Paul Williams exhorted me to look at Bassam Zawadi’s article here:
Ken get yourself up to speed on the primary sources:
here (at Bassam Zawadi’s “Call to Monotheism”)
Here is what I noticed about he treated Surah 2:79:
Bassam Zawadi on
Surah 2:79
Allah says in the glorious Qur’an…
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Surah 2:79
Ýæíá ááÐíä íßÊÈæä ÇáßÊÇÈ ÈÇíÏíåã Ëã íÞæáæä åÐÇ ãä ÚäÏ Çááå áíÔÊÑæÇ Èå ËãäÇ ÞáíáÇ Ýæíá áåã ããÇ ßÊÈÊ ÇíÏíåã ææíá áåã ããÇ íßÓÈæä
[ I don’t know why Bassam Zawadi leaves this as is, as one can get the Arabic and paste it.
I will even supply that here:
فَوَيْلٌ لِّلَّذِينَ يَكْتُبُونَ الْكِتَابَ بِأَيْدِيهِمْ ثُمَّ يَقُولُونَ هَٰذَا مِنْ عِندِ اللَّهِ لِيَشْتَرُوا بِهِ ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا ۖ فَوَيْلٌ لَّهُم مِّمَّا كَتَبَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَوَيْلٌ لَّهُم مِّمَّا يَكْسِبُونَ
]
Therefore woe be unto those who write the Book with their hands and then say, “This is from Allah,” that they may purchase a small gain therewith. Woe unto them for that their hands have written, and woe unto them for that they earn thereby.
Here we clearly see that Allah is warning those (Jews) who wrote the scripture from their own selves and then claimed that it was from God. A clear charge of TEXTUAL corruption. The verse is clear is clearly stating that whatever the Jews wrote, they claimed it was from God.
Some Christians say that the Qur’an is only talking about a specific group of people and that else where in the Qur’an it speaks about the People of the Book positively…
Zawadi is not very credible on this verse, because he left the context of Surah 2:75 – “a party of them” = a specific group; and he left out verse 78, which tells us important information that affects how we interpret verse 79.
I am the one sticking to context.أَفَتَطْمَعُونَ أَن يُؤْمِنُوا لَكُمْ وَقَدْ كَانَ فَرِيقٌ مِّنْهُمْ يَسْمَعُونَ كَلَامَ اللَّهِ ثُمَّ يُحَرِّفُونَهُ مِن بَعْدِ مَا عَقَلُوهُ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ
SAHIH INTERNATIONAL
Do you covet [the hope, O believers], that they would believe for you while a party of them used to hear the words of Allah and then distort the Torah after they had understood it while they were knowing?Surah 2:75
وَمِنْهُمْ أُمِّيُّونَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ الْكِتَابَ إِلَّا أَمَانِيَّ وَإِنْ هُمْ إِلَّا يَظُنُّونَ
SAHIH INTERNATIONAL
And among them are unlettered ones who do not know the Scripture except in wishful thinking, but they are only assuming.FARSI
و برخی از آنان بیسوادانی هستند که کتاب خدا (تورات) را جز یک مشت خیالات و آرزوها نمی دانند، و تنها به پندارهایشان دل بسته اند.Surah 2:78
PICKTHALL
Among them are unlettered folk who know the Scripture not except from hearsay. They but guess.They are just hearing things, not reading, not knowing, not focusing on the text; which is what seems to have happened to Muhammad himself.
Therefore, Zawadi is refuted at the beginning of his article, since he left out the main context information, and jumps to other verses in other Surahs and avoided immediate context.
I looked at his comments at 2:79 and he never even addressed 2:75 or 2:78, which are in the context; after that I scrolled through the whole article and there is nothing in their about the immediate context. He jumps to 3:113-114 and 3:199; and the rest are quotes by scholars and a few Hadith, but totally avoided 2:75 and 2:78, both important to immediate context.
The faction which made the alterations are the learned ones.
The illiterate refers to the masses. It is obvious that illiterate people cannot write books.
So the learned ones added distortions in the text. This is simple to understand.