and whoever cites their books will say one of two things: either, “It is not to be found in our scriptures,” or, “It is indeed there, but only in the form of praise and commendation.” No one can adduce from the earlier scriptures a single passage in which he is mentioned with censure or with a warning against him. Had he been so described, it would have been one of the strongest arguments they could have wielded against him during his lifetime and against his community after his death; every one of them who refused to embrace Islam would have used it as evidence against those who did.

It is, after all, well known that many among the People of the Scripture harbored intense hatred, enmity, and denial toward him and were eager to invalidate his mission. This led them to fabricate events that never occurred and to attribute to him matters whose falsehood is obvious to anyone familiar with his life—until some of them even claimed that the Muslims’ proclamation of “Allahu akbar” meant that “Akbar” was an idol and that the Prophet had commanded his followers to venerate that idol.

Some alleged that he made adultery obligatory for a woman who had been divorced three times, punishing her former husband by decreeing that he could not remarry her until another man had first committed adultery with her.

Others asserted that he had learned his religion from “Buhayra the Monk,” even though everyone acquainted with his biography knows that he never met Buhayra alone, saw him only for part of a single day while traveling with his companions on a trading journey to al-Shām, and that Buhayra merely questioned them about him and spoke to him only a few words to inquire about his condition.