from among the People of the Book.’
Those few survivors who held fast to the religion of the Messiah before the mission of Muhammad—peace and blessings be upon him—were, at that time, following the religion of Allah, Mighty and Exalted. From the moment Muhammad—peace and blessings be upon him—was sent, however, anyone who does not believe in him is destined for the Fire, as he said in the sound narration:
“By Him in Whose hand is my soul, no one of this community—whether Jew or Christian—hears of me, then dies without believing in that with which I have been sent, except that he will be among the inhabitants of the Fire.”
Fifth angle: We say to them that their assertion—that the messengers handed down to them the Torah, the Gospel, and all the other revelations in seventy-two languages, and that these books have remained to this very day in one identical wording—is clearly the claim of someone speaking without knowledge; indeed, it is a deliberate falsehood. Such a claim entails four propositions: first, that these books now exist on earth in seventy-two different tongues; second, that they are all transmitted from the disciples; third, that they are entirely consistent, with not the slightest divergence; and fourth, that the disciples themselves were infallible.
So we ask: Which one of you, supposing that these books which are in seventy-