Say: People of the scriptures! Do you find fault with us for any reason other than that we believe in Allah (alone), and in that which has been revealed to us as well as that which has been revealed previously, while most of you are transgressors?
(The Repast, “Al Maidah” 5; 59)
Allah directs his messenger to put this question to the people of earlier scriptures in order to emphasize the actual fact about their motives which shape their attitude towards the Muslim community and its faith. It is at the same time a question which rebukes them for their attitudes and their motives; moreover, it seeks to enlighten the Muslims so that the idea of binding themselves in a relationship of alliance with such people becomes repugnant to them.
The people of earlier scriptures never found fault with the Muslim community at the time of the Prophet and they do not find fault today with the advocates of Islamic revival, except for the fact that Muslims in all ages believe in Allah and what he has revealed to them in the Quran and as well as what the Qur'an endorses in the revelations sent down earlier in the scriptures. They are hostile to Muslims simply because they are Muslims; that is to say, because Muslims do not follow Judaism or Christianity.
The other reason is that those people of the scriptures are transgressors who have deviated from what Allah has revealed to them. The most damning proof of their transgression and deviation is the fact that they do not believe in the final message which endorses what Allah has revealed to them, leaving out what they have invented or distorted, moreover, they do not believe in the final messenger who has come to confirm earlier messages and honor all previous messengers.
They continue to wage this unabating war which has not been brought to a close ever since it started. The war against Islam started 1400 years ago, when the Muslims established their state in Madinah and became distinguished by their character and firmly established the roots of independence in faith, concept and political system. The enemies will never stop waging this war, unless they achieve their goal of turning Muslims away from their faith, so that they became non-Muslims.
The truth is that the majority people of the scripture, transgressors and, as such, do not like those Muslims who follow their faith and are committed to its implementation.
Allah states this fact absolutely clearly when he says to His messenger in another Surah; “the Jews and the Christians will never be the satisfied with you until you have followed their creed.” In the Surah, Allah tells him that it is time to comfort people of the scriptures in the truth which shapes their motives and provides the logic behind their attitude; “say people of the scripture. Do you find fault with us for any reason other than that we believe in Allah alone, and in that which is being revealed to us as well as that which has been revealed previously, while most of you are transgressors”?
This fact is stated by Allah in several places of His clear revelation. Nevertheless it is this act that many among the people of the scripture and among those who call themselves Muslims try to dilute or present in a confusing way.
The people of the scripture wish to dilute this fact and to cover it up altogether, because they want to cheat the people of Islamic world or, more correctly, the word which claims to be Islamic. They try to distort the penetrating vision Islam gives its follower as they implement its system. Equipped with sound vision and profound awareness, Muslims were able to tower over the imperialism of the crusaders. Having failed in their direct campaigns known as the crusades and in their open missionary war fare, those crusaders felt that the only option left to them is that of deception. they tried, therefore, to promote among latter-day Muslims that the whole episode of religious warfare is over and that it belonged to the dark ages.
If all people of the world have become more enlightened and more “advanced”, it is far from acceptable that people should be involved in religious conflicts, hence conflicts of today are over wealth, resource, market and investment. Muslims, are more correctly, their heirs and must therefore, removes all thoughts of religious conflict from their minds.
When the people of the scriptures who colonize Muslim countries are reassured that Muslims have been so hypnotized and the whole question has been confused in their minds, then they are reassured that they will not have to face the Muslims' fury when their faith is assaulted. They realize from their history that they can never stand up to such fury when it is so motivated. Now that the senses of the Muslims have been benumbed, the people of the scriptures do not only win the war over religion, but they also win with it the materialistic war and they enjoy their loot in the shape of investments and resources.
We also find within the Muslim world, agents for the people of the scriptures repeating the same words. These people claim that the crusades were not truly crusades and they describe the Muslims who fought against the crusaders under the banner of faith as “nationalists” not “Muslims”.
There is a third group who are deluded. They listen to the descendants of the Crusaders of the imperialist west making a call to them: let us meet together to defend religion against the schemes of the “atheists.” This deluded group responds favorably, oblivious of the fact that these very descendants of the Crusaders have always joined forces with the atheists whenever the confrontation was with Muslims. They have not changed in any way. They are not concerned with fighting atheist materialism as much as they are concerned with fighting Islam. They realize that atheist materialism is a temporary phenomenon, but Islam is, to them the eternal enemy. This deceptive call aims only to undermine the Islamic revival and to make use of those deluded people to fight atheists, the political enemies of imperialism, both are the same and hostile to Islam and Muslims. In this war, a Muslim's only reliable weapon is the penetrating vision imparted to him by the divine system.
Those who allow themselves to be deceived and think that the people of the scriptures are serious about joining forces with Muslims in fighting atheism are oblivious of what history has shown throughout 14 centuries which have seen no exception to this rule. They are also oblivious of what their Lord has told them most clearly and most emphatically on this particular point, when these people read or write, they quote only those Qur'anic verses and pronouncements of the Prophet (Pbuh) which order the Muslims to treat the people of the scriptures with kindness and to show them maximum tolerance. They however prefer to overlook the clear and decisive warnings against entering into a relationship of patronage and alliance with them, the penetrating statement of their motives and the unequivocal instructions relating to the practical movement and organization of Islam which prohibit establishing such alliances and relations of patronage with non-Muslims. To a Muslim, such an alliance and patronage can only be concerned with the establishment of the Islamic system in practical life. There is simply no common ground between Muslims and people of the scriptures with regard to Islam, regardless of the fact that these religions have the same origins as Islam before they were distorted. After all, the people of the scriptures are not satisfied unless Muslims abandon their faith, as the Lord of mankind clearly states.
Such deluded people treat the Qur'an in an ambivalent way, taking only those parts of it which endorse their naïve call, assuming that it is innocent, and abandon what is in conflict with it, as for us, we prefer to listen to Allah's words in this whole question. His word is clear, unequivocal, and decisive.
