The Shia view of the Qur'an differs from the Sunni view, but the majority of both groups believe that the text is identical. While some
Shia
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, mos ...
disputed the canonical validity of the
Uthmanic codex
History of the Quran is the timeline and origin of the written compilations or manuscripts of the holy book of Islam, based on historical findings. It spans several centuries, and forms an important major part of the early history of Islam ...
, the Shia
Imams
Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, serve ...
always rejected the idea of alteration of Qur'an's text. Only seven Shia scholars have believed in omissions in the
Uthmanic codex
History of the Quran is the timeline and origin of the written compilations or manuscripts of the holy book of Islam, based on historical findings. It spans several centuries, and forms an important major part of the early history of Islam ...
.
History
The Shī‘ah use the same
Qur'an
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , si ...
as Sunni Muslims, however they do not believe that it was first compiled by
Uthman ibn Affan.
The Shī‘ah believe that the Qur'an was gathered and compiled by
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mon ...
during his lifetime.
This completed version of the Qur'an was kept next to the pulpit of
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mon ...
within the
Mosque of Madinah, where scholars would come to transcribe more copies.
Furthermore, Grand Ayatollah
Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei
Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Abu al-Qasim al-Musawi al-Khoei ( ; ar, أبو القاسم الموسوي الخوئي; fa, ; November 19, 1899 – August 8, 1992) was an Iranian- Iraqi Shia marja'. Al-Khoei is considered one of the most influential ...
believed that Ali possessed a Quran (Tafseer) of his own, which included the divinely revealed commentary of the Quran.
However, Shia have been accused since at least the 10th century by anti-Shia Sunni Muslims of espousing a theory that the contemporary Quran differs from what was revealed to Muhammad because it was (allegedly) edited to remove mention of the importance of
Ali — the Shia icon and first Shia
Imam
Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, serve ...
. The idea that the Quran was distorted is regarded by these Sunnis as one of the most blatant examples of Shia "heresy". (An example of a denunciation of ''tabdil'' — the belief that the Quran was altered — can be found in the work of the 11th century Muslim scholar
Ibn Hazm
Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥazm ( ar, أبو محمد علي بن احمد بن سعيد بن حزم; also sometimes known as al-Andalusī aẓ-Ẓāhirī; 7 November 994 – 15 August 1064Ibn Hazm. ' (Preface). Tr ...
replying to Christian debating point "that the
Rawafid derogatory name for Shiamaintain that the
Companions of your Prophet altered the Koran by way of omissions and additions".)
According to the western Islamic scholar Etan Kohlberg,
Twelver
Twelver Shīʿīsm ( ar, ٱثْنَا عَشَرِيَّة; '), also known as Imāmīyyah ( ar, إِمَامِيَّة), is the largest branch of Shīʿa Islam, comprising about 85 percent of all Shīʿa Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers t ...
Shia did at one time believe in the distortion of the Quran — and it was common among Shia during the early Islamic centuries, but waned during the era of the
Būyid Amirs
Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cerem ...
(934–1062). Kohlberg claims that
Ibn Babawayh
Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Babawayh al-Qummi ( Persian: ar, أَبُو جَعْفَر مُحَمَّد ٱبْن عَلِيّ ٱبْن بَابَوَيْه ٱلْقُمِيّ; –991), commonly referred to as Ibn Babawayh (Persian: ar, ...
was the first major Twelver author "to adopt a position identical to that of the Sunnis".
[Kohlberg & Amir-Moezzi 2009, p.27] This change in belief was primarily a result of the Shia "rise to power at the centre of the Sunni 'Abbasid caliphate," whence belief in the corruption of the Quran became untenable vis-a-vis the position of Sunni “orthodoxy”. Among other reasons, the distortion was alleged to have been carried out to remove any references to the rights of Ali and the Imams,
[Kohlberg & Amir-Moezzi 2009, p.vii] the approval of their supporters and the disapproval of their enemies, such as specific
Umayyads and
Abbasids
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
. According to
William St. Clair Tisdall, if such content had existed in the Quran then "Of course the Sunnite
Khalifahs had very great reason to endeavour to suppress any such passages".
Shia scholars who supported Qur'anic distortion
Some Shia scholars who supported the view that the Qur'anic text had been distorted were:
*Shia author Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Sayyari (9th century)
*
Ali Ibn Ibrahim Qomi (d. 919)
*Al Ayyaashi (d. 932)
*
Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni
Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb ibn Iṣḥāq al Kulaynī ar Rāzī ( Persian: ar, أَبُو جَعْفَر مُحَمَّد ٱبْن يَعْقُوب إِسْحَاق ٱلْكُلَيْنِيّ ٱلرَّازِيّ; c. 250 AH/864 CE ...
(d. 941)
*
Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid (d. 1022) — spoke of the alteration which occurred in the ordering of Quranic verses (ta'līf).
*
Mohsen Fayz Kashani
''Mul·lā'' "al-Muḥsin" "al-Fayḍ" al-Kāshānī (1598–1680; fa, ملا محسن فیض کاشانی) was an Iranian Twelver Shi'i Muslim, mystic, poet, philosopher, and muhaddith (died ''c''. 1680 ᴄᴇ).
Life
Mohsen Fayz Kashani was bor ...
(d. 1680)
*Ni'matullah Al Jazaa'iri (d. 1701)
*
Muhammad Baqir Behbahani (d. 1791) — who wrote in ''al-Fawā'id al-ḥā'iriyya'': "It is clear from the many ''akhbār'' that
orruptionoccurred... Our position is that it is permitted to act upon one of the famous seven variants
f the Qur'ān The indicator for this position is the statement, or rather the order, of the Imams that "You must recite as the people recite until the day of the return of the ''
qā'im''"."
*
Mirza Husain Noori Tabarsi
Mirza Husain Noori Tabarsi ( fa, میرزا حسین نوری طبرسی, ar, الميرزا حسين النوري الطبرسي) (1838 - 1902) popularly known as Muhaddis Noori / Al-Mohaddith Al-Noori, was a Shi'a Islamic Scholar and Shi'a Re ...
(d. 1902)
*
Agha Bozorg Tehrani (d. 1970)
Many other Shia scholars have held ambiguous attitudes towards corruption of the Quran, such as
Muhammad Baqir Majlisi (d. 1698), Mulla Ahmad Naraqi (d. 1829),
Morteza Ansari
Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Murtadha al-Ansari al-Tostari (1781–1864), ( ar, مرتضی الأنصاري التستري; fa, مرتضی انصاری شوشتری ), also transliterated as Mortaza Ansari Shushtari, was a Shia jurist who "was generall ...
(d. 1864),
Mohammad-Kazem Khorasani (d. 1911) and
Ruhollah Khomeini
Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...
(d. 1989).
Tafsīr and Additional Chapters
The Shī‘ah ''tafsīr'' on several verses are different from the traditional Sunni view either through a totally different interpretation or by giving the same interpretation, but giving that interpretation a larger impact on their jurisprudence. Shia also tend to interpret the Quran more
allegorically (
Batin) and less literally than Sunnis. For example, Shia writers, including
Ali Ibn Ibrahim Qomi, usually allegorically interpret the term ''Bani Isra'il'' (sons/tribe of Israel) as a code word for the
Ahlul Bayt
Ahl al-Bayt ( ar, أَهْل ٱلْبَيْت, ) refers to the family of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, but the term has also been extended in Sunni Islam to apply to all descendants of the Banu Hashim (Muhammad's clan) and even to all Muslims. In ...
.
William St. Clair Tisdall, among other western scholars, has published on the account of differences in content of a Shi'ite version of the Quran.
33:33
Hadith of The Cloak
4:24
4:24, or
an-Nisa, 24, also called as "the verse of Mut‘ah", is the Qur'anic verse that some Shī'ites use to prove the legality of temporary marriages ( ar,
Nikah Mut'ah
''Nikah mut'ah'' ar, نكاح المتعة, nikāḥ al-mutʿah, literally "pleasure marriage"; temporary marriage or Sigheh ( fa, صیغه ، ازدواج موقت) is a private and verbal temporary marriage contract that is practiced in Tw ...
).
''Sūrat al-wilāya''
'' Sūrat al-nūrayn''
Sura of Lights.
Misconceptions
There are some common disputed misconceptions and accusations about the Shī‘ah regarding their beliefs.
While Sunnis and the Shī‘ah accept the same text of the Qur'an, some, such as
Muhibb-ud-Deen Al-Khatib
Muhibb ud-Din al-Khateeb (or Muhibb al-Din al-Khatib) (died 1969) was a Syrian Salafi writer. He was the maternal uncle of Ali al-Tantawi and was the author of the "hate filled" anti-Shia pamphlet entitled ''al-Khutoot al-‘Areedah'' (The broad l ...
, claim that Shī‘ah dispute the current version, including that they add two additional ''
sūratayn'',
an-Nūrayn and al-Wilāya. This accusation of ''tahrīf'' "tampering" is antithetical to scholars and is considered polemical.
Shī‘ah Muslims consider the accusation that they are using a different Qur'an as one of the misconceptions about the Shi'a. The Shī‘ah recite the Qur'an according to the Qira’t of Hafs on authority of ‘Asim, which is the prevalent Qira’t in the Islamic world.
The issue of Tahreef
amperinghas been a matter of disagreement between many classical Shia scholars. It has been mentioned that the likes of
Muhammad Baqir Majlisi (author of
Bihar al-Anwar
''Bihar al-Anwar'' ( ar, بِحَار ٱلْأَنْوَار, lit. ''Seas of Lights'') is a comprehensive collection of traditions ('' ahadith'') compiled by Shia scholar Mohammad-Baqer Majlesi (d. 1110/1698), known as ''Allama Majlisi''. It is a ...
),
Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni
Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb ibn Iṣḥāq al Kulaynī ar Rāzī ( Persian: ar, أَبُو جَعْفَر مُحَمَّد ٱبْن يَعْقُوب إِسْحَاق ٱلْكُلَيْنِيّ ٱلرَّازِيّ; c. 250 AH/864 CE ...
(author of
Kitab al-Kafi
''Al-Kafi'' ( ar, ٱلْكَافِي, ', literally "''The Sufficient''") is a Twelver Shia hadith collection compiled by Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni. It is divided into three sections: ''Uṣūl al-Kāfī'', dealing with epistemology, theolo ...
), Ni'matullah Al Jazaa'iri (author of Anwar Al Nu'maniyyah, d. 1701) and
Al Ayyaashi (author of
Tafsir Ayyashi) among others were of the view that the present Qur'an is not the same as was revealed to Muhammad ibn Abdullah and omission/corruption has taken place. Overall, it is claimed that the Shia have more than 1,000 hadiths ascribed to the
Shia Imams which indicate the distortion of the Quran.
According to
Muhammad Baqir Majlisi, the difference of opinion among the scholars and jurists was as follows:
Some accused Shī‘ah of alleging that Fatimah had her own
Mus'haf
A muṣḥaf ( ar, مُصْحَفْ, ; plural ''maṣāḥif'') is an Arabic word for a codex or collection of sheets, but also refers to a written copy of the Quran. The chapters of the Quran, which Muslims believe was revealed during a 23-year ...
(Qur'an), the
Mushaf of Fatimah, which was allegedly three times larger than the current Qur'an. Again, Shī‘ahs reject this as a misrepresentation of facts aimed at discrediting them. According to Momen Shiite Imams had certain books (including of Fatimah (Mashafe Fatimah) a book revealed by
Gabriel
In Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብ� ...
to
Fatimah
Fāṭima bint Muḥammad ( ar, فَاطِمَة ٱبْنَت مُحَمَّد}, 605/15–632 CE), commonly known as Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ (), was the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his wife Khadija. Fatima's husband was Ali, ...
to console her on the death of
her father) in their possession, none of them were Quran.
See also
*
List of Shia books
*
Al-Jafr (book)
*
Al-Jamia
Al-jāmi'a () meaning "the Inclusive" is a book that Twelver Shias believe was dictated by Muhammad to Ali.
Ja'far al-Sadiq refers to it as a scroll (''ṣaḥīfa'') that is 70 cubits long and was dictated by the Prophet Muhammad and written d ...
*
Criticism of Twelver Shia Islam
*
Islamic schools and branches
Islamic schools and branches have different understandings of Islam. There are many different sects or denominations, schools of Islamic jurisprudence, and schools of Islamic theology, or '' ʿaqīdah'' (creed). Within Islamic groups themselves ...
*
Schools of Islamic theology
Schools of Islamic theology are various Islamic schools and branches in different schools of thought regarding '' ʿaqīdah'' (creed). The main schools of Islamic Theology include the Qadariyah, Falasifa, Jahmiyya, Murji'ah, Muʿtazila, Bat ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shia View Of The Qur'an
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , ...
Quran