Shoreshthe drift report · all case files
Case file

Self-referential discourse of the Quran

Wikipedia's first sentence called it “set of rhetorical forms in which the qur'an cites itself to varying degrees”. Today it says “set of rhetorical forms in which the qur'an cites itself to varying degrees in a self-referential manner”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2025 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since. Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now. 1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2025

Rhetorical device in the Qur'an The self-referential discourse of the Quran is the set of rhetorical forms in which the Qur'an cites itself to varying degrees. These argumentative strategies aim to ensure its authority and support its divine origin.

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1283719099.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “set of rhetorical forms in which the qur'an cites itself to varying degrees”. Today it says “set of rhetorical forms in which the qur'an cites itself to varying degrees in a self-referential manner”. Read the current article and compare.
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.

What Wikipedia says this is

Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2025, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.

Then

set of rhetorical forms in which the qur'an cites itself to varying degrees

Now

set of rhetorical forms in which the qur'an cites itself to varying degrees in a self-referential manner

Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.

← back to the drift report