Gospel in Islam

The Arabic word Injīl (إنجيل) as found in Islamic texts, now used also by non-Arab Muslims and non-Muslim Arabs, comes from the Classical Syriac: ܐܘܢܓܠܝܘܢ, romanized: ewangellīōn found in the Peshitta, the Syriac translation of the Bible. This, in turn, derives from Koinē Greek: Εὐαγγέλιον of the New Testament, where it means “good news” (compare Old English gōdspel; Modern English gospel, or evangel as an archaism; cf. e.g. Spanish evangelio). The word Injīl occurs twelve times in the Qurʾān.^[1]

Muslim scholars have rejected identifying the Injil with the New Testament Gospels and interpret Quran, sura 5 (Al-Ma'ida), ayah 46, 47a as God warning the Christians not to enforce the law contrary to the law sent by Allah:^[2] Some have suggested the Injil may be the Gospel of Barnabas or Gospel of Thomas.^[3] More commonly, Muslim scholars have argued that the Injil refers to a text now lost or hopelessly corrupted. For example, Abdullah Yusuf Ali wrote:

The Injil (Greek, Evangel equals Gospel) spoken of by the Qur'an is not the New Testament. It is not the four Gospels now received as canonical. It is the single Gospel which, Islam teaches, was revealed to Jesus, and which he taught. Fragments of it survive in the received canonical Gospels and in some others, of which traces survive (e.g., the Gospel of Childhood or the Nativity, the Gospel of St. Barnabas, etc.)."^[4]

This claim however has been widely rejected by both Christian and secular scholars, since the Bible's textual history is supported by a vast number of manuscripts, with thousand of manuscripts for the canonical gospels alone. Meanwhile the texts mentioned by some Muslims, e.g., the Gospel of Childhood or the Nativity, the Gospel of St. Barnabas, came at least a century after the canonical gospels.^[5]

The Islamic methodology of tafsir al-Qur'an bi-l-Kitab (Arabic: تفسير القرآن بالكتاب) refers to interpreting the Qur'an with/through the Bible.^[6] This approach adopts canonical Arabic versions of the Bible, including the Tawrat and the Injil, both to illuminate and to add exegetical depth to the reading of the Qur'an. Notable Muslim mufassirun (commentators) of the Bible and Qur'an who weaved biblical texts together with Qur'anic ones include Abu al-Hakam Abd al-Salam bin al-Isbili of Al-Andalus and Burhan al-Din al-Biqa'i.^[6]

• Biblical and Quranic narratives
• Christianity and Islam
• Islamic view of the Christian Bible
• List of Christian terms in Arabic
• Scrolls of Abraham