and the statement of Allāh regarding the Jews and others bears witness to the ḥadīth: "And among them are unlettered ones who do not know the Book except through wishful thinking, and they do nothing but conjecture. So woe to those who write the Book with their own hands and then say, 'This is from Allāh,' to exchange it for a small price. Woe to them for what their hands have written, and woe to them for what they earn." (Sūrat al-Baqarah, 78-79). It is authentically reported from Ibn ʿAbbās (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) that he said: "O community of Muslims! How can you ask the People of the Book about anything when your Book, which Allāh revealed to your Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), is the most recent and purest information about Allāh, untainted. And Allāh has informed you that the People of the Book have altered and changed the Books of Allāh, writing with their own hands and saying: 'This is from Allāh,' to exchange it for a small price?! Does not what has come to you of knowledge prevent you from asking them?! By Allāh, we have not seen any of them asking you about what was revealed to you!" It was recorded by al-Bukhārī (2685, 7363, 7522, 7523) and ʿAbd al-Razzāq in "al-Muṣannaf" (11/110/20060), and through his route by al-Ḥākim (2/262-263), and from him by al-Bayhaqī in "al-Shuʿab" (4/308/5204) and others in it, and in the Sunan (10/162). Al-Ḥākim said: "Authentic according to the conditions of the two Shaykhs, but they did not record it." Al-Dhahabī agreed with him, and his correction of al-Bukhārī is an error, as you can see, he did record it.

- "The Children of Israel appointed a caliph over them after Mūsá (ʿalayhi al-salām), who stood praying one night above Bayt al-Maqdis in the moonlight, recalling matters he had done. He then left, descending by a rope, and in the morning the rope was found hanging in the mosque, but he had disappeared. He said: So he went until he came to a people on the shore of a sea, and he found them making bricks or shaping bricks, so he asked them: How do you earn from this?