the Surah of Blessings: at its opening He sets out the roots of blessings, and throughout it He unfolds their perfection.

The second type consists of those favors by which the fullness of blessing is achieved and one’s rank is raised—attainments that cannot be secured without them. In the Hereafter, likewise, people are of two classes: the righteous, the Companions of the Right, and those brought near, the foremost; whoever is outside these two belongs to the people of the Blaze.

Because blessings are of these two kinds, all created beings needed the mission of Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—from both perspectives, and through his being sent both categories of favor were realized. Without him, people—including the People of the Book—were ignorant, misguided, and ill-informed. Among the People of the Book, the followers of the Messiah, not one remained who upheld the religion that secures felicity with Allah in the Hereafter; they had altered and distorted it. Even if, hypothetically, they had changed nothing, his sending still embodies a completion of blessings, their uninterrupted flow, and higher degrees of happiness that could never have been obtained through the earlier scripture alone. His mission, therefore, is the greatest favor with which Allah has ever graced the inhabitants of the earth, encompassing both kinds of bliss.