We therefore say to them again:

As for their analogy with a written receipt, the answer is that an admission that the debt has already been collected is incompatible with still seeking to collect it. By contrast, in the Quran that Muhammad—peace and blessings be upon him—brought, there is nothing inconsistent between his stating that he was sent first to Quraysh and then to the Arabs, and his stating that he was sent to all people, both the People of the Book and others.

Likewise, his saying that he was sent to the Children of Israel, and Allah’s addressing them with the words, “O Children of Israel” (Ṭā Hā 20:80), does not preclude his also being a messenger to Jews who are not of the Children of Israel, to Christians, and to idol-worshippers. He never once said, “I was sent only to the Arabs,” nor uttered anything that would imply such a limitation. On the contrary, it has been reported from him through mass-transmitted narrations that he declared he was sent to all jinn and humankind, to the People of the Book and to others.

Even if, hypothetically, he had said, “I was sent only to the Arabs,” and then later said, “I have been sent to the People of the Book,” this would simply mean that he was commissioned to the People of the Book after first being sent to the Arabs—just as Allah said:

“Say: I do not find, in what has been revealed to me, anything forbidden to one who wishes to eat it except carrion, flowing blood, or the flesh of swine…” (al-Anʿām 6:145).