Q. 2:75-79, The Jews & the Fabricated Book

Do you (faithful believers) covet that they will believe in your religion in spite of the fact that a party of them (Jewish rabbis) used to hear the Word of Allah [the Taurat (Torah)], then they used to change it knowingly after they understood it? And when they (Jews) meet those who believe (Muslims), they say, “We believe”, but when they meet one another in private, they say, “Shall you (Jews) tell them (Muslims) what Allah has revealed to you [Jews, about the description and the qualities of Prophet Muhammad, that which are written in the Taurat (Torah)] that they (Muslims) may argue with you (Jews) about it before your Lord?” Have you (Jews) then no understanding? Know they (Jews) not that Allah knows what they conceal and what they reveal? And there are among them (Jews) unlettered people, who know not the Book, but they trust upon false desires and they but guess. Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands and then say, “This is from Allah,” to purchase with it a little price! Woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for that they earn thereby. S. 2:75-79 Hilali-Khan

Our master Abu Musa Ash’ari said: The Children of Israel wrote a book, they followed it and abandoned the Torah.

Reference: Sunan al-Darimi 497

(A hadith that has not been transmitted) Zakariya ibn Adi informed us, Ubaydullah – he is Ibn Amr – informed us, on the authority of Abd al-Malik ibn Umair, on the authority of Abu Burdah, on the authority of Abu Musa: “The Children of Israel wrote a book, followed it, and abandoned the Torah.” (https://hadithweb.com/darimi:497)

924 On the authority of Abu Musa, who said: The Messenger of God said: “The Children of Israel wrote a book and followed it, and they abandoned the Torah.”

Narrated by al-Tabarani in al-Kabir, and its chain of transmission is trustworthy. (Islamweb.net https://www.islamweb.net/ar/library/content/87/930/%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%A8)

f. People ruined, they accepted books of scholars and clergy, Abandoned book of Lord;

Abū al-Faḍl al-Fazārī informed us, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿUmar informed us, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Yaʿqūb told us, my grandfather told us, Yazīd b. Hārūn told us, al-ʿAwām b. Ḥawshab informed us, on the authority of Ibrāhīm al-Taymī, who said, ‘It reached Ibn Masood that some people were in possession of a book, and it remained in their possession until they brought it to him. When they brought it to him, he erased it, and said, 

“Before you, the people of the Book were only ruined because they accepted the books of their scholars and clergy and abandoned the book of their Lord;” or he said, “abandoned the Torah and the Gospel, to the extent of studying and leaving aside [religious] obligations and rulings they contain.”’…

ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Maʿaddal informed us, Ismāʿīl b. Muḥammad al-Ṣaffār informed us, Aḥmad b. Manṣūr—that is al-Ramādī—told us, ʿAbd al-Razzāq told us, Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of ʿUrwa b. al-Zubayr, that ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb wanted to put the sunan in writing, so he sought the advice of the Prophet’s companions. They advised him to write them down.

Then ʿUmar spent a month seeking God’s guidance. Thereupon, God decided for him. Then he [ʿUmar] said, “I had wanted to put the sunan in writing, but then I remembered that a people before you wrote books, became devoted to them, and neglected God’s Book, Most High. As for me, by God, I will never cover God’s Book with anything.”

Ibn Rizqawayh informed us, ʿUthmān b. Aḥmad informed us, Ḥanbal b. Isḥāq told us, Qabīṣa b. ʿUqba told us, Sufyān told us, on the authority of Maʿmar on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of ʿUrwa,

“ʿUmar wanted to put the sunan in writing, so he sought the guidance of God, Most High, for a month. Thereupon, his decision was made for him, and he said, ‘I remembered a people who wrote a book, became preoccupied with it, and neglected God Almighty’s Book.’”

As for the ḥadīth of Shuʿayb, Abū Saʿīd Muḥammad b. Mūsā b. al-Faḍl al-Ṣīrafī informed us of it; Abū Muḥammad Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Muzanī told us, ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. ʿIsā al-Jakā’nī al-Khuzā ʿī informed us, Abū al-Yamān al-Ḥakam b. Nāfi ʿ told us, Shu ʿayb informed me, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, ʿUrwa b. al-Zubayr informed me that ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb wanted to put the sunan in writing,  so  he  sought  the  advice  of  the  companions  of  God’s Messenger and in general, they advised him to do that. 

Then ʿUmar spent a month seeking God’s guidance, in a state of doubt, and it happened that one day, God caused him to decide. Then he said,

“I had mentioned to you putting the sunan in writing, then I remembered some people of the Book before you had written books along with God’s Book, to which they devoted themselves and neglected God’s Book. By God, I will never cover God’s Book with anything,” then he gave up on putting the sunan in writing.

Abū al-Fatḥ ʿAbd al-Malik b. ʿUmar b. Khalaf al-Razzāz informed us, ʿUbayd Allāh b. Saʿīd al-Burūjirdī informed us, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b, Wahab al-Ḥāfiẓ told us in the year 308, Muḥammad b. Khalaf al-ʿAskalānī told us, Muḥammad b. Khalaf al- ʿAskalānī told us, Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Fayriyābī told us, Sufyān b. Saʿīd al-Thawrī told us, on the authority of Maʿmar b. Rāshid, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of ʿUrwa b. al-Zubayr, on the authority of  ʿAbd Allah b. ʿUmar, on the authority of ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb, that, he (Umar b. al-Khaṭṭāb,) wanted to put the sunan in writing, so he sought God’s guidance for a month. Then, his decision was made; and thereupon he said, “I thought of a people before you wrote a book, became preoccupied with it, and neglected God Almighty’s Book.”

Abū Ṭālib Yaḥyā b.ʿAlī b. al-Ṭayyib al-ʿIjlī al-Daskarī related verbatim in Ḥilwān, Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm b. ʿAlī b. al-Muqrī informed us in Isfahan, Abū  Yaʿlā Aḥmad b. ʿAlī  b. al-Muththanā al-Muṣūlī informed us, ʿAbd al-Ghaffār b. ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Zubayr told us, ʿAlī b. Mushir told us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Isḥāq, on the authority of Khalīfa b. Qays, on the authority of Khālid b. ʿUrfaṭa, who said I was sitting with ʿUmar when a man from ʿAbd al-Qays who lived in al-Sūs was brought forward. 

ʿUmar said to him, “Are you so-and-so son of so-and-so al-ʿAbdī?” He said, “Yes.” He [ʿUmar] said, “Do you live in al-Sūs?” He said, “Yes.” Then ʿUmar struck him with his   staff, and the   man   said, “What did I do, Commander of the Faithful?!” ʿUmar told him, “Sit!” and he sat. Then he [ʿUmar] recited:

“In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful, A.L.R. These are the verses of the clear book. We have sent it down to you as a clear Arabic recitation, so that perhaps you will comprehend. We have narrated to you the best stories,” until “among the heedless.”^[283]

He [ ʿUmar] recited it to him three times and struck him three times. The man said, “What did I do, Commander of the Faithful?!” Then he [ʿUmar] said, “Are you the one who made a copy of the Book of Daniel?” He [the man] said, “Give me your order and I will follow it.” He [ʿUmar] said, “Go and erase it with hot water and white wool, and do not recite it or teach it to anyone. If it reaches me that you have recited it or taught it to anyone, I will punish you severely.”

Then he [ʿUmar] told him, “Sit!” and he sat before him, and he [ʿUmar] said, “I went and made a copy of a book belonging to the people of the Book, then I brought it in the morning, and God’s Messenger said, “What is that in your hand, ʿUmar?” I said, “It is a book I have copied to add to our knowledge, Messenger of God.” God’s Messenger got so angry his cheeks turned red, then the Friday prayer was announced, and the Helpers said, “your Prophet is angry. To arms! To arms!” They surrounded the pulpit of God’s Messenger, and he said, “Oh people, I have been given the complete and final message and its explanation, and I have given it to you clearly, purely. Do not cast yourselves into perdition, or come near those who have cast themselves into perdition!” ʿUmar said, “I stood up and declared, ‘I am satisfied with God as Lord, Islam as religion, and you as Messenger.’ After that, God’s Messenger descended from the pulpit.”

Al-Ḥasan b. Abū Bakr informed us, Abū Sahl Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b.ʿAbd Allāh b. Ziyād al-Qaṭṭān informed us, ʿAbd Allāh b. Rawḥ al-Madāyinī told us, Shabāba told us, Abū Zabr told us, al-Qāsim b. Muḥammad told us that:

It reached ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb that books had appeared among the people, and he loathed and despised that. He said, “It has reached me that books have appeared among you. I wish to God to rectify and amend that, so everyone who has a book, bring it to me, then I will consider it and decide.”

They assumed he was going to examine them and amend them according to matters on which there is no disagreement, so they brought him their books, and he burned them. Afterward, he said, “A desire like the desire of the People of the Book.”

ʿAbd al-Malik b. Muḥammad informed us, ʿUmar b. Muḥammad al-Jumaḥī informed us, ʿAlī b.ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz told us, Saʿīd b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Qurayshī told us, and al-Ḥusayn b. Ibrāhīm al-Maṣrī in Mecca informed us, Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm al-ʿAbqashī informed us, Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm al-Daybulī told us, Abū ʿUbayd Allāh Saʿīd b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Makhzūmī told us, Sufyān and Abū Ṭālib b. al-Fatḥ informed us, ʿUmar b. Ibrāhīm al-Maqrī informed us, ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad told us, Abū Khaythama told us, Sufyān b.ʿUbayd told us, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of Yaḥyā b. Jaʿda that:

ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb wanted to put the sunna in writing; afterward, it became clear to him that he should not put it in writing, so he wrote to the provinces, “Whoever has some of it [in writing], erase it.” The wording of the ḥadīth is Saʿīd’s.

Cling to it stubbornly [literally: with your molar teeth]

“The children of Israel wrote a book that they followed, abandoning the Torah.” (AAK-Hadith Notes Eng Book not allowed Hadith Ban Quran & Important Hadiths https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NEXjyZPtJZt3xzOY397VULZgQSw5SP8sGvGG4dvU7AU/edit?pli=1&tab=t.0#heading=h.ylr6o4tjhv5o; emphasis mine)