The moral aspect is known.[1]

The Gospels are almost void of these branches of the Law.

1) Prayer:  Prayer in Christianity is one of the pillars of the religion. Generally speaking, for most of the sects there are seven prayers during one day and one night. The prayer does not have a fixed form.[2] The Protestants, however, do not believe in the seven prayers recognized by the church, or in their times or content.[3] There are two basic necessary conditions for the validity of the prayer:

a.      The first condition: It must be offered in the name of Christ. In John, Christ (peace be upon him) says: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.  Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”[4]

b.     The second condition: The prayer should be preceded by full faith in their doctrine of trinity and other doctrines, as we read in Mark: “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”[5]

Their prayer follows no order and does not involve special expressions, but they are free to choose from among the supplications said by the saints.[6] Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah says: “Christian sects read in their prayer something chanted for them by those who advance to lead them in the prayer. It resembles wailing and songs, and they say: ‘this is the Mass of so and so, and this is the Mass of so and so,’ ascribing them to their authors.”[7]

“When we investigate some of the supplications occurring in some Pharaohnic and Indian doctrines we find a great similarity between them and the supplications of Christians.”[8]

Their prayer is opened with the sign of the cross. They perform the prayer without physical purification, no bath after major impurity (janabah) and no purification from urine and stool. A Christian may go to church in the state of janabah and not cleansed from any impurity although Jesus (peace be upon him) never prayed but purified, for he followed the law of Moses in matters of taharah (purification). Ibn al-Qayyim says: “Christ (peace be upon him) used to worship Allah through being purified; he would take a bath (perform ghusl) when being in major impurity, and he deemed it obligatory for the women to take a bath at the end of menstruation. Christian sects see that all this is unnecessary. A man may have sexual intercourse with his wife, urinate and defecate without thereafter using any water or anything to clean himself. Urine and stool may come down his legs while praying, yet his prayer is perfect and valid. There is no harm if he defecates or urinates while he is praying.

They also say that praying while being in major impurity and contaminated with urine and stool is better than praying with purification, for it would then be dissimilar to the prayers of Muslims and Jews and thus closer to being different from them.”[9]

They pray in the direction of the east though Christ never prayed in the direction of the east. He never prayed but in the direction of Jerusalem till Allah raised him to Himself.[10] Protestants do not face the east or Jerusalem; they do not abide by any direction but face any direction according to their positions.

2) Fasting: Fasting in Christianity is a significant part of the doctrine, but it is voluntary and not obligatory.[11]

Their concept of fasting is to abstain from eating till midday and then eat non-fatty food—as is the practice of Protestants.[12] Some abstain from eating animal meat and what is produced from animals, and eat only beans.[13]

Fasting is of various types:

a.      The sacred fast: 55 days.

b.     The Birth fast: 43 days terminating at Christmas.

c.     The Apostles’ fast: 15-90 days.

d.     The fast of the Virgin Mary: 15 days.

e.      The fast of the people of Nineveh:  3 days.

f.       The fast of Wednesday and Friday around the year. Wednesday was the night when Jesus was arrested, and Friday was the day when he was crucified.

g.     The fast of ………. , which lasts for 1-7 days and it means “getting ready”[14]

The Protestant sect has cancelled all these dates and does not practice group fasting. To them, fasting is a private practice, and an individual can fast whenever and however he wishes.[15]  

3) Pilgrimage: Pilgrimage was not ever a worship rite in the Christian doctrine, for the Gospels do not refer to it and this worship did not occur in the early Christian writings.

Like other worship rites, this rite or aspect of worship was subject to inventions and innovations on the part of Christian clergy and particularly the Pope. As Jesus (peace be upon him) was born in Palestine and raised to Heaven from it, there was established for him a church in Nazareth, the Resurrection Church in Jerusalem, and another church in Bethlehem. Christians regard any spot where Christ wandered as a sacred place. The clergy went on through the years philosophizing the concept of pilgrimage as an obligatory visit incumbent on every Christian to these sacred places,[16] and thus there was instituted the rite of pilgrimage, which had not been performed by Jesus (peace be upon him) and the Disciples after him.

4) Zakat (alms-giving): There is no fixed amount of Zakat and no limit to the amount of property subject to Zakat. There are only encouraging recommendations to spend (in charity) and give up wealth altogether.[17]

These are the aspects of worship mentioned in the Gospels, and we have noticed the differences among the various sects in their basics. As to the prayer, there is not a single unified regular form observed by all of them. Concerning fasting they do not agree upon a fixed type of fast or upon what food they should abstain from, and so on.

No wonder it is so, for a religion that has been corrupted is not expected to be regular or have unity among its followers.

Second: Dealings

1) Financial dealings: Nothing is mentioned concerning them. On the contrary, Jesus refused to divide property between two persons, when two men from among the Jews went up to him and said: “O Jesus! Divide (something) between us,” and he said: “ Who has appointed me to divide (things) between you?”[18]

2) Marriage in Christianity: Christianity does not encourage its followers to marry, but it prefers that people remain single in imitation of Christ (peace be upon him) and as did Paul, the real founder of Christianity, and called people to abstain from marrying. So, Christianity does not recommend marriage except for those men and women who are afraid of committing fornication, in which case marriage is better than falling into the Fire.[19]  

3) Divorce: Christianity does not permit divorce except for the cause of adultery exclusively, whether on the part of the husband or the wife. In Matthew we read: “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder…Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery:”[20] According to the text, whoever divorces his wife and marry another commits fornication. If the bond of marriage is everlasting, there are only two choices: either abstention from marriage as is the case with monks and nuns, or ignoring this ruling as is the situation among Christians who marry and divorce, and according to the text they are fornicators. This close-mindedness and restriction “made the Protestants declare their rejection of this law and permit divorce to whomever wishes.”[21]

Divorce is allowed in the Jewish Law, and Jesus (peace be upon him) said: “I am not come to destroy the law”, yet here one of its rulings is destroyed.

This is all that we find concerning dealings in the Christian religion. We observe a lot of shortcomings in this respect. The religion recommends negligence of life necessities and social affairs. As to punishments, the Gospel is void of them, for Jesus cancels the law of retaliation: an eye for an eye.  “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”[22]

Third: Morals

In the Gospel there is an exaggerated recommendation of high morals based on tolerance and forgiveness among people and rewarding evil with good.

In John, Jesus (peace be upon him) says: “But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”[23] He also says: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you.”[24]

Jesus went too far in advocating austerity and self-denial. He said: “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.”[25] He also said: “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.”[26]

Hearing such pieces of advice, one would at once judge that they are not suitable for human nature but they suit angels.  Reality says so and even contradicts them, for Christians slaughter those who deal with them peacefully, let alone those who show them enmity.

The fact that human beings cannot apply the sermons of Jesus is enough evidence that they did not belong to him but were inserted into the Gospel as a reaction to the violence and strictness of the Jews.

The failure of the Gospels to cope with human needs in all aspects also serves as evidence that Christianity is not the final religion.

Thus, the Shari’ah (religion) of Jesus (peace be upon him) was changed and was no longer the religion that he had come with and that the Disciples knew and conveyed to others after him,s but it did not live long, for corruption started soon.

Ibn al-Qayyim says about Christians: “Jews said that Jesus was a sorcerer and a mad bastard; therefore, they (Christians) accepted the allegation that he was perfect and the son of Allah…They found the Jews circumcise their children; therefore, they abandoned circumcision. They found them exaggerate in matters of purification; therefore, they gave it up completely. Seeing them abstaining from eating with, touching or generally mingling with a menstruating woman, they had sex with her. Seeing them forbidding pork, they permitted it and took it as a symbol for their religion. Seeing them forbidding various kinds of slaughter animals, they permitted all animals below the elephant down to a mosquito and said: “Eat what you wish and leave what you wish without worrying.” Seeing them facing Jerusalem in their prayers, they faced the east. Seeing them sanctifying and preserving Saturday (as Sabbath), they sanctified and preserved Sunday (as Sabbath) and deprived Saturday of its sanctity although Christ used to sanctify and preserve it. They saw them disdain the cross because the Torah says: “Cursed is the one hung on the cross,”—and Christians recognize this—they worshipped the cross.

They did all this despite their admission that Christ said to his Companions: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.   For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-19)[27]