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TheScrolls of Moses (Arabic:صحف موسىṢuḥuf Mūsā) are an ancient body of scripture mentioned in theQuran, once each inSurahAl-Aʻlā andSurah An-Najm. They are part of the religious scriptures ofIslam.
In twoChapters, which are dated from the firstMeccan period, there is a reference to the 'Leaves, Scrolls, Journals' (Suhuf) of Abraham (andof Moses), by which certain divinely inspired texts handwritten by thepatriarchs are meant. These passages refer to the fact that the truth of God's message was present in the earliest revelations, Given to Abraham and Moses. AlthoughSuhuf is generally understood to mean 'Scrolls', some translators - includingAbdullah Yusuf Ali andMarmaduke Pickthall - have translated the verse as "The Books of Abraham and Moses".[1]
Moses, being a righteous prophet of God, received many revelations over his lifetime - the contents of which could be contained in thisBook of Moses.
Most surely this is in the earlier scriptures.The Books of Abraham and Moses.
"Or, has he not been informed of what is in the scriptures of Moses? And (of) Abraham who fulfilled (the commandments)
— Qur'an, Surah 53 (Al-Najm) ayat 36-37[3]
Jordanian scholar and professor of philosophyGhazi bin Muhammad mentions that the "Scrolls of Moses" are identical to the Torah ofMoses.[4]
Many scholars[who?] have speculated whether the "Books of Moses" refer to the Torah or other scriptures of Moses. But the Islamic belief that the Torah was, in its original form, a single scripture of Law, the plural emphasis onBooks and notBook leads many[who?] to believe that these Books are different. Qur'anic commentatorAbdullah Yusuf Ali mentions[where?] that it could be a possible reference to a lost book of theIsraelites, suggesting theBook of the Wars of the Lord, an apocryphal book referred to in the Bible, in Numbers 21:14.
However, it is well known that the Jews usually refer to the Torah as The Five Books of Torah. Most notably, Deuteronomy, the fifth book, is distinct in many ways, and is referred to as 'Mishneh Torah' - a review of the Torah. There's also an ancient guideline requiring religious scribes to leave four blank lines between each of the books. This custom (recorded in Babylonian Talmud, bava batra pg.13) predated Muhammad by hundreds of years. For this reason it is plausible to assume that the Quran is referring to the five scrolls of Moses as they were known.
