Some people have pointed out the dissenting views of some Muslims on the authenticity and completeness of the Qur’ān. The fact is that not only are these dissenting points of view unacceptable viz a viz the arguments for the contrary view point (as the main text of the article attempts to show), but such people as have these dissenting views are also in a negligible minority both among the Shī‘ah and the Sunnī sects of the Muslims. Imam Khū’ī, a prominent Muslim scholar records the opinions of the Shī‘ah authorities in the following words:
It is a known fact among the Muslims that the Qur’ān has not been tampered with in any way and that all of the Qur’ān we have with us today is the same that was revealed to the Prophet (sws). This has been specified by many authorities. Among them is the bona fide, Muhammad Ibn Bābwih, the chief of all the Muhaddithīn. He maintains that the view that the Qur’ān has not been tampered with is among the beliefs of the Imāmiyyah. The great Abū Ja‘far Muhammad Ibn Hasan Tusi also holds this view. He has explicitly mentioned it in the beginning of his exegesis Al-Tibyān. He has also quoted the exactly similar opinion of his learned teacher and profound scholar Sayyid Murtadā . His arguments on it are the best of all. Similarly, the celebrated exegete of the Qur’ān Tabrasī has also expressed this same view in the preface of his exegesis Majma‘atu’l-Bayān. Another person who has asserted this view is the leading jurist Shaykh Ja‘far in his book Kashfu’l-Ghitā; he has also claimed a consensus on it. Allamāh Shahshahānī in his book Al-‘Urwah Al-Wuthqā is an exponent of this view also. He has attributed it to many Mujtahidīn as well. Among them is the famous Muhaddith Muhsin Qāsānī (who has mentioned this view in his two books Al-Wāfī and ‘Ilmu’l-Yaqīn) and the learned Muhammad Jawād al-Balāghī who has referred to this view in the preface of his exegesis Ālā’u’l-Rahmān. (Imam Khū’ī, Al-Bayān, 5th ed., [Qum: Al-Matba‘ah Al-‘Ilmiyyah, 1974], pp. 218-9)
Sufficient sources and examples have already been cited in the main text of this dissertation that any dissension from the view that the Qur’ān the Muslim Ummah has with it today is the very one revealed to the Prophet (sws), is held at best by a negligible minority both among the Shī‘as and the Sunnīs. Tabrasī records:
Everyone agrees that the view that any addition has been made in the Qur’ān is baseless. As far as the view that there has been some omission in its text is concerned, one of our [Shī‘ah] groups and the Hashawiyyah sect of the Sunnīs say that there have been omissions and alterations in it. However, the correct view of our sect is against this and Sayyid Murtadā has endorsed this view. In his answer to the issues of Tabrasiyāt, he has comprehensively dealt with this topic. At various places, he has written that the knowledge of the authenticity of the Qur’ān is exactly the same as that of cities, great events, famous books and the written record of poetry of the Arab poets. This was because there were abundant reasons and motives for the transfer and protection of the Book of Allah. Such was the extent of these that nothing could parallel them, since the Qur’ān is the miracle of Prophethood and the source of law and other directives of Islam. The scholars of this Ummah undertook every effort to safeguard it so that they even recorded the differences in its reading, in its declensions and in its letters. In view of this extreme caution, how can it be believed that any part of the text was omitted or altered .… Sayyid Murtadā has also said that the Qur’ān was written and compiled in the time of the Prophet (sws) and we have it in same form today. This is corroborated by the fact that it was read in those times and learnt by heart by many companions and recited out to the Prophet (sws). Many of the companions of the Prophet (sws) like ‘Abdullāh Ibn Mas‘ūd and Ubbayi Ibn Ka‘ab recited the whole of the Qur’ān before the Prophet (sws) many a time. All this shows that the Qur’ān was properly compiled in the time of the Prophet (sws); it was not unarranged or scattered about. Sayyid Murtadā is also of the opinion that those among the Imāmiyyah and the Hashawiyyah sects who have differed from this view are of no significance because the ones who have differed are from among the Ahli Hadīth and have based their view on weak Ahādīth considering them to be correct. Consequently, on the basis of such weak Ahādīth, a proven and a certain reality cannot be rejected. (Tabrasī, Majma‘atu’l-Bayān, vol.1, [Beirut: Dāru’l-Fikr, 1994], pp. 15-16)