In the year 1969 CE, an Iraqi student studying in the United States wrote to the Moroccan scholar Shaykh Abū Shakīb Muḥammad Taqī ad-Dīn ibn ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Hilālī (d. 1407 AH/1987 CE), seeking guidance on how to respond to Christians who were challenging Islam.
Al-Hilālī recounts:
فقد كتب إلي تلميذي السيد منذر إسماعيل الدروبي البغدادي الذي كان يدرس الهندسة في إحدى جامعات الولايات المتحدة منذ أربع سنين تقريبًا وأخبرني أن النصارى تجمعوا عليه وأخذوا يجادلونه في الدين ويتطاولون عليه فلم يدر ما يجيبهم به
“My student Mundhir Ismāʿīl ad-Durūbī al-Baghdādī, who had been studying engineering at a university in the United States for approximately four years, wrote to me. He informed me that Christians had gathered against him, argued with him about religion and acted insolently towards him, so he did not know how to answer them.” [Al-Hilālī, Al-Barāhīn al-Injīliyyah ʿalā anna ʿĪsā Dākhil fī al-ʿUbūdiyyah wa-lā Ḥaẓẓa lahu min al-Ulūhiyyah, introduction.]
In response, Shaykh al-Hilālī wrote a detailed treatise entitled Evidence from the Gospel That Jesus Is a Servant of Allah and Has No Right to Be Worshipped. In it, he cited specific chapter and verse numbers from the Gospel, enabling the student to extract the relevant passages himself in English. This allowed him to defend Islam using their own scriptures, after first understanding al-Hilālī’s explanations, which were written in Arabic.
Al-Hilālī explains:
فَعَكف على الرسالة حتى قتلها فهماً ودعاهم للمناظرة فلما ناظرهم أفحمهم وهُزموا شر هزيمة فيما أخبرني به بعد ذلك
“He devoted himself to studying the treatise until he understood it thoroughly, then invited them to debate. When he debated them, he left them without an answer, and they were utterly defeated, as he later informed me.” [Al-Hilālī, Al-Barāhīn al-Injīliyyah ʿalā anna ʿĪsā Dākhil fī al-ʿUbūdiyyah wa-lā Ḥaẓẓa lahu min al-Ulūhiyyah, introduction.]
Several decades prior to this incident, Shaykh al-Hilālī had already come to realise the necessity of acquiring foreign languages, acknowledging that complete understanding would be unattainable without proficiency in them. Consequently, he began memorising English vocabulary from language manuals.
While teaching in India, al-Hilālī approached a Canadian Christian missionary and requested English lessons in exchange for payment. The missionary declined payment and offered three half-hour lessons each week on condition that al-Hilālī attend his sermons.
In 1349 AH/1930 CE, during a Christmas gathering, al-Hilālī met a different pastor, a young American named Smith. In their subsequent discussion, al-Hilālī explained that he was learning English in order to read the Bible in that language.
Smith offered to order an English edition from London, saying that it would arrive after a month. Once it arrived, al-Hilālī read it, consulted dictionaries for unfamiliar words, and subsequently read it a third time. He recorded his observations in a work entitled Ḥawāshī Shattā ʿalā Injīl Mattā (Various Notes on the Gospel of Matthew), preparing himself to respond to the pastor and others who shared similar beliefs.
References
Abū Shakīb Muḥammad Taqī ad-Dīn ibn ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Hilālī (d. 1407 AH/1987 CE), Al-Barāhīn al-Injīliyyah ʿalā anna ʿĪsā Dākhil fī al-ʿUbūdiyyah wa-lā Ḥaẓẓa lahu min al-Ulūhiyyah, introduction and the section on Christian hostility towards Muslims.
Al-Hilālī, Ḥawāshī Shattā ʿalā Injīl Mattā, described by the author in Al-Barāhīn al-Injīliyyah ʿalā anna ʿĪsā Dākhil fī al-ʿUbūdiyyah wa-lā Ḥaẓẓa lahu min al-Ulūhiyyah.
