Section: Refuting the Christians’ claim that the disciples who translated the Gospel were protected from error.

If they contend, “The books we now possess—the Torah, the Gospel, and the rest—were rendered for us by the disciples, whom we regard as infallible messengers, and they produced those translations for every nation; whereas the Quran is translated only by people who are not infallible,” then several replies may be offered.

First: That assertion is manifestly false. Among the Arabs there have always been Christians—so numerous that only Allah Most High can count them—and many of them had embraced Christianity long before the mission of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. Within that community were people who remained upon the unaltered religion of the Messiah and were therefore believers destined for Paradise, just like everyone who held fast to the pure faith of the Messiah, peace be upon him. Indeed, anyone who followed the uncorrupted religion of the Messiah prior to the sending of Muhammad is a believing Muslim and one of the people of Paradise.

Even so, there is not on the face of the earth a single Arabic Torah or Gospel dating back to the era of the disciples. The Hebrew Torah is transmitted from the Hebrew tongue—or another language—into Arabic, and the Gospel is likewise rendered from the Roman (i.e., Greek) or the Syriac language.