3. Imam Fakhr al-Din Razi (1149 - 1209 AD)
The renowned 12th century imam Fakhr al-Din Razi believed that since the Bible (the Tawrat and the Injeel) is also the revealed Word of Allah, it cannot be altered, and affirms that it has not been changed:
“There is no statement to indicate that they take a particular word (tilka al-lafzah) out of the Book.”
He confirms that “the Jews played linguistic tricks to change the Prophet’s words,” but does not allege that the Bible was changed.
4. Ibn Taymiyya (1263 - 1328 AD)
To the Muslims who were alleging that much of what is in the Tawrat and Injeel is false (batil), not of Allah’s Word, Ibn Taymiyya argued that,
“No one has changed any text of the Scriptures. Rather they [Jews and the Christians] have falsified their meanings by [false] interpretations.”
So even in the fourteenth century, famous Islamic scholars believed that no one had changed any text of the Scriptures. The consensus of the Islamic scholars was that any incorrect behavior among the People of the Book must be due to a misinterpretation of the Scriptures. This is a very scholarly assertion even seven hundred years after Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
A recent Muslim scholar, Saeed Abdullah, in reviewing the commentators of Islam, concludes in his paper, “The Charge of Distortion of Jewish and Christian Scriptures,” that the:
“Authorized Scriptures of Jews and Christians remain very much today as they existed at the time of the Prophet, it is difficult to argue that the Qur’anic references to Tawrat and Injīl were only to the “pure” Tawrat and Injīl as existed at the time of Moses and Isa al Masih (pbuh), respectively. If the texts have remained more or less as they were in the seventh century CE, the reverence the Qur’an has shown them at the time should be retained even today. Many interpreters of the Qur’an, from Tabari to Razi to Ibn Taymiyya and even Qutb, appear to be inclined to share this view. The wholesale dismissive attitude held by many Muslims in the modern era towards the Scriptures of Judaism and Christianity do not seem to have the support of either the Qur’an or the major figures of tafsir.”
The result of these positive testimonies to the previous Scriptures in the Qur’an was that the early Muslims did not question the authenticity of the text of the Bible. The differences between them and the Jews and the Christians were ascribed to a perversion of the meaning of the scriptures by the latter but not of the text itself. This became known as tahrif al-manawi, a ‘corruption of the meaning’ of the words. It was only much later that the doctrine of tahrif al-lafzi, ‘corruption of the text’ developed. In the early days, however, it was presumed that the Jews and Christians were only guilty of misrepresenting the meaning of their scriptures.
3. Imam Fakhr al-Din Razi (1149 - 1209 AD)
The renowned 12th century imam Fakhr al-Din Razi believed that since the Bible (the Tawrat and the Injeel) is also the revealed Word of Allah, it cannot be altered, and affirms that it has not been changed:
“There is no statement to indicate that they take a particular word (tilka al-lafzah) out of the Book.”
He confirms that “the Jews played linguistic tricks to change the Prophet’s words,” but does not allege that the Bible was changed.
4. Ibn Taymiyya (1263 - 1328 AD)
To the Muslims who were alleging that much of what is in the Tawrat and Injeel is false (batil), not of Allah’s Word, Ibn Taymiyya argued that,
“No one has changed any text of the Scriptures. Rather they [Jews and the Christians] have falsified their meanings by [false] interpretations.”
So even in the fourteenth century, famous Islamic scholars believed that no one had changed any text of the Scriptures. The consensus of the Islamic scholars was that any incorrect behavior among the People of the Book must be due to a misinterpretation of the Scriptures. This is a very scholarly assertion even seven hundred years after Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
A recent Muslim scholar, Saeed Abdullah, in reviewing the commentators of Islam, concludes in his paper, “The Charge of Distortion of Jewish and Christian Scriptures,” that the:
“Authorized Scriptures of Jews and Christians remain very much today as they existed at the time of the Prophet, it is difficult to argue that the Qur’anic references to Tawrat and Injīl were only to the “pure” Tawrat and Injīl as existed at the time of Moses and Isa al Masih (pbuh), respectively. If the texts have remained more or less as they were in the seventh century CE, the reverence the Qur’an has shown them at the time should be retained even today. Many interpreters of the Qur’an, from Tabari to Razi to Ibn Taymiyya and even Qutb, appear to be inclined to share this view. The wholesale dismissive attitude held by many Muslims in the modern era towards the Scriptures of Judaism and Christianity do not seem to have the support of either the Qur’an or the major figures of tafsir.”
The result of these positive testimonies to the previous Scriptures in the Qur’an was that the early Muslims did not question the authenticity of the text of the Bible. The differences between them and the Jews and the Christians were ascribed to a perversion of the meaning of the scriptures by the latter but not of the text itself. This became known as tahrif al-manawi, a ‘corruption of the meaning’ of the words. It was only much later that the doctrine of tahrif al-lafzi, ‘corruption of the text’ developed. In the early days, however, it was presumed that the Jews and Christians were only guilty of misrepresenting the meaning of their scriptures.