trying to understand

[jilliebean01]

Hello,

I have been recently reading the Quran to gain insight and understanding to be able to better promote peace and try to build bridges between the two people, Christians and Muslims in my community.

Everything in the Quran I have thus read and listened to have rang true within my soul and is very similar to my beliefs and faith in God(Allah).

I have hit a road block of a sort, and am wondering if my attempts to do so will even make a iota of a difference.

I am coming in peace and do not wish to debate but seek wisdom and understanding about this verse and what to do the whole of the muslims think about having Christian friends or acquaintances.
"O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people." Quran 5:51

I am far from an enemy, I have no hidden agenda. But I do consider myself a follower of Christ's teachings.

What are your thoughts or insights on this please?

Thanks for reading.

Peace.

 

[Cordoba]

Hello and welcome to the forum

The original Arabic text in the Qur'an is Awlia' which is the plural of the word Wali

And the meaning is not friends, as in the translation you quoted, but close allies

For a more comprehensive answer, you may wish to check this article:

IslamiCity.com - Can Muslims be friends with Jews and Christians?

Peace and all the best

 

[hossein]

Hello,
in my idea Maybe this ayat talks about importance of a friend and his affect on people. as Quran mentioned the bible which is known now (those days and also these days) has been garbled many times. [(5:13)(2:75)(3:78)(2:79)] as i read in a poll more than 73% of american christians believe the bible isn't the words of god and wrote by people after prophets died
so Quran suggest muslims to have relation with muslims brother and sisters which trained by Quran which claim it is complete true book and would never changed, coz a garbled reference can mislead them.

 

[jilliebean01]

Thank you Cordoba and hossein for both of your replies.

Cordoba, i didnt know why i didnt think of that especially knowing how many different translations we have of the Greek and Hebrew texts in the Bible. Just didnt occur to me that there would be in the Quran as well. Thank you for that clarification, we have a Strong's concordance to determine the meaning of the word in the original language, is there something similar I can use for the Quran?

The study you posted was very insightful and clarified alot of questions i had, Thank You.

Hossein, I thank God (Allah) for keeping me in the 23% of those who were polled. God's Word is infallable. It is in the interpretations that the True meaning gets lost, as well as man adding their own twists and turns and trying to "sell" their understanding of His Word that ends up decieving others and/or watering down the Truth. Ive learned a while ago to let the Word speak for Himself.

God is gracious and magnificent.
Peace

 

[islam means peace]

Hello,

I have been recently reading the Quran to gain insight and understanding to be able to better promote peace and try to build bridges between the two people, Christians and Muslims in my community.

Everything in the Quran I have thus read and listened to have rang true within my soul and is very similar to my beliefs and faith in God(Allah).

I have hit a road block of a sort, and am wondering if my attempts to do so will even make a iota of a difference.

I am coming in peace and do not wish to debate but seek wisdom and understanding about this verse and what to do the whole of the muslims think about having Christian friends or acquaintances.
"O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people." Quran 5:51

I am far from an enemy, I have no hidden agenda. But I do consider myself a follower of Christ's teachings.

What are your thoughts or insights on this please?

Thanks for reading.

Peace.

Might be this quranic verse clear you all

Quran says in Surah 60 , Verses

8. Allah forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for (your) Faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly andjustly with them: for Allah loveth those who are just.

9. Allah only forbids you, with regard to those who fight you for (your) Faith, and drive you out of your homes, and support (others) indriving you out, from turning to them (for friendship and protection). Itis such as turn to them (in these circumstances), that do wrong.

 

[loverOfTruth]

Hello,

I have been recently reading the Quran to gain insight and understanding to be able to better promote peace and try to build bridges between the two people, Christians and Muslims in my community.

Everything in the Quran I have thus read and listened to have rang true within my soul and is very similar to my beliefs and faith in God(Allah).

I have hit a road block of a sort, and am wondering if my attempts to do so will even make a iota of a difference.

I am coming in peace and do not wish to debate but seek wisdom and understanding about this verse and what to do the whole of the muslims think about having Christian friends or acquaintances.
"O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people." Quran 5:51

I am far from an enemy, I have no hidden agenda. But I do consider myself a follower of Christ's teachings.

What are your thoughts or insights on this please?

Thanks for reading.

Peace.

Hello and welcome to the forum

The original Arabic text in the Qur'an is Awlia' which is the plural of the word Wali

And the meaning is not friends, as in the translation you quoted, but close allies

For a more comprehensive answer, you may wish to check this article:

IslamiCity.com - Can Muslims be friends with Jews and Christians?

Peace and all the best

I agree with what Cordoba said and to add further proof to what he said I would point out that in Islam Muslim men are allowed to marry Christian women. How can you marry someone and not be friendly with them ? So that verse must be referring to 'allies' and not 'friends'.

Finally, here is another verse that talks about the christians : "...you will find the nearest of them in affection to the believers those who say, "We are Christians." That is because among them are priests and monks and because they are not arrogant." (Al-Qur'an 5:82)

 

[jilliebean01]

Hello,

Many thanks to you both for your insight and direction on that verse. I do have a better understanding of that verse now, and I thank you for that. I try to remind myself also that I have a western style thinking and I need to approach the verse with an eastern style thinking. And believe you me there is a difference. The English language in itself is in my opinion very flipant. In english the word love is used so generically for instance, and in other languages there are different terms for different kinds of love. etc etc. But again I thank you for your kindness in my ignorance.

Peace