The first opinion is the sounder one. Whoever believes in Muhammad—peace and blessings be upon him—openly professes that belief, lives in the Abode of Islam, and carries out the practices of the Muslims both outwardly and inwardly, is counted among the believers—even if, before that, he had been a pagan idol-worshipper. How much more certain, then, when his former state was that of a scripturalist? ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām, Salmān al-Fārisī, and others like them are cases in point. No one calls such men “People of the Book,” just as no one describes the Emigrants and the Helpers as idol-worshipping polytheists. Moreover, no hypocrite—or anyone else—is permitted to perform the funeral prayer over any one of them; the ruling is different for someone who outwardly belongs to the People of the Book while inwardly being a believer.

In the Christian lands there are many people of this kind who conceal their faith—some hiding it completely, others hiding it from the general populace while disclosing it only to their close circles—and such persons have