ِAllah has made lawful for the followers of Muhammad -peace be upon him- everything that is good, and prohibited everything that is evil. So they are median -in this respect- between the two extremes: the Jews - on whom because of their sin many good things were prohibited- and the Christians - who deliberately made evil things lawful.

 Also, in the chapter of purification, Allah made them median between the Jews who observe very strict rituals to stay pure, and the Christians who worship in a state of impurity. They do not take bath after sexual intercourse, not they make ablution before prayer, not they feel it necessary to avoid impurity while praying. Many of their clerics even consider indulging into impurities a mean to be closer to God. They even boast in relating the excellence of a monk saying: "he stayed 40 years without touching water". They even abandoned circumcision though it was the practice of Prophet Abraham - peace be upon him- and his followers. The Jews stay far away from a menstruating women, and would not eat or drink or stay with under one roof. On the other hand, the Christians would not make it unlawful to have intercourse with a menstruating women. The Jews have no concept of removal of impurity. When such impurity touches their cloth, they would rub it till it tears. On the contrary, the Christians have no impurity prohibited from eating or praying in a dress touched with such impurities.

 Muslims - the median community- always kept themselves in the middle between these two extremes. They did not deny the new rulings for the sake of the abrogated ones like the Jews, not did they change the confirmed rulings and innovate new rulings without the permission of Allah, as did the Christians. They did not exaggerated veneration of the pious as did the Christians (e.g., making Jesus God or Son of God), nor did they disrespect them as did the Jews (e.g., killing their Prophets). They did not made their Lord qualify with creature's imperfect qualities like poverty, stinginess, weakness, etc. as did the Jews. Nor did they attributed God's unique qualities to the weak creature as did the Christians. They do not show arrogance or scorn the worship of Allah like the Jews, nor they commit Shirk and make associates with Allah like the Christians.

Adapted from Ibn Taymiyyah "Al-Jawab As-Sahih Liman Baddala Deen Al-Masseih". Vol. 1 pp 69-71

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