—they have not been safeguarded; rather, they have been tampered with, distorted, and substituted.

Yet a new question arises: are we obliged to act upon the rulings found in the earlier scriptures? We say: As for whatever Allah has related to us from those books, we put it into practice so long as our own law has not come with something contrary to it. An example is His statement about the Torah: “We ordained for them therein: a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a nose for a nose, an ear for an ear, a tooth for a tooth, and for wounds equitable retaliation. Whoever remits it, that shall be an expiation for him; and whoever does not judge by what Allah has sent down, such people are the wrongdoers” (al-Māʾidah 5:45).

This ruling is written in the Torah, and Allah—exalted is He—has conveyed it to us in the Quran. He only narrated it so that we might reflect and implement it, just as He said: “In their stories there is truly a lesson for those of sound intellect” (Yūsuf 12:111), and: “Those are the ones whom Allah guided, so follow their guidance” (al-Anʿām 6:90). Therefore, whatever Allah has recounted to us and transmitted from the previous books constitutes legislation for us, for He did not mention it in vain—unless our own law arrives with something that contradicts it. Should that occur, our law abrogates what preceded it. Just as certain legal verses revealed to this community are abrogated by other verses, so too material quoted from earlier scriptures can be abrogated by this Sharīʿah.

As for what is found only in their books, we neither affirm it nor deny it, in keeping with the Prophet’s instruction—peace and blessings be upon him—regarding reports from the Children of Israel: “Do not declare them true and do not declare them false,” for we might endorse falsehood or reject truth. Hence we say: “We believe in Allah, in what was sent down to us, and in what was sent down to you,” while neither confirming nor denying their reports when no proof has