ABSTRACT
The charge of Taḥrīf against the Christian scriptures was strong among “unlearned” Muslims in Tisdall's (d. 1346/1928) day, though, “many learned Muslims confess that our Bible exists just in the same state as it did in Muhammad's day.” 1 For example, Syed Ahmed Khan's (d.1898) Mohomedan Commentary on the Holy Bible had already been available for nearly half a century. 2 Syed outlines eight different categories of corruption; the first three are: the addition of words or phrases, the deletion of words or phrases, and the substitution of words of different meaning. 3 He considers, “whether all the copies of the Scriptures scattered throughout Christendom and Judaism, did really go forth with corruptions of the three kinds above indicated”, 4 to which he concludes:
Now it is plain from the above observations that those learned doctors of our faith, who have spoken of the first three kinds of corruptions as having been practised in Scripture, did not correctly understand the meaning of the word Tuhreef [Taḥrīf], and hence other more learned doctors of our faith have stated their deliberate conviction, that no such corruptions took place in the Scriptures, and have thus rejected the opinions advanced by those above mentioned. 5
