Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur’ān; Translated and Explained by Muhammad Asad (1980)
whole being unto God,91 and is a doer of good withal, shall have his reward with his Sustainer; and all such need have no fear, and neither shall they grieve.92
(113) Furthermore, the Jews assert, “The Christians have no valid ground for their beliefs,” while the Christians assert, “The Jews have no valid ground for their beliefs” – and both quote the divine writ! Even thus, like unto what they say, have [always] spoken those who were devoid of knowledge;93 but it is God who will judge between them on Resurrection Day with regard to all on which they were wont to differ.94
(114) Hence, who could be more wicked than those who bar the mention of God’s name from [any of] His houses of worship and strive for their ruin, [although] they have no right to enter them save in fear [of God]?95 For them, in this world, there is ignominy in store; and for them, in the life to come, awesome suffering.
(115) And God’s is the east and the west: and wherever you turn, there is God’s countenance. Behold, God is infinite, all-knowing.
(116) And yet some people assert, “God has taken unto Himself a son!” Limitless is He in His glory!96
91 Lit., “who surrenders his face unto God”. Since the face of a person is the most expressive part of his body, it is used in classical Arabic to denote one’s whole personality, or whole being. This expression, repeated in the Qurʾān several times, provides a perfect definition of islām, which – derived from the root-verb aslama, “he surrendered himself” – means “self-surrender [to God]”: and it is in this sense that the terms islām and muslim are used throughout the Qurʾān. (For a full discussion of this concept, see my note on 68:35, where the expression muslim occurs for the first time in the chronological order of revelation.)
92 Thus, according to the Qurʾān, salvation is not reserved for any particular “denomination", but is open to everyone who consciously realizes the oneness of God, surrenders himself to His will and, by living righteously, gives practical effect to this spiritual attitude.
93 An allusion to all who assert that only the followers of their own denomination shall partake of God’s grace in the hereafter.
94 In other words, “God will confirm the truth of what was true [in their respective beliefs] and show the falseness of what was false [therein]” (Muḥammad ʿAbduh in Manār I, 428). The Qurʾān maintains throughout that there is a substantial element of truth in all faiths based on divine revelation, and that their subsequent divergencies are the result of “wishful beliefs” (2:111) and of a gradual corruption of the original teachings. (See also 22:67–69.)
95 It is one of the fundamental principles of Islam that every religion which has belief in God as its focal point must be accorded full respect, however much one may disagree with its particular tenets. Thus, the Muslims are under an obligation to honour and protect any house of worship dedicated to God, whether it be a mosque or a church or a synagogue (cf. the second paragraph of 22:40); and any attempt to prevent the followers of another faith from worshipping God according to their own lights is condemned by the Qurʾān as a sacrilege. A striking illustration of this principle is forthcoming from the Prophet’s treatment of the deputation from Christian Najrān in the year 10 H. They were given free access to the Prophet’s mosque, and with his full consent celebrated their religious rites there, although their adoration of Jesus as “the son of God” and of Mary as “the mother of God” was fundamentally at variance with Islamic beliefs (see Ibn Saʿd I/1, 84 f.).
96 I.e., far from any imperfection such as would be implied in the necessity (or logical possibility) of having progeny either in a literal or a metaphorical sense. The expression subḥāna – applied
