In the Prophet's day, numbers of Christians in Arabia were not only an
ignorant people, but belonged to heretical Sects, which, on account of their
dangerous influence, had been expelled from the Roman Empire, and thus had taken
refuge beyond the border land. They had hardly any acquaintance with the Gospel
or Apostolic writings, but were conversant with heretical books and the
extravagant tales they contained. Now our argument is that Muhammad having but an
imperfect knowledge of the Gospel, learned from these people, who were all
around him, what he believed to be the purport of the New Testament. It was his
object to establish a faith which should embrace and unite all races of the
Peninsula, and the Christians among the rest. He therefore entered in the Qur'an
very much of the teaching and vain imaginations of these ignorant sects. It is
our object carefully to test whether this proposition is true, — that is,
whether it be the case that such stories form one of the Sources of the Qur'an or
not; and that we propose to make the subject of the present chapter.
