King Constantine built Bethlehem over the very spot where the Messiah was born, and his mother Helena erected al-Qumāmah—that is, the church over the tomb of the crucified man, whom they concede to the Jews was the Messiah. Both parties thus fell into unbelief. They went on to lay down statutes and ordinances, some of which contradict the Ancient Law—the Torah—and they declared lawful matters that the Torah explicitly forbids, among them pork. They also turned in prayer toward the east, whereas the Messiah never prayed except toward the Rock in Jerusalem, as did all the prophets after Moses. Muḥammad, the Seal of the Prophets, likewise faced it for sixteen—or seventeen—months after his migration to Madinah, after which he was directed toward the Kaʿbah that Abraham, the Intimate Friend, had built.

They adorned their churches with images, though previously churches had contained none. They also formulated a creed that their children, women, and men all memorize, which they call “the Profession of Faith,” but which is in fact the height of unbelief and treachery. All the Melkites, the Nestorians—followers of Nestorius, people of the Second Council—and the Jacobites—followers of Jacob Baradaeus, people of the Third Council—hold to this creed, although they differ in how they interpret it.

I shall now cite it—for conveying another’s disbelief does not make the narrator a disbeliever—in order to expose its feeble wording and the abundance of error that will hurl its adherent into the blazing Fire. They say—upon them be Allah’s continuous curses until the Day of Resurrection:

“We believe in one God, Ruler of all, Creator of the heavens and the earth, of all that is seen and all that is unseen; and in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one essence with the Father; through Him everything came to be. For us human beings and for our salvation He came down from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and from Mary the Virgin, became man, and was crucified in the days of Pilate the Nabataean. He suffered, was buried, and on the third day rose again, as the Scriptures say. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father, and He shall likewise come in His body to judge the living and the dead; of His kingdom there shall be no end. And [we believe in] the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who is worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Son, who spoke with glory through the prophets…”