could be interpreted as suggesting that the Gospel
is a sacred text that God revealed to JesUs, as he
revealed the torah to moses and the Quran to
mUhammad. This relationship with other sacred
scriptures is evidenced by the fact that nine of the
12 times the Gospel is mentioned in the Quran, it
occurs in relation to the Torah (Arabic: al-tawrat),
the Jewish sacred text. However, Muslims have
also maintained that the Torah and the Gospel, as
Jews and Christians have received them, contain
errors and omissions, while the entire Quran is
absolutely perfect and complete.
While there are four Gospels in the New Testa-
ment and, according to Christians, they constitute
one of several kinds of literature in that section
of the Bible, the Quran uses the Arabic singular
of Gospel. There is another significant difference
between Christian and Muslim understandings of
Gospel or Gospels. Christians view the Gospels as
the proclamation of the “good news” of salvation
that God offers to human beings through Jesus,
while Muslims understand Gospel as containing
God’s laws and ethics, together with prophecies
concerning Muhammad’s coming.
In terms of similarities and differences regard-
ing the Quran’s view of the Gospel and the
Gospels as they appear in the New Testament,
several Quranic verses overlap significantly with
material in all or some of the four New Testa-
ment Gospels. Other quranic passages contain
ideas and symbols that are similar to noncanoni-
cal gospels and other Christian texts. A number
of other statements that the Quran attributes to
Jesus as well as stories about him do not have
any substantial similarity to the Gospels or any
other Christian texts. Thus, textually there are
numerous similarities and differences in terms of
ideas and symbols in the Quran’s representation
of the Gospel and the Gospels as they appear in
the New Testament.
See also christianity and islam; holy books;
JUdaism and islam.
Jon ArmajaniFurther reading: Kenneth Cragg, A Certain Sympathy
of Scriptures: Biblical and Quranic (Brighton, U.K., and
Portland, Ore.: Sussex Academic Press, 2004); John C.
Reeves, ed., Bible and Quran: Essays in Scriptural Inter-
textuality (Leiden and Boston: E.J. Brill, 2004).government, Islamic
Only about 10 percent of the qUran deals with
government or legislative matters. Therefore,
Muslims have relied on the words and actions of
mUhammad (d. 632) as transmitted in the hadith
literature to provide much of the basis for Islamic
law (sharia and fiqh) and government. Since
Muhammad was both a religious and political
leader, Muslims generally agree that government
and law should be Islamic. There is a large degree
of consensus over what constitutes Islamic law,
but much less over what qualifies as Islamic gov-
ernment. Consequently, many governments, past
and present, base their claim to be Islamic on the
degree to which they support and enforce sharia.
After Muhammad’s death, the government was
led by his key companions, who became the first
four caliphs and were able to continue to model
religious and political aUthority based on their
close relationship with Muhammad. But with the
rapid expansion of the Arab-Islamicate empire,
the caliphate became more political and secular.
At the same time, the first generation of Muslims
was passing away. Both events highlighted the
need for greater systemization of the sharia in
order to guide the ruler and the community. In
the process, the Ulama (religious scholars) greatly
increased their authority as the definers of Islamic
law but also supported the caliph for the sake of
unity and continuity. In the medieval period, most
people accepted that the government could claim
to be Islamic as long as it supported and defended
the sharia, regardless of the character of the ruler
himself or his administration.
In order to strengthen their religious legiti-
macy, rulers have often claimed to support Islamic
law while all the while encroaching on its author-K 266 government, Islamic