before the Torah and the Gospel were subject to alteration by the Jews and Christians. Such people are among those whom Allah praises and commends, and some have even claimed that Hippocrates was one of them.

Wahb ibn Munabbih—renowned for his knowledge of the histories of bygone nations—related, in a report transmitted by Ibn Abī Ḥātim with a sound chain, that he was asked: “Who are the Sābians?” He answered:

“They are those who acknowledge Allah alone, have no revealed law to practise, and have introduced no act of disbelief.”

A similar report comes from ath-Thawrī, from Layth, from Mujāhid, who said:

“They are a people drawn from the Magians, Jews, and Christians who have no (distinct) religion.”
He added: “Statements to this effect are also reported from other scholars.”

In other words, they possess no legal code received from a prophet; yet this was not intended to brand them as disbelievers, for Allah has praised some of them. What they uphold is the shared core of Islam: worshipping Allah alone, enjoining truthfulness and justice, forbidding indecency and oppression, and other matters upon which all the messengers agreed. All of this falls under the universal Islam, and Allah accepts no religion other than it.

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd likewise said: “They may say nothing more than ‘lā ilāha illā Allah,’ and they have neither scripture nor prophet.”

This resembles the condition of the Arabs before ʿAmr ibn Luḥayy introduced polytheism and idol-worship. They were ḥanīfs, worshipping Allah alone and venerating Abraham and Ishmael, yet they had no book to read or law to follow. Moses had been sent to the Children of Israel with the Torah and with the pilgrimage to the Ancient House, but he was not sent to the Arabs—neither to the line of ʿAdnān, the descendants of Ishmael, nor to that of Qaḥṭān—and the people…