What the Islamic Tradition Says About the Bible

By J. Luis Dizon
I. Introduction
A. Four Scenarios
The

Quran

teaches The

Quran

does

not

Biblical corruption
The Text of the 1. Christianity

teach Biblical corruption

is 3. Christianity and Islam

Bible

is are both falsified

has

been

falsified;

Islam

corrupted
vindicated
The Text of the 2.
Christianity

is 4.

Bible

is vindicated;

has

not

vindicated;

Islam

Christianity
Islam

is
is

been corrupted
falsified
falsified
B. Implications
1. Theoretically, my opponent could be correct tonight, and perhaps
the Quran does teach Biblical corruption, but it isnt actually the
case
2. On the other hand, perhaps both faiths are mistaken; the Bible is
false, and the Quran as well for confirming a false book
3. In order for Islam to stand as a worldview, it must be shown that the
Quran teaches the corruption of the Bible, and that this teaching
can be corroborated from actual physical evidence
4. We already talked about whether or not the Bible has been
corrupted yesterday, so todays lets talk about whether the Quran
teaches Biblical corruption
II. Biblical Influence on the Quran
A. Biblical narrative and the Quran
1. UofT professor Walid Saleh wrote: Muslims in the first century of
their religious history inevitably had to rely on the Bible for the
background of the salvific history that the Qur'an was claiming to
inherit. Moreover, the abbreviated manner in which the Qur'an
related stories from the Jewish and Christian traditions was
scarcely sufficient for the stories to function independently. The
Qur'an

needed

narrative

background

for

it

to

become

comprehensible. . . . They naturally turned to biblical lore (the

Bible, midrash, and Christian literature) to provide that narrative

background.1
2. We can readily see this influence within the Quran itself. A good
example is Surat Yunus, which is notable for its narratives of biblical
figures, particularly of Noah (v. 71), Moses (v. 75-90) and Jonah (v. 98).
3. On citing these narratives, it exhorts: If you are in doubt as to what we
have revealed to you, ask those who read the book before you; the
truth has come to you from your Lord: so never be among the doubters
(Q 10:94).
4. No surprise then that one hadith, quoted by medieval scholar al-Biqai,
says, Do not hesitate to narrate from the Sons of Israel.2
5. Now we can speak of two key terms for this debate: Tasdq (),
III.

and Ta rf ()
Tasdiq (Confirmation)
A. Definition
1. From the Arabic verb
( to confirm)
2. Active participle form:

3. Has the connotation of proving something to be true3
4. Appears in Q 2:41, 2:89, 3:3, 3:50 and 5:48
5. Appears in Q 3:3: He has sent down upon you the Book in truth,
confirming what was before it. And He revealed the Torah and the
Gospel.
6. The phrase

( lit. what is between its hands) denotes

something that is spatially in front of the one confirming, indicating an
extant document
7. Q 2:41 is even more explicit; this verse leaves no doubt that what is
being confirmed is still extant in Muhammads day: Believe in what I
reveal, confirming what is with you and be not the first to disbelieve

in it. And do not sell My signs for a small price, and fear Me.
IV.Ta rf (Corruption)
A. Definition
1 Walid Saleh, A Muslim Hebraist: Al-Biqais Bible Treatise and His Defence of
Using the Bible to Interpret the Quran, Speculum 83, 632-633.
2 Ibid., 644.
3 Edward William Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon (London: Williams & Norgate,
1863), Vol. 1., 1667.

1.
2.
3.
4.

From the Arabic verb ( to corrupt)

Related verbs:
( to change) and
( to distort)
Found in Q 2:75, 4:46, 5:13 and 5:41
Q 2:75: Do you hope that they would believe for you while a party of
them used to hear the words of Allah and then corrupt it after they

had understood it while they were knowing?

5. Two types of Ta rf:
a) Ta rf al-Mana (Corruption of meaning)
b) Ta rf al-Nass (Corruption of the text)
6. Most Muslim preachers and apologists Ive listened to advocate the
latter.
7. The Quran, however, appears to be teaching the former, as indicated
by the previous verses we just looked at.
8. This interpretation is supported by Q 3:78: There is among them a
section who distort the Book with their tongues
a) This ayah uses the related verb

b) The text leaves no doubt that the distortion in view is oral, not
textual
9. This interpretation is bolstered by numerous verses where the verb
used to describe what the ahl al-Kitab do with their books. One verb,
, means they conceal the book. Another, , means they forget it.
All of these verbs imply an extant scripture that is being ignored or
misunderstood
10.
Muhammad Tarakci and Suleyman Sayyar: According to the
linguists of Arabic, tahrif means corruption of meaning, not of text.
So, four verses mentioned above [Q 2:75, 4:46, 5:13, 5:41] claim that
Jews misinterprets [sic] their holy books.4
11.
Martin Accad: In the Quranic context, tahrif is principally an
ambiguous accusation raised against the Jews. Moreover, [the tahrif
verses] more readily lend themselves to being understood as
accusations of tahrif mana, rather than textual corruption, tahrif lafz.
One should not therefore too quickly conclude, as most do today, that
these verses were automatically understood in the sense of textual

4 Muhammet Tarakci and Suleyman Sayar, The Quranic View of the Corruption of
the Torah and the Gospels, The Islamic Quarterly 39/3, 230.

corruption

of

the

whole

Bible,

for

this

would

represent

an

anachronism.5
B. Muslim Scholarly Views
1. Some Muslim scholars recognise this. For example, the 14 th century
historian Ibn Khaldun cites the Bible in his Muqaddimah and defends
his use of it with the following statement: 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.6
2. More recently, Abdullah Saeed from the University of Melbourne
states: In no verse in the Quran is there a denigrating remark about
the scriptures of the Jews and Christians. Instead, there is respect and
reverence. Any disparaging remarks were about the People of the
Book, individuals or groups, and their actions.7
C. The Exegetes Views
1. Its not clear when Quranic exegetes began interpreting ta rf
verses as referring to ta rf al-Nass, but the shift appears to have
taken place gradually.
2. Sidney Griffith: it quickly became the practice in debates
between Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the tenth century

5 Martin Accad, Corruption and/or Misinterpretation of the Bible: The Story of the
Islamic Usage of Tahrif, Theological Review 24/2 (2003), 71.
6 Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History, Vol. I, trans. Franz
Rosenthal (Princeton University Press, 1967), 20.
7 Abdullah Saeed, The Charge of Distortion of Jewish and Christian Scriptures,
The Muslim World 92 (Fall 2002): 429. Download this article at
http://quranandinjil.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/The-Charge-of-Distortion-of-Jewishand-Christian-Scriptures_Abdullah%20Saeed.pdf.

onwards for Muslim scholars to impugn the authenticity of the Bible

text as Jews and Christians actually have it and interpret it.8
3. Camilla Adang, in a survey of Muslim writers from the 9 th to 11th
centuries,

lists

al-Maqdisi

(10th

century)

as

the

first

to

unambiguously refer to a general textual corruption (as opposed to

once isolated instance).
4. It is generally accepted in scholarly circles that the main thrust
behind the shift towards textual corruption seems to be the 11 th
century polemicist Ibn Hazm, of whom Gabriel Said Reynolds says
that he is distinguished from earlier Muslim authors... more by his
unfailingly hostile rhetoric than by the method or content of his
arguments against Christianity.9
5. There is also a shift in the nature of the textual corruption. Most
Muslims following al-Maqdisi and Ibn Hazm assert a general
corruption of the Bible, but initially, when Muslim writers do accuse
the Jews and Christians of textual corruption it concerns one
isolated incident where a description of Muhammad in the Bible is
changed (cf. Q 7:157):
a) Al Wahidi (in his Kitab Asbab al-Nuzul): Al-Kalbi mentioned,
through the above-mentioned chain of transmission: They had
changed the description of Allahs Messenger, Allah bless him
and give him peace, in their Scripture. They made him white and
tall while the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, was
brown and of medium height. They had said to their followers and
companions: Look at the description of the prophet who will be
sent at the end of time; his description does not match that of this
[man].10

8 Sidney H. Griffith, The Bible in Arabic: The Scripture of the People of the Book
in the Language of Islam (Princeton University Press, 2013), 178.
9 Gabriel Said Reynolds, Review of S.M. Behloul, Ibn azms Evangelienkritik:
Eine methodische Untersuchung, Journal of the American Oriental Society 124
(2004), 116.

b) Problem: The supposed original description of Muhammad is

nowhere to be found in the Biblical textual tradition, and neither
is the corruption!
6. Other traditions relate that Jews and Christians reading from a
(presumably intact) Bible have found descriptions of Muhammad
such as the following:
a) In Ibn Sads Kitab al-Tabaqat, he narrates a tradition where Abd
Allah ibn Salam quotes the following as a verse from the Torah:
O Prophet! Lo! We have sent you as a witness and bringer of
good tidings and a warner, and as protector of the ummiyun. You
are my servant and apostle. I have named you mutawakkil, who is
neither harsh nor coarse, and who does not make noise in the
markets nor returns evil for evil but who forgives and pardons. I
shall not cause him to die until I make the crude creed straight
and the people recite There is no god but Allah. He will make
blind eyes see, deaf ears year, and hard hearts soft.11
b) He also relates a story where a Christian named Sahl finds the
following description in a copy of the Gospel: He will be neither
short nor tall stature. He will be of white complexion with two
locks. Between his two shoulders there is a seal. He will often sit
with his legs folded. He will not accept sadaqa. He will ride the
donkey and the camel. He will milk the she goat and put on a
patched shirt, and he who does that is free from pride and he will
do that. He will be a descendant of Ismail, and his name will be
A mad.12

10 Al-Wahidi, Asbb al-Nuzl, trans. Mokrane Guezzou (Amman: Royal Aal al-Bayt
Institute for Islamic Thought), 3.
11 Ibn Sad, Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kubra (Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1957), 360-361,
translated by Gordon Nickel in The Gentle Answer To The Muslim Accusation of
Biblical Falsification (Calgary, AB: Bruton Gate, 2015), 62-63.
12 Ibid., 363, translated in Nickel, The Gentle Answer, 63-64.

7. Muslim writers who passed on these stories clearly had no access to

the Bible and were relying on second or third-hand reports of what
it says.
V. Conclusion
A. Revisiting the chart
1. The possibilities on the left-hand chart have now been eliminated;
all we have left are the ones on the right-hand chart
2. Whether or not the Bible is corrupted; either way Islam is falsified