of wrath who declares, “He is one of their scholars,” is thereby proven a scholar. If, moreover, most of the people whom ordinary Muslims think to be their scholars are in fact nothing of the sort, what do you imagine the case is with everyone else?!

As for the scholars of the People of the Scripture: if one defines that term so as to exclude anyone who does not act on his knowledge, then their only true scholars are those who believed in him and affirmed him. If, on the other hand, one includes among them those who know yet fail to act—such as corrupt scholars—then their denial of his prophethood in no way detracts from the testimony of the scholars who do practice what they know.

(Eleventh) : Suppose we granted that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is not mentioned—neither by description, attribute, nor distinguishing sign—in the books presently in the hands of the People of the Scripture. That would still not entail that he was unmentioned in the books their forefathers possessed at the time he was sent, nor that those books reached the later generations intact. Rather, the earlier people altered them, replaced passages, concealed others, colluded, and wrote down whatever they wished, then said, “This is from Allah.”

Those altered books then became famous and were handed down by later generations, so that the tampered versions gained wide currency while the authentic copies became exceedingly rare. Nothing prevents such a possibility; indeed, it is entirely plausible. Take the Samaritans: they altered portions of the Torah, after which the amended copies became the only versions known to them, and the sound copies were completely abandoned. The same holds true for the Torah now in the hands of the Christians.

Thus are religions and scriptures altered; and were it not that Allah, Glorified be He, undertook to preserve