AsSalamu Alaikum and welcome once again to establish focus. Today we will be starting a new topic, Muhammad peace be upon him the last messenger of Allah
now before we start a new topic that pyjamas
maybe I’d like to just finish off Alaska’s a couple of questions that I never
got around to do what asked you
didn’t even introduce each other from St. Mary’s University. But Ottawa audience knows very well, but this time anyway, we’re gonna ask you how Muslims reconcile their reservations about the Bible, and in particular with these two facts. First, I’d like to know how the Quran confirms the Bible. At the same time, the Quran says that no one will change the Word of God. Well, there are three basic issues relating to this problem. First of all, even though sometimes it’s common to say that the Quran confirms the Bible. Strictly speaking, it’s not correct.
The term Bible does not appear anywhere in the Quran. The term Old Testament or New Testament appears nowhere in the Quran.
What the Quran speaks about actually is confirming the original revelation given to Prophet Moses peace be upon him it’s called Torah, more or less, the equivalent to the English term, Torah.
And ngl, which is usually translated also as the gospel in the singular given to Prophet Jesus peace be upon him. There are other scriptures mentioned like the the board given to Prophet David and the source of giving to Prophet Abraham. But the idea of the Quran confirming the Bible or all the neatest things are correct. But even then, when you take a term like Torah,
Torah in Arabic, it is not the exact equivalent in both scriptures, and the understanding between Muslims for example, in verses Jews and Christians,
because among the Jews and Christians, the Torah is believed to be the first five books begin with Genesis in the Bible.
However, if you look carefully into those books, you find that many of them do not really represent revelation given to Moses, but biography about Moses, not only this that we find towards the end of chapter 34, in the book of Deuteronomy, which is part of the Torah,
it speaks about Moses dying, and being buried, which obviously is not of the work of Moses, nor is it the revelation given to him on Mount Sinai as Muslims believe. And as such, even the definition of Torah in Judeo Christian literature is not like the Quranic reference to the Torah, or law, specifically, Revelation given to Prophet Moses, not biographies about him.
Secondly, the term Injeel in the Quran, the equivalent to gospel in singular, should not be equated with the four Gospels. It speaks about about the Word of God in the Quran, not the word of Mark, Luke, Matthew and john, that’s not the word of God. This is their own biographies. And what the Quran really speaks about is revelation given to prophets, Jesus peace be upon him, something that she taught, guided by divine revelation, whether he asked people to write it or not, we don’t know for sure, but it is the same type of divine revelation as that given to Moses, Muhammad or Abraham or David, for that matter, peace be upon them all.
Now, I’d like to raise another issue also, that’s one question about the weather it really confirms when the Quran also speak about confirming any previous scriptures, it is conditioning, and it indicates in no uncertain terms, that the Quran and the Quran alone as the last one preserved revelation is the final judge and the criterion to sift through any previous
scripture to discern which part is the word of God and which is
the word of humans which part remained intact, which part might have done some changes throughout history. And this is what is meant by the term more human
Mind Map which appears in the Quran in surah. Number five in verses 48 through 50 and 51. It deals specifically with this issue of the Quran being behind the word Mohammed in Arabic, as more Lenin would do the explains in his commentary under Quran, it says it means to uphold, to safeguard or preserve, to watch over and to stand witness. And all of this applies to the Quran, in its relationship to previous scriptures. Because the Quran first of all safeguards and preserves the teaching of previous prophets, it watches over those revelation that God sent before by explaining the true meaning, to negate any misunderstanding that might have risen or confusion or
misinterpretations throughout history.
It stand witness because it bear witness,
as my duty says, to the Word of God, contained in those previous scriptures, and help sorting it out from interpretations and commentaries later added to them. The third issue, that tube also is that some people would say, the Quran itself says that there is no one will change the Word of God, how could you Muslim say that the Bible has changed from the original revelation given to these prophets. Now, if you refer to the Quran and see the what some of those writers refer to, you’ll find that there are three and I check the concordance, look around myself, there are only three verses in the Quran that speaks about changing the Word of God.
And each one of them appears in a different meaning depending on the context of the surah. And they did that after checking some of the fear or interpretations of the Quran.
First of all, in Surah, six verse 115
kalimat, or words as it’s usually translated, is used in a sense of decrees that nobody is going to change the decrees of God equation.
In the same surah, six in verse 34,
kalimat, or words is used here in a sense of promise of God, if you read it in context, the promise of God to give victory to his messengers,
in Surah, 18, passage 27.
The word kalimat are words appear in a sense of God’s Word or His revelation.
And notice here, that the promise need for if you take the third meaning, the promise that God made, that His Word will be preserved, did not grow to the promise to preserve the words of human beings. So if someone tell me, for example, that we don’t know whether john wrote this or not, or Paul wrote this, some biblical scholar is this issues, like is the book of Hebrew really written by Paul or someone else, that does not go within the promise of God, because it’s the word of human beings. It’s not the word revealed by God to his messengers, and prophets, like Moses, Jesus, or Muhammad dispute.
Secondly, in any religion, when you say nobody can change the Word of God, we have to look at it in two levels, really,
in any religion, anyone can change that on paper two is the word of God, exactly. One can get a copy of the Bible and write two differently, one can get a copy of the Quran and change it. So the physical change in terms of inviting any human can be you can do that in any religion for that matter. But the less really, that the Quran refers to, even when it speaks about regulation, that nobody is going to change the Word of God, it means the essence of His revelation, ultimately, will be preserved, and will be protected from change. Even though people might have changed, people might have attributed words to God that he didn’t say, forgotten or lost part of the Scriptures,
ultimately, it will be preserved. And the Muslim believed that this is precisely one of the great benefits of the Quran, as the last revelation, which has been totally protected, that restores and clarifies the Word of God, which was given to different prophets, because we believe in the unity of the mission of all of this province. So in that sense, yes, the promise is there, that the word of God ultimately was, was preserved. In fact, interestingly enough, the Quran gives a very good criteria for trying to find out which book can be judged to be the truth, you know, totality, or in its totality, the Word of God. And that appears in Surah number four, verse 80, to a fella to the
burden of Quran well Academy in the very late Elijah Duffy 11, tesira.
Do they not consider the person that is with care? Has it been from any other than Allah? They would have found there in many a discrepancy.
dusting it off.
After a while is there any concluding remarks on on the series that you’re just completing?
The main thing I wanted to emphasize is what we started with in the series
that
we want to emphasize, especially to our Christian Brethren,
should they not be aware of this, that the basic difference between Islam and Christianity is not the belief in honoring or loving Jesus peace be upon him, a Muslim who fails to honor, love and believe in Jesus as a great messenger of God cannot be a Muslim. It is an article of faith, and it is contained in the Quran.
The main difference really is related to the idea of deification of Jesus peace be upon him, and other related doctrines that human beings added later on the idea of God incarnate the idea of the Trinity the idea of substitutionary sacrifice.
It is quite clear from this series, then, that first of all, there is no scriptural basis whatsoever
to the idea of God incarnate. In fact, it is contrary to the long standing tradition, religious tradition in the old testament
to that for 2000 years nearly, they have been no successful attempt to really explain the ideas of Jesus being fully God fully God and fully man the idea of Trinity in any infinitive terms that cannot be even expressed properly. And we have explained again, that one cannot say it is a mystery, because it’s not a mystery. It is an idea that was intellectualized by human beings, we have to explain, for 2000 years, and for any expected future, it’s impossible to reconcile the impossible.
Thirdly,
that, by reviewing in the earlier part of the series, the history of Unitarian Christians, it was found that in the very early church, there were Christians who believed in the humanity, nothing but of Jesus peace be upon him. It was a matter of history that gave rise to the Trinitarian church under the auspices of the Roman Empire and its strength. And there is evidence of persecution of Christians who did not agree with the idea of Trinity or God incarnate. Firstly, we have also shown in an ample way throughout this series, that this is not just a Muslim, understanding or critique that many Christian biblical scholars themselves, some are clergy, many who are sympathetic to the
Christian faith, have came up with the same conclusion which the Quran said 1400 years ago, that the idea of Trinity the idea of God incarnate has been an absorption of ideas in other nations or mythical religions prior to the coming of Jesus peace be upon him. That’s precisely what the Quran said before those discoveries and paints. The second type of research that those Christian brethren has gone through
it is my hope that this series will be a humble contribution, at least in clarifying in candidness, but hopefully also in kindness, the position of Muslims, Visa V, the common link between them and their Christian brother in Jesus peace be upon him. Maybe perchance, it might contribute to bridging the gap between Muslims and Christians, or Muslims and some Christians in the future by coming back to the essence of all divine revelations, the worship of the one true God, who was worshipped by Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and hammered the Lord of all of them.
God willing,
this will be his case. And thank you very much for
all your effort in this very informative and long series. But now, why don’t we start with our new series and as mentioned at the beginning of our program, it’s Mohamed made peace be upon him, the last messenger of God. And it may be appropriate since this is the start of a new series to ask you how this this series fits in with previous topics discussed in this poll as well, some years back.
We started first by defining essential terms like Islam, what does it mean? distinction between Islam as a way of life and behavior and action of people who claim to be Muslims, which is not one of the same and explaining also the meaning of Islam as a D and D n, which means a complete way of life. But essentially the first four series beyond the introduction dealt with essential articles of faith, one series
dealt with
tauschii pure, monotheistic faith in Islam, oneness and unity of God.
We spoke about that in some detail.
A second, still unbelief dealt with Prophethood and Muslim understanding of the roads and nature of profits and Revelation.
The third one was on Mohammed in the Bible, and offshoots of prophethood. Speaking about the prophecies about the advent of Prophet Mohammed in the old the New Testament,
the fourth was on Muslim beliefs, pretending life here after related issues.
From this first series, we moved on to the pillars of faith, and more particularly the emphasis on the minimum acts of worship that translate that faith into action, including such things as the regular five daily prayers, fasting in the month of Ramadan, the charity, or the care and pilgrimage.
Having finished that we moved on to discuss the moral system in Islam, which was another lengthy series, which covered such topics as the philosophy of morals and ethics in Islam, and how does it differ from secular morality and other religious moralities for that matter, what distinguishes Islamic foundation with standard moral system. From that we moved on to speak about specific issues pertaining to the forbidden and now within Islam, in matters of safeguarding, religion, mind, faith, owner and property. It’s also covered a number of series almost 10 programs that would be morally virtuous, as derived from the Quran and the Sunnah of Prophet, Muhammad peace be upon him.
Following this, another relatively long series also
began, which is the social system in Islam is speaking in general about foundation of social destructions. Then the notion of human brotherhood, the issue of brotherhood within that human brotherhood between believers, the choice of friends, but most of the series actually was devoted to family and family life and Islam, including issues that need clarification. And words, there are lots of myths about in the Western world, like the position, and status of woman and Islam. And then it went on to the law of marriage and Islam rights of
both parties, children, the rights of children, rights of parents, marital rights,
rights of relatives, distribution of marriage, and so on. Following that, it moves to another system, economic system of Islam, how Islam provides a foundation for adjust economic life without totalitarianism and without greedy, individualism. And that series also included quite a bit on historical aspects such as contribution of Muslims to science and civilization as one aspect of productivity when they were true to the
following that we moved into the political system in Islam. system of government according to Islam, how the rulers should be chosen how the affairs of Muslims should be run, by mutual consultation, not dictatorship, as we find in many parts of the world today.
Following this, that is speaking about beliefs worship more than social, economic and political systems, we move to discuss the sources of Islam, and we focused our attention in a non monk series of 64 programmes on the first and most important source. That’s the Quran we didn’t have time to get to Hades yet.
In the series about the Quran, it was divided into half and half or two, even half really, the first 52 programs that century with one question, the quality of the Quran, how do we know it is the word of God, it’s not authored by the prophet copied from previous scriptures, or taught to him by some other human scholars or teachers in the past, we have discussed that in great detail. And then in the second half of that program, about the Quran, we try to examine the question of authenticity of the Quran and its sciences. How was the Quran recorded? How did it reach us? How do we know there have been no change or loss or distortion of the original revelation as given to Prophet Muhammad
peace be upon him, in addition to some other issues pertaining to the sciences of the Quran.
Following that series, we had the series that just finished in the beginning
With this program, the series called Jesus beloved messengers of Allah, a 64 segment series that dealt essentially with the competitive aspects of Jesus as a common link between Muslims and Christians. I felt that this was a very relevant issue in the context of North America, the Western world and other countries where Muslims and Christian live side by side that they should understand each other’s position and understanding on that issue.
Now, so far, we have been speaking about Islam and some competitive aspects, but we have never really touched in detail, as a separate series on the life of the prophet and messenger of Islam, the seal for last of all prophets, prophets, peace be upon him. And I think this would be just as relevant and I hope,
some interesting,
first of all,
how does the mission of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, fit in with the mission of previous prophets in human history? I’m glad that you said in human history, not just in the Middle East, because that’s precisely what the Quran speaks about. In one verse in the Quran, it indicates that there is no nation or a people without a prophet who has gone among them, which includes East West, all places in the world.
The Quran insists that all prophets in all parts of the world have taught nothing but one essential message variations in details but the core of the message of the worship of the One God to follow his moral nose, and his guidance in one’s life has been the common denominators in all of those missions of prophets.
for Muslims, the coming of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him is the climax of the blessing that God has promised to Prophet Abraham.
And since the Abrahamic family tree is very important, even though not exclusive, very important in the history of prophethood. And the proclamation of pure monotheism. Then we can also say that the coming of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him is the climax of all the revelations, and all the history of prophethood in again, to use your human history as the culmination and the embodiment of all the prophetic traditions in human history. This is evident, I believe, not only in the Quran alone, to me, it is evident even in the Bible, even in its present form that we have today. This is not just a dogmatic statement, void of any evidence. But it is a topic that, in my summary, I
mentioned was subject of a complete series of eight segments, under the title Muhammad in the Bible.
So it’s,
it very much fits in the climax, as Muslims.
You mentioned, Abraham, how does? How does she relate to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him? Well, since then, because earlier, this is so evident in the Quran, but perhaps for the benefit of our Christian Brethren, watching the program, perhaps they may not, or some of them might not be as aware of the parallels of what the Quran says in the Bible. So I’m just referring here to the Bible, at least for the purpose of clarification.
from the book of Genesis, we know that Abraham was getting quite old, he reached the age of 85. While still childless,
he didn’t have any hope of getting any children. as Sarah, his wife was also very old, she was probably in her mid 70s.
Despite of that, we find that in the book of Genesis chapter 12, verses two and three, that God promises to bless the nations of the earth,
through the seeds of Abraham,
the promises repeated in Genesis 15 five,
that God will make of his seeds, as many as the stars in the heaven, which means almost incalculable numbers. Now, how was that divine promise fulfilled, to a man
whose wife was barren, who was very old, and who did not have any children?
Well, the Bible tells us
that God directed his wife, Sarah,
to give him her hand.
made by the name of Hagar has a second wife. I emphasize wife because the Bible used the term wife to refer to Hagar. polygamy was a common practice among many Israelite prophets, in the hope that maybe she may burn son for him.
Because of conflict that has arisen between Sarah and Hagar, the first and second wife, Hagar fled and cried in her distress in the desert.
The Bible says that the engine of God came to her.
He told the heart that God will multiply her seeds exceedingly,
that she shall bear a son. And he gives the name of the Son, that this son shall be called Ishmael, in Hebrew Mishnah L, which means God hears or God will hear that God will hear your prayers. In that distress. You find reference to that in chapter 16, of the book of Genesis, Hagar, getting the following the instruction of the angel returned back to Abraham and Sarah told them what happened. And the prophecy was fulfilled. His son was born, the first son born to Abraham, and his name, according to the instruction of the angel was given as Ishmael.
Now,
we all know also from the Bible, which is similar to Muslim tradition
that Ishmael, and Hagar his mother was taking to the wilderness of Paran, according to the Bible, which two Muslims is Mecca,
where they sit in there,
and according to both the Bible and Muslim traditions, in fact,
that’s where they settled the wilderness of Paran.
As you find, for example, in Genesis 2121,
and from the descendants of Ishmael, we all know that Prophet Mohammed the last prophet came, that was how the promise of God fulfilled through the second son,
Isaac, referring to stylight prophets, and through the first son, Ishmael, that is, the
prophet Ishmael. And as a descendant of Prophet, Abraham. I might indicate here
that, interestingly enough,
the Bible says that when Hagar and Ishmael were taken to the wilderness, this maid was thirsty. It says that the engine should, to huggers and well.
And miraculous, well, that came all of a sudden, from what she drank, and she started to settle in that area.
This is what Muslim believes to be the one of Zamzam, which is still gushing with water until this day,
inside the confines of the Carbonell, the holy place in Mecca.
And it is interesting to conclude that Listen to me, run out of time, that the Bible itself elsewhere in the Psalms of David some number 84, verses four to six, speak also about those passing through the value of that cat, ba, apostrophe CA, make it a wealth, talking about water in the value of background. That translation is there still in the King James Version. And it’s interesting to notice that Mecca and Baca are the same thing. And these are two names of the very same place. Thank you very much Dr. Weatherly. And thank you all for joining us here in this era focus. We’re looking forward to you joining us
continuing continuation of the series and for our future. Any questions and comments would be most appreciated. Our phone number and address will be appearing on your screen.
For all of us, you understand focus Assalamu alaikum
