Corruption and Distortion (Tahreef) in The Qur’an, Part IV

”How to erase this false Myth, by Amaar Khan”

From Part III

Umar believed in a different version of Surah Fatihah

We have relied on the following esteemed works of Ahle Sunnah to prove this:

Tafseer Dur e Manthur, Volume 1 page 15
Al Musahif, page 60 by Abi Bakr Sajistani

In the present Qur’an, Muslims read Surah Fatihah with the following words during prayers:

SIRATA ALLATHEENA ANAAAMTA! AAALAYHIM GHAYRI ALMAGHDOOBI AAALAYHIM WALA ALDDALLEENA

But Ibn Khatab had his own version of Surah Fatihah. We read in Tafseer Dur al Manthur:

Al-Musahif, page 60:
 
 “Umar would recite this verse as: “SIRATA MIN ANAAAMTA AAALAYHIM GHAYRI ALMAGHDOOBI AAALAYHIM WA GHAYRI WALA ALDDALLEENA”. We deem it a good apportunity to mention the author of Book ‘al Musahif’ Abdullah bin Sulaiman bin Al-Ashath bin Ishaq Al-Sejestani the son of Abu Dawood the author of Sunnan Abu Dawood. According to Darqatni he is Thiqa [Tadkerat Al-Hufaz v2 p771, Tarikh Baghdad v9 p468]. Wh! ile Abu Hamed bin Asad Al-Maktib said: 'I never saw some one in knowledge than Abdullah bin Al-Ashath’ [Tarikh Baghdad v9 p465]. Imam Dhahabi also declared him Thiqa [Al-Siar fi Al'am Al-Nubala, v14 p505].

Nasibi belief in Tahrif: The words “WAL MUHAJIROON FI SABIL ILLAH” have been deleted from two places in the Qur’an

We read in Tafseer Dur al-Manthur, V6: p92, Surah Hashr:

"A'mash states that in respect of Halal and Haram, the difference between the copies [Mushaf] of Abdullah Ibn Masud and Zaid Bin Thabit is that in Surah Infaal words 'And know that whatever thing you gain, a fifth of it is for Allah and for the Messenger and for the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer' [Surah Infaal, verse 41] and in Surah Hashr words 'Whatever Allah has restored to His Messenger from the people of the towns, it is for Allah and for the Messenger, and for the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and those who have left their homes in Allah's cause' [Surah Hashr, verse 7].

According to Ubai, the word ‘FIL WAADI’ is missing from the present Qur’an.

We read in Surah Aal e-Imran, verse 153:

“Behold! ye were climbing up the high ground” ITH TUSAAIDOONA WALA TALWOONA AAALA AHADIN

We read in Tafseer Dur e-Manthur, Surah Aal e Imran, verse 153:

“Ibn Jarir said that Haroon stated that Abi Bin Kaab used to recite the cited verse as: “Behold! ye were climbing up the valley” [ITH TUSAAIDOONA FIL WAADI]”.

We do not find the word “FIL WAADI” in the present Qur’an. What is the Nasibi fatwa here? The narrators are yours, the books are yours, the author is yours, the translator is yours, the publisher is yours, so why this mulish attitude?

A letter has been added to the Mushaf of Uthman that was not in the Mushaf of Ibn Masud

We read in Surah Yusuf:

[Shakir 12:76] .. and above every one possessed of knowledge is the All-knowing one

We read in Tafseer Ibn Kathir:

Abdullah bin Masud read the Ayah this way:  ‘And above every scholar, is the All-Knower (Allah).’'

Do we need to comment any further here?

Sunni proof about tahrif in the 6th verse of Surah Ahzab

We read in the Holy Qur’an [Yusufali 33:6]:

The Prophet is closer to the Believers than their own selves, and his wives are their mothers.

Ibn Jarir Tabari records in his esteemed commentary of Qur’an [Tradition 21597]:

“Bushr from Yazid from Sai'd from Qatadah that he said: Some used to recite: "The Prophet is closer to the Believers than their own selves, and his wives are their mothers and he is their father".

We read in Tafsir Dur e Manthur, commentary of verse 6, Surah Ahzab:
 
“Abd ARazaq and Sa'eed Ibn Mansoor and Ishaq ibn Rahuwayh and Ibn Munzir and Al Bayhaqi have narrated from Bujalah that he said: Umar passed by a youth who was reading in a mushaf "The Prophet is closer to the Believers than their own selves, and his wives are their mothers and he is their father , so he (Umar) said: "Young boy talk about it". The youth then said: “This is the mushaf of Ubay (Ubay bin K! a`b)". So Umar went to Ubay and asked him about it (the addition) to which Ubay replied: "I used to be busy with the Qur’an whilst you were busy shopping in the markets."

Accompanying Ahle Sunna’s first Imam of Taraweeh prayers Ubai bin Ka’b, we have another prominent companion of Muhammad, Ibn Abbas, who likewise recited these words. Allamah Jalaluddin Suuti records [Tafsir Dur e Manthur, commentary of verse 6 Surah Ahzab]:

“Al Firyabi ‏and Ibn Mardaweyh and al Hakim and al Bayhaqi in his Sunan narrated from Ibn Abbas [ra] that he used to read this verse:"The prophet has more authority over the believers than themselve s ! and he is their father and his wives are their mothers."

A verse recited by Ubay bin Ka’b is absent in the Qur’an; Tahrif in Surah Fatah

We read in the Holy Qur’an [48:26]:
 
“When those who disbelieved harbored in their hearts (feelings of) disdain, the disdain of (the days of) ignorance, but Allah sent down His tranquillity on His Messenger and on the believers, and made them keep the word of guarding (against evil), and they were entitled to it and worthy of it; and Allah is Cognizant of all things.”

We read in the following authentic sources of Ahle Sunnah that Ubay bin K'ab, companion of the Holy Prophet, would recite some additional words to this verse.

Sunan Nisai Vol 6 page 463, No. 11505
Al Mustadrak al Hakim, Vol 2 page 225
Kanz ul Ummal Vol 2, No. 4815
Online Tafsir Dur al Manthur Vol 7, tafsir for surah fatha
Sunan Nisai [Vol 10:No. 11441]:

Ibrahim Ibn Sa’eed narrated from Shebabah Ibn Suwar from Abdallah ibn Al’ala’ from Basr ibn Abdallah from Abi Idrees from Ubay ibn Ka’ab, that he read:

‘(48:26) When those who disbelieved harbored in their hearts (feelings of) disdain, the disdain of (the days of) ignorance, and if you had felt! disdain like they felt, the masjid e haram would have been corrupted ’

According to Ibn Masud, Ibn Abbas & Ubai bin Kaab, a deletion of words has been committed in Surah Nisa verse 79

In order to prove that the Sahaba did not believe in the present form of this verse, we have relied on the following esteemed Sunni books:

Tafsir al-Sam'ani, Volume 1 page 451
Tafsir Qurtubi, Volume 5 page 286
Fateh al-Qadir, Volume 1 page 490
Ruh al-Ma'ani, Volume 5 page 90
Tafseer Dur al Manthur, Volume 2 page 597

We read in Qur’an, 4:79:

Whatever benefit comes to you (O man!), it is from Allah, and whatever ! misfortune befalls you, it is from yourself.

But according to three great Sahaba namely Abdullah Ibn Masud, Ibn Abbas and Ubai bin Kaab the words ‘and I have recorded for you’ have been deleted from the verse. We read [Tafseer Dur al-Manthur, 2:597]:

Mujahid said: ‘According to Ubai bin Kaab and Ibn Masud's recitation its: ‘Whatever benefit comes to you (O man!), it is from Allah, and whatever misfortune befalls you, it is from yoursel, and I have recorded that about you.’

Similarly we read [Tafseer Dur al-Manthur, 2:597]:

Mujahid narrates that ibn Abbas used to recite: ‘Whatever benefit comes to you (O man!), it is from Allah, and whatever misfortune befalls you, it is from yourself, and I have recorded that about you’

So, according to these three esteemed Sahaba, the words, ‘and I have recorded that about you’, have been deleted from the version of the Qur’an we today have in our hands and as usual, the present day Nawasib have to choose between these three esteemed Sahaba and Uthman & Co. in order to attribute responsibility of committing Tahreef in the Qur’an, it was either:

1.         the above cited Sahaba who sinned by believing that the verse contained additional words not present in the Qur’an, or,
2.         it was Uthman & Co. who deleted these words and were hence guilty of committing Tahreef to the Qur’an.

The goat of Aisha ate the verses of suckling from the Qur’an

In order to back up our point, we have relied on the following esteemed books of Ahle Sunnah:

Sahih Muslim Book 008, Number 3421
Sunan Ibn Majah, page 141, Book of suckling
Sunan Darqutni, page 500, Book of suckling
Hayat al Haiwan, Volume 4 page 463, Lughat Rawajan
Al Muhazraat, Volume 4 page 433
Tafseer Ruh al Mani, Volume 4 page 254

We read Sahih Muslim 8:3421:

'A'isha (Allah be pleased with, her) reported that it had been revealed in the Holy Qur'an that ten clear sucklings make the marriage unlawful, then it was abrogated (and substituted) by five sucklings and Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) died and it was before that time (found) in the Holy Qur'an (and recited by the Muslims).

Whilst there is not much different between the original Arabic words of the tradition and the official English translation, we would like to mention a more accurate English translation of the tradition:
 
“Aisha said: It had been revealed in the Qur’an that ten clear sucklings make the marriage unlawful, then it was abrogated by five clear suckling, then Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) died and the verse was recited as part of Qur’an. 

We read the following words of Aisha in Sunan Ibn Majah, which has been declared ‘Hasan’ by Imam Nasiruddin Albaani [Sunan Ibn Majah [Arabic], Book of Suckling, # 2020]:

"When the verse of stoning and verse of suckling descended, they were written on a piece of paper and kept under my pillow. Following the demise of Prophet Muhammad (S) a goat ate the piece of paper whilst we were mourning."

Aisha and Umar believed in the lost verse of stoning and Umar's Taqiyya prevented him from adding it into the Qur’an

In this particular case, we are not going to dispute the abrogation of the verse of Rajam rather our sole concern will revolve around specifically to Aisha's and Umar's belief regarding the said verse, according to whom this verse was ‘lost’ after the death of Muhammad and not abrogated and therefore Umar intended to write this verse into Qur’an with his own hands.

Sahih Bukhari, Volume 8 & Volume 9
Sahih Muslim, Volume 2 page 42
Sunan Ibn Majah, page 182, kitab al hudood
Sunan Abu Daud, page 148, kitab al hudood
Musnad Ahmed bin Hanbal, Volume 1 page 274, Hadeeth 273
Tafseer Ibn Kathir, Volume 3 page 261, Surah Noor
Tafseer Dur e Manthur, Volume 5 page 880
Al Itqan fi Uloom al Qur’an, Volume 2 page 32
Al Muhazraat, Volume 4 page 423
Sunnan al-Kubra, by Bayhaqi, Volume 8 page 211
Musnad al-Shafiyee, page 164
Al-Musanaf, by Ibn Abi Shayba, Volume 6 page 553
Sunnan al-Kubra, by Nisai, Volume 4 page 273
Marifat al-Sunnan wa al-Athaar, by Bayhaqi, v6 p323
Tarikh Baghdad, Volume 3 page 190

We read in Sahih al-Bukhari 8:817:
 
 “….'Umar sat on the pulpit and when the callmakers for the prayer had finished their call, 'Umar stood up, and having glorified and praised Allah as He deserved, he said:….. Allah sent Muhammad with the Truth and revealed the Holy Book to him, and among what Allah revealed, was the Verse of the Rajam (the stoning of married person (male & female) who commits illegal sexual intercourse, and we did recite this Verse and understood and memorized it. Allah's Apostle did carry out the punishment of stoning and so did we after him. I am afraid that after a long time has passed, somebody will say, 'By Allah, we do not find the Verse of the Rajam in Allah's Book,' and thus they will go astray by leaving! an obligation which Allah has revealed…”

In another Hadith, which is narrated without any Hadith number in Bukhari, we read about the Taqiyyah practiced by Umar, wherein he failed to add those verses in Qur’an due to his fear of the people. This tradition is in the title of one of the chapter of Bukhari. Fortunately, it was translated by the translator. Sahih al-Bukhari, Arabic-English version, Vol 9, p212-13, between Traditions 281 and 282:
 
(21) CHAPTER. If a judge has to witness in favor of a litigant when he is a judge or he had it before he became a judge (can he pass a judgment in his favor accordingly or should he refer the case to another judge before whom he would bear witness?). And the judge Shuraih said to a person who sought his witness, "Go to the ruler so that I may bear witness (before him) for you." And 'Ikrima said, "Umar said to 'Abdur-Rahman bin 'Auf, 'If I saw a man committing illegal sexual intercourse or theft, and you were the ruler (what would you do)?. 'Abdur-Rahman said, 'I would regard your witness as equal to the witness of any other man among the Muslims. 'Umar said, 'You have said the truth.' 'Umar added:  “If I were not afraid of the fact that people may say that 'Umar has added to the Qur'an extra (verses), I would have written the Verse al-Rajm (stoning to death of married adulterers) with my own hands…”

We should point out that according to the strange testimony of Imam Fakhruddin Razi, which we read in his book Al-Mahsool Vol3:p348, the verse Umar was wishing to add in the Qur’an was neither a part of the Qur’an nor was it an abrogated verse:
 
“I say that it wasn’t part of Qur’an and Umar's statement refer to it, he said: ‘If I were not afraid of the fact that people may say that Umar has added to the Qur'an extra (verses), I would have written the Verse al-Rajm (stoning to death of married adulterers) with my own hands’. If that was a Qur’an or was an abrogated (verse), he wouldn’t have said such thing.”

Anyhow, let us now read the unequivocal testimony of Umar that he believed the verse of stoning to have been ‘lost’ following the death of Prophet [Tafseer Dur e-Manthur, Muqadmah of Surah Ahzab]:

“Abd ul Razzak in Al Musannaf from Ibn! Abbas said : Umar bin Al Khattab ordered a pesron to gather people for Salat of Jama'at, then he ascended on a pulpit, praised God and said: "O people! Do not get afraid about the verse of Al-Rajm because it is a verse that was revealed in the book of Allah and we recited it, but it was lost [Zahab] with much of the Qur’an gone with Muhammad and the proof of that is that the prophet [s] has stoned and Abu Bakr has stoned and I have stoned and there will come people from this nation who would deny the stoning.”

As for Aisha's belief regarding the verse of Rajam, we have already read that [Sunan Ibn Majah [Arabic], Book of Suckling, # 2020]:

"When the verse of stoning and verse of suckling descended, they were written on a piece of paper and kept under my pillow. Following the demise of Prophet Muhammad (S) a goat ate the piece of paper whilst we were mourning."

Let us again make one point very clear that in this particular case, we are not arguing whether or not the verse of stoning has been abrogated rather our sole motive in this case is to point out the belief of Tahreef in the Qur’an held by Umar and Aisha according to whom the verse of stoning is still a part of the Qur’an that went missing following the death of Prophet [s].

5. Sunni reports about mistakes and changes in the Qur’an

According to Ibn Abbas there is a 'mistake' in Surah Ra’ad, because of the sleepy scribe:

We read in Qur’an [Shakir 13:31]:

And even if there were a Qur’an with which the mountains were made to pass away, or the earth were travelled over with it, or the dead were made to speak thereby; nay the commandment is wholly Allah's, Have not yet those who believe known that if Allah please He would certainly guide all the people? And (as for) those who disbelieve, there will not cease to afflic! t them because of what they do a repelling calamity, or it will alight close by their abodes, until the promise of Allah comes about; surely Allah will not fail in (His) promise.  [WALAW ANNA QUR-ANAN SUYYIRAT BIHI ALJIBALU AW QUTTIAAAT BIHI AL-ARDU AW KULLIMA BIHI ALMAWTA BAL LILLAHI AL-AMRU JAMEEAAANAFALAM YAY-ASI ALLATHEENA AMANOO AN LAW YASHAO ALLAHU LAHADA ALNNASA JAMEEAAAN WALA YAZALU ALLATHEENA KAFAROO TUSEEBUHUM BIMA SANAAAOO QARIAAATUN AW TAHULLU QAREEBAN MIN DARIHIM HATTA YA/TIYA WAAADU ALLAHI INNA ALLAHA LA YUKHLIFU ALMEEAAADA]

We are quoting from the following esteemed books of Ahle Sunnah.
Al Itqan fi Uloom al Qur’an, Volume 1 page 238
Tafseer Dur e Manthur, Volume 4 page 63, Surah R’ad verse 31
Fatah al Bari, Volume 8 page 373 by Ibn Hajar Asaqlani

We read in Tafseer Al Itqan:

“Ibn Abbas recited this verse as ‘AFALAM YATBAIN ALLATHEENA’. He was told that it is ‘AFALAM YAY-ASI ALLATHEENA’ to which Ibn Abbas replied: “The writer has written YAY-ASI but I think that he may not have been wakeful at that time of writing this word.”

Imam of Ahle Sunnah Ibn Hajar Asqalani writes in his commentary of Sahih Bukhari [Fatah al-Bari, 8:373]:
 
“And Tabari and Abd bin Hamid narrated with a Sahih chain containing all the narrators from the rijal of Bukhari, from Ibn Abbas that he recited “AFALAM YATBAIN” and said that the writer had written it [YAY-ASI] when he was drowsy.”

According to the belief of the pious Tabayeen and Sahaba, there is a ‘mistake’ in Surah Aal e-Imran

We read in the Qur’an [Shakir 3:81]:

And when Allah made a covenant through the prophets: Certainly what I have given you of Book and wisdom-- then an messenger comes to you verifying that which is with you, you must believe in him, and you must aid him. He said: Do you affirm and accept My compact in this (matter)? They said: We do affirm. He said: Then bear witness, and I (too) am of the bearers of witness with you. 

Now we are quoting from the following books of Ahle S! unnah

Tafseer Ruh al Ma’ani, Volume 3 page 205, Surah Aal e Imran, verse 81

Tafseer Qurtubi, Volume 3 page 124
Tafseer Tabari, Vol 6 page 554 Surah Aal e Imran, verse 81
Tafseer Dur al Manthur, Volume 3 page 47
Tafseer Fatah al Qadeer, Volume 1 page 225, Surah Aal e Imran, verse 81

We read in Tafseer Tabari:

Al-Rabee used to read: 'and Allah made a covenant with the people who were given the book'. He said: ‘And that is how Ubai bin Kaab used to read it.’ Muhammad bin Amro narrated from Abu Asim from Isa from Ibn Abi Nujaih from Mujahid who said about the verse: “And when Allah made a co! venant through the prophets: Certainly what I have given you of Book and wisdom”. He said: ‘It is a mistake of the scribes. In the recitation of Ibn Masud it was in this manner: “And Allah made a covenant with the people who were given the book”’. According to Imam Ibn Hajar Asqalani’s Taqrib al-Tahdib, Muhammad bin Amro bin Abaad is ‘Seduq’. Abu Asim al-Dhahak bin Mukhalad is ‘Thiqa Thabt’ while Isa bin Maymoon, Abdullah ibn Abi Nujaih and Mujahid bin Jabr are ‘Thiqah’.

Continues on Part V

Sources:
http://www.faithfreedom.org/2009/04/13/corruption-and-distortion-tahreef-in-the-Qur’an/
http://www.islam-watch.org/Amarkhan/Corruption-in-Qur’an.htm

IHS