The former prime minister said translations would not change the scriptures.

“I’m told that translations of the Quran in other languages like Malay and English are not the Quran, but the Quran doesn’t change,” he was reported to have said today. “If the Quran has in Arabic, ‘you may not kill’, you cannot say in Malay, ‘you can kill’,” according to a report in Malay Mail Online.

The report quoted Dr Mahathir as saying that the translations “may not be exact, but it’s near perfect”.

Speaking at the launch of a Read the Quran campaign here, Dr Mahathir reiterated that Muslims should rely on the Quran as the “word of God” instead of turning to the Hadith (sayings attributed to Prophet Muhammad) or the opinions of religious leaders.

He has often spoken harshly about how the influence of religious scholars had turned Islam into an inflexible faith and in a blog posting in 2014 he accused clerics of pursuing worldly and political gains, and in the process creating divisions among Muslims.

He has also supported author Kassim Ahmad, who had campaigned against religious scholars who rely on the hadith, which are the collected sayings and reports on prophet Muhammad’s deeds, accusing them of creating a priestly caste.

Malaysian religious schools teach the Quran in Arabic and pupils are encouraged to memorise verses from the holy book.