The Light of the Holy Qur'an — Page 37
Footnote from page 25 At the time of its revelation, all the evils that the Holy Qur’an men- tioned of these Christians etc. who were present at that time—all these peoples had themselves acknowledged these and indeed they did so repeatedly that they were guilty of these bad deeds. A study of the history of Arabia establishes that except for the forefathers of the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, whom Allah, the Lord of Glory, had safeguarded from polytheism and other evils through His special grace, all other people, swayed by the reprehensible example of the Christians and affected by the evil influence of their conduct, had become engrossed in all kinds of shameful sins and vices. And the amount of sinfulness and misconduct that had seeped into the Arabs was actually not a result of their inherent nature. The fact is that an extremely sinful and morally corrupt people came to live in their midst who, by relying on the false ploy of Atonement, considered every sin to be like mother’s milk. They vigorously promoted crea- ture worship, wine drinking, and every kind of vice in the world and were liars, cheats, and evil-doers of the first degree. On the face of it, it is quite difficult to decide whether the Jews of those times were the foremost in every sin, corruption, and misconduct, or the Christians. However, a little reflection would reveal that