Paradise to him.’” He thus states that the Messiah commanded them to worship Allah alone and forbade them to associate himself or anyone else with Allah, as they did.
Since arrogance was the foundation of the Jews’ religion, He punished them with humiliation:
“Humiliation has been imposed upon them wherever they are found.”
And since associating partners with Allah, through multiplying the paths to Him, was the foundation of the Christians’ religion, He led them astray from Him. Each community was thus punished for its wrongdoing with the opposite of what it intended:
“And your Lord is never unjust to His servants.”
As stated in the hadith:
“The tyrannical and arrogant will be gathered on the Day of Resurrection in the forms of tiny ants, trampled under people’s feet.”
Likewise, in the report from ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb, transmitted both as his own statement and as a saying traced back to the Prophet:
“Everyone has a bridle upon his head. If he humbles himself, he is told, ‘Rise; may Allah raise you.’ But if he raises his head, he is told, ‘Be brought low; may Allah bring you low.’”
He, glorified and exalted, said:
“Indeed, those who are too arrogant to worship Me will enter Hell in humiliation.”
Allah Most High also said:
“Yes indeed! My revelations came to you, but you denied them, acted arrogantly, and were among the disbelievers.”
“On the Day of Resurrection, you will see those who lied about Allah with their faces blackened. Is there not in Hell a dwelling for the arrogant?”
“And Allah will save those who feared Him, granting them triumph.”
For this reason, they deserved wrath and abhorrence.
As for the Christians, when they embraced religious innovations, He led them astray from Allah’s path. They strayed from Allah’s path, led many others astray, and departed from the right way. They had introduced these innovations only to draw nearer to Him and worship Him through them; yet these innovations took them farther from Him, led them astray from Him, and caused them to worship others besides Him.