He dropped the words “Say: He is” and altered “One,” reciting instead: “Allah, the Unique, the Self-Sufficient.”

Omitting what he has omitted is itself a denial and an act of unbelief, for whoever disbelieves in a single letter of the Qur’an has disbelieved in it altogether and has nullified the meaning of the verse.

The exegetes state that the verse was revealed in answer to the idol-worshippers when they said to the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—“Describe for us your Lord: is He made of gold, of copper, or of brass?” Allah—Majestic and Exalted—replied:

“Say: He is Allah, One.”

Contained in the word “He” is the very locus of the rebuttal and the point of the answer; if it is removed, the meaning of the verse collapses and the fabrication against Allah Most High—together with the denial of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him—becomes plain.

To this man and to anyone who sides with him it is said: “Tell us about the Qur’an we recite—the only Qur’an known to us and to those before us among our forefathers. Does it contain the whole Qur’an from beginning to end, its wording and meaning sound, free of corruption and defect? Or does it cover only part of the Qur’an while another part is hidden from us, just as it was supposedly hidden from our predecessors and the early members of our community?”

If they answer that the Qur’an we possess does indeed comprise the whole of the Qur’an, that nothing of it is missing and that its words and meanings are flawless, then they have judged themselves unbelievers by inserting into it the words:

“This Day he has no close friend here, nor any drink save foul discharge, from a spring that flows beneath Hell-fire.”

What addition to the Qur’an could be clearer than this? How can it be mingled with the Qur’an when Allah has guarded it and prevented every fabricator and impostor from appending anything similar to it? When the phrase is contemplated and its meaning examined it is found corrupt and unsound, bearing no resemblance to the speech of the Creator, Exalted is He, nor can it be blended with it or agree with its meaning. That is because after it comes:

“None but the sinners eat it.”

How, then, can a drink be eaten?

Moreover, the passage he inserted before it—“This Day he has no close friend here, nor any drink save foul discharge, from a spring that flows beneath Hell-fire—none but the sinners eat it”—is internally contradictory; each part undermines the other, for drink is not eaten. The Arabs never say, “I ate the water”; rather they say, “I drank it, tasted it, or sipped it.”

According to the sound revelation that Allah, Blessed and Exalted, sent down—deviation from even one letter of which is unbelief—the correct wording is:

“Nor any food save foul discharge; none shall eat it but the sinners,”

or: “None shall eat the food but the sinners.”

Ghislin is what flows from their bellies of fat, together with the pus and the like that clings to it; it is a food that will be eaten in the midst of calamity and punishment, whereas ascribing to it the quality of a drink is impossible