The opening section to the book of Luke in the Injīl appears to introduce something that is a human composition. Indeed, this book is called ‘Luke’ after its human author. This raises the question: how then can the Injīl be the word of Allah – a divinely revealed book? Has the Injīl come from humans or from Allah?

The Injīl is, in fact, both a divine and a human book. Some parts of the Holy Scriptures are directly spoken by the voice of Allah Himself and heard audibly by people, e.g. the Ten Commandments.^a In other places, prophets frequently announced, ‘This is what the LORD says…’ (e.g. Book of the Prophet Isaiah 8:11, and many others) or, ‘This is the word of the LORD that came to the prophet…’ (e.g. Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 28:12, and many others). However, other parts of the Scriptures are clearly human writings, such as Injīl, Luke that we are looking at here. And yet Injīl, Luke is no less the word of Allah than the Ten Commandments or the message from Allah that came to the prophets (pbut) and was proclaimed by them.

The difference between the Ten Commandments and Injīl, Luke is not in whether or how much each part is the word of Allah SWT, but in the way Allah reveals his word to us.

Allah Ta’ālā is able to use human beings, using their minds, personalities, ideas, and experiences; using their research and use of historical and eye-witness sources; writing from their own situations, societies, languages, cultures, backgrounds; describing what they have experienced in their own words, using their own writing styles; producing different types of literature such as history, poetry, proverbs and letters; and yet through all of this Allah SWT is able to guide these human writers so that they wrote only and exactly what Allah wanted them to write. What they wrote is thus the word of Allah. It is the word (kalām) of Allah in the words (alfāz) of Allah.

In the case of this book, Luke, there are at least eight steps in the process, based on what Hazrat Luke (pbuh) himself writes in Injīl, Luke 1:1-4:

1. Events happened in history, centred on ‘Īsā al-Masīh (hpbuu), which the book goes on to describe.

2. In v1, ‘have taken place’ could be translated as ‘have been fulfilled’. Luke (pbuh), the author understood these events to have fulfilled the plan and purpose of Allah SWT revealed over many centuries beforehand through many prophets (pbut).

3. These events were eye-witnessed – they were seen and experienced by certain people.

4. The eye-witnesses ‘passed down to us’ their testimony – to Hazrat Luke (pbuh) and his contemporaries. The word ‘eye-witnesses’ means that these people claimed that they had seen these events happen with their own eyes. If the events did not happen, these people were – na’udhu billāh - liars and deceivers of the worst kind.

5. There were other oral and written accounts based on eye-witness testimony which were circulating.^b Many of the earliest eye-witness accounts would have been in Aramaic, the mother-tongue of ‘Īsā al-Masīh (hpbuu) and his companions, or Hebrew, the language of the Taurāt which was closely related to Aramaic. These were translated into Greek, which was the international language of that time, so that the message could be widely circulated, read and understood. The original language of the written Injīl is thus Greek.^c

6. Luke (pbuh) did the work of a historian – ‘he investigated everything from that period of time’. He used the oral and written accounts, he interviewed eye-witnesses (who were still alive) and he visited the locations. He may have done research for the book in AD 57-59 when he spent time in Palestine. See Injīl, Acts 21:8-27:2.

7. Hazrat Luke (pbuh) had an idea – ‘it seemed good also to me’. He decided to set down his research in writing.

8. Hazrat Luke (pbuh) wrote ‘an orderly account’. He selected and arranged his material. He didn’t include everything he knew about ‘Īsā al-Masīh (hpbuu). He was selective – he included what would serve his purpose.

He addressed it to Theophilus (about whom we know nothing more than is written here)^d but he intended it to be read by many people - so he wrote it for us as well - and his ‘purpose is that you may know for certain the truth of the message you have been taught (concerning ‘Īsā al-Masīh).’

And yet, Allah SWT guided and directed this whole process, so that what we have here before us is revelation from Allah.

The book of 2 Timothy in the Injīl makes a clear statement that all Scripture comes from Allah SWT. It says,

All Scripture is breathed out by Allah and is useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, and for training in righteousness, so that the person belonging to Allah may be fully equipped and ready for every kind of good work (Injīl, 2 Timothy 3:16-17).^e

In the Introduction, we saw how the Qur’an confirms that the Injīl is ‘sent down’ by Allah and ‘a guidance to mankind’ (Āl-’Imrān 3:3-4). The people of the Injīl are to ‘judge with what Allah has revealed in it, and whoever doesn't judge by what Allah has revealed are sinners’ (al-Mā’idah 5:46-47, MH). The people of the Book are told ‘You stand on naught till you observe the Torah and the Gospel (Injīl)’ (al-Mā’idah 5:68) and believers (Muslims) are told to believe ‘in the Book He revealed to His Messenger, and the Book he revealed before (the Injīl)’ (an-Nisā’ 4:136).

In Sūrah al-Mā’idah 5:46, Allah says,

We gave him (‘Īsā son of Maryam) the Gospel (Injīl), in which there is guidance and light… (MH).

This description can be regarded as accurate shorthand for what we find in the Injīl regarding the process of its own composition.

Speaking to Allah SWT in du’ā, ‘Īsā al-Masīh (hpbuu) says,

‘I have given them (the disciples) the message which you (Allah) gave to me, and they received it.’ (Injīl, John 17:8).

Just before this du’ā, ‘Īsā al-Masīh (hpbuu), said to his disciples (pbut),

‘the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the heavenly Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and he will remind you of all that I have told you’ (Injīl, John 14:26).

‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the heavenly Father – the Spirit of truth who goes out from the heavenly Father – he will bear witness about me. And you also must bear witness, for you have been with me since the beginning.’ (Injīl, John 15:26-27).

‘But when he, the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you in all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will tell you what is still to come. He will glorify me, because he will receive what is mine and tell it to you’ (Injīl, John 16:13-14)

(These words of ‘Īsā al-Masīh [hpbuu] began to be fulfilled ten days after he was taken up into heaven, when the Advocate or Holy Spirit of truth was sent to the disciples. This is recorded in Injīl, Acts 2:1-4).

Similarly, in the Qur'an, in Surah Al-Ma’idah 5:111, Allah says about the apostles of ‘Īsā al-Masīh (hpbuu),

The Study Quran commenting on this ayat says, 'God speaks in the first person to state that He inspired the apostles to believe, using a verb for ‘‘inspired’’ that is related to wahy, which usually denotes prophetic revelation.’^f

From the above, we can work out the following sequence:

1. Al-Masīh ‘Īsā (hpbuu) received his words from Allah Ta’ālā and gave them to his disciples (pbut).

2. The disciples were commissioned to testify to those words, which they did through their preaching and teaching, and in writing the Injīl.^g

3. The Holy Spirit of Allah taught and reminded the disciples of the words of al-Masīh ‘Īsā (hpbuu), enabling them accurately to pass on those words to others.

4. Although it seems that Hazrat Luke (pbuh) was not himself an eye-witness of the teaching of ‘Īsā al-Masīh (hpbuu) and the events of his life, he accurately recorded the testimony of the disciples who were eye-witnesses.

The Injīl is thus the message of Allah SWT revealed through ‘Īsā al-Masīh (hpbuu).

The Qur'an accurately sums this pocess up with the words,

We gave him (‘Īsā son of Maryam) the Gospel (Injīl), in which there is guidance and light... (al-Ma'idah 5:46, MH).