A Study of Sunni and Shii Traditions Concerning Tahrif [of Holy Quran] Part 1

A Study of Sunni and Shii Traditions Concerning Tahrif [of Holy Quran] Part 1

[Introduction]

A1-Raghib al-'Isfahani, in his Mufradat al-Qur'an, defines `tahrif as a way of interpreting a certain speech or writing so that it appears to denote two different meanings.' According to this definition, tahrif is not an alteration of the actual words and phrases of a text but the alteration of its meanings.1 It is in this sense that tahrif has been used in the following Qur'anic verse:

مِنَ الَّذِينَ هَادُوا يُحَرِّفُونَ الْكَلِمَ عَنْ مَوَاضِعِهِ….

Some of the Jews pervert words (yuharrifuna) from their meanings…(4:46)

The verse indicates that the Jews used to alter the meanings of the scripture while keeping its actual words. Although tahrif literally means semantic alteration (al-tahrif al-ma`nawi), the term has also been in use for textual alteration (al-tahrif al-lafzi). Thus tahrif is of two kinds: semantic and textual.