METHODOLOGY FOR STUDY OF THE QUR'AN
by Sheikh Imran Nazar Hosein
What is the status of Christians and Jews when judged by the Qur’ān?
“You (Muslims) are an excellent community evolved (by divine wisdom) for the sake of mankind, (provided that you) enjoin what is right, forbid what is wrong, and believe in Allah. If only the People of the Book (i.e., Jews and Christians) believed (in Muhammad (s) as a Prophet of the One God and in the Qur’ān as His revealed Word), it were best for them: amongst them there are those who have faith, but most of them are perverted transgressors.”
(Qur’ān, Ale ‘Imran, 3:110)
In consequence of the above unambiguous declaration by Allah Most High in which He has affirmed that amongst the Christians and Jews (i.e., the People of the Book) there are those who have faith, while most of them are sinful in conduct, the system of meaning in the Qur’ān on the subject must be one with which we can identify and demarcate the two groups, i.e., those who act in a manner consistent with a people who have faith, and those whose conduct is manifestly sinful.
A people who have faith would not harbor feelings of hatred in their hearts for the believers in Allah Most High. Nor would a people who have faith become friends and allies of those whose hearts are filled with such hatred. Hence we can easily identify those amongst the Christians and Jews who are a people without faith.
The Qur’ān quite explicitly identifies the community of Jews to be a people whose hearts will display great hatred for Islam and Muslims. This was manifest in the life-time of Nabī Muhammad (s):
“Strongest among men in enmity to the believers will you find the Jews and Pagans; and nearest among them in love to the believers wilt you find those who say, “We are Christians”: because amongst them are priests (who devote their lives to teaching and administering religious rites) and men who have embraced monasticism (and have hence renounced the world), and they are not arrogant.”
(Qur’ān, al-Māidah, 5:82)
Not only did the Qur’ān identify in the above verse the community of Jews as the People of the Book who are without faith, but it also went on to identify those (amongst the People of the Book) who display love and affection for Muslims – and hence display an important sign of faith. They are a people who declare of themselves that: “We are Christians”.
Christians who displayed love and affection for Islam and for Muslims did appear in early Islam when the Negus of Abyssinia (i.e., modern-day Ethiopia) rejected the request of Makkah to repatriate the Muslims (who were slaves or semi-slaves) who had fled from persecution and oppression in Makkah, and had sought asylum in Abyssinia.
Indeed, when the Negus died, and the news of his death reached Nabī Muhammad (s) in Madīna, he performed the funeral prayer for him, thus recognizing him as a Christian who had faith in Allah Most High despite some of his Christian beliefs. There is absolutely no evidence from Prophet Muhammad (s), who conducted that funeral prayer, that the Negus had renounced his belief in Jesus as the son of God, or that he had ceased to worship Jesus as God; nor do we have any such evidence from the community of Christians of whom he was the leader. When there is no such evidence from these two primary sources, evidence from self-serving secondary sources is of no scholarly value.
It is certain that such Christians will once again emerge in the historical process in a time-frame that will match the contemporary emergence of Zionist Jews who display unprecedented hatred for Islam and Muslims.
That hatred is most visible in their barbarous oppression of the innocent people of Gaza in the Holy Land. The verse of the Qur’ān provides important signs by which such Christians who would be closest in love and affection for Muslims, will be identified:
1. They will be a Christian people who preserve the institution of priesthood and whose priests, from their Patriarch down to the lowest Priest, will demonstrate genuine love and affection for Islam and Muslims. This most certainly excludes the Vatican and the Roman Catholic faith, the Anglican Church (of England), and all other Christian churches in western Christianity.
2. They will be a Christian people who preserve the institution of monasticism, and whose monks will display love and affection for Islam and Muslims. This most certainly excludes western Christianity which has almost totally abandoned monasticism and the monastic way of life.
3. They will be a Christian people in whose conduct there is no arrogance. This again excludes those Christians who brought modern western civilization into being with an unprecedentedly arrogant agenda of imposing its unjust and oppressive rule over all of mankind at the point of a naked blood-stained sword.
4. They will be a Christian people who would publicly and proudly identify themselves as ‘Christians’. This would exclude the secularized Christians of modern western civilization whose primary identity is with their nation or State, rather than with their religion.
5. They cannot be a handful of scattered Christians who worship Allah as prescribed in the Qur’ān, and hence do not worship Nabī ‘Īsa (Jesus (a) as a third person in a trinity; and do not declare that Allah Most High had a son etc., rather they will have to be a community of Christians complete with their priests and monks, and hence easily identified. One would not have to search for them in some nook or cranny with a fine-teeth comb!!!
The Qur’ān has also informed us, in a very important passage in a Sūrah which is named after Christians, i.e., Sūrah al-Rūm, that Rum, or the Byzantine Christian Empire which was defeated by the Persians, would soon reverse the defeat and be victorious:
“The Byzantines have been defeated in lands which are close by, yet, notwithstanding their defeat, within a few years they will be victorious: [for] with Allah rests all power of decision, both previous and later. And on that day (of victory) will the believers celebrate in (response to Allah’s help): [for] He gives help to whomever He wills, since He alone is almighty, a dispenser of grace.”
(Qur’ān, al-Rum 30:5)
The passage from the Qur’ān (above) went on to declare that on that day of Byzantine victory Muslims would celebrate the (Byzantine) victory while recognizing that it was achieved in consequence of Allah’s help. The implication of the above was that Byzantine Christian belief in Jesus as the son of God, and their worship of Jesus as the third person in a triune God, did not stand in the way of Muslims celebrating the Christian victory, nor did it prevent Allah Most High from helping the Christians to achieve that victory.
Hence it was to Rum that the Qur’ān had to be pointing when it declared that there would be Christians who would be closest in love and affection for Muslims.
The Qur’ān went on to exclude certain Christians from those who would be closest in love and affection for Muslims. It declared of such Christians (and Jews as well) that they will never be content until they succeed in getting Muslims to give up Islam and, instead to follow their way of life:
“For, never will the Jews be pleased with you, nor yet the Christians, unless you follow their own creed …”
(Qur’ān, al-Baqarah, 2:120)
This arrogant behavior towards Muslims is found exclusively amongst Rūm of the West, i.e., Christians located in modern western civilization. Finally the Qur’ān delivers the coup de grace against the Christians of the modern West (i.e., Rūm of the West) when it prohibits Muslims from being friends and allies of those Christians who become friends and allies of the Jews in a Judeo-Christian alliance:
“O YOU who have attained to faith! Do not take (such) Jews and Christians as your friends and allies who, themselves, are friends and allies of each other. And whoever of you allies himself with them becomes, verily, one of them; behold, Allah does not guide such evildoers.”
(Qur’ān, al-Māidah, 5:51)
Regretfully, we have to explain, again and again and yet again, the application of proper methodology which delivers the correct meaning of this all-important verse of the Qur’ān.
Those who adopted the incorrect methodology of studying a verse of the Qur’ān in isolation (or standalone) have explained the verse to say that Jews and Christians are friends and allies of each other.
Our first critical response to such an explanation is that Jews and Christians were never friends and allies (or patrons, or protecting allies) of each other all through history until the modern age. They were most certainly not friends and allies of each other when the Qur’ān was revealed. In fact, Jewish-Christian friendship and alliance was not cemented until the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) exonerated the Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus.
Hence any explanation of the verse that Christians and Jews are friends and allies or patrons, or protecting allies of each other is manifestly false. Rather, Christians hated the Jews whom they blamed for the crucifixion of Jesus whom they worshipped as God. Jews, on the other hand, rejected the Christian blasphemy in their worship of Jesus as God, as well as in their declaration that God had a son, and that God is three persons in One, etc.
In explaining the verse in the way that they have, these translations and explanations have opened a way for critics to declare that the Qur’ān has made a manifestly false statement.
Secondly, even now after the mysterious emergence of a Judeo-Christian Zionist alliance, not all Christians and not all Jews are allies of each other. Indeed, most Jews initially opposed the Zionist Movement which forged that Judeo-Christian alliance, and to this day there are Jewish communities which reject the Judeo-Christian alliance. Many Jews were assassinated because of their opposition to the goal of Judeo-Christian Zionist alliance to create a Jewish State in the Holy Land. There are many Christians as well, who reject alliance with Jews. Most of them are to be found amongst the Orthodox Christians. Such Christians and such Jews are hardly likely to be impressed by a Qur’ān which, according to this explanation of the verse, made a statement concerning them which is manifestly false.
Thirdly, Allah Himself declared that a Christian people would be closest in friendship and alliance with Muslims. This has already occurred in history, and will recur at that time (as mentioned earlier in this section) when Jews will again display the greatest hatred for Muslims. The Qur’ān will be contradicting itself if it were to prohibit friendship and alliance with a people who are closest in love and affection for Muslims. Rather, the verse of the Qur’ān anticipates a mysterious reconciliation between one part of the Christian world and one part of the Jewish world who will then forge a Judeo-Christian alliance between themselves. There can be no doubt that the Qur’ān is here referring to the Judeo-Christian Zionist alliance which is located at the very heart of modern western civilization. The Roman Catholic Church, led by the Vatican, played an extremely important role in forging that alliance. Muslims in Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania, etc., appear to be unaware of the fact that NATO is the military arm of that Judeo-Christian Zionist alliance.
It is with these Christians and these Jews, and not with all Christians and not with all Jews, that the Qur’ān has prohibited friendship and alliance. (For a comparative analysis by Hasbullah Bin Hithayathulah Shafi'iy, my young student and a rising scholar of Islam, of the various explanations of this verse of the Qur’ān see:
http://www.imranhosein.org/articles/understanding-islam/550-a-commentary-to-maulana-imran-hoseins-interpretation-of-the-verse-.html
We began with the verse of the Qur’ān which described most Christians and Jews as sinful people. The sinful character of those who lead western Christianity, as well as most Christians of the west, is quite evident in the increasing legal acceptance of homosexuality by western Christian nations. When a man can marry another man and get a legal marriage certificate, there is no need to proceed any further in order to recognize such Christians as a people without faith.
We conclude by reminding our critics that we do not have to engage in a theological search for such Christians who will be closest in love and affection for Muslims; rather we will recognize them when they display that love and affection. We also remind our critics that it is not we, Muslims, who will determine whether they are really Christians or not. Rather, the Qur’ān declares that it is they who will proclaim themselves ‘Christians’. When that happens, this writer will recognize them as the Christians referred to in the verse, embrace them in a Muslim Christian alliance, and move on in the historical process that will soon witness the conquest of Constantinople, while leaving the adamant rejectionist critics behind.
to be continued .....
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