so you have exchanged the higher for the lower, whether through inability or negligence.

There is no doubt that the leaders of the Jews and Christians, even after altering the Scripture and engaging in what they were forbidden, are more discerning and more knowledgeable about Allah than your leaders. Ordinary Jews and Christians, who are astray and have incurred wrath, are sounder in reason and understanding, and more correct in what they say on this subject, than your ordinary followers. No one possessed of reason and fairness doubts this.

Consider, in this regard, the ordinary adherents of the Nusayrīs, Ismāʿīlīs, Druze, and Turuqiyya