Consensus of the Salafs on the Distortion of the Bible
Tahrif al-Kutub — The Distortion of the Previous Scriptures
A Compilation of Evidences from the Quran, Sunnah, and Classical Scholarship
Table of Contents
- Prophetic Narrations
- Statements of the Companions
- Classical Mufassireen
- Classical Scholars on the Torah and Gospel
- Later Scholars and Contemporary Voices
- Fatwas and Official Positions
- Summary — Key Principles
Prophetic Narrations
1. The Hadith of Mu’adh Ibn Jabal ؓ
“They lied about their prophets just as they distorted their book. Allah, the Almighty, has replaced it with something better than that: peace — the greeting of the people of Paradise.”
📚 Ahmad, Musnad al-Kufiyyin, No. 18591
2. The Hadith of Abu Hurairah ؓ
“Do not believe the People of the Book and do not disbelieve them, but say: ‘We believe in Allah and in what was revealed to us.’”
📚 Al-Bukhari, Kitab al-I’tisam, No. 6814; Kitab al-Tawhid, No. 6987
Context: The People of the Book would read the Torah in Hebrew and explain it to Muslims in Arabic — yet the Prophet ﷺ warned against unconditional acceptance.
3. The Hadith via Ibn Abbas ؓ — on Innovation and Denial
When Jewish leaders came claiming Muhammad ﷺ should follow the religion of Abraham, he replied:
“You have innovated and denied what was in it, and concealed what you were commanded to make clear to the people.”
📚 Asbab al-Nuzul — al-Suyuti and al-Wahidi, p. 169 (The chain contains a weakness due to Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ansari, but it is strengthened by a corroborating witness — see al-Qurtubi, 3/158–159)
Revelation: Quran 5:68 — {Say, “O People of the Scripture, you are not upon anything until you uphold the Torah and the Gospel…”}
Statements of the Companions
4. Hudhayfah Ibn al-Yaman ؓ — Warning About Differing
“O Commander of the Faithful, save this nation before they differ in the Book as the Jews and Christians differed.”
📚 Al-Bukhari, No. 4604; Al-Tirmidhi, Tafsir al-Qur’an, No. 3029
Significance: This was said in the presence of most Companions ؓ — indicating their collective certainty that the Jews and Christians had distorted their books.
5. Mu’awiyah ؓ — on Ka’b al-Ahbar
“He was one of the most truthful of these narrators who narrate from the People of the Book — and we would still attribute lies to him.”
📚 Al-Bukhari, Introduction to Kitab al-I’tisam
Explanation: The “lie” was attributed to Ka’b not because he was dishonest, but because the books he narrated from were themselves distorted and changed. The Companions knew this clearly.
6. Abdullah Ibn Abbas ؓ — Direct Statement
“O group of Muslims, how do you ask the People of the Book about anything while the Book of God is the most recent of God’s news?! You read it fresh and untouched. God has told you that the People of the Book have changed the Book of God and altered it and written the Book with their own hands and said, ‘It is from God,’ in order to exchange it for a small price.”
📚 Al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Shahadat, No. 2488
Classical Mufassireen
7. On Quran 2:79 — {So Woe to Those Who Write the Scripture with Their Own hands…}
Ibn Abbas ؓ:
“The verse was revealed about the polytheists and the People of the Book.” 📚 Tafsir Ibn Kathir, 1/144
Mujahid:
“These are the ones who knew that it was from God, then they distorted it.” 📚 Tafsir al-Tabari, 1/423
Imam al-Shawkani:
“These scribes were not satisfied with distortion or writing for that distortion until they called out in gatherings that it is from Allah, so that they could achieve this small goal and insignificant compensation through these repeated sins.” 📚 Fath al-Qadir, 1/105
8. Imam al-Baydawi — On Quran 5:41 {They Distort Words from Their Proper usages}
“That is, they distort them from the usages in which Allah placed them — either verbally: by neglecting them or changing their usage — or in meaning: by interpreting them in a way other than what is intended and applying them in a way other than their intended context.”
📚 Tafsir al-Baydawi, 1/266
9. Imam al-Tabari — On Quran 5:13
“They distort the words of their Lord that He sent down to their Prophet Moses ﷺ… and change it and write with their own hands other than what Allah sent down to their Prophet. Then they say to the ignorant people: ‘This is the word of Allah.’”
📚 Tafsir al-Tabari, 4/496
10. Imam al-Qurtubi — On Quran 5:14
“Those who claimed that they were Christians and did not do what they were commanded to do — and made that terror and distortion into disbelief in Muhammad ﷺ.”
📚 Tafsir al-Qurtubi, 3/78
11. Ibn Kathir — On Yunus 10:94 and the Gospels
“With this knowledge that they know of their books — as they know their sons — they wear it, distort it, and change it, and they do not believe in it, although the proof is established against them.” 📚 Tafsir Ibn Kathir, 4/175
On the four Gospels:
“More than one person mentioned that the Gospel was transmitted from Christ by four: Luke, Matthew, Mark, and John — and between the four Gospels there is much variation in each copy, many additions and omissions… they differed in transmitting the Gospels between additions, omissions, distortion and change.” 📚 Qisas al-Anbiya’, pp. 573–574
12. Imam Fakhr al-Din al-Razi — On Quran 3:79
“When God explained that the habit of the People of the Book is to distort and change, He followed it with what indicates that among the things they distorted was their claim that Jesus ﷺ claimed divinity.”
📚 Al-Tafsir al-Kabir, 2/109
Classical Scholars on the Torah and Gospel
13. Imam al-Qurtubi al-Andalusi
On the Gospels:
“The book in the hands of the Christians, which they call the Gospel, is not the Gospel about which God said on the tongue of His Messenger: {And He sent down the Torah and the Gospel — before, as guidance for mankind} [Aal Imran 3–4].”
On the chain of transmission:
“It has become clear from this research that the alleged Gospel was not transmitted by continuous transmission (mutawatir), and no evidence has been established for the infallibility of its transmitters. Therefore, it is permissible for its transmitters to make mistakes and suffer forgetfulness — so no certain knowledge is obtained from it.”
📚 Al-I’lam bi ma fi Din al-Nasara min al-Fasad wa al-Awham; cited in Izhar al-Haqq, pp. 135–136
14. Ibn Hazm — The Christians’ Own Admission
“The Christians have spared us all this trouble, because they do not claim that the Gospels were revealed from God to Christ, nor that Christ brought them to them. Rather, all of them — Aristotelian, Melkite, Nestorian, Jacobite, Maronite, and Bolqanite — do not differ that they are four histories written by four men known to them at different times.”
📚 Al-Fasl fi al-Milal, 2/13
15. Ibn Taymiyyah — Al-Jawab al-Sahih
On the Gospels:
“The Christians do not have a continuous transmission (tawatur) from Christ in the words of these Gospels, nor a continuous transmission of most of what they follow of the laws.”
On the Council of Nicaea:
“The trust (creed) which they made the basis of their religion is not found in the words of the Gospels, nor is it transmitted from the apostles. Those who established it were the people of the first council with Constantine — which was held more than three hundred years after Christ — and they disagreed with Abdullah ibn Arius, who made Christ a servant of God as the Muslims say.”
📚 Al-Jawab al-Sahih, 1/214, 313
16. Ibn al-Qayyim — Hidayat al-Hayara
“Their claim that the versions of the Torah are in agreement in the East and the West is an obvious lie. This Torah in the hands of the Christians contradicts the Torah in the hands of the Jews, and the one in the hands of the Samaritans contradicts both. These versions of the Gospels contradict and conflict with each other.”
“These Gospels in the hands of the Christians contain additions, distortions and omissions that are not hidden from those who are firmly grounded in knowledge — and they know with certainty that this is not the Gospel that Allah revealed to the Messiah.”
📚 Hidayat al-Hayara, pp. 106–107, 109–114
17. Imam al-Juwayni — Shifa al-Ghaleel
On the Torah:
“The Torah that is in the hands of the Jews now is the Torah that Ezra al-Warraq wrote after their strife with Nebuchadnezzar… This copy was written by Ezra five hundred and forty-five years before the mission of Christ ﷺ.”
📚 Shifa al-Ghaleel fi Bayan ma Waqa’a fi al-Torah wa al-Injil min al-Tabdil, pp. 30–31, 39
18. Imam al-Tawfi al-Hanbali — Al-Intisarat al-Islamiyyah
“These books are not among those that can be used as evidence against us, because they are distorted and changed in our view. Yes, the change did not come to all of them — rather it entered them as a whole. For this reason our Prophet ﷺ said: ‘If the People of the Book tell you something, do not believe them and do not disbelieve them…’ — forbidding belief because what they told us was definitely distorted, and forbidding disbelief for fear that it was not distorted.”
📚 Al-Intisarat al-Islamiyyah, 1/229–232
19. Imam al-Qarafi al-Maliki — Al-Ajwiba al-Fakhira
On the Torah:
“The Torah has definitely been altered… it contains attributions to the prophets — especially the servants of God — of immorality, fornication, and drinking alcohol… it is certain that this Torah is not authentic.”
On the Gospels:
“We dispute that what is in their hands is divine — rather it is altered and changed to the utmost weakness and frailty, and the weakness of the preservation, narration, and chain of transmission is such that none of it can be trusted.”
📚 Al-Ajwiba al-Fakhira, pp. 32, 164
20. Rahmatullah al-Hindi — Izhar al-Haqq
“The original Torah and the original Gospel were lost before the mission of Muhammad ﷺ, and what is now present is like two books of biography collected from correct and false narrations.”
On Paul:
“The words of Paul… are not acceptable to us because we believe that he is one of the liars who appeared in the first generation.”
On Matthew’s Gospel:
“The original Hebrew Gospel of Matthew was lost, and only its translation survived — the name of whose author is also unknown until now.”
His Principle:
“Every narration of its narrations — if the Quran confirms it, it is acceptable. If the Quran denies it, it is rejected. If the Quran is silent about it, we are silent — we neither confirm nor deny.”
📚 Izhar al-Haqq, p. 133
21. Al-Maqrizi — On the Four Gospels
“This same difference is also among the Christians in the Gospel. It has four copies — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — each written according to his call in his country. And they differ greatly, even in the characteristics of Christ ﷺ, and the days of his call and the time of the crucifixion, and in his lineage. And this difference is not tolerated.”
📚 Cited in Izhar al-Haqq, p. 136
Later Scholars and Contemporary Voices
22. Muhammad Abdullah Daraz — Al-Naba’ al-Azeem
“With this double care that God sent into the souls of the Muhammadan nation, the Quran remained preserved in a secure safe, fulfilling the promise of God: {Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur’an and indeed, We will be its guardian} [Al-Hijr 9]. It was not affected by what happened to the previous books of distortion, alteration, and interruption of the chain of transmission — as God did not undertake to preserve them, but rather entrusted them to the preservation of people.”
📚 Al-Naba’ al-Azeem, p. 42
23. Sheikh Ahmad Deedat — The Great Debate
When asked whether God was able to preserve His word:
“What I have been emphasizing all night is that the books were not preserved. The books were not preserved… The truth of the matter is that they are not the word of Allah, and the books have been distorted.”
📚 The Great Debate: Is the Bible the Word of Allah? — Deedat vs. Swaggart, p. 36
24. Abu al-Hasan al-Nadwi
“The heavenly scriptures that preceded the Quran are still subject to distortion, alteration, loss and destruction… The scriptures of the Old Testament were clearly targeted for destruction, burning and extermination — by agreement of Jewish historians — three times in history.”
On the Gospels:
“Their matter is stranger than the scriptures of the Old Testament, as their writing and their authors are surrounded by much ambiguity, confusion and disorder, and between them and the Lord Christ ﷺ there is a deep and wide gap… There is no continuous chain of transmission from our time to their writers, nor from their writers to Jesus, son of Mary.”
📚 Prophecy and the Prophets in the Light of the Quran, pp. 125–129
25. Sheikh al-Sha’rawi
“God corrects the previous books such as the Torah and the Gospel, which He entrusted to mankind, but they distorted and changed them, and this distortion nullified the mission of the divine method with regard to these books. So the Quran came — not distorted or changed — to remain a method for Allah until the Day of Resurrection.”
📚 Khawatir al-Sha’rawi, 1/109
26. Sheikh Muhammad al-Ghazali
On the Old Testament:
“This Old Testament is a strange book… full of stories, visions, and turbulent histories… There are many comments by unknown writers, which were inserted into the original and then considered part of it.”
On the Gospel:
“After Jesus ﷺ disappeared, the pages of the book that was revealed to him disappeared with him, and no one has found a trace of them to this day.”
📚 Sawt min al-Da’in ila al-Tanasur, pp. 67, 90, 93
27. Abu al-A’la al-Mawdudi
“The Jews and Christians themselves admit today that they do not have those original books that were revealed to Moses, David, and Jesus ﷺ — but rather they have in their hands translations of them that have remained for centuries, subject to change, alteration, addition, and subtraction.”
📚 Mabadi al-Islam, p. 99
Fatwas and Official Positions
28. Sheikh Ibn Uthaymeen ؒ — The Creed Regarding Previous Books
“As for the previous books, they are temporary and will end with the revelation of what abrogates them and clarifies what distortion and change occurred in them. For this reason, they were not infallible, as distortion, additions, and subtractions occurred in them.”
On reading the Bible:
“It is not permissible to acquire any of the books that came before the Quran — whether the Bible, the Torah, or anything else — for two reasons:
- Everything that was beneficial in them, Allah has explained in the Noble Quran.
- The existing Gospel is distorted — the evidence being that it is four Gospels that contradict each other, and not one Gospel.”
(Exception: A scholar with sufficient knowledge may read it to refute its falsehoods and establish proof against those who embrace it.)
📚 Fatawa al-Aqeedah, p. 598; Aqidat Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama’ah, pp. 16–17
29. Sheikh Abdullah Ibn al-Jibreen ؒ
“God Almighty only mentioned one book — so their multiplicity after Jesus ﷺ is evidence of their being changed and distorted. As for the original, it is what God mentioned in His saying: {In it is guidance and light}. As for these Gospels, they have been changed and distorted from the revealed Book.”
📚 Fatawa wa Ahkam fi Nabi Allah Isa ﷺ, pp. 34–35
30. The Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta’
Q: What is the ruling on reading the Gospel?
“The previous divine books have been subject to much distortion, addition and subtraction, as Allah has mentioned. It is not permissible for a Muslim to read or review them unless he is well-grounded in knowledge and wants to clarify the distortions and contradictions that have been mentioned in them.”
📚 Fatawa al-Lajna al-Da’ima, 3/311 — Fatwa No. 8852
31. Dr. Ali Gomaa — Grand Mufti of Egypt
On why Allah preserved the Quran but not the previous books:
“Allah Almighty willed in His wisdom to test the predecessors by their preservation of their books and not distorting or changing them — but they did not remain steadfast… So Allah Almighty preserved this eternal book for this blessed nation and undertook to preserve it as an honor to them and to show their status with Him Almighty.”
📚 Al-Azhar Magazine, Rajab 1426 AH / August 2005 AD, pp. 1160–1161
32. Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Jaza’iri
“Allah preserved the Quran by providing for it trustworthy men who preserved it in their hearts and their lines — so that the hand of time and the hand of the enemy were not able to add a letter to it or subtract a letter from it.”
On the Gospel:
“It is sufficient to indicate that it was not preserved that today there are five Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Barnabas — after it was one Gospel on the day of its revelation. The Gospel of Barnabas is the most correct and was hidden from the fourth century to the seventeenth century AD.”
📚 Aqidat al-Mu’min, p. 155
Summary — Key Principles
| Principle | Evidence |
|---|---|
| The Torah and Gospel were revealed by Allah | Quran 5:44–46 |
| They were not preserved by Allah — but entrusted to people | Quran 5:44 |
| The Quran alone was guaranteed preservation | Quran 15:9 |
| Distortion occurred — verbally and semantically | Quran 2:79, 4:46, 5:13 |
| The Companions ؓ were collectively aware of the distortion | Al-Bukhari Nos. 2488, 4604 |
| No tawatur (continuous transmission) exists for the Gospels | Ibn Taymiyyah, al-Qarafi, al-Juwayni |
| The four Gospels contradict each other internally | Ibn Kathir, Ibn al-Qayyim, al-Maqrizi |
| A Muslim may not rely on them for religious guidance | Permanent Committee, Ibn Uthaymeen |
Compiled for dawah and scholarly reference — for Obsidian knowledge base.
Tags: #dawah #tahrif #bible #quran #aqeedah #islamicscholarship #christianity #judaism