Page:William Goldsack-The Qurān in Islām (1906).djvu/33

 24 given above could be multiplied. Space, however, will not permit of further illustration here. We have shown enough to prove to every unprejudiced and open-minded reader that the Qurān has been greatly corrupted, and that Sunni and Shiah alike agree in affirming that numerous differences exist in different copies. Many reliable scholars even admit that in many cases the text of the Qurān has been wilfully corrupted by unscrupulous Muslims. Thus Baizāwi, Malam and Abul Fīda all refer to one such person Abdulla-ibn-Zaid-ibn-Sarih by name. He was, they tell us, an amanuensis of the prophet, and used to maliciously alter various passages of the Qurān. But not only is the text of the Qurān, as it exists to-day, open to serious doubt; and ‘not only do innumerable varieties of reading exist with respect to the present text; but we shall now proceed to prove from reliable Muhammadan sources that large portions of the original Qurān are missing altogether from the present copies; that, in fact, the present Qurān only represents a portion—and that corrupted—of the original book which was delivered by Muhammad to his followers.

 

The reader will remember that the Khalif ʿUsmān collected one copy of the Qurān, and then burnt all the rest. He then circulated his own compilation throughout the Muslim world. This action of the Khalif has ever since been condemned in the strongest terms by the Shiahs, who affirm that many passages referring to ʿAli and his family have been expunged from the Qurān. A complete chapter of the Qurān, now absent from the present copies, and containing many references to the supremacy of ʿAli, may still be seen. It is called