Perversion sets in in the People of the Book for just one reason. They come to believe that by uttering mere words, or by performing lifeless rituals, they will be able to earn salvation, but salvation can be earned only by performing righteous actions. During this stage of decline, superstition comes to be more highly regarded than actual good deeds. People begin to expect mysterious kinds of results or benefits by performing senseless rituals. This thinking, initially centreing on salvation, later comes to dominate the entire national policy of the group. A realistic approach is thus replaced by a superstitious approach. Now those who merely make an outward show of following their religion are inevitably averse to responding in earnest to the proclamation of true, unadulterated religion. For such people, the call is seen as a threat to the worldly honour and status that they enjoy owing to their worldly interpretation of religion. Due to their negativism, they begin to make such representations as are outwardly correct but which, in terms of the inner reality, are totally meaningless. There is no doubt about it that the coming of the angels and messengers was entirely a part of the divine plan. All arguments point to the fact that the Arab Prophet received the same message as was sent down to Abraham, Moses and Jesus, and that the revelation received by the Arab Prophet tallied exactly with the predictions made in previous divine scriptures. This proves beyond all doubt that it was sent by God Himself. People make many protestation of their faith, but all these mouthings being hollow and meaningless, they bear no relation to true faith and piety.