic construct noun malkut. The Quran and the Gospel share the same formula in their
language as well. Like, “Blessed are…” or “Woe unto…”.3

According to the fact that the Quran and the Gospel pretty much overlap each other inter-textually, we can
argue that the former pagans haven’t been the mere audience of the Quran. In other words, Jews and
Christians were also part of the context of revelation.4 God by addressing them as the people of the book
says:


1 . Mutahhari, Murtadha. Islam and Religious Pluralism. This book is available at: https://www.al-islam.org/.

2 . El-Baawi, Emran. The Quran and the Aramaic Gospel Traditions. Routledge, 2013, pp. 126-127, 131-132, 146-147, 150.

3 . Ibid, pp. 128-130, 145.

4 . Braswell, George. What You Need to Know about Islam and Muslims. B and H Publishing Group, Tennessee, 2000, pp. 113-
114.

5 . Asadi, Muhammad. Islam and Christianity Conflict or Conciliation. iUniverse, 2001, p. 31.

6 . The Quran and the Aramaic Gospel Traditions, pp. 114-115,

7. Ghounem, Mohamed. How the Quran Corrects the Bible. This article is available at: http://quranbible.org/.

“People of the Book, Our Messenger has come to you, making clear to you many things you have been
concealing of the Book…(Q 5:15)”

In this sense, the Quran came to correct, protest and affirm their early scared scriptures. For instance, it
denied two biblical concepts of the Trinity and Incarnation5 and put the excessive Jewish dietary prohibition
under the question.6 It also mended major manipulations that manifest themselves between the scribes of
Moses compared to the scribes of Jesus.7

“And we have not sent down the Book (The Quran) to you (O Muhammad), expect that you may explain
clearly unto them those things in which they differ…(Q 16:64)”

Throughout the history of mankind, God with his constant mercy continuously designated prophets by this
massage to the people that worship him. Due to this fact, the history of all scriptures is nothing but the
successive rewriting of the earlier sacred scriptures. With respect to this, the last divine book which was
brought by the seal of the prophets can be regarded as a testimony of the authenticity of all divine religions
and prophets. Under its message, which is the strict monotheism, the unity of the adherents of all Abrahamic
religions is realizable.