Why do Muslims say the Bible was altered when the Holy Qur’an recognises it as revelation?

Both are true and they do not contradict each other. The Torah and the Gospel came pure from God, but people later changed parts of them and added words of their own.

Some people think the Holy Qur’an teaches that God’s words can never be changed. It does not say that. It says that God’s laws in nature cannot be changed. About the earlier scriptures it says something different. They came pure from God, but over time people altered them, sometimes by mistake and sometimes for their own interests.

So the Holy Qur’an does not contradict itself when it honours the Bible as revelation and also points to changes in it. What comes from God remains true. What people added is human work. God did speak to Moses (as) and Jesus (as), and much of that has been preserved in the Bible.

How can the human additions be recognised? First, by contradictions that cannot be resolved. Second, by statements that contradict nature. The God who created the world is the same God who revealed the scripture. His word and His work cannot contradict each other. Today many Christian biblical scholars also agree that certain passages were added later.

This view is really a bridge. The Holy Qur’an does not ask anyone to dismiss the Bible as a forgery. It allows us to respect it and to look for what is divine in it. It is the only holy book that speaks so openly about the scriptures that came before it, and it presents itself as their fulfilment and guardian.