“It is a disputed question whether or not the Injīl abrogates the Law of Moses (Taurāt). Some say that Jesus was not a Sāḥibu ʾsh-Sharīʿah (a law-giver); for it is said in the Injīl:—
قال عيسى انى ما جئت لتبديل شرع موسى عليه السلام بل لتكميله
‘I am not come to abrogate (tabdīl) the Law of Moses, peace be upon him, but to fulfil it (takmīl).’
“But al-Baiẓāwī (A.H. 685), in his commentary the Anwāru ʾt-Tanzīl, seems to prove that the Law of Jesus does abrogate the Law of Moses (Sharʿu Mūsā), for there are certain things revealed to Jesus which were not revealed to Moses.
“At the commencement of the Injīl is Inscribed باسم الاب و الابن الخم, ‘In the name of the Father and of the Son,’ &c. And the Injīl, which is now in the hands of the Christians, is merely a history of the Christ (Sīratu ʾl-Masīḥ), collected by his four companions Matta, Lūqā, Marqūṣ and Yūḥannā.
“In the book entitled the Tuḥfatu ʾl-Adīb fi Raddi ʿalā Ahli ʾṣ-Ṣalīb, or ‘A refutation of the servants of the Cross’ (written by ʿAbdu ʾllāh, a pervert from Christianity to Islām, A.H. 823), it is said that these four Companions are they who corrupted the religion of Jesus, and have added to it. And that they were not of the Ḥawārīyūn, or Apostles, mentioned in the Qurʾān. Matta did not see Jesus until the year he was taken up to heaven; and after the Ascension of Jesus he wrote in the city of Alexandria, with his own hand, his Injīl, in which he gives an account of the birth and life of Jesus, mentioning several circumstances which are not mentioned by others. Lūqā also did not see Jesus, but he was converted to Christianity by one Būlis (Paul), who was an Israelite, who himself had not seen Jesus, but was converted by Anānīyā (Ananias). Marqūṣ also did not see Jesus at all, but was converted to Christianity, after the Ascension of Jesus, by the Apostle Bītrū, and received the Injīl (Gospel) from that Apostle in the city of Rome. And his Gospel in many respects contradicts the statements of the other three. Yūḥannā was the son of the sister of Maryam, the mother of Jesus, and the Christians assert that Jesus was present at the marriage of Yūḥannā, when Jesus changed the water into wine. It was the first miracle performed by Jesus.
“When Yūḥannā saw the miracle, he was converted to Christianity, and left his wife and followed Jesus. He was the writer of the fourth Injīl (Gospel). It was written in Greek, in the city of Ephesus. These are the four persons who altered and changed the true Injīl, for there was only one Injīl revealed to Jesus, in which there was no contradiction or discrepancy. These people have invented lies concerning God and His Prophet Jesus, upon whom be peace, as it is a well known fact, although the Christians (Naṣāra) deny it. For example, Marqūṣ has written in the first chapter of his Gospel that in the book of the Prophet Isaiah it is said by God, ‘I have sent an angel before thy face, namely, before the face of Jesus,’ whereas the words are not in the book of Isaiah but in that of Malachi. [See [Mark i. 2]. In the Received Version the words are “in the Prophets”; but in the Revised Version we have “in Isaiah the prophet.”]
“Again, it is related by Matta, in the first or rather thirteenth chapter of his Gospel [sic; see, however, [Matt. xii. 40]], that Jesus said, ‘My body will remain in the belly of the earth three days and three nights after my death, just as Jonas was in the whale’s belly;’ and it is evident it was not true, for Matta agrees with the three other writers of the Gospels that Jesus died in the sixth hour on Friday, and was buried in the first hour of the night on Saturday, and rose from the dead early on Sunday morning, so that he remained in the belly of the earth one day and two nights. So there remains no doubt that the writers of the Gospels told the untruth. For neither Jesus said of himself, nor did God in his Injīl say of him, that Jesus will be killed or buried in the earth, for God has said (i.e. in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah iv. 156]), ‘They slew him not, for certain! Nay, God raised him up unto Himself.’ For this cause there were various divisions amongst the Christians. Other circumstances similar to these are mentioned in the Tuḥfatu ʾl-Adīb. Then there are the fundamental rules and doctrines (al-Qawāʾid), upon which the Christians are, with very few exceptions, universally agreed, namely: (1) At-Tag͟ht̤īs (Baptism); (2) Faith in the Tas̤līs̤, or Trinity; (3) the Incarnation of the Uqnūm (i.e. the essence) of the Son in the womb of Mary; (4) a belief in the Fit̤rah (i.e. the Holy Communion); (5) the Confession of all sins to the Priest (Qissīs). These five foundations also are full of falsehood, corruption, and ignorance.”
“In the work entitled al-Insānu ʾl-Kāmil (written by the Shaik͟h ʿAbdu ʾl-Karīm ibn Ibrahīm al-Jīlī, lived A.H. 767–811) it is said that when the Christians found that there was at the commencement of the Injīl the superscription باسم الاب و الابن, i.e. ‘in the name of the Father and Son,’ they took the words in their natural meaning, and [thinking it ought to be Ab, father, Umm, mother, and Ibn, son] understood by Ab, the Spirit, by Umm, Mary, and by Ibn, Jesus; and on this account they said, S̤ālis̤u S̤alās̤atin, i.e. ‘(God is) the third of three.’ ([Sūrah v. 77].) But they did not understand that by Ab is meant God Most High, by Umm, the Mahīyatu ʾl-Ḥaqāʾiq, or ‘Essence of Truth’ (Quidditas veritatum), and by Ibn, the Book of God, which is called the Wujūdu ʾl-Mut̤laq, or ‘Absolute Existence,’ being an emanation of the Essence of Truth, as it is implied in the words of the Qurʾān, [Sūrah xiii. 9]: ‘And with him is the Ummu ʾl-Kitāb, or the Mother of the Book.’ ”
AL-INSĀN (الانسان). “Man.” The title of the LXXVIth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, called also Sūratu ʾd-Dahr, both words occurring in the first verse: “Did there not pass over man (insān) a long space of time (dahr), during which he was a thing not worthy of remembrance.”