Lesson video

Hello, my young scholars of religion.

My name is Miss Marx and I'm going to be your Religious Education teacher today.

Today we're going to be doing about the authority of other sacred texts in Islam.

So these are sacred texts other than the Qur'an which have been revealed to prophets in the story of Islam.

So when you're ready, let's go.

So by the end of this lesson today, you'll be able to explain the importance of holy books in Islam, other than the Qur'an.

So let's start with our key terms: corrupted: altered from its original divine form; Gospel, also known as the Injeel, which is the revelation given to the prophet Jesus, Isa; kutub, the holy books in Islam.

Psalms, also known as Zabur, revelation given to Prophet David or Dawud; Torah, also known as Tawrat, which is the revelation given to Prophet Moses, or Musa.

So look out for those in today's lesson.

So our lesson today is going to have two sections: the other holy books of Islam and the importance of the other holy books of Islam.

So let's start with our first section, the other holy books of Islam.

So one of the six articles of faith in Islam is a belief in holy books.

In Arabic, this is known as kutub, and along with the Qur'an, these are sacred texts within Islam.

Kutub, holy books in Islam, and the prophet they were revealed to: Scrolls were revealed to Abraham or Ibrahim.

Torah is revealed to Moses or Musa.

Psalms are revealed to David, or Dawud, Gospel is revealed to Jesus or Isa and the Qur'an is revealed to Muhammad.

So a belief in these holy books is an important part of Muslim faith, it's one of the six articles of faith, and the Qur'an is the one that's revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, but the other holy books also have authority.

So let's have a look at each of them, then.

So the scrolls, or sahifah as they're sometimes called.

The scrolls or sahifah, were revealed to Abraham, who's also known as Ibrahim.

And he originally came from a place called Ur, which you could see in the map here.

He then travels across to where Jerusalem is and then down to Mecca.

So this part of the world is very important to do with Ibrahim or Abraham.

No copy of that scroll, that revelation, exists today in its original form.

There's no copy of it that someone could go to to read and look at today.

But it is believed that it existed and it contained the message of monotheism and submission to Allah.

So this idea of monotheism, Abraham was living at a time when people were very polytheistic.

So the message of one God was very important and was revealed to Abraham so that he would only worship one God and spread that message and also submission to that God.

And remember the word Islam means submission.

So it's believed to have contained these two very important messages.

So it's mentioned twice in the Qur'an, so we know it's important and it's believed to contain these very important messages of Islam, of monotheism and the submission to Allah.

And we know the importance that Ibrahim has for many Muslim beliefs and practises today.

So why might those scrolls be important for a Muslim, then? Pause the video and have a think and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Secondly, the Torah or Tawrat.

So the Torah was revealed to prophet Moses or Musa and revealed for the children of Israel.

So prophets before the Prophet Muhammad were given revelations and holy books for particular people at particular times.

And the Torah was revealed to prophet Moses for the people who were with him there, the children of Israel who he helped to free from slavery.

And it contains guidance for how to live correctly.

So you might be aware of something called the Ten Commandments, which is found in the Torah.

And there are many teachings that are found in the Torah today, which are similar to those that are found in the Qur'an.

Many food laws, for example, are similar between what is Halal and what is kosher.

Muslims believe, in its original form, it foretold the coming of the Prophet Muhammad.

The Torah was entrusted to Jewish leaders at that time, but it is different to the Jewish Torah today, because over time, different processes have led to it being changed.

And the Torah is mentioned 18 times in the Qur'an by name as something that Muslims should follow and hold onto and follow the guidance of.

So why might the Torah be important for a Muslim, then? Pause the video and have a think and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

So the third holy book is the Psalms also known as Zabur.

The Psalm Zabur will reveal to prophet David or Dawud.

Now he's very important as the only named prophet in Islam who's also a king and a prophet at the same time.

So he's a king and a prophet at the same time.

And the Psalms are a book of songs and poems which are praising Allah.

And this is mentioned three times in the Qur'an.

Why might these be important for a Muslim? Pause the video and have a think.

And the fourth holy book is the Gospel, known as Injil.

The Gospel Injil was revealed to prophet Jesus, Isa.

And this is seen as a confirmation of the Torah that was given to Moses and foretelling the Prophet Muhammad coming later.

And there are different opinions in Islam as to the exact nature of this.

So Muslim teachings are that if I was to open a Bible and look at the Gospels that are there that Christians read and follow, this is different to what was originally revealed to prophet Jesus or Isa.

But there are different opinions within Islam as to the exact nature of what the Gospel was that was revealed to Prophet Isa.

But we know it is connected to being good news because of the word Gospel.

Why might the Gospel be important for a Muslim? Pause the video again and have a think and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Let's do a quick check now we've looked at all four of these holy books.

For each statement below, fill in the gap with the prophet the holy book was revealed to.

A: The scrolls are revealed to.

B: The Torah was revealed to.

C: The Psalms were revealed to.

and D: The Gospel was revealed to.

Pause the video and have a go.

We'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

We've got that the scrolls were revealed to Abraham or Ibrahim.

The Torah was revealed to Moses or Musa, the Psalms were revealed to David or Dawud, and the Gospel was revealed to Jesus, Isa.

Well done.

So why might Muslims believe these things about the other holy books of Islam, then? Well, we're going to look to the Qur'an as a source of authority for this.

And the Qur'an has the authority as the direct words of Allah without any error.

And it says this: "Those who follow the Messenger, that Unlettered Prophet whom they find mentioned in the Torah and the Gospel in their possession, these are successful." How can this source support a belief in the other holy books, kutub? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

We've got here that the Torah and Gospel are seen as a way to be successful.

If you follow the Messenger and you see that he is there, mentioned in the Torah and the Gospel.

So therefore if they're mentioned here, they must be important.

The Prophet Muhammad is mentioned in the Torah and the Gospel, and following this leads to success.

And another passage of the Qur'an supports a belief in the Psalms as a holy book that was revealed to David, and it says, "Your Lord knows well everyone in the heavens and the earth.

We have given some prophets advantage over others and to David we gave the Psalms." So how can this source support a belief in the other holy books, kutub, of Islam? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

Well done.

Yes.

You've noticed here that it says David was given the Psalms, given by God.

So the Psalms were revealed to Prophet David, Dawud, and the Psalms were from Allah.

And here we have got a source of authority which can support a belief in the scrolls as a holy book of Islam.

It says, "But you prefer the present life.

Though the hereafter is better and more lasting.

This is in the former scriptures.

The Scriptures, scrolls, of Abraham and Moses." So how can this source support belief in the other holy books, kutub, of Islam, then? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

So this is one of the instances where the scrolls of Abraham are mentioned and this translation of the Qur'an uses the word scriptures, but often the word that's translated is also scrolls.

So this can support a belief in the scrolls of Abraham.

Abraham and Moses had holy books revealed to them and their scrolls spoke about beliefs in the afterlife.

So Izzy and Jacob are discussing how these sources of authority can support belief in other holy books, kutub, in Islam.

And Izzy says, "A Muslim might believe the Torah is an important holy book because the Qur'an says the prophet Muhammad was mentioned in the Torah and those who believe this will be 'successful'." And Jacob says, "A Muslim might believe the scrolls of Abraham are important because the Qur'an says that the message of the afterlife was in these scrolls.

They might believe the Psalms are important because the Qur'an says they were revealed to Prophet David.

So time for a quick check.

Is this true or false? The Qur'an states that the other holy books in Islam are not important.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

That is false, but why? Well, it's false because there are several passages in the Qur'an which support belief in the other holy books of Islam, showing their importance for Muslims. Well done.

So let us try and understand a little bit more about the authority that other holy books have within Islam.

Some prophets were given sacred texts from Allah, but these original scriptures have either been lost or recorded incorrectly in the current scriptures found in Judaism and Christianity.

And this has led to some errors in religious teachings in those religions and the original messages were lost and corrupted.

So some scriptures have been completely lost, like the scrolls of Abraham, but others, we have got them, but they're not in the original form that was revealed from Allah to those prophets, according to Muslim beliefs.

And this has led to some errors in the religious teachings in those religions that are based off of those sources.

So if this is a source of authority, it's very important for Christians and this is the version that they're reading, there may be some differences with how a Muslim would understand the same event, the same story, the same part of that scripture.

And the Muslim beliefs are that those original messages were lost and corrupted over time.

So the Qur'an corrects those errors and is a completion of the scriptures from before.

So it's not a replacement of them, it's not a different message, it's not something completely different.

It is completing those scriptures from before.

And all the true forms of those scriptures had that message of one God and submission to Allah.

So let's look at another source of authority for Muslims, which is the Hadith, which is the sayings and the actions of the Prophet Muhammad.

And the Hadith says the people of the book used to read the Torah in Hebrew and then explain it in Arabic to the Muslims. Allah's Messenger, Muhammad, said to the Muslims, "Do not believe the people of the Book, nor disbelief them, but say, 'We believe in Allah and what's revealed to us and whatever is revealed to you.

'" So here we've got an example of kind of interfaith dialogue happening between different religious groups at the time of the Prophet Muhammad.

So what could this source show Muslims about the relationship between Islam and the other holy books, then? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

Well, this Hadith is saying that Muslims should believe the revelation given to them, which is the Qur'an, which is the one that's going to correct the things that have been changed or distorted or corrupted over time in the other revelations.

And the Qur'an is a continuation of those revelations that were given before, that corrects those errors that have crept in over time.

So let's do another check.

Which source of authority said that Muslims should neither believe nor disbelieve what the "people of the book" said about the Torah? Pause the video and have a go and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

Well done That was in the Hadith.

So let's do a practise task to see what we've learned so far, then.

Explain two Muslim beliefs about other holy books, kutub, in Islam, and you're going to refer to sacred writings or another source of Muslim belief and teaching in your answer.

For both parts you're going to explain a Muslim belief and develop it.

And then in one of the parts you're going to link it to a source of authority by saying what the source of authority is, what it teaches and how that applies to holy books.

So pause the video and off you go and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

Well done.

Some great work there.

So I asked you to explain Muslim beliefs about other holy books, kutub, in Islam, and your answer may look something like this: "One Muslim belief about other holy books is that they were revealed to important prophets before Muhammad.

This is because the Torah was revealed to Moses and the Gospel was revealed to Jesus.

Another belief about other holy books is that they were corrupted over time and the current versions in Christianity and Judaism are not accurate like the Qur'an.

In the Hadith, Muhammad said not to believe or disbelieve the Torah, but to believe what was revealed to you, meaning the Qur'an." So what I've done here is, in the second one I've quoted my source, which is the Hadith, and I've said where it's from.

Well done.

So on to our second section then, the importance of the other holy books of Islam.

Many Muslims believe that scriptures such as the Torah and Gospel are no longer found in their original forms in the Tanakh and the Christian Bible and so they don't have the same authority as the Qur'an.

And a source of authority that supports this for Muslims is in the Qur'an where it says, "Some of them used to hear the Word of God and then deliberately distort it." So it's this idea that the scriptures were there but they've been changed over time.

One thing that could do that is translating texts into different languages, 'cause every time you translate something into another language, you are making choices about which words are being used.

Because no two languages are identical, are they? You often have to choose which way you're going to translate something.

We've already seen that with a translation of the Qur'an earlier, which translated scriptures of Abraham, whereas other people might say scrolls of Abraham.

And so sometimes when you translate things, you can change the meaning ever so subtly when you do that translation.

Also text might be changed over long periods of time.

If we think that Ibrahim existed around 4,000 years ago, then the scrolls that he would've had revealed to him could have changed over that huge, long period of time.

And also different versions of texts can show some differences.

So if we were to look at, for example, different versions of the Bible that have been found at different places, at different times, we can see little differences.

So you could start to question, well, what was the original one and has that been changed over time? So whilst there are many similarities between the other holy books of Islam and the same stories in Judaism and Christianity today, there are some important differences.

So there are some differences relating to the story of Abraham or Ibrahim who's a very important prophet within Islam.

And he's also very important within the religions of Judaism and Christianity.

So Abraham is seen as a Muslim in this passage of the Qur'an, not Jewish or Christian.

And also in the Qur'an, it explains that he was asked by God to take his son into the desert with his wife Hagar.

Whereas in other stories that are found in Judaism and Christianity, it's Abraham's first wife, Sarah who tells him to go into the desert.

But it's important for the Muslim understanding of Abraham that he was submitting to the will of Allah by taking his son into the desert.

And it's from there that we have got the rebuilding of the Ka'aba and the Hajj ritual.

So you can see the importance it has there.

And then we've also got a passage here that says, "And for their saying, 'We have killed the Messiah, Jesus.

' In fact, they did not kill him." So in Christianity, it's a very important belief that Jesus is the Son of God.

But in Islam, Jesus is not the son of God.

He is a prophet.

He's a very special prophet, he's very important, but he's not the Son of God.

God does not beget or has not been begotten.

So he hasn't had children, but in Islam he's seen as a prophet.

So this bit of the Qur'an is addressing how the Gospel stories that a Christian might read today in the Bible has the story of how Jesus was killed on the cross and then he rose again from the dead.

Whereas actually Muslims don't believe that he died on the cross and didn't resurrect, but he has been ascended up into heaven without dying on the cross in that way.

And so for the Muslim belief is that that story was sort of changed over time as it was written down in the Gospels.

The Christians read in their Bible and the Qur'an is correcting that and saying "That might be written in that story, but that's not really what happened.

He wasn't killed." Sarah is a Muslim revert, who was raised a Christian, and here she explains why these differences actually matter to her.

She says, "I knew about Jesus, Moses, David, and Abraham from my Christian upbringing, but in Islam I could see how they're all connected through the revelations of Allah.

It makes sense to me that their messages can be known in their uncorrupted version through the Qur'an.

I have questions about Jesus and his death that the Qur'an answers well for me." Let's do another check.

The Muslim understanding of other holy books in Islam is exactly the same as Christian and Jewish understandings of them.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you got in a moment.

Well done.

That is false, but why? Well, whilst there are many similarities and much common ground between Muslim, Christian and Jewish understandings of the other holy books of Islam, there are some important and significant differences.

Well done.

So Muslims can hold different opinions on the authority of the other holy books of Islam.

Ilham and Mustafa are gonna explain their views to us.

So Mustafa says, "The Qur'an corrects all the corruptions and mistakes of the other holy books and so they're not as important for my faith.

All I need is the Qur'an." And Ilham says "The other holy books help me understand the whole story of this Islam, from Adam to Muhammad.

They are different genres too, which can show me more of Allah." Which view is more convincing? Why? Pause the video and have a think and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

So, if we had a statement, "The Qur'an is the only holy book that Muslims need," there could be different reasons given in support and against this statement.

A bit like Mustafa and Ilham were just exploring for us.

Here are some that could be given in support that the Qur'an is the only Holy Book Muslims need.

So arguments for could be: the Qur'an is without error or corruption and has the greatest authority.

The Qur'an is for all of humanity.

And that the Qur'an is the complete revelation.

So that's all that's needed because it's without error, isn't corrupt, it's for everyone and is complete.

Well, there are some reasons we could give for a different point of view against this statement.

So if the statement is the Qur'an is the only Holy Book Muslims need, then we could think of some reasons why Muslims would still need those other holy books.

For example, it informs Muslims about the prophets before Muhammad.

They're mentioned in the Qur'an.

So they must have importance if they're mentioned in the Qur'an that many times.

Remember the Torah is mentioned 18 times in the Qur'an.

and they confirm the message revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.

So if you remember Muslims believe that the Torah and the Gospel both foretell that the Prophet Muhammad will come.

Which side for that argument do you think is most convincing? Do you think it's more convincing to be for the statement, "The Qur'an is the only holy book Muslims need," or against the statement? Pause the video and have a think and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

And we shall come back to this later.

So we've seen there can be different views within Islam on authority of other sacred texts other than the Qur'an.

So now together, let's give one reason why the Qur'an is the only text a Muslim needs.

Hmm.

I think because it's without error, the other texts have errors in their current form and the Qur'an is the only one that doesn't have any errors in it.

So now over to you.

Give one reason why a Muslim needs the other holy texts.

Pause the video and have a think and we can see what you've done in a moment, Because it informs Muslims about the story of Islam from earlier prophets.

Well done.

So let's do another practise task to see what we've learned, then.

Lucas is answering an evaluation question on the statement below.

Help Lucas write a paragraph showing different points of view.

Refer to Muslim teachings and give reasons to support this view.

So the statement is "The Qur'an is the only holy book a Muslim needs." We were just talking about this earlier.

And what you are going to do is refer to a Muslim teaching where you are giving arguments to support a different point of view.

So reasons why Muslims need the other holy books and not only the Qur'an.

And you might like to use these sentence stems. Some Muslims may disagree with the statement and say holy books other than the Qur'an are needed because.

A Muslim may want to read the Torah and Gospel because.

It says in the Qur'an that.

And therefore the Qur'an is not the only.

So you can use those sentence stems if you want to, to write the paragraph.

Pause the video and off you go, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

Some really good thinking there.

So I asked you to write a paragraph showing a different point of view to the statement, "The Qur'an is the only holy book a Muslim needs." And you could have said: "Some Muslims may disagree with this statement and say that holy books other than the Qur'an are needed because there are other holy books within Islam which were revealed by Allah to prophets.

These can show them more about the religion of Islam and the oneness of Allah.

A Muslim may want to read the Torah and Gospel because they can help them understand more about the prophets Moses and Jesus and they foretold that Muhammad would come and receive revelation.

And it says in the Qur'an that 'The hereafter is better and more rewarding than the present.

This was in the form of scriptures.

' Therefore, the Qur'an is not the only holy book that a Muslim needs." Well done.

So let's summarise everything we've learned today, then.

Authority of other sacred texts in Islam.

Some prophets in Islam were given books or texts for humans.

A belief in holy books is known as kutub and is one of the six articles of faith.

But prophets Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus were all given books as part of the revelations to them from Allah.

The messages of the other sacred texts in Islam have been corrupted over time.

The Qur'an is the ultimate authority.

It corrects those corruptions of the other sacred texts in Islam and is without error.

Well done for your hard work today and I hope to see you soon.

Bye-bye!.