Chapter 2: Surat Al-Baqarah (The Cow), verses 113-117

Translation:

The Jews say that the Christians are misguided and the Christians say it is the Jews who are misguided. Yet both read the Scriptures. And the ignorant say the same of both. God will judge their disputes on the Day of Resurrection. Who is more unjust than those who seek to destroy the mosques of God and forbid mention of His name therein? It is not fitting that such men should themselves enter these mosques except in fear. They shall be held up to shame in this world and sternly punished in the next. To God belongs the east and the west. Whichever way you turn, there is the face of God. He is Omnipresent and All-Knowing. They say: ‘God has begotten a son.’ Glory be to Him. His is what the heavens and the earth contain; all things are obedient to Him. Creator of the heavens and the earth. When He decrees a thing, He need only say ‘Be,’ and it is.

Tafsir (Commentary):

The Jews thought that one had to be attached to saints and prophets to be on the right path. That was why they thought they were in the right and everyone else in the wrong. As for the Christians, they considered themselves unique in that God’s “beloved son” had been sent to them. Even the idolators of Mecca thought of themselves as superior to everyone else, basing their claim on the fact that they were guardians of God’s sacred House. Thus every nation had set its own religious standards, according to which they themselves inevitably appeared to be in the right, and everyone else in the wrong. Their actions, however, did not substantiate their claims. For one thing, they had become divided into sects, though all of them swore allegiance to the divine scriptures. They jumped at every opportunity to deny others the right to use places of worship. Though they would say that they were doing this to protect the sanctity of these places, in fact they were ruining them, for places of worship become worthless when people are denied the right to worship there. Everyone should enter into these places in a spirit of humility and trepidation, in consciousness of their own unworthiness rather than the unworthiness of others to join them. One who has the correct attitude will never deny the right to worship to those who come to do so; he will never persecute those who come to serve the Lord. When one is truly conscious of God’s greatness and one’s own helplessness before Him, one’s humility will show in one’s dealings with others: one will not seek to harm one’s fellow-men in any way, let alone deny them their fundamental right to worship God.

Another error into which the non-Muslims fell was to liken God to man. A human being, for instance, cannot be in two places at the same time, and, in consequence, people think that God is also to be found only in particular places. But God is everywhere. True, He has prescribed a direction for us to face when we worship, but this is just for the sake of practicality; it does not mean that God is to be found in one direction and not in another. Another outcome of this basic misconception of God’s nature is people’s attribution of a son to Him. But only those who have needs beget sons, and God is immune from all such imperfections and limitations. He is complete in Himself. Such beliefs do not come from God; man has invented them himself, and whoever makes up his own religion and pretends that it is from God is doomed to disgrace and perdition when he comes face to face with his Maker.