Indeed, these people may be worse than Christians such as Paul and his like, who are ranked above Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, and others. They are said to have introduced innovations and errors among the Christians, led them astray, and brought into Christ’s religion elements from the religion of the polytheists and Sabians, and from the Romans and their like. Through these additions, they corrupted the religion of Christ—may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him—and established the Christians upon errors that led them away from his religion.

Some scholars even said that the Christians came to follow the ways of the pagan Romans, rather than the Romans adopting the religion of the Christians. For those people altered the religious law of Christ, replacing it with laws drawn from the polytheists. Ultimately, they merely fashioned a composite religion from the religions of the philosophers, the Sabians, the polytheists, and the Christians—just as Mani made accommodations when he fashioned a religion from the religion of the Magians and that of the Christians.