Encyclopedia of Islam

Gospel

  

265  J

---

could be interpreted as suggesting that the Gospel 

is a sacred text that God revealed to J

esUs

, as he 

revealed the t

orah

 to m

oses

 and the Quran to 

m

Uhammad

. This relationship with other sacred 

scriptures is evidenced by the fact that nine of the 

12 times the Gospel is mentioned in the Quran, it 

occurs in relation to the Torah (Arabic: al-tawrat), 

the Jewish sacred text. However, Muslims have 

also maintained that the Torah and the Gospel, as 

Jews and Christians have received them, contain 

errors and omissions, while the entire Quran is 

absolutely perfect and complete.

While there are four Gospels in the New Testa-

ment and, according to Christians, they constitute 

one of several kinds of literature in that section 

of the Bible, the Quran uses the Arabic singular 

of Gospel. There is another significant difference 

between Christian and Muslim understandings of 

Gospel or Gospels. Christians view the Gospels as 

the proclamation of the “good news” of salvation 

that God offers to human beings through Jesus, 

while Muslims understand Gospel as containing 

God’s laws and ethics, together with prophecies 

concerning Muhammad’s coming.

In terms of similarities and differences regard-

ing the Quran’s view of the Gospel and the 

Gospels as they appear in the New Testament, 

several Quranic verses overlap significantly with 

material in all or some of the four New Testa-

ment Gospels. Other quranic passages contain 

ideas and symbols that are similar to noncanoni-

cal gospels and other Christian texts. A number 

of other statements that the Quran attributes to 

Jesus as well as stories about him do not have 

any substantial similarity to the Gospels or any 

other Christian texts. Thus, textually there are 

numerous similarities and differences in terms of 

ideas and symbols in the Quran’s representation 

of the Gospel and the Gospels as they appear in 

the New Testament.

See also  c

hristianity

 

and

  i

slam

; 

holy

 

books

; 

J

Udaism

 

and

 i

slam

.

Jon Armajani