Tawrat

Tawrat (Tawrah or Taurat, Arabic: توراة) is the Arabic word for the Torah. Muslims believe it was a holy book of Islam given by God to Musa (Moses). The Hebrew word for their scripture, the Torah (also known as the Five Books of Moses or the Pentateuch) means instructions, that is why Tawrat as per the Qur'an does not refer to the entire Tanakh or Old Testament. All prophets governed with Tawrat 5:44, and meaning of Tawrat as per Qur'an is the Law, mentioned in 5:45; We ordained therein for them: "Life for life, eye for eye, nose for nose, ear for ear, tooth for tooth, and wounds equal for equal." But if any one remits the retaliation by way of charity, it is an act of atonement for himself. And if any fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed, they are (no better than) wrong-doers.

History of the Torah

Vaguely, Muslims understand the Torah to be the Jewish scriptures, but one which has also been adopted by the Christians in their religion. It is not, by any means, a reference to the whole Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), which contains 34 canonized books, and many other smaller books that are apocryphal and are canonized by different communities and sects. For example, while all Christians and Jews accept the Book of Jeremiah as part of their scripture, the Book of Baruch, supposedly written by the prophet Jeremiah's scribe Baruch ben Neriah, is one particular book which is not accepted by Protestant Christians but is accepted by Catholics. Similarly, while none of the Books of Maccabees are accepted by the Jews, Eastern Orthodox Christians accept all four of the books, while Catholics accept only 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees. Thus, we can conclude that the Torah in the Qur'an refers not to all these books but only to the Books of Moses.

The Torah in its current form

Today, we have five books of Moses, namely Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Muslims feel these books contain a semi-historical and vivid narrative of the world from the Creation of the world to the arrival of Jews in Canaan. Although a large segment of the Mosaic Law is embedded in the narrative, Muslims regard the Books to have been corrupted over time. For example, the attribution of sins to prophets - blaming the prophet Aaron for the creation of the Golden Calf being just one example - are rejected by Muslims as they feel that prophets, who represent the highest level of spiritual righteousness, could never commit sinful acts, especially ones as large as idolatry.

Although Christians and Jews ascribe the authorship of these books to Moses, Muslims feel that the majority of the content of these books were written after Moses, by succeeding scribes, priest, rabbis and sages. Scholars, in using the Documentary Hypothesis, roughly divide the writers and compilers of the books into two main sources, namely Jehovist and Elohist, as the Jehovist's use the name Jehovah to refer to God while the latter use the general Hebrew El in reference to God. Muslim scholars have in the past referred to contradictions between the two writers and the differing views of the two schools over various figures, for example their views over the prophet Aaron.

Compilation of the current Torah

Muslim scholars generally accept the statement in 2 Esdras, that the priest and scribe Ezra was inspired to rewrite the Torah after the original Law had been burnt. This fits in with the historical evidence of the book, as the oldest examples of the current Torah date from no further than the time of Ezra, when he lived in the 4th century B.C. In the reign of Hezekiah, the Torah is said to have been reformed into a modern form and in the reign of Josiah, various priests and scribes, including Hilkiah, promulgated a new code which they claimed had been found in the Temple. Scholars believe that the law found at this point, amongst these various figures, laid the basis for modern Judaism.

In the Qur'an

The word Tawrat occurs eighteen times and name of Musa is mentioned one hundred and thirty six times in the Qur'an. Nowhere in the Qur'an is it written that Musa alone has been given Tawrat, but all the prophets governed with Tawrat of Quran 5:44. In the Qur'an the governing ayats containing order of Allah are Taurat 5:43‏ وكيف يحكمونك وعندهم التوراة فيها حكم الله ثم يتولون من بعد ذلك ومااولئك بالمؤمنين Arberry: 5:43 Yet how will they make thee their judge seeing they have the Torah, wherein is God's judgment, then thereafter turn their backs? They are not believers.

Possible quotations from the Torah in the Qur'an are very few and inexact. An example is 5:45 where the Quran reads, "We ordained therein for them: "Life for life, eye for eye, nose for nose, ear for ear, tooth for tooth, and wounds equal for equal."" (Abdullah Yusuf Ali) This could be a quote from Exodus 21:24-25: "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe" (KJV)

According to 7:157, Muhammad is written about in both the Injil (revelations to Jesus) and the Tawrat, "Those who follow the apostle, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find mentioned in their own (scriptures), - in the law and the Gospel". (Yusuf-Ali)

The Tawrat is mentioned as being known by Isa (Jesus) in 5:110. "Behold! I taught thee the Book and Wisdom, the Law and the Gospel and behold! thou makest out of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, by My leave, and thou breathest into it and it becometh a bird by My leave, and thou healest those born blind, and the lepers, by My leave. And behold! thou bringest forth the dead by My leave" (Yusuf-Ali)

Some quotations are taken from other books of the Hebrew Bible. An example of this is 48:29, "This is their similitude in the Taurat; and their similitude in the Gospel is: like a seed which sends forth its blade, then makes it strong; it then becomes thick, and it stands on its own stem, (filling) the sowers with wonder and delight" (Yusuf-Ali). This could be a quote from Psalm 1:3, 72:16 or 92:14,

"And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." Psalm 1:3

"There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth." Psalm 72:16

"They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;" Psalm 92:14

In the Hadith

Because he believed the Qur'an replaced it [source?], Muhammad did not teach from the Torah and the Qur'an says very little about it. He did say that Musa (Moses) was one of the few prophets to receive a revelation directly from God, that is, without an intervening angel. On one occasion, some Jews wanted Muhammad to decide how to deal with their brethren who had committed adultery. Abu Dawud records in Book 38 Number 4434:

They placed a cushion for the Apostle of Allah peace be upon him who sat on it and said: Bring the Torah. It was then brought. He then withdrew the cushion from beneath him and placed the Torah on it saying: I believed in thee and in Him Who revealed thee. He then said: Bring me one who is learned among you. Then a young man was brought. The transmitter then mentioned the rest of the tradition of stoning similar to the one transmitted by Malik from Nafi' (No. 4431).

Semantics

There is some ambiguity among English speaking Muslims on the use of Tawrat versus Torah. The Arabic of the Qur'an and hadith have only one word, Tawrat. Generally, in English, they are used interchangeably. However, some Muslims prefer to reserve Tawrat to refer only to the original revelation of Allah to Musa which Muslims believe was later corrupted through the Babylonian exile, and the rewriting of Ezra (and the Men of the Great assembly.) They use Torah to refer to the current, supposedly corrupted text.

There is also ambiguity as to whether the Qur'an uses Tawrat only referring to the five books of Moses, the entire Tanakh, or both, as in Hebrew. This comes because the Qur'an often lists the holy books as the Tawrat, Injil, and Qur'an, excluding the Zabur (the Psalms), possibly because the Psalms are part of the Tanakh. Moreover, a Muslim scholar seemed to reference the Book of Isaiah in the Tanakh, saying it was from the Tawrat. This meaning is uncommon, as most Muslims think it only refers to the five books of Moses.

Importance of the Torah

The word Torah occurs eighteen times and name of Moses is mentioned one hundred and thirty six times in the Qur'an. Nowhere in the Qur'an is it written that Moses alone taught by the Torah as all succeeding Hebrew prophets and seers, including Aaron, used the Law for preaching. The Qur'an makes it clear that the Torah did have words of wisdom in it, and all subsequent prophets, priest, rabbis and sages in Jerusalem used its Law for guidance:

Lo! We did reveal the Torah, wherein is guidance and a light, by which the prophets who surrendered (unto God) judged the Jews, and the rabbis and the priests (judged) by such of God's Scripture as they were bidden to observe, and thereunto were they witnesses. So fear not mankind, but fear Me. And barter not My revelations for a little gain. Whoso judgeth not by that which God hath revealed: such are disbelievers.

God, in the Qur'an, also mentions that the basic aspects of Islamic law are evident in the earliest scriptures, including that of Moses. He mentions that it contains the information about the Last Day and about the concepts of Heaven and Hell. The Torah is also mentioned as being known by Isa (Jesus)

See also

Torah

Suhuf Ibrahim

Zabur

Injil

Qur'an

Islamic view of Moses

Islamic holy books

References

External links

A discussion of the Tawrat and some other scriptures

Does Quran confirm the Jewish Scripts?

Study Regarding the Tawrat

Category:Islamic texts Category:Jewish texts