Huzoor, according to Qur’an, the Jews and Christians are the people of the book, Ahle Kitab. But this is on the basis of the Shari’ah of the book they got. But Qur’an obviously doesn’t talk about many other books, which obviously all nations were given some kind of Shari’ah to follow. And if despite the fact that present Bible is not authentic by any stretch of imagination, we still consider them as Ahle Kitab. How about considering other people? Yes. They should all be considered?
Of course, there would be so many. I believe the followers of Confucius are Ahle Kitab. And many scholars have mentioned that Hindus also are Ahle Kitab because they were given a book. And they have the book still present, though distorted very much out of shape. But still they have the book. So the term Ahle Kitab should be referred to all religions who claim that originally they were shown the path by Allah Himself and they were guided by divine guidance. And if they had a written record, which they still maintain, then they can be categorized as Ahle Kitab.
But those on the other hand, which don’t even claim that, which have no written record of any sort, they can’t be called Ahle Kitab. For instance, many African tribes or some aborigines or some others as well, and there are many in Far East or some in Africa and Canada and South America and so on. So of which we have no authentic evidence that they were ever given a book or even they don’t claim that. So they won’t be called Ahle Kitab.
