Introduction

Shaykh al-Islam Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah (661–728 AH / 1263–1328 CE) composed Al-Jawab al-Sahih liman Baddala Din al-Masih as a detailed, systematic refutation of a letter written by Paul of Antioch, a Melkite bishop who sought to justify Christianity and cast doubt upon the prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ. Ibn Taymiyyah spent years compiling this work, drawing on a vast command of Biblical texts in their original languages, patristic writings, and the internal contradictions of Christian theology. The result is a four-volume masterpiece that stands as the most thorough classical Islamic engagement with Christian scripture and doctrine ever produced, written by a scholar who had studied the Bible with a depth that confounded his adversaries.

The work holds a singular place in the history of Islamic apologetics and comparative religion. At a time when the Crusader presence in the Levant had kept Muslim-Christian polemics very much alive, Ibn Taymiyyah moved beyond the surface exchanges common to his era and engaged Christianity at the level of text-critical scholarship. He demonstrated, through extensive quotation and cross-referencing, that the Gospels are neither consistent with one another nor with the Torah, that the divinity of Christ has no firm scriptural foundation even within the New Testament, and that the doctrine of the Trinity was a later theological development with no clear sanction from Jesus himself, peace be upon him. His arguments anticipated by several centuries the findings of modern Biblical scholarship.

In terms of structure, the book is organized as a point-by-point response to Paul of Antioch's epistle. Ibn Taymiyyah addresses each theological claim methodically — divine sonship, the nature of Christ, the authenticity of the Gospels, the abrogation of previous scriptures, and the prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ as foretold in the Bible. He employs three parallel lines of reasoning: internal evidence from the Christian scriptures themselves, rational philosophical analysis, and the testimony of Islamic revelation. This triple-layered approach gives the work both its intellectual rigor and its persuasive power, making it effective for a wide range of audiences.

For the Muslim reader today, Al-Jawab al-Sahih offers multiple layers of benefit. At the most immediate level, it provides detailed, scripturally grounded answers to common Christian theological objections against Islam. More broadly, it trains the reader in the methodology of comparative religious inquiry — how to read scripture critically, how to distinguish between divine revelation and human theological invention, and how to engage respectfully but firmly with people of other faiths. Students of Islamic theology, comparative religion, and dawah work will find this one of the indispensable classical references in the tradition, a monument to the intellectual tradition of Ahl us-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah.