A key word in the debate over the Qur'an's view of the Bible is the Arabic word (tahrif). Its most basic meaning is "to corrupt". Ibn Taymiyyah gives a more comprehensive definition below:
3.6.1 AT-TAHREEF
3.6.1.1 In the Language - to change or alter.
3.6.1.2 Technically here - to change the texts in wording or meaning. This is of 3 kinds.
3.6.1.2.1 Altering the words so the meaning changes: e.g. What some innovators do to the Saying of Allaah in (4):164 - changing the Dammah on the last letter of "Allaah" with a Fathah, in order to change the meaning to "Moosaa spoke to Allaah..."
3.6.1.2.2 Altering the words with no change of meaning: e.g. changing the Dammah on the last letter of "al Hamd" in (1):2, to a Fathah. This usually occurs out of ignorance.
3.6.1.2.3 Altering the Meaning: taking the meaning of the words away from their most apparent meaning without any proof. e.g. Saying Allaah's Two Hands means "His Power" or "His Blessing". (Ibn Taymiyyah, Creed of Hamawiyyah - Chapter 3: The Way of Ahl us-Sunnah Concerning Allaah's Attributes, Source)
Nearly all Muslims today would hold to the view that the text (and thus, the meaning as well) of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures has been changed and distorted.
I would submit that while the Qur'an and early Islamic tradition does say that the Torah and the Injeel suffered tahrif, this was a corruption of the meaning of the text, rather than the text itself, in contrast to the teaching of later Muslims such as Ibn Hazm (a well-known polemicist against Christianity) and (possibly) Ibn Taymiyyah, who had a more nuanced view, which is also different from the majority Islamic view today.
Here is a brief listing of some of the sources I have used for this article:
Adang, Camilla. Muslim Writers on Judaism & the Hebrew Bible from Ibn Rabban to Ibn Hazm. E. J. Brill Leiden, 1996.
Saeed, Abdullah. "The Charge of Distortion of Jewish and Christian Scriptures." The Muslim World, vol. 92, 2002, pgs. 419-36.
Tarakci, Muhammet, and Suleyman Sayar. "The Qur’anic View of the Corruption of the Torah and the Gospels." The Islamic Quaterly, vol. 49, no. 3, 2005, pp. 227-45.
"Ibn Qutayba used the Torah not only as a book in which the advent of the Prophet is foretold, but also as a historical source... It is clear that what is meant by tahrif is giving a wrong interpretation to an otherwise genuine text. Ibn Qutayba does not question the authenticity or validity of the Jewish scriptures, and nowhere does he accuse the Jews of having distorted them. Admittedly, he states in his Ma‘arif that the Torah was burned at one point, but he immediately adds that Ezra reinstated it after the Jews had returned to Syria...The statement about the restoration of the Lost Torah probably goes back indirectly to the apocryphal IV Ezra with which, as we have seen in Chapter Four, Ibn Qutayba was acquainted in one form or another. We see the motif of Ezra as the inspired restorer of the holy scriptures recurring in the works of other historians, among them al-Tabari. (Camilla Adang, Muslim Writers, pgs. 225-226)
#3 - Al-Baqillani
"It would seem that al-Baqillani simply assumed it to be authentic, albeit abrogated....Apparently al-Baqillani believed that the words of Moses were still extant in their Hebrew original, and could serve as the touchstone with which to compare the statements made by the Jews. The term as used by him stands for inadvertent errors made in the process of translation, rather than deliberate alterations effected in the text of the Torah." (Camilla Adang, Muslim Writers, pgs. 234-235)
#4 - Al-Mas'udi
"According to al-Ma‘sudi’s account of the Torah - which echoes that of al-Ya‘qubi - the text of the Torah was not corrupted; no new laws were introduced; the old ones were just reinstated...The one time he addresses the issue of tahrif – in the Muruj - it is clear that he accuses the Jews of distorting the sense of the Torah, not the text...So far, we have only encountered authors who subscribed to the view that the misrepresentation of the Torah referred to in the Koran merely concerns the meaning of the Torah and not its text. As may be concluded from al-Tabari’s Tafsir, however, the opposite view also had its partisans. With al-Maqdisi we turn to an authority who had his misgivings about the authenticity of the text." (Camilla Adang, Muslim Writers, pg. 232)
#5 - Ibn Taymiyyah
As I said briefly at the beginning of this article, Ibn Taymiyyah held a nuanced view on the issue of tahrif. While in some of his treatises (such as Al-Jawab al-Sahih, a book written against Christians as a whole), he frequently accuses Christians in particular of distorting their Scriptures (the same ones which he demonstrates his astounding ignorance of throughout his treatise), he elsewhere says that while some copies of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures were indeed textually altered, some were not:
"It is said that in the world there is no single copy [or version of the scripture] that corresponds to what God revealed in Tawrät and Injil. All that exist are changed (mubaddal). As for Tawrät, its transmission from a large number of people to a [subsequent] large number of people has stopped and the Injil is taken from four [people]. Then, among these people [Muslims] there are those who allege (za'ama) that much of what is in Tawrt and Injtl [today] is false (batil), not of God's word (kalam allah). Some of them said that what is false is not much. It is [also said]: No one has changed any text of the scriptures. Rather they [Jews and Christians] have falsified their meanings by [false] interpretations. Many Muslims have held both of these views. The correct [view] is the third view, which is that in the world there are true (sahib) copies [versions], and these remained until the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him), and many copies [versions] which are corrupted. Whoever says that nothing in [these] copies [versions] was corrupted he has denied what cannot be denied. Whoever says that, after the Prophet (peace be upon him), all copies [versions] have been corrupted (burrifat), he has said what is manifestly false (khatab). The Qur'än commands them to judge with what Allah revealed in Tawrät and Injil. [Allah] informs that in both there is wisdom (bikmab). There is nothing in the Qur'än to indicate that they altered all copies [versions]." (Ibn Taymiyyah, Tafsir al-Kabir, Vol. I, pg. 209)
#6 - Ibn Khaldun
"Someone might come out against this tradition with the argument that it occurs only in the Torah which, as is well known, was altered by the Jews. The reply to this argument would be that the statement concerning the alteration of the Torah by the Jews is unacceptable to thorough scholars and cannot be understood in its plain meaning, since custom prevents people who have a revealed religion from dealing with the divine scriptures in such a manner." (Ibn Khaldun, The Muqqaddimah: An Introduction to History, Vol. I, pg. 20)
W.J. Fischel writes the following concerning Ibn Khaldun's view of the Hebrew Bible:
"Unlike Ibn Hazm or other Muslim authors dealing with the fundamental concepts of other religions in comparison with or in defense of Islam, Ibn Khaldun approaches the Bible and Judaism not as a theologian but as an historian, generally free from polemics and prejudices; as a Muslim, however, he could not help taking part in the discussions of Islamic scholars as to the origin and genuineness of the text of the Holy Scriptures of the Jews and Christians (Ahl al-Kitab). As is well-known, Islamic theologians were divided in their views in this respect—one group accused the Jews and Christians of having corrupted the text (tahrif) while others charged them only with a misinterpretation of passages of the Holy Scriptures. Ibn Khaldun, as Mas’udi and others, adheres to the latter view and rejects the notion of the falsification of the text as such." (W.J. Frischel, “Ibn Khaldun: On the Bible, Judaism and the Jews,” in Ignace Goldziher Memorial Volume, Vol. 2, pgs. 156-157)
Concerning most of the writers she examined, Camilla Adang writes:
"... It was found that the majority of our authors subscribe to a mild interpretation of the Koranic allegation of large-scale tampering with the Torah by the Jews (tahrif); according to this interpretation, only the sense of the biblical text had been changed while the text itself remained intact. Only al-Maqdisi and Ibn Hazm believed that the text had suffered distortion. The person held responsible by Ibn Hazm for corruption of the Torah was Ezra the scribe, who was generally put in a very positive light by Hazm’s predecessors. Apart from al-Tabari, the authors who held to a moderate view of tahrif felt justified in using the Bible as a historical source and for apologetical purposes." (Camilla Adang, Muslim Writers, pg. 251)
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