Re: From Abraham to Mohammad The Thread that Links all the Prophets

On 9/3/05 1:39 PM India Time, _Rock_ wrote:

"The SPIRIT OF TRUTH" <avatar1.shyke@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1125732757.205623.42310@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

   The fatal error that most students of the life of Muhammad the
prophet of Islam (pbh) commit is to study his life out of its
historical and geopolitical context. The historical geopolitical
context that we refer to here is the fact that he descended from the
family of Abraham and that the children of Abraham constitute a major
portion of the inhabitants of the land stretching between the Euphrates
and the Nile.
   The family of Abraham (pbh) is generally understood to have two
parts. Those descending from his first wife Sarah and those descending
from his second wife Hagar. Sarah gave birth to a son known as Isaac
who became the father of Jacob who was given the nickname Israel.
Israel became the father of twelve sons who themselves became the heads
of the famous twelve tribes of Israel. The Holy Qur'an refers to this
side of the family of Abraham (pbh) as the 'children of Israel'.
The designation 'Jews' refers to only one of the twelve tribes of
Israel, i.e. the children of Judas the son of Israel.
   The second branch of Abraham's family is normally called after
their father Ishmael Abraham's first born son, being the fruit of his
marriage with his maidservant Hagar. Ishmael became the father of
twelve sons who themselves became the heads of twelve tribes generally
known as the Ishmaelite tribes of Arabia or the Musta'riba Arabs.
   The children of Israel lived in parts of Palestine according to the
promise given to Abraham by God. For this side of the family Jacob
(pbh) built the House of Sanctity (Baitul Maqdis) in Jerusalem.
   According to a decision made by God himself Abraham (pbh) took his
wife Hagar and his first born child and planted them in the valley of
Becca in a completely lifeless quarter. Around the valley of Becca
lived the twelve tribes of Ishmael. For this branch of the family
Abraham built the Inviolate House (Al Baitul Haraam) at Mecca under
direct commands from Almighty God himself.
   The question that arises from the very outset is, what religion did
Abraham (pbh) follow? The answer is very simple. In the book of Genesis
we are told that Abraham was the son of an idol maker. He rejected all
forms of idolatry and sought the true Lord of the universe. God
received him and guided him to His righteous ways. As a consequence, he
was trained as a model for mankind and as a founder for a faith that
was destined to reach every corner of the earth.  In the book of
Genesis,  chapter 22 verse 02 (22:02) God tells Abraham "Take your
son, your only son ... whom you love.. Sacrifice him there as a burnt
offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about". Both the
Qur'an and the Bible tell us that he submitted totally to the will of
his Lord and was about to slaughter his only son when "the angel of
the Lord called out to him from heaven" and told him (Genesis 22:12)
"now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me
your son, your only son." The same situation is described in the
Qur'an as follows: And when they surrendered totally and he (Abraham)
caught him by his forehead We called unto him: Oh Abraham! You have
already fulfilled the vision. Lo thus do we reward the good. Lo that
verily was a clear test."  The Bible specifies the nature of the
reward that Abraham was going to receive in return for his total
submission to God. In Genesis 22:16 God declares the following reward:
"I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done
this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless
you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and
as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of
the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on
earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.".
   Obviously, this was not the only time in which Abraham's total
submission to the decrees of his Lord was tested. The Old Testament
tells us that on the day Sarah's son Isaac was weaned Abraham held a
great feast and Sarah saw Ishmael, Hagar's son mocking, and she said
the following to Abraham, Genesis 21:10 "Get rid of that slave woman
and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the
inheritance with my son Isaac." The matter distressed Abraham greatly
because it concerned his son. But God said to him, "Do not be
distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah
tells you... I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also,
because he is your offspring".
   As a result of this directive Abraham had to take his wife and his
first born child Ishmael from Hebron where he lived to Mecca,   at a
time when there was not a single house in the whole area, another
tremendous display of total submission on the part of Abraham.
Neither the Old Testament nor the Qur'an say that Abraham had any
religion other than monotheism and total submission to the will of the
only God. The Arabic word to express this faith is Islam.
  The Holy Quraan 22:78 tells us that Abraham was the first man to
coin the word Muslim :
"And strive in the way of Allah exactly as you should. He has chosen
you and hath not
laid upon you in religion any hardship; keep  to the faith of your
father Abraham. He has
named you Peace Makers (Muslims) long ago and in this revelation [you
are called
Muslims] that the messenger may be a witness against you, and that you
may be witness
against mankind. So establish worship, pay the poor-due, and hold fast
to Allah. He is your protecting friend. A blessed Patron and a blessed
Helper.


   The word Islam is derived from the root / s l m/ from which both
the noun salaam meaning peace and the noun Muslim meaning peace maker
are derived. However, from the same root the verb 'aslama' meaning
submitted is also derived. This makes it a hard job to find a single
counterpart in the English language. If Abraham was the first man to
coin the word Muslim then the word must have been in use among his
descendants.  Accordingly one finds that the translators of the Bible
decided to render the word as 'Peace Makers' as in the statement of
Jesus in Matthew 05:05:
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.

If Abraham was a man who totally submitted to his Lord and made peace,
then naturally he was a Muslim (peace maker). He was not Jewish because
he did not belong to the tribe of Judas nor was he Christian because he
did not follow the teachings of Saul of Tarsus (Paul).
If we use the same criteria to Moses we will easily discover that Moses
was not Jewish because he did not descend from the tribe of Judas,
rather he came from the tribe of Levi. However, from the religious
point of view his faith was based on total submission to the will of
God manifested in his law; that Law was received written on clay
tablets on the Mount of Sinai. That Law was neither Jewish nor written
by Judas. That Law was Gods Law and totally submitting to it is called
Islam. In short, you don't need to descend from the tribe of Judas to
totally submit to God's Law, if you do submit (to God's law) you
would not be called Jewish, rather, Muslim (Peace Maker).
Let us consider the case of Jesus Christ (pbh). Again the New Testament
tells us that Jesus was not Jewish. According to the New Testament
Jesus Christ had no human father. His miraculous birth was the direct
consequence of a word said by God that he will be and he was. That is
why the Qur'an refers to him as the word of God. That is on the side
of the father he was not Jewish. On the side of his mother Mary (pbh),
he was a Levite, since Mary was the sister of Elizabeth and Elizabeth
was the wife of Zachariah the father of John the Baptist who were all
Levites descending from Aaron.
If Jesus and his cousin John the Baptist were in fact Levites, then
they were not Jewish nor were they Christian. In all his speeches in
the synagogues Jesus was actually attacking the Jews and trying to
prove to them that they were not only misguided but misguiding the rest
of Israel "the blind leading the blind".
So what religion was Jesus following? Did he have a golden cross around
his neck? No! Did he go to church every Sunday? No! Did he believe in a
trinity? No! Did he believe that sacrifice is the solution? No! Did he
believe that he came to die on the cross? No! Did he want to die on the
cross? No! Did his disciples believe that he came to die on the cross?
No! Did they believe that he was supposed to die on the cross and arise
on the third day? No! Was he actually crucified? If so what was he
doing in the clothes of a gardener on the Sunday following the
crucifixion? What was he trying to prove by eating fish? Let us trace
his beliefs in the New Testament.
Matthew (04:08):
Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the
kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give
you." he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."
   Jesus said to him, "Away from me Satan! For it is written:
'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only." Then the devil
left him, and angels came and attended him.
He consciously rejected the devil and his offer of worldly power and
opted to worship God almighty alone.
Matthew (19:16)
Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must
I do to get eternal life?"
"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is
only one who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the
commandments."
He makes a clear distinction between himself and God who is the only
perfect being, and teaches people to obey God's commandments.

Luke (18:18):
A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit
eternal life?" "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered.
"No-one is good -except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Don
not commit adultery, do not murder. do not steal, do not give false
testimony, honor your father and mother.'"
Again Jesus is emphasizing the distinction between himself as a
fallible human being and God the perfect being.
Mark (12:28):
"One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating.
Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "of
all the commandments, which is the most important?"
"The most important one" answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear Oh
Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with
all your strength'. The second is this: Love your neighbor as
yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
   "Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in
saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with
all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength
and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt
offerings and sacrifices."
The essence of monotheism is that God is one indivisible entity (Ehad).
Associating any partners with God is idolatry.
Deuteronomy (05:07) "You shall have no other gods before me. You
shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven
above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow
down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God am a jealous
God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and
fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to thousands
who love me and keep my commandments.

Accordingly, Jesus was not Christian nor was he Jewish. He was a
believer in worshipping God alone and serving him only. He believed and
taught that attaining eternal life can only come through total
submission to God through following his commandments.  He said that his
mission was to implement the Law of God and that is why he declared
himself to be the King of Israel (The Messiah, the anointed one, the
Christ). Listen to him speaking: "
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the Prophets; I
have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the
truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not
the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the law
until everything is accomplished" (Matthew 5:17).
Matthew 05:19 Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom
of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be
called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your
righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the
law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven".

Rome tells us that by hanging on the cross Jesus fulfilled God's Law.
A very funny joke, isn't it. let us try it today and see how much fun
we will have. If we crucify  Tony Blair and forget about the highway
Code imagine the amount of fun we will have.
The truth of the matter is that it wasn't Jesus' own desire to die
on the cross. It was the desire of the Roman Empire that Jesus or
anybody who rebelled against Caesar should die a terrifying death on
the cross (state terror tactics). We all know that Rome got rid of
Jesus Christ because he challenged its authority by claiming he was
"the king of the Jews" (Luke 19:38) "Blessed is the king who
comes in the name of the Lord". Not only did he claim that he was the
king of the Jews but he acted as a king preparing his army to face the
Roman army and was stalling for time (Luke 14:31)"or suppose a king
is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down
and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one
coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will
send a delegation while the other is still along way off and will ask
for terms of peace". He was anointed king in Bethany (Mark 14:03) in
exactly the same way in which king Saul was anointed by Samuel (Samuel
10:00). He was urging his followers to buy swords even if that meant
selling their own garments (Luke 22:36)"and if you don't have a sword
sell your cloak and buy one." In many places he was simply preparing
his followers to die on the cross, a well known punishment for those
who dared rebel against the Roman Empire (Luke 14:27) "anyone who
does not carry his cross and follow me can not be my disciple". More
important is his proclamation that he came to fulfill the law cursing
anybody who dared delete a letter from the law (Matthew 5:17) "Do not
think that I have come to abolish the law or the Prophets; I have not
come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until
heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least
stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the law until
everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these
commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in
the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these
commandments will be called great in the kingdom of heaven".    All
this shows that Jesus was the enemy of Rome. It was in Rome's interest
to get rid of Jesus Christ at any cost and so Rome did. Having
eliminated Jesus, the problem seems to have become worse because we all
know that at 70 AD the Roman emperor Titus had to destroy the Holy land
to stem all forms of opposition that seem to have assumed very
dangerous military proportions.
  The problem with most Christians is that although they are aware of
all the above facts they will only accept as final truth about Jesus
Christ  "the bible according to Rome". They fail to realize that the
bible that exists in our hands today is the only version that Rome
chose not to censer *. Why? Because Rome's own word is written therein.
The mission of St. Paul, a self admitted enemy of Jesus Christ, has
basically been to undermine that of Jesus Christ. A simple comparison
of the objectives of the two adversaries shows the hidden agenda. Jesus
Christ wanted to establish a kingdom based on the rule of God's law in
line with that of King David's (Matthew 5:17). Consider for a moment
why God was angry with the Jews. In Jeremiah 9:11 God says "I will make
Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals;" and in 9:13 He explains
why: "It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before
them". Jesus' mission is clearly to redress the situation and
reestablish God's rule (kingdom) on earth. Whereas St. Paul's mission
was basically to nullify the law (Acts 21:28)"This is the man who
preaches to everyone everywhere against our people and our law ..
"sanctioning, thereby, the rule of Caesar(pagan Rome), and to blame
the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on the Israelites themselves absolving
Rome from the blood of Jesus . As a matter of fact, had it not been for
the protection of the Roman Army he would have been killed by the
Children of Israel (Jesus and his followers were subscribers to the Law
of Moses not Christians) long before his escape to Rome.
If Jesus did not come to die on the cross, what mission did he come to
fulfill? He says I came to implement the Law.  But how did he think he
was going to implement the Law?  Obviously by becoming the king of the
Jews (the Messiah). Is this truly what he had in mind all along and is
this the manifesto on which his followers chose to support him and were
ready to die on the Cross if need be? Let us listen to this brief
conversation between Jesus (pbh) and his followers, even after the
crucifixion had taken place:
Acts (01:06) So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are
you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?". He said to
them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has
set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy
Spirit comes on you"
So the Disciples were expecting Jesus to restore the Kingdom of God to
Israel, but Jesus indicated that it was not going to happen in his life
and that only when the Holy prophet comes will the Kingdom of God
return to Israel. The word spirit in the language of the bible does not
always refer to ghost, rather it has been used frequently to indicate
prophet (please refer to 1 John 04).
History testifies that what Jesus promised his Disciples did take place
literally. The armies of the Holy prophet did defeat the armies of the
Roman Emperor Heraclius and the Kingdom of God was reestablished on
earth and the children of Israel were free again to worship Elohim and
to submit totally to his commandments".




The word "Islam" comes from the word "Aslama", which means to surrender.
Jesus was able to survive even death; Mohammad was not. Christ warned us of
false prophets, especially those who would come in his name.



Mohammed also said that no more nabii or rasool will come after him.


.

Relevant Pages