prostrate ourselves before Christ, our god; and in the second and third parts of that same service they recite:
“O Mother of God, Virgin Mary, open for us the gates of mercy.”
Third angle: Their claim that the Torah and the Gospel were handed down to them in their own languages can only be correct for some Christians, not for all of them. Neither the Arab Christians nor the non-Arabs ever received a Torah or a Gospel in their respective tongues—this is well known. Indeed, no Arabic Torah or Gospel existed in the time of the disciples; the books were translated into Arabic only in much later centuries. If, then, a binding proof could be established against the Arab Christians before the mission of Muhammad—peace and blessings be upon him—through a book that had been revealed in a language other than theirs and only later rendered into Arabic, how could the same proof not apply to the Byzantines and others with regard to a scripture likewise revealed in a tongue not their own and subsequently translated for them?
Fourth angle: When a community changes and distorts the religion of the messenger sent to it, Allah dispatches someone to summon them back to the religion He loves and approves. Thus, when the Children of Israel altered the religion of Moses, Allah sent to them—and to others—the Messiah with the religion He loves and approves. Likewise, when the Christians corrupted the religion of the Messiah, Allah sent to them—and to others—Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, with the religion He loves and approves.
It is authentically reported in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Allah looked at the people of the earth and despised them, Arabs and non-Arabs alike, except for a few remnants …”