Ibn Salam and his testimony: was his Torah unreliable?

The life of one of the most renowned companions of the prophet of Islam may shed light about the reliability of the Torah.

If you have read qur'anic exegesis, you might be familiar with the name of Abdullah Ibn Salam. Originally a Jewish Rabbi, he converted to Islam when the prophet of Islam arrived in Yathrib (Medina). I would like to review his testimony, and attempt to answer this question: was the Torah used by Abdullah Ibn Salam unreliable?

Let's look first at who Abdullah Ibn Salam was before accepting Islam. The Jewish encyclopedia presents the following about Ibn Salam:

Jewish convert to Islam in the time of Mohammed; died 663. According to the Moslems, he was one of the most important Jewish personages in the history of Mohammed's career at Medina, owing to the fact that he was converted to Islam. His reputation among believers is so great that the standard works on Moslem tradition have special chapters devoted to the "High Qualities of Abdallah ibn Salam." Indeed, he is the prototype of Jewish converts to Islam, of whom there existed a small number during Mohammed's lifetime. He belonged to the tribe of the Banu Ḳainuḳa'a. His name was Al-Husain, and he claimed to be a descendant of Joseph. After his conversion he assumed the name of Abdallah ibn Salam. (...), he may be regarded as one of the fathers of the Hadith, and especially of several important legends which tend to glorify Mohammed's youth.

The above description of Abdullah Ibn Salam presents a perspective from authors outside of Islam. This is the reason why I have presented it. It does highlight that he was considered and example among Muslims, and respected source for Hadiths. In The article de titled "Abdullah Ibn Salam according to the Hadith" (http://jtruthtobelieve.blogspot.com/2014/12/abdullah-ibn-salam-according-to-hadith.html) it was presented that:

- He was convinced that the description of Muhammad was found in the Torah  copies he used.
- To confirm Muhammad's prophethood, he first asked questions. Those questions came from Jewish exegesis and the Torah to recognize a prophet.
- He was held in high esteem by the prophet of Islam. He was considered one of the people of paradise.
- He was respected among Jews before accepting Islam
- He was a witness to his Jewish brethren that in his view the Qur'an was true
- He would highlight if a Jew was lying in matters concerning the Torah. He was knowledgeable of its contents
- He was committed to Islam to the point of giving up his tribe

The site islamweb.net presents the following comments about Abdullah Ibn Salam:

Al-Hussein Ibn Salaam was one of the scholars of the Jews who lived in Yathrib, now known as Madeenah. All the people of the town had the greatest respect for him. Everyone, no matter what his religion was, treated him with reverence. He had a high reputation for piety, righteousness, and straightforwardness.
Al-Hussein lived a tranquil and peaceful, yet serious and purposeful life. He divided his time evenly between four separate activities: worshiping and preaching at the synagogue, working in his palm grove, irrigating and cultivating his trees, and studying the Torah. Whenever Al-Hussein read the Torah he would spend long periods of time reflecting on the passages that prophesied about the appearance of the Seal of the Prophets, a Prophet who would arise out of Makkah to complete the message of all of the Prophets who came prior to him.
Al-Hussein would search for details concerning the awaited Prophet, such as details about what he would look like, how he could be known, and other many signs. He would tremble with joy when reading that the Prophet would leave the town in which he received his call and migrate to Yathrib where he would make his new home. Every time Al-Hussein read this or thought about it, he would pray that Allaah would let him live long enough to have the pleasure of meeting the Prophet, and be one of the first to declare his belief in him.
He narrated from his memory as follows: "When I first heard stories of the appearance of a Prophet, I sought out further information about his name, his genealogy, characteristics, and where and how he had started calling others to Islam. I compared what I heard about him with what was written in our scriptures, and came to a conclusion that he was truly a Prophet. I kept this information to myself and did not share it with the other rabbis or scholars.
The day came when the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) left Makkah and headed for Madeenah. When he reached the town and ended his journey at Qubaa, a man came through the town announcing his arrival. I was at the top of a palm tree at that moment caring for it, and my aunt Khaalidah Bint Al-Haarith was seated beneath the tree. When I heard the news, I cried out: "Allaahu Akbar! Allaahu Akbar!" When my aunt heard this, she said, "What a disappointment you are! By Allaah if it had been the Prophet Moses himself coming to us, you could not have been more excited." "Listen Auntie, I swear by Allaah, he is the brother of Moses, for he brings the same religion and teaches the same beliefs." I answered. She fell silent for a moment, "Is he the one of whom you used to tell us who would be sent to fulfill what was taught before him as a completion for the messages of his Lord?" she asked. "Yes," I said. "So be it," she agreed.

The argument popularly used that the Bible is unreliable in its contents contradicts the accounts about Ibn Salam's life in the Qur'an and the Hadiths for the following reasons:

- Islamic sources including the Qur'an, the Hadith and other exegesis document how we was praised for studying the Torah.
- His knowledge of the same allowed him to make his decision to follow the prophet. It is reported that he was convinced to have found the description of Muhammad in the Torah.
- He did recognize some treacherous Jews. Some of them lied about the Torah. It seems to be clear that despite of the efforts of some to conceal the truth in the Torah, he was knowledgeable enough to clarify when needed.
- Even if some Jews tampered some copies of the Torah, and even if others wrote additions claiming to be part of the Torah, there was a reliable copy of the same. Ibn Salam had access to it.
- Since the time of the Babylonian Jewish exhile (approximately 1200 years before Islam) there were Jews spread all around the ancient world. Some of them returned after 70 years in Babylon. After the the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD they were scattered throughout the world once again. And with them there were Torah scrolls in multiple places. It was not humanly possible for the Jews of Medina (or Arabia) to tamper all copies of the Torah scrolls around the world to erase any alleged descriptions of Muhammad.

The Septuagint copies of The Torah, the Dead Sea scrolls and the Masoretic text history give assurance to conclude that if the Torah was reliable for Ibn Salam, then it's also reliable for anyone today. The challenge for anyone is to determine if any prophecies in the Torah really describe the prophet of Islam or not. In my article "the books which influence 4 billion people" I have presented reasons why to conclude that the prophet of Islam was not a promised prophet in the Bible. (http://jtruthtobelieve.blogspot.com/2014/10/critical-and-rational-evaluation-of.html)