A NOW YOU KNOW MEDIA STUDY GUIDE

Christian and Islamic Theology

Presented by Prof. Gabriel Said Reynolds, Ph.D.

CHRISTIAN AND ISLAMIC THEOLOGY STUDY GUID E

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Table of Contents

Program Summary ...... 5

About Your Presenter ...... 7

Topic 1: ’s Challenge to ...... 8

Topic 2: Thinking about Islam ...... 11

Topic 3: Reading the Qurʾan ...... 15

Topic 4: God, Prophets, and the History of the World ...... 19

Topic 5: in the Qurʾan ...... 22

Topic 6: The Biography of in ...... 25

Topic 7: The Biography of Muhammad in Medina ...... 28

Topic 8: The ...... 31

Topic 9: Islamic Law ...... 34

Topic 10: under Islam ...... 38

Topic 11: The Muslim Jesus ...... 42

Topic 12: The Christian Argument for the True Religion ...... 46

Topic 13: The Islamic Critique of the ...... 51

Topic 14: An Islamic ...... 54

Topic 15: Thomas Aquinas and “The Reasons for the Faith” ...... 58

Topic 16: An Islamic Gospel ...... 61

Topic 17: A Christian Reading of the Qurʾan ...... 64

Topic 18: Modern Islamic Arguments against Christianity ...... 67

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Topic 19: Allahu Akbar: Understanding the Islamic Theological Impulse ...... 70

Topic 20: Evangelical and Islam ...... 74

Topic 21: The Catholic and Islam ...... 78

Bibliography ...... 82

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Program Summary

With about 1.7 billion members and growing, Islam is the second largest religion in the world. Now, you can understand Islam and its complex relationship with Christian theology.

In Christian and Islamic Theology, you will deepen your own Christian theological reflection by examining the ways Islam challenges Christian teaching. In doing so, you will seek to remember what Blessed John Paul II described as the “role of the in the process by which knowledge matures into wisdom” (Fides et Ratio, 44).

Interactions between Islam and Christianity have not always been harmonious. In the early eight century John of Damascus made Islam the 101st, and final, heresy in his work De haeresibus. Since that time Christians have often thought of Islam as a Christian heresy, and likewise, often think of Christianity as an Islamic heresy. Jesus, they maintain, was a Muslim prophet. Like Adam and before Him and Muhammad after Him, he was sent to preach Islam. By this view Islam, is the natural religion: it is eternal, universal, and unchanging. Other religions, including Christianity, arise only when people go astray. Therefore, Muslims have long challenged Christian doctrines that differ from Islam, including the , the Incarnation, and the Crucifixion. Muslims generally consider the Bible to be a falsified version of an originally Islamic revelation, and they consider Christian practice to be a falsified version of the Islamic practice of Jesus.

In this course, you will examine Islamic works, from the Qur’an to twenty- first-century Islamic apologies, in which these ideas are expressed. You will then examine the history of Christian responses to the Islamic challenge to Christianity and consider, as theologians, how Christians might approach them today.

In the first part, you will look at the development of Islamic thought on Christianity in the Qurʾan and influential Islamic works of the classical period. You will see how the Qurʾan makes Jesus a Muslim prophet, and you will then examine how early Muslim authors, in light of the Qurʾan, explained how the Bible emerged in spite of Jesus’ Islamic preaching. You will also see how Christians, especially in the Islamic world, responded to the challenge which the new (and dominant) religion posed.

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In the second part of the course, you will move through the centuries to see how these themes developed, examining an important treatise of Thomas Aquinas on Islam, an Islamic “gospel” written in Renaissance , and the arguments of twenty-first-century Muslims who argue that the Qurʾan has miraculous scientific information. Finally, you examine how Christians, concerned for the proclamation of their faith and harmonious dialogue between religions, might think of the Church’s relationship with Islam today.

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About Your Presenter

Gabriel Said Reynolds is the Tisch Family Associate Professor of and Theology in the Department of Theology at Notre Dame, where he researches the Qur’an and Muslim-Christian relations. A Catholic, he received his Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from Yale University, where his dissertation, A Muslim Theologian in the Sectarian Milieu (published by Brill in 2004), won the Field Prize. He also prepared an introduction and translation of the medieval Islamic history of Christianity, The Critique of Christian Origins (Brigham Young University, 2008).

Prof. Reynolds has organized two international conferences, in 2005 and 2009, on the Qur’an at Notre Dame, and he edited the acts of the conferences as The Qur’an in Its Historical Context (Routledge, 2008) and New Perspectives on the Qur’an: The Qur’an in Its Historical Context 2 (Routledge, 2011). He is also the author of The Qur’an and Its Biblical Subtext (Routledge 2010) and The Emergence of Islam (Fortress, 2012). He has been a visiting professor at Université de Saint Joseph in Lebanon and Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. Prof. Reynolds has conducted research and delivered lectures in cities throughout the , including Cairo, Jerusalem, Beirut, Damascus, and Tehran.

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Topic 1: Islam’s Challenge to Christian Theology

I. Religions and Their Relationships A. Consider the religions of the world: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, , Sikhism and others. Many have no substantial relationship to one another. Christianity traditionally says nothing about the Hindu gods (Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu), and Hinduism says nothing about Jesus Christ. B. Christianity does say something substantial about Judaism, namely that the messiah whom the Israelite prophets predicted is Jesus of Nazareth—and that he is not only messiah but also savior and Lord, God incarnate. C. Similarly Islam has something to say about Christianity, but what it says is quite different: Christians are wrong about Jesus. Jesus was a Muslim prophet like Moses before him and Muhammad after him. Indeed, Jesus predicted the coming of Muhammad. D. Islamic beliefs: 1. Islam holds that it is the eternal, natural, and true religion. 2. It was taught by every prophet, but humans corrupted and falsified their teaching. Judaism is a falsification of the Islamic teaching of Moses. Christianity is a falsification of the Islamic teaching of Jesus. Only Muslims have preserved the Islamic teaching of their prophet: Muhammad. E. According to a saying of Muhammad—that is, a hadith—every person is born a Muslim: “There is none born but is created to his true nature (Islam). It is his parents who make him a Jew or a Christian or a Magian quite as beasts produce their young with their limbs perfect. Do you see anything deficient in them?” F. In light of this saying, converts to Islam often call themselves “reverts,” suggesting that they have “reverted to their natural religion.”

II. The Islamic Challenge to Christian Theology A. From the Islamic point of view, God’s will for humanity is that all be submissive to him by following the one true religion: Islam. The first man, Adam, was a Muslim prophet. But from Adam to Muhammad, humans neglected the Islamic preaching of the prophets and altered the divine scriptures which they brought. Muhammad was sent as the last prophet, to correct all of the errors that had entered into other religions, including Christianity. 1. Thus, a Muslim religious tract passed out to me in Beirut declares that Muhammad “corrected the misinterpreted or incomplete teachings of all prior religions.” 2. Similarly a Muslim website (http://www.islamtomorrow.com/true_religion.asp) explains:

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a. “Islam is the true religion of ‘’ and as such, its name represents the central principle of Allah’s ‘God’s’ religion; the total submission to the will of Allāh. . . . Hence, it was not a new religion brought by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in Arabia in the seventh century, but only the true religion of Allah re-expressed in its final form. Islam is the religion which was given to Adam, the first man and the first prophet of Allah, and it was the religion of all the prophets sent by Allah to mankind. The name of God’s religion Islam was not decided upon by later generations of man. It was chosen by Allah Himself and clearly mentioned in His final revelation to man. In the final book of divine revelation, the Qur’an. . .” B. According to Islamic doctrine Muhammad is the final prophet. His teachings are to be followed by all of humanity and for all times, until the . His scripture, the Qurʾan, is the only divine book which has been perfectly preserved. The Bible, on the other hand, has been corrupted and is unreliable. C. Thus to Christians, Islam is not a religion like any other. It is a religion which, from its very origins, sees itself as a correction of Christianity, as a religion which insists that Christians are fundamentally wrong about Jesus, and therefore as a religion with a particular mission to convince Christians to convert to Islam.

III. The Response of Christian Theology A. All of this means that the task before Christians in thinking about Islam and Muslims is especially complicated. It is relatively easy to speak about Hindu doctrine on Brahma, Shiva, or Vishnu. But how are we to think about Islamic doctrine on Jesus, about whom the Qurʾan says, “He was not the Son of God,” and when Muslims believe that he did not die on the Cross (rather, someone else was transformed to look like him and died in his place)? B. The first step is to learn more about Islam, and that is our first task in this course. C. The second step is to contemplate this matter theologically. As Christians, our consideration of Islam should be done through “faith seeking understanding” (fides quaerens intellectum). Our response to Islam—if it is to be an authentically Christian response—must emerge from a reasoned understanding of Christian revelation. The second task in this course is thus to contemplate Islam in the light of Christian theology.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. How does the Islamic conception of religious history differ from that of Christianity?

2. According to Islamic teaching, in what way is Muhammad distinguished from earlier prophets?

3. In what way does Islam have a special, or particular, relationship with Christianity?

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Topic 2: Thinking about Islam

I. Traditional Ideas about Islam’s Historical Context A. Islamic sources describe the pre-Islamic period of Arabia as the jahiliyya: “the age of ignorance.” They mean thereby ignorance of God’s will, or divine revelation (and not of science or culture—the Islamic sources praise pre-Islamic Arabs in this regard), as the Arabs (according to these sources) were a people to whom God had not yet spoken. B. In fact, Islamic sources describe Mecca, the city of Muhammad’s birth, as the center of a thriving pagan society. The heart of the Arabs’ pagan religion was the black stone building in the center of Mecca, the Kaʿba, which in the days of Muhammad’s youth was filled with idols. C. Yet Islamic sources also tell us that the Kaʿba was originally built by Abraham for the worship of the true God when he travelled to Arabia with Hagar and Ishmael (leaving Sarah and Isaac in Canaan). By this view Mecca was originally an Abrahamic city, and the Kaʿba a shrine dedicated to the worship of one God, yet it had descended into paganism and idol worship. D. Muhammad would be the one to purify the city and re-establish the Kaʿba as a house of the worship of the true God. He is thus the new Abraham. The connection between Muhammad and Abraham is seen in the story of Muhammad’s ascent into heaven. After returning to earth he recounted to his followers how he found Abraham on the sixth level of heaven, and added: “I have never seen a man more like myself than Abraham.”

II. Traditional Timeline of the Rise of Islam A. 570 CE: Birth of Muhammad, Year of the Elephant, and death of ʿAbdullah, Muhammad’s father. B. 595: Muhammad marries his first wife, Khadija. C. 610: Muhammad’s call to prophethood on Mt. Hira outside of Mecca. Khadija, ʿAli, and Abu Bakr accept Islam. D. 614: Migration of Muslims to Ethiopia (Abyssinia). E. 620: Muhammad’s night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem and ascension to heaven from Jerusalem. F. 622: The hijra, Muhammad’s migration to Yathrib (later Medina). The first year of the . G. 624: Victory of Muslims at the Battle of Badr. Expulsion of the Jewish tribe of Banu Qaynuqa from Medina. H. 625: Victory of Meccan pagans at the Battle of Uhud. Expulsion of the Jewish tribe of Banu Nadir from Medina.

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I. 627: Failure of Meccan pagan offensive at the Battle of the Trench. Massacre and enslavement of the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. J. 628: Treaty of Hudaybiyya. Muhammad’s emissaries to world leaders. K. 630: Conquest of Mecca. Victory of Muslims at the Battle of Hunayn. L. 632: Farewell pilgrimage to Mecca. M. 632: Death of Muhammad. Abu Bakr selected as caliph. Death of Fatimah. Wars of Apostasy begin. N. 633: Muslim victory over the forces of the false prophet Musaylima. O. 634: Death of Abu Bakr. Umar b. al-Khattab selected as second caliph, known as “Amir al- Muʾminin” (“Commander of the Faithful”) for his aggressive military campaigns. P. 637: Muslim Conquest of Jerusalem. ʿUmar is personally received into the city by the patriarch Sophronius. Q. 644: ʿUmar is assassinated. Uthman b. ʿAffan selected as third caliph. R. 650: ʿUthman loses the Prophet’s signet ring; his reign becomes increasingly impious. S. 656: ʿUthman is killed by protestors from Egypt. ʿAli ibn Abi Talib becomes the fourth caliph. Battle of the Camel against ʿAʾisha and her allies. T. 657: ʿAli and Muʿawiya face each other the Battle of Siffin, which ends in an agreement to an arbitration. U. 661: ʿAli b. Abi Talib is assassinated by a Kharijite. Muʿawiyya is recognized as caliph and establishes his rule in Damascus.

III. The Problem with Words A. What does the word “prophet” mean to Christians? 1. The has books attributed to prophets, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. 2. The calls John the Baptist a prophet, and Jesus calls himself a prophet, as when he says, “A prophet is despised only in his own country and in his own house” (Matthew 13:57). The New Testament also names other figures prophets, such as Judas and Silas (Acts 15:32), Agabus (Acts 21:10), or the prophetess Anna (Luke 2:36). Jesus suggests that many (perhaps all) Christian believers are prophets (Matthew 23:34), and Paul speaks of the “gift” of prophecy given to believers (1 Corinthians 12:10). B. What does “prophet” mean to Muslims? 1. Those men (never women) to whom God has given the message of Islam to share with others. They are all Muslims. They set an example in words and deeds which all believers are to follow.

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2. The first prophet was Adam, and the last prophet was Muhammad. The Qurʾan does not mention Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Judas, Silas, Agabus, or Anna among the prophets, while it names prophet figures, such as Adam, Noah, and Abraham, whom Christians think of otherwise. Humanity can be divided into two classes: those to whom God gives revelation (prophets) and everyone else (and, since the death of Muhammad, all of humanity is in the latter category). C. What does it mean, then, to say that Muslims believe Jesus is a prophet? How should a Christian respond when Muslims ask whether Christians consider Muhammad to be a prophet?

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What does the word jahiliyya mean and what does it say about the traditional scenario of Islam’s origins?

2. Who built the Kaʿba and why is that important to Islam?

3. What does the word “prophet” mean to Muslims?

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Topic 3: Reading the Qurʾan

I. The Qurʾan: Structure A. The Qurʾan is just over half the length of the New Testament. It is divided into 114 chapters, or Suras. Each of these Suras is divided into verses. Islamic tradition holds that the division into Suras was revealed by God to the Prophet. At the end of each year, the angel Gabriel would visit Muhammad in order to review the Suras that had thus far been compiled. B. Each Sura has a name. The Sura names do not represent its main topic (for example, Sura al- Baqarah is not about cows!) but seem to have been used simply to distinguish the Suras. All but one Sura (9) begin with an invocation: “in the name of God the merciful the benevolent.” This invocation is not counted as a verse (except in Sura 1). 29 Suras begin with a series of disconnected Arabic letters (often known as “mysterious letters”) which seem to have been used as marks in the process of editing. C. The Suras generally proceed from longest to shortest—an organizational principle known from Paul’s letters. The principal exception is Sura 1, al-Fātiḥa (“The Opening”), which has only 7 verses. In fact, it is addressed to God and seems to be a prayer meant to be offered before the recitation of God’s word. Muslims, however, see it is part of God’s word along with the rest of the Qurʾan. D. The great majority of the “Qurʾan” is in rhyme, which suggests it was meant to be proclaimed orally. The word Qurʾan itself means “lectionary.” E. The Qurʾan has a style like that of a homily: it provides references not details, and returns frequently to religious exhortation.

II. Revelation of the Qurʾan A. According to the standard Islamic view, the Qurʾan existed from all eternity in heaven. When the time was right, God sent the angel Gabriel down with the Qurʾan to the lowest heaven. Muslims understand Q 97, which begins, “Indeed We sent it down on the Night of Ordainment,” to refer to this event. B. From the lowest heaven the angel, Gabriel would reveal pieces of the Qurʾan to Muhammad orally, beginning with Qurʾan 96:1-5, given to the Prophet while he was meditating on a mountain. The Prophet would experience physical symptoms which allowed him to distinguish the words of the angel from his own thoughts. Muhammad, under the tutelage of the angel Gabriel, learned to recite these revelations in the order of the heavenly Qurʾan. After his death, ʿUthmān (d. AD 656), the third leader (or caliph) of the Islamic community, had the Qurʾan transcribed according to the manner in which the Prophet would recite it. He destroyed all variant versions of the Qurʾan and his own version became the standard text.

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C. The traditional idea of the Qurʾan as a facsimile of a heavenly book means that Muslims treat the book with extraordinary reverence. Arabic editions of the Qurʾan are generally decorated with ornate calligraphy and are bound in leather with a special flap for protection. Pious Muslims will often keep the on a special stand. They will be careful never to let it touch the ground, and they may kiss the text before reading it. Muslims who recite the Qurʾan in Arabic think of themselves as reciting the words of God as they exist in heaven. By this view the very recitation of the words is a holy act. They are assured of a certain spiritual benefit, whether or not they understand what they are reciting.

III. The Quran and Muḥammad’s Life A. Read without the traditional Islamic interpretation, the Qurʾan says little about Muhammad. The Qurʾan mentions him by name only four times and gives very little information about the people he knew or the places in which he lived. It does not name any of his wives or his daughters. It does not mention his cousin or any of his principal companions. It does not mention most of the places around Arabia: not Egypt, Yemen, Persia or the Red Sea. B. The traditional Islamic commentaries, however, explain the material of the Qurʾan with stories about Muhammad. For example, this passage is explained with the story of Muhammad on Mt. Hira, where he received the first revelation given to the Prophet by the angel Gabriel: 1. Read in the Name of your Lord who created; 2. created man from a clinging mass. 3. Read, and your Lord is the most generous, 4. who taught by the pen, 5. taught man what he did not know. (Q 96:1-5) C. This passage is explained with a story by which two angels appeared to the Prophet when he was a child. They opened his breast and removed a blood clot from it: 1. Did We not open your breast for you 2. and relieve you of your burden 3. which [almost] broke your back? (Q 94:1-3) D. This passage is explained with a story by which Muhammad travelled by night from Mecca to Jerusalem on a winged horse: 1. Immaculate is He who carried His servant on a journey by night from the Sacred to the Farthest Mosque whose environs We have blessed, so that We might show him some of Our signs. Indeed He is the All-hearing, the All-seeing. (Q 17:1)

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E. This passage is explained with a story by which the Muslims, during the first period after their arrival in Medina, would pray towards Jerusalem. When the did not accept Muhammad as a prophet he began to wish that God would instruct him to pray towards Mecca. One day he made this request to Gabriel and “turned his face to the sky” as he watched Gabriel fly up to heaven to speak about this issue to God. Gabriel then returned with the good news that his God had agreed to the Prophet’s request: We certainly see you turning your face about in the sky. We will surely turn you to a qiblah of your liking: so turn your face towards the Holy Mosque, and wherever you may be, turn your faces towards it! Indeed those who were given the Book surely know that it is the truth from their Lord. And Allah is not oblivious of what they do. (Q 2:144) F. The question for the critical readers of the Qurʾan is whether these stories give us genuine information about the circumstances in which the Qurʾan was proclaimed, or whether these stories were written after the Qurʾan, by a community which no longer knew the historical context of the Qurʾan.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What does the homiletic nature of the Qurʾan suggest about its purpose?

2. What was the process, according to Islamic doctrine, by which the Qurʾan was revealed to Muhammad?

3. How do Muslims understand the relationship between the Qurʾan and the life of Muhammad?

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Topic 4: God, Prophets, and the History of the World

I. Prophets in the Qurʾān A. A central feature of the Qurʾan is telling stories of prophets and their peoples. In these stories the message of the prophets and the response of their people is formulaic. The prophet declares to the people that he is a messenger of God, and warns the people to believe in him and in God in order to avoid divine punishment. The leaders of the people, and most of the others, reject the prophet. God subsequently destroys the unbelievers. B. The Qurʾan’s interest in this formula means that there is little to distinguish the story of one prophet from another. Generally these prophet stories are sparing on details of time, place, and personalities. In addition, the Qurʾan integrates into this formula biblical figures who, in the Bible, do not preach to their people at all. Thus, in the Qurʾan, Noah and Lot become preachers like the rest of the prophets. However, the Qurʾan does shape the stories of particular prophets in light of Biblical details. Thus, it has Noah’s people destroyed by a flood; it explains that the sin of Lot’s people was unnatural sexual relations; it recounts the encounter of Moses and Aaron with Pharaoh. C. Sura 7 provides a good example of the Qurʾan’s interest in “punishment stories.” The Qurʾan begins with the story of Noah:

59 Certainly We sent Noah to his people. He said, ‘O my people, worship Allah! You have no other god besides Him. Indeed I fear for you the punishment of a tremendous day.’ 60 The elite of his people said, ‘Indeed we see you to be in manifest error.’ 61 He said, ‘O my people, I am not in error. Rather, I am an apostle from the Lord of all the worlds. 62 I communicate the messages of my Lord to you and I am your well-wisher, and I know from Allah what you do not know. 63 Do you consider it odd that a reminder from your Lord should come to you through a man from among yourselves, to warn you so that you may be Godwary and so that you may receive His mercy?’ 64 But they impugned him. So We delivered him and those who were with him in the ark, and We drowned those who impugned Our signs. Indeed they were a blind lot. D. It then turns to the story of a prophet (unknown to the Bible) named Hud, a story which proceeds in almost identical fashion:

65 To [the people of] ‘Ad [We sent] Hud, their brother. He said, ‘O my people, worship Allah! You have no other god besides Him. Will you not then be wary [of Him]?’ 66 The elite of his people who were faithless said, ‘Indeed we see you to be in folly, and indeed we consider you to be a liar.’ 67 He said, ‘O my people, I am not in folly. Rather, I am an apostle from the Lord of all the worlds. 68 I communicate to you the messages of my Lord and I am a trustworthy well-wisher for you. […] 70 They said, ‘Have you come to [tell] us that we should worship Allah alone and abandon what our fathers have been worshiping? Then bring us what you threaten us with, if you are truthful.’ 71 He said, ‘Punishment and wrath from your Lord has become due against you. Do you dispute with me regarding names which you

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have named—you and your fathers—for which Allah has not sent down any authority? So wait! I too am waiting along with you.’ 72 Then We delivered him and those who were with him by a mercy from Us, and We rooted out those who impugned Our signs and were not faithful. E. It is noteworthy that the Qurʾan has Hud remind his people of the fate of Noah (v. 69). In this way it appears that the prophet of the Qurʾan (Muhammad) is doing what Hud once did: reminding his own people of the disbelievers of earlier generations whom God destroyed. The question is thus put before them: will you too disbelieve and meet the same fate? In this chapter the Qurʾan goes on to tell similar stories of prophets named Salih (vv. 73-78), Lot, (vv. 80-84), Shuʿayb (vv. 85-100) and Moses (vv. 104-36).

II. Lessons from Sura 7 A. This Sura teaches that the Qurʾan tells the “punishment stories” as part of its homiletic concerns. It is a book which seeks to convince its audience to fear God and believe in the Prophet. The punishment stories are meant to inspire that fear. B. To this same end the Qurʾan presents elsewhere two other reasons to believe in God and His Prophet: 1. The reward in heaven for the believers and the punishment in hell for disbelievers (see, for example Q 56): the Qurʾan’s details which the Qurʾan gives about heaven (sofas, fruit, wine, virgins) and about hell (fire, trees with fruit like the heads of devils, molten iron poured in the mouths of the damned) are not there simply to fascinate the reader, but to convince the Qurʾan’s audience to believe. 2. The blessings which God has given in nature (mountains, wind, and rain which allows crops to grow): these should lead man to believe in God not out of fear, but out of gratitude.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What is common to the “stories of the prophets” or “punishment stories” in the Qurʾan?

2. Why would the Qurʾan be interested in these stories which speak of divine punishment?

3. How are the punishment stories related to the material on heaven and hell in the Qurʾan?

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Topic 5: Jesus in the Qurʾan

I. Jesus, Prophet to the Israelites A. The figure of Jesus in the Qurʾan is best understood in light of the punishment stories which we discussed in the previous lecture. Like the other Qurʾanic prophets, Jesus is presented as a messenger whom God sends to one people, and who demands that the people both believe in God and recognize him as a messenger of God. Most of his people, the Israelites, reject him (see Q 61:6). Some—those whom the Qurʾan calls al-nasara (commonly understood to mean, “the Christians”)—declare their belief in him (see Q 61:14). B. The Qurʾan has particularly harsh rhetoric against the Jews; its anti-Jewish polemic is evidently connected to the rejection of Jesus, and in many cases it reflects traditional themes of Christian anti-Jewish polemic. The Qurʾan has God “curse” the Jews (Q 5:13), accuses them of concealing, distorting, or misreading divine revelation (Q 2:174; 3:78; 5:13), it speaks of their hearts as “uncircumcised” (Q 2:88; 4:155), attacks them for accusing Mary of fornication (Q 4:156), and condemns the way they boast of having killed Jesus (Q 4:157). C. The Qurʾan’s anti-Christian polemic is different. The Christians are the party who accepted the prophet, but forgot what their prophet said to them (Q 5:14). It thus has Jesus himself declare to the Christians that he is but a messenger (Q 5:72), and that he never told anyone to think of him as a god (Q 5:116). It explains that Jesus is not the son of God (Q 9:30) and that whoever claims that God is Christ is an unbeliever (Q 5:17, 72).

II. Jesus and the Signs of God A. Certainly, earlier prophets performed miracles or, in the Qurʾan’s language “brought signs,” which were meant to act as evidence of their prophethood to their people. 1. The prophet Salih had a miraculous camel (Q 7:73); Moses performed miracles before Pharaoh (Q 7:106). 2. Jesus, however, is particularly distinguished by his miracles: he healed the blind and the lepers, and he brought the dead to life (Q 3:49). However, the Qurʾan emphasizes that he did these things by the permission of God. In addition, he had a table brought down from heaven (Q 5:111-18), although he accomplished this only by praying to God. The Jews, however, considered his miracles to be magic (Q 61:6). B. Some of the miracles which Jesus accomplished are known to from apocryphal Gospels. For example, the Qurʾan relates that he formed a bird from clay, and when he breathed into it, the bird came to life (Q 3:49). In the Christian context, this story is meant to show his divinity (he acts has God does in the creation of Adam), but in the Qurʾan this is simply an “evidentiary miracle” meant to prove that he is a prophet.

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III. Jesus and Theology A. Ultimately, the figure of Jesus can only be understood in light of the Qurʾan’s theology. The Qurʾan is a book which is passionately concerned with the defense of God’s otherness, majesty, and transcendence. From the Qurʾan’s point of view, righteousness must involve speaking about God in a way that does him honor. The act of belittling God is a moral defect. B. The Qurʾan uses Jesus as an example in this regard. It has Jesus declare to God: Immaculate are You! It does not behoove me to say what I have no right to [say]. Had I said it, You would certainly have known it: You know whatever is in myself, and I do not know what is in Your Self. Indeed You are knower of all that is Unseen! (Q 5:116). C. It has him describe himself as a servant in a similar way:

Indeed I am a servant of Allah! He has given me the Book and made me a prophet. 31 He has made me blessed, wherever I may be, and He has enjoined me to [maintain] the prayer and to [pay] the as long as I live, 32 and to be good to my mother, and He has not made me self-willed and wretched. 33 Peace to me the day I was born and the day I die and the day I am raised alive.’ (Q 19:30-33). D. Finally it is worth noting how the Qurʾan reprimands Christians for insulting God by their worship of Jesus:

171O People of the Book! Do not exceed the bounds in your religion, and do not attribute anything to Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only an apostle of Allah, and His Word that He cast toward Mary and a spirit from Him. So have faith in Allāh and His apostles, and do not say, ‘[God is] a trinity.’ Relinquish [such a ]! That is better for you. Allah is but the One God. He is far too immaculate to have any son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth, and God suffices as trustee (Q 4:171).

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. How does the Qurʾan criticize the Christian view of Jesus?

2. Why does the Qurʾan speak of Jesus’ miracles?

3. How does the figure of Jesus reflect the importance of proper theology to the Qurʾan?

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Topic 6: The Biography of

I. Muḥammad’s Miracles A. The traditional Islamic biographies of Muhammad describe the miraculous signs that surrounded him, and the miracles which he accomplished. Many of these miracles are meant to show that he was a prophet like Jesus, or greater than Jesus. Others seem to be ways of explaining material in the Qurʾan. For example, while the Qurʾan declares (Q 54:1), “The Hour has drawn near and the moon is split,” the biographies tell us how Muhammad literally split the moon in two. B. According to the biography, when Muhammad was born a light emerged from the body of his mother Amina that shone from Arabia to Syria. When he was taken in by a foster mother, the udders of the camels in her flock that had long been dry suddenly filled with milk. C. Later, after his call to prophethood at the age of 40, Muhammad would perform miracles—like the prophets of the Qurʾan—meant to prove that he was a prophet. He defeated the strongest man in his tribe, named Rukana, in a wrestling match. Rukana was amazed and accepted Islam. D. A central feature of the Meccan period of Muhammad’s life is his journey to Jerusalem on a fabulous winged horse named Buraq (for which reason Muslims refer to the “Western Wall” in Jerusalem as the “Wall of Buraq”). In Jerusalem, all of the prophets prayed behind Muhammad. After the prayer, he ascended into heaven with the angel Gabriel, visiting various prophets on various levels of heaven. On the sixth level he met Abraham, and then proceeded even higher, to the very threshold of the divine presence.

II. Muhammad, the Expected Prophet A. The traditional biography of Muhammad in Mecca also tells us that many were expecting the final prophet to emerge, and recounts the signs that Muhammad was this prophet. B. When he was 12, according to this biography, he travelled with his uncle Abu Talib to Syria, and on the way they met a Christian monk named Bahira, who recognized Muhammad as the expected prophet based on a birthmark on his back (a detail connected to Q 33:40 which speaks of Muhammad as the “mark” or the “seal” of the prophets). C. A servant of a wealthy merchant woman named Khadija saw Muhammad sit under a tree “under which only prophet’s would sit.” Khadija, in part because of her servant’s report, would later become Muhammad’s first wife. D. When his tribe, the Quraysh, was rebuilding the Kaʿba, Muhammad was the one to put its famous black stone in place, thus reflecting the role of Abraham, who built the Kaʿba. E. When Muhammad received his first revelation on Mt. Hira, he came down from the mountain and met Khadija’s cousin, Waraqa (a man, the biography tells us, who was learned in the scriptures). Waraqa told Muhammad that he had received the same “law” which Moses had once received and exclaimed, “Truly you are the prophet of this people.”

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III. Migration to Medina A. The traditional biography also insists that most of the pagan Meccans, including their leaders, rejected the prophetic claims of Muhammad (as the prophets of the Qurʾan were rejected by their people). B. At one point, Muhammad, in search of help, sent some of his followers across the Red Sea to the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia. The king there received them well, and converted to Islam before his death (a report not found in Ethiopian sources, which say nothing at all about a delegation of Muslims visiting Ethiopia). C. After twelve years of preaching in Mecca without making many converts, Muhammad accepted an invitation to move to a city 220 miles north of Mecca, formerly named Yathrib but which would later be known by the name of Medina (short for madinat al-nabiy or “City of the Prophet”). D. Two figures play important roles in his migration: 1. Ali (the cousin and – eventually – son-in-law of Muhammad), who slept in Muhammad’s bed the night that the Prophet left Mecca (thus tricking the pagan Meccans who had just determined to kill Muhammad) 2. Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s close friend and the father of Muhammad’s third—and most beloved—wife: Aisha. Abu Bakr traveled with Muhammad from Mecca to Medina, and together they evaded the Meccans who pursued them (with the help of miracles). Upon Muhammad’s death, Abu Bakr would become the first leader, or caliph, of the Muslim community.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Why do the biographers of Muhammad emphasize Muhammad’s miracles?

2. What role does Bahira play in the biography of Muhammad?

3. How does the story of Muhammad’s migration Medina connect him to the other holy figures or prophets?

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Topic 7: The Biography of Muhammad in Medina

I. Conflict with the Jews A. Later Muslims chose the migration of the Prophet from Mecca to Medina as year 1 of the Islamic calendar. This reflects the importance of an : the key moment in Islam’s development was not the birth of Muhammad or his first revelation; it was the moment when a state was established in Medina where the Prophet was its leader and Islam the source of its laws. B. At the center of Islamic chronicles on the Medinan period of Muhammad’s prophetic career is his military campaigns. They describe how, almost immediately after his arrival in Medina, the Prophet began to organize his followers to raid various Arab tribes. C. They also describe the presence of Jewish tribes in Medina, in contrast to Mecca. The Jews of Medina, however, refused to acknowledge Muhammad as a prophet even though (according to the Islamic sources) they found him described in their own scriptures. D. After arriving in Medina, Muhammad instructed his followers to pray towards Jerusalem, like the Jews. His frustration with the Jews now led him to yearn that God would instruct him to pray towards Mecca. According to the common interpretation, this led to the revelation of Q 2:144. Soon after this point, an open conflict between Muhammad and the Jews would break out.

II. Conflict with the Meccans A. In 624 (according to the traditional chronology), Muhammad decided to set an ambush for a Meccan caravan that was returning from Syria. The Meccans, hearing of Muhammad’s plans, sent an armed force from Mecca and the two sides met at a spot named Badr. The Muslims, with the help of angels sent by God defeated the Meccans. A traditional account describes how the angels helped the Muslims: 1. While on that day a Muslim was chasing a disbeliever who was going ahead of him, he heard over him the swishing of the whip and the voice of the rider saying: Go ahead…! He glanced at the polytheist who had (now) fallen down on his back. When he looked at him (carefully he found that) there was a scar on his nose and his face was torn as if it had been lashed with a whip, and had turned green with its poison. A [Muslim] came to the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) and related this (event) to him. He said: You have told the truth. This was the help from the third heaven. The Muslims that day (i.e. the day of the Battle of Badr) killed seventy persons and captured seventy. B. After Badr, Muhammad attacked one of the three Jewish tribes in Medina (Qaynuqa), defeated them, and sent them into exile. C. The following year, the pagan Meccans attacked the Muslims in front of a mountain named Uhud to the north of Medina. The Meccans won but did not attack the city of Medina. After the battle, Muhammad confronted a second Jewish tribe (Nadir) of Medina, defeated them, and sent them into exile.

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D. Despite the defeat, the Muslims continued to grow stronger. They defeated numerous Arab tribes, many of whom accepted Muhammad’s authority and became Muslims; other tribes declared their allegiance to Islam, and the Prophet, of their own accord. In 627, the Meccans, wary of Muhammad’s growing power, attacked the city of Medina itself. They were thwarted by a trench the Muslims dug around the city and retreated in humiliation. Soon after, Muhammad attacked the last Jewish tribe (Qurayza) of Medina, accusing them of plotting the pagan Meccans against him. When the tribe submitted to Muhammad, the prophet had their men killed and their women and children enslaved. E. Three years later, Muhammad conquered the city of Mecca itself. He cleaned the Kaʿba of idols, thus restoring the shrine built by Abraham to the worship of the one true God. One account relates how Muhammad pointed a stick at the idols housed inside and “they collapsed on their backs one after the other.” Another account reports that Muhammad placed his hand over an image of Mary and Jesus, ordering his followers not to deface it.

III. Emissaries to World Leaders A. The Muslim sources emphasize that Muhammad was not satisfied with the conquest of Mecca. This was not the goal of his prophetic mission. Instead, after the conquest he returned to Medina and continued his raids against Arab tribes. Even more, he pushed his campaigns further to the north and began to confront allies of the Byzantine army. This is a sign to later Muslims that Muhammad did not think of Islam as the religion of the Arabs, but rather the true religion of the entire world. B. Another sign to this same effect is the traditional report that towards the end of his life Muhammad sent out emissaries with letters to world leaders—including Heraclius Emperor of the Byzantine Empire—inviting them to accept Islam. Although neither Byzantine sources nor any other source outside of Islamic tradition mentions these emissaries, a museum in claims to have preserved the original letter which Muhammad sent to Heraclius.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. How was Muhammad’s position in Medina different from his position in Mecca?

2. In the traditional biography, what are the accounts of the Muslim community’s battles or raids meant to show?

3. What are the accounts of the emissaries sent out to world leaders meant to show?

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Topic 8: The Hadith

I. The Second Source of Revelation A. In the past two lectures we have focused on the life of Muhammad. On occasion we have noticed that much of Muhammad’s biography seems to be exegetical: the stories of his first revelation, his night journey to Jerusalem, and the changing of the direction of prayer, all seem to have been created as a way to explain ambiguous passages in the Qurʾan. Many other parts of the biography can also be explained in this way. Nevertheless, the study of Muhammad’s biography is enormously important to us, in part because the Prophet is understood by Muslims to have been infallible (he never said anything wrong) and impeccable (he never did anything wrong). B. This means, for Muslims, that both his sayings and deeds are perfect reflections of God’s will for humanity and act as a second source of revelation in Islam. The importance of this second source of revelation is amplified by the nature of the Qurʾan, a text with a lot of religious exhortation but few details on the practical aspects of life. Muslims then tend to look to reports of Muhammad’s sayings and deeds, known as hadith, for guidance. C. The earliest hadith appear in the late 8th century, and were often preceded by the names of well- known scholars who recounted the hadith. By the middle of the 9th century, hadith had proliferated to such an extent that Muslims sought to distinguish “valid” hadith from forged hadith. To prove that one’s hadith was valid it became standard to add a complete chain of names—known in Arabic as isnad—which connect the hadith from the reporter all the way back to an eyewitness to the Prophet’s saying or deed.

II. Sunna of the Prophet A. Thus, hadith were based on the notion that prophets have two roles: they are the vehicles of divine revelation, but they are also the exemplars whom God uses to show humanity how to act. The “example” established by a prophet is known in Islamic tradition as sunna. B. In light of the notion of sunna, Muslims were eager to know how Muhammad conducted himself in every detail of life, or what sort of instructions Muhammad gave about those details. This eagerness is reflected in the sorts of hadith we found in collections of the hadith. The following come from the collection of Bukhārī, the most reliable collection of hadith, according to Sunni Muslims: 1. Narrated [his beloved wife] `Aisha: The Prophet used to start every thing from the right (for good things) whenever it was possible in all his affairs; for example: in washing, combing or wearing shoes. 2. Narrated `Aisha: Allah’s Apostle said, “If anyone of you feels drowsy while praying he should go to bed (sleep) till his slumber is over because in praying while drowsy one does not know whether one is asking for forgiveness or for a bad thing for oneself.”

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3. Narrated Al-Bara' bin `Azib: Allah’s Apostle ordered us to do seven things and forbade us to do other seven. He ordered us: to follow the funeral procession, to visit the sick, to accept invitations, to help the oppressed, to fulfill the oaths, to return the greeting and to reply to the sneezer (saying, “May Allah be merciful on you,” provided the sneezer says, “All the praises are for Allah”). He forbade us to use silver utensils and dishes and to wear golden rings, silk (clothes), Dibaj (pure silk cloth), Qissi and Istabraq (two kinds of silk cloths). 4. Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, “Allah likes sneezing and dislikes yawning, so if someone sneezes and then praises Allah, then it is obligatory on every Muslim who heard him, to say: May Allah be merciful to you (yarhamuka allah). But as regards yawning, it is from Satan, so one must try one’s best to stop it, if one says ‘Ha’ when yawning, Satan will laugh at him.” C. The Prophet’s example, or command, should be enough to inspire Muslims to act has he did or said; no explanation is given why it is bad to wear golden rings or why it is good to start from the right. In other cases, the Prophet is made to give an explanation: prayer when sleepy can lead to mistakes; yawning is from Satan. D. Other hadith are not meant to establish Sunna but to fill out the biography of the Prophet, often with miracle accounts: 1. Narrated Jabir bin `Abdullah: The Prophet used to stand by a stem of a date-palm tree (while delivering a sermon). When the pulpit was placed for him we heard that stem crying like a pregnant she-camel till the Prophet got down from the pulpit and placed his hand over it. E. In any case, we should know how important hadith are for the religious practice of Islam. Westerners often tend to ask regarding Islam: “What does the Qurʾan say about that?” The better question might be: “What does the hadith say about that?”

III. Sunnī and Shiʿite Islam A. Which hadith? 1. The two standard collections for Sunnis are those of Bukhārī (d. 870) and Muslim (d. 875). 2. Both judged the validity of hadith on isnads and not on the reasonability of the tradition. B. Shiite Islam does not accept the collections of Bukhārī and Muslim. In some ways, this marks the key moment of division between Sunni and Shiite Islam. They accept the same Qurʾan but different collections of hadith. Thus they hold only one of the two sources of revelation in common.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What is the connection between the idea that a prophet’s example (sunna) is a second source of revelation and the doctrine that prophets are free from sin and error?

2. What is the difference between sunna and hadith?

3. In your opinion, why did Bukhari and Muslims judge the validity of a hadith based on its isnad (the “chain of authority” that precedes a hadith) and not on the reasonability of its message?

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Topic 9: Islamic Law

I. A. In the previous lecture we discussed the second of the two sources of revelation according to Islam (after the Qurʾan): the Sunna, or example of the Prophet Muhammad (preserved in hadith on his actions and sayings). B. These two sources of revelation might be compared to the Catholic notion of Sacred Scripture (written revelation) and (oral revelation), or to the Jewish notion of the Torah (written) and the Mishnah (oral). C. Christian tradition, however, has an ambiguous relationship with the law. Paul tells us in Romans that “the Law produces nothing but God's retribution, and it is only where there is no Law that it is possible to live without breaking the Law” (Rom 4:15 NJB). Jesus tells us in the Gospels, “Very well, pay Caesar what belongs to Caesar—and God what belongs to God” (Mat 22:21 NJB). D. Islam, however, holds that God does have a law, a law that is all-encompassing. It is, we might say, synonymous with God’s will. All prophets have taught essentially this same law, or sharia, and demonstrated it in their lives. They differed only in details, and now the entire world is called to follow the version of sharia brought by Muhammad. E. Thus, many Islamic movements hold that Islam has the answers for all of the troubles of society. The Muslim Brotherhood’s common campaign slogan is “Islam is the Solution.” They point to the example of Muhammad, who did not consider Islam a guide to the spiritual life, but a code of everything in life, from food, to clothing, to war, to sex, to prayer, to marriage and divorce. F. According to this notion, the dictates of sharia are recognizably right not because of some inherent logic or reasonability. Rather, they are right because God wills humans to follow these dictates. Thus, Muslims are to pray 5 times a day (not 4 or 6) because God willed it. They may eat chicken or beef but not pork because God willed it. They may smoke cigarettes but not drink wine because God willed it.

II. A. The problem is figuring out what exactly God has willed. Many questions are not addressed specifically in the Qurʾan or the hadith, including questions that arose only in later time periods; for example, whether smoking cigarettes or using an iPad to read the Qurʾan is permissible. The science of jurisprudence by which Muslims seek out these answers is known by the Arabic term fiqh. B. Muslim jurisprudents generally assign acts in one of five categories: 1. Obligatory (e.g., the five daily prayers) 2. Recommended (kissing the Qurʾan before opening it)

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3. Permitted (eating beef, chicken, or carrots) 4. Discouraged (divorce) 5. Forbidden (the marriage of a Muslim woman with a non-Muslim man) C. In cases where no clear instructions are found in the Qurʾan or the hadith, jurisprudents might turn to analogy (e.g., thus marijuana might be judged forbidden because its effects are analogous to those of wine), or consensus (all respected jurisprudents considered it permissible to print the Qurʾan; therefore it is permitted). D. The interest in fiqh in the Sunni Islamic world has risen tremendously in recent years as part of the more general growth in Islamic piety. Many television shows (one of the most famous is titled “Living Sharia”) and websites are dedicated to discussions of Islamic law, and feature scholars giving precise judgments on questions called (or emailed!) in by Muslims.

III. Fatwas A. The judgments, or juridical opinions, of Muslim jurisprudents are known as fatwas (and anyone who gives a fatwa is known as a Mufti). Fatwas are only opinions and as a rule are not binding. The influence of a fatwa depends on the reputation of the Mufti. They are generally answers to specific questions which Muslim believers present. The following are fatwas from a popular Sunni Mufti from Saudi Arabia known as Shaykh al-Munajjid (from his website islamqa.info/en): 1. Fatwa #1 a. [Question:] “I live in a western country, and I can practice my religion without much difficulty, praise be to Allaah. I have seen on your site some [hadith] of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) which forbid Muslims to settle in [infidel] lands or to live among the [unbelievers]. I am now confused about whether to go back to my country or to stay in this country, knowing that if I go back to my country, I will encounter hardship and persecution because of my adherence to the laws of Allaah, and I will not be able to find freedom of worship such as I enjoy in the country where I live now. I hope that you can answer my question and explain the ruling on my staying in this country, especially since the Muslim countries are no longer very different from others with regard to adherence to the laws of Islam.” b. [Fatwa]: “Praise be to Allaah. The basic principle is that it is not permissible for the Muslim to settle among the [polytheists]. This is indicated by evidence from the Qur’aan and , and on the basis of common sense. In the Qur’aan, Allaah says…: ‘Verily, as for those whom the angels take (in death) while they are wronging themselves (as they stayed among the disbelievers even though emigration was obligatory for them), they (angels) say (to them): “In what (condition) were you?” They reply: “We were weak

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and oppressed on the earth.” They (angels) say: “Was not the earth of Allaah spacious enough for you to emigrate therein?” Such men will find their abode in Hell—what an evil destination!’ (Q 4:97) In the Sunnah, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: ‘I disown every Muslim who settles among the [polytheists].’ […] With regard to common sense, the Muslim who settles among the [polytheists] cannot carry out many of the rituals and visible acts of worship of Islam, in addition to the fact that he is exposing himself to temptation because of the permissiveness in those countries that is protected by their laws. The Muslim should not expose himself to temptations and trials.” 2. Fatwa #2 a. [Question:] “Is it permissible to play football and participate in competitions, in which we collect money from all players, then we play three rounds, and then the money we collect is to be given as gifts to the winning team? Is this considered a sort of gambling?” b. [Fatwa]: “Praise be to Allaah. Competitions—sporting or otherwise—in which competitors pay money then the winner takes all the money, or a prize is bought for him with it, are [forbidden], and it is not permissible for the Muslim to take part in them or to approve of them, or to help with them in any way. There is no exception from this prohibition except competitions which involve training for jihad for the sake of Allaah, or which encourage people to seek knowledge and refute the specious arguments of the [polytheists] and prove the falseness of their [polytheism]. Based on this, the kind of competition mentioned in the question is [forbidden], and it is a kind of gambling and betting which are [forbidden]. Al-Tirmidhi (1700), al-Nasaa’i (3585), Abu Dawood (2574) and Ibn Majaah (2878) narrated that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: ‘There should be no (money) prizes for competitions except in archery, camel-racing and horse-racing.’ […] These three are all skills used in jihad. Hence some scholars added to these three everything that helps in jihad and spreading Islam, such as competitions in (learning and memorizing) Qur’aan, hadeeth and fiqh, in which it is permissible to offer prizes.”

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What is sharia?

2. What is fiqh and how is it different from sharia?

3. How does the notion of sharia distinguish the Islamic conception of religion from that of Christianity?

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Topic 10: Christianity under Islam

I. Islamic Conquests A. According to the traditional Islamic sources, the Islamic conquests began already with Muhammad, who established control over most of the Arabian Peninsula. They expanded at an extraordinary rate under the first caliphs: Abu Bakr (r. 632-34), Umar (r. 634-44), Uthman (r. 644-56), and Ali (r. 656-61). B. By 732 (date of the Battle of Poitiers in ), 100 years after the traditional death date of Muhammad, Muslim armies had conquered lands from the northern India in the East, to the Caucus mountains in the north, to all of North Africa and most of in the West. C. This involved the fall of 3 of the 5 Christian patriarchal cities: Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. would fall to Islam in 1453. Only Rome remained in Christian control. D. Soon Muslim scholars developed laws about the conquered peoples. In theory (although not usually in practice), only monotheists—or, by the Islamic term “People of the Book” —were tolerated at all in an Islamic state. They were tolerated as , i.e., a social status which involved the acceptance of various restrictions.

II. Christian Responses A. Christians viewed the Islamic conquests in a number of ways, including: 1. Islam as a Christian heresy: John of Damascus (d. ca. 750) includes Islam in his work on heresies (De Haeresibus), arguing that Muhammad was taught by an Arian monk (Arianism was condemned at the 325 Council of Nicaea). A ninth-century Christian author (al-Kindi) argued that Muhammad was taught by a monk named Sergius, who was a Nestorian (Nestorianism was condemned in the 451 ) 2. Muslims as Haragenes: In the early Christian sources (including John of Damascus), Muslims are never called Muslims but instead “Hagarenes” or “Ishmaelites.” This reflects a Christian assumption that they are the descendants of Ishmael, who, in Genesis 21, is sent into the desert with his mother Hagar. By this view, the Ishmaelites had now returned from the desert seeking to claim the inheritance of Abraham, i.e., the holy land. 3. Apocalypse/Vengeance: Many early Christian authors saw the Islamic conquests either as events (predicted in the Bible—usually Daniel or Revelation is thought of) which mark the beginning of the end times, or as punishment for the sins of Christians. Sophronius, the patriarch of Jerusalem at the time of the city’s conquest in 637, wrote that the Arabs, “on account of our sins, have not risen up against us unexpectedly and ravage all with cruel and feral design, with impious and godless audacity.”

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III. Dhimmitude A. In practice, the conquests meant that Christians became second-class citizens. The life of a meant that Christianity could never be practiced in any public way, that conversion from Islam to Christianity (from a Muslim perspective: apostasy) was punishable by death, and that conversion to Islam was always rewarded by the state. B. A document attributed to the second caliph Umar (and known as the “Conditions of Umar”) has Christians agree to the following conditions (in exchange for their toleration in an Islamic state): 1. We shall not build, in our cities or in their neighborhood, new monasteries, Churches, convents, or monks' cells, nor shall we repair, by day or by night, such of them as fall in ruins or are situated in the quarters of the Muslims. 2. We shall keep our gates wide open for passersby and travelers. We shall give board and lodging to all Muslims who pass our way for three days. 3. We shall not give shelter in our churches or in our dwellings to any spy, nor hide him from the Muslims. 4. We shall not teach the Qur'an to our children. 5. We shall not manifest our religion publicly nor convert anyone to it. We shall not prevent any of our kin from entering Islam if they wish it. 6. We shall show respect toward the Muslims, and we shall rise from our seats when they wish to sit. 7. We shall not seek to resemble the Muslims by imitating any of their garments, the qalansuwa, the turban, footwear, or the parting of the hair. We shall not speak as they do, nor shall we adopt their kunyas. 8. We shall not mount on saddles, nor shall we gird swords nor bear any kind of arms nor carry them on our persons. 9. We shall not engrave Arabic inscriptions on our seals. 10. We shall not sell fermented drinks. 11. We shall clip the fronts of our heads. 12. We shall always dress in the same way wherever we may be, and we shall bind the zunar round our waists 13. We shall not display our crosses or our books in the roads or markets of the Muslims. We shall use only clappers in our churches very softly. We shall not raise our voices when following our dead. We shall not show lights on any of the roads of the Muslims or in their markets. We shall not bury our dead near the Muslims. 14. We shall not take slaves who have been allotted to Muslims.

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15. We shall not build houses overtopping the houses of the Muslims. C. Today in many Islamic countries (including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Egypt), these rules continue to be a source for public policy in the treatment of Christians. For this reason, Christians suffering from persecution in the Islamic world often refer to their condition as dhimmitude.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What is a dhimmi?

2. Why, according to Islamic doctrine, can only “People of the Book” be dhimmis?

3. How did Christians use their own religious categories to explain the Islamic conquests?

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Topic 11: The Muslim Jesus

I. Jesus, the Muslim Prophet A. In lecture 5, we considered Jesus in the Qurʾan. Later Muslim scholars develop their understanding of Jesus in ways not always obvious from the Qurʾan. In part, this development reflects the “sectarian milieu” in which Islam developed, i.e., the historical context of the early Islamic world where much of the population was still Islamic. B. The figure of Jesus in the Qurʾan is exceptional: he is named a “spirit” from God (Q 4:171), a “word” from God (Q 3:45; 4:171); he is created when God breathes His spirit into Mary (21:91) and he and Mary are declared to be “a sign for all beings” (Q 21:91). He is the only Prophet whom the Qurʾan connects with the Holy Spirit (Q 2:87; 2:253; 5:110). C. However, Islamic tradition insists that Jesus was a Muslim prophet like any other. ʿAbd al-Jabbar (d. 1025), in a book titled The Critique of Christian Origins, insists that Jesus followed the practice established by Moses, and accuses the Christians of deviating from the religion of Jesus: 1. Christ read his prayers as the prophets and the Israelites did both before him and in his era when they read from the word of God, from God’s word in the Torah and the Psalms of David. Yet these Christian sects simply recite prayers that were put to melody by those who preceded them and prayed with them. . . . They pray to the East, yet Christ, until God made him pass away, only prayed to the West, to Jerusalem, as David, the prophets and the Israelites before him. Christ was circumcised and required circumcision, just as those before him—Moses, Aaron, and the prophets—required it. . . . He never took Sunday as the holiday ever, nor did he ever build a church. He did not annul the Sabbath, even for one hour. He never ate pork, but forbade it and cursed the eating of it, just as the prophets did before him. . . . In a word, Christ only came to revive the Torah and to confirm it. He said, “I have come to you only to act in accordance with the Torah and the commandments of the prophets before me. I did not come to abolish but to complete. For with God it is easier for the sky to fall upon the earth than for anything to be abolished from the law of Moses. Whoever abolishes anything from it will be missing from the kingdom of heaven.” D. Behind the critique of ʿAbd al-Jabbar (who even paraphrases from Matthew 5) is the Islamic notion of sunna. By his view, the proper way to conduct a religion is to imitate the sunna (“example”) of one’s prophet. So not only are Islamic claims about Jesus different, so too is the basic concept of how a religion should function.

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II. Crucifixion A. The Qurʾan mentions the Crucifixion in only one verse (4:157) and in an ambiguous manner. It quotes the Jews boasting of having killed Jesus, and responds “they did not kill him or crucify him.” Elsewhere (e.g. 5:117) the Qurʾan suggests that it was God who took Jesus’ life (i.e. it was God who was behind the Crucifixion). However, later Muslim others generally argue that Jesus was taken up to heaven—alive—before the crucifixion, while another was transformed to look like Jesus, and taken and crucified in his place. To Muslims, this act is generally seen as a demonstration of God’s wondrous power to confound unbelievers. B. However, there are disagreements about who was actually transformed and crucified. The most popular view is that one of Jesus’ followers’ volunteered to die in his place. This is seen in the Qurʾan commentary of Ibn Kathir (d. 1373); he refers to Jesus with his Qurʾanic name, `Isa: 1. When Allah sent `Isa with proofs and guidance, the Jews, may Allah's curses, anger, torment and punishment be upon them, envied him because of his prophethood and obvious miracles. . . . Even so, the Jews were not satisfied, and they went to the king of Damascus at that time, a Greek polytheist who worshipped the stars. They told him that there was a man in [Jerusalem] misguiding and dividing the people in Jerusalem and stirring unrest among the king's subjects. The king became angry and wrote to his deputy in Jerusalem to arrest the rebel leader, stop him from causing unrest, crucify him and make him wear a crown of thorns. When the king’s deputy in Jerusalem received these orders, he went with some Jews to the house that `Isa was residing in, and he was then with twelve, thirteen or seventeen of his companions. That day was a Friday, in the evening. They surrounded `Isa in the house, and when he felt that they would soon enter the house or that he would sooner or later have to leave it, he said to his companions, ‘Who volunteers to be made to look like me, for which he will be my companion in Paradise.’ A young man volunteered, but `Isa thought that he was too young. He asked the question a second and third time, each time the young man volunteering, prompting `Isa to say, ‘Well then, you will be that man.’ Allah made the young man look exactly like `Isa, while a hole opened in the roof of the house, and `Isa was made to sleep and ascended to heaven while asleep. Allah said, (And (remember) when Allah said: ‘O `Isa! I will take you and raise you to Myself.’) When `Isa ascended, those who were in the house came out. When those surrounding the house saw the man who looked like `Isa, they thought that he was `Isa. So they took him at night, crucified him and placed a crown of thorns on his head. The Jews then boasted that they killed `Isa and some Christians accepted their false claim, due to their ignorance and lack of reason. As for those who were in the house with `Isa, they witnessed his ascension to heaven, while the rest thought that the Jews killed `Isa by crucifixion. They even said that Maryam sat under the corpse of the crucified man and cried, and they say that the dead man spoke to her. All this was a test from Allah for His servants out of His wisdom. Allah explained this matter in the Glorious Qur’an which He sent to His honorable Messenger [Muhammad]. . . . He said,

(but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but it appeared as that to them,) referring to the person whom the Jews thought was `Isa.

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C. For his part ʿAbd al-Jabbar argues that a hapless passerby in Jerusalem was taken and crucified: 1. As they walked, Judas Iscariot, who was one of the special and trusted [friends] of Christ, one of his most greatest companions, and one of the twelve, met [the Jews]. . . . [Judas] said to them, “As you know, he is my friend and I am ashamed to say, ‘This is he,’ therefore stay with me and look whose hand I shake and whose head I kiss. Then when I move my hand away from his, take him.” Accordingly they went with him. However, there were many people in Jerusalem from every place, meeting there to celebrate the holiday. Judas Iscariot shook a man’s hand and kissed his head. He moved his hand away from [the other’s hand] and dove into the crowd. The Jews and the guards arrested [this man]. . . . He was brought in to [meet] Pilate in a state of anxiety, fear and nervousness. The king calmed him and asked him about the claim of the Jews that he was the Christ. He denied having said that. . . . On the next day, the Jews came early in the morning, took him, publicly humiliated him, tortured him, and inflicted on him all kinds of torture. Then, towards the end of the day, they whipped him and brought him to a field of melons and vegetables. They crucified him and pierced him with spears that he might die quickly. As he was being crucified he cried out continually in the loudest voice “My god, why have you forsaken me? My god, why have you abandoned me?” until he died. When Judas Iscariot met the Jews he asked them, “What did you do with the man whom you took yesterday?” They replied, “We crucified him.”. . . He saw [the man] and said, “This is innocent blood. This is pure blood.” [He insulted the Jews, took out the thirty dirhams that they gave him for guiding them, threw it in their faces and went to his house. Then he hanged himself.]

III. Return in the Last Times A. The idea that Jesus was taken alive to heaven seems to have led to a second idea about Jesus in Islamic tradition, namely that he will return to earth in the end times to finish his life. In Islamic traditions of Jesus’ return, some of his biblical roles are maintained: a figure named the appears, and it is Jesus who kills him. On the other hand, these traditions are also meant to show that Jesus is nothing more than a prophet, and to this end report that he will die (according to some, after he marries and has children) and be buried before the Day of Resurrection. B. These eschatological traditions generally have Jesus play an even more anti-Christian role: Jesus is said to “destroy Crosses,” “kill pigs,” and “abolish jizyah” (a tax which allows Jews and Christians to be tolerated in an Islamic state: i.e. Jesus will compel Jews and Christians to convert to Islam). Thus a hadith attributed to Muhammad has him proclaim: 1. “There is no prophet between me and him, that is, Jesus (peace be upon him). He will descend (to the earth). When you see him, recognize him: a man of medium height, reddish hair, wearing two light yellow garments, looking as if drops were falling down from his head though it will not be wet. He will fight the people for the cause of Islam. He will break the cross, kill swine, and abolish jizyah. Allah will perish all religions except Islam. He will destroy the Antichrist and will live on the earth for forty years and then he will die. The Muslims will pray over him.”

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Why does ʿAbd al-Jabbar criticize Christians for not keeping the Sabbath?

2. In your opinion, why did later Muslims insist that Jesus did not die (although the Qurʾan is ambiguous on this point)?

3. Why does Islam have Jesus—and not, say, Muhammad—return in the last times?

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Topic 12: The Christian Argument for the True Religion

I. The Classical Apology of Arab Christians A. In polemics against Christians, Muslims generally proceeded from the manner in which the Qurʾan critiques Christians for belittling the majesty of God with their claims about Jesus (Q 4:171: “Do not exaggerate…Jesus was only a messenger of God…God is far above having a son!”). The classical Islamic critique is thus theological. B. Arab Christians responded to these claims with an explanation of the reasonability of Christian theology. Yet they also recognized the biblical idea that the Christian message about God is not built on reason alone (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:23-24: “We are preaching a crucified Christ: to the Jews an obstacle they cannot get over, to the gentiles foolishness”) C. Accordingly, Arab Christians also developed an “anthropological” argument, that is, an argument which begins with the question of why humans would choose a certain religion. It is classically formulated by Hunayn b. Ishaq (d. ca. 910): “From where does a person know that what he believes is the truth, and that what someone else believes is falsehood? . . . The reasons for the acceptance of a falsehood are six in number. 1. The one who accepts falsehood is forced to accept that which is made compulsory for him against his will. 2. A person willingly tries to escape from hardship and oppression. . . . 3. A person favors great might over humiliation, honor over inferiority, and power over weakness, so that he leaves his religion and converts to another. 4. One who speaks (falsehood) . . . beguiles and overwhelms whomever he invites (to accept falsehood). 5. (The one who invites to falsehood) exploits the ignorance of his invitees and their lack of literacy. 6. There is a natural kinship between the invitee and the inviter, so that the invitee, not wishing to sever that shared kinship, agrees with him in his religion.” D. After listing four reasons why for the acceptance of a true religion, Hunayn asks whether anyone would have accepted Christianity for one of the six reasons (“for acceptance of a falsehood above”): 1. With regard to the first reason (for the acceptance of a lie), the true religion is in fact not accepted through the great might of a king, nor through subjugation by a ruler. (On the contrary) all the kings and rulers of the earth have been hostile to it and have forbidden all the people from (accepting) it by means of all kinds of torture and unseemly killing, and

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(thus) they have wiped them off (the face of) the earth. And yet this true religion has vanquished all of those rulers and has remained unshakeable. 2. With regard to the second reason, the true religion has not invited (people) to flee from a life of hardship. But rather, it has called (them) from all the more plentiful and easier forms of life to the life that is harder and more difficult, to that which is almost an object of loathing. And yet, it has been accepted in the most excellent way! 3. With regard to the third reason, the true religion has not invited (people) from lowliness to high standing, or from humiliation to great might. But rather, it has called (them) from great might to humiliation. And yet, it has been accepted, even to the extent that whoever has accepted it would rather die than live at its cost. 4. With regard to the fourth reason, the true religion was not received from wicked people (Sb185) and from the eloquent in speech. Rather, it is received from the ignorant and speech- impaired, and from fishermen (who might even be considered more silent and speech- impaired than the fish). 5. With regard to the fifth reason, those who have accepted the true religion have in fact been neither ignorant, nor stupid, nor common, nor barbarian. But rather, they have been people of logic and philosophy more than all the (rest of the) world, and (they have been) people of discernment and scholarship, those who surpass the rest of the people in wisdom. 6. With regard to the sixth reason, it was not the case that whoever accepted the true religion was joined with those he loved and with his friends as a result of that acceptance. But rather, once that person accepted it, for its sake he typically parted ways with everyone with whom he had common kinship—whatever that kinship might be, whether through close family ties or through loving affection. E. Hunayn concludes that the only reason why anyone would have accepted to convert to Christianity is due to “the display of signs and wonders,” i.e., because they were convinced of its truth by having witnessed a miracle. This argument becomes an important part of Arab-Christian apologetics. F. Regarding this argument, we might note that it is not only an argument for Christianity but also implicitly an argument against Islam. The six reasons for accepting falsehood seem not only to contrast with the story of Christian origins; they also seem to match the story of Islamic origins. We can imagine Hunayn (perhaps speaking privately to other Christians, with no Muslims around) arguing that some accept Islam because they are compelled: 1. Because it helps them financially 2. Because they yearn for power 3. Because Muhammad or his followers “beguiled” their listeners 4. Because of their ignorance (perhaps the pagan, Bedouin Arabs) 5. Or because of their ties—as Arabs—to the first Muslims

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6. In response to the disbelief of Christians (and perhaps Jews as well) in the prophethood of Muhammad, Muslims indeed claimed that their prophet performed many miracles—some of them recounted in the biography of the prophet by Ibn Hisham (lectures 6 and 7): he split the moon in two, water sprayed forth from the tips of his fingers for his thirsty followers, he called out to a tree which travelled across the earth towards him in reply, etc. In the only anti-Islamic polemic written in Arabic, The Letter of al-Kindi, the author describes these accounts as “idle tales and old wives’ fables.” He concludes that Muhammad made up such tales and was “imposing on a simple and credulous people, who were not accustomed to testing the truth of such statements.” 7. We might also note that this argument is a distinct and creative innovation of specially Arab- Christian theology. The pressures of living in the Islamic world—where any overt evangelization and any public critique of Islam were impossible—led Arab Christians to explore new ways to defend the faith. The brilliance of this approach is that it avoids entirely the theological questions (Trinity, Incarnation) which are at the heart of Islamic anti- Christian polemic.

II. The Islamic Response A. The popularity—and the effectiveness—of this argument is demonstrated in ʿAbd al-Jabbar’s treatise, written about 100 years after Hunayn’s work, in which he writes: 1. “One of the things that the Christians adduce as evidence, and this is the greatest of their specious arguments regarding their religion, the most exalted proof in which they take refuge, and a standard for the elite and the common people among them, is that they say, ‘Christianity is a difficult and strict religion. Yet great nations and kings have acknowledged it, with no compulsion, sword, coercion, or constraint. They would not have acknowledged it except for the signs and miracles which were brought forth through the monks and nuns who prayed for them.’” B. ʿAbd al-Jabbar seeks to counter both sides of this argument: that Christianity is a strict religion and that Christians have seen miracles. C. On the question of strictness, ʿAbd al-Jabbar contends: 1. The supposed strictness in Christianity might be a trick: “For a trickster and falsifier often devises a plot to show the validity of that which he claims by using mysticism, austerity, frequent acts of worship, and strictness in order to gain power.” 2. That other religions are stricter than Christianity, e.g., Manichaeism, which forbids harming animals in any way and marriage entirely, and Hinduism, which demands more miracles and requires widows to kill themselves on the funeral pyre of their husbands. 3. Christianity is not in fact strict; even if it has rules not found in Islam (monogamy, no divorce), they are easily broken because Christians do not hesitate to sin, since “they say that the Lord, who is the father, sent his son to be crucified and killed, to bear our wrongs and forgive our sins.”

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D. On the question of miracles, ʿAbd al-Jabbar argues: 1. That many other religions, including Manicheans, Hindus, Zoroastrians, and Jews claim that their leaders accomplished miracles. 2. That in his day many people (including Muslims) have converted to Christianity after they were conquered by the Byzantine army (i.e. out of compulsion, not out of witnessing miracles). 3. That the miracle accounts which Christians tell of their holy men are ridiculous. On this point he quotes a number of such accounts: a. In one, a bishop in a the city of Khurasan—who is eating a pan of fried birds—is told that the church has decided that bishops should not eat meat. “Then he said to those birds that were in the frying pan, ‘Shoo!’ They all flew away and he took the frying pan away. The Christians believed him, recorded this and wrote it down.” b. Another tells the story of a monk named Father George who was called in by an unbelieving king and told to abandon his faith. When Father George refused to do so, he was first imprisoned and later executed (several times!) but kept returning to his monastic cell. “This was told to the king, who sent and had him brought back and cut into pieces. He asked for fire and had him burned and ordered that his ashes be thrown into the sea. On the next day, they found him in his hermitage. The king sent and had him brought back to him. He apologized to [Father George] and became a Christian.” E. ʿAbd al-Jabbar argues that Christian leaders themselves do not believe these stories (indeed they laugh at them) but they use these stories to impress common Christians, hoping thereby to receive alms from them.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. In what way is Hunayn b. Ishaq’s argument for the true religion “anthropological”?

2. How is the question of austerity connected to the question of miracles?

3. Why does ʿAbd al-Jabbar tell stories of Christians performing miracles?

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Topic 13: The Islamic Critique of the Bible

I. The Tawrat and the Injil A. The Qurʾan does not refer to the Bible, or to the Old and New Testaments. Instead, it refers to earlier revelations: “He has sent down to you the Book with the truth, confirming what was [revealed] before it, and He had sent down the tawrat and the injil” (Q 3:3). Tawrat derives ultimately from the Hebrew word Torah (i.e. the first five books of the Bible) and injil from the Greek word euangelion (“”). The Qurʾan declares that Jesus “confirmed” the tawrat and that God “sent down to him” the injil (Q 5:46). B. In light of these declarations, Muslim scholars concluded that Moses and Jesus received heavenly scriptures (the tawrat and the injil) as Muhammad received the Qurʾan. These scriptures were like the Qurʾan in their content (i.e., they were Islamic) and in their form (i.e., they contained the very words of God, in the first person—and not accounts of the Israelites in the desert, or Jesus in Palestine). By this understanding, God has one great heavenly Islamic scripture from which He sent down (with angels) different installments to different prophets. C. The Qurʾan also reports that “the People of Book” (and the Jews in particular) misinterpreted their scripture—or treated human writings as though they were divine scripture: 1. “But the wrongdoers changed the saying with other than what they were told” (Q 2:59). 2. “So woe to them who write the Book with their hands and then say, ‘This is from Allah,’ that they may sell it for a paltry gain. So woe to them for what their hands have written, and woe to them for what they earn!” (Q 2:79) 3. “Then We cursed them because of their breaking their covenant and made their hearts hard: they pervert words from their meanings, and have forgotten a part of what they were reminded. You will not cease to learn of some of their treachery, excepting a few of them” (Q 5:13).

II. Tahrif A. In light of this material Muslims did not accept the Bible as a valid scripture but instead developed the doctrine—known by the Arabic term tahrif (related to the Qurʾanic term for “pervert” in the last quotation above)—by which Jews and Christians distorted or falsified the revelations given to Moses and Jesus and wrote the Bible in their place. Thus in Islamic bookstores you will not find the Bible for sale, but you will likely find books on errors in the Bible, or the Christian falsification of scripture, for sale. B. Thus, a hadith has the Prophet Muhammad declare: “O community of Muslims, how is it that you seek wisdom from the People of the Book? Your book, brought down upon His Prophet— blessings and peace of God upon him—is the latest report about God. You read a Book that has not been distorted, but the People of the Book, as God related to you, exchanged that which God wrote [for something else], changing the book with their hands.”

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C. The Biography of the Prophet includes reports of Christians who possessed the true injil given to Jesus. Waraqa, the cousin of Muhammad’s first wife Khadija, was said to have written the “Gospel” in Mecca before Muhammad was called by God (and he then recognized that Muhammad was a true Prophet). In light of such reports (and in light of Qurʾan 61:6 which has Jesus announce the coming of another prophet), Muslims argued that the true Gospel contained clear prophecies of Muhammad. D. Early Muslim scholars—even if they insisted that the Bible was falsified—did not attempt to explain how it was falsified. The first scholar to do so was ʿAbd al-Jabbar. He describes how some of the first followers of Christ looked for help from the pagan Romans in their rivalry against the Jews. The Romans agreed, on the condition that the followers of Christ accept their religious practices. One group of the followers of Christ (that is, those who remained faithful to his Islamic religion) refused this compromise, took the true injil, and fled. ʿAbd al-Jabbar continues: 1. “Those who had made a deal with the Romans gathered and consulted each other over what to adopt in place of the injil, since it had passed out of their hands. They came to the opinion that they would produce an injil, saying, ‘The tawrat is only genealogies of the prophets and histories of their lives. We will construct a gospel accordingly. Let each one of us mention that which he has memorized from the formulations of the injil and from what the Christians would say about Christ.’ Thus one group wrote a gospel. Then another group came after them and wrote a gospel. They wrote a number of gospels, yet much of what was in the original was left out. There were a number of them who knew many matters that were in the correct injil, which they concealed in order to establish their leadership. In [the true injil] there was no mention of the crucifixion or the crucifix. E. Accordingly ʿAbd al-Jabbar concludes elsewhere: 1. “Know—May God have mercy on you—that these . . . Christian sects do not believe that God sent down to Christ the injil, or a book of any kind. Rather, according to them Christ created the prophets and sent down to them the Books and sent down to them the angels. They only have four gospels from four individuals. Each one of them wrote his gospel in his era. Then another came after him and was not pleased with the [previous] gospel, [holding] his own gospel to be more proper. [The gospels] agree in some passages but differ in other passages. In some of them are things not found in others. They are made up of anecdotes about groups of men and women from the Jews, Romans and others, that they did this and said that. Yet there are many impossibilities, falsehoods, absurdities, manifest lies, and clear contradictions in them. “

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. According to Islamic doctrine, what are the tawrat and the injil?

2. What does tahrif mean?

3. What aspects of the Bible would Muslims find inconsistent with a divine scripture?

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Topic 14: An Islamic History of Christianity

I. Jesus the Monotheist A. ʿAbd al-Jabbar’s anecdote (lecture 13) on the falsification of the injil, the divine revelation given to Jesus, establishes a polemical theme that he will use to explain the origin of Christian doctrine and Christian practice. This polemical theme—that Christian doctrine is a form of Roman paganism, and that Christian practice consists of various innovations willfully developed by Christian leaders—had a lasting influence on Islamic ideas about Christianity that is still felt today. B. ʿAbd al-Jabbar insists that even the Bible (whether or not it is falsified) contradicts Christian doctrine on the divinity of Christ. In order to explain why Christ refers to himself as “Son of God” and speaks of God as his “father,” he notes (evidently with the assumption that Hebrew was the language of Christ): “Some people say that ‘son’ in the Hebrew language, which was the language of Christ, refers to one who is a righteous servant, obedient, devoted, and sincere, while ‘father’ refers to a master, possessor, and director.” C. Otherwise, he notes biblical statements of Christ that agree with Islamic theology: 1. “As for doctrine, [Christ] said to them, “God is my Lord and your Lord, my god and your god” (cf. Jn 20:17). 2. “John mentions in his gospel that Jesus Christ said in his supplication [to God], ‘For perpetual life it is necessary only for people to witness that you are the One, True God and that you sent Jesus Christ’ (cf. Jn 17:3). Look at how he clearly proclaims and claims to be a prophet! . . . He said—peace be upon him—‘The speech that you hear from me is not my own but rather His who sent me. Woe to me if I say something of my own accord’” (Jn 14:24, 12:49). 3. “He—peace be upon him—persevered in acts of worship including prayer, fasting, and supererogatory acts. He said, ‘I did not come to be served, but rather I came to serve’” (Mt 20:28). D. The astute Bible reader will notice that ʿAbd al-Jabbar has altered some of these passages in order to make his argument stronger. In John 20:17, Christ, after rising from the dead (something rejected by Islam) declares to Mary: “Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to the brothers, and tell them: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” In John 17:3, Jesus declares: “And eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (for ʿAbd al-Jabbar the point is not to know Jesus, but to know that he was sent, i.e. that he was only a “messenger”). E. ʿAbd al-Jabbar suggests that the idea for the Trinity came not from the Bible but from Roman philosophy: “The Roman philosophers followed the same idea as the Trinity of the Christians, holding that the intellect, the perceiver and the perceived become one thing. They also called Hermes, an ancient philosopher, the Threefold Hermes.”

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II. The Romans, Paul, and Constantine A. As for practice, ʿAbd al-Jabbar begins from the standard Islamic premise that proper religious practice consists of following the example, or sunna, of the prophet. Since the call of Muhammad to prophethood, this has meant following the sunna of Muhammad (the final prophet for all mankind). Yet as Christians claim to be the community of Christ ʿAbd al-Jabbar asks is if in fact they follow the sunna of Christ. Thus he writes: 1. Christ was circumcised and required circumcision, just as those before him—Moses, Aaron, and the prophets—required it. . . . He never took Sunday as the holiday ever, nor did he ever build a church. He did not annul the Sabbath, even for one hour. He never ate pork, but forbade it and cursed the eating of it, just as the prophets did before him. B. ʿAbd al-Jabbar goes on to explain that the schemes of two figures—Paul and Constantine—help explain how the practice of Christians came to be so different from the sunna of Christ. ʿAbd al- Jabbar relates that Paul, after his conversion to Christianity, went to Constantinople (although it did not exist in the days of Paul!) and began to win the favor of the emperor’s wife by insisting that his new faith agrees with the faith of the Romans in every way: 1. “It is a Roman convention that a man is not permitted to marry more than one woman. They may not be separated by divorce, old age, or any type of fault. Only she is permitted to him until she dies. The Roman women detest the religious practices of the Israelite prophets for deeming divorce lawful and allowing a man to marry as many women as he can support. Saul was asked, ‘Are you from a people of this way?’ He said, ‘No. A man is not permitted more than one woman, just like the decrees of the Romans.’ (cf. Matthew 19 where it is Jesus, not Paul, who forbids divorce and polygamy). C. Similar conversations take place, in ʿAbd al-Jabbar’s account, regarding circumcision, the eating of pork, and other topics. After the death of Paul, ʿAbd al-Jabbar explains, an emperor named Constantine—who, according to ʿAbd al-Jabbar, had a Christian wife and was afflicted with leprosy—rose to the throne. He embraced Christianity under the influence of his wife and because a leper was not allowed to reign under the rules of pagan Romanism. ʿAbd al-Jabbar continues: 1. He made an external show of venerating Christ and the Cross. Yet he confirmed the Roman religious practices as they were, including praying to the East and other things that have been mentioned. He removed nothing other than the worship of the planets and he added nothing other than the of Christ, espousal of his divinity, and veneration of the Cross. 2. Thus, ʿAbd al-Jabbar concludes, “If you scrutinize the matter, you will find that the Christians became Romans and fell back to the religions of the Romans. You will not find that the Romans became Christians.”

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D. ʿAbd al-Jabbar’s argument proved extremely influential among later Muslims; today it is common to hear in Muslim sermons or to find on Islamic websites, the assertion that Christianity is the religion of Paul and not of Christ. However, it should not be missed that its very premise— that proper religious practice involves imitating the sunna of a prophet—is not shared by Christians. Christians do not seek to follow the religion of Christ, they seek to follow Christ.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. How does ʿAbd al-Jabbar interpret the Bible?

2. According to the Critique of Christian Origins, why did Paul decide that polygamy was forbidden in Christianity?

3. What does ʿAbd al-Jabbar’s scenario for the origins of Christianity reflect of his understanding of the relationship between religion and culture?

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Topic 15: Thomas Aquinas and “The Reasons for the Faith”

I. Islamic Polemics and Christian Apology A. The history of the Muslim-Christian conversation is unbalanced. It is rare to find a discussion of Islam in Christian works. Most Christians through the centuries, especially in the West, knew almost nothing of Islam. Christians in the Islamic world of course knew more, but even Christians in the Islamic world rarely addressed Islam in their writings. When they did discuss Islam, they generally do so apologetically, i.e., to defend Christianity against Islamic critiques (with the notable classical exception of the polemical treatise of al-Kindi [lecture 12], who critiques Islam). B. All Muslims, on the other hand, know something about Christianity. The Bible, of course, never discusses the Prophet Muhammad or Islam. The Qurʾan, on the other hand, presents its distinctive understanding of Jesus and repeatedly refutes Christianity. Not surprisingly the literature of Islamic anti-Christian polemics (in the medieval period and still today) is vast. Any Muslim interpretation of the Qurʾan, for example, will necessarily discuss the errors of Christianity while commenting on those Qurʾanic passages which critique Christianity. Thus, we might say that Muslims are much more prepared to debate Christians than Christians are to debate Muslims.

II. The Antiochene Questions A. This dynamic is evident in the story behind the only treatise which Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) wrote in response to Islam. This treatise, titled On the Reasons for Faith in Response to the Muslims (De rationibus fidei contra Saracenos), was prompted by a letter written by one of his Dominican confreres—identified as a cantor—in Antioch in the early 1260s (when the city was still under the Crusader control). B. The cantor of Antioch reports having a discussion with a Muslim who made the following critique of Christianity: 1. How can Christians say that Christ is the Son of God when God has no wife? 2. Christians are insane for professing three persons in God. 3. Why would Christians say that Christ was crucified for the salvation of humanity? 4. Christians claim to eat God on the altar, but if the were as big as a mountain, it would have long been eaten up. 5. How could God have foreknowledge of events and yet not have decreed them?

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III. Aquinas and “The Reasons for the Faith” A. In response, Thomas first emphasizes that the matters raised by these critiques involve Christian mysteries—truths known only because God has revealed them and which cannot be proven true by reason: “First of all I wish to warn you that in disputations with unbelievers about the articles of the Faith, you should not try to prove the Faith by necessary reasons. This would belittle the sublimity of the Faith, whose truth exceeds not only human minds but also those of angels; we believe in them only because they are revealed by God.” B. He then proceeds to explain Christian doctrine on all five points, as follows: 1. On the begetting of the eternal Son of God, Aquinas uses the analogy of the human intellect and a human word. As the mind of a painter conceives of an object in his mind and expresses this object with a word, God conceives eternally of one perfect object—the Word of God. 2. On the Trinity, Aquinas explains that between the intellect and word a relationship of (greater or lesser) love always exists. God loves the Word perfectly and this love is the Spirit. 3. On the incarnation and crucifixion, Aquinas explains that humanity’s will is disordered (evidenced by sin). In order to fix this disorder, God operates through the same principle (the Word) with which He created the world. In the Christ who is both human and divine, a perfect offering is made by humanity which corresponds to the infinite offense of humanity’s rebellion against their creator. 4. On the , Aquinas explains that the body of Christ is not actually divided but the bread is changed into the Body of Christ (and so there is no quantity to be reduced). 5. On free will, Aquinas compares God to a man seated upon a high hill who can see a road stretching out behind and before him. He can see things on the hill which a traveler on the road cannot, but his knowledge of them does not imply that he caused them. C. Aquinas proceeds through these arguments while showing no knowledge of Islam or the Islamic view of Christ. His approach is purely apologetical.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Why do Muslims tend to know more (or think they know more) about Christianity than Christians know about the Qurʾan?

2. Why does Aquinas say that it would not be right to try to prove the Christians faith through necessary reasons?

3. How do the questions posed by the anonymous Muslim to the cantor of Antioch reflect Muslim theology?

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Topic 16: An Islamic Gospel

I. Gospel of Barnabas: Introduction A. In the late 19th century, two Western scholars discovered a manuscript in Vienna—written in Italian but with marginal notes in Arabic and Turkish—titled The Gospel of Barnabas. It soon became clear that the manuscript, which dates from around the late 16th century, was an apocryphal gospel written from an Islamic perspective. B. The Gospel of Barnabas was most likely written by a Muslim who had left Europe (perhaps the small Islamic community in Venice made up largely of Muslim refugees and their descendants from Spain) and settled in Istanbul. C. The Gospel of Barnabas (not to be confused with the Epistle of Barnabas, a Christian text from the 4th century) is Christian in format. It is not meant to be the Islamic injīl (lecture 13)—that is, it does not presume to present the book revealed by God to Jesus, and in format it is nothing like the Qurʾan. Instead it is meant as an alternative to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The author, moreover, does not know Islamic doctrine perfectly: he argues that Muhammad was the messiah when the Qurʾan itself calls Jesus the messiah.

II. The Choice of Barnabas A. On the other hand, the author knew the Bible, and one sign of this is the way his choice of Barnabas as a narrator. Barnabas (who does not appear in the four Gospels of the New Testament) appears in Acts as the one who takes charge of Paul after the latter’s conversion: 1. “When Paul got to Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him: they could not believe he was really a disciple. Barnabas, however, took charge of him, introduced him to the apostles, and explained how the Lord had appeared to him and spoken to him on his journey, and how he had preached fearlessly at Damascus in the name of Jesus” (Acts 9:26-27). B. Barnabas appears here as Paul’s sponsor and, in a way, as his superior. Later the author of Acts tells us of a disagreement between Barnabas and Paul: 1. “Paul and Barnabas, however, stayed on in Antioch, and there with many others they taught and proclaimed the good news, the word of the Lord. On a later occasion Paul said to Barnabas, 'Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord, so that we can see how they are doing. Barnabas suggested taking John Mark, but Paul was not in favor of taking along the man who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had refused to share in their work. There was sharp disagreement so that they parted company, and Barnabas sailed off with Mark to Cyprus” (Acts 15:35-39).

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C. The author of the Gospel of Barnabas was evidently aware of this report—in Barnabas he found someone who had a certain authority over Paul. This is important because he also—like ʿAbd al- Jabbar (lecture 14) —makes Paul a character responsible for the corruption of the Islamic teaching of Jesus. At the end of the work the author of the Gospel of Barnabas declares: 1. “After Jesus had departed, the disciples scattered through the different parts of Israel and of the world, and the truth, hated of Satan, was persecuted, as it always is, by falsehood. For certain evil men, pretending to be disciples, preached that Jesus died and rose not again. Others preached that he really died, but rose again. Others preached, and yet preach, that Jesus is the Son of God, among whom is Paul deceived. But we, as much as I have written, that preach we to those who fear God, that they may be saved in the last day of God's Judgment. Amen.” D. Thus, the choice of Barnabas as narrator seems to have been influenced by the report in Acts 15 of the dispute between Paul and Barnabas.

III. The Enduring Popularity of the Gospel of Barnabas A. Although a critical edition of the original Italian manuscript has still not been produced, the Gospel of Barnabas, since its translation into Arabic in the early 20th century (a translation made from the English translation of the Italian manuscript) has become enormously popular in the Islamic world. Almost all Islamic bookstores sell the Gospel of Barnabas, and in Islamic editions it is generally presented as an ancient text that proves Islamic claims about Jesus. B. The Gospel of Barnabas reports that Jesus was transported into heaven and Judas—his betrayer—was transformed into the likeness of Jesus and crucified in his place: 1. “Judas entered impetuously before all into the chamber whence Jesus had been taken up. And the disciples were sleeping. Whereupon the wonderful God acted wonderfully, insomuch that Judas was so changed in speech and in face to be like Jesus that we believed him to be Jesus. And he, having awakened us, was seeking where the Master was. Whereupon we marveled, and answered: ‘Thou, Lord, art our master; hast thou now forgotten us?’ And he, smiling, said: ‘Now are ye foolish, that know not me to be Judas Iscariot!’ And as he was saying this the soldiery entered, and laid their hands upon Judas, because he was in every way like to Jesus.” C. A 2008 Iranian movie on the life of Jesus entitled The Messiah presents the crucifixion in this manner. In an interview the director of the film, Nader Talebzadeh, explains: “Instead of having him hung and crucified, the person who betrayed Jesus was crucified. This is how the Koran sees it, through the Gospel of Barnabas.”

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Why might the author of the Gospel of Barnabas have chosen Barnabas as a narrator?

2. Is the Gospel of Barnabas meant to the true injil that God revealed to Jesus? What book would the true injil look like?

3. What accounts for the popularity of the Gospel of Barnabas?

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Topic 17: A Christian Reading of the Qurʾan

I. Giulio Basetti-Sani, O.F.M., and Muhammad A. In his 1977 work The Koran in the Light of Christ, Giulio Basetti-Sani describes how, during his formation for the priesthood in the Franciscan order, he came to think of Muhammad as a figure under the influence of the devil: “Mohammad is one of Satan’s ‘prophets’ and Islam is a form of Satan’s pseudo-religion, the most anti-Christian because it is the most contrary to the gospels.” B. However, after meeting good, pious Muslims in Egypt, Basetti-Sani came to think (explaining: amor dat novos oculos: “love gives new eyes”) that Muhammad was a divinely inspired prophet. However, the revelation given to Muhammad was not Islamic; instead, like the prophets of the Old Testament, Muhammad was given prophecies that point to Christ. It is the responsibility of the Church to uncover the hidden Christian meaning of the Qurʾan, as she has done with the Old Testament: 1. “I noticed that the interpretation of the Old and New Testaments, made with a rabbinical ‘key,’ was quite different from one made with a Christian ‘key.’ I thought it must also be possible to read the Koran with a Christian key, even if the Muslim could not have understood its actual sense or that, today, we might be able to ‘open’ it with a Christian key.” C. Basetti-Sani argues that Muhammad himself may not have been aware of the Christian nature of the revelation given to him—as the prophets of the Old Testament may not have been aware of the prophecies of Christ given to them by God. So too Muslims have been unable to see the Christian message of the Qurʾan, as the Jews have been unable to understand the prophecies of Christ in the Old Testament. To this end Basetti-Sani quotes 2 Corinthians 3:14: “But their minds were closed. Until this very day, the same veil remains over the reading of the Old Testament: it is not lifted, for only in Christ is it done away with.” D. On this point Basetti-Sani writes: 1. “The question could arise at this point: Why didn’t God give enough illumination to Mohammed’s mind so that his preaching would be protected from any deviation, especially in light of the subsequent and Christianity? We must remember, first of all, the part that God leaves to human freedom, even in the building of his kingdom. On the other hand, God has placed the task of being the sure guide, leading mankind to the fullness of the truth, in the hands of the Church.”

II. The Context of Muhammad’s Revelation A. In The Koran in the Light of Christ, Basetti-Sani anticipates that Christians will reject the idea that a new revelation could be given after the New Testament. He proposes that the revelation to Muhammad be thought of as a private revelation given in light of his particular context. He argues that Muhammad was surrounded by three religious groups: 1. Arab pagans

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2. Sadducee Jews (who rejected the resurrection of the body) 3. Heretical Christians (both monophysites and “Nestorians”) B. He argues that: 1. The Qurʾan’s emphasis on monotheism is directed at the pagans; its emphasis on the Last Day is directed at the Sadducee Jews. 2. The Qurʾan’s material on Christ, which is thought by Muslims and Christians alike to be directed against Christian doctrine, is in fact meant as a refutation of the Jews and a correction of Christian heresies. a. While the Qurʾan is often thought to deny the crucifixion (4:157), it only denies that the Jews killed Christ: this is the teaching of the Church, who holds that the death of Christ was the work of divine providence. b. When the Qurʾan says (4:171), “Do not say three,” it does not mean to refute the Trinity but to respond to Jews who argued that Christians are tri-theists for their belief in the Trinity. c. When the Qurʾan says (Q 19:35), “God would not take a son,” it means to refute Nestorian Christians who considered God to have adopted Jesus as a son. d. When the Qurʾan relates (Q 5:72), “Those who say God is Christ are unbelievers,” it means to refute monophysite Christians who deny that Christ has a human nature” C. Basetti-Sani concludes: “Mohammed never knew the doctrine of the , of orthodox Christianity; hence he was unable to reject it. He rejected distortions of Christianity.” Even more, Basetti-Sani argues that the Qurʾan contains signs that Muhammad was yearning for Christian truth, in its description of Christ as Word and Spirit, and it the declaration (Q 43:81), “If the Merciful had a Son, I would be the first to worship him.” D. Thus, Basetti-Sani’s work provides a unique Christian approach to Islam: it is unlike both anti- Islamic polemic and inter-religious dialogue. Basetti-Sani manages to integrate Muhammad and the Qurʾan into his vision of salvation history. However, his conclusion that Muhammad was a prophet will be greeted by skepticism by most Christians, while his conclusion that Muhammad was a Christian prophet will necessarily be rejected by Muslims.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What does Basetti-Sani mean when he speaks of a Christian “key” to reading the Qurʾan?

2. Why does Basetti-Sani argue that understanding the context in which the Qurʾan was revealed is an important factor in recognizing the Christian meaning of the Qurʾan?

3. What do you think about Basetti-Sani’s argument that Muhammad was a Christian prophet?

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Topic 18: Modern Islamic Arguments against Christianity

I. Islam: The Religion of Reason A. The 1997 movie Destiny (al-Masir), by the Egyptian director Youssef Chahine, opens with a scene set in medieval France in which a man is burnt alive by angry-looking clerics, who have condemned him for translating the works of the rationalist Muslim philosopher Averroes. The son of the man escapes with copies of the translations to Islamic Spain, where he finds a culture of enlightenment (threatened, however, by the rise of fundamentalist groups). B. The film thus expresses a common idea in modern Islamic apology, namely that true Islam is the religion of light and reason, while true Christianity is a religion of darkness, ruled by oppressive clerics. The Islamic world declined only because of the rise of (false) fundamentalist Islam, and the Christian West only rose because it benefited from the works of Islamic philosophers and scientists like Averroes. C. One of the most popular 20th-century biographers of Muhammad, the Egyptian Muhammad Husayn Haykal (d. 1956), declares accordingly that Islam has the answers for the betterment of all humanity: 1. “It therefore behooves any scholar applying himself to such a study to address his work not only to the Muslims but to mankind as a whole. The final purpose of such work is not, as some of them think, purely religious. Rather, it is, following the example of Muhammad, that all mankind may better learn the way to perfection. Fulfillment of this purpose is not possible without the guidance of reason and heart, and the conviction and certainty they bring when founded on true perception and knowledge.” D. Connected to this apologetic argument was the polemical position that Christianity does not have the answers for the betterment of humanity. Rashid Rida (d. 1935), a Lebanese Sunni Muslim who settled in Cairo in 1897 (and who would later influence Sayyid Qutb), dedicated most of his career to debating the ideas of Christian missionaries. In his 1905 work, Christian Criticisms, Islamic Proofs, Rida argues that the Bible is confusing and contradictory, whereas the Qurʾan is a work of reason. After introducing several Qurʾanic verses on the signs of God he argues: 1. “Those short verses demonstrate that Islam is the religion of reason, that it is a science, and that certainty is sought through it. They demonstrate that supposition does not suffice for faith in its fundamental principles . . . the verb ‘to reason’ occurs approximately fifty times in the Qurʾan. . . . The word ‘intellects’ occurs in ten to twenty verses. Thus, knowledge of the universe is the way of faith and Islam.”

II. Scientific Miracles of the Qurʾan

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A. In addition to such arguments, the twentieth century also witnessed the rise of the idea that the Qurʾan contains miraculous scientific facts, miraculous because no one in the 7th century could have known them. These miracles prove that the Qurʾan came from God and not from Muhammad’s mind. B. The most famous work on the scientific miracles was published in 1976 by a French doctor named Maurice Bucaille (whether or not Bucaille converted to Islam is a much disputed question), and later translated as The Bible, the Qurʾan, and Science. Like the Gospel of Barnabas (lecture 16), Bucaille’s work is enormously popular in the Islamic world and can be found in most Islamic bookstores. C. Bucaille sees God’s statement in the Qurʾan, “We created man from a drop of mixed liquid” (Q 76:2), as an allusion to the constituents of the “spermatic liquid,” which come from “the testicles,” “the seminal vesicles,” “the prostate gland,” and “the glands annexed to the urinary tract.” That the semen would be the product of such a mixing would have been unknown in the seventh century (but it would have been known to God). D. The topic of scientific miracles has become even more popular among Muslims in the internet age. A search on “Qurʾan scientific miracles” or “Qurʾan and science” will yield hundreds of thousands of hits. E. One such website (www.miraclesofthequran.com) offers a list of items about which the Qurʾan has miraculous information, including: 1. The Tsunami effect in the prophet Moses’ parting of the sea 2. The contraction motion that facilitates birth 3. Bone-loss in old age 4. The earth’s gravitational force 5. The fig: a fruit whose perfection has only recently been revealed F. The argument for the Qurʾan’s scientific miracles did not exist in the classical period (for example, 11th century Muslim scholars never argued that the Qurʾan contains scientific facts just discovered in the 11th century and unknown in the 7th century). It seems to have emerged as a response in the development of modern science in the 20th century, and to those who argued that Islam is a backward or medieval religion. With the idea of scientific miracles Muslims could present Islam as the religion of the future.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Why does Muhammad Husayn Haykal think that the prophet Muhammad’s example was important for all of humanity?

2. What do you think of the idea that Islam is a more rational religion than Christianity?

3. What is meant by the phrase “scientific miracles” of the Qurʾan?

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Topic 19: Allahu Akbar: Understanding the Islamic Theological Impulse

I. Allah Akbar: The Defense of a Royal God A. The flag of Saudi Arabia has a sword on it, and above it are words which are the Islamic profession of faith—the words to be declared upon one’s conversion to Islam: “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” Often the Arabic word for God in this profession of faith is translated so it reads: “There is no god but God.” Yet the point for Muslims is that God is known through what He has revealed about himself in the Arabic Qurʾan, which calls Him Allah. There we learn that He is the master of the universe, and that he does not like to be disrespected: 1. “There is no god except Him. . . . Neither drowsiness befalls Him nor sleep. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on earth. . . . He is the All-exalted, the All- supreme” (Q 2:255). 2. “There is a severe punishment for those who deny the signs of Allah, and Allah is all- mighty, avenger” (Q 3:4). 3. “Allah is swift at reckoning” (Q 3:199). 4. “Allah is but the One God. He is far too immaculate to have any son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth, and Allah suffices as trustee” (Q 4:171). 5. “Who can avail anything against Allah should He wish to destroy the Messiah, son of Mary, and his mother, and everyone upon the earth? To Allah belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and whatever is between them. He creates whatever He wishes and Allah has power over all things” (Q 5:17). B. Thus the God of Islam makes it clear in the Qurʾan that He expects believers to recognize His majesty, to assert that He has no equal, no competitor, that there is no god but He. The Qurʾan makes shirk, the error of attributing to another some power which is God’s alone, the principal sin of the pagan Arabs in the days of Muhammad (whom the Qurʾan calls al-mushrikun, a term related to the word shirk). C. Later Muslim scholars would make shirk the unforgiveable sin. Accordingly, the People of the Book (Jews and Christians) are tolerated in an Islamic State (lecture 10) because they are monotheists. Polytheists, on the other hand, are compelled to convert to Islam, or leave. In theory, then, a Christian (even a derelict Christian) would be tolerated in an Islamic state but not a Hindu (even a saintly Hindu). D. This notion is reflected in a hadith about the Day of Judgment in which the Prophet explains:

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1. So you will see Him (your Lord) on the Day of Resurrection similarly Allah will gather all the people and say, ‘Whoever used to worship anything should follow that thing. So, he who used to worship the sun, will follow it, and he who used to worship the moon will follow it, and he who used to worship false deities will follow them; and then only this nation (i.e., Muslims) will remain, including their hypocrites. . . . Then a bridge will be laid over the (Hell) Fire . . . and over that bridge there will be hooks. These hooks will snatch the people according to their deeds. Some people will be ruined because of their evil deeds, and some will be cut into pieces and fall down in Hell, but will be saved afterwards, when Allah has finished the judgments among His slaves, and intends to take out of the Fire whoever He wishes to take out from among those who used to testify that none had the right to be worshipped but Allah. We will order the angels to take them out and the angels will know them by the mark of the traces of prostration (on their foreheads) for Allah banned the fire to consume the traces of prostration on the body of Adam’s son. So they will take them out, and by then they would have burnt (as coal), and then water, called Maul Hayat (water of life) will be poured on them, and they will spring out like a seed springs out on the bank of a rainwater stream.’ E. This hadith suggests that what matters above all is the worship of the God of Islam. Only Muslims have a chance to cross the bridge into heaven. Some Muslims will be snatched off the bridge into the fire, but those who worshipped God by performing regularly the prostrations of Islamic payer—pressing their head against the ground until a mark is left in their forehead—will be saved by angels. F. In light of this notion, we can better understand the Islamic cry—Allahu akbar, “God is greater!” —which is heard from militias fighting a war, groups protesting against corrupt regimes, and even those executing a criminal or enemy. By shouting Allahu akbar, all of these groups are claiming to be acting in defense of their God—who is greater than those who oppose Him.

II. What Christians can Learn from Islamic Theology A. Christians too emphasize the sovereignty of God. In a special way Christians—first of all the —express their conviction of God’s sovereignty by taking up the cross and following Christ in a life of service to Him and His Church. Many have given everything and died as martyrs for the sake of Christ. Some of this desire for the imitation of Christ, and for the defense of His Church, seems to have been lost, at least in the contemporary western context. Christians might be reminded of this by Muslims. B. This does not necessarily mean that Christians should shout Allahu akbar. The Christian notion of God is different because Christian revelation is different. God to Christians is known not through the Qurʾan but through Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.

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C. It is telling, then, that Arab Christians as a rule do not use the phrase Allahu akbar, “God is greater,” but rather Allah kabir, “God is great.” Thereby they mean to express something of the mystery of God—that Christians should never lose hope in that God, the God who saved us. Instead they should live with exultant trust, as Paul expresses in Romans: 1. So it is proof of God’s own love for us, that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. How much more can we be sure, therefore, that, now that we have been justified by his death, we shall be saved through him from the retribution of God. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more can we be sure that, being now reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. What is more, we are filled with exultant trust in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have already gained our reconciliation. (Rom 5:8-11)

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What does the word shirk mean and why is it so important to Islamic thought?

2. In light of the particular theological notions of Islam, is it right to say that the Father of Jesus is the God of Muhammad?

3. What do you think Christians might learn from Islamic theology?

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Topic 20: Evangelical Protestantism and Islam

I. Evangelism and the Law of Apostasy A. As a rule, Catholic missionaries do not proselytize in most Islamic countries, as they are wary of the difficulties that often face both Muslim converts to Christianity and those suspected of being behind such conversions. Most Muslim countries consider all efforts to convert Muslims to be forbidden (a position found already in the “Conditions of Umar,” lecture 10). Evangelical Protestant missionaries, on the other hand, have long sought to win Muslim souls for Christ. However, with certain isolated exceptions, they have not made many converts. 1. Karl Gottlieb Pfander, a missionary to Muslims who spent much of his career in India, engaged in a famous public debate with a Muslim named Rahmatullah Kairanawi in 1854 in Agra. Most reports insist that Kairanawi, who had learned of recent European critical scholarship of the Bible, won the debate. Kairanawi went on to write a book titled The Bringing Forth of Truth (Izhar al-haqq), which is still well-known among Muslims today. 2. The great American missionary to Islam, Samuel Zwemer (known among Evangelicals as the “Apostle to Islam”) spent almost forty years in Yemen and Egypt preaching the Gospel and yet led only a handful of Muslims to embrace Christianity. In 1924, towards the end of his time in Egypt, Zwemer wrote a book titled The Law of , in which he insists that it is the Islamic ruling on the punishment of an apostate—namely execution—which prevents more Muslims from joining the Church. B. In fact, the Qurʾan never mentions any punishment for apostates (other than the punishment they will face in hell), but two hadith make apostasy punishable by death. In the first, the Prophet declares, “Whoever changes his religion, kill him” (this is understood not to apply those who change their religion to Islam). In the second, the Prophet explains that three sorts of criminals should be executed: “the murderer, a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse and the one who reverts from Islam (apostate) and leaves the Muslims.” C. In some Islamic countries, the death penalty for apostasy from Islam is indeed part of criminal law. In 2006, Abdul Rahman was brought to trial in Afghanistan after professing himself a Christian and faced the possibility of the death penalty (although he was ultimately released under pressure from the ). Mauritania, Sudan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia all make execution the punishment for apostasy. Most Islamic countries, however, do not have any criminal punishment for apostasy. At the same time, however, many of them do not recognize conversions to Christianity. In 2008 Mohammed Hegazy requested that the Egyptian government recognize his conversion to Christianity and his request was denied: He may be baptized and have a personal relationship with Jesus, but his identity card still reads “Muslim.”

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D. In any case, the greatest danger to converts comes not from criminal trials but rather from those Muslims who choose to take the traditional law of apostasy into their own hands. In recent years, Christians of a Muslim background have been the victims of vigilante attacks in India, Turkey, Somalia, Jordan, and elsewhere. Nevertheless, these accounts are exceptional cases. Most Christians of a Muslim background—or Muslim Background Believers (as they are commonly known in Evangelical literature)—are able to proceed from with their lives. The key is always to keep their conversion discrete. Kathryn Ann Kraft, in a study of the converts to Christianity, comments on the reaction of most Muslims to conversions to Christianity: “In short, as long as they can pretend it is not there, then it is not.”

II. New Directions in Evangelical Missions A. In recent years, evangelical missionaries have developed new strategies that will allow them to have more success than earlier generations of missionaries—such as Samuel Zwemer—and will allow converts to Christianity to avoid some of the social trauma that has accompanied conversions in the past B. A 2011 Christianity Today article with a catchy title (“The Son and the Crescent”) notes that recent translations of the Bible into Islamic languages tend to paraphrase (or translate with “dynamic equivalence”) the phrase “Son of God” so as not to scandalize Muslim readers who (formed by Islamic Qurʾanic language which insists that God is far above having a son; Q 4:171, Q 112) might imagine the Bible to be teaching that God had an offspring the normal way that humans produce offspring. 1. One translation of the New Testament renders “Son of God” as “the Beloved Son who comes from God.” To some missionaries, the Gospel is compromised with such a translation, since the New Testament emphasizes a particular intimacy between Christ and God which is only properly expressed with the analogy of a father and son. C. Some missionaries—following a trend begun in part by Phil Parshall, who successfully built churches in Muslim communities in the Philippines and Bangladesh in the 1970’s and 90’s— seek to build churches which share the culture of their Islamic context: church buildings might look like , Muslim background believers might keep the diet of Islam, continue to fast during Ramadan, and refer to Jesus with his Qurʾanic name Isa. Some might even continue to call themselves Muslims. They might explain that have not changed their religion at all—they are still “submissive” (the meaning of muslim in Arabic) to God—but they have found a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. D. This sort of “insider evangelism” as it is commonly known is sometimes associated with a method of evangelism known by the acronym CAMEL, a method which involves preaching the Gospel by using not the Bible, but material from the Qurʾan: 1. Mary was Chosen 2. Angels spoke to her 3. Christ performed Miracles and he is the way to Eternal Life.

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E. Some evangelicals, such as Ergun Caner of Liberty Seminary (himself a Muslim Background Believer), have criticized the manner in which this method depends on the Qurʾan, maintaining that the God of the Qurʾan is not the God of the Bible.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Why do some Protestant translations of Bible avoid a literal translation of the phrase “Son of God”?

2. Do you think it is right to avoid a literal translation of this phrase for the sake of evangelism?

3. What do you think of the idea of insider evangelism?

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Topic 21: The Catholic Church and Islam

I. Nostra Aetate A. Nostra Aetate was composed during Vatican II and promulgated by Paul VI on October 28, 1965. Its first words, “In our time, when day by day mankind is being drawn closer together…” (“Nostra aetate…”), allude to the Church’s vision for this text: in the twentieth century believers of different religions were increasingly coming into contact, and the time was thus right for the Church to address her understanding of the relation of the Church to non-Christian religions. B. The document begins with a reflection on the questions regarding truth common to all humans (section 1), and then turns (section 2) to religious traditions (e.g., Hinduism and Buddhism) that respond in a natural, philosophical, and mythic way to these questions. It then (section 3) addresses Islam, before turning to Judaism (sections 4 and 5), to which most of the declaration is dedicated. C. On Islam, Nostra Aetate states : 1. The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the Day of Judgment when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving, and fasting. Since in the course of centuries not a few quarrels and hostilities have arisen between Christians and Moslems, this sacred synod urges all to forget the past and to work sincerely for mutual understanding and to preserve as well as to promote together for the benefit of all mankind social justice and moral welfare, as well as peace and freedom. D. We might notice that the text praises religious sentiments, and notes the religious convictions, of Muslim believers. It does not assess the cogency of Islamic doctrine or evaluate that doctrine in the light of Christian belief. It never mentions Muhammad.

II. Dialogue and Proclamation A. Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have insisted that the Catholic Church is called both to engage in dialogue with Islam and to proclaim the Christian belief that God has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. B. In Crossing the Threshold of Hope, John Paul II recognizes the importance of monotheism to Muslims, but goes on to insist that the Christian vision of God is distinct from that of Islam:

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1. Whoever knows the Old and New Testaments, and then reads the Koran, clearly sees the process by which it completely reduces Divine Revelation. It is impossible not to note the movement away from what God said about Himself, first in the Old Testament through the Prophets, and then finally in the New Testament through His Son. In Islam all the richness of God's self-revelation, which constitutes the heritage of the Old and New Testaments, has definitely been set aside. C. In a talk before a gathering of representatives of other religions at World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008, Benedict XVI notes both in what ways believers in different religious traditions can work together, and describes the Church’s particular faith in Christ: 1. The universality of human experience, which transcends all geographical boundaries and cultural limitations, makes it possible for followers of religions to engage in dialogue so as to grapple with the mystery of life’s joys and sufferings. In this regard, the Church eagerly seeks opportunities to listen to the spiritual experience of other religions. We could say that all religions aim to penetrate the profound meaning of human existence by linking it to an origin or principle outside itself. Religions offer an attempt to understand the cosmos as coming from and returning to this origin or principle. Christians believe that God has revealed this origin and principle in Jesus, whom the Bible refers to as the “Alpha and Omega” (cf. Rev 1:8; 22:1). D. The allusion to “listening to the spiritual experience of other religions” reflects the rise among Catholic theologians of a “theology of religions.” This term can means different things to different scholars. Pope Benedict, in this citation, suggests that it means that the spiritual experiences of non-Christians can play a rule in revivifying the spiritual life of Christians. Some theologians argue that other religions can be a source of new insights on God and the world. E. Yet the Holy Father also insists here that Christians have something to share, namely Jesus Christ, who is Emmanuel, God with us. F. Pope Francis, like Pope Benedict, has a special interest in Islam. In his address to “Representatives of the Churches and Ecclesial Communities and of the Different Religions” on March 20, 2013 (soon after his election), Pope Francis singled out Islam: “I also greet and cordially thank all of you, dear friends who are followers of other religious traditions; first Muslims, who worship God as one, living and merciful, and invoke him in prayer, and all of you.”

III. Dialogue of Cultures A. The most controversial address of Pope Benedict involving Islam—his speech at his old university in Regensburg Germany in September 2006—is in some ways the most interesting. In the beginning of the address, Benedict quotes a 14th-century dialogue between the Byzantine emperor Manuel II and a Muslim among the Ottoman Turkish forces who had taken the emperor captive. In this dialogue Manuel is made to say: “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

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1. In the context of the dialogue, Manuel meant to refute his opponent’s claim that Islam is the final religion, the religion which improves upon, or corrects, Judaism and Christianity. 2. Yet in his address Benedict was principally interested a further observation that Manuel makes: “God is not pleased by blood—and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature.” B. The address at Regensburg is ultimately an argument for the importance of both faith and reason. 1. In the first part of the address, Benedict argues against faith without reason—for example, the position of some Muslim theologians that God’s very command, for example to kill unbelievers, itself renders an act good. 2. In the second part of the address, he argues against reason without faith. He holds that knowledge in the West has been “de-hellenized,” meaning that “only the kind of certainty resulting from the interplay of mathematical and empirical elements can be considered scientific.” Benedict comments that “by its very nature this method excludes the question of God, making it appear an unscientific or pre-scientific question.” This is contrary to the position of the Church: a. “For philosophy and, albeit in a different way, for theology, listening to the great experiences and insights of the religious traditions of humanity, and those of the Christian faith in particular, is a source of knowledge, and to ignore it would be an unacceptable restriction of our listening and responding.” 3. Accordingly, the West finds itself incapable of understanding cultures, such as Islamic cultures, which put God at the center of private and public life. A completely secular West, then, will be incapable of dialogue with Islam. C. The references to Muhammad and the sword led to widespread protests among Muslims, and some violence against Christians. Yet it also led to a letter, titled “A Common Word” and signed by 138 Muslim leaders, calling for increased understanding between Muslims and Christians. In response, the Vatican organized an unprecedented three-day meeting of 24 Muslim and 24 Catholic scholars, which took place in November 2008 and led to a joint declaration. Thus, the Church remains committed both to dialogue with Muslims, and to the proclamation of the faith she has received from the apostles.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What do you think about the relative importance of dialogue with Muslims and proclamation of the Gospel to Muslims?

2. What does it mean to listen to “the spiritual experience of other religions”?

3. How can the Catholic Church contribute to the West’s understanding of Islam?

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Bibliography

Works on Islam

ʿAbd al-Jabbār (d. 1025). The Critique of Christian Origins. Edited by S. K. Samir. Translated by G. S. Reynolds. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2010. - The first text to offer an Islamic vision of Christian history, doctrine, and practice.

Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad (d. ca. 767). The Life of Muḥammad. Translated by Alfred Guillaume. London: Oxford University Press, 1955. - The classic biography of the Prophet.

Khalidi, Tarif. The Qurʾan: A New Translation. London: Viking, 2008. - A clear and consistent translation of the Qurʾan.

Mahfouz, Naguib (d. 2006). Children of Gebelawi. Translated by Philip Stewart. London: Heinemann, 1981. - An allegory of the prophets from a Muslim perspective.

Rida, Rashid (d. 1935). Christian Criticisms, Islamic Proofs. Translated by Simon A. Wood. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. - A collection of Rashid Rida’s arguments against Christian missionaries.

Works on Muslim-Christian Relations

Chapman, Colin. Cross and Crescent: Responding to the Challenge of Islam. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008. - A reflection on Islam from an Evangelical Protestant perspective.

Cragg, Kenneth. The Call of the Minaret. Oxford: Oneworld, 2000, - One of many eloquent reflections on Islam by Cragg, an Anglican priest.

Jomier, Jacques The Bible and the Qurʾan. Ft. Collins, CO: Ignatius Press, 2002. - A discussion of the two scriptures from a Catholic perspective.

Samir, Samir Khalil, 111 Questions on Islam. Ft. Collins, CO: Ignatius Press, 2008. - A precise and enlightening interview with a leading Catholic voice in Muslim-Christian relations.

Troll, Christian, Dialogue and Difference. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2009. - A careful discussion of Muslim-Christian relations from a Catholic perspective.

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