Qur'an Ii.62

[Yusuf.]

Assalamu alaikum,


I would like to ask for opinions concerning the following ayat Insha'Allah:


[إِنَّ الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ وَالَّذِينَ هَادُواْ وَالنَّصَـرَى وَالصَّـبِئِينَ مَنْ ءَامَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الاٌّخِرِ وَعَمِلَ صَـلِحاً فَلَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلاَ خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلاَ هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ ]


(62. Verily, those who believe and those who are Jews and Christians, and Sabians (Sabi'in), whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day and does righteous good deeds shall have their reward with their Lord, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.)


According to Tafsir Ibn-Kathir:


`Ali bin Abi Talhah narrated from Ibn `Abbas, about,


[إِنَّ الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ وَالَّذِينَ هَادُواْ وَالنَّصَـرَى وَالصَّـبِئِينَ مَنْ ءَامَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الاٌّخِرِ]


(Verily, those who believe and those who are Jews and Christians, and Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day) that Allah revealed the following Ayah afterwards,


[وَمَن يَبْتَغِ غَيْرَ الإِسْلَـمِ دِينًا فَلَن يُقْبَلَ مِنْهُ وَهُوَ فِى الاٌّخِرَةِ مِنَ الْخَـسِرِينَ ]


(And whoever seeks religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the losers) (3:85).


This statement by Ibn `Abbas indicates that Allah does not accept any deed or work from anyone, unless it conforms to the Law of Muhammad that is, after Allah sent Muhammad . Before that, every person who followed the guidance of his own Prophet was on the correct path, following the correct guidance and was saved.


The Jews are the followers of Prophet Musa, who used to refer to the Tawrah for judgment. Yahud is a word that means, `repenting', just as Musa said,


[إِنَّا هُدْنَـآ إِلَيْكَ]


[مَنْ أَنصَارِى إِلَى اللَّهِ قَالَ الْحَوَارِيُّونَ نَحْنُ أَنْصَارُ اللَّهِ]


("Who will be my helpers in Allah's cause'' Al-Hawariyyun said: "We are the helpers of Allah.'') (61:14)


It was said that they were called `Nasara', because they inhabited a land called An-Nasirah (Nazareth), as Qatadah, Ibn Jurayj and Ibn `Abbas were reported to have said, Allah knows best. Nasara is certainly plural for Nasran.


When Allah sent Muhammad as the Last and Final Prophet and Messenger to all of the Children of Adam, mankind was required to believe in him, obey him and refrain from what he prohibited them; those who do this are true believers. The Ummah of Muhammad was called `Mu'minin' (believers), because of the depth of their faith and certainty, and because they believe in all of the previous Prophets and matters of the Unseen.


********


So my question is this: what is the status of Christians or Jews who still follow the paths of their prophets, but who have not been exposed to Islam? Are they still covered by II.62?


And Allah Knows Best.


Yusuf

[Qutuz]

in Ibn Katheer Tafseer book and under the interpertion of this verse


<i>(62. Verily, those who believe and those who are Jews and Christians, and Sabians (Sabi'in), whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day and does righteous good deeds shall have their reward with their Lord, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.)</i>


he mention that Imam Al Tabari (or Ibn Gareer..i can't remember) say that this verse talk about the Jews and Christians before prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) and it apply to Jews and Christians who receieved a distorted message about Islam (ask FOX NEWS about that)....which apply to alot of Jews and Christians in the western world this days.


and God knows best.

[Abunuran]

Wa Alikum As-salaam wa Rahmatu Allah wa Barakatu my dear brother,


Welcome to the forum Ya Yusuf, nice to see you again brother.


Mash'a Allah, very nice points made and nice question to discuss, lets see what the brothers and sisters think and how they will reply on this topic.


Again, welcome ya Akhi fe Allah, may Allah (SWT) guide us all to his light, make us from the Mu'minin and forgive us, Ameen.


As-salaam Alikum.

[Muslimah]

Assalamu alaikum,
I would like to ask for opinions concerning the following ayat Insha'Allah:


[إِنَّ الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ وَالَّذِينَ هَادُواْ وَالنَّصَـرَى وَالصَّـبِئِينَ مَنْ ءَامَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الاٌّخِرِ وَعَمِلَ صَـلِحاً فَلَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلاَ خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلاَ هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ ]


********


So my question is this: what is the status of Christians or Jews who still follow the paths of their prophets, but who have not been exposed to Islam? Are they still covered by II.62?


And Allah Knows Best.


Yusuf

as salam alykom brother Yusuf


I think I already welcomed u on another thread but no harm, again u r most welcome to the board


As for this point, as far as I read and Allah Knows best, that there will be people whose destiney is known only to Allah, of them this group u r talking about. If one is not exposed to Islam at all, then Only Allah Knows His destiney.


I have more about the Ayah itself Insh aAllah I will come back later.

[fayth]

assalamo Alaykum wa rahmatu Allah


as far as that goes, it comes under aqueeda.


To obtain a right aqueeda you must believe in all the prophets including the last prophet, saaws.


If you do not believe in all the prophets then the aqueeda is not complete and as such your faith and belief are incomplete.


You will remember that the prophet Jesus saaws will come before the last days and he will pray as a Muslim under the rightly guided Imam, he will admit to the shahadah of laa Illaha illaa Allah, and Mohamed rasoul Allah wa khaatam alnabiyeen, (no prophet after him).


I am sorry, I should write here something from my book of aqueeda to prove my point but I dont know where I put it.


Anyway, those in ignorance of Islam will of course be judged as Allah sees fit but alhamdulilaah I think there are few ignorant of Islam these days. So the correct and only correct path is to believe in Allah his messengers his books his angels and fate the good and bad, and do good deeds then in shaa Allah heaven will be awaiting the righteous.


wa Allahu aalam


assalamo alaykum wa rahmatu Allah

[Muslimah]

as salam alykom fayth


Jazakum Allah Khairan for your input and most welcome to the board.


One more point is the word "man: translated as whoever. Therefore, whoever among the aforementioned groups would believe in Allah and the Day After Shall be safe. Just note also the the word sab-een transalted here as Sebians is literally those who apostated. They were followers of the religion brought by Noah then turned away to idol worship. We seek refuge to Allah from this.

[reepicheep]

Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians,- any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.  Surah 2:62

I've gone through the threads on IslamMessage which discuss this verse, and done more reading on other websites, and I still don't understand the Muslim position on this verse.


It appears that Muslims believe the word "Christian", when it appears in the Koran, has a totally different meaning than the word "Christian" as used today. Is this correct? How would you define the word "Christian", as it appears in the above passage?

[umm Zachariah]

Bismillah


Reepicheep


I am sure you have read about this verse on other Islamic forums, since it is one of the most asked verses Christians do ask about.


Since the answers in this thread are clear about whom it is about, that seems not to be what you wonder about.


I can only say how I comprehend this, since I know that a Christian today do not have the 'qualities' of the Christians mentioned in the Qur'an, please take no offense.


But to me a Christian according to the Qur'an is someone that did followed the teachings of prophet Isa, pbuh and the Injeel that brought to his people, the Children of Israel. And as their prophet they followed him and did as he did, and since he was a Jew that would have meant going to the synagouge to pray, in the way that he prayed, fasted, done circumcision on their boys, not have eaten pork and more.


And to try to look at it a bit objective, IF there are any such followers today, I would call them Muslims. Since they must have followed HIS teachings and done as he did, and believed in Allah SWT as a unity God. They would not have been Jews that I am quite sure of, since Jews do not even acknowledge Isa, pbuh, as a prophet.


Christians today do in much follow the teachings of visions of Paul, and the Church and Augustinus. I know perhaps you will not agree on this point, but this is the view of Christianity and Christians from an Islamic point of view. That Christians today are not FOLLOWERS of Christ, but of course Christians believe in his death and resurrection, but that is a belief in, not to be a follower of. No offense. But this is how it looks like.


And one more important thing is, that Christians today do not acknowledge the last prophet Muhammad saws sent to mankind. And according to Islam to deny ONE prophet is to deny them all. We have to accept them all, that is the Islamic point of view.


Regards

[Muslimah]

Bismillah


Peace reepi


There is a very important point that needs to be well explained.


The word christian actually was never mentioned in Quran. Those who followed Eassa (prayer and peace be upon him) were not called Masehyeen = christians as such Allah Is calling them after Eassa. In Quran Allah Calls them Nasarah, one of the reasons is as mentioned above. However, I personally endorce another reason for being called so, is that the word Nasarah is derived from the word Yansur. The Ayaha talks about those who willingly offered to be helpers in Allah's cause as follows:


"Who will be my helpers in Allah's cause'' Al-Hawariyyun said: "We are the helpers of Allah.'') (61:14)


Therefore, the adjective christian was never mentioned in Quran. But rather they are called Nasarah because they offered willingly to be Eassa's helper in Allah's cause.


As for the rest I think my brothers and sisters explained enough. Plus this particular Ayah received much attention on this board and a full thread is dedicated to it.

[reepicheep]

It appears that "modern day" Muslims do not consider "modern day" Christians to be "people of the book". So, for example, in modern day times a Muslim male would NOT be allowed to marry a Christian woman. Correct?


According to Muslim theology, are all modern day Christians without exception guilty of polytheism (shirk)?