Lesson video

Hello, my young scholars of religion.

My name is Ms. Marx, and I'm going to be your religious education teacher today.

And today we're going to be looking at Islamic attitudes to holy books, including the Qur'an and other holy books which have been revealed within the story of Islam.

So, when you're ready, let's go.

So, by the end of this lesson today, you'll be able to explain the importance of the Qur'an and other holy books as sources of authority for Muslims. So, let's start with our key terms. So, the first one is un/corrupted.

So, it could be corrupted or uncorrupted.

Uncorrupted means not altered from its original divine form.

Corrupted means it's been altered and changed from its original divine form.

Gospel, holy book revealed to Isa, Jesus.

Qur'an, final holy book of Islam revealed to Prophet Muhammad.

Scrolls, holy book revealed to Ibrahim, Abraham.

Torah, holy book revealed to Musa, Moses.

So, look out for those in today's lesson.

So, our lesson today, will have three sections, and the first section is the Qur'an is the ultimate authority.

The second section is other holy books in Islam.

And the third section is evaluating the importance of other holy books.

So, let's start with our first section then, the Qur'an as the ultimate authority.

So, here I've got a picture of a fragment of a manuscript of the Qur'an, which is held at Birmingham University.

So, you can see here, it's written in Arabic script, and this is held at the moment in Birmingham, sometimes called the Birmingham manuscript.

And this has been dated to around the time of the Prophet Muhammad, so around 600 C.

E.

So, over 1,400 years ago, this has been dated to.

And even though all that time has passed, it's very similar to copies of the Qur'an that are around today.

Why might it be important that the Qur'an hasn't changed since that time in the Prophet Muhammad? Why might that be important for Muslims? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you, or talk to me.

Well, we will see why it's important as we go through the lesson.

So, first of all, let's think about how the Qur'an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.

So, when the Prophet Muhammad was 40 years old, he was meditating and reflecting in the cave of Hira on a nearby mountain of Makkah during the month of Ramadan.

Whilst he was in there, an angel appeared to him, the Angel Jibril, and he instructed him to iqra, which is often translated as read or recite.

And the Prophet Muhammad told Jibril that he couldn't read.

And the Prophet Muhammad told Jibril he couldn't read, and Angel Jibril squeezed him tightly.

Jibril then instructed him again to iqra.

A second time, Muhammad said he couldn't, and Jibril squeezed him again.

For a third time, Jibril instructed him, and Muhammad was able to recite the first words of the Qur'an, which are the words of Surah 96, the first line being, "Read in the name of your Lord." The Prophet Muhammad returned to his wife, Khadija, concerned about this experience.

She reassured him it was from God, but she's thought to be the first convert to Islam from this moment.

The revelations continued over a period of 23 years whilst Muhammad lived in Mecca.

And when the Muslim community had migrated to Medinah.

The revelations were recited and memorised at first by the Prophet Muhammad and the companions, but later codified into a book by the instruction of Abu Bakr who was the leader at the time.

The Qur'an is recited to this day by Muslims, and there are many who learn to recite the Qur'an by heart, known as Hafiz, just as Muhammad and the companions did.

So, what do Muslims believe about the Qur'an then? Well, that the Qur'an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, revealed over 23 years through the Angel Jibril, revealed in Arabic, arranged in sections known as surahs, memorised and then recited and then codified.

So, the Prophet Muhammad memorises it as he's reciting it, as do the companions, then it is recited to others.

So, people remember it and then it gets codified and written down shortly after the Prophet Muhammad's death.

And first revealed on the Night of Power, which is an important moment that Muslims remember during the month of Ramadan.

So, let's look to the Qur'an itself as a source of authority then to understand it a little bit more and why it's the ultimate authority in Islam.

In Surah 42, so, section 42, it says, "It is an invincible Book Falsehood cannot approach it, from before it or behind it.

It is a revelation from One Wise and Praiseworthy." So, what does this text show a Muslim about the Qur'an then? What things about the Qur'an as an author does this text show? Have a read through again, and you can talk to the person next to you, or talk to me.

Pause the video.

Off you go.

While I've got here the word invincible and falsehood and revelation.

So, the idea, it can't be broken, it can't be corrupted, it can't be changed, and nothing will be false within it because it is a revelation from Allah.

So, I've got here, it's without errors, it will not become corrupt in the future, and it's a direct revelation of Allah.

Let's do a quick check.

What term is often used for when the first revelations came to the Prophet Muhammad in the cave of Hira? What terms often used for that? Pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

Well done.

The Night of Power, and that's celebrated during Ramadan.

So, there are many reasons why the Qur'an has authority for Muslims, and these include that it was miraculously revealed as the words of Allah to the Prophet Muhammad whose believed to be illiterate.

So, couldn't have invented it, read it before, or known these words.

It must have been miraculously revealed to him.

It's also a complete revelation for humankind.

So, the Qur'an itself corrects any corruptions from revelations before or anything the other revelations don't cover.

This is the complete revelation for humankind.

And it's also remained unchanged since that revelation.

If you remember from the start of this lesson, we saw the Birmingham manuscript, showing that it's hardly changed at all in 1,400 years.

Which of those do you think might be the most important for Muslim as to why the Qur'an has authority for them? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you, or talk to me.

One, let hear from Nadia here why the Qur'an has authority for her as a Muslim.

Many Muslims argue that the Qur'an is the most important authority for their religion, and Nadia's going to explain.

"The Qur'an is the ultimate authority for my religion because it's the direct words of Allah.

Other sources are important, like the hadith, the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, but not all Muslims agree on every hadith's authenticity.

Other holy books are important that were revealed to our prophets before Muhammad, but they've been corrupted over time.

The Qur'an is the authority that corrects these mistakes, so it is the most important." What passages from the Qur'an could Nadia use to support this? What could she use to back this up with evidence from the Qur'an? Pause the video and have a think, and we'll see what you've come up with in a moment.

She could have used, "It is an invincible book and falsehood shall not approach it." Well done.

Let's do another check.

Most Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad was illiterate and could not read.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

That is true.

But why? While the Prophet Muhammad is often referred to as the unlettered prophet in the Qur'an, many Muslims believe this means he couldn't read, and therefore the Qur'an was a miraculous revelation from Allah.

Well done.

Let's do practise tasks to see what we've learned then.

The Qur'an is the ultimate authority.

We're going to describe Muslim beliefs about the Qur'an, but we are going to do one paragraph as part of a response to this.

And in this, we're going to do a point and develop it and a second point and develop it.

And for each part of our answer, we're going to include a range of religious specialist terms, and at least one part of them, we're going to use a source of wisdom and authority.

It could be an exact or paraphrase quote or a general teaching or a named source.

And you're gonna then accurately apply this to the point and the question, and that question is describe Muslim beliefs about the Qur'an.

So, pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

That's some good work there.

So, I asked you to describe Muslim beliefs about the Qur'an, and your answer might be similar to this.

"One Muslim belief about the Qur'an is that it's the direct words of Allah and without error or mistake.

Muslims belief this because it says in the Qur'an, 'Falsehood cannot approach it, from before it or behind it.

It's a revelation from One Wise and Praiseworthy.

' This means it's uncorrupted and trustworthy.

Another Muslim belief about the Qur'an is that it was revealed to and not written by the Prophet Muhammad.

The first of these revelations was on the Night of Power with the Angel Jibril appeared to Muhammad in the cave of Hira." Well done.

So, on to our second section then, other holy books in Islam.

One of the six articles of faith in Islam is a belief in holy books, and in Arabic, this is known as katub, along with the Qur'an.

These are sacred texts within Islam.

So, here are those holy books in Islam, the katub and the prophet they're revealed to.

We have Scrolls, revealed to Ibrahim, the Torah, revealed to Musa, Psalms revealed to Dawud, Gospel revealed to Isa, and Qur'an revealed to Muhammad.

So, the Qur'an is the final and complete revelation, but there were other holy books given to prophets before.

So, here's some more information for us to know what these different holy books were that were revealed to these prophets then.

So, we've got the Torah, which is also known as Tawrat.

This is revealed to Moses, revealed for the children of Israel, had guidance for how to live.

You might have heard of the 10 Commandments, for example.

It's not exactly the same as the Torah is in Jewish scriptures today.

And it foretold the coming of the Prophet Muhammad.

The Psalms, or Zabur, was revealed to Dawud, David, and he's the only named prophet and king in Islam, and they are made up of songs and poems that are praising to Allah.

The Scrolls, Sahifah, were revealed to Ibrahim and Moses, and no copy exists today.

And they had a message of tawhid and submission to Allah, and we know that was very important for Prophet Ibrahim, wasn't it, with his revelations.

And then we've got the Gospel, also known as Injill, was revealed to Isa, Jesus, and it's a confirmation of the Torah that came before, and also foretold the telling of the Prophet Muhammad.

And now there's different opinions in Islam about the exact nature of what the Gospel was or is, but what is mostly agreed on in Islam is that it's not the same as the Christian Gospels are in Christian scriptures today.

So, why might these be important for Muslims today? Can you think of why these holy books other than the Qur'an might be important? Pause the video, and you can talk to the person next to you, or talk to me.

Well, for any Muslims, these help tell the story of Islam from even before the Prophet Muhammad who whilst he was the final messenger of Islam, he wasn't the first.

So, time for a quick check.

For each statement below, you're going to fill in the gap with the prophet the holy book was revealed to, and the first one's done for you.

A, the Scrolls were revealed to Ibrahim, or Abraham.

So, you are now going to fill in the Torah was revealed to, the Psalms were revealed to, and the Gospel was revealed to.

Which prophet were they revealed to? You could do the Arabic or the English spelling of the name Pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

Well done.

We've got Musa, Dawud, and Isa.

Well done.

So, now we're going to look at the Qur'an as the ultimate authority for Muslims to see what it tells us about these other holy books then.

So, here we have in Surah 7, "Those who follow the Messenger, that unlettered Prophet, whom they find mentioned in the Torah and the Gospel in their possession, these are successful." And so what could that show us about beliefs about holy books in Islam then? Pause the video and have a think, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

So, here we have at Ilham telling us how this passage informs her about these other holy books then.

And Ilham says, "The Torah and the Gospel are important to me because they're mentioned in the Qur'an and they foretold that the Prophet Muhammad was going to come." And what about this passage then in Surah 17? "Your Lord knows well everyone in the heavens and the earth.

We've given some prophets advantage over others, and to David we gave the Psalms." How could this support a belief in holy books? Pause the video and have a go, and you can talk to the person next to you, or talk to me While here, Sarah's going to explain for us.

She says, "The Qur'an reminds me that the Psalms were a holy book given to Dawud.

They're different style to the other holy books so they can help me understand Allah in a different way." Remember, the Psalms were poems and songs.

So, they've written in a slightly different genre to the other holy books.

And what about this section of the Qur'an then in Surah 87? It says, "But you prefer the present life.

Though the hereafter is better, and more lasting.

This is in the form of scriptures, the Scriptures, the Scrolls, of Abraham and Moses." So, how could this support a belief in holy books then? Pause the video and have a go, and you can talk to the person next to you, or talk to me.

Well, Iqbal's going to explain to us now.

Iqbal's says, "The importance of a belief in one God and submission to Allah were in the Scrolls of Ibrahim, and this message is very important to me as a Muslim." Well done, Iqbal.

So, let's do another check then.

Is this true or false? The Qur'an states that other holy books in Islam are not important.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've got in a moment.

Well done.

That is false, isn't it? But why? Well, it's false because there's several passages, we've just looked at some, in the Qur'an which support belief in the other holy books of Islam, which must show their importance for Muslims. Well done.

So, time for another practise task to see what we've learned then.

So, Alex and Aisha are working on the question, "Explain the importance to a Muslim of the other holy books of Islam." And you're going to expand on the explanations by filling in the missing parts.

So, for each point, we need to have a point developed with a source of wisdom or authority and then explaining the importance, 'cause that's the question.

And they've done sections of this, that you are then going to fill in the rest.

So, Alex has said, "The Torah and the Gospel are important to Muslims" You're then going to develop it.

And he said, "Those who follow the Messenger, the Unlettered Prophet, whom they find mentioned in the Torah and the Gospel in their possession, these are the successful." You are then going to explain the importance.

And secondly, Aisha says, "The Scrolls and Psalms were given to important prophets." She says, "Ibrahim was given the Scrolls and Dawud was given the Psalms." You are then going to put a source of wisdom or authority and then explain the importance.

So, pause the video and have a go, and we'll see if you've done in a moment.

Well done.

Some good thinking there.

So, you could have said, "The Torah and Gospel are important to Muslims. They are mentioned numerous times in the Qur'an.

'Those who follow the Messenger, the Unlettered Prophet, whom they find mentioned in the Torah and the Gospel in their possession, these are the successful.

' and that is important because they show that Muhammad was from the same line of prophets as Musa and Isa." And secondly, "The Scrolls and Psalms were given two important prophets.

Ibrahim was given the Scrolls and Dawud was given the Psalms." And you could have used the scripture, "This is in the former scriptures.

The scripture Scrolls of Abraham and Moses," and also, :"And to David, we gave the Psalms." And the importance of this is they contain the message of the oneness of Allah and more about Allah's nature.

Well done.

So, onto our third section then, the importance of the other holy books of Islam, which we've started to think about.

Now, we're going to do it a little bit more.

So, whilst there are many similarities between the other holy books of Islam and the same stories within Judaism and Christianity today, there are some important differences.

So, in the Qur'an, it states that Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he was a Monotheist, a Muslim.

So, Muslims believe that before the Prophet Muhammad, he was the final prophet, there were other prophets who came with that message of tawhid, a submission to Allah and were Muslims. And the Qur'an is setting this out with this verse here.

And whilst there are many similarities between the story of Abraham that we find in the Jewish scriptures and the Christian scriptures as well, there's some important differences.

One of these is that Abraham took his son, Ishmael, into the desert because he was asked by God.

In Islam, he was submitting to the will of Allah by taking him into the desert.

And from then, we get the story of how the Kaaba was rebuilt.

Whereas in the Jewish and Christian scriptures, he's asked by his first wife, Sarah, to take Ishmael to the desert now that he's got another son with her, Isaac.

And secondly, we have here, "And for their saying, 'We have killed the Messiah, Jesus.

' In fact, they did not kill him." And this is in the Qur'an Surah 4.

And of quite an important teaching within Christianity about Jesus is that he was the son of God and the idea of the incarnation, Jesus was God incarnate.

Whereas in Islam, Jesus is not the son of God.

He's a very important prophet from God.

He's not the son of God.

And in Islam, Jesus was not killed, he did not die, so he did not resurrect.

Now it's a very important teaching within Christianity that Jesus was the son of God and he did die on the cross and rose again.

It's quite an important core teaching within the Christian understanding of the Gospel of Jesus.

But within Islam, Jesus is not the son of God.

He's a prophet of God.

And he didn't die and rise again.

And so his Gospel within Islam will be different.

So, that understanding within Christianity.

However, in both Islam and Christianity, there are beliefs that Jesus will return in the last days.

And so there are very many similarities with ideas about Jesus in Islam and Christianity, but there are some differences.

Many Muslims believe that scriptures such as the Torah and the Gospel are no longer found in their original forms and the Tanakh and the Christian Bible.

So, they don't have the same authority as the Qur'an.

If you remember, the Birmingham manuscript is something that shows Muslims that the Qur'an hasn't changed at all over that time of 1,400 years since it's been revealed.

Many Muslims believe that the Torah and the Gospel, however, have been changed over time.

So, Sarah is a Muslim revert, which is a word meaning she's converted to Islam.

She was raised as a Christian, so she was aware of these stories and ideas about Jesus and what's written in the Bible.

So, here she explains why these differences actually matter to her.

Sarah says, "I knew about Jesus, Moses, David, and Abraham from my Christian upbringing, but in Islam I see how they're all connected through the revelations from Allah.

It makes sense to me that the messages can be known in their uncorrupted version through the Qur'an.

I had questions about Jesus and his death that the Qur'an answers well for me." So, let's do another check to see what we've learned.

Then the Muslim understanding of other holy books of Islam is exactly the same as Christian and Jewish understandings of them.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

That is false, isn't it? But why? Well, whilst there are many similarities and much common ground between Muslim, Christian, and Jewish understandings of the other holy books of Islam, there are some important and significant differences.

So, Muslims can hold different opinions on the authority of those other holy books of Islam.

Whilst they are all seen as important, there can be differences in opinions as to how important they might be.

So, Ilham and Mustafa are going to explain their views here.

Mr says, "The Qur'an corrects all the corruptions and mistakes from the other holy books and so they're not as important for my faith.

All I need is the Qur'an." And Ilham says, "The other holy books helped me understand the whole story of Islam from Adam to Muhammad.

There are different genres, which could show me more of Allah." So, which of these views do you think is more convincing? Pause the video and have a think.

You can talk to the person next to you, or talk to me.

Well, let's explore that a little bit more now.

Imagine we have this statement, the Qur'an is the only book Muslims need.

Different reasons can be given in support and against this, just like we saw with Mustafa and Ilham.

So, some of these reasons for could be the Qur'an is without error and without corruption and has the greatest authority.

The Qur'an is for all of humanity.

The Qur'an is the complete revelation.

So, this is like Mustafa's views we just saw earlier.

This would support the view the Qur'an is the only holy book a Muslim needs.

However, we could have reasons for a different point of view that actually the other holy books are needed alongside the Qur'an.

So, we could have, for example, they inform Muslims about the prophets before Muhammad.

They're mention in the Qur'an, so they must have importance.

If the Qur'an is the ultimate authority and tells us things to know about these books, then they should know about them.

And also, these earlier revelations and holy books confirm that message that was later revealed and sort of completed when it was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.

I wonder which side you think is more convincing.

Do you think it's more convincing that the Qur'an is the only holy book that Muslims need? Or do you think it's more convincing that Muslims still need to have the other holy books too? Pause the video and have a think, and we'll see what you've come up with in a moment.

Well done.

Some good thinking there.

And perhaps we might say that they don't necessarily need the other holy books, but they can be very useful for information about the faith.

Well, we've seen there could be different views in Islam and the authority of other holy books other than the Qur'an.

So, let's, together, give one reason why the Qur'an is the only text and Muslim needs.

Hm? I think it could be because it's without error.

The other texts have errors in their current form.

The Qur'an doesn't have those errors in it.

So, it's more trustworthy according to Muslims. So, over to you then.

Give one reason why a Muslim needs the other holy text then.

Pause the video and have a think, and we'll see what you've come up with in a moment.

Well, I've put here, "They can inform Muslims about the story of Islam from earlier prophets." Well done.

So, time for another practise task to see what we've learned then.

So, Lucas is answering an evaluation question on the statement below, which we've already discussed.

You're gonna help Lucas write a paragraph showing a different point of view, and you're going to refer to Muslim teachings and give reasons to support this view.

So, the statement is, "The Qur'an is the only holy book Muslim needs." And you are going to show a different point of view and reasons why someone might hold that.

And you might like to use the sentence stems on the next slide.

We've got here, some Muslims may disagree with the statement and say that holy books other than the Qur'an are needed because, a Muslim may want to read the Torah and the Gospel because, It says in the Qur'an that, and therefore the Qur'an is not the only.

So, you can use these sentence stems to write your paragraph, you're showing a different point of view on the statement that Qur'an is the only holy book a Muslim needs.

Pause the video and have a go.

We'll see what you've done in a moment.

Well done.

Some really good thinking there.

So, I asked you to write a paragraph showing a different point of view to this statement, "The Qur'an is the only holy book a Muslim needs." And you might have used my sentence stems, and your answer might look something like this.

"Some Muslim may disagree with this statement and say that holy books other than the Qur'an are needed because there are other holy books within Islam that revealed by Allah to prophets.

These can show them more about the religion of Islam and the oneness of Allah.

A Muslim them may want to read the Torah and the Gospel because they can help 'em understand more about the Prophets Musa and Isa, and they foretold that Prophet Muhammad would come and receive revelation.

And it says in the Qur'an, 'The hereafter is better and more rewarding than the present, it was in the form of scriptures.

Therefore, the Qur'an is not the only holy book that a Muslim needs.

'" Well done.

So, let's summarise everything we've learned today then.

The Qur'an is the ultimate source of authority for Muslims. The Qur'an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad over many years, starting on the Night of Power.

The Qur'an is the complete revelation for all of humanity.

And as the direct words of Allah with no errors or corruptions.

Important prophets were given the Scrolls, Torah, Psalms, and Gospel as revelations from Allah.

The messages of these other holy books in Islam have been corrupted over time.

The Qur'an, the ultimate authority, corrects the corruptions of the other sacred texts in Islam and is without error or corruption.

So, we're done for your hard work today and I hope to see you again soon.

Bye-bye.