Friendship with Jews and Christians
by Lord Shahid Aziz
The Light (UK), October 2022 Issue (pp. 12–15)
يَٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لَا تَتَّخِذُوا۟ ٱلْيَهُودَ وَٱلنَّصَرَىٰٓ أَوْلِيَآءَ ۘ بَعْضُهُمْ أَوْلِيَآءُ بَعْضٍۢ ۚ وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُم مِّنكُمْ فَإِنَّهُۥ مِنْهُمْ ۗ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِى ٱلْقَوْمَ ٱلظَّلِمِينَ (المائدہ،آیت 51)
“O you who believe, take not the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are allies of each other, and whoever among you takes them as allies, he indeed becomes one of them. Surely, Allah guides not the unjust.” (The Holy Quran, 5:51)
I have translated the Arabic word aulia as allies or someone, an individual or a group on whom you come to rely on and depend for your safety and security and protection. Usually, you find in the English translations of the Holy Quran that this is translated as friends. This verse was revealed to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) when Muslims were under attack from the Quraish of Makkah, in particular, and also other people who lived in what is now Saudi Arabia.
There were a large number of people of different faiths living in Medina at the time Muslims had migrated to Medina. It was inhabited by idol worshippers, Jews, Christians and so on. Some people suggested that under these conditions, Muslims should enter into alliances with non-Muslims. They said the Muslims didn’t have to be too strict and prescriptive about their principles. They suggested expressing them in a vague manner so that people could attribute many meanings and pick one definition or another that suits them. They felt that Muslims would have protection because they would have alliances with the large and strong tribes.
For this reason, this verse of the Holy Quran was revealed. Allah is telling Muslims that they must not compromise their fundamental principles for their security. For protection, they should depend on their community and Allah. I want to stress this again. The reason for revealing this verse of the Holy Quran was to clarify that when fundamental basic principles are concerned, Muslims should be steadfast and clearly state what they believe and not fudge them or express them in vague language.
This happens when some heads of State meet and discuss and negotiate. If there are some matters on which they disagree, the most time is spent on finding language to issue the final communique. The reason is that when President A and Prime Minister B return to their countries, they can both claim they prevailed. Each claims that everything went in his favour. But all it does is to puts off making difficult decisions. This leads to further complications by increasing suspicion between the people of the two countries.
Ask yourself this question: Why should another community worry about the safety and security of Muslims unless there is something in it for them? Why would they support another community? Each community wants the maximum benefit for itself. So why would anyone worry about Muslim safety or security that we should enter into alliances, contracts, defence treaties, etc.?
What happened when the Arabs entered into treaties with the British and the French during the First World War? They joined an alliance with the British and the French. The Sunni Arab Muslims agreed to help the British and French Christians defeat the Sunni Muslim Turks. And at the end of World War I (WWI), the Arabs were to be granted rule rulership of all the land from Turkey to Saudi Arabia. But what happened at the end of WWI? The Arabs got some land, but the British and the French carved and ruled the rest.
The Holy Quran says that Jews and Christians are allies of each other. So what did Christians do after WWI? The British issued the Balfour Declaration. This stated that there would be a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and people who had not seen Palestine for hundreds, even thousands, of years would be allowed to occupy Palestine. So, this verse of the Holy Quran came true. But the British were not the only Christian nation to do this. At the U.N., the United States supported the creation of Israel. And since the creation of Israel, the U.S. has supported it with money, arms, and political support. In fact, everything you can imagine.
An Israeli general attacked Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, killing hundreds or thousands of innocent men, women, and children. Anyone else would have been charged with genocide. But what happened to this gentleman? He became Israel’s Prime Minister. He became Israel’s Defence Minister. Did anyone bat an eyelid? No.
And then people get to this verse of the Holy Quran. They start saying:
“Oh look, God says Muslims not to enter into alliances with Christians and Jews. Muslims are being taught to hate other religions.”
But what did Muslims get when they allied with the British and the French? There are many other instances — the list is a long one.
The critical thing to remember is this. This verse is about depending on others for safety and security. It is not about how you deal with people of your own country who follow a different religion. The Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was the first person in the world to establish a secular state. This was in Medina. The Treaty of Medina, Mithak-i-Medina; which some people call the Constitution of Medina, clearly said that regardless of their religion, every community living in Medina has the same rights. They could have and hold whatever religion they wanted. They could preach whatever religion they wanted. They could worship, following the rules and regulations of whatever religion they follow. Their disputes would be decided following their religious laws. There was only one condition all people of Medina would be loyal to the State of Medina. That is all. Many non-Muslims paid lip service to this treaty. At the same time, they didn’t want to make enemies with the Quraish. They kept in touch with them. And they kept telling them about how Muslims were doing, how the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was doing, how they were progressing, etc.
These were the people with whom, some Muslims suggested, the Holy Prophet enter into a close alliance. Can I ask what happens to the Americans who take an oath of allegiance to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States and then collaborate with the Chinese, the Russians, or some other state? How are they treated? What happens to such British nationals? Unless one was born British, one has to take an oath on the Holy Quran that one will be loyal to the British monarch and carry out their orders. What happened to Shamima Begum? She was a born British national, but because she joined a terrorist organisation, the British even let her infant children die for lack of medical treatment.
It is amazing! What is perfectly okay for the Christian states to do; it is wrong if it’s mentioned in the Holy Quran. But the difficulty is that Muslims misinterpret or misunderstand the Holy Quran. As I said, this verse is not about the minorities living in a Muslim-majority country.
Let’s compare two things. One happened some years ago, and the other happened recently. Some years ago, in Jakarta, a Christian was elected as the governor of Jakarta. As you know, Indonesia is a Muslim-majority country. 95% of people living there are Muslims. What did they do upon a Christian being elected? Did they welcome this? Did they say:
“Look how tolerant we are. We found this Christian; he was the ablest person and elected him as the governor of Jakarta.”
Riots broke out in Indonesia, demanding this man be dismissed and a Muslim appointed. This verse of the Holy Quran was used to justify the riots. Nothing in this verse of the Holy Quran justifies those riots. When Muslims came out of Arabia, they conquered North Africa and other lands up to Turkey, and they conquered Iran up to India. How many Muslims were there? There were only a few thousand of them. So how did they rule over these hundreds of thousands or perhaps even millions of people?
Hazrat Umar (rta) gave a straightforward instruction to his generals: when you conquer a city, town or area. And there are people in administration, make inquiries to see if they are honest. He did not say ask questions about their religion or sect. If they are honest, leave them in their place. But if they have a reputation for dishonesty, remove them and replace them with someone else.
But contrary to that, in Indonesia, we had riots. The governor was replaced with a Muslim, and the riots stopped. Compare that to the situation in the U.K. Last week, the Christian majority of the ruling party elected a Hindu [Rishi Sunak] as their leader. In the U.K., Muslims participate in elections. They are elected to the parliament and become mayors and councillors. The list is endless.
The question I ask you is this. If in Muslim-majority countries we are going to riot against non-Muslims being elected, why shouldn’t people of the U.K. not riot against Muslims being elected? For example, would people in London have been justified in rioting when Sadiq Khan was elected the Lord Mayor of London?
If not, why not? We Muslims should learn a lesson from that. You need to think. We complain about Islam being brought into disrepute. I suggest it is our actions and how we deal with people bringing Islam into disrepute. And, yes, Muslims in the U.K. should feel proud that, technically, this is a Christian country; a non-Christian was elected to the highest office. A few years ago, a non-Christian was elected as the Vice President of the United States. And the list goes on. And, I end with another verse from the Holy Quran, which says that God does not change the condition of a people unless they change their condition.
Our attitude is entirely negative in everything. All we do is moan and groan and complain about how the world hates us. Take two hours of your life and think about why the world hates you. I don’t think it does. I think it’s just a cop-out. Because to change to bring ourselves up to the modern age will mean that we will have to jettison cherished beliefs held for centuries, and we don’t want to do that. But the world is not going to wait for us to change. The world is simply going to move on and leave us behind. This is what happened in India. When we rejected Western education, we were happy reading Greek philosophy. But Newtonian mechanics made us a heretic. What was the result? The world did not stop; we were left behind the other communities. The same thing is happening all over the West. For 50 or 60 years, I said Muslims in the West are falling behind because of their archaic and incorrect views. And if they don’t change them, then, as we can see, we will be left further and further behind other communities.
While followers of other religions are elected to high office, we will fight over whether the moon has been sighted for Ramadan and Eid.
We will only change if we follow the Promised Messiah’s [Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian] interpretation of Islam. May it be soon. But to do so requires courage to stand up and risk the ire of our orthodox brothers, who will immediately declare such people heretics and threaten them with death.