Ibn Masʿūd narrated from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—who said: “Allah brings forth from His command whatever He wills, and among what He has newly ordained is that you must not speak during the prayer.”

It was narrated (1) from (2) Ayyūb, from ʿIkrimah, that Ibn ʿAbbās said:

“How can you ask the People of the Book about their scriptures while you have the Book of Allah—the book whose covenant with Allah is the most recent—which you recite in its pristine, unadulterated form (3)?”

Al-Zuhrī narrated (4): ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿAbd Allah informed me that ʿAbd Allah (5) ibn ʿAbbās said:

“O community of Muslims, how can you ask the People of the Book about anything when your own Book, which Allah revealed to your Prophet, is the freshest report from Allah, pure and untainted (6) (7)? Yet Allah has already told you that the People of the Book altered and changed the Books of Allah; they wrote books with their own hands (8) and then said, ‘This is from (9) Allah,’ so that they might sell it for a trivial price. Does not the knowledge that has come to you forbid you from questioning them? By Allah, we have never seen anyone among them asking you about what has been sent down to you.” (10)

[I said] (11) And the position maintained by the early generations and the leading Imams,