As Salaam Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu,
The following is a recent email conversation that I had with a Christian reader of MyIslamicFamily. His messages will be in red and mine will be in green. Enjoy.
Hello?!?!?!?!? Are you there?!?!?!?
All Praise and Thanks belong to Allah, I am here. Are you there?
Yes i am here. I was reading your 10 reasons why you thought Christianity was "false". How do you know that the scribes wrote in the Holy Bible?
Peace be upon those who follow righteous guidance,
I know this to be the case because I have read a few books by Bible scholars who have said as much. Please take a look at Adam Clarke’s commentary on Jeremiah chapter 8 verse 8: http://www.studylight.org/com/acc/view.cgi?book=jer&chapter=008 as one such example.
Could you give me a summary of it?
Peace be upon those who follow righteous guidance,
In commentary of Jeremiah 8:8 Adam Clarke wrote:
The deceitful pen of the scribes. They have written falsely, though they had the truth before them. It is too bold an assertion to say that "the Jews have never falsified the sacred oracles;" they have done it again and again. They have written falsities when they knew they were such.
What makes you think islam is the only right religion?
Peace be upon those who follow righteous guidance,
Perfection. God is perfect. If He wasn’t our universe would collapse in on itself and life would never have existed.
His guidance must also be perfect; not just perfect but perfect from every possible angle. The Quran is the only guidance that conforms to the requirement of perfection. Therefore, the only right religion is the religion that derives itself from the perfect Quran.
But we all fall short to God. We all sin. Sin is wicked, unjust, and not perfect. So we need someone to forgive us of our transgressions. Jesus did just that by dying on the cross. Isaiah 63:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Peace be upon those who follow righteous guidance,
God does not need Jesus to forgive mankind and He forgave many people without Jesus.
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14
The conditions for forgiveness are laid out in the above verse, call God by His name, humble yourself, pray and seek God, and turn away from the sin you were committing. Then God will definitely forgive you. God is great and He is not in need of anything to do what He wants.
Moreover, there are reasons to not trust the crucifixion stories that are narrated in the four Gospels of the New Testament.
Yes. But He also promised that there will be a Messiah. Jesus fulfilled all of the prophecies. Including rising from the dead.
According to Matthew 12:38-40, when the Jews wanted Jesus to prove that he was the Messiah they asked him for a sign. Jesus answered that there was only one sign; the sign of the prophet Jonah. Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale and so Jesus would spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. However, when we add up the days and nights that Jesus was supposedly in the tomb it falls far short of three days and three nights.
According to the Bible:
Friday night, Jesus was hurriedly taken from the cross wrapped up and placed in the tomb. The total so far is one night.Saturday, Jesus spent the day and night in the tomb. The total becomes one day and two nights.
Sunday, Jesus was taken out of the tomb before sunrise. So the total remains one day and two nights.
We can clearly see that Jesus did not fulfil all the prophecies. He failed the one that he supposedly uttered from his own mouth.
The days of the Jewish tradition are different than ours. Jesus died on Wednesday and rose up on Saturday. For more details i have the website below.
Peace be upon those who follow righteous guidance,
Thank you for sharing that very interesting article. I agree that the three days and three nights must be three days and three nights. I also found the remarks about paganism within Christianity interesting. You will recall that one of my ten reasons to know Christianity is false is the pagan influences that have been Christianised into becoming part of the orthodoxy.
The article is not fault free. The reason the vast majority of Christians believe in and follow a Friday to Sunday burial is because of tradition. However, the underlying reason for this belief is the belief that Jesus was actually killed on Friday night.
Getting to the thesis of the article, was Jesus killed on Wednesday? Unfortunately, the author has not provided us with any proof. In fact it appears that the method of arriving at Wednesday was simply to count 72 hours backwards. Had the prophesy said two days and two nights, the article would be proposing a Thursday death.
What the article does show is the confusion and doubt surrounding the cornerstone event in Christianity.
That they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah";- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:- [Quran 4:157]
Finally, the article ends by saying that the day is unimportant but knowing how to be saved is the real issue and the only way to be saved is through the blood of Jesus. The day is important and the full count of days he was supposedly in the tomb are important because Jesus put this forward as the ONLY sign. Moreover, you and I know that the blood of Jesus is not essential to forgiveness.
We attain salvation, not through the bloody death of Jesus, but by turning to God and humbling ourselves in prayer, seeking His forgiveness and staying away from the evil, which we were committing. What negates this is calling to someone other than God, offering our prayers in the name of someone other than God, ascribing partners with God.
Say: "O People of the Book! come to common terms as between us and you: That we worship none but Allah; that we associate no partners with him; that we erect not, from among ourselves, Lords and patrons other than Allah." If then they turn back, say ye: "Bear witness that we (at least) are Muslims (bowing to Allah’s Will). [Quran 3:64]
The website i gave you told you why Jesus was crucified on Wednesday. I’ll just tell you why He was crucified on Wednesday in my own words in another e mail. Meanwhile, what gives you the thought that islam is the only right religion?
John 19:31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. The high Sabbath is not the regular Sabbath on Saturday. The high Sabbath is a special day for a feast. It was the Passover Sabbath which happened on Thursday on the Crucifixion week. And Jesus was crucified on the Preparation day of the high Sabbath. The high sabbath is a special sabbath day for a feast, and the feast here was Passover, because Jesus is the fulfillment of the Passover, Jesus is the Passover Lamb that takes away the sins of the world!
That is why the crucifixion day was Wednesday, not Friday.
John 19:31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. The high Sabbath is not the regular Saturday Sabbath. It is a special feast. The feast was the Passover. It was the Passover feast which happened on the Thursday of the Crucifixion week. And so Jesus was Crucified on the Preparation day, which is Wednesday because the high Sabbath is the next day. The high sabbath is a special sabbath day for a feast, and the feast here was Passover, because Jesus is the fulfillment of the Passover, Jesus is the Passover Lamb that takes away the sins of the world!
That is why the crucifixion day was Wednesday, not Friday.
Peace be upon those who follow righteous guidance,
Thank you. I have decided to ask a rabbi a question about the Passover before I remark on why I disagree with a Wednesday Shabbat.
I find it interesting that you call Jesus the Passover lamb. How is it possible that Jesus is the Passover lamb when the Passover was already killed even before he was arrested? Mark 14:12-46.
Regarding your question on why I know Islam is the only right religion, I have already answered that. Please look back in previous emails.
I will answer the Passover Lamb question in another e mail. But i have read that you were from Christianity but then converted to islam. Is that true?
Peace be upon those who follow righteous guidance,
There really is no need to answer the Passover lamb question. It it very unlikely that you will be able to present me with something new that won’t take the mental gymnastics, assumptions and guesswork that other explanations rely on.
Back to the prophesy in Matthew. John 19:31, is not a proof that Passover was on Wednesday or any other day. The bit in the verse that is in parentheses is what is known as an interpolation, meaning it is not found in ancient manuscripts but it was added later by a scribe or other person who had no authority to write verses in the Bible. Therefore, it is unacceptable and unconvincing as proof.
There are things that are in favour of a ‘good Friday’ as opposed to a ‘good Wednesday’. Number one, all of the Christian world believes this event to have taken place on no other day than Friday. Number two, all of the Bible scholars that I have read, unequivocally state that Jesus was killed on Friday. Number three, the author of the article, which you linked, refutes himself. Luke 24:21 does not say 3 days since Passover. That would be unintelligible considering Passover is eight or nine days long. The only way to make that verse to be in favour of his position was to ADD the word ‘Passover’ in his explanation, which does not appear in the verse or in the surrounding verses. In fact if you read Luke 24:20, it is clear they are talking about the crucifixion and not Passover.Yes, I was a Christian and like so many others I left it and accepted Islam. All praise and thanks belong to God!
Really. You are really making stupid questions up. There are a lot of Bible verses that i can say to you that could prove your point wrong but my brother in Christ said to not associate with you anymore. You are not interested in Salvation and are trying to make me a muslim. I have a final thing to say to you.
1 John 2:9 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
Peace be upon those who follow righteous guidance,
I can not make you a Muslim. It is up to God to guide you.
I wonder if the verse you quoted (1 John 2:9) is true then why are you and your brother afraid to associate with me? Doesn’t your Bible also say to prove everything (1 Thessalonians 5:21)? Doesn’t that make proving me wrong obligatory for you?
We must have sincerity towards the truth and follow truth no matter the name by which it is called. Salvation can only come from adhering to the truth.
I pray God guides you to truth and saves you from the abyss.
2 Comments
Abu Haafidh
April 12, 2010 at 4:58 pmAbdullah
April 17, 2010 at 9:18 pm