The third response is: even if some of this was taken from a prophet, it is known with certainty that the lies and falsehood it contains far outweigh whatever was taken from that prophet.

It is also known with certainty that the lies and falsehood it contains are many times greater than those found in what the Jews and Christians transmit from the prophets. Now, if we know with absolute certainty that the religion of the Jews and Christians originally came from the messengers, that Allah revealed the Torah, the Gospel, and the Psalms just as He revealed the Quran, and that Allah has commanded us to believe in what He revealed to us and what He revealed to those before us—as He, Most High, says:

“Say, ‘We believe in Allah and in what has been revealed to us, and what was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and what Moses and Jesus were given, and what the prophets were given by their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we submit’”—

and yet Allah has told us that the People of the Book distorted, altered, lied, and concealed; if this is the condition of revelation whose authenticity is established and scriptures whose divine origin is certain—even though they are much closer to our time than Idrīs, and their transmitters are more eminent than the transmitters of astrology, less prone to deliberate lies and falsehood, and further removed from disbelief in Allah, His Messenger, and the Last Day—then what should we think of this material, if any of it was transmitted from Idrīs? We know that it contains more lies, falsehood, and distortion than the learning of the People of the Book.

It is authentically reported in Sahīh al-Bukhārī that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“When the People of the Book tell you something, neither believe them nor disbelieve them, but say: