what I had observed for more than twenty years of the corruption of true monotheism—by the insertion into it of the doctrine of the three hypostases and other notions contained in the Christian dispensation—and of the contrived arguments marshalled to defend it, arguments that will not withstand scrutiny nor rest on any firm ground. Whenever I immersed myself in that subject and gave it sustained thought, its flaws became plain to me and my soul recoiled from accepting it; whereas when I reflected on the religion of Islam, with which Allah has favoured me, I found its foundations solid, its details orderly, and its laws inherently beautiful.

The root of the matter—about which no one who knows Allah, whether among you or among others, differs—is faith in Allah: the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting, the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing, the One, the Unique, the Sovereign, the Holy, the Generous, the Just; the God of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes, the God of Moses, Jesus and all the Prophets, indeed of all creation. He has neither beginning nor end, no opposite and no equal, and He has taken neither consort nor child. He created all things out of nothing and without a prior model—only as He willed, when He said to them, “Be,” and they came to be exactly as He had decreed and intended. He is the All-Knowing, All-Powerful, Most Kind, Most Merciful; nothing resembles Him. He is the Subduer whom none can subdue, the Generous who never withholds. Nothing sought eludes Him, and nothing hidden escapes Him:

“He knows the covert glance of the eyes and what the hearts conceal” (Quran 40:19),

as well as what penetrates the earth and what comes forth from it, what descends from the sky and what ascends to it. Everything that is mentioned or even imagined derives from Him, exists through Him, and stands humbly obedient before Him.

We also believe that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, whom He sent with guidance and the religion of truth so that He might make it prevail over every other way, even though some may detest it.