1/13/2006 - Religious Social - Article Ref: IV0601-2874
www.islamicity.com
Shia-Sunni violence has been on the rise in the last few years, particularly in Iraq and Pakistan. Every month, it seems, scores of Shias and Sunnis are killed in a vicious tit-for-tat between extremists on both sides. Many of the victims are killed as they pray within mosques.
These incidents belie the reality of Shia-Sunni coexistence and cooperation. In Iraq, it is estimated that up to 30 percent of marriages are between Shias and Sunnis; victims of violence between the two groups frequently attend each other's funeral prayers; one group often helps the other's victims after an incident.
This silent majority must come together through dialog to defeat the terrorists who have been responsible for these killings.
Seven reasons why a dialog between Shia and Sunni is needed:
Theological differences between Shia and Sunni are old and are better left for God to judge, as He knows best and has said in the Quran that He is the final judge of religious disagreements. The killing of Shias or Sunnis will not resolve these disputes.
The principle of "no compulsion in matters of faith" [Quran 2:256] is not just limited to Muslim-non-Muslim relations, but also applies to Muslim interpretations of Islam as well. This instruction of God serves as a guideline for the Muslim community to not impose one's interpretation on others. That is why throughout history, not only have Hanafis and Shafis worked with each other despite differences, but Shias and Sunnis have lived and worked side by side with each other as well.
When human beings sit down and talk to each other, they learn to respect each other.
Dialog allows parties to understand each other better by allowing participants to acquire direct knowledge about beliefs instead of relying on propaganda and stereotypical images. [Quran 49:6-12]
Dialog will isolate the extremist fringe. It is a major sin to kill a human being. Killing a human being is like killing the whole of humanity. By talking to each other, Shias and Sunnis will be able to save lives, which is like saving the whole of humanity. [Quran 5:32]
Revenge is not justice. Killing in revenge is unjust, inhuman, and un-Islamic. Retribution through the state, which the Quran sanctions via capital punishment does not amount to individuals taking the law in their hands or killing an innocent person in revenge. The call for, "an eye for an eye," does not mean an innocent eye for an innocent eye.
Even if some Shias and Sunnis consider each other enemies, the Quran asks us to be just even toward one's enemy "O you who believe! Stand out firmly for God, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to Piety: and fear Allah. For Allah is well-acquainted with all that you do." [Quran 5:8]
Some considerations for dialog:
The Shia community like Sunnis is diverse. There are many differences between one Shia group and another. This is why it is important that dialog between Sunnis and Shias becomes a movement and a process throughout society instead of everyone waiting for one high powered dialog to yield some results at the leadership level. Here are some preliminary thoughts on how a dialog between Shias and Sunnis can be beneficial for each side.
Goals of dialog:
Although I consider dialog a process that is beneficial to all, it is necessary that everyone involved recognize some of its tangible benefits. The following are a set of achievable goals for Shia-Sunni dialog.
Developing an agenda of common concerns
Identifying issues of conflict
Issuing joint Fatwas against the killings
Isolating extremists on each side
Preventing a potential conflict or mediating an existing conflict
Education to clarify stereotypes about each other
Setting up joint task forces to deal with outstanding issues
Who should participate in the dialog?:
Imams and caretakers of Masjids
Students of Madrassas
University students
National level religious leadership
Shia and Sunni media persons
Shia and Sunni businesspersons
Mechanism of dialog:
Dialog is a process that should occur at all levels of society. In the 1960s in Pakistan, when Shia-Sunni clashes were far less significant, city officers used to convene joint meetings of Shia and Sunni leaders to chalk out Muharram plans so no confusion would result in rioting. These government-arranged dialogs helped keep conflicts at a minimum. Considering the current level of mistrust, it will be beneficial if civil society takes initiatives for dialog at all levels of society.
Private Dialog: Host roundtable discussions initially at the top leadership level that should later expand to include:
working on different committees.
Public Dialog: Shia and Sunni both use public forums and media to speak to each other's audiences.
Visiting each other's Masjids to enhance confidence and to demonstrate that they are not supportive of the extremists who isolate each other.
Shia-Sunni Dinners: Masjids and social associations should invite Shia and Sunni friends to eat with each other publicly.
Publicity of dialog:
Publicity of the dialog will generate hope and confidence in it and will empower those in dialog vis-a-vis the extremists. Media should facilitate self-criticism and introspection by the religious leadership. Those leaders who participate in dialog should be recognized through interviews, reports, and documentaries. Investigative reports should be aired and published about the truth behind sectarian propaganda. It is important for society to honor those Shia and Sunni leaders who take initiative and demonstrate leadership in participating in dialog. Sunnis, being members of the majority community, have the higher level of responsibility towards initiating and participating in dialog.
Sponsors of Dialog:
Funding always facilitates the beginning of a process in civil society. Every task requires time and money. While participating organizations and individuals can take care of their own costs, it would be very rewarding if some individuals and businesses came forward with funds to sponsor and host these dialogs. American Muslims can start a dialog in North America where there is no conflict in the Shia-Sunni community and then inspire and sponsor dialogs where it is needed the most.
Beyond Dialog:
Considering that Shias and Sunnis live side by side in the Muslim world, they are not unknown to each other, and considering that most of them have nothing to do with the current extremism which is responsible for the killings and violence, it is important for the moderate majority to come up with a few initiatives which are beneficial for Shia-Sunni harmony. These could be communicated in the print form or in any other media. They should discuss the following themes and/or use the methods outlined here:
Khutba points which can help harmony
What type of political/religious rhetoric can hurt at personal level
What is common between Shias and Sunnis
Common Hadith between Shias and Sunnis
What is hate speech
Islamic teachings of tolerance
A Shia-Sunni security force, jointly safeguarding each others houses of worship will be a significant blow to the extremist agenda
Conclusion
Shia-Sunni conflict and sectarian terrorism is tearing our community apart.
The Quran, Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, the Kaba and the five pillars of Islam are common to Shias and Sunnis. That is why no one in Islamic history has stopped Shias from performing Hajj, although the Kaba has always been in the control of Sunnis. Even today, when those currently in charge of the Kaba are part of a predominantly Salafi establishment, some of whom maintain extremely negative views of Shias, Shias like other Muslims are free to perform Hajj. Shias, by the same token, since the 1979 Iranian revolution, are ordered by Imam Khomeini to pray behind Sunni imams instead of praying separately.
This mutual recognition gives us hope that a dialog can bear fruit of peace and harmony between both the communities.
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Religion and Law
Humans can not live together without religion and law. Religion itself has laws as Moses' Laws and Islamic Sharia. Religion unlike laws however creates standards of morals and build the human conscience. Law tells people they will be caught if they transgress the law. A lot of people and lawyers when they know well the boundaries of laws and the holes in the laws they learn how to work around them. If you try to make very detailed law so you prevent previous abuses of laws you end by having very firm blind laws that do not take in account that not every situation is the same. Religion teaches us to fear God even if people do not see him while laws teach us we are O.K. as long as we do not get caught. In Hadith "worship God as if you are seeing him, If you do not see him, he sees you". Laws do not teach people kindness, it teaches them to be like robots if one steps on the other one foot he will be punished. Religion teaches people kindness you do not step on the other one foot because you learn to be kind and gentle to other humans. Laws and compensation with no consideration of God teach people to be aggressive, sue-Hungary or sue happy. You see the ads to lawyers on T.V. who they could look scary in some of them. Many are waiting for the lottery ticket when they could sue a doctor or a big corporation. I love Christ teachings and I know very good Christians, however I do not understand it when I hear that someone is saved by the blood of Christ since the main function of religion is to build human conscience. If the religion rationalizes for you your sins to begin with it kills your conscience. People think laws in Islam are grave and inhumane. This is true if you did not read the sheria laws. The two most harsh are cutting the hands of thieves or stoning married fornicating men or women. Both laws are meant more to make clear to people how both sins are very destructive to communities and evil to God. Before Islam if a man would catch a woman cheating on him with other man he would kill her, which is actually happening in some Arab countries now. In Islam you do not do that you have to have 4 witnesses who sees her with organ to organ intercourse to have her stoned which is very difficult to do and of course you do not video her for that. You got the message, the ones who do that in God eyes deserve to be stoned and if it happens with one partner he just can walk away. But all of us has to be dreadful to this sin. A man came to the messenger and asked him to stone him for sexual intercourse the Prophet (PBUH) told him may be you kissed her, the man told him I had intercourse with her. The prophet told him may be you hugged her, the man told him I had intercourse with her. The prophet was not eager to stone the man but to let him out and then he can repent and God forgives sins. Similarly cutting the hand of the thief has very strict roles that made it difficult to the governor to do that. Thus in Islam the best way to prevent stealing is to teach people morality of their religion and being righteous. The government is ought to create social justice and prosperity to all of its people regardless of race or religion. With the advancement of technology and communication we are able to do that to all humans in earth. Morals and not laws are what Islam concerns more about. You can create all laws of the world that you wish and still have dysfunctional and hateful societies. God and morals unite us all and the law would likely still be needed but will be used less often. Lawyers will still have jobs as negotiators and writing business contracts. If the ship sinks we all will go done including lawyers.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Free Quran.
Today, over 1.2 billion people across the world adhere to the faith of Islam. They are called Muslims, i.e. those who submit to the will of God.
The history of Islam starts from Prophet Adam. Muslims believe in all prophets sent by God, including Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (may peace be upon them all).
Unfortunately, today Islam has been maligned both by those who claim to profess it and those who don’t. Despite this, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world today.
Instead of relying on others, we encourage you to learn and understand more about this faith yourself. Find out and make your own informed decision about Islam.
Currently, these requests are limited for people of faiths other than Islam and who reside in North America only.
They can be obtained from: www.islamicity.com
The history of Islam starts from Prophet Adam. Muslims believe in all prophets sent by God, including Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (may peace be upon them all).
Unfortunately, today Islam has been maligned both by those who claim to profess it and those who don’t. Despite this, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world today.
Instead of relying on others, we encourage you to learn and understand more about this faith yourself. Find out and make your own informed decision about Islam.
Currently, these requests are limited for people of faiths other than Islam and who reside in North America only.
They can be obtained from: www.islamicity.com
Sexual Revolution and Moral Degradation.
By: Maged Taman
I was listening to this gentleman on c-span discussing his book. He was explaining that we are almost alike in the west with Islamic values except for sex. We struggled with that for years and we are over that now.
I was very surprised to hear that from him. I can understand people can sin at times. But to cancel God's law to Moses (PBUH) is a challenge to God. It says to God the law was wrong and we finally discovered that. You can do what you want. In my home I can walk on the walls it is not anyone business. But to say to God the law is wrong we know better, you better be very sure there is no God to begin with.
In one of T.V channels an author was discussing her book of how to cheat. The opposite we used to hear people advocates!!. Let me explain below why sexual revolution had led to degradation of civilizations:
1- In old testament at times when there were sexual corruption God pushed people to fight and kill each other, or say he would let them to Satan to do his work. Muslims and Christians are not any different.
2- Sexual diseases over years have affected people and HIV is a new disease that can be traced to few decades ago.
3- Even with contraceptive methods still unwanted pregnancies occur.
4- Parents who have children out of marriage are more likely not to want to have these children. They are more likely to abort them. If they are delivered and when the children grow up they have a lot of conflicts and pain with no feel of love of the fathers who commonly dump them. Compare that with planned conception from loving married parents.
5- Cheating in marriage commonly end in divorce and breakdown of families. Children are the victims of the infidelity of parents. Huge money is lost in the country from broken marriages.
6- Morality is a group work and immorality is infectious so if we are agreeing that sin is the norm we are giving the green light for moral disintegration.
7- Cheating is wickedness and make people also wicked in other morals. It is more common to have people who cheat to be wicked in other areas of their lives. The longer people cheat and the more the widespread of infidelity is the more the disintegration of morality and the collapse of civilizations.
8- Sex for profit became very common and even children exploited for sex.
9- High crime rate is associated with sexually-free societies.
I can understand people can fall into sins. But God plan to us to put the mechanisms to prevent sin and how to recover from them. Encouraging marriage and preventing divorces should be the tasks of governmental and religious institutions. To challenge God and say the law is wrong you are simply inviting his wrath. God is just if any of us were God he would have blown up the world long time ago.
I was listening to this gentleman on c-span discussing his book. He was explaining that we are almost alike in the west with Islamic values except for sex. We struggled with that for years and we are over that now.
I was very surprised to hear that from him. I can understand people can sin at times. But to cancel God's law to Moses (PBUH) is a challenge to God. It says to God the law was wrong and we finally discovered that. You can do what you want. In my home I can walk on the walls it is not anyone business. But to say to God the law is wrong we know better, you better be very sure there is no God to begin with.
In one of T.V channels an author was discussing her book of how to cheat. The opposite we used to hear people advocates!!. Let me explain below why sexual revolution had led to degradation of civilizations:
1- In old testament at times when there were sexual corruption God pushed people to fight and kill each other, or say he would let them to Satan to do his work. Muslims and Christians are not any different.
2- Sexual diseases over years have affected people and HIV is a new disease that can be traced to few decades ago.
3- Even with contraceptive methods still unwanted pregnancies occur.
4- Parents who have children out of marriage are more likely not to want to have these children. They are more likely to abort them. If they are delivered and when the children grow up they have a lot of conflicts and pain with no feel of love of the fathers who commonly dump them. Compare that with planned conception from loving married parents.
5- Cheating in marriage commonly end in divorce and breakdown of families. Children are the victims of the infidelity of parents. Huge money is lost in the country from broken marriages.
6- Morality is a group work and immorality is infectious so if we are agreeing that sin is the norm we are giving the green light for moral disintegration.
7- Cheating is wickedness and make people also wicked in other morals. It is more common to have people who cheat to be wicked in other areas of their lives. The longer people cheat and the more the widespread of infidelity is the more the disintegration of morality and the collapse of civilizations.
8- Sex for profit became very common and even children exploited for sex.
9- High crime rate is associated with sexually-free societies.
I can understand people can fall into sins. But God plan to us to put the mechanisms to prevent sin and how to recover from them. Encouraging marriage and preventing divorces should be the tasks of governmental and religious institutions. To challenge God and say the law is wrong you are simply inviting his wrath. God is just if any of us were God he would have blown up the world long time ago.
Kindness In Islam.
These words from the Quran and hadith shows well how Kindness is very highly regarded in Islam.
"Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious; for your Lord knows best who have strayed from His Path, and who are truly guided."
Quran 16:125
"Do you know what is better than charity and fasting and prayer? It is keeping peace and good relations between people, as quarrels and bad feelings destroy mankind."
(Muslims & Bukhari)
"Reviling a Muslim is disobedience to God, and fighting with him is infidelity."
(Bukhari, Muslim)
"Narrated Anas ibn Malik: The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: Three things are the roots of faith: to refrain from (killing) a person who utters, "There is no god but Allah" and not to declare him unbeliever whatever sin he commits, and not to excommunicate him from Islam for his any action."
(Abu-Dawud)
"The most excellent Jihad is that for the conquest of self."
(Bukhari)
"Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever is not kind has no faith." (Muslim)
"Whoever is kind, Allah will be kind to him; therefore be kind to man on the earth. He who is in heaven will show mercy on you."
(Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi)
"You will not enter paradise until you have faith; and you will not complete your faith till you love one another."
(Muslim)
"You have two characters which God likes; gentleness and deliberation."
(Muslim).
"By Him in whose hand my soul is, you will not enter paradise unless you believe, and you will not truly believe unless you love each other."
(Bukhari and Muslim)
"…Try to pass your mornings and evenings in a state where your heart is free from all ill-feelings, jealousy and hatred for everyone, and remember that this is my Sunnah, and he who loves my Sunnah will be with me in paradise."
(Tirmidhi)
"Those in whose hearts is no mercy for others will not attain the mercy of Allah."
(Bukhari and Muslim)
"Verily, Allah is mild and is fond of mildness, and He gives to
the mild what He does not give to the harsh."
(Muslim)
"One who lacks kindness of heart lacks all good."
(Muslim)
"Allah is gentle and loves gentleness in all things."
(Bukhari and Muslim)
Islam is the religion of kindness. This does not contradict your right to feel angry when Muslims are oppressed, poor, suffering and have a lot of injustices.
Kindness does not mean you give away you rights. For creating a kind society Islam beleives much to have the best of people are the one who to serve in the government.
"Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious; for your Lord knows best who have strayed from His Path, and who are truly guided."
Quran 16:125
"Do you know what is better than charity and fasting and prayer? It is keeping peace and good relations between people, as quarrels and bad feelings destroy mankind."
(Muslims & Bukhari)
"Reviling a Muslim is disobedience to God, and fighting with him is infidelity."
(Bukhari, Muslim)
"Narrated Anas ibn Malik: The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: Three things are the roots of faith: to refrain from (killing) a person who utters, "There is no god but Allah" and not to declare him unbeliever whatever sin he commits, and not to excommunicate him from Islam for his any action."
(Abu-Dawud)
"The most excellent Jihad is that for the conquest of self."
(Bukhari)
"Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever is not kind has no faith." (Muslim)
"Whoever is kind, Allah will be kind to him; therefore be kind to man on the earth. He who is in heaven will show mercy on you."
(Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi)
"You will not enter paradise until you have faith; and you will not complete your faith till you love one another."
(Muslim)
"You have two characters which God likes; gentleness and deliberation."
(Muslim).
"By Him in whose hand my soul is, you will not enter paradise unless you believe, and you will not truly believe unless you love each other."
(Bukhari and Muslim)
"…Try to pass your mornings and evenings in a state where your heart is free from all ill-feelings, jealousy and hatred for everyone, and remember that this is my Sunnah, and he who loves my Sunnah will be with me in paradise."
(Tirmidhi)
"Those in whose hearts is no mercy for others will not attain the mercy of Allah."
(Bukhari and Muslim)
"Verily, Allah is mild and is fond of mildness, and He gives to
the mild what He does not give to the harsh."
(Muslim)
"One who lacks kindness of heart lacks all good."
(Muslim)
"Allah is gentle and loves gentleness in all things."
(Bukhari and Muslim)
Islam is the religion of kindness. This does not contradict your right to feel angry when Muslims are oppressed, poor, suffering and have a lot of injustices.
Kindness does not mean you give away you rights. For creating a kind society Islam beleives much to have the best of people are the one who to serve in the government.
My Religion is Kindness.
By: Maged Taman
I loved this simple phrase of the Dalai Lama "My religion is Kindness". I was always kind myself in all my life. Kindness is a beautiful negative moral. It means that you are a very benign and harmless person. You may take a lot of unpleasant abuse, oppression and pain from a lot of mean-spirited people and a lot of time you may let it go because you are dissent or they overpower you. In the contrary to "The Dalai Lama kindness religion" a lot of people their religion is "being mean spirited". Their primary religion could be Islam, Christianity or Judaism or any other religion. If there is a morality per capita equation the Jews will be the most moral. This is at least my experience in United States. Of all Jews I met there were only two mean spirited and prejudice I recall, one I met in New Haven,CT and one in Providence, RI. For Muslims I had hundreds of mean people I met when I was in my country. In the United States I would guess I had may be 20-30 Christians. Mean people wait to cause you pain at any potential window. They usually do it to the kind who is less likely to cause them pain. Like good people who enjoy doing the good, mean people also enjoy doing harm. In both the good and the evil there is enjoyment. The means are stupid they listen to their demons and cause the world to be more hostile and they carry a lot of sins when they meet their God. The reasons to be mean are a lot including being prejudice, jealous, inadequate or prime-evil. There is no law to persecute the means. In fact the person who is mean to you is your boss, co-wroker or a family member who overpowers you so you are less able to revenge. The good thing we have a day of judgment that we will face all the means. Until this comes we have to spread morality vertically. Being mean is another form of Injustice that fills the earth now. The means main skill is to pick on people to humiliate them. Some are well experienced and talented in that. It is most dangerous in schools when some students are picking on a vulnerable student causing him outburst of violence. With guns available to a lot of Americans it ends in a deadly shout out. Since it is difficult to spread morality horizontal we would need a new political and moral systems that insure the most dissent in the political positions regardless of their faith. We need the baseline of religions morality and kindness to prevail. It is amazing when you see some of the Arab tyrants come to the United States pretending to be very polite and they would torture any one stand in their way in their countries. My religion is Kindness like the Dalai Lama but I want it to have it as a positive moral. This means most people will follow the kindness of religions. So if you are mean you will be the one who is in fear and danger and not the opposite. Kindness should not be regarded as weakness. When this happens you will not find means and bullies in the schools, the political scene or anywhere. We will be able to strike the ruthless with the rod of our mouth and with the breath of our lips we will slay the wicked. Then the wolf will be a guest of the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid.Maged Taman.
I loved this simple phrase of the Dalai Lama "My religion is Kindness". I was always kind myself in all my life. Kindness is a beautiful negative moral. It means that you are a very benign and harmless person. You may take a lot of unpleasant abuse, oppression and pain from a lot of mean-spirited people and a lot of time you may let it go because you are dissent or they overpower you. In the contrary to "The Dalai Lama kindness religion" a lot of people their religion is "being mean spirited". Their primary religion could be Islam, Christianity or Judaism or any other religion. If there is a morality per capita equation the Jews will be the most moral. This is at least my experience in United States. Of all Jews I met there were only two mean spirited and prejudice I recall, one I met in New Haven,CT and one in Providence, RI. For Muslims I had hundreds of mean people I met when I was in my country. In the United States I would guess I had may be 20-30 Christians. Mean people wait to cause you pain at any potential window. They usually do it to the kind who is less likely to cause them pain. Like good people who enjoy doing the good, mean people also enjoy doing harm. In both the good and the evil there is enjoyment. The means are stupid they listen to their demons and cause the world to be more hostile and they carry a lot of sins when they meet their God. The reasons to be mean are a lot including being prejudice, jealous, inadequate or prime-evil. There is no law to persecute the means. In fact the person who is mean to you is your boss, co-wroker or a family member who overpowers you so you are less able to revenge. The good thing we have a day of judgment that we will face all the means. Until this comes we have to spread morality vertically. Being mean is another form of Injustice that fills the earth now. The means main skill is to pick on people to humiliate them. Some are well experienced and talented in that. It is most dangerous in schools when some students are picking on a vulnerable student causing him outburst of violence. With guns available to a lot of Americans it ends in a deadly shout out. Since it is difficult to spread morality horizontal we would need a new political and moral systems that insure the most dissent in the political positions regardless of their faith. We need the baseline of religions morality and kindness to prevail. It is amazing when you see some of the Arab tyrants come to the United States pretending to be very polite and they would torture any one stand in their way in their countries. My religion is Kindness like the Dalai Lama but I want it to have it as a positive moral. This means most people will follow the kindness of religions. So if you are mean you will be the one who is in fear and danger and not the opposite. Kindness should not be regarded as weakness. When this happens you will not find means and bullies in the schools, the political scene or anywhere. We will be able to strike the ruthless with the rod of our mouth and with the breath of our lips we will slay the wicked. Then the wolf will be a guest of the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid.Maged Taman.
Friday, January 13, 2006
JOURNEY TO ISLAM
JOURNEY TO ISLAM
Source: http://www.islam.com.kw/3.htm#MY
Fr. Antony was a Catholic priest in Sri Lanka. His tale of becoming a true believer and adopting a name Adulrahman for him is quite interesting. Being a Christian priest he was well versed with the teachings of the Bible. He quotes the Bible frequently as he sits to narrate his journey to Islam. While reading the Bible he found many contradictions in it. He goes on quoting verses from the Bible in Sinhalese language and points out the ambiguity.
“He quotes Isaiah 29:12 [the original article referenced Esaiah 9:12, which was a typo. Thanks to community member centurian for the correction - Editor] which reads like this.” And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith; I am not learned.” This verse is a prophecy towards prophet Mohammed (pbuh), because Mohammad (pubh) was an unlettered prophet and when he was an unlettered prophet and when he was asked by Angel Gabrielto read out the first divine revelation upon him he said, “I am not learned” Contrary to the Christian belief that Jesus is God, Acts 2:22 of the Holy Bible considers Jesus as a man. It says, “Ye men of Israel, hear these words, jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourself also know.”
Christianity and the other religions, do not define the prophehood according to him. Nor does Bhudda and is silent about the other prophets. Contrary to this it is compulsory in Islam to believe in all the formaer Prophets and to revere them. According to Abdulrahman this belief is quite convincing and appealing to every body.
Abdulrahman says that there is no reason for the restriction that a Roman Catholic priest cannot marry, when the priests of many other sects of Christianity can marry. Abdulrahman was pondering over the confusions of Christian belief. Meanwhile he got an Audio Cassette of a converted Christian priest Sri Lanka Shareef D Alwis. Cassettes of Ahmad Deedat also attracted him. His continuous efforts to find the truth finally resulted in reversion to Islam. Fr. George Antony
Abdulrahman, hails from the Rathnapura village of Sri Lanka. He was rendering his services as a priest in Katumayaka church. He has ten years of training of the priesthood to his credit.
He wrote letters to his mother introducing Islam. After months of studies she followed the path of her son and embraced Islam. Abdurahman’s only sister is working in Greece. His father and sister still remained Christians.
Abdurahman gave up his highly respected career as a priest for the sake of truth. He happily sacrificed all material gains for the spiritual triumph. He is now working as a trainee in Islam Presentation Committee of Kuwait.
Source: http://www.islam.com.kw/3.htm#MY
Fr. Antony was a Catholic priest in Sri Lanka. His tale of becoming a true believer and adopting a name Adulrahman for him is quite interesting. Being a Christian priest he was well versed with the teachings of the Bible. He quotes the Bible frequently as he sits to narrate his journey to Islam. While reading the Bible he found many contradictions in it. He goes on quoting verses from the Bible in Sinhalese language and points out the ambiguity.
“He quotes Isaiah 29:12 [the original article referenced Esaiah 9:12, which was a typo. Thanks to community member centurian for the correction - Editor] which reads like this.” And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith; I am not learned.” This verse is a prophecy towards prophet Mohammed (pbuh), because Mohammad (pubh) was an unlettered prophet and when he was an unlettered prophet and when he was asked by Angel Gabrielto read out the first divine revelation upon him he said, “I am not learned” Contrary to the Christian belief that Jesus is God, Acts 2:22 of the Holy Bible considers Jesus as a man. It says, “Ye men of Israel, hear these words, jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourself also know.”
Christianity and the other religions, do not define the prophehood according to him. Nor does Bhudda and is silent about the other prophets. Contrary to this it is compulsory in Islam to believe in all the formaer Prophets and to revere them. According to Abdulrahman this belief is quite convincing and appealing to every body.
Abdulrahman says that there is no reason for the restriction that a Roman Catholic priest cannot marry, when the priests of many other sects of Christianity can marry. Abdulrahman was pondering over the confusions of Christian belief. Meanwhile he got an Audio Cassette of a converted Christian priest Sri Lanka Shareef D Alwis. Cassettes of Ahmad Deedat also attracted him. His continuous efforts to find the truth finally resulted in reversion to Islam. Fr. George Antony
Abdulrahman, hails from the Rathnapura village of Sri Lanka. He was rendering his services as a priest in Katumayaka church. He has ten years of training of the priesthood to his credit.
He wrote letters to his mother introducing Islam. After months of studies she followed the path of her son and embraced Islam. Abdurahman’s only sister is working in Greece. His father and sister still remained Christians.
Abdurahman gave up his highly respected career as a priest for the sake of truth. He happily sacrificed all material gains for the spiritual triumph. He is now working as a trainee in Islam Presentation Committee of Kuwait.
Real Happiness and Inner Peace
Real happiness and peace can be found in submitting to the commands of the Creator and the Sustainer of this world. God has said in the Quran:
Truly, in remembering God do hearts find rest. (Quran, 13:28)
On the other hand, the one who turns away from the Quran will have a life of hardship in this world. God has said:
But whoever turns away from the Quran,1 he will have a hard life, and We will raise him up blind on the Day of Judgment. (Quran, 20:124)
This may explain why some people commit suicide while they enjoy the material comfort money can buy. For example, look at Cat Stevens (now Yusuf Islam), formerly a famous pop singer who used to earn sometimes more than $150,000 a night. After he converted to Islam, he found true happiness and peace, which he had not found in material success.2
Next: Forgiveness for All Previous Sins
_____________________________
Footnotes:
(1) i.e. neither believes in the Quran nor acts on its orders.
(2) The present mailing address of Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam), in case you would like to ask him about his feelings after he converted to Islam, is: 2 Digswell Street, London N7 8JX, United Kingdom.
From: www.islam-guide.com
Truly, in remembering God do hearts find rest. (Quran, 13:28)
On the other hand, the one who turns away from the Quran will have a life of hardship in this world. God has said:
But whoever turns away from the Quran,1 he will have a hard life, and We will raise him up blind on the Day of Judgment. (Quran, 20:124)
This may explain why some people commit suicide while they enjoy the material comfort money can buy. For example, look at Cat Stevens (now Yusuf Islam), formerly a famous pop singer who used to earn sometimes more than $150,000 a night. After he converted to Islam, he found true happiness and peace, which he had not found in material success.2
Next: Forgiveness for All Previous Sins
_____________________________
Footnotes:
(1) i.e. neither believes in the Quran nor acts on its orders.
(2) The present mailing address of Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam), in case you would like to ask him about his feelings after he converted to Islam, is: 2 Digswell Street, London N7 8JX, United Kingdom.
From: www.islam-guide.com
ANGELS
We believe in the existence of the angels of Allah and that they are "honored servants. They do not speak before He does, and they act only by His command" (21:26). Allah created them, and they worship and obey Him. Those who are in His presence do not disdain to worship Him, nor do they weary" (21:19).
Angels are concealed from us, so we cannot see them. Allah may show them to some of His servants. The Prophet Muhammad saw Gabriel in his real shape with six hundred wings that covered the horizons (Bukhari and Muslim). Gabriel took the form of a handsome human being who met Mary and engaged in conversation with her. He came to the Prophet while he was among his Companions in the appearance of an unknown man who did not show any trace of long travel, with very white clothes, and very black hair. He sat facing the Prophet, his knees to the Prophet's knees, peace be upon him, and his palms on the Prophet's thighs and talked with the Prophet. The Prophet later told his Companions that the man they saw was Gabriel (Bukhari and Muslim).
Angels' Functions: We believe that the angels are assigned certain functions. Among the angels is Gabriel, who is entrusted with revelation. He brings it down from Allah to whomever He wishes among His prophets and messengers.
Among them is Michael, who is in charge of rain and the growth of plants; Israfil, who is in charge of blowing the horn at the time of thunder-bolting and the resurrection; the Angel of Death, who takes away people's souls at the time of death. Among the angels is the one who is in charge of mountains; and Malik, the keeper of Hell.
Some angels are in charge of embryos in wombs, others are responsible for protecting human beings, and others are busy recording men's deeds: there are two angels for every person, "when the two angels receive (his deeds), one sitting on the right and one on the left, not a word he utters but by him is an observer ready" (50:18). Some other angels are in charge of questioning the dead after he is placed in his last abode. Two angels come to him and ask him about his Lord, his religion, and his prophet. There "Allah confirms those who believe with the firm saying, in the present life and the hereafter, and Allah leads astray the evildoers and Allah does what He wills" (14:27).
Some angels are in charge of the dwellers of Paradise: "The angels enter to them from every gate, saying: 'Peace be upon you for that you were patient. How excellent is your final home"' (13:24).
The Prophet, peace be upon him, told us that "seventy thousand angels enter or pray in the populous house in heaven every day. They never come back to it as long as they live" (because their turn will never come) (Bukhari and Muslim).
From www.muslimconvert.com
Angels are concealed from us, so we cannot see them. Allah may show them to some of His servants. The Prophet Muhammad saw Gabriel in his real shape with six hundred wings that covered the horizons (Bukhari and Muslim). Gabriel took the form of a handsome human being who met Mary and engaged in conversation with her. He came to the Prophet while he was among his Companions in the appearance of an unknown man who did not show any trace of long travel, with very white clothes, and very black hair. He sat facing the Prophet, his knees to the Prophet's knees, peace be upon him, and his palms on the Prophet's thighs and talked with the Prophet. The Prophet later told his Companions that the man they saw was Gabriel (Bukhari and Muslim).
Angels' Functions: We believe that the angels are assigned certain functions. Among the angels is Gabriel, who is entrusted with revelation. He brings it down from Allah to whomever He wishes among His prophets and messengers.
Among them is Michael, who is in charge of rain and the growth of plants; Israfil, who is in charge of blowing the horn at the time of thunder-bolting and the resurrection; the Angel of Death, who takes away people's souls at the time of death. Among the angels is the one who is in charge of mountains; and Malik, the keeper of Hell.
Some angels are in charge of embryos in wombs, others are responsible for protecting human beings, and others are busy recording men's deeds: there are two angels for every person, "when the two angels receive (his deeds), one sitting on the right and one on the left, not a word he utters but by him is an observer ready" (50:18). Some other angels are in charge of questioning the dead after he is placed in his last abode. Two angels come to him and ask him about his Lord, his religion, and his prophet. There "Allah confirms those who believe with the firm saying, in the present life and the hereafter, and Allah leads astray the evildoers and Allah does what He wills" (14:27).
Some angels are in charge of the dwellers of Paradise: "The angels enter to them from every gate, saying: 'Peace be upon you for that you were patient. How excellent is your final home"' (13:24).
The Prophet, peace be upon him, told us that "seventy thousand angels enter or pray in the populous house in heaven every day. They never come back to it as long as they live" (because their turn will never come) (Bukhari and Muslim).
From www.muslimconvert.com
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Sex in The American Media Circus
I want America to take one thing from Islam that makes every one life easier. Though Islam believes much on virtue and family values, regarding sex it prohibits anyone to talk about the sex life of anyone else. If one sins a close friend who finds out advise him to follow God Commandments and he should not tell any body. Except of course for pedophilia and rape. Even people who never or rarely sins they should not say about their virtue since it opens the door for unfruitful discussion. God wants us to avoid sinning and if it happens does not want us to get the bad consequences. Satan, on the other hand wants us to sin and get the bad consequences of sinning. Islam believes in avoid sinning by avoiding close encounter between men and women at educational institutes and work places particularly one on one encounters in a closed place. In the west infidelity and sexual abuse commonly occur in schools and work places. It is simple, sexual drive is strong and it is easier to prevent than to live with the consequences of sinning. The western media that enjoyed scandals made it a lucrative business to some women and their lawyers to get the rich and famous men after a stupid sexual encounter or a planned well temptation. Fight over sexual orientation can be easily avoided if we keep sex out of public eye. I have Taman Health Plan that covers all Americans regardless of sexual orientation for health care and long term care. In return no discrimination against someone for his sexual orientation and no bride in expressing someone sexual orientation. Basically do not ask and do not tell. Let us all threw sex behind our back so we can have more time to other compelling world problems. As a whole community we continue to teach virtue and appreciate that God's blessings to those who follow his commendments. Privately, if some one to sin it is between him, God and people involved in the relationship.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
The Real Passion
I saw the Passion of the Christ. No doubt is a great movie, however I would loved most to see the Message of the Christ. That is what we need to learn most nowadays. With the degradation of morality and the widespread corruption the message of the Christ is all we need to learn and apply now. The real passion in this world is to spread the common good and fight corruption between all of us. Who killed the Christ (as Christians believe) or were attempting to kill him (as Muslims believe) is corruption and jealous. The same enemies of every messenger. It is of no value to know their ethnic or religious background particularly if we hope for a messianic era. There is no anti-sematism in Islam. God praised the Jews when they were righteous and condemned them when they were not as he did in the old testament. God did the same for the Muslims particularly their hypocrites and those who did not follow his right path. Satan wants us to fight for religious identity and domination. God on the other hand wants us to share the baseline of all religions "being righteous". He wants the most righteous (from all religions and even non believers) to form the hierarchy of governments since it is much easier to spread morality and honesty vertically than horizontally.
Humanism: The New World Religion
Over long decades people have suffered much from communism, socialism, immoral capitalism, fascism, nationalism and religious wars. Humanism should be our new world religion. It does not abolish any religion or mix religions. It simply means we can all have the freedom to worship, choose any religion or no religion. We can still be Americans, Egyptians, British.... Humanism simply states that we should not be fanatic about nationality, religion or ethnicity. Humanism means that we humanize people. We remind them we all have much in common and few differences. Our desires and aspirations are the same. Selfishness and greed are very inhumane. We should come together to create the international system that fulfill the aspirations of each family in the earth. We have to create the system of moral capitalism where large corporations can make money, even a lot of money and meanwhile contribute to the welfare of humanity. We need an international system that prevents wars before they happen, atrocities before they are committed and diseases before they become epidemics. To create this system we have to be as much inclusive and transparent in our relations to others. Few politicians acting smart in closed doors is the worst for international affairs. This does not preclude the dialogue between religions. It is better done by very open-minded people who are expert on comparative religions or by unbiased search. There is no monopoly for the truth we all should seek the truth. I should feel happy if my Christian neighbor is feeding his children a good meal and his not struggling to survive. Humanism is the primary world religion and the heart of most religions. That is why I want to see it become the world new religion.
The Phenomenal Growth of Islam
At the end of this chapter, it may be appropriate to point out an important indication of the truth of Islam. It is well known that in the USA and the whole world, Islam is the fastest-growing religion. The following are some observations on this phenomenon:
n “Islam is the fastest-growing religion in America, a guide and pillar of stability for many of our people...” (Hillary Rodham Clinton, Los Angeles Times).1
n “Moslems are the world’s fastest-growing group...” (The Population Reference Bureau, USA Today).2
n “....Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the country.” (Geraldine Baum; Newsday Religion Writer, Newsday).3
n “Islam, the fastest-growing religion in the United States...” (Ari L. Goldman, New York Times).4
This phenomenon indicates that Islam is truly a religion from God. It is unreasonable to think that so many Americans and people from different countries have converted to Islam without careful consideration and deep contemplation before concluding that Islam is true. These converts have come from different countries, classes, races, and walks of life. They include scientists, professors, philosophers, journalists, politicians, actors, and athletes. (To read the stories of people who have converted to Islam, please visit the links at Stories of New Muslims.)
The points mentioned in this chapter constitute only some of the evidence supporting the belief that the Quran is the literal word of God, that Muhammad is truly a prophet sent by God, and that Islam is truly a religion from God.
Next: The Door to Eternal Paradise
_____________________________
Footnotes:
(1) Larry B. Stammer, Times Religion Writer, “First Lady Breaks Ground With Muslims,” Los Angeles Times, Home Edition, Metro Section, Part B, May 31, 1996, p. 3.
(2) Timothy Kenny, “Elsewhere in the World,” USA Today, Final Edition, News Section, February 17, 1989, p. 4A.
(3) Geraldine Baum, “For Love of Allah,” Newsday, Nassau and Suffolk Edition, Part II, March 7, 1989, p. 4.
(4) Ari L. Goldman, “Mainstream Islam Rapidly Embraced By Black Americans,” New York Times, Late City Final Edition, February 21, 1989, p. 1.
From: www.islam-guide.com
n “Islam is the fastest-growing religion in America, a guide and pillar of stability for many of our people...” (Hillary Rodham Clinton, Los Angeles Times).1
n “Moslems are the world’s fastest-growing group...” (The Population Reference Bureau, USA Today).2
n “....Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the country.” (Geraldine Baum; Newsday Religion Writer, Newsday).3
n “Islam, the fastest-growing religion in the United States...” (Ari L. Goldman, New York Times).4
This phenomenon indicates that Islam is truly a religion from God. It is unreasonable to think that so many Americans and people from different countries have converted to Islam without careful consideration and deep contemplation before concluding that Islam is true. These converts have come from different countries, classes, races, and walks of life. They include scientists, professors, philosophers, journalists, politicians, actors, and athletes. (To read the stories of people who have converted to Islam, please visit the links at Stories of New Muslims.)
The points mentioned in this chapter constitute only some of the evidence supporting the belief that the Quran is the literal word of God, that Muhammad is truly a prophet sent by God, and that Islam is truly a religion from God.
Next: The Door to Eternal Paradise
_____________________________
Footnotes:
(1) Larry B. Stammer, Times Religion Writer, “First Lady Breaks Ground With Muslims,” Los Angeles Times, Home Edition, Metro Section, Part B, May 31, 1996, p. 3.
(2) Timothy Kenny, “Elsewhere in the World,” USA Today, Final Edition, News Section, February 17, 1989, p. 4A.
(3) Geraldine Baum, “For Love of Allah,” Newsday, Nassau and Suffolk Edition, Part II, March 7, 1989, p. 4.
(4) Ari L. Goldman, “Mainstream Islam Rapidly Embraced By Black Americans,” New York Times, Late City Final Edition, February 21, 1989, p. 1.
From: www.islam-guide.com
Why Muhammad (PBUH) Amazed Us All?
If I was not a Muslim I will be still amazed how a single man in Arab desert has 1.3 billion followers even after 1426 years.
1- He was one and Muslims over a billion.
2- He did not read or write and most Muslim scientists are faithful believers.
3- He came from a violent culture and created a peaceful religion unless attacked.
4- He came from hard headed Arabs and gathered all Muslims in one heart despite all of their differences. Without Islam very likely they would be more violent with lower morality and spirituality.
5- He came from a pagan materialistic culture to a highly spiritual religion.
6- He came from fighting tribes to create one community that almost functioned as one democratic government.
7- He came From intolerant society that measure people with their possessions and origin to a righteous society judge people by their morals.
8- He came from less civilized tribes to create the greatest civilization the world knew.
9- He had his enemies became his friends and the army leaders of his enemies became his army leaders.
10- He came with a religion that broke all the walls of ethnicity, color, region and materialism to the simple basics of humanity and morals.
11- He made faith as it should be built first on reason (mental belief) and then feeling spiritual belief).
12- He made faith to go both ways a positive confirmed belief and for the very skeptical a default believe when it becomes very difficult to disprove the Quran and its reasoning.
1- He was one and Muslims over a billion.
2- He did not read or write and most Muslim scientists are faithful believers.
3- He came from a violent culture and created a peaceful religion unless attacked.
4- He came from hard headed Arabs and gathered all Muslims in one heart despite all of their differences. Without Islam very likely they would be more violent with lower morality and spirituality.
5- He came from a pagan materialistic culture to a highly spiritual religion.
6- He came from fighting tribes to create one community that almost functioned as one democratic government.
7- He came From intolerant society that measure people with their possessions and origin to a righteous society judge people by their morals.
8- He came from less civilized tribes to create the greatest civilization the world knew.
9- He had his enemies became his friends and the army leaders of his enemies became his army leaders.
10- He came with a religion that broke all the walls of ethnicity, color, region and materialism to the simple basics of humanity and morals.
11- He made faith as it should be built first on reason (mental belief) and then feeling spiritual belief).
12- He made faith to go both ways a positive confirmed belief and for the very skeptical a default believe when it becomes very difficult to disprove the Quran and its reasoning.
My Journey to Islam: Aisha Bhutta
The Guardian Newspaper, England
Aisha Bhutta, also known as Debbie Rogers, is serene. She sits on the sofa in big front room of her tenement flat in Cowcaddens, Glasgow. The walls are hung with quotations from the Koran, a special clock to remind the family of prayer times and posters of the Holy City of Mecca. Aisha's piercing blue eyes sparkle with evangelical zeal, she smiles with a radiance only true believers possess. Her face is that of a strong Scots lass - no nonsense, good-humoured - but it is carefully covered with a hijab.
For a good Christian girl to convert to Islam and marry a Muslim is extraordinary enough. But more than that, she has also converted her parents, most of the rest of her family and at least 30 friends and neighbours.
Her family were austere Christians with whom Rogers regularly attended Salvation Army meetings. When all the other teenagers in Britain were kissing their George Michael posters goodnight, Rogers had pictures of Jesus up on her wall. And yet she found that Christianity was not enough; there were too many unanswered questions and she felt dissatisfied with the lack of disciplined structure for her beliefs. "There had to be more for me to obey than just doing prayers when I felt like it."
Aisha had first seen her future husband, Mohammad Bhutta, when she was 10 and regular customer at the shop, run by his family. She would see him in the back, praying. "There was contentment and peace in what he was doing. He said he was a Muslim. I said: What's a Muslim?".
Later with his help she began looking deeper into Islam. By the age of 17, she had read the entire Koran in Arabic. "Everything I read", she says, "was making sense."
She made the decision to convert at16. "When I said the words, it waslike a big burden I had been carrying on my shoulders had been thrown off. I felt like a new-born baby."
Despite her conversion however, Mohammed's parents were against their marrying. They saw her as a Western woman who would lead their eldestson astray and give the family a bad name; she was, Mohammed's father believed, "the biggest enemy."
Nevertheless, the couple married in the local mosque. Aisha wore a dress hand-sewn by Mohammed's mother and sisters who sneaked into the ceremony against the wishes of his father who refused to attend.
It was his elderly grandmother who paved the way for a bond between thewomen. She arrived from Pakistan where mixed-race marriages were evenmore taboo, and insisted on meeting Aisha. She was so impressed by thefact that she had learned the Koran and Punjabi that she convinced the others; slowly, Aisha, now 32, became one of the family.
Aisha's parents, Michael and Marjory Rogers, though did attend the wedding, were more concerned with the clothes their daughter was now wearing (the traditional shalwaar kameez) and what the neighbours would think. Six years later, Aisha embarked on a mission to convert them and the rest of her family, bar her sister ("I'm still working on her). "My husband and I worked on my mum and dad, telling them about Islam and they saw the changes in me, like I stopped answering back!"
Her mother soon followed in her footsteps. Marjory Rogers changed her name to Sumayyah and became a devout Muslim. "She wore the hijab anddid her prayers on time and nothing ever mattered to her except her connections with God."
Aisha's father proved a more difficult recruit, so she enlisted the helpof her newly converted mother (who has since died of cancer). "My mumand I used to talk to my father about Islam and we were sitting in the sofa in the kitchen one day and he said: "What are the words you saywhen you become a Muslim?" "Me and my mum just jumped on top of him." Three years later, Aisha's brother converted "over the telephone - thanks to BT", then his wife and children followed, followed by her sister's son.
It didn't stop there. Her family converted, Aisha turned her attentionto Cowcaddens, with its tightly packed rows of crumbling, gray tenement flats. Every Monday for the past 13 years, Aisha has held classes in
Islam for Scottish women. So far she has helped to convert over 30. The women come from a bewildering array of backgrounds. Trudy, a lecturer at the University of Glasgow and a former Catholic, attended Aisha's classes purely because she was commissioned to carry out some research. But after six months of classes she converted, deciding that
Christianity was riddled with "logical inconsistencies". "I could tell she was beginning to be affected by the talks", Aisha says. How could she tell? "I don't know, it was just a feeling."
The classes include Muslim girls tempted by Western ideals and need ingsalvation, practicing Muslim women who want an open forum for discussion denied them at the local male-dominated mosque, and those simply interested in Islam. Aisha welcomes questions. "We cannot expect people blindly to believe."
Her husband, Mohammad Bhutta, now 41, does not seem so driven to convert Scottish lads to Muslim brothers. He occasionally helps out in the family restaurant, but his main aim in life is to ensure the couple's five children grow up as Muslims. The eldest, Safia, "nearly 14, alhumidlillah (Praise be to God!)", is not averse to a spot of recruiting herself. One day she met a woman in the street and carried her shopping, the woman attended Aisha's classes and is now a Muslim.
"I can honestly say I have never regretted it", Aisha says of her conversion to Islam. "Every marriage has its ups and downs and sometimes you need something to pull you out of any hardship. But the Prophet Peace by upon him, said: 'Every hardship has an ease.' So when you're going through a difficult stage, you work for that ease to come."
Mohammed is more romantic: "I feel we have known each other for centuries and must never part from one another. According to Islam, you are not just partners for life, you can be partners in heaven as well, for ever. Its a beautiful thing, you know."
Aisha Bhutta, also known as Debbie Rogers, is serene. She sits on the sofa in big front room of her tenement flat in Cowcaddens, Glasgow. The walls are hung with quotations from the Koran, a special clock to remind the family of prayer times and posters of the Holy City of Mecca. Aisha's piercing blue eyes sparkle with evangelical zeal, she smiles with a radiance only true believers possess. Her face is that of a strong Scots lass - no nonsense, good-humoured - but it is carefully covered with a hijab.
For a good Christian girl to convert to Islam and marry a Muslim is extraordinary enough. But more than that, she has also converted her parents, most of the rest of her family and at least 30 friends and neighbours.
Her family were austere Christians with whom Rogers regularly attended Salvation Army meetings. When all the other teenagers in Britain were kissing their George Michael posters goodnight, Rogers had pictures of Jesus up on her wall. And yet she found that Christianity was not enough; there were too many unanswered questions and she felt dissatisfied with the lack of disciplined structure for her beliefs. "There had to be more for me to obey than just doing prayers when I felt like it."
Aisha had first seen her future husband, Mohammad Bhutta, when she was 10 and regular customer at the shop, run by his family. She would see him in the back, praying. "There was contentment and peace in what he was doing. He said he was a Muslim. I said: What's a Muslim?".
Later with his help she began looking deeper into Islam. By the age of 17, she had read the entire Koran in Arabic. "Everything I read", she says, "was making sense."
She made the decision to convert at16. "When I said the words, it waslike a big burden I had been carrying on my shoulders had been thrown off. I felt like a new-born baby."
Despite her conversion however, Mohammed's parents were against their marrying. They saw her as a Western woman who would lead their eldestson astray and give the family a bad name; she was, Mohammed's father believed, "the biggest enemy."
Nevertheless, the couple married in the local mosque. Aisha wore a dress hand-sewn by Mohammed's mother and sisters who sneaked into the ceremony against the wishes of his father who refused to attend.
It was his elderly grandmother who paved the way for a bond between thewomen. She arrived from Pakistan where mixed-race marriages were evenmore taboo, and insisted on meeting Aisha. She was so impressed by thefact that she had learned the Koran and Punjabi that she convinced the others; slowly, Aisha, now 32, became one of the family.
Aisha's parents, Michael and Marjory Rogers, though did attend the wedding, were more concerned with the clothes their daughter was now wearing (the traditional shalwaar kameez) and what the neighbours would think. Six years later, Aisha embarked on a mission to convert them and the rest of her family, bar her sister ("I'm still working on her). "My husband and I worked on my mum and dad, telling them about Islam and they saw the changes in me, like I stopped answering back!"
Her mother soon followed in her footsteps. Marjory Rogers changed her name to Sumayyah and became a devout Muslim. "She wore the hijab anddid her prayers on time and nothing ever mattered to her except her connections with God."
Aisha's father proved a more difficult recruit, so she enlisted the helpof her newly converted mother (who has since died of cancer). "My mumand I used to talk to my father about Islam and we were sitting in the sofa in the kitchen one day and he said: "What are the words you saywhen you become a Muslim?" "Me and my mum just jumped on top of him." Three years later, Aisha's brother converted "over the telephone - thanks to BT", then his wife and children followed, followed by her sister's son.
It didn't stop there. Her family converted, Aisha turned her attentionto Cowcaddens, with its tightly packed rows of crumbling, gray tenement flats. Every Monday for the past 13 years, Aisha has held classes in
Islam for Scottish women. So far she has helped to convert over 30. The women come from a bewildering array of backgrounds. Trudy, a lecturer at the University of Glasgow and a former Catholic, attended Aisha's classes purely because she was commissioned to carry out some research. But after six months of classes she converted, deciding that
Christianity was riddled with "logical inconsistencies". "I could tell she was beginning to be affected by the talks", Aisha says. How could she tell? "I don't know, it was just a feeling."
The classes include Muslim girls tempted by Western ideals and need ingsalvation, practicing Muslim women who want an open forum for discussion denied them at the local male-dominated mosque, and those simply interested in Islam. Aisha welcomes questions. "We cannot expect people blindly to believe."
Her husband, Mohammad Bhutta, now 41, does not seem so driven to convert Scottish lads to Muslim brothers. He occasionally helps out in the family restaurant, but his main aim in life is to ensure the couple's five children grow up as Muslims. The eldest, Safia, "nearly 14, alhumidlillah (Praise be to God!)", is not averse to a spot of recruiting herself. One day she met a woman in the street and carried her shopping, the woman attended Aisha's classes and is now a Muslim.
"I can honestly say I have never regretted it", Aisha says of her conversion to Islam. "Every marriage has its ups and downs and sometimes you need something to pull you out of any hardship. But the Prophet Peace by upon him, said: 'Every hardship has an ease.' So when you're going through a difficult stage, you work for that ease to come."
Mohammed is more romantic: "I feel we have known each other for centuries and must never part from one another. According to Islam, you are not just partners for life, you can be partners in heaven as well, for ever. Its a beautiful thing, you know."
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Delegation of Priests Convert to Islam at Climax of Muslim-Christian Dialogue
[In 1980, between the 1st and 7th of December, a groundbreaking dialogue was held in Khartoum, Sudan, between Muslim scholars and Christian priests. Over several sessions this distinguished group of theologians discussed topics that go to the heart of the Islamic and Christian faiths, including Monotheism, Trinity, the Qur'an, and the Bible. At the climax of this dialogue, Father James Bakheet Sulayman, President of the Christian Mission and head of the Christian delegation, declares that he, along with the rest of the Christian priests, have decided to embrace Islam. What follows is an extract from a book[1] that chronicles this remarkable event. – Editor]
Final Session
Concluding Remarks
A Word from Father James Bakheet Sulayman, Representing the Christian Side
[Father Sulayman will imminently announce his declaration of Islam]
Respected members of the Organizatrion for the Revival of Islamic Activity in the Sudan; respected sir of the office of the Saudi Religions Attaché in Khartoum; respected and honored guests:
According to what was decided at the beginning of the first session, we were to give an opportunity to the scholars, Jamiel Ghazi, Ahmad ‘Abdul-Wahhab and Ibrahim Khalil, to respond to the questions related to Islam and Christianity. We had forwarded these questions to Your Eminence, hoping to find explanations and clarifications which would remove pending doubts from within ourselves. This was in the interest of knowing the truth from falsehood. Thereafter, we would give our opinion concerning the substance of the answers to the questions
No doubt, all of you are expecting that we enter into a free discussion with you right now so we can respond to your answers and detailed explanations concerning the two faiths of Islam and Christianity
Instead, we must say truthfully in front of Allah: we have no other response but to openly declare that Islam is our religion. We must adhere to all its values and standards because it is the truth. It is the light of the best people in this world and the Hereafter. Gentlemen, with this spiritual and objective beginning, we must announce that there are numerous responsibilities awaiting us, not just towards these brothers who have embraced Islam, but there are also many priests and men and women Christian leaders who need to know what we got out of this discourse between us.
Undoubtedly, this is part of the our primary responsibility wherein we must cooperate. We must cooperate sincerely, not for any material benefit, but rather to let everyone know, whether Muslims or Christians, of the truths revealed by Allah, Most Glorified, Most Exalted, to the best of His creation, Muhammad, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him.
Before I conclude, I would like to especially thank all those who participated with all of the various means at the disposal to make this discourse a success, enabling us to emerge with positive results. This will be there for all future generations, not only Sudan but for all peoples.
Wa as-salamu ‘alaykum wa rahmatu Allahi wa barakatuh.
Reference
[1] Dialogue between Islam and Christianity: Discussion of the Religious Dogma Between Intellectuals from the Two Religions, pages 481-482. Published in 1999 by the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America (IIASA). ISBN 1-56923-036-6
Final Session
Concluding Remarks
A Word from Father James Bakheet Sulayman, Representing the Christian Side
[Father Sulayman will imminently announce his declaration of Islam]
Respected members of the Organizatrion for the Revival of Islamic Activity in the Sudan; respected sir of the office of the Saudi Religions Attaché in Khartoum; respected and honored guests:
According to what was decided at the beginning of the first session, we were to give an opportunity to the scholars, Jamiel Ghazi, Ahmad ‘Abdul-Wahhab and Ibrahim Khalil, to respond to the questions related to Islam and Christianity. We had forwarded these questions to Your Eminence, hoping to find explanations and clarifications which would remove pending doubts from within ourselves. This was in the interest of knowing the truth from falsehood. Thereafter, we would give our opinion concerning the substance of the answers to the questions
No doubt, all of you are expecting that we enter into a free discussion with you right now so we can respond to your answers and detailed explanations concerning the two faiths of Islam and Christianity
Instead, we must say truthfully in front of Allah: we have no other response but to openly declare that Islam is our religion. We must adhere to all its values and standards because it is the truth. It is the light of the best people in this world and the Hereafter. Gentlemen, with this spiritual and objective beginning, we must announce that there are numerous responsibilities awaiting us, not just towards these brothers who have embraced Islam, but there are also many priests and men and women Christian leaders who need to know what we got out of this discourse between us.
Undoubtedly, this is part of the our primary responsibility wherein we must cooperate. We must cooperate sincerely, not for any material benefit, but rather to let everyone know, whether Muslims or Christians, of the truths revealed by Allah, Most Glorified, Most Exalted, to the best of His creation, Muhammad, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him.
Before I conclude, I would like to especially thank all those who participated with all of the various means at the disposal to make this discourse a success, enabling us to emerge with positive results. This will be there for all future generations, not only Sudan but for all peoples.
Wa as-salamu ‘alaykum wa rahmatu Allahi wa barakatuh.
Reference
[1] Dialogue between Islam and Christianity: Discussion of the Religious Dogma Between Intellectuals from the Two Religions, pages 481-482. Published in 1999 by the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America (IIASA). ISBN 1-56923-036-6
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Second Coming Mission.
The Mission works for the spiritual rebirth of humankind as God's people on Earth. It pronounces the truth about the state of humankind as a whole and its civilisation which has to change in order to survive in the long term. It deciphers the deep meaning of the greatest prophecies in the history of humankind such as the End of Time, the Day of Judgement, the Second Coming, the New Millennium and transforms them into actual plans for spiritual action.
The Mission works towards the fulfilment of the most cherished dreams of the world religions such as returning back to the Kingdom of God led by Jesus Christ (Christianity), receiving the New Enlightenment of Maitreya Buddha (Buddhism), going to the Promised Land led by the Messiah (Judaism), self-realisation and liberation (Hinduism), resurrection and restoration of the Divine order (Islam), and so forth.
The Mission strengthens, rejuvenates and reinforces the existing spiritual traditions. At the same time it reveals the mystery of the Second Coming and prepares the people for this glorious event.
A cherished goal of the Mission is the blossoming of the Rose of the World prophesised by the great Russian mystic Daniil Andreev. The Rose of the World is a symbol of the heart centre of all humankind which now opens and begins to blossom. The beauty and fragrance of all spiritual paths and traditions come from the depths of the collective heart of humankind – the centre of its Divine origin in God springing from the Universal Soul. This heart contains inexhaustible potential, shines with all the colours of light and love, testifies to the infinite and passionate, always new and deeply moving Divine Love. The blossoming of the Rose of the World will indicate the opening of the heart centre of humankind. As a result of this Divine process, the greatest mystical event in human history will take place: communion between Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Hebrews, the followers of all spiritual paths, coming together at the centre of the Holy City and forming one people of God on sacred Earth. This is the new humankind living in the reality of the New Heaven and the New Earth.
The Mission offers an inspiring spiritual journey to the reality of the New Heaven and the New Earth where everyone could find a spiritual purpose in life and realisation of their Divine potential. It unfolds a new spiritual story, that of humankind returning to the Kingdom of God with great honour, glory, love and wisdom and establishing this celestial reality down on Earth.
Now at the beginning of the New Millennium the Mission offers an inspiring spiritual programme for the spiritual evolution of humankind for the new epoch.
From: www.secondcomingmission.com
The Mission works towards the fulfilment of the most cherished dreams of the world religions such as returning back to the Kingdom of God led by Jesus Christ (Christianity), receiving the New Enlightenment of Maitreya Buddha (Buddhism), going to the Promised Land led by the Messiah (Judaism), self-realisation and liberation (Hinduism), resurrection and restoration of the Divine order (Islam), and so forth.
The Mission strengthens, rejuvenates and reinforces the existing spiritual traditions. At the same time it reveals the mystery of the Second Coming and prepares the people for this glorious event.
A cherished goal of the Mission is the blossoming of the Rose of the World prophesised by the great Russian mystic Daniil Andreev. The Rose of the World is a symbol of the heart centre of all humankind which now opens and begins to blossom. The beauty and fragrance of all spiritual paths and traditions come from the depths of the collective heart of humankind – the centre of its Divine origin in God springing from the Universal Soul. This heart contains inexhaustible potential, shines with all the colours of light and love, testifies to the infinite and passionate, always new and deeply moving Divine Love. The blossoming of the Rose of the World will indicate the opening of the heart centre of humankind. As a result of this Divine process, the greatest mystical event in human history will take place: communion between Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Hebrews, the followers of all spiritual paths, coming together at the centre of the Holy City and forming one people of God on sacred Earth. This is the new humankind living in the reality of the New Heaven and the New Earth.
The Mission offers an inspiring spiritual journey to the reality of the New Heaven and the New Earth where everyone could find a spiritual purpose in life and realisation of their Divine potential. It unfolds a new spiritual story, that of humankind returning to the Kingdom of God with great honour, glory, love and wisdom and establishing this celestial reality down on Earth.
Now at the beginning of the New Millennium the Mission offers an inspiring spiritual programme for the spiritual evolution of humankind for the new epoch.
From: www.secondcomingmission.com
Major Canadian Christian Missionary Converts To Islam By: Garry Miller.
A very important Christian missionary converted to Islam and became a major herald for Islam, he was a very active missionary and was very knowledgeable about the Bible...
This man likes mathematics so much, that's why he likes logic. One day, he decided to read the Quran to try to find any mistakes that he might take advantage of while inviting Muslims to convert to Christianity.... He expected the Koran to be an old book written 14 centuries ago, a book that talks about the desert and so on...He was amazed from what he found. He discovered that this Book had what no other book in the world has.... He expected to find some stories about the hard time that the Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) had, like the death of his wife Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her) or the death of his sons and daughters...however, he did not find anything like that... and what made him even more confused is that he found a full "sura"(chapter) in the Koran named "Mary" that contains a lot of respect to Mary(peace be upon her) which is not the case even in the books written by Christians nor in their bibles. He did not find a Sura named after "Fatimah"(the prophet's daughter) nor "Aishah"(the Prophet's wife), may Allah(God) be pleased with both of them. He also found that the name of Jesus(Peace Be Upon Him) was mentioned in the Koran 25 times while the name of "Mohammed"(Peace Be Upon Him) was mentioned only 4 times, so he became more confused. He started reading the Koran more thoroughly hoping to find a mistake but he was shocked when he read a great verse which is verse number 82 in Surat Al-Nisa'a(Women) that says:
“Do they not consider the Koran (with care)? Had it been from other than Allah, they would surely have found therein much discrepancy”.
Dr Miller says about this verse: “ One of the well known scientific principles is the principle of finding mistakes or looking for mistakes in a theory until it’s proved to be right (Falsification Test)…what’s amazing is that the Holy Quran asks Muslims and non-muslims to try to find mistakes in this book and it tells them that they will never find any”. He also says about this verse: no writer in the world has the courage to write a book and say that it’s empty of mistakes, but the Quran, on the contrary, tells you that it has no mistakes and asks you to try to find one and you won’t find any.
Another verse that Dr Miller reflected on for a long time is the verse number 30 in Surat “Al-Anbiya’a”(The Prophets): “ Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together (as one unit of Creation), before We clove them asunder? We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe?
He says: ”this verse is exactly the subject of the scientific research that won the Noble prize in 1973 and was about the theory of the “Great Explosion”. According to this theory, the universe was the result of a great explosion that lead to the formation of the universe with its skies and planets.
Dr Miller says: “now we come to what’s amazing about the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and what’s pretended about the devils helping him, God says: “No evil ones have brought down this (Revelation), it would neither suit them nor would they be able (to produce it). Indeed they have been removed far from even (a chance of) hearing it”(26:210-212). “When thou does read the Quran, seek Allah's protection from Satan the Rejected One”(16:98).
You see? can this be the devil’s way to write a book? how can he write a book then tells you to ask God for protection from this devil before reading that book? those are miraculous verses in this miraculous book! and has a logical answer to those who pretend that it’s from the devil”. And among the stories that amazed Dr Miller is the story of the Prophet(PBUH) with Abu-Lahab… Dr Miller says: “this man(Abu Lahab) used to hate Islam so much that he would go after the Prophet wherever he goes to humiliate him. If he saw the prophet talking to strangers, he used to wait till he finishes and then ask them: what did Mohammed tell you? If he said it’s white then it’s in reality black and if he said it’s night then it’s day. He meant to falsify all what the prophet says and to make people suspicious about it. And 10 years before the death of Abu Lahab, a sura was inspired to the prophet, named “Al-Masad”. This sura tells that Abu Lahab will go to hell, in other words, it says that Abu Lahab will not convert to Islam. During 10 years, Abu Lahab could have said: “Mohammed is saying that I will not become a Muslim and that I will go to the hell fire, but I’m telling you now that I want to convert to Islam and become a Muslim. What do you think about Mohammed now? Is he saying the truth or no? Does his inspiration come from God?”. But Abu Lahab did not do that at all although he was disobeying the prophet in all matters, but not in this one. In other words, it was as if the prophet(PBUH) was giving Abu Lahab a chance to prove him wrong! But he did not do that during 10 whole years! he did not convert to Islam and did not even pretend to be a Muslim!! Throughout 10 years, he had the chance to destroy Islam in 1 minute! But this did not happen because those are not the words of Mohammed (PBUH) but the words of God Who knows what’s hidden and knows that Abu Lahab will not become a Muslim.
How can the prophet (PBUH) know that Abu Lahab will prove what is said in that Sura if this was not inspiration from Allah? How can he be sure throughout 10 whole years that what he has (the Quran) is true if he did not know that it’s inspiration from Allah?? For a person to take such a risky challenge, this has only one meaning: that this is inspiration from God.
“Perish the hands of the Father of Flame (Abu Lahab)! perish he! No profit to him from all his wealth, and all his gains! Burnt soon will he be in a Fire of blazing Flame! His wife shall carry the (crackling) wood; As fuel! A twisted rope of palm-leaf fibre round her (own) neck!”(surat Al-Masad).
Dr Miller says about a verse that amazed him: one of the miracles in the Quran is challenging the future with things that humans cannot predict and to which the “Falsification Test” applies, this test consists of looking for mistakes until the thing that is being tested is proved to be right. For example, let’s see what the Quran said about the relation between Muslims and Jews. Quran says that Jews are the major enemies for Muslims and this is true until now as the main enemy for Muslims are the Jews.
Dr Miller continues: this is considered a great challenge since the Jews have the chance to ruin Islam simply by treating Muslims in a friendly way for few years and then say: here we are treating you as friends and the Quran says that we are your enemies, the Quran must be wrong then! But this did not happen during 1400 years!! and it will never happen because those are the words of The One who knows the unseen (God) and not the words of humans.
This verse applies to Dr Miller as he was a Christian but when he knew the truth, he believed and converted to Islam and became a herald. May Allah support him.
Dr Miller says about the unique style of the Quran that he finds wonderful: no doubt there is something unique and amazing in Quran that is not present anywhere else, as the Quran gives you a specific information and tells you that you did not know this before. For example: "This is part of the tidings of the things unseen, which We reveal unto thee (O Prophet!) by inspiration: thou was not with them when they cast lots with arrows, as to which of them should be charged with the care of Maryam: nor was thou with them when they disputed (the point)”(3: 44).
“Such are some of the stories of the Unseen, which We have revealed unto thee: before this, neither thou nor thy People knew them. So persevere patiently: for the End is for those who are righteous”(11: 49). “Such is one of the stories of what happened unseen, which We reveal by inspiration unto thee: nor was thou (present) with them when they concerted their plans together in the process of weaving their plots”(12: 102)
Dr Miller continues: “no other holy book uses this style, all the other books consist of information that tells you where this information came from. For example, when the (distorted) holy bible talks about the stories of the ancient nations, it tells you that a this king lived in a this place and a that leader fought in that battle, and that a certain person had a number of kids and their names are…. But this book (distorted Bible) always tells you that if you want to know more, you can read a certain book since that information came from that book”.
Dr Garry Miller continues: “this is in contrary to the Quran which gives you the information and tells you that it’s new!! And what’s amazing is that the people of Mecca at that time -time of inspiration of those verses- used to hear those verses and the challenge that the information in those verses was new and was not known by Mohammed (PBUH) nor by his people at that time, and despite that, they never said: we know this and it is not new, and they did not say: we know where Mohammed came from with those verses. This never happened, but what happened is that nobody dared to say that he was lying to them because those was really new information, not coming from the human mind but from Allah who knows the unseen in the past, the present and the future”.
May Allah reward Dr Miller for this nice reflection on the Book of Allah
This man likes mathematics so much, that's why he likes logic. One day, he decided to read the Quran to try to find any mistakes that he might take advantage of while inviting Muslims to convert to Christianity.... He expected the Koran to be an old book written 14 centuries ago, a book that talks about the desert and so on...He was amazed from what he found. He discovered that this Book had what no other book in the world has.... He expected to find some stories about the hard time that the Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) had, like the death of his wife Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her) or the death of his sons and daughters...however, he did not find anything like that... and what made him even more confused is that he found a full "sura"(chapter) in the Koran named "Mary" that contains a lot of respect to Mary(peace be upon her) which is not the case even in the books written by Christians nor in their bibles. He did not find a Sura named after "Fatimah"(the prophet's daughter) nor "Aishah"(the Prophet's wife), may Allah(God) be pleased with both of them. He also found that the name of Jesus(Peace Be Upon Him) was mentioned in the Koran 25 times while the name of "Mohammed"(Peace Be Upon Him) was mentioned only 4 times, so he became more confused. He started reading the Koran more thoroughly hoping to find a mistake but he was shocked when he read a great verse which is verse number 82 in Surat Al-Nisa'a(Women) that says:
“Do they not consider the Koran (with care)? Had it been from other than Allah, they would surely have found therein much discrepancy”.
Dr Miller says about this verse: “ One of the well known scientific principles is the principle of finding mistakes or looking for mistakes in a theory until it’s proved to be right (Falsification Test)…what’s amazing is that the Holy Quran asks Muslims and non-muslims to try to find mistakes in this book and it tells them that they will never find any”. He also says about this verse: no writer in the world has the courage to write a book and say that it’s empty of mistakes, but the Quran, on the contrary, tells you that it has no mistakes and asks you to try to find one and you won’t find any.
Another verse that Dr Miller reflected on for a long time is the verse number 30 in Surat “Al-Anbiya’a”(The Prophets): “ Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together (as one unit of Creation), before We clove them asunder? We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe?
He says: ”this verse is exactly the subject of the scientific research that won the Noble prize in 1973 and was about the theory of the “Great Explosion”. According to this theory, the universe was the result of a great explosion that lead to the formation of the universe with its skies and planets.
Dr Miller says: “now we come to what’s amazing about the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and what’s pretended about the devils helping him, God says: “No evil ones have brought down this (Revelation), it would neither suit them nor would they be able (to produce it). Indeed they have been removed far from even (a chance of) hearing it”(26:210-212). “When thou does read the Quran, seek Allah's protection from Satan the Rejected One”(16:98).
You see? can this be the devil’s way to write a book? how can he write a book then tells you to ask God for protection from this devil before reading that book? those are miraculous verses in this miraculous book! and has a logical answer to those who pretend that it’s from the devil”. And among the stories that amazed Dr Miller is the story of the Prophet(PBUH) with Abu-Lahab… Dr Miller says: “this man(Abu Lahab) used to hate Islam so much that he would go after the Prophet wherever he goes to humiliate him. If he saw the prophet talking to strangers, he used to wait till he finishes and then ask them: what did Mohammed tell you? If he said it’s white then it’s in reality black and if he said it’s night then it’s day. He meant to falsify all what the prophet says and to make people suspicious about it. And 10 years before the death of Abu Lahab, a sura was inspired to the prophet, named “Al-Masad”. This sura tells that Abu Lahab will go to hell, in other words, it says that Abu Lahab will not convert to Islam. During 10 years, Abu Lahab could have said: “Mohammed is saying that I will not become a Muslim and that I will go to the hell fire, but I’m telling you now that I want to convert to Islam and become a Muslim. What do you think about Mohammed now? Is he saying the truth or no? Does his inspiration come from God?”. But Abu Lahab did not do that at all although he was disobeying the prophet in all matters, but not in this one. In other words, it was as if the prophet(PBUH) was giving Abu Lahab a chance to prove him wrong! But he did not do that during 10 whole years! he did not convert to Islam and did not even pretend to be a Muslim!! Throughout 10 years, he had the chance to destroy Islam in 1 minute! But this did not happen because those are not the words of Mohammed (PBUH) but the words of God Who knows what’s hidden and knows that Abu Lahab will not become a Muslim.
How can the prophet (PBUH) know that Abu Lahab will prove what is said in that Sura if this was not inspiration from Allah? How can he be sure throughout 10 whole years that what he has (the Quran) is true if he did not know that it’s inspiration from Allah?? For a person to take such a risky challenge, this has only one meaning: that this is inspiration from God.
“Perish the hands of the Father of Flame (Abu Lahab)! perish he! No profit to him from all his wealth, and all his gains! Burnt soon will he be in a Fire of blazing Flame! His wife shall carry the (crackling) wood; As fuel! A twisted rope of palm-leaf fibre round her (own) neck!”(surat Al-Masad).
Dr Miller says about a verse that amazed him: one of the miracles in the Quran is challenging the future with things that humans cannot predict and to which the “Falsification Test” applies, this test consists of looking for mistakes until the thing that is being tested is proved to be right. For example, let’s see what the Quran said about the relation between Muslims and Jews. Quran says that Jews are the major enemies for Muslims and this is true until now as the main enemy for Muslims are the Jews.
Dr Miller continues: this is considered a great challenge since the Jews have the chance to ruin Islam simply by treating Muslims in a friendly way for few years and then say: here we are treating you as friends and the Quran says that we are your enemies, the Quran must be wrong then! But this did not happen during 1400 years!! and it will never happen because those are the words of The One who knows the unseen (God) and not the words of humans.
This verse applies to Dr Miller as he was a Christian but when he knew the truth, he believed and converted to Islam and became a herald. May Allah support him.
Dr Miller says about the unique style of the Quran that he finds wonderful: no doubt there is something unique and amazing in Quran that is not present anywhere else, as the Quran gives you a specific information and tells you that you did not know this before. For example: "This is part of the tidings of the things unseen, which We reveal unto thee (O Prophet!) by inspiration: thou was not with them when they cast lots with arrows, as to which of them should be charged with the care of Maryam: nor was thou with them when they disputed (the point)”(3: 44).
“Such are some of the stories of the Unseen, which We have revealed unto thee: before this, neither thou nor thy People knew them. So persevere patiently: for the End is for those who are righteous”(11: 49). “Such is one of the stories of what happened unseen, which We reveal by inspiration unto thee: nor was thou (present) with them when they concerted their plans together in the process of weaving their plots”(12: 102)
Dr Miller continues: “no other holy book uses this style, all the other books consist of information that tells you where this information came from. For example, when the (distorted) holy bible talks about the stories of the ancient nations, it tells you that a this king lived in a this place and a that leader fought in that battle, and that a certain person had a number of kids and their names are…. But this book (distorted Bible) always tells you that if you want to know more, you can read a certain book since that information came from that book”.
Dr Garry Miller continues: “this is in contrary to the Quran which gives you the information and tells you that it’s new!! And what’s amazing is that the people of Mecca at that time -time of inspiration of those verses- used to hear those verses and the challenge that the information in those verses was new and was not known by Mohammed (PBUH) nor by his people at that time, and despite that, they never said: we know this and it is not new, and they did not say: we know where Mohammed came from with those verses. This never happened, but what happened is that nobody dared to say that he was lying to them because those was really new information, not coming from the human mind but from Allah who knows the unseen in the past, the present and the future”.
May Allah reward Dr Miller for this nice reflection on the Book of Allah
The Emerging Latino Muslim Community in America (2003)
Abbas Barzegar, Department of Religious Studies, University of Colorado at Boulder
Preface
This article has previously appeared in the High Plains Society for Applied Anthropologists Fall 2003 Journal. With the consent of the publishers, it is reprinted here. Please forward any comments, questions or feedback to the author at abbas.barzegar@colorado.edu.
Introduction
In recent years, discussion on the role of Islam in American society as portrayed in mainstream discourse, has been mostly associated with the ‘war on terrorism’, and, as such has been concerned with political conflicts abroad and the threat of international terrorism. In doing so however, the rise of Islam as a means of religious conversion in the United States has been downplayed if not completely ignored. One of the most surprising findings are statistics such as those presented by national Islamic organizations which evidence increased conversion rates after September 11, 2001. And yet even more interesting is the presence of tens of thousands of Latino Americans who have chosen Islam as faith. This essay introduces the rising phenomenon of Latino conversion to Islam in the United States.
Current figures approximate the number of Latino Muslims in the United States to be as low as 25,000 and as high as 75,000. While the growth of Latino Muslims is a steadily increasing phenomenon, little to no information exists in an analytic fashion that helps to explain the new religious community. However, the dozens of journalists that have covered the phenomenon in their local communities has enabled its increased visibility, which has now reached national and international news outlets. This article introduces the growing Latino Muslim community of the United States by outlining different trends and concerns taking place within the group. The article provides an introduction to Islam as a faith and ends with commentary concerning the possible future study of the subject.
Islam and Muslims
Islam is a strictly monotheistic faith with theological and historical roots in the Abrahamic religious tradition. As such, Islam shares belief with Judaism and Christianity in the Torah or the Old Testament, and naturally, the majority of its mythologies and prophetic figures. Elements of the New Testament are also shared as religious references to Muslims. As a religious movement, Islam began in the 6th/7th centuries under the guidance of the Prophet Muhammad, who Muslims hold as the last in a long series of messengers sent by God to the world with the purpose of calling humanity to His worship.
Islam in a broad sense, inclusive of its various subsets, is characterized by a strict sense of monotheism which aims at providing a complete system of life as inspired by God and conveyed to mankind through the life and activities of Muhammad. Ritualistically, Islam is marked by the so-called 5 pillars, which characterize the lifestyle of its adherents. The pillars include: 1) the Testimony of faith wherein Muslims proclaim the oneness of God and the authority of Muhammad as His Messenger, 2) the Ritual Prayer which is to occur 5 times daily at specified times, 3) the Annual Fast wherein believers abstain from food and drink during the daylight hours for the period of one month, 4) the Almsgiving, which serves as a type of yearly charity incumbent upon all believers who possess the means, and 5) the Pilgrimage which demands that Muslims make a journey to the holy-city of Mecca, again, for those who possess the means. Further staples of the faith include the prohibition of alcohol, pork, and pre-marital sex.
Islam as a historical phenomenon had a civilization peak during the same period that marked the Dark Ages of Europe. Prominent centers of learning included Baghdad, Cairo and Toledo where major advances in the arts and sciences were accomplished which then were transmitted across surrounding cultures. Today’s Muslim population around the world reaches a total of nearly 1.2 billion, the majority subscribing to the orthodox Sunni branch while a powerful minority, most present in Iran, subscribes to the Shiite branch. Another manifestation of Islam is Sufism, a popular brand of religious orientation in Islam that stresses the gnostic or mystical dimensions of religious life.
Heuristically, the study of Muslims is a fairly easy task due to the monotheistic and holistic dimensions of Islam. Conventional definitions of religion apply to Islam such as the one promoted by Clifford Geertz, which considers religion to be a system of worldview maintenance and development. Muslim thinkers, such as 20th century Sayyid Qutb, consider religion to be a system of life governance or a manhaj rabani, divine program. In terms of experience a Muslim’s faith might be characterized by Charles Long definition of religious experience as an all-encompassing orientation that locates the individual within local, macro and universal environments. While the religious dimensions of Muslim life are fairly straightforward the lived experiences of Muslims, like all other peoples, is more complicated due to the interplay between culture, religion and social environment.
Latino Muslims in the United States
In discussing the phenomenon of Latino Muslims in the United States, one risks falling into the trap of identifying a homogenous Latino culture or identity. To attempt to bundle together over a dozen distinct national and ethnic identities whose geographic region spreads over thousands of miles is as impossible as it is irresponsible. And, in terms of religious homogeneity, the Latino community is by no means a singular entity. Nonetheless, a few broad generalizations about the Latino world are in order.
The 2000 Census documents the presence of nearly 33 million Latinos in the United States. The term Latino is inclusive of all ethnic and national peoples from the Spanish and Portuguese speaking worlds. Most Latinos come from a Catholic religious heritage, however, regardless of whether or not one is active in the religion there usually exists a high amount of religiosity in the community. Other religious communities include various Protestant denominations (whose numbers are increasing) and a small number of Jews. While most Latinos in the United States identify immediately with their respective ethnic or national communities, e.g. Mexican American or Cuban, a broad historical attachment to Spain is reflected in the language, religion and historical consciousness of their respective cultures.
Currently, estimates conducted by national Islamic organizations such as the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) approximate the number of Latino Muslims in America to be roughly 40,000, with some estimates reaching as high as 75,000 and as low as 20,000. The largest communities of Latino Muslims exist in areas, which unsurprisingly, have the highest concentrations of Latinos. As such, Latino Muslim communities are most visible in large metropolitan areas such as New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and other urban centers. Individuals in the developing community often express their newfound faith through non-profit community organizations that are dedicated toward providing Islamic services to the Latino community.
Organizations such as Latino American Dawah Organization (LADO) based in New York with chapters growing across the country provide information about Islam in Spanish to those seeking it. They also maintain an active web-site, which publishes a monthly newsletter that reflects the tones and currents of the new community. Other organizations such as PIEDAD, (Progagacion Islamic para la Educacion e la Devocion a Ala’ el Divino) concentrate their efforts on reaching the female component of the Latino community. LALAMA (Los Angeles Latino Muslims Association) began as a Spanish speaking Islamic study group at the Islamic Center of Southern California. The high demand and popularity of the group’s activities led the informal study group to formalize into a visible and service providing community organization. Similar organizations have begun to appear in Houston, Chicago and other metropolitan areas.
Perhaps the most well established Latino Muslim organization, Alianza Islamica was founded in East Harlem and now resides in the Bronx. Allianza was established in 1975 by a group of Puerto Rican Muslim converts who found in Islam the principles of universal brotherhood and equality that were so prominent in the civil rights activities of the era. Ibrahim Gonzales, one of the founders of the Alianza Mosque says, “we didn’t want to give up the struggle, so we looked to different places. Islam represented a place for us to be part of a larger community. When we realized that within Islam there was every spectrum of people, regardless of class, regardless of race, we were attracted to that universal principle of human interaction and communion with the divine (NY Times, 1/2/02).” Alianza provides services to its surrounding community including AIDS awareness campaigns, education services and religious activities.
As of yet there has been no wide spread and detailed study of the Latino Muslim population in the United States. An initial investigation conducted by Samantha Sanchez, one of the founders of LADO and graduate student in Cultural Anthropology at New School University, offers insight into the newfound community. Her study reports that the majority of Latino converts to Islam were pursuing a spiritual path and then encountered Islam through outreach activities of organizations such as those described above and other Islamic organizations or individuals. Her study also finds in contrast to popular opinion that the majority of converts are college-educated women between the ages of 20 and 30. Sanchez finds that the most attractive part of Islam to spirituality seeking Latinos is its strict monotheistic orientation and structured belief system. Sanchez also finds that a large number of female conversions occur due to marriage with Middle Eastern Muslim men. Further research is also being conducted in part by the Muslims in New York City Project of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University. Findings from the project suggest that the presence of Latino Muslims in American cities is a phenomenon connected to a much larger matrix of social, political and cultural factors.
One salient finding is the tendency for Latino Muslims to place a high emphasis on the historical connection between Latino culture and Islam. This largely unknown marriage is a product of the eight hundred year long presence of Islamic culture and civilization in Spain. During this period of Islamic history, some of the most profound advances in science, culture, architecture and philosophy were accomplished in centers of learning that included Christians, Muslims, and Jews. In fact, many of the developments of renaissance and enlightenment Europe can be attributed to the discoveries Muslims in Spain. Many Latino Muslims find solace in the fact that their newfound religion also shares with them a historical and ethnic connection. Accordingly, many of the organizations mentioned above provide information on this lesser well-known part of Spanish history. Latino Muslims are often quick to point out the existence of hundreds, if not thousands, of Spanish words with Arabic origins and meanings. This may explain why many Latino Muslims prefer the term reversion rather than conversion to describe their experiences. However, this could also be explained by the Islamic belief that all humans are born Muslim and by their environments are turned away from Islam. Thus reversion would imply returning to a natural state of being, which is Islam.
Regardless of what Latino Muslims experience in terms of a convergence between their religious and ethnic identities, a strain is felt in most Latino Muslims’ lives when it comes to their families and immediate communities, who see the embracement of Islam as an abandonment of Latino culture. Most published testimonies of Latino Muslim converts address this issues as one that permeates their day-to-day functioning as Muslims. Some of the aforementioned community organizations go to the length of publishing materials designed specifically to help new converts deal with questions family members pose.
The process by which Latino Muslims identify with pre-Columbian Islamic Spain is fairly similar to the way in which many African American Muslims have identified with the role of Islam in African history. In fact, many Latino Muslims have been drawn to Islam by way of the African American Muslim experience and its cultural outpour. The high visibility of African American Muslims throughout inner cities across the United States has made many Latinos familiar with Islam. Organizations like the Nation of Islam have stressed the applicability of Islam to the needs of ethnic communities in America, whether or not this type of rhetoric is a motivating force behind conversion is subject to debate. Nonetheless, it would be difficult to deny the fact that African American conversion to Islam has set the tone for other communities of Islamic conversion in America.
Religious conversion in and of itself is a highly complex and opaque phenomenon. At this point, due to the lack of any comprehensive data we can only make assumptions as to the reasons for conversion to Islam amongst Latinos. It seems that the newly forming community is so multidimensional that to assess outright conclusions at this point would be impossible. One thing that is for certain is that the Latino Muslim community of the United States has effectively built a niche in the larger spectrum of the American Muslim population, adding to the plurality and diversity of religious life in the United States.
Questions for Further Inquiry
Future research that aims at understanding the significance of the rising role of Islam amongst Latinos in the United States needs to be placed along a comprehensive matrix that allows for the analysis of a number of variables simultaneously. Some of the factors that need attention include the religious tone of the Latino community, the role of Latinos in the United States, the location of Islam in American civic life, the relationships between immigrant Muslim communities and Latinos, along with a host of other concerns. I briefly present a few directions for possible future research.
As alluded to before the presence of African American Muslims in major metropolitan areas has, in various ways, contributed to the rise of Latino Muslim conversion. Islam’s visible presence in the black community dates back to the early years of the 20th century and has grown exponentially since. Today the African American Muslim community is extremely diverse in its makeup, which has produced multiple layers of cultural contribution to American society by way of religious orientation. Furthermore, because most Latinos live in metropolitan centers and thus share the same space as many African American Muslims, it is safe to say that Latino Muslims have been influenced whether, directly or indirectly by the African American Muslim community. Researching the correlation between African American Muslim cultural visibility and contribution and its effect on Latinos who convert to Islam may require more than survey questions and interviews. An ethnographic assessment of Islam as it is portrayed in inner city life may produce the information we need to examine the larger implications of Latino conversion to Islam. We may soon be in a position to ask whether or not there exists an identifiable indigenous American Muslim culture, that is, a culture of Muslims in America that is a product of conversion and not immigration.
The fact that Latinos and African Americans are converting to Islam tempts the question of race and ethnicity in America. Why is it that segments of these two historically disenfranchised communities have found meaning in the religion of Islam? Does Islam provide something unique to these communities that they have not found in other religions? Many testimonies of both African American and Latino American Muslims address the way in which the structure of Islamic belief systems serve to combat deteriorating social conditions in both communities, such as drug/alcohol abuse, gang and domestic violence, the decline of traditional family settings, and so forth.
It is also interesting to note that at a time when Islam is dubbed in public discourse a hateful, dangerous and violent religion, conversion rates increase. What might explain this phenomenon? Can it be related to the different ways different communities perceive Islam? If so, what are the contours of these differences? Furthermore, it seems that there is a tendency to emphasize religious identity above cultural and ethnic identity in most Muslim communities, how might this factor into the lived experiences of community members, who have to occupy the Latino and Islamic worlds simultaneously? Are communities forging new identities or manipulating new ones? It is also necessary, no matter how fascinated we are with the idea of Latino Muslims, to ask why there are dozens of millions of Latinos who have chosen not to convert to Islam, and perhaps the thousands that were interested but decided not to? Opening a discourse on Latino Muslims in the United States can be a fruitful endeavor and should be considered.
The simultaneous presence of Islam in the national consciousness of the American public and its rapid growth among various groups in the United States raises an interesting set of questions. To treat the phenomenon of Latino Muslim conversion laxly would be a mistake. Roughly a half century ago there existed a group of ‘so-called’ African American Muslims. Leading opinions of the time considered the movement to be temporal one based off of the charisma of various leaders. However, today there are over an estimated 4 million African American Muslims in America. The empirical trend leads us to question the potential future of the current 40,000 Latino Muslims. If trends continue the landscape of American society in just few decades may look dramatically different. The study of Latino Muslims as a component in the Muslim American landscape may yield insights, not only in related academic fields, but also into the uncertain yet impending future of American society.
Prepared by Student Researcher Abbas Barzegar
Updated on November 16, 2003
Preface
This article has previously appeared in the High Plains Society for Applied Anthropologists Fall 2003 Journal. With the consent of the publishers, it is reprinted here. Please forward any comments, questions or feedback to the author at abbas.barzegar@colorado.edu.
Introduction
In recent years, discussion on the role of Islam in American society as portrayed in mainstream discourse, has been mostly associated with the ‘war on terrorism’, and, as such has been concerned with political conflicts abroad and the threat of international terrorism. In doing so however, the rise of Islam as a means of religious conversion in the United States has been downplayed if not completely ignored. One of the most surprising findings are statistics such as those presented by national Islamic organizations which evidence increased conversion rates after September 11, 2001. And yet even more interesting is the presence of tens of thousands of Latino Americans who have chosen Islam as faith. This essay introduces the rising phenomenon of Latino conversion to Islam in the United States.
Current figures approximate the number of Latino Muslims in the United States to be as low as 25,000 and as high as 75,000. While the growth of Latino Muslims is a steadily increasing phenomenon, little to no information exists in an analytic fashion that helps to explain the new religious community. However, the dozens of journalists that have covered the phenomenon in their local communities has enabled its increased visibility, which has now reached national and international news outlets. This article introduces the growing Latino Muslim community of the United States by outlining different trends and concerns taking place within the group. The article provides an introduction to Islam as a faith and ends with commentary concerning the possible future study of the subject.
Islam and Muslims
Islam is a strictly monotheistic faith with theological and historical roots in the Abrahamic religious tradition. As such, Islam shares belief with Judaism and Christianity in the Torah or the Old Testament, and naturally, the majority of its mythologies and prophetic figures. Elements of the New Testament are also shared as religious references to Muslims. As a religious movement, Islam began in the 6th/7th centuries under the guidance of the Prophet Muhammad, who Muslims hold as the last in a long series of messengers sent by God to the world with the purpose of calling humanity to His worship.
Islam in a broad sense, inclusive of its various subsets, is characterized by a strict sense of monotheism which aims at providing a complete system of life as inspired by God and conveyed to mankind through the life and activities of Muhammad. Ritualistically, Islam is marked by the so-called 5 pillars, which characterize the lifestyle of its adherents. The pillars include: 1) the Testimony of faith wherein Muslims proclaim the oneness of God and the authority of Muhammad as His Messenger, 2) the Ritual Prayer which is to occur 5 times daily at specified times, 3) the Annual Fast wherein believers abstain from food and drink during the daylight hours for the period of one month, 4) the Almsgiving, which serves as a type of yearly charity incumbent upon all believers who possess the means, and 5) the Pilgrimage which demands that Muslims make a journey to the holy-city of Mecca, again, for those who possess the means. Further staples of the faith include the prohibition of alcohol, pork, and pre-marital sex.
Islam as a historical phenomenon had a civilization peak during the same period that marked the Dark Ages of Europe. Prominent centers of learning included Baghdad, Cairo and Toledo where major advances in the arts and sciences were accomplished which then were transmitted across surrounding cultures. Today’s Muslim population around the world reaches a total of nearly 1.2 billion, the majority subscribing to the orthodox Sunni branch while a powerful minority, most present in Iran, subscribes to the Shiite branch. Another manifestation of Islam is Sufism, a popular brand of religious orientation in Islam that stresses the gnostic or mystical dimensions of religious life.
Heuristically, the study of Muslims is a fairly easy task due to the monotheistic and holistic dimensions of Islam. Conventional definitions of religion apply to Islam such as the one promoted by Clifford Geertz, which considers religion to be a system of worldview maintenance and development. Muslim thinkers, such as 20th century Sayyid Qutb, consider religion to be a system of life governance or a manhaj rabani, divine program. In terms of experience a Muslim’s faith might be characterized by Charles Long definition of religious experience as an all-encompassing orientation that locates the individual within local, macro and universal environments. While the religious dimensions of Muslim life are fairly straightforward the lived experiences of Muslims, like all other peoples, is more complicated due to the interplay between culture, religion and social environment.
Latino Muslims in the United States
In discussing the phenomenon of Latino Muslims in the United States, one risks falling into the trap of identifying a homogenous Latino culture or identity. To attempt to bundle together over a dozen distinct national and ethnic identities whose geographic region spreads over thousands of miles is as impossible as it is irresponsible. And, in terms of religious homogeneity, the Latino community is by no means a singular entity. Nonetheless, a few broad generalizations about the Latino world are in order.
The 2000 Census documents the presence of nearly 33 million Latinos in the United States. The term Latino is inclusive of all ethnic and national peoples from the Spanish and Portuguese speaking worlds. Most Latinos come from a Catholic religious heritage, however, regardless of whether or not one is active in the religion there usually exists a high amount of religiosity in the community. Other religious communities include various Protestant denominations (whose numbers are increasing) and a small number of Jews. While most Latinos in the United States identify immediately with their respective ethnic or national communities, e.g. Mexican American or Cuban, a broad historical attachment to Spain is reflected in the language, religion and historical consciousness of their respective cultures.
Currently, estimates conducted by national Islamic organizations such as the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) approximate the number of Latino Muslims in America to be roughly 40,000, with some estimates reaching as high as 75,000 and as low as 20,000. The largest communities of Latino Muslims exist in areas, which unsurprisingly, have the highest concentrations of Latinos. As such, Latino Muslim communities are most visible in large metropolitan areas such as New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and other urban centers. Individuals in the developing community often express their newfound faith through non-profit community organizations that are dedicated toward providing Islamic services to the Latino community.
Organizations such as Latino American Dawah Organization (LADO) based in New York with chapters growing across the country provide information about Islam in Spanish to those seeking it. They also maintain an active web-site, which publishes a monthly newsletter that reflects the tones and currents of the new community. Other organizations such as PIEDAD, (Progagacion Islamic para la Educacion e la Devocion a Ala’ el Divino) concentrate their efforts on reaching the female component of the Latino community. LALAMA (Los Angeles Latino Muslims Association) began as a Spanish speaking Islamic study group at the Islamic Center of Southern California. The high demand and popularity of the group’s activities led the informal study group to formalize into a visible and service providing community organization. Similar organizations have begun to appear in Houston, Chicago and other metropolitan areas.
Perhaps the most well established Latino Muslim organization, Alianza Islamica was founded in East Harlem and now resides in the Bronx. Allianza was established in 1975 by a group of Puerto Rican Muslim converts who found in Islam the principles of universal brotherhood and equality that were so prominent in the civil rights activities of the era. Ibrahim Gonzales, one of the founders of the Alianza Mosque says, “we didn’t want to give up the struggle, so we looked to different places. Islam represented a place for us to be part of a larger community. When we realized that within Islam there was every spectrum of people, regardless of class, regardless of race, we were attracted to that universal principle of human interaction and communion with the divine (NY Times, 1/2/02).” Alianza provides services to its surrounding community including AIDS awareness campaigns, education services and religious activities.
As of yet there has been no wide spread and detailed study of the Latino Muslim population in the United States. An initial investigation conducted by Samantha Sanchez, one of the founders of LADO and graduate student in Cultural Anthropology at New School University, offers insight into the newfound community. Her study reports that the majority of Latino converts to Islam were pursuing a spiritual path and then encountered Islam through outreach activities of organizations such as those described above and other Islamic organizations or individuals. Her study also finds in contrast to popular opinion that the majority of converts are college-educated women between the ages of 20 and 30. Sanchez finds that the most attractive part of Islam to spirituality seeking Latinos is its strict monotheistic orientation and structured belief system. Sanchez also finds that a large number of female conversions occur due to marriage with Middle Eastern Muslim men. Further research is also being conducted in part by the Muslims in New York City Project of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University. Findings from the project suggest that the presence of Latino Muslims in American cities is a phenomenon connected to a much larger matrix of social, political and cultural factors.
One salient finding is the tendency for Latino Muslims to place a high emphasis on the historical connection between Latino culture and Islam. This largely unknown marriage is a product of the eight hundred year long presence of Islamic culture and civilization in Spain. During this period of Islamic history, some of the most profound advances in science, culture, architecture and philosophy were accomplished in centers of learning that included Christians, Muslims, and Jews. In fact, many of the developments of renaissance and enlightenment Europe can be attributed to the discoveries Muslims in Spain. Many Latino Muslims find solace in the fact that their newfound religion also shares with them a historical and ethnic connection. Accordingly, many of the organizations mentioned above provide information on this lesser well-known part of Spanish history. Latino Muslims are often quick to point out the existence of hundreds, if not thousands, of Spanish words with Arabic origins and meanings. This may explain why many Latino Muslims prefer the term reversion rather than conversion to describe their experiences. However, this could also be explained by the Islamic belief that all humans are born Muslim and by their environments are turned away from Islam. Thus reversion would imply returning to a natural state of being, which is Islam.
Regardless of what Latino Muslims experience in terms of a convergence between their religious and ethnic identities, a strain is felt in most Latino Muslims’ lives when it comes to their families and immediate communities, who see the embracement of Islam as an abandonment of Latino culture. Most published testimonies of Latino Muslim converts address this issues as one that permeates their day-to-day functioning as Muslims. Some of the aforementioned community organizations go to the length of publishing materials designed specifically to help new converts deal with questions family members pose.
The process by which Latino Muslims identify with pre-Columbian Islamic Spain is fairly similar to the way in which many African American Muslims have identified with the role of Islam in African history. In fact, many Latino Muslims have been drawn to Islam by way of the African American Muslim experience and its cultural outpour. The high visibility of African American Muslims throughout inner cities across the United States has made many Latinos familiar with Islam. Organizations like the Nation of Islam have stressed the applicability of Islam to the needs of ethnic communities in America, whether or not this type of rhetoric is a motivating force behind conversion is subject to debate. Nonetheless, it would be difficult to deny the fact that African American conversion to Islam has set the tone for other communities of Islamic conversion in America.
Religious conversion in and of itself is a highly complex and opaque phenomenon. At this point, due to the lack of any comprehensive data we can only make assumptions as to the reasons for conversion to Islam amongst Latinos. It seems that the newly forming community is so multidimensional that to assess outright conclusions at this point would be impossible. One thing that is for certain is that the Latino Muslim community of the United States has effectively built a niche in the larger spectrum of the American Muslim population, adding to the plurality and diversity of religious life in the United States.
Questions for Further Inquiry
Future research that aims at understanding the significance of the rising role of Islam amongst Latinos in the United States needs to be placed along a comprehensive matrix that allows for the analysis of a number of variables simultaneously. Some of the factors that need attention include the religious tone of the Latino community, the role of Latinos in the United States, the location of Islam in American civic life, the relationships between immigrant Muslim communities and Latinos, along with a host of other concerns. I briefly present a few directions for possible future research.
As alluded to before the presence of African American Muslims in major metropolitan areas has, in various ways, contributed to the rise of Latino Muslim conversion. Islam’s visible presence in the black community dates back to the early years of the 20th century and has grown exponentially since. Today the African American Muslim community is extremely diverse in its makeup, which has produced multiple layers of cultural contribution to American society by way of religious orientation. Furthermore, because most Latinos live in metropolitan centers and thus share the same space as many African American Muslims, it is safe to say that Latino Muslims have been influenced whether, directly or indirectly by the African American Muslim community. Researching the correlation between African American Muslim cultural visibility and contribution and its effect on Latinos who convert to Islam may require more than survey questions and interviews. An ethnographic assessment of Islam as it is portrayed in inner city life may produce the information we need to examine the larger implications of Latino conversion to Islam. We may soon be in a position to ask whether or not there exists an identifiable indigenous American Muslim culture, that is, a culture of Muslims in America that is a product of conversion and not immigration.
The fact that Latinos and African Americans are converting to Islam tempts the question of race and ethnicity in America. Why is it that segments of these two historically disenfranchised communities have found meaning in the religion of Islam? Does Islam provide something unique to these communities that they have not found in other religions? Many testimonies of both African American and Latino American Muslims address the way in which the structure of Islamic belief systems serve to combat deteriorating social conditions in both communities, such as drug/alcohol abuse, gang and domestic violence, the decline of traditional family settings, and so forth.
It is also interesting to note that at a time when Islam is dubbed in public discourse a hateful, dangerous and violent religion, conversion rates increase. What might explain this phenomenon? Can it be related to the different ways different communities perceive Islam? If so, what are the contours of these differences? Furthermore, it seems that there is a tendency to emphasize religious identity above cultural and ethnic identity in most Muslim communities, how might this factor into the lived experiences of community members, who have to occupy the Latino and Islamic worlds simultaneously? Are communities forging new identities or manipulating new ones? It is also necessary, no matter how fascinated we are with the idea of Latino Muslims, to ask why there are dozens of millions of Latinos who have chosen not to convert to Islam, and perhaps the thousands that were interested but decided not to? Opening a discourse on Latino Muslims in the United States can be a fruitful endeavor and should be considered.
The simultaneous presence of Islam in the national consciousness of the American public and its rapid growth among various groups in the United States raises an interesting set of questions. To treat the phenomenon of Latino Muslim conversion laxly would be a mistake. Roughly a half century ago there existed a group of ‘so-called’ African American Muslims. Leading opinions of the time considered the movement to be temporal one based off of the charisma of various leaders. However, today there are over an estimated 4 million African American Muslims in America. The empirical trend leads us to question the potential future of the current 40,000 Latino Muslims. If trends continue the landscape of American society in just few decades may look dramatically different. The study of Latino Muslims as a component in the Muslim American landscape may yield insights, not only in related academic fields, but also into the uncertain yet impending future of American society.
Prepared by Student Researcher Abbas Barzegar
Updated on November 16, 2003
Building Abrahamic Partnerships (DI-650)
Building Abrahamic Partnerships (DI-650)
Winter/Spring 2006
This eight-day intensive training program offers a practical foundation for mutual understanding and cooperation among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Participants learn about the tenets and practices of the three faiths, study texts from their respective scriptures together, attend worship at a mosque, synagogue, and church, and acquire pastoral skills useful in interfaith ministry. Combining the academic and the experiential, the course includes ample time for socializing over meals and during breaks. Building on Hartford Seminary’s strengths as an interfaith, dialogical school of practical theology, this team-taught program is a resource for religious leaders who are grounded in their own traditions while open to the faith orientations of other communities.
Hartford Seminary 77 Sherman Street Hartford, CT 06105 860-509-9500 info@hartsem.edu
As I always sats we are not mixing religions or making new religions but we need to:
1- Debate religions politely.
2- Forget about our geopolitical anger when we discuss religion.
3- No compulsion in religion.
4- However ot convert to another religion you have to do it very scintificaly. Debate, doubt, criticize and if very convinced convert.
5- Muslim advise you to submit to Islma even with no faith to Islam as a very last resort since submitting even with a little faith and good deeds quite possibly win you the great eternity and save you from hell fire. Even if it is like a bet I would bet on the thing that if does not make me win does not make loose.
6- If people kept their religions we can at least live in understanding and have peaceful coexistance. As well we use the basic human values of our relgions insetad of relgious animosity, hate and wars.
Winter/Spring 2006
This eight-day intensive training program offers a practical foundation for mutual understanding and cooperation among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Participants learn about the tenets and practices of the three faiths, study texts from their respective scriptures together, attend worship at a mosque, synagogue, and church, and acquire pastoral skills useful in interfaith ministry. Combining the academic and the experiential, the course includes ample time for socializing over meals and during breaks. Building on Hartford Seminary’s strengths as an interfaith, dialogical school of practical theology, this team-taught program is a resource for religious leaders who are grounded in their own traditions while open to the faith orientations of other communities.
Hartford Seminary 77 Sherman Street Hartford, CT 06105 860-509-9500 info@hartsem.edu
As I always sats we are not mixing religions or making new religions but we need to:
1- Debate religions politely.
2- Forget about our geopolitical anger when we discuss religion.
3- No compulsion in religion.
4- However ot convert to another religion you have to do it very scintificaly. Debate, doubt, criticize and if very convinced convert.
5- Muslim advise you to submit to Islma even with no faith to Islam as a very last resort since submitting even with a little faith and good deeds quite possibly win you the great eternity and save you from hell fire. Even if it is like a bet I would bet on the thing that if does not make me win does not make loose.
6- If people kept their religions we can at least live in understanding and have peaceful coexistance. As well we use the basic human values of our relgions insetad of relgious animosity, hate and wars.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
How Muslims Should Argue With The People Of The Book.
When we argue with the people of the book (Christians and Jews) and even with anyone about religion we should use this simple plan:
1- We argue in the best way. Our geopolitical anger should not have anything to do with discussing religions.
2- We could be born Muslims or non-Muslims. Changing belief is not easy. We should let them know that very well. Use the word God not Allah since it has the impression of a different God and not the same of Abraham.
3- That is why we should leave some doubt that we may be wrong as Muslims. We even try to let them help us what Muhammad could be. They will say something agree but tell them however the argument against that is that. Make it more about logistics and finding the truth than proving that you are right.
4- I would use the word Quran is the most accurate for scientific reasons. As Muslims we do not say the Bible is corrupt or has corruption but we can say scientifically and historically Quran is the most accurate.
5- We have to accept every bad thing they will say about Islam and the contradictions in Quran as potential facts until we can disprove that to them.
6- We try to get them the best answer and if we do not know refer them to the right people.
7- The most accurate interpretation of the Quran would be from God. By definition our even best interpretation should be understood to them and us to be less than 100% accurate in some verses.
5- We should resist the temptation of criticizing them or putting them down. We should carefully pick the sentences that make our point and meanwhile make them keep their dignity and pride.
6- We should know the difference between what God says in the Quran to the people of the book and what we should say to them. God does not do politics. It is our job as Muslims to do the politics.
7- Our desire to convert people to Islam does not stem from our desire for domination but for the love of Islam and their own good.
8- Guidance is from God. You would never convert anyone to Islam unless God wants to.
9- If they would not accept Islam and are not convinced we are to keep our obligations to them as our brothers in humanity provided they do the same.
10- Religiously and geopolitically we are not in war against anyone unless he proved with his actions that he is on war with us. Even for our worst enemies they can change to be our friends any time.
1- We argue in the best way. Our geopolitical anger should not have anything to do with discussing religions.
2- We could be born Muslims or non-Muslims. Changing belief is not easy. We should let them know that very well. Use the word God not Allah since it has the impression of a different God and not the same of Abraham.
3- That is why we should leave some doubt that we may be wrong as Muslims. We even try to let them help us what Muhammad could be. They will say something agree but tell them however the argument against that is that. Make it more about logistics and finding the truth than proving that you are right.
4- I would use the word Quran is the most accurate for scientific reasons. As Muslims we do not say the Bible is corrupt or has corruption but we can say scientifically and historically Quran is the most accurate.
5- We have to accept every bad thing they will say about Islam and the contradictions in Quran as potential facts until we can disprove that to them.
6- We try to get them the best answer and if we do not know refer them to the right people.
7- The most accurate interpretation of the Quran would be from God. By definition our even best interpretation should be understood to them and us to be less than 100% accurate in some verses.
5- We should resist the temptation of criticizing them or putting them down. We should carefully pick the sentences that make our point and meanwhile make them keep their dignity and pride.
6- We should know the difference between what God says in the Quran to the people of the book and what we should say to them. God does not do politics. It is our job as Muslims to do the politics.
7- Our desire to convert people to Islam does not stem from our desire for domination but for the love of Islam and their own good.
8- Guidance is from God. You would never convert anyone to Islam unless God wants to.
9- If they would not accept Islam and are not convinced we are to keep our obligations to them as our brothers in humanity provided they do the same.
10- Religiously and geopolitically we are not in war against anyone unless he proved with his actions that he is on war with us. Even for our worst enemies they can change to be our friends any time.
Why should I be a Muslim?
By: Maged Taman
Though Islam believe in the freedom to worship. There is a lot of reasons that attract you to Islam:
1- It is the last message from God. I think anyone of us will like to be up to date particularly when it comes to God.
2- Islam like Christianity shares almost the same teachings. Jesus is a great prophet. Read in my blog who is Jesus. I fairly red most of the Gospels. It will be fair for Christians to read some chapters of the Quran. At least we get to understand better the two religions. No compulsion in faith and Islam is against any injustice including religious discrimination.
3- Islam is a moderate religion, ultraconservative is by choice. Some people wants to live the same life as the messenger and they can do it. But Islam in general is avoiding the major sins (ten commandants) and the peaceful coexistence with other religions. A lot of regular enjoyments in life goes the same.
4- With respect to some religions that give you morality and spirituality Islam is the continuation of Judaism and Christianity. There is no guarantee that non-Muslims would enjoy God promise of heavenly eternity as Muslims. Non Muslims are not destined to go to hell but the issue is quite complicated it is discussed in my blog: Contradictions in the Quran: are Christians and Jews will go to Hell?
5- Islam is for all people in the world. Political Islam is much easier than what people think or fear. All people in the same country regardless of their religion or ethnicity have the right to consult together in the issues of their countries and find a justly coexistence. Islamic imperialism is never a goal. The goal is to make the coexistence with others based in the values of humanity. Big alliances serve a lot of functions to humans. You can make a good bargain to end poverty, discrimination, oppression and injustices inside the alliance. You can make better cooperation with big alliances of the resources of energy and how to make the living conditions of all people in the earth better. China and Russia for example will be happy to take care of the poverty and the disturbance in the Middle East provided you become transparent and you make your policies clear.
6- As a Muslim you enjoy the spirituality of Islam and the assurance of eternal happiness.
7- As a Muslim you get red of all the social diseases of the western civilization like stress, dysfunctional families and drug problems.
8- As a Muslim you find a good supportive Muslims around you to help you understand the religion. Non-Muslims should not feel threatened by increase number of Muslims. A second in line to Muslims is to have more religious Christians, Jews....
9- There is no middle man. The Imam may open your eyes to the way to God. But there is no one between you and God. It is one on one relation.
10- When you know God well in Islam you find that a lot of emptiness in our lives, blurred vision of the universe, wandering in our way in life and disturbed thoughts are replaced by fullness of heart, good understanding of life and defined goal to our existence. You find that you are in a journey to make your life as God wanted it to be and you win him for your eternity. You need your heart and mind to understand that. With no mind it is difficult to continue to convince yourself all time of the truth and with a hard heart that resistant to God you go no where. Thus always understands well the logic of Islam (the creed) and open your heart to the God of Islam he is the God of Abraham who created Adam. His most accurately revealed himself to us in the Quran. Hearts get rusty and praying and praising him all time soften your heart to his love.
11- If I become a Muslim should it affects may relation with my family who may have different religion?. It should not, if anything they will find you a better person, since a good Muslim fears God and respects him all time that he would not do any injustice to others particularly to his family.
12- I went through the Quran and I am not convinced. No hard feelings stick to the moral of your religion and give it a shot another time.
Though Islam believe in the freedom to worship. There is a lot of reasons that attract you to Islam:
1- It is the last message from God. I think anyone of us will like to be up to date particularly when it comes to God.
2- Islam like Christianity shares almost the same teachings. Jesus is a great prophet. Read in my blog who is Jesus. I fairly red most of the Gospels. It will be fair for Christians to read some chapters of the Quran. At least we get to understand better the two religions. No compulsion in faith and Islam is against any injustice including religious discrimination.
3- Islam is a moderate religion, ultraconservative is by choice. Some people wants to live the same life as the messenger and they can do it. But Islam in general is avoiding the major sins (ten commandants) and the peaceful coexistence with other religions. A lot of regular enjoyments in life goes the same.
4- With respect to some religions that give you morality and spirituality Islam is the continuation of Judaism and Christianity. There is no guarantee that non-Muslims would enjoy God promise of heavenly eternity as Muslims. Non Muslims are not destined to go to hell but the issue is quite complicated it is discussed in my blog: Contradictions in the Quran: are Christians and Jews will go to Hell?
5- Islam is for all people in the world. Political Islam is much easier than what people think or fear. All people in the same country regardless of their religion or ethnicity have the right to consult together in the issues of their countries and find a justly coexistence. Islamic imperialism is never a goal. The goal is to make the coexistence with others based in the values of humanity. Big alliances serve a lot of functions to humans. You can make a good bargain to end poverty, discrimination, oppression and injustices inside the alliance. You can make better cooperation with big alliances of the resources of energy and how to make the living conditions of all people in the earth better. China and Russia for example will be happy to take care of the poverty and the disturbance in the Middle East provided you become transparent and you make your policies clear.
6- As a Muslim you enjoy the spirituality of Islam and the assurance of eternal happiness.
7- As a Muslim you get red of all the social diseases of the western civilization like stress, dysfunctional families and drug problems.
8- As a Muslim you find a good supportive Muslims around you to help you understand the religion. Non-Muslims should not feel threatened by increase number of Muslims. A second in line to Muslims is to have more religious Christians, Jews....
9- There is no middle man. The Imam may open your eyes to the way to God. But there is no one between you and God. It is one on one relation.
10- When you know God well in Islam you find that a lot of emptiness in our lives, blurred vision of the universe, wandering in our way in life and disturbed thoughts are replaced by fullness of heart, good understanding of life and defined goal to our existence. You find that you are in a journey to make your life as God wanted it to be and you win him for your eternity. You need your heart and mind to understand that. With no mind it is difficult to continue to convince yourself all time of the truth and with a hard heart that resistant to God you go no where. Thus always understands well the logic of Islam (the creed) and open your heart to the God of Islam he is the God of Abraham who created Adam. His most accurately revealed himself to us in the Quran. Hearts get rusty and praying and praising him all time soften your heart to his love.
11- If I become a Muslim should it affects may relation with my family who may have different religion?. It should not, if anything they will find you a better person, since a good Muslim fears God and respects him all time that he would not do any injustice to others particularly to his family.
12- I went through the Quran and I am not convinced. No hard feelings stick to the moral of your religion and give it a shot another time.
The Gospel of Jesus : by James M. Robinson
The Gospel of Jesus : by James M. Robinson
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Like many others throughout history, Robinson thinks he knows what Jesus really preached. But considering his credentials, he just may have a good head start. The former director of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, he was the intimately involved in making the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Gnostic gospels became part of the public discourse. He also organized the Internal Q Project that reconstructs the original sayings of Jesus, and it is this analysis in particular that has helped shaped his thesis. According to Robinson, Jesus' original gospel is now obscured by the canonized literature. The message is intense and simple: trust God to look out for you by providing people who will care for you, and listen to him when he calls on you to provide for them. It is a "radical trust in and responsiveness to God" that can make society function as God's kingdom. Much of the important writing takes place in the first couple of chapters, while later chapters (including the complete Q sayings) bolster his theses. Although overly fond of exclamation points, Robinson adds a valuable addition to the Jesus cannon. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
We all know the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but what was the gospel of Jesus? That is, what was the original "good news" the first disciples heard from Jesus? What did Jesus really say that started the dramatic movement in Galilee that grew to become the largest religion in the world?
Jesus's original gospel has been lost from sight, hidden behind the version preferred by the church. We have put him on a pedestal, rather than walked in his footsteps. In The Gospel of Jesus, James M. Robinson, the preeminent expert on the earliest sources of information about Jesus, provides the primary texts in all their unvarnished honesty to get to the true historical message of Jesus -- what Robinson calls "a brittle, upsetting, comforting, challenging gospel." The Gospel of Jesus draws on a combination of the most ancient and authentic texts to reveal what Jesus really said and to illuminate what he may still have to say to us today.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Like many others throughout history, Robinson thinks he knows what Jesus really preached. But considering his credentials, he just may have a good head start. The former director of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, he was the intimately involved in making the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Gnostic gospels became part of the public discourse. He also organized the Internal Q Project that reconstructs the original sayings of Jesus, and it is this analysis in particular that has helped shaped his thesis. According to Robinson, Jesus' original gospel is now obscured by the canonized literature. The message is intense and simple: trust God to look out for you by providing people who will care for you, and listen to him when he calls on you to provide for them. It is a "radical trust in and responsiveness to God" that can make society function as God's kingdom. Much of the important writing takes place in the first couple of chapters, while later chapters (including the complete Q sayings) bolster his theses. Although overly fond of exclamation points, Robinson adds a valuable addition to the Jesus cannon. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
We all know the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but what was the gospel of Jesus? That is, what was the original "good news" the first disciples heard from Jesus? What did Jesus really say that started the dramatic movement in Galilee that grew to become the largest religion in the world?
Jesus's original gospel has been lost from sight, hidden behind the version preferred by the church. We have put him on a pedestal, rather than walked in his footsteps. In The Gospel of Jesus, James M. Robinson, the preeminent expert on the earliest sources of information about Jesus, provides the primary texts in all their unvarnished honesty to get to the true historical message of Jesus -- what Robinson calls "a brittle, upsetting, comforting, challenging gospel." The Gospel of Jesus draws on a combination of the most ancient and authentic texts to reveal what Jesus really said and to illuminate what he may still have to say to us today.
Islam is Totally Against Persecution.
If a Muslim persecuted a christian or any non-Muslim he is either an idiot, bulley or likely a combination of both. These are the reasons behind my points:
1- The main reason that people followed Islam or converted to Islam after their firm faith it is real is its humanistic nature. In Quran God says that " Do not cut short people's rights". He did not say Muslims, he said people. So all people and all their rights have to be protected.
2- There is no known case that Muhammad (PBUH) persecuted anyone for no reason. The people oppressed and killed Muslims they rightly fought them back. But for peaceful people Muhammad named the minority of people in a muslim country " The people in our protection". In Islam even money was given to non-Muslims and particularly poor non-Muslims.
3- Islam is a very civilized religion and survived all these years and took over a lot of religions because of its high values and Muslims themselves should be sure that no mean Muslims to harm Islam by persecuting non-Muslims.
4- A lot of Muslims consider non-Muslims as potential Musliums that we have to work to have people love Islam so they convert willingly to Islam. Even if they did not convert we did the right thing to our religion and to humanity.
1- The main reason that people followed Islam or converted to Islam after their firm faith it is real is its humanistic nature. In Quran God says that " Do not cut short people's rights". He did not say Muslims, he said people. So all people and all their rights have to be protected.
2- There is no known case that Muhammad (PBUH) persecuted anyone for no reason. The people oppressed and killed Muslims they rightly fought them back. But for peaceful people Muhammad named the minority of people in a muslim country " The people in our protection". In Islam even money was given to non-Muslims and particularly poor non-Muslims.
3- Islam is a very civilized religion and survived all these years and took over a lot of religions because of its high values and Muslims themselves should be sure that no mean Muslims to harm Islam by persecuting non-Muslims.
4- A lot of Muslims consider non-Muslims as potential Musliums that we have to work to have people love Islam so they convert willingly to Islam. Even if they did not convert we did the right thing to our religion and to humanity.
Truth about Jesus Steven Johnson (Farukh Abdallah)
Bismillahi r-Rahmani r-Rahim Assalamu aleikum I am going to talk about the truth about Jesus (peace be upon him!).
In the first part of the lecture I would like to consider some of the so-called Christian evidence for the Divinity of Jesus and with the short response to what I consider the best evidence that the Christians would have and then to conclude with what Islam has to say about Jesus, insha Allah.
So first let us consider some of the best Christian so-called evidence for the Divinity of Jesus.
Of course one body of evidence that Christians have historically pointed to was evidence that Jesus (peace be upon him!) is God are the miracles of Jesus.
For example, they like to point to the virgin birth of Jesus. But it is the fact that Jesus had the human mother, but no father.
But of course for centuries the Jews and more recently the Muslims have counted that evidence by reminding the Christians that Adam had neither the mother of the father, and yet of course Christians never claim that Adam is Divine.
The physical state of affairs of a virgin birth as miraculous as it is not proof of Divinity.
For example, we read in the New Testatment that Hebrews (chapter 7, verse 3). It says that "without father, mother or ancestry, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains the priest for ever".
It´s a very interesting verse, because that verse is not describing Jesus (peace be upon him!), rather if taken literally, as Christians take other verses in the Bible, it says that Melchizedek - an Old Testament figure - was without a father, without a mother, and that he is eternal.
So, using Christian logic, wouldn´t Melchizedek be God? And yet, no Christian says that Melchizedek is God. More often Christians would suggest, that since Jesus (peace be upon him!) had the power to cure the sick or even to raise the dead - that he must be God, because only God has power over life and death.
But the Bible itself demonstrates that claim is not logically founded.
For example, in the New Testament in the book of Acts (chapter 5, verse 15) we discover that families would bring their sick out into the street, so that the shadow of St.Peter could cast upon the sick people, and it says when the shadow of St.Peter was cast upon them - that they were cured.
Supposedly the mere shadow of Peter had the power to cure the sick.
In Acts (chapter 14, verse 10), Paul says to a crippled man: "Stand up upon your feet. And the man was cured".
And Paul did not mention the name of Jesus (peace be upon him!) in order to cure the man.
In Acts (chapter 9, verse 40) St. Peter raises Tabitha from the dead. And he did not mention the name of Jesus in order to raise Tabitha from the dead.
Of course Christians claim and they should claim if they are good Christians, that the apostles receive power for these miracles from Jesus.
But it is not understandable why they stop there, why do they not say that Jesus (peace be upon him!) receives his power from God.
For example, when we read John (chapter 5, verse 30 and chapter 6, verse 38). It says that Jesus was supposed to have said: "I can do nothing on my own initiative.
As I hear, I judge. And my judgement is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of Him who sent me".
So if Jesus, (peace be upon him!) cures it is because it is the will of the One who sent him. Because Jesus by his own admission can do nothing on his own initiative.
Clearly the will of Jesus (peace be upon him!) is subordinated to the will of God, which is inconsistent with any claim that Jesus is equal to the Father.
St.Paul himself subordinated Christ to God the Father in authority.
In his letter to the Corinthians I (chapter 11, verse 3) Paul says that Christ is the head of every man and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.
Another typical verse of Paul is Corinthians I (chapter 15, verse 25). It says: "And when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to him. That God may be all in all".
We also learn in the letter to Phillipians (chapter 2, verse 9) that God has highly exalted Jesus.
So if Jesus is subject to God and relies upon God to exalt him, then Jesus cannot be God, unless there are levels of being God.
At most Jesus could be aimed lower God and not equal to the Father.
But elsewhere in the Bible Jesus himself blatantly denies any kind of equality with God. For example, in the Gospel of John (chapter 14, verse 28) he says, "I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am".
In what sense can the Father be greater than Jesus ?
Christians view Jesus as perfect. Their line of argumentation is very simple. Since only God is perfect and Jesus is perfect, then Jesus must be God.
In logic we dismiss that kind of an argument, we say it is the fallacy of the undistributed middle term.
Let me give you an example of that, to show you how illogical it is. If I said that Begin is tired and Reigan is tired then I would have to conclude that Begin is Reigan.
So obviously it is an illogical kind of argument. It is the same kind of argument that we find there. You don´t even have to be a Major in logic to see that that is illogical.
If you look to the Bible itself in the famous sermon on the mount in Matthew (chapter 5, verse 48), Jesus supposedly commands us to "be ye therefore perfect, as your Father who is in Heaven is perfect".
Again Jesus of course was paraphrasing the Torah. We find those words in Leviticus (chapter 19, verse 2).
But by commanding us to be perfect, or holy as it is said in Leviticus, to Jesus and God it means to indicate that we all have the potential to be God.
Well of course no orthodox Christian would make such a claim. The fact is that if Jesus lived a perfect life, then he was a perfect man, but a perfect man is not God.
Jesus was simply following the commandment revealed by God to Moses.
But whatever Jesus´s perfection in the New Testament is, he is always characterised or described as lower or subordinate to God the Father. And that subordinate role is seen in the fact that Jesus himself viewed himself as a messenger.
In Matthew (chapter 10, verse 40), and in John (chapter 5, verse 36) Jesus says, "...he who receives you, receives me and he who receives me, receives Him who sent me". That´s a very important verse, when it is considered along with verse such as John (chapter 12, verse 44). That says, "But Jesus cried out and said "he who believes in me, does no believe in me, but in Him who sent me"
. Also in John (chapter 13, verse 16) it says, "A slave is not greater than his master, neither a messenger - greater than the One who sent the messenger".
So Jesus is admitting both that he is a messenger and that the messenger is not as great as the One who send a messenger. It is very very clear.
Consistently the Gospel writers viewed Jesus as a human messenger, one mediator between God and man. That is evident in I Timothy (chapter 2, verse 5). Where Paul writes, "For there is one God, and also one mediator between God and men - a man Christ Jesus".
That whole doctrine was of course taken from file of Alexander. I don´t have time to go into that but if you have questions about it later I can go into it. So, I think we can see that if in some biblical verses Jesus is described as perfect, we can see from other verses that his perfection is only a human perfection. The Bible itself does not attribute perfect knowledge to Jesus.
Jesus freely admitted that there were things that neither he nor the Angels knew, but that only God knew.
For example, talking about the day of judgement, Jesus says in the Gospel of Mark (chapter 13, verse 32). He says that "of that day or hour no one knows, neither the Angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but the Father".
And there is a very curious verse in Luke (chapter 2, verse 52), that makes the following statement about Jesus.
It said and Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and in physical growth and in favour with God and men. If Jesus is God, then we would expect him to share in the omniscience and the all-knowingness of God and the All-knowing God cannot increase in wisdom.
Or returning to the issue of perfection. If Jesus is perfect, and how could he increase in favour with God. A very dangerous thing happened in Christian theology, when the theologians attempted to attribute Divinity to Jesus.
Paradoxically, human qualities were attributed to God.
That is seen very clearly in a passage from Ditrich Barnhafer "Letters and papers from prison". Let me read it: "God is teaching us that we must live as men who can get along very well without him.
That we should be able to get along without God. The God who is with us is the God who forsakes us, the God who makes us live in this world. Without using him as a working hypothesis is the God before whom we are ever standing, before God and with Him we live without God.
God allows himself to be edged out of the world and onto the cross. God is weak and powerless in the world. And that is exactly the way, the only way in which he can be with us and help us".
Barharfer describes God as weak and powerless in the world, that he can be edged out of the world and nailed onto a cross. What a short step it is from describing God as weak and powerless in the world to some other words that are even worse
. Neichure wrote: "Where has God gone - he cried. I shall tell you. We have killed Him. You and I. We are all His murderers. God is dead. God remains dead and we have killed Him."
If Christians call Barnhafer and Neitsche silly then they should remember that for two centuries after the council of Carsidn, their Fathers and faith debated about whether God could suffer
. These debates and paradoxes continue only substantiating the old claim that anything can follow from a contradiction.
Once you say that God can become man, then anything can happen. Then God can be even called weak and powerless or God can even die, if God can become a man.
Many Christians claimed that the greatest single piece of evidence that Jesus is God is the empty tomb. The Resurrection of Jesus. In fact Paul says that if Jesus did not raise from the dead, the Christian faith is worthless.
That it is completely empty. But unfortunately for the Christian the only evidence for the Resurrection is found in the Bible; and those Resurrection stories, those Resurrection narratives are extremely inconsistent on the details of the event.
For example, try to use the biblical narratives to determine which of Jesus´s followers actually came to the tomb and found that the tomb is empty. In Matthew (chapter 28, verse 1) we learn that Mary Magdalene and another woman named Mary came to the tomb.
Whereas in Mark (chapter 16, verse 1) it says that Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome were present.
Whereas in Luke (24:10) it says that Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of Jesus and other women were present.
Finally in John (chapter 20, verse 1) - it suggests that Mary Magdalene was all alone at the tomb.
There is no consensus on who actually saw Jesus in the empty tomb, or who actually saw the empty tomb. And of course although Christians refer to the empty tomb they do not actually mean that the tomb is completely empty when the individuals went there. According to Christians there was an angelic presence at the tomb
However the Gospels of Mark and Luke differ on how many angels were actually present at the tomb.
Mark (16:5) has one young male angel in the tomb. Luke (24:4) has two male angels in the tomb.
Another question that fundamentalist Christians, that evangelical type often pose is who moved the stone (as if this is a terribly important question).
I must confess that even as a Christian I couldn´t envision a more irrelevant question.
First, what difference does it make who moved the stone. Just give him a name - Bernish Warts.
What difference does it make?
What does it prove?
The issue was not who moved the stone, but whether the Bible is free from inconsistencies, such that it is even possible to determine the answer to that question.
In fact, the Bible equivocates on who moved the stone. In Matthew (28:2) one reads that when Mary Magdalene and Mary arrived at the tomb, an angel approached, rolled the stone away and then sat upon the stone.
In Mark (16:4) and in Luke (24:2) one discovers that when the women arrived at the tomb, the stone was already moved. Another very interesting question is where was Jesus before the empty tomb was being visited. Supposedly at some point to be for Easter, Jesus ascended into Heaven, because in Luke (23:43) he promises the thief on the cross that the thief would be with Jesus that day in Paradise. That Day would be - on Good Friday.
However in John chapter (20, verse 17), Jesus tells Mary Magdalene on Easter Sunday not to touch him, because He has not yet ascended to the Father.
According to these verses Jesus would either be unfortunately (I would not say this, but according to the verse Jesus was either lying to the thief or to Mary Magdalene! Astagfir Allah!)
Because he promised to see that thief in Heaven on Friday, but on Sunday He had not yet ascended to the Father, he had not yet gone to Heaven.
It is curious that according to the Bible Jesus changed His mind about being touched before his ascension because in Matthew (28:9) it says that both of the Maries grabbed Jesus´s feet before He ascended to the Father.
In the first part of the lecture I would like to consider some of the so-called Christian evidence for the Divinity of Jesus and with the short response to what I consider the best evidence that the Christians would have and then to conclude with what Islam has to say about Jesus, insha Allah.
So first let us consider some of the best Christian so-called evidence for the Divinity of Jesus.
Of course one body of evidence that Christians have historically pointed to was evidence that Jesus (peace be upon him!) is God are the miracles of Jesus.
For example, they like to point to the virgin birth of Jesus. But it is the fact that Jesus had the human mother, but no father.
But of course for centuries the Jews and more recently the Muslims have counted that evidence by reminding the Christians that Adam had neither the mother of the father, and yet of course Christians never claim that Adam is Divine.
The physical state of affairs of a virgin birth as miraculous as it is not proof of Divinity.
For example, we read in the New Testatment that Hebrews (chapter 7, verse 3). It says that "without father, mother or ancestry, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains the priest for ever".
It´s a very interesting verse, because that verse is not describing Jesus (peace be upon him!), rather if taken literally, as Christians take other verses in the Bible, it says that Melchizedek - an Old Testament figure - was without a father, without a mother, and that he is eternal.
So, using Christian logic, wouldn´t Melchizedek be God? And yet, no Christian says that Melchizedek is God. More often Christians would suggest, that since Jesus (peace be upon him!) had the power to cure the sick or even to raise the dead - that he must be God, because only God has power over life and death.
But the Bible itself demonstrates that claim is not logically founded.
For example, in the New Testament in the book of Acts (chapter 5, verse 15) we discover that families would bring their sick out into the street, so that the shadow of St.Peter could cast upon the sick people, and it says when the shadow of St.Peter was cast upon them - that they were cured.
Supposedly the mere shadow of Peter had the power to cure the sick.
In Acts (chapter 14, verse 10), Paul says to a crippled man: "Stand up upon your feet. And the man was cured".
And Paul did not mention the name of Jesus (peace be upon him!) in order to cure the man.
In Acts (chapter 9, verse 40) St. Peter raises Tabitha from the dead. And he did not mention the name of Jesus in order to raise Tabitha from the dead.
Of course Christians claim and they should claim if they are good Christians, that the apostles receive power for these miracles from Jesus.
But it is not understandable why they stop there, why do they not say that Jesus (peace be upon him!) receives his power from God.
For example, when we read John (chapter 5, verse 30 and chapter 6, verse 38). It says that Jesus was supposed to have said: "I can do nothing on my own initiative.
As I hear, I judge. And my judgement is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of Him who sent me".
So if Jesus, (peace be upon him!) cures it is because it is the will of the One who sent him. Because Jesus by his own admission can do nothing on his own initiative.
Clearly the will of Jesus (peace be upon him!) is subordinated to the will of God, which is inconsistent with any claim that Jesus is equal to the Father.
St.Paul himself subordinated Christ to God the Father in authority.
In his letter to the Corinthians I (chapter 11, verse 3) Paul says that Christ is the head of every man and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.
Another typical verse of Paul is Corinthians I (chapter 15, verse 25). It says: "And when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to him. That God may be all in all".
We also learn in the letter to Phillipians (chapter 2, verse 9) that God has highly exalted Jesus.
So if Jesus is subject to God and relies upon God to exalt him, then Jesus cannot be God, unless there are levels of being God.
At most Jesus could be aimed lower God and not equal to the Father.
But elsewhere in the Bible Jesus himself blatantly denies any kind of equality with God. For example, in the Gospel of John (chapter 14, verse 28) he says, "I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am".
In what sense can the Father be greater than Jesus ?
Christians view Jesus as perfect. Their line of argumentation is very simple. Since only God is perfect and Jesus is perfect, then Jesus must be God.
In logic we dismiss that kind of an argument, we say it is the fallacy of the undistributed middle term.
Let me give you an example of that, to show you how illogical it is. If I said that Begin is tired and Reigan is tired then I would have to conclude that Begin is Reigan.
So obviously it is an illogical kind of argument. It is the same kind of argument that we find there. You don´t even have to be a Major in logic to see that that is illogical.
If you look to the Bible itself in the famous sermon on the mount in Matthew (chapter 5, verse 48), Jesus supposedly commands us to "be ye therefore perfect, as your Father who is in Heaven is perfect".
Again Jesus of course was paraphrasing the Torah. We find those words in Leviticus (chapter 19, verse 2).
But by commanding us to be perfect, or holy as it is said in Leviticus, to Jesus and God it means to indicate that we all have the potential to be God.
Well of course no orthodox Christian would make such a claim. The fact is that if Jesus lived a perfect life, then he was a perfect man, but a perfect man is not God.
Jesus was simply following the commandment revealed by God to Moses.
But whatever Jesus´s perfection in the New Testament is, he is always characterised or described as lower or subordinate to God the Father. And that subordinate role is seen in the fact that Jesus himself viewed himself as a messenger.
In Matthew (chapter 10, verse 40), and in John (chapter 5, verse 36) Jesus says, "...he who receives you, receives me and he who receives me, receives Him who sent me". That´s a very important verse, when it is considered along with verse such as John (chapter 12, verse 44). That says, "But Jesus cried out and said "he who believes in me, does no believe in me, but in Him who sent me"
. Also in John (chapter 13, verse 16) it says, "A slave is not greater than his master, neither a messenger - greater than the One who sent the messenger".
So Jesus is admitting both that he is a messenger and that the messenger is not as great as the One who send a messenger. It is very very clear.
Consistently the Gospel writers viewed Jesus as a human messenger, one mediator between God and man. That is evident in I Timothy (chapter 2, verse 5). Where Paul writes, "For there is one God, and also one mediator between God and men - a man Christ Jesus".
That whole doctrine was of course taken from file of Alexander. I don´t have time to go into that but if you have questions about it later I can go into it. So, I think we can see that if in some biblical verses Jesus is described as perfect, we can see from other verses that his perfection is only a human perfection. The Bible itself does not attribute perfect knowledge to Jesus.
Jesus freely admitted that there were things that neither he nor the Angels knew, but that only God knew.
For example, talking about the day of judgement, Jesus says in the Gospel of Mark (chapter 13, verse 32). He says that "of that day or hour no one knows, neither the Angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but the Father".
And there is a very curious verse in Luke (chapter 2, verse 52), that makes the following statement about Jesus.
It said and Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and in physical growth and in favour with God and men. If Jesus is God, then we would expect him to share in the omniscience and the all-knowingness of God and the All-knowing God cannot increase in wisdom.
Or returning to the issue of perfection. If Jesus is perfect, and how could he increase in favour with God. A very dangerous thing happened in Christian theology, when the theologians attempted to attribute Divinity to Jesus.
Paradoxically, human qualities were attributed to God.
That is seen very clearly in a passage from Ditrich Barnhafer "Letters and papers from prison". Let me read it: "God is teaching us that we must live as men who can get along very well without him.
That we should be able to get along without God. The God who is with us is the God who forsakes us, the God who makes us live in this world. Without using him as a working hypothesis is the God before whom we are ever standing, before God and with Him we live without God.
God allows himself to be edged out of the world and onto the cross. God is weak and powerless in the world. And that is exactly the way, the only way in which he can be with us and help us".
Barharfer describes God as weak and powerless in the world, that he can be edged out of the world and nailed onto a cross. What a short step it is from describing God as weak and powerless in the world to some other words that are even worse
. Neichure wrote: "Where has God gone - he cried. I shall tell you. We have killed Him. You and I. We are all His murderers. God is dead. God remains dead and we have killed Him."
If Christians call Barnhafer and Neitsche silly then they should remember that for two centuries after the council of Carsidn, their Fathers and faith debated about whether God could suffer
. These debates and paradoxes continue only substantiating the old claim that anything can follow from a contradiction.
Once you say that God can become man, then anything can happen. Then God can be even called weak and powerless or God can even die, if God can become a man.
Many Christians claimed that the greatest single piece of evidence that Jesus is God is the empty tomb. The Resurrection of Jesus. In fact Paul says that if Jesus did not raise from the dead, the Christian faith is worthless.
That it is completely empty. But unfortunately for the Christian the only evidence for the Resurrection is found in the Bible; and those Resurrection stories, those Resurrection narratives are extremely inconsistent on the details of the event.
For example, try to use the biblical narratives to determine which of Jesus´s followers actually came to the tomb and found that the tomb is empty. In Matthew (chapter 28, verse 1) we learn that Mary Magdalene and another woman named Mary came to the tomb.
Whereas in Mark (chapter 16, verse 1) it says that Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome were present.
Whereas in Luke (24:10) it says that Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of Jesus and other women were present.
Finally in John (chapter 20, verse 1) - it suggests that Mary Magdalene was all alone at the tomb.
There is no consensus on who actually saw Jesus in the empty tomb, or who actually saw the empty tomb. And of course although Christians refer to the empty tomb they do not actually mean that the tomb is completely empty when the individuals went there. According to Christians there was an angelic presence at the tomb
However the Gospels of Mark and Luke differ on how many angels were actually present at the tomb.
Mark (16:5) has one young male angel in the tomb. Luke (24:4) has two male angels in the tomb.
Another question that fundamentalist Christians, that evangelical type often pose is who moved the stone (as if this is a terribly important question).
I must confess that even as a Christian I couldn´t envision a more irrelevant question.
First, what difference does it make who moved the stone. Just give him a name - Bernish Warts.
What difference does it make?
What does it prove?
The issue was not who moved the stone, but whether the Bible is free from inconsistencies, such that it is even possible to determine the answer to that question.
In fact, the Bible equivocates on who moved the stone. In Matthew (28:2) one reads that when Mary Magdalene and Mary arrived at the tomb, an angel approached, rolled the stone away and then sat upon the stone.
In Mark (16:4) and in Luke (24:2) one discovers that when the women arrived at the tomb, the stone was already moved. Another very interesting question is where was Jesus before the empty tomb was being visited. Supposedly at some point to be for Easter, Jesus ascended into Heaven, because in Luke (23:43) he promises the thief on the cross that the thief would be with Jesus that day in Paradise. That Day would be - on Good Friday.
However in John chapter (20, verse 17), Jesus tells Mary Magdalene on Easter Sunday not to touch him, because He has not yet ascended to the Father.
According to these verses Jesus would either be unfortunately (I would not say this, but according to the verse Jesus was either lying to the thief or to Mary Magdalene! Astagfir Allah!)
Because he promised to see that thief in Heaven on Friday, but on Sunday He had not yet ascended to the Father, he had not yet gone to Heaven.
It is curious that according to the Bible Jesus changed His mind about being touched before his ascension because in Matthew (28:9) it says that both of the Maries grabbed Jesus´s feet before He ascended to the Father.
Jesus Is A Great Prophet.
Son of God is a figure of speech which many other Prophets were labeled as for example; in the King James Version of the Bible
(Psalms 2:7) David is the begotten Son of God.
Many others in the Bible are called God's son;
Jacob God's firstborn son (Exodus 4:22)
Solomon is God's son (2 Samuel 7:13-14)
Ephraim is God's firstborn son (Jeremiah 31:9)
Adam is the son of God (Luke 3:38)
Other Prophets Preformed similar Miracles as Jesus ;
Ezekiel raised many from the dead (Ezekiel 37:1-9)
Joshua stopped the sun and moon for one whole day (Joshua 10:12-13)
Elisha raised the dead, resurrected himself, healed a leper, fed a hundred people with twenty barley loaves and a few ears of corn, and healed a blind man: (2 Kings 4:35, 13:21, 5:14, 4:44, and 6:11.)
Elijah raised the dead (1 Kings 17:22 and 14.)
Other Prophets were filled with the Holy Ghost;
Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost (Luke 1:67)
Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost (Luke 1:41)
Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost (Acts 4:8)
Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost (Acts 13:9)
Many other Prophets were called Lord for example;
Abraham (Genesis 18:12)
Esau (Genesis 32:4)
Joseph (Genesis 44:20)
David (1 Samuel 25:24)
Jesus taught Salvation comes from Submitting your will to God and Faith as Muslims do .
(Matthew 7:21-23) "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"
(Psalms 2:7) David is the begotten Son of God.
Many others in the Bible are called God's son;
Jacob God's firstborn son (Exodus 4:22)
Solomon is God's son (2 Samuel 7:13-14)
Ephraim is God's firstborn son (Jeremiah 31:9)
Adam is the son of God (Luke 3:38)
Other Prophets Preformed similar Miracles as Jesus ;
Ezekiel raised many from the dead (Ezekiel 37:1-9)
Joshua stopped the sun and moon for one whole day (Joshua 10:12-13)
Elisha raised the dead, resurrected himself, healed a leper, fed a hundred people with twenty barley loaves and a few ears of corn, and healed a blind man: (2 Kings 4:35, 13:21, 5:14, 4:44, and 6:11.)
Elijah raised the dead (1 Kings 17:22 and 14.)
Other Prophets were filled with the Holy Ghost;
Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost (Luke 1:67)
Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost (Luke 1:41)
Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost (Acts 4:8)
Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost (Acts 13:9)
Many other Prophets were called Lord for example;
Abraham (Genesis 18:12)
Esau (Genesis 32:4)
Joseph (Genesis 44:20)
David (1 Samuel 25:24)
Jesus taught Salvation comes from Submitting your will to God and Faith as Muslims do .
(Matthew 7:21-23) "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"
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