Chapter: The Extremism of the Jews and Christians and the Moderation of the Muslims

Whoever reflects on the condition of the Jews and the Christians in relation to the Muslims will discover that the Jews and the Christians stand at opposite ends—one group occupying one extreme of misguidance and the other the opposite—while the Muslims take the middle course.

This contrast appears in matters of tawḥīd (monotheism), the prophets, the revealed laws, the lawful and the unlawful, ethical conduct, and much else besides.

The Jews liken the Creator to the creation by attributing to Him the deficiencies that belong exclusively to created beings—attributes from which the Lord, exalted be He, must be declared absolutely free—such as the claim made by some of them that He is poor, or stingy, or that He grew weary after creating the heavens and the earth. The Christians, by contrast, liken the creation to the Creator by ascribing to a creature the attributes of perfection that belong solely to the Creator, to whom nothing is comparable, as in their assertion that the Messiah is God or the Son of God.

Each of these two positions logically entails the other.

Furthermore, the Christians describe the lāhūt (divinity) with attributes of deficiency from which the Lord must be exonerated, and they revile Allah with a revilement that no human being has ever dared before, just as Muʿādh ibn Jabal—may Allah be pleased with him—used to say: “Do not show them mercy, for they have abused Allah with an abuse the like of which He has never been abused.”