Muslims, I invite you to answer this.
Quran 007:157 Those who follow the messenger, the Prophet who can neither read nor write, whom they will find written in the Torah and the Gospel
Where is the refernce to Muhammd in the gospel? Remember, the Quran says there is no errors in it, so it must be there.
Some Muslims and non Muslims make an inaccurate assumption by defining the expression ‘Torah’ and injil used in the Quranic scriptures to restrictively mean the canonical OT and the Greek NT
The term “Torah” does not necessarily mean a specific Jewish writing. It is used to refer to the entire corpus of Jewish writings - canonical, non-canonical, Talmud etc. - as well as the oral traditions.
Rabbinic scholar Solomon Schecter:
"It must first be stated that the term
Law or Nomos is not a correct rendering of the Hebrew word Torah. The legalistic element, which might rightly be called the Law,
represents only one side of the Torah. To the Jew the word Torah means a teaching or an instruction of any kind. It may be either a general principle or a specific injunction,
whether it be found in the Pentateuch or in other parts of the Scriptures, or even outside of the canon. The juxtaposition in which Torah and Mizwoth, Teaching and Commandments, are to be found in the Rabbinic literature, implies already that the former means something more than merely the Law (e.g b. Ber 31a; b. Makk 23a; m. Abot 3.11). Torah and Mitzvoth are a complement to each other, or, as a Rabbi expressed it, "they borrow from each other, as wisdom and understanding - charity and lovingkindness--the moon and the stars," but they are not identical. To use the modern phraseology, to the Rabbinic Jew, Torah was both an institution and a faith. "
Dictionary of Judaism in the Biblical Period
"In rabbinic literature, the word 'Torah' bears seven meanings: (1) the written Torah; (2)
the one whole Torah, oral and written, revealed by God to Moses at Sinai; (3) a particular thing, such as a scroll, containing divinely revealed words; (4) revelation in general; (5) a classification or rules, as in 'the torah of…,' meaning 'the rules that govern ….'; (6) the act of studying the Torah; and (7) the status of teaching, namely, deriving from the Torah, as against deriving from the scribes."
The descriptions of prophecies about Muhammad referenced in the hadith literature are not found in the canonical OT scriptures; however that is not to say he was not prophesized in the 'Torah'. The Hadith literature mention how certain people believed in the prophethood of Muhammad and converted to Islam based on certain prophecies he fulfilled.
There were Jewish tribes during Muhammad’s era that were expecting a specific prophet to appear in Arabia. What traditions/literature/prophecies were the Jewish tribes referring to that led them to believe a true prophet was to appear in their mist from Arabia?
Where/what are these prophecies that were used/cited by companions of muhammad such as Abdullah ibn salam ( Who was a Rabbi that converted to Islam) and Salman the Persian that are not contained in the canonical OT scriptures ? For example Salman the Persian, before he embraced Islam was told by a Christian that time has come near when the last of all Prophets will appear, who will follow the religion of Abraham. He will be born in ` Arabia '. He will migrate to such a place where many dates grow and on both sides of this place the soil is stony. The Prophet will accept gifts, but will not eat from Charity. The Seal of Prophethood will be between his two shoulders.
These prophecies and descriptions are not found in the Greek NT gospels, which means the hadith literarture is referring to other gospel tradiions that were existent in the Arabian peninsula.
The Quran mentions that the Jews concealed/removed and hid these prophecies about Muhammad from the Muslims, which leads me to believe that the ‘Torah’ that is referred by the Quran and hadith Literature is not necessarily the today’s Jewish/Christian bible.
The early Muslims took any piece of information/report acquired from the Jews or known to be linked with Judaism as emanating from the “torah”. If they came to learn of something which was actually within, say, the Midrashic literature, such as the Halakha or the Talmud or Aggadah they would say, “the Torah says…” Similarly, when they reported any Jewish tradition that they had heard of, whether it be actually oral or coming from a non-canonical document etc., they would likewise simply say, “the Torah says…”
The Quran was used as a measure of truth in verifying/confirming or contradicting/nullifying/abrogating the ‘Torah’ or scriptures/literature used by the Jews to determine what was true revelation of God from that which was falsified and corrupted.
Nowhere is it explicitly mentioned or implied that the Quran and Hadith literature interpreted the expression ‘torah’ or injeel to mean/ refer to the current day Jewish OT Bible, or the Greek NT as wrongly claimed/assumed by Christian and Jewish apologetics.... ..
