CHAPTER 3: WHO SPEAKS SEVENTY-TWO LANGUAGES?
They say: How can we change our books which are written in seventy-two languages and each language has thousands of copies and six hundred years passed before Muhammad (peace be upon him) was sent?
The Answer:
Muslims did not say that the words contained in all the copies throughout the world were changed but that some of the wordings had been changed.
As for their saying that it (the Torah) is written in seventy two languages, it is known to all Christians that neither Christ (peace be upon him) nor all the prophets of the Children of Israel speak any language except Hebrew. Whoever says that he spoke Syriac as some people say, is wrong since the speech narrated from him in the Gospels was uttered in Hebrew then it was translated from that language into other languages.
The translation may contain many mistakes as we find during our time with those who translated the Torah from Hebrew into Arabic in which mistakes appear that are recognized by those who speak both languages well.
Christians say that it (the Torah) was written in four languages: Hebrew, Roman, Greek and Syriac. If it is true that it was written in seventy-two languages, it certainly was written some time after it had been written in these four languages. If there was a mistake in some places of these four languages, it was not removed after it had been written in seventy-two languages.
It is well known to Muslims, Jews and Christians that the Torah was related from a few persons and that changes occurred in some of its wording as it was not narrated from an unerring prophet nor was it narrated by way of recurrence.
There was no prophecy narrated from the twenty-two prophets that was narrated by way of recurrence in all its wordings. In the best of conditions, it would be written like the Gospel which is the same as the biographies of the prophets. An example of that is the Prophet’s biography, which was written by Ibn Ishaq or some of the books of Sunnah in which some narrators narrated about the sayings and deeds of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Most of them are true while some of them contain some mistakes.
It is also known that it is impossible for the people of the Scripture to prove that all the copies in all the languages all over the world have the same wordings and meanings for all the existing prophecies. The argument they raise concerning the difficulty of changing all of them, proves that it is also difficult to prove that all are the same.
Changes made in the Torah and the Gospel
If they say: Who are those who spoke seventy-two languages? And who is the person who judged the entire world: its kings, priests, scholars and even judged all the people in every country around the world and collected them from the four sides of the world to change them (the Torah and the Bible)? If he changed some and left some, it is not possible as they all say the same and have the same wording in all the languages.lt is said to them: Who is the person who knows seventy-two languages? And who is the person who judged all the world: its kings, priests, scholars and even judged all people in every country of the world, collected them from the four sides of the world, brought every copy in the world and compared every copy in the world with the other copies and found that the wording of all the copies that were written in seventy-two languages from all the countries of the world, have the same wording without any difference?
The claim of identifying the similarity of all is more impossible than the opposite, for if it were possible for a person to collect all the copies, changing some of their wordings would be easier than comparing the content of one copy to all the others.
The copies of the Torah, the Bible and the Psalms nowadays contain differences in some of them but they are minor differences and their consistency is more prevalent.
If they say: That their Book is one saying, one text, and one belief, this is not true as the copies of the Torah vary.
Moreover, there is a difference between the Torah of the Jews, of the Christians and of As-Samirah (a deviating sect of the Jews). There is also a great deal of difference between the copies of the Psalms and those of the Bible, so what about the prophecies?
There is no doubt concerning the changes in interpretation and this is the subject we are now dealing with. We are certain that Muhammad (peace be upon him) was mentioned in the Torah and the Bible during his time. Allah, the Almighty, says,
which means, “Whom they find written with them in the Tawrah (Torah) and the Injil (Gospel).” (Al-A’raf: 7, 157)
There is no doubt that there were many copies of the Torah and the Bible during his (the Prophet’s) time and that they were widespread throughout the world. So there should be one of two matters:
The wording was changed in some copies, and those changed copies were spread,
or these changes were mentioned in all the copies as many scholars from the rabbis of the Jews and the Christians believed. Those who were not rabbis found him (the Prophet) mentioned in their books and found the glad tidings concerning him in many places in the Torah and the Bible.
Some people say that he (the Prophet) is mentioned in them (the Torah and the Gospel) even more than that as well as in some other copies, in a way that no one can deny. They say: We saw every copy of the Torah and the Bible all over the world and found the wording the same in all of them. These words can only have been uttered by a liar, for no person can read every copy in all the world.
Moreover, no one can change every copy in the world. He who does not know the difference between all the copies cannot be sure of the consistency in wording among them all. So how can he put forth such a claim while the people who are acquainted with these books revealed the changes in wording. This is a thing that proves that whoever claims the consistency of their wordings is a liar?
By: Sheikhul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyah
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