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The Quran recognises good in Jews and Christians, and appeals for co-operation

Friday Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz, for Lahore Ahmadiyya UK, 29 August 2025

“They are not all alike. Among the People of the Book some are upright — they recite Allah’s messages in the night-time and they adore Him. They believe in Allah and the Last Day, and they enjoin good and forbid evil and hasten in (doing) good deeds. And those are among the righteous. And whatever good they do, they will not be denied it. And Allah knows those who keep their duty.” — ch. 3, Āl-‘Imrān, v. 113–115

لَیۡسُوۡا سَوَآءً ؕ مِنۡ اَہۡلِ الۡکِتٰبِ اُمَّۃٌ قَآئِمَۃٌ یَّتۡلُوۡنَ اٰیٰتِ اللّٰہِ اٰنَآءَ الَّیۡلِ وَ ہُمۡ یَسۡجُدُوۡنَ ﴿۱۱۳﴾یُؤۡمِنُوۡنَ بِاللّٰہِ وَ الۡیَوۡمِ الۡاٰخِرِ وَ یَاۡمُرُوۡنَ بِالۡمَعۡرُوۡفِ وَ یَنۡہَوۡنَ عَنِ الۡمُنۡکَرِ وَ یُسَارِعُوۡنَ فِی الۡخَیۡرٰتِ ؕ وَ اُولٰٓئِکَ مِنَ الصّٰلِحِیۡنَ ﴿۱۱۴﴾ وَ مَا یَفۡعَلُوۡا مِنۡ خَیۡرٍ فَلَنۡ یُّکۡفَرُوۡہُ ؕ وَ اللّٰہُ عَلِیۡمٌۢ بِالۡمُتَّقِیۡنَ ﴿۱۱۵﴾

These verses occur after several verses in chapter 3 which strongly condemn the wrong-doings and the mistaken religious beliefs of the Jews and the Christians of the Holy Prophet Muhammad’s time. There are verses after these verses as well in which their misdeeds are condemned. But the above verses, which I have recited, occur in the middle to show that it is not the Jews and the Christians as such who are denounced in the Quran, but it is their misbehaviour. These verses clearly declare that they cannot be condemned as a whole because some of their members are upright and good people. When it says they recite Allah’s messages, it does not mean reading the Quran but their own scriptures that were revealed by God. This quality, and all the other good qualities listed here, are possible for the “People of the Book” to possess while following their own religions. It is then stated that “they adore God”. The word we have translated as “adore” is yasjudūn in the Arabic, meaning to prostrate or perform sajdah. In the Bible, more than a hundred examples are found of God-fearing people prostrating in sajdah before God.

Then the above verses go on to say that these people believe in God and the Last Day. That is very clear from the funda­mental teachings in their own holy books. Then it is mentioned that they teach people to do good and forbid them to do evil, and even that they “hasten in (doing) good deeds”, meaning that they rush to do good deeds. The concepts of what is good and what is evil as given in their scriptures are very similar to the concepts of good and evil as held by Muslims. Then we are told that these particular people from among the Jews and the Christians are not just ordinarily good people but are righteous to a high standard, as they are called ṣāliḥīn.

Some Muslim scholars of the Quran hold the opinion that the persons mentioned here are those Jews and Christians who became Muslims. But it is clear that the Quran is not talking about those who became Muslims because it is calling them still as being among the People of the Book, which is the Quran’s term for those belonging to the religions before Islam. A further proof of this is the last verse that I read:

“And whatever good they do, they will not be denied it. And Allah knows those who keep their duty.”

This is obviously not about Muslims because there is no doubt or question that whatever good is done by any Muslim, Allah will not deny that person the reward for it. This statement is only made because we tend to think that Allah does not accept the good deeds of non-Muslims, but He does. The next statement, that Allah knows those who keep their duty, those whom we call as muttaqīn, means that we cannot judge a person to be good or bad on the basis that that person is a Muslim or a non-Muslim. Only Allah has the knowledge to make that judgment. It is, therefore, quite remarkable and extraordinary that the Quran, right in the middle of condemning Jews and Christians for their wrong beliefs and behaviour, recognises that some among them are God-fearing, excelling in good deeds and righteous. This is fairness and justice of the highest standard extended to the communities of your opponents.

We may also note that, before condemning the Jews and Christians for various wrongs, the Quran lays out what it wants from them. This is as follows:

“Say: O People of the Book, come to an equitable word between us and you, that we shall serve none but Allah and that we shall not set up any partner with Him, and that some of us shall not take others for lords besides Allah.” (3:64)

The meaning of “equitable word between us and you” is terms that we can agree on, or what is common between you and us. This is a proposal that Muslims will have no further disputation or argu­ment with Jews or Christians if they agree to take only the name of God in their worship, not to regard anyone else as sharing power with God, and not to obey any human being as if he were God. These were in fact the original teachings of their own sacred religious figures. But according to the Jewish scriptures themselves, the Jews repeatedly turned to idol-worship and their prophets condemned them very severely for this. Christians were calling upon Jesus, alongside God, and ascribing to him the attributes of God. Both the Jews and the Christians were blindly obeying their priests as if they were “lords besides God”. These were their beliefs and practices which the Quran came to reform, and this verse says that if they agree to this reform then any other religious differences between them and Muslims can be put to one side.

As in chapter 3, so also in chapter 5, there is a group of verses in which the Quran condemns the Jews for various wrongs, such as committing sins for the sake of gaining wealth unlawfully, and it condemns the Christians for making Jesus into God, and treating God as one of three Gods. Yet in the middle of these condemnations it says:

“And if they had observed the Torah and the Gospel and that which is revealed to them from their Lord, they would certainly have eaten from above them and from beneath their feet. There is a party of them keeping to the moderate course; and most of them — evil is what they do.” (5:66)

This eating from above them and from under their feet means that they would then have spiritual blessings and worldly provisions, both in abundance. Why does this verse mention “the Torah and the Gospel” as well as the Quran and says: “And if they had observed the Torah and the Gospel and that which is revealed to them from their Lord”. Surely it is only necessary for the Jews and Christians who become Muslims to follow the Quran. The reason may be that it is not asking them to reject entirely the Torah and the Gospel when they become Muslims. They would naturally have a past attachment to these scriptures and the Quran does not require them to call their former books as false or useless, and turn against them when they accept Islam. It is saying to them that when they follow the Quran, they are following the best of what was in the Torah and the Gospel. They are not ceasing to be followers of the Torah and the Gospel by becoming Muslims, but rather they are now following a more accurate interpretation of their former scriptures. Such then is the deep wisdom of the Quran and its understanding of human psycho­logy, that it does not call upon followers of earlier religions to entirely discard what they are familiar with, but to re-interpret it and revalue it in the light of the Quran. And again here, the Quran recognises that, despite all their wrongdoings, among the Jews and the Christians “there is a party of them keeping to the moderate course”.

Only three verses later we read:

“Surely those who believe and those who are Jews and the Sabians and the Christians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day and does good, they shall have no fear nor shall they grieve.” (5:69)

The Sabians mentioned here were another group who were partly like Jews and partly like Christians. Those people who want to portray Islam as being intolerant and hostile towards other faiths are always quoting certain verses that they select from this range of verses in chapter 5, but they ignore the interjections which the Quran makes to clarify that it is only condemning the evils committed by certain religious groups, and not those groups as a whole or less still their religions. I may add here that the people who quote these verses out of context are of two types. One type are the non-Muslim critics and opponents of Islam and the other type are, unfortunately, many Muslims themselves. The two types have very different purposes for representing Islam in this way, but their technique is the same. What the above verse means is that Allah judges people not by their labels, such as “believer”, i.e., Muslim, Jew, Christian or any other label they apply to themselves, but by the strength of their belief in God and the Last Day, and by how far these beliefs lead them to do good deeds. Allah strips away the label from people and looks inside them, and judges Muslims, Jews, Christians and others by the same standard. Muslims are not treated as a chosen people of Allah merely by birth or their name Muslim, nor are their bad deeds forgiven just because they believed in Allah and the Holy Prophet.

I mentioned above that in chapter 3, before criticising the beliefs and actions of the Jews and Christians, an offer of conciliation and mutual understanding is put to them. The same is the case in chapter 5. It says in verse 48, addressing all humanity, in particular the Jews and the Christians:

“For everyone of you We appointed a law and a way. And if Allah had pleased He would have made you a single people, but that He might try you in what He gave you. So vie with one another in good works. To Allah you will all return, so He will inform you of that in which you differed.”

This says that revelation from God with guidance and a way of life came to Jews in the Torah, to Christians in the Gospels and to Muslims in the Quran. It is a test and trial for each group to see how correctly and sincerely they adhere to their revelation. Beliefs cannot be judged in this world as to which are right and which are wrong. Only God knows that. However, our deeds can be seen in this world by everyone. And as the religion of each group teaches its followers to do good deeds, the followers should “vie with one another”, meaning compete with one another, try to get ahead of one another, in the doing of good ­— f-astabiq ul-khairāt.

Lastly, what I have said about chapters 3 and 5, where condemnation for wrong-doers among Jews and Christians is followed by praise for the good ones among them, there are other examples of the same in the Quran, such as in chapter 4.

In the end we pray that may Allah enable us to present this picture of Islam to the world and show that it offers a message of conciliation, co-operation in good, and harmony to the followers of other religions — Ameen.

Website: www.aaiil.uk