—wherever they may be; they purify themselves from major ritual impurity, and when water is not available their cleansing with earth is like their cleansing with water. Their faces and limbs will gleam brilliantly from the traces of ablution. So make them my community.” He said, “They are the community of Ahmad, O Moses?” The rabbi replied, “Yes.”

Kaʿb continued, “I adjure you by Allah: do you find in the Book of Allah that Moses looked into the Torah and said, ‘My Lord, I find a nation upon whom mercy has been bestowed—people of little worldly power. You have made them heirs to the Scripture and have chosen them for Yourself. Among them is one who wrongs his own soul, another who follows a middle course, and another who races ahead in good works; yet I do not find a single one of them but that he is shown mercy. So make them my community.’ He said, ‘They are the community of Ahmad, O Moses?’ The rabbi answered, “Yes.”

Kaʿb said, “I adjure you by Allah: do you find in the Book of Allah that Moses looked into the Torah and said, ‘My Lord, I find a nation whose Scriptures are in their breasts; they stand in prayer in ranks like the ranks of the angels; the sound of their voices in their mosques is like the buzzing of bees; none of them will enter the Fire except one who is as stripped of good deeds as a stone is of leaves.’ Moses said, ‘So make them my community.’ He said, ‘They are the community of Ahmad, O Moses?’ The rabbi replied, “Yes.”

When Moses marveled at the bounty Allah had granted to Muhammad and his nation, he said, “Would that I were among Muhammad’s companions!” So Allah revealed to him three verses to satisfy him: “O Moses, I have chosen you above the people …” (al-Aʿrāf 144); “And among the people of Moses is a community who guide by the truth and by it act justly” (al-Aʿrāf 159); and “We wrote for him upon the tablets …” (al-Aʿrāf 145). Thereupon Moses was wholly content. (1)