You can reach me at shah@saba.com.my. Hope I can do justice to your queries.

i’m agree wif comparative religion but i need to equipped myself wif good evidence and facts.. would u mine explain to me… is it ok to use d dalil in quran telling to discuss wif ahli kitab bout religion… d term ahli kitab, 2 whom does it referring to??? i used to think dat it merely refers to d one who practise d REAL,ORIGINAL taurat/injil while we know dat there’s no more such individu since torah and injil are all modofied???

second, when somebody asking us bout d how to find right religion and we replied them to study their current/ own religion…arent we denying thier right to be told dat innaddina indallahil islam?? my friend said perhaps its d best answer at dat particular time since we cant change one’s believe instantly… but is it really ok to answer dat??? while we should be giving clear message based on quran and sunnah??? what right do we have to decide sth else is better than telling truth.. other words are better than kalamullah??? i used to use dis method and feeling guilty…

kindly reply me strong curiosity… barakallahu fik

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Shah Kirit:
Wa’alaikum salam.
Thank you 4 the questions.
1. There are differences of opinions on who are actually referred as “ahlul Kitab” but I wouldn’t want to go into the details now. However consider this; the Christians and Jews at the time of Prophet Muhammad (saw) were referred as “ahlul Kitab”, right? Did they possess the ‘original Injil or Taurah’ then? No! The Christians then too believed in the concept of “holy Trinity” and they did not possessed the ‘Original Injil’. The Christians already started using ‘Bible’ (similar to present day) some 300 years prior to the time of Prophet Muhammad (saw). Yet they were referred as ‘ahlul Kitab’ in Qur’an (refer Qur’an 4:171, 5:73, 3:64, 29:46 etc)

2. The only ‘Deen’ accepted by Allah is Islam – meaning ‘willing submission, total surrender, sincere obedience to the one and only Creator of this universe; Allah’
‘Deen’ on the other hand does mean religion but rather ‘the complete way of life’ which also encompasses religious rituals.

I agree we need to guide people to the truth but we do it with wisdom and beautiful teachings. If it comes to arguments or debates, then do it with way that is most gracious (Qur’an 16:125). Therefore different people may require different approaches to fulfill the above condition. We cannot say only one way is the right way for everyone. One of the way of da’wah is to ask them to study their own holy scriptures with proper understanding (not merely depending on assumptions that their parents or religious teachers must be right). We can guide them to such verses in their own scriptures which commands them to worship the ‘one and only Almighty God’ without associating any partners to Him. This can be a good starting point of discussion and gradually introduce them to the Qur’an and Sunnah – the way on how to achieve the commandment of their own scriptures!

Again there are various approaches one can use to da’wah.