ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Qur'an:its Protection From Alteration Introduction The Qur'an is the eternal miracle and the living proof of the truth of Islam. It challenged the adversaries to bring its like, even a single chapter like its, if they thought that it was not from Allah. [^1] The enemies failed to do so; and tried to extinguish the light of Islam by waging war after war, which incidentally still continues on many fronts and in several disguises.

The most important target of the enemies of Islam was and is the Qur'an, which they have been trying to disparage in one way or the other. For example: They said that the Prophet (peace be upon him & his progeny) had learnt these profound truths from some Jews or Christians! They claimed that there were contradictory statements in the Qur'an! They pontificated that the Qur'anic ethics fell far short of the "sublime ethical teachings" of the Christianity!

None of these claims could be sustained in the eyes of independent thinkers; the Muslims rebutted all such accusations. We have only to read the talk of Amirul-mu'minin 'Ali (a.s.) with an atheist on the subject of the Qur'an, to see how the Imams of Ahlu 'l-bayt (who were the guardians of the Qur'anic truths according to the hadith of thaqalayn) defended the Qur'an and proved its pristine reality beyond any doubt. [^2] The purpose of this talk is to show that there was no tahrif in the Qur'an.

The word tahrif may denote several meanings; however, what we are concerned with here is alteration or omission. It is our belief that there is no alteration in, addition to or omission from the Qur'an. Allah has clearly and emphatically declared that He Himself was the Protector of the Book: Surely We have revealed the Reminder and We most surely are its Guardian.

(15:9) [^3] In fulfillment of this promise, the Qur'an was collected in book form in the days of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his progeny) himself. Both external evidence (from the sunnah) and internal evidence (from the Qur'an itself) have clearly established that the Prophet had left a Book in the hands of the Muslims. As for the internal evidence, there are at least fifty-two verses in which the Qur'an has been called a "Book".

As for the external evidence, the famous mutawatir hadith of Thaqalayn proves the existence of the Book during the last days of the Prophet (peace be upon him & his progeny).