The 100
Muhammad the Greatest
Muhammad in the Bible
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ISLAM TO PREVAIL
(e) It is He who has sent His Messenger with Guidance and the Religion of Truth.
That he may proclaim it over all religion.
Even though the associators may detest (it).
(SURA SAFE) Holy Qur'an 61:9
Within decades the above promise became true. Islam prevailed. The two superpowers of the day, the Persian and the Roman Empires crumbled at the hands of the Muslims. And for centuries the power of Islam predominated — from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Alas, the Muslims are in the doldrums today. But fear not, the world of Islam is arising. There is hope. Even non-Muslim Visionaries in the West have predicted its destiny to be in the skies.
"AFRICA IS A FAIR FIELD FOR ALL RELIGIONS, BUT THE RELIGION WHICH THE AFRICAN WILL ACCEPT, IS A RELIGION WHICH BEST SUITS HIS NEEDS: AND THAT RELIGION, EVERYONE WHO HAS A RIGHT TO SPEAK ON THE SUBJECT SAYS IS ISLAM."
"The Shape of Things to Come" KG. Wells
"IF ANY RELIGION HAS A CHANCE OF CONQUERING ENGLAND, NAY EUROPE WITHIN THE NEXT HUNDRED YEARS, THAT RELIGION IS ISLAM."
George Bernard Shaw
Without any real effort on the part of the Muslims, we are told by the Westerners themselves that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world today. I hope, this pleasant news does not lull us to sleep. The promise of God is true, the destiny is there, only a little exertion is required on our part. Allah can transform nations and peoples by His Own Will, but He has given us the privilege of serving His Deen by personal self-sacrifice. To be an effective soldier in this battle, arm yourself with John 16: 7 in one or more languages, and watch how Allah fills you with more knowledge. It is our destiny to master, supercede and bulldoze every ism, never mind how much the unbeliever may be averse to the Message of Islam.
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The 100 - A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History - Muhammad (PBUH) No 1
By Ahmad Deedat
FOREWORD
Muhammad (PBUH) the Greatest
To every Muslim on this planet, irrespective of cultural, geographical and political differences, Muhammad (PBUH) is Allah's greatest creation and was sent as a mercy for all mankind. A thousand million Muslims however, do not require any surveys, lists or research to arrive at this conclusion. It is a non-negotiable article of faith that Muhammad (PBUH) is the greatest.
BUT WHAT OF THE NON-MUSLIMS?
Surprisingly, over the centuries many an eminent non-Muslim has rated Muhammad (PBUH) most highly and given due recognition to his greatness. A selection of their quotations appear later. #
Michael H. Hart, a Christian American, astronomer, mathematician, lawyer, chessmaster and scientist, after extensive research, published an incisive biography of the 100 most influential people of all time. The biographical rankings with explanations describes the careers of religious and political leaders, inventors, writers, philosophers, scientists and artists. From this research, which included illustrious personalities such as Jesus Christ, Moses, Caesar, the Wright brothers, Napoleon, Shakespeare, Columbus and Michaelangelo; Michael Hart rated Muhammad (PBUH) as number one. He concluded the biography with the words "It is this unparalleled combination of secular and religious influence which I feel entitles Muhammad to be considered the most influential single figure in human history."
By special arrangement, we are privileged to present to you the entire chapter on Muhammad (PBUH) from Michael Hart's "The 100". We have also included a summary of the Holy Prophet's (PBUH) farewell sermon delivered at Mount Arafat in the 10th year after Hijra (632 CE).
In an era when the world was awash in rivers of blind prejudices and nonsensical ignorances, the Prophet's (PBUH) divine message and glorious teachings became the purging torrents of spiritual enlightenment. The farewell sermon is an embodiment of the dynamics of Islam. May Allah exalt Muhammad (PBUH), his family, his companions and all the believers. Insha-Allah!
AHMED DEEDAT
(Servant of Islam)
1 MUHAMMAD
My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels.
Of humble origins, Muhammad founded and promulgated one of the world's great religions, and became an immensely effective political leader. Today, thirteen centuries after his death, his influence is still powerful and pervasive.
The majority of the persons in this book had the advantage of being born and raised in centers of civilization, highly cultured or politically pivotal nations. Muhammad, however, was born in the year 570, in the city of Mecca, in southern Arabia, at that time a backward area of the world, far from the centers of trade, art, and learning. Orphaned at age six, he was reared in modest surroundings. Islamic tradition tells us that he was illiterate. His economic position improved when, at age twenty-five, he married a wealthy widow. Nevertheless, as he approached forty, there was little outward indication that he was a remarkable person.
Most Arabs at that time were pagans, who believed in many gods. There were, however, in Mecca, a small number of Jews and Christians; it was from them no doubt that Muhammad first learned of a single, omnipotent God who ruled the entire universe. When he was forty years old, Muhammad became convinced that this one true God (Allah) was speaking to him, and had chosen him to spread the true faith.
For three years, Muhammad preached only to close friends and associates. Then, about 613, he began preaching in public. As he slowly gained converts, the Meccan authorities came to consider him a dangerous nuisance. In 622, fearing for his safety, Muhammad fled to Medina (a city some 200 miles north of Mecca), where he had been offered a position of considerable political power.
This flight, called the Hegira, was the turning point of the Prophet's life. In Mecca, he had had few followers. In Medina, he had many more, and he soon acquired an influence that made him a virtual dictator. During the next few years, while Muhammad's following grew rapidly, a series of battles were fought between Medina and Mecca. This was ended in 630 with Muhammad's triumphant return to Mecca as conqueror. The remaining two and one-half years of his life witnessed the rapid conversion of the Arab tribes to the new religion. When Muhammad died, in 632, he was the effective ruler of all of southern Arabia.
The Bedouin tribesmen of Arabia had a reputation as fierce warriors. But their number was small; and plagued by disunity and internecine warfare, they had been no match for the larger armies of the kingdoms in the settled agricultural areas to the north. However, unified by Muhammad for the first time in history, and inspired by their fervent belief in the one true God, these small Arab armies now embarked upon one of the most astonishing series of conquests in human history. To the northeast of Arabia lay the large Neo-Persian Empire of the Sassanids; to the northwest lay the Byzantine, or Eastern Roman Empire, centered in Constantinople. Numerically, the Arabs were no match for their opponents. On the field of battle, though, the inspired Arabs rapidly conquered all of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine. By 642, Egypt had been wrested from the Byzantine Empire, while the Persian armies had been crushed at the key battles of Qadisiya in 637, and Nehavend in 642.
But even these enormous conquests - which were made under the leadership of Muhammad's close friends and immediate successors, Abu Bakr and 'Umar ibn al-Khattab - did not mark the end of the Arab advance. By 711, the Arab armies had swept completely across North Africa to the Atlantic Ocean. There they turned north and, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, overwhelmed the Visigothic kingdom in Spain.
For a while, it must have seemed that the Moslems would overwhelm all of Christian Europe. However, in 732, at the famous Battle of Tours, a Moslem army, which had advanced into the center of France, was at last defeated by the Franks. Nevertheless, in a scant century of fighting, these Bedouin tribesmen, inspired by the word of the Prophet, had carved out an empire stretching from the borders of India to the Atlantic Ocean - the largest empire that the world had yet seen. And everywhere that the armies conquered, large-scale conversion to the new faith eventually followed.
Now, not all of these conquests proved permanent. The Persians, though they have remained faithful to the religion of the Prophet, have since regained their independence from the Arabs. And in Spain, more than seven centuries of warfare finally resulted in the Christians reconquering the entire peninsula. However, Mesopotamia and Egypt, the two cradles of ancient civilization, have remained Arab, as has the entire coast of North Africa. The new religion, of course, continued to spread, in the intervening centuries, far beyond the borders of the original Moslem conquests. Currently, it has tens of millions of adherents in Africa and Central Asia, and even more in Pakistan and northern India, and in Indonesia. In Indonesia, the new faith has been a unifying factor. In the Indian subcontinent, however, the conflict between Moslems and Hindus is still a major obstacle to unity.
How, then, is one to assess the overall impact of Muhammad on human history? Like all religions, Islam exerts an enormous influence upon the lives of its followers. It is for this reason that the founders of the world's great religions all figure prominently in this book. Since there are roughly twice as many Christians as Moslems in the world, it may initially seem strange that Muhammad has been ranked higher than Jesus. There are two principal reasons for that decision. First, Muhammad played a far more important role in the development of Islam than Jesus did in the development of Christianity. Although Jesus was responsible for the main ethical and moral precepts of Christianity (insofar as these differed from Judaism), St.Paul was the main developer of Christian theology, its principal proselytizer, and the author of a large portion of the New Testament.
Muhammad, however, was responsible for both the theology of Islam and its main ethical and moral principles. In addition, he played the key role in proselytizing the new faith, and in establishing the religious practices of Islam. Moreover, he is the author of the Moslem holy scriptures, the Koran, a collection of certain of Muhammad's insight that he believed had been directly revealed to him by Allah. Most of these utterances were copied more or less faithfully during Muhammad's lifetime and were collected together in authoritative form not long after his death. The Koran, therefore, closely represents Muhammad's ideas and teachings and to a considerable extent his exact words. No such detailed compilation of the teachings of Christ has survived. Since the Koran is at least as important to Moslems as the Bible is to Christians, the influence of Muhammad through the medium of the Koran has been enormous. It is probable that the relative influence of Muhammad on Islam has been larger than the combined influence of Jesus Christ and St. Paul on Christianity. On the purely religious level, then, it seems likely that Muhammad has been as influential in human history as Jesus.
Furthermore, Muhammad (unlike Jesus) was a secular as well as a religious leader. In fact, as the driving force behind the Arab conquests, he may well rank as the most influential political leader of all time.
Of many important historical events, one might say that they were inevitable and would have occurred even without the particular political leader who guided them. For example, the South American colonies would probably have won their independence from Spain even if Simon Bolivar had never lived. But this cannot be said of the Arab conquests. Nothing similar had occurred before Muhammad, and there is no reason to believe that the conquests would have been achieved without him. The only comparable conquests in human history are those of the Mongols in the thirteenth century, which were primarily due to the influence of Genghis Khan. These conquests, however, though more extensive than those of the Arabs, did not prove permanent, and today the only areas occupied by the Mongols are those that they held prior to the time of Genghis Khan. It is far different with the conquests of the Arabs. From Iraq to Morocco, there extends a whole chain of Arab nations united not merely by their faith in Islam, but also by their Arabic language, history, and culture. The centrality of the Koran in the Moslem religion and the fact that it is written in Arabic have probably prevented the Arab language from breaking up into mutually unintelligible dialects, which might otherwise have occurred in the intervening thirteen centuries. Differences and divisions between these Arab states exist, of course, and they are considerable, but the partial disunity should not blind us to the important elements of unity that have continued to exist. For instance, neither Iran nor Indonesia, both oil-producing states and both Islamic in religion, joined in the oil embargo of the winter of 1973-74. It is no coincidence that all of the Arab states, and only the Arab states, participated in the embargo.
We see, then, that the Arab conquests of the seventh century have continued to play an important role in human history, down to the present day. It is this unparalleled combination of secular and religious influence which I feel entitles Muhammad to be considered the most influential single figure in human history.
A summary of The Prophet Mohammad's Farewell Sermon
This sermon was delivered on the ninth day of Dhul Hijjah 10 A.H. in the Uranah Valley of Mount Arafat.
O people, listen to my words for I do not know whether I will be amongst you for another year. Just as you regard this month, this day and this city sacred, so regard the lives and property of all amongst you as sacred and inviolable.
O people, it is true that you have certain rights with regard to your wives but they also have certain rights. Treat them with kindness and love for you have taken them in trust. Keep always faithful to the trust placed in you and do not sin.
O people, listen to me in earnest, worship Allah, say your five daily prayers (salah), fast during the month of Ramadan and give Zakat generously. Go if possible on a pilgrimage (Hajj). You know that you are each others brothers and are all equal. No one is superior except in devotion to Allah and good works. Guard against committing injustices.
O people, NO PROPHET OR APOSTLE WILL COME AFTER ME AND NO NEW FAITH WILL BE BORN. Understand my words. I leave behind me two things - the QUR'AN and the SUNNAH. Follow these and you will never go astray. Beware of Satan and safeguard your religion. Pass on my words to others and those to others again; and may they understand my words better than those who listen to me directly. Be my witness O Allah, that I have conveyed Your Message.
The non-Muslim verdict on Muhammad (PBUH)
"If a man like Muhammad were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness."
George Bernard Shaw
"People like Pasteur and Salk are leaders in the first sense. People like Gandhi and Confucius, on one hand, and Alexander, Caesar and Hitler on the other, are leaders in the second and perhaps the third sense. Jesus and Buddha belong in the third category alone. Perhaps the greatest leader of all times was Mohammed, who combined all three functions. To a lesser degree, Moses did the same."
Professor Jules Masserman
"Head of the State as well as the Church, he was Caesar and Pope in one; but, he was Pope without the Pope's pretensions, and Caesar without the legions of Caesar, without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a police force, without a fixed revenue. If ever a man had the right to say that he ruled by a rightdivine, it was Muhammad, for he had all the powers without their supports. He cared not for the dressings of power. The simplicity of his private life was in keeping with his public life."
Rev. R. Bosworth-Smith
"Muhammad was the soul of kindness, and his influence was felt and never forgotten by those around him."
Diwan Chand Sharma, The Prophets of the East,
Calcutta 1935, p.122.
"Four years after the death of Justinian, A.D. 569, was born at Mecca, in Arabia the man who, of all men exercised the greatest influence upon the human race... Mohammed... "
]ohn William Draper, M.D., L.L.D., A History of the Intellectual
Development of Europe, London 1875, Vol. 1, pp.329-330.
"In little more than a year he was actually the spiritual, nominal and temporal ruler of Medina, with his hands on the lever that was to shake the world."
John Austin, "Muhammad the Prophet of Allah,"
in T.P.'s and Cassel's Weekly for 24th September 1927.
"Philosopher, Orator, Apostle, Legislator, Warrior, Conqueror of ideas, Restorer of rational beliefs, of a cult without images; the founder of twenty-terrestial empires and of one spiritual empire, that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?"
Lamartine, Histotie de la Turquie, Paris 1854,
Vol. 11 pp.276-2727.
"It is impossible for anyone who studies the life and character of the great prophet of Arabia, who knows how he taught and how he lived, to feel anything but reverence! for that mighty Prophet, one of the great messengers of the Supreme. And although in what I put to you I shall say many things which may be familiar to many, yet I myself feel whenever I re-read them, a new way of admiration, a new of reverence for that mighty Arabian teacher."
Annie Besant, The Life and Teachings of Muhammad,
Madras 1932, p.4
"Muhammad is the most successful of all Prophets and religious personalities."
Encyclopaedia Britannica
"I have studied him - the wonderful man - and in my opinion far from being an anti-Christ he must be called the saviour of humanity."
George Bernard Shaw in "The Genuine Islam "
"By a fortune absolutely unique in history, Mohammed is a threefold founder of a nation, of an empire, and of a religion."
Rev. R. Bosworth-Smith in
"Mohammed and Mohammedanism 1946."
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Muhammad the Greatest
by Ahmad Deedat
Chapter 1
"And most certainly, thou (O Muhammad) are of most sublime and exalted character."
How the Topic Arose
About ten years ago, a distant cousin of mine - Mr. Mohamed Mehtar Farooki
masterful deceit of the Christian orientalists. #
1. I urge my Muslim brethren to memorize the verse in Arabic and its meaning.
2. Mr. Mehtar was for a long time editor of the Muslim newspaper "The Indian Views," in South Africa.
3. A detailed exposition of the quotation will be found on page 38.
Lamartine's tribute to our prophet inspired me and I had a great desire to share his thoughts about our Nabee with my Muslim brethren. The opportunity to do so was not long in coming.
I received a phone call from the Muslim community in
Dannhauser, a small town in Northern Natal,, who were
organising a birthday celebration of the Holy Prophet. They
invited me to give a lecture on that auspicious occasion. So I
deemed it an honour and a privilege, I readily agreed.
When they inquired, in view of their advertising needs, as to
the subject of my lecture, I suggested on the inspiration
from Lamartine, "Muhammad (pbuh) the Greatest."
REPEATED LET-DOWNS
On my arrival in Dannhauser, I noticed a lot of posters
advertising the meeting which in essence said that Deedat
would be lecturing on the subject "MUHAMMAD THE GREAT."
I was somewhat disheartened and, on inquiring was told that
the change in the title was due to a printer's error.
Some two months later, I got another, similar invitation.
This time from the Muslim community of Pretoria the
administrative capital of South Africa. The subject I had
mooted was the same - "Muhammad (pbuh) the Greatest."
To my dismay the topic was again changed to "MUHAMMAD
THE GREAT." Identical reasons and excuses were given. Both
these incidences happened in South Africa, my own country.
But, let me give you one more example of our inferiority
complex - so much part of the sickness of the Ummah.
USA NO DIFFERENT
On my lecture tour of the mighty United States in 1977,
1 discovered that our soldiers in the New World also had
feet of clay. Out of the many sad experiences I have had, I
think that this one will suffice to prove the point.
The Muslims of Indianapolis were advised to organise a
lecture for me on the subject "What the Bible says about
Muhammad (pbuh)".
but their timidity did not permit them to do so. They
thought the topic was too provocative, so they, in their
wisdom (?), toned it down to "A PROPHET IN THE BIBLE." A
lifeless, insipid title you will no doubt agree. Which Hindu,
Muslim, Christian or Jew would be intrigued to attend? What
does "A PROPHET" mean? To most A PROPHET means ANY
PROPHET, and who would be interested in attending a
meeting where just any prophet in the Bible was debated?
Job, Joel, Jonah, Ezra, Elisha, Ezekiel are just a few of the
many mentioned in the Bible. As was to be expected the
attendance left much to be desired.
INFERIORITY COMPLEX
What is the cause of this sickness? This inferiority
complex? "Yes!" We are an emasculated people. Dynamism
has been wringed out of us, not only by our enemies but
by our own spiritless friends. We even dare not repeat
Allah's Own testimony regarding his beloved -
And Most Certainly, Thou (O Muhammad) Are of most sublime And Exalted Character
Holy Quran 68:4
THE MOST INFLUENTIAL
Normally, it is quite, natural for anyone to love, praise,
idolize or hero-worship ones leader, be it a guru, saint or
prophet: and very often we do.
1. A book with the same title is available absolutely FREE from the IPCI.
2. This verse, together with its Arabic text heads this chapter memorize the vene with its meaning.
However, if I were to reproduce here
Muslims have said or written about our illustrious prophet, it
could be played down as exaggeration, fancy or idolization
by the sceptics and the opponents of Islam. Therefore, allow
me to quote unbiased historians, friendly critics and even
avowed enemies of that mighty Messenger of God -
Muhammad (pbuh). If the tributes of the non-Muslims do
not touch your hearts, then you are in the wrong faith. Opt
out of Islam! There is already too much deadwood on the
"ship" of Islam.
In recent times, a book has been published in America
titled "The 100," or the Top One Hundred, or the Greatest
Hundred in History. A certain Michael H. Hart, described as a
historian, mathematician and astronomer has written this
novel book. He has searched history, seeking for men who
had the greatest influence on mankind. In this book he
gives us The hundred most influential men, including Asoka,
Aristotle, Buddha, Confucius, Hitler, Plato, and Zoroaster. He
does not give us a mere chart of the topmost "one
hundred" from the point of view of their influence on
people, but he evaluates the degree of their influence and
rates them in order of their excellence from No. 1, through
to No. 100. He gives us his reasons for the placing of his
candidates. We are not asked to agree with him, but we
cannot help admire the man's research and honesty.
The most amazing thing about his selection is that he
has put our Nabee-e-Kareem, the Holy Prophet Muhammad
(pbuh) as No. 1,
unknowingly, God's Own testimony in His Final Revelation to
the World:
1. For an example, see Appendix "A" at the end of this book.
2. With the kind permission of Mr. Hart, we have just reproduced the whole chapter on
Muhammad (pbuh) from the "Top 100". Get your FREE copy now from the I.P.C.I.
MOST CERTAINLY, YOU HAVE
IN THE MESSENGER OF ALLAH
AN EXCELLENT PATTERN (OF BEHAVIOUR)
Holy Quran 33:21
JESUS (PBUH) No. 3!
Hart placing the Prophet of Islam as No. 1, has naturally
pleased the Muslims. But his choice has shocked the
Non-Muslims, more specially the Jews and the Christians,
who consider this as an affront. What? Jesus (pbuh) No. 3 and
Moses (pbuh) No. 40! This is for them very difficult to stomach,
but what says Hart? Let us hear his arguments -
SINCE THERE ARE ROUGHLY TWICE2
CHRISTIANS IN THE WORLD, IT MAY INITIALLY
SEEM STRANGE THAT MUHAMMAD HAS BEEN
RANKED HIGHER THAN JESUS. THERE ARE TWO
PRINCIPAL REASONS FOR THAT DECISION.
FIRST, MUHAMMAD PLAYED A FAR MORE
IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF
ISLAM THAN JESUS DID IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF
CHRISTIANITY.
ALTHOUGH JESUS WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE
MAIN ETHICAL AND MORAL PRECEPTS OF
CHRISTIANITY (INSOFAR AS THESE DIFFERED FROM
JUDAISM), ST. PAUL WAS THE MAIN DEVELOPER
OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY, ITS PRINCIPAL
1. Allah: A proper noun for God Almighty in the Semitic languages: i.e. in the languages
of Moses , Jesus and Muhammad (Peace be on them all). For more details obtain
"What Is His name?" from the I.P.C.I.
2. The latest estimate is that there are one thousand million Muslims in the world and
one thousand two hundred million Christians.
MUHAMMAD, HOWEVER, WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR
BOTH THE THEOLOGY OF ISLAM AND ITS MAIN
ETHICAL AND MORAL PRINCIPLES.
IN ADDITION, HE PLAYED THE KEY ROLE IN
PROSELYTIZING THE NEW FAITH, AND IN
ESTABLISHING THE RELIGIOUS PRACTICES OF
ISLAM.
Michael H. Hart in his book - "THE 100"-pages 38/39
PAUL THE FOUNDER OF CHRISTIANITY
According to Hart, the honor for founding Christianity
is to be shared between Jesus (pbuh) and St. Paul. The latter
he believes to be the real founder of Christianity.
I cannot help agreeing with Hart. Out of the total of 27
Books of the New Testament, more than half is authored by
Paul. As opposed to Paul, the Master has not written a single
word of the twenty-seven books. If you can lay your hands
on what is called "'A Red Letter Bible," you will find every
word alleged to have been uttered by Jesus (pbuh) - in
red ink and the rest in normal black ink. Don't be shocked
to find that in this so called "Injeel," the Gospel of Jesus,
over ninety percent of the 27 Books of the New Testament
is printed in black ink!
This is the candid Christian confession on what they call
the "Injeel." In actual any confrontation with Christian
missionaries, you will find them quoting one hundred
percent from Paul.
NO ONE FOLLOWS JESUS (PBUH)
Jesus (pbuh) said,
"If you love me, keep my commandments."
(John 14:15)
He said further,
Whosoever therefore shall break one of
these least commandments, and shall
teach men so, he shall be called the
least in the kingdom of heaven . . ." (matthew 5:19)
Every Christian controversialist you question, "Do you
keep the laws and the commandments?" will answer, "No!"
If you ask further, "Why don't you?" He will if he is a Bible-
thumper, invariably reply, "The law is nailed to the cross!"
Meaning the law is done away with. "We are now living
under grace!"
Every time you prod him with what his Lord and Master
(pbuh) had said, he will confront you with something from
Cornithians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, etc. If you ask,
"Who are they?" You will hear, 'Paul, Paul, Paul!" "Who is
your master?" you question, and he will say, "Jesus!" But he
will ever and anon contradict his own Jesus (pbuh) by his
Paul!
No learned Christian will ever dispute the fact that the
real founder of Christianity is St. Paul. Therefore, Michael H.
Hart to be fair, had to place Jesus (pbuh), in slot number
three.
WHY PROVOKE YOUR CUSTOMER?
This placing of Christ in the number three spot by
Michael H. Hart poses a very serious question for us. Why
would an American publish a book of 572 pages in America
and selling in America for $15 each, go out of his way to
provoke his potential readers?
Who will buy his books? Surely, not the Pakistanis and
the Bangladeshis, neither the Arabs nor the Turks! Except for
a few copies here and there, the overwhelming number of
his customers will be from the 250 million Christians and the
6 million Jews of America. Then why did he provoke his
customers? Did he not hear the dictum - "the customer is
always right!" Of course he did. Then why his daring
choice. But before I close this episode of Hart, I will
allow him to make his one last apology for his "temerity."
"MY CHOICE OF MUHAMMAD TO LEAD THE LIST
OF THE WORLD'S MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSONS
MAY SURPRISE SOME READERS AND MAY BE
QUESTIONED BY OTHERS, BUT HE WAS THE ONLY
MAN IN HISTORY WHO WAS SUPREMELY
SUCCESSFUL ON BOTH THE RELIGIOUS AND
SECULAR LEVEL." Michael H. Hart
"The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in
History", New York: Hart Publishing Company, Inc., 1978, p.33.
WHO WERE HISTORY'sS GREAT LEADERS
TIME, JULY 15, 1974
The world famous "Time"1 carried the above rubic on
its front cover. Inside the magazine were numerous essays as
to 'What makes a great leader?' 'Throughout history,
who qualifies?' TIME asked a variety of historians, writers,
military men, businessmen and others for their selections.
Each gave his candidate according to his "light" as objec-
tively as is humanly possible, depending on one's own
awareness and prejudice.
WHO KNOWS DR. SALAZAR?
It is my habit and pleasurable duty to take non-Muslims
1. 'Time" We are at loggerheads with this magazine. Believe it or not; they have
spurned our paid advertisement as shown on page 64. The words "FUTURE WORLD
CONSTITUTION" was referred back to us in their correspondence as "The Future World CONFRONTATION."
on a guided tour
Hemisphere - "The Jumma Masjid" Durban.
On one occasion I was hosting a Portuguese couple, a
husband and wife team. At some stage during the discussion
the Portuguese gentleman said that "Dr. Salazar was the
greatest man in the world!" I did not debate the point
with him as I personally knew little about Dr. Salazar except
that he was a one time dictator of Portugal albeit to many a
great benefactor to his nation. My poor visitor was, however,
speaking according to his own knowledge, point of view
and prejudice.
MUHAMMAD (PBUH) CAN NOT BE IGNORED!
Among the contributors to the "Time," it seems that
none could ignore Muhammad (pbuh).
WILLIAM McNEILL, a United States historian, of the Uni-
versity of Chicago, records:
"IF YOU MEASURE LEADERSHIP BY IMPACT, THEN
YOU WOULD HAVE TO NAME JESUS, BUDDHA,
MOHAMMED, CONFUCIUS, THE GREAT PROPHETS
OF THE WORLD ..."
McNeill does not go into details, nor does he give us
any explanation as to why he placed Jesus (pbuh) first and
Muhammad (pbuh) number three. Perhaps it was by force
of habit. It is very likely that McNeill is a Christian. However,
we will not argue with him. Then comes -
JAMES GAVIN, described as a United States army man, a
retired lieutenant general. He says -
1. Obtain the Video Tape - -NON-MUSLIMS IN YOUR MOSQUE.- available on Pal and NTSC systems from the IPCI.
"AMONG LEADERS WHO HAVE MADE THE
GREATEST IMPACT THROUGH AGES, I WOULD
CONSIDER MOHAMMED, JESUS CHRIST, MAYBE
LENIN, POSSIBLY MAO. AS FOR A LEADER WHOSE
QUALITIES WE COULD MOST USE NOW, I WOULD
CHOOSE JOHN F. KENNEDY."
The General does not say much more, yet we have to
salute him. It calls for tremendous fortitude to pen the name
Muhammad before that of Christ (peace be upon them
both). It surely, was no slip of the pen.
JULES MASSERMAN, United States psychoanalyst and
professor of the Chicago University, gives us, unlike the
other contributors, the basis for making his selection. He
gives us his reason for choosing his greatest LEADER of all
times.
He wants us to find out, what we are really looking for
in the man, the qualities that sets him apart. We may be
looking for any sets of qualities. As in the case of Michael H.
Hart, he was looking for a person wielding the MOST
Influence.
However, Masserman does not want us to depend on
our fancies or prejudices: he wants to establish objective
standards for judging, before we confer greatness upon
anybody.
He says that "Leaders must fulfil three functions--"
No. 1 THE LEADER MUST PROVIDE FOR THE
WELL-BEING OF THE LEAD ...
1. Since Hart published his 'TOP 100' many people have published books with the same theme. '100 GREAT GOLFERS." or "100 GREAT BATSMEN." Many more will no doubt follow.
The leader, whoever he is, must be interested in your
welfare. He must not be looking for milking cows for his
own greed like the Rev. Jim Jones of Jonestown, Guyana, of
the "Suicide Cult" fame. You will remember him as the
man who committed suicide together with 910 of his
followers, all at the same time EN MASSE!
The United States Government was on his trail and he
was on the verge of being caught for certain felonies. But
before they could apprehend him, he thought it wise to
eliminate himself, together with all his followers, so that no
one would be left to testify against him. He laced lemonade
with cynide and inspired his devotees to drink it, and so
they did and they all died in disgrace! In the meantime, it
was discovered that the Rev. Jim Jones had salted away
fifteen million dollars and stacked it in his own account in banks
throughout the world. All his victims were his milking cows
and he was exploiting them to satisfy his own lust and
greed. Masserman's hero must be found to benefit his
sheep, his flock, and not himself
No. 2 THE LEADER OR WOULD BE LEADER MUST PROVIDE A SOCIAL ORGANIZATION IN WHICH PEOPLE FEEL RELATIVELY SECURE ...
Unlike the Marxist, the Facist, the Nazi, the Neo-Nazi
the Ashkenazi,l
Professor Masserman, in his brief essay in the TIME magazine,
did not spell this out. But his beliefs and feelings are
abundantly clear. He is in search of a Leader who will
provide a social order free of self, and greed and racism: for
all these "isms" carry within them the seeds of their
own destruction.
1. Askhenazi: the Jews from Germany, Central Europe and Eastern Europe, mostly from Russia who are in unlawful occupation of Palestine. There is something prophetic in the name itself - the Jews are doing to the people of the occupied territories exactly what the Nazis did to them. What an irony!
There's still with us much sorrow and sin,
Injustice, Oppression, wrong and hate.
Still does Arrogance deaden Conscience
Rob struggling souls of e'en the crumbs
Of Pity, and make, of loathsome flesh
And crumbling dust, fair-seeming Idols
For worship. Still does Ignorance blow
A mighty Horn and try to shame
True Wisdom. Still do men drive Slaves, - -
Protesting smoothly the end of Slavery!
Still does Greed devour the substance
Of helpless ones within her power.
Nay, more, - - the fine Individual Voice
Is smothered in the raucous din
Of groups and Crowds that madly shout
What they call Slogans New, - -
Old Falsehoods long discredited ... "NO WILD BEASTS ARE SO HOSTILE TO MAN AS
CHRISTIAN SECTS IN GENERAL ARE TO ONE
ANOTHER."
Sayed Amir Ali in his "Spirit of lslam,"- page 1 ii.
With the foregoing three standards, Masserman searches
history and analyses Louis Pasteur, Salk, Gandhi, Confucius,
Alexander the Great, Caesar, Hitler, Buddha, Jesus and the
rest;
PERHAPS THE GREATEST LEADER OF ALL TIMES
WAS MUHAMMED, WHO COMBINED ALL THREE
FUNCTIONS. (and) TO A LESSER DEGREE, MOSES
DID THE SAME
We cannot help marvelling at Masserman, that as a Jew
he condescends to scrutinize even Adolf Hitler, the arch-
enemy of his people. He considers Hitler to be a great
leader. His race, the mighty German nation of 90 million
people, was ready to march to destiny or destruction at his
behest. Alas, he lead them to ruin.
Hitler is not the question. The question is why would
Masserman, as an American Jew, a paid servant of the
Government proclaim to his countrymen of over two hun-
dred million Jews and Christians that not Jesus, not Moses
but Muhummed
times!" ACCOUNT FOR THAT!
WHAT SAY THE SCEPTICS?
Michael H. Hart put Muhammad No. 1 on his list and
his own Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (pbuh) No. 3.
Why? -"He was bribed!"(?)
1. For Masserman's full essay see Appendix "C" on page 63.
2. Blessings of God on all His Messengers.
Abdullah Yusuf Ali
No. 3 THAT THIS LEADER MUST PROVIDE HIS
PEOPLE WITH ONE SET OF BELIEFS ...
It is easy to talk of the Fellowship of Faith and the
Brotherhood of Man, but in South Africa today, there are a
thousand different sects and denominations among the
Whites (people of European descent) and three thousand
among the Blacks (of African descent).
The White Churches in my country are Spawning "Black"
Bishops, fast, but in the first three hundred years of
European conquest, they did not produce a single Black
Bishop. Even now, the Black, the White, the Coloured and
the Indian cannot pray together in most of the Dutch
Reformed Churches. The hatred between the Christian sects
was aptly described by the Christian Emperor Julian, who
said:
William McNeill considers Muhammad as worthy of
honour in his list of the first three names of his.
Why? "He was bribed!" (?)
James Gavin puts Muhammad (pbuh) before Christ
(pbuh). Why? "He was bribed!" (?)
James Masserman adjudges Muhammad (pbuh) No. 1
and his own hero Moses (pbuh) a close second.
Why? "He was bribed!" (?)
"ARE WE TO SUPPOSE THAT ALL THE GLOWING
ADULATION OF MUHAMMAD (PBUH) WAS A
MISERABLE PIECE OF INTELLECTUAL LEGERDEMAIN,
HOCUS POCUS . . . I, FOR MY PART, CANNOT
FORM ANY SUCH SUPPOSITION ... ONE WOULD
BE ENTIRELY AT A LOSS WHAT TO THINK OF
MANKIND AT ALL IF QUACKERY SO GREW AND
FLOURISHED IN THE WORLD."
Yet the scoffers bemoan anyone who has anything good
to say about Muhammad (pbuh) or Islam AS HAVING BEEN
BRIBED by the Arabs! They are giving too much credit to my
bretheren. I repeat: "It is possible, but it is improbable!"
During the Second World War, Norway produced only
one "Quisling."
is unlikely that America and the Western world have just
reached puberty to spawn a breed of Quislings nurtured by
hot petrodollars from the Middle East. Please do not
demean your honest, courageous men, who without fear or
favour are prepared to suffer obloquy for their convictions.
We must all admire them!
1. With apologies to Thomas Carlyle and his -"Hero and Hero-worship."
2. "Quisling" has come to mean a person who is a traitor to his nation and his country.
We can now justifiably conclude that the God of Mercy,
Who forever recognises the sincere efforts of His servants, is
only fulfilling His Promise to Muhammad (pbuh), His Chosen
Messenger -
AND HAVE WE NOT RAISED HIGH
THE ESTEEM (IN WHICH) THOU
(ARE HELD)? Hoiy Quran 94:4
Alternative renderings:
(a) Have We not exalted thy fame?
(b) And have We not raised thy name for thee?(c) Have We not given you high renown?
Friends and foes alike, as if by some secret compulsion
are made to pay unsolicited tributes to this mighty Messen-
ger of God. But the Almighty commandeers even the devil
into His service, as He had done in the time of Jesus (pbuh),
(Matthew 4:1 -11). Even the devil sometimes speaks Gospel
truths.
Professor K.S. Ramakrishna Rao, a Hindu philosopher in
his book "MUHUMMED - The Prophet of lslam",
quotes the arch-devil himself, yes, Adolf Hitler, to prove the
unique greatness of Muhammad (pbuh).
The Professor, like Jules Masserman who had evaluated
the Prophet of Islam on three grounds (see appendix "C"
1. These quotes are from different translations of the Holy Quran. There are no separate
"Versions" of the Holy Quran. For "What is a Version," obtain my book - "Is the
Bible God''s Word?"
2. Obtainable FREE from the IPCI.
on page 63) also saw in Hitler's "Mein Kamp!" a three-
faceted jewel, a rare commodity which he found in our
hero under discussion. Quoting Hitler, he says:
"A GREAT THEORIST IS SELDOM A GREAT LEADER.
AN AGITATOR IS FAR MORE LIKELY TO POSSESS
THESE QUALITIES. HE WILL ALWAYS BE A BETTER
LEADER. FOR, LEADERSHIP MEANS THE ABILITY TO
MOVE MASSES OF MEN. THE TALENT TO PRO-
DUCE IDEAS HAS NOTHING IN COMMON WITH
THE CAPACITY FOR LEADERSHIP." HITLER CON-
TINUES, "THE UNION OF THE THEORIST,
ORGANISER, AND LEADER IN ONE MAN IS THE
RAREST PHENOMENON ON THIS EARTH; THEREIN
CONSISTS GREATNESS." PROFESSOR RAO CON-
CLUDES, IN HIS OWN WORDS, "IN THE PERSON
OF THE PROPHET OF ISLAM THE WORLD HAS
SEEN THIS RAREST PHENOMENON ON EARTH,
WALKING IN FLESH AND BLOOD."
SHARE THE ANGER
Before anyone assails the Professor of undue bias and
"bribery," let me give them a few more names of admirers
of Muhammad (pbuh).
1. "MUHUMMAD WAS THE SOUL OF KINDNESS,
AND HIS INFLUENCE WAS FELT AND NEVER
FORGOTTEN BY THOSE AROUND HIM."
A Hindu scholar - Diwan Chand Sharma in his
"The Prophets of the East," Calcutta 1935, p. 122.
2. "FOUR YEARS AFTER THE DEATH OF JUSTINIAN,
A.D. 569, WAS BORN AT MAKKAH, IN ARABIA
THE MAN WHO, OF ALL MEN EXERCISED THE
GREATEST INFLUENCE
RACE ... MOHAMMED ..."
John William Draper, M.D., LLD., in his "A History of the
lntellectual Development of Europe",- London 1875.
3. "I DOUBT WHETHER ANY MAN WHOSE
EXTERNAL CONDITIONS CHANGED SO MUCH
EVER CHANGED HIMSELF LESS TO MEET THEM."
R. V. C. Bodley in
"The Messenger,"- London 1946, p.9.
4. "I HAVE STUDIED HIM - THE WONDERFUL
MAN - AND IN MY OPINION FAR FROM
BEING AN ANTI-CHRIST, HE MUST BE CALLED
THE SAVIOUR OF HUMANITY."
George Bernard Shaw, in
"The Genuine Islam,- Vol. 1, No. 81936.
5. "BY A FORTUNE ABSOLUTELY UNIQUE IN HIS-
TORY, MOHAMMED IS A THREEFOLD FOUNDER
OF A NATION, OF AN EMPIRE, AND OF A
RELIGION."
R. Bosworth-Smith in
"Mohammed and Mohammedanism".- 1946.
6. "MOHAMMED WAS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL OF
ALL RELIGIOUS PERSONALITIES."
Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition
1. I wonder whether Michael H. Hart, as a historian, had stumbled across Draper's remark
to inspire him to write his "THE 100"- a ranking of the Most Influential Persons in
History? See page 3. Have you written for your FREE copy of the chapter on
Muhammad (pbuh) from the "TOP 100," yet?
Chapter 2
FROM THE HISTORICAL PAST
It is not difficult to reproduce a further dozen or more
eulogies by the admirers and critics of Muhammad (pbuh).
Despite all their objectivity, jaundiced minds can always
conjure up some aspersions. Let me take my readers deep
down in past history.
It was Friday the 8th of May, 1840, that is about a
hundred and fifty years ago, at a time when it was a
sacrilege to say anything good about Muhammad (pbuh),
and the Christian West was trained to hate the man
Muhammad (pbuh) and his religion, the same way as dogs
were at one stage trained in my country to hate all black
people.
greatest thinkers of the past century delivered a series of
lectures under the theme - "Heroes and Hero-worship."
DEVELOPED SICKNESS
Carlyle exposed this blind prejudice of his people at the
beginning of his talk. He made reference to one of the
literary giants a Dutch scholar and statesman, by the name
of Hugo Grotius,
invective against the prophet of Islam. He had falsely
charged that the Holy Prophet had trained pigeons to pick
out peas from his ears, so that he could by this trick bluff
his people that the Holy Ghost in the shape of a dove was
revealing God's Revelation to him, which he then had them
1. By the way "dogs are colour blind!" Yet it can be done.
2. From page 57 of the book - "On Heroes Hero-worship and the Heroic in History" by
Thomas Carlyle, London 1959.
recorded in his Bible the Quran. Perhaps Grotius was
inspired into this fairy-tale from his reading of his own Holy
Scriptures:
'Then, Jesus, when he had been
baptized (by John the Baptist in the Jordan
River), came up immediately from the
water; and behold, the heavens were
opened to him, and he saw the
Spirit of God Descending Like A
Dove and alighting upon him.
(Emphasis added) Matthew 3:16
WHERE'S THE AUTHORITY
Pococke, another respected intellectual of the time, like
"doubting Thomas" (John 20:25), wanted proof about
Muhammad (pbuh), the pigeons, and the peas? Grotius
answered "THAT THERE WAS NO PROOF!"
He just felt like inventing this story for his audience. To
him and his audience the "pigeons and peas" theory was
more plausible than that of the Archangel dictating to
Muhammad (pbuh). These falsities wringed the heart of
Carlyle. He cried:
"THE LIES, WHICH WELL-MEANING ZEAL HAS
HEAPED ROUND THIS MAN, ARE DISGRACEFUL TO
OURSELVES ONLY."
Thomas Carlyle
THE HERO PROPHET
Carlyle was a man of genius and God gifted him with
the art of articulation. In his own way, he wanted to put the
records straight. He planned to deliver a lecture and he
chose a very provocative topic"The hero as Prophet." and
he chose this hero-prophet to be the most maligned man of
his time, "MUHAMMAD (PBUH)!" Not Moses, david, Solomon,
or Jesus but Muhammad!1
Anglican (belonging to the Church of England) fellow
countrymen, he apologised -
"AS THERE IS NO DANGER OF OUR BECOMING,
ANY OF US, MAHOMETANS,
ALL THE GOOD OF HIM I JUSTLY CAN."
In other words he, as well as his elite audience were
free from the fear of converting to islam, and could take a
chance in paying some compliments to Muhammad (pbuh).
If he had any fears regarding the strength of their faith, he
would not have taken that chance.
In an era of hatred and spite towards evernhing Islamic
and to an audience full of scepticism and cynicism, Carlyle
unfolded many a glowing truth about his hero -
Muhammad (pbuh). To the "praise-worthy," indeed be
praise. For that is what the very name Muhammad means -
the Praised One - the Praiseworthy. There are times when
Carlyle uses words and expressions which miqht not be too
pleasing to the believing Muslim, but one has to forgive him
as he was walking a cultural tightrope, and he succeeded
eminently.
He Paid our hero many ardent and enthusiastic tribute,
and defended him from the false charges and calumnies of
his enemies, exactly as the Prophet had done in the case of
Jesus (pbuh) and his mother.
1. May the Peace and Blessings of God be upon all his servants.
2. "Mahometans' means Muslims
3. See -Muhummed the Natural Successor to Christ" by the author.
HIS SINCERITY
la. "THE GREAT MAN'S SINCERITY IS OF THE
KIND HE CANNOT SPEAK OF: NAY, I SUP-
POSE, HE IS CONSCIOUS RATHER OF IN-
SINCERITY; FOR WHAT MAN CAN WALK
ACCURATELY BY THE LAW OF TRUTH FOR
ONE DAY? NO, THE GREAT MAN DOES NOT
BOAST HIMSELF SINCERE, FAR FROM THAT;
PERHAPS DOES NOT ASK HIMSELF IF HE IS
SO: I WOULD SAY RATHER, HIS SINCERITY
DOES NOT DEPEND ON HIMSELF: HE CAN-
NOT HELP BEING SINCERE!" Heros and Hero-Worship, p.59
b. "A SILENT GREAT SOUL, HE WAS ONE OF
THOSE WHO CANNOT BUT BE IN EARNEST,
WHOM NATURE HERSELF HAS APPOINTED TO
BE SINCERE. WHILE OTHERS WALK IN
FORMULAS AND HEARSAYS, CONTENTED
ENOUGH TO DWELL THERE, THIS MAN COULD
NOT SCREEN HIMSELF IN FORMULAS; HE WAS
ALONE WITH HIS OWN SOUL AND THE
REALITY OF THINGS. . . SUCH SINCERITY, AS
WE NAMED IT, HAS IN VERY TRUTH SOME-
THING OF DIVINE. THE WORD OF SUCH A
MAN IS A VOICE DIRECT FROM NATURE'S
OWN HEART. MEN DO AND MUST LISTEN TO
THAT AS TO NOTHING ELSE, - - - ALL ELSE IS
WIND IN COMPARISON." Heros and Hero-Worship, p.71
In his lengthy speech, Carlyle did not have the oppor-
tunity to inform his audience about the sources of his
inferences. I may furnish just one incident from the life of
the Prophet. An incidence which reflects the highest degree
of his sincerity in recording a Revelation in the Holy Quran
even if it seems to reprove him for some natural and human
zeal.
ADMONITION AS REVEALED
It was in the early days of his mission in Makkah.
Muhammad (pbuh) was deeply engrossed in trying to wean
the leaders of the pagan Quraish to his teachings. Apparen-
tly one of them was giving him an attentive hearing when a
poor blind man by the name Of Abdullah lbn Umm-1-
Maktum tried to barge in into the discussion and wanting
to draw attention to himself. The blessed Prophet said
nothing, but a thought went through his mind (why don't
you have a little patience, can't you see (sense) that because
of your impatience I might lose these customers). I believe
that lesser men, sinners and saints, will not be questioned for
such lapses, but not so for Muhammad (pbuh). Did not God
choose him and honour him with that lofty status as
recorded?
And Most Certainly Thou (O Muhammad) Are of Most sublime And Exalted Character. Holy Quran 68:4
HE FROWNED
Whilst in the midst of the conversation with his pagan
fellow tribesmen, God Almighty sends Gabriel, the Angel of
Revelation, with this admonition:
(THE PROPHET) FROWNED
AND TURNED AWAY,
BECAUSE THERE CAME TO HIM
THE BLIND MAN (INTERRUPTING).
BUT WHAT COULD TELL THEE
THAT PERCHANCE HE MIGHT GROW
(IN SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING)?
OR THAT HE MIGHT RECEIVE
ADMONITION, AND THE TEACHING
MIGHT PRORT HIM?
Holy Quran 80:1-4
The holy Prophet (pbuh) had naturally disliked the
interruption. Perhaps the poor man's feelings were hurt. But
he whose gentle heart ever sympathised with the poor and
the afflicted, got new Light (Revelation) from his Lord, and
without the least hesitation, he immediately published it for
all eternity!
Subsequently, everytime he met this blind man, he
received him graciously and thanked him that on his
account the Lord had remembered him. During Muhammad's
(pbuh) absences from Madinah, the blind man was made
the Governor of the City twice. Such was the sincerity and
gratitude of Carlyle's Hero Prophet.
HIS FIDELITY
2. "IT IS A BOUNDLESS FAVOUR.HE
NEVER FORGOT THIS GOOD KADIJAH. LONG
AFTERWARDS, AYESHA HIS YOUNG FAVOURITE
WIFE, A WOMAN WHO INDEED DISTINGUISHED
HERSELF AMONG THE MOSLEMS, BY ALL MAN-
NER OF QUALITIES, THROUGH HER WHOLE
LONG LIFE; THIS YOUNG BRILLIANT AYESHA
WAS, ONE DAY, QUESTIONING HIM.'NOW AM
NOT I BETTER THAN KADIJAH? SHE WAS A
1. A few poetic verses on fidelity will be found in Appendix "D" page 63.
WIDOW; OLD, AND HAD LOST HER LOOKS:
YOU LOVE ME BETTER THAN YOU DID HER?'
'NO, BY ALLAH!' ANSWERED
MAHOMET: 'NO, BY ALLAH! SHE BELIEVED IN
ME WHEN NONE ELSE WOULD BELIEVE. IN THE
WHOLE WORLD I HAD BUT ONE FRIEND, AND
SHE WAS THAT!... Heros and Hero-Worship, p. 76
It would have been easier to repel the temptation of
the devil than to succumb to the ego of a young, loving,
brilliant and beautiful wife like lady Ayesha Siddiqa. Why
not let her hear the soft soothing balm of flattery-, it will not
harm anyone. Even the soul of Bibi Khadija, the mother of
the Faithful, would look light-heartedly at the ruse. There is
no shamming, no innocent "white lies" with Muhammad
(pbuh). Traits of this kind show us the genuine man, brother
of us all, brought visible through fourteen centuries, - - -
the veritable son of our common mother.
'AL AMEEN. THE FAITHFUL'
3a. "A MAN OF TRUTH AND FIDELITY; TRUE IN
WHAT HE DID, IN WHAT HE SPAKE AND
THOUGHT. THEY NOTED THAT HE ALWAYS
MEANT SOMETHING. A MAN RATHER TACI-
TURN IN SPEECH; SILENT WHEN THERE WAS
NOTHING TO BE SAID; BUT PERTINENT WISE,
SINCERE, WHEN HE DID SPEAK; ALWAYS
THROWING LIGHT ON THE MATTER. THIS IS
THE ONLY SORT OF SPEECH WORTH
SPEAKING!" Heros and Hero-Worship, p. 69
b. "MAHOMET NATURALLY GAVE OFFENCE TO
THE KOREISH, KEEPERS OF THE KAABAH,
SUPERINTENDENTS OF THE IDOLS. ONE OR
TWO MEN OF INFLUENCE HAD JOINED HIM:
THE THING SPREAD SLOWLY, BUT IT WAS
SPREADING, NATURALLY HE GAVE OFFENCE
TO EVERYBODY."
FEROCITY, IF THE CASE CALL FOR IT, IS IN
HIM; HE DOES NOT MINCE MATRERS! THE
WAR OF TABUC IS A THING HE OFTEN
SPEAKS OF: HIS MEN REFUSED, MANY OF
THEM, TO MARCH ON THAT OCCASION;
PLEADED THE HEAT OF THE WEATHER, THE
HARVEST, AND SO FORTH; HE CAN NEVER
FORGET THAT. YOUR HARVEST? IT LASTS FOR
A DAY. WHAT WILL BECOME OF YOUR
HARVEST THROUGH ALL ETERNITY? HOT
WEATHER? YES, IT WAS HOT; 'BUT HELL WILL
BE HOTRER!' SOMETIMES A ROUGH SARCASM
TURNS UP: HE SAYS TO THE UNBELIEVERS, YE
SHALL NOT HAVE SHORT WEIGHT!" Heros and Hero-Worship, p. 95/6.
Remember, Thomas Carlyle uttered these words, and
many more to a shocked and bewildered Christian audience
in England, a hundred and fifty years ago. History did not
record for us the lively arguments and debates which his
lecture must naturally have caused. He kept to his promise:
"I mean to say all the good of him (his Hero Prophet)
I justly can'" and he went on in his talk to I defend
Muhammad (pbuh) against the false charges, slander and
calumnies of his enemies:
1. The Jews hated the Prophet: the Christians hated the Prophet: the mushriks (the
Polytheists) hated the Prophet, and the Munafiqeen (the hypocrites) hated the
Prophet. It is the nature of Falsehood to hate the Truth. Light dismisses Darkness, but
darkness does not take kindly to light.
CHARGE OF FALSITY
4a. "A FALSE MAN FOUND A RELIGION? WHY,
A FALSE MAN CANNOT BUILD A BRICK
HOUSE! IF HE DOES NOT KNOW AND
FOLLOW TRULY THE PROPERTIES OF
MORTAR, BURNT CLAY AND WHAT ELSE
HE WORKS IN, IT IS NO HOUSE THAT HE
MAKES, BUT A RUBBISH HEAP. IT WILL
NOT STAND FOR TWELVE CENTURIES,
TO LODGE A HUNDRED-AND EIGHTY
MILLIONS;
. . . SPECIOSITIES ARE SPECIOUS
IS LIKE A FORGED BANK NOTE; THEY
GET IT PASSED OUT OF THEIR
WORTHLESS HANDS: OTHERS, NOT
THEY, HAVE TO SMART FOR IT. NATURE
BURSTS-UP IN FIRE-FLAMES, FRENCH
REVOLUTIONS AND SUCH-LIKE,
PROCLAIMING WITH THE TERRIBLE
VERACITY THAT FORGED NOTES ARE
FORGED."
Heros and Hero-Worship ), p. 58
b."IT GOES GREATLY AGAINST THE
IMPOSTER THEORY, THE FACT THAT HE
LIVED IN THIS ENTIRELY
UNEXCEPTIONABLE, ENTIRELY QUIET
AND COMMON PLACE WAY, TILL THE
HEAT OF HIS YEARS WAS DONE. HE
WAS FORTY BEFORE HE TALKED OF ANY
MISSION FROM HEAVEN . . ALL HIS
'AMBITION,' SEEMINGLY, HAD BEEN,
HITHERTO, TO LIVE AN HONEST LIFE; HIS
'FAME,' THE MERE GOOD OPINION OF
NEIGHBOURS THAT KNEW HIM..."
Heros and Hero-Worship, p. 70
1. Now, fourteen centuries.
2. A thousand million today.
3. Specious: Having the ring of truth or plausibility but actually false.
c. "AMBITION? WHAT COULD ALL ARABIA DO
FOR THIS MAN; WITH THE CROWN OF GREEK
HERACLIUS, OF PERSIAN CHOSROES, AND ALL
THE CROWNS IN EARTH; - WHAT COULD
THEY ALL DO FOR HIM? IT WAS NOT OF THE
HEAVEN ABOVE AND OF THE HELL BENEATH.
ALL CROWNS AND SOVEREIGNTIES WHAT-
SOEVER, WHERE WOULD THEY IN A FEW
BRIEF YEARS BE? TO BE SHEIK OF MAKKAH
OR ARABIA, AND HAVE A BIT OF GILT
WOOD PUT INTO YOUR HAND, - - -
WILL THAT BE ONES SALVATION? I DECIDEDLY
THINK, NOT, WE WILL LEAVE IT ALTOGETHER,
THIS IMPOSTER HYPOTHESIS, AS NOT CREDIT-
ABLE: NOT VERY TOLERABLE EVEN, WORTHY
CHIEFLY OF DISMISSAL BY US."
Heros and Hero-Worship, p. 72/3 CHARGE OF SINNING
5. "FAULTS? THE GREATEST OF FAULTS, I
SHOULD SAY, IS TO BE CONSCIOUS OF
NONE. READERS OF THE BIBLE ABOVE ALL,
ONE WOULD THINK, MIGHT KNOW BETTER.
WHO IS CALLED THERE 'THE MAN ACCORD-
ING TO GOD'S OWN HEART'? DAVID, THE
HEBREW KING HAD FALLEN INTO SINS
ENOUGH; BLACKEST CRIMES; THERE WAS NO
WANT OF SINS.
UNBELIEVERS SNEER AND ASK, IS THIS YOUR
MAN ACCORDING TO GOD'S HEART? THE
SNEER, I MUST SAY, SEEMS TO ME BUT A
1. This is the Jewish and Christian concept of God's prophets. They charge their prophets
with incest, adultery and even murder. They impure horrendous crimes to them on the
authority of the Holy Bible.
SHALLOW ONE. WHAT ARE FAULTS, WHAT
ARE THE OUTWARD DETAILS OF A LIFE; IF
THE INNER SECRET OF IT, THE REMORSE,
TEMPTATIONS, TRUE, OFTEN-BAFFLED, NEVER-
ENDED STRUGGLE OF IT BE FORGOTTEN? 'IT
IS NOT IN MAN THAT WALKETH TO DIRECT
HIS STEPS.' OF ALL ACTS, IS NOT, FOR A
MAN, REPENTANCE THE MOST DIVINE? THE
DEADLIEST SIN, I SAY, WERE THE SAME SUPER-
CILIOUS CONSCIOUSNESS OF NO SIN; THAT
IS DEATH; THE HEART SO CONSCIOUS IS
DIVORCED FROM SINCERITY, HUMILITY, AND
FACT; IS DEAD: IT IS 'PURE' AS DEAD DRY
SAND IS PURE."
Heros and Hero-Worship. p. 61
CHARGE OF "THE SWORD"
The greatest crime, the greatest "sin" of Muhammad
(pbuh} in the eyes of the Christian West is that he did not
allow himself to be slaughtered, to be "crucified" by his
enemies. He ably defended himself, his family and his
followers; and finally vanquished his enemies. Muhammad's
(pbuh} success is the Christians' gall of disappointment: he
did not believe in any vicarious sacrifice for the sins of
others. He believed and behaved naturally. IN THE STATE
OF NATURE, EVERY ONE HAS A RIGHT TO DEFEND HIS
PERSON AND POSSESSIONS, AND EXTEND HIS HOSTILITIES
TO A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF SATISFACTION AND
RETALIATION," says Gibbon, the master historian in his
"Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." His struggle and
victory over the forces of unbelief and evil made the editors
of the Encyclopedia Britannica to exclaim, Muhammad
(pbuh} to be - - - "THE MOST SUCCESSFUL OF ALL
RELIGIOUS PERSONALITIES."
How can the enemies of Islam account for Muhammad's
phenomenal achievements except to decry that he spread
his religion at the point of the sword? He forced Islam down
peoples' throats!?
6a. "HISTORY MAKES IT CLEAR HOWEVER, THAT
THE LEGEND OF FANATICAL MUSLIMS SWEEP-
ING THROUGH THE WORLD AND FORCING
ISLAM AT THE POINT OF THE SWORD UPON
CONQUERED RACES IS ONE OF THE MOST
FANTASTICALLY ABSURD MYTHS THAT
HISTORIANS HAVE EVER REPEATED."
De Lacy O'Leary in "Islam at the Crossroads'' London, 1923, p.8
You do not have to be a historian like O'Leary to know
that the Muslims ruled Spain for 736 years. The longest the
Christians ever ruled over Muslims was 500 years in Mozam-
bique, a territory captured from an Arab governor by the
name of Musa-bin-baique, a name they could not properly
pronounce, hence the name Mozambique. Even today, after
five centuries of Christian overlordship the country is still 60
percent Muslim.
However, after eight centuries in Spain the Muslims were
totally eliminated from that country so that not even one
man was left to give the Azan {the Muslim call to prayer}.
If the Muslims had used force, military or economic there
would not have been any Christian left in Spain to have
kicked the Muslims out. One can blame the Muslims for
exploitation if you like but one cannot charge them with
using the sword to convert Spaniards to the Islamic religion.
Today, Islam is still spreading all over the world -
and Muslims have NO sword!!
The Muslims were also the masters of India for a
thousand years, but eventually when the sub-continent
received independence in 1947, the Hindus obtained three-
quarters of the country and the Muslims the balance of the
one-quarter. Why? Because the Muslims did not force Islam
down the Hindus' throats! In Spain and in India, the Muslims
were no paragons of virtue, yet they obeyed the Qur'anic
injunction to the letter -
LET THERE BE NO COMPULSION
IN RELIGION:
FOR TRUTH STANDS OUT
DISTINCT FROM ERROR. Holy Quran 2:256
The Muslim conquerors understood from this command
that "compulsion" was incompatible with true religion:
because
(a} Religion depends on faith and will, and these
would be meaningless if induced by force.
Force can conquer but cannot convert.
(b) Truth and Error have been so clearly shown
up by the Mercy of God that there should
be no doubt in the minds of any person of
goodwill as to the fundamentals of faith.
(c) God's protection is continuous and His Plan is
always to lead us from the depths of dark-
ness into the clearest light.
Except for some eccentrics here and there, the Muslims
as a whole adhered to the commandment of God in the
lands over which they held sway.
1. (a), (b} and (c) are Yusuf Ali's comments on verse 256. Obtain his translation with over 6000 explanatory footnotes from the IPCI.
But what can the enemy say about countries where no
single Muslim soldier had set foot?
(i) INDONESIA: It is a fact that over a hundred
million Indonesians are Muslim, yet no con-
quering Muslim army ever landed on any of
its over two thousand islands.
(ii} MALAYSIA: The overwhelming number of its
people in this country are Muslims yet no
Muslim soldier had landed there either.
(iii} AFRICA: The majority of the people on the
East coast of Africa as far down as Mozam-
bique, as well as the bulk of the inhabitants
on the West coast of the continent are
Muslims, but history does not record any
invading hoards of Muslims from anywhere.
What sword? Where was the sword? The
Muslim trader did the job. His good conduct
and moral rectitude achieved the miracle of
conversion.
"All what you say seems incontrovertible, Mr. Deedat,"
says the Christian controversialist, "but we are talking about
Islam at its very beginning, the way in which your prophet
converted the pagans to his faith! How did he do it if not
with the sword?"
ONE AGAINST ALL?
We can do no better than to allow Thomas Carlyle
himself to defend his Hero Prophet against this false
charge; - - -
7. "THE SWORD INDEED: BUT WHERE WILL YOU
GET YOUR SWORD! EVERY NEW OPINION, AT
ITS STARTING, IS PRECISELY IN A MINORITY
OF ONE. IN ONE MAN'S HEAD ALONE,
THERE IT DWELLS AS YET. ONE MAN ALONE
OF THE WHOLE WORLD BELIEVES IT; THERE IS
ONE MAN AGAINST ALL MEN. THAT HE TAKE
A SWORD, AND TRY TO PROPAGATE WITH
THAT, WILL DO LITTLE FOR HIM. YOU MUST
FIRST GET YOUR SWORD! ON THE WHOLE, A
THING WILL PROPAGATE ITSELF AS IT CAN.
WE DO NOT FIND, OF THE CHRISTIAN
RELIGION EITHER, THAT IT ALWAYS DIS-
DAINED THE SWORD, WHEN ONCE IT HAD
GOT ONE. CHARLEMAGNE'S CONVERSION OF
THE SAXONS WAS NOT BY PREACHING."
Heroes and Hero-Worship. p. 80
At the age of forty when Muhammad {pbuh} declared
his mission from heaven, there was no political party, or
royalty, and certainly no family or tribe to back him up. His
people - the Arabs, immersed in idol-worship and fetishism
were not by any means a docile people, they were no easy
meat. They were a very volatile people. given to internecine
and fratricidal wars: subject to "all kinds of fierce sin-
cerities - " {Carlyle}. One man, single-handed, to wean such a
people required nothing short of a miracle. A miracle did
happen. God alone could have made Islam and Muhammad
{pbuh} to triumph through with flimsy, gossamer support.
God fulfilling His promise:
And have We not raised high the esteem in which thou O Muhammad are held?
Holy Quran 94:4
Chapter 3
FASTEST GROWING RELIGION TODAY
THE SWORD OF THE INTELECT
The enemy, the sceptic, the missionary and their passive
camp followers will not stop bleating that "lslam was spread
at the point of the sword!" but they will not venture to
answer our question -- "WHO BRIBED CARLYLE!?" In 1840
when Carlyle defended Muhammad (pbuh) and refuted the
allegation about the sword, there was nobody around to
bribe. The whole Muslim world was in the gutters. The
countries of Islam were all under subjugation by the
Christians, except for a few like -Persia, Afghanistan and
Turkey who were only nominally independent. There were
no riches to flaunt and no petro-dollars to bribe with!
That was yesterday and many yesterdays ago, but what
about today, in modern times? It is claimed from the chart
on the next page{See Note 2 below}
religion in the world." The overall increase of all the sects and
denominations of Christianity was a staggering 138 per cent
with the incredible increase of Islam by 235 per cent in the
same period of time of half-a-century. It is further affirmed
that in Britain and the United States of America, Islam is the
fastest growing faith. It is said that in Britain "There are
more Muslims than Methodists in the country." You have
a right to ask, "What sword?" The answer is, "THE SWORD
INDEED!" {Thomas Carlyle}
It is the fulfillment of yet another prophecy; -
1. See full quote on page 31. No. 7.
2. The photograph given on Page 34 shows a 235% increase in Islam from 1934 to 1984.
The photograph given on Page 34 shows a 235% increase in Islam from 1934 to 1984.
IT IS HE (God Almighty) WHO HAS
SENT HIS MESSENGER (Muhammad)
WITH GUIDANCE
AND THE RELIGION OF TRUTH (Islam)
THAT HE MAY MAKE IT PREVAIL
OVER ALL RELIGIONS,
AND ENOUGH IS GOD FOR A WITNESS. Holy Qur'an 48:28
The destiny of Islam is spelt out here in the clearest
terms. Islam is to master, overcome and supersede every
other faith -
That He (God Almighty) make it (Islam)
prevail over all religions ...
In Arabic the word is Deen
of Life",), to supersede all, whether it be Hinduism, Bud-
dhism, Christianism,
"ism." This is the destiny of Allah's Deen.
The same Qur'anic Verse is repeated in chapter 61 verse 9
which ends with this slight variation -
(Never mind) Though the unbelievers
might be averse to it (Islam).
TRIUMPH OF ISLAM
Islam will prevail. It is the promise of God, and His
Promise is true. But how? With the sword? Not even if we
had the laser gun! Could we use it? The Holy Qur'an forbids
us to use force as a means of converting! Yet the verse
1. Usually translated as Religion, which literally Islam is not.
2. In the time of Thomas Carlyle this was the team applied to Christianity.
prophesies that Islam would be the most dominant of
religions. The triumphs of its doctrines have already started
and is gaining hold over the religious ideology and doc-
trines of the various schools of thought in the world. Though
not in the name of Islam, but in the name of reformation
and amendments, the doctrines of Islam are being fastly
grafted into the various religious orders. Many things which
are exclusively Islamic and which were formerly unknown, or
which were being opposed before with tooth and nail by
the other creeds, are now part of their believes.
The Brotherhood of man
The abolition of the Caste system and
untouchability
The right of women to inherit
Opening the places of worship to all
Prohibition of all intoxicants
The true concept of the Unity of God etc.
etc.
Just one word on the last subject above, before we
proceed further. Ask any theist, polytheist,
trinitarian: how many Gods he believes in? He will shudder
to say anything other than ONE! This is the EFFECT of the
strict monotheism of Islam.
THE CREED OF MOHAMED IS FREE FROM THE
SUSPICIONS OF AMBIGUITY AND THE KORAN IS
A GLORIOUS TESTIMONY TO THE UNITY OF GOD.
Gibbon in his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.''
VERDICT OF NON-MUSLIM ORIENTALS
Almost all the defenders of Muhammad (phuh) who
spoke out against the false theory that he spread his religion
1. Polytheist: One who believes in many gods.
2. Pantheist: The one who believes that everything is god. Of course the "trinitarian,'' you already know.
at the point of the sword, were Westerners. Let us now hear
what some non-Muslim Easterners have to say on the
subject:
8a. THE MORE I STUDY THE MORE I
DISCOVER THAT THE STRENGTH OF
ISLAM DOES NOT LIE IN THE SWORD.
Mahatma Gandhi - the father of modern India, in "Young India."
b. THEY {Muhammad's critics} SEE FIRE
INSTEAD OF LIGHT, UGLINESS INSTEAD
OF GOOD. THEY DISTORT AND PRESENT
EVERY GOOD QUALITY AS A GREAT
VICE. IT REFLECTS THEIR OWN
DEPRAVITY... THE CRITICS ARE BLIND.
THEY CANNOT SEE THAT THE ONLY
'SWORD' MUHAMMAD WIELDED WAS THE
SWORD OF MERCY, COMPASSION,
FRIENDSHIP AND FORGIVENESS - THE
SWORD THAT CONQUERS ENEMIES AND
PURIFIES THEIR HEARTS. HIS SWORD
WAS SHARPER THAN THE SWORD OF
STEEL.
Pandit Gyanandra Dev Sharma Shastri, at a meeting in Gorakhpur lndia). 1928
c. HE PREFERRED MIGRATION TO FIGHTING
HIS OWN PEOPLE, BUT WHEN
OPPRESSION WENT BEYOND THE PALE
OF TOLERANCE HE TOOK UP HIS SWORD
IN SELF-DEFENCE. THOSE WHO BELIEVE
RELIGION CAN BE SPREAD BY FORCE
ARE FOOLS WHO NEITHER KNOW THE
WAYS OF RELIGION NOR THE WAYS OF
THE WORLD. THEY ARE PROUD OF THIS
BELIEF BECAUSE THEY ARE A LONG,
LONG WAY AWAY FROM THE TRUTH.
A Sikh journalist in "Nawan Hindustan," Delhi, 17 November 1947.
It was Rudyard Kipling who said, "East is East and
West Is West, never the twain shall meet!" He was
wrong! In the defence of Muhammad {pbuh}, all, who are
not blinded by prejudice will converge.
THREE OTHER STANDARDS
Fourteen years after Thomas Carlyle had delivered his
lecture on his Hero Prophet, a Frenchman by the name of
Lamartine wrote the history of the Turks. Incidentally, the
Turks being Muslims, Lamartine touched on some aspects of
Islam and its founder. Like our Jules Wasserman (see page
10) of current times, who had conceived three objective
standards for discovering greatness of leadership; Lamartine
had over 2 century ago thought of three other objective
standards for conferring GREATNESS. We must give credit to
the Westemer for this type of insight. Lamartine opines:
9. IF GREATNESS OF PURPOSE, SMALLNESS OF
MEANS AND ASTOUNDING RESULTS1 ARE
THE THREE CRITERIA OF HUMAN GENIUS, WHO
COULD DARE TO COMPARE ANY GREAT MAN
IN MODERN HISTORY WITH MUHUMMED?
{Lamartine ends his lengthy segment of literary
masterpiece with the words): . . . PHILO-
SOPHER, ORATOR, APOSTLE, LEGISLATOR, WAR-
RIOR, CONQUEROR OF IDEAS, RESTORER OF
RATIONAL BELIEFS, OF A CULT WITHOUT
IMAGES: THE FOUNDER OF TWENTY TERRES-
TRIAL EMPIRES AND OF ONE SPIRITUAL EMPIRE,
THAT IS MUHUMMED. AS REGARDS ALL
STANDARDS BY WHICH HUMAN GREATNESS
MAY BE MEASURED, WE MAY WELL ASK, IS
THERE ANY MAN GREATER THEN HE?
Lamartine, "Historie de la Turquie," Paris 1854
1. The full quotation from Lamartine's book will be found in appendix''B" page 61.
The answer to his question, "Is there any man greater
than he?" is reposed in the question itself. By implication he
is saying . . . "there is no man greater than Muhammad.
Muhammad is the greatest man that ever lived!"
And have We not raised high the esteem (in which) thou (O Muhammad are held)? Holy Quran 94:4
MOST CERTAINLY THOU HAST, O MY LORD!
Before we absolve Lamartine of any favouritism, par-
tiality, or of the charge of being bribed, we will scrutinize
his three standards, and whether they can be justified in the
case of Muhammad {pbuh).
1. GREATNESS OF PURPOSE
History of the time will tell you that it was the darkest
period in the history of mankind when Muhammad {pbuh}
was commanded to declare his mission. The need was for
the raising of prophets in every corner of the world, or the
sending of one Master Messenger for the whole of mankind,
to deliver them from falsehood, superstition, selfishness,
polytheism, wrong and oppression. It was to be the recla-
mation of the whole of humanity. And God Almighty in His
wisdom chose His prophet from the backwaters of Arabia as
His universal Messenger. Thus He records in His Noble
Book -
AND WE SENT THEE NOT {O Mubammad},
BUT AS A MERCY
UNTO {all} THE WORLDS.
Holy Quran 21:107
"There is no question now of race or nation, of a
"chosen people" or the "seed of Abraham," or
the "seed of David": or of Hindu Arya varta; of
Jew or Gentile. Arab or 'Ajam {Persian), Turk or
Tajik, European or Asiatic, White or Coloured;
Aryan, Semitic, Mongolian, or African: or Ame-
rican, Australian, or Polynesian. To all men and
creatures who have any spiritual responsibility,
the principles universally apply."
Abdulbh Yusut Ali1
JESUS {PBUH) DlSCRIMINATES
Muhammad's (pbuh) immediate predecessor advised his
disciples, "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs"
(meaning non-Jews}, "Neither cast ye your pearls before
swine" (meaning non-Jews, Matthew 7:6). The Gospel writers
are unanimous in recording that Christ lived by the precepts
which he preached. In his lifetime he did not preach to a
single non-Jew. In fact he spurned a gentile woman who
sought his spiritual blessings {"the woman was a Greek''
Mark 7:26). Then during the "Passover" season in Jerusalem
when the master with his disciples had congregated for the
occasion, certain Greeks hearing of his reputation sought an
audience with him for spiritual enlightenment, but Jesus
{pbuh} gave them the "cold shoulder''2 as narrated by St.
John:
And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast: The same came therefore to Philip . . . and desired him saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.
1. Get your copy now of Yusuf Ali's English translation and cornrnentary, with over 6000 annotations. Obtain a copy for your non-Muslim friend, also.
2. Means a deliberately unkind or unfriendly treatment; a slight; a snub.
Philip cometh and telleth Andrew:
and again Andrew and Philip tell
Jesus.
John 12:20-22
SELF GLORIFICATION
The verses that follow do not even record the courtesy
of "Yea,yea;" or "Nay, nay;" (Yes, yes or no, no of
Matthew 5:37). They continue with his own praise -
And Jesus answered them (Andrew and
Philip), saying, The hour is come, that
the son of man (referring to himself}
should be glorified.
John 12:23
HIGHEST STANDARDS
Muhammad (pbuh) could never afford any such lati-
tudes. Remember, how the Almighty reminded him of the
highest etiquette required from him. Even the thought of
being ruffled by the untimely intrusion of a blind man, was
not accepted from him {see page 22 "He frowned']. As a
universal Messenger, God set for him the most lofty
standards:
And Most Certainly,
Thou (O Muhammad)
Are of most sublime
And Exalted Character.
Holy Quran 68:4
And his diocese, his field of mission? The whole of mankind!
And We sent thee not (O Muhammad), but as a mercy unto (all) the worlds. Holy Quran 21:107
UNIVERSAL MESSENGER
These are not mere platitudes; beautiful sentiments bereft of action. Muhammad (pbuh) practised what he preached. Among his first Sahabas (companions) and converts, beside the Arabs can be counted Bilal the Abyssinian, Salman the Persian and Abdullah Bin-Salaam the Jew. The sceptics may say that his outreach was simply incidental but what can they say about the historical fact that before his demise, he sent out five epistles, one to each of the five surrounding countries, inviting them to accept the religion of Islam.
1. The Emperor of Persia
2. The King of Egypt
3. The Negus of Abyssinia
4. The Emperor Hiraclius at Constantinople, and
5. The King of Yemen
Thus he set the example for the fulfilment of his impelling mission, his "greatness of purpose," the reclamation of the whole of humanity into the Master's fold. Is there another example of such universality in another religion? Muhammad (pbuh) was not out to set or to break any records, he was simply carrying out the trust that was reposed in him by the Lord of Creation!
2. SMALLNESS OF MEANS
Muhammad (pbuh) was born with no silver spoon in his mouth.
His life begins with infinitesimal support. His father
had died before he was bom. His mother dies by the time he was six years old. He was doubly-orphaned at this tender age, his grandfather Abdul-Muttalib takes charge of the child, but within three years he also died. As soon as he was able, he began to look after his uncle Abu Talib's sheep and goats for his keep. Contrast this poor, double-orphaned Arab child with some of the great religious personalities that preceded him, and you must marvel at what Destiny had in store for him!
Abraham (pbuh) the spiritual father of Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (May the peace of God be upon them all), was the son of a very successful businessman of his time. Moses (pbuh) was reared in the house of Pharoah. Jesus (pbuh) though described as "a carpenter and the son of a carpenter," was well endowed with learning as well as material means. Peter, Philip, Andrew, etc. all downed tools and followed him to be at his beck and call, not because he had any halo
And when they found him (Jesus)
on the other side of the sea, they
said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?"
Jesus answered them and said, "most
assuredly, I say to you, you seek me,
1. Halo.- An imaginary luminous ring or disc surrounding the head of saintly men and women in religious paintings.
not because you saw the signs,
because you ate of the loaves and
were filled. John 6:25-26
NOTHING TO OFFER
Muhammad (pbuh) had no bread nor meat to offer, no sugar-plums of any kind, in this world or the next! The only thing he could offer his bedraggled, poor shepherd people was trial and tribulations and the strait-jacketing of their lives here on earth and the good pleasures of God in the Hereafter. The life of the Prophet was an open book before them. He had shown them as to what he was; the nobility of his character, his integrity of purpose, his earnestness and fiery enthusiasm for the truth he had come to preach revealed the hero; and they followed him. Mr. Stanley Lane Poole's estimate of our hero is so beautiful and yet so truthful that I cannot resist the temptation of quoting it here:
HE WAS AN ENTHUSIAST IN THAT NOBLEST SENSE WHEN ENTHUSIASM BECOMES THE SALT OF THE EARTH, THE ONE THING THAT KEEPS MEN FROM ROTTING WHILST THEY LIVE.
ENTHUSIASM IS OFTEN USED DESPITEFULLY, BECAUSE IT IS JOINED TO AN UNWORTHY CAUSE, OR FALLS UPON BARREN GROUND AND BEARS NO FRUIT. SO WAS IT NOT WITH MOHAMMED. HE WAS AN ENTHUSIAST WHEN ENTHUSIASM WAS THE ONE THING NEEDED TO SET THE WORLD AFLAME, AND HIS ENTHUSIASM WAS NOBLE FOR A NOBLE CAUSE.
1. The veracity of the Messiah's message and his mission.
HE WAS ONE OF THOSE HAPPY FEW WHO HAVE ATTAINED THE SUPREME JOY OF MAKING ONE GREAT TRUTH THEIR VERY LIFE-SPRING.
HE WAS THE MESSENGER OF THE ONE GOD, AND NEVER TO HIS LIFE'S END DID HE FORGET WHO HE WAS, OR THE MESSAGE WHICH WAS THE MARROW OF HIS BEING. HE BROUGHT HIS TIDINGS TO HIS PEOPLE WITH A GRAND DIGNITY SPRUNG FROM THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF HIS HIGH OFFICE, TOGETHER WITH A MOST SWEET HUMILITY, WHOSE ROOTS LAY IN THE KNOW-LEDGE OF HIS OWN WEAKNESS."
It may easliy be conceded that Muhammad (pbuh) was blessed with the flimsiest of human resources. In fact the odds were loaded against him. But what about his fortune towards the end of his earthly sojourn? He was the overlord of the whole of Arabia! What about the endless means at
his disposal then? We will allow a Christian missionary to answer that -
HE WAS CAESAR AND POPE IN ONE, BUT HE WAS POPE WITHOUT THE POPE'S PRETENTIONS, AND CAESAR WITHOUT THE LEGIONS OF CAESAR: WITHOUT A STANDING ARMY, WITHOUT A BODYGUARD, WITHOUT A PALACE, WITHOUT A FIXED REVENUE; IF EVER ANY MAN HAD THE RIGHT TO SAY THAT HE RULED BY THE RIGHT DIVINE, IT WAS MOHAMMAD, FOR HE HAD ALL THE POWERS WITHOUT ITS INSTRUMENTS AND WITHOUT ITS SUPPORTS." R. Bosworth Smith -Mohammad and Mohammadanism", London 1874, p. 92
HIS HANDICAPS
His "weakness" was his strength. The very fact that he had no material means of support made him to put his entire trust in God, and God the Merciful did not forsake him. His success was all the more staggering. May not the Muslims justly say, the entire work was the work of God?
And Muhammad (pbuh) his Instrument?
3. OUTSTANDING RESULTS
In the words of Thomas Carlyle - "One man against
all men,"
were left behind of men, women and children, believers all?
On the 12th of RABI I., in the 11 th year after the
Hijra,
Hazrat Omar (May Allah be pleased with him), on receiving the sad news of the demise of the Holy Prophet, lost his bearings. He was so shocked that he blurted out "if anyone says that Muhammad is dead, I will chop off his head!" Hazrat Abu Bakr As-Siddiq presently verified that the Master had indeed departed from this world; and coming out from the Prophet's apartment announced to the gathering throng outside, that, "Muhammad (pbuh) had indeed passed away. Those that worshipped Muhammad," he said, "'Let them know that Muhammad is dead, but those who worship Allah, let them know that Allah lives for ever!"
1. See full quotation by Thomas Carlyle on page 31.
2. Hijra literally means Migration.
This brought Omar al-Farooq (R.A.) back to his senses. Could this man who was to become the second great Khaleefah of Islam at this moment imagine that fourteen hundred years later there would be a thousand million followers of Muhammad (pbuh) at one time? Could he have visualized that the religion of the Prophet would be the fastest growing religion in the world?
Christianity had a 600-year start on Islam. Numerically the Christians claim to outnumber the followers of any other faith; this is true but let us look at the picture in its true perspective -
THERE ARE MORE PROFESSING CHRISTIANS IN THE WORLD THAN PROFESSING MUSLIMS, BUT THERE ARE MORE PRACTISING MUSLIMS IN THE WORLD THAN PRACTISING CHRISTIANS.
(Emphasis added) R.V.C. Bodley (the American) in "The Messenger: The Life of Mohammed." U.S.A. 1969
1 understand from the above that Mr. Bodley is trying to tell us that there are people in the world who, when filling their census forms, will tick off the term Christian under "Religion." It is not necessarily that they believe in the dogmas of Christianity. They could actually be atheists or bush-Baptists,
1. See chart on page 34
2. Bush-Baptist: There are forty different Baptist Churches in the United States of America. But bush-Baptists are people with strong religious feelings yet will not go to any Church; and will not affiliate with any sect or denomination.
Chronologically, Islam is six hundred years behind Christianity, but amazingly it is at least a very close second, and is catching up fast - the fastest growing religion in the world today (see chart on page 34). "One Billion!" The figure is outstanding and the sincerity and practise of the Believers astonishing!
Taking into account his own three objective standards:
(a) "greatness of purpose;" (b) "smallness of means;"
and (c) "outstanding results;" does Lamartine dare to produce another candidate greater than Muhammad (pbuh)? He further awes his readers with the multifarious roles of Muhammad (pbuh) in which he excelled, ie. Philosopher, Orator, Apostle, Legislator, Warrior, Conqueror of Ideas, the Restorer of Rational Beliefs, of a Cult without Images, the Founder of twenty Terrestrial Empires and of one Spiritual Empire, that Is Muhammad. As regards ALL standards (I repeat "ALL") by which Human Greatness may be measured, we may well ask, "IS THERE ANY MAN GREATER THAN HE?" (Emphasis added).
No! Muhammad (pbuh) was the greatest man that ever lived! According to Lamartine the French historian. And God Almighty questions -
And Have We not raised high
the esteem (in which) thou
(O Muhammad) are held?
Holy Quran 94:4
MOST ASSUREDLY THOU HAST, O MY LORD!
THE OUALITY OF MERCY
The Christian propagandists make the wild boast that there is nothing in the history of mankind to compare with the merciful and forgiving cry of Jesus (pbuh) on the cross ...
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
Luke 23:34
Amazing as it may sound, of the four writers of the Canonical Gospels, only St. Luke was inspired by the Holy ghost (?) to pen these words. The other three - Matthew, Mark and John never heard these words or they felt them to be too insipid or not important enough for recording. St. Luke was not even one of the twelve disciples selected by Jesus (pbuh). According to the revisers of the Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Bible, these words are not in the most ancient manuscripts which by implication means that they are an interpolation.
In "The New King James Version," (Copyrighted by the Thomas Nelson Publishers inr 1984), we are told that these words are "not in the original text" of the Greek manuscripts of St. Luke. In other words they have been fabricated by some pious gentleman. Although the quotation is unauthentic, we will still entertain it because it demonstrates great piety of loving one's enemies and of unsurpassed forgiveness as preached by the Master himself.
For forgiveness to be of any worth, the forgiver must be in a position to forgive. If the victim of injustice is still in the clutches of his enemies; in that helpless position and he would cry out, "I FORGIVE YOU!" it would be meaningless. But if the aggrieved party had turned the tables on his enemies and was in a position of taking revenge or exact retribution, and yet say "I forgive you!", only then would it mean something!
MUHAMMAD'S (PBUH) CLEMENCY
Contrast the alleged forgiveness from the "cross" with the historical bloodless conquest of Makkah by Muhamrnad
(pbuh) at the head of ten thousand "saints"
"THE CITY WHICH HAD TREATED HIM SO CRUELLY, DRIVEN HIM AND HIS FAITHFUL BAND FOR REFUGE AMONGST STRANGERS, WHICH HAD SWORN HIS LIFE AND THE LIVES OF HIS DEVOTED DISCIPLES, LAY AT HIS FEET. HIS OLD PERSECUTERS RELENTLESS AND RUTHLESS, WHO HAD DISGRACED HUMANITY BY INFLICTING CRUEL OUTRAGES UPON INOFFENSIVE MEN AND WOMEN, AND EVEN UPON THE LIFELESS DEAD, WERE NOW COMPLETELY AT HIS MERCY. BUT IN THE HOUR OF HIS TRIUMPH EVERY EVIL SUFFERED WAS FORGOTTEN, EVERY INJURY INFLICTED WAS FORGIVEN, AND A GENERAL AMNESTY WAS EXTENDED TO THE POPULATION OF MAKKAH ..." Sayed Amir Ali in "The Spirit of Islam"
Calling before him the populace of the vanquished city, he addressed them with "What do you expect at my hands today?" His people had known him too well, even from his childhood so they replied, "Mercy, 0 generous brother and nephew!" Tears came into the eyes of the Prophet, and he said, "I will speak to you as Joseph spoke unto his brethren, I will not reproach you today: go you are free!"
And now a scene was enacted of which there is really no parallel in the history of the world. Hosts upon hosts came forward and adopted the religion of Islam. God Almighty testifies as to the lofty and exalted behaviour of His Messenger -
1. A fulfilment of another prophecy in Muhammad (pbuh). "...He came from mount Paran (that is in Arabia), and he came with ten thousand saints..." Deuteronomy 33:2.
Ye have indeed in the Messenger of Allah a beautiful pattern (of conduct). Holy Quran 33:21
How well has Lamartine
"AS REGARDS ALL STANDARDS BY WHICH HUMAN GREATNESS MAY BE MEASURED, WE MAY WELL ASK, IS THERE ANY MAN GREATER THAN HE?"
In reply, we too can say once more, "No! there is no man greater than Muhammad (pbuh). Muhammad (pbuh) was the greatest man that ever lived!"
So far, our hero has earned the unsolicited and ungrudging tributes from many non-Muslims of different religious persuasions and from varying intellectual fields of endeavour. But all this still remains incomplete without the Master's verdict; Muhammad's (pbuh) predecessor - Jesus Christ, (pbuh). We will now apply his own standard for evaluating greatness.
JOHN THE BAPTIST
John the Baptist,
cousins. Here is what the Master has to say of him:
1. Full quotation of Larmartine will be found in Appendix "B" on page 61.
2. "JOHN- not to be confused with John the disciple of Jesus (pbuh). A very common name among the Jews and Arabs, even today, like Tarik Aziz the recent Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs. Real name Tarik Hanna Aziz; Hanna short for Yuhanna meaning John. No one in the non-Arab Muslim world knowing that our friend is a Christian Marxist.
Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: Matthew 11:11
Every son of man is "born of women." By this very fact John the Baptist is greater than Moses, David, Solomon, Abraham or Isaiah; none of the Israelite prophets excluded. What gives John this ascendancy over every other prophet? It could not be any miracle, because the Bible records none to his credit. It could not be his teachings, because he brought no new laws or regulations. Then what makes him the greatest? Simply because he was the heralder, a pre-cursor, a harbinger of the happy news of the coming of the Messiah. This is what made John the greatest, but Jesus (pbuh) claims that he himself was even greater than the greatest (ie. John). Why?
But I have greater witness than that of John (the Baptist): For The Works which the Father hath given me to finish: (Emphasis added) John 5:36
It is the "witness," the commission which God Almighty had entrusted him with, which makes Jesus (pbuh) greater than even John. Applying these very standards as enunciated by the Master, we find that -
1. John the Baptist was the greatest of all the Israelite prophets, because he heralded the mighty Messiah (Jesus pbuh).
Similarly Jesus (pbuh) would be greater than even John because he heralded "The Spirit of
Truth, the Comforter," who was to guide mankind into all Truth (of the Gospel of St. John, chapter 16).
2. The diocese, the mission of Jesus (pbuh), or "the works which God had given him to accomplish," was limited to the Lost sheep of the House of Israel (Matthew 15:24), whereas the mission of Muhammad (pbuh) was universal. He had been told -
And we have sent thee not (O Muhammad), but as a Mercy unto (all) the worlds. Holy Quran 21:107
In keeping with his grand commission, Muhammad (pbuh) consistently delivered his Message to one and all who would hear, irrespective of race, class or creed, He welcomed them all in the religion of God, without any discrimination. He had no thought of dividing the creatures of God into "dogs and pigs" (Matthew 7:6) or into "sheep and goats" (Matthew 25:32). He was the Messenger of the One True God, who was sent as a Mercy unto all mankind, nay, unto the whole universe (H.Q. 21:107 above). And, he never forgot this mission even right up to his dying day.
Towards the end of his earthly sojourn, when he could look back to a hectic and dangerous past, now crowned with success; he now feels that he could sit back and enjoy the fruits of his toil; he dreams of a life free from turmoil and full of satisfaction and relaxation. Not for him! There is no time to rest or relax. There is work still to be done. God Almighty reminds him - -
1. For a detalted explanation about this prophecy, obtain today your FREE copy of the book -MUHUMMED (pbuh) the Natural Successor to CHRIST (pbuh) from the IPCI.
WE HAVE NOT SENT THEE
(O MUHAMMAD) BUT TO THE
WHOLE OF MANKIND.
AS A GIVER OF GLAD TIDINGS AND AS A WARNER,
BUT MOST OF MANKIND STILL DO NOT KNOW.
Holy Quran 34:28[1]
How was he to respond to this new challenge in his ripening old age? There were no electronic gadgets of modern communication methods at his disposal; there were no telex and fax machines which he could exploit. What could he do? Being an ummi (unlettered), he called the scribes and dictated five letters, one each to the Emperor at Constantinople, the King of Egypt, the Negus of Abyssinia, the King of Yemen and to the Emperor in Persia. He called forth five Sahaaba (his holy companions) with five Arab steeds and set them out in five different directions inviting the nations of the world to the universal religion of God.
I had the good fortune of seeing one of those holy epistles in the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul (old Constantinople) Turkey. That letter is collecting dust! Materially the Turks have preserved the parchment. But the Message is collecting dust, as I have said.
The letter begins, "From Muhammad the Messenger of God, to Heraclius the Emperor at Constantinople:
Accept Islam and be benefited."
followed by this exhortation from the Book of God - -
1. This is your last chance to memorize the text and the translation of this verse. It you are lackadaisical, we can only mourn your loss.
SAY: "O PEOPLE OF THE BOOK! [1]
COME TO COMMON TERMS
AS BETWEEN US AND YOU:
THAT WE WORSHIP
NONE BUT GOD;
THAT WE ASSOCIATE
NO PARTNERS WITH HIM;
THAT WE ERECT NOT,
FROM AMONG OURSELVES,
LORDS AND PATRONS
OTHER THAN GOD."
IF THEN THEY TURN BACK,
SAY YE: "BEAR WITNESS
THAT WE (AT LEAST) ARE
MUSLIMS (BOWING TO GOD'S WILL) Holy Quran 3:64
After the above Quranic insertion in the letter, it is concluded with felicitation in the Prophet's own words, ending with a seal on which is inscribed - "There is no other object of worship but Allah, and Muhammad is His Messenger."
The letter in Turkey arouses our curiosity; and interest with regards to its preservation, but the preservation itself is lost upon the sightseer. The same Quranic Message is in almost every Muslim home; being read and re-read a thousand times over without the reader being moved to deliver its Message to the addressees!
Glance once more at the above verse. It is addressed to the "ahle-Kitaab," - the People of the Book, the Jews and
1. "People of the Book," stands for the Jews and the Christians. You will never have it so good for learning Allah's Kalaam. Don't ignore this opportunity. Memorize the verses as they occur.
the Christians. But, for over a thousand years we have utterly ignored that great directive at our own peril. We are sitting on that Message like a cobra on a pile of wealth, keeping the rightful heirs at bay. This utter neglect will continue to inflict untold suffering to the Ummah for generations to come.
After over fourteen hundred years of our reading, and chanting the Quran in every rhythmic style, we still hear this poignant cry:
But Most of mankind still do not know. [1]
Holy Quran 34:28
This is the concluding phrase of the verse revealed fourteen hundred years ago. It was the factual situation of the then religious world. The question which must be asked is if it is any different today? Not at all! There are today more Mushriks in the world than there are believers in the One True God.
Is there any hope of changing this situation? Allah commanded His Prophet then as He is commanding us now through the first seven verses of Sura Muddaththir (chapter 74).
1. 0 THOU WRAPPED UP (IN A MANTLE)!
"As usual, there is these wonderful early mystical verses (including the ones that follow), a triple thread of thought:
(a) A particular occasion or person is referred to;
1. For the full context of this verse, see page 54.
(b) a general spiritual lesson is taught, and
(c) a more profound mystical reverie is suggested.
As to (a), the Prophet was now past the stage of personal contemplation. Wearing his mantle; he was now to go forth and boldly deliver his Message and publicly proclaim Allah The One True God. His heart had always been purified, but now all his outward doings must be dedicated to God, and conventional respect for ancestral customs or worship must be thrown aside. The work of his Messengership was the most generous that could flow from his personality, but no reward or appreciation was to be expected from his people, but quite the contrary, there would be much call on his patience, but his contentment would arise from the good pleasure of God.
As to (b), similar stages arise in a minor degree in the life of every good man, for which the Prophet's life is to be a universal pattern.
As to (c), the Sufis understand, by the mantle and outward wrappings, the circumstances of our phenomenal existence, which are necessary to our physical comfort up to a certain stage; but we soon outgrow them, and our inner nature should then boldly proclaim itself, not that it brings any credit or reward with men; the very hope of expectation of such would be inconsistent with our higher nature, which should bear all checks and rejoice in the favour of God."
2. ARISE AND DELIVER THY WARMING!
3. AND THY LORD DO THOU MAGNIFY!
4. AND THY GARMENTS KEEP FREE FROM STAIN!
5. AND ALL ABOMINATION SHUN! (a)
"(a) Rujz or Rijz means abomination and is usually understood to mean idolatry. It is even possible that there was an idol called RUJZ. But these days it has a wider significance as including a mental state opposed to true worship, a state of doubt or indecision."
6. NOR EXPECT, IN GIVING,
ANY INCREASE (FOR THYSELF)! (b)
"(b) The legal and commercial formula is that you give in order to receive what is worth to
you a little more than you give, but expect nothing from the receiver. You serve God and God's creatures."
7. BUT, FOR THY LORD'S (CAUSE)
BE PATIENT AND CONSTANT! (c) [1]
Holy Quran 74:1-7
"(c) Our zeal for God's Cause itself requires that we should not be impatient, and that we should show constancy in our efforts for His Cause. For we have faith, and we know that He is All-Good, All-Wise, and All-Powerful, and everything will ultimately be right." AbdullahYusuf Ali [2]
1. Remember to memorize Allah's Kalaam with its meaning!
2. The English translation and the commentaries were by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. Obtain your volume from the IPCI at a specially subsidised price. Ako order a volume for your non-Muslim friends.
To the Arabs in general and to our Holy Prophet in particular "a mantle" was the protective covering used for protection against the sun, wind and sand. He was so to say girding himself, rolling up his sleeves, to accomplish his task. Although most of the Muslims in the world do not cover themselves with shawls (mantles), in their day to day living, they carry a host of mantles in the way of inferiority complexes.
WHAT CAN WE DO TO MAKE GOD'S LIGHT
SHINE FORTH THROUGH THE DARKNESS AROUND US?
WE MUST FIRST LET IT SHINE IN OUR OWN TRUE
SELVES WITH THAT LIGHT IN THE NICHE OF OUR INMOST
HEARTS WE CAN WALK WITH STEPS BOTH FIRM AND SURE:
WE CAN HUMBLY VISIT THE COMFORTLESS
AND GUIDE THEIR STEPS. NOT WE, BUT THE LIGHT
WILL GUIDE! BUT OH! THE JOY OF BEING FOUND
WORTHY TO BEAR THE TORCH, AND TO SAY
TO OUR BRETHREN- "I TOO WAS IN DARKNESS,
COMFORTLESS, AND BEHOLD, I HAVE FOUND
COMFORT AND JOY IN THE GRACE DIVINE!"
THUS SHOULD WE PAY THE DUES OF BROTHERHOOD, - -
BY WALKING HUMBLY SIDE BY SIDE,
IN THE WAYS OF THE LORD,
WITH MUTUAL AID AND COMFORT,
AND HEARTFELT PRAYER,
BACKED BY ACTION,
THAT GOD'S GOOD PURPOSE
MAY BE ACCOMPLISHED,
IN US ALL TOGETHER!
Abdullah Yusuf Ali
BUT MOST OF MANKIND
STILL DO NOT KNOW
Thus spake, inspired our Holy
prophet, Muhammad (pbuh) on
whom we invoke God's blessings for
ever and ever - AAMEEN!
Ahmed Deedat
25/11/90
APPENDIX "A"
He attained the height of eminence by his perfection;
He dispelled the darkness (of the world) by his grace;
Excellent were all his qualities,
Pray for blessings on him and his descendants.
Shaikh Sa'di Sheeraazi (RA)
APPENDIX "B"
Muhammad (PBUH) The Greatest
"If greatness of purpose,
smallness of means
and astounding results
are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to
compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad?
The most famous men created arms, laws and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material
powers which often crumbled away before their eyes. This man Muhammed moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples nd dynasties, but millions of men; and more than that the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and the souls.
On the basis of a Book, every letter of which has become law, he created a spiritual nationality which blended together peoples of every tongue and of every race ...
The idea of the unity of God, proclaimed amidst the exhaustion of fabulous theologies, was in itself such a miracle that upon its utterance from his lips it destroyed all the ancient superstitions ...
His endless prayers, his mystic conversations with God, his death and his triumph after death: all these attest not to an imposture but to a firm conviction which gave him the power to restore a dogma. This dogma was twofold, the unity of God and the Immateriality of God; the former telling what God is, the latter telling what God is not ...
... "PHILOSOPHER, ORATOR, APOSTLE, LEGISLATOR, WARRIOR, CONQUEROR OF IDEAS, RESTORER OF RATIONAL BELIEFS, of a cult without images; the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire, that is Muhammed. AS REGARDS ALL STANDARDS BY WHICH HUMAN GREATNESS MAY BE MEASURED, WE MAY WELL ASK, IS THERE ANY MAN GREATER THAN HE?"
(Lamartine, Historie de la Turquie, Paris 1854, Vol II pp.276-277).
APPENDIX "C"
JULES MASSERMAN, U.S. psychoanalyst
TIME, JULY 15, 1974
Leaders must fulfil three functions - - - provide for the well-being of the led, provide a social organization in which people feel relatively secure, and provide them with one set of beliefs. People like Pasteur and Salk are leaders in the first sense.
People like Gandhi and Confucius, on one hand, and Alexander, Caesar and Hitler on the other, are leaders in the second and perhaps the third sense. Jesus and Buddha belong in the third category alone. PERHAPS THE GREATEST LEADER OF ALL TIMES WAS MOHAMMED, WHO COMBINED ALL THREE FUNCTIONS. To a lesser degree Moses did the same. (Emphasis added)
APPENDIX "D"
Fidelity is said to be a human attribute,
Which makes the modern gentleman distinguished from the brute,
But that supreme fidelity, inborn in every hound,
Which is the mark of man's best friend,
In man, it's rarely found!
A South African Poet.
IPCI
Islamic Propagation Centre International
4th Floor, IPCI Centre, 124 Queen Street
Durban, 4001, RSA
PO Box 2439, Durban, 4000, RSA
Tel. (27-31)306-0026
Fax (27-31)304-0326
telex (95) 6-21815, IPCI SA
---------------------------------------
What They Say (I)
The Prophet of Islam
During the centuries of the crusades, all sorts of slanders were invented against Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). But with the birth of the modern age, marked with religious tolerance and freedom of thought, there has been a great change in the approach of Western authors in their delineation of his life and character. The views of some non-Muslim scholars regarding Prophet Muhammad, given at the end, justify this opinion.
But the West has still to go a step forward to discover the greatest reality about Muhammad and that is his being the true and the last Prophet of God for the whole humanity. In spite of all its objectivity and enlightenment there has been no sincere and objective attempt by the West to understand the Prophethood of Muhammad (pbuh). It is so strange that very glowing tributes are paid to him for his integrity and achievement but his claim of being the Prophet of God has been rejected explicitly or implicitly. It is here that a searching of the heart is required, and a review of the so-called objectivity is needed. The following glaring facts from the life of Muhammad (pbuh) have been furnished to facilitate an unbiased, logical and objective decision regarding his Prophethood.#
Up to the age of forty, Muhammad was not known as a statesman, a preacher or an orator. He was never seen discussing the principles of metaphysics, ethics, law, politics, economics or sociology. No doubt he possessed an excellent character, charming manners and was highly cultured. Yet there was nothing so deeply striking and so radically extraordinary in him that would make men expect something great and revolutionary from him in the future. But when he came out of the Cave (HIRA) with a new message, he was completely transformed. Is it possible for such a person of the above qualities to turn all of a sudden into 'an impostor' and claim to be the Prophet of Allah and invite all the rage of his people? One might ask: for what reason did he suffer all those hardships? His people offered to accept him as their King and he would leave the preaching of his religion. But he chose to refuse their tempting offers and go on preaching his religion single-handedly in face of all kinds of insults, social boycott and even physical assault by his own people. Was it not only God's support and his firm will to disseminate the message of Allah and his deep-rooted belief that ultimately Islam would emerge as the only way of life for humanity, that he stood like a mountain in the face of all opposition and conspiracies to eliminate him? Furthermore, had he come with a design of rivalry with the Christians and the Jews, why should he have made belief in Jesus Christ and Moses and other Prophets of God (peace be upon them), a basic requirement of faith without which no one could be a Muslim?
Is it not an incontrovertible proof of his Prophethood that in spite of being unlettered and having led a very normal and quiet life for forty years, when he began preaching his message, all of Arabia stood in awe and wonder and was bewitched by his wonderful eloquence and oratory? It was so matchless that the whole legion of Arab poets, preachers and orators of the highest calibre failed to bring forth its equivalent. And above all, how could he then pronounce truths of a scientific nature contained in the Qur'an that no other human being could possible have developed at that time?
Last but not least, why did he lead a hard life even after gaining power and authority? Just ponder over the words he uttered while dying: "We the community of the Prophets are not inherited. Whatever we leave is for charity."
As a matter of fact, Muhammad (pbuh) is the last link of the chain of Prophets sent in different lands and times since the very beginning of the human life on this planet. Read the following writings of the Western authors:
"If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad? The most famous men created arms, laws and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples and dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and souls. . . his forbearance in victory, his ambition, which was entirely devoted to one idea and in no manner striving for an empire; his endless prayers, his mystic conversations with God, his death and his triumph after death; all these attest not to an imposture but to a firm conviction which gave him the power to restore a dogma. This dogma was twofold, the unity of God and the immateriality of God; the former telling what God is, the latter telling what God is not; the one overthrowing false gods with the sword, the other starting an idea with words."
"Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas, of a cult without images; the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire, that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?"
Lamartine, HISTOIRE DE LA TURQUIE, Paris, 1854, Vol. II, pp. 276-277.
"It is not the propagation but the permanency of his religion that deserves our wonder, the same pure and perfect impression which he engraved at Mecca and Medina is preserved, after the revolutions of twelve centuries by the Indian, the African and the Turkish proselytes of the Koran. . . The Mahometans have uniformly withstood the temptation of reducing the object of their faith an devotion to a level with the senses and imagination of man. 'I believe in One God and Mahomet the Apostle of God' is the simple and invariable profession of Islam. The intellectual image of the Deity has never been degraded by any visible idol; the honours of the prophet have never transgressed the measure of human virtue, and his living precepts have restrained the gratitude of his disciples within the bounds of reason and religion."
Edward Gibbon and Simon Ocklay, HISTORY OF THE SARACEN EMPIRE, London, 1870, p. 54.
"He was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without Pope's pretensions, Caesar without the legions of Caesar: without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a palace, without a fixed revenue; if ever any man had the right to say that he ruled by the right divine, it was Mohammed, for he had all the power without its instruments and without its supports."
Bosworth Smith, MOHAMMAD AND MOHAMMADANISM, London, 1874, p. 92.
"It is impossible for anyone who studies the life and character of the great Prophet of Arabia, who knows how he taught and how he lived, to feel anything but reverence for that mighty Prophet, one of the great messengers of the Supreme. And although in what I put to you I shall say many things which may be familiar to many, yet I myself feel whenever I re-read them, a new way of admiration, a new sense of reverence for that mighty Arabian teacher."
Annie Besant, THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF MUHAMMAD, Madras,1932, p. 4.
"His readiness to undergo persecutions for his beliefs, the high moral character of the men who believed in him and looked up to him as leader, and the greatness of his ultimate achievement - all argue his fundamental integrity. To suppose Muhammad an impostor raises more problems than it solves. Moreover, none of the great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad."
W. Montgomery Watt, MOHAMMAD AT MECCA, Oxford, 1953, p. 52.
"Muhammad, the inspired man who founded Islam, was born about A.D. 570 into an Arabian tribe that worshipped idols. Orphaned at birth, he was always particularly solicitous of the poor and needy, the widow and the orphan, the slave and the downtrodden. At twenty, he was already a successful businessman, and soon became director of camel caravans for a wealthy widow. When he reached twenty-five, his employer, recognizing his merit, proposed marriage. Even though she was fifteen years older, he married her, and as long as she lived, remained a devoted husband.
"Like almost every major prophet before him, Muhammad fought shy of serving as the transmitter of God's word, sensing his own inadequacy. But the angel commanded "Read." So far as we know, Muhammad was unable to read or write, but he began to dictate those inspired words which would soon revolutionize a large segment of the earth: "There is one God."
"In all things Muhammad was profoundly practical. When his beloved son Ibrahim died, an eclipse occurred, and rumours of God's personal condolence quickly arose. Whereupon Muhammad is said to have announced, "An eclipse is a phenomenon of nature. It is foolish to attribute such things to the death or birth of a human being." "At Muhammad's own death an attempt was made to deify him, but the man who was to become his administrative successor killed the hysteria with one of the noblest speeches in religious history: "If there are any among you who worshipped Muhammad, he is dead. But if it is God you worshipped, He lives forever."
James A. Michener, "ISLAM: THE MISUNDERSTOOD RELIGION," in READER'S DIGEST (American edition), May 1955, pp. 68-70.
"My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular level."
Michael H. Hart, THE 100: A RANKING OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSONS IN HISTORY, New York: Hart Publishing Company, Inc., 1978, p. 33.
Source: The prophet of Islam III&E Brochure Series; No. 16
(published by The Institute of Islamic Information and Education (III&E))
What They Say (II)
Source: The prophet of Islam III&E Brochure Series; No. 16
(published by The Institute of Islamic Information and Education (III&E))
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA confirms:
"....a mass of detail in the early sources show that he was an honest and upright man who had gained the respect and loyalty of others who were like-wise honest and upright men." (Vol. 12)
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW said about him: #
"He must be called the Saviour of Humanity. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it much needed peace and happiness." (The Genuine Islam, Singapore, Vol. 1, No. 8, 1936)
He was by far the most remarkable man that ever set foot on this earth. He preached a religion, founded a state, built a nation, laid down a moral code, initiated numerous social and political reforms, established a powerful and dynamic society to practice and represent his teachings and completely revolutionized the worlds of human thought and behavior for all times to come.
"His Name is MUHAMMAD"
May Peace of God Be Upon Him (pbuh)
He was born in Arabia in the year 570 C.E. (common era), started his mission of preaching the religion of Truth, Islam (submission to One God) at the age of forty and departed from this world at the age of sixty-three. During this short period of 23 years of his Prophethood, he changed the complete Arabian peninsula from paganism and idolatry to worship of One God, from tribal quarrels and wars to national solidarity and cohesion, from drunkenness and debauchery to sobriety and piety, from lawlessness and anarchy to disciplined living, from utter bankruptcy to the highest standards of moral excellence. Human history has never known such a complete transformation of a people or a place before or since - and imagine all these unbelievable wonders in just over two decades.
LAMARTINE, the renowned historian speaking on the essentials of human greatness wonders:
"If greatness of purpose, smallness of means and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad? The most famous men created arms, laws and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislation, empires, peoples and dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and souls....his forbearance in victory, his ambition, which was entirely devoted to one idea and in no manner striving for an empire; his endless prayers, his mystic conversations with God, his death and his triumph after death; all these attest not to an imposture but to a firm conviction which gave him the power to restore a dogma. This dogma was two-fold, the unity of God and the immateriality of God; the former telling what God is, the latter telling what God is not; the one overthrowing false gods with the sword, the other starting an idea with the words." "Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas, of a cult without images, the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire, that is Muhammad. As regards all the standards by which Human Greatness may be measured, we may well ask, Is there any man greater than he?" (Lamartine, HISTOIRE DE LA TURQUIE, Paris, 1854, Vol. II, pp 276-277)
The world has had its share of great personalities. But these were one-sided figures who distinguished themselves in but one or two fields, such as religious thought or military leadership. The lives and teachings of these great personalities of the world are shrouded in the mist of time. There is so much speculation about the time and place of their birth, the mode and style of their life, the nature and detail of their teachings and the degree and measure of their success or failure that it is impossible for humanity to reconstruct accurately the lives and teachings of these men.
Not so this man. Muhammad (pbuh) accomplished so much in such diverse fields of human thought and behavior in the fullest blaze of human history. Every detail of his private life and public utterances has been accurately documented and faithfully preserved to our day. The authenticity of the record so preserved are vouched for not only by the faithful followers but even by his prejudiced critics.
Muhammad (pbuh) was a religious teacher, a social reformer, a moral guide, an administrative colossus, a faithful friend, a wonderful companion, a devoted husband, a loving father - all in one. No other man in history ever excelled or equaled him in any of these different aspects of life - but it was only for the selfless personality of Muhammad (pbuh) to achieve such incredible perfections.
MAHATMA GANDHI, speaking on the character of Muhammad, (pbuh) says in (YOUNG INDIA):
"I wanted to know the best of one who holds today's undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind....I became more than convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet, the scrupulous regard for his pledges, his intense devotion to this friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle. When I closed the 2nd volume (of the Prophet's biography), I was sorry there was not more for me to read of the great life."
THOMAS CARLYLE in his (HEROES AND HEROWORSHIP), was simply amazed as to:
"how one man single-handedly, could weld warring tribes and wandering Bedouins into a most powerful and civilized nation in less than two decades."
DIWAN CHAND SHARMA wrote:
"Muhammad was the soul of kindness, and his influence was felt and never forgotten by those around him." (D.C. Sharma, THE PROPHETS OF THE EAST, Calcutta, 1935, pp. 12)
EDWARD GIBBON and SIMON OCKLEY speaking on the profession of Islam write:
"'I BELIEVE IN ONE GOD, AND MAHOMET, AN APOSTLE OF GOD' is the simple and invariable profession of Islam. The intellectual image of the Deity has never been degraded by any visible idol; the honor of the Prophet has never transgressed the measure of human virtues; and his living precepts have restrained the gratitude of his disciples within the bounds of reason and religion." (HISTORY OF THE SARACEN EMPIRES, London, 1870, p. 54)
Muhammad (pbuh) was nothing more or less than a human being. But he was a man with a noble mission, which was to unite humanity on the worship of One and Only One God and to teach them the way to honest and upright living based on the commands of God. He always described himself as, "A Servant and Messenger of God," and so indeed every action of his proclaimed to be.
Speaking on the aspect of equality before God in Islam, the famous poetess of India, SAROJINI NAIDU says:
"It was the first religion that preached and practiced democracy; for, in the mosque, when the call for prayer is sounded and worshippers are gathered together, the democracy of Islam is embodied five times a day when the peasant and king kneel side by side and proclaim: 'God Alone is Great'... I have been struck over and over again by this indivisible unity of Islam that makes man instinctively a brother." (S. Naidu, IDEALS OF ISLAM, vide Speeches & Writings, Madras, 1918, p. 169)
In the words of PROF. HURGRONJE:
"The league of nations founded by the prophet of Islam put the principle of international unity and human brotherhood on such universal foundations as to show candle to other nations." He continues: "The fact is that no nation of the world can show a parallel to what Islam has done towards the realization of the idea of the League of Nations."
The world has not hesitated to raise to divinity, individuals whose lives and missions have been lost in legend. Historically speaking, none of these legends achieved even a fraction of what Muhammad (pbuh) accomplished. And all his striving was for the sole purpose of uniting mankind for the worship of One God on the codes of moral excellence. Muhammad (pbuh) or his followers never at any time claimed that he was a Son of God or the God-incarnate or a man with divinity - but he always was and is even today considered as only a Messenger chosen by God.
MICHAEL H. HART in his recently published book on ratings of men who contributed towards the benefit and upliftment of mankind writes:
"My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels." (M.H. Hart, THE 100: A RANKING OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSONS IN HISTORY, New York, 1978, p. 33)
K. S. RAMAKRISHNA RAO, an Indian Professor of Philosophy in his booklet, ("Muhammad, The Prophet of Islam,") calls him the
"Perfect model for human life." Prof. Ramakrishna Rao explains his point by saying:
"The personality of Muhammad, it is most difficult to get into the whole truth of it. Only a glimpse of it I can catch. What a dramatic succession of picturesque scenes! There is Muhammad, the Prophet. There is Muhammad, the Warrior; Muhammad, the Businessman; Muhammad, the Statesman; Muhammad, the Orator; Muhammad, the Reformer; Muhammad, the Refuge of Orphans; Muhammad, the Protector of Slaves; Muhammad, the Emancipator of Women; Muhammad, the Judge; Muhammad, the Saint. All in all these magnificent roles, in all these departments of human activities, he is alike a hero."
Today after a lapse of fourteen centuries, the life and teachings of Muhammad (pbuh) have survived without the slightest loss, alteration or interpolation. They offer the same undying hope for treating mankind's many ills, which they did when he was alive. This is not a claim of Muhammad's (pbuh) followers but also the inescapable conclusion forced upon by a critical and unbiased history.
The least you could do as a thinking and concerned human being is to stop for a moment and ask yourself: Could these statements sounding so extraordinary and revolutionary be really true? And supposing they really are true and you did not know this man MUHAMMAD (pbuh) or hear about him, isn't it time you responded to this tremendous challenge and put in some effort to know him?
It will cost you nothing but it may prove to be the beginning of a completely new era in your life.
by Eng. Husain Pasha
We invite you to make a discovery of this wonderful man, Muhammad (pbuh), the like of whom never walked on the face of this earth.
Please call for more information about Islam and this wonderful man, Muhammad (pbuh): The Institute of Islamic Information & Education P.O. Box 41129 Chicago, IL 60641-0129 Tel. (312) 777-7443 Fax. (312) 777-7199
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What is said about the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
III&E Brochure Series; No. 12
(published by The Institute of Islamic Information and Education (III&E))
In the Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful
During the centuries of the crusades, all sorts of slanders were invented against Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). But with the birth of the modern age, marked with religious tolerance and freedom of thought, there has been a great change in the approach of Western authors in their delineation of his life and character. The views of some non-Muslim scholars regarding Prophet Muhammad, given at the end, justify this opinion. #
But the West has still to go a step forward to discover the greatest reality about Muhammad and that is his being the true and the last Prophet of God for the whole humanity. In spite of all its objectivity and enlightenment there has been no sincere and objective attempt by the West to understand the Prophethood of Muhammad (pbuh). It is so strange that very glowing tributes are paid to him for his integrity and achievement but his claim of being the Prophet of God has been rejected explicitly or implicitly. It is here that a searching of the heart is required, and a review of the so-called objectivity is needed. The following glaring facts from the life of Muhammad (pbuh) have been furnished to facilitate an unbiased, logical and objective decision regarding his Prophethood.
Up to the age of forty, Muhammad was not known as a statesman, a preacher or an orator. He was never seen discussing the principles of metaphysics, ethics, law, politics, economics or sociology. No doubt he possessed an excellent character, charming manners and was highly cultured. Yet there was nothing so deeply striking and so radically extraordinary in him that would make men expect something great and revolutionary from him in the future. But when he came out of the Cave (HIRA) with a new message, he was completely transformed. Is it possible for such a person of the above qualities to turn all of a sudden into 'an impostor' and claim to be the Prophet of Allah and invite all the rage of his people? One might ask: for what reason did he suffer all those hardships? His people offered to accept him as their King and he would leave the preaching of his religion. But he chose to refuse their tempting offers and go on preaching his religion single-handedly in face of all kinds of insults, social boycott and even physical assault by his own people. Was it not only God's support and his firm will to disseminate the message of Allah and his deep-rooted belief that ultimately Islam would emerge as the only way of life for humanity, that he stood like a mountain in the face of all opposition and conspiracies to eliminate him? Furthermore, had he come with a design of rivalry with the Christians and the Jews, why should he have made belief in Jesus Christ and Moses and other Prophets of God (peace be upon them), a basic requirement of faith without which no one could be a Muslim?
Is it not an incontrovertible proof of his Prophethood that in spite of being unlettered and having led a very normal and quiet life for forty years, when he began preaching his message, all of Arabia stood in awe and wonder and was bewitched by his wonderful eloquence and oratory? It was so matchless that the whole legion of Arab poets, preachers and orators of the highest calibre failed to bring forth its equivalent. And above all, how could he then pronounce truths of a scientific nature contained in the Qur'an that no other human being could possible have developed at that time?
Last but not least, why did he lead a hard life even after gaining power and authority? Just ponder over the words he uttered while dying: "We the community of the Prophets are not inherited. Whatever we leave is for charity."
As a matter of fact, Muhammad (pbuh) is the last link of the chain of Prophets sent in different lands and times since the very beginning of the human life on this planet. Read the following writings of the Western authors:
"If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad? The most famous men created arms, laws and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples and dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and souls. . . his forbearance in victory, his ambition, which was entirely devoted to one idea and in no manner striving for an empire; his endless prayers, his mystic conversations with God, his death and his triumph after death; all these attest not to an imposture but to a firm conviction which gave him the power to restore a dogma. This dogma was twofold, the unity of God and the immateriality of God; the former telling what God is, the latter telling what God is not; the one overthrowing false gods with the sword, the other starting an idea with words.
"Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas, of a cult without images; the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire, that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?"
Lamartine, HISTOIRE DE LA TURQUIE, Paris, 1854, Vol. II, pp. 276-277.
"It is not the propagation but the permanency of his religion that deserves our wonder, the same pure and perfect impression which he engraved at Mecca and Medina is preserved, after the revolutions of twelve centuries by the Indian, the African and the Turkish proselytes of the Koran. . . The Mahometans have uniformly withstood the temptation of reducing the object of their faith an devotion to a level with the senses and imagination of man. 'I believe in One God and Mahomet the Apostle of God' is the simple and invariable profession of Islam. The intellectual image of the Deity has never been degraded by any visible idol; the honours of the prophet have never transgressed the measure of human virtue, and his living precepts have restrained the gratitude of his disciples within the bounds of reason and religion."
Edward Gibbon and Simon Ocklay, HISTORY OF THE SARACEN EMPIRE, London, 1870, p. 54.
"He was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without Pope's pretensions, Caesar without the legions of Caesar: without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a palace, without a fixed revenue; if ever any man had the right to say that he ruled by the right divine, it was Mohammed, for he had all the power without its instruments and without its supports."
Bosworth Smith, MOHAMMAD AND MOHAMMADANISM, London, 1874, p. 92.
"It is impossible for anyone who studies the life and character of the great Prophet of Arabia, who knows how he taught and how he lived, to feel anything but reverence for that mighty Prophet, one of the great messengers of the Supreme. And although in what I put to you I shall say many things which may be familiar to many, yet I myself feel whenever I re-read them, a new way of admiration, a new sense of reverence for that mighty Arabian teacher."
Annie Besant, THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF MUHAMMAD, Madras,1932, p. 4.
"His readiness to undergo persecutions for his beliefs, the high moral character of the men who believed in him and looked up to him as leader, and the greatness of his ultimate achievement - all argue his fundamental integrity. To suppose Muhammad an impostor raises more problems than it solves. Moreover, none of the great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad."
W. Montgomery Watt, MOHAMMAD AT MECCA, Oxford, 1953, p. 52.
"Muhammad, the inspired man who founded Islam, was born about A.D. 570 into an Arabian tribe that worshipped idols. Orphaned at birth, he was always particularly solicitous of the poor and needy, the widow and the orphan, the slave and the downtrodden. At twenty, he was already a successful businessman, and soon became director of camel caravans for a wealthy widow. When he reached twenty-five, his employer, recognizing his merit, proposed marriage. Even though she was fifteen years older, he married her, and as long as she lived, remained a devoted husband.
"Like almost every major prophet before him, Muhammad fought shy of serving as the transmitter of God's word, sensing his own inadequacy. But the angel commanded "Read." So far as we know, Muhammad was unable to read or write, but he began to dictate those inspired words which would soon revolutionize a large segment of the earth: "There is one God."
"In all things Muhammad was profoundly practical. When his beloved son Ibrahim died, an eclipse occurred, and rumours of God's personal condolence quickly arose. Whereupon Muhammad is said to have announced, "An eclipse is a phenomenon of nature. It is foolish to attribute such things to the death or birth of a human being." "At Muhammad's own death an attempt was made to deify him, but the man who was to become his administrative successor killed the hysteria with one of the noblest speeches in religious history: "If there are any among you who worshipped Muhammad, he is dead. But if it is God you worshipped, He lives forever."
James A. Michener, "ISLAM: THE MISUNDERSTOOD RELIGION," in READER'S DIGEST (American edition), May 1955, pp. 68-70.
"My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular level."
Michael H. Hart, THE 100: A RANKING OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSONS IN HISTORY, New York: Hart Publishing Company, Inc., 1978, p. 33.
INTRODUCTION OF III&EM
The Institute of Islamic Information and Education (III&E) is dedicated to the cause of Islam in North America through striving to elevate the image of Islam and Muslims by providing the correct information about Islamic beliefs, history and civilization from the authentic sources. Enquiries are welcome.
For more information please contact:
The Institute of Islamic Information and Education
P.O. Box 41129
Chicago, IL 60641-0129 U.S.A.
Reprinted with the permission of World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), P.O. Box 10845, Riyadh 11443, Saudi Arabia.
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Prophet's Address at Tabuk
In 630 C.E., prophet Muhammad <../terms.htm> <../terms.htm>led an expedition to Tabuk. At Tabuk he delivered a classical address which provides glimpses of his message. After praising Allah T'ala and thanking Him, the Prophet said:
"Well, verily the most veracious discourse is the Book of Allah. The most trustworthy stronghold is the word of piety. The best of the religions is the religion of Ibrahim. The best of the precedents is the precedent of Muhammad. The noblest speech is the invocation of Allah. The finest of the narratives is this Quran. The best of the affairs is that which has been firmly resolved upon. The worst in religion are those things which are created without sanction. The best of the ways is one trodden by the Prophets. The noblest death is the death of a martyr. The most miserable blindness is the waywardness after guidance. The best of the actions is that which is beneficent. The best guidance is that which is put into practice. The worst blindness is the blindness of the heart.
The upper hand is better than the lower hand[1]. The little that suffices is better than what is abundant and alluring. The worst apology is that which is tendered when death stares one in the face. The worst remorse is that which is felt on the day of Resurrection.
Some men do not come to Friday prayer, but with hesitance and delay. And some of them do not remember Allah but with reluctance. The tongue which is addicted to false expression is a bubbling spring of sins.
The most valuable possession is the contentment of heart. The best provision is that of piety. The highest wisdom is fear of Allah, the Mighty and the Great. The best thing to be cherished in the hearts is faith and conviction; doubt is infidelity.
Impatient wailing and fulsome laudation of the dead is an act of ignorance. Betrayal leads one to the fire of Hell. Drinking amounts to burning. Obscene poetry is the work of the devil. Wine is the mother of all evil. The worst thing eaten is one which belongs to the orphan. Blessed is he who receives admonition from others.
Each one of you must resort to a place of four cubit (grave). Your affairs would be decided ultimately in the next life. The worst dream is false dream. Whatever is in store is near.
To abuse a believer is transgression; raising arms against him is infidelity. To backbite him is a disobedience of Allah. Inviolability (and sacredness) of his property is like that of his blood.
He who swears by Allah (falsely), in fact falsifies Him. He who pardons others is himself granted pardon. He who forgives others, is forgiven by Allah for his sins.
He who represses anger, Allah rewards him. He who faces misfortunes with perseverance, Allah compensates him. He who acts only for fame and reputation, Allah disgraces him. He who shows patience and forbearance, Allah gives him a double reward. He who disobeys Allah, Allah chastises him.
I seek the forgiveness of Allah.
I seek the forgiveness of Allah.
I seek the forgiveness of Allah.
Footnote:
1. The hand which gives charity is better than the one which receives it.
Reference: Life of Muhammad by Prof. A.H. Siddiqui, pp. 283-4
The Last Sermon
Audhu billahe minishaitan Ar-rajim(I seek refuge in Allah from the rejected Satan.)
Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim(In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.)
The Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) Last Sermon
This sermon was delivered on the Ninth Day of Dhul Hijjah, 10 A.H. in the 'Uranah valley of Mount Arafat' (in Mecca). After praising, and thanking Allah the Prophet (pbuh) said:
"O People, lend me an attentive ear, for I know not whether after this year, I shall ever be amongst you again. Therefore listen to what I am saying to you very carefully and TAKE THESE WORDS TO THOSE WHO COULD NOT BE PRESENT HERE TODAY.
O People, just as you regard this month, this day, this city as Sacred, so regard the life and property of every Muslim as a sacred trust. Return the goods entrusted to you to their rightful owners. Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you. Remember that you will indeed meet your LORD, and that HE will indeed reckon your deeds. ALLAH has forbidden you to take usury (interest), therefore all interest obligation shall henceforth be waived. Your capital, however, is yours to keep. You will neither inflict nor suffer any inequity. Allah has Judged that there shall be no interest and that all the interest due to Abbas ibn 'Abd'al Muttalib (Prophet's uncle) shall henceforth be waived...
Beware of Satan, for the safety of your religion. He has lost all hope that he will ever be able to lead you astray in big things, so beware of following him in small things.
O People, it is true that you have certain rights with regard to your women, but they also have rights over you. Remember that you have taken them as your wives only under Allah's trust and with His permission. If they abide by your right then to them belongs the right to be fed and clothed in kindness. Do treat your women well and be kind to them for they are your partners and committed helpers. And it is your right that they do not make friends with any one of whom you do not approve, as well as never to be unchaste.
O People, listen to me in earnest, worship ALLAH, say your five daily prayers (Salah), fast during the month of Ramadan, and give your wealth in Zakat. Perform Hajj if you can afford to.
All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood. Nothing shall be legitimate to a Muslim which belongs to a fellow Muslim unless it was given freely and willingly. Do not, therefore, do injustice to yourselves.
Remember, one day you will appear before ALLAH and answer your deeds. So beware, do not stray from the path of righteousness after I am gone.
O People, NO PROPHET OR APOSTLE WILL COME AFTER ME AND NO NEW FAITH WILL BE BORN. Reason well, therefore, O People, and understand words which I convey to you. I leave behind me two things, the QURAN and my example, the SUNNAH and if you follow these you will never go astray.
All those who listen to me shall pass on my words to others and those to others again; and may the last ones understand my words better than those who listen to me directly. Be my witness, O ALLAH, that I have conveyed your message to your people".
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The Prophet of Islam - His Biography
[Taken from Introduction to Islam by Muhammad Hamidullah (Centre Culturel Islamique, Paris, 1969), with some changes to make it more readable. The changes are marked by pairs of brackets like around this paragraph. Dr. Hamidullah's present address is: 9 Beaver Court, Wilkes Barre PA, 18702, USA.]
IN the annals of men, individuals have not been lacking who conspicuously devoted their lives to the socio-religious reform of their connected peoples. We find them in every epoch and in all lands. In India, there lived those who transmitted to the world the Vedas, and there was also the great Gautama Buddha; China had its Confucius; the Avesta was produced in Iran. Babylonia gave to the world one of the greatest reformers, the Prophet Abraham (not to speak of such of his ancestors as Enoch and Noah about whom we have very scanty information). The Jewish people may rightly be proud of a long series of reformers: Moses, Samuel, David, Solomon, and Jesus among others.#
2. Two points are to note: Firstly these reformers claimed in general to be the bearers each of a Divine mission, and they left behind them sacred books incorporating codes of life for the guidance of their peoples. Secondly there followed fratricidal wars, and massacres and genocides became the order of the day, causing more or less a complete loss of these Divine messages. As to the books of Abraham, we know them only by the name; and as for the books of Moses, records tell us how they were repeatedly destroyed and only partly restored.
Concept of God
3. If one should judge from the relics of the past already brought to light of the homo sapiens, one finds that man has always been conscious of the existence of a Supreme Being, the Master and Creator of all. Methods and approaches may have differed, but the people of every epoch have left proofs of their attempts to obey God. Communication with the Omnipresent yet invisible God has also been recognised as possible in connection with a small fraction of men with noble and exalted spirits. Whether this communication assumed the nature of an incarnation of the Divinity or simply resolved itself into a medium of reception of Divine messages (through inspiration or revelation), the purpose in each case was the guidance of the people. It was but natural that the interpretations and explanations of certain systems should have proved more vital and convincing than others.
3/a. Every system of metaphysical thought develops its own terminology. In the course of time terms acquire a significance hardly contained in the word and translations fall short of their purpose. Yet there is no other method to make people of one group understand the thoughts of another. Non-Muslim readers in particular are requested to bear in mind this aspect which is a real yet unavoidable handicap.
4. By the end of the 6th century, after the birth of Jesus Christ, men had already made great progress in diverse walks of life. At that time there were some religions which openly proclaimed that they were reserved for definite races and groups of men only, of course they bore no remedy for the ills of humanity at large. There were also a few which claimed universality, but declared that the salvation of man lay in the renunciation of the world. These were the religions for the elite, and catered for an extremely limited number of men. We need not speak of regions where there existed no religion at all, where atheism and materialism reigned supreme, where the thought was solely of occupying one self with one's own pleasures, without any regard or consideration for the rights of others.
Arabia
5. A perusal of the map of the major hemisphere (from the point of view of the proportion of land to sea), shows the Arabian Peninsula lying at the confluence of the three great continents of Asia, Africa and Europe. At the time in question. this extensive Arabian subcontinent composed mostly of desert areas was inhabited by people of settled habitations as well as nomads. Often it was found that members of the same tribe were divided into these two groups, and that they preserved a relationship although following different modes of life. The means of subsistence in Arabia were meagre. The desert had its handicaps, and trade caravans were features of greater importance than either agriculture or industry. This entailed much travel, and men had to proceed beyond the peninsula to Syria, Egypt, Abyssinia, Iraq, Sind, India and other lands.
6. We do not know much about the Libyanites of Central Arabia, but Yemen was rightly called Arabia Felix. Having once been the seat of the flourishing civilizations of Sheba and Ma'in even before the foundation of the city of Rome had been laid, and having later snatched from the Byzantians and Persians several provinces, greater Yemen which had passed through the hey-day of its existence, was however at this time broken up into innumerable principalities, and even occupied in part by foreign invaders. The Sassanians of Iran, who had penetrated into Yemen had already obtained possession of Eastern Arabia. There was politico-social chaos at the capital (Mada'in = Ctesiphon), and this found reflection in all her territories. Northern Arabia had succumbed to Byzantine influences, and was faced with its own particular problems. Only Central Arabia remained immune from the demoralising effects of foreign occupation.
7. In this limited area of Central Arabia, the existence of the triangle of Mecca-Ta'if-Madinah seemed something providential. Mecca, desertic, deprived of water and the amenities of agriculture in physical features represented Africa and the burning Sahara. Scarcely fifty miles from there, Ta'if presented a picture of Europe and its frost. Madinah in the North was not less fertile than even the most temperate of Asiatic countries like Syria. If climate has any influence on human character, this triangle standing in the middle of the major hemisphere was, more than any other region of the earth, a miniature reproduction of the entire world. And here was born a descendant of the Babylonian Abraham, and the Egyptian Hagar, Muhammad the Prophet of Islam, a Meccan by origin and yet with stock related, both to Madinah and Ta'if.
Religion
8. From the point of view of religion, Arabia was idolatrous; only a few individuals had embraced religions like Christianity, Mazdaism, etc. The Meccans did possess the notion of the One God, but they believed also that idols had the power to intercede with Him. Curiously enough, they did not believe in the Resurrection and Afterlife. They had preserved the rite of the pilgrimage to the House of the One God, the Ka'bah, an institution set up under divine inspiration by their ancestor Abraham, yet the two thousand years that separated them from Abraham had caused to degenerate this pilgrimage into the spectacle of a commercial fair and an occasion of senseless idolatry which far from producing any good, only served to ruin their individual behaviour, both social and spiritual.
Society
9. In spite of the comparative poverty in natural resources, Mecca was the most developed of the three points of the triangle. Of the three, Mecca alone had a city-state, governed by a council of ten hereditary chiefs who enjoyed a clear division of power. (There was a minister of foreign relations, a minister guardian of the temple, a minister of oracles, a minister guardian of offerings to the temple, one to determine the torts and the damages payable, another in charge of the municipal council or parliament to enforce the decisions of the ministries. There were also ministers in charge of military affairs like custodianship of the flag, leadership of the cavalry etc.). As well reputed caravan-leaders, the Meccans were able to obtain permission from neighbouring empires like Iran, Byzantium and Abyssinia - and to enter into agreements with the tribes that lined the routes traversed by the caravans - to visit their countries and transact import and export business. They also provided escorts to foreigners when they passed through their country as well as the territory of allied tribes, in Arabia (cf. Ibn Habib, Muhabbar). Although not interested much in the preservation of ideas and records in writing, they passionately cultivated arts and letters like poetry, oratory discourses and folk tales. Women were generally well treated, they enjoyed the privilege of possessing property in their own right, they gave their consent to marriage contracts, in which they could even add the condition of reserving their right to divorce their husbands. They could remarry when widowed or divorced. Burying girls alive did exist in certain classes, but that was rare.
Birth of the Prophet
10. It was in the midst of such conditions and environments that Muhammad was born in 569 after Christ. His father, 'Abdullah had died some weeks earlier, and it was his grandfather who took him in charge. According to the prevailing custom, the child was entrusted to a Bedouin foster-mother, with whom he passed several years in the desert. All biographers state that the infant prophet sucked only one breast of his foster-mother, leaving the other for the sustenance of his foster-brother. When the child was brought back home, his mother, Aminah, took him to his maternal uncles at Madinah to visit the tomb of 'Abdullah. During the return journey, he lost his mother who died a sudden death. At Mecca, another bereavement awaited him, in the death of his affectionate grandfather. Subjected to such privations, he was at the age of eight, consigned at last to the care of his uncle, Abu-Talib, a man who was generous of nature but always short of resources and hardly able to provide for his family.
11. Young Muhammad had therefore to start immediately to earn his livelihood; he served as a shepherd boy to some neighbours. At the age of ten he accompanied his uncle to Syria when he was leading a caravan there. No other travels of Abu-Talib are mentioned, but there are references to his having set up a shop in Mecca. (Ibn Qutaibah, Ma'arif). It is possible that Muhammad helped him in this enterprise also.
12. By the time he was twenty-five, Muhammad had become well known in the city for the integrity of his disposition and the honesty of his character. A rich widow, Khadijah, took him in her employ and consigned to him her goods to be taken for sale to Syria. Delighted with the unusual profits she obtained as also by the personal charms of her agent, she offered him her hand. According to divergent reports, she was either 28 or 40 years of age at that time, (medical reasons prefer the age of 28 since she gave birth to five more children). The union proved happy. Later, we see him sometimes in the fair of Hubashah (Yemen), and at least once in the country of the 'Abd al-Qais (Bahrain-Oman), as mentioned by Ibn Hanbal. There is every reason to believe that this refers to the great fair of Daba (Oman), where, according to Ibn al-Kalbi (cf. Ibn Habib, Muhabbar), the traders of China, of Hind and Sind (India, Pakistan), of Persia, of the East and the West assembled every year, travelling both by land and sea. There is also mention of a commercial partner of Muhammad at Mecca. This person, Sa'ib by name reports: "We relayed each other; if Muhammad led the caravan, he did not enter his house on his return to Mecca without clearing accounts with me; and if I led the caravan, he would on my return enquire about my welfare and speak nothing about his own capital entrusted to me."
An Order of Chivalry
13. Foreign traders often brought their goods to Mecca for sale. One day a certain Yemenite (of the tribe of Zubaid) improvised a satirical poem against some Meccans who had refused to pay him the price of what he had sold, and others who had not supported his claim or had failed to come to his help when he was victimised. Zuhair, uncle and chief of the tribe of the Prophet, felt great remorse on hearing this just satire. He called for a meeting of certain chieftains in the city, and organized an order of chivalry, called Hilf al-fudul, with the aim and object of aiding the oppressed in Mecca, irrespective of their being dwellers of the city or aliens. Young Muhammad became an enthusiastic member of the organisation. Later in life he used to say: "I have participated in it, and I am not prepared to give up that privilege even against a herd of camels; if somebody should appeal to me even today, by virtue of that pledge, I shall hurry to his help."
Beginning of Religious Consciousness
14. Not much is known about the religious practices of Muhammad until he was thirty-five years old, except that he had never worshipped idols. This is substantiated by all his biographers. It may be stated that there were a few others in Mecca, who had likewise revolted against the senseless practice of paganism, although conserving their fidelity to the Ka'bah as the house dedicated to the One God by its builder Abraham.
15. About the year 605 of the Christian era, the draperies on the outer wall of the Ka'bah took fire. The building was affected and could not bear the brunt of the torrential rains that followed. The reconstruction of the Ka'bah was thereupon undertaken. Each citizen contributed according to his means; and only the gifts of honest gains were accepted. Everybody participated in the work of construction, and Muhammad's shoulders were injured in the course of transporting stones. To identify the place whence the ritual of circumambulation began, there had been set a black stone in the wall of the Ka'bah. dating probably from the time of Abraham himself. There was rivalry among the citizens for obtaining the honour of transposing this stone in its place. When there was danger of blood being shed, somebody suggested leaving the matter to Providence, and accepting the arbitration of him who should happen to arrive there first. It chanced that Muhammad just then turned up there for work as usual. He was popularly known by the appellation of al-Amin (the honest), and everyone accepted his arbitration without hesitation. Muhammad placed a sheet of cloth on the ground, put the stone on it and asked the chiefs of all the tribes in the city to lift together the cloth. Then he himself placed the stone in its proper place, in one of the angles of the building, and everybody was satisfied.
16. It is from this moment that we find Muhammad becoming more and more absorbed in spiritual meditations. Like his grandfather, he used to retire during the whole month of Ramadan to a cave in Jabal-an-Nur (mountain of light). The cave is called `Ghar-i-Hira' or the cave of research. There he prayed, meditated, and shared his meagre provisions with the travellers who happened to pass by.
Revelation
17. He was forty years old, and it was the fifth consecutive year since his annual retreats, when one night towards the end of the month of Ramadan, an angel came to visit him, and announced that God had chosen him as His messenger to all mankind. The angel taught him the mode of ablutions, the way of worshipping God and the conduct of prayer. He communicated to him the following Divine message:
With the name of God, the Most Merciful, the All-Merciful.
Read: with the name of thy Lord Who created,
Created man from what clings,
Read: and thy Lord is the Most Bounteous,
Who taught by the pen,
Taught man what he knew not. (Quran 96:1-5)
18. Deeply affected, he returned home and related to his wife what had happened, expressing his fears that it might have been something diabolic or the action of evil spirits. She consoled him, saying that he had always been a man of charity and generosity, helping the poor, the orphans, the widows and the needy, and assured him that God would protect him against all evil.
19. Then came a pause in revelation, extending over three years. The Prophet must have felt at first a shock, then a calm, an ardent desire, and after a period of waiting, a growing impatience or nostalgia. The news of the first vision had spread and at the pause the sceptics in the city had begun to mock at him and cut bitter jokes. They went so far as to say that God had forsaken him.
20. During the three years of waiting. the Prophet had given himself up more and more to prayers and to spiritual practices. The revelations were then resumed and God assured him that He had not at all forsaken him: on the contrary it was He Who had guided him to the right path: therefore he should take care of the orphans and the destitute, and proclaim the bounty of God on him (cf. Q. 93:3-11). This was in reality an order to preach. Another revelation directed him to warn people against evil practices, to exhort them to worship none but the One God, and to abandon everything that would displease God (Q. 74:2-7). Yet another revelation commanded him to warn his own near relatives (Q. 26:214); and: "Proclaim openly that which thou art commanded, and withdraw from the Associators (idolaters). Lo! we defend thee from the scoffers" (15:94-5). According to Ibn Ishaq, the first revelation (n. 17) had come to the Prophet during his sleep, evidently to reduce the shock. Later revelations came in full wakefulness.
The Mission
21. The Prophet began by preaching his mission secretly first among his intimate friends, then among the members of his own tribe and thereafter publicly in the city and suburbs. He insisted on the belief in One Transcendent God, in Resurrection and the Last Judgement. He invited men to charity and beneficence. He took necessary steps to preserve through writing the revelations he was receiving, and ordered his adherents also to learn them by heart. This continued all through his life, since the Quran was not revealed all at once, but in fragments as occasions arose.
22. The number of his adherents increased gradually, but with the denunciation of paganism, the opposition also grew intenser on the part of those who were firmly attached to their ancestral beliefs. This opposition degenerated in the course of time into physical torture of the Prophet and of those who had embraced his religion. These were stretched on burning sands, cauterized with red hot iron and imprisoned with chains on their feet. Some of them died of the effects of torture, but none would renounce his religion. In despair, the Prophet Muhammad advised his companions to quit their native town and take refuge abroad, in Abyssinia, "where governs a just ruler, in whose realm nobody is oppressed" (Ibn Hisham). Dozens of Muslims profited by his advice, though not all. These secret flights led to further persecution of those who remained behind.
23. The Prophet Muhammad [was instructed to call this] religion "Islam," i.e. submission to the will of God. Its distinctive features are two:
A harmonius equilibrium between the temporal and the spiritual (the body and the soul), permitting a full enjoyment of all the good that God has created, (Quran 7:32), enjoining at the same time on everybody duties towards God, such as worship, fasting, charity, etc. Islam was to be the religion of the masses and not merely of the elect.
A universality of the call - all the believers becoming brothers and equals without any distinction of class or race or tongue. The only superiority which it recognizes is a personal one, based on the greater fear of God and greater piety (Quran 49:13).
Social Boycott
24. When a large number of the Meccan Muslims migrated to Abyssinia, the leaders of paganism sent an ultimatum to the tribe of the Prophet, demanding that he should be excommunicated and outlawed and delivered to the pagans for being put to death. Every member of the tribe, Muslim and non-Muslim rejected the demand. (cf. Ibn Hisham). Thereupon the city decided on a complete boycott of the tribe: Nobody was to talk to them or have commercial or matrimonial relations with them. The group of Arab tribes called Ahabish, inhabiting the suburbs, who were allies of the Meccans, also joined in the boycott, causing stark misery among the innocent victims consisting of children, men and women, the old and the sick and the feeble. Some of them succumbed yet nobody would hand over the Prophet to his persecutors. An uncle of the Prophet, Abu Lahab, however left his tribesmen and participated in the boycott along with the pagans. After three dire years, during which the victims were obliged to devour even crushed hides, four or five non-Muslims, more humane than the rest and belonging to different clans proclaimed publicly their denunciation of the unjust boycott. At the same time, the document promulgating the pact of boycott which had been hung in the temple, was found, as Muhammad had predicted, eaten by white ants, that spared nothing but the words God and Muhammad. The boycott was lifted, yet owing to the privations that were undergone the wife and Abu Talib, the chief of the tribe and uncle of the Prophet died soon after. Another uncle of the Prophet, Abu-Lahab, who was an inveterate enemy of Islam, now succeeded to the headship of the tribe. (cf. lbn Hisham, Sirah).
The Ascension
25. It was at thIs time that the Prophet Muhammad was granted the mi'raj (ascension): He saw in a vision that he was received on heaven by God, and was witness of the marvels of the celestial regions. Returning, he brought for his community, as a Divine gift, the [ritual prayer of Islam, the salaat], which constitutes a sort of communion between man and God. It may be recalled that in the last part of Muslim service of worship, the faithful employ as a symbol of their being in the very presence of God, not concrete objects as others do at the time of communion, but the very words of greeting exchanged between the Prophet Muhammad and God on the occasion of the former's mi'raj: "The blessed and pure greetings for God! - Peace be with thee, O Prophet, as well as the mercy and blessing of God! - Peace be with us and with all the [righteous] servants of God!" The Christian term "communion" implies participation in the Divinity. Finding it pretentious, Muslims use the term "ascension" towards God and reception in His presence, God remaining God and man remaining man and no confusion between the twain.
26. The news of this celestial meeting led to an increase in the hostility of the pagans of Mecca; and the Prophet was obliged to quit his native town in search of an asylum elsewhere. He went to his maternal uncles in Ta'if, but returned immediately to Mecca, as the wicked people of that town chased the Prophet out of their city by pelting stones on him and wounding him.
Migration to Madinah
27. The annual pilgrimage of the Ka'bah brought to Mecca people from all parts of Arabia. The Prophet Muhammad tried to persuade one tribe after another to afford him shelter and allow him to carry on his mission of reform. The contingents of fifteen tribes, whom he approached in succession, refused to do so more or less brutally, but he did not despair. Finally he met half a dozen inhabitants of Madinah who being neighbour of the Jews and the Christians, had some notion of prophets and Divine messages. They knew also that these "people of the Books" were awaiting the arrival of a prophet - a last comforter. So these Madinans decided not to lose the opportunity of obtaining an advance over others, and forthwith embraced Islam, promising further to provide additional adherents and necessary help from Madinah. The following year a dozen new Madinans took the oath of allegiance to him and requested him to provide with a missionary teacher. The work of the missionary, Mus'ab, proved very successful and he led a contingent of seventy-three new converts to Mecca, at the time of the pilgrimage. These invited the Prophet and his Meccan companions to migrate to their town, and promised to shelter the Prophet and to treat him and his companions as their own kith and kin. Secretly and in small groups, the greater part of the Muslims emigrated to Madinah. Upon this the pagans of Mecca not only confiscated the property of the evacuees, but devised a plot to assassinate the Prophet. It became now impossible for him to remain at home. It is worthy of mention, that in spite of their hostility to his mission, the pagans had unbounded confidence in his probity, so much so that many of them used to deposit their savings with him. The Prophet Muhammad now entrusted all these deposits to 'Ali, a cousin of his, with instructions to return in due course to the rightful owners. He then left the town secretly in the company of his faithful friend, Abu-Bakr. After several adventures, they succeeded in reaching Madinah in safety. This happened in 622, whence starts the Hijrah calendar.
Reorganization of the Community
28. For the better rehabilitation of the displaced immigrants, the Prophet created a fraternization between them and an equal number of well-to-do Madinans. The families of each pair of the contractual brothers worked together to earn their livelihood, and aided one another in the business of life.
29. Further he thought that the development of the man as a whole would be better achieved if he co-ordinated religion and politics as two constituent parts of one whole. To this end he invited the representatives of the Muslims as well as the non-Muslim inhabitants of the region: Arabs, Jews, Christians and others, and suggested the establishment of a City-State in Madinah. With their assent, he endowed the city with a written constitution - the first of its kind in the world - in which he defined the duties and rights both of the citizens and the head of the State - the Prophet Muhammad was unanimously hailed as such - and abolished the customary private justice. The administration of justice became henceforward the concern of the central organisation of the community of the citizens. The document laid down principles of defence and foreign policy: it organized a system of social insurance, called ma'aqil, in cases of too heavy obligations. It recognized that the Prophet Muhammad would have the final word in all differences, and that there was no limit to his power of legislation. It recognized also explicitly liberty of religion, particularly for the Jews, to whom the constitutional act afforded equality with Muslims in all that concerned life in this world (cf. infra n. 303).
30. Muhammad journeyed several times with a view to win the neighbouring tribes and to conclude with them treaties of alliance and mutual help. With their help, he decided to bring to bear economic pressure on the Meccan pagans, who had confiscated the property of the Muslim evacuees and also caused innumerable damage. Obstruction in the way of the Meccan caravans and their passage through the Madinan region exasperated the pagans, and a bloody struggle ensued.
31. In the concern for the material interests of the community, the spiritual aspect was never neglected. Hardly a year had passed after the migration to Madinah, when the most rigorous of spiritual disciplines, the fasting for the whole month of Ramadan every year, was imposed on every adult Muslim, man and woman.
Struggle Against Intolerance and Unbelief
32. Not content with the expulsion of the Muslim compatriots, the Meccans sent an ultimatum to the Madinans, demanding the surrender or at least the expulsion of Muhammad and his companions but evidently all such efforts proved in vain. A few months later, in the year 2 H., they sent a powerful army against the Prophet, who opposed them at Badr; and the pagans thrice as numerous as the Muslims, were routed. After a year of preparation, the Meccans again invaded Madinah to avenge the defeat of Badr. They were now four times as numerous as the Muslims. After a bloody encounter at Uhud, the enemy retired, the issue being indecisive. The mercenaries in the Meccan army did not want to take too much risk, or endanger their safety.
33. In thc meanwhile the Jewish citizens of Madinah began to foment trouble. About the time of the victory of Badr, one of their leaders, Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf, proceeded to Mecca to give assurance of his alliance with the pagans, and to incite them to a war of revenge. After the battle of Uhud, the tribe of the same chieftain plotted to assassinate the Prophet by throwing on him a mill-stone from above a tower, when he had gone to visit their locality. In spite of all this, the only demand the Prophet made of the men of this tribe was to quit the Madinan region, taking with them all their properties, after selling their immovables and recovering their debts from the Muslims. The clemency thus extended had an effect contrary to what was hoped. The exiled not only contacted the Meccans, but also the tribes of the North, South and East of Madinah, mobilized military aid, and planned from Khaibar an invasion of Madinah, with forces four times more numerous than those employed at Uhud. The Muslims prepared for a siege, and dug a ditch to defend themselves against this hardest of all trials. Although the defection of the Jews still remaining inside Madinah at a later stage upset all strategy, yet with a sagacious diplomacy, the Prophet succeeded in breaking up the alliance, and the different enemy groups retired one after the other.
34. Alcoholic drinks, gambling and games of chance were at this time declared forbidden for the Muslims.
The Reconciliation
35. The Prophet tried once more to reconcile the Meccans and proceeded to Mecca. The barring of the route of their Northern caravans had ruined their economy. The Prophet promised them transit security, extradition of their fugitives and the fulfillment of every condition they desired, agreeing even to return to Madinah without accomplishing the pilgrimage of the Ka'bah. Thereupon the two contracting parties promised at Hudaibiyah in the suburbs of Mecca, not only the maintenance of peace, but also the observance of neutrality in their conflicts with third parties.
36. Profiting by the peace, the Prophet launched an intensive programme for the propagation of his religion. He addressed missionary letters to the foreign rulers of Byzantium, Iran, Abyssinia and other lands. The Byzantine autocrat priest - Dughatur of the Arabs - embraced Islam, but for this, was lynched by the Christian mob; the prefect of Ma'an (Palestine) suffered the same fate, and was decapitated and crucified by order of the emperor. A Muslim ambassador was assassinated in Syria-Palestine; and instead of punishing the culprit, the emperor Heraclius rushed with his armies to protect him against the punitive expedition sent by the Prophet (battle of Mu'tah).
37. The pagans of Mecca hoping to profit by the Muslim difficulties, violated the terms of their treaty. Upon this, the Prophet himself led an army, ten thousand strong, and surprised Mecca which he occupied in a bloodless manner. As a benevolent conqueror, he caused the vanquished people to assemble, reminded them of their ill deeds, their religious persecution, unjust confiscation of the evacuee property, ceaseless invasions and senseless hostilities for twenty years continuously. He asked them: "Now what do you expect of me?" When everybody lowered his head with shame, the Prophet proclaimed: "May God pardon you; go in peace; there shall be no responsibility on you today; you are free!" He even renounced the claim for the Muslim property confiscated by the pagans. This produced a great psychological change of hearts instantaneously. When a Meccan chief advanced with a fulsome heart towards the Prophet, after hearing this general amnesty, in order to declare his acceptance of Islam, the Prophet told him: "And in my turn, I appoint you the governor of Mecca!" Without leaving a single soldier in the conquered city, the Prophet retired to Madinah. The Islamization of Mecca, which was accomplished in a few hours, was complete.
38. Immediately after the occupation of Mecca, the city of Ta'if mobilized to fight against the Prophet. With some difficulty the enemy was dispersed in the valley of Hunain, but the Muslims preferred to raise the siege of nearby Ta'if and use pacific means to break the resistance of this region. Less than a year later, a delegation from Ta'if came to Madinah offering submission. But it requested exemption from prayer, taxes and military service, and the continuance of the liberty to adultery and fornication and alcoholic drinks. It demanded even the conservation of the temple of the idol al-Lat at Ta'if. But Islam was not a materialist immoral movement; and soon the delegation itself felt ashamed of its demands regarding prayer, adultery and wine. The Prophet consented to concede exemption from payment of taxes and rendering of military service; and added: You need not demolish the temple with your own hands: we shall send agents from here to do the job, and if there should be any consequences, which you are afraid of on account of your superstitions, it will be they who would suffer. This act of the Prophet shows what concessions could be given to new converts. The conversion of the Ta'ifites was so whole hearted that in a short while, they themselves renounced the contracted exemptions, and we find the Prophet nominating a tax collector in their locality as in other Islamic regions.
39. In all these "wars," extending over a period of ten years, the non-Muslims lost on the battlefield only about 250 persons killed, and the Muslim losses were even less. With these few incisions, the whole continent of Arabia. with its million and more of square miles, was cured of the abscess of anarchy and immorality. During these ten years of disinterested struggle, all thc peoples of the Arabian Peninsula and the southern regions of Iraq and Palestine had voluntarily embraced Islam. Some Christian, Jewish and Parsi groups remained attached to their creeds, and they were granted liberty of conscience as well as judicial and juridical autonomy.
40. In the year 10 H., when the Prophet went to Mecca for Hajj (pilgrimage), he met 140,000 Muslims there, who had come from different parts of Arabia to fulfil their religious obligation. He addressed to them his celebrated sermon, in which he gave a resume of his teachings: "Belief in One God without images or symbols, equality of all the Believers without distinction of race or class, the superiority of individuals being based solely on piety; sanctity of life, property and honour; abolition of interest, and of vendettas and private justice; better treatment of women; obligatory inheritance and distribution of the property of deceased persons among near relatives of both sexes, and removal of the possibility of the cumulation of wealth in the hands of the few." The Quran and the conduct of the Prophet were to serve as the bases of law and a healthy criterion in every aspect of human life.
41. On his return to Madinah, he fell ill; and a few weeks later, when he breathed his last, he had the satisfaction that he had well accomplished the task which he had undertaken - to preach to the world the Divine message.
42. He bequeathed to posterity, a religion of pure monotheism; he created a well-disciplined State out of the existent chaos and gave peace in place of the war of everybody against everybody else; he established a harmonious equilibrium between the spiritual and the temporal, between the mosque and the citadel; he left a new system of law, which dispensed impartial justice, in which even the head of the State was as much a subject to it as any commoner, and in which religious tolerance was so great that non-Muslim inhabitants of Muslim countries equally enjoyed complete juridical, judicial and cultural autonomy. In the matter of the revenues of the State, the Quran fixed the principles of budgeting, and paid more thought to the poor than to anybody else. The revenues were declared to be in no wise the private property of the head of the State. Above all, the Prophet Muhammad set a noble example and fully practised all that he taught to others.
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WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT MOHAMMED (PEACE BE UPON HIM) THE PROPHET OF ISLAM
A lecture by Ahmed Deedat
#
SAY: "DO YOU SEE ?
WHETHER THIS MESSAGE BE FROM ALLAH (God Almighty),
AND YET YOU REJECT IT,
AND A WITNESS FROM AMONG THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL BORE
WITNESS OF ONE LIKE HIM......."
(Holy Qur'an 46:10). (see note 1)
Mr.Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The subject of this evening's talk - "What the BIBLE says about MUHAMMED" - will no doubt come as a surprise to many of you because the speaker is a Muslim. How does it come about that a Muslim happens to be expounding prophecies from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures ?
As a young man, about 30 years ago, I attended a series of religious lectures by a Chriatian theologian, a certain Rev. Hiten, at the "Theatre Royal", Durban in South Africa.
Pope or Kissinger?
This Reverend gentleman was expounding Biblical prophecies. He went on to prove that the Christian Bible foretold the rise of Soviet Russia, and the Last Days. At one stage he went to the extent of proving that his Holy Book did not leave even the Pope out of its predictions. He expatiated vigo rously in order to convince his audience that the "Beast 666" mentioned in the Book of Revelation the last book of the New Testament was the POPE, who was the Vicar of Christ on earth. It is not befitting for us Muslims to enter into this controversy between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. By the way, the latest Christia exposition of the "Beast 666" of the Christian Bible is Dr.Henry Kissinger(2). Christian scholars are ingenious and indefatigable in their efforts to prove their case.
Rev. Hiten's lectures led me to ask that if the Bible foretold so many things - not even excluding the "Pope" and "Israel" - then surely it must have something to say about the greatest benefactor of mankind(3) , the Holy Prophet Muhammed (may the peace of Allah be upon him).
As a youngster I set out to search for an answer. I met priest after priest, attended lectures, and read everything that I could lay my hands relating to the fields of Bible prophecies. Tonight I am going to narrate to you one of these interviews with a dominee(4) of the Dutch Reformed Church.
Lucky Thirteen
I was invited to the Transvaal(5) to deliver a talk on the occasion of Birthday celebration of the Holy Prophet Muhammed. Knowing that in that province of the Republic, the Afrikaans language is widely spoken, even by my own people, I felt that I ought to acquire a smattering of this language so a s to feel a little "at home" with the people. I opened the telephone directory and began phoning the Afrikaans-speaking Churches. I indicated my purpose to the priests that I was interested in having a dialogue with them, but they all refused my request with "Plausible" excuses. No.13 was my lucky number. The thirteenth call brought me pleasure and relief. A dominee Van Heerden agreed to meet me at his home on the Saturday afternoon that I was to leave for Transvaal.
He received me on his verandah with a friendly welcome. He said if I did not mind, he would like his father-in-law from the Free State (a 70 year old man) to join us in the discussion. I did not mind. The three of us settled down in the dominee's library.
Why nothing?
I posed the question: "What does the Bible say about Muhummed?" Without hesitation he answered, "Nothing!" I asked: "Why nothing? According to your interpretation the Bible have so many things to say about the rise of Soviet Russia and about the Last Days and even about the Pope of the Roman Ca tholics?" He said, "Yes, but there was nothing about Muhummed!" I asked again, "Why nothing? Surely this man Muhummed who had been responsible for the bringing into being a world-wide community of millions of Believers who, on his authority, believe in:
(1) the miraculous birth of Jesus,
(2) that Jesus is the Messiah,(note 6)
(3) that he gave life to the dead by God's permission, and that he healed those born blind and the lepers by God's permission.
Surely this book (the Bible) must have something to say about this great Leader of men who spoke so well of Jesus and his mother Mary?"
The old man from the Free State replied. "My son, I have been reading the Bible for the past 50 years, and if there was any mention of him, I would have known it."
Not One by name!
I enquired: "According to you, are there not hundreds of prophecies regarding the coming of Jesus in the Old Testament." The dominee interjected: "Not hundreds, but thousands!" I said, "I am not going to dispute the 'thousand and one' prophecies in the Old Testament regarding the coming of Jesu s Christ, because the whole Muslim-world has already accepted him without the testimony of any Biblical prophecy. We Muslims have accepted the de facto Jesus on the authority of Muhummed alone, and there are in the world today no less than 900,000,000 followers of Muhummed who love, respect and rev ere Jesus Christ as a great Messenger of God without having the Christians to convince them by means of their Biblical dialectics. Out of the 'thousands' of prophecies referred to, can you please give me just one single prophecy where Jesus is mentioned by name? The term 'Messiah', translated as 'C hrist', is not a name but a title. Is there a single Prophecy where it says that the name of the Messiah will be JESUS, and that his mother's name will be MARY, that his supposed father will be JOSEPH THE CARPENTER; that he will be born in the reign of HEROD THE KING, etc. etc.? No! There are no su ch details! Then how can you conclude that those 'thousand' Prophecies refer to Jesus (Peace be upon him)?"
What is Prophecy?
The dominee replies: "You see, prophecies are word-pictures of something that is going to happen in the future. When that thing actually comes to pass, we see vividly in these prophecies the fulfilment of what had been predicted in the past." I said: "What you actually do is that you deduce, yo u reason, you put two and two together." He said: "Yes." I said: "If this is what you have to do with a 'thousand' prophecies to justify your claim with regards to the genuineness of Jesus, why should we not adopt the very same system for Muhummed?" The dominee agreed that it was a fair proposition , a reasonable way of dealing with the problem.
I asked him to open up Deuteronomy, chapter 18, verse 18, which he did. I read from memory the verse in Afrikaans, because this was my purpose in having a little practice with the language of the ruling race in South Africa. (8)
'N PROFEET SAL EK VIR HULLE VERWEK UIT DIE MIDDE VAN HULLE BROERS, SOOS JY IS, EN EK SAL MY WOORDE IN SY MOND LE, EN HY SY SAL AAN HULLE SE ALLE WAT EK HOM BEVEEL. Deut.18: 18.
The English translation reads as follows:-
"I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren,
like unto thee,
and I will put my words in his mouth;
and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him." Deut.18:18.
Prophet Like Moses
Having recited the verse in Afrikaans, I apologised for my uncertain pronunciation, The dominee assured me that I was doing fine. I enquired: "To whom does this prophecy refer?" Without the slightest hesitation he answered: "JESUS!" I asked: "Why Jesus?... his name is not mentioned here." The domin ee replied: "Since prophecies are word-pictures of something that is going to happen in the future, we find that the wordings of this verse adequately describe him. You see the most important words of this prophecy are 'SOOS JY IS' (like unto thee), - LIKE YOU - like Moses, and Jesus is like Moses. " I questioned: "In which way is Jesus like Moses?" The answer was: "In the first place Moses was a JEW and Jesus was also a JEW; secondly, Moses was a PROPHET and Jesus was also a PROPHET - therefore Jesus is like Moses and that is exactly what God had foretold Moses - "SOOS JY IS". "Can you think of any other similarities between Moses and Jesus?" I asked. The dominee said that he could not think of any. I replied: "If these are the only two criteria for discovering a candidate for this prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:18, then in that case the criteria could fit any one of the following Biblica l personages after Moses:- Solomon, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Malachi, John the Baptist etc., because they were also ALL Jews as well as Prophets. Why should we not apply this prophency to any one of these prophets, and why only to Jesus? Why should we make fish of one and fowl of anoth er?" The dominee had no reply. I continued: "You see, my conclusions are that Jesus is most unlike Moses, and if I am wrong I would like you to correct me."
Three Unlikes
So staying, I reasoned with him: "In the FIRST place Jesus is not like Moses, because, according to you - 'JESUS IS A GOD', but Moses is not God. Is this true?" He said: "Yes." I said: "Therefore, Jesus is not like Moses! SECONDLY, according to you - 'JESUS DIED FOR THE SINS OF THE WORLD', but Mose s did not have to die for the sins of the world. Is this true?" He again said: "Yes." I said: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses! THIRDLY, according to you - 'JESUS WENT TO HELL FOR THREE DAYS', but Moses did not have to go there. Is this true?" He answered meekly: "Y-e-s." I concluded: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses!" "But dominee," I continued: "these are not hard facts, solid facts, they are mere matters of belief over which the little ones can stumble and fall. Let us discuss something very simple, very easy that if your little ones are called in to hear the discussion, would have no difficulty in following it, shall we?" The dominee was quiet happy at the suggestion.
Father and Mother
(1) "Moses had a father and a mother. Muhummed also had a father and a mother. But Jesus had only a mother, and no human father. Is this true?" He said: "Yes." I said: "DAAROM IS JESUS NIE SOOS MOSES NIE, MAAR MUHUMMED IS SOOS MOSES!" Meaning: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses, but Muhummed is lik e Moses!" (By now the reader will realise that I was using the Afrikaans language only for practice purposes. I shall discontinue its use in this narration).
Miraculous Birth
(2) "Moses and Muhummed were born in the normal, natural course, i.e. the physical association of man and woman; but Jesus was created by a special miracle. You will recall that we are told in the Gospel of St.Matthew 1:18".....BEFORE THEY CAME TOGETHER,(Joseph the Carpenter and Mary) SHE WAS FOUND WITH CHILD BY THE HOLY GHOST.' And St.Luke tells us that when the good news of the birth of a holy son was announded to her, Mary reasoned:'.......HOW SHALL THIS BE, SEEING I KNOW NOT A MAN? AND THE ANGEL ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO HER, THE HOLY GHOST SHALL COME UPON THEE, AND THE POWER OF THE HIGHEST SHALL OVERSHADOW THEE:......'(Luke 1:35). The Holy Qur'an confirms the miraculous birth of Jesus, in nobler and sublimer terms. In answer to her logical question:
" O MY LORD! HOW SHALL I HAVE A SON WHEN NO MAN HATH TOUCHED ME? "
The angel says in reply:
"EVEN SO:
ALLAH CREATETH WHAT HE WILLETH:
WHEN HE HATH DECREED A PLAN,
HE BUT SAITH TO IT "BE,"
AND IT IS " (9) (HOLY QUR'AN, 3:47).
It is not necessary for God to plant a seed in man or animal. He merely wills it and it comes into being. This is the Muslim conception of the of birth of Jesus.
(When I compared the Qur'an and the Biblical versions of the birth of Jesus to the head of the Bible Society in our largest City, and when I enquired: "Which version would you prefer to give your daughter, the QUR'ANIC version or the BIBLICAL version?" The man bowed his head and answered: "The Qur'anic.") In short, I said to the dominee: "Is it true that Jesus was born miraculously as against the natural birth of Moses and Muhummed?"He replied proudly:"Yes!" I said:"Therefore Jesus is not like Moses, but Muhummed is like Moses. And God says to Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy 18:18 "LIKE UNTO THEE" (Like You, Like Moses) and Muhummed is like Moses."
Marriage Ties
(3) "Moses and Muhummed married and begat children, but Jesus remained a bachelor all his life. Is this true?" The dominee said: "Yes." I said: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses, but Muhummed is like Moses."
Jesus Rejected by his People
(3) "Moses and Muhummed were accepted as prophets by their people in their very lifetime. No doubt the Jews gave endless trouble to Moses and they murmured in the wilderness, but as a nation, they acknowledged that Moses was a Messenger of God sent to them. The Arabs too made Muhummed's life imposs ible. He suffered very badly at their hands. After 13 years of preaching in Mecca, he had to emigrate from the city of his birth. But before his demise, the Arab nation as a whole accepted him as the Messenger of Allah. But according to the Bible: 'He (Jesus) CAME UNTO HIS OWN, BUT HIS OWN RECEIVED HIM NOT.' (John 1:11). And even today, ofter two thousand years, his people- the Jews, as a whole, have rejeted him. Is this true?" The dominee said: "Yes." I said: "THEREFORE JESUS IS NOT LIKE MOSES, BUT MUHUMMED IS LIKE MOSES."
"Other-Wordly" Kingdom
(5) "Moses and Muhummed were prophets as well as kings. A prophet means a man who receives Divine Revelation for the Guidance of Man and this Guidance he conveys to God's creatures as received without any addition or deletion. A king is a person who has the power of life and death over his people. It is immaterial whether the person wears a crown or not, or whether he was ever addressed as king or monarch: if the man has the prerogative of inflicting capital punishment - HE IS A KING. Moses possessed such a power. Do you remember the Israelite who was found picking up firewood on Sabbath Day , and Moses had him stoned to death? (Numbers- 15:13). There are other crimes also mentioned in the Bible for which capital punishment was inflicted on the Jews at the behest of Moses. Muhummed too, had the power of life and death over his people. There are instances in the Bible of persons who wer e given gift of prophecy only, but they were not in a position to implement their directives. Some of these holy men of God who were helpless in the face of stubborn rejection of their mesage, were the prophets lot, Jonah, Daniel, Ezra, and John the Baptist. They could only deliver the message, but could not enforce the Law. The Holy Prophet Jesus (Peace b.u.h) also belonged to this category. The Christian Gospel clearly confirms this: when Jesus was dragged before the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, Charged for sedition, Jesus made a convincing point in his defence to refute the false charg e: JESUS ANSWERED, "MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD': IF MY KINGDOM WERE OF THIS WORLD, THEN WOULD MY SERVANTS FIGHT, THAT I SHOULD NOT BE DELIVERED TO THE JEWS; BUT NOW IS MY KINGDOM NOT FROM HENCE"(John 18:36) This convinced Pilate (A Pagan) that though Jesus might not be in full possessio n of his mental faculty, he did not strike him as being a danger to his rule. Jesus claimed a spiritual Kingdom only; in other words he only claimed to be a Prophet. Is this true?" The dominee answered:"Yes." I said:"Therefore Jesus is not like Moses but Muhummed is like Moses."
No New Laws
(6) "Moses and Muhummed brought new laws and new regulations for their people. Moses not only gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites, but a very comprehensive ceremonial law for the guidance of his people. Muhummed comes to a people steeped in barbarism and ignorance. They married their step-m others; they buried their daughters alive; drunkenness, adultery, idolatry, and gambling were the order of the day. Gibbon describe the Arabs before Islam in his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", THE HUMAN BRUTE, ALMOST WITHOUT SENSE, IS POORLY DISTINGUISHED FROM THE REST OF THE ANIMAL CREATI ON.' There was hardly anything to distinguish between the "man" and the "animal" of the time; they were animals in human form.
"From this abject barbarism, Muhummed elevated them, in the words of Thomas Carlysle, 'into torch-bearers of light and learning.' 'TO THE ARAB NATION IT WAS AS A BIRTH FROM DARKNESS INTO LIGHT. ARABIA FIRST BECAME ALIVE BY MEANS OF IT. A POOR SHEPHERD PEOPLE, ROAMING UNNOTICED IN ITS DESERTS SINCE THE CREATION OF THE WORLD. SEE, THE UNNOTICED BECOMES WORLD NOTABLE, THE SMALL HAS GROWN WORLD-GREAT. WITHIN ONE CENTURY AFTERWARDS ARABIA WAS AT GRANADA ON ONE HAND AND AT DELHI ON THE OTHER. GLANCING IN VALOUR AND SPLENDOUR, AND THE LIGHT OF GENIUS, ARABIA SHINES OVER A GREA SECTION OF THE WORLD. ...' The fact is that Muhummed gave his people a Law and Order they never had before.
"As regards Jesus, when the Jews felt suspicious of him that he might be an imposter with designs to pervert their teachings, Jesus took pains to assure them that he had not come with a new religion - no new laws and no new regulations. I quote his own words: 'THINK NOT THAT IAM COME TO DESTROY THE LAW, OR THE PROPHETS: IAM NOT COME TO DESTROY, BUT TO FULFIL. FOR VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, TILL HEAVEN AND EARTH PASS, ONE JOT OR ONE TITLE SHALL IN NO WISE PASS FROM THE LAW, TILL ALL BE FULFILLED.'(Mathew 5:17-18). In other words he had not come with any new laws or regulation he came only to fulfil the old law. This what he gave the Jews to understand- unless he was speaking with the tongue in his cheek trying to bluff the Jews into accepting him as a man of God and by subterfuge trying to ram a new religion down their throats. No! This Messenger of God would never resort to such fo ul means to subvert the Religion of God. He himself fulfilled the laws. He observed the commandments of Moses, and he respected the Sabbath. At no time did a single Jew point a finger at him to say, 'why don't you fast' or 'why don't you wash your hands before you break bread',which charges they al wasy levied against his disciples, but never against Jesus. This is because as a good Jew he honoured the laws of the prophets who preceded him. In short, he had created no new religion and had brought no new law like Moses and Muhummed. Is this true?" I asked the dominee, and he answered: "Yes." I said:"Therefore, Jesus is not like Moses but Muhummed is like Moses."
How they Departed
(7) "Both Moses and Muhummed died natural deaths, but according to Christianity, Jesus was violently killed on the cross.(10) Is this true?" The dominee said: "Yes." I averred: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses but Muhummed is like Moses."
Heavenly Abode
(8) "Moses and Muhummed both lie buried in earth, but according to you, Jesus in heaven. Is this true?" The dominee agreed. I said: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses but Muhummed is like Moses."
Ishmael The First Born
Since the dominee was helplessly agreeing with every point, I said, "Dominee, so far what I have done is to prove only one point out of the whole prophecy- that is proving the phrase 'LIKE UNTO THEE' - 'Like You' 'Like Moses'. The Prophecy is much more than this single phrase which reads as follows : "I WILL RAISE THEM UP A PROPHET FROM AMONG THEIR BRETHREN LIKE UNTO THEE......." The emphasis is on the words- "From among their brethren." Moses and his people, the Jews, are here addressed as a racial entity, and as such their 'brethren' would undoubtedly be the arabs. You see, the Holy Bible s peaks of Abraham as the "Friend of God". Abraham had two wives - Sarah and Hagar. Hagar bore Abraham a son - HIS FIRST-BORN- '......And Abraham(11) called HIS SON'S name, which Hagar bare Ishmael.' (Genesis 16:15). 'And Abraham took Ishmael HIS SON......" (Genesis 17:23). 'And Ishmael HIS SON was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.'(Genesis 17:25). Up to the age of THIRTEEN Ishmael was the ONLY son and sed of Abraham, when the covenant was ratified between God and Abraham. God grants Abraham another son through Sarah, named Isaac, wh o was very much the junior to his brother Ishmael.
Arabs and Jews
If Ishmael and Isaac are the sons of the same father Abraham, then they are brothers. And so the children of the one are the BRETHREN of the children of the other. The children of Isaac are the Jews and the Children of Ishmael are the Arabs - so they are BRETHREN to one another. The Bible affirms, 'AND HE (ISHMAEL) SHALL DWELL IN THE PRESENCE OF ALL HIS BRETHREN.' (Genesis 16:12). 'AND HE (ISHMAEL) DIED IN THE PRESENCE OF ALL HIS BRETHREN.(Genesis 25:18). The children of Isaac are the brethren of the Ishmaelites. In like manner Muhummed is from among the brethren of the Israeli tes beause he was a descendant of Ishamel the son of Abraham. This exactly as the prophecy has it- 'FROM AMONG THEIR BRETHREN'.(Deut.18:18). There the prophecy distinctly mentions that the coming prophet who would be like Moses, must arise NOT from the 'children of Israel' or from 'among the mselves', but from among their brethren. MUHUMMED THEREFORE WAS FROM AMONG THEIR BRETHREN!
Words in the Mouth
"The prophecy proceeds further:'.......AND I WILL PUT MY WORDS INTO HIS MOUTH.......' What does it mean when it is said 'I will put my words in your mouth'? You see, when I asked you (the dominee) to open Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse 18, at the beginning, and if I had asked you to read, and if you had read: would I be putting my words into your mouth?" The dominee answered: "No." "But," I continued: "If I were to teach you a language like Arabic about which you have no knowledge, and if I asked you to read or repeat after me what I utter i.e.:
"SAY: HE IS ALLAH THE ONE AND ONLY;
ALLAH, THE ETERNAL ABSOLUTE;
HE BEGETTETH NOT, NOR IS HE BEGOTTEN:
AND THERE IS NONE LIKE UNTO HIM.
(Holy Qur'an 112:1-4)( I read them in Arabic )
Would I not be putting these unheard words of a foreign tongue which you utter, into your mouth?" The dominee agreed that it was indeed so. In an identical manner, I said, the words of the Holy Qur'an, the Revelation vouchsafed by the Almighty God to Muhummed, were revealed.
History tells us that Muhummed was forty years of age. He was in a cave some three miles north of the City of Mecca. It was the 27th night of the Muslim month of Ramadaan. In the cave the Archangel Gabriel commands him in his mother tongue:'IQRA' which means READ! or PROCLAIM! or RECITE! Muhummed w as terrified and in his bewilderment replied that he was not NOT LEARNED! The angel commands him a second time with the same result. For the third time the angel continues.
Now Muhummed, grasps, that what was required of him was to repeat! to rehearse! And he repeats the words as they were put into his mouth:
"READ! IN THE NAME OF THE LORD AND CHERISHER, WHO CREATED-
CREATED MAN, FROM A (MERE) CLOT OF CONGEALED BLOOD:
READ! AND THY LORD IS MOST BOUNTIFUL,-
HE WHO TAUGHT (THE USE OF) THE PEN,
TAUGHT MAN THAT WHICH HE KNEW NOT".
(Holy Qur'an 96:1-5)
These are the first five verses which were revealed to Muhummed which now occupy the beginning of the 96th chapter of the Holy Qur'an.
The Faithful Witness
Immediately the angel had departed, Muhummed rushed to his home. Terrified and sweating all over he asked his beloved wife Khadija to 'cover him up!' He lay down, and she watched by him. When he had regained his composure, he explained to her what he had seen and heard. She assured him of her faith in him and that Allah would not allow any terrible thing to happen to him. Are these the confessions of an imposter? Would imposters confess that when an angel of the Lord confronts them with a Message from on High, they get fear-stricken, terrified, and sweating all over, run home to their wives? Any critic can see that his reactions and confessions are that of an honest, sincere man, the man of Truth- 'AL-AMIN' - THE Honest, the Upright, the Truthful. During the next twenty-three years of his prophetic life, words were 'Put into his mouth', and he uttered them. They made an indeliable imp ression on his heart and mind: and as the volume of the Sacred Scripture (Holy Qur'an) grew, they were recorded on palm-leaf libre, on skins and on the shoulder-blades of animals; and in the hearts of his devoted disciples. Before his demise these words were arranged according to his instructions i n the order in which we find them to-day in the Holy Qurann.
The words (revelation) were actually put into his mouth, exactly as foretold in the prophecy under discusiion: 'AND I WILL PUT MY WORDS IN HIS MOUTH.'(Deut. 18:18).
Un-lettered Prophet
Muhummed's experience in the cave of Hira, later to be known as Jabal-un Noor - The Mountain of Light, and his response to that first Revelation is the exact fulfilment of another Biblical Prophecy. In the Book of Isaish. Chapter 29, verse 12, we read: "AND THE BOOK" (al-Kitaab,al-Quran the 'Readin g', the 'Recitation') "IS DELIVERED TO HIM THAT IS NOT LEARNED," (Isaiah 29:12) "THE UNLETTERED PROPHET " (Holy Qur'an 7:158) and the biblical verse continues : "SAYING, READ THIS, I PRAY THEE:" (the words "I pray thee", are not in the Hebrew manuscripts; compare with the Roman Cathol ics' "Douay Version and also with the "Revised Standard Versions") "AND HE SAITH, I AM NOT LEARNED." ("I am not learned." is the exact translation of the Arabic words which Muhummed uttered twice to the Holy Ghose - the Archangel Gabriel, when he was commanded : "READ!").
Let me quote the verse in full without a break as found in the "King James Version," or the "Authorised version" as it is more popularly know "AND THE BOOK IS DELIVERED TO HIM THAT IS NOT LEARNED, SAYING, READ THIS I PRAY THEE: AND HE SAITH, I AM NOT LEARNED." (Isaiah 29:12).
Important note :
It may be noted that there were no Arabic Bibles(12) in existence in the 6th Century of the Christian Era when Muhummed lived and preachedl Besides, he was absolutely unlettered and unlearned. No human had ever taught him a word. His teacher was his Creator:
"HE DOES NOT SPEAK (AUGHT), OF (HIS OWN) DESIRE:
IT IS NO LESS THAN INSPIRATION SENT DOWN TO HIM:
HE WAS TAUGHT BY ONE MIGHTY IN POWER,"
(Holy Qur'an 53:3-5).
Without any human learning, 'he put to shame the wisdom of the learned'.
Grave Warning
"See!" I told the dominee, "how the prophecies fit Muhummed like a glove. We do not have to stretch prophecies to justify their fulfilment in Muhummed."
The dominee replied, "All your expositions sound very well, but they are of no real consequence, because we Christians have Jesus Christ the "incarnate" God, who has redeemed us from the Bondage of Sin!"
I asked, "Not important?" God didn't think so! He went to a great deal of trouble to have His warnings recorded. God knew that there would be people like you who will flippantly, light-heartedly discount his words, so he followed up Deuteronomy 18:18 with a dire warning: "AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS, " (it is going to happen) "THAT WHOSOEVER WILL NOT HEARKEN UNTO MY WORDS WHICH HE SHALL SPEAK IN MY NAME, I WILL REQUIRE IT OF HIM. (in the Catholic Bible the ending words are - "I will be the revenger", I will take vengeance from him - I will take revenge!) "Does not this terrify you? God Almighty is threathening revenge! We shake in our pants if some hoodlum threathens us, yet you have no fear of God's warning?"
"Miracle of Miracles! in the verse 19 of Deuteronomy chapter 18, we have a further fulfilment of the prophecy in Muhummed! Note the words-'.....MY WORDS WHICH HE SHALL SPEAK IN MY NAME," In whose name is Muhummed speaking?" I opened Yusuf Ali's translation of the Holy Qur'an, at chapter 114- 'Sura Nas', or Mankind - the last chapter, and showed him the formula at the head of the charpter: and the meaning: "IN THE NAME OF GOD, MOST GRACIOUS, MOST MERCIFUL." And the heading of chapter 113: and the meaning: "IN THE NAME OF GOD, MOST GRACIOUS, MOST MERCIFUL". And every chapter downwards 112 , 111, 110.......was the same formula and the same meaning on every page, because the end SURAS (chapters) are short and take about a page each.
"And what did the prophecy demand?' ......WHICH HE SHALL SPEAK IN MY NAME and in whose name does Muhummed speak?'IN THE NAME OF GOD, MOST GRACIOUS MOST MERCIFUL.' The Prophecy is being fulfilled in Muhummed to the letter "Every chapter of the Holy Qur'an except the 9th begin with the formula: IN TH E NAME OF GOD, MOST GRACIOUS, MOST MERCIFUL.' The Muslim begins his every lawful act with the Holy formula. But the Christian begins: "In the name of the Father, son and holy ghost.'"(13)
Concerning Deuteronomy chapter eighteen, I have given you more than 15 reasons as to how this prophecy refers to Muhummed and NOT to Jesus.
Baptist Contradicts Jesus
In New Testament times, we find that the Jews were still expecting the fulfilment of the prophecy of 'ONE LIKE MOSES', refer John 1:19-25. When Jesus claimed to be the Messiah of the Jews,the Jews began to enquire as to where was Elias? The Jews had a parallel prophecy that before the coming of the Messiah, Elias must come first in his second coming. Jesus confirms this Jewish belief:
".......ELIAS TRULY SHALL FIRST COME, AND RESTORE ALL THINGS. BUT I SAY UNTO YOU, THAT ELIAS IS COME ALREADY, AND THEY KNEW HIM NOT,...THEN THE DISCIPLES UNDERSTOOD THAT HE SPAKE UNTO THEM OF JOHN THE BAPTIST."(Matthew 17:11-13). According to the New Testament the Jews were not the ones to s wallow the words of any would-be Messiah. In their investigations they underwent intense difficulties in order to find their true Messiah. And this the Gospel of John confirms: "AND THIS IS THE RECORD OF JOHN,"(the Baptist) "WHEN THE JEWS SENT PRIESTS AND LEVITES FROM JERUSALEM TO ASK HIM, WHO ART THOU? AND HE CONFESSED AND DENIED NOT; BUT CONFESSED, I AM NOT THE CHRIST." (This was only natural because there can't be two Messiahs (14) at the same time. If Jesus was the Christ then John couldn't be the Christ!) "AND THEY ASKED HIM, WHAT THEN? ART THOU ELIAS? AND HE SAITH, I AM NOT." (Here Joh n the Baptist contradicts Jesus! Jesus says that John is "Elias" and John denies that he is what Jesus ascribes him to be. One of the TWO (Jesus or John), God forbid!, is difinitely not speaking the TRUTH! On the testimony of Jesus himself, John the Baptist was the greatest of the Israelite prophet s:"VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, AMOUNG THEM THAT ARE BORN OF WOMEN THERE HAS NOT RISENA GREATER THAN JOHN THE BAPTIST:... (Matthew 11:11).
We Muslims know John the Baptist as Hazrut YAHYAA Alai-his-salaam (peace be upon him). We revere him as a true prophet of Allah. The Holy Prophet Jesus known to us as Hazrut ISAA Alai-his-salaam (peace be upon him), is also esteemed as one of the mightiest messenger of the Almighty. How can we Musl ims impute lies to either of them? We leave this problem between Jesus and John for the Christians to solve, for their "sacred scriptures abound in discrepancies which they have been glossing over as the "dark sayings of Jesus"(15). We Muslims are really interested in the last questions posed to Jo hn the Baptist by the Jewish elite- "ART THOU THAT PROPHET? AND HE ANSWERED, NO."(John 1:21)
Three Questions!
Please note that three different and distinct questions were posed to John the Baptist and to which he gave three emphatic "NO'S" as answers. To recapitulate:-
1) ART THOU THE CHRIST?
2) ART THOU ELIAS?
3) ART THOU THAT PROPHET?
But the learned men of Christendom somehow only see two questions implied here. To make doubly clear that the Jews definitely had T-H-R-E-E separate prophecies in their minds when they were interogating John the Baptist, let us read the remonstrance of the Jews in the verses following:
"AND THEY ASKED HIM, AND SAID UNTO HIM, WHEY BAPTIZEST THOU THEN, IF THOU BE
a) NOT THAT CHRIST,
b) NOR ELIAS,
c) NEITHER THAT PROPHET?"
(John 1:25)
The Jews were waiting for the fulfilment of THREE distinct prophecies: One, the coming of CHRIST. Two the coming of ELIAS, and Three, the coming of THAT PROPHET.
"That Prophet"
If we look up any Bible which has a concordance or cross-references, the we will find in the marginal note where the words "the Prophet", or "that Prophet" occur in John 1:25, that these words refer to the prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:15 and 18. And that 'that prophet' - 'the prophet like Moses' - "L IKE UNTO THEE", we have proved through overwhelming evidence that he was MUHUMMED and not Jesus!
We Muslims are not denying that Jesus was the "Messiah", which word is translated as "Christ".(16) We are not contesting the "thousand and one prophecies" which the Christians claim abound in the Old Testament foretelling the coming of the Messiah. What we say is that Deuteronomy 18:18 does NOT ref er to Jesus Christ but it is an explicit prophecy about the Holy Prophet MUHUMMED!"
The dominee, very politely parted with me by saying that it was a very interesting discussion and he would like me very much to come one day and address his congregation on the subject. A decade and half has passed since then but I am still awaiting that privilege.
I believe the dominee was sincere when he made the offer, but prejudices die hard and who would like to loose his sheep?
The Acid Test
To the lambs of Christ I say, why not apply that acid test which the Master himself wanted you to apply to any would be claimant to prophethood? He had said: "BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM. DO MEN GATHER GRAPES FROM THE THORNS, OR FIGS FROM THE THISTLES? EVERY GOOD TREE WILL BEAR GOOD FRUIT AN D EVERY EVIL TREE WILL BEAR EVIL FRUIT....BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM. (Matthew 7:16-20).
Why are you afraid to apply this test to the teachings of Muhummed? You will find in the Last Testament of God - the Holy Qur'an - the true fulfilment of the teachings of Moses and Jesus which will bring to the world the much-needed peace and happiness. "IF A MAN LIKE MOHAMED WERE TO ASSUME THE DIC TATORSHIP OF THE MODERN WORLD, HE WOULD SUCCEED IN SOLVING ITS PROBLEMS THAT WOULD BRING IT THE MUCH NEEDED PEACE AND HAPPINESS."(George Bernard Shaw)
The Greatest!
The Weekly Newsmagazine "TIME" dated July 15, 1974, carried a selection of opinions by various historians, writers, military men, businessmen and others on the subject: "Who Were History's Great Leaders?" Some said that it was Hitler; others said-Gandhi, Buddha, Lincoln and the like. But Jules Mass erman, a United States psychoanalyst put the standards straight by giving the correct criteria wherewith to judge. He said: "LEADERS MUST FULFIL THREE FUNCTIONS:-
(1) Provide for the well-being of the led,
(2) Provide a social organization in which people feel relatively secure
and
(3) Provide them with one set of beliefs."
With the above three criteria he searches history and analyses - Hitler, Pasteur, Gaesar, Moses, Confucius and the lot, and ultimately concludes:
"PEOPLE LIKE PASTEUR AND SALK ARE LEADERS IN THE FIRST SENSE. PEOPLE LIKE GANDHI AND CONFUCIUS, ON ONE HAND, AND ALEXANDER, CAESAR AND HITLER ON THE OTHER, ARE LEADERS IN THE SECOND AND PERHAPS THE THIRD SENSE. JESUS AND BUDDHA BELONG IN THE THIRD CATEGORY ALONE. PERHAPS THE GREATEST LEADER OF ALL TIMES WAS MOHAMMED, WHO COMBINED ALL THREE FUNCTIONS. To a lesser degree, MOSES DID THE SAME."
According to the objective standards set by the Professor of the Chicago University, whome I believe to be Jewish, - JESUS and BUDDHA are now - here in the picture of the "Great Leaders of Mankind", but by a queer coincidence groups Moses and Muhummed together thus adding further weight to the argu ment that JESUS is not like MOSES, but MUHUMMED is like MOSES: Deut.18:18 "LIKE UNTO THEE" - Like MOSES!
In conclusion, I end with a quotation of a Christian Reverend the commentator of the Bible, followed by that of his Master:
"THE ULTIMATE CRITERION OF A TRUE PROPHET IS THE MORAL CHARACTER OF HIS TEACHING."(Prof.Dummelow.)
"BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM." (Jesus Christ)
A concluding suggestion : Come let us reason together !
SAY:"O PEOPLE OF THE BOOK!
COME TO COMMON TERMS AS BETWEEN US AND YOU:
THAT WE WORSHIP NONE BUT GOD;
THAT WE ASSOCIATE NO PARTNERS WITH HIM;
THAT WE ERECT NOT, FROM AMONG OURSELVES,
LORDS AND PATRONS OTHER THAN GOD."
IF THEN THEY TURN BACK,
SAY:"BEAR WITNESS THAT WE (AT LEAST)
ARE MUSLIMS (BOWING TO GOD'S WILL)."
(Holy Qur'an 3:64)
"PEOPLE OF THE BOOK" is the respectful title given to the Jews and the Christians in the Holy Qur'an. The Muslims is here commanded to invite - "O People of the Book!" - O Learned People! O People who claim to be the recipients of Divine Revelation, of a Holy Scripture; let us gather together onto a common platform - "that we worship none but God", because none but God is worthy of worship, not because "THE LORD THY GOD IS A JEALOUS GOD VISITING THE INIQUITY OF THE FATHERS UPON THE CHILDREN UNTO THE THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATION OF THEM THAT HATE ME."(Exodus 20:25). But because He is ou r Lord and Cherisher, our Sustainer and Evolver, worthy of all praise, prayer and devotion.
In the abstract the Jews and the Christians would agree to all the three propositions contained in this Qur'anic verse. In practice they fail. Apart from doctrinal lapses from the unity of the One True God, (ALLAH_ Subha-nahu wa ta-ala) there is the question of a consecrated Priesthood (among the J ews it was hereditary also), as if a mere human being - Cohe or Pope, or Priest, or Brahuman, - could claim superiority apart from his learning and the purity of his life, or could stand between man and God in some special sense. ISLAM DOES NOT RECOGNISE PRIESTHOOD!
The Creed of Islam is given to us here in a nutshell from Holy Qur'an:
Say ye: "We believe in Allah,
And the revelation given to us,
And to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac,
Jacob, and the Tribes,
And that given to Moses and Jesus
And that given to (all)
Prophets from their Lord:
We make no difference
Between one and another of them:
And we bow to Allah (in Islam)."
(Holy Qur'an 2:136).
The Muslim position is clear. The Muslim does not claim to have a religion peculiar to himself. Islam is not a sect or an ethnic religion. In its view all Religion is one, for the Truth is one. IT WAS THE SAME RELIGION PREACHED BY ALL THE EARLIER PROPHETS. (Holy Qur'an 42:13). It was the truth taug ht by all the inspired Books. In essence it amounts to a consciousness of the Will and Plan of God and a joyful submission to that Will and Plan. IF ANYONE WANTS A RELIGION OTHER THAN THAT, HE IS FALSE TO HIS OWN NATURE, AS HE IS FALSE TO GOD'S WILL AND PLAN. Such a one cannot expect guidance, for he has deliberately renounced guidance.
NOTES
(1) This refers to Moses. See Yusuf Ali's commentaries Nos. 4783/4 to this verse.
(2) Christian exegesists give progressive numerical values by sixes, to the English alphabet and add up to get the total 666. i.e.A=6,B=12,C=18, D=24 and so on. Progression by 6's because the number of the Beast in the Bible is "666". Try it for Dr.Kissinger.
(3) The writer has just delivered another talk in the City Hall, Durban on the 10th December, 1975 on the subject "Muhummed the Greatest".
(4) "Dominee" is the Afrikaans equivalent of priest, parson and predikant.
(5) One of the Provinces of the Republic of South Africa.
(6) The word "Messiah" comes from the Arabic and Hebrew word masaha which means to rub, to massage, to annoint. The religious significance is "the one who is anointed' - priests and kings were anointed in consecration to their offices. Messiah translated Christ does not mean God. Even the heathen C yrus is called "Christ" in the Bible, (Isaiah 45:1)
(7) Muhummed is mentioned by name in the Song of Solomn 5:16. The Hebrew word used there is Muhammuddim. The end letters IM is plural of respect majesty and grandeur. Minus "im" the name would be Muhamudd translated as "altogether lovely" in the Authorised Version of the Bible or 'The Praised One' 'the one worthy of Praise' i.e. MUHUMMED!
(8) If this lecture is translated into any language, please change the Afrikaans words into the local dialect; and do not try a free hand translation of the Biblical quotation. Obtain a Bible in the language in which translation is being made and transcribe exactly as the words occur in that Bible.
(9) Please open the Holy Qur'an 3:42 and 19:16 where the birth of Jesus is spoken about; read it with the commentry, note the high position which Jesus and his mother occupy in Islam.
(10) Write for "Was Christ Crucified?" by the writer, free on request.
(11) According to the Bible Abraham's name was Abram before it was changed by God to Abraham.
(12) There are today Arabic Bibles in Fourteen different scripts and dialects for the Arabs alone. See "The Gospels in many tongues", obtainable from the Bible Society.
(13) The Christian theologians are ignorant of even the "name of God. Because "God" is not a name, and "Father" is also not a name. What's his name? See "Muhummed-the Natural Successor to Christ", by the author, available free.
(14) The Jews were expecting a single Messiah not two.
(15) See the "TIMES" Magazine December 30th, 1974, article "How true is the Bible?" And write for your free copy of "50,000 Errors in the Bible? a reproduction from the Christian Magazine "AWAKE!" September 8, 1957.
(15) How the word Messiah was transmuted to Christ? Write for booklet above, reference 13.
END OF LECTURE
NOW :
Don't you think you need to read more about Islam and Christianity? To that end, The following literature is available FREE on request:
|) what the Bible says about Mohammed.
2) what was the sign of Jonah?
3) who moved the stone?
4) resurrection or resuscitation?
5) is the Bible God's word?
6) what is His name?
7) the God that never was.
8) Islam's answer to the racial problem.
9) Christ in Islam.
10) crucifixion or crucifiction?
11) the Muslim at prayer.
12) Mohammed-the prophet of Islam.
Please Phone , call or write to:
The Islamic propagation center
45/47/49 MadressaArcade,
Durban 4001,
Republic of South Africa
Phone: (031) 32-9518
All the literature is absolutely free, but contributions towards their Postage, Packaging and Publication are accepted and appreciated.
-------------------------------------------------
The lie of the crucifixion!
(According to the early Christians)
The New Testament confirms the Apocalypse of Peter which claims that Jesus never died on the cross!
Did the Disciples of Jesus really die for the trinity and/or crucifixion lie?
The many different Canons (New Testaments) that Christians believe in, and the hundreds of manuscripts.
Also according to several of Jesus' Disciples' early writings! #
Jesus never got crucified according to Islam and the early Christians' doctrines!
Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him was foretold in the Bible:
The sections here are:
1- In the New Testament.
2- In the Book of Isaiah.
3- In other Books in the Bible, and other Biblical Prophets proving Islam.
4- The "lost people of Israel" are the people of Afghanistan and Kashmir today. See proofs from the Bible and History. Cities were mentioned and documented.
5- Muhammad is mentioned by the exact name in the Gospel of Barnabas.
6- Rebuttals.
1- In the New Testament:
Being like the teacher. An 11-page PDF file that contains ample proofs from Aramaic showing that the word 'Muslim' was mentioned by Jesus himself.
In the Gospel of John: Muhammad is mentioned by the name and was foretold in the Gospel of John. This is a must read article! It proves that Jesus peace be upon him predicted for the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him to come after him.
The Aramaic Bible predicts the coming of Muhammad by the exact word.
Further proofs from the Aramaic Bible Society. A very good proof from the Aramaic Bible Society web site regarding Muhammad's name mentioned in the Greek Bible. This is a must visit link!!.
Jesus told the Jews that GOD Almighty will take His Kingdom from them and give it to the Muslims.
My detailed rebuttal to a Christian rebuttal about Muhammad was foretold by Jesus. I addressed all of their rebuttal points and refuted them. The article also talks about the 24,000 books that the current Bible's 66 books came from, and how that makes the current 66 chosen books extremely unreliable and doubtful.
2- In the Book of Isaiah:
Isaiah 42-54 predicts Islam, and the removal of GOD Almighty's Covenant from the people of Israel.
In the Book of Isaiah: Isaiah in the Bible foretold the story of "Al-alak" that is in the Noble Quran about Muhammad. Isaiah in the Bible foretold the story of "Al-alak" in the Noble Quran which happened to Muhammad and never happened to any other Prophet. It is the story where the Angel Gabriel repeatedly commands the Prophet to read, and the Prophet (i.e. Muhammad) repeatedly replies "I can't read".
Isaiah's Vision: He saw Jesus riding a donkey and Muhammad riding a camel. He also saw the destruction of Babylon (i.e. Iraq today) and its idol gods, and replacing them with a Divine Religion (i.e. Islam today).
Prophet Muhammad was foretold in Isaiah 42.
Muhammad in the Bible, (Isaiah 60), Pilgrimage to Mecca..!
Islamic Fasting was predicted by Isaiah in the Bible.
3- In other Books in the Bible, and other Biblical Prophets proving Islam:
Deuteronomy 18:18's Prophet is non other than Prophet Muhammad.
The "great nation" of Ishmael and its definition in the Bible.
The fall of pagan Babylon to pagan Persia in the Bible, and then the fall of pagan Persia (Iran + Iraq) to Islam.
The story of King Heraclius of the Byzantine and the foretold Prophet (Muhammad) in the Bible. See how he was convinced that Prophet Muhammad of Arabia was indeed the foretold Prophet that Jesus predicted to come.
The emigration of the Muslims to Madina was foretold in the Bible.
The story of the 10,000 Muslims who liberated Mecca (Paran) in the Bible.
Pilgrimage of Ezekiel to Mecca.
See the Proof that "Paran" in the Bible is "Mecca". Paran in the Bible is Mecca today - See the Archeological discoveries that prove Mount Sinai is in Saudi Arabia.
Muhammad in the Bible; Standing upon Mount Arafat.
A great site that also shows Muhammad being foretold in the Bible.
Muhammad in the Old and New Testaments.
Muhammad in the Bible, by Sheikh (Minister) Ahmed Deedat.
Jesus' Sacred place among Muslims. By the Christian Scholar Michael Wolfe.
Prophecies from Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him.
Also please visit Muhammad's (peace be upon him) life, prophecies and responses to all of the false charges against him.
4- The "lost people of Israel" are the people of Afghanistan and Kashmir today:
The "lost tribes of Israel" are the Muslims of Afghanistan and Kashmir -- Proved from the Bible and History -- Afghan and Kashmiri cities mentioned and documented.
5- Muhammad is mentioned by the exact name in the Gospel of Barnabas:
Saint Barnabas is mentioned in the New Testament and he is very well admired too: "For God who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. James, Peter, and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me [Paul] and Barnabas the right hand to fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we [Paul and Barnabas] should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. (The New Testament from the N.I.V Bible, Galatians 2:8-9)"
Saint Barnabas's story in the New Testament begins in Acts 4:36. People often don't know the name of this great Saint. The reason for that is because he lived and dedicated his life to serve others. His real name was Joseph, but the Christians gave him a nickname of "Barnabas" because it meant the "son of encouragement". Barnabas came alongside people in times of challenge and helped them; see Acts 9:10-28 and Acts 15:36-39 for more details.
So in other words, we really should take his Gospel very seriously and consider it too the inspired word of GOD. Since Christians believe in Paul, John, Mark and Matthew as Prophets of GOD, then they should also consider Barnabas as a Prophet too.
The Gospel of Barnabas on this site. (find the word "Muhammad" in his Gospel)
How the Gospel of Barnabas Survived?
Answer to the “Answers” of Samuel Green 1-6 about the Gospel of Barnabas.
The official site for the Gospel of Barnabas on the internet. (find the word "Mohammed" in his Gospel)
You can read the Gospel of Barnabas on their site. (Search for the word "Mohammed")
sacred-texts is another site that has the Gospel. Again search for "Mohammed"
You can also buy the Book from Amazon.com here. I bought it and everything matches.
6- Rebuttals:
Answer to the “Answers” of Samuel Green 1-6 about the Gospel of Barnabas.
My detailed rebuttal to a Christian rebuttal about Muhammad was foretold by Jesus. I addressed all of their rebuttal points and refuted them.
My response to "Muhammad didn't have witnesses to prove that he was truthful".
-----------------------------
The Second Treatise of the Great Seth:
The manuscripts traces back to the second and fourth century CE. Theological analysis reveals a crucifixion account taken from the Basilides.
And the plan which they advised about me to release their error and their senselessness- I did not succumb to them as they had planned. But I was not afflicted at all. Those who were there punished me. And I did not die in reality but in appearance, lest I be put to shame by them because these are my kinsfolk… For my death which they think happened, (happened) to them in their error and blindness, since they nailed their man unto their death… for they were deaf and blind… Yes, they saw me, they punished me. It was another, their father, who drank the gall of the vinegar, it was not I. They struck me with the reed; it was another, Simon, who bore the cross on his shoulder. It was another upon whom they placed the crown of thorns… And I was laughing at their ignorance… For I was altering my shapes, changing from form to form.#
The message is clear, it was not Jesus rather it was Simon the Cyrene who was crucified.
Simon The Cyrene:
As we learned from the Second Treatise of the Great Seth, Simon the Cyrene bore the cross instead of Jesus. Actually, this very idea could be even demonstrated by examining the current canonical gospels.
New American Bible:
Mark 15:"
21 They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.
22 They brought him to the place of Golgotha (which is translated Place of the Skull).
23 They gave him wine drugged with myrrh, but he did not take it.
24 Then they crucified him and divided his garments by casting lots for them to see what each should take.
25 It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him."
Luke 23:"
26 As they led him away they took hold of a certain Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country; and after laying the cross on him, they made him carry it behind Jesus.
27 A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him.
28 Jesus turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children,
29 for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, 'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.'
30 At that time people will say to the mountains, 'Fall upon us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us!'
31 for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry?"
32 Now two others, both criminals, were led away with him to be executed.
33 When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him [Jesus] and the criminals there, one on his right, the other on his left.
34 Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." They divided his garments by casting lots."
Now considering the two reading above, we note the following:
1) Simon carried the cross of Jesus. No where does it say that Jesus bore it also at the same time.
2) The above never mentioned that the cross was given back to Jesus
3) If we trace the word "him" in Luke 23:33, we notice the word "Jesus" next to it. However, this word was placed instead of the word "him" to remove the confusion that may occur while reading the above. An average reader could possibly understand the word "him" as referring to Simon not Jesus himself.
Also, a useful quotation about what the NAB Bible theologians say about Luke 23:34 may help understand the case ahead.
[34] [Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."]: this portion of Luke 23:34 does not occur in the oldest papyrus manuscript of Luke and in other early Greek manuscripts and ancient versions of wide geographical distribution.
The word "him" could actually refer to Simon. When considering the points outlined above, any reader could read it as if it is referring to Jesus, but he could as well read it and understand as if it is referring to Simon. However, this could give us a clue as to why some Christian sect who existed prior to the departure of Jesus believed that it was Simon not Jesus who bore the cross and eventually crucified.
------------------------------------------
The Nag Hammadi Library
The Second Treatise of the Great Seth
Translated by Roger A. Bullard and Joseph A. Gibbons
And the perfect Majesty is at rest in the ineffable light, in the truth of the mother of all these, and all of you that attain to me, to me alone who am perfect, because of the Word. For I exist with all the greatness of the Spirit, which is a friend to us and our kindred alike, since I brought forth a word to the glory of our Father, through his goodness, as well as an imperishable thought; that is, the Word within him - it is slavery that we shall die with Christ - and an imperishable and undefiled thought, an incomprehensible marvel, the writing of the ineffable water which is the word from us. It is I who am in you, and you are in me, just as the Father is in you in innocence.
Let us gather an assembly together. Let us visit that creation of his. Let us send someone forth in it, just as he visited (the) Ennoias, the regions below. And I said these things to the whole multitude of the multitudinous assembly of the rejoicing Majesty. The whole house of the Father of Truth rejoiced that I am the one who is from them. I produced thought about the Ennoias which came out of the undefiled Spirit, about the descent upon the water, that is, the regions below. And they all had a single mind, since it is out of one. They charged me since I was willing. I came forth to reveal the glory to my kindred and my fellow spirits. #
For those who were in the world had been prepared by the will of our sister Sophia - she who is a whore - because of the innocence which has not been uttered. And she did not ask anything from the All, nor from the greatness of the Assembly, nor from the Pleroma. Since she was first, she came forth to prepare monads and places for the Son of Light and the fellow workers which she took from the elements below to build bodily dwellings from them. But, having come into being in an empty glory, they ended in destruction in the dwellings in which they were, since they were prepared by Sophia. They stand ready to receive the life-giving word of the ineffable Monad and of the greatness of the assembly of all those who persevere and those who are in me.
I visited a bodily dwelling. I cast out the one who was in it first, and I went in. And the whole multitude of the archons became troubled. And all the matter of the archons, as well as all the begotten powers of the earth, were shaken when it saw the likeness of the Image, since it was mixed. And I am the one who was in it, not resembling him who was in it first. For he was an earthly man, but I, I am from above the heavens. I did not refuse them even to become a Christ, but I did not reveal myself to them in the love which was coming forth from me. I revealed that I am a stranger to the regions below.
There was a great disturbance in the whole earthly area, with confusion and flight, as well as (in) the plan of the archons. And some were persuaded, when they saw the wonders which were being accomplished by me. And all these, with the race, that came down, flee from him who had fled from the throne to the Sophia of hope, since she had earlier given the sign concerning us and all the ones with me - those of the race of Adonaios. Others also fled, as if from the Cosmocrator and those with them, since they have brought every (kind of) punishment upon me. And there was a flight of their mind about what they would counsel concerning me, thinking that she (Sophia) is the whole greatness, and speaking false witness, moreover, against the Man and the whole greatness of the assembly.
It was not possible for them to know who the Father of Truth, the Man of the Greatness, is. But they who received the name because of contact with ignorance - which (is) a burning and a vessel - having created it to destroy Adam, whom they had made, in order to cover up those who are theirs in the same way. But they, the archons, those of the place of Yaldabaoth, reveal the realm of the angels, which humanity was seeking in order that they may not know the Man of Truth. For Adam, whom they had formed, appeared to them. And a fearful motion came about throughout their entire dwelling, lest the angels surrounding them rebel. For without those who were offering praise - I did not really die lest their archangel become empty.
And then a voice - of the Cosmocrator - came to the angels: "I am God and there is no other beside me." But I laughed joyfully when I examined his empty glory. But he went on to say, "Who is man?" And the entire host of his angels, who had seen Adam and his dwelling, were laughing at his smallness. And thus did their Ennoia come to be removed outside the Majesty of the heavens, i.e.,the Man of Truth, whose name they saw since he is in a small dwelling place, since they are small (and) senseless in their empty Ennoia, namely their laughter. It was contagion for them.
The whole greatness of the Fatherhood of the Spirit was at rest in his places. And I am he who was with him, since I have an Ennoia of a single emanation from the eternal ones and the undefiled and immeasurable incomprehensibilities. I placed the small Ennoia in the world, having disturbed them and frightened the whole multitude of the angels and their ruler. And I was visiting them all with fire and flame because of my Ennoia. And everything pertaining to them was brought about because of me. And there came about a disturbance and a fight around the Seraphim and Cherubim, since their glory will fade, and the confusion around Adonaios on both sides and their dwelling - to the Cosmocrator and him who said, "Let us seize him''; others again, "The plan will certainly not materialize.''
For Adonaios knows me because of hope. And I was in the mouths of lions. And the plan which they devised about me to release their Error and their senselessness - I did not succumb to them as they had planned. But I was not afflicted at all. Those who were there punished me. And I did not die in reality but in appearance, lest I be put to shame by them because these are my kinsfolk. I removed the shame from me and I did not become fainthearted in the face of what happened to me at their hands. I was about to succumb to fear, and I
And I subjected all their powers. For as I came downward, no one saw me. For I was altering my shapes, changing from form to form. And therefore, when I was at their gates, I assumed their likeness. For I passed them by quietly, and I was viewing the places, and I was not afraid nor ashamed, for I was undefiled. And I was speaking with them, mingling with them through those who are mine, and trampling on those who are harsh to them with zeal, and quenching the flame. And I was doing all these things because of my desire to accomplish what I desired by the will of the Father above.
And the Son of the Majesty, who was hidden in the regions below, we brought to the height where I
It was my going to the revealed height which the world did not accept, my third baptism in a revealed image. When they had fled from the fire of the seven Authorities, and the sun of the powers of the archons set, darkness took them. And the world became poor when he was restrained with a multitude of fetters. They nailed him to the tree, and they fixed him with four nails of brass. The veil of his temple he tore with his hands. It was a trembling which seized the chaos of the earth, for the souls which were in the sleep below were released. And they arose. They went about boldly, having shed zealous service of ignorance and unlearnedness beside the dead tombs, having put on the new man, since they have come to know that perfect Blessed One of the eternal and incomprehensible Father and the infinite light, which is I, since I came to my own and united them with myself. There is no need for many words, for our Ennoia was with their Ennoia. Therefore they knew what I speak of, for we took counsel about the destruction of the archons. And therefore I did the will of the Father, who is I.
After we went forth from our home, and came down to this world, and came into being in the world in bodies, we were hated and persecuted, not only by those who are ignorant, but also by those who think that they are advancing the name of Christ, since they were unknowingly empty, not knowing who they are, like dumb animals. They persecuted those who have been liberated by me, since they hate them - those who, should they shut their mouth, would weep with a profitless groaning because they did not fully know me. lnstead, they served two masters, even a multitude. But you will become victorious in everything, in war and battles, jealous division and wrath. But in the uprightness of our love we are innocent, pure, (and) good, since we have a mind of the Father in an ineffable mystery.
For it was ludicrous. It is I who bear witness that it was ludicrous, since the archons do not know that it is an ineffable union of undefiled truth, as exists among the sons of light, of which they made an imitation, having proclaimed a doctrine of a dead man and lies so as to resemble the freedom and purity of the perfect assembly, (and)
But those who have not are poor, that is, those who do not possess him. And they desire him and lead astray those, who through them have become like those who possess the truth of their freedom, just as they bought us for servitude and constraint of care and fear. This person is in slavery. And he who is brought by constraint of force and threat has been guarded by God. But the entire nobility of the Fatherhood is not guarded, since he guards only him who is from him, without word and constraint, since he is united with his will, he who belongs only to the Ennoia of the Fatherhood, to make it Perfect and ineffable through the living water, to be with you mutually in wisdom, not only in word of hearing but in deed and fulfilled word. For the perfect ones are worthy to be established in this way and to be united with me, in order that they may not share in any enmity, in a good friendship. I accomplish everything through the Good One, for this is the union of the truth, that they should have no adversary. But everyone who brings division - and he will learn no wisdom at all because he brings division and is not a friend - is hostile to them all. But he who lives in harmony and friendship of brotherly love, naturally and not artificially, completely and not partially, this person is truly the desire of the Father. He is the universal one and perfect love.
For Adam was a laughingstock, since he was made a counterfeit type of man by the Hebdomad, as if he had become stronger than I and my brothers. We are innocent with respect to him, since we have not sinned. And Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were a laughingstock, since they, the counterfeit fathers, were given a name by the Hebdomad, as if he had become stronger than I and my brothers. We are innocent with respect to him, since we have not sinned. David was a laughingstock in that his son was named the Son of Man, having been influenced by the Hebdomad, as if he had become stronger than I and the fellow members of my race. But we are innocent with respect to him; we have not sinned. Solomon was a laughingstock, since he thought that he was Christ, having become vain through the Hebdomad, as if he had become stronger than I and my brothers. But we are innocent with respect to him. I have not sinned. The 12 prophets were laughingstocks, since they have come forth as imitations of the true prophets. They came into being as counterfeits through the Hebdomad, as if he had become stronger than I and my brothers. But we are innocent with respect to him, since we have not sinned. Moses, a faithful servant, was a laughingstock, having been named "the Friend," since they perversely bore witness concerning him who never knew me. Neither he nor those before him, from Adam to Moses and John the Baptist, none of them knew me nor my brothers.
For they had a doctrine of angels to observe dietary laws and bitter slavery, since they never knew truth, nor will they know it. For there is a great deception upon their soul, making it impossible for them ever to find a Nous of freedom in order to know him, until they come to know the Son of Man. Now concerning my Father, I am he whom the world did not know, and because of this, it (the world) rose up against me and my brothers. But we are innocent with respect to him; we have not sinned.
For the Archon was a laughingstock because he said, "I am God, and there is none greater than I. I alone am the Father, the Lord, and there is no other beside me. I am a jealous God, who brings the sins of the fathers upon the children for three and four generations." As if he had become stronger than I and my brothers! But we are innocent with respect to him, in that we have not sinned, since we mastered his teaching. Thus he was in an empty glory. And he does not agree with our Father. And thus through our fellowship we grasped his teaching, since he was vain in an empty glory. And he does not agree with our Father, for he was a laughingstock and judgment and false prophecy.
O those who do not see, you do not see your blindness, i.e., this which was not known, nor has it ever been known, nor has it been known about him. They did not listen to firm obedience. Therefore they proceeded in a judgment of error, and they raised their defiled and murderous hands against him, as if they were beating the air. And the senseless and blind ones are always senseless, always being slaves of law and earthly fear.
I am Christ, the Son of Man, the one from you who is among you. I am despised for your sake, in order that you yourselves may forget the difference. And do not become female, lest you give birth to evil and (its) brothers: jealousy and division, anger and wrath, fear and a divided heart, and empty, non-existent desire. But I am an ineffable mystery to you.
Then before the foundation of the world, when the whole multitude of the Assembly came together upon the places of the Ogdoad, when they had taken counsel about a spiritual wedding which is in union, and thus he was perfected in the ineffable places by a living word, the undefiled wedding was consummated through the Mesotes of Jesus, who inhabits them all and possesses them, who abides in an undivided love of power. And surrounding him, he appears to him as a Monad of all these, a thought and a father, since he is one. And he stands by them all, since he as a whole came forth alone. And he is life, since he came from the Father of ineffable and perfect Truth, (the father) of those who are there, the union of Peace and a friend of good things, and life eternal and undefiled joy, in a great harmony of life and faith, through eternal life of fatherhood and motherhood and sisterhood and rational wisdom. They had agreed with Nous, who stretches out (and) will stretch out in joyful union and is trustworthy and faithfully listens to someone. And he is in fatherhood and motherhood and rational brotherhood and wisdom. And this is a wedding of truth, and a repose of incorruption, in a spirit of truth, in every mind, and a perfect light in an unnameable mystery. But this is not, nor will it happen among us in any region or place in division and breach of peace, but (in) union and a mixture of love, all of which are perfected in the one who is.
It also happened in the places under heaven for their reconciliation. Those who knew me in salvation and undividedness, and those who existed for the glory of the father and the truth, having been separated, blended into the one through the living word. And I am in the spirit and the truth of the motherhood, just as he has been there; I was among those who are united in the friendship of friends forever, who neither know hostility at all, nor evil, but who are united by my Knowledge in word and peace which exists in perfection with everyone and in them all. And those who assumed the form of my type will assume the form of my word. Indeed, these will come forth in light forever, and (in) friendship with each other in the spirit, since they have known in every respect (and) indivisibly that what is, is One. And all of these are one. And thus they will learn about the One, as (did) the Assembly and those dwelling in it. For the father of all these exists, being immeasurable (and) immutable: Nous and Word and Division and Envy and Fire. And he is entirely one, being the All with them all in a single doctrine, because all these are from a single spirit. O unseeing ones, why did you not know the mystery rightly?
But the archons around Yaldabaoth were disobedient because of the Ennoia who went down to him from her sister Sophia. They made for themselves a union with those who were with them in a mixture of a fiery cloud, which was their Envy, and the rest who were brought forth by their creatures, as if they had bruised the noble pleasure of the Assembly. And therefore they revealed a mixture of ignorance in a counterfeit of fire and earth and a murderer, since they are small and untaught, without knowledge having dared these things, and not having understood that light has fellowship with light, and darkness with darkness, and the corruptible with the perishable, and the imperishable with the incorruptible.
Now these things I have presented to you - I am Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, who is exalted above the heavens - O perfect and incorruptible ones, because of the incorruptible and perfect mystery and the ineffable one. But they think that we decreed them before the foundation of the world, in order that, when we emerge from the places of the world, we may present there the symbols of incorruption from the spiritual union unto knowledge. You do not know it, because the fleshly cloud overshadows you. But I alone am the friend of Sophia. I have been in the bosom of the father from the beginning, in the place of the sons of the truth, and the Greatness. Rest then with me, my fellow spirits and my brothers, forever.
Second Treatise of the Great Seth
Selection made from James M. Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library, revised edition. HarperCollins, San Francisco, 1990.
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Jesus Through a Muslim Lens
By
Michael Wolfe
Jesus of Nazareth is the most widely revered religious figure in the world. Not only is he central to Christianity, the largest religion in the world, he is also venerated throughout Islam, the world's second largest faith.
Christians may be surprised to learn that Muslims believe in the Virgin Birth and Jesus' miracles. But this shared interest in his message goes much further.
In our scientific age, the miraculous side of Jesus' story has greatly obscured his role in the prophetic tradition. In this sense, there may be more important questions for Muslims and Christians than whether he walked on water or raised the dead. #
In the Muslim view, Jesus' essential work was not to replicate magic bread or to test our credulity, but to complement the legalism of the Torah with a leavening compassion rarely expressed in the older testament. His actions and words introduce something new to monotheism: They develop the merciful spirit of God's nature. Jesus confirmed the Torah, stressing the continuity of his lineage, but he also developed the importance of compassion and self-purification as crucial links between learning the words of God's message and possessing the wisdom to carry it out.
Oddly enough, some of the recent work by New Testament scholars seems to have reached a view of Christ not all that different from Muslims'. For us and for these scholars, Jesus appears not as a literal son of God in human form, but as an inspired human being, a teacher of wisdom with a talent for love drawn from an unbroken relationship to God. Both versions present him as a man who spoke to common people in universal terms.
Two events in the life of the prophet Muhammad may help explain why Muslims revere the Christian Jesus.
The first event involves an elder resident of Mecca named Waraqa bin Nawfal. This man was an early Arab Christian and an uncle of Muhammad's wife, Khadija. We know he could read Hebrew, that he was mystical by nature, and that he attended Khadija and Muhammad's wedding in about 595 C.E. Five years later, a worried Khadija sought Waraqa out and brought her husband to him.
At the time, Muhammad was a 40-year-old respected family man. He attended this "family therapy" session in a rare state of agitation. He was frightened. He had been meditating one evening in a cave on the outskirts of town. There, while half asleep, he had experienced something so disturbing that he feared he was possessed. A voice had spoken to him.
Waraqa listened to his story, which Muslims will recognize as a description of Muhammad's first encounter with the angel Gabriel. When it was finished, Waraqa assured him he was not possessed.
"What you have heard is the voice of the same spiritual messenger God sent to Moses. I wish I could be a young man when you become a prophet! I would like to be alive when your own people expel you."
"Will they expel me?" Muhammad asked.
"Yes," the old man said. "No one has ever brought his people the news you bring without meeting hostility. If I live to see the day, I will support you."
Christians will recognize in Waraqa's remarks an aphorism associated with Jesus: "A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country." But that a Christian should first have verified Muhammad's role as a prophet may come as a surprise.
The second important event concerning Islam and Christianity dates from 616, a few years after Muhammad began to preach publicly. This first attempt to reinstate the Abrahamic tradition in Mecca met (as Waraqa had warned) with violent opposition.
Perhaps the Meccans resented Muhammad's special claim. Perhaps his message of a single, invisible, ever-present God threatened the economy of their city. A month's ride south from the centers of power in Syria and Persia, poor remote Mecca depended on long-distance trade and on seasonal pilgrims who came there each year to honor hundreds of pagan idols, paying a tax to do so.
At any rate, Muhammad's disruptive suggestion that "God was One" and could be found anywhere did not sit well with the businessmen of Mecca.
Many new Muslims were being tortured. Their livelihoods were threatened, their families persecuted. As matters grew worse, in 616 Muhammad sent a small band of followers across the Red Sea to seek shelter in the Christian kingdom of Axum. There, he told them, they would find a just ruler, the Negus, who could protect them. The Muslims found the Negus in his palace, somewhere in the borderland between modern Ethiopia and Eritrea.
And protect them he did, after one Muslim recited to him some lines on the Virgin Mary from the Qur'an. The Negus wept at what he heard. Between Christians and Muslims, he said, he could not make out more difference than the thickness of a twig.
These two stories underscore the support Christians gave Muhammad in times of trial. The Qur'an reveals the support for this connection:
Those who feel the most affection
For us (who put our faith in the Qur'an),
Are those that say, "We are Christians,"
For priests and monks live among them
Who are not arrogant. When they listen
To what We have shown Muhammad,
Their eyes brim over with tears
At the truth they find there....
Even today, when a Muslim mentions Jesus' name, you will hear it followed by the phrase "peace and blessings be upon him," because Muslims still revere him as a prophet.
We believe in God
And in what has been sent down to us,
What has been revealed to Abraham and Ishmael
And Isaac and Jacob and their offspring,
And what was given to Moses and to Jesus
And all the other prophets of the Lord.
We make no distinction among them.
As these lines from the Qur'an make clear, Muslims regard Jesus as one of the world's great teachers. He and his mentor John the Baptist stand in a lineage stretching back to the founder of ethical monotheism. Moreover, among Muslims, Jesus is a special type of prophet, a messenger empowered to communicate divinity not only in words but by miracles as well.
Muslims, it must be said, part company with some Christians over the portrait of Jesus developed in the fourth and fifth centuries. Certain fictions, Muslims think, were added then. Three of these come in for special mention: First, Muslims consider monastic asceticism a latter-day innovation, not an original part of Jesus' way. Second, the New Testament suffers from deletions and embellishments added after Jesus' death by men who did not know him. Third, the description of Jesus as God's son is considered by Muslims a later, blasphemous suggestion.
Muslims venerate Jesus as a divinely inspired human but never, ever as "the son of God." In the same vein, we treat the concept of the Trinity as a late footnote to Jesus' teachings, an unnecessary "mystery" introduced by the North African theologian Tertullian two centuries after Jesus' death. Nor do Muslims view his death as an act of atonement for mankind's sins. Rather, along with the early Christian theologian Pelagius, Islam rejects the doctrine of original sin, a notion argued into church doctrine by St. Augustine around the year 400.
It might almost be said that Islam holds a view of Jesus similar to some of the early apostolic versions condemned by the fourth-century Byzantine Church. Once Constantine installed Christianity as the Roman Empire's state religion, a rage for orthodoxy followed. The Councils of Nicaea (325), Tyre (335), Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431), and Chalcedon (451) were official, often brutal attempts to stamp out heterodox views of Jesus held by "heretical" theologians.
Rulings by these councils led to the persecution and deaths of tens of thousands of early Christians at the hands of more "orthodox" Christians who condemned them. Most disputes centered on divergent interpretations of the Trinity. For this reason, historians of religion sometimes see in these bloody divisions one of the root causes for early Islam's firmly Unitarian outlook.
Then and now, no more dangerous religious mistake exists for a Muslim than dividing the Oneness of God by twos or threes.
Despite these important differences, however, the Qur'an repeatedly counsels Muslims not to dispute with other monotheists over matters of doctrine. People, it says, believe differently for good reasons. In fact, that is a part of Allah's will.
-----------------------------
The "lost tribes of Israel" are the Muslims of Afghanistan and Kashmir -- Proved from the Bible and History -- Afghan and Kashmiri cities mentioned and documented:
The following article was sent to me by brother Tariq Khan
As'salamu Alaikum!
The purpose of this essay is to show how some of the prophecies with regards to the ‘lost tribes of Israel’ from the Old Testament as well as the New Testament were fulfilled through the Prophet Muhammad. That the ‘lost tribes of Israel’ are Muslim today has important implications, and serves well to support Islam’s case. The Old Testament prophesied that the Promised Prophet, or ‘that one’ in the New Testament, would unite the lesser and fragmented tribes of Israel. Our Christian friends, I’m sure, overlook this point and are quite content not knowing what happened to these tribes, because to discover that these men are today Muslims, would imply that Muhammad was that prophet, and not Jesus. Everything below can be read in various parts of the book ‘Muhammad in World Scriptures – Vol. 1: The Bible’ by Maulana Abdul Haq Vidyarthi. An online version of it can also be found.
Please see the sections under Isaiah - 10 Tribes of Israel or Afghanistan and Kashmir. Also please read the Chapter 6. Prophecy Fulfilled In Kashmir. Please note, that I’m merely disseminating information that one must put into context and have a personal reconciliation with before God, in choosing whether to follow the polytheist ways or to correct oneself, as did the 10 tribes of Israel. So, it should be very clear that below you will essentially find the work of A.H. Vidyarthi, and not I.
History of the ten lost tribes of Israel:
There had been only two kings who are called kings of Israel: David and Solomon. After Solomon, in the time of his son Rehoboam, the Israelites broke into two pieces. Only the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained under the suzerainty of Rehoboam, whereas the remaining ten tribes rose up in revolt and went over to Jeroboam, who was, during the lifetime of Solomon, his building-engineer. The ten tribes of Israel, were cut off and forever separated from the Israelites and were immersed into idolaters and they again began to worship the Golden Calf. They raised their own kingdom in Samaria. In contrast to Judah and Benjamin, they constituted a much bigger fraternity among the Children of Israel. Their rule lasted for 200 years; and then the King of Syria (ancient Assyria) defeated them in 722 BC, scattering and dispersing them. Where this huge horde went is a puzzle that has baffled and bewildered the writers of history. Some surmise, that by means of a tunnel in the earth they reached China; others presume they reached Mongolia and settle there; yet another hypothesis is that they went to some place in Europe. From the Encyclopedia Americana, under the heading 'Lost Ten Tribes':
"It was formerly one of the puzzles of history to know what became of the ten tribes. There were several theories, because of the fact that some Jewish monuments were found in China, some writers tracked them to that land. Others found their descendants in India... The general consensus of scientific opinion, however, is that the tribes became absorbed, as subsequent vanished traces have, in neighboring nations, and thus were not lost in the real significance of the term.. Dr. Giles Fletcher (1548-1611) identified the Tartars with the lost 10 tribes; consult his 'The Tartars' printed in 'Israel Redux,' edited by S. Lee (1667). Dr. Francois Bernier (1620-1688), French physician for 12 years to the Great Moghul of India, in 'Les voyages de Bernier contenant la description des Etats du Grand Mogul de l'hindoustan' (1699), speculates on the Kashmiris as descendants of the lost 10 tribes from certain customs and rites, and the prevailing type of facial features, as also of the neighboring Afghans and the Tajiks of Badakhshan, being distinctly Hebraic." (The Encyclopedia Americana, 1956 ed., art. ‘Lost Ten Tribes’. Vol. Xvii, p. 632.)
So, according to Dr. Bernier, the people of Kashmir and Afghanistan are the same ten lost tribes of the house of Israel. Dr. Francois Bernier, who had been for a long time in the court of the Moghul Emperor Aurangzeb of India, writes in his book Travels in the Moghul Empire:
“There are however many marks of Judaism to be found in this country. On entering the Kingdom after crossing the Peer-Punchal Mountains, the inhabitants in the frontier villages struck me as resembling Jews. Their countenances and manners, and that indescribable peculiarity which enables a traveler to distinguish the inhabitants of different nations, all seemed to belong to that ancient people. You are not to ascribe what I say to mere fancy, the Jewish appearance of these villagers having been remarked by our Father, the Jesuit, and some other Europeans long before I visited Kashmir.” (F. Bernier, Travels in the Moigul Empire, trans. Irving Brock, London, 1981, p. 432).
The Jesuit father mentioned here was Catrou. He wrote his General History of the Moghal Empire in 1708 C.E. and stated that “the Kashmiris are descendants of the Jews.” (F. Catrou, General History of the Moghul Empire, (trans. Alex. Moore), London, John Murray, 1836, p. 195)
George Forster, in his famous Letters on a Journey from Bengal to England, described his visit to Kashmir: “On first seeing the Kashmirians, in their own country, I imagined from their garb, the cast of their countenance which was long and of a grave aspect, and the forms of their beards, that I had come among a nation of Jews.” (George Forster, Letters on a Journey from Bengal to England, London, 1808, vol. 2, p. 20)
H.H. Wilson writes: “The physical and the ethnic character, which so sharply marks off the Kashmiris from all surrounding races, has always struck observant visitors to the valley and they have universally connected them with the Jews.” (H.H. Wilson, Travels in the Himalayan Provinces…, London, 1841, p. 129. Reprinted by Sagar Publications, New Delhi, 1971)
Lieutenant-Colonel H.D. Torrens: “On legends… a supposition that the Kashmiris are descendants of the Jews has been built – a supposition which is borne out by the personal appearance of the race, their garb, the cast of their countenance, and the form of their beards.” (H.D. Torrens, Travels in Ladak, Tartary and Kashmir, London, 1862, p. 268)
Sir Younghusband, who for many years was the Representative of the British Crown to the Court of the Maharaja of Kashmir, wrote: “Here may be seen fine old patriarchal types, just as we picture to ourselves the Israelitish heroes of old. Some, indeed, say… that these Kashmiris are the lost tribes of Israel and certainly, as I have already said, there are real Biblical types to be seen everywhere in Kashmir and especially among the upland villages. Here the Israelitish Shepherd tending his flocks and herds may any day be seen.” (Sir Francis Younghusband, Kashmir, London, 1909, p. 112)
There are many more accounts of which I haven’t even read yet. Vidyarthi’s book cited above, and which is the source of all this, recommends reading Jesus in Heaven on Earth by Khwaja Nazir Ahmad, Ch. 21: ‘Afghans and the Kashmiris’.
These lost tribes, while living as neighbors to Hindu idolaters, adopted their customs and habits. These Jews believed in the Unity of God, and this Unity in the terminology of scholars of religion is called Henothism, i.e. the belief that "our God is one, but other nations have their own Gods; our God is exclusively our own, having nothing to do with other peoples." In this basis they hold that as long as they live in the land of their Lord, Jehovah, they should render obedience to Him, but when they immigrate to another place and take up their residence among other people, they should worship and adore the God of that land. So we find that in the beginning, when they founded their own kingdom in Samaria, having been separated from Solomon's son, The population of Kashmir, thus, consists of two nations, the 'Kashmiri Kashyapi', who trace their ancestry to the Hindu Rishi, Kashyap, and the 'Ban Mash' who have migrated into Kashmir from outside; and although the Hindus did not absorb them, they had to adopt, according to their own belief, the worship of Hindu gods and their habits and customs.
Our final evidence is to show that the people of Kashmir are Israelites is that the names of cities of Afghanistan and Kashmir have the same names as places mentioned in the Bible; i.e. they are Hebrew names. They have 'Gilgit' for the Biblical 'Golgotha', and 'Poonch' for 'Phenice.' The meaning of 'Kabul (the capital of Afghanistan)' in the Hebrew language (Cabul) is a 'dirty city', or alternatively ‘displeasing city. There is also Chah-i-Babel (the well of Babylon) near Islamabad; and Takht-i-Sulaiman (the Throne of Solomon) in the vicinity of the math (temple) of Shankaracharya.
‘Kashmir’ is a Hebrew Word:
Furthermore, Kashmiri or Kashahmiri is a Hebrew word and an attributive name of the Israelites. The root is Kas(h)ah, similar to the Arabic kashiya. In Hebrew it means fleshy and plump, and the Bible itself has conferred this name on the Israelites, and in the idiomatic tradition of the Bible, ‘becoming fat’ means to ‘become an idolater’ – see Deuteronomy, 31:20, Nehemiah 9:25-26, 1 Samuel 2:29-30 for reference. In the same place in the Bible, the Israelites have also been called Yeshurun or Jeshurun, and both these names indicate two contradictory qualities of the Israelites. Yeshurun has been derived from the yashar or yashar, which means the follower of truth or worshipper of the One True God. The following texts of the Bible may read in this connection:
“But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked; you waxed fat, you grew thick, you became sleek; then he forsook God who made him, and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.” (Deuteronomy 32:15)
Yeshurun or Jeshurun, in this text, is the name of the Israelites and signifies here a person who worships the One True God (Gesenius and Brown, A Hebrew and English Lexicon.) But this Jeshur or Yashar had been called Ka(s)ha or Kashyapa when he began to worship, instead of Lord God Jehovah, other gods and idols of the Hindus, and coming into foreign countries thought no more of and forgot Jehovah.
Additions to this point:
The following piece was sent to me from Rahmat
Hello Osama,
I was reading your argument about the lost tribes of Israel that may have settled in Afghanistan. I've read about it and I agree. Just to support this point, one of the most popular mountain passes in Afghanistan is called Khyber Pass. Khyber is a Hebrew word meaning a Fort.....
Continuing with the article...
A Few Prophecies From the Bible Concerning the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel:
1. Jacob on His Death Bed Confers Blessings on Joseph
Of these 10 lost tribes, the most honored and renowned was the tribe of Joseph from among the Children of Ephraim; only two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, had been left in Palestine. Joseph’s was the tribe of which it was written: “Rachel is weeping for her children.” (Jeremiah 31:15. Cf. Matthew 2:18).
Her lamentation was warranted because all the hopes of the Jews were linked with this tribe. Jacob, when he laid on his death-bed, conferred most of his blessings on Joseph's tribe and uttered a prophecy about their prosperity and success (Genesis 49:22-24), and Moses too, in the last moments of his life invoked for this tribe blessings, both spiritual and temporal:
About Joseph he said: “May the Lord bless his land with the precious dew from heaven above and with deep waters that lie below; with the best the sun brings forth and the finest the moon can yield; with the choicest gifts of the ancient mountains and the fruitfulness of the everlasting hills; with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness and the favor of him who dwelt in the burning bush. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers. In majesty he is like a first born bull; his horns are the horns of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even those at the ends of the earth. Such are the ten thousands of Ephraim; such are the thousands of Manasseh.” (Deuteronomy 33:13-17)
How could it be that such a precious gem, as Joseph was, should have been abandoned and left in darkness, and the word of God should have failed in this case? It is a matter of fact that these ten tribes, including the Children of Joseph, the Sons of Ephraim, came to and settled in Afghanistan and Kashmir. When Jacob, on his death-bed also conferred blessings on Joseph’s two sons Ephraim and Manasseh, he gave Ephraim the younger son more blessings. Joseph did not like it and held up his father’s hand saying” “Not so, my father; for this one is the first born; put your right hand upon his head.” (Genesis 48:18). But the father refused, and set Ephraim before Manasseh. As a result, Ephraim’s dynasty became so much dignified and renowned that is name became synonymous with the rulership of Israel. The fundamental question that this article raises, is how is it possible that theis promised son and his tribe could become non-existent and extinct? If these tribes had been Christians, it could be said that their shepherd was Jesus; but since they came into the fold of Islam their shepherd and King, the Promised David, was the Holy Prophet Muhammad, not Jesus.
The Lost Tribes, Jesus, and the Gospels
Furthermore, God sent His prophet, Jesus, to seek and find them, and bring them back to the religion of their fathers. In what a forceful language Jesus is reported to have said:
"What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray." (Matthew 18:12-13)
"For the Son of man came to seek and save the lost." (Matthew 15:24 see also John, 11:49-52; Matthew 10:5-6)
"And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd." (John 10:16)
According to Greek idiom, emphasis lies on the them in this verse. It is thus necessary that Jesus should go all the way to Kashmir to seek and save the lost tribes of Israel.Jesus' main mission was to give glad tidings of a Messenger who was to come after him. Jesus' success lies in the fact that he persuaded and prepared these tribes of Israel who had been dead to the religion of their fathers, to return to the faith of Abraham and Jacob.
Ezekiel's Prophecy:
The Promised David, the resurrector of dry bones:
“The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Sprit of the Lord, and set me down in the mids of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them; and behold, there were very many upon the valley; and lo, they were very dry. And he said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ And I answered, ‘O Lord God, thou knowest.’ Again he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.’ So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And as I looked, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great host. Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.’” (Ezekiel 37:1-11)
Prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel were contemporaries who lived 600 years before Christ.This prophecy consists of two parts. The first was fulfilled exactly after a hundred years, but the other part found its perfect fulfillment after a thousand years. Vidyarthi claims that this book is highly corrupt and obscure, but goes on to detail the prophesy for what information we can get out of it. It is argued that the desolate and deserted valley through which Ezekiel had to pass, is Jerusalem. The Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar, ravaged and destroyed it, and drove the Children of Israel from their homes into exile. Ezekiel, who was the High Priest at Jerusalem, was also taken prisoner and put under restraint in the suburbs of Babel. Jeremiah an dEzekiel both have lamented and deplored this destruction of Jerusalem. But whatever was done to the Children of Israel was, in fact, the chastisement of heaven inflicted on them for their sinful deeds and transgressions. The significance of the valley’s tumbling into ruins is that they had been made the recipient of this punishment on account of the vice and misconduct of their priests and religious divines, and that the punishment had been ordained and decreed by the Most High God. As in the first part of the above prophecy, when Jeremiah and Ezekiel wept and cried before the Most High God, He assured them, saying that the sacred city and its Temple would be reubuilt after a hundred years, provided the Children of Israel and their divines would fulfill the covenant of God and bear obedience to His commandments. Hence, this prophecy was accomplished 536 years before Christ, and 65 years after the destruction of Jerusalem when Cyrus, the King of Persia, defeated the Babylonian King, and set the Children of Israel at liberty. However, there were still 35 years for the Word of God to be fulfilled, and neither Cyrus’s command nor his gold could revive the Sacred Temple; and the people who obstructed this work, were the Jewish tribes themselves. They counteracted and opposed each other, and wrote to the King to baffle and defeat their plans, until Cyrus died. So it was later, in the time of Prophet Ezra, when the Children of Israel took up a fresh and firm resolve to pay obedience ot the Divine commandments and walk in the way of His pleasure (Ezra Ch. 5-6), that the promise of the reconstruction and revival of the Sacred Temple came to be fulfilled exactly after a hundred years, in the reign of Darius Hystaspes. But it relates only to the 2 tribes of Israel, Judah and Benjamin. The 10 lost tribes are in Afghanistan and Kashmir. The Jews therefore believed it was an event to be completed in the future. In the Book of Zechariah:
“Ho! Ho! Flee from the land of the north, says the Lord; for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, says the Lord.” (Zechariah 2:6).
and again:
“And Those who are far off shall come and help build the temple of the Lord; and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.” (Zechariah 6:15).
The dry bones were the Children of Ephraim, the promised son of Joseph, and other tribes of Israel who, having merged into the Hindus, had become divested of faith and the spirit of Divine unity. Islam breathed into them the breath of life “from four winds”. Vidyarthi holds that its meaning is that Islam conferred on them the Holy Quran, which is the quintessence of all Revealed Books of the world.
The Most High God, then, said to Ezekiel, “These bones are the whole house of Israel”, i.e., the Sons of Ephraim and their companions, the other tribes of Israel. The statement “I will bring you home into the land of Israel” is a figure of speech, which means their rehabilitation into the religion of their forefathers; otherwise it would be understood that even Jesus could not bring them back into their own land. The acceptance of Islam by all these tribes is, in fact, their return to the land of their fathers.
Vidyarthi argues that the spirit is the Holy Quran, which exists in every house in Kashmir and Afghanistan, and quickens life into them. After this, verse 16 deserves reconsideration:
“Son of man, take a stick and write on it, ‘For Judah, and the children of Israel associated with him’; then take another stick and write upon it, ‘For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him’; and join them together into one stick… say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph (which is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him; and I will join with it the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand.” (Ezekiel 37:16-19)
These were the two sticks of which Jacob said:
“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be” (Genesis 49:10).
“Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring” (Genesis 49:22)
Vidyarthi identifies these two sticks as the kingship and the prophethood, or the blessings of the earth and the blessings of the heaven, that were joined in one in the Holy Prophet Muhammad. And the gathering of the people of all the lsot ten tribes of Israel unto him was in this way, that they entirely embraced Islam in Kashmir and Afghamistan. Furthermore, Ezekiel says:
“and one king shall be king over them all; and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms.” (Ezekiel 37:23)
These words point to the fact that this Kingdom shall be a spiritual Kingdom since no king shall live and rule up to the last Day of Resurrection.That this spiritual Kingdom shall last for all time to come, is a conclusive argument on the termination of the institution of prophethood. It is further stated:
“They shall not defile themselves any more with idols… and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” (Ezekiel 37:23)
Hence, this leads us to conclude that the Prophet Muhammad was their one King forever.
Peace be with you!
Tariq Khan
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Pilgrimage of Ezekiel to Mecca:
The sections of this article are:
1- Pilgrimage of Ezekiel to Mecca.
2- More additions and proofs from brother Silent Wisdom from the Book of Ezekiel.
The following article was sent to me by brother Silent Wisdom
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarkatu brother, #
Here again, Further proofs of "Islam" in the Bible ...
In the Book of Ezekiel (Ch, 40-47) , He tells us about a journey had been done for him by the Lord (or an Angel) in his vision...from his description to this journey we can conclude the following points...:
1) The Place and Time:
Ezekiel:
40:1 In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and brought me thither.
40:2 In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, by which was as the frame of a city on the south.
In these 2 verses Ezekiel detects the time of this journey (in the beginning of the year,in the tenth day of the month)..In fact I am not sure weather this is the ACCURATE Translation of the verse (or of what Ezekiel really meant) or No...but Jews used to use the Lunar months exactly as Muslims..and it's well known that the 10th day of the LAST month is Eid Al Adha during the pilgrimage o Mecca every year...Whatever, I find the similarities between the 2 dates (Eid Al Adha and the Journey of Ezekiel) ..The rest of the story will make it clear though..!
but What about the PLACE?..Well..let's read :
"God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, by which was as the frame of a city on the south."..
The City is in SOUTH to the Land of Israel, Where it's enclosed by Mountains...What is this City?...Without any doubt Mecca just lies in the south of Land of Israel and it's enclosed by Mountains..Yet..Further proofs are followed in his description to that place..!
2) The shape of that Place:
Ezekiel describes to us the shape of that place in Chapters 40-43..:
42:15 Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought me forth toward the gate whose prospect is toward the east, and measured it round about.
42:16 He measured the east side with the measuring reed, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about.
42:17 He measured the north side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about.
42:18 He measured the south side, five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed.
42:19 He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.
42:20 He measured it by the four sides: it had a wall round about, five hundred reeds long, and five hundred broad, to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place.
According to this shape, this place is foursquare in shape ..!
3) The Sacred House: (Al Ka'aba):
41:4 So he measured the length thereof, twenty cubits; and the breadth, twenty cubits, before the temple: and he said unto me, This is the most holy place.
According to this SHAPE of the HOLY PLACE, it's also foursquare..and it's well known that Al Ka'aba is as well 4square building...Is there any other sacred house having the same shape in Christianity or Judaism?..!
Further more, Ezekiel predicts the enlargement of the House ..Let's read:
41:7 And there was an enlarging, and a winding about still upward to the side chambers: for the winding about of the house went still upward round about the house: therefore the breadth of the house was still upward, and so increased from the lowest chamber to the highest by the midst.
4) Going around the House & Zamzam water:
47:1 Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar.
47:2 Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side.
47:3 And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles.
47:4 Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins.
47:5 Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over.
Well, in these verses Ezekiel talks about his going around the House and exactly at he side of the Muslim pilgrimage, but..he has found water under the house, what kind of water?..
It's superabundant water coming down from under from the right side of the house and south of the altar (will be discussed later)..!
His description to this water and how it's superabundant, just refers to the Water of Zamzam....it's been now for more than 1400 years used in Mecca and the surrounding places and it's still abundant well...!
Concentrate on Ezekiel's description to the water and Prophet Muhammad's :
"it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over"...Ezekiel in 47:5
"May Allah bestow Mercy on Ishmael's mother! Had she let the Zam-zam (flow without trying to control it) (or had she not scooped from that water) (to fill her water-skin), Zam-zam would have been a stream flowing on the surface of the earth." ..Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)..!
*About the Altar:
41:22 The altar of wood was three cubits high, and the length thereof two cubits; and the corners thereof, and the length thereof, and the walls thereof, were of wood: and he said unto me, This is the table that is before the LORD.
According to this description, we understand that this altar is just symbolic one not for slaughtering animals, as it's small for such thing,and it's exactly just like the station of Abraham (Maqaam'e Ibrahim) and at the same place described in Eze 47:1..!
5) Pilgrims and Pilgrimage:
44:15 But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord GOD.
44:16 They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge.
44:17 And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, whiles they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within.
44:18 They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat.
44:19 And when they go forth into the utter court, even into the utter court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments.
44:21 Neither shall any priest drink wine, when they enter into the inner court.
Well, I think the image of these verses are pretty clear,need no interpretation ..Just to note :
Ezekiel calls the pilgrims "Priests of Levites"..
that would happen when people of Israel go astray from God..(so they aren't from Israel*the pilgrims*)
He describes their clothes when they enter the inner court, "they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, whiles they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within,They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins"..and this is exactly the clothes of Muslim pilgrims..!
Further description to Pilgrims :"and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments." and this is what's called Al'Ihlaal..!
Conclusion:"Ezekiel was in Pilgrimage (Or at least Umrah)"..!
Salaam.
More additions and proofs from brother Silent Wisdom from the Book of Ezekiel:
The following article was sent to me by brother Silent Wisdom
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatu brother,
More about Pilgrimage of Ezekiel.
* Al'Ihraam (part of pilgrimage to Mecca):
Ezekiel,
42:13 Then said he unto me, The north chambers and the south chambers, which are before the separate place, they be holy chambers, where the priests that approach unto the LORD shall eat the most holy things: there shall they lay the most holy things, and the meat offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; for the place is holy.
42:14 When the priests enter therein, then shall they not go out of the holy place into the utter court, but there they shall lay their garments wherein they minister; for they are holy; and shall put on other garments, and shall approach to those things which are for the people.
In these verses Ezekiel refers to the sacrifice during Al Hajj,"the meat offering and the sin offering".
Furthermore, he talks about Al Ihram at the beginning of the Hajj.."they shall lay their garments wherein they minister, and shall put on other garments", and they are the garments described by him in 44:17-19.
* Important Note:
During this Journey, God has asked Ezekiel to preserve the place and its measures...Let's read:
Ezekiel
44:5 And the LORD said unto me, Son of man, mark well, and behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears all that I say unto thee concerning all the ordinances of the house of the LORD, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary.
44:6 And thou shalt say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; O ye house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations,
But, Why did God ask for such thing?
The answer comes from the Qur'an:
In Surat (Chapter) Al Baqarah (the cow, which is Chapter 2)..we read:
144. We see the turning of thy face (for guidance to the heavens: now Shall We turn thee to a Qibla that shall please thee. Turn then Thy face in the direction of the sacred Mosque: Wherever ye are, turn your faces in that direction. The people of the Book know well that that is the truth from their Lord. Nor is Allah unmindful of what they do.
(The Noble Quran, 2:144)
The matter of changing the qibla was very confusing matter for Muslims, the jews at Al Madina used that for their own advantage, yet Allah unveiled them in the Qur'an..Allah says clearly "The people of the Book know well that that is the truth from their Lord",so that God ordered Ezekiel to preserve the place and its description to be a prove against them in their own books, even after their corruptions,Indeed."they think they are over reaching God, but God will over reach them"..!
* Is really That description for the House of God represent the Temple that was built by Solomon?
Let's see:
1 Kings:
6:3 And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house.
6:4 And for the house he made windows of narrow lights.
6:5 And against the wall of the house he built chambers round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and of the oracle: and he made chambers round about:
6:6 The nethermost chamber was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad: for without in the wall of the house he made narrowed rests round about, that the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house.
6:7 And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.
* Jurassic` strokes coral's antennae
6:8 The door for the middle chamber was in the right side of the house: and they went up with winding stairs into the middle chamber, and out of the middle into the third.
6:9 So he built the house, and finished it; and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar.
6:10 And then he built chambers against all the house, five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.
6:11 And the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying,
6:12 Concerning this house which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I perform my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father:
6:13 And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.
According to the description of Solomon's temple, it's pretty clear that it differs from the one described by Ezekiel in Ezekiel 40-43, that refutes any tries to claim that Ezekiel described the House of God in Jerusalem.
And that shows that it wasn't a foursquare temple.
Salaam.
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Islamic Fasting was predicted by Isaiah in the Bible
By Abdul Haleem
ESTABLISHMENT OF MUSLIM FASTING PREDICTED BY ISAIAH
Chapter 58 of Old Testament Book of Isaiah contains a very striking prophecy concerning establishment of Muslim fasting practices.
Before discussing the specific prophecy, it is useful to review the differences between Jewish and Muslim practices with respect to mandatory fasts.
In the Book of Leviticus the Jewish rule of fasting on a single day ("Yom Kippur," "The Day of Atonement") was established: #
"29 And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you: 30 For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD. 31 It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever."
Leviticus 16:29-31 (King James Version), emphasis added.
The Muslim practice with respect to fasting is outlined in the Quran at 2:183-2:185:
2.183
"O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that ye may (learn) self-restraint,"
2.184
"(Fasting) for a fixed number of days; but if any of you is ill, or on a journey, the prescribed number (should be made up) from days later. For those who can do it (with hardship), is a ransom, the feeding of one that is indigent. But he that will give more, of his own free will, it is better for him. And it is better for you that ye fast, if ye only knew."
2.185
"Ramadhan is the (month) in which was sent down the Qurán, as a guide to mankind, also clear (Signs) for guidance and judgment (between right and wrong). So every one of you who is present (at his home) during that month should spend it in fasting, but if any one is ill, or on a journey, the prescribed period (should be made up) by days later. Allah intends every facility for you; He does not want to put to difficulties. (He wants you) to complete the prescribed period, and to glorify Him in that He has guided you; and perchance ye shall be grateful."
Quran 2:183-185, emphasis added.
Fasting during the month of Ramadan is to be carried out each day from when "the white thread of dawn appear to you distinct from its black thread . . .till the night appears." Quran 2:187.
In the Book of Isaiah, we find God expressly criticizing the Jewish fasting practices as inadequate!
"1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
"3 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. 4 Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? 6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? 7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
"8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward. 9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; 10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: 11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. 12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in."
Isaiah 58:1-12 (King James Version), emphasis added.
In the-above quoted verses, God begins by addressing "the house of Jacob," i.e. the 12 tribes of Israel and condemning them for their "transgression" and "sins" (Isaiah 58:1).
The Israelites observance of "The Day of Atonement" is specifically criticized: In Gods eyes, the 12 tribes had made "The Day of Atonement into a celebration or festival "in the day of your fast ye find pleasure." (Isaiah 58:3, emphasis added). Also, and also Jewish fasting is condemned as being carried out for motives other than to show submission to Allah, such as the vanity and self-glorification of the worshipers: "ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness" (Isaiah 58:3, emphasis added).
Similar criticism of hypocrisy of then-prevailing Jewish attitudes towards fasting was voiced by the prophet Issa (Greek "Jesus"):
"And when you fast, do not put on a sad face as the hypocrites do. They go around with a hungry look so that everyone will se they are fasting. Remember this! They have already been paid in full. When you go without food, wash your face and comb your hair, so that others cannot know you are fasting - only your Father, who is unseen, will know. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you."
Matthew 6:16-18 (Todays English Version), emphasis added.
Isaiah then gives examples of proper attitudes towards fasting: Each day of fasting should be "a day for a man to afflict his soul," "to bow down his head as a bulrush," "to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free," "to deal thy bread to the hungry," to "bring the poor that are cast out to thy house" and "when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him"
(Isaiah 58:5-7, emphasis added).
After condemning prevailing Jewish attitudes and customs with respect to fasting, Isaiah prophesies that when proper fasting rituals are established:
"8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward. 9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; 10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: 11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. 12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in."
Isaiah 58:8-12, emphasis added.
The spiritual rejuvenation of which Isaiah talks never came to Israel, but did come to the world with the Prophet Muhammad Pbuh) , who delivered Allahs message concerning righteous fasting in the Quran.
That Isaiah was referring to Muhammad (pbuh) is made clear by verse12:
"And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in."
Isaiah 57:12.
The "foundations of many generations" are a clear reference to the Kaaba:
"And remember Abraham and Isma'il raised the foundations of the House (With this prayer): Our Lord! Accept (this service) from us: For Thou art the All-Hearing, the All-knowing."
Quran 2:127, emphasis added.
"Behold! We gave the site, to Abraham, of the (Sacred) House, (saying): "Associate not anything (in worship) with Me; and sanctify My House for those who compass it round, or stand up, or bow, or prostrate themselves (therein in prayer)."
Quran 22:26, emphasis added.
Muhammad (pbuh) was "The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in," because he restored the Kaaba as a place of worship for Allah after entering Makka and destroying the 360 idols that had been erected in the Kaaba:
"The Prophet, after confirming all the reports of the attack and subsequent events, marched to Makkah with an army consisting of three thousand Muslims of Medinah and Muslims from other Arab communities that joined him on the way totaling ten thousand Muslims. Before entering the city he sent word to citizens of Makkah that anyone who remained in his home, or in Abu Sufyans home, or in the Kabah would be safe. The army entered Makkah without fighting and the Prophet went directly to the Kabah. He magnified Allah for the triumphant entry in the Holy city. The Prophet pointed at each idol with a stick he had in his hand and said, "Truth has come and Falsehood will neither start nor will it reappear" [Qur'an 17:81]. And one by one the idols fell down. The Kabah was then cleansed by the removal of all three hundred sixty idols, and it was restored to its pristine status for the worship of One True God (as built by Prophets Ibrahim and Ismail)."
"Biography of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)," Dr. A. Zahoor and Dr. Z. Haq, emphasis partially added.
Thus, in Chapter 57 Isaiah accurately predicted both the establishment of righteous fasting by the Muslims and well as Muhammads restoration of the Kaaba as a house of worship for Allah.
------------------------------------------------
Introduction:
Let's look at Isaiah 42:6,11:
6. "I, the LORD , have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles,
......
11. Let the desert and its towns raise their voices; let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice. Let the people of Sela sing for joy; let them shout from the mountaintops.
Important Note: Kedar is the son of Ishmael peace be upon him: "These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, listed in the order of their birth: Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, (From the NIV Bible, Genesis 25:13)" #
The people of Kedar are the original Arabs. They are today's Saudis and Yemenis, and these are 100% Muslims! There is not a single Saudi or Yemeni who is Christian today! They are nothing but Muslims. So the "light of the Gentiles" and "Kedar Lives rejoice" are clear Prophecies and Signs for the Divine and Truthful Religion of Islam.
Isaiah 42-54 seem to predict Islam and the removal of GOD Almighty's Covenant from the people of Israel:
1- In chapter Isaiah 42, there is a direct and clear prophecy about the coming of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him.
2- In chapters Isaiah 43-54, we see GOD Almighty going back and forth between denouncing the Jews and praising them.
3- GOD Almighty made a big statement in Isaiah 48:6-9 about giving unpredicted future prophecies for or against the people of Israel:
"You have heard these things; look at them all. Will you not admit them? "From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you. They are created now, and not long ago; you have not heard of them before today. So you cannot say, 'Yes, I knew of them.' You have neither heard nor understood; from of old your ear has not been open. Well do I know how treacherous you are; you were called a rebel from birth. For my own name's sake I delay my wrath; for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you, so as not to cut you off. (From the NIV Bible, Isaiah 48:6-9)"
"So I will disgrace the dignitaries of your temple, and I will consign Jacob to destruction and Israel to scorn. (From the NIV Bible, Isaiah 43:28)"
"But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment. (From the NIV Bible, Isaiah 50:11)"
In these verses we see GOD Almighty declaring that He knows well how treacherous the people of Israel are, and how He has a FUTURE wrath/punishment for them. Let us look at He, the Almighty, said in the Noble Quran regarding this subject:
--------------------------------
The fall of pagan Babylon to pagan Persia in the Bible, and then the fall of pagan Persia (Iran + Iraq) to Islam:
The sections of this article are:
1- The Prophecies about Babylon and Persia in the Old Testament.
2- The destruction of Persia and its idols by Islam and the Muslims.
3- Isaiah 42 clearly prophesied about Muhammad peace be upon him.
4- Jesus told the Jews that GOD Almighty will remove His Covenant from them and give it to the Muslims.
5- Conclusion.
The Prophecies about Babylon and Persia in the Old Testament: #
Throughout the entire Old Testament we see prophecy upon prophecy about the fall of Babylon and all of its gods and idols. In the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament, we read about how Babylon fell and the Persians took over it:
2 Chronicles 36
19 And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.
20 And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:
21 To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.
(From the King James Version Bible, 2 Chronicles 36:19-21)
Even in the book of Isaiah, the very last book in the Bible's Old Testament, GOD Almighty prophesied about the fall of pagan babylon and its gods:
Isaiah 47
1 Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.
2 Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.
(From the King James Version Bible, Isaiah 47:1-2)
So technically, as we can see, all of the Bible's Old Testament's prophecies about the destruction of Babylon were yet to come, because even the book of Isaiah; the last book in the Bible's Old Testament, still prophesied about the destruction of babylon and its gods.
Since we saw the fall of Babylon in 2 Chronicles 36:20 above, then basically the prophecy about Babylon's destruction in the book of Isaiah (which came long centuries after all of the books of Chronicles) refers to Persia, since Persia included both Iran and Iraq, while Babylon consisted only of Iraq.
The destruction of Persia and its idols by Islam and the Muslims:
When one studies the fundamentals and history of Islam, he will see Islam simply means believing in the Absolute One Living GOD Almighty and associating no partners with Him. Islam came and ended idol worship in Arabia and throughout all of the lands that were conquered by the Muslims.
When Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him came with the Message of Islam, two great empires existed during his times: The Roman and Persian Empires. Persia covered the modern lands of Iran, Iraq, Southern Turkey and the eastern parts of Syria. The Roman Empire covered a large part of Europe, North Africa, and many parts of Russia.
The Persians used to worship the fire. Their religion was called Zoroastism. This pagan religion that fully dominated all of the lands of Persia was defeated by the Divine Religion of Islam. Babylon's' and Persia's idols were crushed, and the people of Persia today are all Muslims.
Isaiah 42 clearly prophesied about Muhammad peace be upon him:
For great details, please visit:
Isaiah 42-54 seem to predict Islam and the removal of GOD Almighty's Covenant from the people of Israel.
In the Book of Isaiah: Isaiah in the Bible foretold the story of "Al-alak" that is in the Noble Quran about Muhammad.
Isaiah's Vision: He saw Jesus riding a donkey and Muhammad riding a camel. He also saw the destruction of Babylon (i.e. Iraq today) and its idol gods, and replacing them with a Divine Religion (i.e. Islam today).
Prophet Muhammad was foretold in Isaiah 42.
Muhammad in the Bible, (Isaiah 60), Pilgrimage to Mecca..!
Islamic Fasting was predicted by Isaiah in the Bible.
Jesus told the Jews that GOD Almighty will remove His Covenant from them and give it to the Muslims:
Again, for great details, please visit: Jesus told the Jews that GOD Almighty will take His Kingdom from them and give it to the Muslims.
Conclusion:
As we saw above, the Bible prophesied about the fall and destruction of pagan Babylon. Pagan Babylon was conquered by pagan Persia, and Persia was utterly defeated by the Muslims, and its pagan religion ended with Islam, and all of the people who lived in its territories ultimately embraced Islam. Therefore, it is a clear Prophecy about Islam and its Divinity when the Bible's Old Testament talks about the fall of Babylon, the crushing of its idols and pagan religion, and its replacement with a Divine Religion. That Divine Religion is none other than Islam.
Back to Muhammad peace be upon him was foretold in the Bible's Old and New Testaments.
Jesus, Jews and Christians' place in Islam.
Islam and the Noble Quran - Questions and Answers.
Isaiah 42-54 seem to predict Islam and the removal of GOD Almighty's Covenant from the people of Israel.
In the Book of Isaiah: Isaiah in the Bible foretold the story of "Al-alak" that is in the Noble Quran about Muhammad.
Isaiah's Vision: He saw Jesus riding a donkey and Muhammad riding a camel. He also saw the destruction of Babylon (i.e. Iraq today) and its idol gods, and replacing them with a Divine Religion (i.e. Islam today).
Prophet Muhammad was foretold in Isaiah 42.
Muhammad in the Bible, (Isaiah 60), Pilgrimage to Mecca..!
Islamic Fasting was predicted by Isaiah in the Bible.
Jesus told the Jews that GOD Almighty will take His Kingdom from them and give it to the Muslims.
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