Altered/Perverted/Corrupted their Scripture:-
To explain away the incredible number of incompatibilities between the stories as depicted in the Quran vis a vis their originals in the Bible, Muhammad in his Quran allege that the People of the Book, the Jews and Christians had altered/corrupted the meaning and or interpretations of their Holy Books.
Some of his later followers, because of their enormous frustration in trying to reconcile these irreconcilable differences, started the process of character assassinating the Holy Books of the Jews and Christians by alleging that their TEXTS were actually perverted, altered and doctored at least one thousand years before - or even after - just to deny Muhammad's rightful position as a prophet, and his Quran as the scripture of Allah.
Putting aside these preposterous, unfounded and disgusting allegations, neither the Quran nor any of its followers can substantiate any of their uncorroborated, hatemongering, asinine, baseless, desperate and infantile assertions.
Theirs, are acts of intellectual, literary, historical and theological perversions and fraudulence resulting from their desperate need to explain away the unexplainable.
Unfortunately, these allegations have become part and parcel of their dogma justifying them to slaughter, dispossess, plunder, subjugate or force into conversion the
People of the Book.
Like all criminals, the Muhammadan exegetes project upon their victims
- the Jews and Christians in this particular case - the very characteristics, deeds and perversions that they themselves actually possess, exhibit and do.
It is, after all, easier to claim that one's opponent is a fraud without having to prove that they are.
The word used by Muhammadan writers for this supposed corruption/alteration of the sacred Scriptures of the Jews & Christians is Tahrif [Corruption].
What is actually astounding, and contrary to these allegations, is that it is a documented fact that most of the early Muhammadan exegetes, understood Tahrif to mean altering the Meaning but not the Text of some of the Biblical verses:
1. Abu'l-Rabi' b. al-Layth (c. 8th century A.D.).
2. Ali b. Rabban al-Tabari (b. 810 A.D.).
3. Abu Muhammad 'Abd Allah b. Muslim b. Qutayba (b. 828 A.D.).
4. Ahmad b. Abi Ya'qub b. Ja'far b. Wahb b. Wadih al-'Abbasi (b. first quarter of the 9th century
5. Abu Ja'far Muhammad b. Jarir al-Tabari (b. 839 A.D.).
6. Abu'l-Hasan 'Ali b. al-Husayn al-Mas'udi (b. 893 A.D.).
7. Abu Bakr Muhammad b. al-Tayyib b. Ja'far b. Muhammad b. al-Qasim (ibn) al-Baqillani (b. 950)
8. Abu Nasr Mutahhar b. Tahir al-Maqdisi.
9. Abu'l-Rayhan Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Biruni (b. 973 A.D.).
10. Abu Muhammad 'Ali b. Ahmad b. Hazm (b. 994 A.D.).
The first seven writers were of the opinion that the Hebrew Scriptures remained intact, with the last three claiming that textual corruption had taken place.
It was Ibn Hazm who could not bring himself to accept or believe that the Quranic version of the Biblical stories could be at fault, since it was the unalterable words of Allah, who concluded out of total frustration and desperation that it is the books of the Jews and Christians that were perverted and corrupted prior to the advent of Muhammad.
He was the most vociferous of those who held that the text of the Hebrew Bible was corrupted; it is upon his unfounded opinions that many of the ignorant and unlearned - of the Bible - Fundamentalist Muhammadan scholars base their dogma of hate and lies.
The Imam Fakhru 'd-din Razi, in his commentary, Tafsir-el-Kabir, explains Tahrif to mean "to change, alter, or turn aside anything from the truth."
Muslim divines say there are two kinds of tahrif, namely:
tahrif-el-ma'nawi, a corruption of the meaning; and
tahrif-el-lafthi, a corruption of the words/text.
Derivatives of this verb are: Harrafa, Youharrifouna, Harrafou, etc.
The early Muhammadan polemicists, such as 'Ali al-Tabari, the Zaydi al-Qasim ibn Ibrahim, and Al-Hasan ibn Ayyub, applied the concept of
tahrif al-ma'na (change of meaning) to the Christian as well as Jewish Scriptures.
Even the later polemicists of the Ash'arite school such as al- Baqillani, Fakhr al-Din al Razi and Al -Ghazali approached the Bible as basically sound in its TEXT but MISINTERPRETED by Christians and Jews.
It was Ibn Hazm (994/1064 born in Cordoba, Spain), in his Al-Fisal fi al-Milal wal-Ahwa wal-Nihal, who carefully built an unfounded case for the actual corruption of the Biblical TEXT because he could not accept that the Quran could possibly be wrong.
In psychology, this is called Projective Identification where by the criminal, accuses its victim of his intended criminal action.
To explain away the unexplainable verses and stories of the Quran, Ibn Hazm alleges that the Bible is not a message of God which contains some erroneous passages and words, but is of the status of an anti-Scripture, "an accursed book," the product of satanic inspiration.
His conclusions marked a departure from the prevailing opinion before his time and was followed by subsequent writers only with careful qualifications. Although the majority of later polemicists rejected Ibn Hazm's conclusions as extreme, by the strength of his argumentation he unfortunately influenced all subsequent polemical literature.
Muhammadan controversialists, when they become acquainted with the nature of the contents of the sacred books of the Jews and Christians, and of the impossibility of reconciling the contents of the Quran with those of the sacred Scripures, charge the Christians with the tahrif-el-lafthi (Corruption of the TEXT).
They say that the Christians have expunged the word Ahmad from the prophecies and have inserted the word "Comforter" instead as well as the story of the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
This view, however, as documented in their own books, is not the one held by the most celebrated of the Muhammadan commentators.
The Imam Muhammad Isma'il al-Bukhari (p. 1127, line 7), records that Ibn 'Abbas said that
"the word Tahrif (corruption) signifies to change a thing from its original nature; and that there is no man who could corrupt a single word of what proceeded from Allah, so that the Jews and Christians could corrupt only by misrepresenting the meaning of the words of Allah."
The Mazar and Ibn Abi Harim state in the commentary known as the Tafsir Durr al Mansur, that they have it on the authority of ibn Muniyah, that the Taurat (i.e. the books of Moses), and the Injil (i.e. the Gospels), were sent down from heaven, and that no alterations had been made in them, but that the Jews were wont to deceive the people by unsound arguments, and by wresting the sense of Scripture.
Shah Waliyu'llah in his commentary, the Fauthu 'l-Kabi, and also Ibn 'Abbas, support the same view. This appears to be the correct interpretation of the various verses of the Quran charging the Jews with having corrupted the meaning of the sacred Scriptures. For example:
Ali 'Imran 3.72 "'There are certainly some of them who read the Scriptures perversely, that ye may think what they read to be really in the Scriptures yet it is not in the Scriptures; and they say this is from Allah, but it is not from Allah; and they speak that which is false concerning Allah against their own knowledge."
The Imam Fakhru 'd-din, in his commentary on this verse, and many others of the same character which occur in the Quran, says it refers to a tahrif-el-ma'nawi, and that it does not mean that the Jews altered the text, but merely that they made alterations in the course of reading.
Most of the old commentators, who most probably had never seen a copy of the sacred books of the Jews and Christians, only charge them with a tahrif-el-ma'nawi (corruption of meaning) , as being the only solution to the difficulty.
In dealing with such opponents, the People of the Book can avail themselves of the following arguments: -
1. The Quran charges the Jews and Christians with corrupting the MEANING and not the TEXT of the sacred books; as many learned Muhammadan commentators admit that such is the case.
2. The Quran asserts that the Holy Scriptures of the Jews and Christians existed uncorrupted in the days of Muhammad, who invariably speaks of them with reverence and respect.
3. There exist manuscripts of the Torah and New Testament which are centuries older than Muhammad or his Quran of 610 AD.
4. There are versions of the Bible now extant, which existed centuries before Muhammad in different languages such as for example, the Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate, the Syriac, the Coptic, and the Armenian versions.
5. The Hexapla, or Octapla of Origen, which dates four centuries before Muhammad, gives various versions of the Biblical Scriptures in parallel columns.
6. The Syrian Christians of St. Thomas of Malabar and Travancorn in the south of India, who were separated from the western world for centuries, possess the same Scriptures.
7. In the works of Justin Martyr, who lived from A.D. 108 to 167, there are numerous quotations from the Christian sacred books, which prove that they were almost identical; exactly the same may be said of other early Christian writers.
8. The followers of Muhammad have the unenviable and impossible task of proving, that the People of the Book had to alter tens of thousands of manuscripts, in different countries and in different languages, centuries earlier, just to deny Muhammad his alleged prophethood.
They can only do so if they can produce copies of the 'true and original Books' that they allege were perverted, otherwise, how could they possibly know? Without the introduction of such evidence, their case collapses upon them.
Muhammadan scholars of the present day urge, that the numerous readings which exist in the Christian books are a proof that they have been corrupted. But those do not affect, in the least, the main points at issue between the Christians and Muhammadans.
The divine sonship of Jesus, his Crucifixion, Death, and Resurrection as well as the Atonement, are all clearly stated in almost every book of the New Testament, whilst they are rejected and utterly denied by the Quran.
Unfortunately for the Muhammadans, the same can be said about the different versions of the Quranic manuscripts that exist in Turkey, Uzbekstan and other countries which show hundreds of differences both in the wording and the meaning of the Quranic texts.
They too, very conveniently ignore their own recorded admissions about the compilation of the Quranic texts and how many verses were:
abrogated,
eliminated,
corrupted,
eaten by an animal,
forgotten,
many of which died with those MEMORISERS who were killed in battles
and in the final analysis, Uthman's destruction by the burning of six of the Qurans compiled by Muhammad's immediate companions.
Uthman had the audacity and affrontry to destroy what was allegedly the words of Allah. For these acts of desecration he was later killed.
The most plausible of modern objections urged by Muhammadan divines is, that the Christians have lost the Injil which was sent down from heaven to Jesus; and that the New Testament contains merely the hadith or Sunnah - the traditions as handed down by Mathew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul and others.
It is, or course, a mere opinion unsupported by any proof, but it has become a desperate line of argument which commends itself to many modern Muhammadans.
They deliberately ignore and pervert the fact that the Injil/Gospels, were NOT 'sent down from heaven' but were actually written decades after the death of Jesus who had left no records of his exploits.
Well, here too, one can accuse the followers of Muhammad that their Ahadith are also corrupt, and have been altered and perverted by Muhammad's followers over the centuries.
It is a recorded fact by Muhammadans, that the Ahadith which are considered Sahih (correct/true), constitute less than ONE PER CENT of the total compiled by its authors.
It is reported in Muhammadan traditions, that Imam Bukhari was able to acertain only about 2700 Hadiths from 600,000 to be actually 'truthful'. If that does not represent a reprehensibly small percentage of veracity, what does?
2: 75 Can ye (O ye men of Faith) entertain the hope that they will believe in you? Seeing that a party of them heard the word of Allah and perverted it [youharrifounahu] knowingly after they understood it.
*** This verse implies that a small party of the People of the Book merely perverted/altered the INTERPRETATION and MEANING of some of the Biblical verses without altering theirTEXT, which are after all, divine ***
2: 79 Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands and then say: "This is from Allah" to traffic with it for a miserable price! Woe to them for what their hands do write and for the gain they make thereby.
***Muhammad, as an authority on writing his 'book' and then assigning it to the unsuspecting Allah, was best fitted to make such an accusation against some of the Jews and Christians ***
2: 89 And when there comes to them a Book from Allah confirming what is with them although from of old they had prayed for victory against those without faith when there comes to them that which they (should) have recognized they refused to believe in it; but the curse of Allah is on those without Faith.
2: 101 And when came to them an Apostle from Allah confirming what was with them a party of the people of the Book threw away the Book of Allah behind their backs as if (it had been something) they did not know!
*** This verse - like tens of others in the Quran - asserts that Muhammad's message confirms those of the previous revlations of the Torah and the Gospels which negates any possibility that their TEXTS were either altered or perverted.
Had they been altered, this verse would not have been included in the 'revelations' because it would then be instructing Muhammad to confirm UNHOLY scripture***
3: 3 It is He Who sent down to thee (step by step) in truth the Book confirming what went before it; and He sent down Law (Of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus) before this as a guide to mankind and He sent down the Criterion (of judgment between right and wrong).
*** Had these Books been deemed CORRUPTED by Muhammad, they would not have been included in the Quran as a TESTAMENT to its own
VERACITY ***
3: 78 There is among them a section who distort the Book with their tongues; (as they read) you would think it is a part of the Book but it is no part of the Book; and they say "That is from Allah" but it is not from Allah: it is they who tell a lie against Allah and (well) they know it!
*** The Quranic verse is crystal clear in asserting that SOME among the People of the Book distort its contents verbally through mis interpretation and not because of any tampering with the TEXT/written words ***
3: 187 And remember Allah took a Covenant from the People of the Book to make it known and clear to mankind and not to hide it; but they threw it away behind their backs and purchased with it some miserable gain! and vile was the bargain they made!
*** Muhammad is again abjectly wrong and untruthful as well as denying the historical record. He was only able to find out about previous revelations because of the Jews and some Christians who were true Monotheistic Arabs unlike him, who was initially a pagan.
It should be obvious that, had the Jews hidden their Book, as alleged, there would have been no Christians, no Hanifs and no Muhammadan Islam***
4: 46 Of the Jews there are those who displace words from their (right) places [youharrifouna] and say: "We hear and we disobey"; and "Hear what is not heard": and "Ra`ina"; with a twist of their tongues and a slander to faith. If only they had said: "We hear and we obey"; and "Do hear"; and "Do look at us": it would have been better for them and more proper; but Allah hath cursed them for their unbelief; and but few of them will believe.
4: 136 O ye who believe! believe in Allah and his Apostle and the scripture which He hath sent to His Apostle and the scripture which He sent to those before (him). And who denieth Allah His angels His Books His Apostles and the Day of Judgment hath gone far far astray.
4: 163 We have sent thee inspiration as We sent it to Noah and the Messengers after him; We sent inspiration to Abraham Ismail Isaac Jacob and the Tribes to Jesus Job Jonah Aaron and Solomon and to David We gave the Psalms.
5: 13 But because of their breach of their Covenant We cursed them and made their hearts grow hard: they change the words from their (right) places [youharrifouna] and forget a good part of the Message that was sent them nor wilt thou cease to find them barring a few ever bent on (new) deceits: but forgive them and overlook (their misdeeds): for Allah loveth those who are kind.
*** Since the Allah of Muhammad is NOT the Yehweh of the Jews, there could never have been a covenant between them to start with***
5: 44 It was We who revealed the law (to Moses); therein was guidance and light. By its standard have been judged the Jews by the Prophets who bowed (as in Islam) [aslamoo] to Allah's will by the Rabbis and the doctors of Law: for to them was entrusted the protection of Allah's Book and they were witnesses thereto: therefore fear not men but fear Me and sell not My Signs for a miserable price. If any do fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed they are (no better than) unbelievers.……
46 And in their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary confirming the law that had come before him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidance and light and confirmation of the law that had come before him: a guidance and an admonition to those who fear Allah.
47 Let the people of the Gospel Judge by what Allah hath revealed therein. If any do fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed they are (no better than) those who rebel.
48 To thee We sent the Scripture in truth confirming the scripture that came before it and guarding it in safety; so judge between them by what Allah hath revealed and follow not their vain desires diverging from the truth that hath come to thee. To each among you have We prescribed a Law and an Open Way. If Allah had so willed He would have made you a single people but (His plan is) to test you in what He hath given you: so strive as in a race in all virtues. The goal of you all is to Allah; it is He that will show you the truth of the matters in which ye dispute.
5: 69 Those who believe (in the Qur'an) those who follow the Jewish (Scriptures) and the Sabians and the Christians any who believe in Allah and the Last Day and work righteousness on them shall be no fear nor shall they grieve.
*** If at the time of Muhammad, the TEXTS of the BOOKS had been altered, neither Muhammad nor Allah would have 'revealed' the above verse ***
6: 92 And this is a Book which We have revealed bringing blessings and confirming (the revelations) which came before it: that thou mayest warn the Mother of Cities and all around her. Those who believe in the Hereafter believe in this (Book) and they are constant in guarding their prayers.
7:169 After them succeeded an (evil) generation: they inherited the Book but they chose (for themselves) the vanities of this world saying (for excuse): "(everything) will be forgiven us." (Even so) if similar vanities came their way they would (again) seize them. Was not the covenant of the Book taken from them that they would not ascribe to Allah anything but the truth? And they study what is in the Book. But best for the righteous is the home in the hereafter: will ye not understand?
*** This verse of the Quran is one among many others that gave license to attack not only the Jews but the Christians as well, by alleging that they are not the ORIGINAL true believers in the earlier revelations because both 'peoples' perverted and altered the MEANING of their 'original' Books.
Of course, neither the Quran nor its followers have any knowledge - whether oral or written - of what the alleged 'original' Books were actually saying. There was nothing new or of greater value in the Quran that warranted the People of the Book to ask anything from Muhammad or his followers. The allegation that they had altered their revelations is both a defamation of character and a mendacity based only on ill will and not on either knowledge or fact.
The reality that cannot be disputed based upon all the information that we have available from the mouths of the followers of Muhammad from the Ahadith and 'Islamic' history, is that the Quran was almost completely plagiarised, plundered, pirated and/or perverted from the Bible, Zoroastrianism, pagan Arabian religion, their respective scriptures, fetishes and traditions and subsequently further altered even more by the different sects among the followers of Muhammad to suit their own separate agendas ***
10: 3 This Quran is not such as can be produced by other than Allah; on the contrary it is a confirmation of (revelations) that went before it and a fuller explanation of the Book wherein there is no doubt from the Lord of the Worlds.
10:94 If thou wert in doubt as to what We have revealed unto thee then ask those who have been reading the Book from before thee: the Truth hath indeed come to thee from thy Lord: so be in nowise of those in doubt.
#Allah's Truth is all one, and even in different forms men sincere in Religion recognise the oneness. So sincere Jews like 'Abdullah ibn Salam, and sincere Christians like Waraqa or the Nestorian monk Bahira, were ready to recognise the mission of Muhammad Al-Mustafa. "The Book" in this connection is Revelation generally, including pre-Islamic revelations#
*** The Quran in this very rare instance, gives the People of the Book the ultimate compliment since it is making them as arbitrators to its own veracity in the dispute between Muhammad and the pagans.
Waraqa was the uncle of Khadijah, while Bahira was the monk who allegedly befriended Muhammad on one of his early trading trips.
The most important revelation in this verse is that the Torah is declared as a Book of Truth and a Revealed Book from Allah making its contents as holy and inviolate as the Quran and not yet considered as perverted/altered as became the doctrine of Muhammadans later on to justify for themselves their claim for the superiority of their Quran***
46: 12 And before this was the Book of Moses as a guide and a mercy; and this Book confirms (it) in the Arabic tongue; to admonish the unjust and as Glad Tidings to those who do right.
*** This verse alone, among all the others here mentioned, declares in clear Arabic, that Allah is instructing Muhammad and his followers, that the Quran confirms all the previous revelations.
Had these revelations been altered or perverted before hand, this verse would not have been revealed to Muhammad, since Allah would not have instrucred him to follow or confirm an altered revelation of his.
This verse shows very clearly, that at the time of Muhammad, nothing was considered altered in the Torah or the Gospels, which is of course contrary to all the lies and hatemongerings of the LATER Muhammadan exegetes who were desperately trying to explain away the incredible differences between the events mentioned in the Bible with the same mentioned in the Quran***
Sunan of Abu-DawoodHadith 4434 Narrated byAbdullah Ibn Umar
A group of Jews came and invited the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) to Quff. So he visited them in their school. They said: AbulQasim, one of our men has committed fornication with a woman; so pronounce judgment upon them. They placed a cushion for the Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) who sat on it and said: Bring the Torah.
It was then brought. He then withdrew the cushion from beneath him and placed the Torah on it saying: I believe in thee and in Him Who revealed thee.
He then said: Bring me one who is learned among you. Then a young man was brought. The transmitter then mentioned the rest of the tradition of stoning similar to the one transmitted by Malik from Nafi'(No. 4431).
*** This particular Hadith shows three extremely important matters:
1 That Muhammad actually had great reverence and respect for the Torah, so much so, that he put it on the cushion he was sitting on and addressed as above.
2 If the Torah had been perverted or tampered with at the time of Muhammad or before, he would NOT have shown it such reverence and respect and would NOT have addressed it with such humility.
3 This Hadith by itself, destroys all and every allegation that the later follower of Muhammad - and unto the present time- heap upon the Jews and their Holy Book ***
Sahih Al-Bukhari HadithHadith 8.809/825 Narrated byIbn Umar
A Jew and a Jewess were brought to Allah's Apostle on a charge of committing an illegal sexual intercourse. The Prophet asked them. "What is the legal punishment (for this sin) in your Book (Torah)?" They replied, "Our priests have innovated the punishment of blackening the faces with charcoal and Tajbiya." 'Abdullah bin Salam said, "O Allah's Apostle, tell them to bring the Torah." The Torah was brought, and then one of the Jews put his hand over the Divine Verse of the Rajam (stoning to death) and started reading what preceded and what followed it.
On that, Ibn Salam said to the Jew, "Lift up your hand." Behold! The Divine Verse of the Rajam was under his hand. So Allah's Apostle ordered that the two (sinners) be stoned to death, and so they were stoned. Ibn 'Umar added: So both of them were stoned at the Balat and I saw the Jew sheltering the Jewess.
*** This story alone, in fact, demolishes all the innuendos or accusations made about the Jews having 'perverted' the words of the Torah or altered them.
Here we have spectacular proof, that the TEXT of the Torah was NOT altered, but ONLY its meaning (tahrif ma'nawi).
That is why the Jews, allegedly, covered the words that actually existed. Had they altered the text, the verse of Rajam would not have been pronounced.
As usual, the Ahadith invariably discredit the Quran and its later falsified interpretations.
There are many more verses in the Quran attesting to the above.
In conclusion, no where in the whole of the Quran are there any verses which assert, that the People of the Book altered/perverted or changed the TEXT of their scriptures but only, that among some of them, there were ones who altered the MEANING of some of the verses.
All the later attempts by Muhammadan theologians to assert otherwise are fully contradicted by the Quran and their own historical records.
If the texts of the Torah and the New Testament were not altered/corrupted before Muhammad, they certainly were not after him, thus making all Muhammdan scholarly arguments instantly null and void, unsubstantiated and are merely the desperate attempts to reconcile the irreconcilable.
Moreover, all they have to do to prove their absurd point of view is to show the UNCORRUPTED ORIGINAL VERSIONS upon which they base their case ***