The Illusion of Jacob’s Religious Affiliation with Jews and Christians

Jews and Christians imagined Abraham and Jacob to be of their faith and in agreement with the polytheistic and baseless beliefs of Jews and Christians, attributing these beliefs to Islam and submission. God, the Glorious, in refuting this notion, addressed the People of the Book saying: You were not present at the time of Jacob’s testament to his children and did not witness that scene. In that scene, there was only talk of encouragement and recommendation to Islam; not Judaism and Christianity. Of course, the absence of the People of the Book from the scene of the recommendation is not proof of the validity of their opponents’ claim, because lack of awareness is not proof of non-existence; however, it will never prove their specific claim either. That is, the Jews and Christians who considered Judaism and Christianity to be true and thought it to be the religion of Jacob, to prove this claim, either had to be witnesses to the scene of his recommendation or such a matter should have been mentioned in the Torah and the Gospel, while they lack both appearances; they have neither benefited from the appearance of presence at the time of the testament nor from the appearance of the heavenly scripture, as they were neither witnesses to the scene nor is such a thing mentioned in the previous heavenly book.

Similar to the aforementioned address, which prohibits a person from stating what they have no knowledge of, is also found in other verses of the Noble Qur’an; such as what it says about the origin of creation: Those who associate partners with God in creation and lordship were not witnesses to the scene of creation to be aware of its nature and whether there was any creator and inheritor other than God: “I did not make them witness to the creation of the heavens and the earth or to the creation of themselves, and I would not have taken the misguiders as assistants.”(365)

Also, addressing those who ignorantly prohibit some animals and permit others, it says: You were not witnesses to the scene of permitting and prohibiting.

God did not recommend to you the declaration of lawful and unlawful rulings, rather they are revealed through divine inspiration to the prophets, not to you: “Or were you witnesses when God instructed you with this? Then who is more unjust than one who invents a lie about God in order to mislead the people without knowledge? Indeed, God does not guide the wrongdoing people.”(366)