We are, then, warranted in assuming that the terms which are in the Corân applied to the Jewish Scriptures generally, as "the Book," "the Scriptures," &c. الكتاب - الذكر - الذين أوتوا نصيباً من الكتاب mean the Old Testament as it stood, and was acknowledged by the Jews to be their divine book, in the time of Mahomet. The word, التوراة the Tourât, was sometimes used in this wide sense, and sometimes as signifying only the Pentateuch, or the Five books of Moses. So the term الزبور "the Psalms," is confined to the Psalms of David.

In a similar manner, the Scriptures of the Christians, spoken of in the Corân under the general name الأنجيل Injîl, "Evangel," or Gospel, must be held to refer to the entire Scripture in common use as a divinely-inspired book amongst the Christians,—that is, to the whole New Testament; which, according to the Corân, was received by Jesus from God, and taught (as we must on this understanding suppose) by him to his disciples.

These inferences are necessarily deducible from the absolute and unqualified manner in which Mahomet refers to the Scriptures as believed in by the Jews and Christians, and as current amongst them.

A belief in the whole Scriptures, Jewish and Christian, is frequently required, and those who "believe in apart, and disbelieve in a part," are over and again threatened with condign punishment. — See Arts. LXIII and CII.

The Divine origin of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, as thus extant and in common use in his day, is throughout the Corân unconditionally attested by Mahomet, in such reiterated and stereotyped phrases, as— مصدقاً لما بين يديه &c. Indeed the very object of the Corân is in many places stated to be the attestation of the Scripture revealed aforetime. Thus in a supposed Revelation which is quoted as having been made of old, the prophet that is to arise (Mahomet) is described chiefly as one who would attest the foregoing Scripture,— ثم جاءكم رسول مصدق لما معكم Art. CXIII. So also the chief mark by which the Genii, who had been listening to the Corân, described it to their fellows, was that it attested the antecedent Revelation: Art. XVII.

A plenary inspiration is constantly ascribed to the whole of these sacred books. They have been "sent down," or "revealed," نزل ;—God revealed the Scripture in "truth," or "with truth," أنزل كتاباً بالحق ;— it has been "given" by God, أوتي ;—the prophets who delivered it were "inspired," وحي

It is repeatedly said, in praise of the Corân (for which the highest degree of inspiration is claimed), that the inspiration of Mahomet is the same in kind as that of the former prophets;—Arts. XXII., LX., CIII., and CX.