It says that Jesus taught, I am a servant of Allah, he has given me the book and has appointed me a prophet. Which book is being referred to here? The book is generally titled Injeel, or also Anajeel, because there are more than one Injeel. But the Holy Qur’an always refers to it as Injeel, not as Anajeel. So, that shows positively that whatever was revealed to Jesus Christ, it was collected variously by various scribes or scholars or apostles. But in essence it was one book, it was not a collection of books which was revealed to him.
But in the older days, as you see the style of the Old Testament as well, the books were not revealed completely verbatim from start to end to the prophets and they were not preserved as such like the Holy Qur’an. They were told some truths which also contained injunctions, positive orders, do’s and do nots. As far as this part of the teaching is concerned, this was almost entirely preserved even after the corruption of the Bible. But as far as the narration part is concerned, in that a lot of interpolation was made. So, that interpolation was entirely man-made, but even apart from that, the narration got introduced into the books.
So, the books, as we understand them today, are more like traditions of the Holy Prophet, not like the Holy Qur’an. In the traditions, the companions also tell of the circumstances in which they found the Holy Prophet or this happened or that happened. That is not a revelation at all. That is their account of a certain situation or a certain episode. And in that, we find some injunctions of the Holy Prophet, some advice or some remarks and observations.
So, that part belongs to him and still it is not a revelation. But we understand it is based generally on revelation. But also, in some traditions, we find such accounts, such statements of the Holy Prophet, which even if not said in so many words, are definitely revelations, because he attributes certain things to God, without telling us that this was revealed to him. So, all the Muslim scholars are agreed on this fact, that whenever the Holy Prophet refers anything to God, that Allah does this and Allah says this and Allah would do it, it positively means that he has either directly received a revelation other than the Holy Qur’an regarding that, or he would be referring to some portion of the Holy Qur’an. Such traditions are called Hadith-e-Qudsi.
So, at best, the standard of the older books would be at par with Hadith-e-Qudsi and not beyond at all. And the Holy Qur’an stands alone and unique in the whole world of the revealed books, that right from the start to the end, each word, each letter is a revealed revelation of God and it has not been interpolated in any way or mixed in any way with the human account. This does mean that Jesus was revealed a portion of a book or whatever, which has not been preserved properly. The teachings of Jesus, the prophecies of Jesus, they have been almost entirely preserved.
So, there is no reason why we should begin to suspect its authenticity, but there are certain parts where interpolation is made and you can obviously detect those parts. You know, wherever Christianity has deviated from its original message, and where the Holy Qur’an tells us that this was not the message of Jesus Christ, there you will always find interpolation and interference of human hands. And this process is continuing to be revealed and or discovered by the very Christian scholars themselves now.
All those things which the Holy Qur’an rejects as original, they must be understood as later day interpolations. But that is our claim, so the proof must follow. The proof is fortunately being provided by the Western scholars themselves. They are investigating and they are coming out with certain discoveries. But I should like Ahmadis also to attend to these regions, because there still could be so many avenues which are not as yet explored, and there is also a possibility of their not telling the whole truth during their discoveries, particularly those parts which outrightly help Islam.
There, if there is an interpolation or change in translation or something, they would rather sit quiet, dumb over it, than to disclose everything. So, the other day I was telling a friend from Arab, Hassan Aouda, I’m sorry, Aouda I remember but I had forgotten the first part. I told Hassan Aouda Sahib, who happens to know Hebrew, to make a direct research on the original word used regarding the Prophet’s advent by Jesus Christ.
The Holy Qur’an positively says it is the word Ahmad. In the present day, most of the biblical versions we find, the word messenger of peace, here it is translated as both in two ways. Some scholars translate it as messenger of peace, and the others translate it as the man of truth, the righteous or the truthful. But the Holy Qur’an says positively what he said was Ahmad. One version in the translations is found which tends to prove that the Holy Qur’an was right, it was the word Ahmad he used, not the other word which is very similar to the word Ahmad in Hebrew, but it has some deflection.
Because he knows Hebrew, I told him to go to the original documents and find out himself, because if some Christian scholars come upon such a discovery, maybe they are not interested enough to disclose it to the rest of the world. It’s our duty to investigate independently, and not only and entirely depend upon them. What I was leading up to is that we usually say that Hazrat Masih Maud is a reformer, and we compare him with Jesus Christ in many aspects. What about the revelations, are they also comparable, I mean the same type of revelations?
The fact is that the Holy Prophet had himself told the nature of the revelations to come, and the words he used are the exact translation of Injeel, Anajeel or Injeel. The Holy Prophet said, There is no prophethood but good tidings. Now people generally have understood this to be ordinary messages of glad tidings, but they never related it to the word Injeel or Anajeel. Anajeel literally means good tidings. So what the Holy Prophet was conveying to his people was that a part of prophethood is yet to come, which would deal with good tidings, so it is not entirely closed and finished.
There is no prophethood but good tidings literally means this. Except for Injeel which is yet to come, the rest of prophethood is complete, it is finished. So that was the door opened for Hazrat Masih Maud by the Holy Prophet himself. So his revelations have been named by the Master himself as Anajeel, as good tidings. The connection is there straight away.
