At the time when the Qur’an was revealed, were there any faithful Jews or Christians left?
There have always been, in all religions, faithful and unfaithful followers. Just as there are or have been faithful Muslims and some unfaithful Muslims, so too the Qur’an distinguishes between the faithful and the unfaithful Christians and Jews. The following verses within the Qur’an explore this distinction. The Qur’an does not say that everyone from among the People of the Book was unfaithful, or that they do not know the Word of Allah since it is corrupted. Instead, the Qur’an argues that the Scripture is good, but many do not follow it. Yet, there were Christians and Jews who did follow the truth of the Bible, even at the time when the Qur’an was being revealed.
THE UNFAITHFUL PEOPLE OF THE BOOK: The Qur’an describes the behavior of unfaithful Jews and Christians in the following way:
- Concealing the truth of the scripture:
Who is more unjust than those who conceal the testimony they have from Allah?
2. Teaching falsely and forgetting what they had heard from their scripture:
There is among them a section who distort the Book with their tongues: (As they read) you would think it is a part of the Book, but it is not part of the Book; and they say, “That is from Allah,” but it is not from Allah.
They change words from their context and forget a part of that whereof they were admonished.
3. Violating the covenant of Allah and forsaking it for monetary gain.
And remember Allah took a covenant from the People of the Book, to make it known and clear to mankind, and not to hide it; but they threw it away behind their backs, and purchased with it some miserable gain! And vile was the bargain they made!
4. Being ignorant of the book and thus writing their own ideas:
But the transgressors changed the word from that which had been given them.
And there are among them illiterates, who know not the Book, but (see therein their own) desires, and they do nothing but conjecture. Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands, and then say: “This is from Allah,” to traffic with it for miserable price!- Woe to them for what their hands do write, and for the gain they make thereby.
At the time when the Qur’an was revealed, were there any faithful Jews or Christians left?
There have always been, in all religions, faithful and unfaithful followers. Just as there are or have been faithful Muslims and some unfaithful Muslims, so too the Qur’an distinguishes between the faithful and the unfaithful Christians and Jews. The following verses within the Qur’an explore this distinction. The Qur’an does not say that everyone from among the People of the Book was unfaithful, or that they do not know the Word of Allah since it is corrupted. Instead, the Qur’an argues that the Scripture is good, but many do not follow it. Yet, there were Christians and Jews who did follow the truth of the Bible, even at the time when the Qur’an was being revealed.
THE UNFAITHFUL PEOPLE OF THE BOOK: The Qur’an describes the behavior of unfaithful Jews and Christians in the following way:
- Concealing the truth of the scripture:
Who is more unjust than those who conceal the testimony they have from Allah?
2. Teaching falsely and forgetting what they had heard from their scripture:
There is among them a section who distort the Book with their tongues: (As they read) you would think it is a part of the Book, but it is not part of the Book; and they say, “That is from Allah,” but it is not from Allah.
They change words from their context and forget a part of that whereof they were admonished.
3. Violating the covenant of Allah and forsaking it for monetary gain.
And remember Allah took a covenant from the People of the Book, to make it known and clear to mankind, and not to hide it; but they threw it away behind their backs, and purchased with it some miserable gain! And vile was the bargain they made!
4. Being ignorant of the book and thus writing their own ideas:
But the transgressors changed the word from that which had been given them.
And there are among them illiterates, who know not the Book, but (see therein their own) desires, and they do nothing but conjecture. Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands, and then say: “This is from Allah,” to traffic with it for miserable price!- Woe to them for what their hands do write, and for the gain they make thereby.