The reply may be set out under several headings.
First: the texts they cite from the prophets—peace be upon them—cannot be used as proof unless four preliminary conditions are met:
- The prophethood of the person from whom the words are transmitted must be established.
- The exact wording he uttered must be verified.
- It must be shown that the wording they quote represents a sound translation, for those prophets did not speak Arabic, nor Latin, Syriac, or Greek, but rather Hebrew—just as the Messiah, peace be upon him, did.
- It must then be demonstrated that the prophets’ words actually support their claim that God still accepts their offerings today.
In this discussion we shall confine ourselves to disputing them on this fourth point alone, for nothing they have quoted shows any commendation of their offerings and sacrifices after alteration and abrogation. At most, their citations praise such offerings before they were abrogated and altered—something no Muslim contests.
Second: the descriptions recorded from Isaiah and other prophets do not correspond to the practices of the Christians. The Christians do not present offerings of fine semolina as the Children of Israel once did, nor do they make pilgrimage every month and from year to year to the Temple—the House of God—to present to their Lord pure and wholesome offerings. Instead, they make pilgrimage to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which lies outside the House of God that the prophets used to frequent and in which they used to pray, for the prophets would pray only in the House of