The Dead Sea Scrolls are greatly significant
to Qur'anic studies. Yet the Muslim Ummah knows little about
this "ayat" of Allah. The word "ayat" as used in the Qur'an literally
means a sign. The 6, 236 ayat of the Qur'an, for example, have been
communicated to us by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). The other set of ayat or
signs of Allah are spread throughout the universe. Different aspects of
nature evident in the physical universe, like the creation of the sun,
moon, stars and the earth in the rain changes of seasons, in the growing
of the trees, in differences in the colors of the human race. The archaeological
monuments and the ruins of the part which tell the stories of those who
lived in the land are yet another set of ayat.
The Nag Hammadi Scrolls
In 1945 and 1947 ayat of greatest
significance were brought to our notice by Allah. This can be regarded
as the most important manuscript discovery ever made in the field of Biblical
studies, having a direct bearing on Aur;anic studies. The Nag Hammadi Scrolls
were found on the west bank of the Nile in upper Egypt in 1945. This is
a collection of 13 codices of Gnostic scriptures and commentaries written
in the second or the third century, though the codices are 4th century
copies.
These were Biblical texts in Aramaic
and Hebrew. As soon as they were discovered, Biblical scholars realized
how dangerous they could be to the present reliability of the Bible, both
from the point of view of the Jews and the Christians. By 1948, they had
all been purchased by the Cario Coptic Museum. There was, initially, an
attempt by French Catholic scholars to establish a monopoly over the material.
As a result, work on them was delayed until 1966. The scrolls were then
turned over to an international team of scholars for translation and publication.
The head of the team of scholars was James M. Robinson of California. He
and his team moved with swiftly and within three years a number of draft
transcriptions and translations were being made available to scholars.
By 1973 the entire Nag Hammadi Library was in draft English translation
and being circulated freely among interested scholars. In 1977, the complete
body of Nag Hammadi codices was published, in facsimile - a total of 46
books plus some unidentified fragments was brought out in popular edition.
The Gospel of Thomas was discovered
in these scrolls. It was written closer to Jesus' so-called crucifixion
than the Gospel of Mark, which is officially considered as the earliest.
After this discovery it was found that 82% of the parables, aphorisms,
etc. put into Jesus' mouth by the New Testament scribes were never uttered
by him.
Moreover, according to this fresh
evidence the divinity of Jesus was now being challenged. The idea that
Jesus was just a man poses various doctrinal problems for the Christians
as they view the central figure of Christianity as divine. The Jesus of
Islam as depicted in the Qur'an was just a man and a messenger of
Allah.
The Qumran Scrolls
Two years later, in 1947, Bedouin
shepherds found a vast library of over 800 texts. The texts were in the
shape of scrolls of leather wrapped in linen and hidden in earthen jars
in a series of caves in Qumran. Qumran is a village at the northwestern
end of the Dead Sea, 16 Kilometers east of Jerusalem.
The scrolls had been written in Aramaic
and Hebrew between 250 BC and 100 AD by members of a hitherto little known
Jewish brotherhood, the Essenes. The Dead Sea scrolls can be divided into
two distinct groups: Biblical and non-Biblical texts. Between 20 and 25
percent of the documents are classified as Biblical. The Biblical texts
can be regarded as the oldest known copies of the Old Testament, as well
as long lost originals of several books of the Apocrypha. These texts are
1000 years older than the oldest known traditional Hebrew text of Taurat,
which is the basis of the English translation of the Old Testament. Everybody
of the Hebrew Bible is represented except the Book of Esther. Two of the
oldest known copies of the Book of Isaiah are also found. The most interesting
point is that in respect to some of the Books of the Bible, the original
Aramaic or the Hebrew texts were not available. As such these books were
translated from the available Greek translations. Now that the Aramaic
and the Hebrew texts are available, the present text of the Bible needs
correction. This is a disturbing factor for both the Jews and the Christians
who again have differences among themselves.
It is a Christian belief to take everything
in the present Bible literally and to consider it as most authentic. It
is regarded as one of the fundamentals of faith. After the discovery of
the earliest, and therefore more reliable, text the very reliability of
the present Bible is questioned.
The Qumran brotherhood, i.e. the Essenes,
lived at the same time and in the same region as John the Baptist, who
was himself a harbinger of subsequent Christian ideas. The scrolls provide
a background to the missions of John the Baptist and Jesus. There are also
secular documents, including military dispatches and legal writs in several
languages including Arabic.
Arabic writings can be of special
importance for Qur'anic studies. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry provided
a mine of information on diction and our commentators have taken advantage
of it, to elucidate the meanings of the Qur'anic words. The scrolls
provide specimen of the earliest Arabic and therefore can be very valuable.
The scrolls offer no parallels to the Christian doctrines of Trinity, incarnations,
i.e. God existing in human form in the person of Jesus, atonement (expiation
of sin through the suffering and death of Jesus Christ on behalf of the
sinners) and redemption through the cross. It is obvious that these doctrines
are later fabrications introduced by Paul.
The Muslims
accept Taurat, Injil and all the earlier Books as divine revelations, a
part of their "iman" (belief). The Qur'an has clearly declared that
it is not the first revelations: "Nothing is said to you which has not
been said to other messengers before you." (41:43) The Qur'an also
claims that its verses are similar to verses of the earlier scriptures.
"He has sent down to you the Book containing the truth and fulfilling that
which precedes, it, and He has sent down the Taurat and the Injil before
this, as a guidance to the people and He has now sent down the Furqan."
(3:3-4)
When these ayat were revealed the
question arose among the Muslims in general, and the converts from Judaism
and Christianity, with leanings towards the scriptures of their earlier
religions in particular, that if the Taurat, Zubur and the Injil
were all accepted by the Qur'an as divine scriptures, why not continue
to follow them?
The Qur'an has exposed the
corruptions made deliberately in the earlier scriptures. This explains
the interesting position of the Muslims with regard to all earlier scriptures.
Although they accept the divine origin of the earlier scriptures, they
maintain that all the earlier scriptures as they exist today are not to
be followed.
The scrolls confront us with a challenge.
We Muslims regard the Jews and the Christians as the people of the Book
and we have profound respect and regard for their Books and their
Prophets whom we regard as our own Prophets. But unfortunately -
unfortunately both for them and for us the Jews and the Christians we
incimical towards Islam and the Muslims. In the name of scholarship and
critical studies the oriental scholars try to prove that the Qur'an
has borrowed "themes" and "diction" from the Bible. If we are alert
to the situation now (that the authenticity of the present Bible itself
is being questioned) we can disprove their motivated contentions.
What we require today is a team of
young scholars of the Aramaic and Hebrew languages to study the scrolls.
On the one hand we can show how and where the tahrif (alteration) has occurred
in the text of the Bible. On the other hand we can defend ourselves:
although the Qur'an has used words from Aramaic and Hebrew it has
maintained its own terminology, which is far superior to the concepts found
in the Aramaic or Hebrew texts of the present Bible or the texts now discovered.
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