—and seventy-one sects, the Christians into seventy-two (1), and this Ummah into seventy-three (3).

As for the Jews, the interpretations they forced upon their scriptures according to their own opinions splintered them into divergent factions, even though they had originally agreed on the fundamentals of the religion and on belief in the Torah, the Psalms, and the books of their prophets that they read and affirm.

Because of those false interpretations they were metamorphosed into apes and swine, and the trials and tribulations Allah has recounted befell them. By the same corrupt hermeneutics they worshipped the calf, until their affair ended as it did. Through misguided interpretation they abandoned the rulings of the Torah, declared the forbidden lawful, and perpetrated grave sins. They (4) are the very leaders in interpretation, distortion, and alteration, and the rest of mankind only follows their lead; no sect can equal them in this regard (5).

By interpretation they made lawful the sacred prohibitions of Allah by the merest of stratagems (6). By interpretation they killed the prophets—even while affirming the Torah and believing in Moses. Because of their interpretive distortions exemplary punishments overtook them, successive calamities struck them, they were scattered across the earth as disparate communities, and “abasement and humiliation were laid upon them, and they incurred wrath from Allah.”

And by interpretation they denied the prophethood of Jesus and Muhammad—may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon them both—and they have