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126 The CORÂN
LX.—SURA XXIX., v. 47.

سورة العنكبوت

وَكَذَلِكَ أَنزَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ فَالَّذِينَ آتَيْنَاهُمُ الْكِتَابَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِهِ وَمِنْ هَؤُلَاء مَن يُؤْمِنُ بِهِ وَمَا يَجْحَدُ بِآيَاتِنَا إِلَّا الْكَافِرُونَ

And thus have We sent down to thee the book (the Corân,) and those to whom We have given the Scripture believe in it.

A continuation of the preceding passage.

"The Scripture, i.e. the Pentateuch"; الكتاب التوراةJelalooddeen. "The people referred to are Abdallah, son of Sallâm, and his companions; or those of the people of the two Books (the Old and New Testaments) who survived to the time of the Prophet"; هم عبدالله ابن سلام وأحزابه أو من تقدم عهد الرسول من أهل الكتابينBaidhâwi. "Thus have We revealed unto thee the Book, i.e. the Corân, in the same manner as We revealed to them the Pentateuch, &c.": وكذلك أنزلنا اليك الكتاب القرأن أي كما أنزلنا اليهم التوراة وغيرهاJelalooddeen.

Thus it is held that the Corân was revealed in the same manner as the previous Scriptures were revealed. The form and style of inspiration are affirmed to be the same. The source is the same. The object of the Corân—at least one great object,—was to confirm those Scriptures. The Mahometan, therefore, who receives the Corân as divine, is bound to receive also as divine these Sacred books and to study them with

TESTIMONY TO THE HOLY SCRIPTURES 127

a reverence similar to that which he shows to the Corân.

LXI.—SURA VII., v. 158[156-157].

فَسَأَكْتُبُهَا لِلَّذِينَ يَتَّقُونَ وَيُؤْتُونَ الزَّكَـاةَ وَالَّذِينَ هُم بِآيَاتِنَا يُؤْمِنُونَ الَّذِينَ يَتَّبِعُونَ الرَّسُولَ النَّبِيَّ الأُمِّيَّ الَّذِي يَجِدُونَهُ مَكْتُوبًا عِندَهُمْ فِي التَّوْرَاةِ وَالإِنْجِيلِ يَأْمُرُهُم بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَاهُمْ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ ألخ

And I will shortly write down it (i.e. my mercy,) for those who fear the Lord and give alms, and those who believe in our signs: 
those who shall follow the apostle,—the illiterate prophet,—whom they shall find written (i.e. described) in the Pentateuch and in the Gospel among them; he shall command them to do that which is excellent, &c.

This occurs in the answer supposed to be given by God to the prayer of Moses at the time the Israelites worshipped the golden Calf; and is introduced as a prophetical annunciation to Moses of the Prophet that was to arise in the latter days. Now, in this imagined prophecy, God is represented as saying that his people would "find him (Mahomet) written," i.e. would find a description of him, "beside them in the Pentateuch and Gospel." They would find him written there, as Baidhâwi and Jelalooddeen say, باسمه وصفاته —"by his name and his qualities."

The verse, therefore, corresponds with the numerous previous passages in which it is alleged that the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, in the hands of the Jews and

           

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