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Christians in the Park

On 18 Jul 2009, In Religion, by , 4 Comments

As Salaam Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu,

This past weekend, as my wife tried to rest after having given birth earlier in the week, some people were making a terrible noise in the park that is adjacent to our house. I went to investigate and as I approached the offenders I realised it was as my wife thought, Christians singing and dancing in the park.

I went and complained that their live band was very loud and it was keeping my wife up. As if taking my complaint seriously, there was a bit of activity in an attempt to turn the noise down. Although, I couldn’t be sure if the volume was any lower or not as I was right in front of the band, shouting to be heard and shouted at so that I could hear.

With my complaint having been registered, I turn my attention to debate with the ‘ministers’ and ‘evangelists’ that made up this small group of Christians. It was too good of an opportunity to pass by, so near my house. Refuting dodgy Christian beliefs is something that I have grown to really enjoy and over the past year or so have grown considerably more confident. My new found confidence is owing to the fact that I am rarely presented with an argument from them that I have not heard before and those arguments are extremely weak. In this post I shall give my thoughts on three of the most common arguments put forward by Christians, in my experience. All three were presented to me on this day in the park.

I was soon surrounded by six to eight Christians.

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The BIBLE – The Facts (Part 2)

On 11 Jul 2009, In Religion, by , No comments

As Salaam Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu,

This is the second part of a booklet entitled ‘The BIBLE – The Facts’.

Read the first part of: The BIBLE – The Facts

==================================

[Jerald F. Dirks M.Div., Psy.D., is a former minister (deacon of the United Methodist Church. He holds a Master's degree in Divinity from Harvard University and a Doctorate in Psychology from the University of Denver. Author of “The Cross and the Crescent: An Interfaith Dialogue between Christianity and Islam.” (ISBN 1-59008-002-5 – Amana Publications, 2001). He has published over 60 articles in the field of clinical psychology, and over 150 articles on Arabian horses. Below appears his own narrative.]

One of my earliest childhood memories is of hearing the church bell toll for Sunday morning worship in the small, rural town in which I was raised. The Methodist Church was an old, wooden structure with a bell tower, two children’s Sunday School classrooms cubbyholed behind folding, wooden doors to separate them from the sanctuary, and a choir loft that housed the Sunday school classrooms for the older children. It stood less than two blocks from my home. As the bell rang, we would come together as a family, and make our weekly pilgrimage to the church. In that rural setting from the 1950s, the three churches in the town of about 500 were the center of community life. The local Methodist Church, to which my family belonged, sponsored ice cream socials with hand-cranked, homemade ice cream, chicken potpie dinners, and corn roasts. My family and I were always involved in all three, but each came only once a year. In addition, there was a two-week community Bible school every June, and I was a regular attendee through my eighth grade year in school. However, Sunday morning worship and Sunday school were weekly events, and I strove to keep extending my collection of perfect attendance pins and of awards for memorizing Bible verses. By my junior high school days, the local Methodist Church had closed, and we were attending the Methodist Church in the neighboring town, which was only slightly larger than the town in which I lived. There, my thoughts first began to focus on the ministry as a personal calling. I became active in the Methodist Youth Fellowship, and eventually served as both a district and a conference officer. I also became the regular “preacher” during the annual Youth Sunday service. My preaching began to draw community-wide attention, and before long I was occasionally filling pulpits at other churches, at a nursing home and at various church-affiliated youth and ladies groups, where I typically set attendance records.

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An Email Conversation with a Christian

On 05 Jul 2009, In Religion, by , 3 Comments

As Salaam Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu,

Because of my sometimes strong criticism of Christianity and Biblerrors, I get a few emails from Christians, Muslims and Atheists revolving around Christianity. I would like to share one back and forth with all of you, which is between a Christian woman that claims to have went from Islam to Christianity and myself. Many of you already know that I left Christianity for Islam. So the two of us are coming from opposite ends.

She wrote first with this email:

God bless you, and thank you for this chance to correspond. i see you are a convert / revert to al-Islam.

please write me back, and let us dialogue and talk.

i know the respect Muslims have for the Quran- it was once a sacred text for me, too. the Lord teaches us to do unto others as we would want them to do for us. i know that Quran is God’s Word for you, so i will not insult or critique it.

if you ask my view on something i will surely give it, but i trust you already know at least some of my views on faith and Islam. and if you have questions for me and what i feel about Islam, Christianity, Christ, or anything, please ask.

may God bless you and keep you, friend.

My reply:

May Allah Guide You,

Why do you want to correspond with me, to convert me to Christianity or just to have a Muslim email buddy or some other purpose?

Her:

well, Sir, you said that if i wanted to write to you and dialog, that i should use the e-mail address on your website, so i did.

also Sir, on Sunni Forums in the one-on-one thread, the bold passage in my post which you cite as my saying “God causes us to sin” wasn’t written by me- it was a quote from another Muslim, which i then argued against. please understand that this is not a belief i now or have ever advocated, or voiced.

you seem to enjoy discussing Christian-Muslim related issues and theology, so if you wanted to write and discuss, or ask “why” on those Christian theology points which make our faiths so different, then that is what i am here for, e-mail wise.

i do come from an Islamic faith background, so Muslim concerns with Christian beliefs and ideas is something i’m familiar with, and able to consider in discussion.

God bless you, and please write back soon if you like.

Me:

Yes, I welcome people to write me but with purpose and reason, not just for idle chat.

Regarding Sunni Forums, I am not a member. So, it seems that you are mixing me up with someone else. Moreover, I come from a Christian background, I do not need to ask any questions about its theology and when ever I do, I seek out Christian scholars not laymen.

If you want to try to convert me to Christianity, then I will give you a chance, or if you want to ask a question about Islam then you can ask. Otherwise, know that I do not converse with women unnecessarily and I value my time.

May Allah guide you to Islam

Her:

Dear Sir ~

thank you for the chance to write with you.

i know now that in reality, no person can convert another person to any faith. ideas can be discussed, faiths can be shared, and testimonies can be shared. but to impart faith is up to God’s grace.

i realize that you value your time, yet you have also taken the initiative to set up a website and welcome people to correspond with you. presumably many more laymen and women than Biblical scholars write you, though i may be mistaken about this.

can i ask, Sir, why do you chose to criticize or critique the Bible as part of your dawa ministry? the same kind of critiques can be leveled by Christians against the Quran. why did you chose that particular avenue of discourse?

Me:

If you go back to the about page on Biblerrors.com, It quite clearly says why I have created it. Moreover, I was challenged by a Christian missionary to prove that the Bible has errors. I wrote three or four posts on the subject but decided the best way was to create a Web site for the purpose. I am fulfilling my promise to that Christian. It seems odd to me that there are Christians in the world today in this age of information that are ignorant about what their own scholars say regarding the accuracy of Biblical text. Moreover, Biblerrrors gives the Christian the oppertunity to rebutt any claim. You yourself can join and refute anything you feel is bogus.

Christians can do whatever they want. I have spent a number of hours on sites claiming Quranic errors, all of them fall flat on their face. In fact Christian dawah towards Muslims is full of pride and arrogance and wholly unappealing.

The reason I criticise the Bible is because Christians claim that it is inspired writing from God. I have never and will never believe something just because someone told me it was the case. I will always try to rip through it, hoping to find errors, proving that it is not from God. Because if there is a single error I know with full conviction that it is false.

However, all of that for me is a side issue. I already know that Christianity is false and if you want I will tell you why.

Her:

sure brother, go ahead. i’d like to hear your story.

Me:

The 100% undeniable proof that Christianity is false stems from a simple question, did Jesus eat food?

Please answer this question.

Her:

He did.

Me:

The natural consequence of eating food is the need to go to the toilet. This is something indisputable. Is there any indication that the waste that Jesus, alayhi sallam, expelled from his body any different than the waste that you or I expel from our bodies?

Her:

no, none.

there’s no denying, from the Gospel accounts, that Jesus did things you and i do. like get tired, get hungry, get thirsty, and rest. Jesus did have sweat, spittle, and blood like any other man. yet Christians believe that His spittle opened the eyes of the blind, and that His blood gives life by faith. doubtless He had and has a body. but it’s the Man behind that body who matters, and the power of God within that body, too.

and besides, would He be 100% human if He didn’t?

Me:

At this point, my line of thinking forks into two directions. What I would like to do, is finish one and then come back to the other, if you are OK with that.

Just as you and I know Jesus expelled waste exactly like other people, those around him, living side by side with him would have been more aware of this fact. In your opinion is there anything more human than eating and using the toilet?

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By the Way,

I appreciate your straight forwardness. Many Christians I speak with accuse me of insulting Jesus, alayhi sallam, which could not be further from the truth. I love Jesus and all his brother prophets, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon them.

Her:

and i thank you for your clarity, and time, too. i know you do not wish to insult Isa, and that no Muslim wishes that.

certainly, there’s nothing more human than eating, and having functions of the body.

Me:

Perhaps you can explain to me why Jesus despaired on the cross?

Her:

Jesus’ crying out on the cross identifies Him with the author of the 22nd Psalm, where King David laments His condition as God’s anointed one, who is hounded and despised by the people.

the entire Psalm is an extended reference, prophetically, to the crucifixion, and to the hope of salvation from a hopeless and agonizing situation. yet the Psalm ends with the hope of God’s rescue and triumph over evil, and the glory going to Him.

Jesus knew that God had not forsaken Him- many times before He prophesied His suffering, death, and resurrection (Matthew 20:18919, Luke 9:22,), so He knew that God had yet more to do.

yet He identifies with David, from whose line He is descended as Messiah, and implicitly with the rest of the Psalm, which promises God’s victory and salvation to the Messiah (Anointed One).

thank you for allowing me to write, and explain. God bless you, and keep you.

Me:

Both stories are stories of despair and one does not give reason or support to the other. David in the 22nd Psalm is begging God to save his life. If it is a ‘reference’ to the crucifixion was it then a reference to Jesus begging God to save his life? What is the wisdom in Jesus’ despair on the cross?

=====================

Unfortunately, she stopped replying. I wonder if my line of questioning is obvious to the Muslims who read my blog? Give us your thoughts, Insha Allah.

The BIBLE – The Facts (Part 1)

On 02 Jul 2009, In Religion, by , 2 Comments

As Salaam Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu,

The following was taken from a booklet entitled ‘The BIBLE – The Facts’.

Read the second part of: The BIBLE – The Facts

May Allah be pleased with those who follow guidance.

==================================

The Bible – The Facts

“…it ought to be pointed out that there was no single, monolithic Christian church, which evolved immediately following the time of Jesus. Rather, there were a multitude of independent Churches, each having its own set of recognized scriptures, each under its own independent bishop or leader, and each having its own viewpoint on such issues as: whether or not it was Jesus Christ who was crucified; the nature of Jesus Christ…; the nature of God… It was not until several centuries later that these issues began to be sorted out, and the traditional consensus of Christian belief began to emerge.” – Jerald F. Dirks

Al-Namal Publications
P.O. Box 96185
Brixton 2019
South Africa
+27 11 837-5736
ISBN 978-0-620-39018-7

THE BIBLE: THE FACTS

Christianity is one of the major religions of the world. Christians base their religion on the Bible. Seeing that countless millions of people in the whole world are dependent on the Bible for their religious well-being, it is important to know some facts concerning this important scripture.

Fact One
The Christian Bible refers to two sets of scriptures, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament refers to the scriptures that the Jews had with them, and the New Testament was compiled by the early Christian churches and includes the Gospels.

Fact Two
The Old Testament is composed of the Torah and two other sets of Jewish scripture, the Nevi’im (prophets) and the Ketuvim (writings). However, the Torah that the Jews have is not the Torah that Moses (Pbuh) had. The original Torah went missing completely and a different Torah was compiled some five centuries after the time of Moses (Pbuh). This Torah was developed from largely unknown sources in a cut-and-paste manner. Seeing that the original scriptures were non-existent it was not possible to compile a standardised Torah, so that, at the time of Jesus (Pbuh), there were four differing versions of this Torah in circulation.

Fact Three
The original scriptures that were given to Jesus (Pbuh) are also non-existent. The compilation of the Gospels came at a much later date. Christian scholars maintain that the earliest the gospels came into being as a literary art form was during the last quarter of the first century. It was not until about 130 CE that Papias, the bishop of Hierapolis actually referred to the gospel by name.

In the initial period of Christianity, the Christians in different areas had their own independent bishops, their own doctrines and their own gospels. The process of unification commenced only in the year 325 CE by the Council of Nicacea. Of the available gospels, letters and acts only a meagre 9% was utilised to compile the New Testament. The material which initially formed part and parcel of early Christianity, and which was left out, is referred to as “New Testament Apocrypha”. There are over 41 such New Testament apocryphal gospels documented. (Refer to the Appendix for a list of some of these.)

Fact Four
It must be remember that the original scriptures revealed to Moses (Pbuh) and to Jesus (Pbuh) were revealed in the languages that were spoken b the people in those times. These were Aramaic and Hebrew. Aramaic is still spoken, but only by a small group of people in some villages in Syria. Hebrew is also still spoken, but there was a period when it was only a written language. Seeing that languages also evolve, it is unlikely that the Aramaic and the Hebrew spoken in the present times are exactly the same as spoken in those ancient times.

There is another factor to consider as well: Anybody doing translations from one language to another knows that there are many other considerations to take not of besides the word-for-word translations of works. Idiom, context, prejudices, local customs and cultures and a host of other factors have to be taken into account. Without an accurate and detailed account of these factors being available, there is no guarantee that any translations of ancient works will be 100% accurate.

Fact Five
From the above, it is common sense that if anybody did claim to have some scrolls that they claim are the original scriptures, no ordinary person would be able to read them. The services of experts who have specialised in the study of these ancient languages, would be required. (Obviously, any “expert” deciphering them would do so according to his own prejudices, with hardly anybody else being in a position to correct him!) Also, these scrolls would reflect the beliefs of those who wrote the scrolls originally. Who they were and when they were written would involve a lot of guesswork from the scholars, as can be seen with the deciphering of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Fact Six
Although Christians maintain that the Bible is the Word of God, it is well-recognised by all serious researchers that the 4 Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, were compiled by people who had no direct contact with Jesus (Pbuh). As noted above, in the first place, there was no agreement as to which were “authentic” gospels and which were not. Secondly, the four gospels that finally came to be part of the Bible were written by people many years afterwards, and these people had no direct contact with Jesus (Pbuh)! Mark, Matthew, Luke and John, under whose names the gospels appear, were not disciples of Jesus (Pbuh).

Also, thirdly, scholars agree that several people were involved in compiling these gospels, even though each gospel is attributed to one person only as the author. Scholars have analysed these gospels and have concluded that they were “layered” compilations. That is, some person wrote the initial document and somebody else edited it as time went on, and yet others added to or subtracted from the document.

Fact Seven (a)
It follows that, seeing no original scriptures are in existence, there is just no way to verify that those parts that are attributed to Moses (Pbuh) or Jesus (Pbuh) are really so. Common sense tells us that, in order to verify the authenticity of any document, one must compare it with the original. If there is no original, with what does one do a verification check? The practice of looking at the “oldest” manuscripts and stating that these are more authentic than others is fraught with many problems. This has been shown to be the case when the gospel of Thomas and the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered.

Fact Seven (b)
Just to point out one major problem:
The Jews in Alexandria, Egypt, translated the Hebrew scriptures into the Greek Septuagint before the time of Jesus (Pbuh). Later on, late in the 1st century, the Jewish Council of Jamnia rejected a number of scriptures that were included in the Septuagint. Now, the Roman Catholic Church had used the Septuagint as a basis for their Old Testament. In contrast, the Protestants used the later Jewish canon as a basis for their Old Testament! Those scriptures that were rejected as “unreliable” by the Protestants are known as the “Old Testament Apocrypha”. So, while one group of Christians consider these to be “authentic”, the other has labelled them as “unreliable”!

It should also be noted that the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has its own Bible, which differs from that of the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. Also, the Eastern Syrian Church (Nestorians) also have a New Testament that differs from the one that the rest of Christianity has.

Fact Eight
Subsequent to the initial compilation, the Bible has undergone even many more changes and corrections, resulting in many different “versions” as various Christian scholars tried to update the versions they had. This resulted in more versions coming into existence. It is important to understand that the rem “version” refers to a copy of the Bible that is considered to be authentic by the scholars endorsing it and that it differs substantially from what somebody else has compiled. Ever time somebody produced a new “version” it was thought to be 100% correct. Later on, others found errors in it, and they compiled newer “versions” which were supposed to have eliminated all the errors. In this way, from the very beginning, there were already several different versions. What is even more confusing is that there exist different translations of a single version!

Some of the different versions and translations are listed in Appendix I.

Fact Nine
The Bible is a mixture of historical information, peoples’ observations and alleged saying of Jesus (Pbuh). There is no way of proving what are truly sayings of Jesus (Pbuh) and which are fabrications, as the sayings were compiled years later by people who had no direct contact with him. When attempts were made to compile the Bible in the early years, these was no science whereby fables, myths, sayings from previous scriptures and stories made up on the spot could be differentiated from what Jesus (Pbuh) actually said. No attempts were made to sift myths from facts. No rules were laid down for the preserving of the true sayings of Jesus (Pbuh).

Fact Ten
Taking into account the historical background of its evolution, it is obvious that a book like the present Bible will have many errors and contradictions in it. Seeing much of the literature of the early Christians was banned, ignored or destroyed, it would be difficult to point out where exactly deviations occurred. Despite these serious drawbacks, Christian scholars themselves, and others, have discovered many errors and contradictions. The AWAKE magazine, dated 8 September 1957, of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, quotes an extract from the magazine Look entitled “The Truth About The Bible”: “Modern scholars say there are probably 50,000 errors” in the Bible and not an estimated 20,000 guessed at in 1720!

Despite the efforts of scholars over centuries to eliminate the errors – a task which is impossible seeing that there is no original scripture to check with – as expected, there are still numerous contradictions to be found. Just a few are reproduced in the Appendix II.

Fact Eleven
Both the scriptures revealed to Moses (Pbuh) and to Jesus (Pbuh) were revealed for the guidance of the Jews and not for the Gentiles. Nowhere can it be found that Jesus (Pbuh) had said that he had come to guide others than the Jews – “the lost sheep of the house of Israel”.

In Summary:
None of the many authors of the Bible had direct contact with Jesus (Pbuh). During the first three centuries there was no concept of an authorised Bible. It took three to five centuries before the Christians formulated the final 27 books which comprise the New Testament. Thereafter changes were made frequently as new information came to light as people discovered additional gospels or brought forth gospels which had been kept in another country. As recently as 1945, the gospel of Thomas, written in Coptic, was discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947 in some caves in Jordan, also with scriptural material. Yet, some of this newer material has been side-lined as being “apocryphal”. The best way of describing the Bible is that it is a “cut-and-paste” literary work, as stated by Jerald F. Dirks in “The Cross and the Crescent.”

The question arises: Why are there so many versions?
The answers have already been given above. There was no instant and meticulous preservation of the statements and life of Jesus (Pbuh) . In fact, in the early phase of Christianity not much importance was placed on the actual statements of Jesus (Pbuh). Many years later, some unidentified individuals wrote down what they could from hearsay. Some added statements from other sources and attributed them to Jesus (Pbuh). Others made changes where they thought necessary. This resulted in a plethora of gospels in different languages – Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, Greek (Koine), Coptic, Syriac, etc.

The final version was compiled leaving out many gospels, referred to as “apocryphal”. Some of the early material was also destroyed because it did not conform to what the compilers had in mind. Given the fact that no original scriptures were preserved and that no set of rules were in place to differentiate truth from all the accretions, it comes as no surprise that there are all these variations noted by the scholars.

IN CONCLUSION

It is quite obvious that the Christian Bible is not the Word of God. It does not mean that the Bible does not contain the sayings of Jesus (Pbuh). The problem is to discover which were truly his sayings and which were not. The only statements that can be authenticated as his are those that are confirmed in Islamic Literature, i.e. the Qur’an and Hadeeth. (See Appendix III). This being so, it is only a foolhardy person who will stake his future in the hereafter on such a scripture, especially when there is an authenticated scripture like the Qur’an.

Many people who had come to realise the above, have had the courage to study the Qur’an and, in a very objective way, have compared it to the Bible, and have come to the inevitable conclusion that the Qur’an is a Divinely revealed book. One such person was ex-Methodist Minister, Jerald F. Dirks, who carefully studied the Qur’an and compared it to the Bible which he had studied thoroughly when he studied theology at university. His findings appear in the book he wrote, “The Cross and the Crescent” from which most of the material in this booklet has been extracted.

It would be appropriate to let readers know of his experiences in his own words. The article hereunder has been written by him.

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The conversion story of Jerald Dirks will be posted in the second part, God-willing.

Contradiction 3

On 04 May 2009, In Religion, by , No comments

It has been a long time since I last posted in the ‘Biblical Contradictions’ section of this blog. I have neglected it because I have been spending time creating Biblerrors so I felt that I was still fulfilling my promise to my Christian fan. This morning, however, I came across a Web site that had a debate between a former agnostic come Bible believer and a former minister come atheist. I would post a link to that debate but unfortunately the site promotes atheism and that is not something that I would support with links.

The subject of the debate covers errors, contradiction and discrepancies in the Bible. The atheist was told to find 10 errors in the Bible, since he claims there are thousands and the Christian will answer them.

In this post I will only deal with the first contradiction because I stopped listening after it to write this post.

In 2 Kings chapter 8 verse 26 we find this verse:
Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri king of Israel.

In 2 Chronicles chapter 22 verse 2 we find this verse:
Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Athaliah the daughter of Omri.

A seemingly clear contradiction in the number of Ahaziah’s age when he became the king.

These verses are quoted from the King James version of the Bible if you read some other versions this number is changed to 22. HOWEVER, the oldest manuscripts of the Bible contain this error as well. So in one part we have an error in the oldest Biblical texts and in newer versions an attempt to deceive people by ‘fixing’ the error!

Adam Clarke, who has to be my favourite Biblical commentator, had this to say:
The reading in 2 Kings 8:26 is right, and any attempt to reconcile this in Chronicles with that is equally futile and absurd. Both readings cannot be true; is that therefore likely to be genuine that makes the son two years older than the father who begat him?

What did the Christian who was debating say regarding this error:
I don’t know!

Calling Christians to the Oneness of God

On 26 Apr 2009, In Religion, by , 5 Comments

All praise and thanks belong to Allah, I was able to attend the Dawah stall yesterday and it was the best day so far that I had at the stall to date. Last week I spoke with an atheist, a hare Krishna, a spiritualist but not a single Christian, which prompted me to ask if Christians were a dying breed. This week there were nothing but Christians.

I want everyone to be clear that I do not treat Dawah like some sort of competition, where I’m trying to make my team (Islam) to overcome the other teams (all types of disbelief) just for the sake of saying… oh look how many of your lot become one of us. Nor do I think that this is a popularity contest where if you have the most numbers then you must be the most correct. No! Numbers mean nothing. I do this work only as a obligation to my Lord. I am calling to God, if no one accepts the Dawah from me, I am not upset. My job and the job of all Muslims is to deliver the message. It is God’s job to guide whom ever He wills.

I ask Allah ta’ala to reward the two brothers that maintain the stall that has given me the opportunity to give Dawah and share in some of the reward. It is an honour to stand there with you both. All praise and thanks belong to Allah alone.

I arrived about 45 minutes late and as I settled in a Seventh-day Adventist was setting up a microphone on the other side of the street, which he would use to sing, read and insult the prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa sallam. He must have noticed the stall because this was not his usual spot. He was acting in a similar way to Abu Lahb, may Allah curse him, in that we were calling people to worship their Lord and their Lord alone and he was attempting to make so much noise that no-one would listen to our call, it backfired for him.

A Christian approached our table after speaking with him. I would describe his initial demeanour as slightly confrontational because among the first things he said was, ‘the essence of Islam is Jihad’. I corrected him saying the essence of Islam is monotheism then he challenged me with, ‘but you do believe in Jihad’. Yes, of course I believe in Jihad. Do Christians really think that Jihad is such a problem that Muslims would be timid and shy to speak in favour of it? Jihad is one of the proofs for the correctness of Islam and a proof for the weakness of Christian theology. After a brief discussion on why Jihad is necessary and a good thing, which he later agreed to, we were able to move the conversation to a more essential topic, monotheism and the ‘divinity’ of Jesus. I asked him what his proof for believing that Jesus was divine and should be worshiped, he says the Bible and then quotes from it. Fantastic, this is where we want to go. Since the time of Jesus is gone and the time of Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, is gone, we must all rely on the Books sent to know what is correct and what is incorrect, otherwise we would simply be following our whims and desires or Satan. We discussed his ‘proofs’ and I also quoted from the Bible where Jesus specifically said that he was not God and it went like that for some time. I asked him if he has read the first chapter of Genesis, in it God said, Let there be… and there was. Meaning God is so powerful that he can create this whole world and everything it just by saying BE. I asked him then what was more amazing the creation of this world and everything in it from nothing or to create a man without a father but with a mother. His reply was, ‘reason would say the world’. Of course it is more amazing! Then the virgin birth of Jesus could never be a proof for his divinity. How easy is it for God to create from nothing, how much easier must it have been to create a child from a virgin birth.

God says in His Quran,
Verily, the likeness of ‘Iesa (Jesus) before Allah is the likeness of Adam. He created him from dust, then (He) said to him: “Be!” – and he was.

Then I questioned the authenticity of the Bible but I stuck to just one book, John. I asked him who wrote it. He doesn’t know, no one does. I reminded him of the long and hard debate about its authenticity within Christianity. The debate was because it differs significantly from the other three: Mark, Matthew and Luke. He admitted that he was aware of this and that it had troubled him. If you proof is flawed, then the faith that you derive from that flawed proof must also be flawed, to which he agreed. He spent the next few minutes speaking about how I helped change his life and that he was getting a spiritual moment and asked me if that was normal. He took all of our literature and thanked me and my friend and praised us highly before leaving. I ask Allah the Most High to guide him to the Truth, Al-Islam.

After some time had passed, I noticed a man that I had seen before approaching the table. The last time I seen him his face was red and he shouted and argued and fought with us. In his mind we were calling to evil and not good. When I seen him, I thought that it was about to kick off. But no, he greeted us with salaam. The other two brothers knew, I didn’t, this man that was so opposed to us had accepted Islam! Allahu Akbar! I was so shocked because of his behaviour the last time. I was so happy for him. The fruits of the Dawah! I ask Allah the Most High to keep him firm upon the path of Truth.

Later a woman in her forties approached the stall because of our banner and we had the most pleasant talk of the day. She was recently baptised but she knew a fair amount about the practices of Muslims because her partner is a non-practising Muslim. Although, from our conversation I gathered he was trying to change that and I ask Allah ta’ala to make it easy for him. We talked about the Justice of God, racism, mixing genders, the original sin, the practices of Jesus. We also talked more personally about our own life experiences and I shared with her freely some stories from my family. Towards the end she said her partner told her a few days ago that he thinks she is going to accept Islam. She responded to him by saying that she wasn’t going to. She then said to me that she may have to eat her words after speaking with me. I ask Allah the Most High to guide her. She asked me to pray for her, which I have done and will continue to do. I ask all the Muslims who read this to also pray for her.

The last couple of people were those hardcore Christians that just come for the purpose of debating, which is fine I suppose. Even though they are opposed to listening and only want to talk, there are two benefits to debating publicly. One, I benefit from learning something about Christians and their tactics. Most of the time I learn a new angle to expose the falsehood in their claims. Two, those listening and not arguing can clearly see the problems of Christianity.

One of the Christians admitted that if I can find fault in the Bible that we could throw the Bible in the dustbin, I showed him a fault. I read it out loud. He could not and did not refute the claim and then he says to me of course there are mistakes in the Bible and that I could throw the Bible away but he knows that Jesus is God because the Holy Spirit is in him guiding him. I ask him how he knows that is not the devil. He replied because I do good. Really, you do good? You worship a man instead of God, despite that man telling you not to worship him and to worship only God and you call that good! I guess I should have asked him his definition of good because that does not fit into my definition. He had to go, suddenly.

The last Bible thumper took exception to our banner saying that in this political climate it was not wise. After, I explained the wisdom behind it. He asked me who gave me the right to do it. Gave me the right to call to the Oneness of God? I asked him who could take that right away from me. Then he showed his displeasure at what he thought as a deliberate attempt to target Christians. How hypocritical! Not a single Christian complains when their missionaries target Muslims. In any case it is not true. We speak to anyone that wishes to speak to us, some are Christians and some are not. As far as the banner is concerned that majority are from Christian backgrounds and so it is only natural that we begin our discussion with some common topic, which in this case is Jesus, alayhi sallam.

Then I challenged his belief in the divinity of Jesus by asking him a series of simple questions. Did Jesus eat? Yes. Did. Did Jesus go to the toilet? Yes (by God this should be enough for thinking people to prove Jesus is not God). Then why did Jesus show weakness on the cross? It can not be to show his humanity because what is more human than to eat and go to the toilet? Moreover, if Jesus really wanted us to worship him then at some point he would have had to show his Godliness. How can we be expected to think this man was God when he only ever showed that he was a man and even objected to being called good! This Christian then said, that this was not a subject that should be talked about on a Saturday afternoon and then he disappeared into the crowd of shoppers.

All in all, it was a great day for me, I felt that I really make a connection with two people and I soundly refuted two Bible thumpers. All praise and thanks to God. I love face to face conversations with non-Muslims about religion, those who are sincere in their quest for guidance are a joy and pleasure to speak with and the hardcore blind followers are easily bested.

I testify that none has the right to be worshiped except God and I testify that Muhammad the son of Abdullah is His slave and messenger.

Error 1

On 22 Mar 2009, In Religion, by , No comments

It’s that time again where we look at the deficiencies of the Bible and as a result Christianity. In my post looking back at contradiction number two, I mentioned my plan to share what I consider a significant error in the Bible, this error is not the same error that I had in mind but it is one I was thinking about since I posted about Khubayb, may Allah be pleased with him, and his death at the hands of the pagans of Mecca.

Khubayb was a companion of the prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, who was captured by the pagans of Mecca, tied to a trunk and was painfully and slowly killed as revenge for the losses that the pagans of Mecca suffered at the battle of Badr. We could look at how Khubayb lived his life and we could gain tremendously from it, however, it was when death was staring him in the face that we seen his real worth. In the middle of his torture, among the shouts and piercing blades he was asked if he prefered Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, to be in his place. His beautiful reply was, ‘By God, I would not want to be safe and secure among my family while even a thorn hurts Muhammad’. He went on to endure this torment until he was martyred.

Khubayb was not more than a man but his faith was strong and his devotion to the messenger of Allah was uncompromising. He showed us how to die and I ask Allah to reward him immensely for that.

Was Khubayb unique? No! History is replete with stories of people sacrificing their lives for their beliefs or a perceived just cause. A quick look through ‘The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’ will uncover many such stories of Christians suffering under the pagans of Rome, with many dying for their religion. A case of great personal sacrifice is not an evidence for the truthfulness of your faith but it is an evidence for your commitment to that faith. We Muslims respect Khubayb for his commitment to Islam and Allah’s prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, not just they way he died.

If Khubayb had enough faith to die in this manner, how do we expect a prophet to handle a similar situation? Do you think that those men whom God prefered over all nations would crumble, beg or shout in despair and anguish? It would be or should be unthinkable because these are the men that were sent to guide the rest of us. We look to them for examples of righteousness, piety, steadfastness, endurance and so on and so on. If they were weak characters then God would not be able to blame us for our weakness because we could exclaim, ‘but so and so prophet did this or that!’ What about someone who is supposed to be better than the prophets and better than the angels?

The book of Matthew goes into some detail explaining the Christian version of the supposed crucifixion of Jesus, alayhi sallam. In that account [Matthew 27:46] we find this verse:

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Astonishing! This verse claims that the ‘Son of God’ and part of the Godhead cried out in anguish and despair right at the moment of his death. He had endured and endured but at that final moment he broke and became despondent.

Was Khubayb better than Jesus, alayhi sallam?

Dr. John Gill’s explanation of this verse was to claim that Jesus was showing that he was like his brethren, human in his suffering and that is why he shouted out. However, we must dismiss that explanation because those people around Jesus would have seen him tired, hungry, angry, sad and they would have seen him go to the toilet. Meaning that they would have already known of his humanism. What need would there have been to shout out in anguish and utter words of disbelief? We have already seen humans with no claim to divinity nor prophethood nor sainthood die a more befitting way.

Adam Clarke goes into some detail about the translation of this verse and offers some alternate translations, some that go along with the above translation and some that give a different meaning but then he admits that those translations do not fully make sense and he expresses doubt in them because of the translation of the word ‘why’ in the above verse. Then he goes on to make a similar claim to that of Gill:

The Deity, however, might restrain so much of its consolatory support as to leave the human nature fully sensible of all its sufferings, so that the consolations might not take off any part of the keen edge of his passion; and this was necessary to make his sufferings meritorious. And it is probable that this is all that is intended by our Lord’s quotation from the twenty-second Psalm. Taken in this view, the words convey an unexceptionable sense, even in the common translation.

Here you have it again. Jesus cried out in such a manner because he was left fully sensible of his human nature but Jesus’ sufferings were not worse than the sufferings of other people and we have seen and we can produce many people that never claimed divinity that died in a more befitting way. Why was Jesus so weak?

This error in the Bible has come about because the confusion that surrounded those events. Christians have failed to get at the truth because of their dependence on the Bible, which clearly misses the boat on this one. Had the Christians looked to the Quran they would not have to write and write and jump around to absolve Jesus of what amounts to a serious crime. Jesus did not utter those words and he did not die on the cross and he is free of the lies of the Bible.

One other point of interest is that Jesus cried out to God saying, My God, my God. He did not cry out to himself and this is not the only time mentioned in the Bible where Jesus prays to God, which proves that Jesus could not be God, the Son of God or anything but a righteous mortal man.

Gill said:

and Christ, as man, prayed to him as his God, believed in him, loved him, and obeyed him as such: and though now he hid his face from him, yet he expressed strong faith and confidence of his interest in him.

God does not pray to Himself, therefore Jesus is not God!

May Allah bless his noble prophet Jesus, his pure mother Mary and all the Muslims.

Contradiction: 2

On 14 Mar 2009, In Religion, by , 7 Comments

I know that I said the next contradiction in my new series on Biblical contradictions would come in a weeks time or more, however, today I was too ill to attend the dawah stall and so I decided to do my little part online. Also, I have been spured on by the weak response I received regarding the first contradiction.

In the first post, I mentioned a contradiction in a genealogy given in 1 Chronicles chapter 8 and then later in 1 Chronicles chapter 9. The response from a Christian was that it is not really a contradiction but a simple problem of language and although the names appear different the are different spellings for the same name. That attempt at an explanation completely ignored the fact that I quoted a Bible commentator admitting to the contradiction. The person did not even try to rebut this claim and simply chose to ignored it. It was a laughable attempt to defend the Bible but it is also the sort of thing that I expected and a direct result of what appears, from the outside looking in, to be Christian culture. That is, make a claim, without proof or evidence and pass it on as an undeniable fact.

Let’s now move on to the next contradiction in this series.

If you read 2 Samuel chapter 24 verse 13, you will find this phrase:

So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days’ pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.

And if you read 1 Chronicles chapter 21 verse 12 you will find this phrase:

Either three years’ famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent m

So, which is it seven or three?? Let’s see what Adam Clarke, the respected Biblical commentator had to say:

In 1 Chronicles 21:12, the number is three, not seven; and here the Septuagint has three, the same as in Chronicles: this is no doubt the true reading, the letter zain, SEVEN, being mistaken for gimel, THREE. A mistake of this kind might be easily made from the similarity of the letters.

He says that the true number is three not seven and that mistakes like this one can be easily made from the similarity of the letters!

This error in the Bible highlights the fact that it was possible for mistakes to be entered into the text by men.

Let every person reflect. If God Almighty allowed this mistake to enter into the text, how can we imagine that this would be the only mistake? How many more? What verse that Christians rely on today are simple misreadings or such. It is clear that this is not a book that God has protected and therefore it cannot be a book meant to guide mankind since we would have to shift out the nonsense before accepting it.

May Allah be pleased with those who follow guidance.

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