Nikkah

[Thornewood9]

Re: Nikkah

@redvelvet

I remember I had asked this question in a former thread and you had answered it there and then I had asked a follow-up question about…which maybe wasn’t answered…don’t quite remember now.

But when we say “People of the Book”…would that refer more to the old Testament for Christians…since the rules there are more similar to those in Islam? And I could be wrong…but attributing divinity to Jesus…was not mentioned in the Old Testament. I’m under the impression that the new Testament not only contains this attribution but is also more lax. I’ve also read that only some portions of the Bible are authentic. So, are they really People of the Book if they follow one testament more than the other? Maybe the Christians during the time of the Prophet SAWS were also lax…and followed one testament more than the other? Another thing I’ve wondered about is that …you can’t marry a Hindu person because they’re polytheists…but attributing divinity to Jesus isn’t quite monotheism either…so how is that explained?

There are quite a few scholars who have debated this question and opinion is divided. Some do say that we can’t really call the Christians and Jews of today " people of the book" because unlike their ancestors they follow a religion which has been distorted so much over time that its not even the same thing. For instance the Christians who claim Jesus AS is actually God Himself some scholars say are not monotheistic and therefore fall under the category of polytheists. I personally agree with that view. Today you have people who are just Christian in name and they font follow Christianity in any way. Even if they celebrate Easter or Christmas the meaning is more on family rather than religion. I have quite a few coworkers who are Christian in name only if you like but they don’t believe in God or Jesus and dont follow the teachings of either old or new testament. Faith isn’t important to them at all. In the end its always better for Muslims to marry Muslims rather than gamble on whether someone falls into the “people of the book” category or not. And Allah knows best. If there were other questions you asked that I didn’t answer I apologise, I didn’t notice them! hope you didn’t think I was ignoring them deliberately!