In the year 1969,
An Iraq student studying in America wrote a letter to the Moroccan scholar, Muhammed Taqi ad-Din al-Hilali, asking for assistance on how to response to Christians who were challenging Islam.
An Iraq student studying in America wrote a letter to the Moroccan scholar, Muhammed Taqi ad-Din al-Hilali, asking for assistance on how to response to Christians who were challenging Islam.
'In a letter to me, my former student, Ismail ad-Drubi, who has been studying engineering at a university in the United States for the past four years, complained that Christians had organised a protest against him, debated with him about religious issues,
and otherwise intimidated him to the point where he was unsure of how to respond.
I wrote this letter with the title "Evidence from the Gospel that Jesus is a servant of Allah and has no right to be worshipped," and I gave him the verse and chapter numbers.
I wrote this letter with the title "Evidence from the Gospel that Jesus is a servant of Allah and has no right to be worshipped," and I gave him the verse and chapter numbers.
so that he could extract the passages himself in English and defend himself against their attacks with them after having understood what I explained to him in Arabic.
So he spent some time with the letter until he completely understood it and then engaged them in discussion. Then when he discussed issues with them, he left them without recourse or responses and they were utterly defeated according to what he told me afterwards.'
Years prior to this event, al-Hilali became aware of the reality that he needed to acquire foreign languages since, he acknowledges, total understanding would be impossible without mastery of a foreign language. Thus, he set out to memorise English terms from vocabulary books.
In the Year 1930 he went to an American pastor and asked him for some English lessons for a fee. The pastor agreed to give three free lessons a week. al-Hilali made it clear that he had never read the Gospels, and was now learning English so as to read it in its English version.
The paster ordered an English edition of the Bible from London and delivered it to al-Hilali with the following note:
'Asking God to shower many blessings on you through this book.'
- And how greatly did Allah bless him!
'Asking God to shower many blessings on you through this book.'
- And how greatly did Allah bless him!
A month later, al-Hilal documented the parts that looked to him to provide evidence favouring the Muslim point of view over the Christian point of view, penning down argumentative notes to prepare himself to react to the pastor and other like-minded Christians.
Back to 1971, Shaykh Ibn Baz had read the letter he wrote to the Iraqi Student and praised it. He placed an immediate order for 150 stencilled copies, thereafter an order of 20,000 copies.
It was then reprinted in Indian, Morocco, and Egyptian publications. The Quran was then translated by al-Hilali and included an English translation of the letter at the end of his translation, the first edition of which was published in 1974.
Quran - dusunnah.com
Quran - dusunnah.com
Ibn Baz said about him:
"He was truly a superior scholar and someone who exerted himself in order to call to Allah wherever he was. And he certainly journeyed to many lands and established the call to Allah in Europe He taught at the Islamic University of Medinah...'
"He was truly a superior scholar and someone who exerted himself in order to call to Allah wherever he was. And he certainly journeyed to many lands and established the call to Allah in Europe He taught at the Islamic University of Medinah...'
On Monday 22nd of June in 1987 the Muslim world was hit with a tragedy and endured a calamity which is difficult to describe with the pen. He passed onto the Mercy of his Lord.
May Allah have mercy on Imam al-Hilali.
May Allah have mercy on Imam al-Hilali.
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