The Missing Books of the Bible

 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

الصلاة والسلام عليك يا رسول الله

Prayers and peace upon you, Apostle of Allah

As I have already explained, my position, as a Sunni Muslim, to the Bible is a balanced and nuanced one in contrast to some of the Muslim debaters and apologists who focus on refuting and debating Christians. In my view, the Bible is, for the most part, a faithful record of the original revelation and Scriptures that God revealed to various Israelite Prophets. The Holy Quran not only testifies of the Torah, the Zabur (Psalms of David) and the Injil (Evangel or Gospel given to Jesus), it also confirms the Scriptures in general:

أَوَلَمْ تَأْتِهِم بَيِّنَةُ مَا فِي الصُّحُفِ الْأُولَىٰ

Has there not come to them clarification of that which is in the former Scriptures?

(Surah 20, Ayah 133)

I understand as-Suhuf al-Ula (prior Scriptures) as a reference to not only the Torah, or not only the Torah, Psalms and Gospel of Jesus, but also the Scriptures inspired to various other Israelite Prophets, such as Joshua, Samuel, Job, King Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Jonah, and even the so-called “minor Prophets” like Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. Whether the Scriptures attributed to the names of Joshua, Samuel, Job, Jonah and others are a record of their inspirations and visions, or merely a historical account of their prophetic ministries, their contents are surely true, or at the very least do not conflict with the Holy Quran. This is also true of other books in the Bible such as the Book of Kings and Chronicles, which although read more as accounts of history than actual revealed Scripture to a Prophet, nonetheless contain, from an Islamic perspective, mostly true and correct information.

I go even further and argue that the much of the Talmud, in its relaying of historical events, teachings and laws, is also true and correct from an Islamic perspective, and have been confirmed in the Holy Quran and the Sunnah. The Rabbinic Jewish doctrine that at Mount Sinai Moses received both a written Torah and an unwritten or oral Torah, is also correct from an Islamic perspective, though virtually all Christians and even many Muslims reject this.

Yet, it must also be acknowledged that the current Biblical canon is incomplete, and there were several other texts that were either omitted or genuinely lost. The Bible itself references some of these texts, for instance:

1. Book of the Wars of the Lord (mentioned in Numbers 21:14)

2. Book of Jasher (mentioned in Joshua 10:13; 2 Samuel 1:18)

3. Book of the Acts of Solomon (1 Kings 11:41)

4. Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel (mentioned in 1 Kings and 2 Kings)

5. Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah (mentioned in 1 Kings and 2 Kings)

6. Book of Samuel the Seer (mentioned in 1 Chronicles 29:29)

7. Book of Nathan the Prophet (mentioned in 1 Chronicles 29:29; 2 Chronicles 9:29)

8. Book of Gad the Seer (mentioned in 1 Chronicles 29:29)

9. Book of Ahijah the Shilonite (mentioned in 2 Chronicles 9:29)

10. Visions of Iddo the Seer (mentioned in 2 Chronicles 9:29, 12:15, 13:22)

11. Book of Shemaiah the Prophet (mentioned in 2 Chronicles 12:15)

12. Book of Jehu son of Hanani (mentioned in 2 Chronicles 20:34)

13. Sayings of the Seers (mentioned in 2 Chronicles 33:19)

It should be especially concerning to Christians and Jews that there were Scriptures attributed to several Prophets, namely,  Nathan, Gad, Ahijah, Iddo, Shemaiah, and Jehu, which are not found in their canon.