رسالتِ محمدیہﷺ کی عالم گیریت سے متعلق پولس انطاکی کی آراء کا تجزیہ

Analysis of Paul of Antioch’s views about universality of prophethood of Muhammad (PHUH)

Abstract

Muslim Christian polemics have long history since the emergence of Islam. This article spreads light on one of such polemical aspect initiated by Paul of Antioch, a Christian theologian who served as the bishop of the Melkite Church in Sidon. He prepared a document titled “Letter to a Muslim Friend” and spread it among Muslim communities in the 12th and 13th centuries in Egypt, Syria, and Baghdad. In this document, he presented various claims. One of those claims was that the Quran describes Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as an apostle of God sent to the Arabs communities only. The nature of his prophethood was not universal, which is why Christians do not stand in the domain of his propagation. He tried to infer this discourse through out of context interpretations of some selected Quranic verses.  Such interpretations were highly criticized by not just Muslim Scholars but modern Christians as well. On another side such claim of Paul has not only been accepted in modern oriental discourses, but it has also been supported with new and numerous pieces of evidences and logics. This article presents an account of such a theory and an analysis has been put forward in this regard with the help of Quranic verses, sayings of the holy prophet, and historical evidences. At the end of the article, the results of the study have been given as a conclusion.