Reciting the Torah or Gospel in Prayer – What is the Ruling?
Source: Fatawa Amanpuri by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amanpuri❀ Question:
Is it permissible to recite from the Torah or the Gospel during prayer?
❀ Answer:
It is not permissible. In prayer, only the recitation of the Qur’an is allowed. Moreover, the Torah and the Gospel are no longer in their original form; they have been distorted.
❀ Imam Sarakhsi (رح) (d. 483H) said:
إذا قرأ الرجل فى الصلاة شيئا من التوراة والإنجيل والزبور هو يحسن القرآن أو لا يحسنه لم تجزته؛ لأنه كلام ليس وهو بقرآن، ولا تسبيح، ومعنى هذا أن قد ثبت لنا أنهم قد حرفوا وبدلوا فلعل ما قرأ مما حرفوا، وهذا كلام الناس، ولإن النقل المتواتر الذى لا يثبت كلام الله إلا به غير موجود فيما هو فى أيديهم الآن .
"If a man recites in prayer something from the Torah, Gospel, or Psalms, whether he knows Qur’an or not, his prayer is not valid. Because this is speech which is neither Qur’an nor tasbih. The meaning is that it has been established that the Jews and Christians altered and changed these books, so what he recites may be from their distortions. That is merely human speech. Furthermore, the mutawatir transmission by which the Word of Allah is established does not exist in what is presently in their hands."
Reference: [المبسوط: 234/1]
