Muḥammadan controversialists, when they become acquainted with the nature of the contents of the sacred books of the Jews and Christians, and of the impossibility of reconciling the contents of the Qurʾān with those of the sacred Scriptures, charge the Christians with the taḥrīf-i-lafz̤ī. They say the Christians have expunged the word aḥmad from the prophecies, and have inserted the expression “Son of God,” and the story of the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of our blessed Lord. This view, however, is not the one held by the most celebrated of the Muslim commentators.
The Imām Muḥammad Ismāʿīl al-Buk͟hārī (p. 1127, line 7), records that Ibn ʿAbbās said that “the word Taḥrīf (corruption) signifies to change a thing from its original nature; and that there is no man who could corrupt a single word of what proceeded from God, so that the Jews and Christians could corrupt only by misrepresenting the meaning of the words of God.”
Ibn Mazar and Ibn Abī Hātim state, in the commentary known as the Tafsīr Durr-i-Manṣūr, that they have it on the authority of Ibn Munīyah, that the Taurāt (i.e. the books of Moses), and the Injīl (i.e. the Gospels), are in the same state of purity in which they were sent down from heaven, and that no alterations had been made in them, but that the Jews were wont to deceive the people by unsound arguments, and by wresting the sense of Scripture.
Shāh Walīyu ʾllāh, in his commentary, the Fauzu ʾl-Kabīr, and also Ibn ʿAbbās, support the same view.
This appears to be the correct interpretation of the various verses of the Qurʾān charging the Jews with having corrupted the meaning of the sacred Scriptures.
For example, Sūratu Āli ʿImrān [(iii.), 72]: “There are certainly some of them who read the Scriptures perversely, that ye may think what they read to be really in the Scriptures, yet it is not in the Scriptures; and they say this is from God, but it is not from God; and they speak that which is false concerning God against their own knowledge.”
The Imām Fak͟hru ʾd-dīn, in his commentary on this verse, and many others of the same character which occur in the Qurʾān, says it refers to a taḥrīf-i-maʿnawī, and that it does not mean that the Jews altered the text, but merely that they made alterations in the course of reading.
But whilst all the old commentators, who most probably had never seen a copy of the sacred books of the Jews and Christians, only charge them with a taḥrīf-i-maʿnawī, all modern controversialists amongst the Muḥammadans contend for a taḥrīf-i-lafz̤ī, as being the only solution of the difficulty.
In dealing with such opponents, the Christian divine will avail himself of the following arguments:—
1. The Qurʾān does not charge the Jews and Christians with corrupting the text of their sacred books; and many learned Muslim commentators admit that such is not the case.