Non-Muslims

Muslims are required to respect all those who are faithful and God conscious people, namely those who received messages. Christians and Jews are called People of the Book. Muslims are asked to call upon the People of the Book for common terms, namely, to worship One God, and to work together for the solutions of the many problems in the society.

Christians and Jews lived peacefully with Muslims throughout centuries in the Middle East and other Asian and African countries. The second Caliph Umar, did not pray in the church in Jerusalem so as not to give the Muslims an excuse to take it over. Christians entrusted the Muslims, and as such the key of the Church in Jerusalem is still in the hands of the Muslims.

Jews fled from Spain during the Inquisition, and they were welcomed by the Muslims. They settled in the heart of the Islamic Caliphate. They enjoyed positions of power and authority.

Throughout the Muslim world, churches, synagogues and missionary schools were built within the Muslim neighborhoods. These places were protected by Muslims even during the contemporary crises in the Middle East.

Very Brief History

The Creator of the Universe, our Exalted Lord wants us to be good servants to Him. Allah (swt) has sent us many Prophets from Adam down to Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus (peace be upon them all) to show us what we must do and how we must do it in order to gain His approval. To this end He has also allowed many holy pages and books to descend, such as the Torah, Zaboor, Gospel and Qur'an.

Prophet Muhammad (saw), whose coming was announced in earlier holy books, is the last and greatest prophet. His sovereignty will continue until Doomsday and no other prophet will follow him. Allah (swt) sent him to us as an envoy to convey His orders, as a teacher to correct degenerated beliefs and as an educator adorned with the highest morality.

Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alaihi wassalam), worked undauntedly throughout his blessed life and fulfilled his sacred mission in the best possible way. He was sent as a messenger to all humankind. Therefore, he did not restrict his efforts to his own people. In spite of the difficulties of that time and limited transportation and communication possibilities, he conveyed his message to all by means of writing letters (some of which are still preserved in museums) and by sending envoys to neighbouring countries. He called to Islam the rulers of the Byzantium, Iranian Sassanid Empires, the kings of Egypt, Abyssinia and Bahrain.

His first four caliphs, Mujtahid imams (expounders of Islamic law), God-fearing scholars, true spiritual guides and pious statesmen continued ardently spreading enlightenment and calling others to Islam. They spread Islam to large nations and distant lands. For centuries Islam dominated continents and oceans with excellence and honour.

Later, Muslims forgot their main objective and fell into the pursuit of the pleasures and splendours of this world. They failed to carefully observe their enemies and they neglected the pursuit of knowledge and scientific research. As a result, the situation changed. Because Muslims failed to unite as a whole, they were defeated by their enemies, lost territory and became subjected to abasement and slavery.

(Today we see Muslims spread throughout the world and by the Grace of Almighty Allah, many of them have achieved and are achieving great things. However, unfortunately the western world is not shown these positive sides of Islam, but on the contrary are constantly fed violent images of extremist Muslims doing some very unislamic things. At this point it should also be mentioned that the word Jihad does not mean Holy War. It means 'to strive in the way of Allah (swt)'. This can be any kind of striving which involves either spiritual or personal effort, material resources or arms.)