John is crucial. He is an eyewitness of the first fitna and comments on it claiming that “The Arabs, too, are shown to endure God’s wrath in the form of a division of their kingdom (malkūtā), a reference to their first civil war (656–61).” [Need exact quote] He is an eyewitness to:

1. First fitna
2. Second fitna
3. Muawiya’s period
4. The Zubayrid rebellion

Thus if there was a slow or even abrupt progression from Ecumenical Proto-Christianity to the 690 Abd-Al-Malik Proto-Sunni Islam John should have picked up on it! He himself is an eyewitness who reports up till 688 AD [Thus he is directly involved in the events and there are minimal corruptions in the historical narrative] He mentions that:

1. “The Christian religion and its members were respected: “Before calling them, (God) had prepared them beforehand to hold Christians in honour; thus they also had a special commandment from God concerning our monastic station, that they should hold it in honour.” [Not to be confused with Ecumenicalism as Muslims today must respect them! He also elaborates further which we will see.]

“No attempts were made by the Arabs at forced conversion: “Their robber bands went annually to distant parts and to the islands, bringing back captives from all the peoples under the heavens. Of each person they required only tribute (madattā), allowing him to remain in whatever faith he wished.” SEE THE SCREENSHOT!

2. Of Muawiya’s rule he says: “Justice flourished in his time and there was great peace in the regions under his control; he allowed everyone to live as they wanted;” and he later adds that crops were bountiful and trade doubled. In fact, his only criticism was the lack of persecution: “There was no distinction between pagan and Christian,” he laments, “the faithful was not known from a Jew.”

1. 3. He presents Muḥammad as a guide (mhaddyānā) and instructor (tar’ā), as a result of whose teaching the Arabs “held to the worship of the one God in accordance with the customs of ancient law.” John also makes him out to be a legislator, observing of the Arabs that “they kept to the tradition of Muḥammad… to such an extent that they inflicted the death penalty on anyone who was seen to act brazenly against his laws (nāmōsawh).
   • Notice here the Muslims all keep to his tradition which includes according to John the Sunnah and laws (guide and instructor). John is not aware of a subset of believers who deny his laws or say its not necessary to keep them. One is reminded of 9:29.
2. The rest of John’s accounts are irrelevant to the topic but they show:
   1. Mecca was a source for early muslim piety from early on. His description of Zubayr’s rise presupposes Mecca byt ‘lh as the Muslim sanctuary to which they prayed [See Ps. Sebeos/Jacob of Edessa on prayer direction] and the Zubayrid formation of Islam is thus broken.
   2. The transmission of events matches precisely our events showing that Muslim sources are able to accurately transmit information from the first century AH up to even 70 AH.