all that, they nevertheless banded together to repudiate his prophethood and to deny the prophets’ glad tidings concerning him, even though he had not dealt with them as Muhammad ﷺ later did—killing them in battle, taking them captive, seizing their property, demolishing their homes, and banishing them from them. How, then, could that nation fail to conspire to suppress his description and identifying marks and to alter them in their Scriptures?

Allah, exalted is He, censured them for this in several places in His Book and cursed them for it (1).

What is even more remarkable is that both they and the Christians acknowledge that, throughout the entire period of the Israelite kingdom, the Torah remained solely in the custody of the Aaronic high priest. The Jews further admit that seventy priests once convened and, by unanimous agreement, altered thirteen letters of the Torah. This occurred after the Messiah, during the reign of the Caesars who had subjugated them, when their own sovereignty had disappeared and no king remained to make them afraid or restrain them (2)(3). Whoever is content to alter even a single passage of the Book of Allah cannot be trusted not to corrupt other parts as well. The Jews also concede that the Samaritans tampered with sections of the Torah, making blatant changes, additions, and omissions, while the Samaritans level the very same charge against them.

As for the Gospel, it has already been noted that what the Christians possess consists of four distinct books composed by four men—John (4), Matthew, Mark, and Luke. How, then, can anyone deny that alteration and distortion have found their way into them? Yet, in spite of all the changes they contain, they have