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Shirk Of Ahl-ul-Kitab After Itmam-e-Hujjat And The Definition Of Ahl-ul-Kitab
After Itmam-e-Hujjat, will a Christian individual be classified under Mushrikoon since he then knowingly prefers shirk over tawheed? Was such an individual punished in the times of the Prophet as a Mushrik was punished?
Why were Ahl-ul-Kitab called so? There were among them people whose ‘eeman was acceptable to Allah (as far as I can remember reading something like this in the Qur’an, but I may not remember correctly). So they weren’t called that to distinguish them from Mo’mineen. But their ‘eeman couldn’t have been acceptable unless they believed in the Prophet Muhammad.
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10 Replies
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Shirk Of Ahl-ul-Kitab After Itmam-e-Hujjat And The Definition Of Ahl-ul-Kitab
updated 1 year, 3 months ago
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Since they do not confess blatant shirk but interpret their belief in the Trinity as monotheism, that is why, despite calling their belief shirk, God did not label them mushrik technically.
Only those can hope to get their wrong belief excused who may have a reason which might be acceptable as indicated in sura al-Maida, verse 116 to the end of surah.
To believe in the prophet Muhammad is necessary for all including the people of the book who come across this news and they have the resources and means to verify it. Their questions and doubts are to be cleared first. Then their fate will be decided by God in the light of his absolute knowledge and justice.
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But Ahl-ul-Kitaab, at the time of the Prophet Muhammad, couldn’t have had any excuse regarding their interpretation since they must have been through Itmam-e-Hujjat. They knew it was shirk. So they became Mushrik if after Itmam-e-Hujjat, they held on to their beliefs.
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Quran calls each group with the name they call themselves. So much so, it calls the hypocrites believers, beasue they called themselves believers. Since the people of book did not confess that they were polytheists, they are not called polytheists despite telling thier belief to be polytheistic.
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Where does it call hypocrites believers?
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We can understand this matter in a simple way:
When the Prophet SAAWS started his mission, the community got divided into two groups who were identified as believers and disbelievers. When the Jews came into picture, there was a need to identify two groups of disbelievers. For that reason, those who had adopted Shirk as their deen were called Mushrik, and those who believed in the earlier books and claimed to believe in one God, were called Ahlul-kitaab. So the community was identified as three groups: Believers (Muslims) and two groups of disbelievers (Mushrik and Ahlul-kitaab) so that the Qur’aanic guidance could be directed to each group specifically according to their needs.
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Dr. Irfan Shahzad, can you please cite some evidence indicating that Makkans called themselves Mushrik before the Qur’aan called them as such or the Jews used the title Ahlul-kitaab for themselves before the Qur’aan used this title for them?
Also, if the Qur’aan called people only what they called themselves, then who were the people who called themselves kuffar or munafiqeen?
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The following verse indicates the titles of the religious groups at the time of revelation of Qruan, who were known by these titlles, and Quran called them with same names.
22:17
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَالَّذِينَ هَادُوا وَالصَّابِئِينَ وَالنَّصَارَىٰ وَالْمَجُوسَ وَالَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَفْصِلُ بَيْنَهُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ شَهِيدٌ
The titles Mushrik and Kafir were not derogative to the holders of thes titles. They owned them. They confessed that they practice Shirk (associating partners with God)
6: 148
سَيَقُولُ الَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا لَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا أَشْرَكْنَا وَلَا آبَاؤُنَا وَلَا حَرَّمْنَا مِن شَيْءٍ
So, it is obvious that they were Mushrik and when Quran called them Mushrik, they did not mind it, otherwise their objection might have been reported. It was a matter of fact. The same goes when they were called kafir, because they did deny the message and they were ok with it:
وَقَالُوا إِنَّا كَفَرْنَا بِمَا أُرْسِلْتُم بِهِ
In the same sense, Muslims were Kafir to them and Muslim owned it:
قدْ كَانَتْ لَكُمْ أُسْوَةٌ حَسَنَةٌ فِي إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَالَّذِينَ مَعَهُ إِذْ قَالُوا لِقَوْمِهِمْ إِنَّا بُرَآءُ مِنكُمْ وَمِمَّا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ كَفَرْنَا بِكُمْ
The people of book were called with all the titles they assume for themseves: Bani Israel, Yahoodi, and Ahl e Kitab. Ahl e Kitab or the people of book is an abvious thing. Even if they were not called by this title, this was a matter of distinction for them to be called with the name of the people of Book. That is why they never objected to these titlels, they were being addressed with and none of religious groups ever got confused by the titles that who this title adress to.
However, Ahl e Kitab were not ready to be called Mushrik. Therefore they were not called Mushrik.
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Munafiqeen on the other hand is like Fasiqeen, Mukazzibeen, Mujrimeen etc. It is not the identity title for some specifid religious group but attitude found in people either they were from Ahl e kitab or from the Mushrikeen.
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None of the verses that you quoted prove that Makkans called themselves Mushriks before the Qur’aan gave them this title and that the Jews used the title of ahlul kitab before the Qur’aan mentioned them as such.
Even, the verses you quoted are totally irrelevant to the point under discussion. They do not even mention the title of Mushrikeen, rather they mention only their behaviour by mentioning الَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا.
You have made a simple matter unnecessarily complicated. The simple reality is that:
When the Prophet SAAWS started his mission, the community got divided into two groups who were identified as believers and disbelievers. When the Jews came into picture, there was a need to identify two groups of disbelievers. For that reason, those who had adopted Shirk as their deen were called Mushrik, and those who believed in the earlier books and claimed to believe in one God, were called Ahlul-kitaab. So the community was identified as three groups: Believers (Muslims) and two groups of disbelievers (Mushrik and Ahlul-kitaab) so that the Qur’aanic guidance could be directed to each group specifically according to their needs. -
We try to make the point again.
Quran calls the denominations with the titles they assume for themselves as their identity, like بنی اسرائیل، یہود۔ ھود، نصاری، مسیحی، صابی، مجوس، امیین ، قریش۔
Quran calls each denomination with the adjectival nouns as a title as a matter of fact, like al-Mushrik, al-Kafir. and Ahl e Kitab, and the addressees own them or accept them as they are.
Quran does not call a denomination with a title that the denomination does not own. Therefore it did not call Ahl e Kitab Mushrik despite indicating their shirk in the case of Christians.
Quran uses adjectival nouns, not as titles, for people irrespective of their denomination, like Kafireen, Munafiqeen, Fasiqeen Mukazzibeen, and Mujrimeen.
The word Kafir is used both ways, as deniers of the message the prophet brought, and the deniers were ok with that, and as the deniers of truth or Haq, and this was derogative.
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