He, exalted be He, has also said:
“Those messengers—we favored some of them over others” (Al-Baqarah 2:253).

The discussion turns on two points:

First: the claim that the one of lesser merit alone deserves the rank while the superior does not. This is the height of ignorance and injustice—exactly like the assertion of the Rāfiḍah who maintain that ʿAlī was the true, knowledgeable, and just imām whereas the three caliphs were not; or like the Jews and Christians who say that Moses was a messenger but that Muhammad ﷺ was not. Such statements represent extreme ignorance and wrongdoing. By contrast, someone who admits that both contenders are worthy of the station yet still prefers the inferior over the superior is guilty of less ignorance and injustice, though he is still at fault.

It is well known that the messengers themselves differ in rank—at times with respect to the scriptures revealed to them, at times with respect to the signs and miracles confirming their truthfulness, at times with respect to the laws they brought and the knowledge and deeds they conveyed, and at times with respect to the communities that followed them.

Accordingly, anyone endowed with knowledge and fairness who examines the Qur’an alongside other scriptures such as the Torah and the Gospel, or who studies the miracles of Muhammad ﷺ beside those of the other prophets, or who compares his law with theirs, or his community with theirs, will find for him a superiority over all others that cannot be hidden except from one who is steeped in ignorance or injustice.

How, then, could anyone after all this claim that he was a lying impostor while someone else was the true prophet?!