Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

Re: Question No.51: Doubts in the perfection of the Quran

In the answer you have given to the q.51, you have said given an ayah from the Quran which states that the Qur'an is free from an changes made by the human race till the Day of Qiyamah. How then can the Bohra "leaders" change the Qur'an according to their own views? Secondly, without any offense to you, you have not actually answered the question he has asked us. Instead you have just given verses of from the Qur'an containing the same basic meaning that the Qur'an cannot be changed. If it does say in the Qur'an that it cannot be changed or altered how then can a low-down person loike our bhai-shaebs chage it.

Regards,

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

Answer:

No one can change the Quran

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and who-ever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

The Truth of the matter is that the Quran cannot be changed or altered, because Allah Himself has taken it upon Himself to preserve this Glorious Book. Not only the Bohra leadership, but even the most ardent enemies of Allah have tried since time to change, edit and even destroy these words of wisdom from Allah. And each one of them failed miserably!

The Bohras do not actually change the Quran or edit anything, because it is simply not possible. What they have done is left the alphabets alone, but pronounce the word in such a way so as to try and change the meaning of the word as intended by Allah and as received and understood by His Messenger (saws).

Allah admonishes the muslims in the Holy Quran and says that the Jews did similar things with their Scriptures, and He thus cursed and punished them severely.

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 5 Surah Al Maidah verse 13: Then they (the Jews) broke their covenant and because of this We deprived them of Our Mercy, and hardened their hearts. Now they have become so degenerate that they distort the words of the Scriptures so as to change their meanings completely.

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 4 Surah Nisaa verse 46: Of the Jews there are those who displace words from their (right) places and say: "We hear and we disobey"; and "Hear what is not heard": and "Ra`ina"; with a twist of their tongues and a slander to faith. If only they had said: "We hear and we obey"; and "Do hear"; and "Do look at us": it would have been better for them and more proper; but Allah hath cursed them for their unbelief; and but few of them will believe.

A trick of the Jews was to twist words and expressions, so as to ridicule the most solemn teachings of Faith. Where they should have said, "We hear and we obey," they said aloud, "We hear," and whispered, "We disobey."

Where they should have said respectfully, "We hear," they added in a whisper, "May you not hear," by way of ridicule.

Where they claimed the attention of the Prophet, they used an ambiguous word apparently harmless, but in their intention disrespectful. "Raina" if used respectfully in the Arabic way, would have meant "Please attend to us." With a twist of their tongue, they suggested an insulting meaning, such as "O thou that takest us to pasture!" or in Hebrew, "Our bad one!"

Similarly, the Bohras twist the pronunciation of the word like ‘fansab’ to ‘fansib’, and ‘il-yaaseen’ to ‘aale-yaaseen’, and try to give a different meaning to the actual words of the Quran.

Another point to remember here is that as and when the Quran was being revealed, the scribes used to write down the exact Revelations and memorize the exact words accordingly. The original script in which the Quran was written is regarded as ‘Kufi script’, and this script did not have ‘zabar’/ ‘zer’ etc on it. It was only many years after the compilation of the Quran in a Book form, that the ‘zabar’, ‘zer’, etc. were added for the benefit of the people who did not read Arabic as their first language.

What the Bohra leadership has done, like the Jews, is tried to twist the actual pronunciation of the words, and tried to give arbitrary meanings to these words, to confuse and mislead the common people from the Truth. Allah cursed the Jews who did that, and deprived them of the guidance. May Allah have mercy on the Ummah of Islam and guide them to the Straight Path of Islam.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

 Burhan