Islam: Inspiration In Islam

1.1. Inspiration in Islam

In this section we will contrast the position of how the Muslim understands the way the Qur'an was written. In Islam, the Holy Qur'an (HQ) comes only through the intermediary of the Angel Gabriel (alleged) who came down from God through the seven levels of heaven to that interface between the unseen world and the earth (at one place in HQ called the lote tree [HQ 53:14]) to deliver the message to Muhammad. Muslims say that there is no blend of human and divine authorship in the Qur'an; God is the sole author of the Qur'an and that it contains no human composition at all. The message Qur'an speaks was delivered by God (Allah) as "from behind a veil or by sending a messenger (that is, the Angel Gabriel, alleged)

Generally, Muslims only accept those parts of the Bible which are traceable to mechanical dictation and so reduce the revealed word to those parts in the Old Testament, prefaced by the words Thus says the Lord and such like sayings, and then in the Gospels to those places where it is written, Jesus said. They believe that God sent down a book to Jesus that is now lost and only fragments of His message appear in the four Gospels. In doing this they reject the biographical content of the Scriptures as of little consequence and try to make the Bible revelation to be the same as that of the Qur'an. They deny that the books contained in the Torah are the first five books of the Bible, but believe that the first five books contain fragments of the Torah, some of which are writings such as Ten Commandments and other laws directly given by God. They believe that the Pentateuch is a later rendition composed by Ezra and people of similar standing in his

(Westminster Confession of Faith 1:7)

Even regarding those teachings of Scripture that are less clear, we may not use that obscurity as an excuse for our ignorance. God has provided teachers, and has promised wisdom to those who ask (James. 1:5). No Scripture is unclear to the one who asks for wisdom. As a general principle: Scripture is always sufficiently clear to make us aware of our present responsibility to God. Its less clear portions will never lead us into sin. The greatest teaching of all is the illumination of the Holy Spirit. This means that each individual Christian can understand the teachings of Scripture. We do not need expert teachers to help us to understand. At the same time, it is true that God has given some men great insights by the Holy Spirit. That is why we use books and commentaries. In God’s wisdom, many of these men were aided by the Holy Spirit to understand the Scriptures. While they cannot stand between God and us, they are a great blessing to the