is more perfect than the law of Moses and Jesus—peace be upon them both—and his community surpasses the communities of each of those prophets in every virtue. There is no beneficial knowledge or righteous practice found in the Torah or the Gospel except that it is already in the Quran, or its equal, or derived from it; and in the Quran there is beneficial knowledge and righteous practice the like of which the Torah and the Gospel do not contain. Accordingly, no criticism levelled by the enemies of the prophets against Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, can be raised without that same criticism—and one even graver—being equally applicable to Moses and Jesus.

This whole discussion has been expanded elsewhere; we do not elaborate on it here, for answering their claims does not require such detail. It is therefore impossible to acknowledge the prophethood of Moses and Jesus—peace be upon them—while denying the prophethood of Muhammad—peace and blessings be upon him. Only the most ignorant and misguided of people would attempt such a thing, or one possessed of the greatest obstinacy, following nothing but his own desire.

The reason is that these people have argued on the basis of what they themselves transmit from the prophets without producing the proofs that establish those prophets’ truthfulness; they have simply taken that for granted. They then tried to use what they transmitted from the earlier prophets, and what they transmitted from Muhammad himself, as evidence for the soundness of their own religion.