“So I have advised you and paid the debt of friendship and sincere love, for I have desired to take you to myself, that you and I may be of the same opinion and the same faith, for I have found my Lord saying in his perfect Book: ‘Verily the unbelievers among the people of the Book and among the polytheists, shall go into the fire of Hell to abide therein for ever. Of all creatures they are the worst. But they verily who believe and do the things that are right—these of all creatures are the best. Their recompense with their Lord shall be gardens of Eden, ’neath which the rivers flow, in which they shall abide for evermore. God is well pleased with them, and they with Him. This, for him who feareth his Lord.’ (xcviii. 5–8.) ‘Ye are the best folk that hath been raised up for mankind. Ye enjoin what is just, and ye forbid what is evil, and ye believe in God: and if the people of the book had believed, it had surely been better for them. Believers there are among them, but most of them are disobedient.’ (iii. 106.) So I have had compassion upon you lest you might be among the people of Hell who are the worst of all creatures, and I have hoped that by the grace of God you may become one of the true believers with whom God is well pleased and they with Him, and they are the best of all creatures, and I have hoped that you will join yourself to that religion which is the best of the religions raised up for men. But if you refuse and persist in your obstinacy, contentiousness and ignorance, your infidelity and error, and if you reject my words and refuse the sincere advice I have offered you (without looking for any thanks or reward)—then write whatever you wish to say about your religion, all that you hold to be true and established by strong proof, without any fear or apprehension, without curtailment of your proofs or concealment of your beliefs; for I purpose only to listen patiently to your arguments and to yield to and acknowledge all that is convincing therein, submitting willingly without refusing or rejecting or fear, in order that I may compare your account and mine. You are free to set forth your case; bring forward no plea that fear prevented you from making your arguments complete and that you had to put a bridle on your tongue, so that you could not freely express your arguments. So now you are free to bring forward all your arguments, that you may not accuse me of pride, injustice or partiality: for that is far from me.