People of the Book: Difference between revisions

__NOEDITSECTION__{{QualityScore|Lead=2|Structure=4|Content=3|Language=3|References=4}}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 [[Monotheism|monotheistic]] faiths which pre-date the advent of [[Islam]]. In particular, it refers to the Christian, Jewish, and Sabian (and Zoroastrian) faiths.<ref>"...''Those who believe and those who are Jews and Christians, and Sabians''..." - {{Quran|2|62}}</ref> This page contains summaries of articles discussing the relationship between Islam and the People of the Book.

{{Main|Taurat}}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.

{{Main|Zabur}}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.

{{Main|Injil}}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.

{{Main|Qur'an|Al-Fatiha}}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)."''

{{Main|Corruption of Previous Scriptures (Qur'an 2:79)|Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Corruption of 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.{{quote | {{Quran|2|79}}|'''Shakir:''' Woe, then, to those who write the book with their hands and then say: This is from Allah, so that they may take for it a small price; therefore woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for what they earn.}}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.

{{Main|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.

{{Main|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:

#The original Judeo-Christian scriptures have been corrupted (as Muslims like to claim).

 

*and Abraham & the idols.

 

{{Main|Hubal|Allah the Best Deceiver|Allah the Polytheist}}According to Islam, ''Allāh'' is the Creator of the Universe. Allah does not mean 'God' but rather ''<nowiki/>'the God' ''<ref name="EM2">[http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/allah.html "Allah"] - Encyclopedia Mythica from Encyclopedia Mythica Online; Accessed June 15, 2007.</ref> 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.<ref name="EM2" /> Yet he was still only one god among the many others they believed in.<ref name="MG2">[http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/moongod.htm "Moon God"]- Allah - the Moon God.</ref> The goddesses; ''Allāt'' (the feminine form of “Allah”, meaning '' 'the goddess' ''),<ref>Arne A. Ambros, and Stephan Procházka - [http://jis.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/3/400.extract A Concise Dictionary of Koranic Arabic (p. 306)] - Weisbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3895004006</ref> ''Manat'', and ''al-Uzza'' were Allah's daughters.<ref name="EM2" />

{{Main|Isa al-Masih}}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.

{{Main|Allah and Marys Vagina|l1=Allah and Mary's Vagina (Qur'an 21:91 & 66:12)}}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.{{Quote|al-Siyuti (6/395)|Muhammad said, “In heaven, Mary mother of Jesus, will be one of my wives.”}}{{Quote| Tabarani|"The Messenger of God ... said, ‘God married me in paradise to Mary the daughter of 'Imran and to the wife of Pharaoh and the sister of Moses.’" <ref>(Ibn Kathir, Qisas al-Anbiya [Cairo: Dar al-Kutub, 1968/1388], p. 381- as cited in Aliah Schleifer's Mary The Blessed Virgin of Islam [Fons Vitae; ISBN: 1887752021; July 1, 1998], p. 64;</ref>}}

{{Main|Angel Jibreel|Gabriel and the Holy Spirit}}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).

{{Main|Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Dhimmitude|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.

{{Main|Jizyah|Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Jizyah}}{{Quote|Umar ibn al-Khattab during the conquest of al-Basrah (636 CE)|Summon the people to God; those who respond to your call, accept it from them, but those who refuse must pay the poll tax out of humiliation and lowliness. If they refuse this, it is the sword without leniency. Fear God with regard to what you have been entrusted.<ref>Al-Tabari, ''The History of al-Tabari (Ta'rikh al rusul wa'l-muluk)'', vol. 12: ''The Battle of Qadissiyah and the Conquest of Syria and Palestine,'' trans. Yohanan Friedman (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992), p. 167.</ref>}}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.

{{Main|Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Forced Conversion}}This article provides information about the historical Islamic use of forced conversion and forced submission or expulsion.

{{Main|The Pact of Umar|Analysis of the Pact of Umar}}Much has been said of the ''Pact of Umar'',<ref>Paul Halsall - [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/pact-umar.html The Status of Non-Muslims Under Muslim Rule]- Medieval Sourcebook, January, 1996</ref> 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.<ref>Robert Hoyland, ''Seeing Islam as Others Saw It'' (Princeton, 1996) p. 69-71</ref> 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.

{{Main|The Genocide of Banu Qurayza|Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars: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.

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

{{Main|Joseph the Pedophile}}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).

{{Main|Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:People of the Book}}Islamic scripture and scholars have much to say in regards to Jews and Christians.{{Quote|{{Quran|9|30|}}|And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah, and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah. That is their saying with their mouths. They imitate the saying of those who disbelieved of old. Allah (Himself) fighteth against them. How perverse are they! They have taken as lords beside Allah their rabbis and their monks and the Messiah son of Mary, when they were bidden to worship only One Allah. There is no Allah save Him. Be He Glorified from all that they ascribe as partner (unto Him)!}}

{{Main|Islamic Antisemitism}}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,<ref name="Mein Kampf a best-seller2">Sean O'Neill and John Steele - [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1388161/Mein-Kampf-for-sale-in-Arabic.html Mein Kampf for sale, in Arabic] - The Telegraph - 19 March, 2002</ref> Turkey,<ref>Robert Spencer - [http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/005409.php Mein Kampf becomes bestseller in Turkey] -Jihad Watch - 19 March, 2005</ref><ref name="Antisemitism in Turkey2">[http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP90005 Antisemitism in the Turkish Media] - MEMRI - April 28, 2005</ref> and is selling well in London areas with a large Arab population.<ref name="Mein Kampf a best-seller2" /> 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,<ref>Alastair Lawson - [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8382132.stm Mein Kampf a hit on Dhaka streets] - BBC News - 27 November, 2009</ref> 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'',<ref name="Antisemitism in Turkey2" /> a 19th-century anti-Semitic tract are also hugely popular.

{{Hub4|Non-Muslims|Non-Muslims}}{{Hub4|Antisemitism|Antisemitism}}