Islam’s Tahrif And Rabbis’ Midrash – OpEd

The many dozens of Prophets in the Hebrew Bible make only a few references to the religious texts of prior religions. The New Testament is an add on to the Hebrew Bible; which quotes the Hebrew Bible 302+ times, and claims to be the Old Tenement’s fulfillment. The Qur’an is a stand alone text which mentions both Torah and Injil together 12 times, mentions Injil three times, and Torah six times by themselves; and quotes the Zabur only once (Psalm 37:9,11,29) in Qur’an 21:105. 

The term suhuf (scroll books Qur’an 20:133, 21:48, 87:19) is used for texts of Prophets Abraham, Aaron and Moses which were written separately, and later added in as part of the Oral Torah written down by the rabbis in the second century. (Qur’an 6:91) This was the original   meaning of Tahrif. 

At first it would seem that Tahrif (Arabic: تحريف, “distortion, alteration”) an Arabic term used by Muslims for the alterations which Islamic tradition claims Jews and Christians have made to their revealed books, specifically the Tawrat (Torah), Zabur (Psalms) and Injil (Gospels); is the direct opposite of Midrash. 

In the Zabur of Prophet David it is written: “One thing God has spoken; two things have I heard”  (Psalms 62:12). The rabbis in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 34a) asserted that this means there are multiple interpretations of each verse of Scripture that can be correct, and the word of God, even if they contradict one another. The Hebrew term for this concept of pluralistic interpretation of sacred scriptures is Midrash.

Midrash (מדרשׁ) is an interpretive activity of seeking answers to religious questions (both practical and spiritual) by plumbing the meaning of every word in the Torah. In the Bible, the root d-r-sh [דרשׁ] means inquiring into any matter, including seeking out God’s word. Midrash responds to contemporary problems and crafts new narratives, making connections between new Jewish realities and the ancient unchanging Hebrew text.

Midrash falls into two categories.When the subject is law and religious practice (halacha ), it is called Midrash halacha. Midrash aggadah, on the other hand, interprets biblical poetry, prophecy and narrative, exploring questions of ethics or theology, and creating lessons, new insights and different views all based on the ancient text. In some ways Midrash is like Islamic Tafsir which means fasara, meaning “to discover”;  the derived verb form fassara means “to explain, interpret, or to elucidate.” Tafsir is the explanation or interpretation of something “exposing its secrets.

Written by rabbis steeped in the Bible and absorbed by the many different questions that arise over the centuries, midrash occupies the meeting ground between reverence and love for the word of the fixed text of the Torah, and religious creativity in meeting new developments in society and culture. Midrash thus yields religious insights that have made Torah directly applicable to the later realities of Jewish life.

The best-known rabbinic midrash is the legend of Prophet Abraham, who as a young child in Mesopotamia smashed his father’s idols. Not just a simple morality tale about a national hero, the text in Midrash Rabbah for Genesis suggests that Abraham’s selection by God did not come out of nowhere, as Genesis 12 literally reads. Rather, Abraham had independently come to a point where he would be receptive to the voice of the one God.

This midrash lays out Prophet Abraham’s relationship to his family and to the people and culture around him, and his willingness to challenge conventional wisdom. It is not only a depiction of this patriarch, but also a model of an ideal spiritual personality for Jews, Christians and Muslims in any age and foreign culture.

The narrative about Abraham breaking his father’s idols is related in the Qur’an once in 19:41-50 and again in 21:51-66 for a total of 24 verses. In the written Torah this event is not mentioned at all; but it is the center of several oral Torah Midrash accounts. 

This would be called Tahrif by Muslims; and is called Midrash by Jews, but if you ask most Jews today, especially well educated Jews who are less educated in Judaism, where the Abraham breaking his father’s idols event is related; they will respond it is written in the Book of Genesis in the Torah. 

So the Qur’an states: “And there is a party among them who twist their tongues while reciting the [Torah] Book to make you think that it [their Midrash/Tafsir] is part of the Book, when in fact it is not. They say: ‘It is from Allah’, when in fact it is not from Allah. They falsely fix a lie upon Allah, and do so wittingly.” (3:78)

As a Reform Rabbi I agree with the above ayah. The party the Qur’an criticizes are those Orthodox Rabbis, who when the subject was law and religious practice (Midrash halacha) kept expanding the number of dietary laws, the strictness of Sabbath restrictions, and female purity laws. Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, “Religion is very easy and whoever overburdens himself in his religion will not be able to continue in that way. So do not be extremists, but try to be near to perfection and receive the good tidings that you will be rewarded.”  (Bukhari Vol. 1, Book 2, # 38)

Reform Rabbis  regard the increasingly restrictive developments in the laws of kosher diet, especially for Passover, as a counterproductive, overburdening of the Jewish people by extra-pious Orthodox rabbis. The expansion of restrictions on Shabbat activities is also seen by Reform Rabbis as a counterproductive, overburdening of the joy of Shabbat.   

The Qur’an wisely differentiates between extremism and striving to be near perfect (no one is perfect) which involves a rejection of extremism. Just trying to do well will be rewarded. Religion should not be hard. Making religion easier does not mean making religion soft or impious. 

This is a very important Hadith because all religions have believers that think that more is always better, and that much more harder is still better. 

The same restraint from becoming super pious is evident in the treatment of women during their menses. Thabit narrated from Anas: Among the Jews, when a woman menstruated, they did not dine with her, nor did they live with them in their houses (share the same bed); so the Companions of the Apostle asked God’s Messenger, and God revealed this verse to him: “They ask you about menstruation; say it is pollution, so keep away from woman during menstruation”. (Qur’an 2: 222) 

Prophet Muhammad said: Do everything except intercourse. The (Orthodox) Jews heard of that and said: “This man does not want to leave anything we do without opposing us in it.” (Sahih Muslim: Book 003, # 0592) Both Islam and Judaism have laws about ritual pollution deriving from a woman’s monthly period. Orthodox Rabbis greatly expanded the prohibitions against having sex during a woman’s period. Prophet Muhammad opposes this expansion and limits the prohibition for Muslims. 

Reform Rabbis today are much closer to Islamic practice than they are to Orthodox Jewish practice. On the other hand, although Orthodox Jews do require their women to cover their hair, they never, even in Muslim countries, forced their women to cover their faces with a veil. 

In the 7th century, when Prophet Muhammad was spreading Islam most of the Jews of Arabia and the Middle East were Orthodox Jews. Had the Jews of Medina been more open to his teachings; Reform Judaism would have started 14 centuries ago and not just 2 centuries ago.  

The Qur’an also states that sometimes they (the Jews) write it in: “So woe to those who write the “scripture” with their own hands, then say, “This is from Allah,” in order to exchange it for a small price. Woe to them for what their hands have written, and woe to them for what they earn.” (2:79) 

This refers to the frequent use of metaphors in the Hebrew Bible and Rabbinic literature especially Biblical “Anthropomorphism” (tashbih). The most shocking thing that a rabbi notices when reading the Qur’an is that Allah continually refers to himself as “We.” This reiteration of the pronoun “We” referring to God occurs over 2100 times in the Qur’an.

In the Hebrew Scriptures the “Royal We”(or, the Plural of Majesty”) is very rarely used for God, except most noticeably in the creation narrative, where God says, “Let us make…”

And God said, “Let us make a human, in our image, according to our likeness, and … And God created the human in His image. He created it in the image of God; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27)

All the Jewish Prophets declare God’s words using “I.”  Of course, I know that “we” in the Qur’an never means that God is plural or trinitarian. It is a matter of style that might also be meant as an important correction to the error that many of Prophet Jesus’ disciples entered into.

Many disciples of Jesus took Prophet Jesus’ use of “my father in heaven” literally when it was of course meant metaphorically. They also misunderstood the statement of Prophet Jesus:
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)

The Hebrew Bible’s metaphor of a shepherd describes both God and a human ruler. Jesus was saying that a good leader puts the good of the flock ahead of his own good. The writer John wrongly understood that “I” [God] will sacrifice [“My Son”] to save all humanity. In the same way, many Muslim readers of the Hebrew Bible are shocked by the frequent use of metaphors to describe the Divine One. 

The Jewish People were the only on going monotheistic Ummah in the world for more than a thousand years; so using anthropomorphic descriptions of God was a minor difficulty compared to the on-going religious struggle (“Jihad”) to eliminate the polytheism and idolatry that many Jews engaged in —from within the Jewish nation.

All cases of Biblical Anthropomorphism (tashbih) are to be taken non-literally. They are metaphors or poetic expressions for ideas that cannot be expressed more concretely.  For example, the metaphor of stubborn uncaring people as having an “uncircumcised heart” can be found repeatedly in Biblical verses: Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn… (Deuteronomy 10:16)…if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity.  (Leviticus 26:41)

Circumcise yourselves to the LORD; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.  (Jeremiah 4:4)

To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear?  Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen. (Jeremiah 6:10)

These are all like the Qur’an’s statement: “And do not invoke Allah along with another deity. There is no deity except Him. Everything will be destroyed except His Face. His is the judgement, and to Him you will be returned” [Sûrah Al-Qaṣaṣ, 28:88]

To me as a student of the Hebrew Bible, it is clear that ‘face’ is simply a metaphor for God’s Presence. The rabbinic Tafsir/midrash (Ecclesiastes Rabba 1:16) actually gathers 50+ different metaphors of the heart that are implied by various verses in the Hebrew Bible.

Thus, I believe that Tahrif in the Quran refers to Orthodox Rabbis unjustified expansion of Jewish law and to the anthropomorphisms (tashbih) used in Jewish biblical and rabbinic literature. 

An example of the latter is in the first volume of the Talmud, which is mostly about rules pertaining to prayer, a question is asked: “What does God pray? The great sage Rav said: God says: May it be My will that My mercy will overcome My anger; and may My mercy prevail over My [strict] attributes; and may I conduct myself toward all my children, with the attribute of mercy, beyond the letter of the law.” 

The same lesson is taught in a Hadith Kudsi “When Allah created the creatures, He wrote in the Book, which is with Him over His Throne: “Verily, My Mercy prevailed over My Wrath.” (Al-Bukhari)

The Talmud continues the discussion about God’s prayer with a startling addition related by Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisha, the High Priest: “Once, on The Day of Atonement, I entered the innermost sanctum [of the Temple] to offer incense, and in a vision I saw God’s name on a high and exalted throne; who said to me: Ishmael, My son, bless Me. 

“I recited to Him the prayer that God prays: “May it be Your will, that Your mercy overcome Your anger, and may Your mercy prevail over Your other attributes, and may You act toward Your children with the attribute of mercy, and may You deal with them beyond the letter of the law.” He nodded His head and accepted the blessing.” 

The Talmud (Berakhot 7a) then concludes this passage with the humanistic lesson: do not take the blessing of any ordinary person lightly. If God asked for and accepted a human’s blessing, all the more so should a human value the blessing of another human. As Prophet Muhammad taught: “The one who does not thank people had not thanked God.” (Abu Dawud)