the openings of the surahs. With repetitions omitted, these comprise fourteen letters. Their total value in the greater abjad reckoning is six hundred and ninety-three. Another example is the report mentioned in Quranic commentary that, when Allah revealed “Alif Lām Mīm,” some Jews said, “This religion will endure for thirty-one years.” Then, when He subsequently revealed “Alif Lām Rā” and “Alif Lām Mīm,” they said, “He has confused matters for us.”

These practices, found among the errors of the Jews and Christians and those of the polytheists and Sabians among the philosophizers and astrologers, contain an extent of such falsehood known only to Allah Most High. These practices and others like them lie outside the religion of Islam and are forbidden within it. It is therefore incumbent upon Muslims—everyone who is able—to denounce and forbid them through knowledge and clear explanation, by deed and word. This is among the greatest duties Allah has imposed concerning enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong. Such people and their like are enemies of the messengers and a rot within religions.

Falsehood gains currency in the world only when mixed with some truth. Thus, the People of the Book have mixed truth with falsehood: through the little truth they possess, they lead many people away from the truth in which they must believe and invite them to the abundant falsehood they themselves follow. Often, those Muslims who oppose them cannot properly distinguish truth from falsehood, present an argument that refutes their falsehood, or explain Allah’s proof, which He established through His messengers. This gives rise to confusion and trial. We have discussed this falsehood and similar matters at length elsewhere. And Allah knows best.