The Qur'an as the Criterion · What Furqan Means

Muhaymin — the guardian over the earlier books

In short

• 1.Muhaymin is glossed by the classical scholars as guardian, witness and trustee.
• 2.The Qur'an is the measure: what agrees stands, what contradicts falls.
• 3.This is a claim about the text as we now have it, not an insult to the prophets.

The claim being examined

If God protected the earlier scriptures, there would be nothing for a later book to guard.

The Islamic position

Q 5:48 gives the Qur'an two roles at once: confirming what came before, and being muhaymin — guardian and witness — over it.

Analysis

Q 5:48 reads: "And We revealed to you the Book in truth, confirming what came before it of the Scripture and a muhaymin over it." Lexically, haymana carries the sense of watching over and safeguarding; al-Tabari records the readings of muhaymin as amin (trustee), shahid (witness) and raqib (watcher), all pointing the same way. Ibn Kathir summarises it as the Qur'an being the trustworthy witness over every book before it, so that whatever agrees with it is affirmed and whatever contradicts it is rejected as an alteration. Note what this framework does and does not permit. It does not permit the claim that every word of the present Bible is invented — the Qur'an itself says some of them conceal part of it and some write with their own hands, which presupposes that a genuine core is still there. Nor does it permit accepting a biblical passage simply because it is old. It gives a working rule instead: read the passage, then hold it against the Qur'an and authentic Sunnah, and let that decide.

From the Qur'an

Sources

al-Tabari, Jami al-Bayan, on Q 5:48 · Ibn Kathir, Tafsir, on Q 5:48 · Qur'an 5:48

More in What Furqan Means

• What Furqan actually means
• What the Qur'an says happened to the earlier scripture
• The three-verdict rule for using the Bible
• What this argument does not claim