Guy please help me here...
I was involved in a major discussion last night with a group of Muslim friends, and pointed out that Muhammed must have known lots of facts about Christianity and Judaism from Khadeja's cousin waraka ibn nawfal, but could not find any references that document that Waraka was a scholar in religion and an authority in his time. Can you please point me to trysted sources that show how much waraqa knew about the old and new testament or the Taourat or any other religions?
Thanks! I am meeting them tonight and they seemed interested with the hypothesis that Mohamed was not illiterate after all. This is important to me.
Thanx
RIBS
Well, try this site:
http://www.answering-islam.org/Responses/Saifullah/waraqa.htmAlso, I think it'd be cool if you can point out to some Muslims that pre Islamic Arabia was an extremely religiously tolerant society, coz Waraqa could convert to Xtianity without any apparent persecution & even discuss Christianity with whoever he wanted, so could Mo's cousin Ubaydalla ibn Jahsh.
Also, from Islamic sources, we learn of Kaab ibn al Ashraf who had a Jewish mother, pagan father, according to halacha he was brought up Jewish.
Muslims love to claim that Mo & his followers suffered persecution & intolerance, but the fact remains that even from Islamic sources, we see religious tolerance vanishing only with Islam.