A Study of the Reasons Given by the Traditions in Al-Kafi on the Corruption of the Quran

The traditions indicating the possibility of corruption in the holy Quran, uncertainty in the history of collecting the Quran—at least for some scholars—the existence of some traditions comparing the major events in the history of the Muslim community with those of the history of the ancient communities, and the absence of the direct mention of the names of the Immaculate Imams, peace be upon them, in the Quran, are the main factors that led to the assumption that the Quran is possibly corrupted. Among many other factors, the traditions indicating the corruption of the Quran in different books, some of which are more important and credited than others, are worth of consideration. This article is an effort to study, irrespective of the documents and authorities, the text of those traditions in al-Kafi which have been used by the proponents of the theory of corruption. In this research, first all those traditions on the subject of corruption, which are almost eighty traditions, have been extracted. Then the cause of controversy in each tradition has been discussed and after a careful and documented analysis and study of each of these traditions they are organized in a final classification. In this analysis the researcher depends on textual evidence, the style of the traditions, external contexts and the views of the Muslim scholars.