“This is not found in the Torah or the Gospel.” Such a statement does not render him a disbeliever, because it is unquestionably a lie: neither the Torah nor the Gospel states that Muhammad’s message was confined to the Arabs. Rather, both indicate that it was universal. Thus, the phrase, “some of His Books,” means those whose being among the Books of Allah, the Almighty and Majestic, has been established. Whoever denies any of them is a disbeliever.
If someone were to ask: Why do we not say that this admits of division, so that if a person denies part of a Book while believing in another part, he is a believer with respect to what he believes and a disbeliever with respect to what he denies—just as you say of one who commits a sin that does not amount to disbelief that he is a believer by virtue of his faith and a wicked sinner on account of his major sin?
The answer is that this concerns faith, not deeds. Deeds may admit of division, but faith does not admit of division in this sense: whoever denies any of the Books is like one who denies them all. Allah, Exalted is He, rebuked the Children of Israel, saying:
“Do you then believe in part of the Scripture and disbelieve in part?” [al-Baqarah: 85]
And He, Exalted is He, said:
“Indeed, those who disbelieve in Allah and His messengers and seek to make a distinction between Allah and His messengers, saying, ‘We believe in some and disbelieve in others,’ seeking a way in between—those are truly the disbelievers. And We have prepared for the disbelievers a humiliating punishment.” [al-Nisa: 151]
Such people are truly disbelievers. The word haqqan (“truly”) is an emphatic verbal noun affirming the import of the clause. Its governing element is necessarily omitted, because the clause itself conveys the meaning of haqqan; and a substitute cannot be combined with that which it replaces. As Ibn Malik said:
“Among them are those called emphatic,
Affirming either themselves or something else:
‘He owes me a thousand—certainly’;
And the second: ‘You are truly like my son.’”