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Tahrif ( verbal noun of the Consonantal Root '''', "to make oblique") is a term used with regard to words, and more specifically with regard to what Jews and Christians are supposed to have done to their respective Scriptures in the sense of changing the language through altering words from their proper meaning, changing words in form or substituting words or letters for others. Such substitution is also termed '''' "alteration, substitution" (from the root '''' "substitute"), a wider term used also in other contexts, but in the Qur'an and later literature practically synonymous with tahrif (e.g. Commentaries of Mudjahid B. Djabr Al-makki ). The doctrine is accepted by most Muslims, excepting groups such as the Mu'tazili and Ismaili sects (who account for a fairly small percentage of the total Muslim population), as well as a few Islamic scholars and members of various liberal movements within Islam. QUR'AN AND THE DOCTRINE OF TAHRIF The Qur'an accepts the Tawrat , Zabur and the Injil as genuine divine revelations taken from the same Guarded Tablets as the Qur'an itself and brought by true messengers to both Jews and Christians respectively. Some Quranic verses are interpreted by most Muslims as accusing the Jews and the Christians of having altered (parts of) the Torah or the Hebrew Bible and (parts of) the Gospel s or the New Testament . The Qur'an does not specify exactly which parts are meant, however they are usually considered to be the places where the Qur'an and the Bible provide a different narration. Relevant verses on which the doctrine of tahrif is based are ( Yusuf Ali translation):
The Qur'an also contains different naratives of several Biblical historical accounts and stories. Muslims have commonly used the distortion of the text doctrine to justify these differences. See Similarities Between The Bible And The Qur'an for further details about the difference in naratives. ORIGIN OF TAHRIF The relevant Qu'ranic verses, if refer to the alteration of biblical text, do not state explicitly how the alteration of the various biblical texts was done and when, but later commentaries give various explanations:
QUR'AN AND THE CLAIM OF THE CORRUPTION OF THE TEXT ITSELF Some claim that above explanations are against the Qu'ran itself, since it states that the Tawrat and Injil were known by Jesus (5:110) "Then will God say: "O Jesus the son of Mary! Recount My favour to thee and to thy mother. Behold! I strengthened thee with the holy spirit, so that thou didst speak to the people in childhood and in maturity. Behold! I taught thee the Book and Wisdom, the Law and the Gospel (..)". Since Jesus knew all the Scripture and taught it, the alteration of these biblical texts has to fall between the period of Jesus and Muhammad. Furthermore the Qur'an states that those who follow the Law and the Gospel has to stand fast by it and that they are revelations from God. The conclusion that could be drawn from this, since it not possible to stand fast by something when it is not known or altered, that the text of biblical texts were at least in the time of Mohammed not corrupted according to the Qu'ran (5:68-69) Islamic scholars, such as Gary Miller, believe that Qur'an criticizes the handling of scripture by ''some'' Jews and Christians rather than their holy books. According to Gary Miller, Qur'an only makes the following three accusations {Link without Title} :
ACCUSATION OF FORGERY POLEMICAL MOTIF IN PRE-ISLAMIC TIMES The accusation of forgery was a widespread polemical motif, already in pre-Islamic times used by pagan, Samaritan and Christian authors to discredit their opponents and Scriptures. In the Medinan Surah s it is a central theme, apparently used to explain away the contradictions between the Bible and the Qu'ran and to establish that the coming of the Prophet and the rise of Islam had indeed been predicted in the "true" Bible. Medieval Muslim polemicists writing against the religions of Jews and Christians (the so-called people of the Book) drew much material from this earlier pre-Islamic literature (Samaritan, Jewish-Christian, Christian, Gnostic, Hellenistic anti-Christian, Manichean, etc.) and preserved and developed it in their own writings. This resulted in a high scholarly level of Muslim readings of the Bible, especially among such Muslim polemicists as Ibn Hazm of Cordova (d. 1064), who raised the textual scholarship associated with polemics to a particularly high level of systematic textual criticism. ''Journal of Near Eastern Studies'', Vol. 57, No. 4. (Oct., 1998), pp. 292-293 TAHRIF IN THE FIRST CENTURIES OF ISLAM In the first centuries of Islam, tahrif was not a central theme, though well-known. Early commentaries filled out the gaps left by the relevant Qu'ranic verses. Muslim scholars were making a distinction in the corruption of the text itself and the wrong interpretation of the text. In the sense of originality or authenticity of the text itself, the majority of Muslim polemicists in the 8th and 9th century believed that the text of the previous scriptures, at least in the case of the Hebrew Bible, were not corupted. Among them are Ibn al-Layth, Ibn Rabban, Ibn Qutayba, Al-Ya'qubi, Al-Tabari, Al-Baqillani, Al-Ma'sudi.Camilla Adang, ''Muslim Writers on Judaism & the Hebrew Bible from Ibn Rabban to Ibn Hazm'', ISBN 9004100342. Other commentaries include:
EARLY REFUTATION Among the earliest Christian documents on Islam in retrospect are the letter Maximus the Confessor wrote between the year 634 and 640 to Peter the Illustrious and the three writings of Sophronius , Patriarch of Jerusalem (d. 639) ranging from 634 till 637. Absent from these writings is any sense that the Arabs were spurred by a new religion. The Melkite s, those who had lost their empire, ascribed the success of the Muslims to Christian sins. The '' Apocalypse Of Pseudo-Methodius '', written between 685 and 692 (Syriac version), state among other things that the Muslims were given to rule over the Christians for their punishment and purification. The first Melkite example of doctrinal refutation is Anastasius of Sinai (d.c. 700). See also: John C. Lamoreaux, Early Eastern Christian Responses to Islam (chapter 1) in Medieval Christian Perceptions of Islam: A Book of Essays The argument of tahrif is also refuted in an early polemical text attributed to the Byzantine Emperor Leo III A. Jeffery, Ghevond's text of the correspondence between Umar II and Leo III, in Harvard Theol. Review, xxxvii {Link without Title} , 269–321 with the statement that Jews and Christians share the same, widely-known divine text, and that Ezra , the convenental architect of the Second Temple , was a pious, reliable person. The same arguments appear in later Jewish writings. IBN HAZM The personality of Ezra becomes very involved in the polemics in the 10th (4th) century, and especially with Ibn Hazm , an Andalusian savant, who explicitly accused Ezra of having falsified and added interpolations into the Biblical text. The theme of tahrif found its first detailed elaboration in the writings of Ibn Hazm. He also arranged systematically and in scholarly detail the arguments against the authenticity of the Biblical text in the first () of the text. He explains how the falsification of the Torah could have taken place while there existed only one copy of the Torah kept by the Aaronid priests in the Temple in Jerusalem. Ibn Hazm’s impact on later Muslim polemics was great, and the themes which he raised with regard to tahrif and other polemical ideas were updated only slightly by some later authors. ''The Encyclopeadia of Islam'', BRILL ''Power in the Portrayal: Representations of Jews and Muslims in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century'', chapter "An Andalusi-Muslim Literary Typology of Jewish Heresy and Sedition", pp. 56 and further, Tahrif: p. 58, ISBN 0691001871 ''Under Crescent and Cross'': The Jews in the Middle Ages, p. 146, ISBN 069101082X CRITICAL VIEWS ON MOHAMMED'S REFERENCE TO THE BIBLE According to some scholars on the field of Middle East studies, Muhammad 's attachment to the Bible was doubtless born of a desire to give legitimacy to his own message, to stress the affinity of Islam to the two better established and more widely accepted monotheistic faiths, and most specifically to Judaism. The "religion of Abraham " motif served that end, as did the Qur'an extensive citation of biblical material and Muhammad's acceptance of Jews as "People of the Book". But if that was Muhammad's intent, the situation was quite different for later Muslims. Their problem was to separate and distinguish themselves from those other two groups, to disengage themselves, so to speak, from their prophetically bestowed biblical heritage. International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 26, No. 1. (Feb., 1994), pp. 147-148. JEWISH/CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO TAHRIF Christians and Jews deny that any person or group ever committed tahrif to their scriptures. They note that none of the teachings that Muslims believe were removed from the scripture are found in the most ancient scriptural manuscripts. Some Christians claim that the Qur'an and hadith do not charge the Biblical manuscripts with corruption. Rather, they refer to the misinterpretation and oral distortions of the Jews. Christians are Jews readily discuss that biblical manuscripts have textual variants. The entire science of biblical Textual Criticism has been devoted to this. These variants exist most often as misspellings, grammatical mistakes, and the existent of two similar words. The substantial changes of theology and narration that tahrif describes have not been found. Certain English-speaking Roman Catholics who use the old Douay-Rheims Version of the Bible have a similar concept to tahrif. They claim that the King James Version (the most common Protestant translation) was created using corrupted Greek and Hebrew texts, and that the Douay-Rheims, being a direct translation of the Latin Vulgate , created from unadulterated Greek and Hebrew texts available in the fourth century, is purer than the King James. SUNNI ISLAM AND SHI'A ISLAM According to Shmuel Bar, some Sunni classical religious literature contains accusations that "The Shiites have a Qur’an that includes verses ( Surat Al-wilaya , Surat Al–nurayn ) which are not in the Sunni Qur’an and that were forged in order to justify Ali’s right to succession. In doing so, the Shiites distort the Qur’an (tahrif)". It is also claimed that the Shiites have forged hadiths in order to justify their doctrines." Current trends in Islamist ideology (Volume 2) , Center on Islam, Democracy and the Future of the Muslim World (Hudson Institute), p. 91. Article about this publication: Sunnis and Shiites: Between Rapprochement and Conflict However, all the Qur'ans published in all the Shi'a countries such as Iran are the same as those published in Sunni countries. The above two Sura's are considered as a forgery and do not appear in the Shia published Qur'ans. Shia Muslims consider the accusation that they are using a different Qur'an as one of the Misconceptions About The Shi'a . NOTES EXTERNAL LINKS
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