Bible has not been corrupted since the days of the Apostles.
Another fact which confutes the vulgar theory of tahrif is that the Khalifah 'Umar,
when his armies conquered Syria, Iraq, and Egypt, found at Caesarea, Alexandria, and
many other places, great libraries full of books. Among these were many copies of the Holy
Scriptures and of books composed by Christian teachers. The Muslims might have preserved
these books and referred to them in after ages, in order to know whether or not the
Christian Scriptures in later times were or were not falsified. But Abu'l Faraj informs us
that, when the Khalifah 'Umar was asked what was to be done with the great Alexandrian
Library, he ordered it to be destroyed. This was done. In the same way the author of the Kashfu'z
Zunun
(كشف
الظَّنُون) tells us that the same Khalifah ordered the libraries of Persia also to be
destroyed when Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas
(سعد
ابن ابي
وقَّاص)1 conquered Persia. If the Muslims had
preserved some of the copies of the Bible that then fell into their hands, they would have
been able to prevent the possibility of the falsification of these books in later times,
should anyone have wished to corrupt Holy Scripture. Believing as they did that the Qur'an
was the "Protector"
(مُهيمِنَأ Surah v. 52) of "the Book of God", such
conduct would have been very suitable on the part of Muslims. But what the Muslims failed
to do the Christians did, for (as we have seen) we have in our possession not a few MSS.
of the Bible which were written some centuries before the Hijrah, and which escaped the
fate that probably befell many in the Alexandrian Library and elsewhere. Learned Muslims
who visit Rome, or St. Petersburg, or Paris, or London, can see some of these ancient MSS.
for themselves. Moreover, photographic reproductions of some of them have been published.
It is from a comparison
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