and what brings it happiness, nor its deficiency and what makes it wretched.

As for the Christians: you have already seen what they managed to perceive of their object of worship and how they described Him; what they said about their Prophet, and how they never grasped his true nature whatsoever. They attributed to God the gravest flaws and shortcomings, and they ascribed to His servant and messenger that which is his in no respect. In reality, they knew neither God nor His Messenger. The resurrection they acknowledge they failed to comprehend in its essence(1), and they did not believe in what the messengers taught about its reality—for in their view there is no eating or drinking in Paradise, no spouses there, and no wide-eyed maidens with whom men may delight as they delighted in worldly life. They likewise remained ignorant of the true nature of their own souls and of what brings those souls joy or misery. Whoever is ignorant of this is even more likely to be ignorant of every other reality: they have not known their own selves, nor their Originator(2) and Creator, nor the one whom Allah made a means to their felicity and success; nor have they understood the created order—that every existing being, whether articulate or mute, human, jinn, or angel, is needy, owned, and fashioned. Everyone in the heavens and on earth is His slave and His possession; each one is created, made, sustained, utterly poor from every angle. Whoever does not know this has understood(3) nothing.

As for the Jews, Allah has related to you the ignorance, obtuseness(4), and misguidance of their forefathers—an account that points to further layers(5) of darkness upon darkness of sheer ignorance. It is enough to mention their worship of the calf that their own hands had fashioned out of gold,