Section: The Christians Altered the Messiah’s Religion before the Prophet’s Mission, peace and blessings be upon him

The point at issue here is that the belief held by the Muslims—that Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, is a messenger sent to the two kinds of accountable beings, humankind and jinn, to the People of the Scripture and to all others, and that whoever does not believe in him is a disbeliever deserving Allah’s punishment and subject to jihad—is a matter upon which all who have faith in Allah and His Messenger are unanimously agreed. The Messenger himself, peace and blessings be upon him, is the one who brought this teaching; Allah mentioned it in His Book, and the Messenger explained it further in the wisdom revealed to him in addition to the Book. Allah the Exalted revealed to him both the Book and the wisdom, and the Muslims introduced none of this on their own initiative, whereas the Christians innovated much—indeed most—of their religion.

They altered and distorted the Messiah’s religion. Thus the unbelief of the Christians at the time Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, was sent resembled the unbelief of the Jews when the Messiah, peace be upon him, was sent: the Jews had already changed the law of the Torah before the Messiah’s coming and therefore fell into unbelief; then, when the Messiah was sent to them, they rejected him, becoming unbelievers twice over—first for corrupting the meanings and rulings of the first Book, and second for denying the second Book.

Likewise, the Christians had corrupted the Messiah’s religion before Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, was sent: they invented the doctrines of trinity and incarnation, altered the legal prescriptions of the Gospel, and introduced matters that the Messiah, peace be upon him, had never been sent with; rather—