Jews and Distortion of Religious Texts
The Holy Quran differentiates the Jews who are moderate and believe in the Resurrection Day from those Jews who break their promises:
“Some of them are modest people, but many of them commit the worst sins.” (Verse 66 of Surah Al-Ma’idah)
The Quran cites many negative characteristics for the second group in history and they can be divided into religious, social, economic and political categories.
One of the characteristics of the second group is distorting the teachings of religion. That is why no one can trust their accounts of historical stories. The Quran says: “But because they broke their covenant, We cursed them and hardened their hearts. They changed the Words from their places and have forgotten a portion of what they were reminded.” (Verse 13 of Surah Al-Ma’idah)
God sent them books, prophets and clear evidence, but out of envy and a desire to dominate, they began to quarrel. “We gave to the Children of Israel the Book, judgment and prophethood. We provided them with good things and preferred them above the worlds (of their time). We gave them clear signs of the Command; yet it was not until after knowledge had come to them that they differed among themselves, and were insolent to each other.” (Verses 16-17 of Surah Al-Jathiyah)
Their distortion of the Torah took place in two ways: adding or removing or changing the places of words and wrong interpretation of the Torah.
Even the Jews who talked to the Holy Prophet (PBUH) tried to distort his words to find a pretext to refute him. “… and from among those who are Jews; they are listeners for the sake of a lie, listeners for another people who have not come to you; they alter the words from their places,…” (Verse 41 of Surah Al-Ma’idah)
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The Muslims’ religious issues did not remain safe from their deceitfulness either. The infiltration of Israʼiliyyat into the Islamic culture over the past 14th centuries has affected works in the fields of Tafseer (Quran interpretation), history, theology and Fiqh.
Abdullah ibn Salam was among the first who tried to spread the Jewish culture among Muslims. Wahb ibn Munabbih also spread wrong information in the Islamic society. Another person was Ka’ab al-Ahbar, a Jew from Yemen who converted to Islam after the Holy Prophet’s (PBUH) demise and infested Hadiths with baseless narrations from Jewish books and stories of Talmud, thus dealing blows to the Islamic culture.
