Home > Surah 32 - The Prostration
Thi is a Meccan chapter that emphasizes the majesty of the Creator and the absolute certainty of His revelations. It is named "The Prostration" after verse 15, which describes the humble physical response of believers to the Word of God.
The surah serves to validate Muhammad's message by grounding it in the established historical precedent of the Mosaic revelation, positioning the Torah as a source of certainty rather than the modern Islamic narrative of Tahrif (corruption).
Surah 32:23-24:
And We verily gave Moses the Scripture; so be not thou in doubt of his receiving it; and We appointed it a guidance for the Children of Israel. And We appointed from among them leaders who guided by Our command when they were patient and were certain of Our revelations.
Verse 23 commands: "Be not thou in doubt of his receiving it."
If the Torah held by the 7th-century "Children of Israel" was already a corrupted version of what Moses received, then telling Muhammad or his followers "not to doubt it" would be a command to believe a lie.
You do not command people to be "certain" of a document that has been altered by men to include "shirk" (the deity of Christ). By forbidding doubt, the Quran is vouching for the authenticity of the Torah available at that time.
Verse 24 states that God appointed leaders who guided by His command because they were "certain of Our revelations."
These leaders (the Prophets and Kings of Israel) were using the Torah we have in the Old Testament. If those scriptures were already "corrupted" to point toward a Son of God, then those leaders were guiding people into error "by God's command."
The Quran is endorsing the very leaders and the very book (the Hebrew Bible) that established the foundations of Christian theology. If the Quran is true, it must agree with the book that God said we should not doubt.
The Torah is called "Guidance" (Hudan).
The Bible teaches that salvation is through the sacrificial blood of the Lamb and the grace of the Son of God. The Quran says this is a false path.
If the Torah is "Guidance" (as v. 23 says), then the path it reveals must be the correct one. If the path in the Torah is wrong, then the Quran is calling "Misguidance" by the name "Guidance."
Surah 32:23-24 commands me 'not to be in doubt' regarding the Scripture given to Moses.
If I obey the Quran and cast away doubt, I must accept the Torah as the reliable, uncorrupted Word of God.
We have the Torah from before, during, and after the time of Muhammad. It clearly teaches that God is our Father and the Messiah is His Son.
Verse 24 says God's leaders were 'certain' of these revelations. I am also certain of them.
If I follow your Book's command and trust the Torah, I must reject the Quran because it contradicts the Torah.
If I say the Torah is corrupted, I am disobeying the command in Surah 32:23 to 'not be in doubt.'
Which do you want me to do: obey the Quran and trust the Bible, OR disobey the Quran and call the Bible corrupted?