state patronage. Despite close ties to members of
the mUghal dynasty, the ideal of separation from
the state has prevailed, contributing to the order’s
ability to flourish in modern, secular India and to
establish new roots in South Africa, Europe, and
America. Today people around the world enjoy the
musical heritage of the Chishtis through record-
ings of qawwali performances by artists such as
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and the Sabri Brothers.
See also khan, ina yat; naqshbandi sUFi order;
sUFism; tariqa; ziyara.
Further reading: P. M. Currie, The Shrine and Cult of
Muin al-Din Chishti of Ajmer (Delhi: Oxford University
Press, 1989); Carl W. Ernst and Bruce B. Lawrence, Sufi
Martyrs of Love: The Chishti Order in South Asia and
Beyond (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002).
Christianity and Islam
Islam was born into a world in which Christianity
was quite dominant, although the Hejaz, where
mecca and medina lie and where mUhammad lived
his life (ca. 570–632), apparently had more Jews
than Christians. Polytheism, of course, was the
most common religious characteristic of all in that
specific environment, and it was primarily against
that polytheism and idol worship that the qUran,
the message given to Muhammad, preached. JesUs,
called “Isa” or al-Masih (the messiah), and the
Christians are both mentioned repeatedly in the
Quran. Jesus is affirmed as a divinely appointed
messenger (rasul) who was given a message like
that of the Quran. In the Quran, Christians are
spoken of favorably in some contexts, as in Q 2:62,
which says, “Those who believe, and those who
follow Judaism, and the Christians (al-Nasara, the
Nazarenes) and the Sabians, any who believe in
God and the Last Day, and work righteousness,
shall have their reward with their Lord; on them
shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.”
But other verses suggest a polemical relation-
ship, although that is much more in evidence with
regard to the Jews, a situation made sensible by
the significant Jewish population of Medina at the
time that Muhammad and the early Muslims went
to that town, and the fact that most of these Jews
appear not to have been convinced of Muham-
mad’s prophetic mission. Thus, in Q 2:120, we
find the verse, “And the Jews will not be pleased
with you, nor the Christians until you follow their
religion. Say: Surely God’s guidance is the [true]
guidance. And if you follow their desires after the
knowledge that has come to you, you shall have
no guardian from God, nor any helper.”
The Quran claims a direct link between Islam
and abraham, thus bypassing Jewish and Chris-
tian claims to be linked to that great forebear
of the monotheistic religions. For example, the
Quran challenges Jews and Christians, saying,
“You people of the Book, why are you so argu-
mentative about Abraham, seeing that the Torah
and the Gospel were only revealed after his time?
Abraham was not a Jew, nor was he a Christian.
He was a man of pure worship and a Muslim
[or a submitter]” (Q 3:65, 67). More assertively,
other verses state that the cultic worship around
the kaaba in Mecca was founded by Abraham (Q
2:125).
The strongest Quranic polemic against Chris-
tian dogma concentrates on the Christian belief
in the Trinity and the death and resurrection of
Jesus. The Quran considers the Trinity to be an
expression of polytheism and utterly rejects any
ascription of divinity to Jesus. Christian belief in
Christ’s divinity is understood in the Quran to be
in direct contradiction to the message preached by
Jesus. Equally important, the Quran denies Jesus’
death, saying, “They did not kill him, nor did they
crucify him, but it was made to appear to them as
such” (Q 4:157). Because these objections to the
doctrines held by most Christians in the seventh
century were so familiar from the previous centu-
ries of Christological controversy, it appeared to
John of damascUs (d. ca.749), one of the fathers
of the Greek church, that Islam was essentially a
Christian “heresy,” and he placed Islam at the end
of the section on heresies in his great work, DeChristianity and Islam 141 J