وَقَفَّيْنَا عَلَىٰ آثَارِهِمْ بِعِيسَى ابْنِ مَرْيَمَ مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ مِنَ التَّوْرَاةِ ۖ وَآتَيْنَاهُ الْإِنْجِيلَ فِيهِ هُدًى وَنُورٌ وَمُصَدِّقًا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ مِنَ التَّوْرَاةِ وَهُدًى وَمَوْعِظَةً لِلْمُتَّقِينَ
And in their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Law that had come before him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidance and light, and confirmation of the Law that had come before him: a guidance and an admonition to those who fear Allah. (5:46)
The Quran clearly affirms something called the Injil or Gospel. But what exactly is it? I have seen LARGE numbers of Christians lazily assume is identical to the 4 Biblical Gospels or the New Testament overall. But is this a reasonable assumption? What are some other possibilities?
First of all there are a huge number of different Christian texts (see Early Christian Writings ), dozens of gospels with competing versions of the teaching of Jesus (as) and the early church. Do any of them represent / contain or reflect the Injil which was given to Jesus according to the Quran?
If we focus on the fact that the Quran says the Injil was given to Jesus then the term Injil, strictly speaking, does not seem like it could possibly refer later texts which primarily contain the narratives and statements of members of the church after the end of Jesus' earthly mission. This would suggest that the Injil would be a revelation of words spoken or written by Jesus much as the Quran is revelation which was spoken by Muhammad (saaws), even if we understand their true origins to be from God.
For me this suggests that original Injil would be a sayings gospel like the Sayings Gospel Q or the Gospel of Thomas.
Allahu alim.
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