but if you were people of the book, which by which it meant jews and christians and also included zorra austrians in the group, you were seen as part of the ummah, and that is really unique in the history of religions. in fact, the koran refers to something called thËi ummal katalb, the mother of books. it's saying that there is this kind of heavenly scripture, in god, a physical book in heaven with god, from which all scriptures of the world come, and so, in other words, if you talk all the scriptures of the world, the torah, the gospel, the koran, the gotha and combine them together you get this one heavenly book. that's quite a remarkable statement for a scripture to make. not only is it validating other scriptures but saying something quite unique that all these religions are intimately connected. the koran says something along the lines of god could have given you one prophet and one scripture if he wanted to, but he chose to make you into different communities, quote, so that you may know one another. now, this notion of jews and christians as fellow believers did not last much lo