“You denied some of them and killed others.” 1

The Christians, by contrast, went to the opposite extreme and worshipped them, as the Most High says: “People of the Book! Do not exaggerate in your religion, and do not say anything about Allah except the truth.” 2

The Jews deviated on the question of abrogation, claiming that it can never proceed from Allah or that it is impermissible for Him. Allah records their objection in the Qur’an: “The foolish among the people will say, ‘What has turned them away from the direction of prayer they used to face?’” 3

The Christians countered this by giving priests and monks free rein to declare whatever they wished obligatory and to forbid whatever they wished—an attitude that mirrors their opposition in other matters as well.

Thus Allah guided the believers to the middle course: they hold toward the prophets only what the prophets deserve; they honor, defend, love, obey, and follow them. They neither reject them, as the Jews did, nor exalt them with excess or elevate them to divinity, as the Christians did.

Likewise, regarding abrogation they affirm that Allah may abrogate, but they do not allow anyone else to do so, for creation and command belong to Allah alone; just as none besides Him creates, none besides Him legislates.

In the same vein, the people of rectitude in Islam—those who cling to prophetic wisdom and to the united community—take the middle ground in the chapter of monotheism and the divine attributes, between the deniers who strip the attributes away and those who flirt with anthropomorphism.

In the chapter of predestination, justice, and human actions, they stand between the Qadariyyah and the Jabariyyah—the Magian-like Qadariyyah.

And in the chapter of faith’s names and legal rulings, they are between those who expel the perpetrators of major sins from faith altogether