the People of the Book, taking their children captive, deeming their blood lawful, and levying the jizyah upon them—this is a matter established by mass-transmitted reports and known beyond doubt. For he called the idolaters to believe in him, he called the People of the Book to believe in him, and he fought the People of the Book just as he fought the idolaters. He fought Banū Qaynuqāʿ, Banū al-Naḍīr, Banū Qurayẓah, and the people of Khaybar—all of them Jews—captured their women and children, and seized their wealth. He campaigned against the Christians at Tabūk in person and through his detachments; during that confrontation his freedman Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, Jaʿfar, and other members of his household were killed. He imposed the jizyah on the Christians of Najrān. In exactly the same way, his rightly guided successors after him waged jihad against the People of the Book, fought those among them who fought, and exacted the jizyah from those who surrendered while humbled.

This Quran—which everyone recognizes as the very Book brought by Muhammad ﷺ—is filled with appeals to the People of the Book to follow it; it pronounces disbelief and even a curse upon those among them who refuse, just as it declares the idolaters who reject it to be unbelievers and censures them. Allah the Exalted says, “O you who were given the Scripture, believe in what We have now sent down, confirming what you already possess…” 1. The Quran contains innumerable addresses such as “O People of the Book” and “O Children of Israel.” He also says, “Those who disbelieve from among the People of the Book and the idolaters were not going to desist…,” up to His words, “…the best of all creation” 2—and the like occurs throughout the Quran in great abundance.

Allah, exalted be He, has said: “Say, O mankind, I am indeed the Messenger of Allah to you all, He to Whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth” 3; and He says: “We have sent you only as a universal messenger to all people” 4.

It is widely reported from him ﷺ that he said, “I have been favored over the prophets in five ways,” and among them: “Every prophet was sent exclusively to his own people, whereas I have been sent to all people.” Indeed, it has reached the level of tawātur that he was sent to both jinn and humankind.

When, then, it is known with absolute certainty—through recurrent, mass-transmitted reports as clear as the very emergence of his mission—that