Why are the Christians not called Christians today?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : The Qur'an called the followers of 'Isa the Christians, and today they call themselves Christians?
The Shaykh : The reason for that is that if they attribute themselves to the Messiah, they attribute themselves to a religion, to a Messenger, whose religion is the truth. This is easier for them than if they said, "We are Christians," especially if we say that "Christians" is a reference to a place called al-Nasir, meaning it would be a geographical or national reference. But if we say "Christians," the reference becomes to a followed Messenger. How do the people of distortion call themselves? They call themselves the people of interpretation. They said that to establish the matter and make the thing acceptable, because if they had called themselves the people of distortion, no one would have accepted them.
The Shaykh : The reason for that is that if they attribute themselves to the Messiah, they attribute themselves to a religion, to a Messenger, whose religion is the truth. This is easier for them than if they said, "We are Christians," especially if we say that "Christians" is a reference to a place called al-Nasir, meaning it would be a geographical or national reference. But if we say "Christians," the reference becomes to a followed Messenger. How do the people of distortion call themselves? They call themselves the people of interpretation. They said that to establish the matter and make the thing acceptable, because if they had called themselves the people of distortion, no one would have accepted them.