contain both abrogating and abrogated rulings; yet the verses they rely upon are not among those that were abrogated.
Rather, the point is this: what is necessarily, absolutely, and mass-transmittedly known about the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—cannot legitimately be challenged. Everyone acquainted with his biography, whether he accepts him or rejects him, is aware that he repeatedly declared, “I am the Messenger of Allah to all creation.” A person may know that he made this universal claim even before determining whether he is in fact a prophet, just as one may recognise his prophethood and truthfulness before learning the scope of his mission. Knowledge of one matter is not contingent on knowledge of the other. Thus many of those who denied him still knew that he claimed to be Allah’s messenger to all people, while a group who affirm his prophethood and veracity nevertheless refuse to acknowledge the universality of his mission.
Our purpose here is to address the latter group and affirm that the universality of his summons—to the People of the Book and to everyone else—is itself mass-transmitted and necessarily known, no less certain than the fact of his very commissioning, his call that humanity believe in him and obey him, his migration from Mecca to Medina, his bringing of this Quran, the five daily prayers, the fast of Ramadan, the pilgrimage to the Ancient House, the obligation of truthfulness and justice, the prohibition of oppression and indecency, and every other precept with which Muhammad—peace and blessings be upon him—came.
If it is objected, “But the Quran contains verses that restrict his mission to a particular people and others that proclaim it universal—this is a contradiction,”