THE BRITISH ISLAMIC CENTER DEPARTMENT OF COMPARATIVE DIVINITY
THE MEETING OF COMPARATIVE DIVINITY THE ISLAMIC INTELLECTUAL MEETING (20)
May, 21, 2002

The Islamic-Christian-Jewish Studies
THE INTERPOSITIONS ON THE STUDY AND THE COMMENTS OF SAYYID AL-BADRI

 Dr. Abdul-Zahra Bandar

The West has perceived Judaism and Christianity through the Old and New Testaments assuming that these Books had been revealed from God as they are and, in other words, the religion that was revealed by God is represented by these Books. The mistake committed by the Europeans has been following that religion, which was spoiled by human allusions and personal views as well as the sacred submission to whatever is said by the Pope. If truth be told, such views carried by the Books of the Old and New Testament have held many mistaken concepts that contradict the simplest postulates of the human intellect that calls for knowledge and liberation. Accordingly, a big reaction against the religion and godliness has occurred to people and, thus, people in Europe rejected the religion assumed by the ecclesiastic teachings without disclosing the falsity made to it because of the distortion of the Books of the Old and New Testaments. Confirming this concept, the Holy Quran has called frankly for the distinction between the genuine Torah and Gospel and the fake claims that had been stuck to these two Divine Books for the sake of facing the reality comprised by the Holy Quran. Further, the Holy Quran has invited the people of the Book (the Jews and Christians) to adopt the genuine religion and has revealed many truths that they intended to conceal out of their malice against the new Mission. In this regard, God says: “O People of the Scripture! Now hath Our messenger come unto you, expounding unto you much of that which ye used to hide in the Scripture, and forgiving much. Now hath come unto you light from Allah and plain Scripture. (5:15)”

Methodically and scientifically, the Holy Quran has faced such practices and invited the Jews in particular to confirm their claims through the Torah they carry so that it will be undoubtedly clear that their claim is opposite to what is actually there in the Torah, such as many texts confirming the credibility of Islam and the truth of the Mission of the Holy Prophet. God, in the Holy Quran, says: “Say: Produce the Torah and read it (unto us) if ye are truthful. (3:93)”

Along these lines, the Holy Quran reveals the biggest process of distortion aimed at deforming, besieging and overthrowing the Islamic Mission, but this process would cause, later on, a huge negative reaction in the Western community whose members, consequently, rejected the religion as a whole provoking the material sense, smashing the spiritual side of humankind under the pressure of materialism and causing the West to enter into endless mazes, fatal diseases, alienation and limitless social chaos.

From this cause, the mission of the researchers in the field of the religious studies is to revive the significance of the Divine Books and remove the distortion that was deliberately made to them so as to reveal the genuine face of the religion after it had been polluted by the human whims and tempers.

Comments of Sayyid al-Badri

The interposer says that the process of distorting the Divine Books was directed towards deforming the Islamic Mission. In this regard, God says in the Holy Quran: “Some of those who are Jews change words from their context. (4:46)”

Although the Jews changed words from their context especially those related to the gospels about the Holy Prophet’s Migration (Hijra) out of their envy towards him, their distortion can be revealed through comparing the old versions of the Bible with each other. We have presented a model in this field and published in our ‘The Gospels’ Issue No. 1 where we have thrown thorough light on Genesis 49:10 and pursued the same paragraph in the Aramaic, Greek, Syriac and Latin versions of the Bible proving the credibility of God’s saying in the Holy Quran: “Some of those who are Jews change words from their context. (4:46)”

I must express my thanks to Dr. al-Bandar for his interposition and comments.

Note: Being thankful to them, both Dr. al-Bandar and Dr. al-Basri presented their comments and notices in a written form and handed them to me after the Assembly. I have also commented on their written texts. However, there are still two interpositions provided by his eminence Shaykh Ali al-Hakim and his eminence Shaykh Muhammad Muhammad Ali. I expect to write them for they both are available on cassettes only. Yet, I did not want to comment on their notices recorded on these cassettes.