Surah Al-An'aam (6) — Ayah 91

91. They did not value Allah as He should be valued, when they said: "Allah has not sent down anything to any human being." Ask them: Who then sent down the Book which Moses brought [93], a light and guidance for the people? You made it into separate sheets, some of which you show, but you hide much [93.1]. And you were taught through this Book what neither you nor your forefathers knew. Say: "Allah alone sent it down." Then leave them to play in their vain discussions.

[93]
The Revelation of the Quran Upon a Human?

This address is to the Jews, who, due to enmity towards the Messenger and out of malice and stubbornness, denied a reality that was accepted even among themselves. They used to say that Allah has not revealed any book to a human being. Allah Almighty answered this objection in two ways: first, that they do not have complete knowledge of Allah, because neither does Allah Himself speak directly to people, nor does He send an angel to humans for this task. The only possible way is that Allah reveals His word to the Prophet through angels. The second answer is that you yourselves accept that Musa (Moses) ؑ was a human, from the descendants of Adam ؑ, and his parents were also present, so who revealed the book that was sent down to him? If this book was not revealed by Allah, then why do you preserve it so carefully? And the guidance and light of knowledge that is in this book—can anyone other than Allah tell such things? The guidance present in this book was neither known to you nor to your forefathers. Then, could anyone other than Allah have sent down such a book? Your act of disclosing some parts of this book to people and hiding some parts according to your desires—all this indicates that this book is from Allah and is a proof against you. Otherwise, if it were authored by a human, you would not need to do such things. The debates about human and messenger are futile! These were questions for which the Jews considered it safer not to answer, because the answer would go against them. Therefore, Allah Himself gave the answer: say to them that it is Allah who sent down the Torah, and He revealed it to a human. Those same pointless debates, such as: since so-and-so is a human, he cannot be a prophet, or since so-and-so is a prophet, he cannot be a human. So let them remain entangled in such debates. Such people are not seekers of guidance.
[93۔ 1]

The Form of the Torah in the Prophetic Era:

From this phrase of the verse, it is understood that in your (the Prophet’s) time, the Torah that the Jews possessed was not in the form of a bound book, but rather in separate sheets. In such a form, it was relatively easy for the Jews to act dishonestly; the verses they wanted to hide, they would simply make the sheet disappear. And if they wanted to alter something in the book or interpret or explain it according to their desires, they would write a new sheet and include it. The verse of stoning or the verses related to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, they would hide in this way by removing such sheets from among them and making them disappear. The fact that the Torah was written on separate sheets is supported by the hadith that once Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) found a few such sheets and began to read them before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, upon which signs of displeasure appeared on his face. This hadith has already been mentioned at its appropriate place. The second thing that is understood from this verse is that there were many verses of the Torah whose correct meaning became known to the Jewish scholars only when the teachings of the Quran became widespread. Before this, neither the Jewish scholars nor their forefathers knew the meaning of these verses.