Critique of Richard Bell’s Evidences and Documents on the Distortion of the Quran with Emphasis on the Interpretations of the Two Major Sects of Islam

Richard Bell is one of the orientalists who believe in a shift in the textual structure of the Holy Quran, which tries to show the lack of coherence in the order and rhetoric of a number of verses of the Quran by providing evidences from the verses. Among his evidences is human intervention in changing the location of verses and transforming the original rhetorical structure of verses; In Bell’s view, in this group of verses of the Quran, with the phenomenon of lack of coherence in the rhetorical structure, confusion in the subject of verses, lack of order in the final part of the verses, which is evidence of the occurrence of distortion in the text of verses This study tries to verify Bell’s in-text and out-of-text evidences with a critical approach. The conclusions of the research indicate that Bell’s view is not sound and his idea has serious shortcomings in the premise and many weaknesses in the literary analysis of the text of Quranic verses. Examining each of the in-text and out-of-text evidences of Bell in the commentaries of the two major sects of Islam such as Tafsir Al-Mizan, Tafsir Safi, Al-Tahrir wa Al-Tanwir, Mafatih Al-Ghayb, Jame’ Al-Bayan, etc. shows his misunderstanding of the issues of the dignity of revelation, context and appropriateness of verses which are not acceptable