The dialogue with the followers of Jesus traces back to Prophet Muhammad’s
lifetime. He frequently dialogued with the followers of all religions,
especially Christians. A group of Christians from Najran near Yemen once
arrived in Madinah and argued with the Prophet regarding the divinity of Jesus.
Although it was explained to them that Jesus was not divine, was not born to Allah, and was not a part of a divine trinity, they continued arguing until the following verse of the Qur’an was revealed:
Then whoever argues with you about it after [this] knowledge has come to you – say, “Come, let us call our sons and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves, then supplicate earnestly [together] and invoke the curse of Allah upon the liars [among us].” (Aal `Imran 3:61)
Because of the word “nabtahil” in the verse, this event has been referred to as the “Mubahalah” or mutual cursing, an act in which each side asks Allah to curse their opponents if they are lying.
According to various commentaries:
When the Messenger of Allah recited this verse to the delegation from Najran and invited them to engage in the Mubahalah, they said, “Give us some time to return and reflect about the matter and we will come back to you tomorrow.” They met privately with one another and asked Aqib, their highest scholar among them, “O servant of the Messiah (Abd al-Masih), what do you think?” He said, “O Christians, by Allah you know that Muhammad is a prophet who has been sent and who has brought you the decisive word about your companion (i.e. Jesus). By Allah! No prophet has cursed a tribe except that its people, young and old, were destroyed. I see it best for you to remain in your religion and to return to your land.” The next morning, the Messenger of Allah arrived, carrying Husayn in one arm, while holding the hand of Hasan with the other. Fatimah was walking behind them, and behind her was `Ali. The Prophet told them, “When I call (for them to be cursed), you say, ‘Amen!’” The high priest of Najran said, “O Christians! If the faces I am seeing ask Allah to make a mountain disappear, Allah would do it! Do not engage in the Mubahalah, otherwise you will all die and no Christian would be left on earth until the Day of Judgment!”
So the Christians said, “O Abu Al-Qasim, we have decided not to curse you. Rather we will leave you alone with your religion while we remain on ours.” The Prophet said, “Now that you have avoided the Mubahalah, become Muslims so that what is to the benefit of the Muslims would be to your benefit, and what is their loss would be to your loss.” They declined. He said, “Then I will invite you to war.” They replied, “We do not have the ability to fight the Arabs. However, we will enter a treaty with you so that you would neither fight us in war nor threaten us, and so that you would not force us to abandon our religion. In return, we will pay two thousand coins, one thousand in the month of Safar and the other thousand in the month of Rajab.”
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The dialogue with the followers of Jesus traces back to Prophet Muhammad’s lifetime
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