Islam
and the People of the Book
Anwar Shaikh
May 12, 2018
There is a general misconception that Islam seeks friendly relations
with the People of the Book, that is, the Jews and the Christians.
In fact, Islam is hostile to the members of these religious groups
as it is to idolators such as the Hindus. However, this is another
matter that the Jews and the Hindus suffered terribly at the hands
of Islam, but the Christians, though initially bore its brunt,
eventually succeeded in steming its tide in their lands.
No matter
what the adherents of Islam claim about the brotherly outlook
that this religion is supposed to have toward the non-Muslims,
its basic doctrine, which seeks survival through intense communal
strife, cannot be hidden. The Muslim scholars know this truth
very well but they deliberately resort to misinterpretation. They
do so, though falsely, to demonstrate that Islam is an eternal
religion, which adapts itself to all ages and circumstances. Without
this stance, Islam, the advocate of ferocious social principles
and practices, cannot survive; it must have a humanitarian pretence
in our age, dedicated to free speech and human rights. One must
remember that it is only the Islamic countries, which amputate
human limbs for trivial offenses, and hang people for the most
innocent criticism of the Prophet.
I may come
straight to the point and demonstrate that Islam gives no real
preference to the People of the Book: the said tolerance is just
a euphemism without any substance at all. It is because Islam
declares itself to be the only true religion, which has the duty
to dominate all other faiths, and eventually abolish them. See
the truth for yourself:
"And
when Allah took Compact with the Prophets: That I have given you
of Book and Wisdom: then there shall come to you a Messenger confirming
what is with you - you shall believe in him and you shall help
him; do you agree? They said, 'We do agree'. Allah said, 'bear
witness so, and I shall be with you among the witnesses'. Then
whosoever turns his back after that - they are ungodly."
(III - The House of Imran: 75)
It is not
easy to understand these verses. In a nutshell, they mean that
even before people were created, Allah convened the assembly of
the Prophets' (soul) and asked them to promise that they would
tell the communities of their followers about the coming of Muhammad
and instruct them to embrace his religion.
Obviously,
Judaism and Christianity ceased to exist in principle, the moment
Muhammad declared Islam. The Hadith No. 284, The Muslim, volume
one, says that any Jew or Christian, who heard of Muhammad but
did not convert to Islam, and died in disbelief, would rot in
hell! Thus Islam withdraws from all Jews and Christians the right
to believe in their faiths, and practice them as such.
The Koran
goes even as far as to declare about Abraham:
"No:
Abraham in truth was not a Jew, neither a Christian; but he was
a Muslim and one pure of faith; certainly he was never of the
idolators." (III - The House of Imran: 60)
Abraham was
the Jewish patriarch; by quoting him as a Muslim i.e. the follower
of Islam, Muhammad claims that he observed the Compact that he
made with Allah in the Assembly that He had convened before the
creation of mankind. However, there is an ambiguity in the Koranic
approach, which gives the impression that Islam is tolerant of
the Jews and Christians:
"Dispute
not with the People of the Book save in the fairer manner, except
for those of them that do wrong; and say, 'We believe in what
has been sent down to us, and what has been sent down to you:
Our God and your God is One, and to Him we have surrendered'."
(XXIX: The Spider: 45)
These verses apparently indicate tolerance with the People of
the Book i.e. the Jews and Christians. It is because at that time
the Prophet was not militarily strong enough to impose his will
on them. In fact, he tried a policy of carrot and stick. When
persuasion failed, he told them what he thought of them:
"The
unbelievers of the People of the Book and the idolators shall
be in the Fire of Hell therein dwelling for ever; those are the
worst of creatures. But those who believe, and do righteous deeds,
those are the best of creatures..." (XCVIII: The Clear Sign:
5)
Here those
Jews and Christians, who spurn Islam, have been lumped together
with the idolators such as the Hindus, and classified as 'the
worst of creatures'. Therefore the Koran commands:
"O believers,
take not as your friends those of them, who were given the Book
before you, and the unbelievers, who take your religion in mockery
and as a sport..." (V: The Table: 60)
In the same
sura, the Koran states the same fact more emphatically:
"O believers,
take not Jews and Christians as friends; they are friends of each
other. Whoso of you makes them his friends is one of them..."
(V: The Tables: 55)
It means that
if a Muslim makes friends with a Jew or a Christian, i.e. becomes
one of them i.e. a Kafir, that is an unbeliever. The People of
the Book, unless they renounce their faith, are liable to become
the victims of Jehad i.e. destruction by force of arms:
"...And
he brought down those of the People of the Book who supported
them from their fortresses and cast terror in their hearts; some
you slew, some you made captive. And He bequeathed upon you their
lands, their habitations, and their possessions, and a land you
never trod. Allah is powerful over everything." (XXXIII -
The Confederates: 25)
The above
is the description of what happened to the Jews of Khyber, who
were attacked without an ultimatum of war, and this practice was
also repeated against the Christian tribes of Arabia.
Of course,
the Koran treats Jesus as a Prophet of God and confirms that he
had been given the power to perform miracles but it defies the
Christian fundamentals. For example, it refutes the doctrine of
Crucifixion, which holds that God made His Son the Sacrificial
Lamb to carry away the people's burdens of sin:
"...for
their saying, We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the Messenger
of God. Yet they did not slay him, neither crucified him, only
a likeness of that was shown them... God raised him up to Him..."
(IV - Women: 155)
It means that
God did not allow Jesus to suffer crucifixion, which is the kernel
of the Christian faith. He raised him from the cross, and replaced
him with someone, who looked like Jesus. Thus Islam destroys the
very foundation of Christianity. Not only that, Islam subordinates
Jesus to Muhammad. The hadith No. 287 of Sahih Muslim, volume
one, states:
"...the
son of Mary will soon descend among you as a just judge. He will
break crosses, kill swine and abolish Jeziya..."
One must try
to understand the sophistication of this hadith: it means that
Jesus will come to destroy crosses, that is, he will abolish Christianity;
kill all swine, whose flesh Islam forbids, and eliminate Jeziya,
the poll tax which the Koran imposes on non-Muslims. It demonstrates
that the purpose of Christ's coming is to expunge all faiths including
Christianity and Judaism, and enforce Islam for removing the need
to impose Jeziya. Thus, Jesus has been allotted a subordinate
role, and this in full accord with the Compact that all Prophets
had made with Allah in the (imaginary) Assembly, before creation.
To prove the friendly attitude of Islam toward the Jews and Christians,
it is claimed that it allows intermarriages between the Muslims
and the People of the Book. It is a misrepresentation of the Islamic
doctrine of marriage:
a. "Anyone of you, who has not the affluence to be able to marry
believing free women in wedlock, let him take believing handmaids
that your right hands own...so marry them with their people's
leave, and give them their wages honorably as women in wedlock,
not as license or taking lovers." (IV - Women: 25)
Here one can
see whether a woman is free or a handmaid, a Muslim (man) cannot
marry her unless she is a believer, that is a Muslim woman.
b. Also
look at the following:
"O, Prophet,
We (Allah) have made lawful for thee thy wives whom thou hast
given their wages and what the right hand owns, spoil of war that
Allah has given thee." (XXXIII - The Confederates: 45)
When women
of the defeated foe fall into the hands of the Muslim warriors,
they count as the 'Spoils of War' and become property of the conqueror.
Thus, morality and respect for the fair sex go out of the window.
Such unfortunate women rank as concubines. While the Roman Law
during the times of Muhammad prescribed death for the master if
he indulged in carnal relationship with his slave-girl, Islam
permitted sexual intercourse with her at will, but did not allow
marriage with her unless she embraced Islam. Being Jewish or Christian
counted for nothing. The Muslim jurists who claim that Islam allows
marriage between the adherents of Islam and Jewish-Christian people,
have no validity in Sunnah, the practice of the Prophet. There
are some precedents rooted in Muslim Spain which show that some
Muslim men did marry Christian women occasionally, but it can
be stated with complete certainty that a Muslim man never gave
his daughter to a Christian man. This marital concession was a
show of Muslim superiority, and nothing else; necessity could
be another factor: Spain was a Christian country and could not
be ruled by sheer brute force; some political inducement was necessary.
However, it
is against the Sunnah for a Muslim man to enter into a spousal
contract with any non-Muslim woman whether she be Jewish or Christian,
because these people have been declared by the Koran as "the
worst of creatures".
The exact
number of the Prophet's concubines is not known, but he had at
least two, in addition to his wives; one of them was Marya (Mary),
a very pretty Coptic Christian. She bore him a son, Ibrahim, who
died in infancy. In fact, they were two sisters: the other being
Shirin. They were sent to Muhammad as gifts by the Egyptian governor.
The Prophet gave Shirin to his grandson, Hassan, who was a boy
of about thirteen at that time. At the death of Ibrahim, the Prophet
remarked that, had Ibrahim lived, the Prophethood would have continued
after him (Muhammad) and he would have freed his (Ibrahim's) mother
and uncles!
Rihana, a
Jewish girl of great beauty was another concubine of the Prophet.
She belonged to the tribe of Banu Quraizah. Her husband was among
those 800 unlucky Jewish men, who were beheaded with Muhammad's
consent under his supervision. The Prophet offered to marry her
but she would not give up her Jewish faith. So she had no choice
but to become his concubine. On the contrary, Juwairya, who belonged
to Banu Mustaliq, a Jewish tribe, when fell into the lot of Muhammad
as his share of the war booty, he married her because she accepted
Islam.
It is difficult
to describe effectively in such a short article the Islamic attitude
toward the People of the Book and the Kafirs such as Hindus and
Sikhs. The writer intends to write a series of essays to explain
the true situation.
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