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Islam and the People of the
Book
by Anwar Shaikh |
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 as 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 stemming
its tide in their lands.
No matter what the adherents of Islam claim about the
brotherly outlook that this religion is supposed to have towards 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
demomstrate 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 offences
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 God took compact with the Prophets:
That I have given you of Book and Wisdom:
ther 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.' God said, 'bear witness so, and
I shall be with you among the witnesses.' Then
whosoever turns his back after that - they are
ungodly." ( 111 - 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 Prophet's (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. 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
practise 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 idolaters." (111 - 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 a bit of 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 the 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 idolaters 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 Table: 55)
It means that if a Muslim makes friends with a Jew or
Christian, i e beccmes 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. God 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 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 Jizya .... "
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 swines, whose flesh Islam forbids, and eliminate
Jizya, 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 Jizya. Thus,
Jesus has been allotted a subordinate role, and this is in full accord with the
Compact that all Prophets had made with God in the (imaginary) Assembly, before
creation.
To prove the friendly attitude of Islam towards 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 honourably as women in wedlock, not as licence 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 thy right hand owns, spoil of war that
God 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 the 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 ever gave his daughter to a Christian man. This marital concession was a
show of the 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
Christicn, 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 called
Marya (Mary) was a very pretty Coptic Christian. She bore him a son, Abraham,
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 Abraham, the Prophet remarked that, had Abraham lived, the
Prophethood would have continued after him (Muhammad) and he would have freed
his (Abraham's) mother and uncles!
Rihana, a Jewish girl of great beauty was another
concubine of the Prophet. She belonged to the tribe of the 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, Juwairiay, 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 towards 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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