Short answer
No. In the Bible the gift of tongues was real human languages. At Pentecost, a Jewish feast day when, Acts says, the Spirit came on the disciples, each listener heard them in his own language. Peter, a leading disciple, said the gift at Caesarea was the same as at Pentecost. Paul, a Christian missionary of the first century, wanted words that people understand. He told the speaker to keep silent if no one could translate. Modern tongue-speaking is different. Linguists find it is not any human language. The Pentecostal movement that spread it began in Kansas in 1901. People who have never done it can learn it after brief training. In one test, interpreters gave the same recording different meanings. The Qur'an says God (﷾) sent each messenger in the language of his people, to make the message clear.
Full explanation
What happened at Pentecost
Acts, the New Testament book about the first Christians, describes the first gift of tongues. The disciples spoke, and a crowd from many nations heard them, each in his own native language. That is the Bible's own definition of the gift: speech in real languages, understood by those who heard it. The longer ending of Mark (the last verses of that Gospel, 16:9-20) calls it speaking with "new tongues".
“And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
“Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.”
“And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?”
“Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.”
“And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
The same gift each time
Acts says the Spirit later came on non-Jews at Caesarea, and on disciples at Ephesus. Acts gives no new explanation for either. Peter says the Spirit fell on them as on the disciples at the beginning, which is Pentecost. He says God (﷾) gave them "the like gift". The Greek words are the same throughout: glossa (tongue, language) with the verb laleo (to speak). They run from Mark 16 to Acts to 1 Corinthians. There is one gift, not two.
“For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God.”
“And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.”
“Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?”
“And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.”
Paul's rules at Corinth
Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, a Greek city, about tongues. He says tongues are a sign for unbelievers, and he quotes the law about men of other tongues and other lips. He warns that outsiders who hear everyone speaking at once will think the church is mad. Only two or three may speak, in turn, and one must interpret, which means translate. If no one can, the speaker must keep silent. Paul would rather speak five words that teach than ten thousand that no one understands. He says confusion does not come from God (﷾).
“In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord.”
“Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.”
“If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?”
“If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God.”
“Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.”
“So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air.”
“for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace, as in all the assemblies of the saints.”
Where modern tongues began
The modern movement dates from 1 January 1901. On that day Agnes Ozman spoke in tongues at Charles Parham's Bible school in Topeka, Kansas. Parham himself believed the gift was real foreign languages for missionaries. It spread worldwide from the Azusa Street meetings in Los Angeles in 1906.
A history of the Pentecostal movement by a Pentecostal historian. It dates the movement's start to 1 January 1901 at Charles Parham's Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Kansas, when Agnes Ozman spoke in tongues after Parham laid hands on her, and traces its spread through William Seymour's Azusa Street meetings in Los Angeles from 1906. Parham taught that the gift was real foreign languages given for missionary preaching.
What the research finds
Linguists (scholars of languages) recorded tongue-speakers. They found sounds with a pattern, but no vocabulary or grammar of any human language. An anthropologist (a scholar who studies societies) found the same rhythms in congregations across many countries and languages. The same patterns appear in the rituals of non-Christian religions. In a laboratory study, most ordinary students with no religious experience of it learned to produce fluent tongues after short training. And when one recording was played to several interpreters, each gave a completely different meaning.
A linguist's study of recorded tongue-speaking. It finds that the sounds follow the speaker's own sound patterns but have no vocabulary or grammar. Speakers believe it is a language, but it matches no known language, living or dead.
An anthropologist compares recordings of tongue-speaking from congregations in several countries and languages, and finds the same rhythm and intonation patterns in all of them, whatever the speaker's own language. She also compares them with recordings of non-Christian religious rituals and finds no difference in the pattern.
An experiment with university students who had never spoken in tongues. After listening to a sample and brief training, most of them produced fluent glossolalia, which the study takes as evidence that it is a learnable skill.
Reports playing a tape of tongue-speaking to several people who claimed the gift of interpretation. Their interpretations of the same passage were entirely different, and when this was put to them, they said God had given each of them a different interpretation.
God (﷾) speaks to be understood
The Qur'an states that God (﷾) sent every messenger in the language of his own people, so that he could make the message clear to them. God's (﷾) message is meant to be understood. The Qur'an says God (﷾) made it easy to understand and remember (54:17). Paul agrees: God (﷾) is not a God of confusion. The same sounds are also heard in religions outside Christianity. So the sounds cannot prove that the Christian claim for them is true.
“We sent not a messenger except (to teach) in the language of his (own) people, in order to make (things) clear to them. Now Allah leaves straying those whom He pleases and guides whom He pleases: and He is Exalted in power, full of Wisdom.”
“And We have indeed made the Qur'an easy to understand and remember: then is there any that will receive admonition?”
“for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace, as in all the assemblies of the saints.”
An anthropologist compares recordings of tongue-speaking from congregations in several countries and languages, and finds the same rhythm and intonation patterns in all of them, whatever the speaker's own language. She also compares them with recordings of non-Christian religious rituals and finds no difference in the pattern.
Verse by verse
1 Corinthians 14:2 — First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 14, verse 2
“For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.”
Cited for
The one who speaks in a tongue speaks to God in mysteries that no man understands, so tongues are a private prayer language.
The response
Paul's point is that in the church, speech no one present understands builds no one up. The listeners cannot say amen to it. No one present understood the language, so the speaker was talking "into the air". His remedy is translation, or silence. Paul does let the speaker "speak to himself, and to God" (14:28). But even then he tells him to "pray that he may interpret" (14:13). The gift had a meaning that could be put into words. The same gift at Pentecost was understood by everyone who heard it.
Where it lands — Paul corrects speech that no one understands. He does not make it the standard.
1 Corinthians 13:1 — First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 1
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”
Cited for
Paul speaks with "the tongues of men and of angels", so the gift includes a language of angels.
The response
Paul is speaking of what he might do, not of what he did. The Greek is an "if" clause, and the next verse goes on the same way: if he had all knowledge and all faith. He is showing that even the greatest gifts are worthless without love. He is not saying he spoke the language of angels.
Where it lands — The verse is a what-if about love, not a description of a gift anyone had.
Perspectives
Pentecostal and charismatic
Many Pentecostal and charismatic Christians (those who hold that the Spirit's gifts continue today) say tongues at Corinth were a heavenly prayer language. They say it differed from the foreign languages of Acts, and that the gift continues today.
Paul speaks of "the tongues of men and of angels", which charismatics read as a language of heaven.
Rebuttal
Paul does write those words. But he is speaking of what he might do, not what he did. The next verse goes on the same way: if he had all knowledge and all faith. His point is that gifts are worthless without love.
Paul says the tongue-speaker speaks to God, not to men, and no one understands him. Charismatics read this as private prayer in the Spirit.
Rebuttal
Paul does say no one understands, and he lets the speaker "speak to himself, and to God" (14:28). But even then he tells him to "pray that he may interpret" (14:13). The gift had a meaning that could be put into words.
The Bible's own account
Read in order, the New Testament describes one gift of real languages. It was given so that people from other nations could understand.
At Pentecost every listener heard the disciples in his own native language.
Peter says the gift at Caesarea was the same as the gift at Pentecost.
Paul required a translator for any tongue in church, and silence if there was none.
Paul preferred five words that teach to ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
What researchers find
Modern tongue-speaking is a learnable pattern of sound, not a language, and it does not carry a fixed meaning.
Linguists find that modern glossolalia (speaking in tongues) bears no systematic resemblance to any natural language.
Rebuttal
Islam agrees: the sounds match no human language. Pentecostals answer that it is a language of heaven. But the Bible's own gift was real languages that the hearers understood, and Paul asked for translation.
People with no religious experience of tongues can learn to produce it fluently.
Rebuttal
Islam agrees, and goes further. Pentecostals reply that a study cannot test any one person's experience. But in Acts the gift was a sign because the hearers understood the speech. Sound that others can learn to copy, and that carries no message in any language, is not that sign.
Interpreters given the same recording produced unrelated meanings.
Rebuttal
Islam agrees. Paul required that one interpret, which means translate. Interpreters who give the same words entirely different meanings are not translating them.
The modern movement began in Topeka, Kansas, on 1 January 1901.
Rebuttal
Islam agrees. Pentecostals reply that a recent start proves nothing. But the movement's own founder, Parham, taught that the gift was real foreign languages for missionaries, and what his movement produced matches no human language.
The Islamic perspective
God (﷾) reveals His message in the language of the people it is sent to, so that it is clear. Modern tongues carry no message in any language.
The Qur'an states that every messenger was sent in the language of his own people. It was to make things clear to them.
The Qur'an says messengers speak their people's language to make things clear. Paul says God (﷾) is not a God of confusion.