Types of People on Earth Before The Mission of Islam
Praise be to Allah.
When God (Allah in Arabic) sent Muhammad (peace be upon him) the people on earth were of two groups: (1) the people of the Book, and (2) the pretenders of faith who followed no Book.
The people of the Book are of two kinds: (a) the cursed ones, and (b) those who went astray (strayers).
(a) the cursed ones :
The people who angered God are the Jews: the people of lies and falsifications, of perfidy, deception, and chicanery, the murderers of the prophets, the people of usury, and they are the most malicious of all people in intentions, the worst in temperament, the farthest to mercy, and the closest to vengeance.
Hatred is their nature, enmity and bitterness are their habits: habits of machination, lies, and trickery. They consider those who disagree with them in their rejection of Faith and in their belying of the prophets as undeserving and forbidden from having rights. They do not expect to find in a true believer a shred of trustworthiness, neither do they consider those who agree with them as worthy of right or pity, nor those who have something to share with them as worthy of fairness and equity, or those who mix with them as reliable and untrecherous, or those who give service to them as worthy to give advice. In their midst, the most wicked is the wisest, the shrewdest is the most deceitful, the level-headed, who is never found among them, is not a true Jew.
Among all people, they are the shortest in patience, the most excessive in wrongdoing to their families at home, the most unmindful for cleanliness at home, the most vicious in disposition. Greeting them is maledictive, meeting them is ominous, for their slogan is indignation and their attire in rancour.
(b) those who went astray :
The second kind are the people who went astray: They are the worshippers of the Cross or the Trinitarians. They blasphemed against God in an unprecedented way, and refused to admit that He is the One and Only, the Eternal Absolute, who begets not, nor is He begotten and there is none like unto Him. They did not conceive God as the Greatest of all things, but instead, they said about Him what:
“Whereby the heavens are almost torn, and the earth is split asunder, and the mountains fall in ruins, That they ascribe a son (or offspring or children) to the Most Gracious (Allah).” (Quran, Maryam [19]: 90-91).
Say whatever you wish to say about a sect the cornerstone of whose tenets is that God is a part of three, Mary is His companion, and the Messiah, His son! And that He descended from the Throne of His Magnificence and joined Himself to the womb of His companion. Needless to repeat the known events that allegedly took place, till he was crucified, died and buried.
The belief of this sect is the worship of the crosses and the appeal to the pictures engraved and painted in red and yellow on the walls. In their prayer they say: “Mother of God, provide us with our sustenance, forgive us and have mercy on us.”
Their religion is drinking wine, eating pork, abandoning circumcision, indulgence in adoring unclean things, permissiveness in eating everything unblessed for human consumption from an elephant to a gnat. To them what is lawful or unlawful is what the priest decides it is, and their religion is what he sanctions, and it is he who forgives sins and salvages them from the chastisement of Hell fire.
This is the case of those who have a Book.
As for those who do not, they fall between idolaters, fire worshippers, demonolaters, and bewildered Sabaists (astrolators). What is common among them is joining partners to God, belying the prophets, abolishing what God revealed and sanctioned, and repudiating the Day of Reckoning and the Resurrection. They do not follow any of God’s religions, they do not worship Him with the rest of the worshippers and do not praise His Oneness with the praisers of His Oneness.
As for the Magians, they sleep with their mothers daughters and sisters, let alone their maternal aunts. Their religion is fanfaronade and hullabaloo, their food is corpses, their drink is wine, their adored god is Fire, and their patron is the Devil. They are the most wicked of Adams breed in giving, they hold the most mischievous of creeds and the worst of beliefs.
As for the pretenders of belief among the Sabaists, and the atheists among the philosophers, they do not believe in God, His angels, His Books, and the Day of Judgement. Nor do they believe in any principle or a return to God. To them the universe has no commander, for bidder, sender of prophets and Books, rewarder of the good-doers and punisher of the wrong-doers. In the account of their jurists there exists only nine orbits, ten minds, four pillars, and a chain arranging the succession of existing things, which is rather a chain for mad people than a plausible arrangement that can stand to reason! In general, among all of these (false) religions, Islam is the only religion accepted by God 1, of which there is no other religion on earth, and the rest are obscure like a tiny unknown planet behind a shroud of misty clouds.
God looked at all the people on earth, Arabs and non-Arabs, and abhored them except a number of the people of the Book. In this dreary pitch-darkness, God raised up the sun of the Message like a luminous lantern, and bestowed it on the people of the earth a gift greater than thanks-giving, and the earth shone completely by its light, and this light emanated till it covered all corners and horizons, and the crescent of true Guidance matured to a full moon, and the True Religion of God progressed rapidly.
Thanks to God who rescued us from the pitches of darkness by sending us Muhammad (peace be upon him), and opened the door of True Guidance in front of us till the Day of Judgement, and made us see through His light the strayers from the Right path floundering in their misguidance, wandering about in their inebriety, faltering in their ignorance, and dithering in their uncertainty. They do believe; but in idolatry! they seek a lord other than God. they do know; but only about the perceivable phenomenae of life on earth and they are oblivious about the Hereafter. They do prostrate but to the Cross, to idols and to the sun. They know how to deceive; but they are only deceiving themselves though they do not know it:
“Indeed Allah conferred a great favour on the believers when He sent among them a Messenger (Muhammad) from among themselves, reciting unto them His Verses (the Qur’an), and purifying them (from sins by their following him), and instructing them (in) the Book (the Qur’an) and Al-Hikmah [the wisdom and the Sunnah of the Prophet (i.e. his legal ways, statements, acts of worship)], while before that they had been in manifest error.” (Quran, Aal ‘Imran [3]: 164)
And: “Similarly (to complete My Blessings on you), We have sent among you a Messenger (Muhammad) of your own, reciting to you Our Verses (the Qur’an) and purifying you, and teaching you the Book (the Qur’an) and the Hikmah (i.e. Sunnah, Islamic laws and Fiqh - jurisprudence), and teaching you that which you used not to know.” (Quran, Al-Baqarah [2]: 151)
Praise be to God who enriched us with His Sharia which exhorts wisdom and spiritual growth, and embraces the commands for justice and charity, and prohibits all sinful deeds and reprehensive acts and injustice. Kindness and favours return to God for what He bestowed upon us graciously and for selecting us to be above all nations (being the guardians to His True Religion Islam). To Him we supplicate to inspire us to be grateful and deserving for His blessing, and to open in front of us the doors for repentance, forgiveness, and a mercy, because the most endeared means to the benevolent is to supplicate to Him through his good deeds and to confess to Him that the whole matter belongs to Him, to His favours and kindness. We return to Him with gratitude for His blessing on us, we return to Him to forgive our sins, ignorance, unjustness, and the excesses we commit in managing our affairs. This is the plea in our hands to gain recompense and be rescued from the most severe penalty. As long as our mistakes are not deliberate, but are mistakes committed in the course of our pious endeavours, the blessing of God will not desert us.
However, some of our mistakes may exhaust all of our good deeds and require more devout obedience to God. The recompense may be greater if our intentions and deeds are unsullied and are purely endeavoured out of love for God and according to His commands. The matter is not more than hanging earnestly to the gems of His forgiveness,putting our trust in Him, shielding ourselves from His retribution to protect and guide us, submitting and supplicating to Him imploring for His givings, stretching our lacking hands with humbleness towards Him, asking and admitting our need for Him at all times. He who is given a gust from His abundant Mercy, or receives a glance from His Compassion, would spring alive from among the dead, and would be engulfed from every direction with plenty of bounties, and all the armies of worries, heart-breaks and sorrows would retreat being defeated away from him. 0 God! if once in a life time You glance at me with mercy I will live forever happy.
One of the duties toward God is to parry those who disparage the apostle.
Some of the duties toward God is to parry those who disparage His Book, His Apostle, and His Religion, and to contend against them with reason and evidence, with heart and inspiration, with a sword or a spear (if they resort to similar means). No one would have faith as little as a grain of mustard if he relinquishes this duty. It came to us that some questions asked by some of the non-Muslims were not answered satisfyingly, and the Muslims failed to find the suitable remedy for the malady. They thought that answering by hitting back cruciatingly would generate the answer that would resolve the matter once for good. But the faith rejecters said: «our companions were right when they said that Islam advanced by the sword not by the Book».
Both parties dispersed in disagreement: one as a striker, and the other being struck, and the grounds are lost between the asker, the asked, and what is asked for. A responsible replier would roll up the sleeves of the arm on firm will and stand up on the steady ground of diligence asking God for help to defend His cause and relying on Him to say and do what pleases Him. He should not say what the incapable ignorant had said: «The Faith rejecters can only be treated with the sword and there is no need to reason with them».
Such an attitude is an expression of resourcelessness and a resort to escape from the confrontation, incompetence and feebleness. One should follow the bidding of God in debating with the faith rejecters after calling them to embrace Islam. And that is by producing evidences, so that they cannot hide behind the excuse that they were not given proofs:
“…So that those who were to be destroyed (for their rejecting the Faith) might be destroyed after a clear evidence, and those who were to live (i.e. believers) might live after a clear evidence. And surely, Allah is All-Hearer, All-Knower.” (Quran, Al-Anfal [8]: 42)
The sword came but to put the proof into effect (to protect its implementation), and the to redress the obdurate opposer (who stands against the right of self-expression and freedom of speech), and a warning to the evading rejecter. God the Most Sublime said:
“Indeed We have sent Our Messengers with clear proofs, and revealed with them the Scripture and the Balance (justice) that mankind may keep up justice. And We brought forth iron wherein is mighty power (in matters of war), as well as many benefits for mankind, that Allah may test who it is that will help Him (His religion) and His Messengers in the unseen. Verily, Allâh is All-Strong, All-Mighty.” (Quran, Al-Hadid [57]: 25)
The religion of Islam rose through the guiding Book, and was but defended through the sharp sword. The one and refined Revelation was its source, and through its light the cheeks of the seeker glow. It is the cure for the ill of every reasoning man. It is the remedy of the malady of ignorance.
To God I return for good luck, for He opens the doors of the good, and facilitates the means to reach it.
Adapted from the book entitled “Hidayat al-hayara fi ajwibat al-Yahud wa-al-Nasara” by Imam Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyah (may Allah have mercy on him).
God The Exalted says in His Book: “Indeed, the religion in the sight of Allah is Islam.” (Quran, Aal ‘Imran [3]: 19). ↩
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- Source :Hidayat Al-hayara Fi Ajwibat al-Yahud wa al-Nasara
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