Journal of Interreligious Studies on the Quran and the Bible

Journal of Interreligious Studies on the Quran and the Bible

The Truth about the Alterability or Inalterability of the Qur’an and the Biblical Scriptures

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Ali Ranjbar
PhD of Religions and Mysticism, Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute, Qom, IRAN.
10.22034/qb.2026.2070324.1049
Abstract
The Christian Holy Scripture consists of two parts: "The Old Testament and the New Testament." Jews accept only the Old Testament as their sacred scripture. The sacred book of Muslims is the Qur’an. Since these books serve as the primary sources of their respective religions, proving their susceptibility to alteration or their immunity from it directly affects the credibility of those religions’ teachings, as well as the authority of these texts in distinguishing truth from falsehood. In this study, using an analytical–descriptive method, we address the question of what the reality is regarding the alterability or inalterability of these sacred texts, and we compare them in this regard. The findings show that the Bible, based on its own internal textual inconsistencies and also in light of Qur’anic verses, has undergone alteration and change. Some believe the Biblical scriptures are inerrant and unaltered, but this is incorrect, because their most important argument, divine inspiration of the Biblical text, suffers from problems such as circular reasoning. As for the Qur’an, according to all Islamic scholars, no alteration has occurred in it. While some Muslim scholars, based on certain narrations, have argued for omission in the Qur’an, such narrations cannot establish the claim. This is because those narrations point instead to misinterpretation, or to differences in the arrangement of surahs between the time of revelation and the present Qur’an, or they are set aside due to definitive evidence confirming the Qur’an’s protection from alteration.
Keywords
Alteration
Truth
Qur'an
Biblical Scriptures
Old and New Testaments
Holy Quran.
Holy Bible.
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