“And Joseph had already come to you before with clear proofs, but you remained in doubt of that which he brought to you, until when he died, you said, ‘Never will Allah send a messenger after him.’ Thus does Allah leave astray he who is a transgressor and skeptic.”(Qur’an 40:34)
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Many people have the false understanding that Allah’s revelation such as the Torah, the Zabur the Injil and the Qur’an have authority over the Prophets.
This is incorrect. Allah (swt) has authority over his Prophets.
However, in many many cases Prophetic authority stands independent of the Torah, the Zabur, the Injil and the Qur’an.
“And We certainly sent into every nation a messenger, [saying], “Worship Allāh and avoid ṭāghūt.” (Qur’an 16:36)
“And for every nation is a messenger.” (Qur’an 10:47)
Now, either we as Muslims are going to believe that Islam is a universal faith or it is a religon hyper fixated upon the Middle East.
Allah (swt) has told us that he sent a messenger to every nation. However, not every nation received a revelation that later had the status of something tangible like the Torah, the Zabur or the Injil or the Qur’an.
The Prophet and the guidance of the Prophet as given to them from Allah (swt) was sufficient.
This was the case for the Muslims for much of the life of the Prophet (saw). Islam is a Muhammedan religion. Yes! It is Muhammedan in the sense that it was the deeds, actions, character and decions of the Blessed Prophet (saw) that became the opening for people to enter into Islam.
Think about it. How often do we hear about people in the time of the Prophet (saw) who sat down with a complete copy of the Qur’an in a tanglible form and pondered over it’s grammar, and its style?
This was the exception rather than the rule.
Ponder the following verse:
“Whoever obeys the Messenger has truly obeyed Allah. But whoever turns away, then We have not sent you as a keeper over them.” (Qur’an 4:80)
In a predominantly oral and illiterate culture, the ultimate referential is the living person of the Messenger, in this case Muhammed (saw), meaning that one must believe in Muhammed (saw) before believing in the authority of the Qur’an.
Prophetic authority precedes and anchors textual authority-in 7th-century Arabia, the Qur’an was encountered as recitation from a trusted person, not as a self-validating text.
The functional argument: the Qur’an repeatedly commands obedience to the Messenger (saw) alongside obedience to Allah. Some people who are far astray may interpret such verses as referring only to the Prophet’s transmission of the Qur’an itself. The article’s counter is that this reading retrojects a text-centric framework onto an oral, relational context in which “obeying the Messenger” meant following his spoken commands, judgments, and embodied example in daily life; which is precisely the material that hadith and sunna preserve.
In the historical context of 7th-century Arabia, the text of the Qur’an did not exist as a compiled, distributed book that individuals could read to verify claims. The sequence of authority and belief operated through specific oral and relational dynamics:
The Primacy of the Persona (The Messenger as the Source)
The Living Proof: Before receiving revelations, Muhammed (saw) was famously known in Meccan society as Al-Amin (The Trustworthy).
The Direct Interface: For an illiterate listener, the Qur’an was not an independent entity; it was simply the words coming out of the mouth of Muhammad (saw). Therefore, confidence in the message depended entirely on the credibility of the messenger.
The Order of Faith: One had to accept that Muhammed (saw) was genuinely a prophet sent by Allah first. Only after establishing this trust did his recitations (the Qur’an) carry divine authority.
The Nature of Oral Epistemology
Hearing is Believing: In oral cultures, information is inseparable from the person delivering it. Authority is relational and based on personal testimony.
The Text Follows the Man:
“Say, “Had Allah willed, I would not have recited it to you, nor would He have made it known to you. I had lived my whole life among you before this. Do you not understand?”” (Qur’an 10:16)
The man validates the book, not the other way around!
Theological grounding
Order of grounding — Allah → prophet → text (both derived from Allah).
and
Order of reception — person → trust → recitation → text.
Textual vs. Personal Authority in Qur’an 4:80
The verse states: “Whoever obeys the Messenger has truly obeyed Allah…”
The Practical Application: For the immediate audience, “obeying the Messenger” meant following his direct, spoken commands, judgements, and physical guidance in daily life.
Many Muslims argue that the Qur’an validates Muhammed(saw) and that this is rooted in the doctrine of the inimitability of the Qur’an (I’jaz al-Qur’an).
This theological framework operates backward when applied to the initial 7th-century context. It is not supported by academcs nor historians.
The recitation of the Qur’an would do nothing for the deaf person and the reading of a text would do nothing for a blind person. However, the mercy and kindness of Muhammed (saw) envolped both the deaf and the blind.
Contrasting the physical limitations of the medium (hearing recitation or reading text) with the limitless reach of human character, is a core reason why the Qur’an emphasizes that Muhammed (saw) was sent not merely as a mechanical transmitter of a book, but as a living “Mercy to the worlds” (Rahmatan lil-‘Alamin.” (Qur’an 21:107).
A deaf person in 7th-century Arabia could not hear the linguistic miracle (I’jaz) of the recited Qur’an.
A blind person could not visually engage with written scrolls or the physical cues of text.
However, empathy, justice, kindness, and mercy require no ears or eyes to be understood. They are felt directly. When Muhammed (saw) interacted with the marginalized, the poor, the blind, or the disabled, his character bypassed the barriers of literacy and physical disability. The sensory experience of his gentleness was an undeniable.
Interestingly the Qur’an itself tells us:
“yāyaḥyā khudhi l-kitāba biquwwatin waātaynāhu l-ḥuk’ma ṣabiyya.” (Qur’an 19:12)
Look at how the text has been translated into English:
Yahya is authoratative because he is a Prophet. Scripture or tangible revelation did not give him authority. Why? Because scripture or tangible revelation had already undergone tahrif (distortion).
People were dependent upon Yahya (as) as well as the previous prophets independent of tangible revelation or scripture!
So what do we call those people who were dependent upon Yahya (as) and all those prophets that lived and taught during the time of tahrif (distorition) of the Torah?
Were those people during Prophetic intervals Torah alone believers?
Were those people during the Prophetic intervals Torah centric?
How are you a torah alone believer or a torah centric person when the torah was corrupted?
Yahya (as) is placed in the 1st century CE. So the Masoretic text as such cannot be the object of Yahya’s “hold fast”. That would be anachronistic. What existed in the time of Yahya (as) was a plurality of textual traditions (proto-Masoretic, Septuagint Vorlage, Samaritan, Qumran witnesses).
So the object of “hold fast” in Qur’an 19:12 cannot be a stabilized text, because no stabilized text existed in the relevant historical horizon; therefore “kitāb” in this verse must mean something broade. That would be the revealed command/religion (rules, precedent, regulation) rather than a bounded physical codex.
Kitab in the Qur’an frequently means “the decree/ordinance/writing” in a non-codex sense.
Examples: (Q 2:235 “kitāban ʿalaykum” — an ordinance upon you; Q 4:24)
“There is no sin for you in that which ye proclaim or hide in your minds concerning your troth with women. Allah knoweth that ye will remember them. But plight not your troth with women except by uttering a recognised form of words. And do not consummate the marriage until (the term) (l-kitābu) prescribed is run. Know that Allah knoweth what is in your minds, so beware of Him; and know that Allah is Forgiving, Clement.” (Qur’an 2:235)
You may see the different translations here.
“And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess. It is a decree of Allah for you (kitāba l-lahi ʿalaykum). Lawful unto you are all beyond those mentioned, so that ye seek them with your wealth in honest wedlock, not debauchery. And those of whom ye seek content (by marrying them), give unto them their portions as a duty. And there is no sin for you in what ye do by mutual agreement after the duty (hath been done). Lo! Allah is ever Knower, Wise.” (Qur’an 4:24)
So “hold fast to the kitab” here can mean “hold fast to the divine ordinance,” not “hold fast to a physical scroll.”
Prophetic authority precedes, commands, and anchors textual authority.
There is a crucial theological distinction between the text existing at all and the text being authoritative to a community. In the Qur’anic worldview, scriptures do not wander the earth enforcing themselves; they require a living, divinely authorized human agent to command the people to hold onto them. Or in the case where the scriptures are corrupted there is still a need for a living, divinely authorized human agent to guide people. Or in the case where there is no scriptures given at all, there is still a need for a living divinely authorized human agent to guide people.
“And We certainly sent into every nation a messenger, [saying], “Worship Allāh and avoid ṭāghūt.” (Qur’an 16:36)
“And for every nation is a messenger.” (Qur’an 10:47)
“.And there never was a people without a warner having lived among them.” (Qur’an 35:24)
It’s very interesting it does not emphasize or state a ‘kitab’ was sent to every people.
The phrase ‘Ahl Kitab’ is not interchangeable with people who lived in the Amazon, for example.
The Context of Tahrif (Textual Corruption)
The Text as an Unreliable Standalone: If a culture’s written texts are corrupted, disputed, or lost in sectarian arguments, a static piece of parchment cannot correct itself.
The Prophet as the Living Standard: In a state of tahrif, the community cannot use the text to validate the prophet, because the text itself is what is being questioned. Instead, Allah sends a living prophet (like Yahya or Isa/Jesus) as an independent, reference point. Their living authority rehabilitates, corrects, and re-establishes the true meaning of the revelation.
The Institutionalization Shift
The reason many modern Muslims miss this dynamic is due to the historical transition from Charismatic Authority to Textual Authority.
Having a living authority who then passes what is authortative to other living authorities is the way of Islam.
“Indeed, We have sent revelation to you as We sent revelation to Noah and the prophets after him. We also sent revelation to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and his descendants, Jesus, Job, Jonah, Aaron, and Solomon. And to David We gave the Psalms.” (Qur’an 4:163)
No one is now going to come along and say that Noah, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Job, Jonah, etc were all given a physical revelation.
Yet, everyone of these prophets, Noah, Ishamel, Isaac, Jacob, Job, Johan their authority is no doubt binding.
The Qur’an itself acknowledges that some of the People of the Book “hear the words of Allah and then distort it after having understood it” (Q 2:75) and “twist their tongues with the Scripture” (Q 3:78).
“Do you expect them to be true to you, though a group of them would hear the word of Allah then knowingly corrupt it after understanding it?” (Qur’an 2:75)
“There are some among them who distort the Book with their tongues to make you think this is from the Book—but it is not what the Book says. They say, “It is from Allah”—but it is not from Allah. And they attribute lies to Allah knowingly.” (Qur’an 3:78)
If the prior scriptures are corrupted, then a community that possessed only those scriptures, with no living prophet to correct them, would be stranded. This is precisely why this article argues that prophets like Yahya (as) and Isa (as) came as living correctives: the text could not correct itself.
Even an uncorrupted revelation requires an authoritative interpreter.
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May Allah Guide the Ummah.
May Allah Forgive the Ummah.
