Defensive Rereading of Akhund Khorasani's Thought on the Issue of Quran Distortion

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Associate Professor of Quran and Hadith Sciences, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Introduction
According to the dominant thought in Islamic theology, distorted narrations are not acceptable, and especially Shia from late times to the present era, believe in the originality of the revelation of the Quran and its incorruptibility and that the contents and words of the Holy Quran have never been distorted, but some reports from Sometimes the sayings about the acceptance of the occurrence of distortion in the Qur'an are carried by the Shiites, and it harms the idea of incorruptibility in the eyes of the Shiites. The claim of abstract knowledge and the support of validity by distorting the Qur'an in the words of Akhund Mohammad Kazem Khorasani (died 1329 AH), a jurist and usulist, the author of the book Kefayeh al-Asul, is one of the cases that raise doubts, and addressing it and rereading and analyzing the view of this Shia thinker on the issue of falsifiability makes the Quran very important.
Research Question(s)
What is the concept of helping credibility in the mullah's statement about distorting narrations? And does Khorasani Mukhtar believe in distorting the Quran?

Literature Review

However, until now, several researches have been conducted on the proof of the non-distortion of the Holy Qur'an, among which the work closely related to the present research is an article titled "Critical Analysis of the Twelve Reasons of Muhaddith Nouri in Proving the Distortion by Deficiency" by; Maryam Qolizadeh Pasha, Abdul Hadi Faqhizadeh, Mahmoud Vaezi and Maleeha Al Sadat Seyedreza, published in the journal of religious research, period 20 autumn and winter 2019, number 41, which proves that most of the narrations in the book are obtained from unknown or fake sources. They are related to the difference in readings, which are either related to the way some Quranic words are recited or provide a special interpretation of some verses. But from the point of view that Makhund Khorasani's point of view is re-examined, it is unprecedented and innovative. The review goes under these subheadings.

Methodology

In this article, with a descriptive-analytical method, the general rationalistic approach of Makhund Khorasani and his principles in expressing the authenticity of the book's appearances are introduced, and the aspects of Makhund's reasoning about distorted narrations are discussed.

Results

These are all the arguments mentioned by Akhund Khorasani in the form of distortion of the Qur'an, but if we look carefully at his words, there is no trace of acceptance of distortion, especially regarding the issue of distortion of the Qur'an, which certainly cannot be found, and it is sufficient that they following Sheikh Ansari, he considered it as a possibility and did not attribute it to any ancient group.

Discussion

From the point of view of Akhund Khorasani, verses about the resurrection and the quality of resurrection, stories, proverbs, rulings, etc., are distortions of the verses, where the authority of appearances has no meaning. And since it is an instructional ruling and requires reasoning, therefore, we do not have the authority of outward worship in them, and if there has been a distortion, it is not a problem for us. What is important for us is the authenticity of the appearances in the verses of commandments. Because the meaning of justification is only specific to the cases that are related to the act of the obligee, and therefore our abstract knowledge is practically and judiciously dissolved.
After stating these things, the late Akhund Khorasani says: Our statement is correct if our general knowledge about the occurrence of abortion or tasheef is separate from the evidence, and only if we say that the evidence is connected with this occurrence of abortion or tasheef, then we will find knowledge. The evidence related to abortion is brief, but we don't know if this evidence is related to the verses of al-Ahkam or related to other verses, then we will find a problem. Because we know that there was evidence and it was aborted. We doubt the relevance of the omitted evidences to the verses of Al-Ahkam. And the doubt in the existing similarity creates a problem in practice for the revelations. They even give an example: like Mullah wrote a letter to us, it had three pages, one page was about instructions related to us, one page was Mola's own travel diary, which has no excuses or excuses for us, and the third page was explanations and clues. It was in relation to those first two letters. We don't know if this letter and the third page contained evidence that it is related to the letter that was related to our duties, or not that it is related to the second page that is the memoirs of Mullah's journey, as the wise say; you act on that first sheet and don't pay attention to this doubt, if this third sheet is lost and you don't find it, say, God willing, that third sheet is not related to evidence contrary to what appeared in that first sheet.
Yes, if we doubt whether it was the third sheet or not, the late Makhund says that the wise do not pay attention to doubt here. But if we know that there was a third sheet and it was lost, we don't know which part of Mullah's letter this third sheet was related to, here rational people pay attention to doubt and do not act on that appearance in the first letter.

Conclusion

The findings of the article indicate the critics' misunderstanding of Akhund Khorasani's view of distorted narrations. This is despite the fact that the late Akhund considers the idea of distorting the Qur'an to be completely invalid. In expressing the authenticity of the appearances of the words of the Qur'an, he considers it to be a non-excellent abstract knowledge and lacks justification, which is basically not proof and does not harm the validity of the appearances of the Qur'an. Based on this, Makhund's discussion has nothing to do with accepting the validity of distorted narrations, but based on his rationalistic approach in the position of investigating and responding to an impossible assumption and possibility, and that the possible assumption is not logically impossible. Belief in the principle of non-distortion of the Holy Quran is undeniable among Shiites, especially the late Akhund Khorasani.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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