where He says:

“Do you then hope that they will believe you, when a group of them used to hear the words of Allah and then knowingly distort them after understanding them?”

—up to His words:

“And among them are unlettered people who know nothing of the Scripture except mere recitation,”

and the rest of the verse.

Since the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—foretold that this community would follow the ways of those before it as closely as one arrow-feather matches another—“even if they entered a lizard’s burrow, you would enter it too”—there must be people among them who distort words from their proper places, changing the meaning of the Quran and Sunnah concerning what Allah has declared or commanded. Among them are also unlettered people who do not understand the meanings of the Quran and Sunnah. Indeed, they may imagine that their mere recitation and superficial acquaintance with the words represent the utmost attainment in religion.

They may then debate those who distort the texts and other hypocrites or disbelievers, although their opponents know things unknown to these unlettered people. Either both groups go astray, and the words of the unlettered become a stumbling block for their opponents, who believe that what the unlettered say represents the utmost extent of religious knowledge, so that the two groups end up at opposite extremes; or those unlettered people follow those who distort the texts in some of their errors. This is one of the causes of the alteration of religions. This religion, however, is preserved, as the Most High says:

“Indeed, it is We who sent down the Reminder, and indeed, We will preserve it.”

There will always remain within it a group steadfastly upholding the truth and prevailing. Thus, it has not suffered the wholesale distortion of its scriptures and alteration of its laws that other religions have suffered, because of what He causes to be proclaimed