Fourthly, it is said to them:

The Muslims acknowledge only Moses and Jesus—those very two who announced the coming of Muhammad. Use corresponding third-person references throughout this argument., peace and blessings be upon him. If, as you claim, they did indeed give that glad-tidings, then his prophethood is decisively established. If they did not, then the only prophets you accept are in fact the heralds of his advent, and the only scriptures you revere are the Torah and the Gospel in which he is recorded.

Should the possibility be imagined that no such mention exists, the Muslims do not concede the existence of Moses and Jesus and a divinely revealed Torah and Gospel lacking any mention of him, peace and blessings be upon him.

And if you say, “We believed in these prophets without any knowledge of their truthfulness or any proof leading to it; this is simply the religion of our forefathers—we found them venerating these men and calling them prophets, so we followed our fathers without knowledge” (and this, in reality, is the condition of most of you), it will be answered:

If this is your stance toward the prophets and toward whatever testimony they may have borne—assuming they did bear such testimony—then, a fortiori, you have no knowledge of it, but merely follow your forefathers in it without knowledge. Thus the intended point is attained: your adherence to the Christian creed rests on neither knowledge nor proof. You are merely following your forefathers, exactly as the Jews and the idolaters follow theirs.

There is no doubt that this is indeed the state of the Christians; for that reason Allah has called them people who have gone astray, saying:

“Do not follow the whims of a people who went astray before, led many others astray, and strayed far from the right path.” (Q 5:77)