—and if the Christians say, “Those men were righteous and were granted miraculous signs,” citing what they recount of the wonders shown to the disciples, then the Companions of Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and their followers were no less righteous, and the signs manifested through them were greater than those vouchsafed to the disciples or to any other nation. Among them were those who could cause an entire army to cross water, those who drank deadly poisons without harm, those at whose supplication Allah revived the dead, and those in whose hands food and drink were multiplied. The books that record the karāmāt al-awliyāʾ (the extraordinary feats of the saints) contain accounts far surpassing what the People of the Book possess. They, for their part, transmit the stories of prophets and righteous men from the writings in their custody—such as the Book of the Acts of the Disciples, the Book of Kings, and the like—but whatever argument they advance to prove the reliability of those transmissions, the Muslims can adduce an even clearer and stronger proof for what they relate from their Prophet, his Companions, and the Successors.

Fourth approach:

One may say: the signs of which we have mentioned only a few occurred in the presence of large assemblies. The multiplication of food on the Day of the Trench, for example, took place while the men and women present numbered in the thousands. Likewise, water gushed from between his blessed fingers, and the well overflowed with water at Ḥudaybiyah, when those present numbered 1,500—each one of them a righteous believer from the people of