Thus, no one can raise a rational objection against Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—without that very objection applying, with even greater force, to the other prophets. As we showed in our refutation of the Rāfiḍah, no one can disparage the first three caliphs—Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, and ʿUthmān—without the same, or a weightier, reproach also reaching ʿAlī. Consequently, ʿAlī cannot be deemed free of flaws in his leadership unless the three are even more securely free of anything that would undermine theirs.

In the same way, Moses, Jesus, and David cannot be thought immune to whatever is alleged to impair prophethood unless Muhammad is even more immune to such allegations. To illustrate: suppose someone objects to the Qur’an’s affirmation of the divine attributes; he can be told that the Torah and the other prophetic books contain the same and even stronger affirmations. Or if he protests the revelation of verses that may appear ambiguous, he can be answered that the earlier scriptures contain ambiguities far greater than those found in the Qur’an. And did