Taḥrīf (Arabic: تحريف, transl. 'distortion') is an Arabic-language term used by some Muslims to refer to the alterations that are believed to have been made to the previous revelations of God—specifically those that make up the Tawrat (or Torah), the Zabur (or Psalms) and the Injil (or Gospel)—which ultimately distorted the originally-revealed word of God.
Origin
Tahrif in meaning and not text was first characterised in the writings al-Kasim b. Ibrahim (9th century), who made the claim that the corruption was not in the text of the previous revelations, but in the interpretations of the Jews and Christians. The corruption of interpretation is referred to as "Tahrif al-mana".[1] Likewise, early quranic exegete Al-Tabari also rejected tahrif of the text and referred to the Jewish Torah in his words as "the Torah that they possess today".[2]
The corruption of the BiblIcal text was first explicated by Ibn Hazm (11th century), who popularized the concept of "Tahrif al-nass," or corruption of the text. Ibn Hazm rejected claims of Mosaic authorship and posited that Ezra was the author of the Torah. He systematically organised the arguments against the authenticity of the Biblical text in the first (Tanakh) and second part (New Testament) of his book: chronological and geographical inaccuracies and contradictions; theological impossibilities (anthropomorphic expressions, stories of fornication and whoredom, and the attributing of sins to prophets), as well as lack of reliable transmission (tawatur) 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 Aaronic priesthood of the Temple in Jerusalem. Ibn Hazm's arguments had a major impact upon Muslim literature and scholars, and the themes that he raised with regard to tahrif and other polemical ideas were modified slightly by some later authors.[3][4][5]
Types
Amin Ahsan Islahi writes about four types of tahrif:[6]
- To deliberately interpret something in a manner that is opposite to the author's intention. To distort the pronunciation of a word to such an extent that the word changes completely.
- To add to or delete a sentence or discourse in a manner that distorts the original meaning. For example, according to Muslim tradition, the Jews altered the incident of the migration of Abraham in a manner that no one could prove that Abraham had any relationship with the Kaaba.
- To translate a word that has two meanings in the meaning that is against the context. For example, the Aramaic word used for Jesus that is equivalent to the Arabic: ابن ibn was translated as "son" whereas it also meant "servant" and "slave".
- To raise questions about something that is absolutely clear in order to create uncertainty about it, or to change it completely.
Reacounts of Quranic Tahrif (Distortion)
Throughout the corpus of hadith and history in Islam, various accounts of the companions of Muhammad recount Quranic text differently than what is in the modern-day copy. One companion, Abdullah ibn Masud the renowned mufassir of the Quran reports that verse 3:33 of the Quran was recited as
¨God selected Adam and Noah, Abraham´s household, Imran´s household, and Muhammad´s household over the worlds¨.[7][8]
Other companions such as Umar, Ibn Abbas, Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, and Ubayy ibn Ka'b recall that two small surahs were not present in the legitimized copy but in some of their own Mus'hafs by the name of Al Hafd and Al Khal´.[9][10]
See also
Notes
- ^ Lazarus-Yafeh, Haza (2000). Tahrif. Leiden: Brill. p. 111. ISBN 9004112111.
- ^ Camilla Adang. Muslim Writers on Judaism and the Hebrew Bible: From Ibn Rabban to Ibn Hazm. BRILL, 1996. ISBN 978-9-004-10034-3. page 231.
- ^ The Encyclopedia 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 0-691-00187-1
- ^ Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages, p. 146, ISBN 0-691-01082-X
- ^ Amin Ahsan Islahi, Tadabbur-i-Qur'an, 2nd ed., vol. 1, (Lahore: Faran Foundation, 1986), p. 252
- ^ Hossein Modarressi, Studia Islamica, No. 77.,Early Debates on the Integrity of the Quran,1993,Page 31
- ^ Abu Hayan al-Gharanti|Al-Bahr Al-Muhit
- ^ Hossein Modarressi, Studia Islamica, No. 77.,Early Debates on the Integrity of the Quran,1993,Page 13
- ^ Al-Itqan fi Ulum al-Qur’an,Jalaluddin Suyuti,Muneer Fareed