The Intellectual Influence of the People of the Book from Atheists and Polytheists

The false thoughts of the Jews and Christians that caused their excess (ghuluww) in religion were influenced by the disbelief and atheism of polytheists: “The Jews said, ‘Ezra is the son of God’ and the Christians said, ‘The Messiah is the son of God.’ That is their statement from their mouths; they imitate the statement of those who disbelieved before. May God destroy them; how are they deluded! They have taken their rabbis and monks as lords besides God, and [also] the Messiah, the son of Mary. And they were not commanded except to worship one God; there is no deity except Him. Exalted is He above whatever they associate with Him.”(147)

The phrase “That is their statement from their mouths; they imitate the statement of those who disbelieved before” indicates that before the People of the Book, there were unbelievers and polytheists who, as a result of turning away from divine knowledge and teachings, did not allow their monotheistic nature (fiṭra) to flourish and became materialistic and accepted physical deities and turned to idol worship. Their saying “O Moses, make for us a god just as they have gods”(148) is of this type. The Jews and Christians of the Prophet’s era also, following those same unbelievers, became trapped in ignorant and materialistic thoughts and, based on the similarity of hearts (tashābuh al-qulūb), spoke words like theirs.

In summary, the words of the People of the Book do not arise from reason (ʿaql) and innate nature (fiṭra). Their goal is to extinguish the light of God, unaware that the light of God, who is “the light of the heavens and the earth”,(149) like the light of the sun, can never be extinguished by mouths: “They want to extinguish the light of God with their mouths, but God refuses except to perfect His light, even if the disbelievers dislike it.”(150) Since the light of monotheism (tawḥīd) is acceptable to reason and heart and arises from innate nature (fiṭar), it can be said that perhaps today, as a result of the growth of religious teachings and the clarification of monotheistic knowledge through the blessing of the Qur’an and the Family (ʿitra), the scholars of the People of the Book no longer utter such vain words about Ezra and the Messiah - although it is not unlikely from their ignorant ones - but in the early period of Islam and at the time of the Qur’an’s revelation, these ideas were prevalent.