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Tawrat
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Tawrat (Tawrah or Taurat, Arabic: توراة) is the Arabic transliteration of the Hebrew word Torah (also known as the "Five Books of Moses" or the "Pentateuch") which Muslims believe was a holy book of Islam given by Allah to Musa (Moses). Some theorize that the Tawrat may refer to the entire Tanach or Old Testament. Muslims believe that the Tawrat has undergone "tahrif", that is, the meaning or words were distorted, passages were suppressed, others added, etc.
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Actual quotations from the Torah in the Qur'an are very few and inexact.
An example is 5:45 where it says:
- We ordained therein for them: "Life for life, eye for eye, nose for nose, ear for ear, tooth for tooth, and wounds equal for equal." (Yusuf-Ali)
This could be a quote from Exodus 21:24-25:
- 'Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe' (KJV)
According to 7:157 in both the Indjil and the Tawrat there is written about Muhammed:
- 'Those who follow the apostle, the unlettered Prophet, whom they find mentioned in their own (scriptures), - in the law and the Gospel' (Yusuf-Ali).
Most Muslims point at Deuteronomy 18:18 as a text in the Torah (Tawrat), 'the law', where it says:
- 'I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.'
The Tawrat is also mentioned in 5:110. The Tawrat was known by Jesus.
- Behold! I taught thee the Book and Wisdom, the Law and the Gospel and behold! thou makest out of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, by My leave, and thou breathest into it and it becometh a bird by My leave, and thou healest those born blind, and the lepers, by My leave. And behold! thou bringest forth the dead by My leave' (Yusuf-Ali)
Some quotations are taken from other books of the Hebrew Bible. An example of this is 48:29 where it says:
- "This is their similitude in the Taurat; and their similitude in the Gospel is: like a seed which sends forth its blade, then makes it strong; it then becomes thick, and it stands on its own stem, (filling) the sowers with wonder and delight" (Yusuf-Ali).
This could be a quote from Psalm 1:3, 72:16 or 92:14:
- Psalm 1:3: 'And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.'
- Psalm 72:16 'There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.'
- Psalm 92:14 'They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;'
Some other quotations are from the Mishna. An example of this is 5:32 where it says
- 'On that account: We ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people'.
This could be a quote from Sanhedrin 4:5
These quotes suggest that the word had the wide meaning of the whole corpus of Jewish Scriptures, as Torah in ancient Jewish literature itself , but only late Muslim authors differentiate explicitly between "the wider and the specific meaning" of Tawrat.
Because he believed the Qur'an replaced it, Muhammad did not teach from the Torah and the Qur'an says very little about it. He did say that Musa (Moses) was one of the few prophets to receive a revelation directly from God, that is, without an intervening angel. On one occasion, some Jews wanted Muhammad to decide how to deal with their brethren who had committed adultery. Abu-Dawud records in Book 38 Number 4434:
They placed a cushion for the Apostle of Allah(s.w.t) peace be upon him who sat on it and said: Bring the Torah. It was then brought. He then withdrew the cushion from beneath him and placed the Torah on it saying: I believed in thee and in Him Who revealed thee. He then said: Bring me one who is learned among you. Then a young man was brought. The transmitter then mentioned the rest of the tradition of stoning similar to the one transmitted by Malik from Nafi'(No. 4431).
There is some ambiguity among English speaking Muslims on the use of Tawrat versus Torah. The Arabic of the Qur'an and hadith have only one word, Tawrat. Torah is natively a Hebrew word. Generally, in English as well, they are used interchangeably.
However, some Muslims prefer to reserve Tawrat to refer only to the original revelation of Allah to Musa which was later supposedly corrupted. They use Torah to refer to the current, supposedly corrupted text.
There is also ambiguity as to whether the Qur'an uses Tawrat only referring to the five books of Moses, the entire Tanach, or both. Torah in Hebrew can refer to either. This comes because the Qur'an often lists the holy books as the Tawrat, Injil, and Qur'an, discluding the Zabur (the Psalms), possibly because the Psalms are part of the Tanach. Moreover, a Muslim scholar seemed to reference Isaiah (a book of the Tanach), saying it was from the Tawrat. [1] This meaning is uncommon as most Muslims think it only refers to the five books of Moses.
- A discussion of the Tawrat and some other scriptures
- Does Quran confirm the Jewish Scripts?
- Study Regarding the Tawrat
^ Bacher, Exegetische Terminologie, i, 197 ff.