(78) “Indeed, among them is a group who twist their tongues when reciting the Scripture, so that you may think it is part of the Scripture, though it is not part of the Scripture. They say, ‘It is from Allah,’ though it is not from Allah. They knowingly tell lies about Allah.”

The Most High informs us that among the People of the Scripture is a group who twist their tongues when reciting the Scripture—that is, they bend it and distort it away from its intended meaning. This includes twisting and distorting both its wording and its meanings. The purpose of the Scripture is to preserve its wording without alteration, to understand what it means, and to convey that meaning to others. Yet these people reversed the matter and conveyed meanings that the Scripture did not intend, either by insinuation or by explicit assertion.

The insinuation is mentioned in His words, “so that you may think it is part of the Scripture.” That is, they twist their tongues and lead you to imagine that this is what Allah’s Book intends, though it is not what it intends. Their explicit assertion is mentioned in His words, “They say, ‘It is from Allah,’ though it is not from Allah. They knowingly tell lies about Allah.” This is a graver sin than speaking about Allah without knowledge. They knowingly tell lies about Allah, thereby combining denial of the true meaning with affirmation of a false meaning and applying wording that denotes the truth to a corrupt meaning.