Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!naim
From: naim@eecs.nwu.edu (Naim Abdullah)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: "People of the Book"
Message-ID: <4549@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 1 Mar 90 10:20:46 GMT
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Approved: naim@eecs.nwu.edu (Naim Abdullah)

Basalat Ali Raja writes:
>There is something I do not understand here, and call for further 
>clarification.  It relates to the status of the people of the 
>book.
>
>You state that there is no allowed catagory in Islam for one who
>accepts Allah but not Mohammed [saws].  However, the Quran is full
>of references to the People of the Book.  These are distinguised
>from the Kuffar in many cases. As an example, I refer you to the
>reference in the Quran about the Christians, Jews and Sabeans.
>These are the people who, if they do right works and believe in
>Allah, will enter heaven.

Repeatedly, the Quran tells us that the gravest sin is "shirk" (associating 
others with God). Believing that Jesus was the son of God or believing in
the trinity is clearly "shirk". So Christians and others following such
beliefs are definitely not on the right path (as defined by Islam).

In my opinion, the "Christians, Jews and Sabeans" (CJS) referred to in the
ayah mentioned by Basalat MUST be those who are following the original
teachings of Jesus or the original teachings of Moses. It must not include
the CJS who commit shirk. It is this latter group of CJS who are exhorted
repeatedly in the Quran to embrace Islam. The former group is already
a "muslim" (for example Abraham (pbuh) is referred to in the Quran as 
a "muslim" even though Abraham was much before Mohammed [saws]).

All Christians and Jews have a special status in that Muslim
men are allowed to marry female Christians and Jews.

Now an interesting question: Does "People of the Book" (Ahl-Kitab) only refer
to Christians and Jews or can it be construed to refer to any religion
that has a "holy book" (for example: sikhism or hinduism) ? As far as I
know, the prophet only used the term for Christians and Jews but I have heard 
people use the term in the broader sense outlined above (mainly to justify
marriage to a Hindu or a Sikh woman :-) ).

        Naim