and to add and omit portions from them—just as we have already answered those who claim that only the meanings were altered, the texts having merely been re-interpreted in ways other than what was intended.

They state: We do not maintain—nor does any group of Muslims maintain—that the wording(1) of every single manuscript in existence has been changed and replaced. Some Muslims hold that parts of the wording were altered before the mission of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, while certain copies were altered after his mission. They do not allege that every manuscript on earth was changed after his advent; rather, only some were. It so happened that the altered(2) and substituted copies became widespread among many people, whereas the unaltered copies were less circulated, although those unchanged manuscripts still exist somewhere in the world.

It is obvious that this possibility cannot be categorically denied, for no one can know that every copy in every language is identical in wording. Who could possibly encompass such universal knowledge, whether by experience or by reason? The People of the Scripture themselves are aware that no human being can do so.

As for those Muslims who say that the corruption took place at the very beginning, they contend that it first occurred at the hands of Ezra the scribe in the Torah, in certain matters—whether intentionally or by mistake—for there is no proof of his being divinely protected from error, nor that the sections he compiled after the Torah had been burned were identical to the very Torah revealed to Moses. We have already noted that the present Torah contains passages that may not rightly be ascribed to Allah or claimed to have been revealed to His Messenger and interlocutor, and we have left much unmentioned.

As for the Gospel, it consists of four gospels, each derived from four individuals, two of whom