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Title: Muhammad in the bible
Description: MUHAMMAD(pbuh) IN THE NEW TESTAMENT Chapter I: Islam and Ahmadiyat announced by Angels 123 Chapter II: "Eudokia" means Ahmadiyah" 133 Chapter III: John(pbuh) the Baptist announces a powerful prophet 142 Chapter IV: The Prophet fortold by the Baptist was certainly Muhammad(pbuh) 151 Chapter V: The baptism of John (pbuh)and Jesus(pbuh) only a type of the sibghatu Allah" or the baptism with the holy spirit and fire 160 Chapter VI The " Sibghatu Allah " or the baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire 170 Chapter VII: The "Paraclete" is not the Holy Spirit 179 Chapter:VIII "Periqlytos" means "Ahmad"(pbuh) 189 Chapter IX: " The Son of Man ," Who is He? 199 Chapter X: By the Apocalyptical "Son of Man, " Muhammad(pbuh) is Intended 209 Chapter XI: : The Son of Man according to the Jewis Apocalypses Som Impornt words Editor’s references 222 232 233 7 THE PROPHET OF ARABIA AS SPOKEN OF IN THE BIBLE “THE BURDEN UPON ARABIA”ISAIAH XXI.13. The present barren period of classical scholarship, together with the increasing paucity of our knowledge of ancient languages, has crippled modern taste in its efforts to appreciate any such attempts as I intend to make in that direction. The following pages have produced a series of most able articles from the pen of the Rev . Professor ‘Abdu’ I-Ahad Dawud, but I wonder if there are many, even among the hierarchy of the Christian Church, who could follow the erudite exposition of the learned Professor. All the more do I wonder when he seeks to carry his readers into a labyrinth of languages, dead and done with thousands of years ago. What about Aramaic, when very few even among the Clergy are able to understand the Vulgate and the original Greek version of the New Testament? More especially when our researches are based simply upon Greek and Latin etymology! Whatever may be the value of such dissertations in the enemy’s eye we, nowadays, are absolutely incapable of appreciating them from the angle of erudition
Description: MUHAMMAD(pbuh) IN THE NEW TESTAMENT Chapter I: Islam and Ahmadiyat announced by Angels 123 Chapter II: "Eudokia" means Ahmadiyah" 133 Chapter III: John(pbuh) the Baptist announces a powerful prophet 142 Chapter IV: The Prophet fortold by the Baptist was certainly Muhammad(pbuh) 151 Chapter V: The baptism of John (pbuh)and Jesus(pbuh) only a type of the sibghatu Allah" or the baptism with the holy spirit and fire 160 Chapter VI The " Sibghatu Allah " or the baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire 170 Chapter VII: The "Paraclete" is not the Holy Spirit 179 Chapter:VIII "Periqlytos" means "Ahmad"(pbuh) 189 Chapter IX: " The Son of Man ," Who is He? 199 Chapter X: By the Apocalyptical "Son of Man, " Muhammad(pbuh) is Intended 209 Chapter XI: : The Son of Man according to the Jewis Apocalypses Som Impornt words Editor’s references 222 232 233 7 THE PROPHET OF ARABIA AS SPOKEN OF IN THE BIBLE “THE BURDEN UPON ARABIA”ISAIAH XXI.13. The present barren period of classical scholarship, together with the increasing paucity of our knowledge of ancient languages, has crippled modern taste in its efforts to appreciate any such attempts as I intend to make in that direction. The following pages have produced a series of most able articles from the pen of the Rev . Professor ‘Abdu’ I-Ahad Dawud, but I wonder if there are many, even among the hierarchy of the Christian Church, who could follow the erudite exposition of the learned Professor. All the more do I wonder when he seeks to carry his readers into a labyrinth of languages, dead and done with thousands of years ago. What about Aramaic, when very few even among the Clergy are able to understand the Vulgate and the original Greek version of the New Testament? More especially when our researches are based simply upon Greek and Latin etymology! Whatever may be the value of such dissertations in the enemy’s eye we, nowadays, are absolutely incapable of appreciating them from the angle of erudition
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MUHAMMAD
IN THE BIBLE
PROF
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DÁWÚD M
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DR
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A
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F
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F
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Box 5073, Dammam 31422 -
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(00966) 3 8345656
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mohammedinthebible
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com
PRINTED AND BOUND IN :
TEL
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no part of this publication may be reproduced ,stored in
aretrieval system of transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic
,mechanical , photocopying , recording or otherwise – without written permission
from the publishers
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3
In The name of Allah(GOD), Most Gracious, Most Merciful
A BRIEF SKETCH OF HIS BIOGRAPHY:
Professor ‘Abdul -Ahad Dawud, B
...
, the writer of the present series of articles is
the former Reverend David Benjamin Keldani, B
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, a Roman Catholic priest of the
Uniate-Chaldean sect
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: David Benjamin Keldani
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Without this Divine guidance all learning, search and
other efforts to find the Truth may even lead one astray
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”
4
} اَلَّذين يتبعون الرسول َ النبي األُمي الذي يجدونه مكتوبا ً عْندھم
ْ ُ ْ َ ُ َ ْ ُ ِ َ ْ ِ َّ َّ ِّ
َّ ِ َّ
ْ ُ َّ َ ْ ُ ِ َّ َ ِ
ُِ َ ِ
ِ
في التوراة واالنِجْيل يأْمرھم بالمعروف وينھاھم عن المْنكر ويحل ُّ لَھم
َ ِ َّ
ُُ ِ ُ َ َِ ُْ ِ َ ُْ َ َ ِ ُ َْْ ِ ُ ُُ َ ِ ِ
َ ْ َ ْ ُ َ ْ ِ ْ ُ َ ُ َ َ َ َ َ َ ْ ُ ِ َ َ ُ ِّ َ ُ َ ِ َ ِّ َّ
الطيبات ويحرم علْيھم الخبائِث ويضع عْنھم اصرھم واَألغالل َ التِي
ْ َّ
كانت علْيھم فاََّلذْين آمنوا به وعزروه ونصروه واتبعوا النور الَّذي
ْ ِ َ ْ ُّ
ُ َ َّ ُ ْ ُ َ َ َ ُ ْ ُ َّ َ َ ِ ِ ْ ُ َ َ ِ
ِْ ََ ْ َ َ
...
So it is those who believe in
him, honour him, help him, and follow the light which is
sent down with him, it is they who will prosper
...
5
CONTENTS
Foreword ………………………………………
...
13
Prophet’s(pbuh) Tree…………………………
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AbduI-Ahad Dáwúd …
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II
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13
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The following pages have
produced a series of most able articles from the pen of the Rev
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All the more do I wonder
when he seeks to carry his readers into a labyrinth of languages, dead
and done with thousands of years ago
...
The “least” in the prophecy of
St
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The Holy
Carpenter came from humble parentage
...
The
excess of zeal displayed by his followers in the second and third
centuries A
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, which was ever prone to jump at anything in the form
of a prophecy in the Bible, would naturally induce them to believe that
their Lord was the person alluded to by the Baptist
...
How can a person
rely on the testimony of a book admittedly filled up with folk-lore?
The genuineness of the Bible has universally been questioned
...
Some even go so far as to assert that his existence as an
historical person is questionable, and that on the authority of the
Gospels it would be dangerous to arrive at any apparently safe
8
conclusion in this matter
...
If “stray
sentence” and detached words in the Old Testament can be singled out
by synoptic writers as applicable to Jesus(pbuh), the comments of the
learned writer of these erudite and absorbing articles must command
every respect and appreciation even from the Clergy
...
I would not go to
Latin, Greek, or Aramaic, for that would be useless: I just give the
following quotation in the very words of the Revised Version as
published by the British and Foreign Bible Society
...
verse 18: “I will raise
them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee; and I will put my words in his
mouth
...
Jesus(pbuh) himself never claimed to be the Prophet alluded
to
...
1 So far
it is undisputed that the first coming of Jesus was not the advent of the
“prophet like unto thee,” and his second advent can hardly fulfil the
words
...
”
In ascertaining the personality of the promised prophet the other
prophecy of Moses(pbuh) is, however, very helpful where it speaks of the
shining forth of God from Paran, the Mecca mountain
...
verse 2, run as follows: “The Lord
came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran,
and he came with ten thousands of saints; from his right hand went a fiery law for them
...
He comes
from Sinai, he rises from Seir, but he shines in his full glory from
Paran, where he had to appear with ten thousands of saints with a fiery
law in his right hand
...
Hagar, with her son Ishmael(pbuh),
1
...
22 For Moses(pbuh) truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord
your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all
things whatsoever he shall say unto you”
...
9
wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba, who afterwards dwelt in
the wilderness of Paran (Gen
...
21)
...
And if Muhammad(pbuh) admittedly on all
hands traces his descent to Ishmael(pbuh) through Kedar and he
appeared as a prophet(pbuh) in the wilderness of Paran and reentered Mecca with ten thousand saints and gave a fiery law to his
people, is not the prophecy above-mentioned fulfilled to its very
letter? The words of the prophecy in Habakkuk are especially
noteworthy
...
The word “praise” is
very significant, as the very name Muhammad(pbuh) literally means
“the praised one
...
Let them give glory
unto the Lord, and declare his praise in the islands
...
xlii
...
In connection with it there are two other prophecies worthy of
note where references have been made to Kedar
...
of Isaiah: “Arise, shine for thy light is come, and the glory of the
Lord is risen upon thee … The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the
dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come …
All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of
Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they shall come up with acceptance on
mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory” (1-7)
...
: “The burden upon Arabia
...
The
inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that was thirsty,
they prevented with their bread him that fled
...
and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war
...
Read these prophecies in Isaiah in the light of
10
one in Deuteronomy which speaks of the shining forth of God from
Paran
...
iii 3) is no one else than Muhammad(pbuh)
...
Muhammad(pbuh) is the only
Prophet through whom the Arabs received revelation at the time when
the darkness had covered the earth
...
Muhammad(pbuh) was persecuted by his people and had to leave Mecca
...
If the Holy Prophets is not to be
accepted as the fulfilment of all these prophecies they will still remain
unfulfilled
...
is the house
of God at Mecca and not the Church of Christ as thought by Christian
commentators
...
Again, the mention of 10,000 saints in Deuteronomy xxxiii
...
He (God) shined forth from Paran, and he came with
10,000 of saints
...
He comes with 10,000 followers from Medina and reenters “the house of my glory
...
The Comforter -the Spirit of
Truth- spoken of by Jesus(pbuh) was no other than Muhammad(pbuh)
himself
...
“It is expedient for you that I go away,” says Jesus(pbuh), “for if I
11
go not away the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart I
will send him unto you
...
Are we to presume that Jesus(pbuh) was
devoid of the Holy Ghost if his coming was conditional on the going
of Jesus(pbuh): besides, the way in which Jesus(pbuh) describes him makes
him a human being, not a ghost
...
” Should we presume that
the Holy Ghost and God are two distinct entities and that the Holy
Ghost speaks of himself and also what he hears from God? The words
of Jesus(pbuh) clearly refer to some messenger from God
...
”
1
“X
...
”
The Holy Ka`bah
(The House of Allah, the sacred House, the Ancient House,
the Oiblah (direction of prayer)
...
Qur-án, 37: 37 Nay! he has come with the (very) Truth , and he confirms (the
Message of ) the apostles (before him)
...
English translation of the
meanings and Commentary
...
Printed by the Complex in AlMadinnah Al-Munawarah (Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) CITY)
...
12
Paran where the Prophet Mohammad(pbuh) lived and received
the revelation after Makkah
...
13
Preface
The author of this book –Mohammad1 in the Bible
Prof
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former Rev
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D
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He was specialist in Christianity and judism
...
But his Knowledge about Islam was not enough as
he mentioned in his book, So when he talked about Islam,
he talked from his Point of view
...
And also we mentioned many verses of Quran and
definitions which clearing some verses of the Bible
...
We take this opportunitg to express our gratitude to
all those who helped us
...
SEP 2012 A
...
1
...
D in Paran: mountain of Makkah
...
14
ISLAM OUR CHOICE:
And when they (who call themselves Christians) listen to what has
been sent down to the messenger (Muhammad) you see their eyes
overflowing with tears, because of the truth they have recognised
...
” (The Holy Quran 5 : 83)
...
He was a great Jewish priest at the time of the prophet
Muhammad(pbuh)
...
(May Allah bless him )
...
2
...
AbdulKareem Germanus
...
is a well Known orientlist of
Hungary and is ascholar of world repute
...
Germanus is a
linguist and an author it on Turkish language and literature
...
Roger araudy
...
and embraced Islam in 1982AD
...
Ibraheem Khaleel Ahmed
...
He embraced Islam after
long study for Quran1955-1959AD
...
Lord
5
...
Headley
Al-
Farooq
Stateman and Author
...
embraced Islam on
1913 AD
...
Muhammad AsadLeopold Weiss stateman Journalist and Auther
...
After years of devoted stoutly he became
one of the leading muslim scholars of our age He wrote many
books about Islam his most important two books are : Islam at the
cross-roads and Road to Macca
...
Some of the major
characteristics of Islam are given in the following lines
...
2-Unity of matter and spirit
...
4-Balance between individualism and collectivism
...
6-Permanence and change
...
Family Tree for the Holly Prophet’s (pbuh) *
16
**
(May Allah's peace and blessings be upon all the messengers)
ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ
* Islam comprehensive Way of life –Proff
...
Ahmed Farid Mustapha –Melboune,Astralia 1978
...
17
‘Abdu ’I-Ahad Dáwúd is the former Rev
...
D
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He was born in 1867 at Urmia in Persia; educated from his early
infancy in that town
...
In 1892 he was sent by
Cardinal Vaughan to Rome, where he underwent a course of
philosophical and theological studies at the Propaganda Fide College,
and in 1895 was ordained Priest
...
” He has several translations of the Ave Maria in different
languages, published in the Illustrated Catholic Missions
...
” In
1895 he joined the French Lazarist Mission at Urmia, and published
for the first time in the history of that Mission a periodical in the
vernacular Syriac called Qala-La-Shárá, i
...
“The Voice of Truth
...
This was, of course, an official
invitation
...
In this paper, the Chaldean Arch-Priest (that
being his official title) deplored the Catholic system of education
among the Nestorians, and foretold the imminent appearance of the
Russian priests in Urmia
...
In his native
village, Digala, about a mile from the town, he opened a school gratis
...
On the day of
New Year 1900, Father Benjamin preached his last and memorable
sermon to a large congregation, including many non-Catholic
Armenians and others in the Cathedral of St
...
The preacher’s subject was “New Century and New Men
...
Consequently
he advised the natives to make some sacrifices in order to stand upon
their own legs like men, and not to depend upon the foreign missions,
etc
...
This sermon
hastily brought the Apostolique Delegate, Mgr
...
He remained to the last a friend of Father Benjamin
...
A new Russian Mission had already been
established in Urmia since 1899
...
But the Russian Mission soon outstripped the others, and it
was this mission which in 1915 pushed or forced the Assyrians of
Persia, as well as the mountaineer tribes of Kurdistan, who had then
immigrated into the plains of Salmas and Urmia, to take up arms
against their respective Governments
...
The great question which for a long time had been working its
solution in the mind of this priest was now approaching its climax
...
The crisis ended in a formal resignation sent in to the Uniate
Archbishop of Urmia, in which he frankly explained to Mar (Mgr
...
All
attempts made by the ecclesiastical authorities to withdraw his
decision were of no avail
...
For several months Mr
...
Then he was taken into the service
of the Crown Prince Muhammad(pbuh) ‘Alí Mirzá as teacher and
translator
...
And in 1904 he was sent by the
British and Foreign Unitarian Association to carry on an educational
and enlightening work among his country people
...
20
1
...
I Shall devote the present article to discussing the first point, and in
a few other papers I shall attempt to show that Muhammad(pbuh) is the
real object of the Covenant and in him, and him alone, are actually
and literally fulfilled all the prophecies in the Old Testament
...
I do not, however, assume an authoritative attitude
in expounding the teachings of Islam
...
I love Christ, Moses(pbuh) and
Abraham(pbuh), as I do Muhammad(pbuh) and all other holy prophets(pbuh)
of God1
...
If the Christians desist from their vain attempt of
defining the essence of the Supreme Being, and confess His absolute
Oneness, then a union between them and the Muslims is not only probable
1
...
Do they seek for other than the Religion of Allah?-while all creatures
in the heavens and on earth have, willing or unwilling, bowed to His Will (Accepted
Islam), and to Him shall they all be brought back
...
say: “We believe in
Allah and in what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham(pbuh) ,
Ishmael (pbuh), Isaac(pbuh) , Jacob(pbuh) and the tribes, and in (the Books) given to
Moses(pbuh) , Jesus(pbuh) and to the Prophets from their Lord: we make no distinction
between one and another among them, and to Allah do we Bow our will (in Islam)
...
21
but extremely possible
...
II
...
As these two religions claim their
origin from one and the same source, it would follow that no
important point of controversy between them should be allowed to
exist
...
On these two principal points a thoroughly conscientious and final
agreement must be arrived at between the intelligent adherents of the
two faiths
...
It would be a mere waste of time here to refute those who
ignorantly or maliciously suppose the Allah of Islam to be different
from the true God and only a fictitious deity of Muhammad’s own
creation
...
Allah is the only self-existing, knowing, powerful Being
...
Allah is the unique Creator, Regulator and
1
...
22
Ruler of the universe
...
The essence, the
person and nature of Allah are absolutely beyond human
comprehension, and therefore any attempt to define His essence is
not only futile but even dangerous to our spiritual welfare and
faith; for it will certainly lead us into error
...
The reason why the orthodox Muslim scholars have always
refrained from defining God’s Essence is because His Essence
transcends all attributes in which it could only be defined
...
We call Allah by the appellations Almighty,
Eternal, Omnipresent, Omniscient, Merciful, and so forth, because we
conceived the eternity, omnipresence, universal knowledge,
mercifulness, as emanating from His essence, and belonging to Him
alone and absolutely
...
God has no
attributes in the sense we understand them
...
Qur-án, 5 : 73 They disbelieve who say: Allah is one of three (in a Trinity:) for
there is no god except One Allah
...
among them
...
23
God’s is His alone, and there is none other to share it with Him
...
We
only mean to say that he is relatively wise as compared with others of
his species, and that wisdom too is relatively his attribute in common
with the individuals belonging to his class
...
Now every divine action is nothing more or
less than a creation
...
e
...
This is what the
Sūfees term ‘aql-kull, or universal intelligence as the emanation of the
‘aql awwal, namely, the “first intelligence
...
Of
course, these mystic views of the Sūfees are not to be considered as
dogmas of Islam; and if we deeply penetrate into these occult
doctrines, we may involuntarily be led into Pantheism which is
destructive of a practical religion
...
God is Creator, because
He created in the beginning of time, and always creates
...
But as
His creation is not eternal or a divine person, so His Word cannot be
considered eternal and a divine Person
...
I can conceive the attributes of God
through His works at manifestations a posteriori, but of his eternal and
a priori attributes I posses no conception whatever, nor do I imagine
any human intelligence to be able to comprehend the nature of an
24
eternal attribute and its relationship to the essence of God
...
The attributes of God are not to be considered as distinct and
separate divine entities or personalities, otherwise we shall have, not
one trinity of persons in the Godhead, but several dozen of trinities
...
We cannot qualify the subject by a particular attribute
before that attribute has actually proceeded from it and is seen
...
It is for this
reason that the Qur-án always attributes to Allah the adjectival
appellations, such as the Wise, the Knowing, the Merciful, but never
with such descriptions as “God is love, knowledge, word,” and so
forth; for love is the action of the lover and not the lover himself, just
as knowledge or word is the action of the knowing person and not
himself
...
The Verb or the Word of God has been held
to be a distinct person of the Deity; whereas the word of God can have
no other signification than an expression of His Knowledge and Will
...
The same
appellation is also given to Jesus(pbuh) Christ in the Qur-án - Kalimatun
minho, 1 i
...
“the Word from Him(3:45)”
...
Qur-án,4:171
...
Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) an
apostle of Allah, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding
from Him: so believe in Allah and His apostles
...
To Him belong all things in the heavens and on earth
...
(Editors)
...
The first verse with which St
...
”
It will be noticed that the Greek form of the genitive case “Theou,”
i
...
“God’s”1 was corrupted into “Theos”;
1
...
Today, unfortunately, there remains hardly any portion intact or an unaltered fragment
from the “Gospels” and ‘Commentaries” as well as the controversial writings
belonging to the Unitarians, except what has been quoted from them in the writings of
their opponents, such as the learned Greek Patriarch Photius and those before him
...
Ephraim the Syrian
...
He has also homilies, dissertations called “mādrāshi” and
“contra Haeretici,” etc
...
D
...
Bār Dīsān maintained that Jesus(pbuh) Christ was the seat of the temple
of the Word of God, but both he and the word were created
...
Ephraim, in
combating the “heresy” of Bār Dīsān, says:(Syriac):
“Wai lakh O, dovya at Bār Dīsān
Dagreit I’Milta eithrov d’ Āllāhā
...
”
(Arabic)
“Wailu ’I-laka yá anta’ s-Safil Bār Disān
Li-anna fara’aita kána ’I-kalámo li ’I-Láhi
Lá-kina ’l-kitábo má kataba kazá
Illa ’l-kalámo kána ’l-Láh
...
” When God said Kun, for the first time, the worlds
became; when He said Kun, the Qur-án was created and written on
the “Lowh” or “Table”; and when He pronounced the word “Be”
Jesus(pbuh) was created in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary(pbuh);
and so on -whenever He wills to create, His order “Be” is sufficient
...
” does not even mention the name
of God! And this is the Christian God! The Nestorian and Jacobite
formula, which consists of ten syllables exactly like the Muslim
“Bismillahi,” is thus to be transliterated: Bshim Abhā wō-Bhrā ouRuhā d-Qudshā, which has the same meaning as that contained in all
other Christian formulas, The Qur-ánic formula, on the other hand,
which expresses the foundation of the Islamic truth is a great contrast
to the Trintarians’ formula: Bismilláhi ’r-Rahmáni ’r-Rahím; that is:
“In the name of the Most Merciful and Compassionate Allah”
...
Allah is neither the father of a son nor the son of a
father
...
The belief in “God
But the Book [Gospel] did not write likewise,
Except that “the Word was God
...
these imputations were returned to the Trinitarians by the
true Nasára -Unitarians
...
1
...
The Jews call 'Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the
son of Allah
...
Allah’s curse be on them: how they are deluded away
from the Truth!(Editors)
...
Mathematics as a positive science teaches us that a unit is no more
nor less than one; that one is never equal to one plus one plus one; in
other words, one cannot be equal to three, because one is the third of
the three
...
And vice versa,
three are not equal to one, nor can a third be equal to a unit
...
In fact, all
numbers are aggregates of the unit 1
...
Those who maintain the unity of God in the trinity of persons tell
us that “each person is omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal and perfect
God; yet there are not three omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal and
perfect Gods, but one omnipotent … God!” If there is no sophistry in
the above reasoning then we shall present this “mystery” of the
churches by an equation:I God = I God + I God + I God; therefore: I God= 3 Gods
...
Secondly, since you admit each person to be perfect God like His two
associates, your conclusion that 1 + 1 + 1= 1 is not mathematical, but
an absurdity!
You are either too arrogant when you attempt to prove that three
units equal one unit; or too cowardly to admit that three ones equal
three ones
...
Besides, we all -Muslims and Christians- believe that God is
Omnipresent that He fills and encompasses every space and
particle1
...
Allah does not in dwell in any thing…
...
28
the same time and separately encompass the universe, or is it only
one of them at the time? To say “the Deity does this” would be no
answer at all
...
Godhead is the quality of one God; it is not susceptible of plurality
nor of diminution
...
Then we are told that each person of the trinity has some particular
attributes which are not proper to the other two
...
The Father always holds the first rank, and
is prior to the Son
...
Would it not be considered a sin of heresy if the names of
the three persons were conversely repeated? Will not the signing of
the cross upon the countenance or over the elements of the Eucharist
be considered impious by the Churches if the formula be reversed
thus: “In the name of the Holy Ghost, and of the Son, and of the
Father”? For if they are absolutely equal and coeval, the order of
precedence need not be so scrupulously observed
...
Of course, the
religion of Islam does not endorse or sanction the Sabelian views
...
The truth is that there is no mathematical exactitude, no absolute
equality between the three persons of the Trinity
...
The very difference and
relationship that is admitted to exist between the persons of the Trinity
29
leaves no shadow of doubt that they are neither equal to each other nor
are they to be identified with one another
...
Consequently none of the three is alone the Creator, the
Redeemer and the Life-giver
...
In conclusion, I must remind Christians that unless they
believe in the absolute unity of God, and renounce the belief in the
three persons, they are certainly unbelievers in the true God
...
In the Old Testament, God is called Father because of His being a
loving creator and protector, but as the Churches abused this name,
the Qurán has justly refrained from using it
...
God; the New Testament does not expressly hold or defend it,
It might with advantage be added that in the East the Unitarian
1
...
If they desist not from their word (of blasphemy),
verily a grievous chastiement will befall the disbelieves
...
(Editors)
...
The Devil, who spoke through the mouth of the serpent to Eve, uttered
blasphemies against the Most High through the mouth of the “Little
Horn” which sprang up among the “Ten Horns” upon the head of the
“Fourth Beast” (Dan
...
), was none other than Constantine the Great,
who officially and violently proclaimed the Nicene Creed
...
HMD
= ROT
Himda
Himada
Ahmed
For
himda
and
shalom
or
shlama
have precisely the same significance
respectively as Ahmed
and Islam
...
7
“And the Ahmed of all nations will come
...
7
...
Qur-án,61;6
...
After
a period of seventy years’ captivity, the Jews were permitted to return
to their country with full authority to build again their ruined city and
the temple
...
It was on this
solemn occasion that the Almighty sent His servant the Prophet
Haggai to console the sad assembly with this important message:“And I will shake all nations, and the Himada of all the nations
will come; and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of
hosts
...
7-9)
...
But let us consult the English versions of
the Bible, which we find have rendered the original Hebrew words
himda and shalom into “desire” and “peace” respectively
...
They both understand a messianic prediction in the
word Himda
...
If this prophecy be taken in the
abstract sense of the words himda and shalom as “desire” and
and giving Glad Tidings of an Messenger to come after me, whose name shall be
Ahmad
...
32
“peace,” then the prophecy becomes nothing more than an
unintelligible aspiration
...
For himda and shalom - or shlama have precisely the same
significance respectively as Ahmed and Islam
...
Unless I am mistaken, the clause in the original
Hebrew text reads thus
...
” The final hi in Hebrew, as in Arabic, is
changed into th, or t when in the genitive case
...
In Hebrew hemed is generally
used in the sense of great desire, covet, appetite and lust
...
In Arabic the
verb hemida, from the same consonants hmd, means “to praise,”
and so on
...
The Holy Qur-án (61:6
...
Ahmed
...
John, being written in Greek, uses the name
Paracletos, a barbarous form unknown to classical Greek literature
...
Qur-án,61:6
...
" But when he came to them with Clear Signs, they said, "this is evident
sorcery!" (Editors)
...
Alas! There is no Gospel extant in the original
language spoken by Jesus(pbuh)!
(b) As to the etymology and signification of the words shalom,
shlama, and the Arabic salám, Islam, I need not detain the reader
by dragging him into linguistic details
...
This being made clear, I propose to give a short exposition of this
prophecy of Haggai
...
He is the Adonai (i
...
the Lord) whom you desire, and the Messenger
of the Covenant with whom you are pleased
...
” Then compare these mysterious oracles with the
(chap
...
I)
wisdom embodied in the sacred verse of the Qur-án: “Praise be unto Him
Who instantly transported His servant by night from the sacred temple
(of Mecca) to the father temple (of Jerusalem), the circuit of which We
have blessed” (chap
...
2
1
...
It is He Who sent down to thee (step by step), in truth, the Book,
confirming what went before it; and He sent down the Law (of Moses(pbuh) and the
Gospel (of Jesus(pbuh)) before this, as a guide to mankind, and He sent down the
criterion (of judgment between right and wrong)
...
2
...
Glory to ((Allah)) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night
from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless,- in
order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and
seeth (all things)
...
34
That by the person coming suddenly to the
temple, as foretold in the two biblical documents above
mentioned, Muhammad(pbuh), and not Jesus(pbuh), is intended the
following arguments must surely suffice to convince every
impartial observer:-
1
...
There is not the
remotest etymological connection between himda and any other
names of “Jesus(pbuh),” “Christ,” “Saviour,” not even a single consonant
in common between them
...
Even if it be argued that the Hebrew from Hmdh (read himdah)
is an abstract substantive meaning “desire, lust, coveteousness, and
praise,” the argument would be again in favour of our thesis; for then
the Hebrew form would, in etymology, be exactly equivalent in
meaning and in similarity to, or rather identity with, the Arabic form
Himdah
...
Jerome, and before him the authors
of the Septuagint, had preserved intact the Hebrew form Hmdh,
instead of putting down the Latin “cupiditas” or the Geek “euthymia,”
probably the translators appointed by King James I would have also
reproduced the original form in the Authorized Version, and the Bible
Society have followed suit in their translations into Islamic languages
...
The temple of Zorobabel was to be more glorious than that
of Solomon because, as Mallakhi prophesied, the great Apostle or
Messenger of the Covenant, the “Adonai” or the Seyid of the
messengers was to visit it suddenly, as indeed Muhammad(pbuh) did
during his miraculous night journey, as stated in the Qur-án! 1
1
...
Glory to ((Allah)) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night
from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless,- in
order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and
seeth (all things)
...
35
The temple of Zorobabel was repaired or rebuilt by Herod the
Great
...
Indeed, the presence of every prophet in the house of God had
added to the dignity and sanctity of the sanctuary
...
All his
visits to the temple are reported as ending in bitter disputes with
the unbelieving priests and Pharisees! It must also be concluded
that Jesus(pbuh) not only did not bring “peace” to the world as he
deliberately declared (Matt
...
Mark xiii
...
), but he
even predicted the total destruction of the temple (Matt
...
34,
etc
...
4
...
If Moses(pbuh) and Elias could appear in
bodily presence on the mount of transfiguration, they and all the
thousands of Prophets could also appear in the circuit of the
temple at Jerusalem; and it was during that “sudden coming’ of
Muhammad(pbuh) to “his temple” (Mai
...
1) that God did actually fill
it “with glory” (Hag
...
That Emina1 , the non-Muslim widow of Abdullah2, should name her
orphan son “Ahmed,” the first proper noun in the history of
1
...
(Editors)
...
Abdullah is prophet’s Muhammad father name
...
36
mankind, is, according to my humble belief, the greatest
miracle in favour of Islam
...
(Gen
...
-xvii
...
The readers of the Bible and the Qur-án
are familiar with the story of the great Prophet Abraham and his two
sons Ishmael (Ismá’íl) and Isaac (Isháq) (pbuh)
...
-1)
...
The early story of Abraham in the Ur of Chaldea, though not
mentioned in the Bible, is recorded by the famous Jewish historian
Joseph(pbuh) Flavius in his Antiquities and is also confirmed by the Qurán
...
xxiv
...
Abraham manifested his love and zeal
for God when he entered into the temple and destroyed all the idols
and images therein, and thus he was a true prototype of his illustrious
descendant Muhammad(pbuh)
...
He leaves his native land for Hārān in the company of his father and
his nephew Lot
...
In obedience and absolute resignation to the divine call, he
leaves his country and starts on a long and varied journey to the land
of Canaan, to Egypt and to Arabia
...
When he was led out to look at
the sky at night and told by Allah that his posterity would be as
numerous as the stars, and as innumerable as the sand which is on the
shores of the sea, Abraham believed it
...
A virtuous poor Egyptian girl, Hagar by name, is a slave and a
maid in the service of Sáráh
...
When
Ishmael is thirteen years old, Allah again appears to Abraham
through His Angel and revelation; the same old promise is
repeated to Abraham; the rite of Circumcision is formally
instituted and immediately executed
...
It is a kind of treaty concluded between Heaven and
38
the Promised Land in the person of Ishmael as the only
offspring of the nonagenarian Patriarch
...
Later on - that is to say, when Abraham was ninety-nine years
old and Sáráh ninety, we find that she also bears a son whom they
name Isaac(pbuh) according to the divine promise
...
Ishmael and his mother
disappear in the desert, a fountain bursts out when the youth is on
the point of death from thirst; he drinks and is saved
...
Then the Book of Genesis continues the story of Isaac(pbuh), his two
sons, and the descent of Jacob(pbuh) into Egypt, and ends with the
death of Joseph(pbuh)
...
) is the offering of “his only
son” a sacrifice to God, but he was ransomed with a ram which
was presented by an angel
...
),
1
but his love for God
surpassed every other affection; and for this reason he is
surnamed “the Friend of Allah”” (Qur-án,4:125)
...
Qur-án,37:102
...
(Editors)
...
Qur-án,4:125
...
(Editors)
...
There are three distinct points which every true believer in God
must accept as truths
...
The second point is that the
Covenant was made between God and Abraham as well as his
only son Ishmael before Isaac(pbuh) was born
...
xv
...
This
promise was fulfilled when Ishmael was born (Gen
...
), and
Abraham had the consolation that his chief servant Eliezer would
no longer be his heir
...
The
prerogative that “by Abraham all the generations of the earth
shall be blessed, “so often repeated -though in different formswas the heritage by birthright, and was the patrimony of Ishmael
...
18-21)
...
This is an actual and literal fulfilment of one of
the conditions contained in the Covenant
...
No
Muslim does ever think of disparaging the sacred and prophetical
position of Isaac(pbuh) and his son Jacob(pbuh); for to disparage or to
lower a Prophet is an impiety
...
In fact, the people of Israel, with its Law and
sacred Scriptures, have had a unique religious history in the Old
World
...
Although
that people have often rebelled against God, and fallen into
idolatry, yet they have given to the world myriads of prophets and
righteous men and women
...
For if by “Blessing”
and the “Birthright” it meant only some material possessions and
power, the dispute would be settled as it has been settled by sword and
the accomplished fact of the Arab occupation of the promised lands
...
The Jews do not see the
fulfilment of the so-called Messianic prophecies either in the person of
Christ or in that of Muhammad(pbuh)
...
and it is out of this rancour that their scribes or
doctors of law have corrupted and interpolated many passages in
their Scriptures
...
It is expressly said in this chapter by God: “Because thou
didst not spare thy only begotten son, I will increase and multiply
the posterity like the stars and the sands on the seashore,” which
word “multiply” was used by the Angel to Hagar in the
Wilderness: I will multiply thy offspring to an innumerable
multitude, and that Ishmael “shall become a fruitful man” (Gen
...
12)
...
Barnabas, reprimanded the Jews who said that the Great
Messenger whom they call “Messiah” would come down from the
41
lineage of King David, telling them plainly that he could not be the
son of David, for David calls him “his Lord,” and then went on to
explain how their fathers had altered the Scriptures, and that the
Covenant was made, not with Isaac, but with Ishmael, who was taken
to be offered a sacrifice to God, and that the expression “thy only begotten
son” means Ishmael, and not Isaac
...
Paul, who pretends to be an apostle of
Jesus(pbuh) Christ, uses some irreverent words about Hagar (Gal
...
21-31
and elsewhere) and Ishmael, and openly contradicts his Master
...
In fact, the Epistles of St
...
St
...
After his conversion to
Christianity he seems to have become even more fanatical than ever
...
If Paul were inspired by
God, he would have either denounced the Book of Genesis as full of
forgeries when it says twice (xii
...
2-18) that Abraham was the
husband of his own sister, or that he would have exposed the Prophet
to be a liar! (God forbid
...
iv
...
Did ever St
...
And all the people say:
Amen”? (Duet
...
22)
...
The God who made the Covenant with Ishmael thus prescribes the
law of inheritance, namely: if a man has two wives, one beloved and the other despised,
and each one has a son, and if the son of the despised wife is the first-born, that son, and not the son
of the beloved wife, is entitled to the birthright
...
xxi
...
Is not, then, this law explicit enough to put to
silence all who dispute the just claim of Ishmael to birthright?
Now let us discuss this question of the birthright as briefly as we
can
...
Now the nomad tribesmen do not inherit lands and
pastures, but the prince assigns to each of his sons certain clans or
tribes as his subjects and dependents
...
The great Mongol Conqueror Jenghiz
Khan was succeeded by Oghtai, his eldest son, who reigned in Pekin
as Kháqán, but his youngest son remained in his father’s hearth at
Qáráqōrum in Mongolia
...
Isaac, who was the younger of the two, inherited the tent of his
father and became, like him, a nomad living in tents
...
2 here he settled, became Prophet and
Prince among the Arab tribes who believed in him
...
It was Ishmael that founded the religion of one true Allah and
instituted the Circumcision
...
From the days of Ishmael to the
advent of Muhammad(pbuh), the Arabs of Hijáz, Yemen and others have
1
...
2-from behind a veil
...
(Editors)
2
...
And remember Abraham and Isma'il(pbuh) raised the foundations
of the House (With this prayer): "Our Lord! Accept (this service) from us: For Thou
art the All-Hearing, the All-knowing
...
43
been independent and masters of their own countries
...
Although idolatry was afterwards introduced, still the names of Allāh,
Abraham, Ishmael, and a few other Prophets were not forgotten by
them
...
The story of
Esau’s selling his birthright to Jacob(pbuh) for a dish of pottage is foul
trick invented to justify the ill-treatment ascribed to Ishmael
...
xxv
...
ix
...
But, strange to say, another
report, probably from another source, shows the case to be just the
reverse of the above-mentioned prediction
...
”
Abraham is reported to have several other sons from Qitura and
“the concubines,” to whom he gave presents or gifts and sent them
towards the East
...
Twelve
sons of Ishmael are mentioned by name and described, each one to be
a prince with his towns and camps or armies (Gen
...
So are the
children from Qitura, and others, as well as those descended from
Esau mentioned by their names
...
Before concluding this article I wish to draw the attention of the
students of the Bible, especially that of the Higher Biblical Criticism,
44
to the fact that the so-called Messianic Prophecies and Passages
belong to a propaganda in favour of the Davidic Dynasty after the death
of King Solomon when his kingdom was split into two
...
Jerusalem was not longer the centre of religion for the Ten Tribes,
and the Davidic claims to a perpetual reign was rejected
...
As it was said in the first article, there are certain manifest marks
with which the coming Last Prophet will be known
...
Chapter III
THE MYSTERY OF THE “MISPA”
In this article, as the title shows, I shall try to give an exposition of
the ancient Hebrew Cult of Stone, which they inherited from
Abraham(pbuh), their great progenitor, and to show that this Stone-Cult
was instituted at Mecca by that Patriarch and his son Ishmael(pbuh); in
the land of Canaan by Isaac and Jacob(pbuh); and in Moab and elsewhere
by the other descendants of Abraham(pbuh)
...
In those
days of yore, when the chosen family was leading a nomadic and
pastoral life, it had no settled habitation where to build a house,
especially dedicated to the worship of God; it used to erect a particular
stone around which it used to make a hajj; that is to say, to turn round
seven times in the form of a dancing-ring
...
The word hajj is exactly identical in
meaning and etymology with the same in the Hebrew and other
Semitic languages
...
The
Law of Moses(pbuh) uses this very word hagag or haghagh
...
The word signifies to
compass a building, an altar or a stone by running round it at a regular
and trained pace with the purpose of performing a religious festival of
rejoicing and chanting
...
Consequently, this word has nothing to do with pilgrimage, which is
derived from the Italian Pellegrino, and this also from the Latin
peregrinus - meaning a “foreigner
...
When Jacob(pbuh) was on his way to Padan Aram and saw the vision of
that wonderful ladder, he erected a stone there, upon which he poured
oil and called it Bethel, i
...
“the house of God”; and twenty years later
he again visited that stone, upon which he poured oil and “pure wine,”
[!] as recorded in Genesis xxviii
...
A special stone was erected
as a monument by Jacob(pbuh) and his father-in-law upon a heap of
stones called Gal’ead in Hebrew, and Yaghar sahdutha by Laban in
his Aramaic language, which means “a heap of witness
...
xxxi
...
Now this Mispha became later on the most important place of
worship, and a centre of the national assemblies in the history of the
people of Israel
...
It was at Mispha that four hundred thousand swordsmen from the
1
...
(the auther)
...
, xxi
...
Vii
...
X
...
It seems that these shrines were built upon
high places or upon a raised platform, often called Ramoth, which
signifies a “high place
...
But,
like the ka’aba at Mecca, these Misphas were often filled with idols
and images
...
Now, what does the word Mispa mean? It is generally translated
into a “watch-tower
...
Mispa is the place or building which derives its name from
sáphá, an archaic word for “stone
...
The Syriac for stone is kipa
...
” Hence the real
meaning of Mispa is the locality or place in which a sapha or stone is
set and fixed
...
It is the spot upon which a sapha rests, that is
called Mispa
...
The Arabic language lacks the p sound in its alphabet just
1
...
This Bible is published by the American
Bible Society (New York, 1893)
...
Matba ’ta
d’dasta
...
Trans
...
Published at the Press of the American Bible Society
...
47
as much as do the Hebrew and other Semitic languages, in which the
letter p, like g, is sometimes soft and is pronounced like f or ph
...
g
...
It is in accordance with this rule
that I prefer to write this word sapha to safa
...
The Greek form petros in the
masculine gender -Petra in the feminine- is so unclassical and unGreek, that one is astonished at its being ever adopted by the
Churches
...
The Syriac version called
Pshitta has frequently rendered this Greek form into Kipha (Kipa)
...
The old Arabic versions of the New Testament have frequently
written St
...
” The words of Christ: “Thou art Peter,” etc
...
xvi
...
42, etc
...
That Christ should
liken Simon to Sapha and the Church to Mispha is very remarkable;
but when I come to divulge the mystery hidden in this similitude and
the wisdom embodied in the Sapha, then it must be accepted as the
most marvellous truth of Muhammad’s merit to his glorious title:
“THE MUSTAPHA”! 1
1
...
(Editors)
...
The stone was selected as the best suitable material upon which a
travelling devotee offered his sacrifice, poured his pure oil and wine1,
and performed his religious services around it
...
Consequently, it was a sacred
monument to perpetuate the memory and the sacred character of a
great religious event
...
Not only does the solidity and durability of the
stone make it suitable for that purpose, but its mere simplicity,
cheapness, worthlessness in a lonely place would guarantee it against
any attraction of human avarice or enmity to steal or destroy it
...
The stone called Sapha was to be absolutely left
natural; no images, inscriptions, or engravings were to be wrought
upon it, lest any one of these should be worshipped in time to come by
the ignorant people
...
It will be
understood, therefore, that the purest, the most durable, eligible,and
the safest material for a religious and sacred monument could be none
other than the stone
...
Peter by order of a Christian Sovereign
Pontiff; and indeed, the wisdom embodied in the Sapha is admirable
and worthy of all those who worship no other object besides God
...
Wine was not forbidden to the people of Israel
...
49
sacred monument, but the very spot and the circuit in which it is
situated as well
...
It is known fact that the Karamatians who carried the
Black Stone from the ka’aba and kept it in their own country for some
twenty years, were obliged to bring and put it back in its former place
because they could not draw the pilgrims from Mecca
...
As to the meaning -or rather meanings- of the Sapha, I have
already referred to them as qualities of the stone
...
It means, in its qal form, “to
purify, to watch, to gaze from distance, and to choose
...
A man who watched from a tower was called Sophi (2 Kings ix
...
ix
...
The Hebrew scholars are, of
course, familiar with the word Msaphpi, or rather Msappi, which is
equivalent in orthography to the Arabic musaphphi, which signifies
“one who endeavours to elect that which is pure, sound, firm,” and so
forth
...
He saw the first
messenger of the King who arrived and joined the group but did not
return
...
It
was later on that the Sophi could distinguish the chief of the group as
Jehu
...
If you ask: What was the business and the office of the solitary
etc
...
If
so, the Mispha would lose its religious and sacred character, and
would rather seem to assume that of a military watchtower
...
Originally the
Mispha was only a simple shrine on a solitary high place in Gal’ead
where the Sophi with his family or attendants used to live
...
They seem to be like the Islamic Mevlevi, Bektashi, Neqshbendi, and
other religious confraternities, each one of them being under its own
sheikh and Murshid
...
But over and above this educational work, the
Sophi was the supreme head of a community of initiates whom he
used to instruct and teach the esoteric or mystic religion which we
know under the name of Sophia
...
” In the time of the Prophet Samuel, who was the
head of the State as well as that of the Mispha institutions, these
disciples and initiates had become very numerous; and when Saul was
anointed and crowned, he joined the zikr or religious practice of
invocation with the initiates and was announced everywhere: “Behold
Saul also among the Prophets
...
x
...
The Suphism among the Hebrews continued to be an esoteric religious
confraternity under the supremacy of the Prophet of the time until the
death of King Solomon
...
In
the time of the Prophet Elias, about 900 B
...
, we are told that he was
the only true Prophet left and that all others were killed; and that there
were eight hundred and fifty prophets of the Baal and Ishra who “ate
at the table of Queen Izabel” (1 Kings xviii
...
But only a few years
later, Elias’s disciple and successor, the Prophet Elisha, at Bethel and
at Jericho is met by scores of the “sons of Prophets” who foretell him
51
about the imminent ascension of his master Elias (2 Kings ii
...
The faith and all works of piety, meditations, spiritual
exercises, prayers, fasting, and divine knowledge may raise a novice
to become a spiritual murshid or guide, or to the rank of a saint, but
never to the status of a prophet; for prophecy is not procured by effort,
but is a gift of God
...
Therefore the term “prophets” as used in the Hebrew Scriptures is
often ambiguous
...
1
...
When there comes to them a sign (from Allah
...
s
apostles
...
Soon will the
wicked be overtaken by humiliation before Allah, and a severe punishment, for all
their plots
...
52
It now remains to say few words about the Muslim Sufism and
the Greek word Sophia (wisdom); and a discussion of these two
systems of high knowledge does lie outside the scope of this article
...
It takes the greatest
pains to find the truth
...
The superiority of the Islamic Sophia to the Greek philosophy
is manifest from the object it views at
...
A Muslim Sophi (úfí)
always entertains respect for other religious, laughs at the idea of
“heresy” and abhors all persecutions and oppressions
...
This
is, alas, but only too true
...
I
think this form was introduced into the Arabic literature by the
Assyrian translators who formerly belonged to the Nestorian sect
...
Sophia of Constantinople with sadi, but
philosophy with sin, like the samekh of the Hebrews
...
The true Sophia -or wisdom- the true knowledge of God, the true
science of religion and morality, and the infallible selection of the Last
Apostle of Allah from among all His Messengers, belonged to the
ancient institution of Israel called Mispha, until it was transformed
into the Mispha of the Nassara or Christian
...
The mispha is the filter where all the data and
persons are filtered and strained by the Musaphphi (Hebrew, Mosappi)
53
as by a colander (for such is the meaning of the word); so that the
genuine is distinguished and separated from the false, and the pure
from the impure; yet centuries succeed each other, myriads of
Prophets come and go, still the Mustapha, the Elected One, does not
appear
...
The “Grand Assembly of the
Synagogue” convoked and instituted by Ezra and Nehemiah, the last
member of which was “Simeon the Just” (ob 310 B
...
), was succeeded
by the Supereme Tribunal of Jerusalem, called the “Sahedrin”; but this
latter Assembly, whose President was the Nassi or the “Prince,”
condemned Jesus(pbuh) to death because it did not recognize his person
and the nature of his divine mission
...
He was not the Mustapha, otherwise it
would be ridiculous to make Simon the Sapha and his Church the
Mispha; for the office and the duty of the Mispha was to watch and
look for the Last Apostle, so that when he came he would be
proclaimed as the Elected and Chosen One - the Mustapha
...
This is a very deep and interesting subject; it
deserves patient study
...
54
Chapter IV
MUHAMMAD IS THE “SHILOH”
Jacob(pbuh), the grandson of Abraham(pbuh), is lying sick in bed; he is
in his one hundred and forty-seventh year, and the end is approaching
rapidly
...
It is generally known as the “Testament of Jacob(pbuh),” and is written
in an elegant Hebrew style with a poetic touch
...
The
Testament recalls the varied events in the life of a man who has had
many ups and downs
...
He served seven years to marry Rachel,
but was deceived by her father, being married to her elder sister Liah;
so he had to serve another term of seven years for the former
...
The shameful
conduct of his first-born, Reubin, in defiling his father’s bed by lying
with his concubine was never forgotten nor forgiven by him
...
His descent into Egypt and his meeting with Joseph(pbuh) caused him
great joy and the recovery of his lost sight
...
The policy of usurpation of the birthright runs through the records
of the Book of Genesis, and Jacob(pbuh) is represented as a hero of this
violation of the rights of other persons
...
xlviii
...
xxv
...
xxxviii
...
Jacob(pbuh) is reported to have married two sisters
simultaneously, an action condemned by God’s law (Lev
...
18)
...
Of course, the Muslims cannot accept any calumny
against a Prophet or a righteous man unless it be expressly recorded or
mentioned in the Qur-án
...
chap
...
), otherwise the blessing accorded to him by
Jacob(pbuh) would be a contradiction; and it is this very blessing that we
propose to study and discuss in this article
...
xx 12)
...
xxv
...
The famous prophecy, which may be considered as the nucleus of this testament, is contained in
the tenth verse of the forthy-ninth chapter of Genesis as follows:“The Sceptre shall not depart from Judah,
56
And the Lawgiver from between his feet,
Until the coming of Shiloh,
And to him belongeth the obedience of peoples
...
There are two words in the text which are unique and
occur nowhere else in the Old Testament
...
Shilōh is formed of four letters, shín, yod, lámed and hi
...
This name cannot be
identical with, or refer to, the town where the Ark of the Covenant
or the Tabernacle was; for until then no sceptre or lawgiver had
appeared in the tribe of Judah
...
(1 Sam
...
, etc
...
It is only the Syriac Pshitta (in Arabic called al-Bessita)
that has translated it into “He to whom it belongs
...
” Consequently, according to the Pshitta, the clause will be read in
the following manner: “Until he to whom it belongeth come, And,”
etc
...
According to
this important version the sense of the prediction would appear to be
plainly this:“The royal and prophetic character shall not pass away
from Judah until he to whom it belongs come, for his is the
homage of people
...
”
It is most likely that some old transcriber or copyist currente
calamo and with a slip of pen has detached the left side of the final
57
letter het, and then it has been transformed into hi; for the two letters
are exceedingly alike being only very slightly different on the left
side
...
”
But there appears no reasonable cause for a deliberate change of
het for hi, since the yod is preserved in the present shape of Shiloh,
which has no vaw that would be necessary for the past participle
Shālūh
...
The only possible change, therefore, would be of the final letter het
into hi
...
e
...
” I know that the term “shiluah” is also the technical word for the
“letter of divorce,” and this because the divorced wife is “sent” away
...
Of course, it goes without saying that both the Jews and Christians
believe this blessing to be one of the foremost Messianic prophecies
...
That
every Israelite King and High Priest was anointed with the holy oil
composed of olive oil and various spices we know from the Hebrew
Scriptures (Lev
...
23-33)
...
(Isa
...
1-7)
...
As to Jesus(pbuh), even if his prophetic mission were recognized by
the Jews, his Messianic office could never be accepted by them
...
The Jew expects
a Mesiah with the sword and temporal power, a conqueror who would
restore and extend the kingdom of David(pbuh), and a Messiah who
58
would gather together the dispersed Israel unto the land of Canaan,
and subdue many nations under his yoke; but they could never
acclaim as such a preacher upon the Mount of Olives, or one born in a
manger
...
By the allegorical expressions “the Sceptre” and “Lawgiver” it is unanimously admitted by the commentators to mean the
royal authority and the prophecy respectively
...
”
Let us follow the first interpretation of Shiloh as given in the
Pshitta version: “he to whom it belongs
...
” Who,
then, can this mighty Prince and great Legislator be? Certainly not
Moses(pbuh), for he was the first organizer of the Twelve Tribes of
Israel, and before him there never appeared a king or prophet in the
tribe of Judah
...
And evidently not Jesus(pbuh) Christ,
because he himself repudiated the idea that the Messiah whom Israel
was expecting was a son of David(pbuh) (Matt
...
44, 45; Mark xii
...
41-44)
...
His Gospel was
written on the tablet of his heart, and he delivered his message of
“good news,” not in scripto, but orally
...
Besides,
Jesus(pbuh) did not abrogate the Law of Moses(pbuh), but he distinctly
declared that he had come to fulfil it; nor was he the last Prophet; for
after him St
...
Muhammad(pbuh) came with military power and the Qur-án to
replace the old Jewish worn-out sceptre and the impracticable and oldfashioned law of sacrifices and of a corrupt priesthood
...
He
established the religion of Islam which has united into one real
brotherhood many nations and peoples who associate no being with
the Almighty
...
He crushed and put an end
to the last vestiges of the Jewish principality of Qureihda and Khaibar,
having destroyed all their castles and fortifications
...
As it
was shown above, the word signifies “tranquil, peaceful, trustworthy,
quiet” and so forth
...
This verb is not used in Arabic
...
” When the Meccans gave this title “Emīn” or “Amīn” to
Muhammad(pbuh) they had not the remotest idea of “Shiloh,” yet the
ignorance of the idolatrous Arabs was made use of by God to
confound the unbelieving Jews, who had scriptures and knew their
contents
...
Muhammad(pbuh), before he was called by God to preach the religion
of Islam and to abolish the idolatry which he successfully
accomplished, was the most quiet and truthful man in Mecca; he was
neither a warrior nor a legislator; but it was after he assumed the
prophetical mission that he became the most eloquent speaker and the
best valiant Arab
...
He was shown by God the keys of the
treasures of the earth, but he did not accept them, and when he died he
was practically a poor man
...
He seized the sceptre and the law from the
Jews; fortified the former and perfected the latter
...
And he would see with a deep sense
of pleasure that the holy Book he had left is the same without the least
alteration in it, 1 and that it is chanted and recited exactly as he and his
companions did
...
As to the third interpretation of the name “Shiloh” I remarked that
it might possibly be a corruption of “shāluah,” and in that case it
would indisputably correspond to the Arabic title of the Prophet so
often repeated in the Qur-án namely, “Rasūl” which means exactly the
same as Shaluah does, i
...
“an Apostle” or “Messenger
...
In the Qur-án several prophets, particularly those to whom a sacred
scripture has been delivered, are mentioned as Rasūl; but nowhere in
the Old Testament do we come across Shiloh or Shālūăh except in the
Testament of Jacob(pbuh)
...
Then there are other observations which deserve our serious
consideration
...
Qur-án,15:9
...
(Editors)
...
According to the Jewish claim, Shiloh
has not come yet
...
But both these institutions have been extinct for
over thirteen centuries
...
It is an indispensable condition for the
maintenance of a tribal existence and identity to show that the tribe as
a whole lives either in its own fatherland or elsewhere collectively and
speaks its own language
...
To prove yourself to be an Israelite, you need hardly trouble yourself
about it; for anybody will recognize you, but you can never prove
yourself to belong to one of the twelve tribes
...
The Jews are forced to accept one or the other of the two
alternatives, namely, either to admit that Shiloh has come already, but
that their forefathers did not recognize him, or to accept the fact that
there exists no longer a tribe of Judah from which Shiloh will have to
descend
...
This is so evident that a few minutes of reflection are sufficient to
convince one
...
If Shiloh be a descendant
of Judah, how could those two elements cease to exist in that tribe? It
could not be a descendant of any of the other tribes either, for the
sceptre and the lawgiver were for all Israel, and not for one tribe only
...
For Jesus(pbuh) is
a descendant of Judah - at least from his mothers side
...
For over
twenty-five centuries they have been learning a hundred languages of
the peoples whom they have been serving
...
Chapter V
MUHAMMAD AND CONSTANTINE THE GREAT
The most wonderful and, perhaps, the most manifest prophecy
about the divine mission of the greatest man and the Apostle of God,
contained in the seventh chapter of the Book of the Prophet Daniel,
deserves to be seriously studied and impartially considered
...
“Four winds of
heaven were roaring against the great sea
...
This is succeeded by the third terrible beast in the form of a tiger having four wings and four
heads
...
Then a little horn shoot up amidst the
others, before which three horns break down
...
Suddenly, in the midst of the firmament the
vision of the Eternal is seen amidst a resplendent light, seated upon His tribune (Arabic: Korsí) of the
flames of light whose wheels were of shining light
...
Qur-án
...
(Editors)
...
The original word is núr, and, like the Arabic word, it means “light” rather than
“fire,” which is represented in the text by “ish
...
63
standing before Him
...
The body of the beast is burnt with fire, but the blaspheming Horn is left alive until a “Bar
Nasha” -that is, a “Son of Man”- is taken up on the clouds and presented to the Eternal, from whom he
receives power, honour and kingdom for ever
...
The good Angel gives the interpretation of it in such
a manner that the whole mystery enveloped in the figurative or
allegorical language and image is brought to light
...
He lived there
until the Persian Conquest and the fall of the Babylonian Empire
...
The
Biblical critics do not ascribe the authorship of the entire Book to
Daniel, who lived and died at least a couple of centuries before the
Greek Conquest, which he mentions under the name of “Yavan =
Ionia
...
For our immediate
purpose it is not so much the date and the authorship of the book that
forms the important question as the actual fulfilment of the prophecy,
contained in the Septuagint version, which was made some three
centuries before the Christian era
...
The eagle-winged lion signifies the
Chaldean Empire, which was mighty and rapid like an eagle to pounce
upon the enemy
...
The third
beast, from its tigrish nature of swift bounds and fierceness, typifies
the triumphant marches of Alexander the Great, whose vast empire
was, after his death, divided into four kingdoms
...
Here he enters with emphasis into details
...
The beast is practically a monster and a
huge demon
...
The ten horns are
64
the ten Emperors of Rome who persecuted the early Christians
...
”
So far, all these four beasts represent the “Power of Darkness,”
namely, the Kingdom of Satan, idolatry
...
” It will be remembered that the
old Persians believed in a “Duality of Gods,” or, in other words, the
Principle of Good and Light, and the other the Principle of Evil and
Darkness; and that these eternal beings were eternal enemies
...
In all the Christian theological and religious literature I have read, I
have never met with a single statement of phrase similar to this article
of the Muslim Faith: God is the real author of good and evil
...
Yet this very doctrine is explicitly announced by God to Cyrus,
whom He calls His “Christ
...
xlv
...
That God is the author of evil as well as of good is not in the least
repulsive to the idea of God’s goodness
...
Besides, what we term
or understand as “evil” only affects the created beings, and it is for the
development and the improvement of the creatures; it has not in the
least any effect on God
...
For they alone had the
true knowledge, the scriptures and the revelation of God
...
But the nature
and the character of the Little Horn which sprang up on the head of
the fourth monster was so different from that of the other animals, that
God Himself had, as it were, to come down and establish His throne in
the firmament, to judge and condemn to destruction the fourth animal;
to summon to His presence the Bar Nasha –"Son of Man”- and to
make him the Sultan of men; for the words sholtana, yaqar, malkutha,
which signify respectively the “empire, honour, kingdom” of all the
peoples and nations, were granted to him (verse 14) and to the “people
of the Saints of the Most High” (verse 27)
...
Now let us examine and find out who the Little Horn is
...
The Little Horn
springs up after the Ten Persecutions under the reigns of the emperors
of the Roman Power
...
They were all struggling for the
purple; the other three died or fell in battle; and Constantine was left
alone as the supreme sovereign of the vast empire
...
(God forbid!)
But the later Biblical critics are at a loss to solve the problem of the
fourth beast which they wish to identify with the Greek Empire and
the Little Horn with Antiochus
...
g
...
But this
empire was not more two than the late Austro-Hungarian Empire was
...
Morgan, in Shúshan (Susa) and elsewhere leave no doubt
on this point
...
To show that the Little Horn is no other than Constantine the
66
Great, the following arguments can safely be advanced:-
(a) He overcame Maximian and the other two rivals and assumed
the purple, and put an end to the persecution of Christianity
...
You can never invent four rivals
after the Ten Persecutions of the Church, other than Constantine and
his enemies who fell before him like the three horns that fell before
the little one
...
He proclaimed Christianity as the true religion, left
Rome to the Pope and made Byzantium, which was named
Constantinople, the seat of the empire
...
The legend that his conversion was
due to the vision of the Cross in the sky has long since -like the
account about Jesus(pbuh) Christ inserted in the Antiquities of Josephusbeen exploded as another piece of forgery
...
This enmity was most noxious and harmful to the religion, because it
was directed to pervert the truth and the faith
...
It was this
Constantine who entered in the fold of Jesus(pbuh) in the shape of a
believer and in the clothes of a sheep, but inwardly he was not a true
believer at all
...
To speak
blasphemous words about God, to associate with Him other creatures,
and to ascribe to Him foolish names and attributes, such as the
“begetter” and “begotten,” “birth” and “procession” (of the second
and the third person), “unity in the trinity” and “incarnation,” is to
deny His unity
...
D
...
I need not enter into this unpleasant subject
again; for it gives me great pain and grief when I see a holy prophet
and a holy spirit, both God’s noble creatures, associated with Him by
those who ought to know better
...
”
Now, since this hideous Horn speaking great words, uttering
blasphemies against God, is a king - as the Angel reveals it to
Daniel, and since the king was the eleventh of the Cæsars who
reigned in Rome and persecuted the people of God, he cannot be
other than Constantine, because it was his edict that proclaimed
the belief in the Trinity of persons in the Deity1
A creed which the Old Testament is a living document to condemn
as blasphemy, and which both the Jews and Muslims abhor
...
Quran 9: 30
...
That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the
unbelievers of old used to say
...
s curse be on them: how they are deluded away
from the Truth!
...
68
hereafter to appear, that we may be unable to know and identify
...
The “Little Horn” is decidedly Constantine, even if we may
deny the prophecy of Daniel
...
One thing is certain, that its predictions and descriptions of the events,
some twenty-four centuries ago, are found to be exact, true, and have
been fulfilled in the person of Constantine the Great, whom the
Church of Rome has always very wisely abstained from beatifying as
a Saint, as the Greek Church has done
...
In the eyes of a Hebrew Prophet
the people who believed in one God was a separate and holy people
...
More than a thousand ecclesiastics were
summoned to the General Council at Nicea (the modern Izmid), of
whom only three hundred and eighteen persons subscribed to the
decisions of the Council, and these too formed three opposite factions
with their respective ambiguous and unholy expressions of
“homousion” or “homoousion,” “consubstantial,” and other terms
utterly and wholly strangers to the Prophets of Israel, but only worthy
of the “Speaking Horn
...
e
...
Any historical work on the early
Christian Church will give us ample information about the service
rendered by Constantine to the cause of the Trinitarian Creed, and
tyranny to those who opposed it
...
Constantine personifies a régime of terror and fierce war against the
Unitarians, which lasted in the East for three centuries and a half,
when the Muslims established the religion of Allah and assumed the
power and dominion over the lands trodden and devastated by the four
beasts
...
” This is a very serious charge against
the Horn
...
The first two commandments of the Law of Moses(pbuh),
concerning the absolute Oneness of God -“Thou shalt have no other
gods besides Me”- and the strict prohibition of making images and
statues for worship were directly violated and abrogated by the edict
of Constantine
...
To make a golden or wooden image for worship is
abominable enough, but to make a mortal an object of worship,
declare him God (!), and even adore the bread and the wine of the
Eucharist as “the body and blood of God,” is an impious blasphemy
...
True, the Qur-án abrogated the Sabbath
70
day, not because the Friday was a holier day, 1 but simply because
the Jews made an abuse of it by declaring that God, after the labour of
six days, reposed on the seventh day, as if He were man and was
fatigued
...
But
the abrogation of the Sabbath by the decree of Constantine was for the
institution of the Sunday on which Jesus(pbuh) is alleged to have risen
from the sepulchre
...
(f) The “Horn” was allowed to make war against the Saints of the
Most High for a period of some three centuries and a half; it only
“weakened” them, made “them languid” - but could not extinguish
and entirely root them out
...
g
...
The next important point in this wonderful vision is to identify the
“Bar Nasha,” or the Son of Man, who destroyed the Horn; and we
shall undertake to do this in the next article
...
According To the Islamic concept Friday is aholy day
...
71
MUHAMMAD IS THE SON-OF-MAN
In the previous discourse we perused and commented upon the
marvellous vision of the Prophet Daniel (Dan
...
We saw how the
four beasts that represented the four kingdoms succeeding one another
were the Powers of Darkness and how they persecuted the Jews and
the early Church of Jesus(pbuh), which was constituted of true believers
in the One God
...
Further, we saw that the
“Eleventh Horn,” which had eyes and mouth, which uttered
blasphemies against the Most High had fought and overcome His
Saints had changed the times and Law of God, could be no other than
Constantine the Great, who in A
...
325, promulgated his imperial
rescript proclaiming the creed and the decisions of the Nicene General
Council
...
e
...
Now let us proceed forthwith to establish the identity of this
“Barnasha
...
e
...
” we must understand that
he means thereby the nations mentioned in Genesis xv
...
(b) By the phrase “the people of the Saints of the Most High” it
is understood to mean first the Jews and then the Christians who
confessed the absolute unity of God, fought and suffered for it
72
until the appearance of the Barnasha and the destruction of the
Horn
...
From the Adriatic to the Walls of China all the various nations
have either as Muslims received the homage or as unbelievers
served the Muslims, who are the only true believers in the One
God
...
First, because he
wants to punish His people for their lethargy, drawbacks and sins
...
God in due time Himself intervenes on behalf of the believers when
their very existence is on its beam-ends
...
Great
preparations were made by the Greeks and their friends to take back
the Grand Mosque of Aya Sophia; the Greek Patriarch of
Constantinople went to London carrying with him a precious ancient
patriarchal cope set in gems and pearls for the Archbishop of
Canterbury, who was strenuously advocating the restoration of
Constantinople and the grand edifice of St
...
On
the eve of the Prophet’s night journey to Heaven -called al-mi’rāj- the
sacred building was crammed with a great multitude of the suppliant
faithful who till the dawn most earnestly supplicated the Almighty
Allah to deliver Turkey, and particularly the Sacred House, from those
who “would fill it with ugly idols and images as before!” In
connection with that patriarchal mantle or cope, I wrote an article in
the Turkish paper the Aqshām, showing the existence of a schism
between the Greek Orthodox and the Protestant Anglican Churches
...
I also pointed out that the cope was a diplomatic bribe
on behalf of Greece and its Church
...
Suffice it to say
that the Patriarch died in England, and the Almighty, who sent the
Barnasha to crush the Horn and chase out the legions of Rome from
the East, raised Mustaphā Kamāl, who saved his country and restored
the honour of Islam!
(e) It is to be noted that the Jews were the chosen people of
God until the advent of Jesus(pbuh) Christ
...
Moreover, both are equally unworthy of that title
because of their refusing to recognize the Last Prophet who has
completed the list of the Prophets(pbuh)
...
”
Whatever other person you may try to invent in order to deprive
the august Apostle of Allah of this unique glory and majesty
bestowed on him in the Divine Court, you will only make
yourselves ridiculous; and this for the following reasons:1
...
That is to say,
neither the Jews nor the Christians have any special name
for the doctrines and forms of their faith and worship
...
In fact, a religion, if true, cannot properly be named after
its second founder, for the real author and founder of a true
74
religion is God, and not a Prophet
...
“Muhammadanism” is not the proper appellation of Islam
...
” It is now used to express “any mode of faith and
worship
...
Now the Scriptural term used in the vision of Daniel is the same as
applied repeatedly by the Qur-án to Islām, namely, “Dīn” (and in the
Qur-án
...
” God on His “Korsiya” or
tribune is the “Dayyana” or the “Judge
...
” 1 By the “Books” is
to be understood the “Preserved Table” wherein the decrees of God
are inscribed from which the Qur-án was transcribed and revealed by
the Angel Gabriel to Muhammad(pbuh); and also the books of accounts
of every man’s actions
...
e
...
Qur-án,39:69
...
39:70
...
(Editors)
...
All this language of Daniel is
extremely Qur-ánic
...
” It
was according to the decrees and laws of this “Dīna” that the
“Barnasha” destroyed the Devil’s religion and his lieutenant the Horn
...
In English a magistrate
is called “Justice of Peace;” that is to say, a “judge of peace
...
This is Islām and the law of the Qur-án
...
v
...
2
...
For
the came after Constantine, and not before him as Jesus(pbuh) or any
other Prophet(pbuh) did
...
There is nothing more absurd than the assertion
that Judah the Maccabæus (Maqbhaya) was the Barnasha on the
clouds, and the Horn Antiochus
...
In the first place, we know that Antiochus
was a successor of Alexander the Great and King of Syria,
consequently one of the four heads of the winged Tiger and not the
eleventh Horn of the fourth Beast as stated in the vision
...
It is expressly explained that the Greek Empire
immediately succeeded the Persian and that it was divided into four
kingdoms, as stated in the first vision
...
Antiochus did not pervert the
faith of the Jews by instituting a trinity or plurality of Gods, nor did he
change the Law of Moses(pbuh) and its festival days
...
Moreover, the prophetical vision describes
and depicts the Barnasha as the greatest and the noblest of all men, for
no other human being is reported in the Old Testament to have been
the object of such honour and grandeur as Muhammad(pbuh)
...
It is equally futile to claim for Jesus(pbuh) Christ this celestial
honour given to the Son-of-Man
...
1 But if he is believed to be the
third of the three in the Trinity, then he is not to be enlisted among
men at all
...
(b) If Jesus(pbuh) was
commissioned to destroy the fourth Beast, then instead of paying polltax or tribute to Cæsar and submitting himself to be bastinadoed or
1
...
Those Messengers We endowed with gifts, some above others: To
som above of them Allah spoke; others He raised to degrees (of honour); to Jesus the
son of Mary We gave clear (Signs), and strengthened him with the holy spirit
...
If Allah had so willed, they would not have fought each other; but
Allah does what He wills
...
77
whipped by the Roman governor Pilate, he would have chased away
the Roman legions from Palestine and saved his country and people
...
There has never lived upon this earth a Prince-Prophet like
Muhammad(pbuh), who belonged to a dynasty that reigned for a long
period of about 2,500 years, was absolutely independent and never
bent its neck under a foreign yoke
...
It is impossible to imagine another human being
so dignified and so worthy as Muhammad(pbuh) for such a magnificent
glory and honour as depicted in the prophetical vision
...
Daniel was a slave or captive, though raised to
the dignity of a vizier in the courts of Babylon and Susa; he
worshipped an angel, but was forbidden
...
10)
...
It is no wonder to find that on his night-journey to Heaven
Muhammad(pbuh) was received with the highest honours by the
Almighty and invested with power to extirpate idolatry and the
blasphemous Horn from countries given by God to him and to his
people as an everlasting heritage
...
Another most amazing feature in this prophetical vision is,
according to my humble belief, that the sight of a Barnasha upon the
clouds and his presentation to the Almighty corresponds with and is
simultaneous with the Mi،rāj - or night journey of the Prophet
Muhammad(pbuh); in other words, this second part of the vision of
Daniel is to be identified with the Mi،rāj! There are, indeed, several
indications both in the language of Daniel and in the Sacred “Hadīth”
-or traditions of the Apostle of Allah- which lead me to this belief
...
He blessed the precincts of that Temple, then in ruins, and
78
showed him His signs (chap
...
1 It is related by the Holy Prophet
that at the Temple of Jerusalem he officiated in his capacity of the
Imam, and conducted the prayers with all the company of the Prophets
following him
...
The modesty of the Prophet which forbade him to
reveal all that he saw, heard and received from the Lord of Hosts is
made good by Daniel, who narrates the decision of Gods judgement
...
10; viii
...
How glad must
have been the holy souls of the Prophets and the Martyrs who had
been persecuted by those four beasts especially more so when they
saw the decree of death being pronounced by the Almighty against the
Trinitarian régime of Constantine and the Seal of the Prophets being
commissioned to kill and annihilate the uttering Horn! It will also be
remembered that this vision was seen as well during the same night in
which took place the journey of the Barnasha from Mecca to the
heavens!
From the testimony of Daniel we, as Muslims, must admit that
Muhammad’s journey was corporeally performed - a thing of no
impossibility to the Omnipotent
...
A
human body belonging to the earth cannot escape from it unless a
superior force of velocity should detach it from the force of
gravitation
...
Qur-án,17: 1
...
(Editors)
...
Without
entering into the details of this subtle question, suffice it to say that
before the force of velocity the weight of a solid body, whether moved
or touched, is of no concern
...
If we discharge a bullet at the rate, say, of
2,500 metres a second, we know it penetrates and pierces a body of
iron plate which is several inches thick
...
St
...
The Churches and their commentators have believed this
man to be St
...
Although the language is such as to
convey to us the idea that he himself is the man, yet out of modesty it
is that he keeps it a secret lest he should be considered a proud man (2
Cor
...
1-4)
...
The Gospel of St
...
That Paul does not reveal the identity of the person seen by him in
the vision, and that the words which he heard in Paradise “cannot be
spoken and no man is permitted to speak them,” shows that Paul was
not himself the person who was taken up to Heaven
...
He boasts of having rebuked St
...
Besides, we know from his writings to the Galatians and the
Romans what a prejudiced Jew he was against Hagar and her son
Ishmael(pbuh)
...
I am half
convinced that Paul was allowed to see the Barnasha whom Daniel
had seen some six centuries before, but “the angel of Satan who was
continually pouring blows upon his head” (2 Cor
...
7) forbade him to
reveal the truth! It is an admission by Paul that “the angel of Satan,”
as he calls him, prohibited him from revealing the secret of
Muhammad(pbuh), whom he had seen in his vision
...
They should take to
heart a lesson from the fate which befell the four beasts, and
particularly the Horn, and to reflect that Allah alone is the One True
God; that the Muslims alone faithfully profess His absolute Unity; that
He is aware of their oppressions, and that they have their Sultan of the
Prophets near to the Throne of the Most High
...
He
was the youngest son of Yishai (Jessie) from the tribe of Judah
...
The valiant young man swung a small stone right through the forehead
of Goliath, an armed Philistine champion and saved the army of Israel
...
David played on harp and
flute, and was a good singer
...
On the death
of Saul, David(pbuh) was invited by the people to assume the reins of the
kingdom, for which he had long before been anointed by the Prophet
Samuel
...
He took
Jerusalem from the Jebusites and made it the capital of his kingdom
...
” Both these
words have the same signification and import as the famous “Marwa”
and “Sapha” at Mecca, which words respectively mean “the place of
the vision of the Lord,” and “the rock” or “stone
...
He reigned forty
years; his life was marked with wars and family griefs
...
The crime of David in connection with Uriah and his wife (2
is not even alluded to in the Qur-án (Sura xxxviii
...
It does not, like the
Bible, impute to them crimes and sins -e
...
the double crime of
Sam
...
)
82
David, mentioned in the Bible, which, according to the Law of
Moses, is punishable by death- which, let alone a prophet who is a
chosen servant of God the Almighty, we would not even think of
attaching to the name of an ordinary human being
...
It has been repudiated by the best Muslim
opinion
...
The words istaghfora and ghafarana
occurring in the text of (verse 24, chap
...
of the Holy Qur-án1 by
no means indicate that David had committed a sin, for istighfār really
signifies the seeking of protection; and David sought Divine
protection when he saw that his enemies had grown so bold against
him; and by ghafarana is meant the rectification of his affairs; for
David, who was a great ruler, could not succeed in keeping his
enemies under complete control
...
We read that after David had
committed the two sins it was Nathan the Prophet who was sent by
God to chastise David
...
According to the Biblical accounts,
therefore, it would seem that the gift of prophecy came to him after he
had thoroughly repented of his sin
...
Qur-án,38: 24
...
and David gathered that We had tried him: he
asked forgiveness of his Lord, fell down, bowing (in prostration), and turned (to Allah
in repentance) , Qur-án,38: :25
...
(Editors)
...
This is evident from the
Samaritan version of the first five books of the Old Testament
...
It is only after the fall of the Kingdom of Israel and the transportation
of the ten tribes into Assyria that the Prophets of Judeah began to
predict the advent of some Prince from the House of David who was
soon to restore the whole nation and subdue its enemies
...
I shall briefly quote two of these
prophecies
...
vii
...
” The Hebrew word a’lmāh
does not mean “virgin,” as generally interpreted by the Christian
theologians and therefore applied to the Virgin Mary, but it signifies
“a marriageable woman, maiden, damsel
...
Then the child’s name is to be Emmanuel, which
means “God-is-with-us
...
Neither Isaiah, nor King
Ahaz, nor any Jew, ever thought that the newly born infant would be
himself “God-with-us
...
But the text expressly says that it was
Ahaz (who seems to have known the maiden with child), that would
give the boy that name
...
i
...
The name “Jesus” was given by the Angel Gabriel
(Matt
...
21), and he was never called “Emmanuel
...
9), which is misquoted and utterly
misunderstood by the writer of the first Gospel (xxi
...
The
Prophet Zachariah says: “Rejoice much, O daughter of Sion;
shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King is coming unto
thee; righteous and with salvation is he; meek and mounted upon
as ass; and upon a colt, son of a she-ass
...
It was only one male colt or
young donkey
...
”
Whether or not the person who wrote the above verse did
really believe that Jesus, when making his triumphal entry into
Jerusalem by mounting or sitting at the same time both upon the
mother ass and her young colt, worked a miracle is not the
question; nevertheless it is true to say that the majority of the
Christian Fathers so believed; and it never occurred to them that
such a show would look rather a comedy than a royal and
pompous procession
...
Were these authors both inspired by the
same Spirit?
Zachariah foretells in Jerusalem, after the return of the Jews from
captivity, the coming of a king
...
He prophesies this at a time when the Jews
are endeavouring to rebuild the Temple and the ruined town; their
neighbouring peoples are against them; the work of building is
stopped until Darius, King of Persia, issues a firman for the
construction
...
The salvation here promised,
be it noted, is material and immediate, and not a salvation to come
five hundred and twenty years afterwards, when Jesus of Nazareth
85
would ride upon two asses simultaneously and enter into Jerusalem,
already a large and wealthy city with a magnificent temple, simply to
be captured and crucified by the Jews themselves and by their Roman
masters, as the present Gospels tell us! This would be no solace at all
for the poor Jews surrounded with enemies in a ruined city
...
These two examples are intended to show chiefly to my Muslim
readers -who may not be well acquainted with the Jewish Scriptureshow the Christians have been misguided by their priests and monks in
giving stupid interpretations and meanings to the prophecies contained
therein
...
”
This verse of David is written in Psalm cxi, and quoted by
Matthew (xxii
...
36), and Luke (xx 42)
...
” Of course, if the first Lord is God, the
second Lord is also God; nothing more convenient to and suitable
an argument for a Christian priest or pastor than this, namely,
the speaker is God, and also the spoken to is God; therefore David
knows two Gods! Nothing more logical than this reasoning!
Which of these two Domini is “the Lord” of David? Had David
written, “Dominus meus dixit Domino meo,” he would have made
himself ridiculous, for then he would have admitted himself to be
a slave or servant of two Lords, without even mentioning their
proper names
...
This reasoning leads us to admit that, in order to
understand well your religion, you are obliged to know your Bible
or Qur-án in the original language in which it was written, and
86
not to depend and rely upon a translation
...
Such sacred names written in
religious Scripture should be left as they are, unless you can find a
thoroughly equivalent word for them in the language into which
you wish to translate them
...
It is a proper name of God the Almighty,
and it is held so holy by the Jews that when reading their
Scriptures they never pronounce it, but read it “Adonī” instead
...
Why the Jews make this distinction between these two
names of the same God is a question for itself, altogether outside
the scope of our present subject
...
In fact,
“Elohim” is the oldest name known to all Semites; and in order to
give a special character to the conception of the true God, this
tetragram is often conjointly with Elohim applied to Him
...
The other word, “Ādōn,” signifies a “Commander, Lord, and
master,” or the same as the Arabic and Turkish nouns Amīr,
sayyid, and Āghā
...
” Consequently the first part of the distich is
to be rendered as “God said to my Lord
...
Whose
“servant” was he, then? David, being a powerful sovereign, could not
be, as a matter of fact, a slave or servant of any living human being
whatsoever
...
” It is equally conceivable that David
would not use the appellation “my Lord” for any of his won
descendants, for whom, too, the usual term would be “son
...
It is quite intelligible to think that in the sight and choice of
God there must be a man who is the noblest, the most praised, and the
most coveted of all men
...
”
Of course, the Jewish Rabbins and commentators of the Old
Testament understood by this expression the Messiah, who would
descend from David himself, and so replied they to the question
put to them by Jesus Christ as quoted above from Matthew (xxii
...
Jesus flatly repudiated the Jews when he
asked them a second question: “How could David call him ‘my
Lord’ if he were his son?” This question of the Master put the
audience to silence, for they could find no answer to it
...
To stop there without a further explanation was not
worthy either of the Master or of his reporters
...
This
admission is decisive and should awaken the religious teachers of
the Christians to reduce Christ to his due status of a high and holy
Servant of God, and to renounce the extravagant divine character
ascribed to him much to his own disgust and displeasure
...
But Jesus was not either
ignorant or a malevolent teacher
...
He did not leave the problem unsolved or the
question without an answer
...
This Gospel has been
rejected by Churches because its language is more in accordance
with the revealed Scriptures and because it is very expressive and
explicit about the nature of Jesus Christ’s mission, and above all
88
because it records the exact words of Jesus concerning
Muhammad
...
There
you will find the answer of Jesus himself, who said that the
Covenant between God and Abraham was made on Ishmael, and
that “the most glorious or praised” of men is a descendant of
Ishmael and not of Isaac through David
...
I shall have, if God wills, an occasion to write
on this Gospel later
...
It was this most glorious and
praised of men that was seen by the Prophet Job (xix 25) as a
“Saviouf” from the power of the Devil
...
The arguments in favour of Muhammad, who is styled
“Sayyidu’l-Mursalīn,” the same as “Adon of the Prophets,” are
decisive; they are so evident and explicit in the words of the Old
Testament that one is astonished at the ignorance and the
obstinacy of those who refuse to understand and obey
...
The greatest Prophet and Adon, in the eyes of God and man, is
not a great conqueror and destroyer of mankind, nor a holy recluse
who spends his life in a cave or cell to meditate upon God only to save
himself, but one who renders more good and service to mankind by
bringing them into the light of the knowledge of the One true God,
and by utterly destroying the Power of the Devil and his
abominable idols and wicked institutions
...
In the
service of God, the works and the success of Muhammad are
1
...
’”
89
incomparable and unrivalled
...
He is, indeed, alone the Adon and
Lord not only of David but of all the Prophets, for he has purified
Palestine and all the countries visited by Abraham of idolatry and
foreign yoke
...
Since Jesus Christ admits that he himself was not the
“Lord” of David, nor that the Messiah was to descend from
David, there remains none other than Muhammad among the
Prophets to be the Adon or Lord of David
...
3
...
” He saw the Adon
Muhammad just as Daniel had seen him (Dan
...
), and St
...
xii
...
Of course, this mystery of
“Sit thou at my right” is hidden from us
...
4
...
But the Old Testament knows no other God besides Allah, and the
Lord of David did not sit at the right hand of a triple god, but at
that of the One Allah
...
90
Shālōm
## That
= Shlāmā
“shālōm”
= Islām
and the Syriac
“shlāmā,” as well as the Arabic “salām”
and “Islām,” are of one and the same
Semitic root, “shālām,”
## And
mean the same thing, is
an admitted truth by all the scholars
of the Semitic languages
...
Chapter VIII
91
THE LORD AND THE APOSTLE
OF THE COVENANT
The last book of the Canonical Jewish Code of the Bible bears the
name of “Malachai,” which looks to be more a surname than a proper
noun
...
” The Hebrew word, “Māl’àkh,”
like the Arabic “malak”, like the Greek term “anghelos” from which
the English name “angel” is derived, signifies “a messenger,” one
commissioned with a message or news to deliver to somebody
...
It begins with the words: “The
‘missa’ of the Word of Yahweh the El of Israel by the hand of
Mālākhī,” which may be translated: “The discourse of the Word of
Yāhweh, God of Israel, by the hand of Mālākhī
...
The oracle is addressed, not to a king and his courtiers, but to a
people already settled in Jerusalem with the Temple and its services
...
The tithes are not regularly paid,
and if at all paid are of the inferior material
...
For
they cannot chew the beefsteaks and roasted mutton-chops of the lean
old, crippled sacrifices
...
Yāhweh, as usual with this incorrigible people,
now threatens, now holds out promises, and at times complain
...
i
...
“He who doeth evils is good
in the eyes of Yahweh, and He is pleased with them; or, where is the
God of the judgment?” (Mal
...
17)
...
To say that this “misa,” or discourse, has come down to us intact and
unadulterated is to confess ignorance of the language
...
The subject of our discussion in this article is the famous
prediction couched in Mal
...
1
...
Behold, he cometh, says the Lord of Hosts” (Mal
...
1)
...
All Christian Saints,
Fathers, Popes, Patriarchs, Priests, monks, nuns, and even the
Sunday-school children, will tell us that the first messenger
mentioned in the text is St
...
Matthew’s
...
He is
very careless to guard himself against contradictions, and less
scrupulous in his quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures
...
I
had occasion to refer in the preceding article of this series to one
of his blunders concerning the ass upon which Jesus mounted1
...
Is it possible that the Apostle Matthew
should himself be ignorant of the true character of the prophecy
of Mālākhī, and ignorantly ascribe to his master a misquotation
which would naturally put to question his very quality of a
divinely inspired Prophet? Then, what should we think of the
1
...
R
...
18
...
Mark – who ascribes the
passage in Mālākhī to Isaiah? (Mark i
...
Jesus is reported by
Matthew (xi
...
1828), to have declared to the multitude that John the Baptist was
“more than a Prophet,” that it was he “about whom it was
written: Behold, I am sending My Angel before thy face, and he
shall prepare thy way before thee;” and that “none among those
born by women was greater than John, but the least in the
kingdom of heaven is greater than he
...
The original text tells
us that Yahweh Sabaoth, i
...
God of Hosts, is the speaker and the
believers are the people addressed, as can be readily seen in the
words “whom ye are seeking…
...
” But the Gospels have interpolated the text by
effacing the personal pronoun of the first person singular, and
inserted “before thee” (or “thy face,” as in Hebrew) twice
...
10] before thee, and he
shall prepare thy way before thee;” and wishes to show that this
angel or messenger was John the Baptist
...
I do not believe for a second that Jesus or any of his disciples
could have made use of such language with the object of
perverting the Word of God, but some fanatical monk or an
ignorant bishop has forged this text and put into the mouth of
Jesus the words which no prophet would speak
...
He is not to be
supposed as a pioneer or even an engineer appointed to construct
roads and bridges for the passing of a royal procession
...
1
...
In the second place, we
should open our eyes of wisdom and judgment to see that he is not
despatched to prepare the way before another Messenger called
“Adon” and the “Messenger of the Promise,” but he is
commissioned to found and establish a straight, safe, and good
Religion
...
The Hebrew
phrase, “u pinna derekh,” means to say that the Messenger “will put
straight and clear the worship or the religion
...
” It is used in this
spiritual sense all through the Psalms and the Prophets
...
Though the
Jewish religion inculcates the existence of one true God, still their
conception of Him as a national Deity of Israel, their priesthood,
sacrificial rites and ceremonies, and then the non-existence of any
positive articles of belief in the immortality of the soul, the
resurrection of the dead, the last judgment, the eternal life in heaven or
hell, and many other deficient points, make it absolutely unfit and
insufficient for the peoples of diverse languages, races, climates,
temperaments, and habits
...
On
the contrary, it has caused divisions and sects, all inbued with
95
bitter feelings of hatred and rancour against each other
...
It was to be the shortest road to “reach” God; the
simplest religion to worship Him, and the safest Faith to remain
ever pure and unadulterated with superstition and stupid dogmas
...
And above all, the Messenger
was to come suddenly to his temple, whether it be the one in
Jerusalem or the one in Mecca; he was to root out all idolatry in
those countries, not only by the destruction of idols and images,
but also inculcating in their former worshippers the faith in one
true Allah
...
John the Baptist was not the Messenger foretold by Mālākhī
...
He
is reported to have left his parents and home while still a youth; he
lived in the desert on honey and the locust; and spent there his life
until he was about thirty years old, when he showed himself to the
multitudes on the banks of the River Jordan, where he used to baptize
the penitent sinners who confessed their sins to him
...
39-46)
...
7) of Jesus, and
96
according to the Fourth Gospel he (John) exclaimed that Jesus was
“the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world” (John i
...
That he knew Jesus and recognized him to be the Christ is quite
evident
...
xi
...
The Baptist was martyred in the prison
because he reprimanded an infidel Edomite, King Herod the Tetrarch,
for having married the wife of his own brother
...
It is strange that the Jews did not receive John as a prophet
...
The Qur-án mentions the
miraculous birth of John under the name of “Yahya,” but does not
refer to his mission of baptism
...
He seems to have announced the approach of the Kingdom
of Heaven and the advent of a Great Apostle and Prophet of God who
would baptize the believers, not with water, “but with fire and with
the holy spirit
...
He ought to have
immediately followed and adhered to Jesus when he had seen and
known him! He did nothing of the kind! Of course, a Muslim always
speaks of a prophet with utmost respect and reverence, and I am not
expected to comment further, as an Ernest Renan or an indifferent
critic would do! But to say that a prophet whom they describe as a
dervish of the wilderness clad in the skins of animals, and a dervish
who comes forth and sees his “Adon” and the “Angel of the
Covenant,” and then does not follow and cleave to him, is ridiculous
and incredible
...
3
...
The Prophet Mālākhī, in his fourth chapter (verses 5,
6), speaks of the coming of Elijah, which fact is foretold to take place
some time before the day of the Resurrection and not before the
Appearance of the Messenger in question
...
What Jesus meant to
say was that the two were similar in their ascetical life, their zeal for
God, their courage in scolding and admonishing the kings and the
hypocrite leaders of the religion
...
” But I
must add that this Baptist did not abrogate one iota of the Law of
Moses, nor add to it a tittle
...
Washing or ablution could not be considered
a “religion” or “way” whose place has been taken by the famous and
mysterious Church institution of the Sacrament of Baptism!
4
...
The Churches have always believed that the “Messenger of
the way” is John the Baptist, and not Jesus
...
But as the person foretold in the prophecy is one
and the same, and not two, I most conscientiously declare that Jesus is
not, and could not be, that person
...
For Jesus as a simple human
being and prophet could not be the founder of the Trinitarian
Churches
...
So long as we deny the absolute Oneness of
God, we are in error, and Jesus cannot be our friend nor can he help
us
...
The person indicated in the prophecy has three
qualifications, namely, the Messenger of Religion, the Lord
Commander, and the Messenger of the Convent
...
”
Who can, then, be this glorious man, this Great Benefactor of
humanity, and this valiant Commander who rendered noble
services in the cause of Allah and His religion other than
Muhammad? - upon whom may rest God’s peace and blessing
...
It is futile and
childish to compare either Jesus or John with the great Apostle of
Allah, when we know perfectly well that neither of these two did
ever attempt to convert a single pagan nor succeeded in
persuading the Jews to recognize his mission
...
Qur-án, 3:19
...
But if any deny the Signs of Allah, Allah is swift in
calling to account
...
99
during a period of less than four hundred years, was infested with
myriads of false prophets, not to mention the swarms of sorcerers,
soothsayers and all sorts of witchcrafts and magicians
...
Belonging to the former category
there were several impostors as contemporaries with the true prophets
like Mikha (Micah) and Jeremiah, and to the latter there were those
who gave much trouble to Elijah, and caused the massacres of the true
prophets and believers during the reign of Ahab and his wife Jezebel
...
No prophet perhaps, received at the hands of these
impostors more of persecution and hardships than the Prophet
Jeremiah
...
The Jews had entered into alliance with the
Pharaoh of Egypt, but as the latter had been badly defeated by the
troops of Nebuchadnezzar, Jerusalem’s doom was merely a question
of time
...
He
poured out all his eloquent and fiery discourses into the ears of the
kings, the priests, and the elders of the people, but all of no avail
...
Nebuchadnezzar comes and takes the city, carries away with him
100
the king, the princes, and many captives, as well as all the
treasures of the temple, including the gold and silver vessels
...
This king, instead of being wise and
loyal to his master of Babylon, revolts against him
...
But the false prophets continue to harangue in the
temple, saying: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, Behold, I have broken
the yoke of the King of Babylon, and in two years’ time all the Jewish
captives and the vessels of the House of God will be returned to
Jerusalem
...
He is struck on the face by one opponent prophet, who
breaks to pieces the wooden yoke from Jeremiah’s neck and repeats
the harangue of the false prophets
...
The
pseudo-prophet Hananiah dies as Jeremiah had foretold
...
The city and the temple, after being
pillaged, are set on fire and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem are carried
into Babylonia; only the poorer classes are left to cultivate the land
...
But Gedaliah is killed by the
rebellious Jews, and then they all flee to Egypt, carrying Jeremiah
with them
...
He must have ended his life in Egypt
...
The Biblical critics consider that jeremiah was the author, or, at
any rate, a compiler, of the fifth book of the Pentateuch called
Deuteronomy
...
Jeremiah was a
Levite and a priest as well as a prophet
...
And I take one of these teachings for my present
subject, which I consider as one of the gems or golden texts of the Old
Testament and must be esteemed very precious and holy
...
Jeremiah has supplied us
with a fairly satisfactory answer, namely:
“THE PROPHET WHO PREACHES ISLAM”
In the Book of Deuteronomy (xiii
...
20-22) God the Almightly
gives some instructions concerning the false prophets who may
prophesy in the name of the Lord and in such an insidious way that
they could mislead His people
...
But, as is well known, the ignorant cannot well distinguish between
the genuine prophet and the imposter, just as much as they to-day are
unable to definitely discover which of the two, a Roman Catholic
priest or a Calvinist minister, is genuine follower of Jesus Christ! A
false prophet would also foretell events, work wonders, and do other
religious things similar -at least in appearance- to those performed by
a true one
...
Thus it is
Jeremiah who gives us the best way of testing the veracity, the
genuineness, of a prophet, and that way is the sign of Islam
...
of Jeremiah, and then ponder and
reflect on the ninth verse:“The prophet which foretells the Islam (Shālōm), at the
coming of the word of the Prophet, that prophet will be
recognized to have been sent by God in truth” (Jer
...
9)
...
The original verb naba, usually
translated as “to foretell” or “to prophesy”, and the noun nābi, “a
prophet” has given the impression that a prophet is a person who
foretells the future or past events by the aid of divine revelation
...
The complete difinition of the word
“Prophet” must be: “one who receives oracles or messages from God,
102
and delivers them faithfully to the person or people intended
...
In the same way verb “prophesy” does not
necessarily mean to reveal the past or future occurrences, but rather to
preach or promulgate the message from God
...
To read the words of a prophet would be to
prophesy no more than would a prophet deliver an oracle when
making a discourse or public speech of his own accord
...
, so that we
may be careful not to attribute to any of the prophets the quality of
knowing and saying everything through the revelation
...
A prophet is not appointed by God to teach humanity physics,
mathematics, or any other positive science
...
A prophet, therefore, is the subject of test and examination only
when he officially and formally delivers the message he has received
from his Lord
...
In order to find out whether a prophet is genuine or an
impostor, it is not fair to give a verdict against his prophetical
character because he is reported to have been a little harsh or rude to
his mother or because he believed in the literal inspiration and the
Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch
...
It is mala fides and illwill to accuse prophets of sensuality,
rudeness, ignorance in sciences, and of other personal frailties
...
They were protected only from mortal sins and from the
perversion of the message they had to hand further
...
They are all His creatures
and servants; they accomplished their work and returned to Him
...
Having so far explained the nature and the signification of the
prophet and the prophecy, I shall now endeavour to prove that no
prophet could be genuine unless, as Jeremiah expressly says, he
preaches and propagates the religion of Islam
...
” Then he proceeds:“The prophet that prophesies concerning Islam as
soon as the word of the prophet comes, that prophet is
known to have been sent by the Lord in truth
...
” The preposition “l” before “shālōm” signifies
“concerning” or “about,” and places its subject in the objective case
and not in the dative, as it would be if the predicate were a verb like
“come,” “go,” or “give
...
The verb “shālām” signifies
“to submit, resign oneself to,” and then “to make peace;” and
consequently “to be safe, sound, and tranquil
...
” The true Religion of the True God cannot be named after
the name of any of His servants, and much less after the name of a
people or country
...
It is the
name and title of a religion that teaches and commands an
104
absolute submission and resignation of will and self to the
Supreme Being, and then to obtain peace and tranquillity in mind
and at home, no matter what tribulations or passing misfortunes
may threaten us that fills its opponentswith awe
...
And it is this
sound faith in Allah and the sincere attachment to His Holy Qur-án
and the Apostle that the Christian missionaries have been desperately
attacking and have hopelessly failed
...
” Let us, therefore, take
into serious consideration the following points:1
...
He is the only prophet who
uses this word with the object of setting or proving the veracity of a
messenger of God
...
The term “Islām” and its equivalents,
“Shālōm” and Shlāmā,” were known to the Jews and Christians of
Mecca and Medina when Muhammad appeared to perfect and
universalize the religion of Islam
...
In fact, the point of dispute, or rather the critical
national question, controverted by the two eminent prophets known to
the court and the nation like Jeremiah and Hananiah (Jer
...
),
could not be solved and definitely settled by the affirmation of the one
and the denial of the other, of the imminent catastrophy
...
It is interesting and significant to note how the observations of the learned professor
coincide with those of the ex-Kaiser of Germany who, on the occasion of his
seventieth birthday celebrations at Doorn, Holland, was reported to have said in his
speech: “And understand this - if ever the Muhammadans should conceive the idea
that it is Allah’s command to bring order into a declining West and subjugate to His
will, then -with faith in God- they will come upon the godless Europeans like a tidal
wave, against which even the reddest Bolshevist, full of eagerness for combat, will be
helpless
...
(the auther)
...
For, in either case, his
presumed “peace” would mean no peace at all
...
It is evident,
therefore, that Jeremiah uses the term “Shălōm” in the sense of a
tangible, concrete, and real religious system which Islam comprises
...
Jeremiah has at heart the cause of
God and His religion of peace, and in the vital interests of the religion
of peace, or Islam, he advises the wicked king and his courtiers to
submit to the yoke of Babylon and serve the Chaldeans and live
...
They had abandoned the
God of their forefathers, polluted His temple, mocked and reviled His
prophets, and committed evil and treachery (2 Chron
...
, etc
...
For a true and sincere servant of God, the
religion comes first and the nation after
...
He cares not a fillip for the religion and the real welfare of
the people
...
Now, from the above imperfect description of the prophets, which
of the two would you qualify as the true servant of God and as the
loyal defender of God’s religion? Surely Jeremiah would at once
attract your sympathy and choice
...
It is only the religion of shālōm, of Islam, that can testify to
106
the character and the office of a true prophet, Imam, or any
minister of God on earth
...
There is no other religion in the world like Islam, which professes
and defends this absolute unity of the Deity
...
But there is still one thing more worthy of our
notice, and that thing is this
...
A miracle is not always a sufficient proof, for the sorcerers
also work wonders
...
Hence it is clear that the prophet who
“prophesies concerning shālōm -Islam- as being the name of Faith and
path of life, as soon as he receives a message from God he will be
known to have been sent by Him
...
But the wicked king and his
entourage would not listen to and obey the word of God
...
As argued in the preceding paragraph, it should be noted that
neither the fulfilment of a prediction nor the working of a miracle was
enough to prove the genuine character of a prophet; that the loyalty
and strict attachment to the religion is the best and the decisive proof
for the purpose; that “shălōm” was used to express the religion of
peace
...
And we demand from those who would object to this
interpretation to produce an Arabic word besides Islam and Salām as
the equivalent of the shālōm, and also to find for us another word in
Hebrew besides shālōm that would convey and express the same
meaning as Islam
...
Therefore we are forced to admit that shālōm is the same
as “salām” or “peace” in the abstract, and “Islām” as a religion and
faith in the concrete
...
As the Qur-an in chap
...
expressly reminds us that Abraham
and his sons and grandsons were the followers of Islam; 1
...
There were the
people of Esau, the Edomites, the Midianites, and numerous other
peoples living in Arabia, who knew God and worshipped Him like the
Israelites
...
But they, like the Jews, had taken to
idolatry until it was totally eradicated by the Prince of the prophets
...
C
...
A nationalistic and Judaistic spirit of solicitude and
seclusion reigned among the small remnant of Israel; the belief in the
coming of a great Saviour to restore the lost throne and crown of
David was regnant, and the old meaning of “shālōm” as the name of
the religion of Abraham and common to all the different peoples
descended from him was no longer remembered
...
1
...
Abraham was not a Jew nor yet a Christian; but he was Upright, and
bowed his will to Allah
...
Qurán, 3: 68
...
(Editors)
...
vii
...
Vide Articles V and VI, which appeared in the Islamic Review for November and
December, 1928
...
109
the myriads of celestial beings and conducted to the
glorious presence of the Eternal; how he heard the words
of honour and affection which no creature had ever been
favoured with (2 Cor
...
); how he was crowned to the dignity of
the Sultan of the Prophets and invested with power to destroy the
“Fourth Beast” and the “Blasphemous Horn
...
It should be remembered that among all the
Prophets and Messengers of Allah, Muhammad alone figures like
a tower above all; and the grand and noble work he accomplished
stands a permanent monument of his honour and greatness
...
When we fully realize
that Allah is the same God whom Adam and Abraham knew, and
whom Moses and Jesus worshipped, then we have no difficulty in
accepting Islam as the only true religion and Muhammad as the
Prince of all the Prophets and Servants of God
...
By so doing
we lose all the true conception of the Absolute Being, and cease to
believe in the true God
...
Nor can we in the least promote the
dignity of Muhammad if we were to imagine him a son of God or an
incarnate deity; for by so doing we would entirely lose the real and the
historical Prophet of Mecca and fall unconsciously into the abyss of
polytheism
...
” And this short creed
will continue to be the faith of every true believer in Allah to the
day of the Resurrection
...
It is this Kingdom of
God that we are now to examine and expound
...
vii
...
The expressions in this prophetical passage that the Kingdom
of God shall consist of “the People of the Saints of the Most High,”
and that all other dominions or powers shall serve and obey that
people, clearly indicate that in Islam the Religion and State are
one and the same body, and consequently inseparable
...
In order to be able to form a clear and true idea concerning the
nature and the constitution of the “Kingdom of God on earth” it is
necessary to cast a glance upon the history of the religion of Islam
before it was perfected, completed, and formally established by
God Himself under His Apostle Muhammad
...
ISLAM BEFORE MUHAMMAD WAS NOT THE KINGDOM OF GOD
UPON EARTH, BUT ONLY GOD’S TRUE RELIGION
Those who believe that the true religion of Allah was revealed only
to Abraham and preserved by the people of Israel alone, must be very
111
ignorant students of the Old Testament literature, and must have a
very erroneous notion of the nature of that religion
...
xiv
...
The father-in-law of Moses was also an
Imam and a Prophet of Allah; Job, Balaam, Ad, Hud, Loqmân, and
many other prophets were not Jews
...
But the light of Islam was never entirely extinguished or
substituted by idolatry
...
xxxi
...
In those olden times of
ignorance the idols were of the kind of “identity card” or of the nature
of a passport
...
xxxi
...
The history of that stubborn
people from the death of Joshua to the anointment of King Saul,
covering a period of more than four centuries, is full of a series of
scandalous relapses into idolatry
...
But their belief in the Unity of God, though
1
...
” A Jewish priest can never be identified with a Christian Sacramentarian
priest
...
112
it makes them Unitarians, does not entitle them to the
qualification of being called “Muslims,” because they have
stubbornly rejected both the persons and the revelations of Jesus
and Muhammad
...
As we possess no records concerning the other peoples who were
favoured with divine revelations and with the Prophets and Imam sent
to them by God, we shall only content ourselves with the declaration
that the religion of Islam existed among Israel and other Arab peoples
of old, sometimes more luminous, but mostly like a flickering wick or
like a dim spark glimmering in a dark room
...
But all the same there were always
individuals and families who loved and worshipped God
...
Whenever the people of Israel prospered and was
successful in its wars, then Jahwah was acknowledged and
worshipped; but in adverse circumstances He was abandoned and the
deity of a stronger and more prosperous nation was adopted and its
idol or image worshipped
...
Their very easy and reiterated relapse into
idolatry is a proof that the Israelites had almost the same notion
about their El or Yahwah, as the Assyrians had of their own
Ashur, the Babylonians of Mardukh, and the Phoenicians of their
Ba’āl
...
The faith in Allah and a firm conviction
and belief in a future life was not ingrained and implanted in the
spirit and in the heart of that people
...
I am aware of the certain so-called Tartar families who embraced
the Orthodox Christian Faith in Russia
...
And in this connection it should not be ignored
that this happened after the Muslim power of the “Golden Horde”
(“Altin Ordu”) tumbled down at the tremendous invasion of Timur
Lang (Tamerlane)
...
It is evident from the above that the true religion of God
before Muhammad was only in its infancy, that it remained immature
and undeveloped amongst the Hebrews, although it shone brilliantly in
the life of the true servants of Yahwah
...
But the true religion of God never took the form of the Kingdom of
God as it did under the Qur-ánic régime
...
The great
ancient civilizations and empires of the Assyro-Chaldeans, of the
Medo-Persians, of the Greeks and of the Romans, had to appear and
1
...
(the auther)
...
All
the glory of these great Powers consisted in their worshipping the
Devil; and it was this “glory” that the “Prince of the Darkness”
promised to grant to Jesus Christ from the top of a high mountain if he
were only to follow him and worship him
...
CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES PREACHED THE KINGDOM OF GOD
They were, it is true, the harbingers of the Kingdom of God upon
earth
...
” For twenty
centuries the Christians of all denominations and shades of belief
have been praying and repeating this invocation
...
This Christian anticipation of the
coming of the Kingdom of God is of the same nature as the
anticipation of Judaism for the coming of Messiah
...
If you ask
a Christian priest or parson what he thinks of the Kingdom of God, he
will tell you all sorts of illusory and meaningless things
...
Another
parson or priest will harangue on the “millennium
...
The Kingdom of God does not mean a triumphant Catholic
Church, or a regenerated and sinless Puritan State
...
” It is not a Kingdom composed of
celestial beings, including the departed spirits of the Prophets and the
blessed believers, under the reign of a divine Lamb; with angels for its
police and gendarmes; the Cherubs for its governors and judges; the
Seraphs for its officers and commanders; or the Archangels for its
Popes, Patriarchs, Bishops, and evangelical preachers
...
The Greek word euangelion, rendered “Gospel” in English,
practically means “the enunciation of good news
...
He
himself and the Apostles after him preached and announced this
Kingdom to the Jews, inviting them to believe and repent in order to
be admitted into it
...
When he declared that hatred was the root of murder, lust
the source of fornication; that avarice and hypocrisy were as
abominable sins as idolatry; and that mercy and charity were more
acceptable than the burntofferings and the strict observance of the
Sabbath, he practically abolished the letter of the Law of Moses in
favour of its spiritual sense
...
These important points will be fully discussed, if Allah will, later
on; but for the present I have to content myself with remarking that
what Jesus announced was, it was Islam that was the Kingdom of God
and that it was Muhammad who was the Son of Man, who was
appointed to destroy the Beast and to establish the powerful Kingdom
of the People of the Saints of the Most High
...
Its lawyers, priests, and scribes had disfigured that
religion with a gross and superstitious literature of the traditions
of their forefathers
...
” Although the demon of idolatry had left
116
Israel, yet later on seven demons had taken possession of that
people (Matt
...
43-45; Luke xi
...
Christ reformed the old religion; gave a new life and spirit to
it; he explained more explicitly the immortality of the human soul,
the resurrection and the life in the next world; and publicly
announced that the Messiah whom the Jews were expecting was
not a Jew or a son of David, but a son of Ishmael whose name was
Ahmad, and that he would establish the Kingdom of God upon
earth with the power of the Word of God and with sword
...
They were beforehand informed of
persecutions, tribulations, martyrdoms, and prisons
...
Then comes the great Constantine and proclaims liberty for the
Church; but after the decisions and the Trinitarian Creed of the Nicene
Council in 325 A
...
, the Unitarian Muslims1 were submitted to a
series of new and even more cruel persecutions by the Trinitarians,
until the advent of Muhammad (upon whom be peace and blessings)
...
This anthem is followed by a most solemn worship to
Allah by his faithful people
...
This is not all; every action, enterprise and business,
however important or trifling it may be, is begun with the words
bismi ’l-Lah, which means “in the name of Allah,” and ends with
an Al-Hamdu li’l-Lāh, meaning “praise be to Allah!” the bond of
faith which binds a Muslim to his Heavenly King is so strong, and
the union between the Sovereign and His subject so close, that
nothing, however powerful or seductive, can separate him from
Allah
...
16), which means “the life-vain
...
Jesus Christ has never authorized his followers to call themselves “Christians
...
” – A
...
( the auther)
117
Never was there a favourite courtier who, in his sentiments of
affection, devotion, obedience, and respect for his beneficent
monarch, could ever equal those which a Mussulman entertains
towards his Lord
...
He is the
King and the Lord of every Muslim in particular, for it is a
Muslim alone who thanks and praises his Almighty King for all
that happens and befalls him, be it prosperity or adversity
...
It is evident, therefore, that the nature of Islam consists in its
being the only real and truly Theocratic Kingdom on earth
...
As to the formation and the constitution of the Kingdom of God,
inter alia, the following points should be noted:-
(a) All Muslims form one nation, one family, and one
brotherhood
...
We must judge the Muslim society, not as it presents
itself now, but as it was in the time of Muhammad and his immediate
successors
...
All honest fruit of
the toil belongs by right to him who earns it; nevertheless the law
makes it impossible for a true Muslim to become excessively wealthy
...
In the days of the Prophet and the first four
Khaliphs, no Muslim was known to be enormously rich
...
1
...
So they are not
four, but five
...
118
The very name “Muslim” signifies literally “a maker of
peace
...
But
the moment his religion, honour, and property are attacked, the
Muslim becomes a formidable foe
...
The Holy Jihād is not a war of offence, but of self-defence
...
They are an
exception
...
(b) According to the description of the Prophet Daniel, the
citizens of the Kingdom of God are “the People of the Saints
...
All the Muslims, who believe in Allah, in His angels, Books, and
Apostles; in the day of the Resurrection and Judgment; that the good
and evil are from Allah; and perform their pious practices according to
their ability and with good will, are holy saints and blessed citizens of
the Kingdom
...
A Muslim believes that there is not one Holy Spirit,
but innumerable holy spirits all created and ministers of the One
Allah
...
John the
Baptist, or rather Christ himself (according to the Gospel of
Barnabas), said: “I baptize you with water unto repentance, but he
who comes after me, he is stronger than I; he will baptize you with
fire and with the holy spirit
...
4
...
It is stated that “all the
nations under the heaven shall serve the People of the Saints of the
Most High
...
The mystery of
this “service” lies in this: in the first place, the Muslims always inspire
respect and fear through their dignified behaviour, attachment to their
religion and obedience to just laws, and their peacefulness; and
secondly, because the Christian Governments, as a rule, treat the
Muslims with justice and do not interfere with their laws and religion
...
Suffice it to say that the Muslim Sovereigns
are subject to the same Qur-ánic laws as their compatriots; that justice
and modesty are the best safeguards for the prosperity and stability of
every State, Muslim or non-Muslim; and that the spirit and the
principles of the Book of Allah are the best guidance for all legislation
and civilization
...
The Evangelist
Mattai (Matthew) has left to us an account of the wonderful
pilgrimage of the Magi, who were guided by a star from Persia to
the manger at Bethlehem, where the new-born Jesus, whom they
“worshipped” and presented with rich gifts of gold, myrrh, and
incense, was lying
...
The Church has preserved the very names of the Magi,
who, headed by the King Caspar, were “inspired by God,” and
knew that the little Babe of Bethlehem was God, Lamb, and King,
and therefore they offered him incense as to a deity, myrrh for his
burial as a sacrifice, and gold for his royal treasury! That the
Zoroastrian magicians, or the astrologian Chaldees, through the
astral divination and guidance, traversed all that distance to
Jerusalem, and there lost the sight of the star; that the Jewish
reigning sovereign Herod and the inhabitants of Jerusalem shook
and trembled at the news of the birth of a new king; that only an
incoherent passage in the writings of the Prophet Micah (v
...
The royal retinue of the pilgrims proceeds to Bethlehem
only at a few miles’ distance from Jerusalem, and, lo! the old
guiding star again appears and leads them on until it stops exactly
above the spot where the infant was born
...
4-7) shows
the importance of the miracle
...
The
last but not the least miracle insinuated in this narrative in the
fulfilment of another prophecy from Jeremiah (xxxi
...
Matthew,
who alone among all the ancient archivists and historians knows
this event, does not tell us what the impressions of King Caspar
and his astrologers after their visit of pilgrimage to the manger of
Bethlehem were
...
The other equally wonderful event which concerns our present
discourse is recorded by the Evangelist Luke (ii
...
Some
shepherds were watching their flocks in a field near Bethlehem on
the very night when Jesus was born in a manger
...
[Verse 14
...
That the heavenly hosts sang their
joyous song in the language of the shepherds, and that that
language was not Greek but the vernacular Hebrew -or rather the
Aramaic- is an admitted truth
...
, are revealed to us in the Semitic
tongues (Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic); and to imagine that the
celestial hosts sang in Greek to the ignorant Jewish shepherds in
the suburbs of Bethlehem would be equivalent to the belief that
such an angelic army, in the firmament above the mountains of
Kurdistan, sang a similar hymn in Japanese for the digestion, or
puzzle, of some Kurdish herdsmen!
The appearance of an angel to the humble shepherds of
Bethlehem and the annunciation of the birth of a great Prophet
that very night, and the hearing of the angelic Hallelujah
(Allilujah) by them alone and not by the haughty priests and the
scribes, is one of the innumerable miracles recorded in the history
of the people of Israel
...
An angel can appear to a prophet or a holy servant of
God and communicate to him a message from Allah in the presence of
other people, yet be quite imperceptible to them
...
So from a religious point of view there is nothing
incompatible or incredible in this wonderful event as recorded by St
...
The author of this narrative exhibits precision of diction, he is
discreet and cautious in his statements, and throughout his Gospel he
uses a very good Greek style
...
1 It is
precisely stated in the first four verses with which the third Gospel
opens that the Apostles, whom he calls “the eyewitnesses and the
ministers of the Word,” had not written themselves and account about
the Master and his teachings, but only by way of tradition had
delivered them orally to their followers or successors
...
Luke had recourse for the
composition of his Gospel were various “stories” composed by
persons who had heard them narrated by the Apostles and others who
were the eyewitnesses of those events and doctrines, and that the
author very attentively examined them all and chose only such as he
considered true or trustworthy
...
Luke himself, as it may be easily deducted from his
preface, that he claims no direct revelation made to himself, nor does
he attribute any inspiratory character to his book
...
These brief observations, which can be multiplied, must
convince every impartial reader that the so-called “Four Gospels”
do not exhibit the necessary features which are indispensable for
any Scripture claiming a divine inspiration
...
iv
...
Paul in his
missionary journeys and was with him a prisoner at Rome (2 Tim
...
11;
Philem
...
However, this is not the place to discuss the question of
the authorship of the book, nor its other important peculiarities
...
Luke has recorded some beautiful parables
and teachings of the Holy Master, such as the parable of the Good
Samaritan (x
...
15-21); the Selfrighteous Pharisee and the Publican (xiii
...
1-13); the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal Son
(xv
...
19-31); the Mite of the Poor Widow
(xxi); the Wicked Husbandman (xx
...
1-8); the
1
...
Luke’s Gospel
...
1-10); and several others
...
This hymn, like all the contents of the New Testament, is
presented to us not in the original language in which it was sung,
but only in its Greek version; and God alone knows the source
from which our Evangelist copied, translated, or simply narrated
it from hearsay
...
The Holy Ghost is
not a teacher of grammar and languages
...
i
...
; Gal
...
11-15, etc)
...
The Synod of Nicea must be for ever held
criminally responsible as the sole cause of this irreparable loss of
the Sacred Gospel in its original Aramaic text
...
A translation, no matter how faithfully and ably it
may have been made, can never maintain the exact force and the real
sense as contained in the original words and expressions
...
These four
Gospels, for instance, are not even a translation, but the very
original text in the Greek language; and the worst of it is that they
are badly corrupted by later interpolations
...
Naturally we are very curious to know its words in the original
language in which it was sung
...
” The hymn
is composed of three clauses
...
The subject of the second
clause is Shlama (in Aramaic), and translated “Eiriny” into Greek
...
Both these versions, which have been followed by all other
versions, have failed to convey the exact meaning and the sense of the
word “eudokia,” and consequently the second and the third clauses
remain meaningless and even senseless, if not altogether untrue
...
We shall therefore proceed to find out the true etymological
126
significations of the Greek words “Eiriny” and “Eudokia,” and the
real sense and interpretation of the Angelical Doxology
...
According to the interpretation of this hymn by all the Christian
Churches and sects, the faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ, in the
redemption from sin and hell-fire through his death upon the Cross,
and in holding a continual communication with the Holy Ghost, brings
“peace” and tranquillity to the heart, and makes the believers entertain
towards each other “good will,” benevolence, and mutual love
...
But they do not stop at these three
principal points, and very discreetly too; for thus for no general peace,
no reconciliation, no concord and union, no good will and mutual love
is felt among them
...
” The
Sacramentarians insist on the belief in seven sacraments and many
dogmas which neither common sense not the simple doctrine of Jesus
could tolerate
...
The Bride -Church- has particular devotions
to the “sacred hearts” of Jesus, of Mary, and of St
...
Whether an orthodox or a heterodox, when a
Christian comes out from the church where he has “shared” the
“Lord’s Communion” which they call the “Institution of the
Eucharist,”1 they become so hypocritically fanatical and unsocial as to
prefer to meet a dog rather than a Muslim or a Jew, because these do
not believe in the Trinity and in the “Lord’s Supper
...
I used
to be of the same sentiments when I was a Catholic priest
...
When the Christians, especially their priests and pastors, become
fervent and zealous in their peculiar devotions and practices, they
become exceedingly excited, furious, and offensive towards their
religious adversaries! Show me a single Catholic, Schismatic, or a
heretical Saint after the Nicene Council, who was not a tyrant, either
in his writings, or preachings, or in his deeds against those whom he
considered “heretics
...
There are only three means that can procure the
true and perfect peace; namely, a firm belief in the absolute
oneness of Allah; a complete submission and resignation to His
Holy Will; and frequent meditation and contemplation on Him
...
He becomes tolerant, honest, just, and compassionate; but
at the same time quite equipped to fight heart and soul in defence of
all that appertains to the glory of Allah and to his own honour when
1
...
Luke, according to the ancient Pshittha
Version, does not contain verses 17-19 of chapter xxii; nor are these so-called
“essential words” existing in the Liturgy of the Nestorians
...
)
128
threatened or attacked
...
These latter will benefit us only when the faith is genuine,
and the submission voluntary and unconditional
...
No; neither of these two specific
peaces was the object of this melody
...
It was neither a social not political peace for the people or
Israel; for the history of the last twenty centuries shows the very
contrary
...
We are
forced, then, in face of the subsequent historical facts on the one
hand, and by the importance of the occasion, as well as the
quarter from which this remarkable announcement was made, on
the other, to conclude that this “peace upon earth” was none other
than the approaching establishment of the Kingdom of Allah upon
earth, which is Islam
...
” That is all!
The very mention of “a multitude of heavenly hosts” gives the
hymn a martial or triumphal character
...
On various occasions, in the course of these articles, we have
explained that Shalom, in its concrete and practical sense, has the
signification of the religion that is good, sound, safe, salutary, and the
way of peace, in opposition to the religion that is evil, bad, harmful,
destructive, and the way that conducts towards misery and perdition
...
) to Cyrus, used the word Shalom, as synonymous with
good in opposition to evil
...
Beyond Islam, which literally signifies “making peace,” any
other interpretation or imaginary peace is irrelevant with the
sense in which “Eiriny” is used in this triumphal angelic anthem
...
v
...
And it was precisely the imaginary
peace which Sayyidinā Jesus Christ repudiated when he
exclaimed; “Think not that I came to establish peace upon earth; I
did not come to set peace but a sword” (Matt
...
34-6); or, as Luke
declares: “I came to set fire on the earth …Do you think that I
came to establish peace? I tell you, no; but divisions …” (Luke xii
...
Unless “Eiriny” be understood in the sense of the Religion of
Islam, these two crucial and contradictory statements of Jesus
must remain a riddle, if not an irretrievable injury which the
Christian Church has committed in having accepted these Gospels
an the “inspired Word of God
...
14]
To retranslate a masterpiece of an eminent author from a foreign
version if he left other writings in his own languate would not be very
difficult
...
But how far he would
1
...
(the auther)
...
Similarly, if there were at least a couple of epistles or
writings of St
...
But unfortunately even such is not the case
...
Luke translated the angelic hymn; nor has he himself left us
another book in a Semitic dialect
...
The great Muslim philosopher Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) wrote in the
Arabic, and some of his works were afterwards retranslated from the
Latin into the Arabic because the originals were lost
...
But the Greek compound
word “Eudokia” does not occur, to the best of my knowledge, in the
Septuagint Version, and it is extremely difficult to find out its
equivalent or synonymous term in the original
...
Barnabas does not
mention in his Gospel this angelic hymn and the story of the
Shepherds of Bethlehem; nor do the other Synoptics or the Epistles in
the New Testament
...
In order to discover the original Semitic word in the song that the
pious Shepherds heard and related, and which the evangelist Luke has
1
...
131
formulated into “Eudokia,” we are compelled to examine and trace it
right from its Greek root and derivation
...
There are two principal versions of the New Testament from the
Greek text, one being in the so-called “Syriac” language, and the other
in the Latin
...
There
is much new material of information about these two famous ancient
versions which must embarrass the most erudite Christian historians
and the most dogmatic theologians
...
It is common knowledge that the Church of Rome for
the first four centuries had no Scriptures of Liturgy in the Latin but in
the Greek
...
C
...
There were dozens of Gospels and Epistles bearing the names of
different Apostles and other companions of Jesus, which were held by
various Christian communities as sacred, but they were rejected by the
Nicene Council as spurious
...
e
...
A profound examination and study of the early Christian literature
and history will show that the first preachers of the Gospel were Jews
who spoke Aramaic or the old Syriac language
...
But one thing is certain and does
really fall within the periphery of our subject - namely, the early
Christians conducted their religious services in the Aramaic language
...
The Pshittha Version of the Old Testament never uses the words “Syria” and
“Syriac,” but “Aram” and “Aramaic
...
132
Phœnicians, the Chaldeans, and the Assyrians
...
Even the Armenians, before the invention
of their alphabet in the fifth century, had adopted the Syriac
characters
...
” As a matter of course, the scholars of the Greek
philosophy and the ex-ministers of the Greek mythology, once
converted to the new faith and with the Septuagint before them, could
have no difficulty in the production of a “New Testament” as a
completion or a continuation of the old one
...
Then there are the questions of the unity of faith, of doctrine,
and of the revealed text
...
None of the Semitic or Greek Churches, nor did Antioch,
Edessa, Byzantium, and Rome possess all the books of the New
Testament, nor even the four Gospels before the Nicene Council
...
Luke, or of St
...
John, concerning the dogmas of the Eucharist,
Baptism, the Trinity, the miraculous conception of Christ, and of
dozens of other dogmas and doctrines! The Syriac Version of the
pshittha does not contain the so-called “Essential” or
“Institutional Words,” now extant in St
...
17, 18, 19)
...
The so-called
“Lord’s prayer” (Matt
...
9; Luke xi
...
In fact, many important teachings
contained in one Gospel were unknown to the Churches which did not
possess it
...
All that we can gather from
the literature of the New Testament is that the Christians in the
Apostolical age had the Jewish Scriptures for their Bible, with a
Gospel containing the true revelation made to Jesus, and that its
substance was precisely the same as announced in this Seraphic
Canticle-namely, ISLAM and AHMADIYEH
...
It goes without saying
that the “Periclyte” will form one of the principal topics in this series
of articles
...
16, 26; xx
...
7) or its true etymological orthography, there
still remains the shining truth that Jesus left behind him and
unfinished religion to be completed and perfected by what John (ubi
supra) and Luke (xxiv
...
” This “Spirit” is not a
god, a third of the three in a trinity of gods, but the holy Spirit of
Ahmad, which existed like the Spirits of other Prophets in Paradise
(cf
...
If the Spirit of Jesus, on the testimony of
an Apostle, John (xvii, 5, etc
...
John’s “Paraclete,” a barbarous
word which does not mean either a “comforter” or “mediator” or
134
anything at all! These are certainly very serious and grave charges
against Christianity
...
The Pshittha had translated the Greek
word “Eudokia” (the Greeks read the word “Ivdokia,” or rather
pronounce it “Ivthokia”) as “Sobhra Tabha” (pronounced “Sovra
Tava”), which signifies “good hope,” or “good anticipation;”
whereas the Latin Vulgate, on the other hand, renders “Eudokia”
as “Bona Voluntas,” or “good will
...
” Nevertheless, I must confess that I cannot conscientiously
blame those translators of having deliberately distorted the meaning of
this Greek term; for I admit that both the Versions have a slight
foundation to justify their respective translations
...
”
The exact and literal equivalent of “good hope” in the Greek
language is not “eudokia, but “eu elpis, or rather “euelpistia
...
The precise and the exact corresponding term
to the Latin “bona voluntas,” or “good will,” in the Greek tongue is
certainly not “eudokia,” but “euthelyma
...
1
...
”
The adjectival prefix “eu” signifies “good, well, more, and most,”
as in “eudokimeo” -“to be esteemed, approved, loved,” and “to
acquire glory”; “eudokimos”- “very esteemed, most renowned and
glorious”; “eudoxos” -“most celebrated and glorious”; “eudoxia”“celebrity, renown
...
” Every student of English literature knowns that
“doxa” signifies “glory, honour, renown
...
” The famous Athenian
orator Demosthenes “preferred glory to a tranquil life,” “glory equal
to that of the gods
...
But all the same, its general and
comprehensive sense is “glory
...
”
In the Dictionnaire Grec-Français (published in 1846 in Paris by
R
...
Alexandre) the word “eudokia” is rendered “bienveillence,
tendresse, volunté, bon plaisir,” etc
...
The Greeks of Constantinople, among whose teachers I have had
several acquaintances, while unanimously understanding by “eudokia”
the meaning of “delight, loveliness, pleasantness, and desire,” also
admit that it does signify “celebrity, renown, and honourability” in its
original sense as well
...
THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE HEBREW FORMS OF
MAHMAD AND HIMDAH, AND THEIR SIGNIFICATIONS
...
It is
only then that the real nature of the Divine Revelation can be
understood, appreciated, and loved
...
And it is
from this point of view that I welcome this Greek word “eudokia,”
which in its true and literal signification admirably corresponds to the
Hebrew “Mahmad, Mahamod, Himdah,” and “Hemed” so frequently
used in the Old Testament
...
This verb, which is constituted of three essential
consonants hmd, and common to all the Semitic dialects,
everywhere in the Sacred Writ of the Hebrews signifies: “to covet,
fall in love, long for, take pleasure and delight in,” and “to desire
ardently
...
” Well, this
is the precise sense and signification of the verb “hamad” in the
Hebrew Scriptures
...
xx
...
)
(b) Hemed
...
ii
...
xxv
...
(c) MaHMad, MaHaMoD (Lam
...
7, 10; ii
...
These participles
forms are also derivatives from the verb “hamad” and mean:
“most covetable, delightful, pleasant, delicious, charming,
precious, beloved
...
I have given the meanings of
the Hebrew forms as the Jews and the lexicographers have
understood them
...
Now it would follow from the above that the corresponding
equivalent to the Hebrew “Mahamod” can be none other than
“eudoxos” which was the object of desire and longing, the most
1
...
(the auther)
...
3 That among all the sons of Adam the name Muhammad should
be given for the first time alone to the son of ‘Abdullah and Āmina
in the town of Mecca, is a unique miracle in the history of
religions
...
His parents and relatives were pagans and knew
nothing of the prophecies in the Hebrew or Christian Scriptures
concerning a great Prophet who was promised to come to restore
and establish the religion of Islam
...
It was surely providential and
inspired
...
But the Arabic passive Participle of the pi’el conjugation of
the verb hammida is Muhammad, and that of the Hebrew himmid
Mahmad or Mahamod
...
I have faithfully reproduced the significations of the Hebrew forms
as given by the lexicographers and translators
...
” For
among the created beings and things, what can be “more glorious,
honourable, illustrious, and praised than that which is most coveted
and desired
...
The glory of
Muhammad surpasses that of any other creatures, as illustrated by
Daniel (vii
...
But the highest honour and glory granted by Allah to His most
esteemed Apostle was that he was commissioned to establish and to
perfect the true religion of Allah, under the mane of “Islam,” which,
like the name of its founder Muhammad, has so very many
138
consolating and salubrious significations; “peace, security, safety,
transquillity, salvation,” and “the Good” in opposition to “the Evil”;
besides those of submission and resignation to the will of Allah
...
For a
great Missioner of Allah, a holy Evangelist of Islam was born on that
night
...
The advent of Jesus was the
beginning of a new era in the history of religion and morals
...
The “Fourth Beast,” the mighty Roman Power, was still
growing and expanding its conquests
...
Jesus “came
to his own people; but that people received him not
...
Then followed the ten
terrible persecutions under the pagan Roman Emperors which were to
crown thousands with the diadem of martyrdom; and Constantine the
Great and his successors were allowed to trample upon the true
believers in the unity of Allah
...
Chapter III
JOHN THE BAPTIST ANNOUNCES A
POWERFUL PROPHET
John the Baptist, according to the narratives of the four
Evangelists, was a cousin and contemporary of Jesus, being only
about six months older than the latter
...
Nothing is known about his infancy,
except that he was a Nazarite living in the wilderness, eating locusts
and wild honey, covering his body with a cloth made of camel’s hair,
tied with a leather girdle
...
In fact, the Qur-ánic descriptive term of this
hermit Prophet –“hasūra,” which means “chaste” in every sense of the
word- shows that he led a celibate life of chastity, poverty, and piety
...
Great multitudes were
drawn to the wilderness of Judea to hear the fiery sermons of the new
Prophet; and the penitent Jews were baptized by him in the water of
the River Jordan
...
He declared that he was
baptizing them with water only as a sign of purification of the heart by
penance
...
He further declared that he who was
coming afterwards was to such an extent superior to himself in power
and dignity that the Baptist confessed to be unfit or unworthy to bow
down to untie and loose the laces of his shoes
...
John the Baptist) that Jesus of Nazareth also entered into the
water of the Jordan and was baptized by the Prophet like everybody
else
...
9) and Luke (iii
...
The Synoptics state that the spirit of prophecy
came down to Jesus in the shape of a dove as he went out from the
water, and a voice was heard saying: “This is my beloved son, in
whom I am well pleased
...
(John i)
...
iv
...
16-18)
...
Luke the story is altogether different: here Jesus
knows Simon Peter before he is made a disciple (Luke iv
...
The four Gospels of the Trinitarian Churches
contain many contradictory statements about the intercourse between
the two cousin prophets
...
Luke tells
us that the Baptist, while a foetus in the womb of his mother, knew
and worshipped Jesus, who was also a younger foetus in the womb of
Mary (Luke i
...
Then, again, we are told that the Baptist while in
prison, where he was beheaded (Matt
...
xiv), did not know the real
nature of the mission of Jesus!
There is a mysterious indication hidden in the questions put to
the Prophet Yahyā by the Priests and the Levites
...
it will therefore be noticed that, according to the Fourth Gospel,
John the Baptist was neither the Messiah not Elijah, not that
Prophet! And I venture to ask the Christian Churches, who
believe that the inspirer of all these contradictory statements is the
Holy Ghost -i
...
the third of the three gods- whom did those Jewish
Priests and the levites mean by “and that Prophet”? And if you
pretend not to know whom the Hebrew clergy meant, do your
popes and patriarchs know who “and that Prophet” is? If not, than
what is the earthly use of these spurious and interpolated
Gospels? If, on the contrary, you do know who that Prophet is,
then why do you keep silent?
In the above quotation (John i) it is expressly stated that the Baptist
said he was not a Prophet; whereas Jesus is reported to have said that
141
“no men born of women were ever greater than John” (Matt
...
Did
Jesus really make such a declaration? Was John the Baptist greater
than Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus himself? And in what did his
superiority and greatness consist? If this testimony of Jesus about the
son of Zachariah be authentic and true, then the greatness of the “Eater
of the Locusts in the wilderness” can only consist in his absolute
abnegation, self-denial, and refraining from the world with all its
luxuries and pleasures; his ardent wish to invite the people to penance;
and his good tidings about “that Prophet
...
We are absolutely ignorant of the number of persons
converted through the sermons and purified by the baptism of John
...
xi
...
12; Luke i
...
Now can one, from these Gospels full of statements opposing and
denying each other, form a correct conclusion? Or can one try to find
out the truth? The charge is exceedingly grave and serious, because
the persons concerned are not ordinary mortals like ourselves, but two
Prophets who were both created in the womb by the Spirit and born
miraculously - one had no father, while the parents of the other were
sterile and an impotent nonagenarian couple
...
The
narrators are the Evangelists, persons alleged to be inspired by the
Holy Spirit, and the record believed to be a revelation! Yet there is a
lie, a false statement, or a forgery somewhere
...
iv
...
It is
only then that the truth can be extracted from the false,
and the authentic distinguished from the spurious
...
Before
proceeding farther to show that the Prophet foretold by the
Baptist could be none other than Muhammad, I must draw
the serious attention of my readers to one or two other important
points
...
But as we do not possess their
genuine and unadulterated writings we consequently cannot for a
moment imagine the possibility that either of these two great Servants
of Allah could have contradicted each other
...
This Gospel, which
never mentions the name of Yahyā, puts his prophecy about the “more
powerful Prophet” into the mouth of Jesus Christ
...
The great “Crier” in the wilderness, in the course of his sermons to
the multitudes, used to cry aloud and say: “I baptize you with water
unto repentence and the forgiveness on sins
...
”
These words are differently reported by the Evangelists, but all show
the same sense of the highest respect and consideration in regard to
the imposing personality and the majestic dignity of the Powerful
Prophet herein foretold
...
The moment the visitor steps in, either the host
or one of the members of the family rushes to take off his shoes, and
escorts him to a couch or cushion
...
What John the Baptist means to say is that if he were to meet
that dignified Prophet he would certainly consider himself
unworthy of the honour of bowing to untie the laces of his shoes
...
Now remains the task of determining the identity of “that
Prophet
...
The foretold Prophet was not Jesus Christ; and
B
...
Everybody knows that the Christian Churches have always
regarded John the Baptist as a subordinate of Jesus, and his herald
...
Although the language of the Evangelists has been distorted by
interpolators to that direction, yet the fraud or error cannot for
ever escape the searching eye of a critic and an impartial
examiner
...
They were both contemporaries and born in one
and the same year
...
” this “after” indicates the future to be at some
indefinite distance; and in the prophetical language it expresses one or
more cycles of time
...
The history of the true
religion, from Abraham to Muhammad, is thus decorated with such
epochmaking events under Abraham, Moses, David, Zorobabel, Jesus,
and Muhammad
...
Each one makes a progress and then begins to
fade away and decay until another luminary appears on the scene, and
so on down to the advent of John, Jesus, and the satellite Apostles
...
He beheld the
ignorant Jewish people misled by a corrupt and arrogant clergy, the
Scriptures corrupted and replaced by a superstitious ancestral
literature
...
He told
them that Abraham did not want them for his children because they
were unworthy of such father, but that “Allah could raise children for
Abraham from the stones” (Matt
...
Then they had a faint hope in a
Messiah, a descendant from the family of David, whom they expected
then, as they do to-day, to come and restore the kingdom of that
monarch in Jerusalem
...
God alone knows what rebukes and
reprimands they did hear from those fiery utterings of the Holy
Prophet of the Wilderness which the Church or the Synagogue have
been careful not to let appear in writing
...
But he clearly told his
people that there was another, and the last, great Luminary, who
was so glorious and dignified in the presence of Allah that he
(John) was not fit to undo the laces of his shoes
...
But such was not the case
...
(3) Although the Christian Churches have made of Jesus Christ a
god or son of a god, the fact that he was circumcised like every
Israelite, and baptized by St
...
The words interchanged between the
Baptist and the baptized in the River Jordan appear to be an
interpolation or a commonalty, for they are contradictory and of a
deceptive character
...
Why and how “all the justice” would
be accomplished by them if Jesus were baptized? This expression
is utterly unintelligible
...
Here is another instance which presents itself
to be solved and interpreted by the Islamic spirit
...
(4) The fact that John while in prison sent his disciples to Jesus,
asking him: “Art thou that Prophet who is to come, or shall we expect
another one?” clearly shows that the Baptist did not know the gift of
prophecy in Jesus until he heard -while in the prison- of his miracles
...
Matthew (xi
...
xiv; Mark vi
...
From Muslim unitarian point of belief, it is a moral impossibility
that a Prophet like the Baptist, whom the Holy Qur-án describes,
Sayyidan, wa Hasūran wa Nabiyyan mina ’s-Sālihīna,” should use
such a paganish expression about Jesus Christ
...
The baptism was only an outward ablution or
washing as a sign of the remission of sins, but it is the contribution,
the confession (to God, and to him who is injured by that sin - if
absolutely necessary) and the promise not to repeat it, that can take it
away
...
John better than anyone else knew that such
words from his lips would have caused -as has been the case- an
irreparable error which would entirely disfigure and deform the
Church of Christ
...
(5) John the Baptist could not be the precursor of Jesus Christ in
the sense in which the Churches interpret his mission
...
3), and as a herald of Jesus Christ
on the authority of the Prophet Malakhi (Mal
...
1)
...
ii
...
Nevertheless one thing is as true as two and two make four - that
the whole project, according to the extravagant view of the Christians,
proves a total failure
...
Instead of receiving his prince in Jerusalem at the Gate of the Temple
clad in diadem and purple, amidst the frantic acclamations of the
Jews, the precursor receives him, naked like himself, in the middle of
the River Jordan; and then to introduce him, after immersing or
plunging his master into the water, to the crowds as “behold, this is
the Messiah!” or “this is the Son of God!” or elsewhere “behold the
Lamb of God!” would either be tantamount to simply insulting the
people of Israel or to blaspheming; or to purely mocking Jesus as well
as making himself ridiculous
...
I shall deal with this in my next article, and
show that the nature of John’s mission as well as the object of
Christ’s message to the Jews was quite different to what the
Churches pretend to believe
...
The first
remark about the Baptist is that in which John is presented to the
world as the reincarnate Eliah (Elijah) the Old Testament
...
The language of Jesus in this respect is
148
exceedinly obscure, ambiguous, and mysterious
...
iii
...
], why does he not
openly say so? If he courageously declared that it was not he himself
but another Prophet who was that “Dominator,” it must, indeed, have
been a criminal hand which erased and effaced the words of Jesus
from the original Gospel
...
It cannot but be
described as diabolical tampering with the text that has misled billions
of Christians for so many centuries
...
” Perhaps
this is due to the love of Jesus for ambiguity
...
Leaving his godhead aside, as a Prophet, nay even as a
teacher, he was expected to be a straightforward teacher and leader
...
“No man
born of woman was ever greater than John the Baptist,” says Jesus,
“but the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John
...
The Churches -rather each Church, orthodox or
heterodox, from its own peculiar point of view- have discovered a
very abstruse or a very absurd solution for this problem; and that
solution is that the “least” Christian washed with the blood of Jesus either through the Sacrament of Baptism, according to the belief of the
Sacerdotalists, or through the regeneration of some kind, according to
the superstition of the Evangelicals- becomes “greater” than the
149
Baptist and all the army of the holy men and women, including Adam,
Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Eliah, Daniel, and John the Baptist!
And the reason or proof of this marvellous claim is that the Christian,
however, sinful, ignorant, low, and poor he may be, providing he has
faith in Jesus as his Saviour, has the privileges which the holy
Prophets coveted to have but did not enjoy
...
For us Muslim Unitarians, however, there are a few
scintillating sparkles left in the Gospels; and they are enough for us to
discover the truth about the real Jesus and his cousin, Yohannan
Ma’mdānā (John-Baptist)
...
But the “least” in the
Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John
...
e
...
Now in chronological order the last Prophet would be the
least of them all, he would be their junior and their youngest
...
” The Pshittha Version uses the word “z’īrā” or “z’eīrā”
in apposition to “rabba” for “great, old
...
” Not only were the Apostles themselves endowed with the gift
of prophecy, but also many other holy men in the apostolic age were
favoured with it (Acts xi
...
I; xv
...
And as we cannot determine which of these numerous Church
Prophets was the “last, we are naturally forced to seek elsewhere a
Prophet who is indisputably the Last and the Seal of the Prophetic
List
...
” To deny the
prophetical and apostolical character and nature of Muhammad’s
mission is a fundamental denial of the whole Divine Revelation and
all the Prophets who preached it
...
The mystery of the pre-existence of the spirits of the Prophets has
not been revealed to us, but every true Muslim believes it
...
There are several other names as recorded in the
Old Testament - for instance, Samson, Jeremiah
...
Hence the Baptist’s witness about the Prophet
whom he foretold: “He who comes after me has become before
151
me, for he was before me” (John i
...
It is useless to interpret these wonderful words of the Baptist
about Muhammad as referring to Jesus as the author of the
Fourth Gospel attempts to do
...
Long ago I carefully
read this work
...
He, like all other dissident and Biblical critics,
instead of finding out the truth, criticizes religion adversely and leads
his readers to scepticism
...
John the Baptist recognizes Muhammad as superior and more
powerful than himself
...
At the time of
writing my article on the “Shiloh”1 I said that the word might be a
corruption of “shīlōūkh” or “Shīlokhah,”2 which means the Apostle of
Allah, but I did not then recollect that St
...
”
We have only an epitome of John’s sermon in a few lines, written
not by himself but by an unknown hand -at least not in his own
original tongue- and much tampered with by transcribers and
redactors who had already made his disciple Jesus an idol or a god
...
Cf
...
313 et seq
...
The Oriental Hebrews and Assyrians pronounce the word “Shilokah” or
“Shīlōākh
...
(the auther)
...
, then I fully understand
the weight and value of the Baptist’s confession, “He is more
powerful than I!”
3
...
” Have you ever met with a sensible,
judicious, and convincing interpretation of this phrase in any of the
commentaries numerous on the Gospels? What does John mean, or
wish his audience to understand, by his expression: “Behold the axe is
1
...
xiv, etc
...
(the auther)
...
Could John ever teach those haughty Pharisees, and those rationalistic
Saduqees1 who denied the corporeal resurrection, that on the day of
the last judgment Jesus of Nazareth would pour down upon them his
wrath and burn them like the fruitless trees and like the chaff in the
fire of hell? There is not a single word in all the literature of the
Scriptures about the resurrection of bodies or about hell-fire
...
The Prophet of repentance and of good tidings does not speak
about the remote and indefinite wrath which certainly awaits the
unbelievers and the impious, but of the near and proximate
catastrophe of the Jewish nation
...
The coming
calamity was the destruction of Jerusalem and the final dispersion of
Israel which took place some thirty years afterwards during the
lifetime of many among his hearers
...
The increasingly
dominating power of Rome in Syria and Palestine was threatening the
quasiautonomy of the Jews, and the emigration current among the
Jews had already begun
...
This Hebrew name is wrongly written “Saducees
...
154
the Rasūl Allah, who was the true and the last powerful
Commander
...
The Jews and the Christians have always charged Muhammad of
having established the religion of Islam by force, coercion, and the
sword
...
But this does not mean to say that Muhammad never wielded the
sword
...
Every patience
has limits, every favour has an end
...
The chance
and the time graciously granted by Allah to the Jews, to the Arabs,
and to the Gentiles lasted for more than four thousand years
...
With the ungrateful children of Abraham both the Ishmaelites and the Israelites- and to deal with the power of
the Devil, once for all
...
Now and then a little sparkle of Islam that is, the religion of
Allah- glittered in Jerusalem and in Mecca; but it was always
persecuted by the power of the Devil
...
Then comes Muhammad to crush and kill the Venemous Serpent and
to give him the opprobrious title of “Iblīs”-the “Bruised” Satan
...
In fact, when the Crier in the desert
shouted, aloud, “Prepare the way of the Lord, and make straight His
paths,” he was alluding to the religion of the Lord in the form of a
kingdom which was drawing nigh
...
xl
...
1-3)
...
Allah had smoothed the path for Cyrus, subdued his enemies to the
Persian conquerer because of His House in Jerusalem and His chosen
155
people in the captivity
...
Before the preaching of
Muhammad, idols and falsehood disappeared; before his sword
empires tumbled down; and the children of the kingdom of Allah
became equals and formed a “people of the Saints of the Most High
...
All believers are one, except in virtue
and piety, in which they can excel each other
...
Chapter V
THE BAPTISM OF JOHN AND JESUS ONLY
A TYPE OF THE “SIBGHATU ’L-LĀH”1
It is a great pity that the Evangelists have not left us a complete and
detailed account of the sermon of John the Baptist; and assuming they
ever did, it is nothing short of a crime on the part of the Church not to
have preserved its text
...
We
know that the Jewish doctors and lawyers asked him to explain
himself upon various points and to make his declarations more explicit
and plain (John i
...
33)
...
33, 35)
...
There is no precision
about the character of the truth; was it about the person of Christ and
the nature of his mission, or was it about the Apostle of Allah as
foretold by Jacob (Gen
...
)? What were the precise terms of John’s
witness about Jesus, and about the future Prophet who was his
superior?
1
...
(Our religion) Takes its hue from Allah
...
it is He
...
(Editors)
...
Those
arguments, in my humble opinion, and in my solid conviction, are
logical, true, and conclusive
...
I am fully conscious of
the fact that these argumentations will present a jarring sound to the
fanatical ears of many a Christian
...
The truth about which John gave witness, as
quoted above, we unhesitatingly believe to be concerning Muhammad
...
Like the old Jews who threw into disorder their Scriptures,
the new Jews of the Christian Church, in imitation of their forefathers,
have corrupted their own
...
3
The principal point which constitutes the power and the superiority
of the Prince of the Apostles of Allah is the baptism with the Holy
Spirit and with fire
...
23 and iv
...
But granting that he himself did not
baptize, the admission that his disciples did, while yet initiates and
unlearned, shows that their baptism was of the same nature as that of
John’s
...
Vide Islamic Review for March - April, 1930
...
Ibid
...
3
...
Can ye (o ye men of Faith) entertain the hope that they will believe in you?Seeing that a party of them heard the Word of Allah, and perverted it knowingly after they
understood it
...
157
streams or pools of water, and that he ordered his disciples to continue
the same, it becomes as evident and as clear as a barn door that he was
not the person intended by the Crier in the Wilderness when he
foretold the advent of a powerful Prophet with the baptism of the
Spirit and fire
...
How, then, can he be regarded as the Baptizer with the
Holy Spirit and with fire, or be identified with the Prophet foretold by
John? If words, sermons, and prophecies mean anything, and are
uttered in order to teach anything at all, then the words of the Baptist
mean and teach us that the baptism with water would continue to be
practiced until the Appearance of the “Shilohah” or the Apostle of
Allah, and then it would cease and give place to the exercise of the
baptism with the Spirit and fire
...
The continuation of the
Christian baptism and its elevation to the dignity of a Sacrament is a
clear proof that the Church does not believe in a baptism other than
that which is performed with water
...
The Prophet of the desert does
not recognize the baptism with fire in the baptism with water
...
The one is performed by immersing or washing the body with
water as a sign or mark of repentance; and the other is performed no
longer by water but by the Holy Spirit and the fire, the effect of which
is a thorough change of heart, faith, and feeling
...
One is outward, it is Judaism; the other is
inward, it is Islam
...
In short, the
Judæo-Christian baptism is substituted by the Islamic “Ghusl” and
“Wodhu” -or the ablutions which are performed, not by a prophet or
priest, but by the believing individual himself
...
The extreme importance of the two baptisms deserves a very
serious consideration, and I believe the observations made in this
article must considerably interest both the Muslims and other readers
...
The Christians, I honestly maintain, are not justified in
perpe-tuating their baptism with water ad infinitum, since their own
Gospels foretell that it will be abrogated by another one which will
exclude the use of water altogether
...
WHAT BAPTISM IS AND WHAT IS NOT
(a) it is within our rights to agree of to disagree with a doctrine or a
theory, but nothing can justify our conduct if we deliberately distort
and misrepresent a doctrine in order to prove our own theory about it
...
Now the baptism
of John and Jesus is plainly described and illustrated to us in the
Gospels, and is entirely alien and opposed to the baptism of the
Churches
...
The Pshittha Version uses the word
“ma’muditha” from the verb “aīmād” and “aa’mid,” which means “to
stand up like an a،muda” (a pillar or column), and its causative form
“aa،mid” “to erect, set up, establish, confirm” and so on, but it has no
signification of “to immerse, dip, wash, sprinkle, bathe,” as the
ecclesiastical baptism is supposed to mean
...
”
The Arabic versions of the New Testament have adopted the Aramaic
form, and call the Baptist “al-Mā،midān,” and “ma،mudiyeh” for
“baptism
...
There is no necessary to argue that both
John and Jesus never heard of the word “baptismos” in its Greek form,
159
but that there was evidently another Semitic nomenclature used by
them
...
” It is a wellknown fact that the Sabians, mentioned in the Qur-án and by the early
Christian Fathers –such as Epiphanus and others- were the followers
of John
...
vi), signifies “Baptists
...
Considering the fact that their
founder, Budasp, was a Chaldean sage, the true orthography of their
name would be “Saha’ï, i
...
“Dyers” or “Baptists
...
” Probably his family
belonged to the Sabin religion
...
” I am cognisant, however, of other interpretations placed on
the name “Sabian”: some authors suppose it to be derived from
“sābi،,” the son of Sheth, and others from the Hebrew “Sabā,” which
means “army,” because they used to have a kind of special devotion to
the stars as the host of heaven
...
John-Baptist
...
1
An extensive and deep research in the religion of the Sabians, who
had almost overrun the Arab nation long before the light of Islam
shone with the appearance of the Holy Apostle of Allah, will show us
several truths
...
The Jewish baptism, which had
no origin in their sacred books, was invented chiefly for the
proselytes
...
Qur-án,3:67-68
...
s (Which is Islam), and he joined not gods with
Allah, Qur-án, 68
...
(Editors)
...
The Jewish “kohen” (priest) beptized his convert in
the name of Allah; the Sabian in the name of Allah and of John; but
the Christian “Qushīsha” (in Arabic “qassis” or presbyter) baptized in
the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, in which
the names of Allah and of Jesus are not directly recited
...
The
Jew, as a true Unitarian, could not tolerate the name of John to be
associated with that of the Elohim; whereas the Christian formula was
extremely repugnant to his religious taste
...
The symbol of the convenant
between Allah and His people was not baptism but circumcision (Gen
...
), an ancient institution which was strictly observed, not only by
the three religions, but also by many pagan Arab tribes
...
They all used water for the material of their baptism, and, more or
less, in similar form or manner
...
The
original Aramaic “Sab’utha” –properly and truly translated into the
Greek “baptismos”- was faithfully preserved by the Saba’ïtes
(Sabians)
...
It is only an ecclesiastical coinage
...
2)
...
”
(c) The Christian baptism, notwithstanding its fanfaronade
definitions, is nothing more of less than and aspersion with water or
an immersion in it
...
John’s
...
And if I deserve the anathema of the Church for my conviction, I shall
deem it as a great honour before my Creator
...
The baptism with water was only a symbol of
baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire, and after the establishment
of Islam as the official kingdom of God all the three previous baptisms
vanished and were abolished
...
The claim that the Church is the depository of the
divine revelation and its true interpreter is as absurd as is ridiculous
the claim that the baptized infant or adult receives the Holy Spirit and
becomes a child of God
...
It is easily understood
that baptism is not a “thāra,” purification or washing, nor “tabhāla,” an
immersion, nor even a “rāhsa,” a bathing or washing, but “sab’aitha,”
a dyeing, a colouring
...
Just as a “saba’a,” a dyer, gives a new colour to garment
by dipping it into a kettle of tincture, so a baptist give his convert a
new spiritual hue
...
The former was formally circumcized, whereas the latter baptized
only
...
By baptism a
circumcized believer was admitted into the society of the penitent and
162
reformed believers
...
The baptism
practised by John and the Christ was only for the benefit of the
penitent persons among the circumcized
...
The baptism of John and of his
cousin Jesus was a mark of admission into the society of the purified
penitents who promised loyalty and homage to the Apostle of Allah
whose coming they both foretold
...
(e) According to the testimony of St
...
1-8), the baptism of John had the
character of the “remission of sins
...
” This is tantamount to saying that millions of the
penitent Jews confessed their sins, were baptized by the Prophet, and then their sins
were obliterated by the waters of baptism
...
Mark’s
Gospel is the oldest of the Four Gospels
...
of this Gospel (verses 9-20)
...
Jesus simply says: “Go and preach my
Gospel unto the whole world; he who believes and is baptized shall live, and he who
does not believe shall be damned”
...
If the baptism of John was a sufficient
means of the remission of sins, then the assertion that the “Lamb of
God carries away the sins of the world” (John i
...
If the
waters of the Jordan were efficacious enough to cleanse the leprosy of
Naaman through the prayer of the Prophet Elisha (2 Kings v
...
There is no doubt that until the appearance of the Apostle Paul on
the scene, the followers of Jesus Christ practised the baptismal ritual
of John-Baptist
...
” It is also to be
observed that the author of the fifth book of the New Testament,
called the “Acts of the Apostles,” was a companion of this Paul, and
pretends to show that those baptized by John the Baptist had not
received the Holy Spirit “and therefore were rebaptized and then
filled” with the Holy Spirit (Acts viii
...
2-7), not through
baptism in the name of Jesus, but through the “laying of hands
...
By the “laying of their hands” of the
Apostles upon a baptized person the Holy Spirit touched his heart, to
fill it with faith and love of God
...
(f) If the Gospels mean anything at all in their statements
concerning baptism, they leave behind the impression that there was
no difference between the two baptisms, except that they were
administered in the name of one or other of the two Prophets
...
” There is a tinge of
grudge against John and against the value of his baptism in the
remarks made by Luke in the “Acts of the Apostles
...
The admission by Luke that the
baptism in the name of Jesus, too, was not carried out by the Holy
Spirit is a sure proof against the Church which has arbitrarily and
wantonly transformed it into a sacrament or a mystery
...
The expression that some twelve persons in Samaria “had not
yet received the Holy Spirit, because they were only baptized in the
name of our Lord Jesus” (Acts vii
...
The last three verses in the passage cited are held by many to be an
interpolation
...
, which is,
of course, the origin of all subsequent versions of the Bible, including
164
the Vulgate
...
But here we
go a step farther for the said addition to the original text is admitted to
be such even by those who speak of its genuineness
...
I need not say that it
speaks of things at which ordinary common sense can guess, seeing
that the events foretold are always occurring from time to time in the
course of Nature
...
Besides, the first followers of a new faith are sure
to meet with persecution, especially if they chance to be of inferior
social position
...
They have never yet so occurred
...
They were “delivered up to the synagogues and into prison, and
brought before kings and rulers” for his name’s sake
...
These events were the
natural sequel of teachings distasteful to the Jews
...
” Belief in these words created a
wonderful patience in the generation referred to
...
” Moreover, the days of the disciples’ persecution did not
witness any unusual phenomena in the form of earthquake, fighting, or
pestilence
...
In the last two scores of years of the
last two centuries we heard “of wars and commotions
...
” “Great
earthquakes” were experienced in divers places and famines and
pestilence, but neither did the sun become darkened nor the moon fail
to give its light, which things had to occur before “the coming of the
Son of Man
...
On the contrary, they had
obtained free access into lands that had long been closed against them
...
Either he himself had had but a hazy notion of coming
events, or the recorders of his life, who wrote two centuries after,
mixed up hopelessly different things dealing with different matters
...
declared and presented Jesus as the “more powerful” Prophet
than himself, and the Messiah whose shoes he was not worthy to
unloose? If, as foretold by John, Jesus was the Apostle of Allah who
came to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire the myriads whom
he “dyed” in the water of the Jordan and elsewhere, why did not Jesus
baptize them instantly with the Spirit and with fire and then purge of
idolatry all the lands promised by Allah to the seed of Abraham and
establish the Kingdom of God by force and fire? It is absolutely
inconceivable that the disciples and the believers in the divine mission
of John should not follow Jesus if he had been presented to the public
as his Lord or Superior on the spot
...
They were both contemporaries and
born in the same year
...
The Saba’ītes, the “Dyers” or “Baptists,” were the faithful
adherents of John
...
They embraced Islam when
Muhammad came
...
In the promised
lands only three non-Muslim religions were recognized and tolerated
by the Qur-án, namely, Judaism, Christianity, and Sabianism
...
The Christian conception of the Holy Spirit is entirely different
from the Islamic and the Jewish
...
The Christian belief that this same holy
ghost, the third divine person, descends from his ( or her , or its)
heavenly throne at the bidding of every priest -in his daily celebration
of some sacrament - to consecrate its elements and change their
essence and qualities into some supernatural elements is extremely
repugnant to the religious sentiments of every Unitarian, whether Jew
or Muslim
...
These beliefs were
absolutely opposed to the teachings of the Old Testament and a
falsification of the real doctrine of John and Jesus
...
We are told that
Hananiah (Ananias) and his wife Shapirah were baptized, which is to
say filled with the Holy Ghost
...
The consequence was that the
167
unfortunate communist couple were stricken dead miraculously (Acts v
...
Is this possible? Can the devil seduce a man filled with
and guarded by the Holy Ghost and change him into a demon? The
Holy Qur-án is very expressive on this point
...
xv
...
Nay, a holy
person, so long as he is in this material world, is to combat and
struggle against sin and evil; he may fall, but he will rise again and
shall never be abandoned by the pure Spirit that guards him
...
If a Christian
be baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire, in the sense which the book
of the “Acts of the Apostles” describes and the Churches accept, then
every baptized Latin, Greek, or Abyssinian must not only become a
sinless saint but also a linguist and a polyglot prophet!
The truth is that the Christians have not a definite or precise
conception about the Holy Spirit filling a baptized Christian
...
If this Spirit that
purifies and fills a baptized Christian is God Himself, for such is
their belief in the Third Person of the Trinity, then all the
baptized Christians ought to claim themselves divine or deified
...
Qur-án,15: 42
...
" ( Editors)
...
For however their religious views
and beliefs may differ from ours, they love God and do good in
His name
...
The Christian
conception of the Deity is only an erroneous definition of the true
God in whom they believe and love
...
e
...
They
certainly cannot appreciate the Apostleship of Muhammad, not,
because the deny his unparalleled service to the cause of God by
inflicting the greatest blow on the devil and his cult of idolatry,
but because they do not understand as he did the true nature of
the mission and person of Jesus Christ
...
With regard to the attitude of the Jews towards Jesus and
Muhammad
...
The descent of the Holy Spirit upon a human
person is to reveal to him the will and the oracles of Allah, and to
make him a prophet
...
The baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire which Muhammad
brought is explained to us by the divine revelation only in one
verse of Al- Qur-án:
1
...
He,
she, it are all commonly used as the personal pronouns for the Holy Ghost
...
169
“The Baptism of God (have we received), and who is better than
God to baptize? Him do we worship” (chap
...
)
1
...
The Koran)
...
This Qur-ánic verse cancels and
abolishes the religions of the “Sab’utha” and of the “Ma’mudītha” or
both the Saba’ītes and the Nasāra
...
This cannot be said of the baptismal religion
...
The religion of Islam is the belief in one Allah and absolute
resignation to His will, and this faith is professed by the angels in
heaven and by the Muslims on earth
...
Let us develop these points a little further
...
As a fuller
or a laundress washes the linen or any other object with water; as a
dyer tints the wool or cotton with a tincture to give it a new hue; and
as a baptist blots out the past sins of the true penitent believer, so does
God Almighty baptize, not the body, but the spirit and the soul of him
whom He mercifully directs and guides unto the Holy Religion of
Islam
...
When the Angel Gabriel
1
...
(Our religion is) the Baptism of Allah
...
And it is He Whom we worship
...
170
communicated the Word of Allah for the first time to Muhammad,
he (Muhammad) was invested with the gift of prophecy
...
They, too,
thus became holy officers in the new army of the faithful Muslims
...
For after the Revelation of the Will and
Word of Allah in the Holy Qur-án there is the end of the prophecy and
of revelation
...
They are not appointed to
become workers of supernatural miracles because they have a firm
and sound faith in their Lord
...
It does not move them to the folly of
believing themselves holier than their co-religionists, and so to
arrogate the post of pastorship to themselves over others as if they
were their flocks and herds
...
Every Muslim receives at his
creation the same “Sibghatu ’l-Lāh,” the same religion and spiritual
baptism, and has to run the race of his short earthly life to the best of
his ability and effort in order to win the crown of glory in the next
world
...
But he needs not the
intercession of a priest, sacrament, or saint
...
In short, every Muslim, whether at his birth or at his conversion, is
baptized spiritually, and becomes a citizen of the Kingdom of God, a
free man, and possesses equal rights and obligations, according to his
ability, virtue, knowledge, wealth, rank
...
John the Baptist asscribes this spiritual and igneous
baptism to the Great Apostle of Allah, not as a divine being, God,
or son of God, but as a holy agent, and as an instrument through
which this divine baptismal sacrament was to be operated
...
But
the success and the victory achieved was God’s
...
The Prophet John’s prediction that
“he who comes after me is more powerful than I; he will baptize you
with the Spirit and with fire” is quite intelligible, because only through
Muhammad this spiritual baptism was given and performed
...
We feel and see the effect of an
invisible but real cause which accomplishes that effect
...
It is God who, through the Spirit, works it out
...
The form exclusively belongs to Allah
...
The result is that a
Muslim becomes sanctified, enlightened, and an equipped soldier to
fight the Satan and his idolatry
...
Their exposition is
but brief
...
The Holy Spirit, whether the Archangel Gabriel or another of the
created Superior Spirits, by the command of God sanctifies the spirit
of a Muslim at his birth or conversion - as the case may be; and this
sanctification means:
(a) Engraving a perfect faith in the one true God
...
This faith in the true God is manifest in every
person who professes himself a Muslim
...
what is more impressive and singularly obvious a sign of a holy faith
than the hatred and repugnance which a Muslim feels against any
other object of worship besides God? Which of the two is holier in the
sight of God: he who worships his Creator in a simple building of the
Mosque, or he who worships the fourteen pictures and images
172
representing the scenes of the Crucifixion in a building whose
walls and altars are adorned with the idolatrous statues, its ground
covering the bones of the dead, and its dome decorated with the
figures of angels and the saints?
(b) The sanctification by the Holy Spirit and fire which God works
upon the spirit of a Muslim is that He impregnates and fills it with
love for, and submission to, Him
...
The Almighty will cast away any “believer” who
associates any other object or being with Him1
...
He will not hesitate for a moment to expel from his
house his wife, son, or friend if he should blaspheme the Holy Name
or Person
...
But that love which is shown for
the One True God is holy and sanctified; and such love can only exist
in the heart of a Muslim
...
These
ejaculations are not artificial or hypocritical expressions in the mouths
of Muslims, but they are the prayer and the praise of the baptized
spirit that resides in his body
...
(c) The baptismal sanctification which the “Sibghatu ’l-Lāh”
inspires in the Spirit of a Unitarian Muslim, besides faith and love, is a
total submission and resignation to the holy will of God
...
1
...
Allah forgiveth not that partners should be set up with Him; but He forgiveth
anything else, to whom He pleaseth; to set up partners with Allah is to devise a sin Most heinous
indeed
...
173
Such are the principal characteristics of the spiritual baptism, and
nowhere are they manifest but among the adherents of Islam
...
The Holy Spirit himself, too, is a creature and
loves and fears the same Allah whom you and I do
...
The second mark of the spiritual baptism is enlightenment
...
This knowledge
sparkles dazzlingly in the countenance and the general behaviour of
every Muslim
...
The analogy is by far below the reality, and the comparison infinitely
inferior between an enlightened good Muslim in relation to his Creator
and a baby crying after its own good mother
...
Whatever befalls him, in happiness or
misery, Allah is in his mind
...
“There is no object of worship besides
Allah,” is an eternal protest against all those who associate with Him
other objects unworthy of worship
...
”
In this respect I may hint at the fact that the human soul is quite
different from the human spirit
...
It is again the evil spirit
that induces the soul to error, idolatry, and ungodliness
...
The “Sibghatu ’l-Lāh” is that divine baptism with fire which
arms and equips the Muslim to become a bulwark against error and
superstition, chiefly against idolatry of every kind
...
It is the power of God
which strengthens and consolidates the union between Him and the
believing servant, and arms him to fight for the religion of God
...
The savages also fight for their fetishes, the heathen
for their idols, and the Christians for their cross; but what a contrast
174
between these unworthy object of worship and the God of Islam!
In conclusion, I must draw the attention of my Muslim brethren to
think who they are; to remember the favours of Allah; and to live
accordingly
...
Jesus Christ, like John-Baptist, announced the advent
of the kingdom of God, invited the people to repentance, and baptized
them for the remission of their sins
...
He was not himself the founder of the Kingdom of God, but
only its herald, and that is why he wrote nothing and authorized
no one to write the Holy Gospel that was inscribed in his mind
...
These
discourses sermons, and parables were transmitted by those who had
heard them to those who had not
...
Jesus was no
longer the Rabbi, but the Logos - the Divine Word; no longer the
Forerunner of the Paraclete but his very Lord and Superior
...
For a time he was expected at any moment to come down
from the clouds with legions of angels
...
His person and
doctrine gave rise to a variety of religious and philosophical
speculations
...
If there had been written a Gospel during the
lifetime of Jesus, or even a book authorized by the College of the
175
Apostles, the teachings of the Prophet of Nazareth would have
preserved their purity and integrity until the appearance of the
Periqlit - Ahmad
...
Each writer took a
different view about the Master and his religion, and described
him in his book -which he named Gospel or Epistle- according to
his own imagination
...
The Fourth Gospel, too, like every other book of the New
Testament, was written in Greek and not in Aramaic, which was the
mother-tongue of Jesus and his disciples
...
Luke,1 namely: What word or name
was it that Jesus used in his native tongue to express that which the
Fourth Gospel has translated as “the Paraclete” and which has been
converted into “comforter” in all the versions of that Gospel?
Before discussing the etymology and the true signification of this
unclassical or rather corrupt form of the Paraclete it is necessary to
make a brief observation upon one particular feature of St
...
The authorship and authenticity of this Gospel are questions
which concern the Higher Biblical Criticism; but it is impossible to
believe that the Apostle could have written this book as we have it in
its present shape and contents
...
It is well known
that the conquest of Palestine and the foundation of Alexandria by
Alexander the Great opened up, for the first time, a new epoch for
culture and civilization
...
The Greek art and philosophy began to be admired and studied
1
...
176
by the Jewish doctors of the law both in Palestine and in Egypt,
where they had a very numerous community
...
In fact, Hebrew was so much neglected that
the Scriptures were read in the Alexandrian Synagogues in the
Septuagint Version
...
They endeavoured, therefore, to
find a new method for the interpretation of the Bible in order to enable
the possibility of a rapprochement and reconciliation of the Biblical
truths with the Hellenic thought
...
At the same
time the solid activities of the Jews and their profound devotion to
their religion often aroused against themselves the jealousy and hatred
of the Greeks
...
Under Tiberius, too, the great orator Apion had resuscitated and
envenomed the insults of Manetho
...
The new method was accordingly found and adopted
...
This Allegorical
Interpretation soon arrogated to itself the place of the Bible, and was
like an envelope enclosing in itself a system of religious philosophy
...
Well versed in the philosophy of Plato, he
wrote his allegorical work in a pure and harmonious Greek style
...
What preoccupied his mind
most was the phenomenon of the dealings of God, the pure Spirit, with
the earthly beings
...
The fundamental substance of these ideas, the Logos (Word),
177
constituted the supreme wisdom created in the world and the highest
expression of the Providential action
...
“But,” as rightly remarks the Grand-Rabin Paul
Haguenauer in his interesting little book Manuel de Littérature Juive
(p
...
“mais d’elle surgirent, plus tard, des systémes nuisibles á
l’hébraïsme” indeed noxious systems, not only to Judaism but to
Christendom too!
The origin of the doctrine of the Logos is to be traced, therefore, to
the theology of Philon, and the Apostle John -or the author of the
Fourth Gospel, whoever he be- only dogmatized the theory of the
“ideas” which had sprung up first from the golden brain of Plato
...
The word is an attribute of a
rational being; it belongs to any speaker, but it is not the rational
being, the speaker
...
The
word is not the essence
...
If it be permitted to say “God the Word,” why
should it be prohibited to say, God the Mercy, God the Love, God the
Vengeance, God the Life, God the Power, and so forth? I can well
understand and accept the appellation of Jesus “the Divine Spirit”
(“Rūhu ’l-Lāh”), of Moses “the Divine Word” (“Kalamu ’l-Lāh”), of
Muhammad “the Divine Apostle” (“Rasūl Allah”), meaning the Spirit of
God, the Word of God, the Apostle of God respectively
...
Now we will proceed to expose and confute the Christian error about
the Paraclete
...
”
1
...
But the “Paraclete” foretold by Jesus Christ is a distinct person
...
(a) In Luke xi
...
The contrast between the “good gifts” which are given by wicked
parents and the Holy Spirit which is bestowed upon the believers by
God entirely excludes the idea of any personality of the Spirit
...
(b) In I Cor
...
12 this Holy Spirit is described in the neuter gender
“the Spirit from God”
...
Paul clearly states that as the Spirit which is
in man makes him know the things that appertain to him so the Spirit
of God makes a man know the things divine (1 Cor
...
Consequently,
the Holy Spirit here is not God but a divine issue, channel, or medium
through which God teaches, enlightens, and inspires those whom He
pleases
...
The
teacher, the enlightener, and the inspirer is not directly the Spirit but
God Himself
...
He had never seen Plato, but only learned Plato’s
philosophy and became a philosopher and a Platonist
...
Just as the philosophy of Plato is not the Plato, and the
Platonist Philon not the creator of that specific wisdom, so Peter and
‘Alī were not God
...
St
...
(c) Again, in 1 Cor
...
19 we read that the righteous servants of God
are called “the temple of the Holy Spirit” which they “received from
God
...
Both the body
and the soul of a righteous believer are compared with a temple
dedicated to the worship of the Eternal
...
9) this same spirit that “lives”
within the believers is called alternately “the Spirit of God” and the
“Spirit of Christ
...
Surely this spirit
cannot mean to be the Christian ideal of the Holy Ghost, viz
...
We Muslims always wish and intend to regulate our
lives and conduct ourselves in accordance with the spirit of
Muhammad, meaning thereby that we are resolved to be faithful to the
religion of God in much the same way as the Last Prophet was
...
This spirit is not a divine person, but a
divine ray that enlightens and sanctifies the people of God
...
God Almighty in His quality of Creator is the Father of all
beings, things, and intelligences, but not the Father of one particular
son
...
This sense of the word is quite intelligible and
its use legitimate enough
...
” God, somewhere in the Bible, says: “Israel is my
first-born son”; and elsewhere in the book of Job He is called “the
father of the rain
...
From a purely Unitarian and Muslim point of belief the Christian
dogma concerning the eternal birth or generation of the Son is a
180
blasphemy
...
For it must be admitted that the
Evangelists never authorize the use of it in any other ritual, prayer, or
creed other than thatof Baptism
...
St
...
The
immediate Baptizer being God Himself, and the mediate the Son of
Man or the Barnasha of the vision of Daniel, it was perfectly just and
legitimate to mention those two names as the first and second efficient
causes; and the name of the Holy Spirit, too, as the causa materialis of
the Sibghatu ’l-Lah! Now the divine appellation “Father,” before its
abuse by the Church, was rightly invoked
...
The
Baptizer who causes this regeneration is directly Allah
...
In this respect God is infinitely more
beneficent than an earthly father
...
Jesus taught us to pray “Our Father who art in heaven
...
We know that the name “the Son of Man” -or “Barnasha”is mentioned eighty-three times in the discourses of Jesus
...
” He
could not call himself “the son of man” because he was only “the son
of woman
...
You may make
him “the son of God” as you foolishly do, but you can’t make him
“the son of man” unless you believe him to be the offspring of Joseph
or someone else, and consequently fasten on to him the taint of
illegitimacy
...
the
181
Barnasha of Daniel (vii), and therefore Ahmad “the Periqlytos”
(Paraclete) of St
...
As to the Holy Spirit in the formula, it is not a person or an
individual spirit, but an agency, force, energy of God with which a
man is born or converted into the religion and knowledge of the One
God
...
–WHAT THE EARLY FATHERS OF THE NASARA
(CHRISTIANITY) SAY ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT
(a) Hermas (Similitude v
...
Without entering into the useless or rather meaningless discussion
whether Hermas confounds the Holy Spirit with the Word, or if it is a
distinct element belonging to Christ, it is admitted that the latter was
created before all things -that is to say, in the beginning- and that the
Spirit in Hermas’ belief is not a person
...
C
...
It must be remembered that these two Greek
fathers and writers of the second century A
...
had no definite
knowledge and belief about the Holy Ghost of the Trinitarians of the
fourth and the succeeding centuries
...
C)
(c) Athenagoras (110-180 A
...
) says the Holy Spirit is an emanation
of God proceeding from and returning to Him like the rays of the sun
(Deprecatio pro Christianis, ix, x)
...
C
...
The wide difference between the belief and the conceptions
of these two early father about the Holy Spirit is too obvious to need
any further comment
...
(d) The most illustrious and learned of all the ante-Nicene fathers
182
and the Christian apologists was Origen (185-254 A
...
The author
of the Hexepla ascribes personality to the Holy Spirit, but makes it a
creature of the Son
...
The doctrine concerning this Holy Spirit was not sufficiently
developed in 325 A
...
and therefore was not defined by the Council
of Nicea
...
C
...
3
...
The Greek orthography of the
word is Paraklytos which in ecclesiastical literature is made to mean
“one called to aid, advocate, intercessor” (Dict
...
-Francais, by
Alexandre)
...
I have no Greek version of the Septuagint with me, but I
remember perfectly well that the Hebrew word for “comforter”
(“mnăhem”) in the Lamentations of Jeremiah (i
...
) is
translated into Parakaloon, from the verb Parakaloo, which means to
call to, invite, exhort, console, pray, invoke
...
” In the phrase
(He who consoles us in all our afflictions”) “paracalon” and not
“paraclytos” is used
...
Many other
examples can be cited here
...
e
...
”
As to the other meaning of “intercessor or advocate” which is
given in the ecclesiastical word “Paraclete,” I again insist that
“Paracalon” and not “Paraclytos” can convey in itself a similar sense
...
In my next article I shall give the true Greek form of which Paraklytos
is a corruption
...
If I recollect well,
Monsieur Renan, in his famous The Life of Christ, interprets the
183
“Paraclete” of St
...
16, 26; xv
...
1) as an “advocate
...
The Syrian name for mediator or intercessor
is “mis’aaya,” but in law courts the “Snighra” (from the Greek
Sunegorus) is used for anadvocate
...
” The idea that Christ is the “Saviour from the curse of the
law,” and therefore he is himself too “Paraqlita” (1 John ii
...
e
...
22), which seems to be an
expression among the believers regarding the coming of the Last
Great Prophet
...
They both
deserve a special study and a valuable exposition
...
I think I have sufficiently proved that the “Paraclytos,” from a
linguistic and etymological point of view, does not mean “advocate,
consoler, or comforter
...
” Ignorance commits many errors
...
” Is it, therefore,
small wonder that some sturdy Christian monk or scribe should have
written the true name in the corrupted form of Paraklytos? The
former means the “most Illustrious, Praiseworthy,” but the
corrupted form means nothing at all except a standing shame to
those who have for eighteen centuries understood it to signify an
advocate or a consoler
...
“And I will ask the Father, and he shall give you another
Periqlytos, that he may stay with you for ever” (John xiv
...
There is some incoherency in the words ascribed to Jesus by the
Fourth Gospel
...
These words also leave behind the impression that the
Apostles were already made familiar with this name which the Greek
text renders Periqlytos
...
There is no doubt that the text has been tampered with
and distorted
...
If we want to find
out the real sense in these words we must correct the text and supply
the stolen or corrupted words, thus:
“I shall go to the Father, and he shall send you another
apostle whose name shall be Periqlytos, that he may remain with you
for ever
...
We have already seen that the Periqlyte is not the Holy Spirit, that is
to say, a divine person, Gabriel, or any other angel
...
1
...
” We
have fully shown the material impossibility of discovering the least
1
...
And remember, Jesus, the son of Mary, said: "O Children of Israel! I am the
apostle of Allah (sent) to you, confirming the Law (which came) before me, and giving Glad
Tidings of an Messenger to come after me, whose name shall be Ahmad
...
185
signification of “consolation” or of “intercession”
...
Besides, even from a religious and moral point of view the
idea of consolation and intercession is inadmissible
...
On the
other hand if they needed such a comforter, then all the Christian
presumptions and pretentions concerning the sacrifice of Calvary fall
to the ground
...
xvi
...
1; Luke ix
...
18; 2
Tim
...
1; 2 Thess
...
3, etc
...
To console a
man who has lost his sight, wealth, son, or situation, cannot restore
any of those losses
...
The promise of a consoler indicates
mourning and lamentation and would naturally drive the Apostles into
disappointment if not into despair
...
(c) The idea of an “intercessor” between God and man is even
more untenable than that of the “consoler
...
The unity of Allah
alone is our absolute intercessor
...
How to reconcile this contradiction!
(d) All believers, in their prayers, intercede for each other, the
prophets and angels do the same
...
But God is not
bound or obliged to accept the intercession of anyone unless He
pleases
...
I would be duly grateful to the person through whose intercession I
obtained pardon, and relief
...
How
learned these Christians are, when they believe that Jesus at the right
hand of his Father intercedes for them, and at the same time believe in
another intercessor -inferior to himself- who sits on the throne of the
Almighty! The Holy Qur-án strictly forbids the faith, the trust in a
“shaf
...
Of course, we do not know for certain, but it
is quite conceivable that certain angels, the spirits of the prophets and
those of the saints, are permitted by God to render help and guidance
to those who are placed under their patronage
...
The
Muslims, the believers, need only education and religious training;
God knows the actions and the hearts of men infinitely better than the
angels and prophets
...
(e) The belief in intercessors emanates from the belief in sacrifices,
burnt offerings, priesthood, and a massive edifice of superstition
...
Then this belief prompts men who,
for the pretended glory of God and the conversion of the people
belonging to a different religion than theirs, raise immense sums of
money, establish powerful and rich missions, and lordly mansions; but
at heart those missionaries are political agents of their respective
Governments
...
Qur-án10: 3
...
No
intercessor (can plead with Him) except after His leave (hath been obtained)
...
187
instruction given by all the foreign missions in the East
...
Having proved that the “Paraclete” of St
...
2
...
” I take for my authority Alexandre’s
Dictionnaire Grec-Francais= Periqlytos, “Qu’on peut entendre de
tous les côtés
...
Trés célèbre,”
etc
...
”
This compound noun is composed of the prefix “peri,” and “kleotis,”
the latter derived from “to glorify, praise
...
The only difficulty to be solved and overcome is to
discover the original Semitic name used by Jesus Christ either in
Hebrew or Aramaic
...
But the Vulgate translates it into
“consolator” or “consoler
...
”
The interpretation of the Greek word in the sense of consolation
does not imply that the name Periqlyte itself is the consoler, but the
belief and the hope in the promise that he will come “to console the
early Christians
...
(b) The Qur-ánic revelation that Jesus, the son of Mary, declared
unto the people of Israel that he was “bringing glad tidings of an
apostle, who shall come after me and whose name shall be Ahmad,”
is one of the strongest proofs that Muhammad was truly a Prophet
188
and that the Qur-án is really a divine revelation
...
The authority of the Qur-án is
decisive and final; for the literal signification of the Greek name
exactly and indisputably corresponds with Ahmad and Muhammad
...
It is marvellous that this unique name, never before given to any
other person, was miraculously preserved for the most Illustrious and
Praiseworthy Apostle of Allah! We never come across any Greek
bearing the name Periqleitos (or Periqlytos), nor any Arab bearing the
name of Ahmad
...
, but not in the superlative degree
...
We, of course, do not deny that the disciples of Jesus did receive the
Spirit of God, that the true converts to the faith of Jesus were hallowed
with the Holy Spirit, and that there were numerous Unitarian
Christians who led a saintly and righteous life
...
); and this number, which had received the Holy Spirit in
the form of one hundred and twenty tongues of fire, was increased
unto three thousand souls who were baptized, but were not visited by
the flame of the Spirit
...
By the Holy Spirit, unless definitely
described as a personality, we may understand it to be God’s power,
grace, gift, action, and inspiration
...
(d) The early Christians of the first and second centuries relied more
upon tradition than upon writings concerning the new religion
...
Even in the lifetime of the Apostles
several sects, psecudochrists, Antichrists, and false teachers, tore
asunder the Church (1 John ii
...
ii
...
iii
...
iv
...
iii
...
The “believers” are advised and
exhorted to stick to and abide by the Tradition, namely, the oral
teaching of the Apostles
...
1-4)
...
If there were an authentic
Gospel authorized by Jesus Christ or by all the Apostles, there could
be no such numerous sects, all opposed to the contents of the books
contained in or outside the existing New Testament
...
3
...
e
...
The two names, one in Greek
and the other in Arabic, have precisely the same signification, and
both mean the “most Illustrious and Praised,” just as “Pneuma”
and “Rūh” mean nothing more or less than “Spirit” in both
languages
...
The
compound form of Paraqalon is derived from the verb composed of
the prefix-Para-qalo, but the Periqlyte is derived from the Peri-qluo
...
Let us examine, then,
the marks of the Periqlyte which can only be found in Ahmad –
Muhammad
...
Jesus is reported to have said about Periqlyte that he is “the Spirit of
Truth,” that he “will give witness” concerning the true nature of Jesus
and of his mission (John xiv
...
26)
...
58 xvii
...
In the Gospel of Barnabas, Jesus is reported to have often spoken
of the glory and the splendour of Muhammad’s spirit whom he had
seen
...
Therefore Jesus, in speaking about him, naturally
would declare and describe him as “the Spirit of Truth
...
It was this Spirit of Truth that
exposed the frauds of both the Jews and Christians for having
corrupted their Scriptures; that condemned the former for their libels
against the chastity of the Blessed Virgin and against the birth of her
son Jesus
...
It was this Spirit of Truth, too, that gave witness
about the true Jesus, man, prophet, and servant of God; and has made
it absolutely impossible for Muslims to become idolaters, magicians,
and believers in more than the one only Allah
...
8, 9)
...
Every
breach of the law is a sin, but idolatry is its mother and source
...
All the men of
God chastised their neighbours and people for sin, but not “the
world,” as Muhammad did
...
The chastisement by Muhammad began with the delivery of the word
of God as he received it, namely, the recital of the verses of the Qurán; then with preaching, teaching, and practising the true religion; but
when the Power of Darkness, idolatry, opposed him with arms he
drew the sword and punished the unbelieving enemy
...
vii
...
”
(c) The other characteristic feature of the exploits of Periqlyte Ahmad- is that he will reprove the world of righteousness and justice
(loc
...
The interpretation “of righteousness, because I am going to
my Father” (John xvi
...
The return of Jesus unto his God is given as one of the
reasons for the chastisement of the world by the coming Periqlyte
...
It was Muhammad who
chastised and punished them severely for their infidelity
...
The same
chastisement was inflicted upon the Christians who believed and still
believe that he was really crucified and killed upon the Cross, and
imagine him to be God or the son of God
...
” Several believers in Jesus in the very
beginning of Christianity denied that Christ himself suffered upon, the
Cross, but maintained that another among his followers, Judas
1
...
That they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the
Messenger of Allah
...
Nay, Allah raised
him up unto Himself; and Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise
...
192
Iscariot or another very like him, was seized and crucified in his
stead
...
I have fully discussed this question
of the Crucifixion in my work entitled Injīl wa Salīb (“The Gospel and
the Cross”), of which only one volume was published in Turkish just
before the Great War
...
So the
justice done to Jesus by Ahmad was to authoritatively declare that he
was “Rūhu ’l-Lāh,” the Spirit of God that he was not himself crucified
and killed, and that he was a human being but a beloved and holy
messenger of God
...
(d) The most important mark of Periqlyte is that he would chastise
the world on account of Judgment “because the prince of this world is
to be judged” (John xvi
...
The King or Prince of this world was Satan
(John xii
...
30), because the world was subject to him
...
There it illustrates
how the “thrones” (“Kursawan”) and the “Judgment” (“dīna”) were
set up, and the “books” (“siphrin”) were opened
...
That the Qur-án should make use of
the “Dina” of Daniel as an expression of judgment and religion is
more than significant
...
Muhammad could not forge or
fabricate this even if he were as learned a philosopher as Aristotle
...
It was then that someone appeared “like a son of
man” (“kbar inish”) or “barnasha,” who was presented to the
Almighty, invested with power, honour, and kingdom for ever, and
appointed to kill the Beast and to establish the kingdom of the People
of the Saints of the Most High
...
He
clearly declares that the Chief of this world is coming; for the
Periqlyte will root out the abominable cult of idolatry
...
Islam is Kingdom and
193
Judgment, or religion; it has the Book of Law, the Holy Al-Qurán; it
has God as its Supreme Judge and King, and Muhammad as its
victorious hero of everlasting bliss and glory!
(e) “The last but not the least mark of the Periqlyte is that he will not
speak anything of himself, but whatsoever he hears that will he speak,
and he will show you the future things” (John xv
...
There is not one
iota, not a single word or comment of Muhammad or of his devoted
and holy companions in the text of the glorious Qur-án
...
Muhammad uttered,
pronounced the Word of God as he heard it read to him by the Angel
Gabriel, and was reduced to writing by the faithful scribes
...
Is he not, then, even in this description, the true
Periqlyte? Can you show us another person, besides Ahmad, to
possess in himself all these material, moral, and practical qualities,
marks, and distinctions of Periqlyte? You cannot
...
Chapter IX
“THE SON OF MAN,” WHO IS HE?
The Holy Qur-án presents to us the true Jesus Christ as “the Son of
Mary;” and the Holy Gospels, too, present him to us as “the Son of
Mary;” but that Gospel which was written on the while tablets of the
heart of Jesus and delivered to his disciples and followers orally, alas!
Was soon adulterated with a mass of myth and legend
...
1
1
...
xiii
...
3; iii
...
48; viii
...
12; vii
...
14; I
Cor
...
5; Gal
...
19; Jude i
...
”6Many
years ago, one day I visited the Exeter Hall in London; I was a
Catholic priest then; nolens volens I was conducted to the Hall where
a young medical gentleman began to preach to a meeting of the Young
Men’s Christian Association
...
What
he wanted to say was that Jesus was either the Son of God or the
greatest impostor
...
But we who accept neither of these two propositions are naturally
Unitarian Muslims
...
Not
alone is he “the Son of God,” and not alone “the Son of Man,” for if it
be permitted to call God “Father,” then not only Jesus, but every
prophet and righteous believer, is particularly a “Son of God
...
Their logic knows no
medium, no distinction of the terms, and no definite idea of the titles
and appellations they use
...
They can believe, without the least
hesitation, that Mary was both virgin and wife, that Joseph was both
spouse and husband, that James, Jossi, Simon, and Judah were both
cousins of Jesus and his brothers, that Jesus is perfect God and perfect
1
...
xxii
...
35; Luke xx
...
xx
...
27; xxi
...
22, 23; Apoc
...
5; Rom
...
12; Heb
...
14, etc
...
About eighty-three times in the discourses of Jesus this appellation is repeated
...
Matt
...
32, xvi
...
27; Acts ix
...
15; v
...
i
...
4
...
19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, etc
...
xxviii
...
34, etc
...
Matt
...
16, and frequently in the Epistles
...
John i, 29, 36; and often in the Revelation
...
They never stop to think and ponder on the object
they worship; they adore the crucifix and the Almighty as if they were
kissing the bloody dagger of the assassin of their brother in the
presence of his father!
I do not think there is even one Christian in ten millions who really
has a precise idea or a definite knowledge about the origin and the true
signification of the term “the Son of Man
...
Jesus did not invent the mane “Barnasha,’ but
borrowed it from the Apocalyptical Jewish Scriptures: the Book of
Enoch, the Sibylline Books, the Assumption of Moses, the Book of
Daniel, etc
...
”
1
...
The title
“Barnasha” is a symbolical expression to distinguish the Saviour from
the people of God who are represented as the “sheep,” and the other
idolatrous nations of the earth under various species of the birds of
prey, ferocious beasts, and unclean animals
...
This Prophet has also some Apocalyptical portions in his book
...
”1 This “Son of Man” who is repeatedly mentioned as always in
the presence of God and above the Cherubim is not Hezekiel (or
Ezekiel) himself
...
There is no doubt that Jesus Christ was very familiar with the
Revelation of Enoch, believed to be written by the seventh patriarch
from Adam
...
3 There are some dispersed
fragments of this wonderful Apocalypse preserved in the quotations of
the Early Christian writers
...
It
was only about the beginning of last century that this important work
was found in the Canon of the Scriptures belonging to the Abyssinian
Church, and translated from the Ethiopic into the German language by
Dr
...
4 The book is divided into
five parts or books, and the whole contains one hundred and ten
chapters of unequal length
...
Then vice and evil increase to such a pitch that the Almighty punishes
them all with the Deluge
...
In the second part, which is a
description of the Kingdom of Peace, “the Son of Man” catches the
kings in the midst of their voluptuous life and precipitates them into
hell
...
The third book (or
part) contains some curious and developed astronomical and physical
notions
...
Ezek
...
26
...
Ezek
...
2
...
Judah i
...
In the Gospels he is mentioned as one of the four brothers of Jesus, Matt
...
55,
56, etc
...
It has also been translated into English by an Irish Bishop, Laurence
...
Enock Ivi
...
197
race from the beginning to the Islamic days, which the author styles
the “Messianic” times, in two symbolical parables or rather allegories
...
Of course, this transparent parable symbolizes
Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Sheth, etc
...
e
...
In this second parable the flock of sheep is frequently
harassed, attacked, dispersed, and butchered by the beasts and birds of
prey until we come to the so-called Messianic times, when the flock of
sheep is again attacked fiercely by ravens and other carnivorous
animals; but a gallant “Ram” resists with great courage and valour
...
A non-Muslim scholar can
never explain the vision of a Sophee - or a Seer
...
C
...
Then swords are distributed among the
sheep, and a white bull leads them on in perfect peace and security
...
The
whole work in its present shape exhibits indications which show that it
was composed as late as 110 B
...
, in the original Aramaic dialect, by
a Palestinian Jew
...
The Qur-án only mentions Enoch under his surname “Idrīs” -the
Arabic form of the Aramaic “Drīsha” being of the same category of
198
simple nouns as “Iblis” and “Blīsa
...
The Qur-ánic text says: “And remember Idris in the
same book; for he was a just person and a prophet; and We exalted
him to a high place” ( Mary19:57) 2
The Muslim commentators, Al-Baydhāwi and Jalālu ’d-Dīn, seem
to know that Enoch had studied astronomy, physics, arithmetic, that
he was the first who wrote with the pen, and that “Idris” signifies a
man of much knowledge, thus showing that the Apocalypse of Enoch
had not been lost in their time
...
C
...
C
...
It seems to
be quite à la mode with the Jewish Sages to compose Apocalyptical
and religious literature under the name of some celebrated personage
of antiquity
...
If “Judah the brother of the Lord” could believe
that “Henoh the Seventh from Adam” was really the author of the one
hundred and ten chapters bearing that name, there is no wonder that
Justin the Martyr, Papias, and Eusebius would believe in the
authorship of Matthew and John
...
“Iblis,” the Arabic form the Aramaic “Blisa,” an epithet given to the devil which
means the “Bruised One
...
2
...
Mary:56
...
Also mention in the
Book the case of Idris: He was a man of truth (and sincerity), (and) a prophet
...
199
this surname “the Son of Man” and to shed some light upon its true
signification
...
(b) The Sibylline Revelation, which was composed after the last
collapse of Jerusalem by the Roman armies, states that “the Son of
Man” will appear and destroy the Roman Empire and deliver the
Believers in one God
...
(c) We have already given an exposition of “the Son of Man” when
we discussed the vision of Daniel,1 where he is presented to the
Almighty and invested with power to destroy the Roman Beast
...
2
...
This surname, “Son of Man,” is absolutely inapplicable to the son of
Mary
...
He may be a “son of man” and a “messiah,” as every Jewish
king, prophet, and high priest was, but he was not “the Son of Man”
nor “the Messiah” whom the Hebrew prophets and apocalyptists
foretold
...
They were certainly wrong to deny him his prophethood, and
1
...
vii
...
2
...
4-8
...
“The Assembly of the Great Synagogue,” after the
death of Simeon the just in 310 B
...
, was replaced by the
“Sanhedrin,” whose president had the surname of “Nassi” or Prince
...
Jacob prophesied about “the Apostle of Allah,”3
Moses about a prophet who would come after him with the Law, and
Israel was exhorted to “obey him;4 Haggai foretold Ahmad;5 Malachi
predicted the coming of the “Messenger of the Covenant” and of
Elijah;6 but none of the prophets ever did prophesy about his own
sscond coming into the world
...
(b) Jesus knew better than everybody else in Israel who “the Son of
Man” was and what was his mission
...
The “Revelation of
1
...
50
...
Idem, 51
...
Gen
...
10
...
Deut
...
15
5
...
ii
...
6
...
iii
...
5
...
All
these Apocryphal Revelations show the state of the Jewish mind about
the coming of the last great Deliverer whom they surname “the Son of
Man” and “the Messiah
...
He could not assume either of those two titles to himself in the
sense which the Sanhedrin - that Supreme Tribunal of Jerusalem- and
Judaism attached to them; for he was not “the Son of Man” and “the
Messiah,” because he had no political programme and no social
scheme, and because he was himself the precursor of “the Son of
Man’, and of “the Messiah” -the Adon, the Conquering Prophet, the
Anointed and crowned Sultan of the Prophets
...
A few examples will suffice to
convince us that Jesus applied that surname to someone else who was
to appear in the future
...
” Jesus answers: “The foxes have their holes;
the birds of heaven their own nests; but the Son of Man has no place
where to lay his head
...
If he had place for thirteen heads he could certainly provide a
place for the fourteenth too
...
2 The Scribe in question was not
an ignorant fisherman like the sons of Zebedee and of Jonah; he was a
scholar and a practised lawyer
...
Matt
...
20
...
Luke x
...
202
legions and mount upon the throne of his ancestor David
...
”1 The “sheep” symbolize the
believing Israelites who will enter into the Kingdom but the “goats”
signify the unbelieving Jews who had joined with the enemies of the
true religion and were consequently doomed to perdition
...
Jesus simply confirmed the revelation of Enoch and gave it a
Divine character
...
(iii) The Son of Man is said to be “the Lord of the Sabbath day,”
that is, he had the power to abrogate the law which made it a holy day
of rest from labour and work
...
He expressly commands his followers to pray that
the national collapse at the destruction of Jerusalem should not happen
on a Sabbath day
...
e
...
Matt
...
31-34
...
Matt
...
24
...
We shall in our next essay turn our attention to find all the marks
and qualities of the Apocalyptic “Son of Man” which are literally and
completely found in the last Apostle of Allah, upon whom be peace
and the blessing of God!
...
There were only two courses open to him: either to denounce the
Messianic prophecies and the Apocalyptical visions about the
Barnasha as forgeries and legends, or to confirm them and at the same
time to full, if he were that lofty personage, the office of the “Son of
Man
...
Matt
...
28
...
Could Jesus Christ assume that title? Are the authors of the four
Gospels Hebrews? Could Jesus conscientiously believe himself to be
what these spurious Gospels allege? Could a Jew conscientiously
write such stories which are purposely written to disconcert and foil
the expectation of that people? Of course, other than a negative
answer cannot be expected from me to these questions
...
It
would be analogous to putting the crown of the king upon the head of
his ambassador, the latter having no army to proclaim him king
...
Consequently, such an unjustifiable
usurpation on the part of Jesus would be equivalent to the asumption
of the epithet of “the Pseudo Son of Man” and of the Antichrist! The
very imagination of a similar act of audacity on the part of the Holy
Christ Jesus makes my whole nature revolt
...
These Gospels are a counterpoise to the Jewish
Revelations - particularly as a counter-project against the Sibyllian
Books
...
The author of the
Sibyllian Books places side by side with the Jewish prophets Enoch,
Solomon, Daniel, and Ezra, the names of the Greek sages Hermes,
Homer, Orpheus, Pythagoras, and others, evidently with the object of
1
...
xx
...
2
...
xi
...
3
...
vxiii
...
205
making propaganda for the Hebrew religion
...
John’s Apocalypse
...
We can produce many sound arguments to prove the identity of
“the Son of Man” with Muhammad only, and shall divide these
arguments as follows:
ARGUMENTS FROM THE GOSPELS, AND FROM
THE APOCALYPSES
In the most coherent and significant passages in the discourses of
Jesus where the appellation “Barnasha” - or “the Son of Man”appears, only Muhammad is intended, and in him alone the prediction
contained therein is literally fulfilled
...
Take for
instance the following passages: “The Son of Man came eating and
drinking, and they said, Behold …”2 John-Baptist was a teetotaller, he
fed himself only on water, locusts, and wild honey; they said he was a
demoniac; but “the Son of Man,” id est Jesus (?), who ate and drank
wine, was branded as “the friend of publicans and sinners”! To blame
a prophet for his fastings and abstinence is a sin of infidelity or a gross
ignorance
...
The name “Hebrew” in its wider sense is applied to all the descendants of Abraham, who
afterwards assumed the names of their respective ancestors, such as the Ishmaelites, Edomites
Israelites, etc
...
2
...
xi
...
206
the sincerity of that person who pretends to be a spiritual guide of
men
...
A spiritual guide may have intercourse with all sorts of sinners in
order to convert and reform then, providing that he is sober,
abstemious, and sincere
...
True, the officers of the Custom-house, called
“publicans,” were hated by the Jews simply because of their office
...
4 All this looks
awkward and incredible The idea or thought that a Holy Prophet, so
chaste and sinless like Jesus, was fond of wine, that he changed six
barrels of water into a most intoxicating wine in order to render crazy
a large company of guests already tipsy in the wedding-hall at Cana,5
is practically to depict him an impostor and sorcerer! Think of a
miracle performed by a thaumaturge before a rabble of drunkards! To
describe Jesus as a drunkard, and gluttonous, and a friend of the
ungodly, and then to give him the title of “the Son of Man” is to deny
all the Jewish Revelations and religion
...
”6
The commentators of course interpret this passage in a spiritual
sense only
...
We quite admit that Jesus was sent only to the “lost
sheep of Israel,” to reform and convert them from their sins; and
especially to teach them more plainly concerning “the Son of Man”
who was to come with power and salvation to restore what was lost
and to reconstruct what was ruined; nay, to conquer and destroy the
enemies of the true believers
...
Matthew and Zacchæus (Matt
...
9; Luke xix
...
2
...
3
...
2)
...
Matt
...
, etc
...
John ii
...
Matt
...
11, Luke ix
...
10, etc
...
Most probably what Jesus said was: “The Son of Man will
come to seek and recover what is lost
...
We cannot afford space for further quotations of the numerous
passages in which “the Son of Man” occurs as either the subject or the
object or the predicate of the sentence
...
”1 etc
...
Such utterances are put into the mouth of Jesus by
some fraudulent non-Hebrew writer with the object of perverting the
truth concerning “the Son of Man” as understood and believe by the
Jews, and of making them believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the
Apocalyptical triumphant Saviour, but he would only appear on the
Day of the Last Judgment
...
But the fraud was discovered, and the Jewish Christians belong to the
Church which held these Gospels to be divinely revealed
...
Here are a few of the
arguments:
(a) The Jewish Apocalypses ascribe the titles “the Messiah” and “the
Son of Man” exclusively to the Last Prophet, who will fight with the
Powers of Darkness and vanquish them, and then will establish the
Kingdom of Peace and of Light on earth
...
Matt
...
21; xvii
...
208
claim to being the Last Prophet
...
”1 Then Christ commanded his
disciples not to say to anybody that he is the Christ
...
Mark and St
...
John has not a word about
this Messianic conversation; probably he had forgotten it! St
...
Thereupon
Peter began to reprove and admonish him not to repeat the same
words about his passion and death
...
Matthew, Peter was perfectly right when he said: “Master, be it far
from thee!” If it be true that his confession, “Thou art the Messiah,”
pleased Jesus, who conferred the title of “Sapha” or “Cepha” on
Simon, then to declare that “the Son of Man” was to suffer the
ignominous death upon the Cross was neither more nor less than a flat
denial of his Messianic character
...
” How to reconcile the “faith” of Peter, recompensed with
the glorious title of “Sapha” and the power of the keys of Heaven and
of Hell, with the “infidelity” of Peter punished with the opprobrious
epithet of “Satan,” within half an hour’s time or so? Several
reflections present themselves to my mind, and I feel it my bounden
duty to put them in black and white
...
The fact is that he acted the very reverse
...
Luke ix
...
2
...
21) says: “He rebuked them and commanded them not to say that he was the
Messiah
...
Matt
...
20; Mark viii
...
3
...
cit, 21-28
...
But he did nothing of the sort; or, like Muhammad, he
would have recruited some valiant warriors like “Alī, Omar, Khālid,
etc
...
There are two irreconcilable statements made by Matthew (or
corrupted by his interpolator), which logically destroy each other
...
Not Jesus, but Muhammad, had the honour of this title,
“the Son of Man”! The facts are more eloquent than even the
Apocalypses and the visions
...
(b) “The Son of Man” is called by Jesus “the Lord of the Sabbath
day
...
The sanctity of the seventh day
is the theme of the Law of Moses
...
Men
and women, children and slaves, even the domestic animals were to
repose from all labour under the pain of death
...
”2 The students of the
1
...
xii
...
Exod
...
210
Bible know how jealous God is reported to be concerning the
strict observation of the Day of Rest
...
It is very likely that the Jewish Sabbath had its origin in
the Babylonian Sabattu
...
The sacred verse of the Qur-án
thus runs : “And verily We have created the heavens and the earth,
and whatever is between them in six days; and no weariness affected
Us” 1 (50: 38)
...
Instead of making it a day of comfortable rest and a pleasant
holiday, it had been turned into a day of abstinence and confinement
...
The priests in the temple would bake bread and offer
sacrifices on the Sabbath-day, but reproached the Prophet of Nazareth
when he cured miraculously a man whose arm was withered
...
Instead of making it
a day of worship and then a day of recreation, of innocent pleasure
and real repose, they had made it a day of imprisonment and
weariness
...
Moses himself
sentences a poor man to lapidation for having picked up a few sticks
from the ground on a Sabbath day; and the disciples of Jesus were
reproached for plucking some ears of corn of a Sabbath day, although
they were hungry
...
He wanted mercy or acts
of kindness and not sacrifices
...
Had he
ventured to declare the abolition of that day or to substitute the
Sunday for it, he would have been undoubtedly abandoned by his
followers, and instantly mobbed and stoned
...
As we learn from the Jewish
1
...
(Editors)
...
Matt
...
10-13
...
The Hellenistic Christians gradually substituted first the
“Lord’s Day,” i
...
the Sunday; but the Eastern Churches until the
fourth century observed both days
...
He
did neither the one nor the other
...
The Redactor of
the Synoptics, here as everywhere, has suppressed some of the words
of Jesus whenever “the Son of Man” forms the subject of his
discourse, and this suppression is the cause of all these ambiguities,
contradictions, and misunderstandings
...
The Higher Biblical Criticism will guide you as far as
the gate of the sacred shrine of truth, and there it stops, stricken with
awe and incredulity
...
All research and
erudition shown by these “impartial” critics, whether Liberal
Thinkers, Rationalists, or indifferent writers, are, after all, deplorably
cold, sceptical, and disappointing
...
I was astonished at the extent of works, ancient and
modern, which he has examined; he reminded me of Gibbon and
others
...
If these learned critics were to take the spirit of the Qurán for their guidance and Muhammad as the literal, moral, and
practical fulfilment of Holy Writ, their research could not be so
desultory and destructive
...
Muhammad did this! As I have often repeated in these pages, we can
only understand these corrupted scriptures when we penetrate, with
the help of the light of Al-Qur-án, into their enigmatic and
contradictory statements, and it is only then that we can sift them with
the sieve of truthfulness and separate the genuine from the spurious
...
”1 I can guess of no sense in
the existence of the adverb “here” in this clause, unless we supply and
attach to it an additional “t,” and make it read “there
...
The abrogation of Saturday by the Prince of the Prophets Muhammad- is hinted at in the LXII Sura of the Qur-án entitled
“Al-Jumu،a” or “The Assembly
...
” it was so called
because after the setting of the sun of Friday the Sabbath day
commenced
...
But the
reason for the choice of Friday, as it can easily be understood, is of
a double nature
...
This was the first event that interrupted eternity,
when time, space, and matter came into being
...
The second reason is that on this day prayers and worship are
conducted by the faithful unanimously, and for this reason it is
called the “jumu،a,” that is to say, the congregation or assembly; the
divine verse on this subject characterizes the nature of our
obligation on Friday as: “O true believers! When ye are called to
1
...
xii
...
213
prayer on Friday, hasten to the remembrance of God and leave
merchandise,” etc
...
A true Muslim
within twenty-four hours worships his Creator three or five times in
prayer and devotion
...
Matthew (xviii
...
” This is another important prediction though undoubtedly corrupted in form- about Muhammad, or the
Apocalyptical Barnasha
...
Let us examine them in detail:
(1) The mission of the Barnasha was to restore the purity and the
universality of the religion of Abraham which was lost
...
The
religion of Moses was national and particular, and therefore its
hereditary priesthood, its Levitical sacrifices and pompous rituals, its
Sabbaths, jubilees, and festivals, and all its laws and corrupted
scriptures would be abolished and substituted by new ones having a
universal character, force, and durability
...
“I came not to
change the law or the prophets,”2 said he
...
Qur-án 62:9
...
And when the Prayer is finished,
then may ye disperse through the land, and seek of the Bounty of Allah
...
(Editors)
...
Matt
...
17-19
...
”
(2) The unification of the nations descended from Abraham, and
their dependencies were to be restored and accomplished
...
They never honour the other
descendants of their great progenitor Abraham; and this antipathy is
shown against the Ishmaelites, Edomites, and other Abrahamite tribes
even when Israel had become the worst idolator and heathen
...
The kingdom of David hardly extended its
frontiers beyond the territory which in the Ottoman Empier formed
only two adjacent “Vilayets,” or Provinces
...
” That “Beast” was only mutilated and
slaughtered by Muhammad! What else is expected? When
Muhammad, the Apocalyptic Barnasha, founded the Kingdom of
Peace (Islam), the majority of the Jews in Arabia, Syria,
Mesopotamia, etc
...
Muhammad founded a universal
Brotherhood, the nucleus of which is certainly the family of Abraham,
including among its members the Persians, the Turks, the Chinese, the
Negroes, the Javanese, the Indians, the Englishmen, etc
...
e
...
Gen
...
The Hebrew Seers, Sophees, and the
Apocalyptists describe the Son of Man, who is to come in due time as
appointed by the Almighty to deliver Israel and Jerusalem from the
heathenish oppression and to establish the permanent kingdom for
“the People of the Saints of the Most High
...
No Prophet
or Sophee ever said that he himself was “the Son of Man,” and that he
would “come again on the Last Day to judge both the quick and the
dead,” as the Nicene Creed puts it on the pretended authority of the
Sayings of Jesus Christ
...
It is quite evident that the Apocalypses bearing the names of
Enoch, Moses, Baruch, and Ezra were written long before the
Gospels; and that the name “Barnasha” therein mentioned was
borrowed by the authors of the Gospels; otherwise its frequent use
would be enigmatic and an incomprehensible -if not a meaningless-
216
novelty
...
If he believed himself to be
the Son of Man, it would follow that either he or the Apocalyptists
were in error; and in either case the argument goes most decidedly
against Jesus Christ
...
Of course, this dilemmatic
reasoning will lead us to a final conclusion unfavourable to himself
...
Before discussing further the subject, “the Son of Man” as depicted
in the Jewish Apocalypses, a few facts must be carefully taken into
consideration
...
Secondly, their authorship is not known
...
These pseudonyms were
chosen, not for fraudulent purposes, but out of a pious motive by the
Sophees or Seers who composed them
...
The Apocalypse makes
upon all these questions some revelations which surpass human
understanding
...
These writings are evidently the product of the painful and
disastrous epochs of Judaism
...
John the Apostle
...
In the Book of Enoch “the Son of Man” is also
called “the Son of Woman” and “the Son of God,” thus interpolating
1
...
Nancy, 1927
217
the Church theory of Incarnation; surely no Jewish Seer would write
“Son of God
...
It is only in
the Apocrypha and the Apocalypses, and especially in the Rabbinical
writings, that this “Last Deliverer” is claimed to descend from David
...
But
these predictions were fulfilled only partly under Zorobabel - a
descendant of King David
...
Besides, this success was temporary and of no permanent
value
...
Twenty centuries had to elapse
before the Rome Empire was destroyed in the fifth century A
...
by a
Turkish Emperor, Atilla -a pagan Hun- and finally by a Muslim Turk,
the Faith Muhammad II
...
There remain two other observations which I cannot ignore in this
connection
...
And then I would vigorously exhort my coreligionist Jews to desist from and abandon this hope for ever
...
And
Joshuah was, of course, a Prophet and the Messiah of the time
...
Thus we find that during every national
calamity, especially a catastrophe, a Messiah is predicted, and as a
rule the deliverance is achieved always subsequent to the disaster and
quite in an inadequate degree
...
Their slovenliness and inertia are quite
compatible with their unshaking belief in the advent of the “Lion of
Judah
...
Now to the Christians who claim Jesus to be the prophetical Son of
Man, I would venture to say: If he were the expected Deliverer of
Israel he would have delivered that people from the Raman yoke, no
matter if the Jews had believed in him or not
...
A man must first be
liberated from the hands of his captors by killing or frightening them,
and then be expected to show his permanent attachment and devotion
to the liberator
...
Their faith in God and in His Law was
as perfect as was that of their ancestors at the foot of Mount Sinai
when He delivered it to Moses
...
The raising to life of a dead Lazarus, the opening of the eyes of a
blind Bartimaeus, or the cleansing of an outcaste leper, would neither
strengthen their faith nor satiate their thirst for independence and
liberty
...
1 This
admission of the Synoptics confirms the statement in the Gospel of
1
...
xxii
...
35-37; Luke xx
...
219
Barnabas, where Jesus is reported to have added that the Covenant
will be fulfilled with the “Shiloah: -the Apostle of Allah- who will
come from the family of Ishmael
...
”
It is quite clear, therefore, that the Jewish reception to, or their
rejection of, Jesus was not the condition sine qua non to determine the
nature of his mission
...
But
the contrast between the circumstances in which each of those two
Prophets found himself, and their work, knows no dimensions and no
limits
...
This he did, because he held in one hand the Law and in the other the
Sceptre; the one was the Holy Qur-án and the other the emblem of
power and government
...
I shall now proceed to show that the Apocalyptic Son of Man was
no other than Muhammad al-Mustapha
...
The most cogent and important proof that the Apocalyptic
Barnasha is Muhammad is given in a wonderful description in the
vision of Daniel (vii
...
In no way
whatever the Barnasha therein described can be identified with any of
the Macca-bees’ heroes or with Jesus; nor can the terrible Beast which
was utterly killed and destroyed by that Son of Man be a prototype of
Antiochus Epiphanes or the Roman Caesar, Nero
...
Constantine the Great is the
person symbolized by that hideous Horn
...
The Apocalypse of Enoch1 foretells the appearance of the Son
of Man at a moment when the small flock of the sheep, though
vigorously defended by a ram, will be fiercely attacked by the birds of
prey from above and by the carnivorous beast on land
...
The lord of the flock, like a good shepherd, suddenly
appears and strikes the earth with his rod or sceptre; it opens its mouth
and swallows up the assailing enemy; chases and drives away from
the pastures the rest of the pernicious birds and brutes
...
After which the flock is no longer headed by a ram but by
a white bull with two large black horns
...
From Jacob
downwards the “chosen people” is represented symbolically by the
flock of sheep
...
Other
heathen people and tribes are represented in the vision, according to
their respective characteristics, as ravens, eagles, vultures, and
different species of brutes, all thirsty to suck the blood of the sheep or
hungry to devour them
...
C
...
That an antediluvian Prophet or a Seer should illustrate the history of
the human race from a religious point of view, beginning with Adam,
under the symbol of a White Bull, and ending with John Hurcanus or
his brother Judah Maccabaeus (Maqbaya) as the Last White Bull, and
then leave the flock of the “Believers” to be devoured again by the
Romans, the Christians, and the Muslims to this very day, is ridiculous
and shocking! In fact, the wars of the Maccabees and their
consequence are not of such great significance in the history of the
religion of God as to be the terminus of its development
...
” Besides, this
interpretation of the vision is inconsistent with the characters
1
...
The Encyclopædias given
only a compendium of each book, which does not satisfy my purpose of examining the text
...
(The outher)
...
Furthermore, this Christian
interpretation of Enoch’s Apocalypse does not explain the mystical
transplantation or the transportation of the terrestrial Jerusalem into a
country farther to the south; and what meaning can be given to the
new House of God built on the spot of the old one, larger and higher
than the former sacred edifice, to which flock not only the believing
sheep -the faithful Jews- but also the various pagan nationalities that
have embraced the religion of the Son of Man who destroyed the
enemies with his Sceptre or Rod! For all these particular acts and
representations are seen and described in this dramatic vision
...
(a) The two divisions of the sheep indicate the people of the
Scriptures, whether Jews or Christians, among whom were those who
were believers in the unity of God, and those who made Jesus and the
Holy Spirit also equal and consubstantial with God
...
The Gospels report that
on the day of the Last Judgment “the sheep will be separated from the
goats,”1 which indicates the same view
...
If we identify Constantine
with the evil Horn, we may justly identify Arius with the Ram
...
From a strictly Muslim point of view the Jews, from the moment they
rejected and condemned Jesus Christ to death, ceased to be the
“chosen people,” and that honourable title was given only to those
who believed in his apostleship
...
Matt
...
32-46, etc
...
The sceptre (in Hebrew “shebet”- rod, staff) is
the emblem of sovereignty, jurisdiction, and administration
...
It is indeed marvellous how this prophetical
vision of the Seer was literally fulfilled when Muhammad’s sceptre
became the emblem of the Muslim sovereignty over all the countries in Egypt, Assyria, Chaldea, Syria, and Arabia- where the people of
God were persecuted by the pagan powers of those countries and by
the foreign heathen powers of the Medo-Persians, Greeks, and
Romans! What a glorious fulfilment of the vision it is when the flock
of sheep, for many centuries having been exposed to the merciless
beaks and claws of the birds of prey and to the sharp and terrible teeth
and claws of the beasts, was now equipped with a large sword to
defend which every Muslim carried until the blood of the Saints and
martyrs2 was equitably avenged
...
Until Ishmael, all the Prophets are represented as
white bulls; but from Jacob downwards the princes of the chosen
people appear in the form of rams
...
Here is again another amazing fulfilment of the vision in the
Mohammadan era
...
Among all clean quadrupeds there is
nothing more beautiful and noble than the white bull, and more so
especially when it is crowned with a pair of large black horns
...
Gen, xlix
...
2
...
vi
...
223
and languages! The vision expressly avows the entrance and
admission of the apostates and unbelievers into the flock
...
In this connection it is worthy of note that all the
blood shed in the wars of Badr, Ohud, and other campaigns led
personally by the Prophet Muhammad, could not exceed onehundredth of the blood shed by Joshua
...
He was
clement, noble, magnanimous, and forgiving
...
” The Sophee or Seer in
this wonderful vision narrates how the terrestrial Jerusalem is lifted up
and transplanted in a southern country; but a new Temple, larger and
higher than the first one, is built upon the ruins of the old edifice!
Gracious God! how wonderfully all this was accomplished by Thy
most Illustrious and Holy Servant Muhammad! The new Jerusalem is
none other than Mecca, for it is in a southern country, its two hills, the
“Marwa” and “Sapha,” bear the same names as those of Moriah and
Zion, of the same root and signification but originally earlier
...
” It is for this reason, too, that Mecca as the seat of the sacred
ka’aba became the “Qibla” - the direction towards which the Muslims
turn their faces at prayer
...
Not only Mecca, but also Medina and the
territory surrounding them, has become sacred and inviolable, and
forbidden to any non-Muslim man or woman! It was in fulfilment of
his vision of Idris or Enoch, too, that the second khalipha, Omar,
rebuilt the Sacred Mosque at Jerusalem on the hill of Moriah, on the
spot of the Temple of Solomon! All these marvellously prove that the
vision was seen by a seer inspired by God, who saw the Muslim
events in a far-distant future
...
(e) In those chapters dealing with the Kingdom of Peace, the
Messiah is called Son of Man, but in the description of the Last
Judgment which follows at the end of this Reign of Islam or Peace he
is called “Son of Woman” and “Son of God,” and made to share with
God in the Judgment of the World
...
The other Apocalypses, those which bear the names of Moses,
Baruch, Ezra, the Jubilees, and the Oracula Sibylliana, should be
studied impartially, for it is then that they, like those of Daniel and
Enoch, will not only be understood but also prove to be fulfilled in
Muhammad and Islam
...
225
Some important words and Abbreviations in this Book
1
...
2
...
3
...
4
...
5
...
6
...
7
...
The religion of all the
prophet(Pbuh) of Allah confirmed finally by the Mission of the
Prophet Muhammad(Pbuh) may Allah bless him
...
Muslim: One who professes the faith of Islam or born to a
Muslim Family
...
Qur'an: The final revelation given to prophet
Muhammad(Pbuh)(final Testoment)
...
Yathrib: The name by which Madinah was knowh before the
prophet’s migration to that city
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Jerusalem: Is Asacred place to Jews , Christians and
Muslims
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The chief dates in connection with tembleare: It was finished by
Solomon about B
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C rebuilt under Ezra and Nehemiah about 505B
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C
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C 17 to A
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D 70
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12
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13
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H : Means after
the emigration of the prophet
Mohammad(Pbuh) from makkah to Al-madinah(Yathrib)
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2- The Holy Qur-án
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English translation of the meanings
and Commentary by: Abdullah Yusuf Alī’s - Al-Madinah AlMunawwarah (Prophet Muhammad City
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4- Muhammad in the Bible by: DAVID BENJAMIN KELDANI
Abdul Ahad Daud –Arabic translation-Doha-Qatar
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Din - Imam Ghazzali
6- The Reliance of the Traveller Translated by Nuh Hamim
Keller
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8- Islam comprehensive Way of life –Prof
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Ahmed Farid
Mustapha –Melboune,Astralia 1978
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Shawqi Abu khalil – Riadh,London,New York 2004
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mohammedinthebible
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albadran-law
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isna
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com
Al_Badran_Law@yahoo
Title: Muhammad in the bible
Description: MUHAMMAD(pbuh) IN THE NEW TESTAMENT Chapter I: Islam and Ahmadiyat announced by Angels 123 Chapter II: "Eudokia" means Ahmadiyah" 133 Chapter III: John(pbuh) the Baptist announces a powerful prophet 142 Chapter IV: The Prophet fortold by the Baptist was certainly Muhammad(pbuh) 151 Chapter V: The baptism of John (pbuh)and Jesus(pbuh) only a type of the sibghatu Allah" or the baptism with the holy spirit and fire 160 Chapter VI The " Sibghatu Allah " or the baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire 170 Chapter VII: The "Paraclete" is not the Holy Spirit 179 Chapter:VIII "Periqlytos" means "Ahmad"(pbuh) 189 Chapter IX: " The Son of Man ," Who is He? 199 Chapter X: By the Apocalyptical "Son of Man, " Muhammad(pbuh) is Intended 209 Chapter XI: : The Son of Man according to the Jewis Apocalypses Som Impornt words Editor’s references 222 232 233 7 THE PROPHET OF ARABIA AS SPOKEN OF IN THE BIBLE “THE BURDEN UPON ARABIA”ISAIAH XXI.13. The present barren period of classical scholarship, together with the increasing paucity of our knowledge of ancient languages, has crippled modern taste in its efforts to appreciate any such attempts as I intend to make in that direction. The following pages have produced a series of most able articles from the pen of the Rev . Professor ‘Abdu’ I-Ahad Dawud, but I wonder if there are many, even among the hierarchy of the Christian Church, who could follow the erudite exposition of the learned Professor. All the more do I wonder when he seeks to carry his readers into a labyrinth of languages, dead and done with thousands of years ago. What about Aramaic, when very few even among the Clergy are able to understand the Vulgate and the original Greek version of the New Testament? More especially when our researches are based simply upon Greek and Latin etymology! Whatever may be the value of such dissertations in the enemy’s eye we, nowadays, are absolutely incapable of appreciating them from the angle of erudition
Description: MUHAMMAD(pbuh) IN THE NEW TESTAMENT Chapter I: Islam and Ahmadiyat announced by Angels 123 Chapter II: "Eudokia" means Ahmadiyah" 133 Chapter III: John(pbuh) the Baptist announces a powerful prophet 142 Chapter IV: The Prophet fortold by the Baptist was certainly Muhammad(pbuh) 151 Chapter V: The baptism of John (pbuh)and Jesus(pbuh) only a type of the sibghatu Allah" or the baptism with the holy spirit and fire 160 Chapter VI The " Sibghatu Allah " or the baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire 170 Chapter VII: The "Paraclete" is not the Holy Spirit 179 Chapter:VIII "Periqlytos" means "Ahmad"(pbuh) 189 Chapter IX: " The Son of Man ," Who is He? 199 Chapter X: By the Apocalyptical "Son of Man, " Muhammad(pbuh) is Intended 209 Chapter XI: : The Son of Man according to the Jewis Apocalypses Som Impornt words Editor’s references 222 232 233 7 THE PROPHET OF ARABIA AS SPOKEN OF IN THE BIBLE “THE BURDEN UPON ARABIA”ISAIAH XXI.13. The present barren period of classical scholarship, together with the increasing paucity of our knowledge of ancient languages, has crippled modern taste in its efforts to appreciate any such attempts as I intend to make in that direction. The following pages have produced a series of most able articles from the pen of the Rev . Professor ‘Abdu’ I-Ahad Dawud, but I wonder if there are many, even among the hierarchy of the Christian Church, who could follow the erudite exposition of the learned Professor. All the more do I wonder when he seeks to carry his readers into a labyrinth of languages, dead and done with thousands of years ago. What about Aramaic, when very few even among the Clergy are able to understand the Vulgate and the original Greek version of the New Testament? More especially when our researches are based simply upon Greek and Latin etymology! Whatever may be the value of such dissertations in the enemy’s eye we, nowadays, are absolutely incapable of appreciating them from the angle of erudition