I cannot doubt that she was praying from the heart...

I cannot doubt that she was praying from the heart, and that if she had received a new pink Cadillac, she would have been overjoyed. My sincerity and joy in learning to love my enemy according to my Christian duty, for example, might very well be questioned. One should be overjoyed with the bounties that Allah has given. The bounties were once the possession of Christians, who lost them many centuries ago.

What joy it must be, then, to be given these bounties as a free gift, and find that one’s most valuable possessions, long lost, had been returned. So there are several reasons why these are the gifts that Muslims should give to Christians. The first reason is that the bounties belonged to the Christians centuries ago and were lost. Muslims are responsible for returning lost property.

The second reason is that we are accountable for the three bounties on the Day of Judgement, and not for food and drink. Muslims who are so hospitable with food and drink, for which they are not accountable on the Day of Judgement, should have a care about those more important things for which they will be held accountable. Thirdly, the bounties are better gifts than a pink Cadillac. The first of the bounties is the proclamation of Tawhid or the unicity of God.

It is the central theme of the holy Qur’an in such passages as Suratu Aali-‘Imran 3:2 “God! There is no God but He, the Ever Living, the Self-Subsistent.” In the very next ayat it mentions that the one true God also sent the Torah and the Gospel, that is, the Christian Scriptures. Despite the fact that Christians had largely lost this first of all bounties before the coming of the holy Qur’an, this bounty is still to be found in their Scriptures.

Exodus 20:1-3: "And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Deuteronomy 4:35. "Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God; there is none else beside him. Deuteronomy 32:39*. "See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me." Nehemiah 9:6.

"Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee." Psalm 86:10. "For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone." Isaiah 44:6,8*.