to forsake circumcision, to embrace monasticism, or to adopt any of the other innovations they invented after him.

For this reason, once the corruption of the Christians’ religion became evident, some scholars—such as Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Rāzī—began to say:

“Benefit from the religion of the Messiah appeared only among a small group who lived before Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him); the faith practiced by the great majority of Christians is not the Messiah’s religion.”

This becomes evident through the third consideration: suppose the law of the Scripture were indeed sufficient—such sufficiency would hold only if it had been preserved intact and put into practice. Yet that was not the case; rather, many of its landmarks had been obliterated.

Moreover, the People of the Book disagreed profoundly about the Messiah and other matters, as the Most High said: