أهل الكتاب
Ahl al-Kitāb
The People of the Book: Jews and Christians, who received earlier scriptures.
What it means
The Quran gives them a place of their own. It invites them to “a common word” of worshipping God alone (3:64), tells Muslims to argue with them only in the best manner (29:46), permits eating their food and marrying their chaste women (5:5), and says that some of them are upright and pray through the night (3:113–115).
It says that the people nearest in affection to believers are those who say “we are Christians”, because among them are priests and monks who are not proud (5:82).
Often misunderstood as
That the Quran declares Jews and Christians enemies.
What the sources say
The Quran criticises specific beliefs and acts, and in specific situations, and it does so in the same chapters where it praises others. A Muslim’s relation to the People of the Book is one of respect, of disagreement on theology and, as the Quran says, of competing in good deeds (5:48).
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 45, listed as AHL AL KITĀB. The definition is restated here.