but according to the reading of Bakr we should read, (
Arabic characters) ” (Arabic characters) “Say thou (O, Muhammad), My Lord knows.”
Here we have a concrete example of a serious difference in the text of the Qurān, which totally alters the meaning of the passage. According to the one reading God addresses the prophet, and orders him to say, "My Lord knows,” whilst in the other, the prophet is represented as affirming in his reply to the unbelievers that, “ My Lord knows.”
From a host of others we quote one more example from the same authority. In the first rūkū of Sūra Azhab we read,
(Arabic characters)
“The prophet is nigher unto the true believers than their own souls, and his wives are their mothers.” But the Imām Sāheb tells us that according to the copy of Ubi and the reading of Ibn-Masʿūd we should read several additional words in this passage, viz., (Arabic characters) "and he (Muhammad) is their father.” The reader will now perceive why Ibn-Masʿūd refused to give up his Qurān to the Khalif ʿUsmān; and, remembering the high encomiums passed upon the former’s Qurān by the prophet himself, will readily believe that these words have disappeared from the present Qurān. If, then, our Muhammadan brethren, in spite of these undoubted defects in their sacred book, can still continue to read and believe in the same, upon what process of reasoning, we ask, do they object to read the Injīl because, as they think, it has been altered in some places?
