who say, we are Christians. That is because
there are amongst them clergy and monks, and they are not arrogant.
When they hear that which hath been revealed to the prophet, thou wilt see their
eyes flowing with tears because of that which they recognize of the truth. They
say, O our Lord ! we, believe ; write us down with the witnesses;
and what should hinder us that we should not believe in God, and in that which
hath come unto us of the truth ? and we desire that our Lord should introduce us
amongst the righteous.
God hath rewarded them for that which they have said, with gardens through which
flow rivulets. They shall be for ever therein and that is the reward of the
virtuous.
The Jews were more hostile to Islam than the Christians. One main reason
probably was that, though Mahomet fully acknowledged their Scriptures, yet he as
fully. acknowledged those of the Christians, and the Divine Mission of Jesus
Christ. This further concession neutralized, with the Jews, all the virtue of
the former. On the other hand, the Christians were no doubt delighted at finding
that Mahomet, in perfect conformity with their own system, acknowledged the
whole of the preceding Scriptures and prophets, both their own and those of the
Jews. And some of them, believing further in the mission of Mahomet, expressed
themselves in the impassioned language of the text.
Remark the favourable terms in which Mahomet speaks of the Christians
generally, both here and elsewhere,—even of those .not converted to Islam. Their
superior character is here attributed to the clergy and monks, and to the
absence of arrogance. They are never accused of wresting the Scriptures, or
dislocating passages from the context.
