Ignorance, Dishonesty, or Both?
March 20, 2006
A Reply to the Christian Polemic Mary the Mother of Jesus: A Houri in Paradise?
The praise is for Allah, and it is sufficed. May peace be upon His slaves who He has chosen. As for what follows …
After painting a sexually explicit picture for his Christian readers with a long introduction in which he describes the Hūrîs of Paradise, their physical features, and other sexually oriented details pertaining to the pleasures of the Hereafter, this Christian polemicist presents his prized piece of evidence for his attack on Prophet Muhammad (may Allah send salutations and peace upon him), Mary the Mother of Jesus: A Houri in Paradise?: a (clipped) quote taken from Ibn Kathîr’s Qasas (not Qisas) al-Anbiyâ’ which states,
“The Messenger of God … said, ‘God MARRIED ME IN PARADISE TO MARY THE DAUGHTER OF ‘IMRAN and to the wife of Pharaoh and the sister of Moses.’ (Tabarani)” (Ibn Kathir, Qisas al-Anbiya [Cairo: Dar al-Kutub, 1968/1388], p. 381- as cited in Aliah Schleifer’s Mary The Blessed Virgin of Islam [Fons Vitae; ISBN: 1887752021; July 1, 1998], p. 64; bold and capital emphasis [the writer’s]).
(Originally posted to IslamLife.com; slightly edited. Note: the article has since been taken down from IslamLife.com by brother Jalal Abualrub due to the fact that brother Sami has made amends and has vowed to defend Islam, the Sunnah, and the Prophet. I have decided to keep this article up, however, due to whatever benefit it may contain with regards to Islamic knowledge and beliefs. Thus, it should not be used to further attack or criticise brother Sami.)
The praise is for Allah, and it is sufficed. And may peace be upon His servants who He has chosen. As for what follows …
A couple days ago (March 6, 2006), I received an email from brother Jalal Abualrub with a rather amusing message written by Sami Zaatari—may Allah guide him and us to that which pleases Him. It was in reply to the article I had written in criticism of Osama Abdallah posted on Jalal’s IslamLife.com. The email, which seems to have been written in a fit of anger, devoid of any real reply to the criticisms made and points raised against Osama in my article, was instead (pretty much in-line with the types of replies I’ve seen from Osama) riddled with flares of ignorance, abusive language, name-calling, baseless accusations and slanders, and incoherent ramblings. Rather than address the criticisms at all, Sami chose to focus on some misconceptions he has concerning the true carriers and flag bearers of the Prophet’s sunnah, the Salafîs. Although in actuality, he does not deserve much of a reply at all, I have decided to entertain some of the things mentioned in his email briefly for the sake of clarification. Before addressing these points, however, I would like to mention some very important things that need to be addressed concerning Sami’s reply to Jalal’s charge of disbelief (takfîr) against Osama and issues pertaining to faith and disbelief.
