The Injīl is recognised as a Holy Book in both Christianity and Islam. It thus has great potential as a basis for common ground between these two great world faiths. That the Injīl, or New Testament, is a Christian Holy Book is well known. That the Injīl is also a Muslim Holy Book is clearly confirmed in no less a source than the Noble Qur'an itself. The Qur'an provides ample testimony that the Injīl is to be received as a revelation from Allah. The following passages from the Qur'an demonstrate this:

In the light of these ayat from al-Qur'an al-Karīm it is clear that Muslims should receive the Holy Injīl as a revelation from Allah Subhānahu Wa Ta'ālā and read it as a Muslim Book.

According to the Qur'an, the Injīl that was available at the beginning of the Islamic era (early 7th Century AD) was the original Injīl which was to be believed and obeyed as a Book from Allah.

The People of the Book of that time are told to read it and judge everything by it. In other words, they are to view it as the ultimate authority.

The earliest Muslims also are told to believe the book Allah revealed beforehand, namely, the Injīl.

If the version of the Injīl and Tawrah that were in the possession of the ‘People of the Book’ at that time were regarded as corrupt in some way, surely the Qur'an would warn people about that. However, we have seen that, far from warning people about the Tawrah and Injīl, the Qur'an only speaks of them in the highest terms, urging people to read, believe and judge by these Holy Books.

Could the Injīl have been corrupted sometime after the beginning of the Islamic era in the early 7th Century? This is not possible because there are many surviving manuscripts of the Injīl that are dated many centuries before the beginning of the Muslim era. In fact, there are around 5000 ancient manuscripts of all or parts of the Injīl in which the message is the same. It would have been impossible for someone or some group to corrupt all of these.

Imagine I write a letter and send it to ten friends in different parts of the world who do not know each other. They then each make nine copies of my letter and send those copies to nine of their friends in still other parts of the world, so that there are 100 copies of the letter in different parts of the world. Suppose after 50 years one of those 100 people with a copy of the letter decides he wants to change some part of it. He can make his own fake copy but there is no way he would be able to trace all the other 99 copies to change them all in the same way. If this is the case with only a hundred copies of a letter, how much more difficult would it be after 600 years to gather together many hundreds of manuscripts of the Injīl from Asia, Africa and Europe and change them all?

So on the basis of the Qur'an's teaching, the Injīl cannot have been corrupted before the Islamic era (early 7th Century AD). And on the basis of many manuscripts that date back to pre-Islamic times, it cannot have been corrupted after the emergence of Islam. Abdullah Saeed, Sultan of Oman Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne, writes;

‘The Qur'an shows utmost respect and reverence for what the Qur'an calls “the Tawrat” (Torah) of the Jews, revealed to Moses, and the Injīl (Gospel) of the Christians, revealed to Jesus. It never makes disparaging statements about these “Books,” but instead refers to them as coming from God. The only denigrating remarks in the Qur'an are about certain individuals or groups of People of the Book (Jews and Christians) and their actions...

‘The Qur'an consistently refers to the Torah and Gospels as “Books of God,” revealed to Moses and Jesus. We know from the history of these two religious traditions that by the time the Prophet was preaching, the scriptures of both Jews and Christians were established and documented. Since the Qur'an was referring to those scriptures that existed in the seventh century, its references to them should equally apply in the modern era.’^a.

The Qur'an, Injīl, Zabūr and Tawrah all agree that Allah's words cannot be changed:

So, Muslim brothers and sisters, receive the Injīl as a Book for you. Receive it, not as the Book of another religion, but as a Muslim Book – as your Book, as Allah's gift and guidance to you.

Many people say they believe the Injīl to be a Book revealed by Allah SWT^c, but never actually read it. This volume is prepared with the aim and du'ā that you may actually read the Injīl for yourself and gain immense blessing from it in this age and in the age to come.

This volume contains a new translation of ‘Luke’, the third ‘book’ in the Injīl. There are twenty-seven ‘books’ of varying lengths within the one book, the Injīl. The first four of these books are accounts of the life, teaching and work of al-Masīh 'Īsā (his peace be upon us), which are different from each other but which also complement each other. Luke was chosen because it contains a full description of the life of 'Īsā al-Masīh (hpbuu)from the angelic announcement of his conception to his ascension into heaven. It is also the longest account. Luke is translated from the Greek of the original text of the Injīl into English, using terms and names that are familiar to Muslims. There is also commentary in the form of footnotes and some longer appendices which aim to explain difficult or less clear terms or concepts that arise in the text of the Injīl. The commentary section will also aim to relate material in the text to other parts of the Injīl and also the Taurāt, the Zabūr, the Books of the Prophets and the Qur'an.

Quotations from the Taurāt, Zabūr and Books of the Prophets are my own direct translations from the original Hebrew of these Books.

Quotations from the Qur'an are usually taken from ‘The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary’, Nasr, Seyyed Hossein; Dagli, Caner K.; Dakake, Maria Massi; Lumbard, Joseph E.B.; Rustom, Mohammed (2015, HarperCollins).

Wherever other translations of the Qur'an are used, this is indicated using the following abbreviations:

AYA ‘The Meaning of the Holy Qur'an – Translation by Abdullah Yūsuf Ali, New Modern English Edition.’

MMP ‘The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'an – An Explanatory Translation by Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, New Modern English Edition.’

RQ ‘The Arabic-English Reference Qur'an.’ i

TK ‘The Qur'an – A New Translation by Tarif Khalidi.’

To make it easier to find one's way around the text, it has been divided up into sections with headings. These headings are not in the original text.

In the commentary and section headings we follow the convention of using honorifics such as ‘peace be upon him’ (or abbreviated to ‘pbuh’) for prophets and other eminent spiritual persons. An example of this can be found in the 1st Book of Kings 2:33, where Prophet Sulaymān (pbuh) says,

When 'Īsā al-Masīh (hpbuu)is mentioned in the commentary and section headings we have frequently used the honorific, ‘his peace be upon us’ (abbreviated to ‘hpbuu’). This honorific seems particularly appropriate in the light of passages such as Injīl, John 14:27 where 'Īsā al-Masīh (hpbuu) says to his disciples,

This volume comes to you with the du'ā that Allah SWT may bless you richly in this age and in the age to come as you read and study his message in the Injīl.