In all probability, the Book of the Christians who were addressed by God in the Qur’an and described as “People of the Book” was of the genre of ancient biography, and the divine book that is the revelation God sent to Jesus was never published as a text of what God said to him. If the revelation given to Jesus was conveyed to his followers through his life, in word and deed, this would explain the use of the term Injil in the Qur’an for both the divine revelation and for the gospels used by the Christians.
Both could be called Injil because the gospels tell the story of the life that expressed the divine revelation given to Jesus. This would also help to explain why Jesus is given a title, Word of God, that would otherwise seem to signify revelation. Furthermore, it is consistent with the traditional interpretation of the exegetes of the Qur’an, according to which Jesus is the Word of God because his mother, Mary ع became pregnant due to God’s command which resulted in the virgin birth. It also explains why the divine command by which Mary became pregnant is conveyed by the angel of revelation, Gabriel. The divine word that became Jesus, on the interpretation suggested here, is not merely a creative word, but also a word of revelation. ...
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