Home > Surah 15 - The Rocky Tract
Surah 15:91 is a verse that turns the "partial corruption" defense into a liability. It addresses those who treat divine revelation like a buffet—picking what they like and discarding the rest.
Classical exegesis often identifies this verse as a rebuke to those who treat all divine revelation as a buffet.
Surah 15:91:
Who have made the Qur'an into parts.
The term 'iḍīn (parts/fragments) refers to the act of tearing something into shreds or accepting only what is convenient.
Muslims often argue that the Bible is "partially corrupted." They accept the verses that seem to point to Muhammad but reject the verses that declare Jesus as the Son of God.
By picking and choosing which parts of the Bible to believe, the Muslim apologists are doing exactly what Surah 15:91 condemns. If the Quran "confirms" the previous Scripture, it confirms it as a unified whole. To "fragment" it into "true" and "corrupted" piles is the very sin described in this verse.
You cannot "shred" or "fragment" something that does not exist.
If the Jews and Christians of the 7th century were being rebuked for "dividing" or "shredding" their scriptures, it proves that the full, physical manuscripts were in their possession.
This reinforces the "Possession Argument." If the Bible was present in the 7th century to be "fragmented," then the Quran was affirming a physically present book. The 7th-century Bible is the same as the modern Bible. If the Quran affirms that book, it affirms its own contradiction.
In early Arabic, Quran literally means "The Recitation." Many classical commentators (such as Ibn Kathir) noted that this verse refers to the Jews and Christians who treated their own scriptures—the Torah and the Gospel—as "recitations" but divided them, believing in some parts and rejecting others.
If the "recitation" being fragmented here is the Bible, then the Quran is granting the Bible the highest possible status by calling it a "Qur'an" (Recitation).
It makes the "selective belief" of modern Muslims even more ironic. They are treating the Bible exactly how the "dividers" treated it, yet the Quran calls those people "evil-doers" who will face divine punishment.
If a Muslim says to you, "I believe in the original Injil, but the one you have has been changed," you can respond with:
Surah 15:91 warns against those who treat the Scripture as 'fragments'. By saying you only believe the 'original' parts and reject the 'changed' parts of my Bible, aren't you making the Scripture into 'parts' just like the people Allah condemned?
To 'shred' the book into pieces means the book was there in your hands. If the book was there, and the Quran tells us not to divide it, then you must accept the whole Gospel. And if you accept the whole Gospel, you have to accept that Jesus said, 'I and the Father are one.'
Which will it be: will you accept the whole and leave Islam, or fragment the book and face the warning of 15:91?"
By centering the argument on the integrity of the unit, you prevent them from hiding in the "partial corruption" loophole.