Consider Muhammad living 10 more years and seeing the conquest of Jerusalem, his main goal. Jerusalem becomes the holy city for muslims, he is buried next to the tomb of Jesus. The Byzantine clergy mission to evaluate islam’s claim, rather then cataloguing it as an heresy, recommends to integrate the Qu’ran as the Gospel of Muahamad. Instead of the Arab-Byzantine war, we have a reluctant mutual recognition. Religious infighting happens, but the Church of Muhammad grows in the Christian population as one of the branches of Christianity. Eventually, one of the emperors converts.
Of course warlords and empire regions would still fight each other, but instead of having the boring orthodox/roman catholic schism, we would have one between the pope and the descendants of Muhammad and instead of the crusades, a cultural war between the Latin and Arab-speaking intellectual of the time.
An interesting idea, but I feel like Islam would have to rise before Trinitarianism became established. Or Trinitarianism would have to remain controversial until Islam arose, whichever chain of events one prefers.
If I had to take a guess, Roman Muslims would simply say “adoramus te, Deus”. I’m saying this based on a few things:
- the few Muslims I know offline simply use the word “Deus” in Portuguese.
- the word الله/Allāh in Arabic isn’t specific to Islam, and AFAIK Jewish and Christian Arabic speakers also use it.
In the light of the above, the nasheed’s lyrics would resemble quite a bit Christian chants. I’ll copypaste the lyrics from the YT comments and translate them with “Allah” though:
Sapientia et misericordia¹ Allah, // Wisdom and mercy¹, Allah,
Omnia regit cum iustitia Allah, hey! // Allah rules all with justice, hey!
Omnipotents et clemens¹, Allah! // All-powerful and merciful¹, Allah [is]!Adoramus te Allah, // We adore you Allah,
In fide et caritate, // In faith and charity,
Duc nos ad viam rectam, // Lead us through the right path,
In lumine tuo sancto! // In your holy light!Benedictus² sit Allah, hey! // Praised² be Allah, hey!
In corde semper erit Allah, // Shall Allah be always in the heart,
Laus² et honor aeternus³ Allah! // Eternal glory² and honour, Allah!
Cantabo nomen sanctum… Allah! // I’ll sing the holy name… Allah!Notes:
- I’m translating both “misericordia” and “clementia” as “mercy”, but they’re slightly different. Clementia is more like kindness, gracefulness, leniency; while “misericordia” is to take pity of someone.
- “Benedictus” is literally “well-said”, or “the one people say good things of”. While “laus” is more like “the one with good reputation”, or “full of glory”.
- “Aeternus” is grammatically correct but silly, I think it should be “aeterni” (plural). Unless the author wants to specify only the honour should be eternal, not the glory.
