Page 214 - Islam Denounces Terrorism

212 Islam Denounces Terrorism

Muslims and recognized their freedom of belief and
worship.

• When our Prophet (pbuh) first started preaching
he first encountered a number of Christians in
Mecca. Indeed, one of the first people to speak to our

Prophet (pbuh) and Hazrat Khadija in the first days
of the revelation was Waraqa bin Naufal, a Christ-
ian with handwritten copies of the Gospel. (Sahih
Bukhari)

• Churches that were destroyed in the time of the
caliphs were restored by Muslims, and permission
was given for new synagogues and churches to be
built. For example, the Monastery of St. Sergios that

had been burned by Patriarch Mar Amme was
rebuilt in the time of Hazrat Uthman.

• Muslims used to perform the Friday prayer in the
Church of St. John in Damascus after the conquest of
Syria. Christians performed their own religious
observances there on Sundays. Members of both

faiths used the same place of worship in peace.

Our Prophet's (pbuh) Practices concern-
ing the Torah and the Gospel

Narrated Abu Huraira: The people of the Book used
to read the Torah in Hebrew and then explain it in