• Fourth: the Qur’an may be handled only by one who is ritually pure, and a person in a state of major ritual impurity (junub) is not allowed to recite it, as his Sunnah indicates and as the great majority of the ummah hold—unlike writings that are not the Qur’an.

The ummah received the Qur’an from the Prophet by heart during his lifetime. More than one of his Companions memorised the entire Qur’an while he was still alive, and there was no Companion who failed to memorise at least part of it; some retained portions that others did not. Thus the whole of it was transmitted from him orally by mass-transmission, while he affirmed that he was conveying it from Allah and that it is the speech of Allah, not his own speech.

The Qur’an itself contains many passages that declare it to be the word of Allah. Those who saw Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and reported the miracles, actions and laws they witnessed, together with what they heard of the Qur’an and his hadith, numbered in their composed thousands: more than 100,000 people saw him and believed in him.

As for the Gospels that the Christians possess, they are four: the Gospel of Matthew and of John