Home > Surah 17 - The Night Journey
This verse gives a certificate of authority to the Mosaic Law and defines the Torah existed as a functional, divine instrument of direction.
Surah 17:2:
We gave unto Moses the Scripture, and We made it a guidance for the Children of Israel, (saying): Choose no guardian beside Me."
The Quran claims that the Torah given to Moses was made "a guidance" (Hudan).
If God provides a book specifically to guide a people, and that book is subsequently corrupted to the point where it leads them into shirk (associating partners with God) or false history, then the "Guidance" has failed.
If the Torah was already a "corrupted mess" by the 7th century, why would the Quran refer to it as a successfully established guidance? To call a corrupted book "Guidance" is a contradiction in terms.
The verse ends with the command: "Choose no guardian beside Me." This is the core of monotheism. The Quran asserts that this command was in the Torah.
The Torah we have today (which matches the 7th-century manuscripts) contains this exact command in the Decalogue (Exodus 20:3).
If the Quran affirms that the Torah is the source of this "Guidance," it is affirming the integrity of the text. If the 7th-century Jews were following the Torah's "Guidance," they were following a book that outlines a specific sacrificial system and a Messianic expectation that excludes the Quranic narrative.
By specifically mentioning Moses and the Kitab (Scripture), the Quran ties its own credibility to the Mosaic revelation.
If Moses' Scripture is the "Guidance," it acts as the foundation.
If the foundation (the Torah) says the Covenant is through Isaac (Genesis 17), and the structure (the Quran) says it shifts to Ishmael, the structure has moved off the foundation. By calling the Torah "Guidance," 17:2 forces the Quran to be measured by the Torah’s standards—and the Quran fails that measurement.
Surah 17:2 says God gave Moses the Scripture and made it Guidance for Israel.
If God makes a book 'Guidance,' can man turn that guidance into a lie?
If the Torah was corrupted into a book that teaches 'false' things about God and His Covenant, then God's 'Guidance' failed.
If you say the 'Original' was guidance but the one we have is not, then where is the 'Guidance' God promised?
Either the Torah we have is the Guidance (which proves Islam false because the Torah contradicts the Quran), or God's Guidance was lost (which makes the Quran's claim in 17:2 a lie)."
This verse essentially forces Islam to explain how a book God intended for guidance could become a tool of deception without God protecting it—especially when the Quran calls itself the "Confirmation" of that very guidance!