Naaji,
You may not agree with the epistles (letters of Paul) or believe that the New Testament as it exists now is the true Word of God, but you know what the Qu'ran says about the kitab which was given to Moses (Sura 11:110). It's integrity and existance in the hands of the Jews at the time of Muhammed is confirmed in this verse.
In Sura 5:44 and in Sura 5:46 the fact that the JEWS have the at-Tawraat "the Law" is beyond dispute. (sura 5:44 dictates that)
"How will they make you their judge seeing they have the Tawraat, wherein is Allah's judgement, then afterwards turn their backs (Surah 5:46)
The book is said to be inda hum "with them". Now the verse speaks of Jews who were coming to Muhammed for judicial decisions, and speaks of Jews who were in the environment of Medina with him. The passage goes on to describe the Tawraat as a "guidance and light" which the former prophets used to apply the law of God to the Jews, their rabbis and judges. (Surah 5:47).
So the Qu'ran would speak of the former scriptures with great reverence, and this was a revelation given some 500 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
This same spirit of reverence was seen in the Injil. Surah 5:49 says
"and following them we sent Jesus the son of Mary confirming what came before Him in the Tawraat, and we gave Him the Injil in which are guidance and light and cofirming what came before Him in the Tawraat.
Isn't it amazing. According to the Qu'ran.. what is written in the Injil, confirms all that was said in the Tawraat.
Surah 3:3 is another passage to add to this understanding that the Tawraat and Injil are the sum total of Jewish and Christian scriptures respectively and both were accorded a place of reverence by the revelations to Muhammed. Again Surah 5:50 exhorts the people of the Injil (ahlul-Injil) to judge by what Allah has revealed therein.
Now if this is so, why do Muslims fear the content of the Injil? Even if you say that the Gospels as we have them today are not the same as the original ones that Allah supposedly gave to Jesus, then why not look back at the original manuscripts at the time of Muhammed and see what they say of Jesus the Messiah. You see, you will see no difference in how the Tawraat saw of Him then, as we see in the Holy Bible today. ( I hasten to add here, that the Injil the Christians used at the time of the revelation was actually inclusive of Paul's writings. )
Muhammed NEVER questioned the integrity of the scriptures of the Holy Bible which by that time was now well and truly the Bible as we know it today (393AD and 397AD). So if anyone is concerned about the integrity of the bible today, they only have to go back to the manuscripts available from that period (Codex Sinaticicus, Codex Vaticanus, and codex Alexandrinus). There were many others, but it's totally wrong to say that Muhammed and the Qu'ran didnot accept the Scriptures as they existed at the time of the Revelations.
Any thoughts to help this discussion?
Carol