one of the Muslims, addressing him in whatever manner best serves the purpose, just as translation is sometimes needed, and just as the People of the Book may be addressed with arguments drawn from what they possess of the Torah and the Gospel.

In short, approaches suited to particular groups, yet lengthy and burdensome for most people, do not belong in a work such as the Mighty Book, which Allah has made a healing and a mercy, and through which He has called all people to bring them out of darkness into light. It is not fitting for such a Mighty Book to contain approaches that most people would find burdensome and feeble, regard as needlessly clumsy and inarticulate, and consider mere explanations of the obvious. This would be like including a refutation of the Sophists by explaining that the sun exists, the moon exists, the seas exist, the mountains exist, the stars exist, and that human beings know this through direct observation—and other such things. Yet most rational people would regard such a discussion as unseemly, tiresome, and feeble, because these matters are already known to them and firmly established in their minds. They need no discourse from a scholar about them, let alone a Book sent down from heaven.