Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s Attitude Toward Christianity 453
Bible and postulates that the falsification of the text (taḥrīf al-alfāẓ) is
limited to the first kind, whereas the amriyyāt are affected solely by
falsified interpretations (taḥrīf al-maʿānī).^157
According to Ibn al-Qayyim, the views of the Muslims diverge on
the question of the authenticity and integrity of the revelatory scrip-
tures of the ahl al-kitāb. On the one hand, he reports, there are voices
that claim that no changes were made to the wording of the Torah and
Gospel and that they are therefore present in an unfalsified state – a
standpoint that the Damascene scholar does not consider valid, since he
regards it as tantamount to accusing Muḥammad of having lied when
he blamed the Christians and Jews for falsifying their revelatory scrip-
tures. Ibn al-Qayyim goes on in the Hidāyat al-ḥayārā, to emphasize
that on the other hand, some Muslims postulate that the ahl al-kitāb
had falsified their divine scriptures in various ways and made numer-
ous changes in the text.^158 Ibn al-Qayyim’s personal stance toward the
issue of taḥrīf tends toward the latter view. For him, the fact that the
present Gospels speak of Jesus’ death on the cross and about his burial
and resurrection is sufficient evidence that the currently existing Gos-
pels cannot be equated with the one he thinks Jesus promulgated^159 in
the Hebrew language.^160 Rather, he expounds that the Gospels as pos-
sessed by the Christians in his day are scriptures that have taken up
parts of the Gospel sent down to Jesus and of his apostles’ dictums.^161
In his evaluation of the four canonical Gospels, Ibn al-Qayyim sees
himself completely confirmed by the Christian understanding of them,
which he summarizes to the effect that all Christian groups agree that
the Gospels are neither a scripture revealed to Jesus by God, nor God’s
speech (kalām Allāh), but four Gospels written down by four different
persons at different times and at a marked temporal remove from the
life and workings of Jesus.^162
That, in the Christians’ own view, the Gospels that all Christians
regard as authoritative are not the result of divine inspiration, but
rather of human endeavor (this is the conclusion to be drawn from
Ibn al-Qayyim’s remarks on the Christian understanding of the Gos-
157 See Ibn Taymiyya, al-Jawāb al-ṣaḥīḥ, vol. 2, p. 118. In this regard, see also
Michel, A Muslim Theologian’s Response, pp. 112–120.
158 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Hidāyat al-ḥayārā, p. 415.
159 Ibid., p. 309.
160 Ibid., p. 326.
161 Ibid., pp. 309–310.
162 Ibid., p. 310.
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