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Persons related to verses · Justice Asbab al-nuzul · Naskh · Biblical narratives Tahrif · Bakkah · Muqatta'at Esoteric interpretation
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Taḥrīf (Arabic: تحريف "distortion, corruption, alteration") is an Arabic term used by Muslims with regard to irreparable alterations Islamic tradition claims Jews and Christians have made to Biblical manuscripts, specifically those that make up the Tawrat (or Torah), Zabur (or Psalms) and Injil(orGospel). Traditional Muslim scholars,^[1] based on Qur'anic and other traditions,^[2] maintain that Jews and Christians have changed the word of God. Based on the current Textual Criticism scholarly consensus, the most reliable editions of these documents available are:

• the Biblia Hebraica Quinta - the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), or Old Testament.
• the Novum Testamentum Graecae - the New Testament, a document relating to the Injil.

Types of tahrif[link]

Amin Ahsan Islahi writes about four types of tahrif:^[3]

1. To deliberately interpret something in a manner that is totally opposite to the intention of the author. To distort the pronunciation of a word to such an extent that the word changes completely. For example, the word ‘مروه’ was changed to ‘موره’ or ‘موريا’.
2. To add to or delete a sentence or discourse in a manner that completely distorts the original meaning. For example, according to Islam, the Jews altered the incident of the migration of the Prophet Abraham in a manner that no one could prove that Abraham had any relationship with the Kaaba.
3. To translate a word that has two meanings in the meaning that is totally against the context. For example the Hebrew word that is equivalent to the Arabic ‘ابن’ was translated as ‘son’ whereas it also meant ‘servant’ and ‘slave’.
4. To raise questions about something that is absolutely clear in order to create uncertainty about it, or to change it completely.

Origin of tahrif[link]

Ibn Hazm[link]

The theme of tahrif found its first detailed elaboration in the writings of Ibn Hazm (10th century), who argued against Mosaic authorship and accused Ezra of writing the Torah.^{[citation needed]} He also arranged systematically and in scholarly detail the arguments against the authenticity of the Biblical text in the first (Tanakh) and second part (New Testament) of his book: chronological and geographical inaccuracies and contradictions; theological impossibilities (anthropomorphic expressions, stories of fornication and whoredom, and the attributing of sins to prophets), as well as lack of reliable transmission (tawatur) of the text. He explains how the falsification of the Torah could have taken place while there existed only one copy of the Torah kept by the Aaronic priesthood of the Temple in Jerusalem. Ibn Hazm's impact on later Muslim polemics was great, and the themes which he raised with regard to tahrif and other polemical ideas were updated only slightly by some later authors.^[4][5][6]

Evidence for tahrif[link]

From The Quran[link]

Tahrif of the Old Testament[link]

In the Quran, descriptions befit God. He does not eat, drink, sleep etc. In the Bible, God is ignorant, wrestles with Jacob and loses, sleep, and many more descriptions in the Bible would be considered as blasphemous in the Quran.^[7]

Tahrif of the New Testament[link]

In the Quran, the Injil (good news or Gospel in English) is a revelation to Jesus as a prophet. It was not a revelation about Jesus to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter or any other person. It is believed among Muslims that Jesus' sayings in the Gospels are part of Jesus' revelation, that was never noted down.

From The Bible[link]

Many things in the Bible are considered by Muslims to be proof of tahrif. Things from contradictions and historical or scientific errors to propetic testimonies. Things like Jeremiah's words are considered by Muslims as key points for proof of tahrif.

<poem>'How can you say, "We are wise, for we have the law of the LORD", when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely? ^[8]</poem>

Criticism of tahrif[link]

Pre-Qur'anic understanding[link]

At or before c. 33 AD[link]

Muslims believe that holy revelations prior to the life of Jesus were contained in the Suhuf Ibrahim, the Tawrat and the Zabur. Muslims also believe that Jesus was taught and accepted the truth of the Tawrat and the Zabur during his lifetime.^[9] Therefore, any manuscripts of the Tawrat (Torah) or Zabur (Psalms) that can be dated prior to (or during) the life of Jesus are possibly without error.

From c. 33 AD to c. 700 AD[link]

Sura 29:46 implies that up to the time of the Quranic revelation, the Christian scriptures were valid.^[10]

'And dispute ye not with the People of the Book, except with means better (than mere disputation), unless it be with those of them who inflict wrong (and injury); but say, 'We believe in the revelation which has come down to us and in that which came down to you; our God and your God is One; and it is to Him we bow (in Islam).'

Also Islamic tradition holds that the Gospel was available to Arabs as narrated by 'Aisha:

"The Prophet returned to Khadija while his heart was beating rapidly. She took him to Waraqa bin Naufal who was a Christian convert and used to read the Gospels in Arabic. Waraqa asked (the Prophet), "What do you see?" When he told him, Waraqa said, "That is the same angel whom Allah sent to (the Prophet) Moses. Should I live till you receive the Divine Message, I will support you strongly."^[11]

... Khadija then took him to Waraqa bin Naufil, the son of Khadija's paternal uncle. Waraqa had been converted to Christianity in the Pre-lslamic Period and used to write Arabic and write of the Gospel in Arabic as much as Allah wished him to write...^[12]

... Khadija then took him to Waraqa b. Naufal b. Asad b. 'Abd al-'Uzza, and he was the son of Khadija's uncle, i.e., the brother of her father. And he was the man who had embraced Christianity in the Days of Ignorance (i.e. before Islam) and he used to write books in Arabic and, therefore, wrote Injil in Arabic as God willed that he should write...^[13]

These Hadiths suggest that in the late 700s Jews and Christians were still using an uncorrupted text. If this is the suggested time of corruption there would already be too many copies in circulation to change — not to mention the diversity of language as there were even texts in Arabic.

Qur'an and the claim of the distortion of the text itself[link]

Gary Miller (Abdul-Ahad Omar) believes that the Qur'an criticizes the handling of scripture by some Jews and Christians rather than their holy books. According to Gary Miller, Qur'an only makes the following three accusations:

• "The Qur'an says some of the Jews and Christians pass over much of what is in their scriptures."

• "Some of them have changed the words, and this is the one that is misused by Muslims very often giving the impression that once there was a true bible and then somebody hid that one away, then they published a false one. The Qur'an doesn’t say that. What it criticizes is that people who have the proper words in front of them, but they don’t deliver that up to people. They mistranslate it, or misrepresent it, or they add to the meaning of it. They put a different slant on it."

• "Some people falsely attribute to God what is really written by men."^{[citation needed]}

Early criticism[link]

Among the earliest Christian documents on Islam in retrospect are the letter Maximus the Confessor wrote between the year 634 and 640 to Peter the Illustrious and the three writings of Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem (d. 639) ranging from 634 till 637. Absent from these writings is any sense that the Arabs were spurred by a new religion.
The Melkites, those who had lost their empire, ascribed the success of the Muslims to Christian sins. The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, written between 685 and 692 (Syriac version), state among other things that the Muslims were given to rule over the Christians for their punishment and purification.
The first Melkite example of doctrinal refutation is Anastasius of Sinai (d.c. 700).^[14]

The argument of tahrif is also refuted in an early polemical text attributed to the Byzantine Emperor Leo III^[15] with the statement that Jews and Christians share the same, widely-known divine text, and that Ezra, the covenantal architect of the Second Temple, was a pious, reliable person. The same arguments appear in later Jewish writings.

Further Modern Christian criticism[link]

Modern Christian rejection of tahrif is based on five broad arguments:

1. There is little physical manuscript evidence of alteration to the Biblical texts. Also devotion of the Jewish people to the Torah and the meticulous copying of text by the Massoretes runs against Muslim charges. The oldest Dead Sea Scrolls versions c. 280 BCE – 68 CE match current usage with only minor variations.^[16]
2. There is no satisfactory answer to why Jews and Christians would change their text.
3. Jews and Christians were hostile to each other. Little agreement could have been achieved. For example in the 1st century St Paul was regularly attacked by the Jews (Acts 23v12) and anti-Jewish attacks were a regular occurrence by 372CE.^[17]
4. Differing new sects would have disagreed with mainline groups over changes. Thus no uniform set of alterations could be made as the Muslim claims.
5. Former Jews and Christians who became Muslims never mentioned any possibility of deliberate corruption—something critics could definitely expect if it were true.^[18]

Some modern Christian apologists have used these refutations of tahrif as a weakness of Islam.^[19]

See also[link]

• Categories of New Testament manuscripts
• Historical Jesus
• Historicity of Jesus
• The Bible and history
• Development of the New Testament canon
• Biblical Inerrancy
• Internal consistency of the Bible
• Textual variants in the New Testament
• Documentary Hypothesis
• Biblical Minimalism

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Is The Bible In Our Hands The Same As During The Time Of Muhammad(P)?
• Corruption in the Bible: The Muslim Stance
• Is The Bible Corrupted?
• What the Gospels Mean to Muslims
• What the Qur'an and other very early Muslim sources say about the Bible
• Is the Qur’an Corrupted? Shi’ites’ View

See also[link]

• Islamic holy books
• Injil
• Tawrat
• Supersessionism
• Satanic Verses

Fethullah Gülen (born 27 April 1941) is a Turkish author, educator, and Muslim scholar. Gülen has been described in the English-language media as "one of the world's most important Muslim figures."^[1] He is the founder of the Gülen movement. He currently lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, USA.

Gülen teaches an Anatolian version of Islam,^[2] deriving from Sunni Muslim scholar Bediüzzaman Said Nursi's teachings and modernizing them. Gülen has stated his belief in science, interfaith dialogue among the People of the Book, and multi-party democracy^[1]. He has initiated such dialogue with the Vatican and some Jewish organizations.^[3]

Gülen is actively involved in the societal debate concerning the future of the Turkish state, and Islam in the modern world. In the Turkish context Gülen appears relatively conservative and religiously observant. ^[4][5]

His role in Turkish politics is a controversial one, and in 1999 he was put on trial for attempting to overthrow the government. He has since lived in exile in the United States. He was acquitted of the charges in 2008. He has been seen as supportive of Turkey's current prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but news emerging in May 2012 emerged of a possible conflict between the two.^[6]

Biography[link]

Gülen was born in the village of Korucuk, near Erzurum. His father, Ramiz Gülen, was an imam. Gülen started primary education at his home village, but did not continue after his family moved, and instead focused on informal Islamic education.^[7] He gave his first sermon when he was 14.^[8] He was influenced by the ideas of Said Nursi and Maulana Jalaluddeen Rumi.^[9]

Comparing Gülen to leaders in the Nur movement, Hakan Yavuz said, "Gülen is more Turkish nationalist in his thinking. Also, he is somewhat more state-oriented, and is more concerned with market economics and neo-liberal economic policies."^[10]

His pro-business stance has led some outsiders^[who?] to dub his theology an Islamic version of Calvinism.^[11] Oxford Analytica says:

"Gülen put Nursi's ideas into practice when he was transferred to a mosque in Izmir in 1966. Izmir is a city where political Islam never took root. However, the business and professional middle class came to resent the constraints of a state bureaucracy under whose wings it had grown, and supported market-friendly policies, while preserving at least some elements of a conservative lifestyle. Such businessmen were largely pro-Western, because it was Western (mainly U.S.) influence, which had persuaded the government to allow free elections for the first time in 1950 and U.S. aid, which had primed the pump of economic growth."^[12]

Gülen retired from formal preaching duties in 1981. From 1988 to 1991 he gave a series of sermons in popular mosques of major cities. In 1994, he participated in the founding of "Journalists and Writers Foundation"^[13] and was given the title "Honorary President" by the foundation.^[14] He did not make any comment regarding the closures of the Welfare Party in 1998^[4] or the Virtue Party in 2001.^[15] He has met some politicians like Tansu Çiller and Bülent Ecevit, but he avoids meeting with the leaders of Islamic political parties.^[15]

In 1999 Gülen emigrated to the United States for medical treatment,^[16] though arguably it was in anticipation of being tried over remarks (aired after his emigration to US) which seemed to favor an Islamic state.^[17] In June 1999, after Gulen had left Turkey video tapes were sent to some Turkish TV stations with recordings of Gulen saying, "the existing system is still in power. Our friends who have positions in legislative and administrative bodies should learn its details and be vigilant all the time so that they can transform it and be more fruitful on behalf of Islam in order to carry out a nationwide restoration. However, they should wait until the conditions become more favorable. In other words, they should not come out too early."^[18] Gülen complained that the remarks were taken out of context,^[19] and questions were raised about the authenticity of the tape, which he accused of having been "manipulated". Gülen was tried in absentia in 2000 for attempting to overthrow the government.^[16][20] The Supreme Court of Appeals later rejected an appeal by the Chief Prosecutor's Office.^[21] He was acquitted in 2008.^[16][20]

As of May 2012 Gülen lives in a gated retreat located in The Poconos; according to Bekir Aksoy, manager of the retreat, Gülen had been "very, very ill" for five to six months.^[16]

Theology[link]

Gülen does not advocate a new theology but refers to classical authorities of theology and takes up their line of argument.^{[citation needed]} His understanding of Islam tends to be conservative and mainstream.^[22][23] Though he has never been a member of a Sufi tarekat and does not see tarekat membership as a necessity for Muslims, he teaches that Sufism is the inner dimension of Islam and the inner and outer dimensions must never be separated.^[24]

His teachings differ in emphasis from those of other mainstream, moderate Islamic scholars in two respects, both based on his interpretations of particular verses of the Quran: (1) he teaches that the Muslim community has a duty of service (Turkish: hizmet)^[25] to the “common good” of the community and the nation^[26] and to Muslims and non-Muslims all over the world;^[27] and (2), the Muslim community is obliged to conduct interfaith dialogue with the "People of the Book" (Jews and Christians).^[28] Although this does not extend to other religions and atheists. In fact he appears to be intolerant of atheism, as in 2004 Gülen commented to the effect that terrorism was as despicable as atheism.^[29] In a follow-up interview he explained he did not intend to equate atheists and murderers; rather, he wanted to highlight the fact that according to Islam both were destined to suffer eternal punishment.^[30]

Service to the common good[link]

The Gülen movement is a transnational civic society movement inspired by Gülen's teachings. His teachings about hizmet (altruistic service to the "common good") have attracted a large number of supporters in Turkey, Central Asia and increasingly in other parts of the world.^[31]

Education[link]

In his sermons Gulen has reportedly stated: "Studying physics, mathematics, and chemistry is worshipping God."^[16] Gulen's followers have built over 1,000 schools around the world. In the United States, his movement has 20,000 students in 130 charter schools, including 36 in the state of Texas^[16]. In Turkey Gulen's schools are considered among the best: expensive modern facilities, equal gender treatment and English taught from the first grade. ^[16]

Interfaith and intercultural dialogue[link]

Gulen movement participants have founded a number of institutions across the world which promote interfaith and intercultural dialogue activities.^{[citation needed]} While Gülen's earlier works are (in Bekim Agai's words) "full of anti-missionary and anti-Western passages",^[32] during the 1990s he began to advocate interreligious tolerance and dialogue.^[3] He personally met with leaders of other religions, including Pope John Paul II, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomeos, and Israeli Sephardic Head Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron.^[33] In the late 2000s, the movement also initiated dialogue with those of no faith^{[citation needed]}. For example, the Dialogue Society in London, which is inspired by Gülen’s teaching, has more atheist and agnostic members of its Advisory Board than it has Muslims.^{[34][unreliable source?]}

Similar to Said Nursi, Gülen favors cooperation between followers of different religions (this would also include different forms of Islam, such as Sunnism vs. Alevism in Turkey)^{[according to whom?][citation needed]} as well as religious and secular elements within society^{[according to whom?][citation needed]}. He has been described as "very critical of the regimes in Iran and Saudi Arabia" due to their undemocratic, sharia-based systems of government.^{[4][unreliable source?]}

Publications[link]

Gülen has authored over 60 books^[35] and many articles on a variety of topics: social, political and religious issues, art, science and sports, and recorded thousands of audio and video cassettes. He contributes to a number of journals and magazines owned by his followers. He writes the lead article for the Fountain, Yeni Ümit, Sızıntı, and Yağmur, Islamic and philosophical magazines. Several of his books have been translated into English (see: Books by Gülen Books on Gülen and the Gülen Movement).

Views on contemporary issues[link]

Secularism[link]

Gülen’s Islamic teaching and practice was developed in the forge of Turkey’s 20th century project to create a secular state, as initiated by the Turkish nationalist revolution of Atatürk^{[according to whom?][citation needed]}. That project became an ideologically “secularist” one, locked in symbiotic conflict with an “Islamist” reaction^{[citation needed]}. Arising from that context, Gülen has criticized a politics rooted in a philosophically reductionist materialism. But he has also argued that Islam and democracy are compatible and he encourages greater democracy within Turkey^{[by whom?][citation needed]}. He also argues that a secular approach that is not anti-religious and allows for freedom of religion and belief is compatible with Islam.^[34]

Turkey bid to join the EU[link]

Gulen favors Turkey's bid to join the European Union and argues that neither Turkey nor the EU have anything to fear, but have much to gain, from a future of full Turkish membership in the EU.^[34]

Women's roles[link]

According to Aras and Caha, Gülen's views on women are "progressive" but "modern professional women in Turkey still find his ideas far from acceptable."^[4] Gülen says the coming of Islam saved women, who "were absolutely not confined to their home and...never oppressed" in the early years of the religion. He feels that western-style feminism, however, is "doomed to imbalance like all other reactionary movements...being full of hatred towards men."^[36]

However, Gülen's views are vulnerable to the charge of misogyny. As noted by Berna Turam, Gülen has argued:

"the man is used to more demanding jobs . . . but a woman must be excluded during certain days during the month. After giving birth, she sometimes cannot be active for two months. She cannot take part in different segments of the society all the time. She cannot travel without her husband, father, or brother . . . the superiority of men compared to women cannot be denied." ^[37]

Terrorism[link]

Gülen condemns any kind of terrorism.^[38] He warns against the phenomenon of arbitrary violence and aggression against civilians, that is terrorism, which has no place in Islam and which militates against its very foundational tenets of reverence for human life and for all of God's creation. Fethullah Gulen was the first Muslim Leader to openly condemn the 9/11 terrorist attacks.^{[citation needed]} He wrote a condemnation article in the Washington Post on September 12th, 2001, just the day after the attack, and stated that `A muslim can not be a terrorist, nor can a terrorist be a true muslim`[2],"^[39] Gülen lamented the deplorable hijacking of Islam by terrorists who claimed to be Muslims and acting out of religious conviction. He counseled that "One should seek Islam through its own sources and in its own representatives throughout history; not through the actions of a tiny minority that misrepresent it.^[3]

Gaza flotilla[link]

Gülen criticized the Turkish-led Gaza flotilla for trying to deliver aid without Israel's consent. He spoke of watching the news coverage of the deadly confrontation between Israeli commandos and Turkish aid group members as its flotilla approached Israel's sea blockade of Gaza. "What I saw was not pretty," he said. "It was ugly." He continued his criticism. The "organizers' failure to seek accord with Israel before attempting to deliver aid "is a sign of defying authority, and will not lead to fruitful matters."^[40]

Criticism[link]

Dr. Aland Mizell was quotes as saying: "What Gulenists want is total power and one-man rule; they want a status so that none could dare to object to them or to their leader, because they sincerely believe that Allah has chosen them to disseminate their brand of Turkish Islam to the world, and therefore that everything they do is right and without mistakes."

In a video from 1999, Gülen says, "You must move in the arteries of the system without anyone noticing your existence until you reach all the power centers…You must wait for the time when you are complete and conditions are ripe, until we can shoulder the entire world and carry it…The philosophy of our service is that we open a house somewhere and, with the patience of a spider, we lay our web to wait for people to get caught in the web…"^[41]

Reception[link]

Fethullah Gulen topped the 2008 Top 100 Public Intellectuals Poll and came out as the most influential thinker.^[42]

See also[link]

• Gülen movement

References[link]

Specific citations:

General references:

External links[link]

• Fethullah Gülen's official website
• Journalists and Writers Foundation where Gulen is founder and honorary chairman, and his founding speeh