Iltifat: Difference between revisions

Iltifat (التفات, iltifaat), also known as grammatical shift or grammatical errors, refers to cases where the Quranic text makes strange grammatical shift in point of view or addressee for no apparent reason.

The Islamic interpretation is that the so called "iltifat" is intentional and that it makes the Quran better. Critics, however, suggest that iltifat is the result and evidence of an imprecisely produced or preserved Qur'an.

Professor Suleiman Mourad comments on this phenomenon, "There are a few grammatical mistakes in the Qur'an - sometimes a sentence starts in the singular and ends in the plural (e.g., 9:49-50), or two particles are connected when they should not be (e.g., 3:178), or some vowels go wrong in the declensions (e.g., 22:78). This from the viewpoint of a strict linguist. From the traditional vantage point, since the Qur'an is miraculous, these are not errors."^[1]

Examples

• This is not a complete list of examples. Every category has only one example
• Some examples are debatable, but the purpose is to show all kinds of iltifat that were suggested

In pronouns

The Quran in some verses switches pronouns in a strange way. The most remarkable are switches between the 1st and the 3rd person.

Change from 1st to 2nd person

This example is debatable. In the verse 36:22 a man asks his people:

It would make more sense in the context to say "who created me and to whom I will be returned".

But it was also interpreted as "why should I not worship He who created me" being the reason for the belief and "and to whom you will be returned" as a warning to the people. Although from the verse it doesn't seem like a warning, it rather seems as if "you will be returned" is being given as a reason for why the speaker should "worship He who created" him, which proves to be an awkward, impersonal justification for his personal devotion to God.

Change from 1st to 3rd person

In this verse it cannot be clearly seen in the translation (Sahih International):

Arabic doesn't have capital letters and the Arabic Quran doesn't have punctuation. So the "raw" text would be:

So it begins by "I am the messenger" (1st person) but ends up referring to himself in the 3rd person ("his messenger the unlettered prophet who believes in allah..").

As we've seen, translators "solved" (interpreted) it by adding quotation marks. "He gives life and causes death" is the speech of Muhammad (which god commanded him to say) and "So believe in Allah and His Messenger" is made out to be the speech of Allah. They're both mentioned in the 3rd person, so who's speaking here? Also there's no reason to break the two parts, it would make sense to say it together: "He gives life and causes death, so believe in Allah and His messenger".

Change from 3rd person to 1st person

This example is clear. "We" refers to Allah in 1st person, although Allah was in 3rd person in the beginning:

Change from 3rd person to 2nd person

Again it's not easy to see it in the translation, but the people are referred to as "they", but then the next verse says to them "you". The "[And it will be said]" and quotation marks were added by translators:

Without the interpolation introduced in the translation, it reads "and they will be adorned.. indeed this is for you a reward".

Change from 2nd person to 1st person

This example is debatable. "The Lord" is in the 3rd person the whole time. The difference is only in the possessive pronouns:

It would make more sense to say "Indeed, your Lord is Merciful and Affectionate".

Change from 2nd person to 3rd person

Again, translators added quotation marks to resolve it:

In verbs

Change from past tense to command

Again, it can't be seen in the translation (Sahih International):

It doesn't say in present tense "you maintain", but it's imperative "maintain!" (أقيموا) ^[2]. ٍSo it's "My lord ordered justice and maintain yourselves", which is strange.

Change from present tense to command

"I call Allah to witness" is followed by a command "witness!" (the "[yourselves]" was added by translators):

It would be more natural to say "I call Allah to witness and I call you to witness" (أشهد الله واشهدكم).

Change from past tense to present

Sahih International translation patched it:

In reality "you denied" is in the past, but "you killed" is actually in the present: "you kill" (تقتلون).

Yusuf Ali made a more precise translation:

The Sahih International translation "a party [of messengers] you denied and another party you killed" (with both verbs in the past) would make more sense, but it's not in the Quran.

Change from present tense to past

This one can't be seen in the translation at all:

It seems that the verbs are both in future tense, however, the first one is in the present ^[3] and the second in the past ^[4]. So "the day the horn is blown, they were terrified".

In number

Arabic words have singular, dual and plural forms.

Change from singular to dual

"You come to us" is singular ^[5], but "you have" is dual ^[6].

Change from singular to plural

When the light of the fire lighted around him, Allah took their light:

Change from dual to singular

"remove you" was dual ^[7], but "you would suffer" was singular ^[8].

This also seems to suggest, strangely, that if Adam and Eve were removed from paradise, then only Adam would suffer.

Change from dual to plural

It starts in the dual, "settle" is dual. Then "make your houses" is plural. And "give good tidings" is singular.

The change to plural could be interpreted that it's a command for the two and their people, but still it's a little strange. Since it begins with "We inspired to Moses and his brother", god doesn't talk to their people, so we would expect that the commands would be for them two.

Change from plural to singular

Both "we" and "me" refers to god:

Change from plural to dual

55:33 is in the plural, 55:34 in the dual:

See also

• Spelling Inconsistencies in the Quran
• Tadmeen

References