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achraf4you · 4 years

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THIS IS OUR MESSENGER

Prophet Muhammad is the prophet of mercy: he was merciful to the animal and the human being, sent by Allah (God) to the worlds. How was his compassionate treatment of the people of the book (Jews and Christians)?

Special treatment

1- The Prophet (peace be upon him) was the one who performed their funerals: (The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, when a funeral procession passed he stood up ,he was told: "He is a Jew?" He said: "Isn't it a soul" (Hadith Amer Ben Rabia - Muslim).

2- And in his mercy, he was visiting their patients: He visited a Jewish boy in his illness, that he was his servant: "He said to him: "Convert to Islam! and he looked at his father and his father said to him: "Obey the Prophet (peace be upon him), so the prophet came out and said: praise be to Allah who saved him from the fire." [Hadith Anas bin Malik].

3- And in his mercy, he used to accept gifts from them and not return them, as it was mentioned in the hadith of Anas bin Malik that a Jewish woman brought a poisoned sheep to the Prophet, peace be upon him, and he ate it and did not return it.

4- And in his mercy he pardoned and forgivened them. When the Jewish woman offered the poisoned sheep, the Prophet, peace be upon him, did not order to kill her, nor did he take revenge on her.

5- And in his mercy, he used to deal with them in financial matters, so he did not refuse to buy from them.

6- And out of his mercy, he was humble in their dialogue, not being arrogant, but rather answering all their questions.

General treatment

The Prophet, peace be upon him, was the summit of justice and fairness with the People of the Book (the Jews and the Christians) did not oppress them or rob them of their rights. On the contrary, when he arrived in Medina, emigrating, he organized the relationship of Muslims with the Jews present in it and indicated the boundaries of each of them. Document items:

• The right to life. Neither the Prophet nor the Companions killed a Jew without sin. Rather, he who betrayed and treacherously was the punishment for it.

• The right to choose a religion: The Prophet did not attempt to coerce the Jews to convert to Islam.

• The Right to Own: The Prophet recognized the right of Jews to own anything they wanted and did not attempt to confiscate their property.

• The right to protection and defense: The Messenger took care of the protection of the existing Jews, just like the Muslims, and that they would cooperate with Muslims over external enemies.

• The right to justice in treatment and the elimination of injustice: The Prophet, peace be upon him, dealt with the Jews on the basis of equality and lifted oppression from them, and if injustice occurred against them by Muslims, he did not hesitate to rule in favor of a Jew if he was right.

The Christians also had the right to practice their religious rituals and not to force them to enter the Islamic religion, and to make treaties with them: treaties with the Christians of Najran, and with the Christians of Najran, in which they would secure themselves and their money from aggression.

And he, peace and blessings be upon him, recognized the good qualities that some of them have, such as the Negus, the king of Abyssinia.

This is our Messenger, and this is his justice, and this is his wisdom, and this is his mercy with the Jews and Christians! But with all people!

Testimonies of Western intellectual and science men

If you wish, read the testimonies of your thinkers, scholars, and writers, who are the elite of Western civilization , those who they has read the life of our honest and faithful Messenger, so they acknowledge his greatness and the truthfulness of his prophethood, and they have been fair:

1- Here is the French poet Alphonse de la martine, who says: “After we became aware of his history, and studied his life, deception, fraud, falsehood and deception ... all these qualities are attached to the one who described Muhammad with them.”

2- And here is the historian and writer Thomas Carlyle who says: “Muhammad is not a liar and not a fabricator, but a piece of life that the heart of nature has broken away from, and if it is a meteor the whole world has lit up.”

3- And here is the sociologist Gustav Lobone, who says: “So the best of the wilderness was absolutely love, lineage, leadership and prophethood, this is Muhammad who embraced his law four hundred million Muslims, spread across the globe, chanting a clear Arab Qur’an". (According to the latest census for 2020, about 1.9 billion Muslims worldwide).

4- And here is the British thinker Lane Poole says: “Muhammad was characterized by many attributes, such as kindness, courage and generosity of morals, so that man cannot judge him without being affected by what these qualities imprint on himself, and without being This judgment was issued without inclination or whim. "

5- And here is the English writer George Bernard Shaw says: “I studied Muhammad as an amazing man, and I saw him far from contradicting Christ, but he should be called the savior of humanity, and Europe in the current era began to love the doctrine of monotheism, and perhaps went further So".

6- And here is the great English orientalist William Muir, who says: “Muhammad was distinguished by the clarity of his words, the ease of his religion, and that he accomplished some deeds that surprised the hearts. History did not witness a reformer who awakened souls, revived good morals, and raised the status of virtue in A short time, as did Muhammad. "

7 - And here is the American orientalist Washington Irving says: “The apostle’s actions in the wake of the conquest of Mecca indicated that he was a messenger, not a victorious leader. He showed mercy and compassion on his citizens, although he became in a strong position, but he was crowned His success and victory is with mercy and forgiveness. "

8- And here is the Belgian historian, George Sarton, who says: “In summary ... it was not possible for a prophet before or after to conquer completely as the victory of Muhammad.”

After all these Testimonies from your men, how can you harm our Messenger and offend him and his Sunnah, YOU people of high civilization, democracy, freedom, human rights, equality, justice and freedom of expression!?

هذا هو رسولنا صلى الله عليه و سلم

الرسول صلى الله عليه و سلم هو نبي الرحمة: كان رحيما بالحيوان و الإنسان، بعثه الله تعالى رحمة للعالمين. فكيف كانت معاملته الرحيمة لأهل الكتاب (اليهود و النصارى)؟

معاملة خاصة

- من رحمته صلى الله عليه و سلم كان يقوم لجنائزهم: ( إِنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ مَرَّتْ بِهِ جَنَازَةٌ فَقَامَ ، فَقِيلَ : إِنَّهُ يَهُودِيٌّ ؟ فَقَالَ : أَلَيْسَتْ نَفْسًا ) [حديث عامر بن ربيعة- رواه مسلم].

- و من رحمته كان يعود مريضهم: فقد عاد غلاما يهوديا في مرضه و كان يخدمه ( فَأَتَاهُ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَ سَلَّمَ يَعُودُهُ, فَقَعَدَ عِنْدَ رَأْسِهِ, فَقَالَ لَهُ: أَسْلِمْ, فَنَظَرَ إِلَى أَبِيهِ - وَ هُوَ عِنْدَهُ - فَقَالَ لَهُ: أَطِعْ أَبَا الْقَاسِمِ (صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ فَأَسْلَمَ), فَخَرَجَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَ سَلَّمَ وَهُوَ يَقُولُ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي أَنْقَذَهُ مِنْ النَّارِ ) [حديث أنس بن مالك-رواه البخاري].

- و من رحمته كان يقبل الهدية منهم و لا يردهم، كما جاء في حديث أنسٍ بن مالك بأن امرأةً يهوديةً أحضرت شاةً للنبي صلى الله عليه و سلّم مسمومةً فأكل منها و لم يردها.

- و من رحمته كان يعفو و يصفح عنهم، فعندما قدّمت المرأة اليهودية الشاة المسمومة لم يأمر النبي صلى الله عليه و سلّم بقتلها و لم ينتقم منها.

- و من رحمته كان يتعامل معهم بالأمور المالية فكان لا يرفض أن يشتري منهم.

- و من رحمته كان يتواضع في محاورتهم فلم يتكبّر عنهم بل كان يرد على جميع تساؤلاتهم.

معاملة عامة

كان النبي صلى الله عليه و سلّم قمة العدل و الإنصاف مع ��هل الكتاب (اليهود و النصار) لا يظلمهم و لا يسلب منهم حقوقهم، : بل على العكس عندما وصل المدينة المنورة مهاجراً نظّم علاقة المسلمين باليهود الموجودين فيها و بيّن حدود كل طرفٍ منهم، فكان من بنود الوثيقة

• الحق في الحياة، فلم يقم النبي و لا الصحابة بقتل يهودي من دون ذنبٍ، و إنما من خان وغدر كان العقاب جزاءه.

• الحق في اختيار الدين: لم يحاول النبي إكراه اليهود على اعتناق الإسلام.

• الحق في التملّك: أقر النبي حق اليهود في امتلاك أي شيءٍ يريدونه و لم يحاول مصادرة ممتلكاتهم.

• حق الحماية و الدفاع: فقد تكفّل الرسول بحماية اليهود الموجودين شأنهم شأن المسلمين، و بأنهم يتعاونون مع المسلمين على الأعداء الخارجيين.

• حق العدل في المعاملة و رفع الظلم: فقد تعامل النبي صلى الله عليه و سلّم مع اليهود على أساس المساواة و رفع الظلم عنهم و لو وقع الظلم عليهم من قِبل المسلمين، فلم يتوانَ عن الحكم لصالح يهودي إنْ كان على حقٍ.

و كان للنصارى أيضاً الحق في ممارسة شعائرهم الدينية و عدم إكراههم على الدخول في الدين الإسلامي، و عقد المعاهدات معهم: معاهدات مع نصارى نجران، و مع نصارى جرباء و أذرح حيث يأمنون فيها على أنفسهم و أموالهم من الاعتداء.

و قد كان عليه الصلاة والسلام يعترف بالصفات الحسنة التي عند بعضهم مثل النجاشي ملك الحبشة، فقد طلب عليه الصلاة و السلام من أصحابه طلب النصرة و اللجوء إليه و هو نصراني، و أخبرهم بأنّه ملكٌ عادلٌ.

هذا هو رسولنا، و هذا هو عدله، و هذه حكمته، و هذه هي رحمته مع اليهود و النصارى! بل مع الناس أجمعين!

شهادات رجال الفكر و العلم الغربي

اقرأوا إن شئتم شهادات مفكريكم و علمائكم و أدبائكم و هم نخبة الحضارة الغربية الذين عايشوا، أو قرأوا قسطًا من حياة رسولنا الصادق الأمين، فأقروا بعظمته و صدق نبوته، و قد أنصفوا :

1- فهاهو الشاعر الفرنسي ألفونس لامارتين Alphonse de la martine يقول: "بعدما وعينا تاريخه، و درسنا حياته، فإنَّ الخداع و التدليس و الباطل و الإفك.. كل تلك الصفات هي ألصق بمن وصف محمدًا بها".

2- و هاهو المؤرخ والكاتب توماس كارليل Thomas Carlyle يقول: "ما محمد بالكاذب و لا الملفِّقُ، و إنما هو قطعة من الحياة قد تَفَطَّر عنها قلب الطبيعة، فإذا هي شهاب قد أضاء العالم أجمع".

3- و هاهو عالم الاجتماع غوستاف لوبون Gustav Lobone يقول: "فكان خير البرية على الإطلاق حُبًّا و نسبًا و زعامة وَ نُبُوَّة، هذا هو محمد الذي اعتنق شريعته أربعمائة مليون مسلم، منتشرين في أنحاء المعمورة، يُرَتِّلُونَ قرآنًا عربيًّا مبينًا" (وصل عدد المسلمين وفق أخر تعداد لعام 2020 حوالي 1.9 مليار مسلم في العالم كله).

4- و هاهو المفكِّر البريطاني لين بول Lane Poole يقول: "إن محمدًا كان يَتَّصِفُ بكثير من الصفات؛ كاللطف و الشجاعة و كرم الأخلاق، حتى إن الإنسان لا يستطيع أن يحكم عليه دون أن يتأثَّر بما تَطْبَعُه هذه الصفات في نفسه، و دون أن يكون هذا الحكم صادرًا عن غير ميل أو هوًى".

5- و هاهو الأديب الإنجليزي جورج برنارد شو George Bernard Show يقول: "لقد درست محمدًا باعتباره رجلاً مدهشًا، فرأيته بعيدًا عن مخاصمة المسيح، بل يجب أن يُدْعَى منقذ الإنسانية، و أوربا في العصر الراهن بدأت تعشق عقيدة التوحيد، و ربما ذهبت إلى أبعد من ذلك".

6- و هاهو المستشرق الإنجليزي الكبير وليم موير William Muir الذي يقول: "امتاز محمد بوضوح كلامه، و يسر دينه، و أنه أتم من الأعمال ما أدهش الألباب، لم يشهد التاريخ مصلحًا أيقظ النفوس، و أحيا الأخلاق الحسنة، و رفع شأن الفضيلة في زمن قصير كما فعله محمد".

7- و هاهو المستشرق الأمريكي واشنجتون إرفنج Washington Irving يقول: "كانت تصرفات الرسول في أعقاب فتح مكة تدلُّ على أنه نبي مرسل، لا على أنه قائد مظفَّر؛ فقد أبدى رحمةً و شفقةً على مواطنيه، برغم أنه أصبح في مركز قوي، و لكنه تَوَّج نجاحه و انتصاره بالرحمة و العفو".

8- و هاهو المؤرخ البلجيكي جورج سـارتون George Sarton يقول: " و خلاصة القول... إنه لم يُتَحْ لنبي من قبلُ و لا من بعدُ أن ينتصر انتصارًا تامًّا كانتصار محمد".

بعد كل هذه الشهادات من رجالكم، فكيف تؤذون رسولنا و تسيئون إليه و إلى سنته، أنتم يا أصحاب الحضارة الراقية و الديمقراطية و الحرية و حقوق الإنسان و المساواة و العدل و حرية التعبير؟

#Prophet Muhammad #prophet of mercy #faithful Messenger

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questionsonislam · 3 years

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Is it true that there exists an undistorted copy of the Torah? If it is not distorted, how can the signs about the Prophet in the Torah be explained?

It is known that the original Torah is lost. However, there are many differences among the translations of the Torah. For instance, there are some clear differences between the Greek translation and the Hebrew version. The Torah, which was first written in Hebrew, was started to be distorted when it was translated into Aramaic and Greek. (For more information, see M. Ziyau’r-Rahman al-Azami, al-Yahudiyya wa’l-Masihiyya, p.175-181)

There are also differences among the translations in Chaldean, Latin, Hebeshi, Ghawti, Armenian and Arabic (ibid). This is also valid for the Bibles whose original copies are not present.

- The distortion of the Torah is regarded in two ways: The first one: The distortion of the words of the verses and the addition of some words. The second one: The distortion of the meaning. There are examples like “hittatun/hintatun” for the first kind of distortion.

Besides, the fact that there are statements contrary to modern science and that there are invented stories about prophets like Lot and David that do not befit prophets indicate that the distortion took place in terms of both interpretation and words.

The second issue of distortion always took place; one of the most important duties of the prophets that came after Moses – including Zacharias and John – was to correct those wrong interpretations and spiritual distortions. However, this illness of distortion of Jews always relapsed.

That the Torah and the Gospel were distorted does not mean that they contain no truth. As a matter of fact, Husayn Jisri extracted hundreds of pieces of information from the Torah and the Gospel implying the Prophet Muhammad and quoted them in his book called Risala al-Hamidiyya.

As a matter of fact, it is clearly stated in the Quran, hadiths, history and siyar books that Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) challenged the scholars of the People of the Book and said to them that they had concealed the truths in the books (they distorted them with their interpretations) and that the Prophet silenced them. Some examples regarding the issue:

a. “All food was lawful to the Children of Israel, except what Israel made unlawful for itself before the Torah was revealed. Say: "Bring ye the Torah and study it if ye be men of truth." If any, after this, invent a lie and attribute it to Allah, they are indeed unjust wrong-doers.”(Aal-i Imran, 3/93-94).

Two reasons are given for the revelation of the verses above:

- The Jews objected to the Prophet (pbuh) about abrogation and said that there could be nothing like that in the religion. The verse was sent down in response to their objection. The verses challenged the Jews by stating, “All food was lawful to the Children of Israel, except what Israel made unlawful for itself before the Torah was revealed. Let alone denying abrogation, the Torah practiced abrogation by rendering haram some things that were halal for the Children of Israel.”

- According to another narration, the Jews said to Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh), “You say you belong to the nation of Abraham but you render halal the meat and milk of the camel that were haram in his religion.”

Through that verse, it was emphasized that the prohibition was not imposed during the time of Abraham but that it was rendered haram by Jacob, his grandson. According to a narration, Jacob vowed that he would not eat the flesh of the camel and he would not drink the milk of the camel, the food and drink that he liked the best, if he overcame the illness of sciatica.

No matter what the reason of revelation is, there is something clear: Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) insisted that certain information that the Jews claimed to be absent in the Torah existed and challenged the Jews by saying, “Bring the Torah and read it if you tell the truth”; the Jews avoided it. (See Tabari, Qurtubi, Razi, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Ashur, Nasafi, Alusi, the interpretation of the relevant verse)

b. “If anyone disputes in this matter with thee now after (full) knowledge hath come to thee, say: "Come! let us gather together―our sons, and your sons our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves: then let us earnestly pray, and invoke the curse of Allah on those who lie!"”(Aal-i Imran, 3/61).

- The verse challenged a delegate from the Christians of Najran that came to Madinah and that claimed Jesus was the son of God. They could not dare to do “mutual damnation” in accordance with the view of Aqib Abdul-Masih, the leader of this delegate. (See Tabari, Qurtubi, Razi, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Ashur, Nasafi, the interpretation of the relevant verse)

c. “The people of the Book know this as they know their own sons; but some of them conceal the truth which they themselves know” (al-Baqara, 2/146).

- In this verse, it is stated that they recognized Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) as they recognized their own children due to his attributes in the Gospel and the Torah. According to a narration, Hazrat Umar asked Abdullah b. Salam, a Jewish scholar, “Did you really know Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) –based on your book – as you knew your children?” He said, “We knew him better than our own children. (See Tabari, Qurtubi, Razi, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Ashur, Nasafi, the interpretation of the relevant verse).

- Another important point regarding the issue is this: If the issues that Hazrat Muhammad insistently mentioned and that he insistently said were present in the Torah had not been true, the people who believed in him, like Abdullah b. Salam, the Jewish scholar, before others, would have exited Islam and converted to their previous religions at once. It is also valid for the Christian scholars. The loyalty they showed to the religion of Islam throughout their lives indicates the trueness of this verse and Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) clearly.

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wisdomrays · 4 years

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ISLAM’S TOLERANCE TOWARDS CHRISTIANS: Part 1

The Qur’an calls Christians and Jews “the People of the Book,” meaning those who have a Divinely revealed holy hook that they follow. Toward the end of the Makkan era of the Prophet’s life, the Qur’an began to mention these people and gave them a special and honored place. They were first mentioned in: And argue not with the People of the Book ... (2 9:46).

Thus the Qur’an started the greatest ecumenical movement history had ever seen. All the Qur’an required of them was that they confirm the Last Prophet, for their own books told them that such a person was going to come.

The Qur’an, gradually deepening its intimacy with Christians, declared they were the nearest to Muslims in love, because their priests and monks are not proud, and because they listen to and recoagnize the truth of what the Messenger has brought (5:82- 83). It also warns them against certain heresies, such as following those who earlier had gone astray (5:77), believing in the Trinity (4:171), or remaining in their rebellion and unbelief (5:68).

Many Qur’anic verses state that Jesus called people to believe in God’s oneness, and that he called himself “a servant of God.” The Qur’an stresses that his mother Mary (Maryam) was sinless, dedicated to the temple, and raised under Prophet Zakariya’s guidance. It also relates the miracles God gave her, Jesus’ miraculous birth without a father, miracles given to Jesus, his Prophethood, and his being raised to the sky by God (3:33-64). In Maryam:19, their behavior and postures are described and praised. Of all religions, Islam is the only one to attest that Mary was a virgin and gave birth to Jesus miraculously. Islam is even more sensitive about this subject than Christians. In fact, the Bible says in Luke (chapters 2, 4, 5) that Mary was engaged to a carpenter named Joseph, whereas the Qur’an mentions no such person.

The Qur’an rejects Christianity’s fundamental beliefs that Jesus is divine and the Son of God. It asserts that his being distinguished among people or being given many miracles do not make him a deity. People who attribute a son to God are rejected, without clearly pointing out that the subjects are Christians (2:116). Thus the Qur’an wants Christians to understand the implication and correct themselves.

In the early days of Islam, Christians and Muslims were on very good terms. For example, when the Makkan’s persecution became unbearable, the Prophet permitted those who wanted to leave to go to Ethiopia (615 CE / 5 AH). He said that the land was safe, for its ruler was just. A group of 15 Muslims including ‘Uthman and the Prophet’s cousin Ja’far, emigrated there. The Prophet sent Najashi a letter asking him to give refuge to these Muslims, which he did.1 After a while, the Quraysh sent a delegation with many precious gifts to ask Najashi to return the Muslims. Najashi summoned them, and Ja’far explained the situation. Najashi wanted to learn what they thought of Jesus and Mary. Ja’far recited the beginning of Surah Maryam, which deals with the births of Prophet Yahya (John the Baptist) and Jesus. The emperor drew a line on the ground and said: “If there is a difference between our religions, it is as great as this line.” Najashi refused the Qurayshi request.

At that time, an internal war broke and threatened Najashi’s throne. All Muslims who could fight supported the emperor. Most remained in Ethiopia until 7 AH, when the Prophet summoned them to Madina. Najashi sent his son to the Prophet with a letter stating he had embraced Islam. The Prophet treated Najashi’s men with great hospitality. Najashi died that same year, and the Prophet led his funeral prayer in Madinah.

Relations between the Muslims and the Byzantine Empire started out as peaceful and in an atmosphere of good will. In the initial years of the Prophet’s mission, war broke out between Christian Byzantium and Sassanid Persia. The Muslims in Makkah sided with the Byzantines, as they were People of the Book. Even though the Byzantines were severely defeated, Surat al-Rum, revealed just after the defeat, announced that the Byzantines would be victorious in a few years. This came true 9 years later, when the Byzantines crushed the Sassanid Empire. At roughly the same time, the small Muslim community in Madinah defeated the Quraysh at Badr.

In 6 AH, the Prophet sent letters to neighboring rulers. One was sent to Emperor Heraclius of Rome. The Prophet wrote: “In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate. From Muhammad, the servant and messenger of God, to the Roman’s great King Heraclius. May peace be upon those who obey the right path. I call you to Islam in the way of a true Muslim. Become a Muslim and you will find salvation. Become a Muslim and God will give you twice as much as you actually deserve. If you turn away, you will be held responsible for your subjects. And you; 0 People of the Book! Come to o word common between you and us, that we shall worship none but Allah that we shall assign no partner to Him and that none of us shall toke others for lords beside Allah. If they turn away, then say: ‘Bear witness that we are submitters to Allah (as Muslims)’”(3:64). The Empire diplomatically stated that Heraclius rejected the invitation. However, historical sources insist that the emperor inwardly welcomed the invitation and remarked: “These places we are in now will be his in the near future.”

Later, the Prophet sent an envoy to the Ghassanids, who were Arab allies of the Byzantine Empire. His murder led to the Battle of Mutah. The 3,000 Muslims had to fight the 100,000-man Byzantine army. The Byzantines nailed the governor of Maan (or Amman], Ferve the Leper, to a cross because he accepted Islam. This murder caused great damage to Muslim-Christian relations, and marks the beginning of 14 centuries of deteriorating relations.

Seeing that the majority of Christians in that period insisted on believing that Jesus was a deity, God revealed: 0 People of the Book, do not exceed the limits in your religion, nor say of God aught but the truth (4:171). Thus they were called to admit that Jesus was God’s Messenger. Only when they refused to do so did the Qur’an clearly state that this Christian belief represented impiety and denial.

In 9 AH, a delegation of about 70 Christians from Najran, many of them religious and non-religious leaders, came to Madina to discuss Islam’s arguments against Christianity. The Prophet greeted them warmly and let them perform their rituals in the local mosque. The Christians argued about the true nature of Jesus, insisting that he was a deity. Upon this, the following verse was revealed: Then whoever disputes with you concerning him (Jesus) after (all this) knowledge that has come to you, say:

“Come let us coil our sons and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves-then we pray and invoke (sincerely) the curse of God upon those who lie” (3:61).

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risalei-nur · 4 years

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TAFSIR: Risale-i Nur: The Letters: The Nineteenth Letter - Part 59

As written in detail in the books of history and the Prophet’s biography, soothsayers like Sawad b. Qarib al-Dawsi, Khunafir, Af‘a Najran, Jidhl b. Jidhl al-Kindi, Ibn Khalasat al-Dawsi, and Fatima bint al-Nu‘man al-Najariyya, foretold the coming of the Prophet of the end of time, stating that that Prophet was Muhammad (UWBP).

Also, one of ‘Uthman’s relations, Sa‘d b. bint al-Kurayz, received knowledge from the Unseen by means of soothsaying about the prophethood of Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace). In the early days of Islam, he told ‘Uthman Dhi’l-Nurayn to go and accept faith. ‘Uthman did so and entered the fold of Islam at the beginning. Sa‘d expressed the event with a poem, which went like this:

Through my words, God has guided ‘Uthman to the source The Letters That yields righteousness; truly God guides to the truth.

Like soothsayers, jinns who were invisible but whose voices were heard, called hatif, repeatedly foretold the coming of God’s Noble Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace). For example:

An invisible jinn shouted out the following to Dhayab b. al-Harith, and was the reason that he and others accepted Islam: “O Dhayab! O Dhayab! Listen to the oddest thing: Muhammad has appeared with the Book. He is calling on Mecca, yet they do not respond to him!”

Another unseen jinn called out to Sama‘ b. Qarrat al-Ghatafani, “The truth has come in manifest radiance, the false is destroyed and uprooted,” and caused him and some others to believe.

Such messages and good tidings given by unseen jinns are extremely well-known and numerous.

Just as the voices of jinns and the soothsayers foretold him, so too idols and sacrifices slaughtered for the idols gave news of the prophethood of God’s Messenger (UWBP). For example:

One is the famous story of the idol of the Mazan tribe, who shouted out:

“This is the Prophet who has been sent; he comes with the revealed truth,” telling of Muhammad’s (UWBP) messengership.

Another is the well-known incident which caused ‘Abbas b. Mardas to accept Islam: there was an idol called Dimar, which one day called out: “Dimar was worshipped before the declaration of Muhammad; that misguidance can no longer continue.”

Before he accepted Islam, ‘Umar heard an animal sacrificed to an idol exclaim: “O sacrificer, the means of success are at hand: an eloquent man proclaiming, ‘No god but God!’”

There are very many more examples like these, which have been accepted as authentic and narrated in reliable books.

And just as soothsayers, gnostics, invisible jinns, and even idols and sacrifices told of Muhammad’s (UWBP) messengership, and each instance was the cause of people coming to believe in him, so too inscriptions on stones over and in graves, and on gravestones, like “Muhammad, a worker of righteousness, the trustworthy,” were the means of some people coming to believe.

Because, in the time shortly before Muhammad (Upon whom be blessings and peace) lived, there were only seven men bearing that name, and not one of them deserved the epithet of righteous and trustworthy.

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urfavmurtad · 6 years

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would you mind expanding on the relationship/views islam has with other religions? i.e. judaism, christianity, hinduism, buddhism, zoroastrianism, baha’i, etc.? like what do they condemn, say about them, et cetera. whether these opinions are from the quran or other sacred texts or merely general opinions formed over time. and feel free to go as long as you’d like, i actually really like reading your long answers and appreciate the time you put into these!! ❣️

That could fill an entire book, but no problem anon. I’ve written a couple of posts about some of these already but I don’t mind elaborating. I’m gonna talk specifically about these people as, like, religious groups, rather than talk about them as religions (I already did posts on that anyway). And because you so kindly asked for a long post, I am prepared to tell you way more about this subject than you ever wanted to know. So:

JEWS AND CHRISTIANS

In theory, Islam treats Jews and Christians the same way. Everyone who rejects Islam, including them, will go to hell, but because they follow some Islam-approved prophets, they are allowed to practice their religion in an Islamic state provided they follow the government’s rules and pay jizya (tax on non-Muslims). This did not translate as freedom from persecution per se, either by Mohammed’s standards or by today’s standards, but it certainly put them far above groups like Arab polytheists in terms of how they were treated under the early caliphates. Muslim men are also allowed to marry either Christian or Jewish women (according to most Islamic schools of jurisprudence, anyway) whereas they can’t marry polytheists. So they’re both, officially, equally-good and/or equally-bad.

But the Quran itself and Islamic texts like the ahadith show a preference for Christians as a group over Jews. This has nothing to do with theology and has everything to do with Mohammed being petty.

I’ve already talked about Mohammed’s issues with Jews, so let me just summarize the situation during his lifetime: in the early days of Islam (when Mo was still living in 99% polytheistic Mecca), he figured Jews and Christians would be his bros and back him up. He anticipated a lot of converts from those groups. Then he moved to Medina, a city with thousands of Jews, including three large Jewish tribes, some smaller ones, as well as Jewish members of majority-polytheistic clans. But he got hardly any converts out of thousands of Jews! He was greatly displeased by this, and even less pleased by the fact that the Jews kept openly debating him and pointing out the errors in his stories and such.

The major Jewish tribes would all be kicked out of Medina within five years, with one group being exterminated (men beheaded, women and children enslaved) and the other two groups forced into exile with their property being taken over. One of those two exiled groups sought shelter all the way north in Syria; the other would later be hunted down in a cluster of Jewish-majority agricultural cities around 100 miles to the north of Medina. The cities were conquered in 628 AD. Mohammed initially wanted to kick their residents out, but then he realized that he needed them to take care of the land. So he let them stay at his discretion, letting them know that he could expel them at any time, and made them pay tribute (half their yield) to the Muslims. The women of the second Medinan Jewish group were enslaved, with the daughter of the clan’s leader being enslaved and married by Mohammed.

Later, Umar finished what Mo started and kicked the Jews out of the Hijaz region entirely. So, uh, the early relationship here was…… not positive. After the Islamic conquests of Byzantine and Persian territories, Jews dropped way down on the list of priorities because the people in power were Christians and Zoroastrians respectively. So Jews actually had a better relationship with some later caliphs than they did with Mohammed himself.

The situation was different with Christians. The centers of Arab Christianity were in northern Arabia (Jordan, southern Syria/Iraq, northern Saudi Arabia) and the Gulf coast. Not anywhere near where Mohammed lived. The closest Christian communities were hundreds of miles to the north and the south (the city of Najran, near Yemen). So Mohammed never really had the opportunity to get pissed off at Christians the way he did with Jews, because there just weren’t many of them around. There were individuals who had converted to Christianity, but not really large Christian tribes.

By the time the Islamic conquest got started after the conquest of Mecca in 630 AD, Arab Christians got Jihad Means Inner Struggle Actually-d by the Islamic armies just as much as everyone else did, and the very last (chronological) chapters of the Quran are cruel towards them. But by that point, it wasn’t personal. It was just kind of an “everyone who is not Muslim is trash so let’s conquer them” thing. Umar kicked the Christians out of the Hijaz just like he did with Jews (this is the bitch presented as “tolerant” in Islamic histories, can u believe!!!!), but this was just part of a more general process of ethnic cleansing the Hijaz until only Muslims remained.

So with all that in mind, let’s talk obnoxiously in-depth about theology.

The Quran was “revealed” over a span of two decades, beginning when Mo was harassing the long-suffering people of his hometown and then extending into the era in which he and his followers lived in the city of Yathrib, which he called Medina.

The early chapters of the Quran (those “revealed” in Mecca) rarely address Jews or Christians, as Mo was busy ranting to polytheists about their inevitable doom. There are some vague references, like the ahadith say that the line “those who have earned your wrath/or those who have gone astray” in Al-Fatiha (the first chapter of the Quran) refers to Jews and Christians respectively, though the connection is not made in the chapter itself.

There are only a handful of examples of Mo directly talking about his contemporary Jews in the Meccan chapters. When he did talk about them, it was usually to link himself to them and burnish his prophet credentials. So he told the polytheists that “the doctors [rabbis] of the Children of Israel know [the stories in the Quran]”, which proved that it was really from Allah. The seventh surah/chapter, called Al-Araf and “revealed” around halfway into the Meccan period, also says:

they will find [Mohammed] described in the Torah and the Gospel (which are) with them.

Mohammed was convinced that there were specific prophecies within both the Torah and the Gospels that predicted his existence. It is not mentioned in this surah, because we’re still in Mecca here, but in his Medina days (when the Jews told him “uhhh no?”), he would accuse the Jews of “hiding” these parts of their scriptures purely due to their scheming nature and their jealousy of him. These verses are the basis for the fact that many Muslims believe the Torah and Gospels were “corrupted”. That is not what Mohammed alleged. But more on that later.

There are a couple of stories first mentioned in Al-Araf that were later weaponized against Mohammed’s contemporary Jews. One is the story of Allah turning the Sabbath-breaking Jews into monkeys. It’s unclear whether this particular story was from the Mecca or Medina days, but it is the first appearance of that story in the Quran. It adds this line as a post-script:

thy Lord proclaimed that He would raise against them till the Day of Resurrection those who would lay on them a cruel torment.

Jews have an ancestral curse placed upon them by Allah, resulting in their eternal oppression. This concept is not unique to Islam (it’s found in Judaism itself, really), but what’s notable here is tat Muslim scholars very often said that Mohammed himself was one such divinely-ordained tormentor. His behavior towards them confirmed the Quran’s words, in some weird self-fulfilling prophecy. But again–if this is an early story, I doubt Mohammed had formulated the “Allah is using me to punish the Jews because they are cursed” thought yet. If this is from the Medina days instead, well… I guess it’s foreshadowing of a lot of the nasty stuff we’re gonna talk about in a minute.

For the first mention of Christians, we have to skip ahead to Surah Maryam. This is the one that recounts the Jesus and John the Baptist stories. There are some typical rants about Christians–Allah doesn’t have a son, woe to the disbelievers etc–but doesn’t actually say much about them as a group. Only that they’re going to hell for their disbelief, which, again, is not specific to them.

There are a couple lines in the sixth surah about how certain kosher laws were forced upon Jews as divine punishment, which is another allegation that Mohammed made over and over again even though Jews themselves disagreed with it. But the real interesting thing about the sixth surah is this verse here, which is according to most scholars actually a Medinan verse stuck into a mostly-Meccan chapter, as he’s talking to Jews:

the Book which Moses brought, a light and guidance for mankind, which ye have put on parchments which ye show, but ye hide much (thereof)

So there’s your first taste of Mohammed saying that the Jews are hiding……. something. You know, he never actually says what they’re hiding! He quotes the “prophecy” predicting himself in the Gospels, even though he gets the wording wrong, but never does it for the Jewish part of the Bible. Later Islamic scholars had to dig through the whole damn Torah to find something applicable and their results were not impressive tbh.

Going through the rest of the Meccan chapters, the references to either Jews or Christians are very thin. There’s a mention of a Jew (singular) who believes in Mohammed, which according to Mohammed should make polytheists convert. This guy is Abdullah ibn Salam, an asshole who converted in the Medinan days, so this must be yet another Medinan verse stuck in a Meccan chapter. The surah called Ar-Rum (The Byzantines) says that Allah will ensure that the Byzantines defeat the Sassanid Persians in their war. Mohammed and the early Muslims preferred the Byzantines to the Persians because the former were Christians and Acceptable Hellbound People whereas the latter were Zoroastrians and Unacceptable Hellbound People. Again, it still doesn’t really describe Christians as a community.

You finally get something concerning Jews (and Christians) living in Mohammed’s era in the very last chapters from Mecca. These are verses 46-47 of the 29th surah.

argue not with the People of the Scripture unless it be in (a way) that is better, save with such of them as do wrong; and say: We believe in that which hath been revealed unto us and revealed unto you; our God and your God is One, and unto Him we surrender. In like manner We have revealed unto thee the Scripture, and those unto whom We gave the Scripture aforetime will believe therein; and of these (also) there are some who believe therein. And none deny Our revelations save the disbelievers.

Ignoring that last part, this is downright pleasant by the Quran’s standards. It’s just positioning Islam as the successor to and fulfillment of the Torah and Gospels (no Mohammed did not have any clue what the Gospels said ty 4 asking). And again Mohammed predicted that the “People of the Scripture” would embrace his new religion. That’s where we’re at in the last Meccan days.

[Ominous transition to Mohammed getting his dumb ass kicked out of Mecca and heading to Medina]

So. Mohammed is in Medina now, along with a couple hundred of his followers from Mecca. The Muslim community is gradually gaining power and adherents among the two main polytheistic clans of the city (though Mo whines a lot about how many of them are fake Muslims or “munafiqun”). The Jews are deeply unenthusiastic about this, and do not particularly care for Mohammed or his bastardization of their religious beliefs.

The parts of the Quran from this part of the Medinan era are characterized by… I’d call it annoyance towards Jews. Mohammed was legitimately upset that they weren’t “embracing Islam” and tried a combination of guilting, demanding, and otherwise prodding them into conversion. Large sections of the longest chapter of the Quran, called Al-Baqarah, are from this era.

For example, the part starting at 2:40 has Allah directly addressing the Jews of Medina and telling them to convert to Islam:

O Children of Israel! Remember My favour wherewith I favoured you, and fulfill your (part of the) covenant, I shall fulfil My (part of the) covenant, and fear Me. And believe in that which I reveal, confirming that which ye possess already (of the Scripture), and be not first to disbelieve therein, and part not with My revelations for a trifling price, and keep your duty unto Me.

Mohammed then recounts some non-Biblical stories about how Moses’ people refused to believe him until they were literally killed and revived, urging the Medinan Jews to not make the same error. He tells them they will be rewarded by Allah in the afterlife if they convert, and continues to complain about those Jews who don’t believe he is a prophet. Again, he says that he is a fulfillment of their own holy books, but they refuse to believe him (he says this a lot).

As the surah continues, you can see Mohammed’s frustration building. The Sabbath-breaking/monkeys story is mentioned again, and there is also an occurrence of Mohammed’s frequent statement that Jews killed “the prophets” and were punished as a result:

And humiliation and wretchedness were stamped upon them and they were visited with wrath from Allah. That was because they disbelieved in Allah’s revelations and slew the prophets wrongfully. That was for their disobedience and transgression.

This transitions into complaints about the character of Mohammed’s contemporary Jews in 2:75, calling them liars and urging Muslims to not listen to what they say:

Have ye any hope that they will be true to you when a party of them used to listen to the word of Allah, then used to change it, after they had understood it, knowingly? And when they fall in with those who believe, they say: We believe. But when they go apart one with another they say: Prate ye to them of that which Allah hath disclosed to you that they may contend with you before your Lord concerning it?

Mohammed then accuses the Jews of forging scriptures–this is sometimes interpreted as him accusing them of forging the Torah, but I think he’s actually just talking about rabbinical traditions, since the one example he gives is “they say: The Fire (of punishment) will not touch us save for a certain number of days.” That is a reference to the Jewish concept of a sort of purgatory-esque temporary hell, vs the traditional Christian eternal-hell conception (which Mohammed incorporated into Islam). So he was accusing them of making up theological concepts that weren’t in the Torah itself, stuff from the Talmud and such. Of course, that’s not how Jews viewed it, but he didn’t care how they viewed it.

The Quran contains some records of how the Jews of Medina responded to Mohammed’s bleating, and clearly all they did was piss him off even further:

Evil is that for which they sell their souls: that they should disbelieve in that which Allah hath revealed, grudging that Allah should reveal of His bounty unto whom He will of His slaves. They have incurred anger upon anger. For disbelievers is a shameful doom. And when it is said unto them: Believe in that which Allah hath revealed, they say: We believe in that which was revealed unto us. And they disbelieve in that which cometh after it, though it is the truth confirming that which they possess. Say (unto them, O Muhammad): Why then slew ye the prophets of Allah aforetime, if ye are (indeed) believers?

He told them “you gotta obey Allah’s orders!!”. They replied “uhhh we do, just not the shit ur saying”. So he whined about how they killed the prophets again. From this point onwards, Mohammed’s contemporary Jews are consistently grouped in with their ancestors’ crimes–“you” killed the prophets, “you” broke the Sabbath, etc. From a practical viewpoint, this linked the Arab Jews with the wrongdoing Jews from Biblical stories, so these Jews rejecting Mohammed were just the latest in a long line of Jews who rejected prophets.

The part about how they’re “grudging that Allah should reveal of His bounty unto whom He will” is repeated elsewhere in the Quran; he means that the Jews are jealous that Allah chose a non-Jew to be a prophet. Another theme that’s established in this surah is this idea that Jews are greedy–greedier than anyone else, in fact.

And thou wilt find them greediest of mankind for life and (greedier) than the idolaters. (Each) one of them would like to be allowed to live a thousand years. And to live (a thousand years) would be no means remove him from the doom.

Jews in the Quran are greedy for worldly things. These things include both physical possessions like money and life/time itself. They are afraid of death, unlike Muslims, because they know their beliefs are wrong–“O ye who are Jews! If ye claim that ye are favoured of Allah apart from (all) mankind, then long for death if ye are truthful. But they will never long for it”.

As for Christians, they’re really only mentioned here and there as a side thought–meaning Mohammed says “Jews and Christians” instead of just “Jews” sometimes. For example:

And the Jews will not be pleased with thee, nor will the Christians, till thou follow their creed. … if thou shouldst follow their desires after the knowledge which hath come unto thee, then wouldst thou have from Allah no protecting guardian nor helper.

Then he lapses back into complaining about Jews. So they were the focus of his anger, and Christians were just kind of there.

Speaking of his anger towards the Jews, let me share another story from this chapter. A little over a year after Mohammed’s people arrived in Medina, Mohammed was leading the daily prayers when he abruptly changed the direction he was praying in nearly 180 degrees.

The initial qiblah (direction of prayer) was towards Jerusalem in the north. Mohammed changed it towards Mecca in the south. The change in the qiblah has a very simple explanation that is helpfully given in the Quran itself: Jews prayed towards Jerusalem. Mohammed initially based his religion on what the Jews did, but then decided that he didn’t like the Jews anymore and didn’t want his religious customs to be the same as theirs. Thus the switch. (The theological explanation is, literally, that Allah was just testing the Muslims with the first qiblah. Pitiful tbh.)

There are more accusations of Jews “hiding” things, which of course results in them getting thrown in the fires of hell. Then the Quran goes back to complaining about polytheists a bit, discussing the early Muslims’ battles with the Quraysh of Mecca (who did nothing wrong!!). The relevance of that to the Jewish issue is that Mohammed’s actions had essentially turned Medina into the center of an army that was in direct opposition to Mecca. Everyone in the city was now being taken along for Mo’s Wild Ride, whether they wanted to or not. Many people in Medina, both Jews and polytheists, were deeply unhappy about this (and Mohammed had a few of them killed for speaking out against him), but on the other hand, Muslims now viewed themselves as a unified community with their own laws, government, and army. This meant that Mohammed’s status as not only a religious leader but also a political leader and a warlord was now cemented.

All of that boils down to this: after the Muslims’ first big battle at a place called Badr, Mohammed had a lot more power than he started with. And the Jews who had annoyed him had a lot less leverage. So when he announced that he wanted to kick one clan of Jews out of Medina in order to confiscate their property, there was fuck-all they could do about it. They were exiled, and a second clan followed soon after the Muslims’ second big battle with the Quraysh. All of that happened less than 3 years after Mo rolled up to Medina. There was only one large Jewish clan left.

The Quran itself mentions and references the exiles of the Jews in a few places, one of which is a famous verse. Remember how I said there were some Jews among the polytheistic tribes? Evidently when a polytheistic woman’s child died, she sometimes prayed to the Jewish god and asked him for another baby, vowing to raise the child as a Jew. And these kids were taken in and educated by the Jewish clans of Medina. So when the second Jewish clan was kicked out, some of the kids with formerly-polytheistic, now-Muslim parents wanted to go with them, as they identified with them. Their mothers asked Mohammed to force them to stay in Medina as Muslims, but he said they could leave with the Jews if they wanted to. This is the background of the verse “there is no compulsion in religion”. Not quite as cute when you know the context…

Anyway, the whole kicking-Jews-out-of-Medina thing is also commemorated in the 59th surah of the Quran, Al-Hashr. It says Allah himself caused this exile to happen “because they were opposed to Allah and His messenger”. Then he talks about how the Muslims cut down the palm trees around the second Jewish tribe’s quarters and such.

The good shit starts in the third surah, which takes place after that second battle I mentioned. There are the standard complaints about Christians believing Jesus is divine and standard complaints about Jews disbelieving Jesus is a prophet. Notably, the complaints against Christians are theological. (This is supposedly a conversation he had with some Najrani Christians.) There’s nothing about how much they suck as people.

And whoso disputeth with thee concerning [Jesus], after the knowledge which hath come unto thee, say (unto him): Come! We will summon our sons and your sons, and our women and your women, and ourselves and yourselves, then we will pray humbly (to our Lord) and (solemnly) invoke the curse of Allah upon those who lie.

…People of the Scripture! Come to an agreement between us and you: that we shall worship none but Allah, and that we shall ascribe no partner unto Him, and that none of us shall take others for lords beside Allah. And if they turn away, then say: Bear witness that we are they who have surrendered (unto Him).

When Mo goes back to complaining about Jews, note the difference:

A party of the People of the Scripture long to make you go astray; and they make none to go astray except themselves, but they perceive not.

Among the People of the Scripture there is he who, if thou trust him with a weight of treasure, will return it to thee. And among them there is he who, if thou trust him with a piece of gold, will not return it to thee unless thou keep standing over him. That is because they say: We have no duty to the Gentiles.

…there is a party of them who distort the Scripture with their tongues, that ye may think that what they say is from the Scripture, when it is not from the Scripture. And they say: It is from Allah, when it is not from Allah; and they speak a lie concerning Allah knowingly.

And if the People of the Scripture had believed it had been better for them. Some of them are believers; but most of them are evil-livers.

Most of them are bad people–and many are greedy, deceptive liars. Not only do they make things up about their own religion, but some even lie about being Muslims so they can lead actual Muslims astray. These aren’t just complaints about how they refuse to believe in Mohammed’s revelations and therefore are hellbound, these are attacks on their character.

This surah also features Mohammed repeatedly urging Muslims not to take non-Muslims (including Jews) as close friends or listening to anything they say, unless the Jews are themselves Muslims. This whole thing is a clear demonization of Jews as a community, urging Muslims not to listen to them when they point out Mohammed’s errors and contradictions.

The fourth chapter of the Quran is also from this era. Most of it contains regulations for your womenfolk, but there are some more warnings about how Jews are trying to lead Muslims astray and how they’re dishonest. “Allah hath cursed them for their disbelief, so they believe not, save a few,” Mohammed informs us. That’s followed by this:

you who were given the Scripture, believe in what We have sent down [to Muhammad], confirming that which is with you, before We obliterate faces and turn them toward their backs or curse them as We cursed the sabbath-breakers.

Small wonder why so few Jews wanted to join this guy’s band. His rant continues later in the surah around 4:155, and this just summarizes this whole 624-626-ish era so well:

because of their breaking of their covenant, and their disbelieving in the revelations of Allah, and their slaying of the prophets wrongfully … Allah set a seal upon them for their disbelief, so that they believe not save a few. And because of their disbelief and of their speaking against Mary a tremendous calumny; And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah, Jesus … Because of the wrongdoing of the Jews We forbade them good things which were (before) made lawful unto them, and because of their much hindering from Allah’s way, And of their taking usury when they were forbidden it, and of their devouring people’s wealth by false pretences, We have prepared for those of them who disbelieve a painful doom.

Jews who do not believe in Mohammed’s revelations are cursed for a variety of reasons, ranging from calling Mary a whore to trying to kill Jesus to being greedy, and they’ll go to hell for it unless they believe in Islam…. but they can’t believe in Islam because, uh, Allah put a seal on their hearts or something.

In comparison, the only shit the Christians get is, again, Mo telling them to stop worshiping Jesus. The only line I could find from these mid-Medinan chapters complaining about how Christians behave, vs just whining about God!Jesus, is this line from surah 57 complaining about monks:

We caused Jesus, son of Mary, to follow, and gave him the Gospel, and placed compassion and mercy in the hearts of those who followed him. But monasticism they invented - We ordained it not for them - only seeking Allah’s pleasure, and they observed it not with right observance. So We give those of them who believe their reward, but many of them are evil-livers.

I mean, even with that last line, it’s still way nicer than his rants against The Jews. And Mo went back and forth on how he felt about monks, with the Quran both praising and condemning them. (Incidentally Islamic traditions contain many, many tales grabbed from Christian saint stories.)

Less than a couple years after this, in the year 627, the last Jewish clan of Medina met their end. A number of groups that Mohammed had pissed off amassed outside of Medina, including the Quraysh and the second Jewish clan of Medina. The third clan of Jews made the mistake of speaking to the leader of the second clan during the failed siege (in which like 4 Muslim soldiers died in total) and were beheaded down to the last man. The women and children were enslaved. The incident is mentioned in the Quran. It was the first real massacre of Islam–Mohammed had never executed hundreds of people like that before. He was sending a message: anyone who even thought about going against him was going to die. And who else but the long-suffering Jews would he use to prove the point?

With all the large Jewish clans eliminated from Medina, there were then only the smaller clans and individual Jews from polytheistic clans left. This did not stop Mohammed’s bitching, though, nor did it stop his desire to get his revenge on The Jews for their disbelief. The following year is when Mohammed sent his goons to attack the Jewish agricultural cities because they refused to believe in Islam, turning himself essentially into their feudal lord and taking their produce.

This era (627-629), during the early conquests of Arabia but before the conquest of Mecca, is when most of the fifth surah was “revealed”. The surah begins as such, regarding the Jews:

because of their breaking their covenant, We have cursed them and made hard their hearts. They change words from their context and forget a part of that whereof they were admonished. Thou wilt not cease to discover treachery from all save a few of them. But bear with them and pardon them.

The Jews are almost all evil lying whores, but bear with them. Now that they’re not a threat to Mo’s authority anymore and all. Right after that, we get Mohammed’s first bitchfit towards Christians!

with those who say: “Lo! we are Christians,” We made a covenant, but they forgot a part of that whereof they were admonished. Therefor We have stirred up enmity and hatred among them till the Day of Resurrection, when Allah will inform them of their handiwork.

Pretty sure this is the first time in the entire Quran, chronologically speaking, that Christians are given the Jewish treatment (i.e. Mohammed says that there is something wrong with them as a community, beyond the fact that they are disbelievers). Now they’re cursed by Allah just like the Jews. Just in time for the upcoming conquests of Arab Christian cities! (The Jews get their own version of the “enmity and hatred” line later on, so don’t feel left out).

But rest assured, the Jews are still far larger targets of Mohammed’s frothing rage. They are “Listeners for the sake of falsehood! Greedy for illicit gain!”, he complains. Then it devolves into a rant about the Jews refusing to abide by the Torah’s laws, which is about this appalling hadith I talked about last week. Mohammed asked a couple of adulterous Jews what Jewish law said to do about their situation; the Jews said they blackened their faces with charcoal. Mo knew that the real scriptural punishment was death, so he had them stoned, because “Whoso judgeth not by that which Allah hath revealed: such are evil-livers.”

In this surah we also get another of Mohammed’s demands to not get too cozy to either Christians or Jews, though instead of “close friends” this time he uses the word auliya, which can be interpreted as either “friends” or “guardians” depending on how charitable you are feeling. They are “auliya” of each other, apparently, which is probably news to them:

Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them.

Mo was so damn paranoid of people overhearing someone say “Y’all see how the bitch confused Mary and Miriam? Bruh I can’t believe this shit is really happening 😭”.

The surah reminds us yet again that most of them are wrongdoers, how Allah turned Jews into apes (and pigs this time!) and how greedy they are. He also complains about rabbis allowing said wrongdoing. If only the People of the Book would convert to Islam, Mohammed whines, then they would be wonderful and go to heaven. But alas, they do not. This is not surprising, as Jews have a history of killing prophets and Christians are basically polytheists anyway.

Despite the fact that Mo literally just said that Christians commit shirk (polytheism), which according to Islam is the worst possible sin and entirely unforgivable, we then get this:

Thou wilt find the most vehement of mankind in hostility to those who believe (to be) the Jews and the idolaters. And thou wilt find the nearest of them in affection to those who believe (to be) those who say: Lo! We are Christians. That is because there are among them priests and monks, and because they are not proud.

At least in terms of niceness: Christians > Jews = polytheists. That’s the order. Because of monks and priests. (Good ones, not the bad ones already mentioned, apparently.)

Finally, let me talk about the last chronological full surah of the Quran. This is called At-Tawbah and takes place after the Islamic conquest of Mecca, during the Islamic armies’ attempts to consolidate control of Arabia. Part of that consolidation involved attacking some Christian cities (with Jewish minorities) in what is now northern Saudi Arabia. Mohammed bitches endlessly in this surah about how his unenthusiastically-converted followers didn’t want to join this exciting adventure, but he does have a bit to say about the actual targets of the expedition themselves.

The stated reason for the conquests:

Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.

(This is actually much nicer than what’s said about polytheists in the same chapter!)

Mohammed pulling shit out of his ass to explain how Jews also commit shirk, so fuck them just as much as the Christians:

And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah, and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah. That is their saying with their mouths. They imitate the saying of those who disbelieved of old. Allah (Himself) fighteth against them. How perverse are they!

He assures his followers that the people they’re attacking, who are livinghundreds of miles north of Mecca and have not done a damn thing to him, are the real bad guys:

Fain would they put out the light of Allah with their mouths

Finally, he–the guy who raids people and steals their shit–reminds us again of how greedy they are:

O ye who believe! Lo! many of the (Jewish) rabbis and the (Christian) monks devour the wealth of mankind wantonly and debar (men) from the way of Allah. They who hoard up gold and silver and spend it not in the way of Allah, unto them give tidings (O Muhammad) of a painful doom

Truly… people who read and actually understand this surah, and still call this guy the greatest man to ever live…….. bless your hearts.

Anyway, that’s it for the Quran. Like I said, the rage is directed more against Jews until the very last chronological chapters, at which point Christians are brought into the mix. Both are going to hell but both are also better than polytheists because they follow past prophets, and Christians are nicer than Jews. This is the most basic summary possible. The ahadith and early Islamic literature reflect the same themes. Again, Jews get more of the (usually negative) focus because there were just more of them around Mohammed.

In terms of very early Islamic literature, stories featuring Christians tend to be at least semi-positive. For example, there is this story about how Khadija’s (Christian) cousin, who translated part of the Bible into Arabic, was one of the first to comfort Mohammed and assure him that he was really a prophet. There is another story about how some monk also recognized him as a prophet (other early versions of this story make him a rabbi instead, but the monk version is the well-known one). Ethiopian Christians are portrayed positively for not bothering the Muslim merchants living in Abyssinia, and the only pre-conquest story about Arab Christians (the Najran guys) ends with the Najrani Christians refusing to curse Mohammed. It’s only in the raids mentioned in the ninth surah when you start to see the literature actually portray them negatively. And even then, they mostly bitch about Mohammed’s unenthusiastic soldiers, not the Christians being conquered themselves.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t bitchy ahadith about Christians, it’s just that those ahadith don’t typically focus on Christians. They’re just included with other non-Muslims, like:

the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “Do not precede the Jews and the Christians with the Salam. And if one of you meets them in the path, then force them to its narrow portion.”

(This one always makes me laugh tbh I’m picturing Mohammed T-posing to assert dominance over the disbelievers)

The Jews on the other hand get very little positive attention in early literature. Abdullah ibn Salam (who calls non-Muslim Jews evil and greedy in Ibn Ishaq’s sira) and other converts are really the only ones portrayed pleasantly. Other than that, the situation is rather bleak. There are a few tales stating that Jews magically cursed Mohammed and one about how they actually killed him. There’s a story about how they killed Abu Bakr (with poisoned porridge lmao) too! Jews out here getting shit done, according to Islamic tradition.

Naturally, when the history books begin to talk about the Islamic conquests, suddenly Christians and Zoroastrians are the worst assholes around; the Jews take a back seat in the narrative and are barely even mentioned. It makes sense, of course, since Christians outnumbered Jews by like 10:1. The situation was now the opposite of what it was in Mohammed’s era: there were more Christians to be irritated by than Jews. The oldest-surviving Islamic writing (beyond the Quran) is the Kufic inscription along the top of the Dome of the Rock, which is a complaint about Christianity: “say not ‘Three’ - Cease! (it is) better for you! - God is only One God. Far be it removed from His transcendent majesty that He should have a son.” The Umayyad caliphate’s capital was in Syria, which was Christian-majority and run by Christians prior to the Islamic conquests. Attempting to chip away at both the numbers of Christians and the power that Christian institutions held was just a matter of good policy. Jews held little power before the Islamic conquests, so there wasn’t much power to be destroyed. And so most of the early cases of forced conversions after the destruction of polytheism, like that of the Tanukhids, involved Christians (mostly Arab Christians), not Jews.

The treatment of the two groups varied depending upon the era and the tolerance levels of the government at the time. More often than not, when impositions existed against Christians (prohibitions against dressing a certain way, riding certain animals, building certain buildings etc), they usually existed against Jews as well. And when Jews were able to have more of a say in public life and governance, Christians were too. It’s impossible to summarize every Muslim empire throughout history but this is at least true for the early caliphates. Religious opinion on the two groups didn’t really change, in any case, and Islamic texts dating all the way into the late medieval era still abide by the Christians > Jews > polytheists formula.

HINDUS AND BUDDHISTS

Neither the Quran nor any early Islamic sources have anything to say about these religions because they were unknown in Arabia at the time. There is no real theological reason to treat them any differently than Arab polytheists. But after the later Islamic conquests of India, the prospect of wiping out the subcontinent’s entire tax base by forcibly converting them to Islam was not an enticing idea, so both groups were treated as “dhimmis” for the sake of convenience. They were treated worse and were persecuted more (overall) than, say, Christians and Jews–dhimmi-minus, if you will, not dhimmi-plus–but they weren’t subjected to the Arab Polytheist Dawah Protocol (ie convert or die) barring a few incidents. Again, some rulers were more tolerant than others.

ZOROASTRIANS

The Zoroastrians are named (as “Magians”) but never described in the Quran. They are a mostly-irrelevant group, unlike the Jews and Christians. Their lack of an Abrahamic faith (and Mohammed’s unfamiliarity with Persia) renders them unimportant. Their most notable “contribution” to the Quran is in Surah Ar-Rum, in which Mohammed roots for the Byzantines in the Byzantine-Sassanid war.

A hadith states that the Zoroastrians were terribly persecuted under Umar until some guy “happened to remember” that Mohammed made the Zoroastrians of the Gulf pay jizya (i.e. didn’t forcibly convert them). Thereafter, Umar also started collecting jizya from them. Beyond that one line, basically nothing is said of the Zoroastrians of eastern Arabia. They’re all gone now.

There is disastrously little that has survived re: Zoroastrianism in the first two hundred years of Islam. The Sassanid Empire was a huge place with millions of Zoroastrians; their empire was destroyed and replaced with a religious empire of foreign origin that didn’t like them much. And we know……. virtually jack shit about this. There are a few later Zoroastrian texts portraying it as an apocalypse, but that’s it. I’ve done a post about Christian (mostly in former Byzantine areas) sources on the early years of the conquest, but Zoroastrians? We got nothing. In my other post, I mentioned a book called Seeing Islam as Others Saw It, which compiles a bunch of primary sources from this era. The author says:

Internal crises in the late fifth and early sixty century and the escalating conflict with its rival Byzantium had impelled the Sasanian empire towards greater administrative and ideological centralisation focused on the capital at Ctesiphon [~20 miles south of Baghdad] and the person of the emperor. When the capital was seized by the Muslims, the front-line province of Iraq occupied and the dynasty ousted, resistance organised from the centre was made impossible and could only take the form of scattered local rebellions and thrusts from the eastern fringes. Accustomed to close association with and support from the Sasanian state, the Zoroastrian establishment foundered and very soon became marginalised. Assimilation to Arab Muslim society and culture was rapid and thorough and almost nothing of the religious tradition of Persia made its way into Islam.

The Byzantine provinces had been captured by the Muslim army, but they weren’t the only Christian lands in existence. Christianity still existed to the south of the empire (in modern-day Sudan, which unfathomably stopped the Arab army for centuries, and Ethiopia), to the north (in Anatolia and the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, which also repelled the Arab armies), and to the west (Europe, where they were stopped in the south). So it would survive. Zoroastrianism had one nation to its name. Once it was gone, they had nothing left. And so the upper-class converted (it seems) quickly to maintain their power, the middle class converted to avoid the jizya, and resistance was left to peasants and easily put down.

That difference accounts for the fact that the Zoroastrians of Persia were Islamized at a breakneck speed compared to the Christians and Jews of Byzantine provinces. And that in turn helps explain why so many early Islamic scholars were of Persian origin. There were just way more Muslims there than in the western half of the caliphate. And that helped lead to the Abbasids overthrowing the Umayyads, who prioritized ethnic Arabs over non-Arabs.

But anyway, all of that means that we have to rely upon Islamic texts written in the 9th century or later to tell us about Islamic rule in Persia. Of course there were incidents of massacres, conversions of places of worship, and slavery–but those things happened in Christian lands, too, so they alone can’t explain why Zoroastrianism just collapsed, to the point they’re barely mentioned after the 900s AD. It’s been speculated for a long time that forced conversions increased during the mid-Abbasid days and this is ultimately what drove the remainder of the community into India, but we just don’t know what happened. Maybe there were records, but none have survived.

The few pre-10th-century Islamic texts that comment upon Zoroastrianism mostly portray it negatively. Al-Jahiz said that Zoroaster only succeeded in converting Persia to his religion because the Persians themselves were depraved. The vast majority of scholars considered it a non-monotheistic faith and did not consider Zoroastrians “People of the Book”. A minority said that the religion may have initially been “real” (as in Zoroaster was actually a prophet) but was now hopelessly corrupted into polytheism. They were dhimmis by virtue of the early Islamic leaders putting the issue of practicality above the Quran, but not the right kind of dhimmi. Jews and Christians came above them on the religious pyramid and were granted better treatment as a result. They were also dhimmi-minuses.

Despite all that, Zoroastrianism was not totally forgotten by Persians. Some later texts, writing after Zoroastrians ceased to be a political force, describe its belief system in neutral terms. The poet Ferdowsi portrays it very positively in his epic poem Shahnameh, and Hafiz in the 14th century showed an appreciation for it as well. At times–certainly not in Islamic works, but in poetry and such–the era of Zoroastrianism was portrayed as a lost golden age. You don’t know what you got til it’s gone, eh.

BAHA’IS ETC

People who accept Mohammed as a prophet but say there are other prophets after him are nigh-universally considered heretics, apostates, or some combination thereof. They are not seen as legitimate religious groups and face severe oppression into the modern day for that reason. That includes groups like the Pakistani Ahmadiyya, too, who define themselves as Muslims but are rejected as “fake Muslims” by the government of Pakistan. These… post-Islamic faiths, or however you want to phrase it, are probably the most-persecuted ones in Muslim countries today. There is neither a scriptural nor a historical basis for respecting their rights, and believing in Mohammed as a prophet but rejecting the finality of Islam is inexplicably seen as worse than not believing in Mohammed as a prophet by many people.

IN SUMMARY

Non-hellbound people, best to worst: Muslims, pre-Islamic hanifs (Arab Abrahamic monotheists who didn’t identify as Christians or Jews, we don’t know much about them unfortunately but the ahadith say a Meccan guy named Zayd ibn Amr was one), some people who died before Islam.

Hellbound people, best to worst: Christians > Jews > Sabians? (Mandaeans?) >>>> Zoroastrians >>>>>>>>>> polytheists, heretics, and apostates.

And Allah knows best.

#ask #anon #long post #judaism #baha'i #theology #Zoroastrianism #christianity

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freepressjournals · 3 years

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Saudi Arabia prepares to light up in celebration of Kingdom’s Founding Day

Preparations are underway across cities in Saudi Arabia to mark Founding Day which celebrates the origins and history of the Kingdom, state news agency (SPA) reported on Wednesday.

Founding Day will be commemorated for the first time on February 22. Several musical and cultural events will be held in the capital Riyadh and other cities to mark the day.

“The Beginning” event, which will be held in Riyadh’s Wadi Namar, will narrate the Kingdom’s history throughout three centuries, SPA reported, adding that 3,500 performers will participate in it.

A musical theatrical performance that also touches on the Kingdom’s history will be held on February 23 at Mohammed Abdu Arena theater in Riyadh. A light show, which includes fireworks and utilizes drones, will light up the sky of Riyadh at night on February 24.

The National Museum in Riyadh will host several interactive workshops and discussions on the Kingdom’s culture and history from February 22 until February 24. Other events include introducing visitors to Saudi traditional costumes and celebrating Saudi coffee.

SPA added that diverse events to mark the Kingdom’s historical legacy will be held from February 22 until February 24 in other Saudi cities such as Jeddah, Dammam, Abha and Najran.

#saudiarabia #Mohammedabduarena #Foundingday #Riyadh #Spa

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riteshtraveladvisor · 28 days

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Book Flights from Dubai to Najran with flydubai

Explore the beauty of Najran with convenient dubai to najran flights. Offering a seamless travel experience, flydubai connects you directly to Najran, a city known for its rich history and vibrant culture. Whether you're traveling for business or leisure, flydubai provides comfortable seating, in-flight entertainment, and excellent service. Book your Dubai to Najran flight with flydubai and enjoy a hassle-free journey to one of Saudi Arabia's hidden gems. Take advantage of flexible booking options and affordable fares for your next trip to Najran. https://www.flydubai.com/en-ae/flights-from-dubai-to-nejran/

#dubai to najran flights

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loverandservantoftheahlulbayt · 3 years

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🌺 The Event of Mubahila 🌺

Najran was a fertile land located in the Northern mountainous region of Yemen about 20 km from Sanaa. About 40,000 Christians inhabited the land divided into 73 small towns. They were idol worshipers historically just like the Arabs but a priest named Femeon, a constructor by profession, preached Christianity in the area of Najran and soon all the population converted to Christianity and Najran became a powerful center of activities of Christians.

After the conquest of Makkah when Islam started spreading rapidly and the warring groups came under the flag of Islam, the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him, starting sending emissaries to the tribes who had not yet accepted Islam. In 10 A.H. a similar message was sent to the Christians of Najran and they were offered either to accept the teachings of Islam or live in the protection of Muslims and give Jizya - a kind of fee for protection services. When the Bishop of Najran received this message, he invited all the scholars and influential people of Najran and asked them to think and find a solution to this situation. This news spread rapidly among the masses and some people got infuriated as well but the Bishop of Najran pacified them and advised them to be mindful of the military might of the Islamic regime and try to find a peaceful solution.

Christian mission heads to Madina

After deliberations, it was finally decided to send a mission to Madina and have a dialog with the Muslims. A 14 member delegation headed by Aqib Saidawar and Abu Harisa started off for Makkah.

After exchange of views on several issues, the delegation did not seem to be willing to accept the observations about the incorrect beliefs of Christianity and the logical explanations proving the incorrectness of their beliefs. At that time Allah(swt) send down the famous verse of Mubahila of the Quran:

Then whoever argues with you about it after [this] knowledge has come to you - say, "Come, let us call our sons and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves, then supplicate earnestly [together] and invoke the curse of Allah upon the liars [among us]." (Holy Quran 3:61)

The Prophet recited this verse and invited them for Mubahila - praying to God(swt) to destroy and banish the liars.

Mubahila became necessary since the Christian delegation was adamant to accept the truth. After some hesitations the delegations asked to be given one day to reconsider their options and then accepted to have the Mubahila after two days.

Whom did the Prophet take with him?

The Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, selected a place close to Madina for the Mubahila which was then cleaned and prepared by Salman al-Mohammadi and the next day the Christian delegation reached the designated place. A number of people also gathered at the site. The Holy Prophet Mohammad took with him Imam Ali, Fatima al-Zahraa, Imam Hasan and Imam Hussain, peace be upon them.

Prophet Mohammad sat down under a tree with these weighty personalities and said that when I pray to God, you all should say ‘Ameen'. When the Christian delegation saw a woman, two children and only one man with the Prophet, they got scared and worried and Abu Harisa said, "O my Christian friends, I am seeing such bright faces that if they pray that God move this mountain from its place then the mountain will be moved. I warn you do not have Mubahila with them or you all will be destroyed and banished."

The Christian delegation was still amazed and frightened when the brother of Abu Harisa, Karz ibn-e-Alqama stated, "O my fellows, it appears that Mohammad is the same last apostle and prophet that has been mentioned in our sacred books. We should not have Mubahila with them because anyone who had Mubahila with the prophets in the past as well were destroyed. Look around you and observe that the signs of your destruction are appearing." When they looked around, they observed that the entire atmosphere had changed and it appeared that a furious storm is in offing.

Result of the Mubahila

Witnessing this, they backed off from the contest and requested that their friendship be accepted. Prophet Mohammad accepted their request and asked Imam Ali to write the agreement according to which they Najran tribes accepted to pay Jizya and live under the protection of the Muslims.

This victory is a unique one in the history of this world.

Source: Duas.org

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juniperpublishersjojdc · 3 years

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Prevalence of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Among Ulcerative Skin Lesions in Taif City

Abstract

Background: Cutaneous leishmaniasis is an annoying and disfiguring disease affecting around 1,500,000 individuals globally. There are endemic pockets of this disease in Taif region. Leishmaniasis is a disease caused by an intracellular protozoan parasite (genus Leishmania) transmitted by the bite of a female phlebotomine sand-fly. The clinical spectrum of leishmaniasis ranges from a self-resolving cutaneous ulcer to a mutilating mucocutaneous disease and even to a lethal systemic illness. Therapy has long been a challenge in the more severe forms of the disease, and it is made more difficult by the emergence of drug resistance.

Material & method: Cross section study was conducted on patients submitted to outpatient dermatology clinics at King Faisal Complex complaining of ulcerative skin lesion during the period from February 2016 to November 2018. Smears were prepared from Scraps taken from the exudate in the base of ulcerative skin lesion and stained by Geimsa and examined under microscope for leishmania bodies

Results: The study reveals a positivity rate of 31.4% of all examined cases of skin ulcer with predominance of positive cases in the face region and in male sex.

Conclusion: The results clearly indicate that the leishmania is endemic in Taif city and this is due to the establishment of sand flies in Taif region.

Keywords: Cutaneous leishmaniasis Skin ulcer Syphilis Herpes Blastomycosis

Introduction

Skin ulcers are superficial defects in the tissues of the epidermis and dermis with surrounding inflammation. Infection, collagen vascular diseases, and malignancy can cause cutaneous ulcerations. Information on host factors, exposure history, and the clinical course of the lesions is critical to narrowing the differential diagnosis. The lesion’s anatomic location also may offer clues to the cause. Facial ulcers may be caused by syphilis, herpes, or blastomycosis, whereas ulcers of the arms or hands may be caused by sporotrichosis, nocardia, atypical mycobacteria, herpetic whitlow, or cutaneous anthrax. Ulcers on the chest wall from underlying pulmonary involvement or associated with intravenous catheters may be caused by aspergillosis. Ulcers in the groin or perineum may result from sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, chancroid and herpes, as well as from Behcet’s disease or fixed drug eruption. Ulcers on the lower extremities result from venous insufficiency in 70%-90% of cases and occur below the knee but never on the bottom of the foot. A history of unusual occupation, hobby, or exposure can suggest causes of skin ulcers such as tularemia in rabbit hunters, Mycobacterium marinum in aquarium enthusiasts, and leishmaniasis in travelers to endemic areas of the Middle East, North Africa, and Central and South America Host factors also may predispose individuals to any of several types of ulcers[1].

Leishmaniasis is a disease caused by Leishmania, a protozoan transmitted to humans by the bite of the sand fly [2]. There are different forms and clinical manifestations of leishmaniasis depend on complex interactions between the virulence characteristics of the infecting Leishmania species and the immune response of its human host. The result is a spectrum of diseases ranging from localized skin lesions to diffuse involvement of thereticuloendothelial system [3] and thus, leishmaniasis is classified into three major types, cutaneous (CL), muco-cutaneous (MCL) and visceral leishmaniasis (VL) [4].

The major tropical infection of public health importance is Cutaneous leishmaniasis. It is caused by a group of protozoan intracellular and causes skin lesions, mainly ulcers, on exposed parts of the body, leaving life-long scars and serious disability [5].

Patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis have one or more lesions on the skin, usually without fever and symptoms. L. major infection generally have superficial satellite papules in the periphery of lesion which heals within 4-6 months in about 50- 70% cases whereas in L. tropical the ulcers on the skin are usually dry type which heal within a year or longer [6].

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports endemic leishmaniasis in 98 countries & 3 regions on 5 continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America), with an official estimated annual incidence of 0.7-1.3 million cases of cutaneous disease and 0.4 million cases of visceral disease [7].

In Saudi Arabia, there are over 19.000 cases of Cutaneous leishmaniasis were reported in the past 7 years. Different species of the Leishmania parasite have been isolated and incriminated as the causative species [8].

The Saudi Arabia, which is a tropical country, has endemic pockets of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Al-Hassa, Al-Gaseem, Madina, Hail, Riyadh, Asir, Tabooq, Taif, Al-Baha, Jazan, Najran and Bisha. Lots of cases were detected in Asir, Al-Baha, Arar, El- Quassim and Riyadh provinces [9]. So, the aim of this study is the detection of prevalence of cutaneous leishmaniasis among ulcerative skin lesion in Taif city.

Subjects & Methods

Cross section study was conducted on patients submitted to outpatient dermatology clinics at King Faisal Complex complaining of ulcerative skin lesions during the period from February 2016 - November 2018, important patient data were collected as age, sex, site of skin ulcer.

Study samples

Scraps were taken from the exudate in the base of ulcerative skin lesions and spread as a smear on microscopic glass slides and stain with Geimsa, examination of the stained slide for the presence or absence of leishmania bodies .The slides were reported positive by detection of leishmania bodies inside macrophages or free scattered in the field.

Statistical analysis

Data were collected and analyzed statistically using SPSS version 19.0

Ethical concern

All patients included in the study were informed of the study objectives and a written signed consent was taken from each one of them.

Results

The study was conducted on 35 patients with skin ulcer submitted to outpatient dermatology clinics at King Faisal Complex during the period from February 2016 - November 2018. The patients were 22 males and 13 females with an average ageof 20- 63 years. 12 patients have skin ulcer in the face, 8 patients have skin ulcer in their hands and forearms, while the rest of patients (15 cases) have the ulcer in their legs. Eleven cases out of 35 (31.4%) were positive for Leishmania. The positive leishmania cases were 7 (63.6%) male patient and 4(36.4%) female patients. The site distribution of positive cases for leishmania was8 cases in the face (72.7%), 2 cases in the upper limbs (18%) and one case (9%) in the legs (Table 1 & 2) Figure 1-5. The microscopic pathological changes in cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by L. major and L. tropica in Taif region showed predominantly macrophages and lymphocytes in the inflammatory infiltrate, along with amastigotes in macrophages in the smear prepared from exudates of lesion and necrosis of parasitized macrophages

Discussion

Leishmaniasis is a disease caused by an intracellular protozoan parasite (genus Leishmania) transmitted by the bite of a female phlebotomine sand-fly. The clinical spectrum of leishmaniasis ranges from a self-resolving cutaneous ulcer to a mutilating mucocutaneous disease and even to a lethal systemic illness. Therapy has long been a challenge in the more severe forms of the disease, and it is made more difficult by the emergence of drug resistance. Leishmaniasis is a potential threat to human population in 88 countries affecting around 12 million peopleglobally [10]. Around l,500,000 cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) has been reported from tropical, subtropical and temperate regions of many countries each year. It is more widely distributed in three epidemiological regions, the Americas, the Mediterraneanbasin, and western Asia from the Middle East to CentralAsia. Saudi Arabia which is a tropical country hasendemic pockets of cutaneous leishmaniasis inAl-Hassa, Al-Gaseem, Madina, Hail, Riyadh,Asir, Tabooq, Taif, Al-Baha, Jazan, Najranand Bisha. Lots of cases were detected in Asir,Al-Baha, Arar, El-Quassim and Riyadh provinces [11].

Our study included 35 cases complaining of skin ulcers, 11 cases were reveals positivity for leishmania bodies in smear taken as scraps from exudate in the bases of skin ulcers, our positivity rate was 31.4%. As regard sex distribution of positive cases, the majority were male patient (63.6%) while the rest cases were females (36.4%). As regard site distribution of positive leishmania cases, our study reveals that the majority of positive cases were in the face (66.6%). Our positivity rate was lower than that reported by Health statistical year books of ministry of health, Saudi Arabia for 2007-2009 that showed 45 cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Taif region [12]. And during 2013, 27 cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis were recorded from this region which is little less than what was reported in 2009.But this lower rate of positivity in our study is due to small number of cases collected and also our cases were collected from one hospital in Taif city.

Conclusion and Recommendation

These data clearly indicate that the leishmania is endemic in Taif city and this is due to the establishment of sand flies in Taif region. It is probably because of varied type of breeding and hiding places which are difficult to approach. Like spaces under the big rocks which are numerous. Besides, there are many abandoned houses and garbage pits near the animal sheds which falls in the flight range of sand flies and recommended that the control program is taking care of destroying Leishmania vector to prevent and control leishmania infection in Taif city.

For more Open Access Journals in Juniper Publishers please click on: https://juniperpublishers.com/

For more details JOJ Dermatology & Cosmetics (JOJDC) please click on: https://juniperpublishers.com/jojdc/index.php

#Cutaneous #Skin Infection #juniper publisher reviews #juniper publisher journals

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questionsonislam · 5 years

Note

How did Hz. Muhammad (pbuh) welcome his guests?

The Prophet (pbuh) always had guests. He had many guests from distant and near places. Civil and official delegates would come from some states and tribes, and would stay for days. The Prophet (pbuh) would take care of those guests, serve and entertain them himself.

The Prophet (pbuh) himself served the delegates that came from Abyssinia. The Companions said,

"O Messenger of Allah! We will serve them; please leave it to us." The Prophet said,

"They entertained our friends before. Now I take pleasure in serving them in return for their service."

He entertained the delegates of Thaqif from Taif and allowed them to stay in the mosque. Then, they became Muslims and returned to their homeland.

When the house of the Prophet (pbuh) was not suitable for guests, the houses of Ramla and Umm Sharik of Ansar were used as guesthouses. Those women were very charitable and generous people. From time to time, there were a lot of guests; they were sent to the other houses as guests so that they would be served better.

The Prophet (pbuh) did not discriminate between the guests because of their religions. He treated everybody well, did them favors and showed them the same kindness and understanding.

Abu Basra narrates this attribute of the Prophet as follows:

"I was not a Muslim. I was a guest of the Messenger of Allah. I woke up at night, milked the goats and drank all of the milk. Thus, the Messenger of Allah and his family had nothing to drink. However, the Messenger of Allah did not say anything to me."

According to what Abu Hurayra narrates, a polytheist was the guest of the Prophet (pbuh) once. The Prophet offered him some milk and he drank it. Then, he offered him some more milk and he drank it too. The polytheist was oved by this act of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) and became a Muslim in the morning.

The permanent guests of the Prophet were Ashab as-Suffa, who lived next to the mosque, who had no family and houses and who were poor. The Prophet (pbuh) regarded them as the members of his own family. He was their teacher and met all of their needs.

The Prophet (pbuh) had a big cauldron that could be carried by four people. When it was noon, they would bring this cauldron and the People of Suffa would gather around it. Sometimes, there were so many people that the Prophet (pbuh) could not find a place to sit.

The Prophet (pbuh) sometimes entertained the People of Suffa in his own house. Once, he took the Companions in Suffa to Hz. Aisha’s house. He told her to bring whatever she had in the house. After they ate, he asked her to bring some more food. She brought some dates and milk. They ate them too. Thus, the Prophet (pbuh) entertained them himself in his house.

Sometimes, a lot of guests arrived. The Prophet would give all of the food he had to them and he and his family would spend the night hungry. He would wake up at night and asked his guests if they needed anything. He tried to meet all of their needs until they left.

Once, a guest arrived. He said he was very tired and poor. The Prophet (pbuh) sent somebody to the house of one of his wives. His wife said,

"O Messenger of Allah! I swear by Allah who sent you as the true Prophet that there is nothing but water at home."

Then, he sent for another wife of his. She gave the same response. Finally, he found out that there was no food in any of his wives’ homes.

Then, the Prophet (pbuh) said to the Companions,

"May Allah show mercy to the person who entertains this man tonight!"

Thereupon, somebody from Ansar stood up. He said he could entertain that man and took him to his house. He asked his wife,

"Is there anything to eat at home?" She said,

"Only the food for the children." He said,

"Keep children busy with something. If they want to eat, make them sleep. When the guest starts to eat, turn off the lamp and we will pretend to eat with him."

They sat at the table. The guest ate the meal. They pretended to eat but they spent the night hungry.

The host went to the Prophet (pbuh) in the morning. The Prophet (pbuh) gave him the following glad tiding:

"Allah became pleased with both of you due to the nice deed you did."

We have the word hospitality in our language. It is a tradition and sunnah that still exists to love guests, to entertain them, to give them food and drink and to meet their needs. The source of it is the Prophet’s advice and encouragement.

To love the guest and to entertain him is a sign and indicator of belief. The stronger a person’s belief, the better he will treat his guest.

According to the narration of Abu Hurayra, the Prophet (pbuh) said:

"He who believes in Allah and the Day of Judgment should offer food to his guest."

"He who believes in Allah and the Day of Judgment should take care of his relatives."

"He who believes in Allah and the Day of Judgment should say good things or keep silent."

The Prophet (pbuh) was both the owner of the eternal prophethood and the leader of the Islamic state as well as the commander-in chief of the Islamic armies; therefore, along with individuals and groups from all levels and beliefs, the envoys, that is, diplomatic guests were the guests of the Prophet (pbuh).

According to what resources state, Arabs followed the tribe of Quraysh related to important issues like war and peace. For, they regarded Quraysh as superior and acted based on their attitudes. They regarded the enemies of Quraysh as their enemies and friends as their friends. They accepted what Quraysh accepted. They followed the deeds of Quraysh related to Islam too.

When Makkah was conquered by the Muslims despite the grim struggle of Quraysh against Islam, that is, when it became certain that Quraysh surrendered to Islam fully, the Arab tribes started to send envoys and delegates to Madinah thinking that there was no need to lose any more time.

The days known as "Amul-Wufu" (Year of Envoys) in the history of Islam is the ninth year of the Migration, which is the year just after the Conquest of Makkah. After the Expedition of Tabuk and after the tribe of Thaqif accepted Islam, Madinah had a very intense diplomatic traffic. People from distant and near places poured in Madinah in order to meet the Prophet (pbuh), become Muslims and make treaties. The days and incidents stated in the chapter of an-Nasr of our Glorious Book were experienced on those days:

"When comes the Help of Allah, and Victory, And thou dost see the people enter Allah´s Religion in crowds..."

A. ENTERTAINING OF THE DIPLOMATIC GUESTS

We will consider not only the envoys of the foreign countries but also the delegates of Arab tribes and the individuals and groups that came from various regions to represent various nations and religions as "diplomatic guests". For, when it is viewed closely, it will be understood that all of those people had a kind of diplomatic mission under the conditions of that time.

1. Entertaining

There is no basic difference between entertaining diplomatic guests and the other guests. They offered them the food and drinks that they had. When the entertainment of the delegates of Sons of Hanifa is narrated, it is stated that they were given bread and meat one day bread and milk another day and bread and oil yet another day in the house of Ramla bint Harith.

The time period of the visits of the delegates were not the same. Some guests stayed for three days while others stayed 15 to 20 days. No matter how long the envoys stayed, they had the freedom of religion and conscience, and acted freely.

For instance, when the envoys of Najran came, they returned to their homeland as Christians, without changing their religion. No diplomatic guest was pressurized or harmed. The two envoys of Musaylama, the fake prophet, confessed that they exited Islam but they were not harmed since they were envoys. The Prophet (pbuh) said to them,

"I swear by Allah that were it not that messengers are not killed, I would cut off your heads."

As the saying goes, "Do not shoot the messenger!"

2. Places of Entertainment

The envoys and delegates that came to Madinah, the first capital city of Islam, stayed and were entertained in the houses allocated for this, in the tents set up in the yard of the mosque or in the houses of some Companions.

When the delegates of seven people from the tribe of Salaman came to Madinah, they found the Prophet while he was going to a janazah prayer in front of the mosque. They introduced themselves and said they had become Muslims. The Prophet (pbuh) said to his servant Thawban, "Entertain them where envoys are entertained." Then, he left. Thawban took them to a large house in a date orchard where Arab delegates stayed. It was the house of Ramla bint Harith. Ramla's house was like a "state guesthouse" where most of the diplomatic guests were entertained. It is known that Ramla’s house was used for the same thing during the caliphate of Hz. Abu Bakr too.

In addition, Abdurrahman Ibn Awf's house, which was known as “the big house” because it was the first house a muhajir built in Madinah, was also one of the houses where “the guests of the Messenger of Allah were entertained”. It was even called "the guest house". The envoys of the tribe of Azd were entertained in Farwa b. Amr’s house.

The Prophet (pbuh) entertained the representatives of Najran Christians consisting of fourteen people in Abu Ayyub al-Ansari’s house.

On the other hand, some delegates of tribes stayed in the houses of their relatives in Madinah.

After returning from the Expedition of Tabuk in the month of Ramadan, the envoys of the tribe of Thaqif that came to Madinah were entertained in the tents set up in the yard of the mosque so that they would listen to the Quran and watch the Muslims. Khalid b. Said b. As and Bilal al-Habashi served them. It is pointed out that the envoys of the tribe of Thaqif did not eat the food brought by those two people unless they ate them first.

The envoys of the clan of Ahlaf belonging to Sons of Malik were entertained in a tent in the mosque.

The Prophet sent Wail b. Hujr to Muawiya b. Abi Sufyan to entertain him. He entertained Wail in a house in Harra.

Some Companions volunteered to entertain some envoys or guests. The Prophet (pbuh) accepted the ones that he deemed appropriate. 10 However, he did not allow all of them.

3. Officials in charge of entertainment

As we have mentioned above, Khalid b. Said, Bilal al-Habashi and Thawban, the servant of the Prophet generally served the guests that were entertained near the mosque. We have not been able to find any information about the people who served the guests in the house of Ramla bint Harith.

B. THE PROPHET TAKING CARE OF THE DIPLOMATIC GUESTS

The Prophet (pbuh) took care of the envoys, diplomatic guests that came to Madinah no matter how many people there were and no matter where they came from, whether they were Muslims or not and no matter whom they represented.

We should point out that the delegates that arrived generally consisted of the people under the leadership of the chiefs of tribes. The delegates sometimes consisted of civil people. There were intellectual people like scholars, poets and orators among the delegates. Those delegates generally conveyed oral messages. However, the envoys of the states that the Prophet (pbuh) invited to Islam would come with written messages.

Let us see how the Prophet (pbuh) took care of his visitors.

1. Wearing nice clothes

If the Prophet (pbuh) was informed about the arrival of the diplomatic guests, he would welcome them by wearing nice clothes. He also asked his close friends to be dressed like that. According to what Jundab b. Makis states, "When the delegates of Kinda arrived, the Prophet had a Yemeni garment on him. Hz. Abu Bakr and Hz. Umar were dressed like him too." Jarir b. Abdullah, who came with a delegation and became a Muslim narrates: "When Arab delegates came, the Messenger of Allah would inform me about them and I would go to him by wearing my nice clothes."

The delegations that did not inform about their arrival beforehand would generally find the Prophet (pbuh) in the mosque. After meeting them and finding out about why they came, the Prophet (pbuh) would enable them to be entertained. Then, he would continue talking to them.

We should point out that the Prophet (pbuh) did not resort to any artificial ways like impressing the envoys with pompous ceremonies though it was customary at that time.

2. Caressing the heads of the guests

The Prophet would caress the heads of the guests who seemed very excited, nervous and hesitant with his blessed hand. It is stated that a person who was treated like that would feel relieved and regarded it as a means of pride.

3. Inviting the guests to his house

The Prophet held the hand of Adiyy b. Hatam, who came to visit him, and invited him to his house; he put the only mattress filled with date fibers under Adiyy and he himself sat on the ground. He talked to Adiyy, talked about his hesitations and answered all of his questions. He mentioned him about the bright days of Islam in the near future and invited him to Islam. He also reminded Adiyy a practice of his, which was haram in his belief, stating that he knew about him and that he needed to get rid of it. Adiyy said he felt embarrassed because of his state but he also said gladly that the Prophet (pbuh) never mentioned it again after that.

4. Mentioning the people to come before their coming and praising them

We also see a kind of interest and compliment that only the Prophet (pbuh) can do. The Prophet (pbuh) uttered nice words about some people to his Companions and told them about their arrival in Madinah beforehand. For instance, Jarir b. Abdullah and Wail b. Hujr, whom we have just mentioned above, are among them.

Jarir narrates: When I arrived in Madinah, I made my camel sit. I opened my bag, changed my clothes and entered the mosque. The Messenger of Allah was delivering a sermon then. I greeted him. The congregation were glancing at me. I asked the person sitting next to me, 'Did the Messenger of Allah mention me?' 'Yes,' he said, ‘He has just mentioned you in a nice way.’ He said, ‘A good person from Yemen will enter through that door. He has the sign of an angel, a ruler on his face.’ Thereupon, I praised Allah.

Wail b. Hujr narrates: When I arrived in Madinah, I talked to the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) before I talked to him. They said, "He told us about you three days before you arrived. He said, 'Wail is coming to you.'"

5. Taking off his garment and making his guest sit on it, introducing his guest to his Companions from the pulpit

After the Prophet (pbuh) met Wail b. Hujr and shook hands with him, he took off his garment and placed it on the ground. They sat on it together. He ordered the Muslims to gather. Then, he ascended the pulpit. He called Wail to come near him on the pulpit. After praising Allah, he addressed the Companions as follows:

"O Muslims! This is Wail b. Hujr. He came from a distant place, Hadramawt, on his own, by desiring and accepting Islam, without being forced. He is one of the descendants of Sons of King."

Then, he prayed for him as follows: "O Allah! Give blessing to Wail, Wail’s son and his son’s son!' Then, he caressed Wail’s head.

Once, Jarir b. Abdullah arrived while the Prophet (pbuh) was sitting with his Companions. Nobody made room for him. The Prophet (pbuh) took off his garment, gave it to Jarir and said, "O Abu Amr! Sit on it." Jarir sat on it. Then, he expressed his gratitude by saying, "O Messenger of Allah! May Allah treat you as you have treated me!"

Thereupon, the Prophet (pbuh) said to the people around him,

"When an honorable leader of a tribe comes to you, treat him kindly and show respect to him."

6. Visiting them where they stay and asking about their health

The Prophet (pbuh) took care of the diplomatic guests he settled in the guesthouses or the tents in the yard of the mosque. According to what Aws b. Hudhayfa, who was among the envoys of Thaqif, the Prophet would visit them after the night prayer, talk to them, tell them about what Makkans had done to him and give them information about the developments in Madinah.

7. Being interested in every issue that guests mentioned

The guests of the Prophet (pbuh) had various requests. Some of them came to test him ; there were some poets and orators who wanted to compete with him and decide to become Muslims or not based on the result ; there were some delegates who had unacceptable demands like the delegates of Thaqif who wanted to be exempt from performing prayers and not harming the idol Lat; there were some debaters who demanded mutual damnation; there were also some guests who complained about drought and asked for rain prayer. The Prophet (pbuh) was interested in all of those requests, answered their questions, competed and discussed with them, prayed for them, told them about Islam, explained them the principles that existed in their own cultures and books; thus, he tried to make them see the truth.

Consequently, they were taught the Quran and the principles of Islam if they became Muslims; they were granted some land or privileges; leaders and imams were appointed for some of them. We see the following statement in the document given to Sons of Bariq: "They have to entertain the Muslims who went to them during the time of war and famine for three days." Legal treaties were signed with those who did not become Muslims; they were given some documents and edicts of security.

8. Changing their names

It will be appropriate to point out the following issue: When the Prophet was introduced to a person, he would change some names with better names and would compliment people. For instance, he complimented Zayd, the leader of Sons of Nabhan as follows and changed his name from Zayd al-Khayl to Zayd al-Khayr:

"No Arab man has ever been described to me with his virtues and when I see him he does not have all of the virtues except Zayd. I have not been told about all of his virtues." He would change the names like Abdul-uzza and, Abdul-lat, which were the manifestations of the polytheistic culture, with the names like Abdullah and Abdurrahman, which were in compliance with the belief of oneness. However, some diplomats, though very few, did not want the names given to them by their ancestors to be changed.

9. Giving food for journey and gifts

When the envoys wanted to leave, some food and gifts were given to them. The amount of the gifts changed based on the financial situation of that time.

The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) did not send gifts to the leaders of the tribes and states whom he invited to Islam. He generally accepted the gifts sent by them and rarely rejected them. However, he definitely gave gifts to the envoys that were sent to him. When he was in Tabuk, he expressed his sorrow to the Byzantine envoy as follows: "If we were in Madinah, I would give you gifts." When Hz. Uthman heard it, he took out a piece of valuable fabric from his bag and gave it to the Prophet (pbuh) so that he would give it to the envoy as a gift. The Prophet (pbuh) was very pleased with this kindness of Hz. Uthman.

We should state that the Prophet (pbuh) practiced giving gifts to envoys insistently and gave the following advice to the Muslims before his death:

"Give gifts to the delegation of envoys as I gave them."

CONCLUSION

The special care and hospitality of the Prophet (pbuh) shown to the diplomatic guests shows that the difference of religion, language and race was not important related to guests. That he entertained some of the groups of envoys near the mosque and some of them in the mosque cannot be explained with financial difficulties only. It is certain that this practice aims to enable them to listen to the Quran, see how Muslims worship and observe the level the Muslims obtained in human relationships and hence to convey them the message of Islam indirectly. Therefore, it is an indispensable opportunity to convey the message of Islam and a necessity of hospitality to make things easier and to show understanding to non-Muslim statesmen, diplomats and tourists who want to visit mosques. According to a recorded narration, the envoys of the tribe of Thaqif entered the mosque though they were non-Muslims. Some Muslims found it strange. Thereupon, the Prophet (pbuh) said, "The earth will not be dirtied by anything." He announced his purpose by saying, "I will entertain there somewhere where they can listen to the Quran." It will be a deed in compliance with the Sunnah for the administrators of the Muslim countries not to ignore such a purpose, to make their diplomatic guests visit mosques at a time when they can listen to the Quran and watch the Muslims worship. It should not be forgotten that such a deed is gift to the guest for a Muslim.

Hospitality has such a function of “winning hearts or pleasing people” in the international dimension. It should be understood and our people should be taught that tourists are not “suckers” but “hearts to win”; and they should be treated accordingly. We might atone for the great losses of value due to the tourism policies that consisted of commercial purposes only and that lacked ethical content.

I want to end this writing by narrating an incident that attracts the attention to another aspect of the issue:

There was somebody among the representatives of Sons of Muharib who came to Madinah in the tenth year of the Migration and accepted Islam. The Prophet (pbuh) looked at him carefully.

The man said,

"O Messenger of Allah! You have probably recognized me."

The Prophet said,

"I think I have seen you before."

The man said,

"Yes, you saw me and spoke to me. I opposed you by uttering bad words. We met in the fair of Uqaz. You were visiting Arab tribes and inviting them to Islam. Nobody treated you worse than me among my friends on that day. I praise Allah that he allowed me to live long enough to believe in you. My friends who were with me on that day died as polytheists."

The Prophet said,

"Hearts are subject to Allah's wish. They are in His hand."

The man said,

"O Messenger of Allah! Pray for me so that I will be forgiven."

The Prophet said,

"Being a Muslim eliminates previous sins."

In the last part of the writing, we address everybody who has not accepted the call of the last Prophet: "Being a Muslim eliminates previous sins." We remind them that being late will not be of any use to anybody. Our call is the timeless diplomatic call of the eternal prophethood: "Be a Muslim and attain salvation."

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