“O’ Christ-Wor­ship­pers!” A Qasi­dah Which Refutes Christianity

Ibn al-Qayy­im al-Jauziyyah was a promi­nent Mus­lim jurist dur­ing Islam’s Gold­en Age. Apart from his juris­dis­tic prowess, he was also com­pe­tent in com­pos­ing qasi­dah (Ara­bic poet­ry). Among his more famous works was the qasi­dah enti­tled A’ob­bad al-Maseeh Fi Naqd al-Nas­raniyyah (O Christ-Wor­ship­pers ! In Refut­ing Chris­tian­i­ty). This qasi­dah is well-known in the Mus­lim world and has even been turned into a song. 

The fol­low­ing is the Eng­lish trans­la­tion of the poet­ry from the Ara­bic original.

Vers­es :

O Christ-wor­ship­pers ! We want an answer to our ques­tion [from your wise ones],
If the Lord was mur­dered by some people’s act, what kind of god is this ?
We won­der ! Was He pleased by what they did to Him ?
If yes, blessed be they, they achieved His pleasure,
But if He was dis­con­tent­ed, this means their pow­er had sub­ju­gat­ed Him ! 

Was the whole enti­ty left with­out a Sus­tain­er, so who answered the prayers ?
Were the heav­ens vacat­ed, when He laid under the ground somewhere ?
Were all the worlds left with­out a God, to man­age while His hands were nailed ?
Why did not the angels help Him, when they heard him while he wailed ?

How could the rods stand to bear the True Lord when He was fastened,
How could the irons reached Him and [had] His body pinned ?
How could His ene­mies’ hands reach Him and slap His rear,
And was Christ revived by him­self, or was the Reviv­er anoth­er god ?

What a sight it was, a grave that enclosed a god,
Stranger still is the bel­ly that con­fined Him !
He stayed there for nine months in utter dark­ness, fed by blood !
Then he got out of the womb as a small baby,
Weak and gasp­ing to be breast-fed !
He ate and drank, and did what that nat­u­ral­ly result­ed,Uri­na­tion and defecation
Is this [what you call] a god ?
High Exalt­ed be Allah above the lies of Christians,
All of them will be held account­able for their libels !

O Cross-wor­ship­pers ! For what rea­son is this exalted
and blame [is cast upon those] who reject it ?
Is it not log­i­cal to break and burn it, along with the one who inno­vat­ed it ?Paul of Tar­sus, founder of Trini­tar­i­an faith
Since the Lord was cru­ci­fied on it, and his hands were fas­tened to it ?
That is real­ly a cursed cross to carry,
So dis­card it, do not kiss it !i.e., don’t glo­ri­fy it

The Lord was abused on it, and you adore it ?
So [it is clear that] you are one of His enemies !
If you extol it because it car­ried the Lord of the Worlds,
Why don’t you pros­trate your­self and wor­ship graves,
Since the grave con­tained your god in it ?i.e., since some­one who is a Chris­t­ian abhors the idea of wor­ship­ping a grave, how is it pos­si­ble for them to wor­ship the cross ?

So Christ-wor­ship­per, open your eyes,
This is what the mat­ter is all about. 

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