Gospel in Islam

Indschīl (Arabic إنجيل, DMG inǧīl [ɪnˈʤiːl], in other transliterations Injil or Indjil) is an Arabic term for the Greek εὐαγγέλιον, eu-angelion (gospel) and refers to the revelation delivered through Jesus of Nazareth.

In the Qur'an, the word Indshil is mentioned twelve times. It refers to the revelation that God sent to Isa ibn Maryam (Jesus of Nazareth) and that was proclaimed by him. The word further refers to those scriptures which the Christians read at the time of Muhammad. According to a widespread Islamic view, the four Gospels are considered to have been altered, "falsified" (taḥrīf), especially with regard to the divinity of Jesus and Trinitarian ideas. The similarity between the traditions of the Bible and the Qur'an cannot yet be clearly attributed to the fact that Arabic translations of the Bible already existed before Muhammad's contemporaneity; rather, oral tradition is to be thought of, for instance by Yemenite Christians and Syrian Nestorians (from al-Ḥīra). This finds confirmation in South Arabian and Ethiopian terms in the relevant passages (there was close contact between the Yemenite and Ethiopian communities). Some hadiths can also be explained by knowledge of biblical tradition. Since the earliest hadiths were recorded one to two centuries after Muhammad's death and were not produced as copies until further centuries later, this should be viewed with caution. Later Islamic theologians such as al-Masʿūdī and al-Bīrūnī attest to an increasing accurate knowledge of the Bible, but both lived 300 years after the beginnings of Islam. A polemical confrontation between Islamic and Christian positions gained further impetus from the Gospel of Barnabas, translated into Arabic in 1908, which attributed to Jesus a doctrine that was partly or essentially Islamic.

In addition to its use in the Islamic context, Arabic-speaking Christians also use the term Indjil to refer to the content of the message of Jesus Christ (Gospel - "good news"). At the same time, Indschil is commonly used here to designate the four Gospels of the New Testament: Gospel according to Matthew (إنجيل البشير متى or Greek εὐανγέλιον κατά Ματθαίον), etc. Likewise, "al-Indjil" is commonly used as a term for the entire New Testament. The Arabic term has also entered languages in the same sense as a loanword in a number of Islamic-influenced cultures, for example, Swahili, Turkish, and Indonesian.