Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah. To proceed:
The Torah, in its origin, is the Speech of Allah Almighty, and Allah’s Speech is uncreated.
What is authentically established in the Sunnah is that Allah wrote the Torah for Musa with His Hand. There is no authentic hadith from the Prophet ﷺ stating that Allah “created the Torah with His Hand.”
As for the narration that groups Adam, the Torah, and the Garden of Eden together under the wording “created,” the preserved version of it is from the words of Ka‘b al-Ahbar. The narrations that attribute it directly to the Prophet ﷺ are not authentic.
Even if such wording were assumed to be authentic, some scholars interpreted it as a case of linguistic predominance, meaning that with regard to the Torah, what is intended is its writing, not the creation of Allah’s Speech.
The Quran indicates that the Torah which Allah revealed to Musa, peace be upon him, was from His Speech.
Allah Almighty says:
“Do you hope that they will believe you while a group of them used to hear the Speech of Allah and then distort it after they had understood it, while they knew?”
[Al-Baqarah: 75]
According to what the fatwa establishes, the Torah in its origin is the uncreated Speech of Allah, just as Allah’s Speech is one of His Attributes, and His Attributes are not created.
What is authentically established in the hadiths is that Allah Almighty wrote the Torah with His Hand.
In the hadith concerning the debate between Adam and Musa, peace be upon them, Adam said to Musa:
“O Musa, Allah chose you with His Speech and wrote for you with His Hand...”
Narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim.
In a narration in Muslim:
“He wrote the Torah for you with His Hand.”
It is also reported:
“And He inscribed the Torah for you with His Hand.”
Thus, the authentic wording speaks about the writing of the Torah, not about Allah’s Speech being created.
The well-known narration:
“Allah did not create with His Hand except three things: He created Adam with His Hand, wrote the Torah with His Hand, and planted the Garden of Eden with His Hand”
is not authentically established with this wording as a hadith directly attributed to the Prophet ﷺ.
It has been narrated from Ka‘b al-Ahbar, with wording such as:
“Indeed, Allah did not create with His Hand except three things: He created Adam with His Hand, [made] the Torah with His Hand, and planted the Garden of Eden with His Hand...”
As for narrations that raise this meaning to the Prophet ﷺ, or narrations attributed to Ibn ‘Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them both, their chains contain weakness.
Among them is a narration containing al-Hasan ibn Abi Ja‘far and ‘Ali ibn Zayd ibn Jud‘an, both of whom were considered weak by hadith scholars.
There is also a report:
“Allah, Mighty and Majestic, created three things with His Hand: He created Adam with His Hand, wrote the Torah with His Hand, and planted Paradise with His Hand.”
However, al-Bayhaqi judged it to be mursal, and its chain also contains narrators through whom the report cannot be firmly established.
Therefore, it is not correct to attribute to the Prophet ﷺ the statement that “Allah created the Torah with His Hand.”
Here the main difficulty disappears.
Allah’s Speech is one thing, and the writing of that Speech is another matter.
The Torah, with respect to the Speech that Allah spoke, is Allah’s Speech and is uncreated according to the Sunni belief presented by the fatwa.
As for the hadith stating that Allah wrote the Torah with His Hand, this affirms the act of writing. It does not mean that the Speech that was written thereby became created.
For this reason, the authentic hadith itself makes the distinction. Adam said to Musa:
“Allah chose you with His Speech,”
and then mentioned:
“And He wrote the Torah for you with His Hand.”
Thus, it affirms Speech for Allah and affirms that He wrote the Torah with His Hand. There is no contradiction between the two.
Even if we were to assume that a narration grouping the three things under the phrase “created with His Hand” were authentic, some scholars explained it as an example of linguistic predominance.
That is, when the following were combined in one statement:
the three matters were brought together under one general expression by way of predominance, even though the specific act related to the Torah is writing, not creating Allah’s Speech.
This is supported by the fact that when the narration gives the details, it does not say:
“He created Adam, created the Torah, and created the Garden of Eden.”
Rather, it distinguishes between them and says:
“He created Adam, wrote the Torah, and planted the Garden.”
This indicates that a different action is connected to each of them.
No.
Writing does not change the reality of the Speech or transform it from being Allah’s Speech into created speech.
A distinction can be made here between Allah’s Speech itself and the created things upon which that Speech is written or by means of which it is recited, without saying that the Attribute of Speech itself is created.
This is similar to the distinction between the Quran as the Speech of Allah and the physical mushaf in terms of its paper, ink, and what relates to human activity in writing it.
The Torah, in its origin, is the uncreated Speech of Allah Almighty. What is authentically established in the Sunnah is that Allah wrote it for Musa with His Hand.
There is no authentic hadith from the Prophet ﷺ stating that Allah “created the Torah with His Hand.”
As for narrations that group the Torah together with Adam and the Garden of Eden under the wording of “creation,” the preserved version is from Ka‘b al-Ahbar, while the versions attributed directly to the Prophet ﷺ are not authentic.
Even if this expression were assumed to be established, some scholars explained it as linguistic predominance, because the detailed wording itself distinguishes the actions:
He created Adam, wrote the Torah, and planted the Garden.
Accordingly, there is no contradiction between the Torah being the uncreated Speech of Allah and the fact that Allah Almighty wrote it with His Hand.
And Allah knows best.