This most certainly applies to the community of Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and may also extend to every believer from the former nations: to those who lived according to the religion of Moses, of Jesus, and of Abraham the Close Friend. The Most High says,

“Indeed, those who believed, the Jews, the Christians, and the Sabians—whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day and acts righteously—shall have their reward with their Lord; no fear shall come upon them, nor shall they grieve.” ⦗al-Baqarah 62⦘

As for the nation of Muhammad—peace and blessings be upon him—Allah, by His permission, has guided them to the very truths over which the earlier peoples differed. This is plain to see, for they stand upon the truth and a just middle course between the two extremes of falsehood. Their adherence to the truth becomes obvious when one considers the matters about which the Jews and Christians disputed—monotheism, the prophets, transmitted reports, legislation, abrogation, the lawful and the unlawful, affirmation and denial, and so forth.

In the field of monotheism, the Jews likened the Creator to His creation, attributing to the Lord—exalted be He—defective qualities that pertain only to created beings, claiming that Allah is needy, miserly, that He tires, and the like. The Christians, conversely, attributed to a created being the qualities of the Creator—the perfect attributes that belong to Him alone. They said of the Messiah that he is the creator of the heavens and the earth, eternal without beginning, knower of the unseen, able to do all things, and