Was the Gospel Matthew forbidden at the time of the Prophet (Pbuh)?
A Brief Description of the Question:
What is the status of Matta in Islam? Was matta permissible in the times of the Holy Prophet (Pbuh) and Was it banned during the Khilafat of Hazrat Umar (R.T.A), if yes then why?
The Answer:
We don't think that the Gospel According to Matthew was forbidden at the time of the Prophet, peace and blessings upon him. For he did not have such a duty as to search which one of the Gospels was right. The so-called prohibition of Matthew might also have posed a contrast to the advices of the Qur'an, which commands discussing with Ahl al-Kitab (the People of the Book; followers of pre-Islamic monotheistic religions with some form of scripture of divine origin) with beautiful speech and elocution. Besides, we could not come across such information in the sources of verse and of healthy hadiths. There are narrations which explain the views of our Prophet about the People of the Book. According to a narration, Umar Ibn-i Khattab read from a book that he took from the People of the Book in the presence of the Prophet, and the Prophet got angry at him, and after warning about the danger of “Rejecting the truths told by the People of the Book, and accepting their mistakes.” the Prophet made a statement the meaning of which is: “If Moses lived today, he wouldn't have any other option than follow me.” However, the narrations about this subject are said to be weak. (see Majmau’z-zawaid, 1/174; 8/262)
There are narrations which say: “You can quote (information) from the Children of Israel; there is no drawback in that.” However, Haysami pointed out that in that narration, too, the narrator is weak in reliability (See Majmau’z-zawaid, 1/151).
There is no doubt that such narrations of hadiths, which give the permission, have the great share in Islamic scholars' making quotations in the matters not related to decrees from the People of the Book. We cannot tell from such narrations whether the Gospel According to Matthew or any other Gospel was forbidden at the time of the Companions of the Prophet.
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