The most common Muslim objection to a Christian’s witnessing effort is almost always the same: The Bible is corrupted. That’s a problem. After all, the true identity of Jesus and his message of reconciliation are found in the New Testament Gospels. Muslims, however, reject that source of authority. If you don’t address the claim of corruption, you’ll have a hard time convincing a Muslim to believe Jesus’ message.
One of the tactics to answer this objection is to show that the Quran—the Muslim’s highest authority—teaches that the Injil (the Arabic word for “Gospel”) is the uncorrupted word of Allah. In fact, there are over a dozen verses that help establish this point. Since Muslims must affirm whatever the Quran affirms, they have no choice but to accept the Quran’s teaching that the Injil is uncorrupted.
In response, some Muslims claim that the Quran’s reference to the Injil is not to the four Gospels of the New Testament but rather to a revelation given to Jesus by an angel in the first century. That revelation, they believe, is the uncorrupted document the Quran refers to that has since been lost. Even though the four New Testament Gospels might contain some truth from the lost Injil, Muslims claim that most of what we read in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John has been distorted.
If the Muslim is correct that the Injil has been lost, then our tactic of showing that the Quran affirms the reliability of the Injil becomes irrelevant. But their claim fails for three reasons.
First, we have no historical evidence that Jesus ever received or produced any book. This is simply a claim made by only one group of people: Muslims. Claims, however, are not arguments. If you want to turn a claim into a bona fide argument, then you must produce evidence to back up that claim. Typically, Muslims don’t offer evidence that Jesus was given a book by Allah other than to point to their interpretation of the Quran. Therefore, the claim that Jesus was given a book (the Injil that has since been lost) is just that—a claim and not an argument. In fact, not only is there no historical evidence, but even the Muslim’s most authoritative source suggests that the Injil still existed in the seventh century.
Second, the Quran affirms the Injil existed in the seventh century. It turns out that there are multiple passages in the Quran that teach the Injil was a document available in Mohammed’s day (seventh century) and, therefore, not lost like Muslims claim. For example, surah 4:47 tells Christians, “O you who were given the Scripture, believe in what We have sent down [to Prophet Muḥammad], confirming that which is with you….” Notice the Quran presumes that the Scriptures given to Christians are “with you,” referring to the Injil—or “Gospel”—being available to them.
Another example is surah 7:157, which says, “Those who follow the messenger, the Prophet who can neither read nor write, whom they will find described in the Torah and the Gospel (which are) with them.” Again, the Quran affirms that the Injil in the seventh century was “with them” and, therefore, not lost.
One additional example from surah 10:94 says, “So if you are in doubt, [O Muḥammad], about that which We have revealed to you, then ask those who have been reading the Scripture before you.” In this startling verse, Muslims are told to ask Christians if they have doubts about the revelation of the Quran. They are to ask Christians who have been “reading the Scripture”—a reference to the Injil. Notice, again, the Quran indicates the Injil was a document that existed in the seventh century.
These are among many other verses that demonstrate the Quran presumes the Injil was a document available to Christians during the time the Quran was created.
Third, we know that Christians were reading the four New Testament Gospels in the seventh century. Since the second century, the four Gospels were treated as a single unit. They existed in numerous copies of the Bible. For example, Codex Sinaiticus (fourth century), Codex Vaticanus (fourth century), Codex Alexandrinus (fifth century), and the Peshitta (fifth century) are copies of the Bible that existed at the time the Quran was written and that contain the four New Testament Gospels. If you asked seventh-century Christians to read the gospel, they would turn to the first four books of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It’s incredulous to think they would reply with, “We can’t read the gospel because it’s been lost for 600 years.” Therefore, when the Quran refers to the Injil or “Gospel,” it must be referring to the four New Testament Gospels. That’s the only unit of text accepted by Christians at the time the Quran was written.
All the evidence on this question points to the “Gospel” being understood to be the four Gospels that existed during the time the Quran was written. The only people to deny this are Muslims who merely assert that the Injil referred to in the Quran was a book that Jesus possessed (and that has since been lost). Not only is this unsupported by the historical record, but this Muslim claim contradicts the Quran if true. Therefore, since the Quran affirms that the Injil (that is, the four Gospels) is uncorrupted, Muslims should also affirm that the four Gospels are uncorrupted.