—for any king (1) whatsoever, much less for a lying impostor (2) who forges falsehood against Allah and His prophets, corrupts the world, and overturns the call of the messengers. Whoever imagines this of Allah has entertained the vilest thought of Him, impugning His knowledge, power, and wisdom.

I once held a public debate in Egypt with the man the Jews there regard as their foremost scholar and leader. In the course of our conversation I said to him, “By denying Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—you have heaped upon Allah the gravest possible insult.” He was taken aback and exclaimed, “Someone like you says such a thing!” I replied, “Listen now to the rationale:

“If you claim that Muhammad was a tyrannical king (3) who subdued people with his sword and was not a messenger from Allah, yet for twenty-three years maintained, ‘I am the Messenger of Allah, sent to all creation,’ declaring, ‘Allah has commanded me to do this, forbidden me from that, and revealed to me such-and-such,’ when none of it was true; that he further proclaimed, ‘Allah has permitted me to seize the children and women of those who oppose me, to take their property as spoils, and to kill their men,’ though none of that was true; and that he tirelessly set about overturning the prophets’ religion, opposing their communities, and abrogating their laws—then you must say one of two things:

“Either Allah—exalted is He—saw, witnessed, and knew all of this, or it was hidden from Him and He did not know it.

“If you say He did not know it, you have ascribed to Him the most disgraceful ignorance, for anyone who did know would then be more knowledgeable than He.”