that contained it and then altered it. Nor has anyone ever alleged such wholesale tampering with the Torah or the Gospel; the charge was made only when the number of copies was still small—perhaps one, or two, or four, and the like. Others have claimed that certain words in some individual manuscripts were changed, for a limited number of copies can indeed be manipulated.

The manuscripts of the Torah, the Gospel, and the Psalms that survive today do exhibit some variation, yet the differences are slight and agreement predominates. This is borne out by the second consideration: their assertion that all the manuscripts constitute a single discourse, a single text, and a single creed is unfounded. The Torah manuscripts diverge in a number of places; there are discrepancies between the Torah used by the Jews, the Christians, and the Samaritans; the copies of the Psalms differ even more, and the same holds true for the Gospels—so what, then, of the prophetic books?

I myself have seen Psalm manuscripts in which the prophethood of Muhammad—peace and blessings be upon him—is mentioned explicitly by name, and I have examined another Psalm manuscript in which I did not find that reference