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| Sheikh Gumi |
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Kaduna State yesterday
condemned comments credited to Islamic scholar Dr. Ahmad Gumi, that the
President of CAN, Pastor Ayo Oristejafor and other Christian leaders
live flamboyant lives.
The Kaduna State Secretary of CAN, Rev. Sunday Ibrahim, who addressed
a press conference yesterday, said for Gumi to make Christianity as an
object of Ramadan preaching and castigating the leaders for alleged
corruption, is unacceptable.
Reacting to Gumi’s Ramadan lecture aired on state-owned Capital
Television, state secretary of CAN Reverend Sunday Ibrahim said at a
news conference that Gumi made derogatory comments on Christians.
“Sheikh Gumi, during his Tafsir, said that Christians claim that
Jesus is a son of God and that he is God and saviour, and that it is a
wrong conception. This to us is a degrading comment on our saviour,
Jesus Christ,” Ibrahim (of CAN) said.
According to the CAN scribe in the state, “he (Gumi) went further to
say that the more archbishops, bishops, pastors and general overseers,
the more iniquities in the society and he also went further to make some
degrading comments on the personality of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ”.
On the pictures of the jet and limousine car, which were said to
belong to Oristejafor and his wife, and also the objects of Gumi’s
teachings, Rev. Ibrahim queried: “How is that Gumi’s concern?”
Ibrahim added that “Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him) never fought any Christian. In fact the prophet invited the Nazran Christians for a visit in Yathrib (Medina). And when it was time for their prayers, he offered them his Mosque.
“Secondly, when the prophet was facing persecution, he sent his
followers to Abysinia, which is a Christian country for safety,
believing that with the Christians they are secured.
“Thirdly, when the prophet was about to die, he came on a white horse
to Mecca. After addressing his followers to love one another which he
Gumi is not doing, and of the non Muslims.”
The Delegation of Najran Christians
Saint Arethas of Najran
No doubt the most important interaction between the Christians and
the Prophet was the visit of the Najran delegation to Madina. Makka and
Madina had a very small Christian population (Waraqa ibn Nawfal was one
of them). The majority of Christian residents lived in Najran. The
Prophet’s first important encounter with Christian clergies was in the
9th year of Hijra (AD 631), one or two years before his death.
Prophet Muhammad had been sending official letters to different
countries and their rulers, inviting them to Islam. Among these were two
different invitations that had been sent to Najran with Khaled ibn
al-Walid and Ali ibn Abi Talib.13 At that time the Najran Christians had
a highly organized religious life. Before Islam, foreign teachers had
even visited the town, such as the Italian priest Gregentius, which had
deepen-ed their religious knowledge.14 Few of the Najran Christians
converted to Islam; the majority of them did not change their religion
after these invitations. Prophet Muhammad sent a representative to them,
Mughira ibn Shu’ba, who was sent to explain the invitations and the
religion of Islam. After discussions with Mughira, the Christians of
Najran decided to send a group of people to visit the Prophet. The
delegation was made up of about 60 well-educated Christians: A bishop,
his 45 scholars, and 15 men. Their intention was to learn the nature of
the revelations Prophet Muhammad was receiving.
15
When the Najran delegation reached Madina, they debated with the
Prophet in an investigatory dialogue for two or three days in the mosque
(Masjid) of Madina. Prophet Muhammad allow-ed them to pray in the
mosque (Masjid al-Nabawi) where the Muslims prayed. The whole incident
was the first occurrence of peaceful dialogue between Christians and
Muslims; it was the first time that Christians prayed in a mosque.
16
Prophet Muhammad warmly welcomed the Najran delegation and provided
them with a place to stay in Madina, in a secure place close to his
mosque. He even ordered that their tent be pitched for them by the
Muslims. However, the Najran delegation and Prophet Muhammad were not
able to reach a solution in theological terms. At the end of these
exchanges, the Najran Christians told the Prophet: “O, Abu al-Qasim, we
decided to leave you as you are and you leave us as we are. But send
with us a man who can adjudicate things on our properties, because we
accept you.” The delegation was granted their request and a written
assurance was provided by the Prophet that their lives, property, and
religion would be protected. He made witnesses sign this undertaking.
17
The Najran Christians were the first Christian community with whom the
Prophet had a jizyah 18 agreement. At the beginning of the meeting, they
had disagreements with the Prophet about the concept of the Trinity,
but later on they were able to make a social pact.19 This contract was
an initial step that would lead to further developments.
Text of the treaty between Najran Christians and Mohammed(S) of Islam
“In the name of lenient and miséricordieux God.”
“Charter of protection given by God and his Apostle to those which
received the Book, with the Christians who belong to the religion of
Najran or any other sect Christian. It was written to them by Mohammad,
envoy of God close to all the men, in pledge of protection on behalf of
God and his Apostle, and so that this is for the Moslems who will come
after him a pact which will engage them, that they will have to admit,
to recognize for authentic and to observe in their favor. It is defended
with any man, was it governor or holder of authority, the enfreindre or
to modify it. The Believers will not have to be the responsibility of
the Christians, in their imposing of other conditions that those which
are carried in this writing. That which will preserve it, which will
respect it, which will conform to what is contained there, will
discharge its duties and will observe the pact of the Apostle of God.
That which, on the contrary, will violate it, which will be opposed to
it, which will change it, will relate its crime to its head; because it
will have betrayed the pact of God, will have violated his faith, will
have resisted its authority and contravened the will of its Apostle: he
will be thus impostor with the eyes of God. Because the religion that
God imposed, and the pact whom it made, make protection obligatory. That
which will not observe this pact, will violate its sacred duties, and
that which violates its sacred duties does not have fidelity and will be
disavowed by God and all the sincere Believers. The reason for which
the Christians deserved to obtain this pact of protection of God, his
Envoy and the Believers, is a right which they were acquired, and which
engages whoever is Moslem, to obtain this charter established in their
favor by the men of this Religion and which forces any Moslem to have
regard there, to lend to him hand-strong, to preserve it, keep it
perpetually and to respect it accurately. ”
The protection of God and the guarantee
of the Prophet Muhammad, extend on Najran and neighborhood, that is to
say on their goods, their people, the practice of their worship, their
absent and present, their families and their sanctuaries, and all that
large and small, is in their possession
No bishop will be moved of his episcopal seat,
Nor no monk of his monastery,
Nor no priest of his cure,
No humiliation will weigh on them,
Nor the blood of a revenge former to the tender,
They will be neither assemble nor assujetis with the dime,
No troop will press their ground
and when one of them claims its,
equity will be of setting parmis them
they will be neither oppressed oppressors nor
and quiquonque of them in the future wear will practice, will be put out of my protection.
No man among them them will be held for
person in charge of the fault of another “T el is the contents of the
“Pact of Najran” after the tender of the Christians to the authority of
the prophet of the Islam”
The above Information is acquired from
http://www.speedylook.com/Pact_of_Najran.html
