a blessed Book We have revealed, so follow it and fear Allah, that you may be shown mercy.”

Al-An‘ām, 154–155.

Allah Most High has thus linked the two Books, the Arabic and the Hebrew, in several places.

It is well known that Moses lived before Muhammad—may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon them both—and took nothing from him. Everyone acquainted with Muhammad’s life, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, knows that he took nothing from the People of the Book. If, then, this messenger reports the same as one messenger has reported, without collusion or mutual awareness, concerning matters on which agreement would ordinarily be impossible without collusion, this is evidence of the truthfulness of both messengers in their claim to messengership. It also attests to the truthfulness of each messenger’s reports concerning his Lord’s attributes, since each reported the same as the other.

Even supposing that someone were to distort certain expressions in one of the two Books, the other Book, which confirms it, refutes that distortion and makes clear that the intended meaning is the same.

His statement that the Hebrew Book could not have been distorted in its entirety is indeed correct. This is made clear by the fact that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, exposed as much of the People of the Book’s distortion as Allah willed, and censured them for the deficiencies they attributed to Allah Most High, such as their claims that Allah is poor, that Allah is miserly, and that He grew weary when He created