Neither Friends nor Allies - by Imran N. Hosein
Articles - Understanding Islam
Wednesday, 10 Rajab 1428
The Qur’an firmly prohibits Muslim friendship and alliance with a Jewish-Christian alliance. Yet around the world of Islam today most governments violate that divine prohibition. They, their supporters and followers, pay a price for such conduct. They lose their Islam and become, instead, part of the Euro-Jewish/Euro-Christian alliance that is waging war on Islam. It is the first such alliance ever to have emerged in history, and it wages that war on behalf of the Euro-Jewish State of Israel. Both the Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him) have provided information that makes it possible for us to locate [Gog and Magog] within the ranks of those two actors, i.e., Euro-Christians and Euro-Jews, who wage that war on Islam.
Suriname’s Shaikh Ali Mustafa and I climbed a hill in Morvant (in my native Caribbean island of Trinidad) to the top where a Christian Church was located, and we then sat down to catch our breath (mine more than his) and to eventually participate in what we expected to be a friendly Christian-Muslim exchange of views.
The false and vicious attack on the Qur’an and on the person of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), to which we were subjected, was hardly friendly. It was indeed shocking and manifestly sinful. However, we quickly located the source of that distinctly un-Christian behaviour in the ‘war on Islam’ that the [Gog and Magog] ruling alliance was waging around the world. We also understood the motive for that strange behavior in their frantic need to contain the spread of Islam among the poor in the hills of Laventille and Morvant.
“Friendship between Christians and Muslims is prohibited by the Qur’an itself”, thundered the Christian speaker to ringing applause from his congregation. He was, of course, depending on an English translation of a verse of the Qur’an that has often been misunderstood. Here is the verse as translated by this writer:
“Oh you who believe (in this Qur’an), do not take (such) Jews and Christians as friends and allies who themselves are friends and allies of each other. And whoever of you (Muslims) turn to them (with friendship and alliance) becomes, verily, one of them; behold, Allah does not guide such evildoers.”
(Qur’an, al-Maidah, 5:51)
At the time of the revelation of the Qur’an, and for more than a thousand years thereafter, Christians and Jews were locked in a relationship of such mutual hatred that it was impossible to conceive of a future Christian-Jewish reconciliation, friendship and mutual alliance. After all, the Gospel itself had recorded the exclusive Jewish role in the demand for Christ’s crucifixion, in addition to the fact that the Roman government had opposed it (John, 19:4-7).
Christianity consistently, and quite correctly, blamed the Jews for demanding that crucifixion. It created eternal hostility between the two religious communities.
However, this extraordinary verse of the Qur’an actually anticipated a time when the world would witness a strange and mysterious reconciliation between these two foes, and the emergence of a Judeo-Christian alliance. It is only in the modern age, when Gog and Magog have attacked Euro-Christianity and Euro-Judaism and have transformed Europe into an essentially godless secular society where men can legally marry men, that the world has witnessed the amazing fulfillment of the divine prophecy in this verse of the Qur’an (See chapter on Gog and Magog in ‘Jerusalem in the Qur’an’).
It should be clear that the Qur’an has prohibited Muslims from maintaining friendly ties with only that Judeo-Christian alliance and not with all Christians and all Jews. The Qur’an has also warned those Muslims who established ties of friendship with that Judeo-Christian alliance that is now ruling the world, that Allah Most High would recognize them to be members of that alliance (rather than the Muslim community), and would thus consider such conduct the ultimate betrayal of Islam.
Euro-Christianity and Euro-Judaism have today joined in an unholy alliance in order to conquer and rule the world from London, Washington and Jerusalem while waging war on Islam. They do so in order to deliver the rule over the world to an imposter Euro-Jewish State of Israel - a state which they themselves created, and then seduced the oriental Jews (i.e., the Israelite Jews) into accepting. That alliance is also waging war on the religious way of life and in the process is transforming almost the whole world to a state of decadence and godlessness.
OTHER TRANSLATIONS OF THE VERSE
In his widely-read English translation of the Qur’an, Abdullah Yusuf Ali ranslates verse 51 of Surah al-Maidah as follows:
“O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: they are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them. Verily Allah guideth not a people unjust.”
Muhammad Asad, who is a highly respected European Muslim translator of the Qur’an and a distinguished scholar of Islam, translated the verse in this way:
“O you who have attained to faith! Do not take the Jews and the Christians for your allies: they are but allies of each other - and whoever of you allies himself with them becomes, verily, one of them; behold, God does not guide such evildoers.”
Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthal, the English Muslim translator of the Qur’an, is no different in his translation:
“O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk.”
M. Shakir, the Pakistani Muslim, translates the verse the same way:
“O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.”
T. B. Irving, the American Muslim translator of the Qur’an, has a similar translation:
“You who believe, do not accept Jews or Christians as sponsors; some of them act as sponsors for one another. Any of you who makes friends with them becomes one of them. God does not guide such wrongdoing folk.”
IMPLICATIONS OF SUCH TRANSLATIONS
If we were to accept any of the above translations of the verse to be correct, grave contradictions with both the Qur’an and the example of the blessed Prophet himself would emerge.
Consider the following:
• The Qur’an specifically permits marriage of a Muslim man to a Christian or Jewish woman: “This day are (all) things good and pure made lawful unto you. The food of Ahl al-Kitab (i.e., the Christian and Jewish peoples who possess a divinely revealed scripture) is lawful unto you and yours is lawful unto them. (Lawful unto you in marriage) are (not only) chaste women who are believers but chaste women among the
Ahl al-Kitab revealed before your time when ye give them their due dowers and desire chastity not lewdness nor secret intrigues. If anyone rejects faith fruitless is his work and in the Hereafter he will be in the ranks of those who have lost (all spiritual good).” (Qur’an, al-Maidah, 5:5)
If we accept the above translations of the verse to be correct, a Muslim man would have to inform his Christian or Jewish wife that while she could be his wife, ‘friendship’ between them was strictly prohibited.
• The Qur’an also permits Muslims to eat Christian and Jewish food (provided such food was made Halal for Christians and Jews) and reciprocates by permitting them to eat Muslim food (Qur’an, al-Maidah, 5:5). The Muslim who invites his Christian neighbor for a meal would have to confess to him, with quite some embarrassment, that while the Qur’an permits him to break bread with his Christian neighbour (i.e., share a meal with him), it has strictly prohibited friendship between them.
• Prophet Muhammad advised his weakest followers, who were severely persecuted by the pagan Arabs, to flee to black Christian Abyssinia and to seek security and protection there. They did so, and a just Christian King welcomed and protected them. Many years later when the Prophet got the news of that Christian King’s death, he actually offered a funeral prayer for him from the distant city of Madina. Such conduct would be quite inconsistent with the Qur’an if those translations were accepted as correct.
• Prophet Muhammad himself entered into a political and constitutional alliance with Jews in Madina that brought into being the city—State of Madina; however, the above translations of the verse of the Qur’an prohibited such an alliance.
• Finally, the Qur’an is specific when it declares that there is no prohibition on Muslims preventing them from maintaining friendly ties with any people (Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Jew, white, black, brown or yellow) who do not wage war on Islam and do not oppress Muslims by expelling them from their homes and their territory in which they reside: “Allah forbids you not with regard to those who fight you not for (your)Faith nor drive you out of your homes from dealing kindly and justly with them: for Allah loveth those who are just.”
(Qur’an, al-Mumtahana, 60:8)
As was previously explained, the verse of the Qur’an (5:51) does not prohibit Muslims from maintaining friendly relations with all Christians and Jews. Rather it prohibits friendship with only those Christians and Jews who enter into a Judeo-Christian alliance. It does so because such would be the Gog and Magog world-order that would wage war on Islam and expel Muslims from their homes and from the territory in which they reside.
The Qur’an is quite explicit when it anticipates a time when Jews would be the most hostile of all peoples to Muslims. At that time, says the Qur’an, there would be Christians who would be your best friends:
“Thou wilt surely find that, of all people, the most hostile to those who believe (i.e., in this Qur’an) would be the Jews, as well as those who ascribe divinity to aught beside Allah (such as the worship of idols) and thou wilt surely find that, of all people, they who say: “Behold, we are Christians” come closest to feeling affection for those who believe (in this Qur’an): this is so because there are priests and monks among them and because they are not given to arrogance.”
(Qur’an, al-Maidah, 5:82)
The above does not constitute an indictment of all Jews. Rather it is applicable to only those Jews who wage war on Islam and who expel Muslims from their homes and territory (as has occurred in the Holy Land). It also provides Muslims with a means whereby they can recognize those whom the Qur’an recognizes, in that age, as Christians. They would be a people who would show the closest of affection for Muslims at a time when Jews and idol-worshippers show great hatred for Islam and Muslims.
Translations of (5:51) based on a misunderstanding of the Qur’an would certainly obstruct the development of fraternal ties between Muslims and such Christians and Jews (and by implication Hindus and Buddhists) on the other, who do not participate in today’s war on Islam.
SHARKS AND SARDINES
The Latin-American stateman, Juan Domingo Alvorado, once declared that the world today was comprised of ‘sharks’ and ‘sardines’. The Morvant Christians, who were all of African origin, were ‘sardines’. So were we Muslims who climbed up to the top of the hill to meet with them. We were thus at pains to part from them without hostility. We hoped to reach out to them to unite in opposition to this war, not only on Islam but also on all that is sacred. We hoped to join hands and hearts in a common struggle against the ‘sharks’ of the world now waging war even with bombs that explode in garbage bins and garbage dumps in downtown Port of Spain.
An alliance of ‘sharks’ has invaded and occupied Afghanistan and Iraq, and is threatening to attack Iran as well. There are many in the world today, Christians, Hindus, Jews and others, who recognize the great injustice of that war on Islam and Muslims, who oppose that unjust war, and who would consequently welcome this brief explanatory essay.
There are also those Muslims, usually in government, who reap a harvest from their friendship with the alliance of ‘sharks’ that rules the world from London, Washington and Jerusalem. They do not want to understand this subject because of their great embarrassment that the Qur’an has so clearly exposed their ultimate betrayal of Allah Most High, and has declared them part of that Judeo-Christian alliance rather than part of the community of Muslims.
