Accordingly, conveying its meanings to those who do not speak the language becomes all the easier, both because of the completeness of its content and because of the great number of people who have mastered it. See how the Christian scholars read works on medicine, arithmetic, philosophy, and other subjects in Arabic, even though their authors were non-Arabs—Romans, Greeks, and others. What, then, prevents the Arabic Qur’an, together with its commentary and the Prophet’s hadith—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—from being read in Hebrew when the material was originally received from the Messenger in Arabic? Indeed, that would be an even surer way of grasping the speaker’s intended meaning.

Third angle: People have expressed three views regarding Allah’s justice. One claims that whatever He is able to do is, by definition, just. A second contends that His justice is analogous to the justice required of His servants. Both of these views are weak. The sound position is that His justice entails rewarding the beneficent fully for their good deeds, without diminishing them in the least, and never punishing without a sin.

It is common knowledge—and unanimously accepted by the communities of Muslims, Jews, and Christians—that commanding a servant to do what lies within his capacity is permissible. Even when an act is distasteful—for Paradise is surrounded by hardships and Hellfire by desires—the Children of Israel and the Christians have been charged with deeds that are burdensome and unwelcome to them. How, then, could it be impossible for Him to command and forbid them in a language whose meaning some Muslims can explain to them? The Arabs, in whose tongue the Qur’an was revealed, have spread throughout the earth, and among them are Christians beyond count. Any Christian who possesses Arabic can understand what is said in Arabic; and a Roman among them has the precedent of those converts from other non-Arab peoples—Persians, Turks, Indians, Berbers, Abyssinians, and others—who embraced Islam. He is just as able to learn what Allah has commanded and to act upon it as all of those peoples are—indeed,