A
LECTURE CONCERNING THE PRESENTATION OF THE MESSAGE OF ALLAH TO THE PEOPLES OF
THE BOOK.
(A lecture given in
by Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood.
Showing Ridzwan Wu, the
President of the Association
‘In
the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Oh our dear Lord, we are
gathered before You in Your sight. You can see us even though we may not see
You. May all the thoughts of our minds, the intentions of our hearts, the words
of our mouths, and the actions of our lives be guided by You and pleasing to
You. Be with us and all those whom we love, and bless us with Your infinite
grace. Amin.’
My dear brothers and sisters, I note that
I have the privilege of being asked to talk
about giving da’wah specifically to
the Ahl al-Kitab, the Peoples of the
Book, and I define those as people whose sacred Revelations have come from the
Same Divine Being, and who are muslim
in the sense that they consider themselves to be submitted to the service of
One True God, but of whom the Jews and Christians still remain outside the fold
of Islam. This subject is probably something that is a little easier for me to
talk about than for those who have been Muslim all their lives – for I was born
one of the People of the Book, and have come into Islam from that background,
like a considerable number of the Prophet’s (pbuh) own Companions, and
therefore naturally feel a strong affinity with other Christians whenever they
struggle to compare and contrast Islam and Christianity.
Many Christians never get beyond a basic
glance at the teachings and practices of Islam – usually through some course of
education at school. In earlier times, this inevitably presented a highly
simplistic over-view of Islam, usually just based on such things as what
Muslims did for prayer, fasting, paying zakah,
the Hajj, and the celebrations of Eid. The vast majority of books used in
schools were not written by Muslims, and were inevitably riddled with errors of
fact and emphases.
The
Ahl al-Kitab, or Peoples of the Book, have a very
special relationship with Islam, for they are
people whose sacred Revelations have
come from the Same Divine Being. Muslims, of course, are also People of the
Book par excellence, but Jews and Christians are muslim in the sense that they are also submitted to the service of
One True God, even though they still remain outside the fold of Islam.
Another huge problem is that most Western
history books usually ignore the life of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and the
rise and spread and achievements of the Islamic Empire. In the UK, most history books go from the Greeks and
Romans to the ‘Dark Ages’, and pick up again in Mediaeval times – the only
history of Islam given is usually a brief resume of the Crusades, without
pressing the point that the Muslims were the victorious side in the end. The
impression is also given that the Muslims were cruel and bloodthirsty, not so
much seeking to convert people as to organise massacres and slaughter. The most
common examples given as ‘representatives of Islam’ are the Mongols (before their conversion!), and cruel
Ottoman caliphs.
The situation of books for Religious
Studies has largely been remedied these days, for no teacher wishes to give
wrong information deliberately, and publishers have been quick to put right as
many errors as they can, but there remains a large ‘hangover’ of
misinformation, blaming Islam for cruelty and torture and the huge corrupt
harems of various potentates.
However, the average Christian does not
delve very deeply into the real faith of Islam, and those that do often begin
from the standpoint that Islam is a rival faith to Christianity, and are
frequently highly influenced by the newsmedia that concentrates on terrorism
and extremism and abuses of Islam rather than presenting Islam to the readers.
In addition to this lack of knowledge and
perspective, there is also a very real feeling amongst most Christians that
their faith is the pinnacle of genuine religious belief, and is right whereas other faiths must
inevitably be wrong – no matter how well-meaning or pious their devotees.
Christianity is seen as the religion of the most advanced, educated and caring
persons, whereas Islam belongs to the Third World, is backward, seriously oppresses
women, and despite having a large number of millionaire Arab members does
little to alleviate the problems of the world’s poor and disaster-stricken.
Any Muslim seeking to do da’wah to Christians therefore needs to
be fully aware of all these matters, in order to counter ignorance and
prejudice. They must also realise that the worst enemy of Islam is hypocrisy,
and people claiming to be Muslim being caught acting in highly unIslamic ways.
Furthermore, sometimes highly pious and devout Muslims present a very narrow
view of Islam to the outside world, and behave in ways that on the whole cause
people to dislike Islam, and drive them away from Allah rather than drawing
them towards the right path.
The first pillar of Islam is shahadah, to bear witness. This not only
means to declare that you genuinely and wholeheartedly believe that there is
One True God, Allah, and that Muhammad (pbuh) was His genine prophet; it also
means to bear witness in your life and general behaviour. Everything a Muslim
does in public or in the privacy of the home bears witness to their belief in
Islam. It is vitally important that all Muslims realise that they are closely
watched, for nothing is more offensive than hypocrisy – when a person claims to
be highly religious, and prays five times each day and so on, and yet their
actions and personal lives fall far short of the standards set by Allah and His
Messenger (pbuh). It is so important, therefore, that Muslims really do their
best to live up to their own very high standards. Nothing does more harm to
Islam than Muslims who steal, drink alcohol, take drugs, beat their women and
children, force unwanted marriages, or are abusive and exploitative in their
business.
Many Muslims do not seem to realise how
much it is the behaviour – the
hospitality, honesty, nice conduct, and helpfulness – of the Muslims that is so
impressive to Christians, and begins to draw them to the faith. Often these
things are far more attractive and impressive than giving out materials to read,
for so many people are not interested in reading and avoid the chore as much as
possible. Actions usually speak louder than words.
Needless to say, Muslim women who wear hijab often have a higher profile than
men, because it instantly marks them out as being Muslim. They do a form of da’wah simply by what they wear in
public. It is a much harder matter for a non-Muslim to be able to identify
which males are Muslim, since the vast majority do not wear any distinguishing
dress. Therefore, it is worth a comment that all women in hijab should be extra careful about their public behaviour and
attitudes, for the piece of cloth they wear will not be judged – only
themselves. It is also, perhaps, worth pointing out that in societies which
ignorantly assume that all brown faces belong to Muslims, Islam will sometimes
pick up the blame for the actions of, say, Hindus or Arab Christians.
It cannot be stressed too strongly that the
best initial da’wah Muslims can give
to Christians is to take an active part in the community in which they live; to
share hospitality, to join in with charitable ventures, to volunteer, to be part of the community (even if it is
non-Muslim), and not to stand aloof from it. It is vitally important that
Muslims play an active role as school governors, police and social workers,
sports-persons, librarians, politicians, nurses, doctors, dentists, lawyers,
teachers, and so on. It is even good da’wah when Muslims feel able to join in
as volunteers in established Christian-based charitable organisations, on the
grounds that doing good is doing good. To show practical concern is very
helpful in countering the Islamophobic and incorrect notion that Muslims do not
do anything or search in their own pockets to help disaster-stricken people and
areas. Co-operation is a far better way than competition or isolation, in order
to bring about tolerance and understanding. It leads to admiration of the
Muslim personality, and through that to a study of Islam and its beliefs.
It is also worth commenting that a large
burden of organisation and practical da’wah
amongst Christians now falls on the various Imams of mosques, and mosque
committees. In traditional Muslim communities their role may previously have
been little more than leading salah
prayers and teaching the children Qur’an – but where these Imams are
functioning in non-Muslim communities this is no longer nearly enough. The Imam
is understood (rightly or wrongly) to be the leader of his particular flock in
the fullest sense of the word, and his responsibilities now include dealing
with issues issues such as domestic violence, depression and suicide, rape and
abortion, exploitative and generally bad business practice, family counselling,
immigration and visa issues, and so on.
A ‘modern’ Imam should therefore make a
considerable effort to be well-read and have good knowledge of the various
problems faced in their societies, that are already being tackled by
Christian-based welfare groups and personnel; plus the education system, and
opportunities for employment. It is not a question of competition with the
Christians, but of public profile and real usefulness to society, and the
desire not to be found wanting. Imams should read the material available at
police stations, women’s centres and libraries, and try to know personally the
local social worker teams and the local police. They should be able to suggest
some real solutions, and not just threaten with Hellfire. As committed Muslims,
they should try to help both the abused and the abuser. They could do such
things as have a team organised for prison and hospital visiting, or create a
database for the members of their own community which are able to offer various
sorts of help or skills – such as teachers, preachers, missionaries,
secretaries, translators, baby-sitters, group-leaders, youth workers, builders
and repairers, cleaners, and cooks for various functions such as Ramadan meals
and Eid parties. They should be aware when new converts are making a tentative
appearance at the mosque, particularly women, and make things easier for them –
perhaps by providing a team of mentors, brothers and sisters who could befriend
them, welcome them into the mosque, and teach them the first steps in prayer.
Since Christians are always highly
concerned over the abuses of women, and have an increasing number of Muslim
women appealing to their organisations for help when abused by Muslim men,
Imams should have some awareness of places of refuge for abused women and
children, and crisis lines. Mosques, or Islamic Centres, might actually become
available as places of real refuge and sanctuary. There should hopefully be
adequate safety in the mosque for women and children fleeing violence. Imams
could give public khutbahs, and
organise halaqas to highlight the
problems rather than brush them under the carpet.
The mosque should run as good a library as
possible, and offer facilities for all students and interested persons – not
only for Muslim youngsters studying Islamiat at madrassah, but also Christians
or any other outsiders seeking to improve their knowledge. The Imam could have
a pager or mailbox, and email address, for anyone who wishes to contact him,
and also encourage events that bring the non-Muslim public into the mosque
whenever suitable. Muslims could even try to organise a café, or facilities for
members of the public to sit and have some simple refreshment, near a stall
with literature to take or buy.
These are all various ways of giving da’wah to non-Muslims, especially to
Christians who have a particular interest in education, welfare and charitable
giving.
Unfortunately, some misguided Muslims take
a rather unwelcoming attitude towards Jews and Christians, and even become
hostile towards them, choosing not to forgive Jews for believing themselves to
be a ‘chosen race’ or having various political agendas such as expansionist
Zionism, or Christians for committing the sin of shirk.[1] Some make the same mistake that
non-Muslims frequently make about us Muslims – the error of taking examples of
the worst, or most extreme, or most eccentric members of that faith and judging
it by their behaviour, instead of by the faith itself. It is such a common
error.
The Prophet’s (pbuh) attitude towards the
People of the Book, on the contrary, was to regard them always as worshippers of the same One True God,
following the same line of Divine Revelation through the same stream of
prophets, and who, having been led astray by all-too-human motivation that had influenced
and altered the pure teachings, could be influenced back again to the true path
through the Revelation of the Qur’an, the example of the Prophet’s (pbuh) noble
life, and by reasoned argument and logic. In other words, despite the
historical struggles the Prophet (pbuh) was obliged to face with particular
Jews who reneged on their political alliance with him and committed treason, he
regarded all Jews and Christians as ‘born’ Muslims (born on ‘fitrah’), and potential future Muslims
through his message. Forbearance, long-suffering, pardoning, and patience were
the qualities the Prophet (pbuh) gave as his example to any of the Ahl al-Kitab
who opposed him.
In fact, of course, as is well known, the
Prophet (pbuh) faced all his early sufferings, persecutions and humiliations
from polytheists, and had cause to be very grateful to the generous and brave
Christians who offered Muslims their hospitality and protection. The most
obvious example was when the Negus of Abyssinia gave refuge to over 100 emigrant
Muslims, including Uthman with the Prophet’s (pbuh) daughter Ruqaiyyah, and
three of the Prophet’s (pbuh) future wives – Sawdah bint Zama’a (the sister in
law of Sheikh Suhayl of Amir), his cousin Umm Salamah bint Mughirah of Makhzum
and Umm Habibah the daughter of Sheikh Abu Sufyan b. Harb.
Many
Muslims do not realise how many Arabs of the Prophet’s (pbuh) time were
Christians or Jews. It is
difficult to disentangle the issues of race and faith, particularly in Judaism,
but just as a Muslim can be any race (not necessarily, but including Arab), so
can Jews and Christians. Some of the Prophet’s (pbuh) famous Companions who
were Ahl al-Kitab were Khadijah’s
cousin Waraqah ibn Nawfal, the Prophet’s (pbuh) cousin Ubaydallah ibn Jahsh,
Salman al-Farsi, the Negus Ashamah of Abyssinia, Rabbi Husayn ibn Sallam (Abu
Yusuf) and Rabbi Mukhayriq, who made the Prophet (pbuh) his heir. His martyrdom
at Khaybar made the Prophet (pbuh) a very wealthy man. Two of the Prophet’s
(pbuh) wives were Jewish – Safiyyah bint Huyayy and Raihanah – and one was a
Christian – Maryah Qibtiyyah.
Muhammad (pbuh) was ordered by Allah
Himself not to take an antagonistic approach, but to call all believers to
concentrate on that which they had in common. Allah had told him: ‘Take the way of pardon; advise the correct
and turn aside from the ignorant.' [2] It
was related that when this passage was revealed to him, he asked Jibril to
interpret it for him. Jibril told him to wait while he asked the One Who knew.
He left the Prophet (pbuh), then came back and said: ‘O Muhammad, Allah
commands you to unite yourself with those who cut you off, and to give to those
who refuse to give to you, and to pardon those who are unjust to you.’[3]
‘O
people of the Book!’ Allah urged us to say: ‘Come to that which is common between us – that we do not worship
anything besides God, that we do not associate anything with Him, and that we
do not take one another as lords besides God.’ [4] If
the Jews or Christians refused to accept this, Muslims were not to persecute
them, but simply to bear witness that Muslims, at least, were submitted to God.
Another beautiful and relevant passage is: ‘Let
there be no doubt about the aim of this Divine Book – it is (intended as) a
guidance for all who are aware of God
– those who have faith in that which lies beyond the reach of human perception,
are constant in prayer, and unselfishly give to others from that which We
provide for them as sustenance; and who (accept and) believe in the message
which has been revealed from on high to you (O Prophet) as well as (or, in
addition to) that which was revealed before your time; for it is these people
who are certain of the Life to Come. It is these people who follow the guidance
from their Sustainer, and it is these people who will attain the state of
perfect happiness.’ (Surah 2:2-5).
However, I suggest that those who work to spread Allah’s message amongst Jews
and Christians do not make the
Qur’an, or the life and sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh), their starting point.
Although this may sound strange to Muslims, and Muslims recall that people were
‘moved to tears’ when they heard the Qur’an, this usually only happens when you
have the privilege of an exceptional qari with a hypnotic voice. Most Christians are
not instantly moved by a mere reading of a translation. I can remember being
handed a Qur’an when I was a teenager, and after glancing casually through it,
laying it aside without being impressed. The translation I read did not give me
any sense that this was an inspired and beautiful book, with the exception of a
few highly quotable passages. On the whole, it made little sense to me. The
Message did not come through as compassionate, or particularly noble. There was
no moving account of a martyrdom, such as that of Jesus (pbuh) – who died, as I
believed then, to save the souls of humankind. It just seemed to be rather a
confused hotchpotch, jumping as it did from one subject to another,
Only when I came across better
translations, notably those of Muhammad Asad and Mawdudi, did I feel that
shiver of excitement of realising that here was the Divine Being, giving not
just a message for others, but God actually speaking to me. The Qur’an is a
text that repays constant study – it has surface meanings, and deeper meanings,
and intimations that can only be grasped by people of special insight. One
could study for a lifetime, and still learn something new each day.
Therefore, it is not very successful da’wah to merely select your hoped-for
converts and shower them with broadsheets of texts, or even the whole Qur’an,
unless you have checked thoroughly that the wording is adequate, fluent, and
not what it often is – excruciatingly quaint, or even inaccurate in the words
chosen to translate the Arabic into English or other languages. For example, texts urging us to ‘fear’ Allah do not go down well with Christians or Jews who have loved the Compassionate God all their
lives. There is no need for any person who has done his or her best to live
a noble life serving God to fear Him.
Being urged to ‘fear’ God is seen as a backward step by Ahl al-Kitab, and
rightly so. What the Muslim really means is ‘have reverence’ for Allah, or be so aware of His real presence that
you are ‘filled with awe.’
We have the record of the Prophet’s (pbuh)
attitude to and relationship with many Jews and Christians, and a specific
example of the Prophet’s (pbuh) da’wah
to Christians. On one occasion some sixty horsemen from Najran arrived in
Madinah to see him, Christians who had been financed and encouraged by the
Byzantine Emperor. They had sympathy with Muhammad’s (pbuh) teaching, and
admired the religious practices he was inaugurating – but they were concerned
to defend the role of Jesus (pbuh) as the Divine Son of God, the second
‘person’ in their Holy Trinity.
The entire edifice of Christianity as it
was then being propounded depended on Atonement
theology, the literal acceptance of an original sin, committed by Adam and
Eve, which was then passed on to all humanity by inheritance, and from which it
was impossible for any human being, no matter how devout, to escape without
extra Divine help. Thus, it was a necessary part of their faith that God
Himself should become incarnate in human flesh, so that He might become a being
that was both God and Man – and therefore more than Man - so that He might
bring about the means for Man to escape the clutches of original sin; but at
the same time he had to be part of humanity, so that Man might logically be the
one paying the redemption for that sin. Jesus (pbuh), they reasoned, was this
God-Man, and the whole point of his incarnation on earth was in order to die as
a sacrifice of God Himself, to God Himself, to save or redeem
humanity from its impossible situation.
In response to this the revelation of Surah
112 was given – ‘He, Allah is One; God
the Eternal. He neither begets nor was begotten, and there is none equal to Him.’
Muslims
giving da’wah should try to
understand the Christian doctrine of Jesus (pbuh) being ‘begotten and not
created’, and know how to respond to it, using the Christians’ own texts as far
as they are able. Quoting
the Qur’an to them, even the Qur’an passages about Jesus (pbuh), has no ‘clout’
at this stage. However, once a Christian
begins to question the doctrine of inherited original sin, or realises the
absolute compassion of God so that there is no need of sacrificial redemption from sin, then the whole notion of
an incarnate saviour becomes unnecessary and – to use modern film-jargon –
we have cut to the chase. The entire
edifice of Christian Trinitarian doctrine is undermined – and this is the
challenge Christian intellectuals grasped and grasp immediately, and the reason
for the enmity. Once cut away this foundation and the whole edifice collapses.
Today, as it happens, the Church does seem to be re-examining its doctrines
anyway, and there is a much greater impetus to recognise the One-ness of God
and the spiritual unity of all humanity. Christians no longer take any pride in
being ignorant about Judaism or Islam, so there is real opportunity for
dialogue, in which Muslims may indeed hope that ‘truth will stand clear from
error.’ (Surah 2:256).
What about that delegation from Najran?
They decided not to abandon their Nicene Creed, (the Creed not formulated by
the Church until 325 CE, and only then after much persecution and heated
debate), and left without accepting Islam. Surah 112, which was perfectly in
keeping with what Jews believed, was not acceptable to them. Did the walls of
Madinah echo with outrage at these kuffar?
Did the devout Muslims draw back from them and snub them, or become hostile or
abusive? Not at all. Despite their rejection, the Christians were treated with
the utmost hospitality and respect, allowed to erect their tents in the
security of Prophet’s (pbuh) mosque, and had all provisions of food and drink
supplied to them. When they left, they were given gifts to take with them, and
guards rode with them to guarantee their safety. Had it all been a waste of
time? Indeed not - one member of the delegation, Abu Harithah, admitted to his
friends that he was absolutely convinced of the truth of Muhammad’s (pbuh)
message, but he felt that he could not personally declare his allegiance
because of what he owed in finances, honour and respect to his people. Who
knows what results came to pass in the months and years to come? The seed
had been sown.
As the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) taught, the
In making our da’wah to the People of the Book, one thing we have to make clear
early on is that we believe that the various ways in which Jews and Christians
have assembled and edited their scriptures, or have interpreted the words of
God in their scriptures, have in some cases gone against the teachings of the
prophets who had been sent by God since time began. Actually, the same is
pointed out in the Old Testament by those very prophets, who were frequently
persecuted by the shrine-priests. Notable ‘protesters’ were Amos and Jeremiah.
Christians usually do accept that the Old
Testament is part of their own holy literature, although it was all written
long before the arrival of Jesus (pbuh). They accept that the heritage of the
prophets is their heritage; they
assume that the God who spoke to Moses is their
God - God the Father, who was still caring for His created people long before
the incarnation of God the Son. However, without proper study, they may not
have realised that the systems usually called Baalism in the Old Testament were all manifestations of trinitarian
theology, salvation systems with divine Fathers, Mothers, and dying-and-rising
Saviour-Sons, and all the prophets were solidly against these concepts.
Trinitarians naturally do not point this out. In earlier times, a common
response of the Church Fathers was to claim that these earlier trinitarian
systems had all been inspired by Shaytan centuries before the coming of Christ,
specifically to confuse later Christians.
The
Revelation of the Qur’an takes exactly the same stance as the Biblical
prophets. Surah 2:136
stated categorically: ‘We (Muslims)
believe in God and in what has been revealed to us, to Ibrahim (pbuh) , Isma’il
(pbuh), Ishaq (pbuh), Yaqub (phuh) and his children. We believe in what has
been revealed to Musa (pbuh), and to ‘Isa (pbuh), as well as in all the
revelations which the prophets have received from their Lord. We do not
differentiate between them. And we have submitted ourselves to God.’
In
other words, Jews and Christians were called to accept all prophets as being
from the same Divine Source, with compatible messages from the One True God.
Two further conclusions follow from this
text – that Muslims accept that neither ‘Isa (pbuh), nor Muhammad (pbuh), nor
any other of the prophets ever claimed to be more than human beings and messengers from that One True God; and
secondly, that it is not a proper exercise for believers to try to ‘guess’
which of the prophets were ‘better’ or ‘the best’. A Muslim should neither claim that Muhammad (pbuh) was greater than ‘Isa
(pbuh), or vice versa.
If Christians press this point, a Muslim
could politely concede that ‘Isa (pbuh) was famous for his great miracles
whereas Muhammad (pbuh) did not emphasize anything other than his humanity; what matters to Muslims should be that
Muhammad (pbuh) was the last prophet,
the seal on all that went before. There have been no further prophets in the
line of revelation since – although God naturally continues to inspire people
and commission them as great teachers.
Muslims who grow up in the faith of Islam,
loving and serving God to the best of their ability, striving hard to pass
unselfish, caring and compassionate lives, feel that the mainstay of their
faith is love for the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh); a Muslim’s depth as a true
Muslim can often be tested against the lengths one is prepared to sacrifice
one’s self to the will of God – as revealed by our Prophet (pbuh). People who
grow up in the Christian faith loving and serving God to the best of their
ability, striving hard to pass unselfish, caring and compassionate lives, feel
that the mainstay of their faith is love for the Lord Jesus Christ, and one’s
depth as a true Christian can often be tested against the lengths one is
prepared to sacrifice one’s self to the will of God - as revealed by Jesus
(pbuh). The problem is that the role and significance of Jesus (pbuh) is seen
as being something completely different.
It
is the hardest thing in the world, and seems so unreasonable and such a
betrayal, for a Christian to begin considering that whereas belief in God is
absolutely required, it is not only mistaken but wrong to believe that Jesus
(pbuh) was His Son, in that special Trinitarian sense. It is so automatic for Christians to end
their prayers with the almost unconscious
formulae ‘in Jesus’ name’, or ‘through Jesus Christ our Lord’. Since
childhood, Christians celebrate, with rituals enhanced by emotion, God being
born as a helpless baby in the
Muslims
maintain there is only one True God no matter what people call Him. The words
‘al-Lah’ mean the Supreme One, the Almighty; there can by definition only be
One Alone. There cannot be two supremes.
The three religions of Judaism,
Christianity and Islam do indeed all worship the same God, even though some
followers of each faith might not have realised it, or might have been confused
by the fact that they practice different forms of prayer and use different
names for God. Depending on which translation of the Bible is used, some would
know that God is called Jehovah in the Old Testament; however, only certain
groups of Christians refer to God as Jehovah,
for many Bibles do not use the sacred name but regard it as more humble to
simply say ‘the Lord’. Hardly any Christians use the Hebrew name Yahweh, the name God revealed to Moses
when he asked Him directly to tell him His name. Yahweh is derived from God’s
statement: ‘Ehyeh asher ehyeh’, a
phrase with several choices of meaning ranging from ‘I am that I am’ to ‘I will
be as I will be’ or ‘I cause to be what I cause to be’,[5] or any combination of these. It is not
really a name, but a statement of Existence and Causality and Permanence.
So,
the names ‘Jehovah’ or ‘Yahweh’ are just as unfamiliar as ‘Allah’ to many
Christians. Allah is simply the Arabic word for ‘the Almighty’ - the name for God normally used by
Arabic-speaking Christians as well as Muslims in the
The point that needs to be stressed is that
God the Father, Jehovah, Yahweh and Allah are all one and the same God. I
recently listened to a tape in which a Christian minister explained why he
could not become a Muslim. One of his major points was that al-Lah was NOT the
same God at all, but one of the pre-Islamic idols of the time of jahiliyyah.[6] He was just one of the 360 idols kept in and around the Ka’bah, and was
supposed to have had three daughters – al-Uzzah, al-Lat and Manat (the three
goddesses referred to in the so-called ‘Satanic verses’). To add to his point,
he highlighted the fact that Abdullah was a common name before the call of our
Prophet (pbuh).
In reply to this, I would point out how the
hanifs[7] (such as Zayd ibn Amr) and the Prophet
(pbuh) himself, and his Companions all turned their backs on the Ka’bah when
they answered the call to Islam. The Ka’bah idols of al-Lah and his daughters
were all rejected and spurned, and presumably their idols were also amongst
those that were destroyed on the day the Prophet (pbuh) entered Makkah in
triumph. It may well be that the origin
behind the Ka’bah al-Lah was the One
True God of all the Peoples of the Book, but if that was so, the worship had
been long overlaid with paganism, and the concept was no longer at all the same
as that of the Sovereign Lord as conceived of by the hanifs.
Since so many Christians call God simply
‘the Lord’ it is all too easy, when moving into New Testament times, to mix up
‘the Lord’ who was and is God the Almighty, with ‘the Lord’ who was Jesus, His
Son (as Christians believe) – ie. their
lord and teacher. Jesus himself cautioned against anyone calling him ‘lord’,
for they had only One Lord and Master, and that was God.
People who can see the connection between
Judaism and Christianity may perhaps think that Islam is a ‘different’ religion
because it has such different practices and emphases. Of course, that is true –
similarly Christians do not think of themselves as Jews, or vice versa, and
both Christians and Jews do not think of themselves as Muslims. Needless to
say, Muslims do not regard themselves as Christians or Jews. The allegiances to
the practices, dogmas and rituals they believe to be correct set them apart as
three different sets of believers.
The issue is further complicated by the
emphasis of Jews on being a ‘race’ rather than a religion. A person without
Jewish blood who is converted to Judaism is not quite the same thing as someone
born a Jew. Christians and Muslims do not share this problem. Yet the command
of Allah that those of us who do da’wah
should come to that which is common between us, requires that we emphasize that
we/they are all Ahl al-Kitab or Peoples of the Book, that is, receivers
and followers of Revelation from the One True God, and the word ‘Islam’ simply
means self-surrender to that One True God, or submission to the will of God.
It
is in this sense, in so far as devout Jews and Christians believe that they are
truly submitted to the One True God, that they are Muslim.
The Qur’an and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad make it very clear that
the great Messengers such as Abraham, Moses, Noah, David, Solomon, John the
Baptist and Jesus (peace be upon them all) were all considered by Muslims to be
Muslim, although as blood-descendants
of Abraham through Isaac and not Ismail, they were all Jews.
Unlike the other world faiths, these three
originated in the same ‘patch of sand’, the same small section of the world,
and are all entirely based on the notion that although this One True God really
does exist, it is impossible for a human being to know anything about Him
unless He chooses to reveal Himself to them.
The history of all three faiths originated
in the revelation to Abraham, the Nomad of Mesopotamia, and his descendants -
including Joseph, David, Jesus and Muhammad (peace be upon them all) - all part
of one ‘family’.
We
need to be sure in ourselves, and then to pass on the message, that the respect
Islam grants to the founders, scriptures and followers of Judaism and
Christianity, is not just courtesy but an acknowledgement of their religious
truth. Islam does not see them as ‘other religions’ which it should tolerate,
but as part of itself - as
truly revealed religion from God. In this, Islam is unique - for no other
religion in the world has made belief in the truth of ‘other religions’ a
necessary condition of its own faith and witness.[8]
This is a very vital point to impress on those Muslims who have
concluded that all Jews and Christians are doomed, and will go straight to
Hell. I was interrupted while writing this by a Muslim convert girl married to
an Algerian who will not let her have anything to do with her Christian
parents, not even now that she is about to have their grandchild. He believes
himself to be very correct and pious, and has the cheek to brand his in-laws
(who have not even been told the couple are officially married, and are under
the tragic impression that their grandchild is going to be a half-caste
illegitimate child!) as kafirun.
Cases like this do the cause of Islam no good at all; thank Allah for the
wonderful sunnah of our dear Prophet
(pbuh) in allowing his wife’s sister Asma to welcome and entertain her
non-Muslim mother and allow her to care for Asma’s children.
A
person who is a kafir is someone who
does not believe in God. Every single genuine Jew and Christian is a strong
believer in God, and certainly not a kafir. To brand them as such is ignorant and
impolite – and would certainly offend and drive them away, and not draw them
closer to Islam!
Christians and Jews living in an Islamic
State are not only not required to
accept Islam – but their own beliefs and the right to believe them should
actually be protected by Islam.
The terrible stories in our news-media about the attacks of Christians/Jews and
Muslims upon each other in various parts of the world are very upsetting, for
they are so far from the real spirit of Islam. In Madinah, a Jew could model
his life on the Torah and do so supported by the public laws of the State; in
fact, the Islamic State put its executive power at the service of rabbinic law.
‘If
Allah did not check one set of people by means of another there surely would
have been pulled down monasteries, churches, synagogues and mosques in which
the name of Allah is commemorated in abundant measure. Allah will certainly aid
those who aid His (cause); for verily Allah is Full of Strength Exalted in
Might.’ (Surah 22:40).
‘And
who are more unjust than those people who forbid that Allah's name should be
celebrated in places for the worship of Allah? Whose zeal is (in fact) to ruin
them? It was not fitting that such should themselves enter these (places of
worship) except in reverence. For them (ie. the offending zealots) there is
nothing but disgrace in this world and in the world to come an exceeding torment.’
(Surah 2:114).
Incidentally, if I may be allowed an aside,
I would like to comment on one of the disturbing matters that upsets many
female Muslims. I have prayed salah
in Christian churches, in a synagogue, and in a Roman Catholic school. I
recognise the whole earth as a clean and precious place, and that I have the
right to use any part of it as a place of prayer – EXCEPT – may Allah forgive
us – in many mosques! A large number of mosques (my experience is of the
The State assumed responsibility for the
maintenance of Jewishness, and declared itself ready to use its power to defend the Jewishness of Jews against
their enemies. The Islamic State was looked on as a liberator and protector.
Jewish law, religion and institutions became a sacrosanct trust whose
protection and perpetuation became a Muslim responsibility imposed by Islam
itself. All this was possible because of the Islamic principle that recognised
the Torah as true revelation.[9]
The same principle applied to Christianity
– simply because of the Islamic
principle that recognised Jesus (pbuh) as a true prophet of God.
Where
Muslims and Christians are poles apart is the matter of how they interpret the
person and role of the historical Jesus (pbuh). Here lies that which divides the two faiths and
apparently makes it impossible to form a convenient accommodation between them
so that one could say ‘I am a Christian Muslim’, or ‘I am a Muslim Christian’.
For a Christian to state that Jesus was not
God is blasphemy; it undermines the entire edifice (and point) of salvation
theology, and renders the necessity of Jesus’ incarnation and crucifixion
meaningless. Certainly if Christians abandoned the notion of Christ’s divinity,
they would lose entirely the belief in the necessity of Jesus as a ‘God-man’ as
a vehicle for salvation - or that which could bring a person forgiveness of
sins and eternal life.
As St Paul bluntly put it in 1 Corinthians
15:12-19: ‘If there is no resurrection of
the dead, then Christ has not been raised; if Christ has not been raised, then
our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be
misrepresenting God, because we testified that He raised Christ, whom He did
not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised...If Christ has not been
raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those who
have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hope
in Christ, we are of men most to be pitied.’
To
a Muslim, the resurrection of Jesus (pbuh) does not prove his divinity, or that
he was God Incarnate. The
raising of the dead to life as a concept was not so unbelievable in the time of
Jesus as it seems to be today - Jesus himself raised three people - Jairus’
daughter, who had just died (Mk 5:35-43, Lk 8:49-56; the son of a widow at
Nain, who was being carried in procession to his grave at the time (Lk
11:11-17); and Lazarus, who had been dead for four days (Jn 11:1-44). When John
the Baptist’s messengers were sent to see if Jesus confirmed his messiahship,
they were told to report back to John that they had themselves seen with their
own eyes the dead being raised up (Mt 11:5). It was nothing new - in Old
Testament times ‘women received their dead by resurrection’ (Heb 11:35); the
best known case was that of Elijah praying for a widow’s son and restoring him
to life (I Kings 17:17-24).
Jesus’
own resurrection did not, therefore, make him quite unique - special, yes, but
not divine. The first
Christians assumed he had been raised
by God, and not that he was God.
For example, Stephen proclaimed: ‘People
of
If someone you knew died and then was
resurrected, you might well revise your ideas on science, or the persistence of
life after death, but you probably would not concluded that without your
previously having realised it, your acquaintance was divine, born as a son of
God, and destined to ‘save all those who believed in his resurrection’.[10]
Muslims
feel that whether or not the resurrection of Jesus’ body took place has no
bearing on whether or not there is life after death, or what will happen to the
rest of us after death. Neither does it affect whether or not we are ‘still in our sins’. Nor does it
affect the concept of the survival of our souls after the deaths of our bodies.
It is patently not true that if Christ was not raised, the faith of other
people would be futile. Paul’s whole line of argument rested solely upon
accepting his premises.
For a Muslim (or a Jew) to state that Jesus
(pbuh) is God is blasphemy; Islam,
through the Qur’an, teaches absolute monotheism. God is One, the Absolute, the
All-in-All, the Supreme. There is none like unto Him, and He should not really
be thought of in human terms at all. He has no ‘partners’ or ‘sharers’ or
‘offspring’, and does not mingle in any way with created matter. He is the
Creator of that matter. Even the word He
is misleading; Muslims always prefer to say ‘Allah’ rather than ‘God’ or ‘He’,
for this word is an identity with no gender connections. One can have
Father/Mother, or god/goddess - one cannot have Allah/Allahess or Allahs. Allah
is One.
So, we should acknowledge that Islam gives
the maximum that can be given to Judaism and Christianity. It acknowledges
their founders, prophets, scriptures and teachings. It declares its God and the
God of Jews and Christians to be One and the Same. It commands Muslims to be
the assistants, friends and supporters of Jews and Christians, under God,
protecting both them and their places of worship. It regards the differences
between them as surmountable through more knowledge, goodwill and wisdom,
treating these differences as ‘domestic disputes’ within one and the same
religious ‘family’.
The next major issue is that of the Muslim
distrust of Jewish and Christian scriptures. Muslims maintain what Biblical scholars have actually said for
centuries, but which has not reached the masses who do not make a study of
scripture-criticism, that in the Old and New Testaments certain verses, or
emphases in them, have been created, (even invented or faked) through the pious
motivation of various human editors.
Islam requires measuring their content and teaching against the Qur’an. In fact, virtually all the recorded sayings
of the prophets are completely in keeping with the teachings of the Qur’an,
since they come from the same Source, God the Almighty. However, where
things that are not in keeping,[11] Muslims should use their reason and
intellect and sense of morality.
In making our da’wah, it must be in the
best possible way, and that includes genuine knowledge and politeness. It is hardly a courtesy for a Muslim to
refuse to read the scriptures of Jews and Christians, and remain totally
ignorant of their content, on the grounds that they are worthless corrupt texts.
Before making such sweeping accusations, Muslims should take the trouble to at
least study a little of what the Jewish and Christian scholars themselves have
to say on the subject; then they will discover that these matters are well-known
to the scholars. Muslims who wish to speak on the subject should at least have
the courtesy to read it up.
Muslims could study such texts as the Zabur
(the Psalms), or the hadiths of Nabi Ayyub (the Book of Job) or Sulayman (the
Book of Proverbs), for example, and not find in them one word that a Muslim
could not accept. There is no shirk
whatsoever in the whole of the Old Testament – Jews regard shirk with horror. There is shirk
in the New Testament, but about 98% of the Christian writings actually support
the Muslim point of view. Only a very
tiny part of the Christian texts contain the doctrines that were taught about Jesus (pbuh) as opposed to what he
actually taught himself. Muslims urge Christians to think more deeply about
the origin and editing of these passages, as well as their meaning.
This is why Muslim knowledge of their
scriptures is so important. If it is really true that all the prophets received
their revelations from the same God, and were themselves Muslim, then it should
be quite possible to convert Jews and Christians to Islam from their own texts.
In fact, it is possible, and it is basically how I came into Islam myself. It
is a well-known fact that converts from these faiths usually refer to
themselves as reverts, feeling when they enter Islam that this is what they
have believed in their hearts all along. They feel they have come home, and at
last everything makes sense.
‘We
caused Jesus the son of Mary to follow in the footsteps of those (earlier
prophets), confirming the truth of whatever there still remained of the Torah;
We entrusted the Gospel to him, in which there was guidance and light,
confirming the truth of whatever there still remained of the Torah, to be a
guidance and to build up the confidence of those conscious of God. So, let
those followers of the Gospel (make sure they) judge in accordance with what
God has revealed in it; those who do not judge in accordance with what God has
bestowed from on high are those who are the genuinely sinful.’ (Surah
5:46-47).
Let us look at some texts. For a start,
Jesus (pbuh) normally referred to himself as ‘the Son of Man’, and not ‘Son of
God’, and it is highly significant that in two Gospels there are records of
where he was tempted by Shaytan three times to acknowledge that he was the Son
of God. He refused outright, stating bluntly: ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God. Begone, Shaytan! For it is
written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve’.’(Mt
4:7,10 – quoting Deuteronomy 6:13).[12]
Now take the reply given by Jesus (pbuh)
when a Jewish religious teacher asked him to give a specific answer to the
question that if he were to consider all the teachings of God, which was the
most important? ‘Which commandment is
the first (or most important) of all?’ Jesus replied: ‘This is the first commandment.
Hear, O
Was Jesus (pbuh) ever asked directly what
it was that a person had to do in order to attain eternal life? Yes – it was
recorded that a young nobleman asked precisely that. Jesus, surprisingly if
Trinitarians are correct, did not expound to him the ‘orthodox’ teachings about
original sin and the need for a redeemer. He said simply: ‘Why do you call me good? No-one
is good but God Alone.’ He then informed him that he should keep God’s
commandments, and when the ruler commented that he had done so all his life,
Jesus (pbuh) requested him to give up his wealth to the poor in exchange for
treasure in Heaven. This the man was unable to do, and went away sorrowful. (Mk
10:17-22).
When Jesus (pbuh) taught his disciples to
pray, he said ‘Our Father, who art in Heaven.’ Yes, Jesus was truly God’s dear son
- but so are all of us His children. It cannot be an accident that one of
the Beautiful Names of Allah is Rabb, or Master, but in all the revelation over
a period of 23 years, He never once referred to Himself as Ab, or Father –
presumably to avoid Muslims falling into the error of thinking of Allah in
terms of human relationships.
Now let us very briefly consider some of
the conclusions of Gospel criticism. Indeed, it seems that the earliest strata of the Synoptic Gospels[13]
, especially the source known as ‘Q’ [14]
, certainly did not present Jesus (pbuh) as Son of God in any special sense,
but as a man regarded by his
followers as a prophet, hero and martyr. See, for example, Lk 4:19, 24; 7:16; 8:33 where Jesus
is called a prophet; Lk 3:13, 26; 4:27, 30 - where Jesus is called a servant of
God; Acts 2:22 - where Peter calls Jesus a ‘man approved of God’; and I Timothy
2:5 where Paul says ‘There is One God, and one mediator between God and
humanity, the man Jesus Christ.
The most quoted Christian ‘trump-card’
texts come from
The Muslim answer to that is two fold;
firstly, one must go into the scholarly examination of the background to the
gospels to try to deduce whether these phrases are genuinely from Jesus (pbuh)
or from later editors with axes to grind. Most Christian scholars conclude that
this Gospel is a late work, of multiple authorship, and in its final stage a
profound meditation probably expressing the interpretation of Jesus current in
Ephesus - and we should not attribute these sayings to Jesus himself. I have
presented many thoughts concerning these subjects in my book ‘The Mysteries of
Jesus (pbuh)’, Sakina Press. Yet for centuries, instead of querying the
background, authorship and circumstances of these verses, Christian preachers
have been utilising them to justify a feeling of superiority, especially when
confronted by those who claim to believe in their same God but have different views of the person of
Jesus.
An
alternative Muslim reply could be that in fact one could accept that at the time when Jesus lived Jesus was indeed the Messenger
of that period, and ‘the way’ to God, but in the six centuries since that time
his message had been corrupted.
As for the
notion that Jesus (pbuh) was ‘one with God’ (‘I and the Father are one’ - Jn 10:39), Muslims suggest simply
that the phrase does not at all imply
the unity of Three Persons in One Godhead, but unity of purpose. ‘Holy
Father, keep them in Thy name, that they may be one even as we are one...the
glory which Thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one...’ (Jn 17:11,22-24). The
last sentence is the important one – it was never intended to imply that all
believers in God should actually become part of the Godhead!
Muslims using
Mercy bestowed freely as a gift of God’s
grace was always an essential part of Judaism which stresses that God, in His
infinite love and compassion, will always receive even the most objectionable
sinners, so long as they repent. ‘If a
man is wicked all his life and repents at the end, he will be saved.’ (T.Kidd 1.15).
[15] To have the good intention (niyyah) is sufficient for God to welcome
any penitent back into the Covenant Bond.
Jesus (pbuh) and the Pharisees both taught
that not only was God always ready to
forgive the penitent, but that the sins against God were actually more easily
forgiven than sins against one’s fellow men, since those required proper
restitution in human terms, and that was much harder to achieve. This is also
taught in Islam. God will only accept the repentance of a person who had offended
another person once he has appeased the
human brother.[16]
As Jesus (pbuh) said:- ‘If you are before the altar of God and there
you remember that you have offended someone, leave your gift and go! First be
reconciled to your brother, then you may come and make your gift to God.’
(Mt 5:24).
Many moving hadith qudsi [17]
express the same generous love, and longing to forgive:
‘I am
with him when he makes mention of Me. If he draws near to Me a hand’s span, I
draw near to him an arm’s length.’ (Hadith Qudsi).
‘A
man said of another – “By Allah, Allah will never forgive him!” At this Allah
the Almighty said – “Who is this who swears by me that I will never forgive a
certain person? Truly I have forgiven him already.’ (Hadith Qudsi).
In
other words, the idea that humanity suffered from the inescapable taint of
Original Sin and the need for an atoning saviour was simply not a part of
Judaism, and has never been a part of Islam. In fact,
both faiths regard the idea that one person could ‘buy off’ the sins of another
as unjust, if not absurd.[18]
The Qur’an is quite specific on the matter.
‘One burdened soul shall not bear the
burdens of another. And even if the heavy-laden soul cry out for its burden to
be carried, not one bit of it shall be carried, not even by the next of kin.’
(Surah 35:18).
‘Guard
yourselves against the day when one soul shall not avail another, nor shall
compensation be accepted from another, nor shall intercession profit, nor shall
anyone be helped.’ (Surah 2:123; see also 82:19, 41:46, 45:15).
The point is that all who are Muslim in the true sense of the word (submitted to God)
cannot consider for one moment that God can possibly be made more merciful by taking the life of some
innocent creature. That is a notion Jews and Muslims find blasphemous. The
way to be redeemed is to repent, and then cease to do evil, and to do well.
That the entire notion of vicarious
sacrifice had already been rejected in the Jewish prophetic tradition is a
point usually totally ignored by Trinitarian Christians. Yet it is obviously of
vital significance to the arguments about the role of Jesus (pbuh).
The prophets always denounced the notion
that God would be appeased by token
sacrifice as a travesty of Divine Love. We have, for example, the famous
words God spoke through the prophet Hosea: ‘I
desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt
offerings.’ (Hosea 6:6).
Similarly, God revealed through the prophet
Amos: ‘I hate, I despise your feasts, I
take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer Me your burnt
offerings and cereal offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings
of your fattened beasts, I will not look upon them. Take away from Me the noise
of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice
roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream!’
(Amos 5:18-24).
The same God, speaking through the prophet
Muhammad, stated: ‘Neither the flesh of
the animals of your sacrifice nor their blood reaches Allah – it is your
righteousness that reaches Him.’ (Surah 22:37).