—the mother of Constantine. You yourselves maintain that she was the one who brought the cross to light and instituted a festival to mark its discovery—an event that occurred long after Christ and the apostles, in the reign of Emperor Constantine, more than three hundred years after Christ.

In that same era you also fabricated the Creed, attaching it to passages of the prophets in places where it has no rightful place. You declared pork lawful and even prescribed punishment for anyone who refused to eat it, and you inaugurated the veneration of the cross—along with numerous other innovations of yours. Likewise, the books of canons you hold in your hands you have elevated to the rank of sunnah and sharīʿa: while they contain a few items traceable to the prophets and the apostles, much of what is in them was devised by those who came after, without any transmission whatsoever from either the Messiah or the apostles. How, then, can you claim to stand upon the sunnah and the sharīʿa that Christ—peace be upon him—himself observed? It is self-evident, established by uninterrupted, multiple-chain transmission, that such a claim is patently false.