He also said:

“Indeed, he is your chief, the one who taught you magic.” (Ṭā Hā 71)

In the same vein they spoke about the Messiah, son of Mary, as the Almighty said:

“When Jesus son of Mary said, ‘O Children of Israel, I am the messenger of Allah to you, confirming what is before me of the Torah and bringing good news of a messenger who will come after me whose name is Ahmad.’ Yet when he came to them with clear proofs, they said, ‘This is obvious sorcery.’ ” (aṣ-Ṣaff 6)

He, exalted be He, has likewise informed us that the Jews hurled a monstrous slander against Mary. The Jews’ statement about the Messiah is of the same kind as the unbelievers’ statements about the prophets, and so too are the remarks of the unbelievers among the People of the Book concerning the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

[Refutation of the claim that the mission was confined to the Arabs]

Once this is established, we say to anyone who asserts that he was a messenger sent only to the pagan Arabs and not to the People of the Book: It is indisputably known—by uninterrupted mass-transmission more extensive than anything reported about Moses, Jesus, or any other prophet; by the recurrent Qur’an that came from him; by his recurrent Sunnah; and by the recurrent Sunnah of his Rightly Guided Caliphs after him—to everyone acquainted with his history, that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, declared that he had been sent to the People of the Book, the Jews and the Christians, just as he declared that he had been sent to the unlettered. Indeed, he affirmed that he had been sent to all of Adam’s descendants, Arabs and non-Arabs alike, including the Romans and the Persians.