The Present Day Applications of Initial Muslim-Christian Interactions.

Abstract

Throughout history, Interfaith Dialogue has been a continuous activity in Muslims and Christians alike. According to the historian, incident of Wafad-e-Najran^[i] (Najran’s Delegation) was the first ever regular interaction between Muslims and Christians.  Therefore, this incident has an academic and historic importance in Muslim -Christian perspectives.  The Holy Quran describes this incident in detail. First 80 verses of Surah Ale-Imran were revealed in this context.  Further information is found in the books of Hadith, Seerah and Islamic History. This incident can become a base for modern Muslim- Christian Dialogue and we can derive from it some basic principles of Dialogue. This article elaborates the incident of Wafad-e-Najran, its importance and also derives some important rules from it. These principles are: interfaith tolerance, harmony, communication, understandings, peaceful co-existence, honour and respect, wisdom and beautiful reasoning, common basis for interfaith dialogue, Daw’ah and perfection of Hujjah. This article also describes its applications in the Present Dialogue.

[i] Wafad-e-Najran:  It is an Arabic word, used in Hadith History and other Islamic literature. It is meant by Najran’s Delegation and I shall use throughout the article as Wafad-e-Najran.