Because I want to ask about Ahle Kitab and which nations are called Ahle Kitab? Beg your pardon? Which nations or ummahs are called Ahle Kitab? And are Hindus and Buddhas are also Ahle Kitab? According to the definition of the Holy Quran, they are not called Ahle Kitab. No, I am sorry. According to the understanding or interpretation of the verses of the earlier scholars, let us say, they are not called Ahle Kitab. Because by Ahle Kitab, at the time of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, were understood only two people.
The people who were followers of Old Testament, that is the Jews, prior to Isa a.s. And people who are the followers of New Testament, that is the same Jews who believed in Jesus Christ peace be upon him or others who believed in him and became Christians. They are called Ahle Kitab. But also, the Holy Quran has bracketed Sabieen with Ahle Kitab when it mentions that such people’s good act will not be wasted and sin. And Allah s.w.t. has mentioned Sabieen as apart from the rest of idolaters. So they are bracketed with Ahle Kitab. This is a very interesting exception made in the Holy Quran. In fact, a new window is opened there, and people don’t take note of this very important fact. Had this not happened, then the objection would arise that the Holy Quran limits itself to only a certain line of religious revelations, and although it claims that other religions were revealed elsewhere, the Holy Quran does not recognize them.
And the concept of Ahle Kitab is so limited that it applies only to certain lineage and not to others. But strangely, it is really surprising that the Holy Quran does not leave any possibility unattended. And this verse reminded me of this, suddenly, when I read this. Then I woke up to this reality. What a great book this is. Sabieen is defined in Arabic as a person belonging to a religion to some prophets who are not the prophets of Israel, or non-Arab prophets. So that shows that the Sabieen were also, in fact, included in the same lit, at least as far as treatment is concerned, as that of Ahle Kitab. So this is why the Prophet was called Sabi, or and his followers, by his opponents, that they belong to some non-Arab religion.
So that shows that those religions who are proved to be belonging to certain prophets, and those religions whose teachings of unity of God is still preserved, because Sabieen were also those who were not idolaters, who believed in Allah. That is also a definition of Sabieen. That means that any people who are proved to be belonging to prophets of Allah, who believe in the message of prophethood, and this teaching is preserved in their book, although they have deviated in practice, yet they would be treated as Ahle Kitab. This is my inference. Now, this is why, though Christians have become idolaters, yet their category of Ahle Kitab has not changed. The verdict about those Christians, despite the fact that we know they have become idolaters, many among them, is not changed.
That is to say, their original book does preserve the concept of unity of God, their official faith is unity of God, so even if within that they become sort of idolaters or similar to idolaters, they would be treated as Ahle Kitab. Now, if you accept this principle, then within Islam, also such sects will be treated likewise, who according to the best of our knowledge have started behaving like Mushrikeen, those who bow to graves, beg from the dead saints and so on and so forth. According to certain sects of Islam, they are non-Muslims, they are idolaters and should be treated as Mushrikeen. But from the inference which I have drawn, based not only on the present situation of Christians, but based on the situation which prevailed at the time of A.S. It is not a new factor that has evolved, that Christians who were Ahle Kitab had suddenly become idolaters.
At the time of A.S. they had already started calling partners with God, this is why the Holy Qur’an says, Kaburat Kalimatan Taqwaju Min Afwaihim Everything was in the knowledge of Allah, and Allah had revealed this knowledge to A.S. in the Holy Qur’an in unambiguous terms. So knowing that these people had started calling partners with Allah, let me rectify my term, instead of idolaters at least we can say this much, that they had become Mushrikeen of some sort. Yet they were treated differently from those Mushrikeen who did not emanated from a phenomena of prophethood, who did not have a message declaring Allah’s unity, whether it was deteriorating later on or not, that is not relevant here.
So this applies also to the Muslims of today. We are more magnanimous in our approach to these Muslims than Wahhabis for instance. Wahhabis declare them to be Mushrikeen and want everybody else to treat them as Mushrikeen, so that they no longer enjoy the rights of Muslims within Islam. In fact they debar them from human rights. They say they have become Mushrikeen so they have no rights left whatsoever on the face of earth. This is not our treatment. We say because they belong to the book, the Holy Qur’an, which declares and affirms the unity of God, and because they believe in the phenomena of prophethood, as such, even if they have deviated in practice or in certain views, they would still be bracketed with the Muslims, believers of the Holy Qur’an and not otherwise.
So if such things are proved of other people, like Hindus, at least some sects among them, who claim to believe in the unity of God, and trace it back to the original teachings, and if those teachings are preserved, there is a possibility that this term could be extended to them, but after investigation.
