Matta and others besides them; and on their unanimous agreement that a full ritual bath is obligatory after a state of major impurity, that all foul things are forbidden, and that purification is required for the prayer. All of this they received from their Prophet, and it has been conveyed from him—peace and blessings be upon him—through mutawātir (mass-transmitted) reports, and it is explicitly mentioned in the Qur’an.

As for the Christians, neither the prayers they perform nor the fast they keep are traced back to the Messiah, peace be upon him. The first among them fixed the fast at forty days, then they added ten more days and moved it to the springtime; yet even this, in their own tradition, is not attributed to the Messiah, peace be upon him.

The same applies to their pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre, to Bethlehem, and to the Church of