Shia view of the Quran

The Shī‘ah use the same Qur'an as Sunni Muslims, however they do not believe that it was first compiled by Uthman ibn Affan.[3] The Shī‘ah believe that the Qur'an was gathered and compiled by Muhammad during his lifetime.[4][5][6] This completed version of the Qur'an was kept next to the pulpit of Muhammad within the Mosque of Madinah, where scholars would come to transcribe more copies.[3] Furthermore, Grand Ayatollah Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei believed that Ali possessed a Quran of his own, which included the divinely revealed commentary of the Quran.[7]

According to orientalist professor Etan Kohlberg, Twelver Shia believed in the distortion of the Quran up to the era of the Buyids,[8] and this belief was common among Shia during the early Islamic centuries.[9] Kohlberg claims that Ibn Babawayh was the first major Twelver author "to adopt a position identical to that of the Sunnis".[10] 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”.[11] Among other reasons, the distortion was alleged to have been carried out to remove any references to the rights of Ali and the Imams,[12] the approval of their supporters and the disapproval of their enemies, such as specific Umayyads and Abbasids.[13] 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".[14]

Since at least the 10th century, Sunnis have incessantly attacked Shia for their perceived espousal of Quranic distortion and regard it as one of the most blatant examples of Shia "heresy".[15] When 11th century Muslim scholar Ibn Hazm argued the Muslim claim that the gospels had been corrupted, one Christian counter-argument was "that the Rawafid maintain that the Companions of your Prophet altered the Koran by way of omissions and additions." This accusation of tabdil (alteration)—a result of Shi'ite distrust towards the companions—was scathingly refuted by Ibn Hazm.[16]

Grand Ayatollah Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei (d. 1992), who was considered "the most prominent Shiite cleric in Iraq after 1970 and most followed globally",[17] summarizes the situation:

The accepted view among Muslims is that no alteration has occurred in the Qur'an, and that the text that is in our hands is the whole Qur'an that was revealed to the great Prophet (peace be upon him and his progeny). A large number of prominent scholars have proclaimed this. Among them is the leading traditionist (muhaddith) Muhammad b. Babawayh. He has counted the belief in nonalteration of the Qur'an among the doctrines of the Imamite (Twelver) Shi'ites. The jurist-doctor of the Imamite Shi'ite community, Abu Ja'far Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Tusi, is another major figure who holds this view. He puts forth this view at the beginning of his exegesis of the Qur'an, entitled al-Tibyan, and has also cited the opinion, to that effect, of his teacher, al-Sharif al-Murtada, supporting it with the most complete evidence. The famous exegete al-Tabarsi has also asserted this doctrine, in the introduction to his commentary, Majma' al-Baydn. Among the leading jurists, this view is declared by Shaykh Ja'far Kashif al-Ghita' in the section of his juridical work, Kashf al-Ghita', that deals with the Qur'an; in that section, he asserts that there is a consensus on the issue. The most learned jurist, al-Shahshahani, in his discussion on the Qur'an in the work entitled al-'Urwa al-Wuthqa, maintains the same opinion and ascribes the doctrine of nonalteration to the majority of jurists. Other scholars who uphold this view include the famous traditionist, al-Mawla Muhsin al-Qasani [al-Kashi], and the leading teacher al-Shaykh Muhammad Jawad al-Balaghi.

A group of scholars has ascribed the doctrine of nonalteration to a large number of the most eminent among them. These include al-Shaykh al-Mufid, al-Shaykh al-Baha'i, al-Qadi Nur Allah al-Shustari, and others as prominent. On the other hand, those who hold this view implicitly include Shi'ite scholars who have written about the necessity of the Imamate and have mentioned the shortcomings without dealing with the question of alteration. Had these scholars believed that alterations had been made in the Qur'an, this would have been more worthy of mention than the burning of [the unofficial] codices and other such accounts.

In short, the common view among Shi'ite scholars and researchers, or, rather, what is unanimously agreed upon by them, is the view that no alteration has been made to the Qur'an. However, a faction of Shi'ite traditionists and a group of Sunni scholars have held the view that alterations were made. According to al-Rafi'i, "A group of scholastic theologians (ahl al-kalam)—who have no preoccupation except to engage in conjecture and allegorical interpretation (ta'wil), and to seek procedures of disputation in every injunction and doctrine—maintain the possibility that some passages of the Qur'an may be missing. They attribute this to the way it was collected." Al-Tabarsi, in his Majma 'al-Bayan, ascribes this view to the Hashwiyya group among the Sunnis.[18]

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)[12]
• Ali Ibn Ibrahim Qomi (d. 919)[19]
• Al Ayyaashi (d. 932)
• Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni (d. 941)
• Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid (d. 1022) — spoke of the alteration which occurred in the ordering of Quranic verses (ta'līf).[10]
• Mohsen Fayz Kashani (d. 1680)[19]
• 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 [corruption] occurred... Our position is that it is permitted to act upon one of the famous seven variants [of 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"."[20]
• Mirza Husain Noori Tabarsi (d. 1902)
• Agha Bozorg Tehrani (d. 1970)[21]

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 (d. 1864), Mohammad-Kazem Khorasani (d. 1911) and Ruhollah Khomeini (d. 1989).[22]

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.[23] 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.[24]

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,[25] claim that Shī‘ah dispute the current version, including that they add two additional sūratayn, an-Nūrayn and al-Wilāya.[26] This accusation of tahrīf "tampering" is antithetical to scholars and is considered polemical.[27][28] The above sūratayn are considered forgeries and do not appear in published Qur'ans.

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.[29]

The issue of Tahreef [tampering] has 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), Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni (author of Kitab al-Kafi), Ni'matullah Al Jazaa'iri (author of Anwar Al Nu'maniyyah, d. 1701[30]) 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.[31]

According to Muhammad Baqir Majlisi, the difference of opinion among the scholars and jurists was as follows:

No one from the people claimed…’: meaning, those other than the Imāms (as). What is meant by ‘the entire Qur’ān’ is all its words and letters, and what is meant by ‘as it was revealed’ is its arrangement, declensions, vowellike and vowelless diacritics, and the length of verses and chapters.

This is a refutation of the faction that claims that the Qur’ān is what is in the known copies and as read by the reciters of the seven variant readings and their likes.

Our associates differed concerning that; al-Şadūq ibn Bābawayh and a group opined that the Qur’ān did not alter from how it was revealed and nothing was deleted from it, while al-Kulaynī and al-Shaykh al-Mufīd—may Allāh sanctify both of their souls!—and a group opined that the whole Qur’ān is with the Imāms and what is in the copies is some of it. And the Commander of the Believers [`Alī] (as) compiled it as it was revealed after the Messenger, and went out to the hypocritical Companions, but they did not accept it from him and rather approached its compilation during the reigns of `Umar and `Uthmān, as it will soon be detailed in Kitāb al-Qur’ān.[32]

Some accused Shī‘ah of alleging that Fatimah had her own Mus'haf (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 to Fatimah to console her on the death of her father) in their possession, none of them were Quran.[33]

• List of Shia books
• Al-Jafr (book)
• Al-Jamia
• Criticism of Twelver Shia Islam
• Islamic schools and branches
• Schools of Islamic theology