Judaism; Christianity; Other Religions; Secular ideologies
“Say (O Prophet): ‘O people of the Scripture! Let
us come together on a fair and noble principle common to both of us: never to worship
or serve any but God, never to associate any being with Him, and never to take
one another as Lords besides God’” (3: 64)
The ‘People of the Scripture’ or Ahl al-Kitaab denotes those people to
whom God conveyed His guidance through a Divine scripture or revelation to one
of His Prophets before Muhammad. The term Ahl al-Kitaab may therefore be rendered as ‘followers of earlier
revelation’ and is taken to refer primarily to Jews and Christians.
In the Qur’an, Jews are
referred to as Yahuud and Banii
Israa’iil or Children of Israel. The scripture or
Divine guidance addressed to them was the Tawraat
which was revealed to Moses, may God’s peace and blessing be on him. However,
this Tawraat is not to be understood as the Torah of
the Old Testament in its present form. Although the books comprising the Torah
may have originally been based on the Divine message, they were re-formed and
continually rewritten by scribes and priests over a period of time.
From the standpoint of Islam there can be no doubt
that Abraham, Isaac, Ismail, Jacob, Joseph, Moses,
David, Solomon – may peace and blessings be on them – were all prophets whom
God had sent forth with a Divine message. Those prophets are all mentioned in
the Qur’an. Their message was always one and the same
in essential content and consisted above all of the recognition of God, of His
unity and transcendence, of the Day of Judgment, of the purposiveness
of history, and of man’s responsibility to manage his life and his resources as
God has directed.
Many Jews still identify with the essentials of
this Message and thus there is much similarity between them and Muslims. There
is an uncompromising stress on the Oneness of God and there are may similarities in values, morals and living habits. This
strand of Judaism has been referred to as the universalist strand.
There is another strand of Judaism, which may be
called tribal or ethnocentric, which stresses that God is the ‘God of Israel’,
of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and of their descendants and that God’s purpose is to
vindicate, defend and avenge ‘His own people’. Accordingly, this strand looks
on the Covenant as the ‘Promise’ by which God has bound Himself to favor His
people and to continue to favor them regardless of their moral performance.
Accordingly, it is not impressed by the Day of
Judgment or the Hereafter. It interprets the Day of Judgment as the Day on
which it will be vindicated, and revenged, against its earthly enemies, rather
than the Day on which God reckons with all men their moral and immoral works
and passes a judgment of reward or punishment to each on the basis of his or
her own works. This view interprets the covenant in material and racist terms.
It has led to political Zionism.
The Qur’an does
recognize that God has favored the Jews (
At the time of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be on him, and under the Constitution of Madinah
which was signed by the Jewish religion, culture, institutions and property
were not only tolerated but guaranteed. As far as the Torah or Jewish law is
concerned, Islam recognized the Jewish observance of it as not only legitimate
but as desirable and obligatory on Jews for the constitution of group life
under the constitution. The Jews were required to set up their own law courts,
to judge themselves by the precepts of the Torah and the executive power of the
state was palced at the disposal of the rabbinic
court. Islam thus recognized Judaism as a religion de jure
which no other religion or political system ever did.
By contrast, in the history of the Christian
West, the Jewishness of a person was often seen as an
abomination to be met either with proselytisation or
conversion, or persecution.
Seen in this perspective, the problem of
There are many important elements which are
common to Islam and Christianity. Muslim and Christians share many similar
beliefs, values, moral injunctions and principle of behavior. The Virgin Mary
and her son Jesus, may peace be upon them both, are
mentioned often in the Qur’an. In fact, there is a
chapter of the Qur’an named after her called Maryam. The major difference between the two faiths concern
the nature and role of Jesus, peace be on him.
Jesus, referred to in the Qur’an as ‘Isa ibn Maryam – Jesus the son of
Mary – is one of the greatest of the prophets of God whom Muslim hold in very
deep love and respect.
The Qur’an confirms
that Jesus was born of a virgin mother (Mary) through the same Power that
brought Adam into being without a father and that with god’s permission he
wrought many miraculous deeds. He was given the power to speak as a babe, to
heal the sick, to raise the dead, and to reach the hearts of men with the
guidance he brought from God. Finally, when he was in danger of being killed by
some of his own people, He was ‘raised up’ by God. The Qur’an
states that he was not killed nor was he crucified.
The Qur’an states
emphatically in passage after passage that Jesus is not God’s son, that he
never claimed to be God’s son or of Divine nature but rather charged his
followers to worship God along. It also states that the notion of the Most High
God having a son is so totally degrading to and far removed from His
exaltedness and transcendence that it actually constitutions an awesome piece
of blasphemy.
Islam obviously rejects the Christian doctrine of
the Trinity – that there are three Gods in One and One
in three! This is so utterly unreasonable and ‘monstrous’ a doctrine that its
utterance ‘might rent the heavens into fragments, split the earth asunder and
bring down the mountains in ruins!’
Islam also does not accept the notion that Jesus
died on the cross, and that he died to save humanity’s sin. It does not accept
the notion of Original Sin whereby Adam’s original disobedience of God has been
inherited by all his descendants. In other words, it does not accept that all
human beings on earth are sinful because Adam’s disobedience of God. Adam
repented and was forgiven by God.
Islam therefore affirms that every human being
comes into the world innocent and sinless. A new-born babe does not bear the
burden of a sin committed by an ancestor. This would be a negation of God’s
attribute of justice and compassion.
To further claim that the taint of this sin is
certain to put every human being into Hell for all eternity unless the Deity
sacrifices Himself for His creatures is also a denial of the justice and good
will of the Creator towards His creation. No one can be saved except by the
mercy and grace of God and by His acknowledging and surrendering himself to the
Creator and His guidance. A person can turn to His Creator in obedience and
repentance without the need for an intermediary or intercessor.
‘And remain conscious of a Day when no human
being shall in the least avail another, nor will compensation be accepted from
any of them, nor will intercession be of any use to them, and none shall be
succored’ (2: 123) (top)
Although the practices of
many religions also belong properly to the history of unbelief rather that
belief, the attitude of Islam to the followers of such religions in one of
tolerance and guaranteeing of freedom of worship.
The Zoroastrian of Persia were
recognized as an autonomous community within the Islamic State and were
accorded the same privileges and duties as the Jews. When Muslims went to
The judgment of the Muslim scholars was that so
long as Hindus and Buddhists did not fight the Islamic state and as long as
they paid the military exemption tax, they must be free to worship their gods
as they please, to maintain their temples and to determine their lives by the
precepts of their faith. Thus the same status as that of the Jews and the
Christians were to be accorded to them.
It was such firm principles and policies that
allowed non-Muslims to protect their identity under an Islamic state and which explain
the continuing presence of non-Muslim communities in the Muslim world. This
system of granting autonomy to religious communities is known as the Millat system (millat meaning religious community) or the Dhimmi system (dhimmi meaning covenant of peace or protected status). The
system is the only one that can preserve freedom of worship, respect for the
laws, customs and culture of different communities, and co-existence of
communities. Modern concepts of nationalism and statehood have destroyed the
culture and autonomy of many communities in favor of a common citizenship and
the subjection of all citizens to common laws.
About the rights of religious communities
protected by the Islamic state, the Prophet Muhammad, peace be on him, has
warned, ‘Whoever oppresses any dhimmi (non-Muslim who
has made a covenant of peace with the Islamic state) I shall be his prosecutor
on the Day of Judgment’.
This is the norm under Islamic law. It cannot be
denied that there were evil rulers in the Muslim world and where these existed both non-Muslims and Muslims suffered. (top)
Perhaps the major challenge facing man today is
the dominance of secular, materialistic ideologies which have not only set
their own goals but which have attempted to shape religion according to its own
worldviews and purposes. In fact a secularized view of religion is what is
consciously or unconsciously accepted by many followers of religion, including
nominal Muslims.
There is however no common ground between secularism
and Islam. Secularism rejects belief in God, belief in the Revelation and
belief in the Hereafter. The fundamental assumption of secularism is that
material well-being is not a means but an end in itself. Economic growth and
efficiency is the main preoccupation of secular ideologies. Increasing wealth
and the pursuit of leisure and pleasure are the main goals of secular man.
Secularism makes religion ‘an individual personal
matter, a thing of the conscience, a matter of private faith’ which has little
to do with man’s social, economic or political life.
The extreme form of secularism is historical
materialism especially as propounded by the Marxists who proclaim with Marx
that ‘Communist man must believe that the entirety of history is the creation
and work of man… He must further be convinced that he possesses tangible proof
that he created himself, and that he can pursuer the course of this creation’.
(Marx, Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy
of Law).
He also wrote, ‘The religion of the workers consists in denying God and in
attempting to revive the divinity of man’. And Lenin concluded, ‘Now we must go to the limit: to a definite and final elimination
of religion’. This is an expression of extreme hatred, fanaticism and intolerance, Muslims are thus left with no choice but to
defend religion from such unremitting hostility. (top)