And among the Prophet’s words are those he himself voiced, yet they too are part of what Allah revealed to him; therefore, whoever obeys the Messenger has obeyed Allah. Likewise, whatever is transmitted in the Gospel that belongs to this category was a directive from the Messiah—and the Messiah’s directive is Allah’s directive—so whoever obeys the Messiah has, in truth, obeyed Allah.
Whatever the Messiah related concerning the unseen was something Allah had informed him of; he is protected from speaking falsely about what he conveys.
Since the Gospel is analogous to the revealed Sunnah, some slips have crept into certain of its expressions, just as happens in the books of sīra and in the Sunan collections of Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, and Ibn Majah. Nevertheless, these works became renowned and widely circulated among—