saadat@tcgould.TN.CORNELL.EDU (Irfan Saadat) (03/01/90)
The question of Ahl-Alkitaab is sometimes confusing and rather, tricky. In order to understand it correctly one has to look at all the verses and their order of revelation. In Al-baqara is the verse which Basalat is mentioning. If you look at the tafseer of this Ayah (I am quoting Ibn Katheer) it says Salman Al-Farsi came to the prophet and said while he was persuing the truth, he encountered many people who used to worship one God, do good deeds and waiting for a new Prophet, are those people in hell or heaven. (if you remember the story of Salman, he used to move from one monk to the next one, till one of them told him go to the land of dates, the time has come, on his way to Madina he was abducted and sold as slave, he became the slave of Madina Jew, and came to know about the prophet, he went to hi with certain tests which the old monk told him and verified the prophecy of the monk and converted, later funds were raised so that he can free himself from the slavery). Anyhow, Salman was asking about those people who were his guide to Madina. This verse was revieled which confirmed that they are in heaven. The other verses vereses with similar tones and verses which has a similar theme, refered to the true unitarian Jews and Christians, people who before Islam were on the true path, e.g Waraqah bin Naufal, and Buhaira the Mystic. But once Islam is established then the emphsis shifted to a new phase where they have (Ahl Al-Kitaab) have to believe in Muhammad. And the Hadith which is quoted by Omar about Moses (Musa) became the rule. This is also emphasized in many Ayas of the Quran, (wa man yubtaghee ghayra alIslam deenan falan yuqbala minhu). As far as the Kufr is concerened, it defined by the famous hadith of Jibreel, and if any part is missing, the whole thing is gone. So Ahl Al-Kitab are considered Kafir. But because they had revelation from God, they are given a special status in terms of their foods, and women. But Al-Maida cleary says "Laqad kafara al-latheen qloo in allah thalithu thalithu thalatha" "laqad kafara al-theen qalu in allah huwa almaseehu Isa ibn Maryam" and so on. So it is quiet clear what kufr means as an Islamic term. As far as the meaning it is also mentioned in the Quran which Omar has stated earlier and that is the farmer. Irfan If one examines the last verses in Islam (AlMAida), clearly it put the Jews and the Christians in the category of Kafir, the reason given in the Quran was: for the case of Jews: they took their elders and rabbis as Gods beside him (in reinterpretting the Word of the Torah, making certain things which were prohibited legal and vice a versa), and in the case of Christians making Jesus the Son of God/God. But because they started from a