Page 21 - Pleasant Words from the Gospe

God reveals in the Qur'an that Muslims must believe in
our Prophet Muhammed (may God bless him and grant him
peace) and in all the prophets sent before him and in every-
thing sent down to those prophets. In verse 4 of Surat al-
Baqara, our Lord says that Muslims are "those who believe in
what has been sent down to you and what was sent down be-
fore you..."
As revealed in the Qur'an, the Gospel, Torah, Psalms and

the pages of Abraham are books sent down to prophets who
lived in the past. Some of these books have disappeared, while
others have been altered or distorted. But they nevertheless
contain a great many correct pronouncements belonging to the
true faith. Muslims analyze these according to the Qur'an and
the Sunna [teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (may God
bless him and grant him peace)] and decide that they are cor-
rect statements compatible with verses and the hadith. There-
fore, statements in the Torah and the Gospel that conform to
the Qur'an and the Sunna are statements that Muslims can ben-
efit from. But the essential precondition is for these statements
to be in agreement with the verses of the Qur'an and the ha-
diths.
God revealed that these books were guides to the people
living at the time they were sent. Allah tells in the verses:

He has sent down the Book to you with truth, confirm-
ing what was there before it. And He sent down the
Torah and the Gospel, previously, as guidance for
mankind, and He has sent down the Furqan. (Surah Al
'Imran, 3-4)

19