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From: sadeghi@oxy.edu (Behnam Sadeghi)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: "People of the Book"
Message-ID: <4770@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 6 Mar 90 00:04:12 GMT
Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu
Lines: 58
Approved: naim@eecs.nwu.edu (Naim Abdullah)


In article <22880@mimsy.umd.edu>,kilroy@mimsy.umd.edu (Nancy's Sweetie)
	   writes:

#Naim Abdullah writes:
#>
#> Believing that Jesus was the son of God or believing in the trinity is
#>clearly "shirk".  [...]
#>
#>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.
#
#Most Trinitarians I know consider the doctrine `a mystery', and are actually
#quite monotheistic about Christianity in practice.
#
#Anyway, while it may be `clear' to you that believing in the Trinity is
#`shirk', I do not see the issue as quite that cut & dried.  The doctrine
#pretty clearly states that there is only one God, it just attempts to
#describe what he is like (internal structure, sort of).  I will certainly
#grant that it is confusing, and indeed the idea that some people carry in
#their heads probably does come out polytheistic; before I can actually
#accept that a claim against it has any validity, I'd have to be convinced
#that the idea being argued against is not itself considered wrong by
#the doctrine.
#
#[ Note that I am not arguing for the Trinity, since I'm not sure it makes
#  any sense myself (I am one of those very monotheistic Trinitarians I
#  mentioned above  8-) ; I am just picky about counterarguments. ]
#
#
#I am also curious about is what allowances are made for ignorance and human
#error.  You claim that Christians/Jews do not follow the original teachings
#of Jesus/Moses; but does it make any difference if they think that they are,
#having studied the issue to the best of their ability?  Does it matter if
#they have never heard of the Quran?  What about those Christians/Jews who
#died before the Quran was written?

	   The position of the Quran with respect to the doctrine of
	   Trinity (one God in three forms) is very clear. It is a
	   sin and a balsphemy against God.

	   However, as you say, there are Christians--like yourself--
	   who don't believe in Trinity.  An example is the Church of
	   Christian Science (the people who publish the _Christian
	   Science Monitor_).  There are others too.

	   About the people of the Book, The Quran says
	   (translation): "if they would but truly observe the Torah
	   and the Gospel and all that has been bestowed upon them by
	   their Sustainer, they will indeed partake of all the
	   blessings of heaven and earth.  Some of them do pursue a
	   right course; but as for most of them- vile indeed is what
	   they do!"  There's no reason to believe that this verse
	   and other similar verses refer only to the Period before
	   the Prophet.

	   Behnam Sadeghi