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What/who are ahlul kitab? Are Muslims a subset of ahlul kitab?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but: Ahlul kitab means "people of the book" in English. What is the "book" in this phrase, and what "people" are being referred to?

4 Answers 4

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Ahlu Al-Kitab literally means "people of the book." It refers to the Islamic belief that Allah (God) revealed (primarily) two major books prior to Islam: The Injeel (Gospel/Bible), and the Tawrah (Torah).

Hence, Ahlul-kitab is "the people of the (previous scriptures)," i.e. the Jews and Christians. It does not specifically refer to any particular sect within these two groups (eg. catholic vs. orthodox Christianity), but generally to both groups.

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  • and how about ibraheem(abraham) and musa(moses) 9u7uf(scriptures), wont they be classified as books? why not?so what is a book how is it different from scriptures? Commented Aug 30, 2016 at 16:29
  • @johan.i.zahri I don't have the citation you're asking for. I doubt that it exists in the Qur'an. For your second question, I suggest you open a new question on this site about the difference between books and "scrolls" (suhuf).
    – ashes999
    Commented Aug 30, 2016 at 20:00
  • Injeel + Tawrrah = what Christian call "Bible".
    – Quidam
    Commented Dec 22, 2016 at 2:43
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Asalamu wa alaikum,

Ahlul Kitab usually refers to the Jews and Christians. And the Book is usually the Bible and the Torah.

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  • The Torah is a part of the christian Bible.
    – Quidam
    Commented Dec 22, 2016 at 2:44
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Alhlul-Kitab means That have a Holly book (There religon Book that came from there Prophet). In other word Hazrat Esa(A.S) and his Ummah, Hazrat Mousa (A.S) and his Ummah, Hazrat Daud (A.S) and his Ummah And Hazrat Muhammad (S.A.W) and his Ummah these are called Alhul-Kitab. Becase these Prophet have Torat, Zaboor, Injeel and Quran E Pak. These four Ummah Is Called Alhlul-Kitab.

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Ahlul kitab literarily means "people of the book" i.e., those who were sent a prophet with a holly book. In other words, Ahlul Kitab means the Christians and the Jews...

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    This pretty much ignores the nuance of the actual question. Muslims, for example, were sent a prophet with a holy book: Are they too ahlul kitab?
    – goldPseudo
    Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 22:59

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