Owing to their own rebelliousness, the Israelites had severe punishments meted out to them in ancient times. It was God’s way to warn them of these impending punishments beforehand, and such warnings came to them through the prophets, who were acting on the words of the Archangel Gabriel. The moral was that people had to follow God’s commandments; if they persisted in a sinful life, they would be exposing themselves to His wrath. But, instead of heeding these admonitions, the Israelites came to regard Gabriel as their enemy, because it had always been he who gave prior warning through the prophets about impending doom. Consequently, when the Prophet Muhammad proclaimed that he was receiving his revelation through Gabriel, they said, ‘So, it is our old enemy Gabriel, who always brings commands from heaven against us! That explains why the scriptures, the birthright of the Israelites, are being conveyed to one who belongs to another tribe.’ Now angels, being the rarefied creatures that they are, do not hold grudges against ordinary mortals; they descend to earth only by divine command in order to carry out the tasks assigned to them by their Creator—in this case, the revelation of the Scriptures to the prophet whom God Himself had chosen. Given the clear proofs that the Arab Prophet had had the same revelation communicated to him as had been received by Abraham, Moses and Jesus, and that it tallied with the previous divine scriptures, there were no grounds for the Israelites to reject the divine message. Their negative reaction was the result of their having lead insincere, unrestricted lives, which had become dominated by self-interest, empty convention and racial prejudice. Religion had been adhered to only on a superficial level, just to keep up the pretence that the Israelites were, in fact, faithfully treading the path of God.