ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Collection and Preservation of the Qur'an Some Doubts by those who believe in Tahrif There are certain doubts which seem to lend some strength to those who believe in Tahrif. We must study them, and allay them one by one. First Doubt It is a fact that interpolation and omissions have occurred in Torah and Injil.

According to the continuous traditions recorded by both, Shi’a and Sunni, all that which occurred in the preceding era must recur in this Muslim Ummah as well. as‑Saduq, for example, has recorded the following in his al Ikmal from Ghiyas b.

Ibrahim who reports from Imam as‑Sadiq (‘a) through his forefathers: "The Prophet (‘s) said: ` All that was in the preceding peoples, must happen in this Ummah, in the wake of their footsteps, exactly identical "'[^1] So, it follows that Tahrif must occur in the Qur’an also, otherwise this tradition would have no meaning. This can be answered in many ways. First, the tradition is not continuous or widely acknowledged one, as alleged. In fact, it is from amongst isolate reports.

They have not been recorded in the four great books of Hadith, and as such there can be no comparison between the Qur’an and the Testaments on this point. Secondly, if this argument is to be considered fully, then one has to accept that together with the omission, some addition has also occurred, just as in the Testaments. This, as we know, is evidently untrue. Thirdly, many events which occurred among the foregoing peoples never occurred among the Muslims.

For example, the worshipping of the calf, the stray wandering of Banu Israel for forty years, the drowning of Pharaoh and his people, the kingdom of Sulaiman over men and jinn, the rising of Jesus alive to the heaven, the death of Harun before Musa, though he was the Wasiy, the' great nine signs of Musa, the birth of Isa without father, the curse of transmutation from men to apes and pigs, and many such occurences which we cannot all enumerate, have not occurred in this Ummah.

The meaning of the tradition, therefore, has got to be construed differently from what it apparently conveys. What it actually means is that certain incidents occuring in this Ummah will have its corresponding counterpart in the ancient history. It does not mean that all of them must recur.