Against the pagans, or Muhammadan

In the treatise “Against the Gentiles, or Muhammadan” by St. Simeon of Thessalonica criticizes Islamic doctrine and way of life. The saint begins the essay with the assertion that the cause of the Islamic “heresy” is the wicked Nestorius. He denounces Muslims' rejection of the dogma of the Holy Trinity. Particularly criticized is the idea of ​​God as something material (“crystal-like, entirely spherical”). The author rejects Islamic teachings about Muhammad, calling him “a most wicked and demon-possessed barbarian” who, being “in the grip of demonic delusion,” exalted himself above Christ and promised his followers “Gardens of Eden filled with all kinds of debauchery.” The saint criticizes the moral practices attributed to Muslims: “the unnatural and abominable work of the Sodomites,” polygamy, a life filled with “murder and robbery,” “wars against all nations,” the desire for money, pleasures and a dissolute lifestyle. St. Simeon of Thessalonica contrasts Islam with the Christian understanding of true faith, emphasizing that righteous life in this transitory world does not lie in earthly pleasures, but in suffering for Christ and assimilating His holiness. It recalls the coming Last Judgment, where the wicked will be condemned to eternal Gehenna along with the devil, and the faithful will be awarded eternal glory. The culprit [of this heresy] among those called pagans was the wicked Nestorius 1. Formerly they worshiped the morning star. Subsequently, misled by one most wicked and demon-possessed (μαινόμενον) barbarian, one of their own tribe, unclean and dissolute, wholly [formed] the dwelling of the devil, namely, Muhammad (Μωάμεθ), they recognized God, [but in this too] they appeared like the completely godless, what they were before; after having learned something about the true God, they did not recognize the beginningless Father of the living Word, the unbegotten, the cause of everything from all eternity, the Parent of living Wisdom, the only begotten and uncarnal Son, the cover (προβολέα) of true life, life-giving and sanctifying of all good things, and the Holy Spirit. Having rejected the uncarnal Son and the Word of God and from the divine God Himself, and the life-giving Spirit, and having done all [their] vicious and well-known deeds, they completely openly and shamelessly fell into even more ugliness, as in accordance with their law - of course, the unnatural and abominable work of the Sodomites - defiled, and due retribution for their error, as Paul says, in themselves those who received (Rom. 1:27); many women took and filled [the land] with murder and robbery; as a result of which they (constantly) lived with a bow and a dagger and waged wars against all nations, expelling, killing and seizing, like robbers, foreign countries, separating fathers from children, wives from husbands, tormenting the division of one by nature, obsessed with money, obsessed with pleasures and a dissolute lifestyle, and, what is even worse, [these] lost ones they believe that they receive these [things] as righteous and faithful. They will not think, the pitiful ones, that this world will pass away and [therefore everything] that people have is like being in a foreign land and exile, and that in such a world the sinners, the robbers and the unrighteous most of all enjoy and luxury excessively. Just as David the stranger says so, being on the land [stranger] and mournfully exclaiming: Woe to me, that I am with Mosoch (Ps. 119:5). And Abraham, for God’s sake, overly loved being in a foreign land, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and all the prophets in this world earned poverty and suffering. Despite [all] this, they claim that they also have a law that is filled with lawlessness and all kinds of ungodliness, godlessness and disorder. [This is claimed] by the wretched, having been misled by a vicious and barbaric man, who, being in the power of demonic delusion, called himself the messenger of God and [said] that he ascended into heaven 2 so that through [such] humiliation (oh woe!) the ascension of Christ and my God, and [this] wicked one dared to call himself higher than Christ; and [he said] that he saw God like a crystal (crystalline), entirely spherical (ὁλόσφαιρον), who in addition supposedly teaches them prayers, for which [they], of course, the possessed perpetrators of all insanity and madness, [promised] to provide paradise gardens filled with all debauchery. And [this is] why it follows that I should be well acquainted with this atheism, which the hater of good, as the most unreasonable of all the lost and as full of uncleanness, brought Christians as a counterweight against us and, obsessed and evil, against our piety, does through this wicked people [the works] that the divine scriptures prophesy about the Antichrist, and attacks the true and only faith of Christ: since Christ concedes through those recognized as the elect and so taught that this world will pass away, and that just as He Himself was persecuted in this world, so we, His servants, must also be persecuted. When [He] Himself comes with glory on the last day, we will desire to live with Him, and be forever with Him and with the angels; The wicked will be condemned forever to Gehenna along with the vicious devil, because they imitated his murder, atheism, uncleanness, predation, madness, hostility, cruelty, lies and perjury. Listen, on the basis of which it is believed that Nestorius is guilty of this wickedness. This bad one wanted to recognize our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the eternal Word incarnate, as the beloved [His disciple] says: and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:17), but he taught separately about the Word and separately about Christ; and Christ, he said, was [only] the shell of the Word (that is, human flesh, which He assumed) and called [Him] a man overshadowed by grace, which is why he impiously called the All-Holy Virgin Mother of God the Mother of Christ. After this wicked Nestorius (who went to the Oasis), 3 later the most criminal head of the wickedness of the teachings of the pagans appeared in this place, and [after] spending time there, he called Christ the greatest of all the prophets and [said] that He was taken into heaven and is there; just as the wicked [Nestorius] confessed God, not the Word of God, but who became the Word of God, the wicked man invented that Christ is not the Word of God, when through the Word of God the heavens and the earth were created, and all creation, from which it follows that the Word itself is living, which abides forever, as David said: By whom also the heavens were built 4 (Ps. 32:6), which in in the beginning it was (as the Gospel proclaims) and it was towards God. And through Him all things began to be, and without Him nothing began to be that began to be (John 1:1, 3), and He also created all things by Wisdom 5 (Ps. 103:24) as David sings to God, and Solomon says: God of the fathers, who created all things by Your Word 6 and formed man by Your Wisdom (Wisdom 9:2). Of whom it is written: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). But it would be unnecessary for us to expand and talk more about the wickedness of these godless ones, which is [fully] described and examined along with the wickedness of the Jews 7 . Translation by Yu.V. Maksimov according to edition: Ἁγ. Συμεὼν ἀρχιεπισκόπου Θεσσαλονίκης. Τὰ Ἅπαντα. Ἀθήναις, 1868. Σ. 22–23. In the previous chapter, St. Simeon analyzed the heresy of Nestorius. This refers to the Muslim teaching about the miraj (heavenly ascension) of Muhammad from Medina to Jerusalem, and then to heaven, to God. Nestorius was first exiled to Petra of Arabia and then to the Great Oasis in Egypt. During the first exile he was closer to the site of Muhammad's future activities than in the Oasis, but on the whole, despite this slight confusion, the observation of St. Simeon is historically correct. In the Synodal translation: By the Word of the Lord the heavens were created. In the synodal translation: You have done everything wisely. In the synodal translation: God of the fathers and Lord of mercy, who created all things by Your word. Immediately after this, the saint briefly describes the errors of the Jews. You might be interested in: