illiterate and foolish persons among our co-religionists who have no principle to work up to or reasons on which to rest, or religious feeling or good manners to restrain them from rudeness; their speech is but browbeating and proud altercation and they have no knowledge or arguments except taking advantage of the rule of the government. Whenever I have held discussions with them and asked them to speak freely as their reason, their creed and their conclusion prompted, they have spoken openly and without deception of any kind, and their inward feelings have been laid bare to me as plainly as their outward appearance. So I have written at such length to you (may God show you the better way!) after long consideration and profound inquiry and investigation, so that none may suspect that I am ignorant of the things whereof I write and that all into whose hands this letter may come, may know that I have an accurate knowledge of the Christian faith. “So, now (may God shower His blessings upon you!) with this knowledge of your religion and so long-standing an affection (for you), I invite you to accept the religion that God has chosen for me and I for myself, assuring you entrance into Paradise and deliverance from Hell. And it is this,—You shall worship the one God, the only God, the Eternal, He begetteth not, neither is He begotten, who hath no consort and no son, and there is none like unto Him. This is the attribute wherewith God has denominated Himself, for none of His creatures could know Him better than He Himself. I have invited you to the worship of this the One God, whose attribute is such, and in this my letter I have added nothing to that wherewith He has denominated Himself (high and exalted be His name above what they associate with Him!). This is the religion of your father and our father, Abraham (may the blessings of God rest upon him!), for he was a Ḥanīf and Muslim.