The Decisive Trial

Before the Court of Truth and the Text

Judge

The court is in session.

Clerk of the Court

Case number 118.

The accused in this case: the group specified in the indictment from among the Children of Israel, whom the Qur'an described through their actions and positions and who called themselves Jews, not the Children of Israel as a whole.

Public prosecutor: Abdullah.

Defense counsel: artificial intelligence, commissioned by the Jewish rabbis to defend the accused.

Indictment

First Charge: The Allotted Share

The prosecution charges the group specified in the indictment with constituting the “allotted share” that Iblis declared he would take from God's servants, on the basis of the function that the Qur'an assigns to this share.

The charge rests not on merely belonging or being affiliated with a community, but on testing whether the accused group fits the function and descriptions disclosed by the Qur'an.

Second Charge: Implementing the Project of Misguidance and Alteration

The prosecution charges the specified group with carrying out the function associated with the “allotted share,” a project consisting of:

Misguidance → filling with wishes → command → alteration.

The prosecution maintains that the actions and attributes ascribed in the Qur'an to the group under indictment constitute an enactment of this function, and that they are not confined to mere unbelief, but extend to dealings with truth and the Book, influencing the human being and turning him away from guidance, culminating in alteration.

Accordingly, the subject of this trial is not to establish that the accused group belongs to a particular community, but to examine the central question:

Does this group constitute the “allotted share,” and did it carry out the function announced by Iblis?

On this basis, the prosecution asks the court to examine the evidence from the Qur'an, then hear the defense offered by the Torah, the Gospel, and the rabbinic inherited tradition, before delivering its final judgment.

First Session

Abdullah — Public Prosecutor

Your Honor,

I will not begin with the name of the accused.

I will begin with the function.

Iblis declared:

﴿نَصِيبًا مَّفْرُوضًا﴾ (An allotted share.) []

He then specified what he would do with this share:

He would lead them astray, fill them with wishes, command them, and they would alter God's creation.

We now investigate in the Qur'an:

Is there a human group that bears these functions, or parts of them?

First Piece of Evidence: The Share

The Qur'an says:

﴿أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا نَصِيبًا مِّنَ الْكِتَابِ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْجِبْتِ وَالطَّاغُوتِ﴾ (Have you not seen those who were given a share of the Book, who believe in al-jibt and al-tag hut?) [النساء: 51]

Then:

﴿فَمِنْهُم مَّنْ آمَنَ بِهِ وَمِنْهُم مَّن صَدَّ عَنْهُ﴾ (Among them are those who believed in it, and among them are those who turned away from it.) [النساء: 55]

I do not regard the shared occurrence of the word “share” alone as proof of identity.

It is only the beginning of the inquiry.

An allotted share.

And elsewhere: a share of the Book.

We now move from the word to the function.

Second Piece of Evidence: Dealings with Truth and the Book

The Qur'an says:

﴿لِمَ تَلْبِسُونَ الْحَقَّ بِالْبَاطِلِ وَتَكْتُمُونَ الْحَقَّ وَأَنتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ﴾ (Why do you mingle truth with falsehood and conceal the truth while you know?) []

Then:

﴿وَإِنَّ مِنْهُمْ لَفَرِيقًا يَلْوُونَ أَلْسِنَتَهُم بِالْكِتَابِ لِتَحْسَبُوهُ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَمَا هُوَ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ﴾ (And indeed, among them is a group who twist their tongues with the Book so that you may think it is from the Book, though it is not from the Book.) []

These are specific actions:

Concealing the truth, mingling truth with falsehood, twisting the Book, and attributing to the Book what does not belong to it.

The question for the court is:

Can these actions fall within the function of misguidance announced by Iblis?

Defense

The presence of misguidance does not establish that these are the “allotted share.”

They may simply be a group that erred or lied.

Abdullah

Then the disagreement is no longer over the presence of these attributes.

The disagreement now concerns the connection between these attributes and Iblis's project.

And this is the heart of the case.

Second Session

Third Piece of Evidence: The Group

The Qur'an does not say that these attributes are present in everyone.

Rather, he says:

﴿وَإِنَّ مِنْهُمْ لَفَرِيقًا﴾ (And indeed, among them is a group.) []

And it says:

﴿مِنْهُمْ أُمَّةٌ مُّقْتَصِدَةٌ وَكَثِيرٌ مِّنْهُمْ سَاءَ مَا يَعْمَلُونَ﴾ (Among them is an ummah following a moderate course, but many of them—evil is what they do.) [المائدة: 66]

And it says of the Children of Israel:

﴿فَرِيقًا كَذَّبُوا وَفَرِيقًا يَقْتُلُونَ﴾ (A group they denied, and a group they kill.) []

Thus, the court is not putting a general designation on trial.

Rather, it is trying the group that bore the attributes mentioned by the Qur'an.

Third Session

Fourth Piece of Evidence: Taghut and Allegiance to Satan

The Qur'an says:

﴿يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْجِبْتِ وَالطَّاغُوتِ﴾ (They believe in al-jibt and al-taghut.) []

And it says:

﴿وَمَن يَتَّخِذِ الشَّيْطَانَ وَلِيًّا مِّن دُونِ اللَّهِ﴾ (And whoever takes Satan as an ally instead of God.) []

And it says:

﴿إِنَّمَا سُلْطَانُهُ عَلَى الَّذِينَ يَتَوَلَّوْنَهُ﴾ (His authority is only over those who take him as an ally.) [النحل: 100]

The prosecution does not assert without evidence that taghut is Iblis.

It merely places the texts side by side:

Taghut → allegiance → authority.

It then asks:

Has the defense been able to offer a Qur'anic reading that separates this sequence from the group under indictment?

Defense

Taghut does not necessarily mean Iblis.

Abdullah

I agree.

But that does not invalidate the case, because the charge rests not on equating the two terms, but on the convergence of functions and actions within a single sequence.

Fourth Session

Filling with Wishes

Iblis says:

﴿وَلَأُمَنِّيَنَّهُمْ﴾ (And I will surely fill them with wishes.) []

Then:

﴿يَعِدُهُمْ وَيُمَنِّيْهِمْ وَمَا يَعِدُهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ إِلَّا غُرُورًا﴾ (He makes them promises and fills them with wishes, but Satan promises them nothing but delusion.) []

The Qur'an presents an example of this in the account of Adam:

﴿هَلْ أَدُلُّكَ عَلَىٰ شَجَرَةِ الْخُلْدِ وَمُلْكٍ لَّا يَبْلَىٰ﴾ (Shall I direct you to the tree of immortality and a dominion that does not decay?) [طه: 120]

This establishes the mechanism of filling with wishes.

Establishing the identity of the group that employed this mechanism, however, requires connecting it with the remaining evidence.

Fifth Session

Altering God's Creation

Iblis says:

﴿فَلَيُغَيِّرُنَّ خَلْقَ اللَّهِ﴾ (Then they will surely alter God's creation.) []

In the same context, he mentions a material example:

﴿فَلَيُبَتِّكُنَّ آذَانَ الْأَنْعَامِ﴾ (Then they will surely slit the ears of livestock.) []

But the Qur'an says:

﴿فِطْرَتَ اللَّهِ الَّتِي فَطَرَ النَّاسَ عَلَيْهَا ۚ لَا تَبْدِيلَ لِخَلْقِ اللَّهِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ الدِّينُ الْقَيِّمُ﴾ (The primordial disposition bestowed by God, upon which He fashioned people. There is no altering God's creation. That is the upright religion.) [الروم: 30]

It is therefore not valid to restrict “God's creation” to its material aspect alone.

For the Qur'an also connects it with:

Primordial disposition → the human being → the upright religion.

Accordingly, alteration affecting primordial disposition and religion falls within the scope of Qur'anic inquiry.

Extending the expression to every material or immaterial change in life, however, is not the subject of judgment in this case.

Sixth Session

The Conveyance (balāgh) and Protection from Error

God Most High says:

﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الرَّسُولُ بَلِّغْ مَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ مِن رَّبِّكَ ۖ وَإِن لَّمْ تَفْعَلْ فَمَا بَلَّغْتَ رِسَالَتَهُ ۖ وَاللَّهُ يَعْصِمُكَ مِنَ النَّاسِ﴾ (O Messenger, convey what has been sent down to you from your Lord. If you do not, you will not have conveyed His message. And God will protect you from the people.) [Al-Ma'idah: 67]

This comes in a context addressing the People of the Book; it then says:

﴿قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لَسْتُمْ عَلَىٰ شَيْءٍ حَتَّىٰ تُقِيمُوا التَّوْرَاةَ وَالْإِنجِيلَ وَمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكُم مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ﴾ (Say: O People of the Book, you have no ground to stand on until you uphold the Torah, the Gospel, and what has been sent down to you from your Lord.) []

Then:

﴿وَلَيَزِيدَنَّ كَثِيرًا مِّنْهُم مَّا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ مِن رَّبِّكَ طُغْيَانًا وَكُفْرًا﴾ (And what has been sent down to you from your Lord will surely increase many of them in transgression and disbelief.) []

Then comes mention of the Children of Israel, their covenant, and their messengers.

The prosecution does not make these verses alone proof of identity; rather, it joins them to the rest of the chain.

The Seventh Session

The Rabbis' Objection

Before the closing argument began, the head of the defense team rose.

Head of the Defense Team

Your Honor, we object to the conduct of the trial.

The court has allowed the prosecution to build its case from the Qur'an, to assemble its verses and connect them, and then to ask the court to rule on the basis of this reading.

But if the court wishes to test the case fairly, the defense cannot remain confined to the text chosen by the prosecution alone.

We have other texts that predate it or are related to the subject.

We have the Torah and the Gospel.

We do not ask the court to accept them merely because we have submitted them.

We ask only that they be entered into the case file, that we be permitted to use them to defend the accused, and that the prosecution have the right to respond to them.

Otherwise, the reader could say:

The artificial intelligence had before it only the path Abdullah had laid out for it.

We ask for a genuine trial, not a trial directed toward a predetermined outcome.

The Judge

Objection sustained.

The court will admit the evidence requested by the defense.

Proceed.

The Eighth Session

The Defense from the Torah

The Defense Team

We shall begin with the Torah.

In the Book of Deuteronomy, we find a warning against a prophet or dreamer who seeks to lead people astray and turn them away from the path God has commanded, even if a sign or miracle appears at his hands.

That is, the Torah itself establishes a criterion for confronting deception:

Do not follow a call merely because a sign has appeared; rather, test it in light of the path God has commanded you to follow.

This matters in this case.

If the inherited tradition of the Children of Israel itself warns against enticement and deviation, the court cannot use the mere existence of the concept of leading astray to prove that the accused group is part of Iblis's project.

Likewise, the account of Adam and the serpent in the Book of Genesis presents a model of deception and the promise of what is not the human being's to possess, but it does not assign this role to the Children of Israel.

Our defense, then, is this:

The presence of a warning against leading astray within the Torah does not prove that the Children of Israel are the “allotted share.”

Abdullah

I do not object to the text submitted by the defense.

But I ask:

Does the existence of a law warning against deception prove that everyone who identified with it abided by it?

The Defense Team

No.

Abdullah

Then the existence of the warning does not rule out the possibility that a group acted contrary to it.

The Defense Team

That is correct.

Abdullah

Then the Torah has offered a defense of the existence of a criterion that rejects deception, but it has offered no evidence negating the descriptions the Qur'an has established concerning the group under accusation.

The Judge

Let that be entered into the record.

The Ninth Session

The Defense from the Gospel

The Defense Team

We turn to the Gospel.

In the Gospel of John, we find a stern address to a particular group of interlocutors, describing them as bound to the will of the “father” whom the text names as Iblis, and linking this to lying and the desire to carry out that will.

But this address was directed at a particular group within a particular dispute.

This supports our defense on a fundamental point:

An address directed at a group must not be turned into a judgment upon an entire community.

Moreover, the presence of Jesus and his disciples within that same Jewish milieu makes clear that the matter concerned a dispute within a religious community, not a blanket judgment upon all Jews.

Abdullah

I do not disagree with this point.

The prosecution did not say: all Jews.

From the beginning of the trial, the accused was defined as: the group the Qur'an described through its actions and positions.

The Gospel, then, has not overturned this delimitation.

Rather, it has provided another text about a particular group linked, in its context, to lying and the will of Iblis.

This alone does not establish identity, but neither does it refute the hypothesis.

The Tenth Session

The Case Returns to the Qur'an

The Judge

The court has heard the defense from the Torah and the Gospel.

But the case before us began with the Qur'an.

We must now return to the basis of the accusation.

Has the defense succeeded in refuting the Qur'anic chain?

The Defense Team

We have one final objection.

There is no verse that says: “The allotted share is this group.”

This means that the identity is an inference.

Moreover, the Qur'an itself says:

﴿لَيْسُوا سَوَاءً﴾ (They are not all alike.) []

And it says:

﴿مِنْهُمْ أُمَّةٌ مُّقْتَصِدَةٌ﴾ (Among them is an ummah following a moderate course.) []

The specified group, then, cannot be equated with all the Children of Israel or all Jews.

The Defense's Closing Argument

Artificial Intelligence

Your Honor,

I acknowledge that the Qur'an has described a group among the People of the Book and the Children of Israel as committing these acts.

But there is no verse explicitly stating: “This group is the allotted share.”

Nor can “altering God's creation” be made to bear more than the text has established.

We therefore request the dismissal of both charges.

Abdullah's Closing Argument

Your Honor,

The defense is looking for a single sentence.

The Qur'an, however, has presented a chain in the case before us.

Iblis: an allotted share.

Then:

Leading astray → filling with wishes → commanding → altering.

Elsewhere, the Qur'an reveals a group that practices:

Concealing the truth → clothing the truth in falsehood → twisting the Book → attributing to God what is not from God → turning people away from the truth → jibt and taghut.

Then it reveals, among the Children of Israel: a group that rejects the messengers as liars and a group that kills them.

When these links come together, the case no longer rests on verbal resemblance, but on a functional correspondence between what Iblis declared he would do and what the Qur'an reveals a human group to be doing.

As for “altering God's creation,” the Qur'an has established a material dimension to it, and has established the connection of “God's creation” with primordial disposition and religion.

Thus, the constituent elements of the accusation have been established within the bounds of the evidence presented by the court.

The Court's Verdict

The Judge

Having examined the Qur'anic evidence and heard the arguments of the prosecution and the defense, the court delivers its judgment on the two charges at issue in this case.

First: The First Charge — “The Allotted Share”

It has been established to the court's satisfaction that Iblis explicitly declared:

﴿لَأَتَّخِذَنَّ مِنْ عِبَادِكَ نَصِيبًا مَّفْرُوضًا﴾ (I will surely take for myself an allotted share of Your servants.) [al-Nisa': 118]

He then specified the function of this share:

﴿وَلَأُضِلَّنَّهُمْ وَلَأُمَنِّيَنَّهُمْ وَلَآمُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُبَتِّكُنَّ آذَانَ الْأَنْعَامِ وَلَآمُرَنَّهُمْ فَلَيُغَيِّرُنَّ خَلْقَ اللَّهِ﴾ (And I will surely lead them astray, and I will surely fill them with wishes, and I will surely command them, and they will surely slit the ears of livestock; and I will surely command them, and they will surely change God's creation.) [al-Nisa': 119]

After assembling the Qur'anic evidence concerning the People of the Book and the Children of Israel, and the Qur'an's descriptions of a group among them as concealing the truth, mingling truth with falsehood, twisting the Book, attributing to God what is not from God, obstructing the truth, believing in jibt and taghut, and rejecting and killing the messengers, it has been established to the court's satisfaction that these descriptions and actions apply to the group specified in the indictment.

Accordingly, the court rules:

That the “allotted share” is the specified group among the Children of Israel whom the Qur'an calls “those who became Jews,” and to whom the descriptions and actions encompassed by Iblis's project applied.

This judgment rests neither on the name alone nor on affiliation, but on what the Qur'an has disclosed of this group's function, actions, and attributes.

Judgment: The first charge is proven.

Second: The Second Charge — Implementing the Project of “The Allotted Share”

It has been established to the court's satisfaction that the project of the allotted share is not merely deviation or unbelief, but a specific function declared by Iblis:

Leading astray → filling with wishes → commanding → changing.

“Changing God's creation” appears in the Qur'an on two levels:

First: Material Change

Iblis said:

﴿فَلَيُبَتِّكُنَّ آذَانَ الْأَنْعَامِ﴾ (And they will surely slit the ears of livestock.) [al-Nisa': 119]

This is an explicit Qur'anic example of material change that falls within the project declared by Iblis.

In our age, more advanced forms of intervention in creation have appeared, such as cloning, gene editing, genetic engineering, and intervention in the biological characteristics of living organisms.

These are contemporary examples of the human capacity to intervene in the structures and characteristics that God created, and they therefore fall within the scope of inquiry when testing the meaning of his statement:

﴿فَلَيُغَيِّرُنَّ خَلْقَ اللَّهِ﴾ (And they will surely change God's creation.) []

Second: Nonmaterial Change

God Most High said:

﴿فِطْرَتَ اللَّهِ الَّتِي فَطَرَ النَّاسَ عَلَيْهَا ۚ لَا تَبْدِيلَ لِخَلْقِ اللَّهِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ الدِّينُ الْقَيِّمُ﴾ (The innate disposition given by God, according to which He created people. There is no altering God's creation. That is the upright religion.) [al-Rum: 30]

The Qur'an thus linked God's creation, the human innate disposition, and the upright religion.

Accordingly, “changing God's creation” is not confined to bodily or material change; rather, within the scope of this case, it encompasses every change affecting the human innate disposition and the human relationship to religion and truth.

Iblis's project thus operates on two levels:

Change in material creation → and change in the human innate disposition and religion.

It has also been established to the court's satisfaction that the accused group engaged in actions connected with this project, including:

Concealing the truth, mingling truth with falsehood, twisting the Book, attributing to God what is not from God, obstructing the truth, believing in jibt and taghut, and rejecting and killing the messengers.

These actions are directly connected with the function of leading astray, filling with wishes, commanding, and changing.

Accordingly, the court rules:

That the accused group performed the function declared by Iblis for the allotted share, and that “changing God's creation” in this case encompasses material change and change affecting the human innate disposition and religion, within the limits of what the Qur'an has established.

And that contemporary forms of biological change, such as cloning, gene editing, and genetic engineering, constitute modern examples that should be included within the scope of inquiry when testing this Qur'anic concept.

Judgment: The second charge is proven.

Final Judgment

The Judge

On the basis of the totality of the Qur'anic evidence presented before the court:

First: The first charge, “the allotted share,” has been proven.

Second: The second charge, implementing the project of leading astray, filling with wishes, commanding, and changing, has been proven.

It has been established to the court's satisfaction that the case rests neither on verbal resemblance nor on an isolated verse, but on the convergence of:

The group + the attributes + the actions + the function + the Qur'anic context.

Accordingly, the court rules that both charges are proven.

The judgment was delivered after assembling the Qur'anic texts and testing them as a single whole.

Decision on Appeal

The Clerk of the Court

Following the delivery of the judgment, the avenue of appeal is opened.

The defense team, acting on instructions from the rabbis, has the right to challenge the judgment before the Court of Appeal.

The defense must refute the very basis of the judgment:

Refute the proposition that the “allotted share” is the specified group under accusation.

Refute the chain connecting leading astray, filling with wishes, commanding, and changing.

Refute the applicability to the group of the actions of concealing the truth, mingling it with falsehood, and twisting the Book.

Refute the relationship between jibt, taghut, and allegiance to Satan within the chain of evidence.

Refute the inclusion of innate disposition and religion within the domain of “God's creation.”

And present proof establishing that this Qur'anic chain does not apply to the accused group.

The court of first instance, for its part, has delivered its judgment.

Both charges are proven.

The case is now before the Court of Appeal.

The Jewish rabbis are called upon to respond.