People of the Book

In the Qur'an and Hadith, the term People of the Book (أهل الكتاب‎ ′Ahl al-Kitāb) is used to refer to followers of certain monotheistic faiths which pre-date the advent of Islam. In particular, it refers to the Christian, Jewish, and Sabian (and Zoroastrian) faiths.^[1] This page contains summaries of articles discussing the relationship between Islam and the People of the Book.

Revealed Scriptures

Revelation is the medium by which Allah claims to have communicated his words to his prophets so that they may inform the people of his will, what he wants from them and what they must do for him in order to be saved from eternal damnation.

The Torah/Old Testament

The Qur'an talks of the Taurat/Tawrah ( توراة ) referring to the Torah - the first five books of the Jewish Bible (also known as the Pentateuch); found in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Some Muslims and scholars believe it refers to the entire Old Testament, but this view is not widely held.

The Psalms

The Zabur, mentioned 3 times in the Qur'an, refers to the Psalms of the Old Testament. The Qur'an asserts that the Zabur is one of the 3 Previous Revelations of Allah.

The New Testament/Four Gospels

The Qur'an talks of the Injil (إنجيل) referring to the New Testament of the Bible (usually the four Gospels), which it claims was given to Jesus, rather than being written by his followers.

The Qur'an

The Qur'ān (القرآن) is the central religious text of Islam. Muslims believe the Qur'an to be the book of divine guidance and direction for mankind. The best-known chapter of the Qur'an is al-Fatiha ‘The Opening’. This surah is recited as part of all the mandatory daily prayers and repeated within each prayer. A faithful Muslim who said all their prayers would recite this surah at least seventeen times a day, and over five thousand times a year.

The hadith literature make negative references to the Jews and Christians in connection with this surah. Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan and Dr. Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din al-Hilali incorporate this within their translation. Ayah 6-7 thus reads; "Guide us to the Straight Way. The Way of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace, not (the way) of those who earned Your Anger (such as the Jews), nor of those who went astray (such as the Christians)."

It is remarkable that the daily prayers of every Muslim, part of the core of Islam, include a rejection of Christians and Jews as misguided and objects of Allah’s wrath.

Incompatibility with Previous Revelations

Qur'an 2:79 and the Corruption of the Previous Scriptures

It is a common Islamic belief that the Qur'an states that the previous scriptures (the Taurat and Injil) have been physically corrupted by those who were charged with safeguarding it (the Jews and Christians). Thus, it is claimed, the Qur'an is the 'return' to the true message of the God of the Bible. The following verse (2:79) is generally advanced as evidence.

The above article examines what the Qur'an says about the Taurat and Injil and examines verse 2:79 in this own context, and considers whether the doctrine of the corruption of previous scriptures is indeed found in the Qur'an.

Contradictions in Qur'anic Christology

This article looks at the Qur'anic conception of Christ as well as how the Qur'an describes the Biblical and Christian conception of Christ, especially in contrast with the Biblical and historical, Christian conception of Christ. There are surprising differences, and it is generally agreed that what the Qur'an understood to be Christian christology (not the Qur'an's own conception of Christ) was not reflective of how Christians have, in fact, generally understood Christ.

Parallelism Between the Qur'an and Judeo-Christian Scriptures

The similarities between the Qur'an and previous scriptures has been noted since the advent of Islam. However, the Judeo-Christian tales and their Qur'anic counterparts do not always match. There are three explanations for this:

1. The original Judeo-Christian scriptures have been corrupted (as Muslims like to claim).
2. Muhammad imperfectly borrowed from the Judeo-Christian scriptures.
3. The Qur'an has been corrupted.

This series of articles looks at the following parallelisms between the Qur'an and Judeo-Christian Scriptures:

Furthermore, the claim that the Quran describes the Judeo-Christians scriptures as "corrupted" has been substantially critiqued, and is most probably untrue.

Biblical and Islamic Figures

God

According to Islam, Allāh is the Creator of the Universe. Allah does not mean 'God' but rather 'the God' ^[2] and is thus reflective of the polytheistic environment from where Islam emerged. In the pre-Islamic era, Allah was the supreme creator god of the Arabs, a moon god who lived in a rock located in the Ka'aba.^[2] Yet he was still only one god among the many others they believed in.^[3] The goddesses; Allāt (the feminine form of “Allah”, meaning 'the goddess' ),^[4] Manat, and al-Uzza were Allah's daughters.^[2]

Jesus Christ

In Islam, Isa al-Masih (عيسى المسي usually translated as Jesus Christ) is believed to be a prophet, second in rank to Muhammad, and not the son of God. Indeed, associating divinity with Jesus is decried as blasphemy in the Qur'an time and again.

The Virgin Mary

The Qur'anic verses 21:91 and 66:12 in conjunction with the tafsir's, tell us the angel Jibreel was sent to breathe Allah's spirit into Maryam's (مريم Mary's) vagina. Quran 5:116 tells us the Trinity consists of three separate gods, which are the Father (God), the Mother (Virgin Mary) and the Son (Jesus), and due to the Qur'an's apparent ignorance of the Trinity doctrine, Islam generally consider Trinitarian Christians to be polytheists. Also, according to Muhammad, Mary will be one of his wives in paradise.

The Angel Gabriel

According to Islamic scriptures, Jibreel (جبريل Gabriel) is the angel who first appeared to Muhammad in the cave of Hijra and taught Muhammad the Qur'an. The initial experience frightened Muhammad, and originally thinking he was possessed by a demon, the Islamic prophet became, according to his own account, suicidal for a period of time (being prevented from jumping off a cliff multiple times by Gabriel himself).

Under Islamic Rule

Dhimmitude

The term Dhimmitude is derived from Dhimmi, which means a non-Muslim living in an Islamic country. According to orthodox Islamic law, those who are qualified for the second-class Dhimmi status within the Muslim society are the free (i.e non-slave) Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians, who agree to pay the jizyah, a religious tax whose purpose is to "humiliate" or "subdue" non-Muslims (as stated explicitly in Quran 9:29). Adherents of other religions, as well as those without religion, are asked to convert to Islam; if they refuse, they are to be forced to convert, or face enslavement or execution.

According to the respected scholar, Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, jihad should be waged against Jews and Christians because they are guilty of committing shirk (one of the gravest sins in Islam), their beliefs about the Day of Judgement are not Islamic, and they do not follow the laws of Islam revealed to Muhammad.^[6]

Jizyah Tax

According to the Qur'an and hadith, Jizyah or jizya (جزْي) is the extra tax imposed on non-Muslims (Dhimmis) who live under Muslim rule. It is paid as a sign of submission and gives dhimmis some legal protection in return. Under dhimmitude (the status that Islamic law, the Sharia, mandates for non-Muslims) Dhimmis usually are not allowed to carry arms to protect themselves, serve in the army or government, display symbols of their faith, build or repair places of worship etc. If the conquered do not wish to pay or convert, their fate may very well be slavery (under which, rape is permitted) or (as evidenced in the quotes above) death.

Forced Conversion

This article provides information about the historical Islamic use of forced conversion and forced submission or expulsion.

The Pact of Umar

Much has been said of the Pact of Umar,^[8] and much of it distinctly positive. Its non-Muslim admirers gleefully compare its contents to the treatment of religious minorities in Medieval Europe, while ignoring its influence and conformity with Islamic scriptural sources which still govern the treatment of minorities in the East today. Some non-Muslim scholars of early Islam doubt the pact's authenticity, highlighting the fact that the Islamic traditions surrounding the writing of the pact are a few hundred years removed from the actual events described, and that no contemporary sources refers to it at all. Sophronius' (560 - 638 AD) authentic extant writings also refer to the Muslim conquerors in a very negative way, putting further doubts on the Muslim recollections of events.^[9] This article, nonetheless, analyses the rights and limitations placed on the Syrians based on this account of the Pact of Umar. It is further worth noting that, even if the pact is historically unreliable, many (if not all) of the specific stipulations found in the pact have a basis in Islamic scripture independent of the pact itself.

The Genocide of Banu Qurayza

Hijra year 5 (627 AD), almost nine hundred Jews (including children) of a Medinan tribe named Banu Qurayza were massacred by Muslims in one day. Muhammad was the lead the atrocity, which began early in the day, ending in torchlight. Those who escaped death were taken captive by Muslims and sold in slave markets. This genocide is known in history as the Banu Qurayza incident.

Miscellaneous

Joseph, husband of Mary, Defense of Muhammad's Marriage to Aisha

This article reviews the claim that Joseph, the husband of Mary (the mother of Jesus Christ), was a pedophile, a popular argument used to defend Prophet Muhammad's pedophilic marriage to Aisha (in debate with Christian critics of Islam).

The non-canonical apocrypha, the Christian equivalent of da`if (weak) or maudu (fabricated) hadith, in fact, do not say Mary married Joseph when she was aged only 12. They say, rather, that she was possibly 17 years of age at the time the marriage was eventually consummated, if ever (Mary's perpetual virginity, the belief that Mary remained a virgin her entire life, is an essential article of faith for the majority of the world's Christians, as well an orthodox doctrine in Islam). Indeed, the very same non-canonical Christian writings that suggest Mary's age also describe her as having been "ever virgin" (in The History of Joseph the Carpenter, Jesus says on Joseph's death "my mother, virgin undefiled").

What Islamic Scripture and Scholars Say about the People of the Book

Islamic scripture and scholars have much to say in regards to Jews and Christians.

Antisemitism in Islam

Anti-Semitism is rampant in the Muslim world. Islamic scripture if often cited in defense of these attitudes. Mein Kampf, written by Adolf Hitler, is a best-seller in the Arab and Muslim World including; Egypt, Palestine,^[10] Turkey,^[11][12] and is selling well in London areas with a large Arab population.^[10] It is often sold along-side religious literature and strangely enough, Mein Kampf can be translated as "My Jihad" in Arabic. The book is also selling as well as Dan Brown's latest novel in Dhaka, Bangladesh,^[13] where sales soar towards Eid, as it is bought by many as gifts, and other anti-Semitic literature like Protocols of the Elders of Zion,^[12] a 19th-century anti-Semitic tract are also hugely popular.

Muhammad's personal hatred for Jews led him to declare that the Final Hour will not come until Muslims slaughter Jews, and even the rocks and trees will betray the Jews hiding behind them.

See Also

Articles

• People of the Book (Translations of Arabic/Islamic Media)
• Non-Muslims - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Non-Muslims

• Antisemitism - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Antisemitism

Other Core Articles

Core articles contain an overview of other articles related to a specific issue, and serve as a starting point for anyone wishing to learn about Islam:

• Islam and Apostasy
• Islam and Homosexuality
• Islam and Miracles
• Islam and Pedophilia
• Islam and Propaganda
• Islam and Science
• Islam and Scripture
• Islam and Violence
• Islam and Women

External Links

• Rebuttals to Muslim Polemics against Christianity
• Is Muhammad Foretold in the Bible? - by John Gilchrist

References