the truth. They then began using this as an argument for opposing the truth, assuming that (1) the messengers and their followers possessed no truth beyond what these speculative theologians maintained.

They thus became like a polytheist or a member of the People of the Book who lived among some ignorant and sinful Muslims, and began citing (2) some of the ignorance and wrongdoing found among them as proof that the religion of the Muslims was false. He assumed that the religion of the Muslims consisted of what those people practiced, even though he himself was more ignorant and unjust than they were. Similarly, a group (3) from among the Jews and Christians of the People of the Book seek to impugn the religion of the Muslims by citing the indecencies they find among some Muslims—whether a marriage contracted solely to render a divorced woman lawful to her former husband, or (4) some other practice—as well as the wrongdoing, lying, or polytheism they find among them.

Yet if a fair comparison is made, they will find indecency, wrongdoing, lying, and polytheism (5) among themselves many times more prevalent than among those who identify with [the religion of] (6) Islam. When the true nature of Islam is explained to them, it becomes clear that it contains nothing of those indecencies, wrongdoing, lying, or polytheism. There is no religious community in which some form of evil has not entered among some of its adherents. Yet the [evil] (7) that has entered among non-Muslims is greater than what has entered among Muslims, while the good found among Muslims is greater than that found among others. The same applies to Ahl al-Sunnah within Islam—