Dealing with the Christians who believe in the Trinity

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Question:
Honorable Shaykh, there are Christians living among us who say that Allah is the third of three. I know some Muslims who marry them and treat them as People of the Book. The question is: do we treat them as People of the Book, or do we treat them as disbelievers?

Answer:
No, we treat them as People of the Book, because this existed at the time the Qur'an was revealed. The claim that Allah is the third of three was present, and their claim that the Messiah is the son of Allah was present. And yet, Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He) said, "and the chaste women from those who were given the Scripture before you"

[all] good foods have been made lawful, and the food of those who were given the Scripture is lawful for you and your food is lawful for them. And [lawful in marriage are] chaste women from among the believers and chaste women from among those who were given the Scripture before you

أُحِلَّ لَكُمُ الطَّيِّبَاتُ وَطَعَامُ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ حِلٌّ لَّكُمْ وَطَعَامُكُمْ حِلٌّ لَّهُمْ وَالْمُحْصَنَاتُ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنَاتِ وَالْمُحْصَنَاتُ مِنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ

[Al-Ma'idah 5:5]

. They believe in the Trinity and say the Messiah is the son of Allah. Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He) permitted marriage with them even though they hold these beliefs. Thus, this serves as a specification for His saying (the Exalted)

And do not marry polytheistic men [to your women] until they believe.

وَلَا تُنكِحُوا الْمُشْرِكِينَ حَتَّىٰ يُؤْمِنُوا

[Al-Baqarah 2:221]

, making this verse a specification for that one.

Source شرح نونية ابن القيم [37] — alfawzan.live (46:01)

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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