Response to: Is the Qur’aan Complete?

The following is a response to the article on Revisitingthesalaf.org entitled: Is the Qur’aan Complete? The article was published on the 27^th of June, 2012, and can be found here.

After only a couple of years of being around, it seems that RTS has started to run out of material. The narration that RTS uses in this article to attempt to prove that Shias do not believe in the corruption of the current Qur’an was originally used by them earlier last year in November. The refutation to that article can be found here.

Even though a second rebuttal isn’t really necessary, we would like to point some things out for our patient readers.

RTS starts off the article by saying:

This rather unique Hadeeth on the authority of Imam Sadiq (a.s) to one of his close companions (r.a) has reached us via six different transmissions.

RTS is attempting to give this narration more weight than others by arguing that the narration has arrived through six different transmissions. This is incorrect, since the narration has only reached us through three narrators, who are the teachers of Al-Kulayni. The divergences that occur in the middle of the chain end up at three different sources, so arguing that it has arrived through six transmissions is not entirely accurate. Secondly, all the narrations end up with Abu Al-Baseer alone. In other words, this narration is the narration of one man.

Furthermore, RTS highlights this part of the narration:

I then said, ‘People say, “Why did He not specify Alee (a.s) and his family by their names in the Book of Allah (swt), the Most Holy, the Most High?’ “The Imam said, ‘Say to them, “The command for prayer came to the Messenger of Allah (saw) but He has not specified (the number of the Rak‘ats) for them as being three or four. It, in fact, was the Messenger of Allah (saw) who explained to them this matter. The command for Zakat (a form of income tax) came to the Messenger of Allah (saw) and there was no specific taxable number such as one Dirham on every forty Dirham. It was the Messenger of Allah (saw) who explained it for them. The command for Hajj came to the Messenger of Allah (saw). It did not say walk seven times around the Ka‘ba. It was the Messenger of Allah (saw) who explained it for them. The verse about obedience came, ‘Believers, Obey Allah (swt), His Messenger and your leaders (who possess Divine Authority)…’ (Qur’aan 4:59)

RTS deduces from the Imam’s declaration that the name Ali (ra) and the other Imams are not in the Qur’an, that there is no alteration in the Qur’an according to Shia thought. However, this is but one of the many possible forms of alteration. RTS seems to be ignorant of the calamities that exist within Shia books, through several authentic Shia hadiths, in which an Imam quotes the “correct” recitations of verses, none of which include the name of Ali or his children, and yet, is an admission of Qur’anic corruption.

Please refer to our previous article here for examples of such.

Another possibility, is that the Imam could be doing Taqiyyah in that narration above, to make “Sunnies” think that Shia don’t believe in the alteration of the Qur’an. Whereas when he is alone with his followers he propagates other views that oppose the Sunni view of the Qur’an being un-altered.